The 2011 SPICE Spring Invitational will take place from March 12 – 16, 2011 on the beautiful campus of Texas Tech University.
In 2009, young IM Robert Hess earned a GM norm at Texas Tech during the SPICE Spring Invitational. He completed his GM title shortly after that and his career has skyrocketed since.
In 2010, Darwin Yang earned his first IM norm at the SPICE Spring Invitational. He followed it up with his 2nd IM norm at the 2010 SPICE Cup. He is gunning for his final IM norm in 10 days.
Here is the complete 10 player field:
GM Kuljasevic, Davorin 2528 FIDE (Croatia) – 2558 USCF
GM Diamant, Andre 2520 FIDE (Brazil) – 2532 USCF
GM Bykhovsky, Anatoly 2517 FIDE (Israel) – 2649 USCF
IM Naroditsky, Daniel 2438 FIDE (USA) – 2485 USCF
IM Altounian, Levon 2432 FIDE (USA) – 2478 USCF
IM Esserman, Marc 2425 FIDE (USA) – 2530 USCF
FM Yang, Darwin 2416 FIDE (USA) – 2467 USCF
IM Kleiman, Jake 2413 FIDE (USA) – 2470 USCF
IM Sipos, Istvan 2407 FIDE (Hungary) – 2458 USCF
SM Aleskerov, Faik 2324 FIDE (Azerbaijan) – 2458 USCF
Who will earn IM and GM norms this year? One thing for sure, they will give it their all for the elusive norms.
As in all previous SPICE Invitational events (SPICE Cup and SPICE Spring Invitational), we do not charge entry fees. The main idea is to give deserving players, especially young American players, a chance to earn IM and GM norms.
This event is sponsored by Texas Tech University, SPICE, the Susan Polgar Foundation, and the Knight Raiders, etc.
Go Darwin!