The Reason For All Those Goofy FIDE Title Names

Way back at the dawn of time (okay, say around 1950) there were only two FIDE titles: International Grandmaster (abbreviated IGM, or more commonly GM) and International Master (IM). These were achieved by getting a certain number of norms in tourneys over a certain period of time.

After a while though (by the 1970s) it was realized that that wasn't quite sufficient. After all, the biggest jump a budding genius would ever be asked to make was the hurdle from NM (2200) to IM (2450)...and so an additional step was added. Now somebody in the 2300s would be given a legitimate target.

The only problem was what to call it. Clearly there had to be Master in the title; but with IM already taken, where else could you go?

And so they came up with FIDE Master, or FM (apparently FIDEM was deemed a bit unwieldy).

Okay sure, maybe it's not too huge of a distinction, logically speaking ("No no, I'm not an International Master. I'm an International Chess Federation Master, you fool!"). But it was the best that could be done under the circumstances.

All of which leads us to CM. For a long time those who achieved a FIDE rating of 2200+ had no title at all (unless of course they had gotten one conventionally through norms), even though NMs in the US (for example) qualify for their titles simply by achieving a 2200 rating.

And so the FIDE Candidate Master was born. Although presumably the "Candidate" is in fact already a Master (by virtue of the rating list). And anyway, it really should be CFM (CFIDEM?).

At any rate, that's where things stand now. :)