Maurice Fox: Why not an IM?

[Hugh Brodie]

Somehow that submitted before I finished. I might have a hard time finding 84 master strength players who were active in 1931.

[Erik Malmsten]

Somehow that submitted before I finished. I might have a hard time finding 84 master strength players who were active in 1931.

I'm comfortable saying that the top 19 players in 1931 were GM strength. The top 100 are masters and Fox is higher than Menchik, Dake and Edward Lasker. I think other masters in Canada at that time included Belson, Blumin, Eastman, Gale, Martin, Morrison, Opsahl, Richard and Whitfield.

September 1931 rating list

1 Alexander Alekhine 2843
2 José Capablanca 2773
3 Aron Nimzowitsch 2735
4 Efim Bogoljubow 2732
5 Isaac Kashdan 2727
6 Max Euwe 2711
7 Akiba Rubinstein 2693
8 Saviely Tartakower 2677
9 Mir Sultan Khan 2676
10 Salo Flohr 2656
11 Rudolf Spielmann 2653
12 Milan Vidmar Sr 2645
13 Albert Becker 2643
14 Carl Ahues 2630
15 Ernst Grünfeld 2629
16 Gösta Stoltz 2629
17 Géza Maróczy 2625
18 Boris Kostic 2615
19 Hermanis Matisons 2610
20 Carlos Skalicka 2603
21 Edgar Colle 2603
22 Friedrich Sämisch 2595
23 Baldur Hönlinger 2592
24 Paul List 2588
25 Hans Kmoch 2588
26 Dawid Przepiórka 2587
27 Kurt Richter 2583
28 Frank Marshall 2579
29 Lajos Steiner 2579
30 Alexander Kevitz 2578
31 Al Horowitz 2571
32 Abraham Kupchik 2571
33 Ludwig Rellstab Sr 2569
34 Vasja Pirc 2567
35 Karel Opocenský 2567
36 Josef Lokvenc 2567
37 George Thomas 2566
38 Jácobo Bolbochán 2566
39 Ludwig Rödl 2564
40 Vladas Mikenas 2563
41 Endre Steiner 2562
42 Imre König 2562
43 Carl Carls 2560
44 Frederick Yates 2559
45 Gideon Stĺhlberg 2558
46 Eugene Znosko-Borovsky 2557
47 Lajos Asztalos 2557
48 Josef Rejfír 2556
49 Esteban Canal 2555
50 Karl Helling 2546
51 Karel Treybal 2544
52 Herman Steiner 2543
53 Reginald Michell 2540
54 Kornél Havasi 2540
55 Abraham Baratz 2540
56 Salo Landau 2538
57 Daniël Noteboom 2537
58 Henri Weenink 2537
59 Isador Turover 2531
60 Karl Gilg 2529
61 Anthony Santasiere 2524
62 Alfred Brinckmann 2524
63 Sándor Takács 2523
64 Ramon Rey Ardid 2521
65 Vladimirs Petrovs 2520
66 Hans Müller 2517
67 Alejandro Nogues Acuna 2513
68 Emil Richter 2511
69 Heinrich Wagner 2506
70 Kazimierz Makarczyk 2506
71 Hans Johner 2504
72 Victor Soultanbéieff 2503
73 Isaías Pleci 2501
74 George Koltanowski 2496
75 Jakob Seitz 2495
76 William Winter 2491
77 Erik Sr Andersen 2491
78 Jacques Mieses 2489
79 Gerhard Weissgerber 2488
80 Johannes Hermanus Addicks 2484
81 Stefano Rosselli del Turco 2481
82 Arpád Vajda 2475
83 Theodore Tylor 2471
84 MAURICE FOX 2470
85 Virgilio Fenoglio 2469
86 Fricis Apšenieks 2469
87 Brian Reilly 2467
88 Vera Menchik 2467
89 Manuel Golmayo de la Torriente 2467
90 Teodor Regedzinski 2466
91 Mario Monticelli 2464
92 Scheinbergas 2464
93 José Araiza Munoz 2462
94 Johannes van den Bosch 2462
95 Arthur Dake 2461
96 Edward Lasker 2460
97 Roberto Grau 2457
98 Carl Ruben 2453
99 Edward Sergeant 2452
100 Jindrich Engel 2450

[Hans Jung]

Maurice Fox: Why not an IM?

May 20, 2020

Hans Jung: In 1974 when I played him Maurice Fox had a rating of 2350.

Can you give us the score of that game? I would love to play it over.

I have a big 3ft cubed cardboard box in my study with about 3000 scoresheets sitting in it. If I get to it soon I'll post it.

[Aris Marghetis]

I have a big 3ft cubed cardboard box in my study with about 3000 scoresheets sitting in it. If I get to it soon I'll post it.

I love that "picture". My scoresheets (not as many as yourself) are in at least 3 different rooms in my current house lol

[Frank Dixon]

Thanks so much for everyone who responded on this important question. My impression of what FIDE did in 1950 and years shortly thereafter was to reward players who had done very well in years prior to that, when there was NO formal qualification system. For example, Dr. Ossip Bernstein was awarded GM, and he was nearly 70 then, for his prior results. Same for players like Oldrich Duras. Edward Lasker made IM and he was never U.S. champion; he did have some decent results from the 1910s and 1920s, 30+ years earlier. Super-strong players who had passed away in the decade before 1950, such as Capablanca, Em. Lasker, Alekhine, Marshall, Spielmann, Petrovs, etc got nothing. FIDE did make an exception for one Italian, a nobleman, who had died in 1947; can't think of his name just now; he made IM in 1950.

[Erik Malmsten]

Thanks so much for everyone who responded on this important question. My impression of what FIDE did in 1950 and years shortly thereafter was to reward players who had done very well in years prior to that, when there was NO formal qualification system. For example, Dr. Ossip Bernstein was awarded GM, and he was nearly 70 then, for his prior results. Same for players like Oldrich Duras. Edward Lasker made IM and he was never U.S. champion; he did have some decent results from the 1910s and 1920s, 30+ years earlier. Super-strong players who had passed away in the decade before 1950, such as Capablanca, Em. Lasker, Alekhine, Marshall, Spielmann, Petrovs, etc got nothing. FIDE did make an exception for one Italian, a nobleman, who had died in 1947; can't think of his name just now; he made IM in 1950.

I've tried to identify who became an IM on the 1931 list. I found the 1950 first FIDE list of 27 GMs, but not the 94 IMs. There was some politics, as Russia wanted to give IM titles to all players who played in three Soviet Championships, but the Americans only wanted the IM title from international events. As a result, several strong Americans on this list never received the IM title. Several historic players received titles in the revision in 1953. Most of these players have a Wikipedia page.

16 became GMs (a couple Honorary), and 26 IMs. FIDE does not award titles to players who have died, and several died during the war. If alive, the top 50 would all have titles. The titles decrease after player 50 and get rarer after 74, only 2 GM and 3 IM. So I could argue that Fox at position 84 was just below IM strength. Or that other players increased in strength 1931-50 while Fox didn't. I doubt that Canada would have lobbied for him to get an IM title.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

but not the 94 IMs.

The list (including GMs and WIMs) was published on Chess Life 1950 August 20 http://uscf1-nyc1.aodhosting.com/CL-.../1950_08_2.pdf

Though I counted only 92

International Masters:

Soviet Union (21): Alatortzev, Aronin, Kan, Dus·Chotimirsky, Werlinsky, Panov, Taimanov, Konstantinopolsy, Yudovitch, Romanovsky, Veresov, Tolush, Chekhover, Lisitzin, Makogonov, Kasparian, Dubinin, Simagin, Mikenas, Nenarokov, Goglidze;

Holland (3): van Scheltinga, Prins, Cortlever;

Italy (2): Castaldi, Monticelli;

Peru (1): Canal;

Czechoslovakia (6): Pachman, Foltys, Opocensky, Sajtar, Kottnauer, Zita;

France (1): Rossolimo;

Switzerland (2): Grob, Johner;

Belgium (1): O'Kelly;

England (5): Sir George Thomas, Atkins, Alexander, Golombek, Winter;

Hungary (8): Asztalos, Barcza, Benko, Florian, Gereben, Nagy, Szily, Vajda;

Finland (1): Book;

Sweden (3): Ekstrom, Lundin, Stoltz;

Denmark (1): Enevoldsen;

Yugoslavia (6): Gligoric, Trifunovic, Pirc, Rabar, Vidmar Jr, Nedeljkovic;

USA (6): Denker, Bisguier, Horowitz, Kassdan, Kmoch, H. Steiner;

Austria (1): Muller;

Spain (2): Medina, Pomar;

Argentina (4): Julio Bolbochan, Guimard, Pilnik, Rossetto;

New Zealand (1): Wade;

Australia (1): L. Steiner;

Canada (1): Yanofsky;

Brazil (1): Eliskases;

West Germany (5): Unzicker, Ahues, Rellstab, Kieninger, P. Schmidt;

East Germany (3): Kock, K. Richter, R. Keller;

Rumania (2): Troianescu, Erdelyi;

Poland (2): Makarczyk, Plater;

Bulgaria (1): Zwetkov.

Also the Woman World Cbampion L . Rudenko. (1)


While the article has OCR, it is not great. I tried to correct some names.

[Erik Malmsten]

Thanks Egis for counting, I searched through Chess Life but didn't find it so went will the reference to 94 IMs. Maybe somebody should post the first IM list on wikipedia.

I'm comfortable with saying that Yanofsky was Canada's first IM-strength player as well as being our first official IM.

[Frank Dixon]

Fox played in the 1966 Canadian Open in Kingston. I saw a quote in the magazine, in an article on Frank Anderson, from a game in the Open Spanish, Anderson vs Fox, Kingston 1951. Masters' Forum featured a game Alekhine vs Fox, Toronto 1924, perhaps of the exhibition style, which was drawn, in the Exchange French.

My rationale with Fox, with him deserving the IM title in 1950 or shortly thereafter, is that Canada became a zone of FIDE, and its champions in Zonal years received the IM title. I might have believed this condition would extend backwards, to cover his years of championship success. Remember that Fox (born 1898) was much older than players such as Vaitonis, Yanofsky, and Anderson. Bohatirchuk was born in 1892, so those two were in the same generation.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Thanks Egis for counting, I searched through Chess Life but didn't find it so went will the reference to 94 IMs. Maybe somebody should post the first IM list on wikipedia.

I looked at the Russian magazine. It mentioned 92 IM too.

[Stephen Wright]

The Official Blue Book and Encyclopedia of Chess by Kenneth Harness (1956) contains the following regulations for the IM title:

The title of International Master is conferred on the following players:

a) The woman champion of the world.

b) Players who have the absolute right to participate in Interzonal Tournaments of the FIDE, and also those players who take the places of absent contestants in such tournaments.

c) The winner of an international tournament that meets specified standards, and any player who wins second prize in such tournaments at least twice during the course of four years. To meet the required standards, a tournament must be of at least nine rounds with six or more participants, of whom at least 50 per cent are International Grandmasters or International Masters.

d) A player who makes a score of at least 60 per cent at the first board, or 75 per cent at the second board, in a World Championship Team Tournament, provided he has played not less than eleven rounds. (The President of the FIDE points out that this method of qualification refers only to Round Robin team tournaments. However, the performance of a player in another type of world championship team tournament can be appraised and the title may then be awarded as described in [e] below.)

e) A player who, in an international tournament or match, demonstrates a playing ability manifestly equal to that of players given the title under sections (c) and (d) above. As in the case of a Grandmaster, the proposal to award the title must be supported by at least five members of the Qualification Committee.

[Frank Dixon]

I never wrote this with the implication that Yanofsky was NOT a worthy recipient of the IM title in 1950, when FIDE formalized the process. He certainly was, at age 25. But remember that Fox, who was then 52, had won eight Canadian titles by 1950. Mr. Malmsten is comfortable with Yanofsky being recognized as Canada's first IM, as I am. But the CFC should certainly have done more to get Fox recognized for his achievements, in my opinion, in 1950 and afterwards.