Federations in Arrears

In a recent post, FIDE Rating Lists Restored, I quoted a new FIDE policy in treating federations which have fallen behind with their dues.

Until the arrears have been paid off, players from these Federations cannot participate in any FIDE events that are under the aegis of a) the World Championship & Olympiad Commission or Events Commission, b) Continental competitions that provide qualifiers to any of the aforesaid competitions.

This makes more sense than the old policy, which was to stop publishing ratings for all players of federations in arrears. Under the new policy, top players in each federation can put pressure on their national officials, especially if those top players have any ambition to compete in the World Championship cycle.

I started to wonder how many world class players would be inconvenienced under the new policy. The following table lists federations currently in arrears along with a count of the players in that federation and the rating of the highest rated player. The numbers are from the January 2015 rating list.

The table is sorted in descending order according to the rating of the top player. I limited the table to top ratings over 2400.

For example, the first row shows Venezuela, which has 828 FIDE rated players, where the highest rated player is GM Iturrizaga (2649). He has competed in three of the last four World Cups. The second row shows Peru, represented by GM Granda Zuniga (2640), who has been a frequent competitor in World Championship cycles going back to the 1987 Zagreb Interzonal.

The list doesn't show whether the top player is a rising talent or an old timer, perhaps inactive. It does show that FIDE's new policy has real teeth.