There is one round to play in the 2009 Queenstown Classic, but already a number of players have scored title norms. Canberra Junior Andrew Brown recovered from yesterdays loss to Geoff Saw to defeat WGM Anya Corke (HKG) today, and as a result registered a 9 game IM norm. He can even extend it into a 10 game norm, depending on his final round result against IM Guy West.
Good news for Victorian chess as well, with FM Igor Goldenberg and Domagoj Dragicevic both achieveing 9 game IM norms as well. Goldenberg defeated NZ FM Nic Croad to score 6.5/9, while Dragicevic lost to GM Gawain Jones, but by playing Jones, brought his field up to the level that made is prevoius 6 wins good enough for the norm. Victoria has a chance for a 3rd norm, with Sam Chow needing to defeat FM Eddie Levi for a 10 game norm. FM Geoff Saw would have also been in contention for a norm, except that his decision to take 2 half point byes at the start of the tournament leaves him with only 8 games, one short of the minimum number of games required.
And IM David Smerdon easily achieved a GM norm (exceeding it by a point), but as he already has 3, he doesn't need another one. However he has picked up 29.7 points so far, and a win tommorow will leave him just 1 point short of the 2500 rating he needs to be awarded the GM title.
Of course he also leads the tournament by a full point so he already assured of at least equal first. Full results plus links to live covereage tommorow can be found here.
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4 comments:
Wow - congratulations to everyone acheiving norms !!
I hope the Doeberl organisers are taking note that it is possible to achieve norms in open tournaments without alienating people; if you play well enough. And unless I'm mistaken Queenstown doesn't have minor divisions to draw away some of the potential 'undesirables'.
Cheers
Garrett.
David Smerdon is the face of Australian chess right now. Just an outstanding result by him in NZ, and everyone is thrilled at his success.
Great job Smurfo, you've still got lots of fans and admirers in Queensland!
Not so long ago Zong-Yuan Zhao was the face of Australian chess... I suppose times have changed, eh...
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