Editing FIDE (section)

===Foundation and early years (up to 1939)===
In 1904, L'union Amicale, a French chess association, attempted to establish an international chess federation.<ref>"[https://www.newspapers.com/image/793617624/? Chess Notes]". ''Devon and Exeter Gazette'' (Exeter, Devon, England). 27 December 1904. p. 2.</ref> In April 1914, an initiative was taken in [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], to form an international chess federation.<ref>"[https://www.newspapers.com/image/480292056/? Chess: Notes and News]". ''The Calgary Daily Herald'' (Calgary, Alberta, Canada). 2 May 1914. p. 10.</ref><ref>"[https://www.newspapers.com/image/786086936/ An International Chess Federation]". ''Cheltenham Chronicle and Gloucestershire Graphic'' (Cheltenham, England). 11 Jul 1914. p. 8.</ref> Another attempt was made in July 1914 during the [[Mannheim]] International Chess Tournament. Further efforts temporarily came to an end as a result of the outbreak of [[World War I]]. In 1920, another attempt to organize an international federation was made at the [[Gothenburg]] Tournament.<ref name="WallFIDEHistory" />

Players made the first attempt to produce rules for world championship matches—in 1922, world champion [[José Raúl Capablanca]] proposed the "London rules": the first player to win six games outright would win the match; playing sessions would be limited to five hours; the time limit would be 40 moves in 2.5 hours each; the champion would be obliged to defend his title within one year of receiving a challenge from a recognized master; the champion would decide the date of the match; the champion was not obliged to accept a challenge for a [[Prize money|purse]] of less than $10,000 ({{Inflation|USD|10000|1922|r=-3|fmt=eq}}); 20% of the purse was to be paid to the title holder, with the remainder being divided, 60 percent to the winner of the match, and 40% to the loser; the highest purse bid must be accepted. [[Alexander Alekhine|Alekhine]], [[Efim Bogoljubow|Bogoljubov]], [[Géza Maróczy|Maróczy]], [[Richard Réti|Réti]], [[Akiba Rubinstein|Rubinstein]], [[Savielly Tartakower|Tartakower]] and [[Milan Vidmar|Vidmar]] promptly signed them.<ref name="chessvilleLondonRules">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.chessville.com/misc/History/Mad_Aussie_Trivia_Archive_Three.htm
 |title=The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia – Archive No. 3 
 |author=Clayton, G. 
 |url-status=usurped
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516220224/http://www.chessville.com/misc/History/Mad_Aussie_Trivia_Archive_Three.htm 
 |archive-date=May 16, 2008 
 |df=mdy 
}}</ref> The only match played under those rules was Capablanca vs Alekhine in 1927.<ref name="WinterCapablancaVsAlekhine1927">{{cite web
 | title=Capablanca v Alekhine, 1927
 | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/capablancaalekhine1927.html
 | author=Winter, E.
}}</ref>

In 1922, the Russian master [[Eugene Znosko-Borovsky]], while participating in an international tournament in London, announced that a tournament would be held during the 8th Sports [[Olympic Games]] in Paris in 1924 and would be hosted by the [[French Chess Federation]]. On July 20, 1924, the participants at the Paris tournament founded FIDE as a kind of players' union.<ref name="WallFIDEHistory">{{cite web
 | url=http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/fide.htm
 | title=FIDE History
 | author=Wall, W.
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028083110/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/fide.htm|archive-date=October 28, 2009}}</ref><ref name="FIDEHistory">{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.fide.com/home/history.asp
 |title        = FIDE History
 |publisher    = FIDE
 |access-date  = January 6, 2023
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080111062831/http://fide.com/home/history.asp
 |archive-date = January 11, 2008
 |url-status     = dead
 |df           = mdy-all
}}</ref><ref name="Seirawan1998WhoseTitle">{{cite journal
 | title=Whose Title Is it, Anyway?
 | author=[[Yasser Seirawan|Seirawan]], Y.
 | journal=GAMES Magazine
 |date=August 1998
 | url=http://www.edcollins.com/chess/whose-title.htm
}}</ref> In its early years, FIDE had little power, and it was poorly financed.

FIDE's congresses in 1925 and 1926 expressed a desire to become involved in managing the world championship. FIDE was largely happy with the "London Rules", but claimed that the requirement for a purse of $10,000 was impracticable and called upon Capablanca to come to an agreement with the leading masters to revise the Rules.<ref name="WinterChessNotesArchive17">{{cite web
 | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter17.html
 | title=Chess Notes Archive [17]
 | author=Winter, E.
}}</ref>

FIDE's third congress, in [[Budapest]] in 1926, also decided to organize a [[Chess Olympiad]]. The invitations were, however, late in being sent, with the result that only four countries participated, and the competition was called the Little Olympiad. The winner was [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]], followed by [[Yugoslavia]], [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]], and [[Weimar Republic|Germany]]. In 1927, FIDE began organizing the First Chess Olympiad during its 4th Congress in London. The official title of the tournament was the "Tournament of Nations", or "World Team Championship", but "Chess Olympiad" became a more popular title. The event was won by Hungary, with 16 teams competing.<ref name="WallFIDEHistory" />

In 1928, FIDE recognized Bogoljubow as "Champion of FIDE" after he won a match against [[Max Euwe]].<ref name="WinterChessNotesArchive17" /> Alekhine, the reigning world champion, attended part of the 1928 Congress and agreed to place future matches for the world title under the auspices of FIDE, although any match with Capablanca should be under the same conditions as in Buenos Aires, 1927, i.e., including the requirement for a purse of at least $10,000. FIDE accepted this and decided to form a commission to modify the London Rules for future matches, though this commission never met; by the time of the 1929 Congress, a world championship match between Alekhine and Bogoljubow was under way, held neither under the auspices of FIDE nor in accordance with the London Rules.<ref name= "WinterChessNotesArchive17" />

While negotiating his 1937 World Championship re-match with Alekhine, Euwe proposed that if he retained the title, FIDE should manage the nomination of future challengers and the conduct of championship matches. FIDE had been trying since 1935 to introduce rules on how to select challengers, and its various proposals favored selection by some sort of committee. While they were debating procedures in 1937 and Alekhine and Euwe were preparing for their re-match later that year, the [[Dutch Chess Federation]] proposed that a super-tournament (AVRO) of ex-champions and rising stars should be held to select the next challenger. FIDE rejected this proposal and at their second attempt nominated [[Salo Flohr]] as the official challenger. Euwe then declared that: if he retained his title against Alekhine he was prepared to meet Flohr in 1940 but he reserved the right to arrange a title match either in 1938 or 1939 with José Raúl Capablanca, who had lost the title to Alekhine in 1927; if Euwe lost his title to Capablanca then FIDE's decision should be followed and Capablanca would have to play Flohr in 1940. Most chess writers and players strongly supported the Dutch super-tournament proposal and opposed the committee processes favored by FIDE. While this confusion went unresolved: Euwe lost his title to Alekhine; the [[AVRO tournament]] in 1938 was won by [[Paul Keres]] under a tie-breaking rule, with [[Reuben Fine]] placed second and Capablanca and Flohr in the bottom places; and the outbreak of World War II in 1939 cut short the controversy.<ref name="WinterWorldChampionshipDisorder">{{cite web
 | title=World Championship Disorder
 | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/disorder.html
 | author=Winter, E.
}}</ref><ref name="EndgameAVRO1938">{{cite web
 |title       = AVRO 1938
 |url         = http://www.endgame.nl/AVRO1938.htm
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20081020142455/http://www.endgame.nl/AVRO1938.htm
 |archive-date = October 20, 2008
 |df          = mdy-all
}}</ref> Although competitive chess continued in many countries, including some that were under [[Nazi]] occupation, there was no international competition and FIDE was inactive during the war.