Azarov wins Washington, Sevian scores norm

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Samuel Sevian is trying to become the first US player to become a grandmaster before fourteen

For 13-year-old Sevian, it would bring him just a breath away from becoming the youngest US player gain the grandmaster title (he would still need to make the rating requirement), whereas for 15-year-old Chandra, he would become the poster boy of Obama's mantra "Yes, you can", as he too became a grandmaster when just five years ago he had been rated just over... 1500 Elo!

15-year-old Akshat Chandra is only one norm away from the GM title, yet five years ago
was rated just over 1500 Elo

The A section tournament had a strong field with a median rating of 2400 with 53 players in it, and was won by GM Sergei Azarov (BLR) with a score of 7.0/9 who took home the $4000 first place prize. A full point behind the winner, six players tied for second with 6.0/9: GM Yaroslav Zherebukh, GM Ioan Cristian Chirila, IM Akshat Chandra, IM Samuel Sevian, IM Levan Bregadze, and IM Justin Sarkar.

IM Jeffery Xiong finished with 5.5/9

Both IM Samuel Sevian and IM Akshat Chandra raced to their dreams and as fate would have it, the two met in the last round with a draw being sufficient for Sevian for the norm, while Chandra, playing black, needed a win as the average rating of his opponents was two Elo short.

Those future GMs start young. Very young.

Their encounter ended in a draw and Sevian scored a vital third norm, needing only to reach 2500 Elo to secure the title. For Chandra, it means he will need to try again, despite an ever-so-close result.

The dramatic last round game in which an early shake of the hands was out of the question

Final standings "A" Section

Rk	Name	Rtg	Pts
1	GM Sergei Azarov	2635	7.0
2	GM Yaroslav Zherebukh	2625	6.0
3	GM Ioan Cristian Chirila	2515	6.0
4	IM Akshat Chandra	2472	6.0
5	IM Samuel Sevian	2454	6.0
6	IM Levan Bregadze	2435	6.0
7	IM Justin Sarkar	2399	6.0
8	GM Illya Nyzhnyk	2639	5.5
9	GM Oliver A Barbosa	2551	5.5
10	GM Kayden W Troff	2514	5.5
11	GM Bryan G Smith	2478	5.5
12	IM Darwin Yang	2478	5.5
13	IM Jeffery Xiong	2442	5.5
14	IM Michael A Mulyar	2411	5.5
15	GM Fidel Corrales Jimenez	2566	5.0
16	GM Gi Margvelashvili	2556	5.0
17	GM Mark C Paragua	2487	5.0
18	IM Nikolay Andrianov	2417	5.0
19	IM Keaton Kiewra	2392	5.0
20	FM Seth Homa	2378	5.0

To their credit, the organizers kept a steady flow of results, games and pictures at both their website and Facebook page. They are to be commended.

Pictures from the official Facebook page

Links

You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.

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Albert Silver Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.