Jumabayev Wins Fagernes as Gloeckler Secures a Second GM Norm

Kazakh grandmaster Rinat Jumabayev won the Fagernes International Autumn on tiebreak, finishing on 7½/10 as the only unbeaten player in the 62-player GM section. Tiger Hillarp Persson of Sweden and India’s G. B. Harshavardhan also reached 7½ but had weaker tiebreaks.

The bigger story for much of the week was 14-year-old German IM Christian Gloeckler, who led on 6/7 with three rounds left. He did not win the event, but he leaves Norway with his second grandmaster norm.

How the top finished

Jumabayev took the lead before the last round and drew with Krishnan Sasikiran in 25 moves to secure it. Sasikiran finished fourth on 7, half a point behind.

Hillarp Persson came through with wins in both rounds nine and ten. Harshavardhan scored 3/3 in the final three rounds to climb into the shared lead.

Two of the highest-rated players were not there at the end. Top seed Elham Amar withdrew before the final round on 5½/9, as did Harika Dronavalli on 5/9.

Gloeckler’s norm

The norm was settled in round eight. Gloeckler held Swedish grandmaster Vitaly Sivuk to a draw, which already met the requirements; he only had to play round nine for enough games to count. A nine-round result is enough for a GM norm, so his round-nine loss with White to Sasikiran cost him the sole lead but not the norm.

The final round went wrong too. Against Harshavardhan, in an equal position and short of time, he played 35…Ng6??. After 36.f4 Qd8 37.g4 Rc4? White converted, and Gloeckler resigned on move 50. ChessBase notes that 35…Kh8, followed by …f5 and …Nd5, would have kept the balance.

He finished on 6½/10 and gained 8 rating points. His first norm came in July in Biel, where he won the Masters Open with 8/9. For what the norms add up to, see how a player becomes a grandmaster.

The rest of the field

Bennet Hagner also scored 6½ and won prize money, though he never met a grandmaster and so had no norm chance. Keyvan Farokhi made 5½ and missed his IM norm, while Lukas Dotzer, Gloeckler’s round-seven opponent, finished on 5. Ten-year-old Sarbartho Mani ended on 5½, in 21st place.

In the Open section, Indian IM Sharan Rao won all ten of his games.