Norm Hunter: Stearman Earns First GM Norm at 1000GM LA

FM Levine (L) and IM Stearman celebrating their norms (photo courtesy Josiah Stearman)

Readers following along with the recent norm quests of American players might have caught on to just how difficult it is to earn an elusive GM norm. Many invitationals will host a GM norm section or two, only for the resident grandmasters to put up enough stubborn resistance to keep the newcomers out of their exclusive club.

So when IM Josiah Stearman — who happens to be one of the organizers of the series of 1000GM invitationals helping develop young talent around the country — earned his first GM norm at the 1000GM Los Angeles invitational, we had to get his own annotations of his experience.

Below are six (!) of his games, featuring key decisions and moments from holding draws against those aforementioned stubborn grandmasters, as well as key wins in high-pressure games.

In the same section, FM Joseph Levine earned his second IM norm with an impressive 5/9 score. His third round victory over GM Budisavljevic suggests that final norm is not far off.

FM Andy Lin also earned an IM norm in this event with his 6/9 score in the other GM section. Here are two critical moments from his games that helped him earn his norm.

Editor's Note: This story was updated on April 8 with a sixth game (Stearman's win over Kavutskiy).