FIDE Director General Emil Sutovsky has published a list of the leading countries in terms of under-21 chess players.

In the list combined by statistician, translator, Russian Football News columnist Alexei Spektr, each country is represented by an average rating of the five best players, with Armenia taking the 9th spot among 17 states.

"The prospects for India, the United States and Uzbekistan are obvious. Russia, although still high, but in the generation after [Andrey] Esipenko (who will turn 20 in a month), it is difficult to find a full-fledged replacement for the current teams. China looks completely unconvincing. Israel, alas, has dropped out the strongest for a long time. England is not on the lists," Sutovsky wrote on Facebook.

The list of the countries is as follows:

1. India 2626

2. USA 2580

3. Uzbekistan 2572

4. Russia 2565

5. Germany 2527

6. Ukraine 2518

7. France 2515

8. Azerbaijan 2513

9. Armenia 2512

10. Iran 2487

11. Poland 2483

12. Slovakia 2477

13. Romania 2476

14. Netherlands 2476

15. China 2474

16. Serbia 2468

17. Israel 2447