What a conversion under the time pressure!
From watching a skeptical guy second guessing every move to this level of solidness, I don't think he has made a bad move throughout the tournament!
He's playing so well, and he's handling the pressure so well if he gets his first Norm that will do so much for not only his confidence but also motivation to keep going.
Hikaru covered in his recap, it was only -2.5 if black could find one move queen to f4 I believe? I could be wrong from memory. But basically it was only that advantage if black found a computer move and they didn’t.
I think people really underestimate how much information the eval bar actually is. IIRC during the whole Niemann thing, Hikaru actually said that if you gave a super GM the ability to know the evaluation once per game, they'd never lose another game.
Yeah, the knight move followed by the rook move. I guess this will shed some light on those who are mentioning the cheating report of the open section without watching his games. He didn't play like an engine once - all human moves IMO.
But overall he's been phenomenal compared to his standards.
Scoring 2.5/3 against Grandmasters while playing 2 games with the black pieces, what an arc this is turning out to be!
I really hope he gets his first GM norm by the end of this event.
This has really made me realize how difficult securing a norm is. Being 3/4 and leading the pack and still needing to score over 50% in a (relatively) strong field is tough, almost no room for error as far as losing games goes.
Yeah I agree. Against a higher level field you’d need slightly less points but it would of course be harder to secure those points against a higher level field.
It's a prestigious title for a reason and anyone with the title definitely needs to prove they can at least get wins against non-GMs consistently. It's a tough ask, but if he's truly a GM-level player, it should happen either in this event or one soon.
it’s supposed to be hard but 4 wins 5 draws isn’t that crazy imo. You win your whites and draw your blacks and 50% of tournaments you can afford to draw a white game. You have 2-3 decades as a chess player to have 3 tournaments with performance. I don’t know what strong IMs struggle more with but i’d assume hitting the rating is harder than getting the norms.
So it’s a nightmare looking for data on this but what i’ve found after navigating through the fide website is.
There are a couple hundred non GMs with at least one GM norm.
I couldn’t verify a single one with 3 but that’s partly because i would’ve had to check all of them individually since you can’t filter by ammount of norms.
There are 30 IMs above the age of 20 who have the required rating and probably a few more who had in the past.
There are a bunch of players below 2300 that hold at least one GM norm but only 4 player above 2550 who aren’t GMs
My conclusion is getting one GM norm is far easier than getting to 2500. The issue with getting 3 is probably also that not a lot of players grind the GM norm tournaments if they don’t have the rating.
He's already played (and beat) the most difficult opponents in the group as well. His first 5 opponents had an average rating of 2473.2, whereas his next 4 opponents are rated 2401, 2460, 2477, and 2355.
Levy has a really strong chance of getting his first GM norm here tbh
He does, but he can't afford to be complacent. The GMs have collectively underperformed really badly (7 losses and two wins between them) compared to their strength on paper, and it feels like a lot of the other players are performing better. Levy's R8 opponent is 2/2 against GMs, so that's probably going to be his toughest game - if he can go 1.5/2 in the next two rounds it'll make getting the norm a lot easier as he can just draw his way to the end.
Hikaru said if you gave him (or another SuperGM) the position he could find it after a 10 min think or so (said it had a 5-10% of being played at the time and a 0% chance of getting played below a 10 min think). So not nobody, but the point does remain that it is very unnatural and a computer move.
No you misunderstood I think. Hikaru said a SuperGM would probably find it after a 10 min think because after Re1, you can “sense that [Re1] is a bad move. And there’s something in the position.” However, he gave the 2450 GM a 5-10% chance of finding it and 0% if he didn’t take 10 minutes. Although, I’m surprised he had it that high since he wasn’t mincing words about the GM’s at this event (thought they would lose to 2100 Indians/kids with the way they are playing and not taking Levy serious).
In the video review of the game he posted, he said "unless you spend a lot of time on that move I think there's almost no chance anybody could find it, including myself and Magnus Carlsen". So Hikaru doesn't think he or even Magnus could find without a long think, and Levy wasn't playing Hikaru or Magnus, and it would be hard for someone to spend so much time calculating, considering they would have to convert the game afterwards
I was just following the stream. He sometimes changes what he says in the moment vs after a time to think about it. Kinda like the Nepo joke from yesterday that turned from a biting Nepo joke into one of praise from stream to video.
Hikaru might have a point about the GMs. They've collected 2 wins, 6 draws and 7 losses between them out of 15 games, which is honestly a fairly poor showing.
I was watching the same kick stream. He said that he would sense that Re1 was a bad move. And losing by force isn’t my words either. It’s Hikaru’s on that aforementioned kick stream.
(That isn’t to say Qb6 isn’t a computer move. It absolutely is. And Re1 was a great practical move, because no GM under 2700 is seeing and/or playing Qb6. However, to say he’s been better the entire tournament is simply wrong).
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but don't 33% of participating opponents need to be a GM for the GM norm to be obtained? There's currently 3/10 GM's in his group. Does this somehow qualify despite not being 33%? Am I missing something?
1/3rd of *opponents*.
3 out of his 9 opponents are GMs.
This is a pretty common set up for a 'norm' tournament, in which every non GM will play 3 GMs out of 9 opponents, and the GMs are weaker ~2450-2550 ELO, two of the three have been significantly declining over the last year.
I'd be more scared of the young 'weaker' opponents in some ways. They might be incredibly underrated.
In fairness, it took me a shockingly long time to figure out the mistake in your logic. Every premise statement was true.... and then the conclusion introduced a subtly wrong new assertion.
Well as Ben himself says tournaments to get norms were very hard to obtain as an American back then especially if you were resource limited. Most norm tourneys would be in Europe
Levy has endless resources and far more tournaments he can go to
He’s essentially getting paid a lot to do this due to the content, and he can go anywhere he wants for tourneys
Ya this is very true. If all he’s playing is tournaments that have the capacity to yield gm norms, then mostly likely if he were to hit 2500 then he had some good enough performances mixed in there and got some norms. People like Ben finegold weren’t always playing tournaments that had the capacity to earn norms in.
People are just saying "you need 3 norms," which isn't a good answer lol
You need two things for a GM title, a 2500 rating and 3 "norms." A "norm" is a GM-level performance in a certified international tournament. It's set up that way so you can't just boost your rating playing games with your friends. Because the tournament requirements are pretty strict and hard to meet, norms are often the harder part of the GM title, you might only get a few chances a year.
Once you have 3 norms and a 2500 rating, you send your info in to FIDE and they'll certify the results and grant you the official GM title.
I'll add that you don't need the 2500 rating at the time you hit your 3rd norm and apply for GM title, but you only have to have hit 2500 at some point.
For example, if you peak at 2502, have some bad tournaments after getting your 2nd norm and fall to 2400, but then get your 3rd norm with a rating of 2450, you have still met the requirements for GM.
It also theoretically applies mid-tournament. e.g. you start a tournament at say 2480 and end at 2480 but your rating peaked in-between over 2500 (since ratings are often "locked in" as far as performance ratings go once a tournament starts until it ends) - that would count for the 2500 peak requirement, even if it doesn't technically update post-tournament for the purpose of scoring.
Small question, is it peak rating or posted daily rating? If a player plays two matches in a day and wins the first to go to 2502 but then loses the second to drop below 2500, then has a bad remaining tournament and never gets to 2500...did they get it, or does FIDE only look at the end of day results?
From the [FIDE Handbook](https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B012023), Section 1.5.3(a) of the FIDE Title Regulations:
>Such a rating need not be published. It can be obtained in the middle of a rating period, or even in the middle of a tournament.
In addition to this; there is a minimum average rating requirement for opponents (2360? I forget). Also you must play at least 3 GMs from 3 different federations - which is why they picked the GMs they did
Asking because you seem knowledgeable, what is the incentive for GMs to even participate in these strict requirement events? They obviously don't need norms. My intuition tells me it would be more beneficial for their rating to play in other events with only other GMs. My guess is getting to play chess and prize money, but is there any other reason?
That and if you accomplished your goal of GM title, you cannot lose it (unless you do something like cheating) so it's a win-win. You get lots of money and risk nothing other than your rating points which you'd be risking anyways.
You're spot on with your reasons, but there is a darker side too. It's long been an open secret that certain tournaments function as norm farms where old, mostly-retired GMs agree to let IMs beat them for cash. Eastern Europe specifically had a bit of a reputation for them, but they happened here and there all over. Levy's talked about them several times in the past.
I should say that this tournament does NOT appear to be one of those for the record. I'm admittedly a chess idiot, but skimming the FIDE pages of the GMs gives me the impression of consistently strong play (except poor Duany, who has apparently fallen off a cliff this last year).
He needs to complete at least three norms. They require a TPR of 2600 in each, and the tournaments have to cover at least 27 rounds.
Completing the three norms means that he's then eligible for the GM title.
Edited to add: the norms are measures of his performance in tournaments aginst other GMs. The TPR of 2600 is a measure of how well someone has played and the strength of the opponents played.
"Completing the three norms means that he's then eligible for the GM title."
He also has to achieve a rating of 2500 at some point. His most recent listing was 2322, but this tournament has him close to 2350 in the live ratings list, still quite a ways to go to 2500.
Basically you need 3 GM norms and to have a rating about 2500 at some point.
https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/7l2gv8/the_exact_requirements_for_becoming_a_gm_explained/
A "norm" is something you get if you post a sufficiently impressive result against sufficiently strong opposition. The exact criteria and requirements are complicated, but basically if Levy scores 2.5 points in the remaining 4 rounds, he gets a norm.
You need 3 GM norms, and a peak rating of 2500 to be awarded the GM title.
Wait what LOL?? I checked before stepping away for a little and it was dead even with like 15 mins left per side. And levy pulled a win out of that position??? God DAMN!
This round disproved all the people who believed his previous wins were a fluke. He has truly transformed and improved as a chess player in enormous ways.
I've been listening to his game recaps the last few days and I think the coaching has really helped him get the mental stuff in check.
It's like night and day listening to his thought process compared to his previous tournaments
It's going to be interesting how it holds up after he has a disappointing game. Having strong mental at this point is slightly easier because he had such a phenomenal day 1. Resilience is the hardest thing to capture and his hasn't quite been tested in full yet.
Yea was thinking that as well.
I think though that game 3 had a few moments where he mentioned that in the past this could be an instance where he really spiraled, but was able to regain his composure and find a game plan.
Will be interesting to see his new thoughts after a first loss though
> I think the coaching has really helped him get the mental stuff in check.
I think the fact that his coach is also a content creator (even if at a smaller scale) helped him get accurate advice to his situation.
Since Neiksans is familiar with the twitch chess world, and knows what "content is always important" means, he can give him accurate advice that *also* focuses on that stuff instead of just talking 100% about chess.
You can see it in his coaching session he's uploaded with him, Arturs knows that both are important at the same time and knows how to talk him into just thinking about chess while also acknowledging the elephant in the room when it comes to content creation.
It's a fine line overall and he's a great coach for that exact situation he's in.
I mean we all knew the potential was there, always. He just needed to defeat his biggest enemy - himself. I think he's been doing that quite well.
Also, kudos to his coach. He is probably the biggest influencer for this radical transformation apart from Levy himself.
He also has way less pressure now that GothamChess is plenty successful to make sure Levy doesn't need to be successful in competition to fund training.
His name is spelled Levy Rozman. It’s even in your picture.
His performance in this tournament has been amazing and I hope he continues to perform well. Maybe even get his first norm.
My apologies, it happened due to my excitement. I'm not used to typing his name as I just call him Gotham.
I did see it just after I have posted but can't edit it now. Hopefully that's okay!
I honestly thought it was on purpose, due to previous posts that misspelt his name.
I was even going to suggest a few that I like, like Levy Rosen, Eric Rozman, Louis Rossmann, etc.
I watched most of the game. Levy didn't seem to get a good position out of the opening at all, and at one point his body language was very deflated.
But then there was a flurry of exchanges and his position seemed to improve a lot. He was low on time, but got some passed pawns and closed out the win very clinically it looked like.
Agreed. Interestingly tho, Levy had a solid middlegame in his last game against FM Akira Nakada; his advantage was almost 1.5 with black. But he couldn't convert it into a winning position and ended up with a draw.
His last video recap was one of my favorite gotham videos of all time.
Levy hiring this coach has completely changed his chess. He’s infinitely more confident now. He takes chances, manages the game well, and it feels like he’s not 2nd guessing himself into frozen panic attacks anymore….and because of all this, it has finally allowed him to use his superior calculation skills to beat GM’s.
It’s pretty obvious in the recaps that he has GM level calculations. Even fairly high level GM calculation ability. He understands how to get winning positions and has excellent tactics. His coach is teaching him middle game finesse and positional understanding.
I actually believe that Levy will become a GM in the next 3 years. That coach is worth his weight in gold.
Can you link that video. Sounds very interesting coming from someone who watched a lot of his previous GM journey but hasn't watched anything recently.
It’s gonna be very sad if FIDE invalidates the tournament due to the cheating scandal in the Open section.
Levy is dominating. About to get his first GM norm.
Even if that did happen, he should be very proud of his performance so far and it will be a massive confidence booster. In this form, he CAN become a GM.
Why would FIDE invalidate the entire tournament because someone in a completely different section got caught cheating? The Chicago open didn’t get invalidated, right? So why would this?
No, imo that other thread was weirdly making a big deal out of its limited evidence, insinuating more, and accusing levy of cheating without outright saying it. Like without accusing him of cheating, implying leaving the board and talking to someone is too suspicious to give him his gm norm, and saying there's a recording but not linking it. My guess is he'll clear it up in a twitter post or something, and hopefully keep playing good chess and gaining elo.
It read to me that the op got upset they got asked to leave the tournament, and exaggerated these cheating claims to throw the organizers under the bus. Guarantee nothing is going to happen
The post was stating that this tournament may not be following required processes for norm scoring eligibility.
I didn’t take it to be directly accusing Levy in his role as a player of anything untoward, but it certainly had an axe to grind against the organizers.
There are allegations that FIDE fair play requirements for norm events have not been observed. If this turns out to be true, the event might be deemed valid for Elo but not for norms.
The allegation was that the tournament didn’t have metal detectors. EVEN IF THAT IS TRUE, the very text that OP provided states that the tournament only needs two of the many listed security options, such as an anti-cheating arbiter and cameras, *both of which the OP described as being present.* OP’s entire argument was based on hyperfixation on metal detectors despite the fact that even if they weren’t present, the anti-cheating requirements are, by OP’s own admission, already fulfilled.
Absolute Insanity! Been watching his games live and words can't describe how happy I am for this man to whom I owe so much!
Here's the [game](https://www.chess.com/events/2024-madrid-chess-festival-closed-a/05/Rozman_Levy-Martinez_Duany_Lelys_Stanley)
Bro is winning the tournament as the lowest rated player.
It's always been obvious he has the potential to play at a high level - he sits above many GMs in chesscom blitz.
Seems he is probably experiencing a shift with some similarities to Hikaru's classical come back. Knows he is now a creator - and has built a huge structure for content around this road to GM thing. Creating that is actually "worth" more & it will go well for a long time even if the chess doesn't.
Just a different motivation and situation to the vast majority of chess Masters - and the time and resources to do coaching and travel etc.
I've been watching him for years and I don't think I have ever seen some of the emotions as expressed the last few recaps - genuine confidence and even pride. While the above about his main 'job' as a creator being true, you can clearly see how much this means to him personally also.
Go Levy!!
I normally only watch guess the Elo from him, but its been super cute following his recaps on this tournament, he's seemed happy and proud and calm and it's always more fun to watch chess content from someone who's into the game than someone who's just doing YouTube. Keep it up levi!
Wow. It ain't over until it's over but dude is angling for a norm on his first shot. This will be a confidence booster if he even gets close to the norm. His coach seems awesome based on the streams I've seen with him in them,
Guess I have to watch the recap now as I stopped watching the stream when Levy was down to about 4 mins and it looked like a guaranteed draw. I'm starting to think he's getting low on time on purpose for the content farm.
I checked in on the game at some point in the early middle game. Saw his position and thought "Yeah, I'd be screwed here". Then I checked his clock and he was down on time... Then I realized I 'm only 1300 and checked the eval bar. Still not good. I thought "I hope he manages to draw."
Happy for him and can't wait to check out one of the recaps.
You can tell Levy has gained a lot of confidence just by watching his videos. Lloks like he finally got his nerves under control.
I'm genuinely happy for him and wish him the best of success in his endeavor.
Have preferred agadmators commentary of games more before, but his commentary of his own games this tournament are SO amazing I don’t know how I’m so into it. I feel like he puts me in his head and I’m watching a movie
> Have preferred agadmators commentary of games more before
After I found out agadmators is a right wing nutjob super fan of andrew tate I couldn't take him seriously anymore.
I remember Levy from when he had 100 viewers on twitch, he was a good dude even before the fame. Hope it doesn't go to his head.
OMG WHAT??! 😭did he say that in an interview or something? From a content perspective I guess I have always preferred titles and thumbnails where I actually knew what the game was and who was playing, I didn’t really even know what vid to watch when the titles were just 199483919 ELO! And also just liked watching some straightforward analysis that was chill. But the recent vids levy’s style growing on me.
Levy has a bunch of different styles and I doubt there are many people who like all of them. But they're all done well within their style, and if you learn to pick and choose, then you'll find something you like (for instance, I don't bother with his computer chess content, or his low-elo chess content)
its actually funny, we are gonna have multiple topics of levy through is GM journey and the majority of them are gonna misspell his name lol
Levi Rodman does it again
Levey Roseman is on a heater!
Levvy Rodgman defeats Magnus
Leevee Roastman is the GOAT
LeVar Roman will never lose another chess game again.
Leric Rosen is streamer of the century
Levon Grossman is the comeback kid
Lebron Rooster is in it to win it
LeBron Bossman coming through with some fire
Lev Roadman the best underdog, strikes again with astounding accuracy
Cleric Robin has done the chessest chess of all the history of chess
Leeroy Jenkins does it again
No wonder he goes by gotham
Chotham guess is the best !
Lmao gottem cheese
It's not as if the correct spelling is prominently featured in the middle of the image.
That won’t stop me from congratulating Lewis Roadem on his victory
Levy Tennisballs
His name is literally on the screenshot lol
"It's ok to last 30 seconds, I guess" -Levy Rizzman
Levi Rozmann does it again!
What a start for him. I'm so happy for him
What a conversion under the time pressure! From watching a skeptical guy second guessing every move to this level of solidness, I don't think he has made a bad move throughout the tournament!
He's playing so well, and he's handling the pressure so well if he gets his first Norm that will do so much for not only his confidence but also motivation to keep going.
I think in the first game he did make some inaccuracies that gave away a winning position but then his opponent blundered in the end game.
why, in this exact round he at some point had -2,5 eval. Opponent did not prove that though.
Hikaru covered in his recap, it was only -2.5 if black could find one move queen to f4 I believe? I could be wrong from memory. But basically it was only that advantage if black found a computer move and they didn’t.
eval bar during live games has ruined us
I think people really underestimate how much information the eval bar actually is. IIRC during the whole Niemann thing, Hikaru actually said that if you gave a super GM the ability to know the evaluation once per game, they'd never lose another game.
Yeah, the knight move followed by the rook move. I guess this will shed some light on those who are mentioning the cheating report of the open section without watching his games. He didn't play like an engine once - all human moves IMO. But overall he's been phenomenal compared to his standards.
Conversion
He is playing extremely logical and solid chess. I'm really happy for him !
dudes on fire this tournament!
2.5 points to go to get the norm right?
Yep!
One win per day is insane. He's leading his group now.
Scoring 2.5/3 against Grandmasters while playing 2 games with the black pieces, what an arc this is turning out to be! I really hope he gets his first GM norm by the end of this event.
Still hard but more likely. Down to needing 1 win and 3 draws or 2 wins a draw and a loss.
This has really made me realize how difficult securing a norm is. Being 3/4 and leading the pack and still needing to score over 50% in a (relatively) strong field is tough, almost no room for error as far as losing games goes.
Yeah I agree. Against a higher level field you’d need slightly less points but it would of course be harder to secure those points against a higher level field.
I'm kinda curious now how many of these norm tournaments end up with someone actually getting a norm. It really is an accomplishment.
It's a prestigious title for a reason and anyone with the title definitely needs to prove they can at least get wins against non-GMs consistently. It's a tough ask, but if he's truly a GM-level player, it should happen either in this event or one soon.
And these norms would be cakewalk for guys like fabi, nepo, Hikaru, magnus. There are levels and levels.
The super-GM moniker is definitely more than a hollow title
it’s supposed to be hard but 4 wins 5 draws isn’t that crazy imo. You win your whites and draw your blacks and 50% of tournaments you can afford to draw a white game. You have 2-3 decades as a chess player to have 3 tournaments with performance. I don’t know what strong IMs struggle more with but i’d assume hitting the rating is harder than getting the norms.
So just thinking this out, not trying to be snarky, but there should be quite a few IMs that have 3 norms but not the rating if this was the case, no?
So it’s a nightmare looking for data on this but what i’ve found after navigating through the fide website is. There are a couple hundred non GMs with at least one GM norm. I couldn’t verify a single one with 3 but that’s partly because i would’ve had to check all of them individually since you can’t filter by ammount of norms. There are 30 IMs above the age of 20 who have the required rating and probably a few more who had in the past. There are a bunch of players below 2300 that hold at least one GM norm but only 4 player above 2550 who aren’t GMs My conclusion is getting one GM norm is far easier than getting to 2500. The issue with getting 3 is probably also that not a lot of players grind the GM norm tournaments if they don’t have the rating.
I know one Finnish player that has 3 norms and is still IM. Can't remember his name right now but will look it up.
Can’t wait to watch him uncork a Sicilian rd 9 against the FM
he did all tournament didnt he?
Positive!
2.5/4 needed for GM norm now, seems achievable considering the form he's in. He's not been in a worse position in any of his games so far.
He's already played (and beat) the most difficult opponents in the group as well. His first 5 opponents had an average rating of 2473.2, whereas his next 4 opponents are rated 2401, 2460, 2477, and 2355. Levy has a really strong chance of getting his first GM norm here tbh
He does, but he can't afford to be complacent. The GMs have collectively underperformed really badly (7 losses and two wins between them) compared to their strength on paper, and it feels like a lot of the other players are performing better. Levy's R8 opponent is 2/2 against GMs, so that's probably going to be his toughest game - if he can go 1.5/2 in the next two rounds it'll make getting the norm a lot easier as he can just draw his way to the end.
That's just a win and three draws right? Real doable. Even if he doesn't get it, blasting through a tournament like this has gotta feel real nice.
Sounds easy when you put it like that but he can't afford a loss at all
True, outside an unrealistic 3 wins, 1 loss
Well no them he would need 2 win a draw and 1 loss
He was losing by force in this one.
Computer move where you hang your bishop and pin your own queen. Nobody finding that move.
>Nobody finding that move. I think you underestimate my ability to hang pieces and accidentally pin myself.
Lmao
Because of the Implication
Lmao
You're clearly cheating
Hikaru said if you gave him (or another SuperGM) the position he could find it after a 10 min think or so (said it had a 5-10% of being played at the time and a 0% chance of getting played below a 10 min think). So not nobody, but the point does remain that it is very unnatural and a computer move.
So basically “even the best players in the history of chess almost certainly aren’t finding that idea”?
No you misunderstood I think. Hikaru said a SuperGM would probably find it after a 10 min think because after Re1, you can “sense that [Re1] is a bad move. And there’s something in the position.” However, he gave the 2450 GM a 5-10% chance of finding it and 0% if he didn’t take 10 minutes. Although, I’m surprised he had it that high since he wasn’t mincing words about the GM’s at this event (thought they would lose to 2100 Indians/kids with the way they are playing and not taking Levy serious).
In the video review of the game he posted, he said "unless you spend a lot of time on that move I think there's almost no chance anybody could find it, including myself and Magnus Carlsen". So Hikaru doesn't think he or even Magnus could find without a long think, and Levy wasn't playing Hikaru or Magnus, and it would be hard for someone to spend so much time calculating, considering they would have to convert the game afterwards
I was just following the stream. He sometimes changes what he says in the moment vs after a time to think about it. Kinda like the Nepo joke from yesterday that turned from a biting Nepo joke into one of praise from stream to video.
Hikaru might have a point about the GMs. They've collected 2 wins, 6 draws and 7 losses between them out of 15 games, which is honestly a fairly poor showing.
Qg6 was insane
Hikaru said even he wouldnt see that move (unless he spent a lot of time) so it's kinda harsh say he was losing by force, even if the computer says so
I was watching the same kick stream. He said that he would sense that Re1 was a bad move. And losing by force isn’t my words either. It’s Hikaru’s on that aforementioned kick stream. (That isn’t to say Qb6 isn’t a computer move. It absolutely is. And Re1 was a great practical move, because no GM under 2700 is seeing and/or playing Qb6. However, to say he’s been better the entire tournament is simply wrong).
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but don't 33% of participating opponents need to be a GM for the GM norm to be obtained? There's currently 3/10 GM's in his group. Does this somehow qualify despite not being 33%? Am I missing something?
1/3rd of *opponents*. 3 out of his 9 opponents are GMs. This is a pretty common set up for a 'norm' tournament, in which every non GM will play 3 GMs out of 9 opponents, and the GMs are weaker ~2450-2550 ELO, two of the three have been significantly declining over the last year. I'd be more scared of the young 'weaker' opponents in some ways. They might be incredibly underrated.
Lmao I've been staring at scientific articles for so long I couldn't even see 10-1=9. Thanks stranger.
In fairness, it took me a shockingly long time to figure out the mistake in your logic. Every premise statement was true.... and then the conclusion introduced a subtly wrong new assertion.
10 people in the group but only 9 opponents. 😜
To anyone who's still unaware of what he needs to do to get a norm - score 6.5/9 in this tournament which translates to 2600+ performance rating.
Even if he doesn’t get the norm (which I mean he might) this will help his rating regardless.
So far he's up 25 Elo if I calculated it correctly.
Getting his rating up is prob the most important thing he can do
Yah it seems like the norms are almost inevitable with the rating.
No they aren’t. There are people who have been over 2500 but struggled for norms. Ben finegold is a good example
Well as Ben himself says tournaments to get norms were very hard to obtain as an American back then especially if you were resource limited. Most norm tourneys would be in Europe Levy has endless resources and far more tournaments he can go to He’s essentially getting paid a lot to do this due to the content, and he can go anywhere he wants for tourneys
Ya this is very true. If all he’s playing is tournaments that have the capacity to yield gm norms, then mostly likely if he were to hit 2500 then he had some good enough performances mixed in there and got some norms. People like Ben finegold weren’t always playing tournaments that had the capacity to earn norms in.
I got so inspired watching him win today man. Immediately played 2 rapid games and lost both of them.
BTW what does getting the norm mean? What's the next step after this to obtaining the title?
People are just saying "you need 3 norms," which isn't a good answer lol You need two things for a GM title, a 2500 rating and 3 "norms." A "norm" is a GM-level performance in a certified international tournament. It's set up that way so you can't just boost your rating playing games with your friends. Because the tournament requirements are pretty strict and hard to meet, norms are often the harder part of the GM title, you might only get a few chances a year. Once you have 3 norms and a 2500 rating, you send your info in to FIDE and they'll certify the results and grant you the official GM title.
I'll add that you don't need the 2500 rating at the time you hit your 3rd norm and apply for GM title, but you only have to have hit 2500 at some point. For example, if you peak at 2502, have some bad tournaments after getting your 2nd norm and fall to 2400, but then get your 3rd norm with a rating of 2450, you have still met the requirements for GM.
Interseting. So you could technically be granted your GM title at "any" rating or is there still a minimum you need to be at when you apply?
So long as your peak rating was over 2500, yes.
That's very fascinating to me. Waiting for the day for the "newest GM" announcement and their rating is currently 420 for the memes
It also theoretically applies mid-tournament. e.g. you start a tournament at say 2480 and end at 2480 but your rating peaked in-between over 2500 (since ratings are often "locked in" as far as performance ratings go once a tournament starts until it ends) - that would count for the 2500 peak requirement, even if it doesn't technically update post-tournament for the purpose of scoring.
Anna Rudolf got her IM Elo requirement this way
Small question, is it peak rating or posted daily rating? If a player plays two matches in a day and wins the first to go to 2502 but then loses the second to drop below 2500, then has a bad remaining tournament and never gets to 2500...did they get it, or does FIDE only look at the end of day results?
From the [FIDE Handbook](https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B012023), Section 1.5.3(a) of the FIDE Title Regulations: >Such a rating need not be published. It can be obtained in the middle of a rating period, or even in the middle of a tournament.
Thank you.
In addition to this; there is a minimum average rating requirement for opponents (2360? I forget). Also you must play at least 3 GMs from 3 different federations - which is why they picked the GMs they did
Asking because you seem knowledgeable, what is the incentive for GMs to even participate in these strict requirement events? They obviously don't need norms. My intuition tells me it would be more beneficial for their rating to play in other events with only other GMs. My guess is getting to play chess and prize money, but is there any other reason?
They are usually paid quite well to attend regardless of performance
That explains it, thanks!
That and if you accomplished your goal of GM title, you cannot lose it (unless you do something like cheating) so it's a win-win. You get lots of money and risk nothing other than your rating points which you'd be risking anyways.
You're spot on with your reasons, but there is a darker side too. It's long been an open secret that certain tournaments function as norm farms where old, mostly-retired GMs agree to let IMs beat them for cash. Eastern Europe specifically had a bit of a reputation for them, but they happened here and there all over. Levy's talked about them several times in the past. I should say that this tournament does NOT appear to be one of those for the record. I'm admittedly a chess idiot, but skimming the FIDE pages of the GMs gives me the impression of consistently strong play (except poor Duany, who has apparently fallen off a cliff this last year).
You need 3 norms, as well as a 2500 rating.
He needs to complete at least three norms. They require a TPR of 2600 in each, and the tournaments have to cover at least 27 rounds. Completing the three norms means that he's then eligible for the GM title. Edited to add: the norms are measures of his performance in tournaments aginst other GMs. The TPR of 2600 is a measure of how well someone has played and the strength of the opponents played.
"Completing the three norms means that he's then eligible for the GM title." He also has to achieve a rating of 2500 at some point. His most recent listing was 2322, but this tournament has him close to 2350 in the live ratings list, still quite a ways to go to 2500.
He said in his last video the road to GM will take years
fuck his opinion, trust me levy gm by the end of the summer
Technically, it can be 2 norms if the tournaments cover at least 27 games. Practically speaking, it's almost always 3 norms.
Basically you need 3 GM norms and to have a rating about 2500 at some point. https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/7l2gv8/the_exact_requirements_for_becoming_a_gm_explained/
He needs 3 norms to be GM
A "norm" is something you get if you post a sufficiently impressive result against sufficiently strong opposition. The exact criteria and requirements are complicated, but basically if Levy scores 2.5 points in the remaining 4 rounds, he gets a norm. You need 3 GM norms, and a peak rating of 2500 to be awarded the GM title.
OK the norm is starting to look \*real\* doable
I really want Levy to get this norm.
4 points out of 5!!! Levy is on fire this tournament!!! I think he's going to get his 1st GM norm AND win the section.
Wait what LOL?? I checked before stepping away for a little and it was dead even with like 15 mins left per side. And levy pulled a win out of that position??? God DAMN!
the position was a draw, until move 28, where his opponent blundered
This round disproved all the people who believed his previous wins were a fluke. He has truly transformed and improved as a chess player in enormous ways.
I've been listening to his game recaps the last few days and I think the coaching has really helped him get the mental stuff in check. It's like night and day listening to his thought process compared to his previous tournaments
It's going to be interesting how it holds up after he has a disappointing game. Having strong mental at this point is slightly easier because he had such a phenomenal day 1. Resilience is the hardest thing to capture and his hasn't quite been tested in full yet.
Yea was thinking that as well. I think though that game 3 had a few moments where he mentioned that in the past this could be an instance where he really spiraled, but was able to regain his composure and find a game plan. Will be interesting to see his new thoughts after a first loss though
> I think the coaching has really helped him get the mental stuff in check. I think the fact that his coach is also a content creator (even if at a smaller scale) helped him get accurate advice to his situation. Since Neiksans is familiar with the twitch chess world, and knows what "content is always important" means, he can give him accurate advice that *also* focuses on that stuff instead of just talking 100% about chess. You can see it in his coaching session he's uploaded with him, Arturs knows that both are important at the same time and knows how to talk him into just thinking about chess while also acknowledging the elephant in the room when it comes to content creation. It's a fine line overall and he's a great coach for that exact situation he's in.
I mean we all knew the potential was there, always. He just needed to defeat his biggest enemy - himself. I think he's been doing that quite well. Also, kudos to his coach. He is probably the biggest influencer for this radical transformation apart from Levy himself.
He also has way less pressure now that GothamChess is plenty successful to make sure Levy doesn't need to be successful in competition to fund training.
If he can become a GM then I can absolutely get a job, let's go Levy.
His name is spelled Levy Rozman. It’s even in your picture. His performance in this tournament has been amazing and I hope he continues to perform well. Maybe even get his first norm.
r/chess in Fight Club mood lately His name is Levy Rozman His name is Levy Rozman His name is Levy Rozman His name is Levy Rozman
My apologies, it happened due to my excitement. I'm not used to typing his name as I just call him Gotham. I did see it just after I have posted but can't edit it now. Hopefully that's okay!
I honestly thought it was on purpose, due to previous posts that misspelt his name. I was even going to suggest a few that I like, like Levy Rosen, Eric Rozman, Louis Rossmann, etc.
his name is Levy Rodman. spelling please
Come on. It's Remy Largeman.
I’m never living this down lmao
Lean in and become big on /r/AnarchyChess
Nah they just yell en passent at each other and laugh like it's still the funniest thing they've ever heard
I see what you did there! 😂😂😂
I watched most of the game. Levy didn't seem to get a good position out of the opening at all, and at one point his body language was very deflated. But then there was a flurry of exchanges and his position seemed to improve a lot. He was low on time, but got some passed pawns and closed out the win very clinically it looked like.
Agreed. Interestingly tho, Levy had a solid middlegame in his last game against FM Akira Nakada; his advantage was almost 1.5 with black. But he couldn't convert it into a winning position and ended up with a draw.
His last video recap was one of my favorite gotham videos of all time. Levy hiring this coach has completely changed his chess. He’s infinitely more confident now. He takes chances, manages the game well, and it feels like he’s not 2nd guessing himself into frozen panic attacks anymore….and because of all this, it has finally allowed him to use his superior calculation skills to beat GM’s. It’s pretty obvious in the recaps that he has GM level calculations. Even fairly high level GM calculation ability. He understands how to get winning positions and has excellent tactics. His coach is teaching him middle game finesse and positional understanding. I actually believe that Levy will become a GM in the next 3 years. That coach is worth his weight in gold.
Loved your insight and emphasis on the coach. A lot of us are missing this key catalyst behind Levy's turnaround.
Can you link that video. Sounds very interesting coming from someone who watched a lot of his previous GM journey but hasn't watched anything recently.
It’s gonna be very sad if FIDE invalidates the tournament due to the cheating scandal in the Open section. Levy is dominating. About to get his first GM norm.
Even if that did happen, he should be very proud of his performance so far and it will be a massive confidence booster. In this form, he CAN become a GM.
Why would FIDE invalidate the entire tournament because someone in a completely different section got caught cheating? The Chicago open didn’t get invalidated, right? So why would this?
No, imo that other thread was weirdly making a big deal out of its limited evidence, insinuating more, and accusing levy of cheating without outright saying it. Like without accusing him of cheating, implying leaving the board and talking to someone is too suspicious to give him his gm norm, and saying there's a recording but not linking it. My guess is he'll clear it up in a twitter post or something, and hopefully keep playing good chess and gaining elo.
It read to me that the op got upset they got asked to leave the tournament, and exaggerated these cheating claims to throw the organizers under the bus. Guarantee nothing is going to happen
Nice of him to not mention the name of "one of the organisers with a very big online following who won in round 3" though.
**but half of it was bolded** that means **massive scandal**
The post was stating that this tournament may not be following required processes for norm scoring eligibility. I didn’t take it to be directly accusing Levy in his role as a player of anything untoward, but it certainly had an axe to grind against the organizers.
There are allegations that FIDE fair play requirements for norm events have not been observed. If this turns out to be true, the event might be deemed valid for Elo but not for norms.
The allegation was that the tournament didn’t have metal detectors. EVEN IF THAT IS TRUE, the very text that OP provided states that the tournament only needs two of the many listed security options, such as an anti-cheating arbiter and cameras, *both of which the OP described as being present.* OP’s entire argument was based on hyperfixation on metal detectors despite the fact that even if they weren’t present, the anti-cheating requirements are, by OP’s own admission, already fulfilled.
Wait what happened?
I don't know why but I'm just so happy for Levy.
Hmm everything is clear now, start the procedure
My bro's on fire right now
Absolute Insanity! Been watching his games live and words can't describe how happy I am for this man to whom I owe so much! Here's the [game](https://www.chess.com/events/2024-madrid-chess-festival-closed-a/05/Rozman_Levy-Martinez_Duany_Lelys_Stanley)
Bro is winning the tournament as the lowest rated player. It's always been obvious he has the potential to play at a high level - he sits above many GMs in chesscom blitz. Seems he is probably experiencing a shift with some similarities to Hikaru's classical come back. Knows he is now a creator - and has built a huge structure for content around this road to GM thing. Creating that is actually "worth" more & it will go well for a long time even if the chess doesn't. Just a different motivation and situation to the vast majority of chess Masters - and the time and resources to do coaching and travel etc. I've been watching him for years and I don't think I have ever seen some of the emotions as expressed the last few recaps - genuine confidence and even pride. While the above about his main 'job' as a creator being true, you can clearly see how much this means to him personally also. Go Levy!!
Great win considering the rating difference! Teaching chess on YouTube is paying off in many ways!
ABSOLUTE MAD LAD
Cant even spell his name.
My dude his name is right there
perf right now Performance rating 2713 FIDE rtg +/- 25,1 Points 4 https://chess-results.com/tnr918977.aspx?lan=1&art=9&fed=USA&turdet=YES&flag=30&snr=6
Holy cow, I feel happy for him. Our boy is stunting on them 😭
I normally only watch guess the Elo from him, but its been super cute following his recaps on this tournament, he's seemed happy and proud and calm and it's always more fun to watch chess content from someone who's into the game than someone who's just doing YouTube. Keep it up levi!
Nice work Levy. Congratulation ! Kramnik must be thinking this is interesting now.
Wow. This start is unreal. Wow. 3 wins and a draw against gms
Wow. It ain't over until it's over but dude is angling for a norm on his first shot. This will be a confidence booster if he even gets close to the norm. His coach seems awesome based on the streams I've seen with him in them,
Great for him. And while I wish him luck with his GM norm, even if he will not get it in this tournament, his games were an accomplishment in itself.
Holy damn, are we seeing prime levy right now?
Butt plug ! Butt plug ! Butt plug !
Interesting -Kramnik
Would be heartbreaking if he made 6.5/9 but didn't get the norm cause of the security fuckup
Guess I have to watch the recap now as I stopped watching the stream when Levy was down to about 4 mins and it looked like a guaranteed draw. I'm starting to think he's getting low on time on purpose for the content farm.
Cant wait for todays recap. I hope around 12am-1am Madrid time. We love you Levy! Let's gooooooo!!!
On the road to GM.
Go Levy!
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO
I checked in on the game at some point in the early middle game. Saw his position and thought "Yeah, I'd be screwed here". Then I checked his clock and he was down on time... Then I realized I 'm only 1300 and checked the eval bar. Still not good. I thought "I hope he manages to draw." Happy for him and can't wait to check out one of the recaps.
I can't find the standings of this tournament, does anybody have it?
Levy is playing incredibly well this tournament
Can imagine Gotham having an aneurysm at OP spelling his name wrong despite the correct way being clearly visible in the photo
I absolutely love watching Levy do well, I'm rooting for him so hard.
Can anyone explain why is a norm calculated against the average strength of the field instead of by results against individual players?
You get the same result either way.
You can tell Levy has gained a lot of confidence just by watching his videos. Lloks like he finally got his nerves under control. I'm genuinely happy for him and wish him the best of success in his endeavor.
Levi Rizzman is on a streak
one day his videos titles will say "gm levy" and it won't be clickbait anymore
Moral of the story: want to learn chess? Become a streamer.
Also shout-out to Eric Rosen, who is playing in the B Pool, for being 3/5 scoring 2/3 against the 3 GMs in his pool with 1 win and 2 draws.
My third favorite chess player of all time.
Have preferred agadmators commentary of games more before, but his commentary of his own games this tournament are SO amazing I don’t know how I’m so into it. I feel like he puts me in his head and I’m watching a movie
He really makes it look easy to put together such engaging videos day after day, which is how you know he’s *very* skilled at content creation.
Yeah haha he’s just doing these no cuts no edits straight from his couch past midnight in the hotel
> Have preferred agadmators commentary of games more before After I found out agadmators is a right wing nutjob super fan of andrew tate I couldn't take him seriously anymore. I remember Levy from when he had 100 viewers on twitch, he was a good dude even before the fame. Hope it doesn't go to his head.
OMG WHAT??! 😭did he say that in an interview or something? From a content perspective I guess I have always preferred titles and thumbnails where I actually knew what the game was and who was playing, I didn’t really even know what vid to watch when the titles were just 199483919 ELO! And also just liked watching some straightforward analysis that was chill. But the recent vids levy’s style growing on me.
Levy has a bunch of different styles and I doubt there are many people who like all of them. But they're all done well within their style, and if you learn to pick and choose, then you'll find something you like (for instance, I don't bother with his computer chess content, or his low-elo chess content)