The game feature the well-known Monopoly moves.

I don't think qualification to the Candidates gave an automatic GM title at that time, but Taxco 1985 might indeed have been his final norm for the title.>

According to https://chessnews.com/2021/11/16/ca...,

<When the GM title was introduced in 1950, it was awarded to 27 players – world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, those who’d qualified or were seeded in the Candidates tournament and also included players who were no longer in their peak but were once of global reckoning. In the next round of revisions, it came to be awarded automatically to players who won the world title and those who qualified from inter-zonal tournaments for the Candidates.

Viewing it as too broad-based, FIDE then narrowed the criteria and required prospective GMs to win at least 40 percent in the quarterfinal games at the Candidates.>

And according to Montpellier Candidates (1985), that event would qualify the top finishers for Candidates semi-finals. So, for title purposes, it would seem that this event was treated as a Candidates quarterfinal.

http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/

But there's only a few mentions of Spraggett, and none explicitly noting the title awarding.

OTOH- wiki does explicitly have this to say:

<Spraggett won his first of seven Canadian titles in 1984, which qualified him for the Taxco Interzonal the next year. His fourth-place result at Taxco 1985, where he topped many more famous players, earned him the Grandmaster title, and seeded him to the Candidates Tournament.[17] >

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin...

But, at the risk of posting a circular argument - here's ref 17:

< "Taxco Interzonal (1985)". Chessgames.com. 1986. Retrieved 29 January 2023.>

"In 1985 he [Kevin Spraggett] finally won the Commonwealth Championship in London, overtaking all the leading Brits, for which he attained the title of grandmaster. "

that was from The Chess Federation of Russia, https://ruchess.ru/en/persons_of_da...

Apr. 2, 1985 column - Spraggett's first norm from Commonwealth Championship (1985)

Apr. 16, 1985 column - Spraggett's second norm from Lugano Open (1985)

https://web.archive.org/web/2024000...

and his old blogspot blog (<http://kevinspraggett.blogspot.com/>)

I don't find mention of the third norm in this source.>

<When the GM title was introduced in 1950, it was awarded to 27 players – world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, those who’d qualified or were seeded in the Candidates tournament and also included players who were no longer in their peak but were once of global reckoning. In the next round of revisions, it came to be awarded automatically to players who won the world title and those who qualified from inter-zonal tournaments for the Candidates....>

Earlier this afternoon I hit a site that said Etienne Bacrot had become the world's youngest GM beating Kevin Spraggett. The wording made it appear Kevin was the world's previous youngest GM. This is the game. K Spraggett vs Bacrot, 1997

I see someone on page two of this thread suggests that maybe FIDE gave Kevin the GM title without any norms because then he was the only non-GM in the FIDE top 100.

He does say he was not sure, so maybe posted thinking he was entitled to be a GM. (I agree) He certainly played to a GM standard and with the lack of clarity about his norms rumours and guesses are bound to pop up.

He is on my list of genuine GM's. If you aint on the list then you aint a GM.

Anatoly Karpov (kibitz #5645)

Of course the list needs a bit of updating but that was 10 years ago and I've mellowed a bit. No more ranting or squabbling or deliberately taking an opposite view just for the hell of it.