Talk:Kenny Solomon

News

 * http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/08/south-africa-township-violence-chess-grandmaster-kenny-solomon-mitchells-plain
 * http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-09-17-sa-man-reaches-exalted-grandmaster-status#.VLS1_ahd6Cw
 * http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/cape-man-is-sa-s-first-chess-grandmaster-1.1380191#.VLS2cKhd6Cw
 * http://groundup.org.za/content/kenny-solomon-chess-star-mitchells-plain

Axxter99 (talk) 06:12, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Grandmaster title
Apparently Solomon has three GM norms, but his rating is far below the 2500 floor normally required to receive the title. Some sources say that special rules were in effect for the 2014 African Individual Championships that awarded the winner the GM title, but that isn't what http://www.chessdom.com/african-individual-chess-championships-2014/ says in the title awards section. It doesn't really matter what The Guardian says, since FIDE issues chess titles. His FIDE Chess Profile shows only the IM title he earned in 2004. I also don't see him in the FIDE title applications for the 1st quarter Presidential Board meeting. We'll see, but if his FIDE profile still says IM in February, we should definitely revert. Quale (talk) 09:57, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Agree, it was widely announced that his winning the African Championship in December meant that he'd be awarded the GM title, and that FIDE had made an exception to the 2500 rule, but I haven't seen this officially confirmed. See http://en.chessbase.com/post/south-africa-s-first-grandmaster Greenman (talk) 10:12, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Axxter99 (talk) 06:05, 29 January 2015 (UTC)
 * The now shows his title as GM, with a 2399 (!) rating. Quale (talk) 05:17, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Grandmaster title, redux
- I do not think your reversion of my edit was appropriate, and have undone it. You should not remove sourced information without discussing it first. In this case, I find your reversion very hard to understand - I added a sourced explanation of why and how he got the GM title, and you simply cut the whole thing, putting this article back in the confusing state of both being seemingly obsessed with the fact that he got this title without a 2500 rating, while also not explaining why or how at all. Please explain this. I also do not understand why you think it is necessary to mention twice (in such a short article) that he got the title without the usual rating. It feels WP:UNDUE, almost like a slight against the guy. And as Grandmaster_(chess) points out, there are other situations where one can become a grandmaster without a 2500 rating as well, so this really isn't shocking enough to be mentioning so prominently, and the wording that you reverted back to ("the required rating") is outright wrong in how blanket it is. (Plus, that section doesn't even mention the continental champions exception mentioned in the Chessbase source, so it's obviously incomplete.) -Elmer Clark (talk) 02:44, 30 November 2022 (UTC)


 * , it's not everyday you hear someone attained the title without ever reaching the 2500 elo rating mark and in his state, yes I think it's important to put it out there since he's "NOT the strongest" South African player according fide ratings, however he managed to get the title ahead of two international masters who were/are above him and he's the first and currently the only GM in the country (sources back my story and yes I can drop links of sources if need nay be). My apologies for reverting your edits, but its adequate to put that Intel in the opening statement.  ИƎO  ( talk ) 18:20, 30 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for responding and adding that clarifying context. I guess my issue is that your version of the article with its heavy focus on this (and your comment here) feels like it's making its own WP:OR-ish case for why there should be controversy around his GM title, without any indication that such controversy ever actually existed. If the unusualness of how he got the title was a major part of the story in chess reliable sources at the time or since, then it's appropriate for us to treat it that way too, but so far the sources we have and the others that I've been able to quickly find seem to either ignore this angle entirely, or just explain the special FIDE that I added info about in my edit and move on. That makes sense to me - chess players get GM titles before higher-rated IMs all the time because of norm requirements, and this is arguably just a special case of that. If you have sources saying there was a lot of talk or controversy around this then please do share them, but if not, then my feeling is still that your version goes too far toward trying to generate that controversy itself. -Elmer Clark (talk) 00:09, 2 December 2022 (UTC)