The 2024 Australian Championship appears to be a race between two players/ With 8 rounds completed IM Rishi Sardana leads on 7/8, having conceded a second draw in todays round. FM Fred Litchfield is in 2nd place with 6/8, while the remaining players are on 5/8 or below. Sardana has a potentially tricky matchup in round 9, playing IM Stephen Solomon, while Litchfield is up against one of the tournament surprise packets, CM Daniel Melamed.
While Litchfield still has chances to earn an IM norm from this event, the pairings are not doing him any favours. While he has played the required number of IM's for a 9 game norm, he hasn't played the required number of titles players (only 4 at this stage, CM's not counting). if he goes for a 10 game norm he needs another IM, as well as hoping his average rating of opponents is above 2230. The other option is to drop a win (or wins) against his lowest rated opponent and hope the remaining games are enough to give him a 9 game norm/
Frederick Litchfield (2176) - Aaron James Lee (2051) [D31]
Round 2: Frederick Litchfield - Aaron Ja https://lichess.org/study/bKXC, 02.01.2024
1 comment:
On my calculations last night he can't get a 10-game norm and has to win against Melamed today, then win against Solomon, Zhang or Ryjanova and drop a win for a 9-game norm.
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