Congratulations to Péter Petrecz (HUN) on becoming the third player to qualify as an International Tantrix Master ("ITM") - his exceptionally strong performance when coming 3rd in the 2002 World Championship was enough to gain him the third 'norm' that he needed. In fact, it gained him his first TGM norm too. Péter joins first Tantrix Grand Master ("TGM") Matt Peek (NZL) and International Tantrix Master ("ITM") Steven Trezise (GBR) in the list of those who have achieved a title.
Well done to Shaun Cooper (NZL), Dave Dyer (USA) and János Püspöki (HUN) on gaining ITM norms in the WTC too.
Full lists of TGM and ITM norms can be found below. Players are ordered by the date of qualification if they are already ITMs or TGMs, then by the number of norms, then by highest single tournament rating. Matt Peek, the first TGM and clearly the dominant player in the world at the moment, actually has no less that 6 ITM norms (which amazingly enough are all TGM norms too) if you add on performances in tournaments since he became an ITM! Below the lists, you will find some notes about master titles, the criteria for achieving them and the reasons why we introduced a second title and amended the criteria earlier this year.
a) 3 TGM norms and an OVERALL Elo rating of 2000 or more are needed for this title. Once you have 3 norms, you get it
as soon as you reach 2000 overall.
b) TGM norms
can only be obtained in a given tournament if you play at
least 20 games in the tournament against at least 5 different opponents.
c) Criterion b)
effectively effectively limits opportunities for gaining TGM norms to the
major Championships. The WTC and Plate count as a single event.
d) To get a
norm, your rating based a single tournament plus the number of games played must be 2050+ and the rating itself for
that tournament 2000+.
e) The winner
of each year's World Championship gets a bonus TGM norm, so you can get two
norms in the WTC if you win it and satisfy b) and d) above.
Name
Title
Country
Norms
Norm 1
Norm 2
Norm 3
Official
Since
Lobby
Now
Posn/Tournt
G
Elo
Posn/Tournt
G
Elo
Posn/Tournt
G
Elo
Qual on
Elo
qualn
Nick.
Matt Peek
TGM
NZL
6
3rd, 1999 World
34
2023
1st, 2001 World
35
2064
2001 World Champ
35
BONUS
20-Aug-02
2028
3
Pekko
Julia Schwarz
GBR
2
1st, 2000 World
38
2049
2000 World Champ
38
BONUS
jade
Yoseph Phillips
ISR
1
5th, 1999 World
29
2107
yoseph
Shaun Cooper
NZL
1
1st, 2001 NZ
22
2059
scoop
Péter Petrecz
ITM
HUN
1
3rd, 2002 World
43
2048
Pepe
Steven Trezise
ITM
GBR
1
3rd, 2000 World
30
2041
steven2
Graeme Jolliffe
AUS
1
2nd, 2002 Australian
31
2030
Thylacine
Matt Kearse
NZL
1
2nd, 2000 World
38
2012
Fluffy
Zenon Kowalczyk
AUS
1
1999 World Champion
34
BONUS
Zazza
INTERNATIONAL
TANTRIX MASTER ("ITM") NORMS - 3 NORMS PLUS OVERALL RATING >= 1900 NEEDED FOR ITM TITLE
(includes norms
that are also TGM norms)
a) 3 ITM norms and an OVERALL Elo rating of 1900 or more are needed for this title - once you have 3 norms, you get
it as soon as you reach 1900 overall.
b) ITM norms
can only be obtained in a given tournament if you play at
least 7 games in the tournament against at least 4 different opponents.
c) To get a
norm, your rating based a single tournament plus the number of games played must be 2000+ and the rating itself for
that tournament 1950+.
d) The winner
of each year's World Championship gets a bonus TGM/ITM norm, so you can get
two norms in the WTC if you win it and satisfy b) and c) above.
Name
Title
Country
Norms
Norm 1
Norm 2
Norm 3
Official
Since
Lobby
Now
Posn/Tournt
G
Elo
Posn/Tournt
G
Elo
Posn/Tournt
G
Elo
Qual on
Elo
qualn
Nick.
Matt Peek
TGM
NZL
6
3rd, 1999 World
34
2023
1st, 2001 World
35
2064
2001 World Champ
35
BONUS
31-Dec-01
1989
3
Pekko
Steven Trezise
ITM
GBR
3
2nd, 1999 European
10
2044
3rd, 2000 World
30
2041
1st, 2002 European
36
2000
20-Aug-02
1954
steven2
Péter Petrecz
ITM
HUN
3
1st, 1999 European
10
2051
3rd, 2001 European
24
1986
3rd, 2002 World
43
2048
31-Dec-02
1973
Pepe
Ben Trumbore
USA
2
1st, 1999 PanAm
7
2088
1st, 2000 PanAm
20
1984
Crispy
Britta Steude
NZL
2
1st, 1999 May Open
16
2065
1st, 2001 Pacific
18
2034
Bdot
Brad Swanlund
USA
2
1st, 2002 PanAm
18
2015
2002 World Team
8
2060
brad
Shaun Cooper
NZL
2
1st, 2001 NZ
22
2059
QF, 2002 World
29
1976
scoop
Mike McManaway
NZL
2
2nd, 1999 May Open
16
2052
1st, 1999 Pacific
9
2056
mikem
Julia Schwarz
GBR
2
1st, 2000 World
38
2049
2000 World Champ
38
BONUS
jade
Zenon Kowalczyk
AUS
2
2nd, 1999 Masters
8
2003
1999 World Champ
34
BONUS
Zazza
Alex Kowalczyk
AUS
1
1st, 1999 Masters
8
2115
AlexK2000
Yoseph Phillips
ISR
1
5th, 1999 World
29
2107
yoseph
Tom McCoy
GBR
1
1st, 2002 Brit. Open
8
2091
LittleTom
Simone Puterman
RSA
1
1st, 1999 African
10
2054
IrcMaidon
Chris Peek
NZL
1
2nd, 1999 Pacific
9
2048
Chriz
Jérôme Papillon
FRA
1
3rd, 1999 Masters
8
2031
papillon
Graeme Jolliffe
AUS
1
2nd, 2002 Australian
31
2030
Thylacine
Jason B (w)
USA
1
4th, 1999 Masters
8
2029
Phantom
Bevan Chong
NZL
1
2nd, 2001 Pacific
19
2025
Mighty
Matt Kearse
NZL
1
2nd, 2000 World
38
2012
Fluffy
János Püspöki
HUN
1
QF, 2002 World
29
2012
pusi
Ben Polman
NED
1
1st, 2001 European
22
2004
benopi
László Harsányi
HUN
1
1st, 1999 Plate
22
1989
leslie
Matt Mayoh
AUS
1
1st, 2001 Australian
18
1988
Sanabas
Josh Button
AUS
1
1st, 2002 Australian
30
1986
yoshi
Andrew Swan
AUS
1
2nd, 2001 Australian
18
1985
Admiral
Leah Sanders
AUS
1
3rd, 2002 Australian
26
1984
Bell
Frank Heyer
FRA
1
2nd, 2002 European
35
1969
blob
Jamie Sneddon
NZL
1
2nd, 1999 World
39
1968
Ridcully
Phil Sneddon
NZL
1
1st, 2000 NZ (SF av)
15
1964
Runes
Dave Dyer
USA
1
2nd, 2002 World
46
1959
ddyer
Notes:
In keeping with the practice in many other mind games, we introduced Tournament Grand Master (TGM) titles back in 1999. Unlike your Elo rating or Lobby ranking which will rise and fall continuously, these are something you can keep to recognise really outstanding tournament play over a period of time.
The titles were always intended to be very difficult to achieve and are NOT the same as the basic Tantrix Master titles awarded for reaching 950 in the lobby rankings - tournament master titles are (almost) impossible to cheat your way to and only involve serious timed games against human opponents that you do not pick yourself. The tournament master title was originally called an ITM, and then renamed to TGM at the end of 2001 in consultation with the inventor to try to make a clearer distinction from the much less prestigious lobby master title.
We realised this year that if the number of tournaments increases a lot over the next few years, the extra chances to get a norm each year may make it become a lot less difficult to reach the original ITM/TGM qualification. So, we have now decided to use both titles and make the top TGM title even harder to obtain to ensure that it remains the absolute pinnacle of Tantrix achievement for years to come.
We have also recognised that it is harder to sustain a 2000+ performance over longer tournaments than over shorter ones, so the main criterion for a norm now involves the number of games played in a tournament as well. You now need between 1950-2000+ for an ITM norm depending on the number of games and between 2000-2050+ for a TGM norm, cf. the old criterion of 2000+ whatever the length of the tournament. To be fair, this change has been applied retrospectively so some players who just missed out on ITM norms in 2000-2001 do have ITM norms now.
We had to take action now to avoid being left with a choice of either removing or losing the prestige of the TGM title later. These changes have been discussed at length among existing tournament controllers and the person most adversely affected is me (since I would now have been a TGM instead of an ITM under the old system), so I hope we will not get too many complaints! :-) The new lists of players with norms can be found below and you can also access full details of the issues we considered and our conclusions, details of the new qualification standards and the implications for the future.
