Phil Innes wrote:
"Louis Blair" wrote in message

...

Here is what I wrote on this subject in a post
several years ago:

There is an often repeated story that the Czar
himself named five players as grandmasters
at the St. Petersburg tournament in 1914.
In some circles, there has been a lot of
skepticism about it lately. Searches have been
made through newspaper reports at the time
without finding any reference to the Czar in
connection with the tournament. The reports
seem to indicate that ALL the participants were
regarded as grandmasters BEFORE the start of
the event.

Can you cite these references, Louis?
...

_
As I indicated, the post was several years ago, and I
do not now have access to the materials that I had
then. As best I can recall, I mainly relied on quotes
that were contained in a book about the tournament.
I think it was published by Dale Brandreth who
published lots of such books.