Record seven title norms at Northumbria Masters

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(Chronicle Chess 1 September 2023)

The Northumbria Masters Chess Congress at Forest Hall Social Club, Palmersville, ended successfully this week with a total of 170 players competing for a total of £6,600 in prize money.

Remarkably, a record total of seven title norms were scored: one for the Grandmaster (GM) title and six for the International Master (IM) title. This bevy of norms exceeds all other tournaments in the UK this year put together.

This year’s congress included two Schiller team tournaments, designed to create opportunities for GM and IM norms. The GM and IM tournaments were dominated by teenagers, showing that chess is very much a young person’s game these days.

The winner of the GM tournament was 16-year-old Rajat Makkar (France). Makkar played an enterprising, attacking chess throughout, scoring an impressive 7.5/9 – exceeding the GM norm by a full point. As Makkar is still only currently a FIDE Master (the third-highest international title), his result counts for both IM and GM norms.

Thanks to sponsorship from Mark Jordan, the norm achievers shared a prize pool of £600.

Heading up the IM tournament was 15-year-old Krzysztof Raczek (Poland) with 7.5/9, a point over the IM norm. The other IM norms were scored by Borna Derakhshani (21 years old, England), Tanmay Chopra (19, India), Edvin Trost (16, Sweden) and Freddy Waldhausen Gordon (13, Scotland).

The Masters tournament (2000+ FIDE) with 28 players was won jointly by GMs Danny Gormally (Alnwick) and Gudmundur Kjartansson (Iceland) on 7/9. Leading scores: 3 Steven Jones (Basingstoke) 6.5; 4 GM Keith Arkell (Torquay) 6; 5-6 Charlie Storey (Cramlington) and Manmay Chopra (London) 5.5.

The Challengers (Under 2000 FIDE) with 51 players was won by Owen Crawford (Derby) on 7/9, followed by Ran Song (China), Jack Liu (Millfield School) and Edmond Andal (Phillipines) on 6.5. Among the players on 6 was Raj Mohindra (Forest Hall).

The Major (Under 1800 FIDE) with 27 players was won by Joel McBeath (Ashton) on 6.5, followed by Bob Kane (Edinburgh) and Will Sidney (Ireland) on 6.

The Minor (Under 1600 FIDE) with 25 players was won by Lea Tang (Hong Kong) on 7/9, ahead of Mo Fei Pham (also Hong Kong) on 6.5. Ryan Duff (Forest Hall) and Brandon Russell (Newcastle) were equal third with 6.

The Foundation tournament (Under 1400 ECF) with 15 players was won by Aaron Gifford (Newcastle) on 7.5/10, ahead of Jonathan Solomon (Forest Hall) and Daniel Sewart (Durham City) on 7.

The congress was supported financially by the English Chess Federation, The Chess Trust, John Robinson Youth Chess Trust, Mark Jordan, Friends of Chess, Northumberland Chess Association and Northumbria Junior Chess Association.