The 3rd annual SPICE Cup will take place on September 19-29, 2009 at Texas Tech University. There will be a number of changes this year.
There will be a separate A and B group. The A group will be a 6-player double round robin. It will be at least category 16 (average rating 2626 FIDE and above) and perhaps even category 17 (FIDE average 2651 and above).
This will break the U.S. record of last year’s SPICE Cup of category 15. I will announce the final field soon. It is not easy selecting the players as there were around 20 GMs over 2600 and over 50 GMs overall requesting invitations. The two confirmed players so far are GM Wesley So (2641) of the Philippines and GM Yuriy Kuzubov (2632) of the Ukraine.
The B group will be a 10 player single round robin event. It is expected to be category 11 (average FIDE rating of 2501 and above) or category 12 (average FIDE rating of 2526 and above).
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.
The SPICE Cup Chess Festival has many new sponsors this year. Three of them include ChessCafe.com (formerly known as USCF Sales), DGT North America, and DGT.
All games will be broadcast LIVE on MonRoi.com and ICC. Stay tuned for more details.
Excellent sponsors! Excellent tournament! Excellent organizers!
Congratulations!
Keep up the good work. You are turning Lubbock into a GM destination.
Imagine where the USCF could be if Goichberg and Jim Berry would allow GM Polgar to help instead of worrying about their own chess political careers. Shame on you Jim Berry! Shame on you Bill Goichberg!
Does the SPICE cup have room for one more chess patzer? Me!