English Chess Forum

Who is the English IM (or perhaps FM) with the most wins against Grandmasters?

stevencarr wrote:Who is the English IM (or perhaps FM) with the most wins against Grandmasters?

Would this be for any period since the first English IM or the last five years or something else?

John Upham wrote:

stevencarr wrote:Who is the English IM (or perhaps FM) with the most wins against Grandmasters?

Would this be for any period since the first English IM or the last five years or something else?

Current IM's, if you know the answer. I certainly don't know who is the top GM killer among current IM's.

Interesting question - a similar one (though the GMs concerned may not wish it to be answered!) might be which GMs are most likely to succumb to such reversals? Though I'm trying to think of a better phrase than 'GM killers', which is a bit unfortunate if taken literally (I thought this was going to be another thread on GMs that have died at the chess board). 'Scalps' is still the wrong sort of imagery, maybe GM upsets? You could start with Flear's victory in that tournament where he was still only an IM and won ahead of a load of GMs. But current, IMs, no idea. Maybe try and work out how many GMs Jonathan Hawkins has beaten?

Yes, I think Hawkins might be the leading contender for GM scalps.

Hawkins's career at that level is very short so far, though. The answer might conceivably be someone like Hartston.

IM Jack Rudd wrote:Hawkins's career at that level is very short so far, though. The answer might conceivably be someone like Hartston.

Yes Hartston would be certainly be worth investigating, or maybe Michael Basman who has been an IM since 1980.

IM Jack Rudd wrote: The answer might conceivably be someone like Hartston.

Unlikely, I would have thought, because there were far fewer GMs around when Hartston was playing, compared to more recently.

I wonder about Andrew Martin, due to a lengthy career span that was still going in the 1990s when the number of GMs dramatically increased. In more recent times, Adam Hunt has been close to GM standard and playing quite regularly for the last ten years (when of course there have been even more GMs around).

Basman

You will have to refine your terms slightly. Does somebody who later became a GM count, for his results prior to doing so.

There is no doubt that the fairy tale of Glenn Flear's result in 1986 in the GLC tournament was the finest ever by an IM. He was invited to the event at the last moment. He prepared by driving back to England. He got married to Christine, during the tournament on one of the rest days. He was the only non-GM of the 14 players. He won first prize ahead of a galaxy of chess stars.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Richard Palliser.

I like the idea, be interesting to find out who.

Perhaps Steven may want to bring in the rule it must be a GM slayer who never became a GM.
So then we can rifle through the retired players like Hartston and Basman.

The Glenn Flear tale is extrordinary, I remember it happening but did not know about the marriage.
If it had never happened and someone had written a book using these facts we would be saying,
nice story but it would never happen in real life. To far fetched.

I'd have posted something like:
I read it up until the bit he got married on his rest day and then tossed it in the bin.
(I hate reading about chess and romance...it never happens in real life.)

One of the grading crowd would have pointed out the mathematical odds of such a thing happening
and declared the whole book void.

Infact Glenn should write a book about the whole tournament.
So we now have two quest in this thread.
Who is the unsung GM Knobbler (is that better Chris?)
What is the title of Glen's book? ("13 GM's and a Bride.")

GM Knobbler

Didn't FIDE take the title of him for failing a (taking the) urine test?

Nobody has grasped the nettle and actually done the historical work. It would be easy, but time-consuming, to look up Chessbase and simply go through their careers for all the candidates.
It would also be easy to ask Andrew Martin, Richard Palliser, Adam Hunt, Andrew Ledger and Jonathan Hawkins what their records are. Bill Hartston probably wouldn't cooperate, but Michael Basman might. Jonathan probably holds the record for longest period above 2500 without yet becoming a GM. But he isn't very active. Many of those listed have GMs norms, but have never completed the set.
One of Andrew Martin and David Eggleston must hold the record as active players for the longest period between getting their 3rd IM norm and reaching 2400 and thus the title. Andrew had 9 norms before he cracked it.