Hunting for norms

Major international chess event at Texas Tech during spring break
Posted: March 5, 2011 - 11:23pm

The 2011 SPICE Spring Invitational, one of the most prestigious International Invitational Chess Tournaments in the United States, will take place from March 12 - 16, 2011 on the beautiful campus of Texas Tech University.

In 2009, young International Master Robert Hess earned a Grandmaster norm at Texas Tech during the SPICE Spring Invitational. He completed his Grandmaster title shortly after that and his career has skyrocketed since. He is now one of the top players in this country.

In 2010, Darwin Yang, the top junior in Texas, earned his first International Master norm at the SPICE Spring Invitational. He followed it up with his 2nd International Master norm at the 2010 SPICE Cup. He is gunning for his final IM norm next Saturday.

We will once again have an all-star cast in this year's SPICE Spring Invitational.Here is the complete 10 player field:

GM = Grandmaster; IM = International Master; FM = FIDE Master; SM = Senior Master

GM Kuljasevic, Davorin 2528 FIDE - 2558 USCF (Croatia) - Texas Tech graduate student
GM Diamant, Andre 2520 FIDE - 2532 USCF (Brazil) - Texas Tech freshman
GM Bykhovsky, Anatoly 2517 FIDE - 2649 USCF (Israel) - Texas Tech freshman
IM Naroditsky, Daniel 2438 FIDE - 2485 USCF (USA) - Former Word Youth Champion
IM Altounian, Levon 2432 FIDE - 2478 USCF (USA) - Former North American Champion
IM Esserman, Marc 2425 FIDE - 2530 USCF (USA) - Former # 1 player from Harvard
FM Yang, Darwin 2416 FIDE - 2467 USCF (USA) - #1 junior in Texas
IM Kleiman, Jake 2413 FIDE - 2470 USCF (USA) - #1 junior in Tennessee
IM Sipos, Istvan 2407 FIDE - 2458 USCF (Hungary) - Texas Tech junior
SM Aleskerov, Faik 2324 FIDE - 2458 USCF (Azerbaijan) - Texas Tech graduate student

Tournament Schedule

March 12
9:30am Opening ceremony
10:00am Round 1
4:00pm Round 2

March 14
10:00am Round 3
4:00pm Round 4

March 15
10:00am Round 5
4:00pm Round 6

March 16
10:00am Round 7
4:00pm Round 8

March 17
9:30am Round 9
2:30pm Closing ceremony

This event is sponsored by Texas Tech University, SPICE, the Susan Polgar Foundation, and the Knight Raiders, etc.

Source: Avalanche Journal