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).

Current Regulations

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 ^*.

Origin and Current Statistics

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. ^*

Title Inflation

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.

"Super-grandmasters"

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 April 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 ^*.

Rank	Rating	Player	Date	Country
1	2851	Garry Kasparov	1999.07	Russia
2	2813	Veselin Topalov	2006.07	Bulgaria
3	2811	Vladimir Kramnik	2002.01	Russia
4	2803	Viswanathan Anand	2006.04	India
5	2785	Bobby Fischer	1972.04	United States
6	2780	Anatoly Karpov	1994.07	Russia
7	2765	Peter Svidler	2006.01	Russia
8	2763	Péter Lékó	2005.04	Hungary
9	2761	Levon Aronian	2006.07	Armenia
10	2758	Alexander Morozevich	1999.07	Russia
11	2755	Michael Adams	2000.07	England
12	2752	Vassily Ivanchuk	2005.07	Ukraine
13	2751	Alexei Shirov	2000.01	Spain
14	2745	Gata Kamsky	1996.07	United States
15	2743	Ruslan Ponomariov	2002.04	Ukraine
16	2739	Evgeny Bareev	2003.10	Russia
17	2735	Judit Polgar	2005.07	Hungary
18	2732	Alexander Grischuk	2003.07	Russia
19	2731	Etienne Bacrot	2005.04	France
20	2727	Boris Gelfand	2006.04	Israel
21	2717	Teimour Radjabov	2006.04	Azerbaijan
22	2715	Valery Salov	1995.01	Russia
23	2714	Loek van Wely	2001.10	The Netherlands
24	2712	Nigel Short	2004.04	England
25	2710	Alexander Beliavsky	1997.07	Slovenia
26	2709	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2006.01	Azerbaijan
27	2707	Vladimir Akopian	2005.10	Armenia
28	2707	Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu	2005.10	Romania
29	2706	Rustam Kasimdzhanov	2001.10	Uzbekistan
30	2706	Ivan Sokolov	2004.01	The Netherlands
31	2705	Mikhail Tal	1980.01	Latvia
32	2705	Alexey Dreev	2003.10	Russia
33	2702	Michal Krasenkow	2000.07	Poland
34	2702	Ilia Smirin	2001.07	Israel
35	2702	Alexander Khalifman	2001.10	Russia
36	2702	Zurab Azmaiparashvili	2003.07	Georgia
37	2700	Vladimir Malakhov	2004.01	Russia
38	2700	Victor Bologan	2005.04	Moldova

Gourt Home::Gourt :: International Grandmaster

Current Regulations

Origin and Current Statistics

Title Inflation

"Super-grandmasters"

See also