Do we have a record of who was oldest when they first became a master?
Bill Wall says: The oldest player to become a master was Oscar Shapiro. He became a USCF master at the age of 74.
I think Oscar was a little younger than that…around 64…but he still is the oldest.
All the best, Joe Lux
chess.com had this to say about him:
Oscar Shapiro was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 18, 1909. In 1939, he won the Massachusetts State Championship. He won the Washington, D.C. Championship several times. In 1951, he won the Virginia Open Chess Tournament. He became a USCF master at the age of 74. He died on January 1, 2002 at the age of 92.
chess.com/chessopedia/view/shapiro-oscar
And here are seven of his games:
chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=58616
Checking my database, I have 34 games by him. In 1982, he was rated 2050. The next games I have are from 1984 onward, and his rating went to 2200 in 1984. There is another break between 1984 and 1986 when his rating fell back to 2050. The last game of his that I have is in 2000 and his rating was still 2050. The earliest record in my database is 1949 when he was rated 2025 and he beat Hans Berliner.
Also it appears that he lived in Italy between 1981 and 1984. All the games I have of that period is from Caorle Italy.
So, I need to update my database with some of those seven games. Four of those are from 1946 which certainly are not in my database. (In fact, I only had the last one of those seven games, so I now have 6 more games to add to my database.)
Just a little more information:
Provided this is the same Oscar Shapiro then, the MSA record only goes back to 1995 and he never got above Expert level during that time.
In the mid 80’s, i played this master named Jon Pamilljiens, i probably mis-spelled that last name. He looked about 100 years old, so I engaged him in a rather sharp game. Think the guy would back off? Ends up I’m in a game where i have a queen for 3 pieces. He’s behind in development, and my pieces are well-centralized.
To make a long story short, he beat me in about 80 moves, I was EXHAUSTED, at 27 years old, and he walked away ready to play the next one!
Older people often remain mentally young in their areas of specialty, even while becoming increasingly resistant to change in other areas.
Bill Smythe
Now you tell me! It was a great game, I’m fond of it even if I lost. Not until computers got better did I find good improvements in my play. He played a great game.
By the way, if you had a queen for 3 pieces, how could your[b] pieces /b be “well-centralized”?
Bill Smythe
Um, don’t I get 2 rooks and 4 pieces too to start? Wow, this is a tough cross-examining crowd here!