Metropolitan Chess, Inc. hosted an International Master norm round robin tournament on February 22nd to 26th 2012. The tournament was sponsored by California Market Center, Fashion Business, Inc, Chess.com, MonRoi, LawyerFy, the Law Offices of Steinfl & Bruno, and Betty Bottom Showroom.

This tournament is the 16th in its series and was held in Suite C1002 of the California Market Center on 110 East 9th Street, Los Angeles 90079. The tournament was organized by Ankit Gupta, FA, IO and the chief arbiter was Randy Hough, IA. The participants included: IM Zhanibek Amanov (KAZ), IM Andranik Matikozyan (ARM), IM Larry Remlinger (USA), FM Alexander Kretchetov (RUS), FM Kayden Troff (USA), FM Konstantin Kavutskiy (USA), CM Giovanni Carreto (MEX), NM Michael Bodek (USA), FM Philip Xiao Wang (USA) and Alexander King (USA). The tournament was a 10 player round-robin (all play all), with rounds scheduled as follows – 22nd: 7:00 PM, 23rd: 11:00 AM & 5:00 PM, 24th: 11:00 AM & 5:00 PM, 25th: 11:00 AM & 5:00 PM, 26th: 10:00 AM & 4:00 PM.

The tournament was won by FM Philip Xiao Wang with a score of 6.5-2.5, who also secured his third and final IM norm. His final ninth round game, which ended in a draw against fellow FIDE Master Konstantin Kavutskiy is shown below.

[Event "16th Metropolitan IM"]
[Site "Los Angeles"]
[Date "2012.02.26"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Kavutskiy, Konstantin"]
[Black "Wang, Philip Xiao"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E04"]
[WhiteElo "2315"]
[BlackElo "2372"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[EventDate "2012.02.22"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[EventCategory "3"]
[SourceDate "2012.02.24"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 Nc6 6. O-O Rb8 7. e3 b5 8. Qe2
Be7 9. Rd1 O-O 10. e4 Nb4 11. Ne1 Bb7 12. Nc3 Qe8 13. Bf4 Rc8 14. a3 Na6 15.
Nc2 c6 16. h4 Qd7 17. Ne3 Rfd8 18. Bh3 Qe8 19. Bg5 h6 20. Bxf6 Bxf6 21. e5 Be7
22. f4 Rc7 23. f5 Bf8 24. fxe6 fxe6 25. Qg4 Bc8 26. Ne4 Kh8 27. Ng2 c5 28. Nf4
Kh7 29. Nh5 Qg6 30. Nhf6+ gxf6 31. Nxf6+ Kg7 32. Nh5+ Kh7 33. Nf6+ 1/2-1/2

The tournament was also notable for NM Alexander B King, who in just a short few months has seen his rating sky-rocket from around 2100 to over 2280. Through the Metropolitan Chess FIDE Qualifier series, he earned entry into the IM norm event, and ended with a respectable final score of 4.0 out of 9.0.

Keep updated with events by Metropolitan Chess, Inc, by visiting www.metrochessla.com. You can view the complete standings from this event by visiting: http://www.metrochessla.com/schedule.php#tournament-45