First grandmaster

The first players awarded the title of grandmaster by FIDE in 1950 were: 

Mikhail Botvinnik (World Champion)

Isaac Boleslavsky, Igor Bondarevsky, David Bronstein, Max Euwe, Reuben Fine, Salo Flohr, Paul Keres, Alexander Kotov, Andor Lilienthal, Miguel Najdorf, Samuel Reshevsky, Vasily Smyslov, Gideon Ståhlberg, László Szabó (participants in the 1950 Candidates tournament). 

Ossip Bernstein, Oldřich Duras, Ernst Grünfeld, Boris Kostić, Grigory Levenfish, Géza Maróczy, Jacques Mieses, Viacheslav Ragozin, Akiba Rubinstein, Friedrich Sämisch, Savielly Tartakower (Players still living who were awarded the title based on their achievements/strength at their peak in previous years).

FIDE did not award posthumous grandmaster titles, so players such as Capablanca, Alekhine, Nimzovitch, Reti, Boguljubow, Tarrasch, Lasker, Steinitz and Morphy were not recognised officially as grandmasters.

Previous to 1950 the term grandmaster had been used to describe top players but only in an unofficial capacity and with no definitive achievements or level required to be awarded the title. 

The original grandmasters were Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Marshall and Tarrasch. Given those titles by the Tsar as finalists in the tournament at St. Petersburg 1914.

And who was the first one to achieve this title by rating and norms?

Great question!

Based on a wikipedia list, it's probably Svetozar Gligorić, getting the title in 1951.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_grandmasters

”FIDE did not award posthumous grandmaster titles, so players such as Capablanca, Alekhine, Nimzovitch, Reti, Boguljubow, Tarrasch, Lasker, Steinitz and Morphy were not recognised officially as grandmasters”

Bogo was alive but the Soviets didn’t find him politically appropriate so he wasn’t among the players that got the title in 1950 but did receive it later.

At St.Petersburg 1914 the Czar of Russia conferred the Grandmaster title on Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, and Marshall. So those were the first grandmasters.

Which was already pointed out in this thread 3 years ago.

👍

• Which Lasker? Edward Lasker or Emanuel Lasker?

Edward was still alive in 1950 and was awarded the IM title. Emanuel (the second world champion) however died on 1941.

Thanks

Chess Metrics is a great site for looking up players and their peak perfomance era... especially for players before the rating system.

I don't think GMs are any stronger than they were a 100 yrs ago. The access to a data base is what has changed, resulting in over the top opening prep and the professional player needing a plethora of openings.

Pillsbury, Albin , Steinitz, Zuckertort, Lasker, Blackburn, Chagrin etc ... in OTB play ... at their peak could more than hang with current GMs ...