Lecture on Sunday at Berkeley International

Today was the sixth round of the Berkeley International. Four rounds remain to be played, one on each day through Tuesday. Good luck to the local players hunting for norms!

Standings after round 6:

• 4.5 G.Kacheishvili
• 4.0 Z.Izoria, J.Friedel, I.Krush
  
• 3.5 L.Milman, D.Sharavdorj, D.Naroditsky, D.Rensch
  
• 3.0 J.Sarkar, D.Pruess, M.Esserman
  
• 2.5 J.Kraai, V.Bhat, B.Evans, I.Zenyuk,
  
• 2.0 D.Haessel
  
• 1.5 S.Kustar

Unofficial norm watch:

• FM Daniel Rensch has +1 against 2515 average, including 2 foreigners
• IM Irina Krush has +2 against 2419 average, including 4 foreigners
• FM Marc Esserman has 50% against 2492 average, including 2 foreigners
• FM Daniel Naroditsky has +1 against 2374 average, including 2 foreigners

(Estimate the performance after six rounds by adding 65 points to the average for +1 and 120 points for +2. Need 2451 performance for IM norm and 2601 for GM norm.)

Check out the pairings for the next round daily after 11:00pm. My fellow blogger Dana Mackenzie comments on some of the more exciting games on his chess blog.

Finally, the organizer IM David Pruess kindly asked me to spread the word of a 30 minute talk by FM Daniel Rensch on Sunday before the eighth round. The lecture begins at 1:20pm at 1581 Le Roy Avenue in Berkeley. FM Rensch presently has 3.5 out of 6 after facing three GMs and three IMs. He is well above the IM norm threshold and may even earn a GM norm. He operates American Chess Events in Phoenix, Arizona, teaching chess to kids and running scholastic tournaments. He is also a great guy whom I first met nearly 10 years ago when he was an up-and-coming teenager.