Easter norm tournaments

cdeb

Fair play to the ICU for setting up another set of norm tournaments, this time over the Easter.

Sam and Alex are the only two IMs in the GM norm tournament, which does strike me as a little bit unusual. Sam has his three norms of course, so really a rating points gain is the only outcome he'll be targetting. He's on 2/3 so far, after playing three FMs. Probably break-even, so solid, if not spectacular. Alex is also on 2/3, recovering from losing to Colm by beating one of the GMs.

In the IM tournament, there are four FMs, though John Delaney isn't listed as such for some reason, and indeed Sodoma is an IM. Conor O'Donnell and Tom O'Gorman have both made excellent starts and stand on 2½/3; Conor has already played against (and drawn with) the only GM in the field. John has unfortunately had a nightmare start and is out of it altogether on 0/3, while Reinhold Mueller FM is on 2/3, although he's played three of the bottom four seeds.

I don't know what the norm score is in either section; maybe someone can advise?

Results - including those for the other four tournaments - are being updated on chess-results.com

Retd.LoyolaCpt

cdeb wrote: »

Fair play to the ICU for setting up another set of norm tournaments, this time over the Easter.

Sam and Alex are the only two IMs in the GM norm tournament, which does strike me as a little bit unusual. Sam has his three norms of course, so really a rating points gain is the only outcome he'll be targetting. He's on 2/3 so far, after playing three FMs. Probably break-even, so solid, if not spectacular. Alex is also on 2/3, recovering from losing to Colm by beating one of the GMs.

In the IM tournament, there are four FMs, though John Delaney isn't listed as such for some reason, and indeed Sodoma is an IM. Conor O'Donnell and Tom O'Gorman have both made excellent starts and stand on 2½/3; Conor has already played against (and drawn with) the only GM in the field. John has unfortunately had a nightmare start and is out of it altogether on 0/3, while Reinhold Mueller FM is on 2/3, although he's played three of the bottom four seeds.

I don't know what the norm score is in either section; maybe someone can advise?

Results - including those for the other four tournaments - are being updated on chess-results.com

IM score is 7 in the IM norm and 5.5 in the GM norm event, GM score is 7.

Conor and Tom both won again so are on 3.5/4. Conor has the easier run in with 3 whites and Alvaro and Reinhold left to play of the top seeds. Tom has to play both of those players too as well as Petr and Conor himself (in the last round) and only has 2 whites.

Killian lost to Gavin and Alex lost to Turner. Sam apparently just beat Simantsev with black to move to 3/4. Simantsev falls to 0.5/4. Colm is better in his game but Joe lost to Pert.

cdeb

Forgot there was IM norms on offer in the GM tournament of course.

Conor now on 4.5/5; excellent stuff, though a defeat would still really put the pressure on. Tom on 4/5 and everyone else is out of it.

Sam on 3.5 after 1.5 against GMs today; 2520 performance which will be worth a couple of points.

Longson, the English FM, needs 2.5/4 for an IM norm and has played all 3 GMs already

Retd.LoyolaCpt

Conor is now on 6.5/7 and requires 0.5/2 for his first IM norm (he has reached 2400 live previously). He plays Alvaro and Tom tomorrow.

Tom is on 5/7 after draws against GM Petr Neuman and Alvaro. He requires 2/2 tomorrow. He plays John Delaney and Conor.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

There are six players in all in the hunt for norms which is unusually high at this stage of norm events. Here's a quick breakdown:

IM Section:
Conor O'Donnell: Needs 0.5/2 - plays Alvaro (B), Tom (W)
Tom O'Gorman: Needs 2/2 - plays John Delaney (W), Conor (B)

GM Section:
Alex Lopez: Needs 2/2 - plays Sam (W), Suren (B)
Suren Poghosyan: Needs 1/2 - plays Alex Longson (B), Alex Lopez (W)
Alex Longson: Needs 2/2 - plays Suren (W), Joe (B)
Joe Ryan: Needs 2/2 - plays David (B), Alex Longson (W)

I hadn't mentioned Alex Lopez up until this message as a norm looked unlikely after round 4 when he needed to score 5/5 but he won his next 3 including a win with black again the other Alex and a win with white against the top seed, Nick Pert in round 7.

Blitz event follows the event from about 7pm tomorrow evening.

cdeb

A draw today, so Conor has his first IM norm with a round to spare. Well done!

He plays Tom in the last round, who I think needs a win to get his own norm. So that'll be an...interesting game. I presume these kind of conflicts occur reasonably regularly in norm tournaments though. (I remember playing in a tournament where a player I think got a norm, having beaten both her parents en route)

Retd.LoyolaCpt

cdeb wrote: »

A draw today, so Conor has his first IM norm with a round to spare. Well done!

He plays Tom in the last round, who I think needs a win to get his own norm. So that'll be an...interesting game. I presume these kind of conflicts occur reasonably regularly in norm tournaments though.

Yes, Conor drew with Alvaro so he's on 7/8 - he may be able to get a 10 round norm with a win in round 9. Tom will need to beat John Delaney first and then beat Conor.

(1.41d "
Where a player exceeds the norm requirement by one or more full points, then these full points count as additional number of games when computing the total number of games for the norm achieved." is the rule I had in mind)

Alex lopez has just beaten Sam so needs to win his last game for his first GM norm. He plays a 2250 FM in round 9 - although that player is on 4/7 with 5 being his IM score (although he has enough norms already).

cdeb

So what's the difference between a 9-round and 10-round norm?

(I should point out that I don't necessarily expect Conor to throw the game or anything - but the temptation to help Tom, if Tom beats John, has to be somewhere in mind)

Edit - also, it'd be some achievement for Alex to get a norm, having started on 2/4!

eclipsechaser

cdeb wrote: »

So what's the difference between a 9-round and 10-round norm?

(I should point out that I don't necessarily expect Conor to throw the game or anything - but the temptation to help Tom, if Tom beats John, has to be somewhere in mind)

Edit - also, it'd be some achievement for Alex to get a norm, having started on 2/4!

There are 7 round norms. So if Conor got a 10 round norm here and repeated that again, he could fulfil the 27 games by playing a 7 round norm event rather than necessarily being required to play a 9 round event.

Tim Harding

eclipsechaser wrote: »

There are 7 round norms. So if Conor got a 10 round norm here and repeated that again, he could fulfil the 27 games by playing a 7 round norm event rather than necessarily being required to play a 9 round event.

But apart from the European Club Cup (which Conor might well play later this year) there are not many 7-round norm events so practically it might make no difference.

On the other hand we certainly don't want to see Conor make it easy for Tom who will have many more norm opportunities in future and whose main objective should be to get his rating back above 2300.

Alex Lopez's run of eight decisive results is impressive, especially winning yesterday against Nick Pert's speciality, the Slav Defence.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

GM norm for Alex Lopez after a tense finish. 5 straight wins took him to 7/9.

IM norms for Conor O'Donnell and Suren Poghosyan (Alex's final round opponent).

sodacat11

Congrats to Alex and Conor on their fine achievements!!
The ICU also deserves praise for what was a great festival of chess, very well run and in a lovely venue.
Round robins are, in my opinion, by far the fairest and most enjoyable type of tournament. Since the format was dropped by Drogheda we (below 2200 players)very seldom get the chance to play in such events. It is great when everyone in the field is capable of beating everyone else and everyone gets to play exactly the same opponents. I hope the ICU and other organisers will run more of such events in the future.