31-03-2022, 04:01 PM
From what I can gather the country code is done by FIDE to assist in administration and means that one can add multiple codes from separate federations without conflicts. Let's say there are 123456 current FIDE players with numbers 1 to 123456. When a new player is added all federations will be wanting to add player 123457. In theory no one would be able to register player 123457 without checking with every other federation that there is no conflict as otherwise you could have dozens of players with the same FIDE id. So instead all the federations have a set of numbers reserved so they can add them knowing it won't impact other federations hence why Scotland has 24 code and England has 4. This has the benefit that a different person can enter all the new players for each federation safe in the knowledge that it won't cause any conflicts with anyone else's entries.
You then have the other issue that let's say codes were SCO123 and ENG123. In this case if someone was to switch federation then ENG123 would become SCO123 and would mean two players potentially have the same FIDE id since number 123 might well be allocated in both federatons. You would also have an issue that if a player had two FIDE id then tournament organisers and/or players could use the wrong one and thus their rating history would be incomplete.
So basically SCO is your designated nationality while the country code is basically your country of registration that is roughly equivalent to country of birth. So using SCO rather than 24 is correct as otherwise a Scottish player could switch federation to England and be Scottish Champion due to their 24 code and English Champion due to their ENG federation designation.
You then have the other issue that let's say codes were SCO123 and ENG123. In this case if someone was to switch federation then ENG123 would become SCO123 and would mean two players potentially have the same FIDE id since number 123 might well be allocated in both federatons. You would also have an issue that if a player had two FIDE id then tournament organisers and/or players could use the wrong one and thus their rating history would be incomplete.
So basically SCO is your designated nationality while the country code is basically your country of registration that is roughly equivalent to country of birth. So using SCO rather than 24 is correct as otherwise a Scottish player could switch federation to England and be Scottish Champion due to their 24 code and English Champion due to their ENG federation designation.