Frederic's chess tales - Part one

My, how things have changed!

Four decades ago, as a newly graduated philosopher and linguist, one who was passionately interested in chess, I wrote some articles for a chess magazine. One or the earliest was based on my opinion that there were some grandmasters who towered high above their colleagues and deserved a special category.

Here's the article I wrote (in German) in 1983.

Thirteen super grandmasters!

The history of chess knows about 30 players who at some point exceeded the dream mark of 2600 Elo points. These are the "super grandmasters", of whom, remarkably, more than 60% are still alive today. This proves that over the years the general level of chess has risen. Perhaps the players of the past were as strong as those of today, but never have there been so many so strong.

The latest Elo list of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) includes 13 players with a rating of 2600 or more (there were 16 in the previous list). For the first time since Bobby Fischer, an American, the young Yasser Seirawan is represented in the illustrious group of super grandmasters. Germany's top player Robert Hübner, who was fourth in the previous list, was overtaken by Ljubomir Ljubojevic from Yugoslavia and the tenacious Swede Ulf Andersson. The Vice World Champion Viktor Korchnoi, who lost 35 Elo points, dropped sharply (from rank 3 to rank 12). The rise of 20-year-old Garry Kasparov, on the other hand, seems almost unstoppable. He has now pulled away from the rest of the field by 45 points. Only 20 points separate him and World Champion Karpov.

1. Karpov	USSR	2710 (+10)
2. Kasparov	USSR	2690 (+15)
3. Ljubojevic	Jugoslavia	2645 (+30)
4. Andersson	Sweden	2635 (+25)
5 Polugajewski	USSR	2625 (+15)
Hübner	FRG	2625 (–5)
7. Tal	USSR	2620 (+10)
Portisch	Hungary	2620 (-5)
9. Timman	Holland	2605 (+5)
Petrosian	USSR	2605 (-)
Spassky	USSR	2605 (-5)
12. Seirawan	USA	2600 (+5)
Korchnoi	USSR	2600 (-35)

​​​​For the first time, a Western player is at the top of the women's ranking: the very young Swede Pia Cramling has gained no less than 95 points and is regarded as an absolute super talent (she usually plays in men's tournaments and has already brought Viktor Kortschnoi to the brink of defeat). Meanwhile, the reigning World Champion Maia Chiburdanidze (photo) lost 30 points and has to share the top spot with three other players. Barbara Hund from Leverkusen, who last August became the first German player ever to win the title of "International Women's Grandmaster", is also happy to be in top nine of the women's list:

1. Cramling	Sweden	2355 (+95)
Gaprindashvili	USSR	2355 (+30)
Alexandria	USSR	2355 (–15)
Chiburdanidze	USSR	2355 (–30)
5. Kuschnir	Isreal	2330 (–)
6. Ioseliani	USSR	2295 (–30)
7. Achmylowskaja	USSR	2290 (–20)
8. Litinskaya	USSR	2275 (–)
9. Hund	FRG	2270 (+65)

 

The males view the rapid rise of the female elite with mixed feelings. It was not long ago that Fischer offered the reigning women's world champion knight odds, which was quite a misjudgement, even then (Tal thought the world champion would take the American to the cleaners, because "Fischer is Fischer, but a knight is a knight"). Today, no one would dare to give Cramling or Chiburdanidze a single pawn.

The ladies are also far undervalued in terms of Elo. The world champion, called "Tschib" by most tournament participants, strolls around with her 2355 Elo points, but clearly plays like a 2500 master. Grandmaster Hort, who has already had some unpleasant experiences, demands – half in jest – that  such underrated ladies should be excluded from GM tournaments. The psychological advantage is too great when they play against men who are confronted with such a situation once or twice a year at most. Some of his long-suffering colleagues agree with the Czechoslovakian, in all seriousness.

The situation forty years later

In 2022 we discovered that are thirteen super grandmasters who are still in their teens! In total, of the 1500 players worldwide with the full grandmaster title, there were:

• 318 are rated 2600 or higher (13 are teens)
• 130 are rated 2700 or higher (5 are teens)
• 2 are currently rated 2800 or higher

Over the last ten years, 14 players have crossed the 2800 rating mark. In December 2021 the Iranian-French player Alireza Firouzja climbed to a 2804 rating at the age of 18.

And what about the women? Among the top 100 in the world, there are currently no females. Until recently, Chinese grandmaster Hou Yifan was in the elite group, as was Judit Polgar before her. But these were the only two who have ever managed this. Judit, who is in her 40s, has retired from tournament chess. She had a peak rating of 2735 in 2005, and was number eight in the world a year earlier. Yifan, in her late 20s, is a four-time Women's World Chess Champion. She had a peak rating of 2686 and a peak world ranking of 55, both in early 2015. She has been semi-retired since 2018, and became a professor at Shenzhen University in 2020 (at the age of 26).

Here are the top ten women in the world today – you are welcome to compare them with the top females 40 years ago.

And here is something special. In 2019 I attended the European Golden Pawn ceremony, which was held in the super-luxurious Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, Monaco. There I met two wonderful ladies for the first time in my life.

They were the former Women's World Champions Maya Chiburdanize and Nona Gaprindashvili. The latter was the first woman to be awarded the FIDE title of Grandmaster (in 1978). I spent some wonderful hours chatting with them, getting insights into how women's chess was conducted many decades ago.