Bryan Lin Earns First IM Norm, Stearman Moves Towards 2500, and More at NYC Chess Norms Invitational

It was an eventful Presidents Day weekend for a host of norm-seekers in New York, with the 21st NYC Chess Norms event producing its 51st total norm alongside a host of other impressive results.

IM Josiah Stearman moves closer to the 2500 threshold and the GM title (Photo courtesy of Oscar Garcia)

The one GM norm section saw IM Josiah Stearman fall a half-point shy of a GM norm despite winning the tournament with a 6½/9 score. Stearman likely isn’t too disappointed, however, as he already has three GM norms! All that’s left is the 2500 FIDE rating, and he netted 13.6 FIDE rating points for his performance. Here’s his win over another talented young IM that kicked off Stearman’s hot finish:

In the IM-B section, FM Bryan Lin earned his first IM norm along the way to his 7/9 victory. The 13-year-old is the highest-rated player for his age in the country, and this milestone is more impressive when you consider that he did not start playing chess until he was nine!

The 13-year-old Lin earned his first IM norm last weekend (Photo courtesy of Oscar Garcia)

Below is his victory over a solid GM:

Lin finished a half-point ahead of FM James Chirilov, a 16-year-old North Carolinian whose 6½/9 score came up just short of a norm. Chirilov was 4/6 headed into the final three rounds, and would need to go 3/3 to earn a norm. He ended up winning rounds 7 and 8 before being held to a draw by Barbosa in round 9.

16-year-old FM James Chirilov was a half-point shy of an IM norm (Photo courtesy of Oscar Garcia)

His round 7 win, below, was particularly entertaining as a result of the necessary must-win mentality:

Also in this section, 30-year Jonathan Pagan’s 4/9 performance saw his national rating break the 2200 threshold for the first time, earning the adult improver the NM title.

A serious upset was a feather in Pagan's cap along the way to his NM title (Photo courtesy of Oscar Garcia)

Here is his 336-point upset over an IM:

The two other IM Round Robins saw experienced players successfully play “keep-away” with the norm-seekers’ chances. Congratulations to Lithuanian GM Maxim Novik on winning the IM-C section with 7/9 and to IM Mykola Bortnyk on winning the IM-D section with 6½/9!

Like Pagan, Marsh turned a strong performance into a boatload of rating points, also earning his NM title (Photo courtesy of Oscar Garcia)

While no norms were earned in this section, the lowest-rated player in the IM-D group, James Marsh (1991 FIDE) put up a 5/9 score that saw his US Chess rating shoot up 60 points to earn him the NM title as well.

Alongside the norm sections, the tournament also featured a Scheveningen section with an opportunity for youth to clash against experience with FIDE rating points on the line. With a 4/5 score, FM Joshua Colas was the top “Master” in this section, although “Challenger” CM Pedro Espinosa was not far behind with 3½/5.

Also in this group, Daniel Yang’s 3/5 score was enough to make him the weekend’s third national master.

In the two additional quads, FM Grant Xu won Quad-A with 3/3 and Jayden Wu won Quad-B with the same perfect score.

The next confirmed 2025 NYC Chess Norms events will take place July 8 through 13 and August 28 through September 1.