Practice, Love and admiration for the Game, Most of the Population knows how to play chess

In the former USSR the government spent a huge amount of money for all kinds of prestigious activities that could bring fame to communism, for example: chess, sports, space exploration, etc. while the people were starving. Ordinary Russians couldn’t even find toilet paper in stores. So, all the resources were spent to impress the world while the day-to-day life in the USSR was horrible and poor. Now Russia still has a lot of infrastructure left from the communist times (stadiums, sports schools, chess clubs and so on). Also many traditions in those fields are still alive. That’s why Russia can still impress the world with chess.

Chess was considered to hone the intellect and analysis skills and was thus promoted in schools with formal competitions the way we in the US regulate basketball and debate. Money was available for teams to travel. Answer number 4 isn’t bad if you take out the excessively negative comments.

because they like chess??? no it’s not because it’s cold there, and they’d have better things to do if it was.maybe they’re smart, i dunno lol

Chess is one of their major sports in those countries and is a part of their society. That’s great that the ol’ game of chess is still around in the world. They admire the game and it’s their passion. I wouldn’t mock them because of that either.

Because they had a lot of Jews.

Seriously, Israel is in the top 3 nations for chess now, after the influx of Jewish immigrants from the former USSR.

There are not many people playing chess in Norway! However, I guess it’s like this: when you do play chess, you get really into and good at it. E.g. Magnus Carlsen! He rocks my socks.