I am happy to say that IM Ray Robson has confirmed his participation at the Texas Tech SPICE Spring Invitational. Robson and Hess are two of the most talented young American players right now and they deserve a chance to earn their GM norms. I am glad to be able to offer them that chance.
Gergely Antal is the top Knight Raider and he won (on tiebreaks) the best score on board 1 at the recent PanAm Collegiate Championship. Hess has 1 GM norm and Antal has 2 GM norms.
This event is organized by Texas Tech University, SPICE, the Knight Raiders, and the Susan Polgar Foundation. This will be in addition to the Category 16/17 2009 SPICE Cup which will take place in the end of September.
This upcoming tournament will be a category 11 (which is above 2500 average FIDE rating) event. The dates are March 16 -22 and it will be held on campus at the Texas Tech Student Union Building.
The invited players so far are:
GM Alejandro Ramirez 2550 (Costa Rica)
IM Gergely Antal 2493 (Hungary)
IM Robert Hess 2483 (USA)
IM Ray Robson 2455 (USA)
GM Babakuli Annakov (USA)
The final field will be confirmed soon.
Go Ray! Thanks Susan for inviting Ray. He’s a great kid.
Does anybody know the story of how Alejandro Ramirez lost a game that was not played during the Dresden olympiad? Having spent a lot of time in Costa Rica and the German speaking countries, it would not surprise me if punctuality was at the heart of the issue.
Nobody cares about any negativity stories. Try the Enquirer.
Glad to see Robson and Hess getting a chance. Nice job.