Playing chess for many people is mostly an activity conducted for enjoyment and perhaps a degree of mental sharpening, but in the wide reach that it enjoys throughout world cultures, it also has the feature of being the subject for some large organizations which organize competitions for people to play chess, providing a highly practiced, professional element to the game which can thus serve to identify the players of whom it can be said that they are the best at playing chess in the world. Though many groups exist which are principally concerned with the skill shown in the task of playing chess, perhaps the most significant such organization is that of FIDE, the Federation Internationale des Eches, sometimes also referred to by English-speaking people as the World Chess Federation. Existing on an international basis, it exists for the sake of providing an organized and systematic mode of contact between people who like to play chess and have attained a high degree of skill in doing so, as well as giving certification or organizational frameworks to many of the well-known competitions at which people play chess at a highly competitive level.
The Federation Internationale des Eches was presaged in the course of the progress of the European enthusiasm for playing chess by other attempts to form some kind of overarching institutional framework for people who liked to play chess. Though such ideas had been in wide currency in chess circles, the widespread calamities and disruptions caused by the outbreak of the First World War in Europe meant that leisure activities like playing chess were sidelined in lieu of nationalistic and humanitarian concerns until later. The formation of the group was finally put into place through the initiative of a Russian who had attained widespread skill for his ability to play chess and put in a push for the Federation Internationale des Eches’ formation during the time when the Eighth Sports Olympics were being held. In this original form, however, the Federation Internationale des Eches was not a major player in the world of associations for games but was organized along the lines of a union for people who enjoyed playing chess. At this point it did not require or receive much in the way of funding or of attention from the press. Rather, it gradually attained importance among people who liked to play chess as more than just a casual activity, in part by becoming the deciding body in the process of giving out awards for the recognition of various people as the world’s best at playing chess, which was an organization which some celebrity chess players wanted to be in existence. Today, the attention which the Federation Internationale des Eches is accorded by the world’s games community has meant that it enjoys the official recognition of the International Olympics Committee. In this sense, the Federation Internationale des Eches is known for organizing the World Chess Championship and the Chess Olympiad, and setting rules for playing chess.
Tags: Chess, play, Play Chess, playing chess