GECI – FIDE Commission for Women's Chess

Introduction

The Gender Equality in Chess Index (GECI) is an innovative measure developed to evaluate and compare gender equality within the international chess community. It utilises three essential indicators: Gender Participation, Gender Performance, and Gender Progress. A higher GECI score for a federation implies more gender equality in chess activities.

The GECI was designed to capture gender-related disparities in three crucial aspects of chess:

Participation, represented by the proportion of female players among the Federation’s active players listed on the FIDE ratings master list.
Performance, represented by the average female Elo rating as a percentage of the average male Elo rating among the Federation’s active players listed on the FIDE ratings master list.
Progress, represented by the proportion of girls participating in the Federation’s delegation to the World Youth, World Cadet and selected Continental Youth Championships in recent years.

Data from the above sources are then combined into a single score, following the same methodology used in many well-known cross-country indexes such as the United Nations’ Gender Inequality Index. The three indicators are aggregated and capped in such a way that no single indicator dominates the rankings. Further details of the methodology and data sources can be found in the Technical Notes of the full report.

Only federations with sufficient data in all three categories are included in the list. For the inaugural 2023 GECI, 105 federations are ranked. You can use the filters below to explore the final rankings for each indicator separately, and by continent. For more qualitative insights, you can look at the section Stories From The Rankings in the full report.

The FIDE Women’s Commission, as the creators of the GECI, intend to update these rankings biennially. We acknowledge that all statistical indexes are imperfect, and that the GECI of course does not capture the many efforts by chess federations to promote women’s and girls’ chess, from grass-roots organisations to national executives. We believe the GECI is a good start, and we hope that it can foster positive and constructive discussions within federations and across the broader chess community. It is our goal to track and inspire progress towards gender equality in the world of chess, fostering a more inclusive and equitable environment for everyone in the game.

The rankings

Rank	FED.	GECI	Cont.	Participation	Perf.	Progress
1	Mongolia	86.53	Asia	39.9	90.98	44.63
2	Sri Lanka	85.47	Asia	35.17	90.51	49.02
3	Uganda	79.54	Africa	29.76	84.58	50
4	Vietnam	79.24	Asia	27.55	95.41	47.33
5	Namibia	76.75	Africa	28.29	79.91	50
6	Bolivia	76.56	Americas	25.5	87.99	50
7	Malaysia	75.83	Asia	27.69	89.46	44
8	Costa Rica	75.69	Americas	25.19	86.06	50
9	Guyana	75.51	Americas	25.68	83.83	50
10	Kenya	73.78	Africa	24.54	81.84	50
11	Ecuador	73.54	Americas	24.81	93.51	42.86
12	Georgia	72.75	Europe	23.61	92.55	44.06
13	Zimbabwe	72.69	Africa	23.66	81.14	50
14	Taiwan	71.19	Asia	24.61	87.99	41.67
15	Azerbaijan	70.86	Europe	22.57	94.48	41.73
16	Latvia	70.1	Europe	19.79	93.27	46.67
17	Moldova	69.89	Europe	19.8	91.81	46.94
18	Kyrgyzstan	69.81	Asia	19.49	87.32	50
19	South Africa	69.59	Africa	21.16	81.06	49.12
20	Guatemala	69.53	Americas	21.23	89.06	44.44
21	Peru	69.51	Americas	20.72	85.21	47.57
22	Jamaica	69.31	Americas	18.02	92.34	50
23	Turkey	68.86	Europe	21.64	86.13	43.82
24	India	68.54	Asia	18.38	88.31	49.59
25	Russia	67.53	Asia	19.51	86.99	45.37
26	Panama	67.24	Americas	18.78	80.95	50
27	Botswana	67.02	Africa	18.11	83.09	50
28	Venezuela	66.85	Americas	19.38	83.48	46.15
28	Uzbekistan	66.85	Asia	19.91	88.36	42.42
30	Belarus	66.16	Europe	15.64	92.6	50
31	Singapore	66.15	Asia	18.58	92.25	42.22
32	Paraguay	65.32	Americas	19.09	91.26	40
33	Colombia	65.23	Americas	18.96	89.45	40.91
34	Croatia	65.15	Europe	16.14	85.67	50
35	Brazil	65.02	Americas	18.72	86.94	42.22
36	Philippines	64.67	Asia	16.38	87.13	47.37
37	South Korea	64.48	Asia	20	87.95	38.1
38	Lithuania	64.21	Europe	16.6	92.2	43.24
39	New Zealand	63.67	Asia	14.01	92.12	50
40	Mexico	63.65	Americas	16.32	87.29	45.26
41	Algeria	63.61	Africa	15.05	85.51	50
42	Kazakhstan	63.37	Asia	17.04	92.54	40.34
43	Romania	63.27	Europe	20.79	85.58	35.59
44	Greece	63.08	Europe	20.74	82.12	36.84
45	Cuba	63.07	Americas	21.37	88.01	33.33
46	Monaco	63.04	Europe	30.36	82.52	25
46	Bulgaria	63.04	Europe	16.82	90.14	41.3
48	Iran	62.77	Asia	13.93	88.76	50
49	Poland	62.72	Europe	16.57	89.69	41.5
50	Hungary	62.62	Europe	14.47	88.57	47.92
51	France	62.42	Europe	15.97	81.98	46.43
52	Zambia	61.8	Africa	17.78	73	45.45
53	Indonesia	61.72	Asia	18.17	93.22	34.69
54	Slovenia	61.48	Europe	13.09	90.33	49.15
55	Ukraine	60.91	Europe	13.66	89.9	46
56	Estonia	60.62	Europe	17.05	88	37.14
57	Malawi	60.15	Africa	16.79	70.67	45.83
58	Ghana	59.59	Africa	13.43	78.77	50
59	Armenia	59.53	Europe	16.72	93.74	33.64
60	Slovakia	59.02	Europe	11.39	90.27	50
61	Honduras	58.83	Americas	19.11	85.23	31.25
62	Thailand	58.72	Asia	20.26	81.2	30.77
63	Maldives	58.59	Asia	23.81	63.35	33.33
64	Serbia	57.67	Europe	10.72	89.45	50
65	Italy	57.58	Europe	13.28	83.25	43.18
66	Germany	55.78	Europe	9.88	87.78	50
67	Tanzania	55.05	Africa	21.08	85.71	23.08
68	Chile	54.81	Americas	13.14	79.01	39.66
69	Albania	53.86	Europe	13.88	90.08	31.25
70	Bangladesh	53.53	Asia	9.3	82.43	50
71	Portugal	53.51	Europe	13.05	81.59	36
72	Egypt	53.15	Africa	9.42	79.65	50
73	North Macedonia	52.84	Europe	10.9	84.64	40
74	England	52.81	Europe	9.44	87.79	44.44
75	Spain	52.46	Europe	11.05	85.12	38.37
76	Tunisia	52.37	Africa	14.66	73.45	33.33
77	United Arab Emirates	52.18	Asia	34.47	82.44	12.5
78	Argentina	51.4	Americas	7.71	93.6	47.06
79	Czechia	50.29	Europe	8.52	87.62	42.59
80	Uruguay	50.03	Americas	10.04	86.43	36.07
81	Bosnia & Herzegovina	49.54	Europe	8.25	82.97	44.44
82	United States	49.51	Americas	8.76	91.88	37.7
83	Montenegro	49.43	Europe	10.04	81.02	37.14
84	Malta	49.35	Europe	9.54	89.25	35.29
85	Angola	49.3	Africa	10.82	72	38.46
86	Canada	49.07	Americas	8.2	88.65	40.6
87	Belgium	47.88	Europe	7.86	85.85	40.68
88	Australia	47.54	Asia	9.1	92.21	32
89	Cyprus	47.32	Europe	10.18	92.55	28.12
90	Israel	47	Europe	6.26	92.04	45.05
91	Dominican Republic	46.8	Americas	10.8	86.97	27.27
92	Lebanon	45.54	Asia	9.61	85.96	28.57
93	Scotland	45.4	Europe	7.27	91.15	35.29
94	Norway	44.32	Europe	6.31	88.48	38.96
95	Austria	44.07	Europe	7.78	90.18	30.51
96	Switzerland	44.05	Europe	7.37	94.22	30.77
97	Luxembourg	43.05	Europe	7.58	100	26.32
98	Puerto Rico	41.61	Americas	13.72	91.86	14.29
99	Finland	41.27	Europe	5.9	84.8	35.14
100	Netherlands	40.59	Europe	4.91	88.96	38.3
101	Hong Kong	39.61	Asia	11.73	92.66	14.29
102	Sweden	39.48	Europe	7.7	84.93	23.53
103	Ireland	38.78	Europe	4.36	92.69	36.11
104	Iceland	37.3	Europe	8.87	87.82	16.67
105	Denmark	34.34	Europe	3.39	89.48	33.33

The top-ranked country in the inaugural 2023 GECI is Mongolia, with a score of 86.53 out of a possible 100. Almost 40% of Mongolia’s active FIDE players are women, compared to the global average of 16%.

The second-ranked country is Sri Lanka with a score of 85.47, and which also has the second-highest Participation score (35.17%). In third place is Uganda, which, in addition to high Participation and Performance indicators, scores especially high for Progress. From the Americas, the highest-ranked country is Bolivia (76.56, overall rank: 6), while Georgia (72.75, overall rank: 12), with its rich history of women’s World Chess Champions, is the highest-ranked European country.

The full report in PDF format can be downloaded here.

Citation

When citing the report, please use the following reference:

Smerdon, D., Meyer, C.B., Reizniece-Ozola, D., Rodrigo-Yanguas, M., & Sorokina, A. (2023). Report: 2023 FIDE Gender Equality in Chess Index (GECI). FIDE; The University of Queensland. doi:10.14264/9bb291f