The International Chess Federation (FIDE) and The University of Queensland have published the second edition of the Gender Equality in Chess Index (GECI), ranking 119 federations worldwide. The index shows improvements in female participation across all regions since 2023. Mongolia remains the top-ranked federation.
On International Women’s Day, the FIDE Women in Chess Commission (WOM) and The University of Queensland released the 2026 Gender Equality in Chess Index (GECI) from Brisbane, Queensland. This second edition evaluates female participation, performance, and progress in 119 chess federations using a geometric mean of three indicators: participation (percentage of female players), performance (female rating levels relative to male), and progress (female representation in youth championships). Each federation receives a score between 0 and 100, with updates planned every two years.
The index highlights broad improvements since the 2023 edition, with average scores rising in every region. Africa leads with 67.6, followed by Asia at 64.5, the Americas at 63.1, and Europe at 56.7. Seventeen federations, including China, Turkmenistan, and Trinidad & Tobago, appear in the rankings for the first time.
Mongolia holds the top spot with 89.26, followed by Sri Lanka at 86.99 and Uganda at 84.62. Notable advancements include the United Arab Emirates, which climbed 73 places to fourth, and the Maldives, which rose 50 spots to 13th.
The report features interviews from three federations demonstrating varied approaches to boosting female involvement. In the UAE, coordination between the federation, government ministries, and the national Olympic committee includes mandatory inclusion of girls in youth championship delegations. The Maldives equalized prize money between women’s and open categories and launched the “Checkmate Geography” project to provide training across its more than 1,000 islands. In Sri Lanka, the Wijesuriya family story, led by ten-time Women’s National Champion Suneetha Wijesuriya—who once drew a chessboard on the floor with chalk due to lack of resources—illustrates grassroots efforts.
“When we created the GECI in 2023, we wanted to give federations a clear, evidence-based picture of where they stand on gender equality. You can’t improve what you don’t measure,” said GM David Smerdon, Associate Professor at The University of Queensland and lead author. “Two years later, we’re seeing that this approach is working—federations are using the index to identify gaps and take action, and scores are improving across every region. International Women’s Day is about recognizing both how far we have come and how far we still need to go. In chess, we now have the data to do both.”
“The stories in this report remind us that gender equality in chess is not just a policy question, it is a human one,” said Dana Reizniece, Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board. “A woman in Sri Lanka drawing a chessboard with chalk, a federation in the Maldives ensuring girls on remote islands can access training, a country in the Gulf mandating that every youth delegation includes girls. These are the decisions that change the game.”
“The improvement we see in the 2026 rankings is a strong signal, but our work is far from done,” said Anastasia Sorokina, Chair of the FIDE Women in Chess Commission. “We call on every federation to use the GECI as a starting point for meaningful action.”
The full report is available at https://doi.org/10.14264/9ec1c7e.
