The Manx Liberty Masters, 18-26 September 2021

 The Isle of Man was originally scheduled to be the venue for this year's FIDE Grand Swiss, as it had been two years ago, but COVID-19 travel restrictions meant that the event ended up being rearranged, and it will now be played in Riga, Latvia.

However, this does not mean that the island would be completely without high-level chess this autumn, as IM Dietmar Kolbus managed to put together a ten-player all-play-all with an impressive average rating of 2531. This field meant that, for the five players in the field who were not already GMs, the norm target was a relatively low total - 5 out of 9 for Kolbus himself, and 5½ out of 9 for the other four IMs.

This opportunity was seized on by the young Romanian IM David Gavrilescu, who got off to a good start by beating Kolbus, and then remained unbeaten for the rest of the event; his two wins and seven draws were enough for both the norm and a share of third place, with his gain of 17 rating points getting him tantalisingly close to the magic 2500.

Also unbeaten, and winning the event overall, was GM Luke McShane, who scored 6½. At the other end of the table, organizer Kolbus managed the impressive feat of gaining rating points despite finishing in last place. I'm not sure that will mean a lot to him, but the International Organizer norm he obtained will.

 
Name Rating Federation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
1 GM Mcshane Luke J 2674 England * ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 6½
2 GM Piorun Kacper 2638 Poland ½ * ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 6
3 GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian 2583 Romania 0 ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 5½
4 GM Lupulescu Constantin 2660 Romania ½ 1 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 5½
5 IM Gavrilescu David 2477 Romania ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 1 5½
6 GM Erdos Viktor 2622 Hungary 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 4
7 IM Csonka Balazs 2496 Hungary ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 3½
8 IM Galyas Miklos 2448 Hungary ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 3½
9 IM Pert Richard G 2416 England 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * 1 3
10 IM Kolbus Dietmar 2295 Germany 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 * 2





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