Preparation has begun for the Spring Chicago FIDE Invitational!

One ends and another begins.

Out of the ashes another will rise.

Ok there are a million of these I could say! But let's talk about the Spring Chicago FIDE Invitational.

Right now I am planning on having 3 Groups - 2 GM norm groups and 1 IM norm group! Big change - from 10 players to 30 players!

Not all invitations have been sent but some have and some preliminary acceptances have been received.

Group A - 6/9 for GM norm; average rating - 2490

GM Yury Shulman (USA) - FIDE 2581
GM Vitali Golod (ISR) - FIDE 2577
GM Nikola Mitkov (MKD) - FIDE 2552
IM Benjamin Finegold (USA) - FIDE 2563
IM Stanislav Smetankin (BLR) - FIDE 2485
IM Josh Friedel (USA) - FIDE 2455
IM Stan Kriventsov (USA) - FIDE 2449


Group B - 7/9 for GM norm - potentially 6.5/9 for GM norm; 5/9 for IM norm; average rating - 2426

GM Victor Mikhalevski (ISR) - FIDE 2570
GM Vladimir Georgiev (MKD) - FIDE 2538
GM Dmitry Gurevich (USA) - FIDE 2503
IM Eric Lawson (CAN) - FIDE 2383
IM Angelo Young (PHI) - FIDE 2380
IM Alfonso Almeida (MEX) - FIDE 2369
IM Danny Kopec (USA) - FIDE 2362
WGM Rusudan Goletiani (USA) - FIDE 2378

Group C - 6/9 for IM Norm - no GM norms will be available; average rating - 2341

GM Miron Sher (USA) - FIDE 2431
Igor Sorkin (ISR) - FIDE 2365
Mehmed Pasalic (GER) - FIDE 2363
Robert Hess (USA) - FIDE 2328
Arjun Vishnuvardhan (IND) - FIDE 2207


More info as it comes along!

Good Chess to All,

Sevan A. Muradian