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The International Olympic Committee, the IOC, recognized FIDE at its session in Seoul in June 1999. FIDE is also a member of ARISF, an association of sports federations recognized by the IOC.
Chess has never been on the program of the Olympic Games. At the 2000 Games in Sydney, two exhibition matches were played in the Olympic Village. The Asian Games, on the other hand, have had chess as a medal sport in 2006, 2010, and 2022 (those games were held in 2023), but not in 2026.
Instead, chess has its own Olympiad, a team event every two years. More under Is there a chess Olympics?
One country's answer: Sweden
In Sweden, the national sports confederation, Riksidrottsförbundet, describes sport as organized physical activity. Its statutes say that the physical performance is of more than negligible importance.
The Swedish Chess Federation isn't a member. According to its own papers from 2015, it looked into membership in 2000 and concluded that the drawbacks outweighed the benefits. In April 2026, though, it became a recognized federation of the Swedish Olympic Committee, after the committee changed its statutes in 2025 so that members no longer had to belong to the sports confederation.
And the game?
The game is the same whatever you call it. It has world championships, ratings, and rules against cheating, and a seven-year-old can play an eighty-year-old. Try it: play a game or read the rules.
Sources
- FIDE Open Chess Museum: FIDE History; Certificate of recognition of FIDE by IOC (1999)
- FIDE Charter, 2020 (article 2.3); FIDE, November 2, 2025: on FIDE's membership of ARISF; FIDE, October 7, 2023: Asian Games
- Wikipedia: Chess at the Olympic Games; Chess at the Asian Games; 2026 Asian Games; The Bridge, September 5, 2026: Asian Games 2026 vs Hangzhou 2022
- BBC, September 27, 2000: on the exhibition matches in Sydney
- Riksidrottsförbundet: RF's statutes as amended in May 2025 (chapter 1, section 1)
- Swedish Chess Federation: congress papers 2015; annual report 2025; minutes of the extraordinary congress, December 2025
- Swedish Olympic Committee: SOK's member federations (read November 14, 2026); SVT, May 13, 2026
The facts on this page come from the sources above and, where possible, were checked across several sources. Where the sources disagree, we say less or say what each one says. A number that is an estimate says whose it is, and a counted number comes with its date.
Updated November 14, 2026