How Good Were 1800’s 35 Years Ago?

Winning moves do come about because of the brilliance of the players but because of the soundness of their position. That has nothing to do with this post. It’s something GM Andy Soltis said and I thought I’d throw it in.

I was looking through the database of my games the other day and got to wondering what the difference between ratings of today and days gone by might be. After all at the top of the rating list the ratings keep going up. Thirty five years ago world class players were ~2600 and garden variety GM’s often were mid-2400. I don’t know the answer but here’s an OTB game I played in tournament in 1975. We were both rated in the low 1800’s so you be the judge.