NA Invitational Update

IM Angelo Young and FM Mehmed Pasalic are tied for 1st place with 3.5/4 and 5 rounds to go. FM Pasalic needs 3 points in the next 5 rounds to secure his 3rd and final IM norm.

WFM Melekhina is well on her way to secure at least her WIM norm. She has 3/4 now and has either beaten or drawn the 3 IM’s. She needs 1 more point for her WIM norm but after speaking with her yesterday her goal is the IM norm. She definately has the skills to do it and has proven it.

Mathematically speaking FM Shankar and FM Stamnov can still achieve their IM norm. FM Shankar must go 4/5 to gain his norm and FM Stamnov must go 4.5/5 to gain his norm. Very difficult to do and they still haven’t played at least 2 of the top seeds.

All games can be followed LIVE on the MonRoi World Databank of Chess – http://www.monroi.com/wdc

Round by Round coverage can be found at – http://www.nachess.org/

Round 5 is tonight at 6:30pm Chicago time

Special thanks to Sevan Muradian for bringing us this report.