Exeter Chess Club: Trawled from the 'Net

From info!strath-cs!clyde.open.ac.uk!warwick!lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk!peer-news.britain.eu.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news-e1a.megaweb.com!newstf01.news.aol.com!newsbf02.news.aol.com!not-for-mail Wed Jan 31 09:06:48 GMT 1996
Article: 6904 of rec.games.chess.misc
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From: vanupp@aol.com (VanUpp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess.misc
Subject: Mir Sultan Khan
Date: 22 Jan 1996 11:48:43 -0500
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Mir Sultan Khan

                        by Ismail Sloan

One of the most interesting and important personalities in chess history
was Mir Sultan Khan. He was brought from India to England in 1929 by his
master, a maharaja, was kept there 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 in England, Sultan Khan won the British Chess
Championship, defeated World Champion Alekhine and former World Champion
Capablanca 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.

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.

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".

I would like to find out the exact location of that plot of land and of
the tree. I used to visit Pakistan frequently and the next time I go there
I would like to go to that exact spot.

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?

Ismail Sloan

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