Usage of
grandmaster for an expert in some field is recorded from 1590. 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".
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. 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. 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. A few strong still living players such as British India's
Sultan Khan, Germany's
Paul Lipke and France's
Eugene Znosko-Borovsky were not awarded titles. Sultan Khan was awarded the GM title posthumously in 2024.
1953 regulations (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: • 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 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 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.
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.
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 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. 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). : : 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==