24th North American Masters
Sponsored by Vince W Berry Real Estate Services
As the new year begins, so does the renewed effort of the North American Chess Association in providing opportunities for the more accomplished chess players to earn their requirements for the internationally recognized title of International Master as bestowed by FIDE, the World Chess Federation.
In the new year, in addition to a name change for the tournament to ‘The North American Masters’, our format will change to accommodate a new style for our round robin events. Beginning in January, the traditional 10 player, 9 round, round-robin event will be transformed into 6 player, double round robin events for a total of 10 rounds. All players will play against everyone twice, once with each color. We will continue to additionally organize Swiss style norm tournaments as well.
The 10 round will be divided over 2 weekends spanning two months (January and February). The dates are January 8-9-10 and February 5-6-7. There will be 1 round on Friday night, 2 rounds on Saturday, and 2 rounds on Sunday. This will allow us to maximize the capability of the local chess viewing public to come visit the event, along with more focused coverage on various Internet venues.
To start off the year we have secured a new sponsor in Vince W Berry Real Estate Services , who is graciously sponsoring the entire event. Vince W Berry has been a mainstay and well known chess figure in Illinois Chess and we are thankful that he has agreed to sponsor this well meaning event.
Our cast of masters (or characters!) includes:
- International Master Florin Felecan (USA)- earned all 3 IM norms here
- International Master Mehmed Paslic (GER) - earned all 3 IM norms here
- International Master Arjun Vishnurvardhan (IND)
- FIDE Master Robby Adamson (USA)
- FIDE Master Gauri Shankar (IND) - 1 norm earned here
- Jon L Burgess (ENG)
A score of 7/10 will be needed for an IM norm. We will be experimenting with various broadcast methods for this event which includes MonRoi. The event will also be covered by Chessdom (www.chessdom.com) as part of a promotional effort to attract players from Europe for future events.
Good Chess to All,
Sevan A. Muradian, Founder
North American Chess Association
International Arbiter and International Organizer
