Record to be broken at 2009 SPICE Cup

2009 SPICE Cup (September 19-29, 2009)

There will be an A and B group in this year’s SPICE Cup. Group A will be at least a category 16 (average FIDE rating of 2626 and above) event or perhaps even a category 17 (average FIDE rating of 2651 and above) event. This will break the U.S. record of last year’s SPICE Cup of category 15.

Confirmed players for group A (6-player DRR) so far are:

GM Wesley So 2650 – PHI (#7 junior under 20 in the world)
GM Yuriy Kuzubov 2630 – UKR (#8 junior under 20 in the world)
GM Varuzhan Akobian 2618 – USA (2008 SPICE Cup Co-Champion – 2-time Olympiad Bronze Medalist)

(Other players have already been tentatively confirmed with 2 potential players over 2700!)

Group B will be a category 11 (average FIDE rating of 2501 and above) event or perhaps a category 12 (average FIDE rating of 2526 and above) event.

Confirmed players for group B (10-player RR) so far are:

GM Anton Kovalyov 2571 – ARG (Top junior from Argentina)
IM Davorin Kuljasevic 2547 – CRO (2 GM norms – Texas Tech Student in 8/2009)
GM Eugene Perelshteyn 2534 – USA (2007 SPICE Cup Champion)
GM-elect Andre Diamant 2505 – Brazil (2008 Brazilian Champion)
IM Ben Finegold 2506 – USA (2 GM norms)
IM Ray Robson 2490 – USA (winner of the 2009-2010 Samford Fellowship)
IM Gergely Antal 2485 – HUN (2 GM norms – Texas Tech Student)

(3 other players have already been tentatively confirmed)

All ratings listed are FIDE ratings.

SPICE Cup Open and SPICE Cup Scholastic Open are once again two of the events which are a part of the SPICE Cup Chess Festival.

Just as last year, the SPICE Cup will be held on campus at Texas Tech University and is co-organized by Texas Tech University, SPICE and the Susan Polgar Foundation.