Maybe it's time for the GM title to be changed. Let's face it, someone that has barely made their norms for the G.M. title is no match for someone like Carlsen, So, or Nepomniachtchi. With over 1,300 active GMs in the world today, perhaps adding a 3rd title for the elite players would lend some credibility (and accuracy) to an international title.
Thoughts?
Hi mchill,
There is no doubt the title has been demeaned and tournaments rigged so players can buy the GM title.
At one time you could only get a GM title if you qualified for the Candidates. If you never
qualified for Candidates then you stayed an I.M. not matter how many other tournaments you won.
It was how Bobby Fischer became a GM, qualifying for 1958 candidates.
They should have kept that ruling then there would be about 60 GM’s alive about 30-40 still active.
A few years ago (2013) I drew up a list of the 98 players who had made the candidates.
Quite a few have passed away and now there are new names to be added. (Giri, Nepo, Ding Liren… )
I give the list below. Most chess players will have heard of 40-50 of them. Some will recognise a lot more.
There is no way anybody would have heard of all the 1,500+ current active GM’s and the modern term; ‘weak GM’
would never have been applied to any player in the following list.
Players like Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine are missing because in them days there was
no candidates. The title holder played whoever they chose as long as they could up the money.
(I have added John Nunn because I like him and he did qualify for candidates but lost a play
off match v Portisch in 1987 for the final seat.)
Adams
Adorján
Akopian
Anand
Aronian
Averbakh
Bacrot
Bareev
Beliavsky
Benko
Boleslavsky
Botvinnik
Bronstein
Byrne
Carlsen
Chernin
Dolmatov
Dominguez
Dreev
Euwe
Filip
Fine
Fischer
Flohr
Gelfand
Geller
Gligoric
Grischuk
Gulko
Gurevich
Hjartarson
Hort
Hubner
Ivanchuk
Ivkov
Kamsky
Karpov
Kasimdzhanov
Kasparov
Keres
Khalifman
Kharlov
Korchnoi
Kotov
Kramnik
Larsen
Lautier
Leko
Lilienthal
Lutz
Malakhov
Mecking
Morozevich
Movsesian
Najdorf
Nikolic
Nisipeanu
Nogueiras
Nunn
Olafsson
Panno
Petrosian
Pilnik
Polgar
Polugaevsky
Ponomariov
Portisch
Radjabov
Reshevsky
Ribli
Romanishin
Rublevsky
Salov
Sax
Seirawan
Shirov
Short
Smyslov
Sokolov
Spassky
Speelman
Spraggett
Stalhlberg
Stein
Svidler
Szabo
Taimanov
Tal
Timman
Tiviakov
Tkachiev
Topalov
Torre
Uhlmann
Vaganian
Van der Sterren
Yudasin
Yusupov