International Grandmaster
The title
Grandmaster is awarded to world-class
chess masters by the world chess organization
FIDE. Apart from "World Champion", Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain.
It is a lifetime title, in chess literature usually abbreviated as
GM (this is in contrast to
FM for
FIDE Master and
IM for
International Master).
GM, IM, and FM are open to both men and women. A separate gender-segregated title,
WGM for
Woman Grandmaster, is also available, but is something of a
misnomer. It is awarded for a level of skill between that of a FIDE Master and an International Master. In 1991
Susan Polgar became the first woman to earn the GM title under the same conditions as the men, and these days most of the top 10 women hold the GM title.
International Grandmaster titles are also awarded to composers and solvers of
chess problems, and to
correspondence chess players (by the
International Correspondence Chess Federation).
The requirements for becoming a Grandmaster are somewhat complex. A player must have an
ELO chess rating of at least 2500 at one time (although they need not maintain this level to keep the title). A rating of 2400 or higher is required to become an International Master. In addition, three favorable results (called
norms) in tournaments involving other Grandmasters, including some from countries other than the applicant's, are usually required before FIDE will confer the title on a player. There are other milestones a player can achieve to get the title, such as winning the World Junior Championship. Current regulations may be found in the FIDE Handbook [
1].
The title "Grandmaster" was first formally conferred by
Russian Tsar Nicholas II, who in
1914 awarded it to five players (
Lasker,
Capablanca,
Alekhine,
Tarrasch and
Marshall), who were finalists of a tournament in
Saint Petersburg which he had partially funded. The tournament was won by Lasker ahead of Capablanca.
FIDE first awarded the International Grandmaster title in 1950 to 27 players. These players were
Bernstein,
Boleslavsky,
Bondarevsky,
Botvinnik,
Bronstein,
Duras,
Euwe,
Fine,
Flohr,
Grünfeld,
Keres,
Kostić,
Kotov,
Levenfish,
Lilienthal,
Maroczy,
Mieses,
Najdorf,
Ragozin,
Reshevsky,
Rubinstein,
Sämisch,
Smyslov,
Stahlberg,
Szabó,
Tartakower, and
Vidmar.
In 1972 there were only 88 GM's with 33 being Russian. In July 2005, the FIDE ratings list included over 900 grandmasters; see
list of chess players and
chess grandmasters for some of them. The increase is at least partly due to the greater ease of travel, which makes it simpler to organize the international tournaments required to provide norm opportunities.
The Grandmaster title retains its prestige because it represents a very high level of chess performance against other titled players. A chess master is typically in the top 2% of all tournament players. A Grandmaster is typically in the top 0.02% percent at the time he or she earns the title. [
2]
Some people have argued that the players currently awarded the title of Grandmaster are not as dominant as those five original Grandmasters were in their day. Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine were all World Champions, and both Tarrasch and Marshall were strong enough to play world title matches (both losing against Lasker). Tarrasch was regarded as the strongest player in the world in the period between the decline of Steinitz and the rise of Lasker.
This argument says that the title of Grandmaster ought to be reserved for those who, at some time in their lives, become serious contenders for the World Championship, or who have actually held that title. Otherwise, a "super-GM" designation becomes necessary in order to refer to that group, leading to an accumulation of superlatives.
A player whose ELO rating is over 2700 is sometimes informally called a "Super-GM".From 1970 when FIDE first adopted the ELO rating system to July 2006, there have been only 39 players who have achieved a peak rating of 2700 or more. Below is a list compiled by
Przemek Jahr of Pila, Poland. This list, however, does not account for the inflation of ELO ratings over time, as is evident by the fact that almost all of these peak ratings are from recent years.
As of July 2006, FIDE lists nineteen active players rated 2700 or higher [
3].
*
List of youngest grandmasters
