A norm in chess is a high level of performance in a chess tournament. [1] The level of performance is typically measured in tournament performance rating above a certain threshold (for instance, 2600 for GM norm), and there is a requirement on the level of tournament, for instance by a prescribed minimal number of participants of given title/level one meets. Several norms are among the requirements to receive a title such as Grandmaster from FIDE.
To qualify for the title of Grandmaster (GM) of chess, a title awarded by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, a player must achieve three or more grandmaster norms in events covering a minimum of 27 games. Norms can only be gained in tournaments that fulfill FIDE's strict criteria: for instance, the entry must include at least three GM titled players from different countries playing over a minimum of nine rounds with not less than 120 minutes thinking time per round. There are a number of other more minor stipulations, such as that an International Arbiter must be officiating the event.
The norm seeker must achieve a tournament performance rating (TPR) of at least 2600 to qualify.
FIDE publishes the current title regulations on its website. [2]
There are also less strict norm requirements for the titles of International Master (IM), Woman International Master (WIM), and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). [2]
In March 2009, the United States Chess Federation introduced its own title system. This system requires five norms in order to achieve titles at seven different levels, ranking from "Life Senior Master" down to "4th category". The requirements for these norms are less strict than those for FIDE norms.
Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the title can be revoked for cheating.
International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded on 26 March 1951 as a new appearance of the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the Internationaler Fernschachbund (IFSB), founded on 2 December 1928.
Ray Robson is an American chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2010. Robson fulfilled the requirements for the title in 2009 at the age of 14 years, 11 months and 16 days, making him the youngest ever United States Grandmaster at the time.
Lone Pine International was a series of chess tournaments held annually in March or April from 1971 through 1981 in Lone Pine, California. The tournaments were formally known as the Louis D. Statham Masters, named after sponsor Louis D. Statham (1907–1983), an engineer and millionaire inventor of medical instruments who was also a Los Angeles based chess aficionado. The events were seven- to ten-round Swiss system tournaments, with entrance requirements that made them the strongest recurring Swiss tournaments in the U.S. in the 1980s. Grandmaster Isaac Kashdan served as the tournament director.
Ju Wenjun is a Chinese chess grandmaster. She is the current Women's World Chess Champion. In March 2017 she became the fifth woman to achieve a rating of 2600. She is a four-time Women's World Chess Champion, having won the title in May 2018. She then defended her title in November 2018, 2020, and 2023.
Pontus Carlsson is a Swedish chess grandmaster.
A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most prestigious of which is Grandmaster; many national chess federations also grant titles such as "National Master". More broadly, the term "master" can refer to any highly skilled chess player.
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and norms. Once awarded, titles are held for life except in cases of fraud or cheating. Open titles may be earned by all players, while women's titles are restricted to female players. Many strong female players hold both open and women's titles. FIDE also awards titles for arbiters, organizers and trainers. Titles for correspondence chess, chess problem composition and chess problem solving are no longer administered by FIDE.
Performance rating in chess is the level a player performed at in a tournament or match based on the number of games played, their total score in those games, and the Elo ratings of their opponents. It is the Elo rating a player would have if their performance resulted in no net rating change. Due to the difficulty of computing performance rating in this manner, however, the linear method and FIDE method for calculating performance rating are in much more widespread use. With these simpler methods, only the average rating factors into the calculation instead of the rating of each individual opponent. Regardless of the method, only the total score is used to determine performance rating instead of individual game results. FIDE performance ratings are also used to determine if a player has achieved a norm for FIDE titles such as Grandmaster (GM).
Akshayraj Kore, is an Indian chess player and a Grandmaster. In 2006, he became Maharashtra's youngest International Master at the time after he won the Invitational IM Norm Round Robin Chess Tournament in Luhansk, Ukraine. In February 2013, he became India's 32nd Grandmaster.
First Saturday is a monthly chess event that has been held in Budapest, Hungary since 1992. The primary purpose of the event is to give aspiring chess players opportunities to gain FIDE title norms.
Zhansaya Abdumalik is a Kazakhstani chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster (GM). She is the first Kazakhstani woman, and the 39th woman overall, to earn the GM title. Abdumalik has a peak FIDE rating of 2505 and has been ranked as high as No. 11 in the world among women. Abdumalik has been a two-time girls' World Youth Champion as well as a girls' World Junior Champion. She is also a two-time Kazakhstani women's national champion, and has represented Kazakhstan in women's events at the Chess Olympiad, World Team Chess Championship, and the Asian Nations Chess Cup. On April 20, 2022, Zhansaya became the President of the Almaty Chess Federation.
John Michael Burke is an American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). A chess prodigy, Burke reached an Elo rating of 2601 or 2603 in September 2015, making him the youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2600 or above. However, he has consistently been rated below 2600 again since 2016, as of 2023.
Akshat Chandra is an American chess player. He started playing Chess during a visit to India in 2009 when he was nine years old. In 2015, he won the US National K-12 Championship and was also the US Junior Champion, the first time both titles were held by the same person in a single year. He earned the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in March 2017.
Abhimanyu Mishra is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he became the youngest player ever to qualify for the grandmaster title on June 30, 2021, at the age of 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days, beating Sergey Karjakin's record of 12 years and 7 months, which had stood since 2002.
Nicolas de T. Checa is an American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). He is from Dobbs Ferry, New York. A chess prodigy, he began playing competitive chess at age 7. He is the recipient of the 2020 and 2021 Samford Fellowships, an award granted to the top American chess players under 25 years old. He is the 2021 and 2022 Connecticut State Champion and an undergraduate student at Yale University.
Christopher Woojin Yoo is an American chess grandmaster. He became the youngest International Master in American history in February 2019 until surpassed by Abhimanyu Mishra later in 2019.
Luka Budisavljević is the youngest Grandmaster in the history of Serbian chess. Budisavljević fulfilled requirements for achieving highest chess title Grandmaster on 29 November 2020 when he was exactly 16 years, 10 months and 7 days old, becoming the first Serbian who managed to get such an achievement before 17th birthday.
Dinara Wagner is a Kalmyk-born German chess player. Until 2022, she played for the Chess Federation of Russia. Since 2020, she holds the title Woman Grandmaster.