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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 can be 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.[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]

FIDE titles are only awarded at the quarterly FIDE Council meetings. Players who have qualified for the
GM title but have not yet been awarded it are informally referred to as "GM-elect".[4][5][6]

History
Usage of grandmaster for an expert in some field is recorded from 1590.[7] 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".[8] Subsequently, George Walker and
others referred to Philidor as a grandmaster, and the term was also applied to a few other players.[8]

Early tournament use

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.[9] 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.[8] Rubinstein won with 12½ points out
of 19. Tied for second with 12 points were Aron Nimzowitsch and Rudolf
Spielmann.[10]
Siegbert Tarrasch (1862–1934)
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.[9] The Tsar reportedly awarded the title to the five finalists:
Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Siegbert Tarrasch, and Frank Marshall.
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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).[11][12][13]

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.[14] 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.[14]

Official status (1950 onwards)

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 Akiba Rubinstein (1880–1961)
Bondarevsky, David Bronstein, Max Euwe, Reuben Fine, Salo Flohr,
Paul Keres, Alexander Kotov, Andor Lilienthal, Miguel Najdorf,
Samuel Reshevsky, Vasily Smyslov, Gideon Ståhlberg, and László Szabó.
Players still living who, though past their best in 1950, were recognised as having been world class
when at their peak: Ossip Bernstein, Oldřich Duras, Ernst Grünfeld, Boris Kostić, Grigory Levenfish,
Géza Maróczy, Jacques Mieses, Viacheslav Ragozin, Akiba Rubinstein, Friedrich Sämisch, 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.[15] 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

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

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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:[16]

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 Jacques Mieses (1865–1954),
percent of the players must be Grandmasters who have the absolute one of the first FIDE
right to play in the next World Championship Candidates Grandmasters
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.[17]

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.[17] 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

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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.[18]

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.[19]

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).

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Avg. Score Score Avg. Score Score Avg. Score Score

Cat. Cat. Cat.
Elo (GM) (IM) Elo (GM) (IM) Elo (GM) (IM)

2251– 2376– 2501–

1 85% 76% 6 73% 60% 11 57% 43%
2275 2400 2525

2276– 2401– 2526–

2 83% 73% 7 70% 57% 12 53% 40%
2300 2425 2550
2301– 2426– 2551–
3 81% 70% 8 67% 53% 13 50% 36%
2325 2450 2575

2326– 2451– 2576–

4 78% 67% 9 64% 50% 14 47% 33%
2350 2475 2600

2351– 2476– 2601–

5 76% 64% 10 60% 47% 15 43% 30%
2375 2500 2625

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:

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 must be scored at a Swiss tournament with at least 40 participants of average
rating of 2000 and above.[20]
An Elo rating of at least 2500 at any point (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.

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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, or a Continental Chess Championship, given that the player's peak FIDE rating is at least
2300. Current regulations can be found in the FIDE Handbook.[21]

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.[21]

Exact regulations can be found in the FIDE Handbook (https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B012023).

Title inflation
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.[22][23] The number of
grandmasters had increased greatly between 1972 and
2008, but according to Macieja,[22] 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.[24]

Honorary grandmasters Number of new grandmasters per year

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
(with Marić and Honfi having been awarded the title
posthumously in the year of their death):

1977 – Julio Bolbochán, Esteban Canal, Borislav

Milić, Carlos Torre Repetto
1981 – Arnold Denker
1982 – Lodewijk Prins, Raúl Sanguineti
1983 – Vladimir Alatortsev, Alexander
Konstantinopolsky, Erik Lundin Evolution of the number of grandmasters

1984 – Eero Böök, Stojan Puc

1985 – Harry Golombek, Mario Monticelli, Jaroslav Šajtar
1986 – Arthur Dake, Theodor Ghițescu
1987 – Vladimir Makogonov, Vladas Mikėnas, Bogdan Śliwa
1988 – George Koltanowski
1990 – Andrija Fuderer, Rudolf Marić (posthumously)
1991 – Dragoljub Minić
1992 – Heinz Lehmann, Rudolf Teschner
1993 – Jonathan Penrose[25]
1996 – Károly Honfi (posthumously), Enrico Paoli
1999 – Péter Dely

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2003 – Elmārs Zemgalis

See also
Chess title
List of chess grandmasters
List of female chess grandmasters
List of youngest grandmasters
Comparison of top chess players throughout history

References
1. "FIDE Ratings" (https://ratings.fide.com/top_lists.phtml). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20211
201124056/https://ratings.fide.com/top_lists.phtml) from the original on 2021-12-01. Retrieved
2021-10-28.
2. Friedel, Frederic (2020-08-18). "Thirteen Super Grandmasters!" (https://en.chessbase.com/post/thirt
een-super-grandmasters). Chess News. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20211216182345/http
s://en.chessbase.com/post/thirteen-super-grandmasters) from the original on 2021-12-16. Retrieved
2021-01-19.
3. "Title Inflation Waters Down the Meaning of Grandmaster" (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/cro
sswords/chess/20chess.html). The New York Times. 2008-04-20. Archived (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20211215224421/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/crosswords/chess/20chess.html) from the
original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
4. "Christopher Yoo Breaks 2500 FIDE; Becomes GM-Elect" (https://new.uschess.org/news/christopher
-yoo-breaks-2500-fide-becomes-gm-elect). US Chess.org. 2021-12-16. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
5. "Congratulations to GM-elect Christopher Yoo, who has broken (subject to FIDE confirmation) the
2500 barrier to become a grandmaster at 14 years and 51 weeks!" (https://twitter.com/USChess/stat
us/1471602075792551936). Twitter. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
6. Green (NathanielGreen), Nathaniel (2022-10-19). "World's Top Teenager Makes Triumphant Return"
(https://www.chess.com/news/view/minh-le-firouzja-win-titled-tuesday-october-18-2022). Chess.com.
Retrieved 2023-05-28.
7. grand master, n. : Oxford English Dictionary (oed.com)
8. Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (2 ed.), Oxford University
Press, p. 156, ISBN 978-0-19-280049-7
9. Sunnucks 1970, p. 223
10. "nimzowitsch.com" (http://nimzowitsch.com/Tourn_and_Match/sanseb12.htm). Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20080703201159/http://nimzowitsch.com/Tourn_and_Match/sanseb12.htm) from the
original on 3 July 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
11. Winter, Edward (1999), Kings, Commoners and Knaves: Further Chess Explorations (1 ed.), Russell
Enterprises, Inc., pp. 315–316, ISBN 978-1-888690-04-0
12. Winter, Edward (2003), A Chess Omnibus (1 ed.), Russell Enterprises, Inc., pp. 177–178, ISBN 978-
1-888690-17-0
13. "Chess Notes by Edward Winter" (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter38.html). Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20170328070143/http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter38.html) from
the original on 28 March 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
14. Cafferty, Bernard; Taimanov, Mark (1998), The Soviet Championships (1 ed.), Cadogan Books,
pp. 28–29, ISBN 978-1-85744-201-4
15. Elo, Arpad (1978), The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present, Arco, p. 66, ISBN 978-0-668-
04721-0
16. Harkness, Kenneth (1956), The Official Blue Book and Encyclopedia of Chess, David McKay
Company, pp. 332–336, LCCN 56014153 (https://lccn.loc.gov/56014153), OCLC 1578704 (https://w
ww.worldcat.org/oclc/1578704)

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17. Harkness, Kenneth (1967), Official Chess Handbook, David McKay Company, pp. 211–214,
LCCN 66013085 (https://lccn.loc.gov/66013085), OCLC 728637 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7286
37)
18. Sunnucks 1970, pp. 224–226
19. Keene, Raymond; Levy, David (1970), Siegen Chess Olympiad (1 ed.), Chess Ltd, Sutton Coldfield,
pp. 238–240
20. cbird (2021-12-10). "Changes to FIDE Rating and Title Regulations, Effective January 1, 2022" (http
s://new.uschess.org/news/changes-fide-rating-and-title-regulations-effective-january-1-2022). US
Chess.org. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20230203010922/https://new.uschess.org/news/ch
anges-fide-rating-and-title-regulations-effective-january-1-2022) from the original on 2023-02-03.
Retrieved 2022-11-16.
21. "B.01 FIDE Title Regulations effective from 1 July 2017" (https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B01Reg
ulations2017), FIDE Handbook, FIDE, 13 September 2016, archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
200726091952/https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B01Regulations2017) from the original on 26 July
2020, retrieved 13 December 2019
22. Macieja, Bartlomiej (December 17, 2008), ACP Report by GM Bartlmiej Macieja (https://web.archive.
org/web/20090305014540/https://www.fide.com/fide/fide-commissions/3616-acp-report-by-gm-bartlm
iej-macieja), FIDE, archived from the original (http://www.fide.com/fide/fide-commissions/3616-acp-re
port-by-gm-bartlmiej-macieja) on 2009-03-05, retrieved 2021-10-20
23. "ACP, Carlsen on the FIDE Grand Prix problems" (https://en.chessbase.com/post/acp-carlsen-on-the
-fide-grand-prix-problems). Chess News. 2008-12-24. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/202012
02071918/https://en.chessbase.com/post/acp-carlsen-on-the-fide-grand-prix-problems) from the
original on 2020-12-02. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
24. Silver, Albert (June 26, 2013), " 'A GM is a GM'? – FIDE title devaluation" (https://en.chessbase.com/
post/a-gm-is-a-gm-fide-title-devaluation-270613), Chessbase.com, archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20211204003938/https://en.chessbase.com/post/a-gm-is-a-gm-fide-title-devaluation-270613)
from the original on 2021-12-04, retrieved 2019-02-15
25. "FIDE Chess Profile – Jonathan Penrose" (http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=400360). FIDE.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20211019223636/https://ratings.fide.com/profile/400360) from
the original on 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2019-09-04.

Bibliography

Sunnucks, Anne (1970), The Encyclopaedia of Chess, St. Martins Press, ISBN 978-0-7091-4697-1

External links
"Requirements for FIDE Titles" (http://www.fide.com/component/handbook/?id=58&view=article) from
the FIDE Handbook
"World Top Chess players" (http://ratings.fide.com/toplist.phtml) FIDE
"Chess Grandmasters" by Edward Winter (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/grandmasters.ht
ml)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grandmaster_(chess)&oldid=1171576560"

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