Melekhina Scores IM Norm

From the North American Chess Association website: 10th North American FIDE Invitational - Final Results A week of grueling chess is finally over for both the players and the organizer. At the end of the tournament IM Angelo Young came out on top wth 7/9 followed by triple norm winner WFM Alisa Melekhina and finally in third place with FM Mehmed Pasalic. Alisa was able to pull off the feat of capturing 3 types of norms in a single tournament, even though she came in as the third lowest seat. Perhaps she was prepared greatly, perhaps she was underestimated, perhaps she is seriously underrated. I think it's all three and after taking out IM Amanov in Round 2 everyone else woke up and though - 'Uh-oh she's for real and is here to take my head off.' Alisa methodically took apart her opposition on her quest to prove her status in chess, which she did very nicely. It was a pleasure having Alisa at the tournament (and always similing, proud papa Alex) and we hope she comes back soon to continue her quest to become an IM. Mehmed was in a must win situation against FM Gauri Shankar and pushed and pushed (for 117 moves) in mutual time trouble to scrape out the win, but alas only a draw. The third norm slipped away this time. But there is always next month! Another great young lady to meet was WFM Yuanling Yuan, who despite a subpar performance kept her spirits and smiles on throughout the tournament. We hope our chess friend from the north will come back soon to continue her norm hunt. Of course we have to speak about our event champion - IM Angelo Young. Angelo's goal was to go undefeated however Alisa derailed that idea in Round 4. But Angelo still went on to take first place. All games were drawn in the final round except for Stamnov-Monokroussos which was 1F-0F. Final Standings: 1st place - (7.0/9.0) IM Young 2nd place - (6.5/9.0) WFM Melekina (WIM, WGM, and IM norms scored!) 3rd place - (6.0/9.0) FM Pasalic 4th place - (5.0/9.0) IM Amanov 5th - 6th place - (4.5/9.0) FM Stamnov FM Shankar 7th - 8th place (4.0/9.0) FM ChowIM Vishnuvardhan 9th place (2.0/9.0) WFM Yuan 10th place (1.5/9/0)FM Monokroussos (he dropped out due to illness)