Day 4 Recap: No Norms at the CCSCSL Invitational

The tournament is wrapping up and there won’t be any norms this year, as the GMs showed their stuff thus far, occupying the top 3 places in the cross table. The player of the event is clearly GM Georgi Kacheishvili, who has a blistering 6.5-0.5 (a GM norm with 2 rounds to go!) to lead the pack.

Irina Krush needed 3 out of 4 for a GM norm, but after a relatively quick draw with GM Diamant, fellow IM Greg Shahade was able to score a win versus Irina in round 7, as Greg’s bravery was rewarded after a blunder in time trouble. Greg sacrificed a rook, which was good enough for a draw, but Irina made the fatal move 29…Rf6? And Greg was able to win back the rook and emerge with 2 extra pawns.

Tatev Abrahamyan needed an unlikely 3-0 finish to get an IM norm, but an exciting Caro-Kann against Kacheishvili turned out badly for Tatev, as his attack crashed through before Tatev could get anything going against Georgi’s king.

IM Angelo Young continued his bad form by losing both games yet again, and he lost a heartbreaking 5 hour ending to Danny Rensch where both sides had passed pawns. Angelo does not want to finish with 0, and I expect he will be the most focused player today as the tournament wraps up.

Follow all the games live, as well as see photos, standings, and all games in pgn at www.saintlouischessclub.org.