After three years since he became a candidate, Mikhail Al Antipov (Russia) achieved his IM norm at the age of 13 by having 8.5 point from 11 rounds at First Saturday International Tournament. From three continents, altogether 42 players of 13 countries (England, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, United States, Vietnam), including 14 titles holders, came to take part in Hungary's most famous chess tournament.

First Saturday is an international tournament series, organized every month (except January) since 1991. During its two decades, lots of further well-known players participated, including Sofia Polgar, Gergely Antal, Magnus Carlsen and Peter Leko. The key of its success is the integration of professional chess players from all over the world and the helpful support that one can feel from the organizer IO Laszlo Nagy and his excellent team of arbiters. Being in the middle of the vibrant city of Budapest, First Saturday provides a great opportunity for players to get relexed between rounds and for accompanists to get familiar with famous historical and cultural heritage of Hungary.

Winners of different groups:

IM V. Saravanan (IND) gained the first place of the GM group with 6.5 points out of 10, having a higher TPR than 2500, which helped him finally ranked before 3 GMs.

IM SARAVANAN, /IND/

With his new norm, CM Mikhail Al. Antipov (RUS) achieved a total performance of 2487 and won the IM group ahead of eight international title holders.

ANTIPOV, Mikhail /RUS/, 2nd IM norm

In the groups of non-title holders, 27 participants competed against each other from non-rated till candidate master level.

More info with the results of groups, photos and games are available at the tournament website: www.firstsaturday.hu which is updated daily.

The next GM-IM-ELO rating event will be from 4th until 15th December in the Hungarian chess federation, from 2011 5th of February on in the the HOTEL MEDOSZ.

Written by IA Peter Szamoskozi.