I recently played in the Virginia Senior Championship, and today I took a look at the crosstable. at the bottom there was this note:
Performances satisfying the requirements for norms are now being shown for recent events in the Total Pts column. For less recent events, it may take several weeks for the norm performances to be available.
When I checked my name, under my score was N:2. Given that I’m a Class B player, I have no idea what this is about. Can anyone tell me? Thanks for the help.
It means that your performance was one good enough to earn a category 2 (class B) norm. Five norms at a category (or a higher category) gives the player a title for that category. Since you achieved that fifth norm on 4Jul2006, you are listed as having the Second Category title. Any further N:2 norms earned are purely informational (letting you know that you scored at least a point more than a class B player would be expected to score) and are otherwise irrelevent to you. Getting 5 N:1 norms (or higher) would give you the First Category (class A) title.
N:3 or N:4 norms would indicate that you did not perform at least a point better than a class B would be expected to (but still a point better than a class C or class D, respectively). Lack of a norm would indicate either a quick-rated-only event, a less than successful performance, too few games, a field so weak that a perfect score would still not be enough for a norm, or something else.
That’s very helpful. Thanks!