GM Vinay Bhat of California has accepted my invitation for the SPICE Cup B group. GM Bhat, the 2008 Samford Fellowship co-winner with IM Irina Krush, will make his first appearance at the SPICE Cup in 3 weeks.
Here is the final roster of the SPICE Cup A & B:
A Group – Category 16 (6-player DRR) – Average rating: 2631 – Average age: 20
GM Dmitry Andreikin 2659 –
GM Wesley So 2644 – Philippines (#7 junior under 20 in the world – #1 in the Philippines – member of the 2008 Filipino Olympiad team.) Age 15
GM Varuzhan Akobian 2636 – USA (#6 in the U.S. – 2008 SPICE Cup Co-Champion – 2-time Olympiad Bronze Medalist) Age 26
GM Yuriy Kuzubov 2636 – Ukraine (#8 junior under 20 in the world – #12 in Ukraine) Age 19
GM Rauf Mamedov 2626 –
GM Jon Ludvig Hammer 2585 –
This event will break the
B Group – Category 11 (10-player RR) – Average rating: 2502
IM Gabor Papp 2562 – HUN (GM norm – Texas Tech Student) Age 22
IM Davorin Kuljasevic 2547 – CRO (2 GM norms – Texas Tech Student) Age 22
GM Eugene Perelshteyn 2541 – USA (2007 SPICE Cup Champion) Age 29
IM Ray Robson 2527 –
GM Andre Diamant 2526 –
IM Ben Finegold 2515 – USA (2 GM norms) Age 40
IM Gergely Antal 2486 – HUN (2 GM norms – Texas Tech Student) Age 24
GM Vinay Bhat 2474 –
IM Oliver Barbosa 2454 – PHI (One of the top young Filipinos – Winner of 20 U.S. tournaments in the past year) Age 22
FM Danny Rensch 2388 –
All ratings listed are FIDE ratings.
SPICE Cup Open and SPICE Cup Scholastic Open are once again two of the events which are a part of the SPICE Cup Chess Festival.
Just as last year, the SPICE Cup will be held on campus at Texas Tech University and is co-organized by SPICE, Susan Polgar Foundation, and Texas Tech University.
I’m rooting for GM Bhat! Good choice!