Mir Sultan Khan: Recognised decades later, meet Asia’s first Grandmaster

The Grandmaster (GM) title – the highest in Fide’s rank of player titles — was created in 1950, long after Sultan Khan disappeared from the chess scene

A man from pre-Independence Punjab who took Europe’s chess scene by storm, who became British champion three times, and who was the first Asian player to break into the upper echelons of international chess, finally gets his due. Almost 58 years after his death, the international chess federation, Fide, has awarded Mir Sultan Khan the honorary Grandmaster (GM) title, making him the first person from Pakistan to hold the honour. Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich presented Pakistani government officials with the

Mir Sultan Khan (centre) playing multiple boards at the Empire Chess Club, London in 1931. (Bettmann Archive/ GettyImages)