I believe you’re referring to direct titles, which are won as a part of some sort of championship tournament, for example Larry Kaufman won his GM title direct by winning the World Senior. You’ll be happy to know those are being reformed.
Alex Relyea
Yes, great idea. I noticed that article. These were titles from the Pan-American. I don’t know if this is a function of reliability of junior or foreign ratings.
Neither. So far direct titles have not been associated with any particular rating. One would earn the direct title from winning selected events regardless of rating. So a subsequent victory over someone who had achieved a direct titles tells you nothing about relative ratings. (sort of like winning against someone at their floor in the US Chess system won’t necessarily tell you much about your relative strength.)
Direct titles are a FIDE invention by which one obtains a title regardless of rating for winning a particular event. What is changing is that just winning the event won’t be sufficient - one will also have to have achieved a certain rating depending on the title. The process will still circumvent the requirement to achieve a series of norms for a particular title.
Let FIDE do what it wants with its titles. Looks as though FIDE is fixing the problem anyway.
US Chess can just sit back and watch this one.
Bill Smythe
Well, certain victories deserve direct titles: World champions and
certain qualifiers, and most national champs. However, others need to be viewed with a jaundiced eye 