What are the 10 French cities ranked by chess players?

In order: Étampes, Lanester, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Noisy-le-Sec, Garges-lès-Gonesse, Montélimar, Creil, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Les Mureaux and Le Port.

What is the top 5 of French cities ranked by chess players?

Étampes (0 / 1,000 inhab.), Lanester (0 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Noisy-le-Sec (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.) and Garges-lès-Gonesse (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.).

Which city is 2nd in the ranking of French cities ranked by chess players?

Lanester, at 0 / 1,000 inhab., just behind Étampes (0 / 1,000 inhab.).

Is Étampes really the French city ranked last on chess players?

Yes, at 0 / 1,000 inhab., ahead of Lanester (0 / 1,000 inhab.) and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.).

In which département is Étampes?

Étampes is in département 91, in the Île-de-France region.

How many French cities does this ranking compare?

1,002, with the top 50 listed in full in the table below.

What are the French cities ranked by chess players in 2026?

This ranking uses the most recent official figures published as of 2026: Étampes leads with 0 / 1,000 inhab.

Is there a complete ranking of French cities ranked by chess players?

Yes, the table below: the top 50 of 1,002, each with its département and its region, and the exact method and scope stated underneath it.

In order: Étampes (0 / 1,000 inhab.), Lanester (0 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Noisy-le-Sec (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Garges-lès-Gonesse (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Montélimar (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Creil (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Les Mureaux (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Le Port (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.).

Where does this figure come from?

Straight from Ministère des Sports, recensement des licences sportives, joined to each commune by its INSEE code and never retyped by hand. A commune the source does not cover is left out of the table rather than shown as a zero: an absence and a measured zero are different facts, and only one of them is safe to rank.

Le Bon Rang

Sport · Ministère des Sports, recensement des licences sportives

The French cities where chess is least played

Name: The French cities where chess is least played
Creator: Le Bon Rang
License: https://www.etalab.gouv.fr/licence-ouverte-open-licence/

Étampes comes last on chess players, with 0 / 1,000 inhabitants, ahead of Lanester (0 / 1,000 inhabitants) and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (0.1 / 1,000 inhabitants).

Chess players, 954 cities shown. The coloured surface estimates the local tendency from nearby ranked cities. Exact city values remain in the table. 48 ranked overseas cities are not plotted: they fall outside this map's frame. Projection: longitude compressed by cos(46.3°N), so east-west and north-south distances stay comparable. Source: Ministère des Sports, recensement des licences sportives · 2023.

Find your town

Top 50 of 1,002 cities
Rank	City	Chess players / 1,000 inhab.	Population	Region
1	91 Étampes	0	26,857	Île-de-France
2	56 Lanester	0	23,263	Bretagne
3	973 Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni	0.1	54,429	Guyane
4	93 Noisy-le-Sec	0.1	45,510	Île-de-France
5	95 Garges-lès-Gonesse	0.1	41,791	Île-de-France
6	26 Montélimar	0.1	40,595	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
7	60 Creil	0.1	36,301	Hauts-de-France
8	94 Villeneuve-Saint-Georges	0.1	36,221	Île-de-France
9	78 Les Mureaux	0.1	34,632	Île-de-France
10	974 Le Port	0.1	33,969	La Réunion
11	62 Lens	0.1	32,920	Hauts-de-France
12	28 Dreux	0.1	31,543	Centre-Val de Loire
13	95 Villiers-le-Bel	0.1	30,053	Île-de-France
14	93 Clichy-sous-Bois	0.1	29,354	Île-de-France
15	24 Périgueux	0.1	29,055	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
16	49 Beaupréau-en-Mauges	0.1	23,989	Pays de la Loire
17	39 Dole	0.1	23,840	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
18	49 Chemillé-en-Anjou	0.1	21,999	Pays de la Loire
19	91 Longjumeau	0.1	21,996	Île-de-France
20	62 Bruay-la-Buissière	0.1	21,424	Hauts-de-France
21	49 Mauges-sur-Loire	0.1	18,695	Pays de la Loire
22	14 Vire Normandie	0.1	17,457	Normandie
23	62 Avion	0.1	17,435	Hauts-de-France
24	71 Montceau-les-Mines	0.1	17,064	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
25	93 Le Pré-Saint-Gervais	0.1	16,993	Île-de-France
26	08 Sedan	0.1	16,667	Grand Est
27	77 Coulommiers	0.1	16,374	Île-de-France
28	42 Montbrison	0.1	16,123	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
29	59 Sin-le-Noble	0.1	16,076	Hauts-de-France
30	13 Fos-sur-Mer	0.1	15,862	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
31	49 Montrevault-sur-Èvre	0.1	15,726	Pays de la Loire
32	54 Longwy	0.1	15,679	Grand Est
33	42 Rive-de-Gier	0.1	15,242	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
34	63 Issoire	0.1	15,115	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
35	64 Saint-Jean-de-Luz	0.1	14,857	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
36	972 Sainte-Marie (972)	0.1	14,756	Martinique
37	30 Saint-Gilles	0.1	14,734	Occitanie
38	59 Bailleul	0.1	14,732	Hauts-de-France
39	31 Saint-Orens-de-Gameville	0.1	14,646	Occitanie
40	76 Canteleu	0.1	14,402	Normandie
41	21 Chenôve	0.1	14,244	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
42	59 Hautmont	0.1	14,152	Hauts-de-France
43	13 Saint-Martin-de-Crau	0.1	14,145	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
44	91 Morangis	0.1	14,129	Île-de-France
45	69 Belleville-en-Beaujolais	0.1	14,016	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
46	971 Saint-François	0.1	13,942	Guadeloupe
47	59 Caudry	0.1	13,833	Hauts-de-France
48	91 Fleury-Mérogis	0.1	13,721	Île-de-France
49	61 Argentan	0.1	13,527	Normandie
50	59 Anzin	0.1	13,183	Hauts-de-France

The table stops at 50. Search any of the 1,002 ranked towns ↑

The other end : The French cities with the most chess players

All rankings →

The 97 other rankings, by category

Sport

People

Position and size

Weather

Money and housing

Getting around

Drink

Countryside

Everyday life

Scope, method and sources

Scope: France, metropolitan and overseas, Corsica and the DROM included. This dataset holds every commune of 10,000 inhabitants or more, plus smaller communes famous enough to be household names, 1,131 in all. It is not the full list of 35,000 French communes, so a village can sit outside a ranking whose extreme it would otherwise hold. This particular ranking is a rate per inhabitant, so it covers towns of 10,000 people or more only: in a village of a hundred, three licence holders would read as thirty per thousand and outrank a town with a professional club, so no rate is published below that size rather than a meaningless one.

Method and sources: populations are the INSEE legal populations, boundaries and coordinates come from the IGN commune registry, both served by geo.api.gouv.fr. Density is the population divided by the commune's area; distances are measured as the crow flies from the commune's centre. Data read on August 28, 2026.

11 questions about this ranking

What are the 10 French cities ranked by chess players?: In order: Étampes, Lanester, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Noisy-le-Sec, Garges-lès-Gonesse, Montélimar, Creil, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Les Mureaux and Le Port.
What is the top 5 of French cities ranked by chess players?: Étampes (0 / 1,000 inhab.), Lanester (0 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Noisy-le-Sec (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.) and Garges-lès-Gonesse (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.).
Which city is 2nd in the ranking of French cities ranked by chess players?: Lanester, at 0 / 1,000 inhab., just behind Étampes (0 / 1,000 inhab.).
Is Étampes really the French city ranked last on chess players?: Yes, at 0 / 1,000 inhab., ahead of Lanester (0 / 1,000 inhab.) and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.).
In which département is Étampes?: Étampes is in département 91, in the Île-de-France region.
Which city is 10th in the ranking of French cities ranked by chess players?: Le Port, at 0.1 / 1,000 inhab.
How many French cities does this ranking compare?: 1,002, with the top 50 listed in full in the table below.
What are the French cities ranked by chess players in 2026?: This ranking uses the most recent official figures published as of 2026: Étampes leads with 0 / 1,000 inhab.
Is there a complete ranking of French cities ranked by chess players?: Yes, the table below: the top 50 of 1,002, each with its département and its region, and the exact method and scope stated underneath it.
What are the top 10?: In order: Étampes (0 / 1,000 inhab.), Lanester (0 / 1,000 inhab.), Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Noisy-le-Sec (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Garges-lès-Gonesse (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Montélimar (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Creil (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Les Mureaux (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.), Le Port (0.1 / 1,000 inhab.).
Where does this figure come from?: Straight from Ministère des Sports, recensement des licences sportives, joined to each commune by its INSEE code and never retyped by hand. A commune the source does not cover is left out of the table rather than shown as a zero: an absence and a measured zero are different facts, and only one of them is safe to rank.

The table below ranks the top 50 of the 1,002 cities in the dataset, each with its département, its region and the figure it is ranked on (chess players), so you can see not just the order but how far apart the places are. The numbers are official public data: INSEE legal populations and the IGN commune registry, with the exact method and the exact scope stated under the table rather than left to be guessed at.

The same data answers neighbouring questions too: see Skiers: the top 50 French cities and Skiers: the bottom 50 French cities, or all rankings for the full list. All of it comes from Le Bon Rang, a free daily game that gives you five French cities and one of these statistics and asks you for the order.