The SPICE success

The success of SPICE

In the first year of competing in division I, the SPICE – Knight Raiders earned a spot in the College Chess Final Four, finishing in 3rd place, ahead of UT Dallas. In the second year competing in division I, the SPICE Knight Raiders won the College Chess Final Four ahead of UT Dallas, UMBC, and UT Brownsville, and became the first bottom seed team in history to win the biggest prize in College Chess. In the third year of competing in division I, the Knight Raiders is ranked as the #1 College Chess team in the United States and will look to defend its title on March 30 – April 1 near the nation’s capital.

After the first full year of the SPICE program, the Knight Raiders gained about an average of close to 100 rating points! In addition, members of the Knight Raiders have a grade point average of around 3.35 – 3.40.

In a stretch of about 6 months starting the summer of 2010, the SPICE program produced 3 Grandmasters, Kuljasevic, Antal, and Papp. The SPICE events also produced GM and IM norms (Finegold – GM title, Rensch – IM title, Yang – all 3 IM norms and title, Hess – GM norm, Mogranzini – GM norm, Antal – GM norm, etc.).

And after the first four full years of recruiting, the SPICE players won a total of 14 national, 2 state, and 2 regional titles! Now the SPICE program is making history again by fielding the #1 team in the country for Webster University in St. Louis starting in June 2012 with 8 GMs, 2 IMs, 1 FM, and 1 WIM so far with more in the process of applying.

Here are all the SPICE titled players so far by the order of joining the program:

IM-GM Gergely Antal (Hungary) SPICE 1st titled player and 2nd GM
IM-GM Gabor Papp (Hungary) SPICE 3rd GM
IM-GM Davorin Kuljasevic (Croatia) SPICE 1st GM
IM Istvan Sipos (Hungary)

GM Andre Diamant (Brazil) – Webster University 8/2012
GM Anatoly Bykhovsky (Israel) – Webster University 8/2012
GM Georg Meier (Germany) – Webster University 8/2012
GM Denes Boros (Hungary) – Webster University 8/2012
GM Elshan Moradiabadi (Iran) – Webster University 8/2012
GM Wesley So (Philippines) – Webster University 8/2012
GM Ray Robson (USA) – Webster University 8/2012
GM Manuel Leon Hoyos (Mexico) – Webster University 8/2012
IM Vitaly Neimer (Israel) – Webster University 8/2012
FM/IM-elect Faik Aleskerov (Azerbaijan) SPICE 1st IM – Webster University 8/2012
FM Jake Banawa – Webster University 8/2012
WIM Inna Agrest – Webster University 8/2012