The Oxford Companion to Chess 1984 which Quale has previously called the closest thing we have to a gold standard in chess appears to make no reference at all to the Czar Nicholas story nor does it call pre 1950 players grandmasters As to Lasker it calls him World Champion 1894 1921 It devotes 11 lines to his brilliant victory at St Petersburg but does not mention the Czar Nicholas story Similarly Capablanca it simply calls World Champion 1921 7 It devotes 13 lines to his second place finish at St Petersburg again not mentioning the Czar Nicholas story It heads its article on Alekhine somewhat oddly the only man to die while holding the world championship St Petersburg gets five lines no mention of the Czar Nicholas story Tarrasch it calls one of the best four players in the world for about 20 years no mention of St Petersburg Marshall it calls American player who ranked among the world s best ten for about 20 years from 1904 no mention of St Petersburg To reiterate TOCtC does not call any of these players grandmasters and never mentions the Czar Nicholas story As to post 1950 players TOCtC invariably lists the dates on which they obtained FIDE titles e g for Fischer International Grandmaster 1958 world champion 1972 5 Its definition of Grandmaster mentions a number of pre 1950 examples an 1838 letter to Bell s Life G Walker and others so referring to Philidor a few other players so entitled and the Ostend 1907 and San Sebastian 1912 events being designated grandmaster events Its Grandmaster entry does not mention St Petersburg at all