Country Strong player

In your opinion, what country has the most strong players?

For me RUSSIAN.

*Youve got the right idea but the answer is Russia because you are asking the name of the country.

--------------------------------------

Latvia is not Russian. Russia = Russian, Latvia = Latvian. That said, I agree. The strongest U.S. player that's actually American is probably Larry Christiansen.

*Agreed.

-------------------------------------

give me a break. Pioneer place. Shirov tal shabalov. Latvia is part of russian chess culture. Do not be ridiculous. And I can even argue latvia is part of russia.

*No you cant Latvia is a country now regardless of the past. Its also like an argument stating Lithuania or Ukraine is Polish (which isnt the case) and/or like stating Berlin is Polish (which isnt the case despite it being a slavic name).

--------------------------

Your ignorance and arrogance about Baltic peoples is insulting.
My mothers' family came to the US from Lithuania and I grew up listening to first hand accounts of the wanton murders and destruction committed by Russians against all the Baltic countries. All Baltic languages and cultures pre-date Russia.
The Soviet Union was not exclusively Russian. I guess you do not know the difference.
Tal was Latvian not Russian.
Petrosian was Armenian not Russian.

*Agreed. Samething applies not only to the Baltic states but also Slavic and non Slavic nations like Poland, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan to name a few.

-----------------------------

"Soviet chess culture" would be better designation as many talanted chess players from USSR were not Russians.

*This.

---------------------------------

http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml

*While it can be debated on which criteria defines who is the best country in chess (total, percapita, etc) the more common form of saying best country in chess would probably be exactly that which is found in this link.

As far as the strongest "home grown" current US player, I think Nakamura counts, since he's lived here since the age of 1. Or do people think he picked up a lot of tricks before he could talk? 🙂

Originally posted by OrangeKing
As far as the strongest "home grown" current US player, I think Nakamura counts, since he's lived here since the age of 1. Or do people think he picked up a lot of tricks before he could talk? 🙂

People just like promoting the "Born in the USA" image

Originally posted by OrangeKing
As far as the strongest "home grown" current US player, I think Nakamura counts, since he's lived here since the age of 1. Or do people think he picked up a lot of tricks before he could talk? 🙂

I think Hikaru moved here at the age of two, but who's counting. 😉

One hope for the USA's future might well be Nicholas Nip. He just turned 10, he got his USCF master title at the age of 9 years and 11 months (beat out Nakamura's record by a few months), and he was born in San Francisco.

If Nicholas can get good enough, fast enough to make a good carrer out of chess, there's a chance that he won't have to quit chess to earn real money in another profession. Only time will tell.

Thats the Top Ten:

Country rank by average rating of top 10 players
Average GMs IMs Total Titled
1 Russia 2719 147 264 1039
2 Ukraine 2684 65 115 262
3 China 2636 19 5 51
4 Israel 2635 31 26 85
5 United States 2634 34 48 183
6 Armenia 2625 19 20 50
7 France 2624 29 75 240
8 Hungary 2619 32 92 296
9 Azerbaijan 2615 15 7 37
10 India 2611 17 52 115

Originally posted by SSJ4GogetaSSJ4

Tal was Latvian not Russian.

You sure? Well, he was born in Riga and spoke Latvian and he certainly wasn't Russian, but his name sounds more Jewish than Latvian to me.

Germany would come in second place (after Russia) if one was to count the number of titled players (716)

Originally posted by kbaumen
You sure? Well, he was born in Riga and spoke Latvian and he certainly wasn't Russian, but his name sounds more Jewish than Latvian to me.

I wasnt the original one to post that I just quoted it from an earlier post but didnt want to spend time quoting everyone the right way.

Originally posted by kbaumen
You sure? Well, he was born in Riga and spoke Latvian and he certainly wasn't Russian, but his name sounds more Jewish than Latvian to me.

Have you now designated Judaism as a country ??? Isn't Judaism a religion??
Actually he was a Jew.
What point are you really trying to make?
What is the relevance of that point ?

Originally posted by caissad4
Have you now designated Judaism as a country ??? Isn't Judaism a religion??
Actually he was a Jew.
What point are you really trying to make?
What is the relevance of that point ?

I'm not saying that there is a country like that. There is no Aborigin but there are aborigines in Australia.

But after a little search over the internet (http://judaism.about.com/od/abcsofjudaism/a/beingjewish.htm), I think I'll have to agree that there is no such nationality as Jewish.

What I originally meant, was that his name doesn't exactly sound Latvian to me. But that is just my opinion.

China might one day be the strongest chess nation - they seem to have lots of players rising up the ranks now. Even if they dont have too many elite players I am sure there will come a day that they have so many high 2600 players that they top the table by weight of numbers.