25th North American Masters

The World Amateur has been a disapointment, but the accompaning master tournament is fairly strong and may result in a norm or too.

The 9-round swiss has twenty players participating, including five grandmasters and four international masters. Untitled player Mackenzie Molner (although he has met the requirements for FIDE Master), is well on his way to a 3rd IM norm and perhaps his first GM norm. He's scored 5.0/6, including two defeats of GMs. His FIDE rating is already over 2400 so barring a complete collapse he should earn the IM title at the end of this tournament.

There's not too many swiss tournaments in the US that have norm possibilities (Philadelphia Open, Chicago Open (this year), Philadelphia International, and the World Open), so it's good to see there's another chance for norm-hunters.

25th North American Masters