British Grandmasters

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
E Michael White
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by E Michael White » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:55 pm

Two title lists are probably needed - a) players who gained a title while a citizen of a country and b) players who held a title and citizenship of a country at the same time. It would be difficult to ascertain citizenship in all cases but no doubt corrections would emerge. There would be complicated cases where FIDE registration, residency, citizenship and country of birth were all different, Imre Koenig being a difficult one.

Fairhurst would then be a Scottish IM under a) and a NewZealand IM under b); Mieses an English GM under b); Kottnauer a Czech IM under a) and an English IM under b).

Regarding Mieses's GM title - from the depths of memory I believe I read in the FT around 1973/4, when Alexander was the columnist, that Mieses became a grandmaster, while his citizenship was being processed but before being granted British citizenship, which made him the first British grandmaster under b). This could explain the 1949/1950 mystery and also keep the Tony Miles fans happy as he would have been the first Britain/Englishman to have become a grandmaster under a).

Kottnauer also became an IM before becoming British.

Fairhurst - born in Cheshire/England, played for Manchester CC in the 1920s etc moved to Scotland became an IM while there, then moved to New Zealand representing New Zealand in an Olympiad and died in New Zealand. Does that make him an English, Scottish or New Zealand IM ?

I've lost interest now so cant look at any others.

raycollett
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by raycollett » Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:59 pm

1985 Golombek Harry (HGM) *01.03.1911 London +1995
Paul

Many thanks for collating this info. According to the on-line copy of the obituary published by The Independent and written by Bill Hartston, Golombek died 7 Jan 1995. See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... ntent;col1.

Ray

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sat Sep 18, 2010 1:04 pm

Paul McKeown wrote:An updated list.
<snip>
Paul McKeown wrote: Need to find dates for the following (according to FIDE website):
ENG WGM: Jackson, Sheila
ENG: Kosten, Anthony - registered as France, when did he receive his IGM title and was he registered as English at the time?

Still not sure that the list is complete or entirely accurate. Know that some more of the players given have passed away; will supply biographical data later.

Would be nice to give biographies of these players, particularly of those no longer with us.
Was working on merging this list by Paul McKeown and Roger de Coverly's list, and noting here a few inconsistencies to help them in updating the lists.

1) Roger's list: http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 9&start=46
2) Paul's list: http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 2&start=40

Roger's list didn't include Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (SCO), who was already a WGM, and was awarded the full GM title in 2009. Paul's list had omitted Stephen Gordon (ENG), who was awarded the GM title in 2009. Also, I think Nigel E. Povah should be removed from Paul's list as the FIDE website only credits him with the IM title (though he might be a correspondence GM or something, I wouldn't know).

Wikipedia says that Kosten's title was awarded in 1990, but don't know where that information comes from. Don't know about Sheila Jackson. Also, it seems that the FIDE site may not be reliable, as it gives Nick Pert's GM title year as 2001, but Nick Pert's biography on his website says 2003 (maybe awarded 2004?). But I can't find details on the FIDE website for when the title was awarded, probably because they think it was in 2001 and the congress awarding details only date from 2003.

EDIT: Massive apologies to Paul, as I've just realised his list was posted in January 2009, so he would have had to be prophetic to include Stephen Gordon in his list! :oops:
Last edited by Christopher Kreuzer on Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Roger de Coverly » Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:35 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:as it gives Nick Pert's GM title year as 2001, but Nick Pert's biography on his website says 2003
Don't forget that you also need a rating in excess of 2500 as well as the norms, so it's quite possible to achieve the norms some years in advance of getting the title.

According to http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=403989, Nick's published rating first exceeded 2500 in 2004. You also qualify if you exceed 2500 on a game by game basis even if you drop back by the time the next list is published.

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John Upham
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by John Upham » Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:37 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Also, I think Nigel E. Povah should be removed from Paul's list as the FIDE website only credits him with the IM title (though he might be a correspondence GM or something, I wouldn't know).
IM Nigel E Povah was awarded the title of ICCF GM but do not know when.
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sat Sep 18, 2010 3:05 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Christopher Kreuzer wrote:as it gives Nick Pert's GM title year as 2001, but Nick Pert's biography on his website says 2003
Don't forget that you also need a rating in excess of 2500 as well as the norms, so it's quite possible to achieve the norms some years in advance of getting the title.

According to http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=403989, Nick's published rating first exceeded 2500 in 2004. You also qualify if you exceed 2500 on a game by game basis even if you drop back by the time the next list is published.
That might explain the phrasing "GM Title Achieved with 2670 performace in Essent Tournament, Holland".

By the way, I grabbed some data off the FIDE website for all ENG, SCO, WAL, and IRL players currently on the FIDE rating list, but I'm uncertain where players from Northern Ireland fit into that. Does anyone know?

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Sat Sep 18, 2010 3:21 pm

Players from Northern Ireland are IRL.

You might also want to check JCI and GCI, although I don't think either has any players titled above FM.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:13 pm

IM Jack Rudd wrote:Players from Northern Ireland are IRL.

You might also want to check JCI and GCI, although I don't think either has any players titled above FM.
Oh. Thanks. I hope there aren't any other tiny little federations hanging around the British Isles like that.

There are 12 FIDE-rated players from Guernsey (1 FM, 3 CMs, all male).
There are 15 FIDE-rated players from Jersey (1 FM, 2 CMs, all male).

Most of the Jersey rated players are inactive. Have they both sent teams to the Olympiad?

Alex Holowczak
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Alex Holowczak » Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:50 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
IM Jack Rudd wrote:Players from Northern Ireland are IRL.

You might also want to check JCI and GCI, although I don't think either has any players titled above FM.
Oh. Thanks. I hope there aren't any other tiny little federations hanging around the British Isles like that.

There are 12 FIDE-rated players from Guernsey (1 FM, 3 CMs, all male).
There are 15 FIDE-rated players from Jersey (1 FM, 2 CMs, all male).

Most of the Jersey rated players are inactive. Have they both sent teams to the Olympiad?
I found an entry for Jersey on Chessdom: CM Peter Kirby, Peter Rowe, John Cummins, CM Toby Brookfield, Jon Bridel

Couldn't find one for Guernsey.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:50 pm

Paul McKeown wrote:Still not sure that the list is complete or entirely accurate.
In terms of current (as of September 2010) listings, I attempted to do a complete cross-check with the list I came up with, and in terms of current OTB grandmaster titles (male and female) there are only two entries missing as far as I can tell:

1) Stephen Gordon (GM title in 2009)
2) Anya Corke (WGM title in 2004)

But as you said, some of the older or non-OTB titles may be missing from the list.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:32 pm

"I found an entry for Jersey on Chessdom: CM Peter Kirby, Peter Rowe, John Cummins, CM Toby Brookfield, Jon Bridel

Couldn't find one for Guernsey."

WHAAAT!!!!

That is the Guernsey team! Either you or Chessdom owe both Federations an apology...
"Kevin was the arbiter and was very patient. " Nick Grey

Sean Hewitt

Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Sean Hewitt » Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:37 pm

Peter Kirby is most definitely a Guernsey player.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Alex Holowczak » Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:49 pm

OK, you're absolutely right. What I meant to say was:

The Guernsey team is that, and I couldn't find a Jersey one.

I'm not having a good day with things like basic Maths and reading...

Leonard Barden
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Leonard Barden » Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:54 pm

All lined up and ready for the world chess challenge
By Jo Hutchison

JERSEY is sending what is considered to be its strongest ever team to compete in the World Chess Olympics.

Polish players Marcin Mazurkiewicz, Alan Rosenbeiger and Krzysztof Belzo – the Jersey chess champion – and English-born Paul Wojciechowski and Tito Kahn, from Bangladesh, will fly to Russia tomorrow to take part in the 39th World Chess Olympics.

The event, which is expected to involve 1,400 participants from 158 countries, takes place in the Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk from 21 September to 4 October.

Article posted on 18th September, 2010 - 2.56pm

Source: http://www.thisisjersey.com

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: British Grandmasters

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Sun Sep 19, 2010 1:12 am

Nobody seems to have spotted my slight grammatical error...

If Jersey can manage without Jon Hawes, they must be strong. He is actually from Jersey as well. The important sub-battle in the Olympiad (i.e. top Channel Island team) looks a tough one for Guernsey this time.
"Kevin was the arbiter and was very patient. " Nick Grey