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Mir Sultan Khan - A forgotten Indian hero

Pioneer of Indian Chess, Mir Sultan Khan, one of the greatest legends of Indian chess with a playing strength equivalent to an Elo rating of 2530 according to Arpad Elo's calculation, WAS EASILY A GRANDMASTER, THOUGH NEVER AWARDED THE TITLE. Another assessment system, Chess metrics, calculates that his highest rating was 2699, ranked number 7 in the world, in November 1932. He was one of a few players who had a plus record against Capablanca, Frank Marshall & Savielly Tartakower. He was the strongest chess master of his time from Asia.

He was born in Sargodha, Punjab, British, now part of Pakistan. Mir Sultan Khan (1905 – April 25, 1966). Sultan Khan was uneducated & was an employee (Cook) of Indian Soldier & Punjabis largest landholder Sir Umar Hayat Khan. He was just conversant with Indian chess which had different rules than the internationally accepted rules of chess. He was taught to write the moves as well as the international rules of chess.

After winning the All-India Championship in 1928 (8 wins,1 draw, no loss), he went to England & quickly came to the notice of English masters William Winter & Frederick D Yates who helped him overcome his lack of theoretical knowledge.In an international chess career of less than five years (1929-33), he won the British Championship 3 times in 4 tries (1929, 1932,1933), & had tournament & match results that placed him among the top ten players in the world in his era. He also represented Britain in 3 chess Olympiads as its leading player.

He defeated Dr. Savely Tartakovar in a match of 11 games in 1931. He won against Marshall, Capablanca, Salo Flohr & Rubinstein & drew with World Champion Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe, Ernst Grünfeld, Gideon Ståhlberg, Isaac Kashdan & Efim Bogolyubov. His highest rank was number 6 in the world, albeit with a slightly lower rating, in May 1933, behind only Alekhine, Kashdan, Flohr, Capablanca & Euwe, & ahead of such giants as Aron Nimzowitsch & Akiba Rubinstein.

Sultan Khan never finished lower than fourth in any chess tournament in which he ever played. His meteoric rise was parallel to Morphy’s, who conquered the chess world in about three years. Sultan Khan rose to the top of the chess world, playing on even terms with the world's best players.

In 1933, when his performances were still improving, he was taken back to India by his master.In 1935; he won a match against V. K. Khadilkar, yielding just one draw in ten games & was never heard of by the chess world again. He passed the rest of his life as a farmer. Sultan Khan, upon his return to India, felt as though he had been freed from prison. In the damp English climate, he had been continually afflicted with malaria, colds, influenza, & throat infections, often arriving to play with his neck swathed in bandages. Sir Umar died in 1944, leaving Sultan Khan a small farmstead, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Sultan Khan died of tuberculosis in Sargodha, Pakistan (the same district where he had been born) on April 25, 1966. Ather Sultan, his eldest son, recalled that he would not coach his children at chess, telling them that they should do something more useful with their lives.

MIR SULTAN KHAN MAY BE LONG FORGOTTEN IN INDIA SINCE HE WAS BORN IN PRESENT DAY PAKISTAN BUT HE WILL BE REMEMBERED AS THE BEST NATURAL PLAYER & GREATEST ENDGAME PLAYER BY THE CHESS LOVERS.