MI Marius Deuer (Germany) (PHOTOGRAPH: David Llada)
In chess, a “norm” is an official recognition that certifies that a player has competed with master-level performance in a tournament. The attainment of three norms culminates in the title of master. In our slang, a “normando” is one who achieves one of these prized marks. Chess players travel the world in search of them, facing opponents of the highest level. And, if there is a tournament in Europe especially fertile in the achievement of norms, that is, without doubt, the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament.
Achieving a master standard is one of the most demanding challenges in competitive chess. It is not enough to play well: it is necessary to maintain an exceptional level throughout a tournament, with no margin for error. In addition to a deep knowledge of the game-science, great mental strength is needed.
In addition, the rules can only be obtained in tournaments that meet the strict requirements of the International Federation (FIDE). Among them, a certain Elo average -which guarantees competitive difficulty- and the presence of “flags”, that is, players of different nationalities to avoid any possibility of rigging. These conditions are necessary to reach the standards of FIDE Master (FM), International Master (IM) and the most coveted title: Grandmaster (GM).
Alua Nurman (Kazakhstan) (PHOTOGRAPH: David Llada)
So far, with one round left to finish the tournament, the VI El Llobregat Open Chess Tournament has already obtained 12 international norms. The rules have been: 4 grandmaster rules (Marius Deuer, Zhang Di, Shain Valiyev and Pavel Jirasek), 2 international master rules (Alex Villa and Erdene Baasansuren), 2 female grandmaster rules (Umida Omonova and Guldona Karimova) and one female international master (Madinabonu Khalilova).
Álex Villa Tornero, sponsored by El Llobregat Open Chess Tournament, new International Master (PHOTO: David Llada)
For the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament is a reason of special satisfaction the achievement of Álex Villa’s norm, who thanks to this also gets the title of international chess master. Villa, at 15 years old, is a young talent who already accumulates great merits, such as having been runner-up of Europe U-16 in Chess Problem Solving and 3rd classified of the world U-12 in Chess Problem Solving, among other milestones. El Llobregat has been sponsoring Álex Villa for five years, so every achievement of the young chess player is received with enthusiasm by the whole team that makes up the organization of the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament. 
Pablo Rodríguez, Director of artificial intelligence at Google, ringing the traditional bell of the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament (PHOTO: David Llada).
The traditional ringing of the bell that starts the games has corresponded, in this round 9, to Pablo Rodriguez, Director of artificial intelligence of Google, who has honored us with his visit. GM Michal Krasenkow also rang the bell.
In sports, they lead with 7 points: Pranesh, Bharath, Deuer and Seemann. They are followed by up to 8 players with 6 points, so there may be a turnaround in the final standings. Fire on the board!
https://s1.chess-results.com/tnr1149162.aspx?lan=2&art=1&rd=9&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
In Group B, Joana Ros and Elsultan Kaliakhmet lead with 6.5 points, followed by Routray Lavyaajyoti and Daniel Santos, both with 6.
https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1223188.aspx?lan=2&art=1&rd=9&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
Umida Omonova (Ukraine) (PHOTOGRAPH: David Llada)
For fans of the history of the sport, we will be unveiling in these chronicles the milestones achieved by the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament in the five previous editions:
- Best open held in Spain in the 2022 and 2023 editions, as certified by the Consejo Superior de Deportes and the FEDA (Spanish Chess Federation).
- We had more than one thousand participants; 50% international graduates.
- An average of 45 countries are represented at each edition.
- EL LLOBREGAT played: Gukesh, Narayanan, Abdusattorov, Mateusz Bartel, Erijaisi, Muraliu Karthikeyan, Puranik, Alvar Alonso, Maxime Lagarde, Kulkarni Bhakti, Mobina Alinasab, Rakshitta Ravi, Savitha Shri Baskar, Privanka Nutakki, Jaime Santos, Sara Khadem, Sabrina Vega, Lucas Van Foreest, Francisco Vallejo, Yangyi Yu, Ivan Cheparinov, Vladimir Fedoseev, Kiriil Alekseenko, Jaime Santos, Ponomariov, Amin Tabatabaei, Matthias Bluebaum, Vahap Sanal, Antoaneta Stefanova, Hans Niemann, Alain Pichot, Fernando Peralta… and so on up to more than a hundred grandmasters.
- In 2024, female participation was 17% (FIDE average is 11%; Spanish 6%; Catalan 7%).
- MI and MF participants have been able to obtain 47 higher master’s certificates.
- In 2024 we broadcast from 63 electronic boards and 12 cameras; 40,762 users from 40 countries connected to elllobregat.com/openchess, with a total of 71,515 pages served. On YouTube, the videos generated during the tournament totaled 415,892 views.
We would like to thank our sponsors: El Llobregat (magazine), Ajuntament de Sant Boi, Generalitat de Catalunya, Aigües de Barcelona and Diputació de Barcelona, without whose invaluable help an event of this magnitude would not be possible.
You can follow the games (from 4 p.m. onwards) daily on the web: https://www.elllobregat.com
