Ben's Blog: Texas Trip and Skokie Sacrifices

Yo yo yo!!

Time for me to earn my salary, as I go to two big tournaments.

First, the strong Spring Spice Cup in Lubbock, TX. 

Each year, SPICE puts on two strong tournaments, The Spring Spice Cup, and the Spice Cup (usually in September).  The Spring Spice Cup is usually a Category 8-10 RR, whilst the Spice Cup in the Fall features at least two strong RR tournaments, with the "A" group average rating over 2625.

The 10 player RR features the following heavyweights (in drawing of lots order):

1. Irina Krush
2. Gergely Antal
3. Davorin Kuljasevic
4. Eric Hansen
5. Gabor Papp
6. Julio Becerra
7. Dean Ippolito
8. Jesse Kraai
9. Darwin Yang
10. Ben Finegold

The 2010 Spring Spice Cup takes place March 13-19, 2010.

After the last round in Lubbock, I will fly to Chicago for the 25th NACA Masters.  The tournament is a nine-round Swiss, with at least 5 GMs, 5 IMs, and other assorted FIDE rated players.  There will be GM and IM norm opportunities, and I expect 20-25 players overall. The NACA FIDE Masters will be held March 20-24, in Skokie, IL.

So far, here are the confirmed participants:

• GM Atanas Kolev (BUL) - 2571
• GM Ben Finegold (USA) - 2531
• GM Mesgen Amanov (TKM) - 2482
• IM Michael Mulyar (USA) - 2408
• IM Angelo Young (PHI) - 2334
• IM Arjun Vishnuvardhan (IND) - 2285
• FM Gauri Shankar (IND) - 2295
• Siddharth Ravichandran (IND) - 2458
• Adarsh Jayakumar (USA) - 2109
• Janyl Tilenbaeva (KGZ) - 2060
• Mariano Acosta (USA) - 2180
• Jose Perez Reisler (PUR) - 1900
• Timur Aliyev (ISR) - 2250

I will be back Friday, March 26th, just in time to see IM John Donaldson's great leacture, Saturday March 27!

Ben