My Road to IM: My First IM Norm!
Hi ChessKids! I am back, this time to share the exciting news of my first IM norm! For the IM title, you need a 2400 FIDE rating and three IM norms, which are three brilliant tournaments in which you played with a 2450+ performance rating (with some other requirements, like having five titled players in that tournament, a 2230 average field, etc.) I achieved this in the Mindsports GM tournament occurring in London between September 9-14, 2022.Game Recap
Round 1: IM Jonah Willow (2385) vs. FM Shreyas Royal (2412)
In the first round, I played a familiar rival who I had struggled against due to his excellent opening preparation. I was surprised in the Breyer by him, but once he got out of his preparation, I managed to out-play and out-maneuver him in the slow and closed line. Once I had completely outplayed him, I managed to finish it off with style!
Can you find the finishing tactic for Black?
Rxa3! and if Rxa3, I have Ne1! attacking the queen and threatening Qg2#, which cannot be stopped; he resigned a few moves later.
I was ecstatic about the victory since this was my first time beating him ever!
End of Round 1: 1/1
Round 2: FM Maciej Czopor (2415) vs. FM Shreyas Royal (2412)
Since it was two rounds a day, I wanted to save some energy and thought a solid draw would not be so bad since I had already won one game with black, and getting a draw vs. another player I had lost to before sounded like a satisfactory day.
Of course, my opponent had another plan; he played a sharp but dubious line in the Italian. Fortunately, I almost perfectly remembered all my notes and got a better endgame. It was two rooks and two extra pawns for me vs a rook, knight, and bishop for him. Two pawns and two rooks normally compensate enough for a knight and bishop. He did not blunder, so it eventually fizzled out into a draw.
End of Round 2: 1.5/2
Round 3: FM Shreyas Royal (2412) vs. GM Alexander Cherniaev (2395)
With my first white of the tournament, I felt optimistic vs. a Russian GM with some shaky openings. He played the King's Indian Defense, and I decided to play a side-line. From there, I punished his small mistakes and got a brilliant attacking position. I managed to finish it off very nicely...
Find the best move for white here and the most critical response for my opponent:
You can find the answer on move 26 for white in the game below:
I was off to a flyer! And I had no intention of stopping the exciting games, no matter the result!
End of Round 3: 2.5/3
Round 4: IM David Fitzsimons (2365) vs. FM Shreyas Royal (2412)
My opponent was coming off red-hot form after narrowly missing a GM norm by half a point. He played the Four Knights Lopez, and the position was very boring, albeit very solid for both sides. However, I was looking for chances and found a brilliant tactic!
Can you find a nice tactic to spice things up?
Rxe4! after dxe4 Qxd1 Rfxd1 Bxe2, I get brilliant compensation since I will eventually win the e4 pawn and get two pawns and a bishop for a rook which was enough to make me much better in the game.
I got good long-term compensation and was better, but my opponent defended really accurately against my two bishops, and my doubled pawns slightly hindered my chances, and with a bit of messing-up from me, it turned into a draw. I was still very satisfied nevertheless.
End of Round 4: 3/4
Me enjoying the lush gardens near the venue.
This concludes the first half of the tournament. I really hope you enjoyed reading it, ChessKids! And stay tuned for part 2!