SPICE Thanksgiving

After the Thanksgiving dinner at my home, a chess game broke out between the SPICE students :)

Welcoming back the Champ!

Members of the Knight Raiders welcoming back GM Georg Meier at the Lubbock International Airport, one of the stars in the German European Championship Team!

9th “Get Smart! Play Chess!” Open

9th “Get Smart! Play Chess!” Open
Saturday, December 3, 2011

A 4 Round Swiss USCF Rated Tournament (Game/30)

Event Site: Science Spectrum 2579 S. Loop 289, Lubbock, TX
Contact Info: 806-742-7742 E-mail: Spice@ttu.edu

Description of Tournament: An open tournament for all players. USCF membership required.
Registration: On-site registration and check in 8:30am-10:00am. All players must check in by
10:15am. Late arrival will receive a ½ point bye for the first round. Chess boards and sets
provided, bring clock.

Round schedule: 10:30am - 12:00pm - 1:30pm and 3:00pm.

Entry Fee: $20 by 11/23, after or onsite $25. K-12 or TTU students $5 off.
Entry fee includes access to the museum OR one free IMAX movie.
Prizes: 1st $125 2nd $75 3rd $25Top U-2000 $50 Top U-1600 $50. All prizes are based on 20 paid entries.

Please send Entry Blank and Entry Fee to Susan Polgar Foundation at 6923 Indiana Ave. #154 Lubbock, TX 79413.

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12-03-11 Open Entry Form: Please PRINT all information and make check to Susan Polgar Foundation.

Name: _____________________________Phone: (_____)______________
Address: _________________ City/State:________________ Zip:________
Email:________________________________________DOB:___________
USCF ID# and expiration date:___________USCF Rating (if any) ___________
Sibling Team_____Parent/Child Team________ Student/Coach Team________
Amount paid________ Check#_______ Cash_______ Bye request R1 R2 R3 R4

SPICE in Texas gets U.S. out of chess backwater

SANDS: SPICE in Texas gets U.S. out of chess backwater
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Tuesday, November 1, 2011

We can claim the Super Bowl, the World Series and three of golf’s four “majors,” and we have played host to eight Olympics. But when it comes to staging big-time chess events, the U.S. is something of a backwater.

The 1995 Kasparov-Anand match at New York's World Trade Center was the first world championship played on American soil in 88 years. The most storied U.S. tournaments - Cambridge Springs 1904, New York 1924, New York 1927, Santa Monica 1966 - occurred decades ago. On the topographical chess atlas of the world, obscure burgs such as Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands; Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia; and Linares, Spain, tower over New York and Los Angeles.

So for patriotic reasons if nothing else, it’s nice to report on the fifth annual SPICE Cup, staged last month in Lubbock, Texas, by Texas Tech University and the Susan Polgar Foundation. The strongest of the three round-robin invitationals there had an average rating of 2656 and docked in as a Category 17 event.

Full article here.

The National Champions Knight Raiders Recognized

Here are some pictures from the recognition tonight: https://picasaweb.google.com/SPICEChess/KnightRaidersRecognition



This was what the announcer said:

"The Texas Tech Knight Raiders Chess Teams are the reigning National Collegiate Chess Champions in three different divisions. In only the second year competing in Division I, the Knight Raiders stunned the chess world by winning the College Chess Final Four this past April in Washington, DC.

Now, for the first time in school history, they are also ranked as the number one team in the nation and they are looking forward to defend their titles this year.

The Knight Raiders Head Coach, 4-time World Champion and 5-time Olympic Champion, the first woman to lead a men's division I team to the National Championship, and the first woman to coach the number one ranked team in the nation, our very own Grandmaster Susan Polgar. Let's wish the team luck in their title defense.

Here are your National Champion Texas Tech Knight Raiders!"

Rising in the ranking

Vietnam’s number one chess player wins 5th SPICE Cup
Thursday, Oct 27, 2011, Posted at: 13:24(GMT+7)

Vietnam’s number one chess player, 20 year old Le Quang Liem, won the championship title at the 5th SPICE Cup in the US after beating Cuba’s Leinier Dominguez in a decisive game on October 26.

Liem defeated his Cuban rival in 29 moves with 17 points, after ten matches. In the first round, Liem had lost to Leinier, but he played with an advantage of holding the white pieces in the last game.

Leinier Dominguez was ranked second, holding 15 points above Germany’s Georg Meier.

Ray Robson of the US finished fourth with 11 points, followed by Sebastian Feller of France with 9 points and Yuri Shulman of the US with 7 points.

The SPICE CUP was held this year in Texas from October 15 to 25. There were three round-robin tournaments, with the A Group of 6-players in double round-robin, and B and C Groups of 10-players in single round robin.

Liem returned to Ho Chi Minh City yesterday evening. He said that he will continue to train at the National Sports Training Centre in HCMC and prepare for the 26th SEA Games in Indonesia on November 11.

The website www.2700chess.com, which specializes in daily updates of super international grand master Elo ratings, listed Le Quang Liem as one of the 40 super grand masters after he drew with U20 World Junior Chess Champion Dmitry Andreikin of Russia, within the framework of the Capablanca Chess Tournament in Cuba from May 9-21.

With this ranking, Liem has become the fourth Asian player, and the only Southeast Asian player as well as the world’s second youngest player, after 19 year old American Italian Fabiano Caruana, to have achieved an Elo rating.

Liem said he hoped his success would offer him more opportunity to enter major competitions and compete with world-class players and to overcome new challenges.

By N.Thien – Translated by T.Huong
Source: http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn

Heart breaking loss

Leinier Dominguez Losses Spice Cup in Final Round
Wednesday, 26 October 2011 15:02

Havana, Cuba, Oct 26.- Cuban Leinier Dominguez’s first defeat in the last round of the Chess Spice Cup cost him dear as the event was finally dominated by Vietnamese Le Quang Liem.

Liem, top favorite by Elo -2 717 points- took revenge over the Cuban, who had defeated him in their first match in the doble round robin event, and beat Leinier (2710) in 29 moves of a Queen’s Gambit.

Those who followed the match, that took place in Texas, via chessdom.com, could see how the Vietnamese took advantage of a fatal error of the Cuban idol in the 26th move and did not only become champion, but also paid back his defeat in the first round.

The Capablanca 2011 Memorial runner-up added 6.5 units on the traditional system and 17 on the one used by the organizers which awards every victory with three points and every draw with one.

Leinier who until Tuesday had won three times and drew in six opportunities, ended with six points (15), as well as German Georg Meier (2 648), who was threatening to finish first but drew against French Sébastien Feller (2 668).

With his victory over his fellow countryman Yuri Shulman (2 608), young local Ray Robson (2 583) managed to climb to the fourth place, going home with 4.5 (11), and before Feller who accumulated 4 points (9).

Shulman ended last with barely three points (7) and surely with a drop on its Elo.

Before yearend, Leinier will go back into action at Spain’s club team championships, and the Mind Sports Games, in Beijing, China. (acn).

Source: http://www.cadenagramonte.cu

Le Quang Liem Wins SPICE Cup

Le Quang Liem Wins SPICE Cup
By Zachary Haskin
October 26, 2011

Texas Tech University and the Susan Polgar Foundation hosted the 5th Annual SPICE Cup from October 15-25. This year’s festival had three Invitational sections, a FIDE Open, a Scholastic Championship, and an Invitational Blitz, with some exciting matches. The A group was a 6 player double round robin event with an average rating of 2656 FIDE, making the Category 17 tournament the highest rated International Invitational round robin in United States history. With no draw offers before move 30 and the increasingly popular scoring system of three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss, spectators were guaranteed to see some fighting chess. Fourteen of the 30 games in the A group ended with decisive results, and no competitor was able to escape the tournament without a loss.

The top grandmasters came from all over the world to compete. Le Quang Liem of Vietnam and Leinier Dominguez of Cuba came in as the first and second seeds respectively, both with FIDE ratings above 2700. Both are well known and respected players. Liem has twice won the very strong Aeroflot Open (in 2010 and 2011), while Dominguez reached the quarterfinals in the 2004 FIDE World Chess Championships and has been a member of the 2700+ club for quite some time. Sebastien Feller of France and Georg Meier of Germany (who is a freshman at Texas Tech) boast mid to high 2600 ratings that put them in the top 100 in the world, and they both play on their respective Olympic teams. Well-known American talents Yury Shulman and Ray Robson, who need no introduction to our readers, rounded out the field.

Full article here.