Quest for a first GM norm – part two

My quest for a first GM norm

By Akshat Chandra

From April 4 to April 13 the Marshall Chess Club in New York organized a GM Norm Invitational tournament. It was a nine-round, ten-player round-robin, and 6.5 points were required for a GM norm, five points for an IM norm. The participants included three GMs, four IMs and one FM.

In part one of this report I described my first-round game against GM Mark Paragua, which I was able to save. After the initial nervousness and jitters had settled I was able to outplay IM Colomban Vitoux with black, but bungled the game in time trouble and had to settle for a draw. In the third round, I overcame IM Raja Panjwani, a strong IM from Canada, which put me on 2/3. In the next game against FM Bodek I was again forced to settle for a draw after bungling my winning advantage, once again due to time pressure. This was extremely frustrating, since I was ruining well-played games due to my shoddy time management. In round five I defeated Matt Herman.

Going into the break after five rounds, there were four players mathematically in contention for a GM norm – Raja Panjwani, Michael Bodek, Matthew Herman and I.

Going for the norm

In the second half, Raja Panjwani made his intentions clear with a strong win against GM Kekelidze in round six. Meanwhile, I was able to earn a full point against IM Norowitz, while Bodek and Herman drew their game against each other.

Heading into the final day with two rounds, it was Panjwani and me still in the running for a GM norm, while Bodek and Herman had a shot at an IM norm. In the eighth round I was able to overcome Igor Sorkin and moved to six points – just a half-point away from my norm (meanwhile, Panjwani played valiantly but could not get past the solid Mark Paragua, and ended up losing the game).

In the final round I achieved a draw with GM Kekelidze which allowed me to reach 6½ points. That sealed the deal and I clinched my maiden GM norm. In the meantime, Bodek played strongly against Igor Sorkin and secured his full point needed to reach the IM norm. This was Bodek’s final IM norm. Since he had earlier crossed the rating requirement of Elo 2400, henceforth he will be referred to as IM Bodek. Even though Igor Sorkin could not achieve what he set out to do, he won another kind of norm in the game of life. He was blessed with a baby boy during the break in the tournament, and achieved his first Fatherhood Norm.

Now really – does this picture need a caption?

I was thrilled to achieve my first GM norm – in the hallowed halls of the The Marshall Chess Club! I had recently returned from an excellent tournament, the UTD Spring Open FIDE in Dallas, where I played well to start off but then lost my way after an optical blunder – I overlooked a pawn, maybe because of a reflective board ;-). My game was feeling strong, and I really wanted to avoid silly mistakes. As my friend GM Daniel Naroditsky told me after the event, “the first one is the hardest.” I hope he’s right.

Thanks to the GMs for participating and giving us an opportunity to seek norms, and most importantly thanks to The Marshall Chess Club for hosting a wonderful Round Robin tournament. I hope there will be more. Remember, the NY International, hosted by the Club, begins on June 18.

Original source: USCF web site

As with another 14-year-old we recently introduced ChessBase will be providing Akshat with our basic software: ChessBase 12, Fritz 14 and Mega Database 2014. This is a reward for his first GM norm. For every further norm he can pick three titles from our ChessBase shop – anything he wants or thinks will help him in his studies.

About the author: Akshat Chandra

I'm 14-years-old and in Grade 10. I learnt chess when my family relocated to New Delhi, India, for a few years. Since I couldn’t play my regular sports of basketball and American football, I needed a new activity, and that’s when I stumbled into chess. I got pulled into it really quickly, and was fascinated by its intricacies and subtleties. I started playing in 2009, and received a FIDE rating of 1548 in January 2010. When I competitively got involved in chess I realized that at around ten years of age I’d started very late, compared to peers in US and India. The leading players in and around my age-group had started playing chess at five or six years of age, and were hundreds of Elo points above me. Whoa!

I played tournaments across India, and also in Europe. In March 2013 my family returned to the US, after which I became a regular member on the national chess circuit. I won the 2013 North American Youth Championship U18, and the SuperNationals K-9 in 2013, one of the largest chess tournaments in the world, with over 5000 players in all sections. Recently, I had a significant breakthrough, earning my first grandmaster (GM) norm (see above). It's not going to be easy to reach the coveted GM title, and it requires a lot of support and training. But like others before me who have walked the difficult road, I'll continue putting in the hard work that has got me so far in less than five years, from unrated to a 2440 IM. As famous American Football quarterback Joe Namath once said: "If you're not going all the way, then why go at all." More can be learnt about me and my quest to the GM title on my blog QuestToGM.