Monday, June 23, 2008

2008 SPICE Cup Update


The 2008 SPICE Cup will take place from September 19-28, 2008 at Texas Tech University (student union building) in Lubbock, Texas.

Here are the confirmed players so far:

USA - GM Onischuk, Alexander 2734 USCF / 2670 FIDE
GER - GM Kritz, Leonid 2667 USCF / 2610 FIDE
USA - GM Akobian, Varuzhan 2660 USCF / 2610 FIDE
USA - GM Kaidanov, Gregory 2664 USCF / 2605 FIDE
USA - GM Becerra, Julio 2619 USCF / 2598 FIDE
ISR - GM Mikhalevski, Victor 2679 USCF / 2592 FIDE
POL - GM Miton, Kamil 2703 USCF / 2580 FIDE
ISL - GM Stefansson, Hannes 2597 USCF / 2566 FIDE
USA - GM Perelshteyn, Eugene 2619 USCF / 2555 FIDE (Defending Champion)

USCF average: 2660.22
FIDE average: 2598.44

This will be a category 15 event (2600+ FIDE and 2660+ USCF) which is the highest rated 10-player International RR tournament in U.S. history. The latest preliminary inquiry has gone out to 3 players over 2650 FIDE to complete the roster. I expect to finalize the last spot soon.

Invitations were made to Gata Kamsky, Hikaru Nakamura, two of the top 4 women players in the world as well as 4 other players who are over 2700. They could not make it due to prior commitment.

The SPICE Cup Invitational will be the main attraction of the annual SPICE Cup Festival. Other activities will include the Texas Women's Open Championship, SPICE Cup Grand Prix, SPICE Cup Scholastic, SPICE Cup Pro-Am event, etc.

Our goal is to add a group B next year and even more activities.
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