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Hikaru Nakamura
earns his second
Grandmaster norm
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(December 2002)
Fourteen year old IM Hikaru Nakamura of White Plains, NY has just
earned a Grandmaster norm in the Los Inmortales IV (Copa Nazir Atallah) tournament, November 29 - December 5 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Nakamura tied for
Second place in the 9-round 142-player Swiss-System, along with GMs Fridman(LAT-2577), Svidler(RUS-2690), and Volkov(RUS-2648).
The tournament was won by GM Khenkin(GER-2598) with 7.5-1.5.
To show the strength of the field, GM Nigel Short (ENG-2682),
a former world championship challenger, finished tied for sixth at 6.5-2.5.
Nakamura(USA-2504) qualified by scoring 7-2 against a Category 9 field (only 6.5 points were needed for the norm).
His performance rating for the event was over 2650. After losing to super-GM Peter Svidler,
a recent world championship challenger, in round 4,
and to GM Volkov in round 5, he showed
his class by winning his last four games, finishing with an upset of GM Tkachiev(FRA-2632).
His victims also included GMs Milov(SUI-2615) and Oratovsky(ISR-2567).
Games. Hikaru's last two games were carried live on ICC. His 8th round game against GM Oratovsky featured a
sudden finish using a classic mating pattern. Solve the final position
here.
Play the game over
here.
See Hikaru's last round win over Tkachiev
here.
For all the results and more games, see the Los Inmortales IV website.
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About the GM Norm. To win the title of Grandmaster, you must achieve results at officially
determined levels in FIDE-sanctioned tournaments.
FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs)
is the governing body of world chess,
and the sole recognized agent for the conferring of International chess titles.
In each FIDE tournament, scoring standards are set for IM (International Master) and
GM (Grandmaster) based on the tournament "Category",
which in turn is based on the
average FIDE rating of the opponents faced.
A player who meets the standard is said to have earned a "norm" for that title.
The title is conferred upon obtaining two or more norms in tournaments totaling 27 games (recently changed from 24)
and reaching a certain ratings level (2400 for IM and 2500 for GM).
See a complete description of title regulations here.
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Articles about Hikaru.
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