The 2023 New York Winter Invitationals were held from January 12-16, 2023. Returning to the Hilton Garden Inn Midtown Park Avenue hotel, it was organized by IO Keith Espinosa and IM Aleksandr Ostrovskiy.
This was the seventh event in the series that began in November 2021! The Labor Day 2022 event was held at the Marshall Chess Club, while the November 2022 tourney was contested in Long Island City.
The January 2023 event featured two sections, GM A and GM B, where players could earn GM or IM norms. The IM C and IM D sections allowed players to earn IM norms — and we nearly had a WGM norm, too.
Norms Aplenty
Five players earned IM norms:
-
- FM Nico Chasin (USA) in GM A (5th!)
- FM Pijus Stremavicius (LTU) in GM A (2nd)
- FM Vincent Tsay (USA) in GM B (3rd)
- CM (now FM) Brewington Hardaway (USA) in IM C (1st)
- Grant Xu (USA) in IM D (1st)
More Info
You can find more information on the event website. Results, standings, and downloadable games can be found on Chess Results.
National Arbiter Sunny Yang offered me valuable assistance during the event; the newly-turned 18-year-old is the biggest rising star among TDs on the East Coast, and maybe beyond. I was happy to award him a FIDE Arbiter (FA) norm for his performance.
Sunny also recently became an ANTD, and I expect him to achieve NTD at some point in 2023, which would make him one of the youngest ever.
On a Personal Note
The 2023 New York Winter Invitationals made 7/7 times I served as Chief Arbiter of the NYC Invitationals series…but I’m not sure when I will do so again.
I’ve relinquished CA duties for awhile as I have a large number of classes and private lessons I’m not willing to give up during the school year. FIDE Arbiter Greg Keener will ably lead the next four events, at least.
In addition to the five IM norms and Sunny’s FA norm, one more norm was achieved — my final International Arbiter (IA) norm. I’m not sure for which FIDE Council meeting my application will be reviewed, but I should receive my IA title sometime later this year.
For more information on future NYC Invitationals, check out the NYC Chess Norms site.
