SPICE Cup A and B group

SPICE Cup Invitational A & B Group

The 2010 SPICE Cup will take place on Thursday, October 28 – Sunday, November 7 (B group ends on November 5) at the beautiful campus of Texas Tech University. This prestigious event is growing bigger every year. It is the highest rated international invitational tournament in U.S. history to date.

To make the tournament a lot more exciting, the SPICE Cup committee has unanimously voted to adapt the following new rules for the A group:

– No draw offer allowed prior to move 30
– A win = 3 points, a draw = 1 point, and loss = 0 point

The format of the A group will once again be a 6-player DRR (category 16) event. The average FIDE rating of the A group is 2631, which is tied with the 2009 SPICE Cup A group as the highest rated international invitational tournament in the U.S.

GM Zoltan Almasi (HUN) 2707 (#1 in Hungary on the current LIVE rating list)
GM Alexander Onischuk (USA) 2688 (#3 in the U.S., former U.S. #1 and Champion)
GM Wesley So (Philippines) 2668 (#1 in the Philippines)
GM Georg Meier (Germany) 2659 (#2 in Germany)
GM Ray Robson (USA) 2539 (Youngest American GM)
GM Eugene Perelshteyn (USA) 2528 (winner of 2007 SPICE Cup)

The B group will be a 10-player (category 10 – 2485) RR event. The players confirmed for the B group are:

GM Davorin Kuljasevic (2555 – Croatia) Texas Tech Knight Raiders
GM Ben Finegold (2534 – USA) 2009 SPICE Cup B group co-champion
IM Gegerly Antal (2526 – HUN) Texas Tech Knight Raiders
GM Andre Diamant (2498 – Brazil) Texas Tech Knight Raiders
GM Anatoly Bykhovsky (2497 – Israel) Texas Tech Knight Raiders
IM Irina Krush (2490 – USA) 2010 U.S. Women’s Champion
IM Bryan Smith (2478 – USA)
IM Dean Ippolito (2469 – USA)
IM Danny Rensch (2404 – USA)
FM Darwin Yang (2402 – USA) One of the most talented young players in the U.S.

GM norm will be 6/9 and IM norm will be 4/9.