2009 SPICE Cup - Norm Watch Update

Awwww, IM Ray Robson didn't make his final norm. He drew his final game with Rensch, but he needed a full point to score that final GM norm. The good news is that FM Danny Rensch scored the 1/2 point he needed for his final IM title norm! The USA has a new IM and a new GM (Ben Finegold) out of the "B" Group of the 2009 SPICE Cup. Congratulations to the new title-holders! Here are the final standings for the SPICE Cup "B" Group: 1-3 Finegold, Ben IM 2515 USA 6.0 1-3 Bhat, Vinay GM 2459 USA 6.0 1-3 Perelshteyn, Eugene GM 2542 USA 6.0 4 Robson, Ray IM 2527 USA 5.5 5 Papp, Gabor IM 2562 HUN 5.0 6-8 Rensch, Danny FM 2388 USA 4 6-8 Antal, Gergely IM 2486 HUN 4 6-8 Kuljasevic, Davorin IM 2547 CRO 4 9 Diamant, Andre GM 2526 BRA 2.5 10 Ippolito, Dean IM 2459 USA 2.0 Information from Susan Polgar's blog.

23rd NA FIDE Invitational

While no chess femmes are playing in this Invitational, several young Americans are trying for GM and IM norms. There's some exciting stuff going on! IM Ray Robson (in 3rd place before R7) defeated IM Ben Finegold (in 2nd place before R7) to leapfrog into first place with 5.5/7. IM Mulyar (in 6th place with 4.0 before R7) defeated GM Amanov (in 4th place also with 4.0 before R7), to also have 5.0/7. After R6 leader GM Kacheishvili drew with IM Shankland. Kacheishvili and Finegold both now have 5.0/7 and Shankland has 4.5/7. Mitkov and Ippolito both won, putting them at 4.5/7. Izoria and Molner drew their game, to each move to 4.0/7. Still 2 more rounds to go - and, to quote the old cliche, anything can happen! I'm not familiar with norm requirements, so I'm not going to hazard a guess as to which players may still have chances to score GM or IM norms. Stay tuned!