Chess grandmasters

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 category 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.

A

* Utut Adianto
* Andras Adorjan
* Simen Agdestein
* Vladimir Akopian
* Lev Alburt
* Alexander Alekhine
* Zoltan Almasi
* Boris Alterman
* Viswanathan Anand
* Ulf Andersson
* Alexander Areshchenko
* Levon Aronian
* Konstantin Aseev
* Maurice Ashley
* Karen Asrian
* Suat Atalik
* Yuri Averbakh
* Zurab Azmaiparashvili

B

* Alexander Baburin
* Étienne Bacrot
* Rosendo Balinas, Jr.
* Hristos Banikas
* Gerardo Barbero
* Gideon Barcza
* Evgeny Bareev
* Friedrich Baumbach
* Liudmila Belavenets
* Alexander Beliavsky
* Joel Benjamin
* Pal Benko
* Ossip Bernstein
* Istvan Bilek
* Arthur Bisguier
* Mark Bluvshtein
* Milko Bobotsov
* Fedor Bogatyrchuk
* Efim Bogoljubov
* Julio Bolbochan
* Isaac Boleslavsky
* Victor Bologan
* Igor Bondarevsky
* Eero Böök
* Mikhail Botvinnik
* David Bronstein
* Walter Browne
* Lázaro Bruzón
* Bu Xiangzhi
* Elisabeth Bykova
* Robert Byrne

C

* Esteban Canal
* José Raúl Capablanca
* Magnus Carlsen
* Maia Chiburdanidze
* Larry Christiansen
* Pia Cramling

D

* Nick de Firmian
* Arnold Denker
* Rune Djurhuus
* Maxim Dlugy
* Sergey Dolmatov
* Jan Hein Donner
* Alexey Dreev
* Oldřich Duras
* Roman Dzindzichashvili

E

* Jaan Ehlvest
* Erich Eliskases
* Yakov Estrin
* Max Euwe
* Larry Evans

F

* John Fedorowicz
* Reuben Fine
* Bobby Fischer
* Salo Flohr
* Paulino Frydman
* Semen Abramovich Furman

G

* Nona Gaprindashvili
* Timur Gareev
* Einar Gausel
* Boris Gelfand
* Efim Geller
* Florin Gheorghiu
* Aivars Gipslis
* Svetozar Gligorić
* Alexander Grischuk
* Efstratios Grivas
* Ernst Grünfeld
* Eduard Gufeld
* Boris Gulko

H

* Curt Hansen
* Pentala Harikrishna
* Jonny Hector
* Ron Henley
* Tiger Hillarp Persson
* Julian Hodgson
* Vlastimil Hort
* Robert Hübner

I

* Vasyl Ivanchuk
* Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov
* Borislav Ivkov

J

* Lora Jakovleva
* Florian Jenni
* Leif Erlend Johannessen
* Darryl Johansen

K

* Gregory Kaidanov
* Gata Kamsky
* Sergey Karjakin
* Anatoly Karpov
* Rustam Kasimdzhanov
* Garry Kasparov
* Lubomir Kavalek
* Raymond Keene
* Paul Keres
* Alexander Khalifman
* Ratmir Kholmov
* George Koltanowski
* Koneru Humpy
* Viktor Korchnoi
* Anton Korobov
* Yona Kosashvili
* Borislav Kostić
* Alexander Kotov
* Vassilios Kotronias
* Vladimir Kramnik
* Michał Krasenkow
* Ljuba Kristol
* Yuriy Kuzubov

L

* Bent Larsen
* Emanuel Lasker
* Joel Lautier
* Peter Leko
* Grigory Levenfish
* Kjetil Aleksander Lie
* Andor Lilienthal
* Ljubomir Ljubojević
* William Lombardy
* Thomas Luther

M

* Vladimir Malakhov (chess)
* Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
* Géza Maróczy
* Frank Marshall
* Milan Matulović
* Henrique Mecking
* Susanto Megaranto
* Vladas Mikenas
* Tony Miles
* Kamil Miton
* Iván Morovic
* Alexander Morozevich
* Niaz Morshed
* Sergei Movsesian
* Karsten Müller

N

* Arkadij Naiditsch
* Miguel Najdorf
* Hikaru Nakamura
* David Navara
* Parimarjan Negi
* Peter Heine Nielsen
* Aron Nimzowitsch
* Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu

O

* Albéric O'Kelly de Galway
* Tõnu Õim
* Friðrik Ólafsson
* Helgi Ólafsson
* Berge Østenstad

P

* Ludek Pachman
* Victor Palciauskas
* Davor Palo
* Oscar Panno
* Enrico Paoli
* Mark Paragua
* Bruno Parma
* Yannick Pelletier
* Tigran Petrosian
* Vladimirs Petrovs
* Vasja Pirc
* Ján Plachetka
* James Plaskett
* Susan Polgar
* Judit Polgár
* Lev Polugaevsky
* Ruslan Ponomariov
* Lajos Portisch
* Lev Psakhis

R

* Teimour Radjabov
* Ivan Radulov
* Viacheslav Ragozin
* Ramachandran Ramesh
* Alejandro Ramirez
* Yuri Razuvayev
* Hans Ree
* Samuel Reshevsky
* Horst Rittner
* Ian Rogers (chess player)
* Kenneth Rogoff
* Héctor Rossetto
* Nicolas Rossolimo
* Akiba Rubinstein
* Sergei Rublevsky

S

* Jaroslav Šajtar
* Valery Salov
* Friedrich Sämisch
* Grigory Sanakoev
* Gabriel Sarkisyan
* Krishnan Sasikiran
* Vladimir Savon
* Yasser Seirawan
* Gregory Serper
* Alexander Shabalov
* Leonid Shamkovich
* Alexei Shirov
* Jørn Sloth
* Jan Smejkal
* Ilia Smirin
* Vasily Smyslov
* Ivan Sokolov
* Andrew Soltis
* Boris Spassky
* Gideon Stahlberg
* Antoaneta Stefanova
* Leonid Stein
* Alexey Suetin
* Jaime Sunye Neto
* Emil Sutovsky
* Duncan Suttles
* Evgeny Sveshnikov
* Peter Svidler
* László Szabó (chess player)

T

* Mark Taimanov
* Mikhail Tal
* Siegbert Tarrasch
* Savielly Tartakower
* Jan Timman
* Jonathan Tisdall
* Sergei Tiviakov
* Alexander Tolush
* Veselin Topalov
* Carlos Torre Repetto
* Eugenio Torre
* Petar Trifunovic
* Georgi Tringov
* Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son
* Vitaly Tseshkovsky

U

* Wolfgang Uhlmann
* Mikhail Umansky
* Wolfgang Unzicker

V

* Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
* Francisco Vallejo Pons
* Loek van Wely
* Zoltán Varga (chess player)
* Milan Vidmar
* Evgeny Vladimirov
* Andrei Volokitin
* Alexey Vyzmanavin

W

* Aleksander Wojtkiewicz
* Patrick Wolff

X

* Xie Jun
* Xu Jun

Y

* Daniel Yanofsky
* Ye Jiangchuan
* Alex Yermolinsky
* Leonid Yudasin
* Wang Yue
* Artur Yusupov

Z

* Vladimir Zagorovsky
* Alexander Zaitsev (chess player)
* Igor Zaitsev
* Zhang Zhong
* Zhang Pengxiang
* Zhu Chen