SPICE Cup Invitational A & B Group
The 2010 SPICE Cup will take place on Thursday, October 28 – Sunday, November 7 (B group ends on November 5) at the beautiful campus of Texas Tech University. This prestigious event is growing bigger every year. It is the highest rated international invitational tournament in U.S. history to date.
To make the tournament a lot more exciting, the SPICE Cup committee has unanimously voted to adapt the following new rules for the A group:
– No draw offer allowed prior to move 30
– A win = 3 points, a draw = 1 point, and loss = 0 point
The format of the A group will once again be a 6-player DRR (category 16) event. The average FIDE rating of the A group is 2631, which is tied with the 2009 SPICE Cup A group.
GM Zoltan Almasi (HUN) 2707 (#2 in Hungary)
GM Alexander Onischuk (USA) 2688 (#3 in the U.S., former U.S. Champion)
GM Wesley So (Philippines) 2668 (#1 in the Philippines)
GM Georg Meier (Germany) 2659 (#2 in Germany)
GM Ray Robson (USA) 2539 (Youngest American GM)
GM Eugene Perelshteyn (USA) 2528 (winner of 2007 SPICE Cup)
The B group will be a 10-player (category 10 – 2486 / 22375) RR event. The players confirmed for the B group are:
GM Davorin Kuljasevic (Croatia) 2555 (Texas Tech Knight Raider)
GM Ben Finegold (USA) 2534 (2009 SPICE Cup B Co-Champ)
IM Gegerly Antal (HUN) 2526 (Texas Tech Knight Raider)
GM Andre Diamant (Brazil) 2498 (2008 Brazilian National Champion)
GM Anatoly Bykhovsky (Israel) 2497 (Texas Tech Knight Raider)
IM Irina Krush (USA) 2490 (Reigning US Women’s Champion)
IM Dean Ippolito (USA) 2469 (Prominent Chess Coach)
IM Danny Rensch (USA) 2404 (Prominent Chess Coach)
FM Darwin Yang (USA) 2402 (Earned 1st IM norm at 2010 SPICE Spring Invitational)
GM norm will be 6/9 and IM norm will be 4/9.
Go Darwin!