Honored Master of Sport was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

state honour, introduced on 27 May 1934 by the

Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union The All-Union Central Executive Committee (russian: Всесоюзный Центральный исполнительный комитет, Vsesoyuznyy Tsentral'nyy ispolnitel'nyy komitet) was the most authoritative governing body of the USSR d ...

. It was awarded by the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sport to athletes, including chess players, for outstanding performance. The award was in the form of a badge and certificate. 22 athletes were selected for this award in June 1934, including

Peter Romanovsky Peter Arsenievich Romanovsky (russian: Пётр Арсеньевич Романо́вский; 29 July 1892 – 1 March 1964) was a Russian chess player and author. He won the Soviet Championship in 1923 and, jointly, 1927. Biography At the begi ...

. Out of over 4000 awards, 52 were given to chess players, including three problem composers and two

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less common ...

players. Though normally conferred for life, it was revoked in the case of

Alla Kushnir Alla Shulimovna Kushnir ( he, אלה שולימובנה קושניר; russian: Алла Шулимовна Кушнир; 11 August 1941 – 2 August 2013) was a Soviet-born Israeli chess player. She was awarded the FIDE titles of Woman Intern ...

and

Viktor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ( rus, Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, p=vʲiktər lʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He ...

following their defection from the Soviet Union.

Mark Taimanov Mark Evgenievich Taimanov (russian: Марк Евгеньевич Тайманов; 7 February 1926 – 28 November 2016) was one of the leading Soviet and Russian chess players, among the world's top 20 players from 1946 to 1971. A prolific ch ...

also had his award revoked in 1971 following his crushing defeat at the hands of

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...

, but this was restored in 1991.

Title holders

References

See also