The North Carolina Open will be held Labor Day weekend in Charlotte. We are have confirmed 6 GMs, 6 IMs, and 5 FMs as definitely playing, including former US champions Alexander Shabalov and Irina Krush. I can find any evidence of a 5-round weekend swiss that is stronger. Would it be correct to claim this tournament as the strongest weekend swiss for 2011?
Seems like a very strong tournament. However, you might want to wait at least until Labor Day weekend is over before making that claim. That is a popular weekend for state championship events. YMMV, natch.
Yes, the claim could not be made until Dec. 31st, but I was hoping if it was already wrong, someone would point that out now!
I hadn’t checked but I was going to mention the National Open and Chicago Open. Then I saw your limitation to just 5-round-SS events.
The North Carolina Open was actually played by 6 GMs, 10 IMs, and 5 FMs. Probably too strong for a 5 round tournament. There was a 7 way tie for first place.
System Administrator’s Note:
[i]USCF records show a total of 20 GMs, IMs and FMs in the 2011 North Carolina Open, but there may be a player who has earned a title but not yet received it, or a player whose FIDE ID is not in his USCF record yet, so we wouldn’t have a link to that person’s FIDE title.
The next strongest five round event lasting less than a week in 2011 so far had 14 GMs, IMs and FMs in it, the Chicago Class Championships, event ID 201107177631.
So, 20 or 21, at least for now this event has bragging rights for the year. Congratulations on a very strong event!
Going back in the past, it appears there were 22 players in the 2009 Atlantic Open, event ID 200908306571, and also in the 2008 Atlantic Open, event ID 200808241441, who had a GM, IM or FM title at the time.
Update: The discrepancy between 20 and 21 titled players is due to Iryna Zenyuk.
Looking at her FIDE page, it says she is both a CM and a WIM.
However, looking at the September FIDE Rating List file, it only shows the CM title.
Apparently FIDE considers the CM title to be more important than the WIM title, so they only show the CM title on the FIDE Rating List. Both titles require a 2200 FIDE rating.
It is also worth noting that there are dozens of USCF members who have a FIDE rating high enough to qualify for the FM title. However, USCF policy is that the USCF will pay for the GM, WGM, IM and WIM titles but not FM, WFM, CM or WCM. Since there is a fee of 70 Euros to apply for the FM title, many have not done so. So there could have been other players in this event (or other events) who have a FIDE rating high enough to be eligible for the FM title. There are also quite a few USCF members with a FIDE rating high enough to earn the CM title, should they wish to pay the 50 Euros fee to apply for it.
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