The 2012 NorCal Invitational starts tomorrow, January 2nd. It's a 9 round tournament with both GM and IM norms possible. Here is a link to the webpage with a list of the players. It's not an overly strong tournament, but there are some high quality players.

Tournament webpage: 2012 NorCal Invitational

Here are a few people I'll be following.

-GM Sam Shankland: Really blowing up lately and I think soon enough he'll be in the 2600+ club. Very curious to see how far he goes.

-IM Curtains: how can you not root for this guy?

-IM Daniel Rensch: Really like him on chess.com, provides phenomenal content

-FM Jeffrey Xiong: I see this kid regularly at the Dallas Chess Club and over the past year he has skyrocketed into arguably America's top young talent. On 11/19/2010 he was rated 2150 USCF and as of 12/30/11 is rated 2362. Over that time frame he has been multiple GM's and IM's at standard time controls. The kicker? He's 11 years old.

Last night, in round 1, there were no upsets, and only one semi-upset (an NM drew an FM). Hopefully round 2 will be a bit more exciting.

The tournament website is not very exciting either

No kidding. My initial thought when I first saw it was that it looks a lot like my 7th grade HTML project. At least it loads quickly

I do wish the games were being relayed somehow

I would have LOVED to go check this tournament out. Particularly knowing that Curtains is participating. Since I live in Southern Oregon, "Northern California" sounds extremely close. Unfortunately California is quite large, and the South Bay Area is still at best a six hour drive, and I have work

As for the lack of upsets, it was definitely a chalk round 1, but to be fair the pairings were set up for it. The SMALLEST rating difference in the first round was 212 points. That being said, though, a few more underdogs at least drawing would have been nice to see. Per the standard "expected results" ELO table, the underdogs should have managed to score about 5/29. Instead they scored 0.5/29.

Round two? At least there are three games where the lower rated player is within 100 points of the higher rated player (though 91 is the smallest difference). And two of those three players have white. So maybe there's some hope for a few surprises this time around? Collectively the underdogs project to score a 8/28. Double digits would be nice

Edit: By the way, I notice that the website states "Both GM and IM norms are possible". Does anyone know what the required scores would be for those norms?

BobJoeJim, the required scores for GM and IM norms will have to be calculated on a player-by-player basis. Required norms scores differ based on the average opposition of a player's opponents. The lower the average rating of one's opponents, the higher of a score a player needs to a achieve. In a 10-player, 9-round round robin tournament, for example, GM and IM norm scores are fixed at the outset because every player faces every other player, so the average ratings of a player's opponents are known. As long as the difference between the entire field is about 400 points or less, then the norm scores can be fixed.

In 60-player swiss style tournament like this one, it is not known which players a certain player will face since the pairings are created after every round. Because of that, norm requirements can only be calculated at the end of the tournament for each participant. One player might not get an GM norm for scoring 6.5/9 because he player lower-rated opposition, but another player could get a GM norm by scoring 6/9 because he hovered around the top boards.

I hope that wasn't overly wordy and confusing.

By the way, curtains is playing very well so far. He's currenly sitting at 3/3 and is going to play on board 1 in round 4. Last round with black he beat Alejandro Ramirez. Very impressive.

Overly wordy yes. Confusing no. I facepalmed that I'd even asked the question as soon as I noticed that the word "Swiss" was in your response. That was enough for me to get it; everything else just rubbed it in

All of which is just an overly wordy way of saying "thanks for the explanation!"

Curtains is ON FIRE right now. After 4 of 9 rounds, he's currently sitting in first place with a perfect 4/4, with his last two wins over Alejandro Ramirez and Axel Bachmann. In round 5 he'll have his hands full against GM Georg Meier who is rated 2671 FIDE. Hopefully curtains can snag a GM norm here, he's looking really strong so far.

BJJ, you're completely welcome

Wow, looks like a 50% score (2.5/5) in the last five rounds would just about guarantee a high enough performance rating for a GM norm. The average rating of his last four opponents would just have to be 2370+, which looks like a near lock based on the current top half of the field.

40% (2/5) probably wouldn't cut it, unless those five games work out to be basically against all the top rated opponents in the field.

I'd say he should just go out and beat Meier. Then he's looking golden

Go curtains! also thanks for chessvideos.tv. That was him, right?

Curtains holds the draw against Meier, despite being outrated by over 200 points, and having the black pieces!!! At 4.5/5.0, Curtains remains in sole possession of first place in the event, as the only players with 3.5 were Meier, Shulman, and Shankland, all of whom drew in round 5. With the draw, Curtains' performance rating for the event has dropped, and through five rounds is now 2852. Depending on his draws in the last four rounds, 1.5/4 may possibly be enough for a GM norm. GOGOGO!!!

Round 6 will be this evening, starting at 6:00 PM (pacific time). Pairings are yet to be announced as many games are still in progress.

This would be his second norm?

I believe yes, it would be his second norm.

PS - Curtains, if you're reading this, I *am* aware of your request that people stop talking about you making norms. Your argument makes sense as a great reason why YOU shouldn't be thinking about norms, and why you don't want people talking directly to you about your chances of making norms, or asking questions about norms, etcetera.

Regardless, though, I'm not going to stop obsessing about your chance to make norms, either in this or future events. Why? Because I'm doing it as a fan. I agree that YOU shouldn't be focused on, or even thinking about, norms. But if you do achieve a norm, regardless of what impact it does or doesn't have on your chances of actually reaching GM status, it is also just a tangible benchmark that indicates a very impressive tournament. Since I, as a fan, want to see you play well, and want to see you have good, successful, and impressive tournaments, I WILL continue to root for you to achieve GM norms in any event where they are a possibility, and to track your progress towards them. And I don't apologize for that.

As an analogy, think of a college football team ranked #1 in the BCS after eight weeks. The coach and players will always say "we're focused on our next game, our ranking doesn't mean anything to us." And that's what they should say. And what they should actually think. But fans of that team will still be looking ahead to the BCS Title Game, getting ahead of themselves, and dreaming of the future. Because that's what fans do

tl;dr summary: Go Curtains, I'm rooting for you to do well!

Georg Meier, the highest rated player in the field at 2671 FIDE, is giving away draws with the white pieces like they're candy. SM Faik Aleskerov, rated 2362, got the quick draw as black against Meier in round 6, and is now at 4.5/6. If he keeps this up he's got a solid shot at a GM norm when he's not even an IM.

Curtains has white vs. GM Shankland, playing on board 1 for the third consecutive round. Game still in progress and I'm going to bed, someone else can update the results when it's over

Looks like Shankland got the best of Curtains. Hopefully Curtains can bounce back and finish strong for a GM norm. Certainly pulling for him.

Norm Watch time! Here's a list of all the non-GMs whose performance rating is within 100 points, through six rounds, of the minimum to warrant a norm* (note that the top five on this list currently are on pace for a norm, while the rest have some catchup work to do if they are going to get there):

*If they're already an IM, then the minimum for a GM norm is 2600. If they're not an IM, then 2450 is enough for an IM norm. Assuming all other requirements are met, of course.

What's an SM? Soviet Master?

Senior Master

It's a national, rather than international, title. In the US it takes a USCF rating of 2400+ to earn, and of course is supplanted by achieving FM. I don't know what the requirement in Azerbaijan is, but I would imagine it's a moot point as he should be an FM soon* since he's over 2300 FIDE and has enough games to qualify (and if he keeps up scoring results like he's had in the first six rounds here, maybe an IM not too long after that).

*I assume he's only not listed as an FM now for paperwork reasons of some kind, unless there's something about the requirement that I don't understand.

other countries don't tend to have these loltitles, so I expect this is whatever the USCF gave him.

My friend and teammate Sam Collins is also looking for a GM norm here, he has curtains tomorrow and I am guessing he needs 1.5/2.

Yep, looks like 1.5/2 should do it. His performance rating so far is just below the target 2600, and no matter who he plays in round 9, the average rating of Curtains and that player will be <2600, so 1/2 won't cut it for a norm. I'd be shocked if 1.5/2 wasn't enough, though.

Go Curtains!

I'm rooting for you to play aggressive, sound, high-level chess!

Congratulations to Sam Shankland on winning the tourney! Very nice result! While Curtains is definitely who I was rooting for the most, because go 2+2ers LDO, I do like Shankland too, and so offer hearty kudos to him!

If my chicken-scratch spreadsheet is correct, IM Marc Arnold missed a GM norm by the slimmest of margins, with a 2597 performance rating. WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, FM Kayden Troff, and SM Faik Aleskerov do appear to have earned IM norms though.

Can anyone confirm my calculations?

That's a shame if Marc Arnold missed out on a GM norm by that slim of margin.

But like Curtains says, all he needs to do to make GM is to simply continue to play.


Marc played a great game as Black vs. Bachmann

(175) Bachmann,Axel (2560) - Arnold,Marc (2482) [B23]
Northern California International (7), 06.01.2012

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.f4 e6 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.g3 Nf6 6.Bg2 Be7 7.0-0 0-0 8.d3 Rb8 9.a4 a6 10.h3 d5 11.e5 Nd7 12.d4 f6 13.exf6 Bxf6 14.Ne2 cxd4 15.Nexd4 Nc5 16.Kh2 Bd7 17.b3 Ne4 18.Bb2 Qc7 19.Nxc6 Bxb2 20.Nxb8 Nxg3 21.Re1 Qxb8 22.Kxg3 Qxf4+ 23.Kf2 Bd4+ 24.Kf1 e5 25.c3 Qg3 26.cxd4 Bxh3 27.Ra2 e4 28.Rc2 exf3 29.Bxh3 Qxh3+ 30.Kf2 Qh4+ 31.Ke3 Re8+ 32.Kd3 Qxe1 33.Qxf3 Qe6 34.Rc5 Qe4+ 35.Qxe4 dxe4+ 36.Ke3 Re7 37.Rf5 Rf7 38.Rc5 Re7 39.Rf5 g6 40.Rf1 Rf7 41.Rc1 Kf8 42.Kxe4 Ke8 43.Rc8+ Kd7 44.Rh8 Kd6 45.d5 Re7+ 46.Kd4 Rg7 47.Rd8+ Kc7 48.Rh8 g5 49.Ke5 Re7+ 50.Kf6 Kd6 51.Kxg5 Kxd5 52.Rc8 Re3 53.Rc7 Rxb3 54.a5 Rb5 55.Kh6 Kd6 0-1

http://dotq.org/chess/games