Oldest GMs

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Oldest GMs

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sat May 22, 2021 3:53 pm

The following is a brief look at the succession of oldest living GMs from the time the award was first made by FIDE in 1950. The award was to a group of 27 players, 14 from the 1950 Candidates, 12 from earlier eras, and the then World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik.

For the record, Botvinnik and the 1950 Candidates players were all born in the 20th century, with the oldest player being Max Euwe (born May 1901, so late 40s) - the next oldest were Ståhlberg and Flohr in January and November 1908 respectively (so early 40s). There is a slight overlap with the 12 older title awardees, who were all born in the 19th century except one, the exception being Viacheslav Ragozin, who was born in October 1908 and was clearly considered "past his best" despite being younger than both Ståhlberg and Euwe (to be fair, it seems Ragozin was more focused in his later years on correspondence play and being a chess editor and author).

Anyway, back to the initial batch of 27 title awardees, the oldest in the 'past their best' batch of 12 (with 11 being born in the 19th century) was (as everyone should know!) Jacques Mieses, who was born in 1865 and was aged something like 85 at the time his title was awarded. So that is a record that is unlikely to have been bettered. Unless FIDE continued to hand out 'proper' titles to older players? (Care is needed here to distinguish from the honorary titles that are sometimes mentioned and which cause a great deal of confusion as has been written about on here in the past).

Mieses died four years later in 1954, so he likely held the record for the oldest living GM for a fair while as well. He died aged 88. Not sure who became the oldest living GM at that point (Géza Maróczy, the next-oldest in 1950, had already died in 1951). It was probably Akiba Rubinstein, who was about 70 at the time of his title award, and so was 74 and hence the oldest living GM (unless FIDE had awarded other older players titles after 1950) from Mieses death in 1954 to his own death aged 80 in 1961. At that point the title of oldest living GM would have passed to... (well, you get the idea, I'm not going to keep going all the way along that chain, but it is not difficult to trace).

[Tartokower, Levenfish and Duras had already died, leaving only Ragozin, Grünfeld, Vidmar, Bernstein, Kostić and Sämisch alive from the initial 12 - they died in that order, but the oldest was Bernstein who was aged 78 when Rubenstein died in 1961. Bernstein himself was aged 80 when he died in November 1962 (by which time Rogozin, Vidmar and Grünfeld had died, a lot of these GMs died in 1962 for some reason). That only leaves Kostić, who we might presume was the oldest living GM from the death of Bernstein (when Kostić was aged 75) to his own death aged 76 in 1963, at which point we come to Friedrich Sämisch who was aged a relatively young 67 in November 1963 and lived until August 1975 when he died aged 78 (possibly holding the title of oldest living GM over that period - though it is almost certain other older players might by this point have been holding the GM title as well). At this point, Euwe (1901-1981) and Flohr (1908-1983) take over as Ståhlberg had died in 1967. After them, you go through the rest of the players left of the initial 27, though by this time you may well have many other older GMs as well.]

None of the other players in the batch of 12 'older' players outlived Mieses. The oldest-lived of the other set of the 27 initial title awardees (i.e. Botvinnik and the 1950 Candidates players) were Andor Lilienthal (died in May 2010 aged 99) and Vasily Smyslov (died in March 2010 aged 89).

From this, it seems that Lilienthal was the oldest living GM for an appreciable period, and may still to date be the oldest ever GM, from the point he passed Mieses (around the point Lilienthal turned 89) to the time of death about 10 years later. Who became the oldest living GM in 2010, I think was reported at the time of Lilienthal's death (but maybe not). After that, it becomes a bit difficult to trace (as there are lots of GMs now, and not all of their deaths are reliably reported).

EDIT: Oops. I should have remembered the obvious candidate, as it is widely reported. Yuri Averbakh is currently the oldest living GM, and is aged 99 (and is indeed the oldest ever person to have ever held the GM title). At this point, I should emphasise that the oldest person to qualify for the GM title is of more historical import than who lived longest. The latter being more about living memory of past eras and those aspects of chess history.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by MJMcCready » Sat May 22, 2021 4:29 pm

What about Verlinsky, where does he fit into the picture?

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Sat May 22, 2021 5:04 pm

Awarded the IM title in 1950 and died the same year.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by MJMcCready » Sat May 22, 2021 5:37 pm

lol, you've been reading Wikipedia. Verlinsky was the first soviet player to be awarded the title of GM, but the title was taken back then awarded to Botvinnik instead some years later, who was then proclaimed and regaled as the first Soviet GM. Verlinsky didn't keep his title but was awarded it, so he should be somehow factored in. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if there are other players who were awarded the title of GM, only to have it taken off them due to political wranglings...

NickFaulks
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by NickFaulks » Sat May 22, 2021 6:27 pm

MJMcCready wrote:
Sat May 22, 2021 5:37 pm
lol, you've been reading Wikipedia. Verlinsky was the first soviet player to be awarded the title of GM
Wasn't he a "Grandmaster of the USSR", an entirely different title?
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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Sat May 22, 2021 8:15 pm

Indeed, the official FIDE title (as related above) did not exist until 1950!
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MJMcCready
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by MJMcCready » Sat May 22, 2021 8:21 pm

Fair point the title didn't but the term did, along with Maestro if I remember correctly.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by JustinHorton » Sat May 22, 2021 8:48 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Sat May 22, 2021 3:53 pm
EDIT: Oops. I should have remembered the obvious candidate, as it is widely reported. Yuri Averbakh is currently the oldest living GM, and is aged 99 (and is indeed the oldest ever person to have ever held the GM title). At this point, I should emphasise that the oldest person to qualify for the GM title is of more historical import than who lived longest. The latter being more about living memory of past eras and those aspects of chess history.
Out of interest, who's in second place?
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MJMcCready
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by MJMcCready » Sat May 22, 2021 9:51 pm

Lev Albert turns 76 soon, there can't be too many older than him.

Matt Fletcher
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by Matt Fletcher » Sat May 22, 2021 10:17 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Sat May 22, 2021 8:48 pm
Out of interest, who's in second place?
You can order the list of GMs on Wikipedia by date of birth, then check there’s no entry in the date of death column. Looks like the answer is Matanović who turns 91 tomorrow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandar_Matanović

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Sat May 22, 2021 11:48 pm

Nikolai Krogius is AFAIK still alive, also 90-ish.
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Matt Fletcher
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Re: Oldest GMs

Post by Matt Fletcher » Sun May 23, 2021 8:36 am

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Sat May 22, 2021 11:48 pm
Nikolai Krogius is AFAIK still alive, also 90-ish.
Krogius is number 3 on the list, a couple of months younger than Matanović.