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.

Chess One wrote:

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?

At least one (Wiener Schachzeitung) has been
posted in this newsgroup in a similar thread
in 1995.

--
Anders Thulin anders*thulin.name http://www.anders.thulin.name/

"Chess One" wrote in message
. ..

How like another Petersburger who stared cross the Neva while in military
uniform. But I never found a Dostoyevski game.

doh! or was it Pushkin who 'stared across the Nevu at the mysterious
city'?

elsewhere it seems an early term for a chess piece may be from Sanskrit via
Urdu; with Grand Vizier, which we take into English as Grand Minister, which
is very close to Grand Master

some of the following characters will not resolve in this medium

Grand Vizier, Sadr-ı Azam (Sadrazam) or Serdar-ı Ekrem (in Ottoman Turkish
"صدر اعظÙ." or "Ù^زÛOر اعظÙ."; see below for the evolution of the
term), deriving from the originally Persian word "Vizier" (Ù^زÙSر) was the
greatest minister of the Sultan with absolute power of attorney and, in
principle, dismissable only by the Sultan himself. He held the imperial seal
and he could convene all other viziers to attend to affairs of the state,
their whole conference being called "Kubbealtı viziers" (viziers of the
dome) in reference to the architecture of their meeting place.
..
.. Etymology
..
Grand Vizier, Vazīr-e Azam, is also the official Urdu title of the
Pakistani official officially known as "prime minister" in English.
(Ministers are titled "vizier").
..
During the nascent phases of the Ottoman state, "Vizier" was the only title
used. The first of these Ottoman Viziers who was titled "Grand Vizier" was
�andarlı Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha. The purpose in instituting the title
"Grand Vizier" was to distinguish the holder of the Sultan's seal from other
viziers who seconded him. The initially more frequently used title of
"vezir-i âzam" was gradually replaced by "sadrazam", both meaning grand
vizier in practice. Throughout Ottoman history, the grand viziers have also
been termed under such titles as "sadr-ı âlî (high vizier)", "vekil-i
mutlak (absolute attorney)", "sâhib-i devlet (holder of the state)"
,serdar- ekrem , serdar-ı azam and "zât-ı âsafî (vizierial person)".
..
In the Köprülü Era (1656â?"1703) the Empire was controlled by a series of
powerful grand viziers. The relative ineffectiveness of the coming sultans
and the diffusion of power to lower levels of the government was behind of
the Köprülü Era.

I think this is the book that I previously consulted:

http://www.ukgamesshop.com/Merchant2...y_Code=chbotou

I believe that this is a book that I consulted:

http://www.ukgamesshop.com/Merchant2...y_Code=chbotou

From: (Anders Thulin)
Subject: First Grandmasters?
Date: 1995/11/20
Message-ID: #1/1
X-Deja-AN: 119899455
references: 47uhhs


organization: @Lejonet
newsgroups: rec.games.chess.misc

In article ,
Anders Thulin wrote:

Just now all my copies of Wiener Schachzeitung are in storage, so I
can't check this up immediately. (Anyone with the Olms reprint handy?)
Wiener Schachzeitung 1898-1916 was from 1899 or 1900 published as the
organ of the international grandmaster association. (I'm almost 100%
certain that the term 'grandmaster' was used in the name.)

Nope, I was wrong about that. They called themselves 'Interationale
Schach-Meister Bund', and I find nothing about 'grandmaster' in the
printed material. Sorry.

I did some further checking on the 1914 event, while I were going
through the material.

(Ed Seedhouse) wrote:

I believe the title was given by the Czar to the 4 finalists in this
two stage event. As I recall they were Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine,
and Marshall.

I couldn't verify this, although I have no reason to think it is
wrong. However, the St. Peterburg event appears to have been announced
as a 'Grossmeisterturnier', and invitations were sent out only to
grandmasters: in this instance master players who had won at least one
major international tournament.

This particular definition seems to be from the St. Petersburg chess
club -- Marco grumbles a bit about the definition being both too wide
(admitting masters somewhat past their prime) and too narrow (leaving
out important younger players - Tartakower and Spielmann are
mentioned) (WSZ 1914:4/9, p. 80-127). Thus, the term seems to have
been used about the event even before it had started, and applied to
all participants, not only the winners.

I browsed through some earlier volumes of WSZ and found some further
uses of the term:

WSZ 1913:23/24, p. 355: "...11 Kraftmeierparteien aus dem
,,Grossmeister-turnier'' in San Sebastian, 1911"

(ironical - the 11 games are all draws and all ended
before move 21 or so: grandmaster draws)

WSZ 1912:17/20, p. 269: "...darunter fast die Ha"lfte sogenannte
Grossmeister"

(J. Krejcik about Breslau 1912. It is interesting that he
says 'so-called grandmasters'.)

WSZ 1911:Supplementheft, p. 404: "...der kubanische Grossmeister
Jose R. Capablanca"

--
Anders Thulin 013 - 23 55 32
Telia Research AB, Teknikringen 2B, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden