What are the 10 French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?

In order: Gien, Sanary-sur-Mer, Amilly, Fontenay-le-Fleury, Carrières-sur-Seine, Corbas, Allauch, Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Clichy and Châlons-en-Champagne.

What is the top 5 of French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?

Gien (14.9 / 1,000 inhab.), Sanary-sur-Mer (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Amilly (9.9 / 1,000 inhab.), Fontenay-le-Fleury (9.4 / 1,000 inhab.) and Carrières-sur-Seine (9.3 / 1,000 inhab.).

Which city is 2nd in the ranking of French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?

Sanary-sur-Mer, at 13.8 / 1,000 inhab., just behind Gien (14.9 / 1,000 inhab.).

Is Gien really the French city with the most chess players per inhabitant?

Yes, at 14.9 / 1,000 inhab., ahead of Sanary-sur-Mer (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.) and Amilly (9.9 / 1,000 inhab.).

In which département is Gien?

Gien is in département 45, in the Centre-Val de Loire region.

What is the difference between Gien and Sanary-sur-Mer?

Gien is at 14.9 / 1,000 inhab., Sanary-sur-Mer at 13.8 / 1,000 inhab. The table gives the same figure for all 50 places, so any two of them can be compared the same way.

Which city is 10th in the ranking of French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?

Châlons-en-Champagne, at 6.3 / 1,000 inhab.

How many French cities does this ranking compare?

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

Is there a complete ranking of French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?

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.

Which French city has the most chess players?

Per inhabitant, Gien, at 14.9 / 1,000 inhab. In raw numbers the biggest cities lead, as they do for every federation.

In order: Gien (14.9 / 1,000 inhab.), Sanary-sur-Mer (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Amilly (9.9 / 1,000 inhab.), Fontenay-le-Fleury (9.4 / 1,000 inhab.), Carrières-sur-Seine (9.3 / 1,000 inhab.), Corbas (9.3 / 1,000 inhab.), Allauch (7.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Villeneuve-sur-Lot (6.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Clichy (6.5 / 1,000 inhab.), Châlons-en-Champagne (6.3 / 1,000 inhab.).

Does this say where the best players are?

No, and it is worth being blunt about it: this counts licence holders per inhabitant, which measures how many people belong to a club, not how well they play. Chess licences are also far rarer than football or tennis ones, so a single active club can lift a mid-size town to the top of the table while the big cities, which have more players in total, sit lower. Paris was the chess capital of Europe for two centuries; it does not lead this ranking.

Le Bon Rang

Sport · Ministère des Sports, recensement des licences sportives

The French cities with the most chess players

Name: The French cities with the most chess players
Creator: Le Bon Rang
License: https://www.etalab.gouv.fr/licence-ouverte-open-licence/

Per inhabitant, the town with the most licensed chess players in France is Gien, with 14.9 / 1,000 inhabitants, ahead of Sanary-sur-Mer (13.8 / 1,000 inhabitants) and Amilly (9.9 / 1,000 inhabitants).

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Players / 1,000, 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	Players / 1,000 inhab.	Population	Region
1	45 Gien	14.9	13,459	Centre-Val de Loire
2	83 Sanary-sur-Mer	13.8	18,538	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
3	45 Amilly	9.9	13,582	Centre-Val de Loire
4	78 Fontenay-le-Fleury	9.4	13,680	Île-de-France
5	78 Carrières-sur-Seine	9.3	14,791	Île-de-France
6	69 Corbas	9.3	11,315	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
7	13 Allauch	7.6	21,443	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
8	47 Villeneuve-sur-Lot	6.6	22,350	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
9	92 Clichy	6.5	64,410	Île-de-France
10	51 Châlons-en-Champagne	6.3	42,971	Grand Est
11	39 Lons-le-Saunier	6.1	16,618	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
12	91 Yerres	5.9	27,906	Île-de-France
13	83 Le Muy	5.9	10,118	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
14	29 Fouesnant	5.6	10,436	Bretagne
15	54 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy	5.5	29,942	Grand Est
16	92 Bois-Colombes	5.3	28,909	Île-de-France
17	67 Erstein	5.2	10,790	Grand Est
18	46 Cahors	5.1	20,050	Occitanie
19	67 Bischwiller	5.1	12,242	Grand Est
20	91 Orsay	5	16,498	Île-de-France
21	06 Cannes	4.8	74,350	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
22	78 Triel-sur-Seine	4.6	12,206	Île-de-France
23	78 Le Vésinet	4.4	15,554	Île-de-France
24	56 Ploërmel	4.4	10,163	Bretagne
25	45 Olivet	4.3	23,507	Centre-Val de Loire
26	95 Franconville	4.2	37,754	Île-de-France
27	25 Besançon	4.1	118,489	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
28	14 Lisieux	4.1	19,645	Normandie
29	83 Ollioules	4.1	14,568	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
30	50 La Hague	4	11,484	Normandie
31	50 Saint-Lô	3.9	19,471	Normandie
32	34 Lattes	3.9	17,351	Occitanie
33	83 Hyères	3.8	55,858	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
34	95 Enghien-les-Bains	3.8	11,432	Île-de-France
35	33 Arcachon	3.8	11,092	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
36	92 Suresnes	3.7	48,956	Île-de-France
37	54 Nancy	3.6	103,671	Grand Est
38	06 Mandelieu-la-Napoule	3.6	21,640	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
39	67 Obernai	3.6	12,587	Grand Est
40	47 Agen	3.5	32,801	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
41	76 Dieppe	3.5	28,496	Normandie
42	974 L'Étang-Salé	3.5	14,464	La Réunion
43	33 Parempuyre	3.5	10,672	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
44	92 Puteaux	3.4	44,002	Île-de-France
45	28 Chartres	3.4	38,324	Centre-Val de Loire
46	84 Orange	3.4	29,706	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
47	91 Juvisy-sur-Orge	3.4	19,292	Île-de-France
48	77 Avon	3.4	13,651	Île-de-France
49	35 Pacé	3.4	11,703	Bretagne
50	35 Dinard	3.4	10,772	Bretagne

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

The other end : The French cities where chess is least played

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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.

13 questions about this ranking

What are the 10 French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?: In order: Gien, Sanary-sur-Mer, Amilly, Fontenay-le-Fleury, Carrières-sur-Seine, Corbas, Allauch, Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Clichy and Châlons-en-Champagne.
What is the top 5 of French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?: Gien (14.9 / 1,000 inhab.), Sanary-sur-Mer (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Amilly (9.9 / 1,000 inhab.), Fontenay-le-Fleury (9.4 / 1,000 inhab.) and Carrières-sur-Seine (9.3 / 1,000 inhab.).
Which city is 2nd in the ranking of French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?: Sanary-sur-Mer, at 13.8 / 1,000 inhab., just behind Gien (14.9 / 1,000 inhab.).
Is Gien really the French city with the most chess players per inhabitant?: Yes, at 14.9 / 1,000 inhab., ahead of Sanary-sur-Mer (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.) and Amilly (9.9 / 1,000 inhab.).
In which département is Gien?: Gien is in département 45, in the Centre-Val de Loire region.
What is the difference between Gien and Sanary-sur-Mer?: Gien is at 14.9 / 1,000 inhab., Sanary-sur-Mer at 13.8 / 1,000 inhab. The table gives the same figure for all 50 places, so any two of them can be compared the same way.
Which city is 10th in the ranking of French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?: Châlons-en-Champagne, at 6.3 / 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 with the most chess players per inhabitant in 2026?: This ranking uses the most recent official figures published as of 2026: Gien leads with 14.9 / 1,000 inhab.
Is there a complete ranking of French cities with the most chess players per inhabitant?: 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.
Which French city has the most chess players?: Per inhabitant, Gien, at 14.9 / 1,000 inhab. In raw numbers the biggest cities lead, as they do for every federation.
What are the top 10?: In order: Gien (14.9 / 1,000 inhab.), Sanary-sur-Mer (13.8 / 1,000 inhab.), Amilly (9.9 / 1,000 inhab.), Fontenay-le-Fleury (9.4 / 1,000 inhab.), Carrières-sur-Seine (9.3 / 1,000 inhab.), Corbas (9.3 / 1,000 inhab.), Allauch (7.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Villeneuve-sur-Lot (6.6 / 1,000 inhab.), Clichy (6.5 / 1,000 inhab.), Châlons-en-Champagne (6.3 / 1,000 inhab.).
Does this say where the best players are?: No, and it is worth being blunt about it: this counts licence holders per inhabitant, which measures how many people belong to a club, not how well they play. Chess licences are also far rarer than football or tennis ones, so a single active club can lift a mid-size town to the top of the table while the big cities, which have more players in total, sit lower. Paris was the chess capital of Europe for two centuries; it does not lead this ranking.

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 per 1,000 inhabitants), 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 The smallest famous communes in France and The least densely populated cities in France, 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.