Chess tradition was highlighted by the 1914 international tournament, in which the title "Grandmaster" was first formally conferred by Russian Tsar Nicholas II to five players: Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall, and which the Tsar had partially funded.
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He tied for 10-11th at Cambridge Springs 1904 (won by Frank James Marshall), won Manhattan Chess Club Championship in 1905/06, tied for 2nd-3rd with Marshall, behind Eugene Delmar, at New York 1906, took 3rd at Trenton Falls 1906 (Quadrangular, Emanuel Lasker won), and tied for 7-8th at New York 1916 (Rice tournament, José Raúl Capablanca won).
He tied for ninth/tenth at New York 1911 (Marshall won), tied for fifth/sixth at New York 1914 (Edward Lasker won), tied for seventh/eighth at New York 1915 (José Raúl Capablanca, tied for 10–11th at New York 1916 (Capablanca won), took fourth at New York 1921 (Quadrangular), and took 11th at Lake Hopatcong 1923 (the ninth American Chess Congress, Marshall and Abraham Kupchik won).
J. R. Capablanca, who had experimented with different forms of chess in the 1920s, found the game "remarkably interesting", and a four-game match was held with G. Maróczy on 22–26 April 1929 at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London.
Helms helped to organize the great international grandmaster events of New York 1924 (won by Emanuel Lasker) and New York 1927 (won by José Raúl Capablanca), which are among the most important tournaments ever staged.
In that year, he also shared 1st with Richard Réti in Amsterdam, took ninth in Hastings (José Raúl Capablanca won), tied for third-fourth in Scheveningen, won in Amsterdam, and tied for second-third in Amsterdam.
He finished fourth in the very strong St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament, behind only World Champion Lasker and future World Champions José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, and ahead of Marshall, Ossip Bernstein, Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch, Blackburne, Janowski, and Gunsberg.