Titles

THE international chess federation, known by its French acronym Fide, awards four titles for over-the-board play: grandmaster (GM), international master (IM), Fide master (FM) and, since 2002, candidate master (CM).

To get the GM title you generally need three norms* and have a rating of at least 2500, for the IM title you generally need three norms and a rating of at least 2400, and to get the FM title you generally need to reach a rating of 2300 (no norms).

The Fide-recognised organisation for correspondence chess is the International Correspondence Chess Federation.

It awards five titles for correspondence play: grandmaster, senior international master, international master, master and expert.

The titles are, somewhat inconsistently, abbreviated to GM, SIM, IM, CCM and CCE, the CCs standing for correspondence chess.

As a rough guide, the ICCF title of CCM is equal to the Fide title of FM, but is achieved not by rating but by obtaining two or more norms in tournaments with a total of at least 24 games.

I today completed my first CCM norm, albeit in a tournament which is ongoing and in which I only played eight games.

(My two wins are annotated at https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2020/10/morphing-french-xvi.html and https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2020/11/lockdown-correspondence-chess.html).

MT-Gutiérre/SF4 Board 3, Carlos Flores Gutiérrez Team Tournament SF4 Board 3

							TD Lorenz, Bernhard
Minor category K							1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	CCM	CCE	Score	Wins	SB	RG	Place
1		212116		Spanton, Tim	2260	England 1		½	½	½	½	1	½	½	1	5	4	5	2	14	0	1
2		910125	CCE	Dzenis, Janis (Tukmus)	2252	Latvia	½		½	½	½	½	½	.	½	5		3.5	0	11.25	1	2
3		86216	CCE	Meißner, Rüdiger	2271	Germany 1	½	½		½	.	½	½	½	½	5		3.5	0	10.75	1	3
4		810272		Flew, Nick	2000	Wales 2	½	½	½		0	½	½	½	½	4½	3½	3.5	0	10.75	0	4
5		241683	CCE	Rodolfo Masera, Luca	2290	Italia Azzurra	½	½	.	1		.	.	.	1	5		3	2	9.75	4	5
6		90161	IM	Maurer, Serge	2221	Canada	0	½	½	½	.		½	½	½			3	0	8.5	1	6
7		460338		Kontulainen, Hanne	2192	Finland 2	½	½	½	½	.	½		.	.	5	4	2.5	0	9.25	3	7
8		421093	IM	Nowak, Ireneusz	2275	Poland	½	.	½	½	.	½	.		.			2	0	7.5	4	8
9		884012	CCE	Quanzaah, Emmanuel	2092	Africa	0	½	½	½	0	½	.	.		5		2	0	6.75	2	9

*A norm is a high-rating performance, the exact requirements of which have varied over time and depend on the title being sought.