Other FIDE title norms (British Isles players)

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
Post Reply
User avatar
Christopher Kreuzer
Posts: 10810
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:34 am
Location: London

Other FIDE title norms (British Isles players)

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Mon Aug 31, 2026 6:44 pm

Am saying 'other' here as trying to keep 4NCL norms in a separate thread.

Two questions for starters:

(1) Tournaments organised by Chris Dunworth (1990s)

https://www.4ncl.co.uk/pre2010/dunworth.htm
After founding and launching the 4NCL at the Barbican in October 1993, organised over a dozen self-financing internationals in 1994 and 1995 (Café Baroque, St. Peter’s, Croydon etc…) initiated by a suggestion from Andrew Harley.
Is anyone able to give details of the 'over dozen' events? I think some are on BritBase but not all. The "etc..." is not entirely helpful. How many of these were there?

(2) A possible missed historical norm (1989)

While it is too late for the August 2013 cutoff for historical norms to be submitted to FIDE, I recently found a snippet on BritBase that suggests that at the 1989 British Chess Championships a Stephen Cullip performed at or close to IM norm requirements.

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/1 ... iewer.html

(Bonus picture of a young Mickey Adams.)
Stephen Cullip recorded an IM norm
Stephen Cullip 2300 Date of birth 16 December 1973. 6/11 requiring 6½/11 for "old style" IM Norm but achieving performance rating of 2451 and thought to qualify under revised Regulations being used by FIDE.
It is not terribly important, as he gave up chess (as corroborated elsewhere on this forum) but I was wondering what were these revised regulations and did Cullip's performance qualify? (He is 27th in the crosstable.)

6/11 was as follows:

R1 W loss GM Daniel King (2495)
R2 B win WFM Jane Garwell [later Richmond] (2180)
R3 B win IM Tony Kosten (2500)
R4 W draw IM William Watson (2495)
R5 B draw IM John Cooper (2390)
R6 W draw IM James Howell (2395)
R7 B loss IM Lanka Ravi (2410)
R8 W win Jonathan Rogers (2335)
R9 W draw IM Krishnamoorthy Murugan (2450)
R10 B win Chris Ward (2380)
R11 W loss IM Dibyendu Barua (2470)

That is 9 titled players (1 WFM, 7 IMs and 1 GM).
Average rating of opponents: (26,500/11) 2409.
TPR: 2445.

So I wonder if the rule change was the one where you can bring the lowest rated opponent up to a rating floor? For IM norms this is currently 2050, so not that then.

Possibly this was never a norm. Not sure. I may have simply miscalculated the TPR.

User avatar
IM Jack Rudd
Posts: 5167
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:13 am
Location: Bideford
Contact:

Re: Other FIDE title norms (British Isles players)

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Tue Sep 01, 2026 1:39 am

Possibly a 10-round norm.

User avatar
Christopher Kreuzer
Posts: 10810
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:34 am
Location: London

Re: Other FIDE title norms (British Isles players)

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Tue Sep 01, 2026 10:42 am

Good point. And maybe that was the rule change that no-one at the time seemed quite sure applied (allowing to drop a loss at the end of an n-round tournament for an n-1 round norm, though that had been a thing for a while had it not?). If there was a rule change, I suppose I would need to find it in the versions of the FIDE Handbook and the minutes of the Rule Commission (or similar body) and see if that stipulated from what date the new rule applied.

User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 8331
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.
Contact:

Re: Other FIDE title norms (British Isles players)

Post by John Upham » Tue Sep 01, 2026 11:00 am

Did you find anything in


https://britishchessnews.com/british-fi ... e-holders/

that you disagreed with?
Arbiter, Organiser, Swiss Mangler person, Rating Officer, Teacher, Coach and Photographer
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

User avatar
Christopher Kreuzer
Posts: 10810
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:34 am
Location: London

Re: Other FIDE title norms (British Isles players)

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Tue Sep 01, 2026 1:35 pm

Not sure, John. I am aware of that resource and very glad to see British Chess News back online. I am going to look at that page in more detail soon. Your site is a great resource for player DOBs where not available elsewhere, and I got a third of the way through the memoirs of William Winter before breaking off. He has a lovely writing style.

Post Reply