SPICE Cup makes history!

The 2008 SPICE Cup will take place from September 19-28 at Texas Tech University (Student Union Building) in Lubbock, Texas.

The field for the 2008 SPICE Cup is now completed. I am pleased to announce that former World Junior Champion GM Harikrishna Pentala (India) has confirmed his participation in the 2008 SPICE Cup! The average rating is over 2605 which is FIDE Category 15. This makes the 2008 SPICE Cup the highest rated 10 person International RR event in U.S. history!


Here are just some of GM Harikrishna's accomplishments:

- World under-10 championship, 1996, Menorca (Spain), Gold
- World under-12 rapid championship, 1996, Paris, Silver
- Children's Olympiad, 1998, Istanbul, Gold
- Commonwealth championship, 2000, Sangli, Gold (under-18)
- India's youngest International Master, 2000
- Asian under-14 championship, 2000, Tehran, 2000-01, Gold
- Chess Olympiad, 2000, Istanbul, First Grandmaster (GM) norm
- Corus tournament, 2001, Wijk Aan Zee, Second GM norm
- Asian junior championship, 2001, Tehran, Silver
- Asian championship, 2001, Kolkata, Qualified for World championship; Final GM norm
- India's youngest GM, 2001
- Ron Banwell MSO Masters tournament, 2001, London, Gold
- Commonwealth championship, 2001, London, Gold
- World Junior Champion, 2004
- Tiayuan Chess Tournament (FIDE Category 15) in China on 20 July 2005, Clear First
- 9th Essent Tournament Hoogeveen, 2005, Clear First
- Bermuda Invitational Tournament, 2005, Shared First with Boris Gelfand
- Pamplona International Tournament, 2005, Shared Second with Ivan Cheparinov
- Reykjavik Open, 2006, Shared First
- 4th Marx Gyorgy Memorial tournament in Hungary, 2006, Clear First
- Defeated Arkady Naiditsch in Mainz to become Chess960 World Junior Champion
- Number two ranked junior under 20 in the world in 2006
- Top 50 overall in the world 2007 - 2008
- Member of 5 Indian Olympiad teams, including the 2008 Chess Olympiad
- Highest FIDE rating: 2682
- Highest FIDE ranking: #2 Junior in 2006 (Jan - Sept 2006) / #25 overall in the world (Apr - Sept 2006)

Here are the full list of players in the 2008 SPICE Cup:

USA - GM Onischuk, Alexander 2734 USCF / 2670 FIDE
IND - GM Pentala, Harikrishna 2724 USCF / 2668 FIDE
GER - GM Kritz, Leonid 2667 USCF / 2610 FIDE (Will attend TTU in the fall of 2009)
USA - GM Akobian, Varuzhan 2660 USCF / 2610 FIDE
USA - GM Kaidanov, Gregory 2664 USCF / 2605 FIDE
USA - GM Becerra, Julio 2640 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)

Average FIDE: 2605
Average USCF: 2669

The SPICE Cup Invitational will be the main attraction of the annual SPICE Cup Festival. Other activities will include the 2008 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.