MARK RUBERY CHESS

The term ‘grandmaster’ can be traced back to the first half of the nineteenth century and the tournaments of Ostend 1907 and San Sabastian 1912 were designated grandmaster events. A player who was to challenge for the world championship was often described as a grandmaster. The title got its royal blessing when the grandmaster title was conferred by Tsar Nicholas II upon Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall for being the finalists at St Petersburg, 1914. However, the following article in the 1940 June edition of ‘The New Yorker’ magazine by Robert Lewis Taylor (unearthed by the relentless Edward Winter) dilutes this accolade:

‘A grandmaster is a master who has either won, placed, or showed in a major tournament or been named a Grand Master by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The Tsar, it seems, was a rather arbitrary chess fan who watching matches, and when he saw a player he liked the looks of, he just slapped the title on him.’

In 1950 FIDE introduced the formal title of International Grandmaster followed soon after by the title of International Master and in 1978 the lowest ranking title that of FIDE Master A classic study by Richard Reti.

WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN

David Graham Baird – James Mason New York, 27 March 1889 French Defence

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 exd5 exd5 4 Nf3 Bf5 5 Bd3 Bxd3 6 Qxd3 Nf6 7 O-O Bd6 8

Re1+ and ‘Game lost by forfeit’ It was reported in the press that Mason was ‘’laboring under excitement’ as prior to the game he had been imprudent enough to visit a barroom with some friends.