Editing Grandmaster (chess) (section)

===Informal and Soviet usage before 1950===
Before 1950, the term grandmaster was sometimes informally applied to world class players. The [[FIDE|Fédération Internationale des Échecs]] (FIDE, or International Chess Federation) was formed in Paris in 1924, but at that time did not award formal titles.

In 1927, the Soviet Union's Chess Federation established the title of Grandmaster of the Soviet Union, in the form of the German loan word "Großmeister". At the time Soviet players were not competing outside their own country. This title was abolished in 1931, after having been awarded to [[Boris Verlinsky]], who won the 1929 [[USSR Chess Championship|Soviet Championship]].<ref name="Soviet Championships">{{citation |last1=Cafferty |first1=Bernard |author1-link=Bernard Cafferty |last2=Taimanov |first2=Mark |author2-link=Mark Taimanov |year=1998 |title=The Soviet Championships |edition=1 |publisher=Cadogan Books |isbn=978-1-85744-201-4 |pages=28–29}}</ref> The title was brought back in 1935, and awarded to [[Mikhail Botvinnik]], who thus became the first "official" Grandmaster of the USSR. Verlinsky did not get his title back.<ref name="Soviet Championships"/>