SPICE Cup 2012

This month Webster University and the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) will bring six of the best chess players in the world — including two Webster students — to Webster’s home campus. They’ll be competing in the 2012 SPICE Cup Invitational, the highest-rated chess tournament of its kind in U.S. history.

The tourney kicks off with a free and open-to-the-public Welcome Ceremony at 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12, in Room 102 of Webster’s East Academic Building, 545 Garden Ave. in Webster Groves, Mo.

For full details and to learn about the competitors, see the full text of the University press release below: 

Webster University and Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) to Host the Prestigious 2012 SPICE CUP Invitational Oct. 12-21 

Event is the Highest-Rated International Round Robin Chess Tournament in U.S. History

All six players are multiple-time Olympians. They include:

• Grandmaster LeQuang Liem (Vietnam), the defending SPICE CUP Invitational champion, Vietnamese champion and No. 1 player in Vietnam.
• Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), former World Junior champion and French champion and No. 1 player in France.
• Grandmaster Ding Liren (China), three-time and reigning champion of China, and the No.3 Junior in the world.
• Grandmaster Csaba Balogh (Hungary), member of the Hungarian National chess team and top-notch chess author.
• Grandmaster Wesley So (Philippines), national champion, No. 1 player in the Philippines and a Webster University freshman.
• Grandmaster Georg Meier (Germany), European team champion and Webster University sophomore and co-captain of the Webster University chess team.

The SPICE CUP Invitational tournament kicks off with a free and open-to-the-public Welcome Ceremony at 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12, in Room 102 of Webster’s East Academic Building, 545 Garden Ave. in Webster Groves. During tournament play, the six competitors will face one another twice, once with black chess pieces and once with white pieces.

Chess Grandmaster Susan Polgar, World and Olympiad Champion, and her Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) relocated to Webster University from Texas Tech University on June 1 2012. In addition, all key members of the reigning national collegiate champion Texas Tech “A” chess team transferred to Webster and are now enrolled at the University. Webster’s No. 1-ranked chess team includes eight Grandmasters and two International Masters.

Polgar, who is one of the strongest female chess players in history, is the winner of four world championships and the only world champion in history – male or female – to win the Triple-Crown (Rapid, Blitz and Classical Chess world championships). She is the first woman to break the gender barrier to qualify for the Men’s World Championship Cycle, earn the Men’s Grandmaster title, and to receive the Grandmaster of the Year Award.

At Webster, SPICE and Polgar are leaders in promoting chess as a vehicle for global diversity and academic excellence, for enriching the education of children and for promoting women’s chess. In 2011, Polgar became the first female head coach to lead a men’s collegiate Division 1 chess team (Texas Tech University) to the national title, a feat she repeated in 2012.

About Webster University

With its home campus in St. Louis, Webster University (www.webster.edu) is the only Tier 1, private, non-profit U.S.-based university providing a network of international residential campuses. Founded in 1915, Webster University’s campus network today includes metropolitan, military and corporate locations around the world, as well as traditional residential campuses in Asia, Europe and North America. The university is committed to delivering high-quality learning experiences that transform students for global citizenship and individual excellence.