The Evolution of Titles and Ratings

Continuing with Titles, Elo, and Ratings, when Arpad Elo wrote his book 'The Rating of Chess Players Past and Present' (Batsford 1978), he noted four major milestones.

• 1950: Introduction of titles; GM/IM titles assigned retroactively
  
  
• 1957: Titles awarded based on performance ('norms')
  
  
• 1970: Introduction of international ratings
  
  
• 1976: Norm calculations based on ratings

To document those four milestones, I added excerpts from 'Rating of Chess Players' to my page on FIDE Titles.