2009 SPICE Cup—USA's highest rated international closed event—begins

FOR close to two weeks, 11 days to be exact from Saturday, 19 September to Tuesday, 29 September, the center of attraction in the United States will be the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) Cup chess tournament in Lubbock, Texas.

The tournament features six chess grandmasters in its Group A category which will be a double-round robin event. These players have an average rating of 2631, making it a Category 16 tournament. This is the highest-rated international round robin tournament held in the United States.

This is the first time that SPICE Cup included a second group consisting of 10 players playing a single round robin contest.

The tournament commenced on Saturday, September 19th at 1:00 p.m. in the Matador Room of the Student Union Building on the Texas Tech University campus.

Here is the list of invited participants in both groups.

SPICE Cup A Group – Category 16 (6-player double round robin) - Average rating: 2631 – Average age: 20

• Grandmaster Dmitry Andreikin, Russia, 2659, 18 years old (Top-rated Russian Junior and reigning Russian Junior Champion)
  
• Grandmaster Wesley So, Philippines, 2644, 15 years old (Top-rated Filipino and member of the 2008 Filipino Olympiad team)
  
• Grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian, United States, 26 years old, 2636 (2008 SPICE Cup Co-Champion and 2-time Olympiad Bronze Medalist)
  
• Grandmaster Yuriy Kuzubov, Ukraine, 2636, 19 years old (2nd ranked Ukrainian Junior and 8th in the world)
  
• Grandmaster Rauf Mamedov, Azerbaijan, 2626, 21 years old (5th ranked Azerbaijani and member of the 2008 Azerbaijani Olympiad team)
  
• Grandmaster Jon Ludvig Hammer, Norway, 2585, 19 years old (2nd ranked Norwegian and member of the 2008 Norwegian Olympiad team)
  

This event will break the U.S. record by a big margin. Last year's SPICE Cup was a category 15 event with average rating of 2605.5. This year's average rating will be over 2630!

SPICE Cup B Group – Category 11 (10-player single round robin) - Average rating: 2503

• International Master Gabor Papp, Hungary, 2562, 22 years old (Texas Tech student and member of the TTU Knight Raiders)
  
• International Master Davorin Kuljasevic, Croatia, 2547, 22 years old, (Texas Tech student and member of the TTU Knight Raiders)
  
• Grandmaster Eugene Perelshteyn, United States, 2542, 29 years old (2007 SPICE Cup Champion and former winner of the prestigious Samford fellowship)
  
• International Master Ray Robson, United States, 2527, 14 years old (Reigning U.S. Junior Champion and winner of the prestigious Samford fellowship)
  
• Grandmaster Andre Diamant, Brazil, 2526, 19 years old (Top rated Brazilian Junior and Reigning Brazilian National Champion)
  
• International Master Ben Finegold, United States, 2515, 40 years old (2-time U.S. Open Champion, 2-time National Open Champion and former winner of the prestigious Samford fellowship)
  
• International Master Gergely Antal, Hungary, 2486, 24 years old (Texas Tech student and member of the TTU Knight Raiders, 2009 National Collegiate Champion)
  
• Grandmaster Vinay Bhat, United States, 2474, 25 years old (2007 USCL MVP and former winner of the prestigious Samford fellowship)
  
• International Master Dean Ippolito, United States, 2459, 30 years old, (Former winner of the prestigious Samford fellowship and 11-time All-American)
  
• FIDE Master Danny Rensch, United States, 2388, 23 years old (Former National Elementary, Junior High, and High School Champion and 6-time All-American)

All ratings listed are from the September 2009 FIDE rating list.
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