Kevin Pacey wrote on Sat, Sep 24, 2016 11:56 AM UTC:
I've tried websearches to find figures for the number of people worldwide who play the 3 "Classic" chess variants (Western Chess, Shogi and Chinese Chess), as given on this website (CVP) under "Recognized Variants", and I've had some success.
Previously I've noted on this website that, circa 2012, FIDE had a report on its website that 600 million (adults) are estimated to play chess.
The figure for Shogi was quite a lot less, assuming the link below refers to the global number of players, rather than those just for Japan. Less than 10 million in 2006, it seems:
I couldn't find a figure for Chinese chess, except the old entry for it on this website (CVP) estimates millions, or tens of millions, worldwide.
By way of comparison, the board game of Go (not a chess variant), which involves no luck also, is claimed to have had well over 40 million players worldwide in 2008:
I've tried websearches to find figures for the number of people worldwide who play the 3 "Classic" chess variants (Western Chess, Shogi and Chinese Chess), as given on this website (CVP) under "Recognized Variants", and I've had some success.
Previously I've noted on this website that, circa 2012, FIDE had a report on its website that 600 million (adults) are estimated to play chess.
The figure for Shogi was quite a lot less, assuming the link below refers to the global number of players, rather than those just for Japan. Less than 10 million in 2006, it seems:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_shogi#Changes_in_the_shogi_population
I couldn't find a figure for Chinese chess, except the old entry for it on this website (CVP) estimates millions, or tens of millions, worldwide.
By way of comparison, the board game of Go (not a chess variant), which involves no luck also, is claimed to have had well over 40 million players worldwide in 2008:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)