1st She Plays To Win International

[LawrenceCooper]

Starting today at 10 am with two rounds a day, a ten player, nine round all-play-all finishing on 11th April.

https://chess-results.com/tnr612806.asp ... =1&flag=30

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... -2022#live

[A.Kluckova]

M. Van Foreest, E.Vine and A.Kueh need 7/9 for WIM norm, for everyone else is enough 6,5/9 . It will not be easy so we keep our fingers crossed .

[A.Kluckova]

After 5 rounds the leading players are WIM L. Yao with 5/5 in ECF norm event and M. Van Foreest with 4,5/5 in SPTW norm event. The norm chances ater 5 rounds have 7 players. M. Van Foreest needs 2,5/4. L.Head , M.Orlovska, A.Kueh and Y.Zhu need 3,5/4. O.Smith and A.Santeramo need 4/4 .
No photos from this event !?

[Leonard Barden]

Seems there is little chance of an English norm in either tournament, while Lan Yao is running away on 5/5. It might have been better to help her go to Reykjavik where, with a peak 2342 Fide rating, she would have had a realistic opportunity to try for a WGM norm.

[A.Kluckova]

After 6 rounds still 7 WIM norm chances. Van Foreest needs 2/3 , Kueh needs 2,5/3 . Head, Zhu, Smith, Santeramo and Orlovska need 3/3.

3 UK WIM norm chance for Head, Zhu and Smith. Zhu is 1880 with Rp 2178 and Smith is 1997 with Rp 2144 , good performance for both.

You are right, there is little chance of an English norm in either tournament. But the last WIM norm tournament was in 2013, 9 years ago, and we need to start somewhere again.

Lan Yao games did not show that she is ready for a WGM norm performance now. 4 Fide rated games under ENG flag in 2022 with result 1/4 ( 3 times lost - with 2104, 2163 , 2226 opponents ) are far from WGM norm performance .
Her pick rating 2342 is high , but still coefficient 40 effect and l think she knows it.
A coefficient 40 was not the best FIDE invention...

[LawrenceCooper]

Seems there is little chance of an English norm in either tournament, while Lan Yao is running away on 5/5. It might have been better to help her go to Reykjavik where, with a peak 2342 Fide rating, she would have had a realistic opportunity to try for a WGM norm.

After some difficult results in the 4NCL (blame her captain ) the confidence boost of this tournament may be just what was needed. Added to that, it's a tournament very close to where she lives, a chance to support her new country organising the first female norm event in England (since I stopped running mine) and she gets paid to play.

[NickFaulks]

Her pick rating 2342 is high, but still coefficient 40 effect and l think she knows it.
A coefficient 40 was not the best FIDE invention...

I'm not sure what you mean.

In August 2017 she played 18 games in Budapest tournaments, with a performance of around 2340. For juniors, this is considered sufficient for the performance to establish an official rating, using a k factor of 38.

[A.Kluckova]

Afer 7 rounds the leading players are Lan Yao with 6,5/7 and Machteld Van Foreest with 6/7.

Still 4 WIM norm chances - M.Van Foreest needs 1/2 . A.Kueh, Y.Zhu and O.Smith need 2/2.

Game L.Head - D.Vanduyfhuys confirmed that one of the hardest things in chess is to win a winning position .
L.Head reached her first WIM norm 3 years ago . She played Czech Open in Pardubice and her WIM norm performance was only 18 Fide point under WGM norm limit. Her Rp was amazing 2383. She reached not only WIM norm, she also reached her peak rating for this performance ( 2161 - August 2018). Louise was 19 years old so she played with K=20 in Pardubice. ( If K=40, her WIM norm performance in Pardubice would be amazing + 128 !! and her peak rating would be 2225). Her norm fight in London 2022 finished in round 7.

13 years old E.Karas, the youngest WIM Norm 2022 events player gained her 3rd draw and unfortunately the same as Loise she did not win the winning position.

[Matt Bridgeman]

It would be good to know about future plans regarding these events? Certainly there would be a lot of strong girls coming back in the second half of the year post GCSE and A-Levels. It would be good to have some variety of locations, i.e. a bit further north than London.

[LawrenceCooper]

Game L.Head - D.Vanduyfhuys confirmed that one of the hardest things in chess is to win a winning position .
L.Head reached her first WIM norm 3 years ago . She played Czech Open in Pardubice and her WIM norm performance was only 18 Fide point under WGM norm limit. Her Rp was amazing 2383. She reached not only WIM norm, she also reached her peak rating for this performance ( 2161 - August 2018). Louise was 19 years old so she played with K=20 in Pardubice. ( If K=40, her WIM norm performance in Pardubice would be amazing + 128 !! and her peak rating would be 2225). Her norm fight in London 2022 finished in round 7.

She was close to 4/5 (She won rounds 2-4) but made a frustrating blunder that can impact future rounds. Round 6 was probably a half saved after missing a tactic when pressing and round 7 she avoided a draw but then made a mistake. She has been playing well but there are fine margins between success and failure especially with two rounds a day. When you are aiming for 6.5/9 you have to take risks and fight in virtually all the games. Her time will come, but sadly it won't now be in this tournament.

[LawrenceCooper]

It would be good to know about future plans regarding these events? Certainly there would be a lot of strong girls coming back in the second half of the year post GCSE and A-Levels. It would be good to have some variety of locations, i.e. a bit further north than London.

Hopefully there will be more events. In terms of location they have a very decently priced venue (especially for London) so it may be for others to find suitable venues elsewhere. For norm events in general we seem to have Adam Raoof (and now Aga & Lorin) in the south, Tim Wall in the north and the occasional one from me in the Midlands. The 4NCL may be another possibility, they do move around the country a bit more.

[A.Kluckova]

After 8 rounds we know much more .

WIM norm reached Machteld Van Foreest , she needs tomorrow 0/1.
Last 3 norm candidates O.Smith, Y.Zhu and A.Kueh lost their WIM norm chances in round 8. O.Smith and Yaoyao (seeds 9 and 10) - both lost their norm chances in the winning positions.

The winner of the ECF norm event is Lan Yao . And the winner of SPTW norm event we will know tomorrow.

20 strong woman chess players including juniors and seniors were together for 5 days in London. 90 online games, many new experiences, new goals , new friendships and also one new WIM norm. Successful start.