Story of a servant who became 1st Asian grand chessmaster.

Sultan Khan plays against Michell Hastings on Dec 29, 1930. - Luc winants source

Malik Mir Sultan Khan's Early Life

Malik Mir Sultan Khan Chess Master’s father was a simple and poor man. He could not afford the education expenses of his children’s. The area of Indo-Pak subcontinent (now in Pakistan), where he born was a backward. There were not even basic necessities of life. But Sultan Khan was a brilliant child. Malik Mir Sultan Khan was born in village Mittha Tiwana, Punjab, British India (Indo-Pak subcontinent), where he learned Indian chess from his father at the age of nine. His father cannot afford the family expenses, therefore Sultan Khan adopted the duties as a servant to look after the Nawab (Mahraja) Sir Umar Hayat’s house.

Umar Hayat Khan, the man who would bring Khan to Europe and pay for his chess lessons there. “It was very rare to bring someone of a lower caste to England, even just to be there,” says Vinay Lal, a professor of history and Asian American studies at UCLA.

source

Khan (right) playing against his patron Sir Umar Hayat Khan source

Malik Mir Sultan Khan was the strongest chess champion of that time from Asia. At the age of 21 he was the strongest player in Punjab. In 1928, he won the all-India championship, scoring eight wins, one draw, and no losses.

His days in England:

In 1929 Nawab Sir Umar Hayat Khan ("Sir Umar") went to United Kingdom along with his servant Sultan Khan, where he trained with some British masters and learned the European rules of the chess game. He then entered the British Chess Championship. Mir Sultan khan disliked the UK’s weather because he became sick with flu. He usually wore big Punjabi Turban but in England he wore a big muffler around his neck to save from cold and flu. He was uneducated and he could not read & write. He was unable to speak and understand English. Other than his mother tongue Punjabi he only knew the language of chess. First of all a training tournament was organized to improve and learn technical and theoretical knowledge. Due to his inexperience and lack of theoretical knowledge, he did poorly, tying for last place with 3 other players. After the tournament, Winter and Yates trained him to help prepare him for the British Chess Championship. To everyone's surprise, he won. Sultan Khan began an international chess career that included wins over many of the world's leading players. In Britain, he took the chess world by storm. In an international chess career of less than five years (1929–33). He won the British Championship three times in four tries (1929, 1932, 1933), and had tournament and match results that placed him among the top ten players in the world. He spent four years in England.

Savielly Tartakower and Sultan Khan, match, Semmering, 1931. source

Hooper & Whyld write of him:

When Sultan Khan first travelled to Europe his English was so rudimentary that he needed an interpreter. Unable to read or write, he never studied any books on the game, and he was put into the hands of trainers who were also his rivals in play. He never mastered openings which, by nature empirical, cannot be learned by the application of common sense alone. Under these adverse circumstances, and having known international chess for a mere seven years, only half of which was spent in Europe, Sultan Khan nevertheless had few peers in the middlegame, was among the world's best two or three endgame players, and one of the world's best ten players. This achievement brought admiration from Capablanca who called him a genius, an accolade he rarely bestowed.
Hooper & Whyld, p. 403.
Source

1st Asian grand chess master:

It is a pity that the World Chess Federation too, did not award Mir Sultan Khan, the title of 'grandmaster'. However, in the history of the chess, He will be known as the first grand chess master from Asia.

Sultan Khan never finished lower than fourth in any chess tournament in which he ever played. Although he always lost to William Winter (who usually finished last, in spite of defeating Sultan Khan) there is no doubt that Sultan Khan was one of the strongest chess players in the world at that time. According to the modern rating system, Sultan Khan was about 2550 in strength and was easily a grandmaster. This also means that Sultan Khan was the first ever Asian grandmaster of chess.
source

Khan after winning the 1932 British Chess Championships source

His later life:

Sir Umar then brought him back to his homeland, where he gave up chess and returned to his humble and simple life. He was never be seen again by the world of chess game. David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld have called him "perhaps the greatest natural player of modern times". Although he was one of the world's top players in the early 1930s. The World Chess Federation, never awarded him any title (Grandmaster or International Master).
American psychologist & grand chessmaster, Reuben Fine narrates his meeting with Malik Mir Sultan in his book:

“When we entered the home of Maharaja (Malik Umar Hayat Khan), he welcomed us and said: ‘You’re very lucky that I am meeting you, otherwise I prefer spending this time with my greyhounds.’ He then handed over to us a booklet, covering his life and times. By now, we had ascertained that the only feather in his hat was being born as a Maharaja. Then we saw Mir Sultan Khan, who was our real host, and the Maharaja was treating him as his slave. We were in an odd situation, when a chess grandmaster was in front of us as our waiter.”
source

Reuben Fine was right. Umar Hayat born as a Maharaja. But his most important contribution was introducing his servant Mir Sultan Khan on the international chess arena.
According to his elder son, Sultan Khan was so disappointed from this game that he never played again and advised his children to do something productive instead of wasting time in playing chess.Malik Mir Sultan Khan died of tuberculosis in sargodha-Khushab, Punjab (Pakistan), on 25 April 1966 in complete obscurity.
(May his soul rest in peace. Aameen.)

source
Chess lovers can find some of his notable games on this site.

Native Village of Chess Champion Malik Mir Sultan Khan (Mitha Tiwana):

source

Mitha Tiwana is now third biggest town of District Khushab in Punjab province, Pakistan. This town is backward until now. Mostly people are poor and have not the major facilities. The land is not fertile to produce the bumper crops yield. Its soil is saline and having sandy dessert. Its summer is harsh. In the summer hot winds carrying hot sand galls. Shifting of sand dunes occur from one place to other. During summer days, wind storms shift the sand dunes to roads, then there are great difficulties for routine vehicle movement. Therefor to reduce the speed of windstorms farmer should have to grow trees as a shelter belts. Mostly area is arid and one crop is dominant in winter that is Chickpea (Gram). Chickpea production depends on the rain. If there is no rain then no crop production. So the local farming community income depends on Gram production and from livestock (cows, sheep and goat).

---

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Resteem & share it with your followers, Thanks again!