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Grandmaster (chess)

Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the title has been revoked for cheating.

The title of Grandmaster, along with the lesser FIDE titles of International Master (IM), FIDE Master (FM), and Candidate Master (CM), is open to all players regardless of gender. The great majority of grandmasters are men, but 40 women have been awarded the GM title as of 2022, out of a total of about 2000 grandmasters. Since about the year 2000, most of the top 10 women have held the GM title.[1] There is also a Woman Grandmaster title with lower requirements awarded only to women.

There are also Grandmaster titles for composers and solvers of chess problems, awarded by the World Federation for Chess Composition (see List of grandmasters for chess composition). The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) awards the title of International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (ICCGM). Both of these bodies are now independent of FIDE, but work in co-operation with it.

"Super grandmaster" is an informal term to refer to the world's elite players. In the past this would refer to players with an Elo rating of over 2600, but as the average Elo rating of the top players has increased it has typically come to refer to players with an Elo rating of over 2700. Super GMs, the number of whom has grown considerably over the years, have some name recognition in the world of sport and are typically the highest earners in chess.[2][3]

History

Usage of grandmaster for an expert in some field is recorded from 1590.[4] The first known use of the term grandmaster in connection with chess was in the 18 February 1838 issue of Bell's Life, in which a correspondent referred to William Lewis as "our past grandmaster".[5] Subsequently, George Walker and others referred to Philidor as a grandmaster, and the term was also applied to a few other players.[5]

Early tournament use

 
Siegbert Tarrasch (1862–1934)

The Ostend tournament of 1907 was divided into two sections: the Championship Tournament and the Masters' Tournament. The Championship section was for players who had previously won an international tournament.[6] Siegbert Tarrasch won the Championship section, over Carl Schlechter, Dawid Janowski, Frank Marshall, Amos Burn, and Mikhail Chigorin. These players were described as grandmasters for the purposes of the tournament.

The San Sebastián 1912 tournament won by Akiba Rubinstein was a designated grandmaster event.[5] Rubinstein won with 12½ points out of 19. Tied for second with 12 points were Aron Nimzowitsch and Rudolf Spielmann.[7]

By some accounts, in the St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament, the title Grandmaster was formally conferred by Russian Tsar Nicholas II, who had partially funded the tournament.[6] The Tsar reportedly awarded the title to the five finalists: Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Siegbert Tarrasch, and Frank Marshall. Chess historian Edward Winter has questioned this, stating that the earliest known sources that support this story are an article by Robert Lewis Taylor in the June 15, 1940, issue of The New Yorker and Marshall's autobiography My 50 Years of Chess (1942).[8][9][10]

Informal and Soviet usage before 1950

Before 1950, the term grandmaster was sometimes informally applied to world class players. The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE, or International Chess Federation) was formed in Paris in 1924, but at that time did not award formal titles.

In 1927, the Soviet Union's Chess Federation established the title of Grandmaster of the Soviet Union, in the form of the German loan word "Großmeister". At the time Soviet players were not competing outside their own country. This title was abolished in 1931, after having been awarded to Boris Verlinsky, who won the 1929 Soviet Championship.[11] The title was brought back in 1935, and awarded to Mikhail Botvinnik, who thus became the first "official" Grandmaster of the USSR. Verlinsky did not get his title back.[11]

Official status (1950 onwards)

 
Akiba Rubinstein (1880–1961)

In 1950 FIDE created the titles of Grandmaster (GM), International Master (IM) and Woman Master (WM, later known as Woman International Master or WIM). The grandmaster title is sometimes called "International Grandmaster" (IGM), possibly to distinguish it from similar national titles, but the shortened form is far more common today.

Titles were awarded by a resolution of the FIDE General Assembly and the Qualification Committee, with no formal written criteria. FIDE first awarded the Grandmaster title in 1950 to 27 players. These players were:

Since FIDE did not award the Grandmaster title posthumously, world-class players who died prior to 1950, including World Champions Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine, never received the title.[12] A few strong still living players such as British India's Mir Sultan Khan, Germany's Paul Lipke and France's Eugene Znosko-Borovsky were never awarded titles.

1953 regulations

 
Jacques Mieses (1865–1954), one of the first FIDE Grandmasters

Title awards under the original regulations were subject to political concerns. Efim Bogoljubow, who had emigrated from the Soviet Union to Germany, was not entered in the first class of Grandmasters, even though he had played two matches for the World Championship with Alekhine. He received the title in 1951, by a vote of thirteen to eight with five abstentions. Yugoslavia supported his application, but all other Communist countries opposed it. In 1953, FIDE abolished the old regulations, although a provision was maintained that allowed older masters who had been overlooked to be awarded titles. The new regulations awarded the title of International Grandmaster of the FIDE to players meeting any of the following criteria:[13]

  1. The world champion.
  2. Masters who have the absolute right to play in the World Championship Candidates Tournament, or any player who replaces an absent contestant and earns at least a 50 percent score.
  3. The winner of an international tournament meeting specified standards, and any player placing second in two such tournaments within a span of four years. The tournament must be at least eleven rounds with seven or more players, 80 percent or more being International Grandmasters or International Masters. Additionally, 30 percent of the players must be Grandmasters who have the absolute right to play in the next World Championship Candidates Tournament, or who have played in such a tournament in the previous ten years.
  4. A player who demonstrates ability manifestly equal to that of (3) above in an international tournament or match. Such titles must be approved by the Qualification Committee with the support of at least five members.

1957 regulations

After FIDE issued the 1953 title regulations, it was recognized that they were somewhat haphazard, and work began to revise the regulations. The FIDE Congress in Vienna in 1957 adopted new regulations, called the FAV system, in recognition of the work done by International Judge Giovanni Ferrantes (Italy), Alexander (probably Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander), and Giancarlo Dal Verme (Italy). Under the 1957 regulations, the title of International Grandmaster of the FIDE was automatically awarded to:

  1. The world champion.
  2. Any player qualifying from the Interzonal tournament to play in the Candidates Tournament, even if he did not play in the Candidates for any reason.
  3. Any player who would qualify from the Interzonal to play in the Candidates but who was excluded because of a limitation on the number of participants from his Federation.
  4. Any player who actually plays in a Candidates Tournament and scores at least 33⅓ percent.

The regulations also allowed titles to be awarded by a FIDE Congress on recommendation by the Qualification Committee. Recommendations were based on performance in qualifying tournaments, with the required score depending on the percentage of Grandmasters and International Masters in the tournament.[14]

1965 regulations

Concerns were raised that the 1957 regulations were too lax. At the FIDE Congress in 1961, GM Milan Vidmar said that the regulations "made it possible to award international titles to players without sufficient merit". At the 1964 Congress in Tel Aviv, a subcommittee was formed to propose changes to the regulations. The subcommittee recommended that the automatic award of titles be abolished, criticized the methods used for awarding titles based on qualifying performances, and called for a change in the makeup of the Qualification Committee. Several delegates supported the subcommittee recommendations, including GM Miguel Najdorf who felt that existing regulations were leading to an inflation of international titles.[14] At the 1965 Congress in Wiesbaden FIDE raised the standards required for international titles. The International Grandmaster title regulations were:

  • 1. Any World Champion is automatically awarded the GM title
  • 2a. Anyone who scores at least 40 percent in a quarter-final match in the Candidates Tournament
  • 2b. Scores at least the number of points in a tournament corresponding to the total of a 55 percent score against Grandmasters plus 75 percent against International Masters (IM) plus 85 percent against other players (a GM "norm").

To fulfill requirement 2b, the candidate must score one GM norm in a category 1a tournament or two norms within a three-year period in two Category 1b tournaments, or one Category 2a tournament and one Category 1b tournament.

The categories of tournaments are:

  • 1a—at least sixteen players, at least 50 percent are GMs and 70 percent at least IMs
  • 1b—at least twelve players, at least 33⅓ percent GMs and 70 percent IMs
  • 2a—at least fifteen players, at least 50 percent IMs
  • 2b—ten to fourteen players, at least 50 percent IMs.

Since FIDE titles are for life, a GM or IM does not count for the purposes of this requirement if he had not had a GM or IM result in the five years prior to the tournament.

In addition, no more than 50 percent plus one of the players can be from the same country for tournaments of 10 to 12 players, or no more than 50 percent plus two for larger tournaments.

Seventy-four GM titles were awarded in 1951 through 1968. During that period, ten GM titles were awarded in 1965, but only one in 1966 and in 1968.[15]

1970 regulations

The modern system for awarding FIDE titles evolved from the "Dorazil" proposals, presented to the 1970 Siegen Chess Olympiad FIDE Congress. The proposals were put together by Dr Wilfried Dorazil (then FIDE Vice-President) and fellow Committee members Grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić and Professor Arpad Elo. The recommendations of the Committee report were adopted in full.[16]

In essence, the proposals built on the work done by Professor Elo in devising his Elo rating system. The establishment of an updated list of players and their Elo rating enabled significantly strong international chess tournaments to be allocated a Category, based on the average rating of the contestants. For instance, it was decided that 'Category 1' status would apply to tournaments with an average Elo rating of participants falling within the range 2251–2275; similarly Category 2 would apply to the range 2276–2300 etc. The higher the tournament Category, the stronger the tournament.

Another vital component involved the setting of meritorious norms for each Category of tournament. Players must meet or surpass the relevant score to demonstrate that they had performed at Grandmaster (GM) or International Master (IM) level. Scores were expressed as percentages of a perfect maximum score and decreased as the tournament Category increased, thereby reflecting the strength of a player's opposition and the relative difficulty of the task.

Tournament organisers could then apply the percentages to their own tournament format and declare in advance the actual score that participants must achieve to attain a GM or IM result (nowadays referred to as a norm).

Cat. Avg. Elo Score (GM) Score (IM)
1 2251–2275 85% 76%
2 2276–2300 83% 73%
3 2301–2325 81% 70%
4 2326–2350 78% 67%
5 2351–2375 76% 64%
Cat. Avg. Elo Score (GM) Score (IM)
6 2376–2400 73% 60%
7 2401–2425 70% 57%
8 2426–2450 67% 53%
9 2451–2475 64% 50%
10 2476–2500 60% 47%
Cat. Avg. Elo Score (GM) Score (IM)
11 2501–2525 57% 43%
12 2526–2550 53% 40%
13 2551–2575 50% 36%
14 2576–2600 47% 33%
15 2601–2625 43% 30%

To qualify for the Grandmaster title, a player needed to achieve three such GM results within a rolling period of three years. Exceptionally, if a player's contributory games totalled 30 or more, then the title could be awarded on the basis of two such results. There were also circumstances where the system could be adapted to fit team events and other competitions.

The full proposals included many other rules and regulations, covering such topics as:

  • Eligible tournament formats
  • Eligible participants
  • Unrated participants
  • Registration of tournaments with FIDE
  • Calculations, including the handling of fractions

Current regulations

To become a grandmaster, a player must achieve both of the following:

  • An Elo rating of at least 2500 at any point in their career (although they need not maintain this level to obtain or keep the title).
    • The rating requirement can be fulfilled even if the player starts a tournament rated below 2500 and then reaches or exceeds a 2500 rating during the tournament but eventually concludes the tournament with a rating lower than 2500.
  • Favorable results (called norms) from a total of at least 27 games in tournaments. With some exceptions, to receive a norm in a tournament:
    • The player's rating performance at the end of the tournament must be at least 2600. (Tournaments are no longer classified in categories.)
    • At least 33% of the player's opponents must be Grandmasters.
    • At least 50% of the player's opponents must hold a FIDE title other than Candidate Master and Woman Candidate Master.
    • The player's opponents must have an average rating of at least 2380.
    • The player's opponents must come from at least 3 different chess federations, which can include the player's own federation.
      • A maximum of 60% of a player's opponents can come from the player's own federation.
      • A maximum of 66% of a player's opponents can come from a single federation.
  • At least one norm scored at a Swiss tournament with at least 40 participants of average rating of 2000 and above.[17]

The Grandmaster title is also automatically conferred, without needing to fulfill the above criteria, when winning the Women's World Championship, the World Junior Championship, or the World Senior Championship, given that the player's peak FIDE rating is at least 2300. Current regulations can be found in the FIDE Handbook.[18]

FIDE titles including the grandmaster title are valid for life, but FIDE regulations allow a title to be revoked for "use of a FIDE title or rating to subvert the ethical principles of the title or rating system" or if a player is found to have violated the anti-cheating regulations in a tournament on which the title application was based.[18]

Title inflation

 
Number of new grandmasters per year
 
Evolution of the number of grandmasters

A report prepared by Bartłomiej Macieja for the Association of Chess Professionals mentions discussion at the FIDE congress of 2008 regarding a perceived decrease in value of the grandmaster title.[19][20] The number of grandmasters had increased greatly between 1972 and 2008, but according to Macieja,[19] the number of registered players rated over 2200 had increased even faster. Since that FIDE congress, discussion of the value of the grandmaster title has occasionally continued.[21]

Honorary grandmasters

From 1977 until 2003, FIDE awarded honorary Grandmaster titles to 31 players based on their past performances or other contributions to chess. Since 2007, no distinction has been made between an "honorary" grandmaster and a full grandmaster. The following players have been awarded honorary Grandmaster titles:

See also

References

  1. ^ "FIDE Ratings". from the original on 2021-12-01. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  2. ^ Friedel, Frederic (2020-08-18). "Thirteen Super Grandmasters!". Chess News. from the original on 2021-12-16. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  3. ^ "Title Inflation Waters Down the Meaning of Grandmaster". The New York Times. 2008-04-20. from the original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
  4. ^ grand master, n. : Oxford English Dictionary (oed.com)
  5. ^ a b c Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (2 ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 156, ISBN 978-0-19-280049-7
  6. ^ a b Sunnucks 1970, p. 223
  7. ^ "nimzowitsch.com". from the original on 3 July 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  8. ^ Winter, Edward (1999), Kings, Commoners and Knaves: Further Chess Explorations (1 ed.), Russell Enterprises, Inc., pp. 315–316, ISBN 978-1-888690-04-0
  9. ^ Winter, Edward (2003), A Chess Omnibus (1 ed.), Russell Enterprises, Inc., pp. 177–178, ISBN 978-1-888690-17-0
  10. ^ "Chess Notes by Edward Winter". from the original on 28 March 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  11. ^ a b Cafferty, Bernard; Taimanov, Mark (1998), The Soviet Championships (1 ed.), Cadogan Books, pp. 28–29, ISBN 978-1-85744-201-4
  12. ^ Elo, Arpad (1978), The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present, Arco, p. 66, ISBN 978-0-668-04721-0
  13. ^ Harkness, Kenneth (1956), The Official Blue Book and Encyclopedia of Chess, David McKay Company, pp. 332–336, LCCN 56014153, OCLC 1578704
  14. ^ a b Harkness, Kenneth (1967), Official Chess Handbook, David McKay Company, pp. 211–214, LCCN 66013085, OCLC 728637
  15. ^ Sunnucks 1970, pp. 224–226
  16. ^ Keene, Raymond; Levy, David (1970), Siegen Chess Olympiad (1 ed.), Chess Ltd, Sutton Coldfield, pp. 238–240
  17. ^ cbird (2021-12-10). "Changes to FIDE Rating and Title Regulations, Effective January 1, 2022". US Chess.org. from the original on 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  18. ^ a b "B.01 FIDE Title Regulations effective from 1 July 2017", FIDE Handbook, FIDE, 13 September 2016, from the original on 26 July 2020, retrieved 13 December 2019
  19. ^ a b Macieja, Bartlomiej (December 17, 2008), , FIDE, archived from the original on 2009-03-05, retrieved 2021-10-20
  20. ^ "ACP, Carlsen on the FIDE Grand Prix problems". Chess News. 2008-12-24. from the original on 2020-12-02. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  21. ^ Silver, Albert (June 26, 2013), "'A GM is a GM'? – FIDE title devaluation", Chessbase.com, from the original on 2021-12-04, retrieved 2019-02-15
  22. ^ "FIDE Chess Profile – Jonathan Penrose". FIDE. from the original on 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2019-09-04.

Bibliography

External links

  • "Requirements for FIDE Titles" from the FIDE Handbook
  • "World Top Chess players" FIDE
  • "Chess Grandmasters" by Edward Winter

grandmaster, chess, grandmaster, title, awarded, chess, players, world, chess, organization, fide, apart, from, world, champion, grandmaster, highest, title, chess, player, attain, once, achieved, title, held, life, though, exceptionally, title, been, revoked,. Grandmaster GM is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE Apart from World Champion Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain Once achieved the title is held for life though exceptionally the title has been revoked for cheating The title of Grandmaster along with the lesser FIDE titles of International Master IM FIDE Master FM and Candidate Master CM is open to all players regardless of gender The great majority of grandmasters are men but 40 women have been awarded the GM title as of 2022 out of a total of about 2000 grandmasters Since about the year 2000 most of the top 10 women have held the GM title 1 There is also a Woman Grandmaster title with lower requirements awarded only to women There are also Grandmaster titles for composers and solvers of chess problems awarded by the World Federation for Chess Composition see List of grandmasters for chess composition The International Correspondence Chess Federation ICCF awards the title of International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster ICCGM Both of these bodies are now independent of FIDE but work in co operation with it Super grandmaster is an informal term to refer to the world s elite players In the past this would refer to players with an Elo rating of over 2600 but as the average Elo rating of the top players has increased it has typically come to refer to players with an Elo rating of over 2700 Super GMs the number of whom has grown considerably over the years have some name recognition in the world of sport and are typically the highest earners in chess 2 3 Contents 1 History 1 1 Early tournament use 1 2 Informal and Soviet usage before 1950 1 3 Official status 1950 onwards 1 3 1 1953 regulations 1 3 2 1957 regulations 1 3 3 1965 regulations 1 3 4 1970 regulations 2 Current regulations 3 Title inflation 4 Honorary grandmasters 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksHistory EditUsage of grandmaster for an expert in some field is recorded from 1590 4 The first known use of the term grandmaster in connection with chess was in the 18 February 1838 issue of Bell s Life in which a correspondent referred to William Lewis as our past grandmaster 5 Subsequently George Walker and others referred to Philidor as a grandmaster and the term was also applied to a few other players 5 Early tournament use Edit Siegbert Tarrasch 1862 1934 The Ostend tournament of 1907 was divided into two sections the Championship Tournament and the Masters Tournament The Championship section was for players who had previously won an international tournament 6 Siegbert Tarrasch won the Championship section over Carl Schlechter Dawid Janowski Frank Marshall Amos Burn and Mikhail Chigorin These players were described as grandmasters for the purposes of the tournament The San Sebastian 1912 tournament won by Akiba Rubinstein was a designated grandmaster event 5 Rubinstein won with 12 points out of 19 Tied for second with 12 points were Aron Nimzowitsch and Rudolf Spielmann 7 By some accounts in the St Petersburg 1914 chess tournament the title Grandmaster was formally conferred by Russian Tsar Nicholas II who had partially funded the tournament 6 The Tsar reportedly awarded the title to the five finalists Emanuel Lasker Jose Raul Capablanca Alexander Alekhine Siegbert Tarrasch and Frank Marshall Chess historian Edward Winter has questioned this stating that the earliest known sources that support this story are an article by Robert Lewis Taylor in the June 15 1940 issue of The New Yorker and Marshall s autobiography My 50 Years of Chess 1942 8 9 10 Informal and Soviet usage before 1950 Edit Before 1950 the term grandmaster was sometimes informally applied to world class players The Federation Internationale des Echecs FIDE or International Chess Federation was formed in Paris in 1924 but at that time did not award formal titles In 1927 the Soviet Union s Chess Federation established the title of Grandmaster of the Soviet Union in the form of the German loan word Grossmeister At the time Soviet players were not competing outside their own country This title was abolished in 1931 after having been awarded to Boris Verlinsky who won the 1929 Soviet Championship 11 The title was brought back in 1935 and awarded to Mikhail Botvinnik who thus became the first official Grandmaster of the USSR Verlinsky did not get his title back 11 Official status 1950 onwards Edit Akiba Rubinstein 1880 1961 In 1950 FIDE created the titles of Grandmaster GM International Master IM and Woman Master WM later known as Woman International Master or WIM The grandmaster title is sometimes called International Grandmaster IGM possibly to distinguish it from similar national titles but the shortened form is far more common today Titles were awarded by a resolution of the FIDE General Assembly and the Qualification Committee with no formal written criteria FIDE first awarded the Grandmaster title in 1950 to 27 players These players were The top players of the day world champion Mikhail Botvinnik and those who had qualified for or been seeded into the inaugural Candidates Tournament in 1950 Isaac Boleslavsky Igor Bondarevsky David Bronstein Max Euwe Reuben Fine Salo Flohr Paul Keres Alexander Kotov Andor Lilienthal Miguel Najdorf Samuel Reshevsky Vasily Smyslov Gideon Stahlberg and Laszlo Szabo Players still living who though past their best in 1950 were recognised as having been world class when at their peak Ossip Bernstein Oldrich Duras Ernst Grunfeld Boris Kostic Grigory Levenfish Geza Maroczy Jacques Mieses Viacheslav Ragozin Akiba Rubinstein Friedrich Samisch Savielly Tartakower and Milan Vidmar Since FIDE did not award the Grandmaster title posthumously world class players who died prior to 1950 including World Champions Steinitz Lasker Capablanca and Alekhine never received the title 12 A few strong still living players such as British India s Mir Sultan Khan Germany s Paul Lipke and France s Eugene Znosko Borovsky were never awarded titles 1953 regulations Edit Jacques Mieses 1865 1954 one of the first FIDE Grandmasters Title awards under the original regulations were subject to political concerns Efim Bogoljubow who had emigrated from the Soviet Union to Germany was not entered in the first class of Grandmasters even though he had played two matches for the World Championship with Alekhine He received the title in 1951 by a vote of thirteen to eight with five abstentions Yugoslavia supported his application but all other Communist countries opposed it In 1953 FIDE abolished the old regulations although a provision was maintained that allowed older masters who had been overlooked to be awarded titles The new regulations awarded the title of International Grandmaster of the FIDE to players meeting any of the following criteria 13 The world champion Masters who have the absolute right to play in the World Championship Candidates Tournament or any player who replaces an absent contestant and earns at least a 50 percent score The winner of an international tournament meeting specified standards and any player placing second in two such tournaments within a span of four years The tournament must be at least eleven rounds with seven or more players 80 percent or more being International Grandmasters or International Masters Additionally 30 percent of the players must be Grandmasters who have the absolute right to play in the next World Championship Candidates Tournament or who have played in such a tournament in the previous ten years A player who demonstrates ability manifestly equal to that of 3 above in an international tournament or match Such titles must be approved by the Qualification Committee with the support of at least five members 1957 regulations Edit After FIDE issued the 1953 title regulations it was recognized that they were somewhat haphazard and work began to revise the regulations The FIDE Congress in Vienna in 1957 adopted new regulations called the FAV system in recognition of the work done by International Judge Giovanni Ferrantes Italy Alexander probably Conel Hugh O Donel Alexander and Giancarlo Dal Verme Italy Under the 1957 regulations the title of International Grandmaster of the FIDE was automatically awarded to The world champion Any player qualifying from the Interzonal tournament to play in the Candidates Tournament even if he did not play in the Candidates for any reason Any player who would qualify from the Interzonal to play in the Candidates but who was excluded because of a limitation on the number of participants from his Federation Any player who actually plays in a Candidates Tournament and scores at least 33 percent The regulations also allowed titles to be awarded by a FIDE Congress on recommendation by the Qualification Committee Recommendations were based on performance in qualifying tournaments with the required score depending on the percentage of Grandmasters and International Masters in the tournament 14 1965 regulations Edit Concerns were raised that the 1957 regulations were too lax At the FIDE Congress in 1961 GM Milan Vidmar said that the regulations made it possible to award international titles to players without sufficient merit At the 1964 Congress in Tel Aviv a subcommittee was formed to propose changes to the regulations The subcommittee recommended that the automatic award of titles be abolished criticized the methods used for awarding titles based on qualifying performances and called for a change in the makeup of the Qualification Committee Several delegates supported the subcommittee recommendations including GM Miguel Najdorf who felt that existing regulations were leading to an inflation of international titles 14 At the 1965 Congress in Wiesbaden FIDE raised the standards required for international titles The International Grandmaster title regulations were 1 Any World Champion is automatically awarded the GM title 2a Anyone who scores at least 40 percent in a quarter final match in the Candidates Tournament 2b Scores at least the number of points in a tournament corresponding to the total of a 55 percent score against Grandmasters plus 75 percent against International Masters IM plus 85 percent against other players a GM norm To fulfill requirement 2b the candidate must score one GM norm in a category 1a tournament or two norms within a three year period in two Category 1b tournaments or one Category 2a tournament and one Category 1b tournament The categories of tournaments are 1a at least sixteen players at least 50 percent are GMs and 70 percent at least IMs 1b at least twelve players at least 33 percent GMs and 70 percent IMs 2a at least fifteen players at least 50 percent IMs 2b ten to fourteen players at least 50 percent IMs Since FIDE titles are for life a GM or IM does not count for the purposes of this requirement if he had not had a GM or IM result in the five years prior to the tournament In addition no more than 50 percent plus one of the players can be from the same country for tournaments of 10 to 12 players or no more than 50 percent plus two for larger tournaments Seventy four GM titles were awarded in 1951 through 1968 During that period ten GM titles were awarded in 1965 but only one in 1966 and in 1968 15 1970 regulations Edit The modern system for awarding FIDE titles evolved from the Dorazil proposals presented to the 1970 Siegen Chess Olympiad FIDE Congress The proposals were put together by Dr Wilfried Dorazil then FIDE Vice President and fellow Committee members Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric and Professor Arpad Elo The recommendations of the Committee report were adopted in full 16 In essence the proposals built on the work done by Professor Elo in devising his Elo rating system The establishment of an updated list of players and their Elo rating enabled significantly strong international chess tournaments to be allocated a Category based on the average rating of the contestants For instance it was decided that Category 1 status would apply to tournaments with an average Elo rating of participants falling within the range 2251 2275 similarly Category 2 would apply to the range 2276 2300 etc The higher the tournament Category the stronger the tournament Another vital component involved the setting of meritorious norms for each Category of tournament Players must meet or surpass the relevant score to demonstrate that they had performed at Grandmaster GM or International Master IM level Scores were expressed as percentages of a perfect maximum score and decreased as the tournament Category increased thereby reflecting the strength of a player s opposition and the relative difficulty of the task Tournament organisers could then apply the percentages to their own tournament format and declare in advance the actual score that participants must achieve to attain a GM or IM result nowadays referred to as a norm Cat Avg Elo Score GM Score IM 1 2251 2275 85 76 2 2276 2300 83 73 3 2301 2325 81 70 4 2326 2350 78 67 5 2351 2375 76 64 Cat Avg Elo Score GM Score IM 6 2376 2400 73 60 7 2401 2425 70 57 8 2426 2450 67 53 9 2451 2475 64 50 10 2476 2500 60 47 Cat Avg Elo Score GM Score IM 11 2501 2525 57 43 12 2526 2550 53 40 13 2551 2575 50 36 14 2576 2600 47 33 15 2601 2625 43 30 To qualify for the Grandmaster title a player needed to achieve three such GM results within a rolling period of three years Exceptionally if a player s contributory games totalled 30 or more then the title could be awarded on the basis of two such results There were also circumstances where the system could be adapted to fit team events and other competitions The full proposals included many other rules and regulations covering such topics as Eligible tournament formats Eligible participants Unrated participants Registration of tournaments with FIDE Calculations including the handling of fractionsCurrent regulations EditTo become a grandmaster a player must achieve both of the following An Elo rating of at least 2500 at any point in their career although they need not maintain this level to obtain or keep the title The rating requirement can be fulfilled even if the player starts a tournament rated below 2500 and then reaches or exceeds a 2500 rating during the tournament but eventually concludes the tournament with a rating lower than 2500 Favorable results called norms from a total of at least 27 games in tournaments With some exceptions to receive a norm in a tournament The player s rating performance at the end of the tournament must be at least 2600 Tournaments are no longer classified in categories At least 33 of the player s opponents must be Grandmasters At least 50 of the player s opponents must hold a FIDE title other than Candidate Master and Woman Candidate Master The player s opponents must have an average rating of at least 2380 The player s opponents must come from at least 3 different chess federations which can include the player s own federation A maximum of 60 of a player s opponents can come from the player s own federation A maximum of 66 of a player s opponents can come from a single federation At least one norm scored at a Swiss tournament with at least 40 participants of average rating of 2000 and above 17 The Grandmaster title is also automatically conferred without needing to fulfill the above criteria when winning the Women s World Championship the World Junior Championship or the World Senior Championship given that the player s peak FIDE rating is at least 2300 Current regulations can be found in the FIDE Handbook 18 FIDE titles including the grandmaster title are valid for life but FIDE regulations allow a title to be revoked for use of a FIDE title or rating to subvert the ethical principles of the title or rating system or if a player is found to have violated the anti cheating regulations in a tournament on which the title application was based 18 Title inflation Edit Number of new grandmasters per year Evolution of the number of grandmasters A report prepared by Bartlomiej Macieja for the Association of Chess Professionals mentions discussion at the FIDE congress of 2008 regarding a perceived decrease in value of the grandmaster title 19 20 The number of grandmasters had increased greatly between 1972 and 2008 but according to Macieja 19 the number of registered players rated over 2200 had increased even faster Since that FIDE congress discussion of the value of the grandmaster title has occasionally continued 21 Honorary grandmasters EditFrom 1977 until 2003 FIDE awarded honorary Grandmaster titles to 31 players based on their past performances or other contributions to chess Since 2007 no distinction has been made between an honorary grandmaster and a full grandmaster The following players have been awarded honorary Grandmaster titles 1977 Julio Bolbochan Esteban Canal Borislav Milic Carlos Torre Repetto 1981 Arnold Denker 1982 Lodewijk Prins Raul Sanguineti 1983 Vladimir Alatortsev Alexander Konstantinopolsky Erik Lundin 1984 Eero Book Stojan Puc 1985 Harry Golombek Mario Monticelli Jaroslav Sajtar 1986 Arthur Dake Theodor Ghițescu 1987 Vladimir Makogonov Vladas Mikenas Bogdan Sliwa 1988 George Koltanowski 1990 Andrija Fuderer Rudolf Maric posthumously 1991 Dragoljub Minic 1992 Heinz Lehmann Rudolf Teschner 1993 Jonathan Penrose 22 1996 Karoly Honfi posthumously Enrico Paoli 1999 Peter Dely 2003 Elmars ZemgalisSee also EditChess title List of chess grandmasters List of female chess grandmasters List of youngest grandmasters Comparison of top chess players throughout historyReferences Edit FIDE Ratings Archived from the original on 2021 12 01 Retrieved 2021 10 28 Friedel Frederic 2020 08 18 Thirteen Super Grandmasters Chess News Archived from the original on 2021 12 16 Retrieved 2021 01 19 Title Inflation Waters Down the Meaning of Grandmaster The New York Times 2008 04 20 Archived from the original on 2021 12 15 Retrieved 2021 01 19 grand master n Oxford English Dictionary oed com a b c Hooper David Whyld Kenneth 1992 The Oxford Companion to Chess 2 ed Oxford University Press p 156 ISBN 978 0 19 280049 7 a b Sunnucks 1970 p 223 nimzowitsch com Archived from the original on 3 July 2008 Retrieved 29 June 2015 Winter Edward 1999 Kings Commoners and Knaves Further Chess Explorations 1 ed Russell Enterprises Inc pp 315 316 ISBN 978 1 888690 04 0 Winter Edward 2003 A Chess Omnibus 1 ed Russell Enterprises Inc pp 177 178 ISBN 978 1 888690 17 0 Chess Notes by Edward Winter Archived from the original on 28 March 2017 Retrieved 29 June 2015 a b Cafferty Bernard Taimanov Mark 1998 The Soviet Championships 1 ed Cadogan Books pp 28 29 ISBN 978 1 85744 201 4 Elo Arpad 1978 The Rating of Chessplayers Past and Present Arco p 66 ISBN 978 0 668 04721 0 Harkness Kenneth 1956 The Official Blue Book and Encyclopedia of Chess David McKay Company pp 332 336 LCCN 56014153 OCLC 1578704 a b Harkness Kenneth 1967 Official Chess Handbook David McKay Company pp 211 214 LCCN 66013085 OCLC 728637 Sunnucks 1970 pp 224 226 Keene Raymond Levy David 1970 Siegen Chess Olympiad 1 ed Chess Ltd Sutton Coldfield pp 238 240 cbird 2021 12 10 Changes to FIDE Rating and Title Regulations Effective January 1 2022 US Chess org Archived from the original on 2023 02 03 Retrieved 2022 11 16 a b B 01 FIDE Title Regulations effective from 1 July 2017 FIDE Handbook FIDE 13 September 2016 archived from the original on 26 July 2020 retrieved 13 December 2019 a b Macieja Bartlomiej December 17 2008 ACP Report by GM Bartlmiej Macieja FIDE archived from the original on 2009 03 05 retrieved 2021 10 20 ACP Carlsen on the FIDE Grand Prix problems Chess News 2008 12 24 Archived from the original on 2020 12 02 Retrieved 2022 12 29 Silver Albert June 26 2013 A GM is a GM FIDE title devaluation Chessbase com archived from the original on 2021 12 04 retrieved 2019 02 15 FIDE Chess Profile Jonathan Penrose FIDE Archived from the original on 2021 10 19 Retrieved 2019 09 04 Bibliography Sunnucks Anne 1970 The Encyclopaedia of Chess St Martins Press ISBN 978 0 7091 4697 1External links Edit Requirements for FIDE Titles from the FIDE Handbook World Top Chess players FIDE Chess Grandmasters by Edward Winter Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Grandmaster chess amp oldid 1150240831, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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