Abrahamyan’s Dual Breakthrough

Tatev Abrahamyan earned her third IM norm 11 years ago, having previously been awarded the WGM title in 2011. She’s been a WGM since then — until yesterday, when she reached the 2400 rating mark for the first time, meaning she will officially become an IM.

It was a painfully long wait. She had achieved a 2396 rating in 2014, and 2397 in 2019, just shy of the required number. Currently she is set to gain 64 rating points in August, per 2700chess, which has also vaulted her up 65 places in the Women’s rankings to, fittingly, 37th, with a live rating of 2406.

While it would only get harder to reach the next 100-point mark and the Grandmaster title, these are tremendous accomplishments at age 37 for a player who has often been known to play above her official level.

Abrahamyan wasn’t finished with IM, though. A day later, August 17th, she secured a Grandmaster norm at a dedicated GM norm event in Budapest, drawing her final game to finish at an undefeated 7/9 and winning the tournament with a performance rating of 2613. She and her fellow Armenian-American Levon Aronian can both be very satisfied with their accomplishments this month.

As it happens, Abrahamyan’s last round opponent, Zsóka Gaál, also earned the IM title with their draw. She was previously rated 2425, and now earns her third IM norm to meet the second condition — at age 18!

According to @OnTheQueenside on Twitter, this is the 6th GM norm by a women’s player in the last three months, following Bibisara Assaubayeva, Carissa Yip, Oliwia Kiołbasa, Divya Deshmukh, and Leya Garifullina.

Photo by Lennart Ootes, via @OnTheQueenside