It's farcical to say that without modern chess theory you can't measure chess ability. Russia had a strong reputation because strong players from other countri

It's farcical to say that without modern chess theory you can't measure chess ability. Russia had a strong reputation because strong players from other countries played against Russian players and lost. Have a look at Murray's A History of Chess (1913) it mentions a few accounts of Russia's strong chess abilities significantly pre-dating positional/piece value theory.