US Titles Approved at FIDE Congress
October 19, 2009
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Ben Finegold's GM title was approved at the 80th FIDE Congress. He's here shown in a pre-celebration pose with Irina Krush and Iryna Zenyuk. Photo Betsy Dynako, who was also awarded her FIDE Arbiter title.
A number of US titles were approved at the 80th FIDE Congress held October 11-17 2009 in Kallithea Halkidike, Greece, including a GM title for Ben Finegold and IM titles for Florin Felecan and Marc Esserman.  

Six FIDE Arbiter titles were also approved at the Congress. They were awarded to: Mike Atkins, Jim Berry, Wayne Clark, Betsy Dynako, Glenn Panner, and Steve Wharry. Two International Arbiter (IA) titles were also approved, for Sevan Muradian and Walter Brown. 

New International Arbiter, Walter Brown explained to CLO about the other titles which were approved, but conditionally, "Daniel Rensch's IM title is currently conditional on rating. His rating will be over 2400 for November, so that will clear that up. Lenderman, and Milman are conditional on review of a tournament they played in for one of their norms. Jon Haskel's IA title is conditional. Tatev is conditional on her norm form being signed by an IA. "

For those who remember "Chimi", Batchimeg Tuvshintugs transfered back to MGL and has now been awarded her WGM for a final result in a tournament in Mongolia.

CLO will update you when those conditional titles become official. Congrats to all our newly titled players!