1st Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational

The second half of the 1st Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational took place this past weekend, November 20-21, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.  This was the first of what the Metropolitan Chess Club of Los Angeles hopes will be a continuing series of norm invitationals held every two months or so.  It is an ambitious undertaking, and I wish them luck.  Thanks much to the sponsors who supported this tournament:   www.chess.com, LawyerFy, Fashion Business, Inc, Betty Bottom, Hippie Chips, Jason's Wine and Spirits, and Chess Lecture.

We need more events designed to provide American players with opportunities to earn norms.  Two organizers of norm tournaments that come to mind are the American Chess Association in Illinois and SPICE at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas.

The lone female in this inaugural event, Tatev Abrahamyan, did not earn a norm.  To do so, she needed 6.0/9 but, alas, her final score was 3.5/9.  Not a good result.  I believe Abrahamyan is a much better player than her results in this tournament show - and I don't think she wasn't aiming for draws.  In 9 games she had 4 losses.  The games have been submitted to The Week in Chess and will probably be published shortly.  TWIC is great at producing reports shortly after information is submitted on a tournament. 

Two players came close to earning those coveted norms but -- You can find the final cross-table at chess.com's coverage of this tournament along with a summary of the final action and some games to play through. 

The games were viewable on chess.com throughout the tournament through the live chess function, and the last round of the tournament was broadcast on www.chess.com/tv with GM Melikset Khachiyan. For - I assume - members, you can watch the playback via the on demand function.

The games will be available on the Southern California Chess Federation home page, www.scchess.com.

Good luck for the next norm event, and here's hoping more chess femmes are invited to play in future events, and that there are many more Invitationals in Metropolitan Chess Club's future.