The first championship was held the year that FIDE was founded, at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. This is considered the unofficial first Chess Olympiad, and is the only Olympiad that was an individual event. The second championship was held at the 1928 Summer Olympics in The Hague, in conjunction with the 2nd Chess Olympiad.

Chess has never been an official part of the Olympic Games, and since the chess community does not make any essential distinction between amateur and professional^[1] the championship was discontinued after 1928. However, in 1995 FIDE has revamped it to celebrate the centenary of the Hastings International Chess Congress^[2] and since then it has been held annually. The first renewed edition, held concurrently with the 1995/96 Hastings Congress from 28 December 1995 to 5 January 1996, was restricted to non-FIDE rated players.^[3] Subsequently, amateur was defined as a player with a FIDE rating below 2000 and not having attained a rating of more than 2000 in the past 2 years. Since 2016, the championship has been split into three rating categories: U-2300, U-2000 and U-1700. Additionally to these rating limits, a player must not hold the title of International Master or higher (or Woman International Master for women) for U-2300 and U-2000 section or the title of FIDE Master (or Woman FIDE Master for women); however, players that are 65 years or older are exempt from this additional requirement to qualify.^[4]

According to the current FIDE regulations, the winners of the U-2300 and the U-2000 sections are awarded with the title of FIDE Master (FM), while the winner of the U-1700 category, the runner-ups and bronze medallists of the U-2300 and the U-2000 categories receive the Candidate Master (CM) title. Analogously the women's champions in the U-2300 and U-2000 categories receive the title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM), the winner of women's U1700 category, the silver and bronze medallists in the women's U-2300 and U-2000 categoriew are granted the title Woman Candidate Master (WCM).^[5]

Since 2012, there is another World Amateur Chess Championship, organised by the Amateur Chess Organisation (ACO),^[6] which is not recognised by FIDE.^[7]

• 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad (Paris 1924)
• 2nd Chess Olympiad (The Hague 1928)

• Brace, Edward R. (1977), An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, Hamlyn Publishing Group, p. 18, ISBN 1-55521-394-4
• Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (2 ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 13, ISBN 0-19-280049-3
• Whyld, Ken (1986), Chess: The Records, Guinness Books, p. 28, ISBN 0-85112-455-0