Hardaway gets 1st GM norm, clinches IM title

Brewington Hardway earned his first Grandmaster norm at the U.S. Masters in Charlotte. The 14-year-old had a blistering month of November earning more than 100 Elo points. Prior to his norm performance, he earned 50 Elo points at the nine-round NYC GM Fall Invitational. He bettered that result with another handsome cache of 62 Elo points coming from U.S. Masters! He has essentially sprinted past the 2400 mark with two strong performances.

Maurice Ashley relayed the news to The Chess Drum via Brewington’s mother, Ikuko Hardaway. Brewington made his own announcement viz “X” (Twitter).

I just got my first GM Norm at the 2023 U.S Masters! I scored 6/9 (4W-4D-1L) and 8 of my opponents were GM level players. My FIDE rating is now 2435 which also makes me an IM! As always I am grateful for the great organization of the @CLTchesscenter and hope to be back in 2024!

— Brewington Hardaway (@IMBrewChess) November 27, 2023

The Hardaway clan was ecstatic and the mother told The Chess Drum that Brewington had a difficult time scoring good results and went from 2390 to 2323. His rating haul in New York nearly erased his slide. His performance in Charlotte vaulted him over 2400.

“I am so proud of him for his tolerance during the challenging times. He made a big break through which I even was not expecting.“

~Ikuko Hardaway

Selected Games from 2023 U.S. Masters

FM Brewington Hardaway (2323-USA)
#	Player	ELO	Nation	Flag	Result
1	Eshaan Hebbar	1937	USA		1
2	GM Renato Quintiliano Pinto	2506	Brazil		½
3	IM Brian Escalante	2490	USA		½
4	GM Yasser Quesada Perez	2527	Cuba		1
5	GM Balaji Daggupati	2477	USA		½
6	GM David Brodsky	2497	USA		½
7	IM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux	2492	Canada		1
8	GM Titas Stremavicius	2563	Lithiuania		0
9	GM Praveen Balakrishnan	2521	USA		1
Score: 6-3 GM NORM

Results: https://chess.stream/usmasters/standings