Founded July 20, 1924 in Paris, France, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (or the World Chess Federation) is the chess world's governing body. It maintains the rules of chess and oversees all world championship activities. Currently, 156 national/regional federations are members along with around 5 million registered players.

The FIDE awards the chess titles of Grandmaster, International Master, FIDE Master, Woman Grandmaster, International Woman Master, FIDE Woman Master, International Arbiter, et. al.

The FIDE motto is "Gens Una Sumus" (We are one family.)

FIDE
Avenue de Beaumont 9
CH-1012 Lausanne
Switzerland

postal address:

FIDE
P.O.Box 166
CH-1000 Lausanne 4
Switzerland

http://www.fide.org

As of this writing, the following players make up the FIDE's Top 10 rated list (all are men and grandmasters; rating follows name):

1. Kasparov, Garry, 2830, Russia, b. 4/16/1963
2. Kramnik, Vladimir, 2785, Russia, b. 6/25/1975
3. Anand, Viswanathan, 2774, India, b. 12/11/1969
4. Leko, Peter, 2739, Hungary, b. 9/8/1979
5. Topalov, Veselin, 2735, Bulgaria, b. 3/15/1975
6. Grischuk, Alexander, 2732, Russia, b. 10/31/1983 (wow, both young AND born on Halloween!)
7. Shirov, Alexei, 2732, Russia,b. 7/4/1972
8. Svidler, Peter, 2723, Russia, b. 6/17/1976
9. Bareev, Evgeny, 2721, Russia, b. 11/21/1966
10. Adams, Michael, 2719, England, b. 11/17/1971

Robert J Fischer is rated at 2780, though inactive for about fifty years, and Gata Kamsky is also inactive and rated 2717. Both are American.