Has anyone ever given up chess?

[Stewart Reuben]

I hope my grade will always be higher than my age. I also hope my rating will always exceed my date of birth. I have an ambivalent feeling towards whether I wish my rating to remain higher than the current year.
Stewart Reuben

[LozCooper]

In order to inject some humour into this thread - some at my club suggest I gave up playing chess of any quality some time ago!

Perhaps it's time to give up chess when your own children can beat you...

Bit harsh on players like Rod McShane and Caro Hunt though

[Jonathan Rogers]

And Mr Haslinger might have been forced to retire 25 years ago. Would we then have GM Stewart?

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Fair enough. Perhaps it's OK to carry on playing as long as you can still beat at least one of your children. Hui Wang, the father of Maria and Anna, has another four year old daughter (Eva), so he should be safe for another year or so.

I remember Caro feeling very pleased with herself once because she had entered the minor section of a tournament just for something to do whilst Harriet and Adam battled it out in the open, and of course she won first place whereas her children weren't among the prize winners! That might have been the point when she started playing tournament chess more seriously herself.

[Stewart Reuben]

It never before occurred to me that I might be souring the careers of mature players when I ask their offspring, 'When did you FIRST beat your father?'
More serious are those instances where a player has been quite serious and then the younger sibling has passed by. The older one nearly always gives up chess. Thus Andrew and Danny King. Adam and Harriet Hunt have a much more complex story.
I know a family group of grandfather; son-in-law and grandson against whom I have played poker for large sums, though never at the same time. It was in Gibraltar this year that I first met a similar chess family group, although they are all blood relatives. Natasha Regan tells me her 8 year old son Oscar plays Bridge well. I enquired whether his hands are big enough for 13 normal-sized cards. He also plays poker for money. He made the news this year becoming the youngest person ever to achieve an A* in GCSE Maths.

The reason FIDE are so specific about the age at which children get the GM title is because it is recognised this is of commercial value. They used to give dates of birth for everybody, but Data Protection discouraged that.
Stewart Reuben

[Jonathan Rogers]

....
More serious are those instances where a player has been quite serious and then the younger sibling has passed by. The older one nearly always gives up chess.
Stewart Reuben

Not so in the case of Richard Pert.

[Stewart Reuben]

I have a feeling that to regard Richard as the older sibling is being a bit pernickety.
Stewart Reuben

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Janis Klovans (63)"

I think he got his title automatically by winning the World Seniors? I'm not knocking him, I was surprised he wasn't a GM already. I hope it's really weak if I ever play in it...

[Stewart Reuben]

Butnorius also achieved the title from the World Senior. I remember it was contentious when I proposed the Women's World Champion receive the GM title. The World Junior used to be just a norm, now it is the title.
I have long advocated creation of an Elite Grandmaster title. This might lure some people into not giving up the game on achieving the GM title (e.g. James Howell). Similarly I wanted titles to be from 30 games instead of 27, partly in order to encourage people to continue playing. Sadly FIDE rejected both initiatives.
Stewart Reuben

[Simon Brown]

Anyone know if Lod Prins earned the GM title or was awarded it? I think he's the only one I have beaten (while they were a GM - beaten lots before they got there) and it would be a shame if it were the latter!

[Roger de Coverly]

Anyone know if Lod Prins earned the GM title or was awarded it? I think he's the only one I have beaten (while they were a GM - beaten lots before they got there) and it would be a shame if it were the latter!

According to http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/diary_2.htm (Tim Krabbé)

In 1982, he was made a grandmaster retroactively.

[Simon Brown]

Not sure if that is right. I beat him in January 1980 and I'm sure he was listed as a GM then. Not the sort of thing you get wrong!

[Matt Mackenzie]

Not sure if that is right. I beat him in January 1980 and I'm sure he was listed as a GM then. Not the sort of thing you get wrong!

Sorry Simon, but I am pretty sure it is

I do believe a certain, ahem, outspoken fellow countryman had something to say about it

[Roger de Coverly]

I do believe a certain, ahem, outspoken fellow countryman had something to say about it

Here's another Dutch source http://www.svpromotie.nl/Artikelen/ARTICLE315.htm

In the Google translation

It is noteworthy that in 1976 the Netherlands for a four grandmasters counted Max Euwe (1950, along with 26 other players such as Botvinnik, Bronstein, Smyslov, Keres, Najdorf, Grünfeld and Rubinstein), Hein Donner (1959), Jan Timman (1974) and Genna Sosonko (1976).

In fact there were not four but five. The fifth was Prince Louis who six years later in 1982 the GM title was retroactively. His peak years were immediately after the war. He won in 1948 the Hoogovens tournament, he finished one year later in Venice after Szabo and Rossolimo in third place and won in Madrid in 1951 on seventeen other players

[Simon Brown]

Oh well. I'll have to beat another one!