In 1993, Laszlo Nagy began organizing monthly tournaments in Budapest that give players a chance to earn the norms needed to gain the grandmaster and international master titles. Called the First Saturday tournaments, the events have attracted many of the world’s best players.

Five years ago, a Chicago man created a similar tournament series, the North American Masters, to help American players.

The man, Sevan A. Muradian, organized the first one in April 2005. The 25th tournament ended March 24, and two players, Mackenzie Molner and Siddharth Ravichandran, each earned the third norm needed to become international masters, Muradian said in an e-mail message.

Six players have now earned their final international master norms at his tournaments, Muradian said, and Pascal Charbonneau of Canada earned his final grandmaster norm at one. Altogether, he wrote, 16 players have earned norms at the competitions.