Pakistan gets its first Grandmaster after Mir Sultan Khan given honorary title; Controversy erupts over FIDE’s move

Legendary chess player Mir Sultan Khan, widely known as the best Asian chess player of his generation, has been bestowed with the title of Honorary Grandmaster by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. Mir Sultan thus becomes Pakistan’s first grandmaster (as per FIDE, even though he played in pre-partition era India).

Born in 1903, Sultan Khan was a chess player from Sargodha in what is now northeast Pakistan. He famously won the British Chess Championship in 1929, 1931, and 1932. He also thrice played for England at the Chess Olympiad.

He famously defeated former world champion José Raúl Capablanca besides renowned players like Frank Marshall and Savielly Tartakower. Sultan Khan also held former world champions Alexander Alekhine and Max Euwe to draws.

What was remarkable about Sultan Khan was that he learnt the game from his father, who taught him the traditional Indian rules which were slightly different than the rules of the modern game. And that he barely spoke any English, which made it even more difficult for him to grasp knowledge about the game from books.

He passed away in 1966 due to tuberculosis.

He was a man servant to Major General Nawab Sir Umar Hayat Khan, one of the largest landholders in Punjab at the time, who noticed Sultan Khan’s talent on the board and nurtured it.

A profile of Sultan Khan in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper states: “His responsibilities (at Sir Umar Khan’s haveli) included running errands and doing odd jobs at the Major General’s haveli.”

“A Punjabi chess player and a citizen of Pakistan, he is considered the strongest chess master of his time from Asia. In an international chess career of less than five years, he won the British Chess Championship three times.
Mir Sultan Khan, who beat some of the world’s top players despite growing up with little access to chess books and knowing next to nothing about the theory of chess, became the first Pakistani grandmaster,” FIDE said in a press release.

Currently, Pakistan’s top player, Mohamed Zohaib Hassan, has a rating of 2269.

FIDE President Dvorkovich is currently in Pakistan as part of the global governing body’s efforts to popularise the sport of chess in Pakistan. The Russian had met with the Pakistan President Dr Arig Alvi and Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Friday in Islamabad for the launch of Pakistan’s National Mind Sports Initiative.

Many chess lovers on social media raised an issue with Sultan Khan being identified as a Pakistani chess player. There was also another controversy, with Scottish GM Jacob Aagaard slamming FIDE for making the announcement for “political favours”.

“How should we react to this? Mr Khan has a big name in chess and no one would disagree with this decision on merit. But this decision is not one of merit, but a matter of political favours. I have no idea if FIDE is genuinely wanting to promote chess in Pakistan (a worthy goal) or to be soft Russian diplomats. I fear the latter is inescapable for Dvorkovich. While I don’t believe this is what he started out to be, it is clearly part of what FIDE is now under his leadership.

FIDE begun giving out the GM title in 1950. For this reason Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker and the other greats of Mr Khan’s era never got the title. Because they were dead. Dead people did not get the title… The GM title takes decades for some of us to achieve and is the peak of our career. It is insulting that they are used for political favours. But personally I am proud to be a colleague to Mr Khan,” he tweeted.

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