The last SPNI players and their parents were picked up and brought to the airport. This marks the official end of the highly successful and enjoyable 2008 SPNI.
Special thanks to Jerry Perez, Dr. Hal Karlsson, Dr. Rich Rice, Chase Watters, Peggy Flores, Paul Truong, Mr. and Mrs. Grimaud, Randy Wheeless, and all other volunteers for transporting the players and their families from and to the airport. Also special thanks to Chief TD Frank K. Berry for running the tournament and Chess Dad Matt Mahowald for running the Parents & Friends and Bughouse events. This was truly a team effort to provide first class service to all the players and their families.
I am looking forward to even a bigger and better 2009 SPNI. Only one of the 52 players have visited the magnificent Texas Tech Campus prior to this event. Near the end of the tournament, players filled out a tournament survey and approximately 40 of the 52 players expressed interest to attend TTU in the future. In fact, some have started the process to apply.
The idea of SPICE is not to compete with incredible college programs like UTD and UMBC, etc. My idea is to provide young players with the opportunity to earn scholarships to attend a wonderful and supportive university like Texas Tech. While getting an excellent education, they would also have a chance to improve their chess by receiving weekly instruction from me and to stay active and compete in chess. Without this opportunity, many will just drop out of chess.
Once again, special thanks to TTU and all our sponsors, as well as everyone who was involved in putting together a fantastic event.
Congratulation for organising great tournament and popularization chess
🙂
Susan:
Is it the intention of SPICE to field a chess team that will play against and hopefully win against the likes of UTD and UMBC? Also, I met with GM Wesley So and his father over dinner Monday night. Wesley is a high school junior here and I mentioned to them the program at TTU and how you might give him a full scholarship if he came out and played for TTU. They were preliminarily interested. If you personally got in touch with them, it would go a very long way to getting Wesley to attend Texas Tech!
SCUGrad,
We expect to have a strong team by 2009 with probably 3 GMs, 1 IM, and 1 WGM. We of course would love to have Wesley at Texas Tech for an excellent education and improving on his chess even further.
He and his father can contact me at any time. I would also love to have him for the 2009 SPICE Cup. He is a special young man. I have followed his progress in the past few years and I am very impressed with his development.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
SCUGrad,
Can you send me a private email and let me know how I can get in touch with him? You can send it to SusanPolgar@aol.com.
Thank you!
Susan Polgar
Susan:
You got mail!
Thank you Susan for all the grandiose efforts you put into the 2008 SPNI. However, I was really surprised that you personally picked up my daughter at the airport. Can anyone imagine that Susan doing such trivial things as picking up and seeing off the players and their families at the airport??!!