More on SPICE Move to St. Louis

No. 1-Ranked Chess Institute in the Nation Moving to Webster Groves

The Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence will make Webster University its new home after five years at Texas Tech University.
By Carlos Restrepo
February 29, 2012

Susan Polgar, world and Olympiad champion of chess, will move her Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) from Texas Tech University to Webster University, effective June 1.

Polgar was recruited by Texas Tech in 2007 to lead the new SPICE chess institute. However, Polgar said the university there did not have the resources to sustain the fast-growing chess program.

“The program grew very fast,” said Polgar, who is a winner of four world chess championships and five Olympic gold medals. “We are very thankful for our partnership with Texas Tech. We had many great accomplishments there, but it was time to move on.”

Julian Schuster, provost of Webster University, said he has been playing chess for most of his life and has befriended several professional chess players throughout his career in academia. Schuster said a friend had told him that Polgar was planning on leaving Texas Tech, so he saw an opportunity for Webster.

“All my life I’ve thought chess is a great educational tool,” Schuster said. “I always have had an idea to form a chess club, but never sought the opportunity. When one my friends told me Susan Polgar was contemplating leaving Texas, I put two and two together and moved the initiative forward with the university.”

In addition to Polgar, 10 students from Texas Tech, who are part of the chess institute’s “A” team, will also relocate to Webster. At least six of them will receive full-ride scholarships to attend their new home campus, Schuster said.

Schuster said he is not sure of the total cost to the university for bringing the SPICE institute, Polgar and the 10 students to Webster. Schuster said he sees it as a good investment.

“Everyone — the New York Times, the other newspapers — ask me this question, ‘How much will it cost?’” Schuster said. “This is not important. What’s more important is how many direct and indirect benefits this will have for Webster University, Webster Groves, St. Louis, Missouri and even the United States. We are convinced that we will emerge as one of the best universities and we will become an attractive place for the best students to come and to join us. In that regard, it will put Webster Groves on the world map.”

Polgar said it may be difficult to adapt from being at a large university such as Texas Tech, with a population of about 32,000, to Webster University, which has an enrollment of about 4,500 students. However, Polgar said Webster’s campuses abroad and its global mission are a perfect fit for her program.

“Chess is an international game, and anyone can play it,” Polgar said. “We hope to attract students from other countries to come to Webster.”

Both Polgar and Schuster said the institute will serve not only students at the university, but also residents of Webster Groves and surrounding areas.

“We still have to iron-out the details, but there will be opportunities to make it accessible to anyone interested in chess,” Polgar said. “That’s the beauty of chess; it is available to everyone. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, how old you are, how fast you are, what background you come from, it’s available and accessible to everybody. And it will be that way at Webster, too.”

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If the program was insufficiently funded by Texas Tech, how could it have grown so quickly, as GM Polgar herself stated in this article?  And in building such a successful chess program in an admittedly short period of time, why was she even contemplating leaving Texas Tech?  Who walks away from success? 

Does Webster University with 4,500 students at it's home campus in St. Louis, Missouri, really have more financial resources to fund "growing" a chess program than Texas Tech, with over 32,000 students? 

Six students from the soon-to-be-former Texas Tech "Knight Riders" "A" chess team are getting full scholarships to Webster University.  Well, at least for a year...  But what about the other 4 players?  And what about the players on the "B" and "C" squads?  Were they not also instrumental in achieving a unique level of success for SPICE under Texas Tech's funding of its chess program? 

Who is the "friend?"

Susan Polgar Moving SPICE to St. Louis, Missouri

From Chessdom:

SPICE and Champion U.S. College Chess Team Moving to Webster University
February 3, 2012

St. Louis, Feb. 3, 2012 – Building on St. Louis’ growing reputation as a world-class chess center, Webster University is making some exciting chess moves.

The University today announced that chess Grandmaster Susan Polgar, World and Olympiad Champion, and her Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE), will relocate to Webster from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, on June 1, 2012.

In addition, all members of the reigning national collegiate champion Texas Tech “A” chess team will transfer to Webster and be enrolled at the University in the 2012-2013 academic year.

“Chess is increasingly valued for its instructional impact,” said Webster President Elizabeth (Beth) J. Stroble. “Globally, educators recognize chess as a tool to cultivate interest and success in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) disciplines. At Webster, SPICE and Susan Polgar will be leaders in promoting chess as a vehicle for global diversity and academic excellence, for enriching the education of children and for promoting women’s chess.”

“We are excited to be the new home of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence,” said Dr. Julian Z. Schuster, Webster University provost and senior vice president.

“The mission of SPICE is to be the nation’s premier center for chess education, research, technology and outreach. Our partnership with Susan Polgar and SPICE at Webster will allow us to support and promote competitive chess at the college level. Chess has always been a global game and this important step brings a global game in these global times to a truly global university. We are excited to further enhance the image of St. Louis as a global chess center.”

“According to recent statistics, there are about 1 billion chess players in the world,” Polgar said. “SPICE, therefore, is a perfect fit for Webster University’s global vision and presence, and I am extremely impressed with Webster’s commitment to excellence in chess and education. I am also very excited to be in the St. Louis area, near the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, the hot spot for chess in the United States, thanks to Mr. Rex Sinquefield.”

The chess players who will either transfer to Webster from Texas Tech or enroll as incoming freshmen include eight Grandmasters and two International Masters, and the team is expected to rank No. 1 in the nation in Fall 2012. “No team in the long and prestigious history of college chess has had eight Grandmasters before,” Polgar said.

Polgar, who is one of the strongest female chess players in history, is the winner of four world championships and the only world champion in history – male or female – to win the Triple-Crown (Rapid, Blitz and Classical Chess world championships). She is the first woman to break the gender barrier to qualify for the Men’s World Championship Cycle, earn the Men’s Grandmaster title, and to receive the Grandmaster of the Year Award. In 2011, Polgar became the first female head coach to lead a men’s Division 1 team (Texas Tech University) to the national title.

Sooooo, what about the SPICE Cup?  Is Webster going to pick up the sponsorship for it?  What about chessplayers who were recruited to Texas Tech by SPICE who aren't on the "A" Team?  What about all of the programs that SPICE sponsored locally in the Lubbock area?

Looks like Susan Polgar has kissed off Texas Tech.  Adios, amigos.

This, from The Wall Street Journal:

Sorry, Texas Tech: You've Been Checkmated

College athletes transferring to another school is common, but an entire program? Webster University announced Friday it had lured the Texas Tech chess team—including coach Susan Polgar and the "A" squad members who won the national title last spring—to the St. Louis-area school. Polgar, who noted a nearby St. Louis chess club as a U.S. "hot spot," will relocate to Webster in June. The players will enroll there for 2012-13.

"We're disappointed that they've chosen to transfer rather than continue their education here but we do wish them the best in that," a Texas Tech spokesman said. "They've represented us well in chess."
—R.B.

The Texas Tech Night Raiders Win the Final Four of Chess

This is just an outstanding achievement by this young team.  The first part of the championship occurred in my hometown, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the end of December, 2010.  Although I was unable to attend any of the games (December is crunch time in estate and tax planning), it was my pleasure to provide several gift baskets of Wisconsin goodies for the Texas Tech contingent.  Texas Tech's "A" Team made it into the final four, and Texas Tech's other two teams placed well in the overall competition.  Maybe fueling up on fresh  Wisconsin cheese, sausage, chocolates and assorted other goodies did the trick :)

Kudos to GM Susan Polgar and Paul Truong, who took over the coaching program at Texas Tech University in 2007 in conjunction with the establishment of the Susan Polgar Institute of Chess Excellence (SPICE) which, since it's founding, has specialized in hosting some of the highest-rated invitational tournaments in the history of the United States as well as hosting invitationals designed to give young American players changes to win important IM and GM norms.  This is not the easiest thing to do, as most American tournaments do not meet the many technical requirements necessary for players to score "norms" as set forth in regulations by FIDE (the international chess federation).  In addition to introducing the SPICE Cup as well as the SPICE Invitationals in the spring and fall, Polgar and team have taken the Texas Tech chess program from yawn to WOW in a just a few short years.  Outstanding, and my heartfelt congratulations to Polgar, Truong, Dr. Karlsson and the Texas Tech Chess Team.

Interview (in full) from Susan Polgar's chess blog:

The golden coaches of the Knight Raiders about the Final Four success
Susan Polgar and Paul Truong in a large interview
Chessdom.com

The Knight Riders were successful at this year's Final Four. The team led by Susan Polgar and Paul Truong managed to win a title in what can be viewed as the Final Four with largest mass media coverage.

After the success, coaches Polgar and Truong gave an extensive interview to Dr. Hal Karlsson, Associate Professor of GeoSciences at Texas Tech University.

Dr. Hal Karlsson: Susan and Paul, first of all, congratulations! This Final Four victory is simply fantastic and quite unexpected. How did it happen?
Susan Polgar: Thank you. I think the team did great, and even though we were the lowest seed, as a team, we believed that we could win. I also think we were more unified and working together more as a team than our competitors. I’m very proud of our guys that they gave their all.

Paul Truong: It is a good feeling for the entire team because they’ve worked very, very hard to be able to accomplish this. As Susan said, they gave it their all and they deserve it.

SP: They were also fearless. They were not intimidated facing much stronger opponents, even ones they had bad records against in the past. In the first round, Grandmaster Timur Gareev of UTB, the highest rated player in Texas, offered our top board, Grandmaster Anatoly Bykhovsky, a draw in a very complicated position. Bykhovsky just lost to Gareev in an earlier encounter in Berkeley. Even with that in mind, Bykhovksy refused the draw offer against a much higher rated opponent and went all out for the win.

In the critical final round, a similar thing happened. Grandmaster Leonid Kritz of the defending champion UMBC, the highest rated player of the entire Final Four, offered our team captain Grandmaster Davorin Kuljasevic a draw with the white pieces. In the same matchup last year's Final Four, Kuljasevic lost to Kritz. Just as Bykhovsky, Kuljasevic refused the draw offer and went all out for the win. Both of them succeeded and they gave our team two vital points toward the national title. As their coach, I could not be more proud of this.

HK: Clearly all the teams must prepared very hard for the Final Four given what was at stake here. But what accounted for Texas Tech's success. What was the secret?
PT: I believe the secret is quite easy. We simply worked harder. We not only studied the games of our opponents just as everyone else, but we also study our opponents' demeanor, body language, movement, facial expression, pattern of thinking and decision making, etc. We dissected every inch of every possible aspect of the game. We put countless hours into the preparation. Even after our players were asleep, Susan spent hours double checking all the analysis to make sure there was no error. We were lucky to even get a few hours of sleep.

It does not mean that we will succeed every time. It just means that we will put our team in the best possible position to win. We had a similar approach when Susan and I ran the 2004 U.S. Women's Olympiad program which brought home the first four ever Chess Olympiad medals (2 gold and 2 silver) for the United States. If you want to win, you have to be willing to work harder than everyone else. No one will just hand the title to you. If you want it, you have to get it.

Another thing we did different than other teams is our approach before the start of the Final Four. The team arrived in Washington, D.C. very late Thursday night. We had Friday free until about 6 p.m. Other teams stayed in the hotel to do some last minute preparation. Being a world class competitor herself, Susan realized that the players were under tremendous pressure. So she decided to give them two choices:

1. To stay in the hotel like other teams to cramp in last minute preparation. 2. Go for a tour in Washington, D.C. to relax, stay fresh, and build further team chemistry.

The players voted to go to D.C. So we spent the day on the famous Double Decker bus tour to visit the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, the Capitol Building, and other landmarks. The players had plenty of good times and good laughs. It worked out great. But if it did not work as planned, I am sure others would be quick to criticize her decision. But as a coach, you need to make tough decisions.

HK: That is impressive. But Susan also accomplished something else in this Final Four.
PT: Yes. Last year, Susan became the first female head coach to take a men’s division I team to the Final Four. This year, she is the first female to take a men's division I team all the way. You cannot even imagine, let’s say, a female coaching a men’s basketball team or men’s football team to the national title, but in chess, she showed that it can happen.

And the success was not only in division I. In just in the past two years, the Knight Raiders also won the national division II, III, and IV titles, in additional to many other individual honors. This is simply another gender barrier that she was able to break. What is even more amazing is this is only our second year competing in division I.

UTD and UMBC have been ruling the collegiate chess world for the past decade. For us to catch up with them on this level, this fast, was pretty amazing. I am sure the competition will be a lot tougher next year as all the schools will try to improve their rosters.

Susan now has done it all. She won Olympiad gold, five of them. She won the Women's World Championship Triple-Crown (Rapid, Blitz, and Classical). Her students have won National Scholastic Championships and now Collegiate Championships. But don't worry, she'll find more barriers to break, I am sure.

HK: Was there any particular player who stood out for Texas Tech in this Final Four?
SP: No. It was total team work. They fought hard as a unit and a different player came through for us in each round. It was Bykhovsky in the first round, Sipos in the second, Kuljasevic in the final round. Diamant was solid all the way through. And Aleskerov, as a reserve player, was the biggest cheerleader for his teammates the whole time. Just like the famous song by Sister Sledge, "We Are Family", the Texas Tech Knight Raider family.

HK: I saw the Final Four chess boards the Knight Raiders were holding up. Those look unique. Did you make those and how can one get one of them?
SP: Those are very special Final Four commemorative boards. They are not for sale. Only twenty of them were done and they were made by our friends at GLOSgames.com. This is an American company out of Kansas City, Missouri. They have done a lot of good things to promote chess and bring kids into the game. When I told them about Final Four, they immediately designed and produced these twenty special boards to give out to each of the four teams and the sponsor, Booz Allen Hamilton. They also sponsored other scholastic events of mine in the past. It is a good company and good people and I am proud that they support chess and the Knight Raiders. You cannot buy these boards but you can design your own chess board with them or use one of their over 110,000 designs.

HK: That is pretty neat. So what is the next step? A long celebration or vacation? I understand the team is going to Vegas (not Disney World like football players). What was that all about?
SP: There is no time to rest. Winning it is hard. But defending it is even harder. We already started to prepare for next year with recruiting. We have a tradition of excellence at Texas Tech and we hope to win many more championship titles.

We are lucky to have strong support from Chancellor Hance, President Bailey, Provost Smith, our supervisor Vice President and Vice Provost Dr. Juan Munoz, our donors, and so many other people at Texas Tech and in Lubbock. To have people waiting to cheer the chess team on at the airport when they returned at midnight was pretty incredible. The media also prominently covered the team success. Everyone believes in us and we want to continue making all of them and this university proud. We will do everything in our power to help Texas Tech become a Tier One university. Through chess, we will attract some of the greatest minds to this university.

HK: What other goals does SPICE have in mind?
SP: As the chairwoman for the FIDE (World Chess Federation) Commission for Women's Chess, I am working with SPICE to promote women's chess and help raise the playing level of the next generation through various important initiatives. SPICE is also actively working to get chess in more schools. This is a very important part of our goal.

University Interscholastic League (UIL) of Texas, the largest inter-school organization of its kind in the world, has approved the proposal from SPICE to include chess puzzle solving as a statewide competition. This can potentially be the biggest scholastic chess initiatives in the United States as more than 2,000 schools in Texas are competing in a number of UIL competitions each year.

I am also hoping to work closer with FIDE to enhance various chess in the schools and chess in education projects in the United States. The future of chess is very bright.

HK: Thank you, Susan and Paul, for your time. Once again, congratulations and Go Tech! Check'em Knight Raiders!
SP and PT: Thank you, Hal.

Dr. Hal Karlsson is originalli from the chess loving country Iceland. He is an Associate Professor of GeoSciences at Texas Tech University. He is also the founder of SPICE as well as a student advisor for the Knight Raiders.

Texas Tech Leaps to Top Chess Schools

This is cool - really cool.  Congratulations to Texas Tech, SPICE, Susan Polgar, and Paul Truong, for putting this great program together.

From The New York TimesChess
A Dallas University Finishes on Top in a ShowdownBy DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
Published: January 9, 2011

A couple of years ago, college chess could be divided into two tiers. The elite included the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the University of Texas, Dallas. The second tier was made up of everyone else.

No more. With aggressive campaigns to recruit top players, the University of Texas, Brownsville, and Texas Tech University have joined the top tier.

Haraldur Karlsson, who is the faculty liaison for the chess team at Texas Tech, explained in an interview four years ago why the university had begun recruiting top talent.

“To be quite frank, Tech is not Harvard,” said Dr. Karlsson, who is an associate professor of geosciences. “And we have to compete really hard for the best students. And there tends to be a link between good chess skills and good academic skills.”

That also meant attracting grandmasters to mold the up-and-coming teams. Texas Tech, which is in Lubbock, hired Susan Polgar, a grandmaster and former women’s world champion, to run its program. In Brownsville, the university’s latest coach is Ronen Har-Zvi, an Israeli grandmaster.

Rest of article.

Chess Femme News!

From The New York Times, Dylan Loeb McClain's chess blog:
December 14, 2010, 5:50 pm
Asian Players Fill Semifinal Slots at Women’s World Chess Championship
Three of the four semifinalists for the Women’s World Championship tournament are set. Humpy Koneru of India and Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue of China won their quarterfinal matches on Tuesday.

The other quarterfinal match between Dronavalli Harika of India and Ruan Lufei, another Chinese player, will be decided by tie-breaker games on Wednesday.

Koneru will play Hou in one semifinal, regardless of the outcome of the undecided match. That will be a reprise of their 2008 semifinal, which Hou won. It is an unfortunate pairing as Koneru is the highest-ranked player in the field and Hou is the second highest. If the tournament’s seedings had not been skewed to make Alexandra Kosteniuk, the defending champion, the No. 1 seed, then Koneru and Hou might have met in the final, which would have been an ideal match-up. Now the winner of their semifinal match will be a clear favorite as the winner of the other semifinal will be a much lower ranked opponent.  [ More...]

[And this is exactly what I have been bitching about -- how knock-out events skew outcomes, so that the best players don't necessarily make it to the games they should be playing.  Not a single Russian or Georgian player made it to the semi-finals, and yet they are among the best players in the world.  There is something not right here.  Was a fix in? Is this a resounding arivedecchi from Kirsan to the Russians, who kicked him out of the much more lucrative post of President of Kalmykia but fixed the election so he'd get the FIDE Presidency as a consolation prize?  Heh heh heh.  The final will be China v. India or if you want to be more politically correct about it, India v. China, the two rising future "super-powers."  How fortuitous.]

Susan Polgar and SPICE In the News
From myfoxlubbock.com
Texas Tech, LISD look to add chess to UIL
December 14, 2010 Last Update: 9:12 am
Texas Tech and the Lubbock Independent School District are plotting to pilot a new statewide UIL competition.

The program was proposed by Texas Tech's Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence, known as "SPICE." Now it's a UIL competition.

Next year , Lubbock elementary and middle school students will be given 30 minutes to solve 20 chess puzzles designed by Grandmaster Polgar.

Vice President for Institutional Diversity at Texas Tech, Juan Munoz, said, "It teaches critical thinking, planning, strategizing. It teaches patience, focus, mathematical computation. One has to estimate the number of moves to achieve a certain objective. So there are a number of academically transferable skills in chess."

Munoz says Chess has such wide appeal because anyone can play anywhere, adding that he hopes the UIL level competition will spark students' interest in Texas Tech.

Life in Lubbock, Texas

Lubbock is known for Texas Tech University's beautiful campus and, since 2007, the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE), which is part of Texas Tech. I understand that since SPICE began functioning, Texas has moved into the #1 spot for states in the United States with USCF registered chess players, thanks to its hosting of numerous new scholastic and open tournaments. (More information about SPICE and chess scholarships). And then, there is the exciting new SPICE Invitational, where up-and-coming chessplayers are invited to participate in a tournament with a chance to earn IM and GM norms, and the prestigious SPICE Cup, which started in 2007 and has grown in popularity and ELO rating since it's inaugural year! (2009 information) By popular demand, 2009 will host two sections of players for the first time! But Lubbock isn't just a college and chess town. It is also the home to one of the premiere Paleo-Indian archaeological sites in the United States. Story at The Daily Toreador Lubbock Lake Landmark offers ancient insight, historic findings Hannah Boen Issue date: 7/17/09 Section: La Vida Every July since the 1970s, university students from across the globe have gathered in the same area to catch a glimpse of human life 12,000 years ago. The Lubbock Lake Landmark is the location of a late Paleo-Indian site that continuously has been excavated since its discovery during the Great Depression. Katherine Ehlers, a graduate research assistant from Midland, has been visiting the site each July for six years to discover and study pieces of history. "The more we can learn about how people live and adapt, the better," said Ehlers, the site's crew chief. "These things are relevant to today if we can study the trends of people thousands of years ago." Ehlers has spent much of her time as an undergraduate and graduate student at Texas Tech doing regional research in the Caprock area and has the artifacts to prove it. Halfway into this year's dig, her group has found Bison bone and some stone tools, clues into what life was like for humans thousands of years ago. "I think it's neat that people have been hanging out in Lubbock for that long," she said, "and we're still here." Disa Wiberg is an osteology masters student from Lund University in Sweden, and she is spending six weeks of her summer in Lubbock to be part of Ehlers' crew. "It's a good experience," she said. "You get responsibility, and you get to learn about every aspect of archeology." Wiberg and a handful of other students spend each day digging and studying, and each night in tents near the dig site. The students work, eat, sleep and shower outdoors. Although she admitted the West Texas heat was unpleasant, this is her second year to visit this dig site, and said it would probably not be her last. "I come here partly for the experience," she said, "and partly for the great people." Nicole Cotto, a sophomore anthropology major from Loyola University in Chicago, said she has enjoyed spending time with a diverse group of students who share her interests, however, was hesitant about spending six weeks of her summer in Lubbock. "Texas seemed kind of far," she said, "and I thought, 'What the heck? Lubbock? What is in Lubbock?'" Cotto said this is her first time to work on a dig site and has enjoyed the experience and the history the site has to offer. Both students believe they are working on a site that is providing valuable experience in their respective fields. Lubbock Lake Landmark education program manager, Susan Rowe, said the site has so much history to offer, students have only made a small dent in researching the area since they began digging more than 30 years ago. In the past three decades, full skeletons have been found on site of an ancient bison, a Columbian mammoth, a giant armadillo and a giant short-faced bear. Although the dig site attracts attention from students worldwide, Rowe said it is a good opportunity for Tech students as well. "I would suggest anyone looking for field experience with archeology or anthropology look here first," she said. Lubbock Lake Landmark plans to continue to study anything they can find on their historical site, she said, in order to learn the interactions and environments of the first Lubbock residents. Students interested in volunteer opportunities at the dig site may visit http://www.depts.ttu.edu/museumttu/lll/ for more information.

I'm Jealous!

Readers here know I'm a HUGE fan of Katherine Neville's best-selling novel, "The Eight," from which I've posted some interesting chess-related passages. It was "The Eight" that got me started on this path 10 years ago, and I still shake my head in wonder over how it all came about. Alas, Katherine! I saw last night that Neville's formerly very user-friendly website that was filled with interesting tid-bits on her research and details of her life has been transformed into a corporate bloggy-type thing that I don't care for. All the really GOOD stuff has disappeared! Eek! What happened to the research on the centaurs and volvos? This has been a fairly recent development I think, because I last visited her website in June, looking for news of the much-anticipated sequel to "The Eight" - called "The Fire" and it was still the same then. How disappointing. How sad. Now "The Fire" has been announced to much hoo-ha, which is great, but I feel the former Katherine her fans all knew and admired all these years between best sellers has been lost forever. What the hell happened? On the other hand, I am looking forward to the release date of October 14 and I eagerly pre-ordered my hard copy of "The Fire" last night online through Barnes & Noble. It was only this morning that I realized that I had already pre-ordered the book back in June. Eek! So now I will receive two volumes of "The Fire." Not to worry - I have just the person in mind to receive an unexpected gift... Like many of my other favorite books, I've read "The Eight" several times now and I get something new out of it every time. My Ballantine paperback edition, published in 1990, is yellowed, dog-earred, heavily underlined and filled with coffee and wine stains. LOL! And so, to be able to continue the story after all these years - twenty years! I await "The Fire" with even more anticipation than I did the release of the next Harry Potter novel, and that's saying a lot. Last night I saw at Susan Polgar's chess blog that she will be a special guest/hostess of a very special occasion introducing "The Fire" to the reading public to be held in Washington, D.C. and Katherine Neville is the guest of honor. I'm so jealous! Of course, I couldn't afford what I'm sure would be a hefty contribution to attend. Sigh. Oh well. I'll pacify myself with reading "The Fire" by the fireplace with several bottles of fine wine and lots of candles, smooth jazz playing in the background. The best news of all, though, is this announcement at the bottom of the invitation SP published last night: A portion of the first edition proceeds of THE FIRE are donated to SPICE, Grandmaster Susan Polgar's Institute for Chess Excellence at Texas Tech. This is really a coup for Susan Polgar and for SPICE and Texas Tech. I believe it will result in a nice financial dividend for SPICE.