Wikipedia says “In order to qualify for the title of Grandmaster of chess, a title awarded by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, a player must achieve three or more grandmaster norms in events covering a minimum of 27 games”.
Numerous chess news sites, when they reported Kayden Troff’s second norm and Sam Sevian’s second norm said that three are required.
However, the “FIDE Title Regulations effective from 1 July 2013” clearly state the requirement as “Two or more norms in tournaments covering at least 27 games” (see item 1.51 in the title regulations).
So why does Wikipedia and the press say 3? Is it because as a practical matter people with only two norms cannot meet the 27 game requirement because there are almost no tournaments where you play 14 or more qualifying games, and if all you play in are tournaments with 13 or fewer games it takes three tournaments to reach 27?
In general, which do you think you should believe? The official web site of the world governing body of chess (which body creates the regulations governing award of titles), or an online general encyclopedia?
Please refer specifically to regulation B.01.1.51: “two or more norms in tournaments covering at least 27 games.”
I would be willing to bet the most common norm is a 9-game norm, as nine rounds is the minimum required for a norm tournament. However, it is possible to cover 27 games in two norms; regulation B.01.1.23b states: “For Olympiad, a title norm counts as 20 games; a title performance counts as 13 games.”
Practical matter. As Ken stated a 9-round norm is the most common with some exceptions.
I mean you could play a 13-round event that have a norm requirement of something like 8/13. You score 13/13 so that’s actually 5 games passed your norm requirement which means this is a 18-round norm (each full point past the norm requirement gets added to the number of games towards 27). Play in another tournament and get a 9-round norm, you have your 27.
So it’s possible, but there aren’t that many 13 round tournaments. And a score of 8/13 is at least an ARO of 2513 so to go 13/13 would be a tall task…
Hence why 3 norms is practical for the layman (like the media) who doesn’t understand the workings of the title system.
It may have been more possible (because they were events with more rounds than the average FIDE event these days), I doubt it was more likely, because many if not most of the participants in the interzonals were already GMs.
It was common until the late 1960s for a player to earn an international title purely from FIDE events, such as a single Interzonal tournament. Fischer, Spassky, Petrosian, Taimanov, etc. did it that way.
Very few players earned titles by earning norms until about 1970, and often they needed three.
The rules have been flexible since then. Ron Henley earned the GM title in a single (very long) international tournament in Indonesia, for example.
In addition, the FIDE QC has taken other criteria into consideration. Nona Gaprindashvili earned a highly publicized GM norm at a Lone Pine and later was granted the title on the basis of other factors, that is, being a former women’s world champion.
I also thought that some titles were simply awarded based on performance in a single tournament. Are the following true?
GM - winning world senior; gold medal on board one in an olympiad
WGM - gold medal on board one in a women’s olympiad
IM - winning world junior
FM - winning world amateur
Sevan gave the current list of titles earned by wining a single tournament, but that list has probably changed over the years. FIDE also awarded a number of titles retroactively based on a review of that player’s performances from the past. Arnie Denker got his GM title that way, I believe.
Now I’m curious about circumstances where you would need 4 norms. At first glance, 3 would seem sufficient because you have to play at least 9 games in a norm tournament (1.41a). However, there are some exceptions, such as
and
So, it looks like it is possible to earn an 8 game norm (due to a bye or forfeit) or even 7 game norms (7 round World or Continental Team). Thus, it should be possible to earn 3 norms but fall up to 6 games short of the 27 game requirement.
Has this ever happened?
I don’t see any way to get a norm with 6 or fewer games, so 4 norms should always be enough.
It’s possible also to do it in 2 norms… the requirement is 2 norms and 27 games. While possible though, highly improbable. Of course there are tournaments in Eastern Europe where the improbability becomes real possibility.
There are several ways to earn a title in continental and world tournaments. Such a title is called a “direct title.” The direct title regulations are listed in the FIDE handbook.
As noted by T. Braunlich in the articles forum, some of those direct titles are rather suspect in their validity. I don’t see how you can earn a GM norm in any event with not a single GM playing, either.