What did the USCF do (if anything) to gauge playing strength before the adoption of the rating system in the 1950s? Was there a category or norm system similar to the Soviet system, or was there no official recognition of chess masters?
How were the fields for US Championships decided in the 1930s and 40s, were there an elaborate system of qualifying tournaments and semi-finals, or was it by invitation only?
Last question is how old is the term ‘chess expert’? The only piece of information I found on the subject was on wikipedia which stated that the term came about at the adoption of the rating system and was for players rated 2100-2299 (later decreased to 2000-2199). Everywhere else though, I’ve always heard the quasi-title ‘candidate master’ instead of ‘expert’. Any knowledge/theories on why that is?
These are great questions. I wish I knew the answers also. Maybe, reposting with the individual questions in the subject lines will give them attention.
but it seems possilbe that it would have information that would be helpful for you.
I understand that, for the 3rd edition, some material was dropped from the second edition. Consequently, it is not inconceivable that the second edition would be better for coverage of the 1930s and 40s.
If you set out to buy one of these books, I suggest that you take extra care to make sure that there is no confusion over which edition you will receive if you submit an order.
I have the second edition of The United States Chess Championship, 1845 - 1996, by Soltis and McCormick. I read the descriptions of the championships for the years 1936 (the first modern championship) through 1951. To summarize:
Until 1951, the championship tournaments consisted of both seeded players and qualifiers from preliminary events. In 1951 there were no seeded players, only qualifiers. In no case were the selection criteria specified for either the seeded players or the qualifiers. In 1942 the USCF became the organizing body for the championship. Before that the book refers to organizers, but doesn’t state who they were. The description of the 1951 tournament mentions some player ratings, but not as part of the selection criteria.
Before the rating system _ Harkness, not Elo _ most US tournaments were held on a knockout or round-robin basis. The introduction of the Swiss System helped spur interest in ratings. But in the first US Swisses, held around 1950, first-round pairings were relatively random. Hard to imagine that today.
The third edition of “The United States Chess Championship, 1845-2011” still has the same details of the earlier editions on how the prelims of the 1930s-40s tournaments were run. In 1936, fofr example, the organizers planned to divide the entrants into preliminary round-robins to select eight qualifiers who would join eight seeded players (Reshevsky, Fine, Dake etc.) into a 16-player finals. But so few people registered in advance for the prelims that they halved the entry fee to $5 and managed to get 48.