took first place in the just completed Spring 2022 GM/IM Norm Invitational extravaganza held at the Charlotte Chess Center by winning both the penultimate, and last rounds today while scoring six points, one half point ahead of GM Kamil Dragun and IM Raja Panjwani, who was the opponent of the young IM Guo, winner of the 2021 National Open, which was his first GM norm. (https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/2021/06/22/im-arthur-guo-wins-national-open/) Even though Arthur won the tournament he will not earn a norm because he had to garner 6 1/2 points for a norm. This makes no sense. The player wins by finishing alone in first place and he earns no norm? Go figure…that’s FIDE.
The move 21…Nxe5? was enough to lose the game but just to make sure the young boy next fired off a “Howler” when playing 22…Nf4?? A move like that when played by an older player would cause one to wonder if there had been some kind of brain infarction. Do children have brain infarction?
In the last round Arthur had the White pieces against IM Raja Panjwani, who was leading the field heading into the ultimate round.
The players traded inaccuracies around move twenty but when Raja played the weak move 31…h6? his tenuous position was teetering on the abyss. With his next move IM Panjwani let go of the rope completely…
In the second round GM Ringoir again had the black pieces and after thirty moves had what IM Boris Kogan was fond of calling, a “Beeg Pawn!” Then FM Miland Maiti
blundered horribly before doing it again…and it was on to round three.
The third round opponent was Gauri Shankar, only a FIDE Master, the kind of player a Grandmaster would usually defeat while trimming his nails, especially with having the White pieces for the first time.
Let’s give the so-called Grandmaster a break as he did have black, and everyone knows it has become virtually impossible to win with the black pieces, so why sit there all day beating a dead skunk? Surely after all the accumulated rest our Guy will come out of the gate Tan, rested, and ready for the next round, right?
In the course of the life of a Grandmaster it is inevitable that he will encounter a young whipper-snapper who will refuse a draw offer because he is only an International Master and the only way he can become a Grandmaster is by beating players like YOU!
What’s worse than a Chess Grandmaster who has just lost in the prior round and has the White army against his next opponent, especially when that opponent is a middle aged IM?
GM Tanguy Ringoir (BEL) vs IM Alexander Kaliksteyn (USA)
Armchair Warrior 