Northumbria Masters, 26-30 August

 It's been a busy month for title-norm tournaments in England, and after the events in the South-East and the Midlands, it was now the opportunity of the North to see what it could do, and this arrived in the shape of the Northumbria Masters in Newcastle, organized by Tim Wall.

Unlike the previous two events, which were small tournaments with just ten players in total, this was a full chess festival; not only did it have two title-norm all-play-alls, it also had four other nine-round Swiss sections, in which a total of 191 players played.

Both the all-play-alls yielded title norms. The winners of the GM norm section are names that readers of this blog should find familiar: Conor Murphy and Ravi Haria, winners of Muswell Hill and Wood Green respectively. They both picked up GM norms; Ravi's is his third and final norm, and he just needs to get his rating up to 2500 to get the title. The other norm-seeker to get one in the section was Callum Kilpatrick, who got his final IM norm, and also went over 2400 to secure the title.

The IM norm section came down to a final-round decider between Zala Urh of Slovenia and James Moreby of England; a win for Moreby would have won him the tournament and got him an IM norm, while any other result would have given Urh those achievements. In the end, the game was drawn, and Urh got both an IM norm and a WGM norm. A very impressive achievement from someone who started the tournament as bottom seed.

Title norms were also possible from the Masters section, but nobody ended up getting one. IM Brandon Clarke won this section, half a point ahead of four GMs; the tournament's British Championship qualification place went to FM Hamish Olson, who finished equal sixth. (The two players who tied with him, Bao Ngiah Dong and Roland Bezuidhout, may or may not be eligible - if they are, they have also qualified.)



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
1 IM Haria Ravi 2440 England * 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 6½
2 FM Murphy Conor E 2382 Ireland 1 * 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 6½
3 FM Harvey Marcus R 2440 England ½ 1 * 0 1 0 1 1 ½ 1 6
4 GM Fodor Tamas Jr. 2520 Hungary ½ ½ 1 * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 5½
5 IM Wadsworth Matthew J 2416 England 0 ½ 0 ½ * 1 1 ½ 1 1 5½
6 FM Kilpatrick Callum 2381 England 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 * ½ 1 1 ½ 5
7 GM Turner Matthew J 2509 Scotland ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ * ½ ½ 1 3½
8 IM Roberson Peter T 2437 England 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ * ½ 1 3
9 GM Cherniaev Alexander 2438 Russia 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ * 0 2
10 IM Eggleston David J 2381 England 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 1 * 1½






1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
1 WIM Urh Zala 2216 Slovenia * ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 1 6½
2 FM Moreby James E 2283 England ½ * ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 6
3 FM Willow Jonah B 2396 England 0 ½ * 1 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 1 5
4
 FM Han Yichen 2307 Netherlands ½ 0 0 * ½ 1 0 1 1 1 5
5
 IM Large Peter G 2335 England ½ ½ ½ ½ * 1 0 ½ ½ 1 5
6 FM Claridge-Hansen William 2290 England 0 ½ 1 0 0 * ½ ½ 1 1 4½
7 FM Grieve Harry 2282 England 0 0 0 1 1 ½ * 1 ½ 0 4
8 IM Muir Andrew J 2259 Scotland 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 * 1 1 3½
9 FM Gourlay Iain 2342 Scotland 1 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 * ½ 3
10 IM Mckay Roderick M 2258 Scotland 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 ½ * 2½




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