Chess in Iran

Iran has 206 titled players on FIDE's list, 17 of them Grandmasters. Here is what that population actually looks like.

Iran sits in the middle of the distribution on every measure: 206 titled players, 17 of them Grandmasters, and a median rating of 2,218 against 2,216 across all federations. Nothing about its shape is unusual, which is itself worth knowing — most federations look like this, and the ones that do not are the exceptions the other pages describe.

The middle half of its titled players are rated between 2,101 and 2,320, with a median of 2,218. Across every federation the median titled player is rated 2,216, so that figure is the one to compare against rather than any absolute standard.

Titles held
Title	Holders	Share
GM	17	8.3%
IM	27	13.1%
FM	87	42.2%
CM	33	16%
WGM	2	1%
WIM	9	4.4%
WFM	18	8.7%
WCM	13	6.3%

Highest rated
Player	Title	Standard
⁦Tabatabaei, M. Amin⁩	GM	2,726
⁦Maghsoodloo, Parham⁩	GM	2,705
⁦Idani, Pouya⁩	GM	2,615
⁦Movahed, Sina⁩	GM	2,595
⁦Daneshvar, Bardiya⁩	GM	2,572
⁦Gholami Orimi, Mahdi⁩	GM	2,549
⁦Pourramezanali, Amirreza⁩	GM	2,521
⁦Mahdavi, Reza⁩	IM	2,485
⁦Mousavi, Seyed Khalil⁩	GM	2,484
⁦Tahbaz, Arash⁩	IM	2,482

Counted from FIDE's published titled-player list. Titles are permanent and never revoked, so these counts include everyone who ever reached the standard and remains listed — including players long retired. A federation is where a player is registered, which is not always where they are from.