A degenerative situation has taken away most of his eyesight, however that did not cease IM Daniel Pulvett from scoring his third GM norm on the Valencia Open on Sunday. With an Elo ranking already over 2500, gaining his GM title needs to be solely a technical matter.
The 31-year-old Pulvett of Spain (born in Venezuela) completed in a tie for second place in Valencia, scoring 7/9 with a enough efficiency ranking. For a grandmaster norm, a participant must carry out on a stage over 2600 and a number of other opponents have to be representing federations apart from their very own. Normally, three norms in nine-round tournaments are wanted, and a 2500+ ranking must be achieved, however Pulvett is already on 2523.
His leads to Valencia included a draw with GMs Jose Gascon and Vitaly Sivuk, whereas he beat GM Azer Mirzoev. With a win within the ultimate spherical vs. IM Radoslaw Barski, he clinched his third norm:
You’ll find the video games of the Valencia Open right here.
In April of this yr, Pulvett had scored his second norm on the Brena Baja Magica closed GM norm event in La Palma, Spain. His first norm got here on the 2013 Sitges Open.
“I have been working exhausting for a very long time to attain this,” Pulvett instructed Chess.com. “Due to the issues with my eyes, this can be a enormous achievement. I’ve had numerous assist from my family and friends.”
Along with GM Marcin Tazbir (Poland), Pulvett can be solely the second visually impaired participant to attain the grandmaster title.
GM Thomas Luther, chairman of the FIDE Fee for the Disabled, commented: “That is very particular. There are solely few gamers with disabilities to grow to be GM. Usually, I consider chess is the same as everybody. Nevertheless, entry to schooling, tournaments, funds, et cetera are many occasions not equal.”
Be aware that Daniel is utilizing an earpiece to take heed to one thing. That’s as a result of in his video games, he makes use of a specifically tailored chess clock that may inform him how a lot time he has left. https://t.co/TWTzbNTgAB
— David Llada ♞ (@davidllada) July 16, 2022
