05 February 2009

Chess in Africa - FIDE Members

Working on another project, unrelated to chess, I had to increase my knowledge of African geography. What better way to do that than by relating it to chess? Using my post on Crash Course in Soviet Geography as an example, I constructed the following map and table. I'll connect this introduction to populations and rating data in a future post.


Starting with Egypt, the table moves counterclockwise around the coast of Africa, with short detours for the islands. After reaching Sudan, it lists the landlocked countries left-to-right, top-to-bottom starting with Mali.


CountryFed0509
EgyptEGY**
LibyaLBA**
TunisiaTUN**
AlgeriaALG**
MoroccoMAR**
Western Sahara   
MauritaniaMTN* 
Cape Verde   
SenegalSEN* 
GambiaGAM* 
Guinea-Bissau   
Guinea   
Sierra Leone  *
Liberia   
Cote d'Ivoire (i.e.Ivory Coast)CIV* 
GhanaGHA**
TogoTOG* 
BeninBEN* 
NigeriaNGR**
CameroonCAM**
Equitorial Guinea   
Sao Tome and PrincipeSTP**
Gabon  *
Congo (Republic of the)   
Congo (Democratic Republic of the)  *
AngolaANG**
NamibiaNAM**
South AfricaRSA**
MozambiqueMOZ**
MadagascarMAD**
SeychellesSEY**
Comoros   
MauritiusMRI**
TanzaniaTAN* 
KenyaKEN**
SomaliaSOM**
DjiboutiDJI* 
Eritrea   
SudanSUD**
MaliMLI* 
Burkina Faso   
Niger   
ChadCHD* 
Central African Republic   
EthiopiaETH**
UgandaUGA**
RwandaRWA**
BurundiBUR**
ZambiaZAM**
MalawiMAW**
ZimbabweZIM**
BotswanaBOT**
Swaziland   
Lesotho   

The columns titled 'Fed'/'05' are a list of FIDE federation codes from an About.com article I wrote in June 2005: Introduction to World Chess Federation (FIDE) Zones (link to Archive.org). I presume that the countries were FIDE members at that time.

The column titled '09' is a current (2009) list of member federations on the FIDE page for Africa. Ten countries listed as FIDE members in 2005 are no longer members in 2009, while three countries have become FIDE members since 2005. I assume that FIDE's 'Congo' is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Credits:

1 comment:

OlimpBase said...

Congo is DR Congo, f. Zaire.

The Congo (Brazaville) has never had chess association.