Northern California International Set for January 2012

With less than a month until the event, the Northern California International is shaping up to be one of the strongest tournaments recently held in the US. With the field now having ten GMs along with eighteen IMs, the competition should be extremely fierce!

Leading the event are two international stars rated over 2650 FIDE: GMs Georg Meier (Germany) and Wesley So (Philippines).  With them, along with former US Champion (and runner up the past two years) GM Yury Shulman and one of American’s top rising prospects, GM Sam Shankland (3rd in 2011 US Champs), the fight for first place should be very suspenseful!

The event will also be somewhat unique among American events for having a much larger overall percentage of high rated players than the vast majority of US events. With about half the field rated at least 2350 FIDE, heavyweight clashes should start early on, which should make the event extremely exciting from start to finish.  This will also ensure the event has a much higher average rating than most tournaments which should make norm opportunities plentiful for those pursuing them, and with the event now also having twenty one players of non-US Federation, it has reached the “Super Swiss” status.  This will completely relieve the usual requirement that so often plagues players in US events of needing to play at least four foreigners in nine rounds to be eligible for a norm.

There is still time to sign up if you would like to take part in the event.  Anyone interested should contact organizers Arun Sharma and Ted Castro.  Spending New Year’s in the San Francisco area should also make for a great experience along with the tournament.  But we are less than one month away, so plan soon if you would like to play as this is one event that no one should miss if they have the opportunity to participate!

Last year's event was dominated by GM Loek Van Wely with 8/10:

The event produced several norms, including IM norms for Holt, Yankovsky, and Naroditsky; and GM norms for Shankland, Kiewra, and Shmelov: