Naomi wins first place, gets Woman International Master title + Woman Grandmaster norm (⅓ title)!
Naomi (14) won first place at the 2017 North American Junior Girls U20 Chess Championship and earned the chess title "Woman International Master" (WIM), which sounds almost like "International Adventuress".
This is much cooler than Naomi's prior nerdy-sounding title "Woman FIDE Master" (WFM), not to mention her prior-prior juvenile-sounding title "Woman Candidate Master" (WCM).
The 2017 North American Junior U20 Chess Championship took place on August 31 - September 5 in Sheraton Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Hotel in Texas. No international travel for this international tournament.
North American players born on or after January 1st, 1997 played 9 rounds, using the Swiss pairing system in the Open and Girls Divisions. Naomi got 8 points out of 9, with just 2 draws. Good job.
The winners of the Open and Girls Divisions earned the titles of International Master (IM) and WIM, and also scored a "norm" (i.e. ⅓ of the title) towards Grand Master (GM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). Good deal.
The organizer, International Arbiter (IA) Francisco Guadalupe, has worked miracles to resolve all problems and successfully keep the promise of this tournament, with complete dedication and exemplary results. Coming from hurricane-devastated Houston, he made sure that everything worked here in Dallas.
Francisco, Naomi, Luda
North American Junior Girls trophy-winners: Naomi, Ramya, Sanjana, Shree
NA Junior Open U20 winner Advait Patel and NA Junior Girls U20 winner Naomi Bashkansky
All those under-20 girls look so lovely and kind at these photos of pre-game handshake. It's scary to think they will try to outplay, outfox and utterly destroy each other just seconds later. Enjoy the photo album:
With Sanjana Vittal
With Camile Kao
With Bethany Plew
Hard won respite
![2017-09-08_Naomi_NA_JG_U20_CC_WIM,_norm_WG_flash_1[1].jpg](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/SQvpQk_liNR9AXnHafkXkkcnXykehQywY8nBqKCmEQeZpVVOziEhxEHVQchebbXYE-xGwT8i5w1Th15jSm5eJMy_33RD37Nu8XfVrWcKhVD7XpxPNWO8j6fQrZUWcDqrsdc4Q6vz)
