Hunting for Norms

The Las Vegas Strip facing south from Bally's.

FM Yian Liou

Congratulations to my long time student FM Yian Liou for earning his second IM norm at the 2012 North American Open in Las Vegas!  The high school sophomore scored 6.0 in nine rounds with an impressive performance rating of 2560 FIDE, good enough to share 7th place overall in the open swiss section.  He faced six higher rated opponents, including four Grandmasters, and lost just once.  Twice he held a draw versus a GM from the black side without much difficulty.  That feat alone takes nerves of steel!  Having clinched the IM norm before the final round, Yian played confidently and aggressively against an International Master to cap the eventful tournament with an exclamation mark (see game below).

• Wins: NM Viswanadha, NM T.Shaw, NM Colas, IM Yankovsky
• Draws: GM Shabalov, GM Lenderman, IM Krush, GM Gurevich
• Loss: GM Ramirez

FM Sam Sevian

Yian was not the only Bay Area junior to qualify for a valuable norm this month.  Only a week ago, FM Sam Sevian tied for first place at the 23rd Metropolitan Chess Invitational in Los Angeles.  The reigning World U12 gold medalist has become accustomed to winning tournaments, but certainly not as the lowest rated invitee!  Magically, the precocious master scored an undefeated plus-3 in a round-robin against three experienced GMs and five strong IMs, for a 2575 performance.  Days shy of his 12th birthday, Sam completed the three norms for the IM title!  He stands to become the youngest IM in American history, but narrowly missed the world record set by Ukrainian superstar Sergey Karjakin,  It would, however, be premature to call him an IM-elect until he meets the final requirement: a FIDE rating above 2400.  That appears to just be a matter of time.  Well done Sam!

• Wins: IM D.Yang, IM Yankovsky, IM Amanov
• Draws: IM Kiewra, IM Matikozyan, GM Chibuchchian, GM Ramirez, GM Khachiyan, IM V.Shen
• Loss: none

IM Norms for Liou and Sevian

11-year old Sam Sevian with coach IM Andranik Matikozyan.

A pair of popular Bay Area juniors traveled to downtown Los Angeles for the 20th Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational. Despite stiff veteran competition and long odds that became longer at the last minute, they shared first place and each earned an IM norm. Congratulations to 15-year old FM Yian Liou and 11-year old NM Sam Sevian!

The 10-player round-robin (all-play-all) featured three International Masters, four foreign players (including two of the IMs), plus a trio of talented juniors.  The competitors clashed in a grueling schedule of nine rounds over five days, each game taking up to six hours.  Originally, the organizer Ankit Gupta of Metropolitan Chess planned for a score of +4 (6.5/9) to earn one of the three norms required for the IM title.  Unfortunately, one foreign player was replaced by a lower rated one on short notice, thereby increasing the norm threshold to a very demanding +5 (7.0/9).

FM Yian Liou

Yian and Sam squared off right away in round 1, and after some adventures, they agreed to a draw.  After that, their results mirrored each other for much of the tournament.  Both found a way to score points with either color, and both won three games in a row.  Indeed, Yian and Sam finished with the same result (win or draw) against six of the other eight participants.  Both drew with top seed IM Andranik Matikozyan, who is Sam's personal coach.  Most importantly, neither lost a game.  At the end, they easily clinched norms by splitting the point in the last round. 

For my former student Yian, this was a well-deserved first IM norm after some close calls.  Bravo!  Local whizkid Sam picked up his second norm of the summer, further confirming the #1 FIDE rating in the World for U-12,  To qualify for the IM title, Yian and Sam will need to complete three norms and raise their FIDE rating to 2400.  While both broke 2400 USCF this week, their international ratings lag behind at about 2350 and 2320, respectively. 

Kesav Viswanadha

In case anyone wonders, the youngest International Master in history appears to be Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine at 11 years and 11 months.  Karjakin then became the youngest Grandmaster ever at 12 years and 7 months, and now is ranked #6 in the world.

A third Bay Area junior also left his mark.  Kudos to 12-year old Kesav Viswanadha for fighting hard against challenging opposition.  After a slow start, he finished with 50% over the last five rounds.  Kesav won one game--against second seed IM Zhanibek Amanov of Kazakhstan.  No doubt, he gained tons of experience in addition to a few rating points.

Los Angeles Norm Tournaments

Thanks to NM Ankit Gupta for sharing this news.

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Chess Club will host an IM norm invitational next month. This ten player round-robin will be the first such event in LA for five years. The nine rounds are spread out over consecutive weekends (November 12-14 and 20-21) at the California Market Center on 110 East Ninth Street in downtown LA. The time control is 40/90, G/30 with an increment of 30 seconds from move 1.

The average rating of the field is 2338 FIDE, which makes it a respectable Category 4. Players must score 6.0 out of 9 to earn an IM norm. The field includes three International Masters: Enrico Sevillano (see photo at right), Tim Taylor and Zhanibek Amanov of Kazakhstan. Most of the norm seekers are role players for the Los Angeles Vibe team in the US Chess League: Roman Yankovsky, Alexandre Kretchetov, Tatev Abrahamyan, Joel Banawa, Jouaquin Banawa, Konstantin Kavutskiy and Ankit Gupta.

Metro Club director Michael Belcher hopes to organize more international tournaments in the future. Any readers with interest in such norm tournaments in the future (either IM or GM norm tournaments) should send an e-mail with subject "METROCHESSLA" to Michael Belcher at td(at)chess(dot)com and Ankit Gupta at gupta.ankit.h(at)gmail(dot)com. You will receive more information from the Metropolitan Chess Club mailing list.