Can we have some of Adus games here and analze them. Its good for our players to beat more of the GMS to get the needed norms.

http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/?p=94

Yep… those ideas have been discussed ever since the Wilbert Paige Memorial tournament in 2001. GM-elect Pontus Carlsson has expressed interest in playing in the U.S. and if you have GM-elect Amon Simutowe, GM Maurice Ashley, IM Stephen Muhammad, IM Emory Tate and IM Robert Gwaze, that would be quite a field in a double round-robin. The only problem is the rating category would be low meaning that the IMs have to get an incredible score for a GM norm.

I was actually organizing a 32-player tournament with six GMs (including Ashley) a couple of years ago. It was a Swiss format and the Pan-African field included the strongest players from Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. This was ideal and I could probably get GMs to commit, but of I deferred to Ashley’s HB Global Chess Challenge. The Wilbert Paige Memorial featured 10 of the strongest Black players and was a historic event. We need to organize more events like this if our most talented are to have opportunities for improvement.

Just in case you do not know what I mean by credible tournaments you probably want to look no further that FIDE vice president himself Azmaiparashvilli’s (some call him Asbo-parashvili )very famous victory at the Macedonian town of Strumica in 1995.You can google Azmaiparashvilli Strumica for yourself.Anyway here is what happened;
In a four player sextuple round robin, the scores were:
Azmaiparashvili 16/18
Kutirov 11.5/18
Kurajica 4.5/18
Rashkovsky 4/18
Azmai went from 2610 to 2660 – quite a huge jump for one rating list and susequently qualified for a future tournament with a high rating pre-requisite after achieving that “success”.
Kutirov,got the IM AND GM titles, of course he had a huge leap in rating too after Strumica. I checked his rating today and its listed as 2372 .He went from 2330 in late 1994 to 2525 in mid-1996,somebody wonders what has happened to his strength i’m sure.
I am not sure if anyone has ever suggested the FIDE ethics committee look at this.

And I recall yet another dubbed “Memorial Heroes of Chernobyl” supposedly held in Óity a Slavutich, Ukraine. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2366

Daaim,how about taking four players from Africa and organize a “Strumica type “of tournament??

“Every grandmaster should try to organise a tournament at some time in their life”——Artur Yusupov.

Unfortunately, the chess-results.com site never posted the games of rounds 8-9. Which game are you referring to?

If you are reading my previous comments, you would see that we are in agreement on the granting of titles. I am more of a proponent of requiring three norms rather than getting a title in one tournament. However, if they keep the ruling of earning titles at the continental level (and at age-based tournaments), there needs to be a minimum standard of competition.

Simutowe has the title of IM, but is now officially GM-elect. He has played in many of the top tournaments in Europe and the U.S. and has performed at a good standard. However, norms are tricky things. To score 7.5/9 in Bad Worishofen and not get a GM norm is one of those unfortunate instances. In the past four years, Simutowe had failed to make GM standard for a number of different reasons. Not the least that he had spent most of the last four years studying intensely at the university and not focusing 100% on chess. Gwaze simply has not played in two years and has served primarily as a trainer.

I’m not sure what you mean by credible tournaments. People vying for GM titles do not all play at the elite tournaments you’ve mentioned. There are many closed tournament that are held for the purposes of earning norms. Do you think all top players of today earned their norms at top tournaments? Some of them are held locally and they fly in GMs and give them conditions to play. If you have a GM norm tournament and it is approved by FIDE, you are considered “tested” if you’ve met minimum standards for the norm category. It’s a very tricky business… especially in Swiss formats.

I agree in smaller federations one does not always have a luxury of attending the high profile Open tournaments we listed earlier but hey ,the titles in the end are recognized at world level .The FIDE rules need an ammendment on that one,hope someone brings it up at next congress.If something is not done we will keep on producing titled players with ridicolous ratings thereby demeaning the value of International titles.
You also mention that Gwaze and Simutowe are GM material, hmmn , I personally see them as potential GMs
though they still have to prove themselves at more credible tournaments .They rightly play at IM level evidenced for example by 7 or so Strong Open tournaments Simutowe has participated in the last 7 years on each occassion failing to make the GM norm standard but making a strong case for IM standard e.g at Bad Worishofen 2001 http://www.thechessdrum.net/palview/Sprenger-Simutowe.htm (Good tournament that Amon!!).Gwaze has also balked in strong open events too e.g Coventry International 2005 and British Championships.Whether monetary resources allow or we keep on producing artificial titled players is certainly moot.
Its never easy for pacesetters but next generation will always be better.

“Faith is a higher faculty than reason.” — Henry Christopher Bailey