Big success for Knight Raiders and SPICE at 2010 SPICE Cup

Big success for Knight Raiders and SPICE at 2010 SPICE Cup
Posted: November 12, 2010 - 12:12am

After more than 10 days of exciting high-level chess competition, the 2010 SPICE Cup Chess Festival came to an end last Sunday.

All the major Internet chess servers and media covered the SPICE Cup. Even the New York Times wrote about our prestigious event with the following headline: “Texas Tech Attracts Top Players to SPICE Cup.” Overall, chess enthusiasts from more than 170 countries were able to follow SPICE Cup News and LIVE games. This brought incredible positive attention to Texas Tech, SPICE and the Knight Raiders.

The B group was won by a pair of Texas Tech Knight Raiders. Grandmaster Anatoly Bykhovsky (Tech freshman) and Grandmaster-elect Gergely Antal (Tech graduate in August 2010) tied for first with six points.

The youngest participant of the SPICE Cup, FIDE Darwin Yang of Plano, earned his second International Master norm. He earned his first International Master norm at the 2010 SPICE Spring Invitational. He needs one more norm to earn the International Master title.

The A group was won by American Grandmaster Alex Onischuk, former U.S. No. 1 and champion, as well as multiple-time Olympiad medalist. Even though Onischuk finished with the same +3 score as German Grandmaster Georg Meier (who is ranked No. 2 in Germany and plans to apply to attend Tech for the fall of 2011), he was declared the winner due to the special scoring system where a win is equal to three points instead of the traditional 1 point.

Tying for third and fourth in the A group were Hungarian No. 1-ranked player Grandmaster Zoltan Almasi and the Philippines No. 1-ranked 17-year-old chess phenom Grandmaster Wesley So. So has also expressed interest in attending Tech in the near future.

Grandmaster Georg Meier won the 2010 SPICE Cup Blitz Championship with the score of six points in seven games. Grandmaster So finished second with 5.5 points.

The SPICE Cup FIDE Rated Open was won by Grandmaster Georgi Kacheishvili, who is one of the top-rated players from the Republic of Georgia. He scored 5.5 points in six games to earn the top honor.

Tied for second were Tech International Master Itsvan Sipos (Hungary), Senior Master Faik Aleskerov (Azerbaijan) and Joachim Nilsen (Norway). Aleskerov plans to attend Tech next semester.

Once again, I would like to thank the following generous sponsors and supporters of the 2010 SPICE Cup: Texas Tech Office of the Chancellor, Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity & Community Engagement, Office of International Affairs, Gov. Rick Perry, Chancellor Kent Hance, President Guy Bailey, Provost Bob Smith, Dr. Rob Stewart, Dr. Juan Munoz, Lubbock Mayor Tom Martin, Ambassador Tibor Nagy, Hungarian Consul General Kroly Dn, Dr. Kelly Overley, Grace Hernandez, Russell Thomasson, Jodey Arrington, Dr. Sheryl Santos, Dean Sam Dragga, Dr. Hal Karlsson, Dr. Alice White, Dr. Rich Rice, Jerry Perez, Lucia Barbato, Sam Segran, Dr. Phil Smith, Katherine Neville, Jon Crumiller, Jeff Smith, Cohen family, Mautner family, Paul Azzurro, Cory Chandler, Sally Post, Chase Watters, Bill Snead, Anatoly Lekhter, Marty Grund, Dewain Barber, Peggy Flores, Rachel Flores, Abbie Kleppa, Dr. Richard Mautner, Paul Albert, Hanon Russell, Albert Vasse, Dr. James Brink, Bill Brannan, Angelo Barranda Jr., Abie Cox, Kevin Mulligan, Brett James, Zachary Haskin, Greg Jones, Amber McCloud, Erica Perry, Zeljka Malibabic, Brana Malibabic, Andy Kormendi, Nancy Sachs, Robert Glassman, Douglas Goldstein, Dr. Marvin Corman, Lev Alburt, Josh Waitzkin, Tim Dallas, Lynn Elms, Leigh Martzall, Scott Cheatham, Jobi Martinez, Amanda Foster, Dahlia Guerra, Ashley Gonzalez, Jon Quinn, Dr. Kanika Batra, Magne Kristiansen, Aud and Kris Kristiansen, Norwegian Society of Texas — Vestlandet, Karin Slyker, Naveen Yarlagadda, CopyCraft, Laura Smith, Mr. & Mrs. Barranda and Mr. & Mrs. Chua-Tuan, and the Susan Polgar Foundation, etc.

I would also like to thank ICC (Internet Chess Club), Chessdom.com, MonRoi.com, PlayChess.com, TWIC, Chess.com for covering the games live, as well as DGT and MonRoi for providing the live broadcast technology.

Finally, a big thank you to Marty Grund (Internet Chess Club) for personally creating the unique and beautiful trophies for the SPICE Cup A & B Group.

SPICE Cup annual chess trivia

Each year at the SPICE Cup closing party at my home, the players participate in a fun chess trivia contest.

This year, GM Onischuk was the winner with 16 of 20 correct answers.

GM Meier, GM Perelshteyn and IM Krush tied for second with 15 of 20 correct answers.

Below are the SPICE Cup chess trivia questions. How many can you get correctly without looking up the answers?

SPICE Cup 2010 Trivia

1. Is this the third, fourth or fifth SPICE Cup? A) third; B) fourth; C) fifth
2. Who won the 2010 Women’s Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk? A) China; B) Ukraine; C) Russia; D) Other
3. Nov. 2 is the birthday of which Polgar sister? A) Susan; B) Sofia; C) Judit
4. The 2012 Chess Olympiad will be held in: A) Troms; B) Istanbul; C) Albena; D) Elista
5. Legendary American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan was born in which country?
6. Who was the World Chess Champion in 1968?
7. Who won the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship?
8. How many players representing Russia are there in the Top 10 of November FIDE (active) rating list?
9. Who is older, Magnus Carlsen or Sergey Karjakin?
10. What year was the first Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky match held?
11. What real-life grandmaster’s life was the musical “Chess” based on? A) Karpov; B) Kasparov; C) Korchnoi; D) Spassky
12. One of the greatest World Chess Champions Paul Morphy was raised in which state? A) Louisiana; B) Pennsylvania; C) New York; D) North Carolina
13. Who is the second youngest World Chess Champion of all time?
14. Who broke Bobby Fischer’s long standing record to become the youngest Grandmaster (in 1991)?
15. Which year did Gary Kasparov lose to Deep Blue?
16. Which Israeli player won the 1996 World Junior Chess Championship?
17. Since 1990, how many World Junior Championships were won by U.S. players?
18. Which famous actor said “I failed to make the chess team because of my height”?
19. Which World Chess Champion said: “When you see a good move, look for a better one”?
20. Which famous person said: “Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events”?

Source: Avalanche Journal