English Chess Forum

I've just been re-reading this thread ('Title norms held by English players - September 2012): http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4794

And I'm returning to a list I made earlier ('Timeline of British Isles titles (1950-2010)' - September 2010) in an attempt to update it in this new thread: http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2165

That list covers GM, IM, WGM and WIM titles held by players [regardless of when title was obtained] who were registered for England [ENG], Scotland [SCO], Ireland [IRE] and Wales [WLS], and technically also Guernsey and Jersey though none for the latter two have attained these titles (and I've excluded FM and WFM titles and lower). I use the term 'British Isles' to cover this geographical spread. The last two titles on that list were gained at the start of the 2010s decade:

*Jonathan Hawkins (1983) m [ENG] IM (2010, age: 26-27)
*Thomas R. J. Hinks-Edwards (1977) m [ENG] IM (2011, age: 33-34)

I did a search of the FIDE rating list, and as far as I can tell the additions and changes to the list in the years that have followed since 2010 are:

*Alex Astaneh Lopez (1987) m [IRL] IM (2011, age: 23-24)
*Yang-Fan Zhou (1994) m [ENG] IM (2011, age: 16-17)
*Sue Maroroa (1991) f [ENG] WIM (2009, age: 17-18) - SEE NOTE (i)
*Zivile Sarakauskiene (1978) f [ENG] WIM (2005, age: 26-27) - SEE NOTE (ii)
*Ameet K. Ghasi (1987) m [ENG] IM (2012, age: 24-25)
*Sabrina L. Chevannes (1986) f [ENG] WIM (2013, age: 26-27)
*David J. Eggleston (1987) m [ENG] IM (2013, age: 25-26)
*Peter Roberson (1989) m [ENG] IM (2014, age: 24-25)
*James Adair (1992) m [ENG] IM (2014, age: 21-22)
*Jonathan Hawkins (1983) m [ENG] GM (2014, age: 30-31)

APPENDIX 1 (notes on the list)

*(i) Sue Maroroa (gained WIM title while registered for NZL, code changed to ENG in 2012)
*(ii) Zivile Sarakauskiene (gained WIM title while registered for LTU, code changed to ENG in 2012)

On a side note, the switches between federations can be hard to keep up with, but do seem to be fully available from the FIDE website from at least a certain year onwards, the listing for 2012 makes interesting reading (see: http://ratings.fide.com/fedchange.phtml?year=2012 ). There, you can see Ezra Kirk's switch from FRA to ENG, along with a number of other ENG-related switches.

It is entirely possible that some titled players may have briefly switched to ENG and then switched again to another federation. I'm thinking more WIM and WGM, as I think if that happened with IMs and GMs it might have made the news in chess periodicals. Does anyone know of any chess federation switches that are not listed above or in the original list? The ones I've noticed are Andrew Greet switching to SCO (EDIT: this occurred in 2013) and Matthew Turner switching to SCO (in 2012).

http://ratings.fide.com/fedchange.phtml?year=2012
http://ratings.fide.com/fedchange.phtml?year=2013
http://ratings.fide.com/fedchange.phtml?year=2014

(The earliest listing of federations changes available on the FIDE website appears to be for the year 2000)

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: And I'm returning to a list I made earlier ('Timeline of British Isles titles (1950-2010)' - September 2010) in an attempt to update it in this new thread: http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2165

There's a title holder we missed, although he became American by citizenship and USA for chess purposes.

That would be David Strauss

Here's his chess biography in part
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=19288
and his personal CV
http://www.lifeexpectancy.org/Strauss_CV.pdf

He played top board for his college, St Catharine's during his Cambridge career and for the University against Oxford. He was never considered a potential international although in retrospect he was one of the few of the immediate post war generation to gain the IM title.

I think the criteria I used was holding the GM, IM, WGM or WIM title while registered with the six federations that make up my definition of 'British Isles'. So I don't think David Strauss would qualify, though it seems he should be mentioned in a history of the period. Making a list of those born 'here' (again, using the specific definition) and gaining titles elsewhere might be useful. While on the topic, I see I never nailed down whether Dimitri Anagnostopoulos (Demetrios Agnos) had his GM title applied for while ENG registered or GRE registered. Would records of that exist anywhere?

I have updated this list to include the GM title by Hawkins and to change the IM titles by Roberson and Adair from pending to confirmed. Are there any other titles (including WGM and WIM) that were gained in the last few years, or players with those titles switching to register under 'British Isles' FIDE codes?

Curious about Jonathan D. Tisdall. Born in the USA. Has an Irish father, and a Japanese mother. Norwegian Champion in 1987, 1991, and 1995.
He has lived in the UK. Does he have a choice of five countries when registering for the Olympiad ?

I think you will find answer to most of those question here, Gordon:

https://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html ... w=category

FIDE Handbook: Section B4: Registration, Transfer & Rules of Eligibility for Player

"A player may be registered under a Federation if he or she has citizenship, naturalization or residency in the country of that Federation. A player may only be registered with and only represent one Federation at any particular time. A player who has dual citizenship must be registered with and only represent one Federation at any particular time."

Which of those apply to Tisdall may not be clear, but it sounds like some do. Finding out when a player first registered with a federation and any subsequent changes is not always easy. I'm presuming Tisdall has always been NOR, but maybe not. You'd have to check copies of the ratings lists in 1981 and 1993 when he got his titles.

Tisdall was still classified as USA by FIDE when he played at Hastings in the late 70s, IIRC.

He played in the 1997/8 Hastings tournament:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=81036

Mestel and Speelman (to bring things back on topic, sort of) also played in that tournament.

12 results for Tisdall in the Di Felice book 'Chess Results, 1975-1977'.

USA High School international matches (against Norway!) in 1975.
Lone Pine tournaments (1975, 1976, 1977), New York, US junior tournaments.
He won the Hastings Challengers of 1976/7.
He also played in the 1976 Islington Open.

Four Olympiad appearances for Norway, starting in 1988:

http://www.olimpbase.org/players/swqaioch.html

And he played for the USA in the World Student Team Chess Championships of 1977:

http://www.olimpbase.org/playersy/swqaioch.html

So that settles that, then. Though when he switched to Norway doesn't seem to be documented anywhere online. (Interesting career: chef and journalist!)

I have achieved two FIDE titles since 2010, and am now working towards a third, but they aren't ones that feature on this list.

Have there been any titles achieved since the last time this list was updated in January 2015?

(I'll try and search the lists at some point, but if anyone else wants to instead...)

I have a feeling that some recent entries are missing from this thread.

Some questions:

1) Daniel Fernandez: third GM norm (2016-17 4NCL); does he have the rating for the title?

2) Ravi Haria: third IM norm (2016-17 4NCL); does he have the rating for the title?

3) John Pigott: third IM norm (Reykjavik 2017); does he have the rating for the title?

Did no-one from ENG, WLS, SCO, IRL gain any titles in 2015 or 2016? (Titles, not norms)

Haria has been over 2400, and Pigott went over 2400 in Reykjavik.

Thanks. Fernandez is 2487, and needs to go over 2500 for the title?

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Thanks. Fernandez is 2487, and needs to go over 2500 for the title?

Yes.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Did no-one from ENG, WLS, SCO, IRL gain any titles in 2015 or 2016? (Titles, not norms)

Alan Merry completed the norm requirements for the IM title in 2015 and was awarded the title in 2016 when he met the rating requirement.

James Adair completed the norm requirements for the GM title in 2016. He opted not to apply for the title until he had met the rating requirement, which he has yet to do.