English Chess Forum

An interesting article has appeared on a web site from Kazakhstan mentioned in a tweet from Nigel S.

It is about Mir Sultan Khan

Enjoy!

Very interesting article with the Capablanca game. Thanks for putting it on.

Great post.

FIDE, the official governing body of chess, gave many long-retired players formal retrospective titles in 1948, but it inexplicably chose to omit Khan at the time.

Perhaps the ECF should with the chess federations of India , Pakistan , Scotland and others seek a posthumous GM title from FIDE in the 21st century in recognition of the 1948 error?? If posthumous titles are not allowed, change the rules!?

Malik Mir Sultan Khan was a servant of Colonel Nawab Sir Umar Hayat Khan. He played top level chess with the permission of Sir Umar, for no more than a couple of years, hardly sufficient time to qualify as a grandmaster.
Sultan Khan could have broken free from his Master. I'm sure that William Winter would have helped him, but would he achieve happiness in the United Kingdom ? Grandmasters are free to play anywhere in the world. That was never the case with Sultan Khan.

He only played serious chess for a few years, but even in that short time demonstrated beyond doubt that he was genuine GM strength.

Gordon Cadden wrote:Sultan Khan could have broken free from his Master. I'm sure that William Winter would have helped him, but would he achieve happiness in the United Kingdom ?

But, more to the point, would he have been able to survive?

Ramanujan, the world famous Indian mathematician (well, famous in the eyes of mathematicians at any rate), was brought to England by the Cambridge mathematicians, Littlewood and Hardy, in 1914 and basically died of vitamin deficiency in 1920. As a vegetarian he couldn't survive in England.