Mir Sultan Khan

One of the most interesting and important personalities in chess history was Mir Sultan Khan (1905-66). He was brought from India to England in 1929 by his master a maharaja, after winning the 1928 Indian Championship. He stayed in England for four years, and then was taken back to India in 1933 by his master, never to be seen by the world of chess again.

During his short stay, Sultan Khan won the British Chess Championship, defeated World Champion Alekhine and former World Champion Capablanca (see game below), and played first board for England during the World Chess Olympiads at Prague 1931 and at Folkestone 1933. At the same time, another servant brought by the same maharaja, a Miss Fatima, won the British Woman's Chess Championship.

Sultan Khan never finished lower than fourth in any chess tournament in which he ever played. Although he always lost to William Winter (who usually finished last, in spite of defeating Sultan Khan) there is no doubt that Sultan Khan was one of the strongest chess players in the world at that time. According to the modern rating system, Sultan Khan was about 2550 in strength and was easily a grandmaster. This also means that Sultan Khan was the first ever Asian grandmaster of chess.

"A striking figure whose black hair was usually turbanned, he sat at the board impassively, showing no emotion in positions good or bad," ran one account. "Unable to read or write, he never studied any books on the game yet became one of the ten best players in the world."

There is some dispute as to whether Sultan Khan was a slave or was merely a servant. Reuben Fine related that when he was a guest for dinner at the maharaja's home in England, Sultan Khan was a waiter who brought the dishes to the table.

"When we were ushered in we were greeted by the maharajah with the remark, 'It is an honor for you to be here; ordinarily I converse only with my greyhounds.' Sultan Khan, our real entree to his presence, was treated as a servant and we found ourselves in the peculiar position of being waited on at table by a grandmaster."

It is often said that Sultan Khan was a beginner at chess and that he learned the rules only shortly before being brought from India, but that he was a master at the Indian version of chess. However, this story does not mean much, because the Indian version of chess is almost exactly the same as Western chess, the main difference being that in Indian chess, a pawn can only move one square on the first move, not two, and, when reaching the "queening" square, the pawn becomes the piece of the file on which it promotes. In other words, if the white pawn reaches c8 or f8, it becomes a bishop.

In the 1950s, there was an article in British Chess Magazine which said that Sultan Khan had been found to be an opera singer in Durban, South Africa. However, this probably was merely somebody who looked like him. According to the book by R. N. Coles, Sultan Khan lived out his life on his family plot in Pakistan, surrounded by his children and great grand children, etc. and died in 1966.

Coles relates that in the early 1960s, someone (I forget the name) located Sultan Khan at his home near Lahore, Pakistan and visited him there. He found Sultan Khan sitting under a tree smoking hookah. The visitor related that Sultan Khan offered to play him a game of blindfold chess, but that the visitor "wisely declined".

Note that while it is always said that Sultan Khan came from India, he actually came from that part of India which is now Pakistan.

A friend from Pakistan informs me that anyone who smokes hookah does not live very long. It is a very pungent version of tobacco, or so I am told.

Does anybody know or can anybody find out the exact address of that plot of land where Sultan Khan and his family lived?

In this stunning upset, Capablanca perished after he missed 12...a6! 13 Nxc7 (or 13 Qxc7 axb5 14 Qxb7 Nbc5! 15 dxc5 Nxc5 16 Qc6 Nxd3 17 Kd2 Nxf4 18 exf4 b4) Rc8 14 Ne6 Rxc2 15 Nxd8 Rxb2 16 Nxb7 Nxf2 17 Bxf5 Rxf5 18 0-0 Nd3 with equlity. Later on if 55...Qxf2 56 R6c2 Qf3 (or 56...Qh4 57 Rh2) 57 Bg2 traps the Queen.

1 Nf3 Nf6 2 d4 b6 3 c4 Bb7 4 Nc3 e6 5 a3 d5 6 cxd5 exd5 7 Bg5 Be7 8 e3 0-0 9 Bd3 Ne4 10 Bf4 Nd7 11 Qc2 f5 12 Nb5 Bd6? 13 Nxd6 cxd6 14 h4 Rc8 15 Qb3 Qe7 16 Nd2 Ndf6 17 Nxe4 fxe4 18 Be2 Rc6 19 g4! Rfc8 20 g5 Ne8 21 Bg4 Rc1 22 Kd2 R1c2 23 Qxc2 Rxc2 24 Kxc2 Qc7 25 Kd2 Qc4 26 Be2 Qb3 27 Rab1 Kf7 28 Rhc1 Ke7 29 Rc3 Qa4 30 b4 Qd7 31 R1c1 a6 32 Rg1 Qh3 33 R1c1 Qd7 34 h5 Kd8 35 R1c2 Qh3 36 Kc1 Qh4 37 Kb2 Qh3 38 Rc1 Qh4 39 R3c2 Qh3 40 a4 Qh4 41 Ka3 Qh3 42 Bg3 Qf5 43 Bh4 g6 44 h6 Qd7 45 b5 a5 46 Bg3 Qf5 47 Bf4 Qh3 48 Kb2 Qg2 49 Kb1 Qh3 50 Ka1 Qg2 51 Kb2 Qh3 52 Rg1 Bc8 53 Rc6 Qh4 54 R1c1 Bg4 55 Bf1 Qh5 56 Re1 Qh1 57 R1c1 Qh5 58 Kc3 Qh4 59 Bg3 Qxg5 60 Kd2 Qf5 61 Rxb6 Ke7 62 Rb7 Ke6 63 b6 Nf6 64 Bb5 Qf3 65 Rb8 Black Resigns

Source:
Article 6904 of rec.games.chess.misc by Ismail Sloan (vanupp@aol.com) Jan 1996,
and
Evans on Chess - March 8, 1995 from Chess Connection