FIDE equivalent for go?

Chess is a very popular international board game like go. It is run by a single international organisation, FIDE (International Chess Federation, www.fide.com), a federation of all national chess associations. FIDE is responsible for defining a single set of rules for chess (and its variants such as blitz chess, Fischer chess aka chess960), for defining criteria for a ramge of “master” titles, for defining and running an internationally accepted world championship cycle, for defining and running similar championship cycles for women, juniors and youths, and for organising many other international tournaments.

By contrast, the go community is fragmented, there is no single accepted set of rules, and there are no world championship cycles. OK, there is the IGF, but its role is limited.

This may be the wrong place to ask, but what do experienced members of the community here think are the barriers to setting up an equivalent organisation to FIDE for go and the prospects of doing so?

2 Likes

The main barrier might be aversion to totalitarian control. FIDE has a scandalous history, and I, for one, would lament seeing a similar organization take over the go world.

1 Like

I admit the FIDE history is very bad. But many activities do have a peak body, bridge, soccer, tennis, athletics, and not all are scandalous. Though I admit there have also been scandals in FIFA and IOC, so maybe you have a point.

4 Likes