Now that Lilienthal and Smyslov have passed away, a friend and I are pondering, who is the oldest living grandmaster… Anybody have any idea? If this question is too difficult, perhaps we can limit it to American grandmasters, so some USCF lookup can be done.
Here’s a list extracted from the FIDE ratings lists, but I don’t know if all of these players are still living. There are 101 GMs for whom FIDE does not have a birthdate, including Lilienthal. I don’t see Smyslov at all on the FIDE lists or on the FIDE site, though it appears from other information that he was born in 1921.
[code] name birthyear
Gligoric, Svetozar 1923
Taimanov, Mark E 1926
Damjanovic, Mato 1927
Bisguier, Arthur B 1929
Korchnoi, Viktor 1931
Lein, Anatoly 1931
Kraidman, Yair 1932
Nikolac, Juraj 1932
Lengyel, Levente 1933
Vasiukov, Evgeni 1933
Ivkov, Borislav 1933
Matulovic, Milan 1935
Klovans, Janis 1935
Uhlmann, Wolfgang 1935
Olafsson, Fridrik 1935
Panno, Oscar 1935
Forintos, Gyozo V 1935
Ciric, Dragoljub M 1935
Larsen, Bent 1935
Nikolic, Stanimir 1935
[/code]
FWIW, here are the 4 youngest GMs:
Giri, Anish 1994
Robson, Ray 1994
Swiercz, Dariusz 1994
Yu, Yangyi 1994
Thanks!
Gligorić, Taimanov, Damjanović, Bisguier and of course Korchnoi are all still living.
Smyslov had been around so long that he may have attained acknowledged grandmastership prior to the establishment of the official FIDE standards.
I’m pretty sure that Smyslov was already a “Grandmaster of the Soviet Union” in 1941, the year he took 3rd in the famous Absolute USSR Championship 1941. No source handy, however.
I can’t remember the story but wasn’t there a tourney in the 19teens or 20s that had the top 16? players who were decided to be called the GMs before FIDE? How did you get recognized before FIDE?
The FIDE titles were created in 1950, many players were automatically given the titles of grandmaster and international master based on previous performances. Lilenthal was the last surviving of the original 27 FIDE GMs, however Gilgoric was an original IM, and did not earn his grandmaster title until the following year, probably for his tournament victory at Mar del Plata in 1950.
FIDE took both recent tournaments into account (awarding the GM title to world champion Botvinnik, challenger Reshevsky, and winner of the 1948 Interzonal Bronstein), and living players who had once been the best in the world but were no longer in their prime (Rubinstein, Levenfish, Tartakower). Players who were deceased did not posthumously receive the title, even world champions Steintiz, Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine.
Before 1950, ‘Grandmaster of the Soviet Union’ was awarded by the USSR, but this was a national title, not the international title as we know it today. (The full title of GM is ‘international grandmaster’).
Several tournaments prior to 1950 were called ‘grandmaster events’, the most famous of which was the 1914 St. Petersburg tournament where the top five finishers (Lakser, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, Marshall) were called grandmasters by Tsar Nicholas II.
I suspect that Arthur Dake, a real old-timer, was also an original IM. He came out of retirement and earned a GM title in the 1970s. or 1980s.
‘Earned’ might be a bit of a stretch, I believe Dake was awarded the GM title retroactively (as was Arnold Denker, as I recall) based on a review of their results during their peak playing years.
Dake was awarded the IM title in 1954, along with 11 others including Viktor Korchnoi. He received the GM title in 1986, along with 23 others including John Fedorowicz.
There were 93 “original” IMs in the class of 1950. Among the names that stand out are Pal Benko, Al Horowitz, Arnold Denker, Isaac Kashdan, Herman Steiner, Nic Rossolimo and Hans Kmoch. The next Americans to get the IM title were Bob Byrn and Larry Evans in 1952.