[rurban]

no, there are not. only in the ex-soviet states.

that's why they dominate chess forever. the talentpool is huge, and education is good. nobody else comes close, in infrastructure and level.

[ascar]

we have chess clubs in pretty much every village here in Germany. My ~10000 people birthplace had one. Doesn't make chess hugely popular tho. It's still a niche activity and I would argue that interest is the dmoniating factor here.

Also Russia isn't dominting chess anymore. They have a single player in the world top10 and 3 in the top20. [1]

[1] https://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml?list=men

[lupire]

They have a world championship contender, 6 in the top 24 and 22 in the top 100. (USA has 12, China and India have 8 each.) That's domination.

Except Magnus, the top 100 are 150pts apart, which is extremely close in ability. #100 could expect to beat #2 in 1 out of 3 games.

[atemerev]

Have you lived in an ex-Soviet state? Have you seen the USSR from the inside with your own eyes? I have, and I am so much tired from people glorifying it.

[sudosysgen]

There is glorification, and then there is simple truth. Nothing has to be all bad nor all good.