GM norm seeking Irina Krush got off to a good start with a round one win
with the black pieces, the only black win. Here is her Sicilian. Games are
being carried live by Monroi and [maybe?] ICC.

[Event "SPICE Cup International Chess Tournament"]
[Site "Lubbock"]
[Date "2007.11.09"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Lugo, Blas"]
[Black "Krush, Irina"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "2411"]
[WhiteTitle "IM"]
[BlackELO "2475"]
[BlackTitle "IM"]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.f3 Nxd4 7.Qxd4 g6 8.Bg5
Bg7 9.Bb5 Bd7 10.Bxd7 Qxd7 11.Nd5 Nh5 12.Qd2 e6 13.Nc3 Rc8 14.g4 Bxc3
15.bxc3 Ng7 16.Bf6 O-O 17.h4 Qc7 18.h5 Ne8 19.Bd4 e5 20.Be3 Qxc3 21.Qxc3
Rxc3 22.Kd2 Ra3 23.Rhb1 b6 24.Rb3 Ra4 25.Bh6 Ng7 26.Rd3 Rc8 27.Bxg7 Kxg7
28.hxg6 hxg6 29.Rxd6 Rac4 30.Rc1 Rc3 31.Rd3 Rxd3 32.Kxd3 Kf6 33.c4 Kg5
34.Ke3 Rc5 35.a4 a6 36.Kd3 Kf4 37.Rb1 Rc6 38.Ke2 f6 39.Rb3 Kg5 40.Kd3 Kf4
41.Ke2 a5 42.Rc3 Rc7 43.Rc1 Rh7 44.Rb1 Rh2 45.Kd3 Rf2 46.Rxb6 Rxf3 47.Ke2
Kxe4 48.g5 fxg5 49.Rxg6 Rc3 50.Ra6 Rc2 51.Kf1 g4 52.Rxa5 Rxc4 53.Ra8 Kf3
54.Ke1 g3 55.a5 g2 56.Rf8 Rf4 57.Rg8 Re4 0-1

Standings after round 1:

1-4 Hear (HUN), Hernandez (MEX), Krush (USA) and Perelshteyn (USA) 1.0
5-8 Gulko (USA), Schneider (USA), Lugo (USA), Hoyos (MEX) 0.0

The game between Becerra and Miton was postponed due to flight problem.

Source: SP.

Phil Innes

SPICE Cup 2007

Standings after round 2:
1. Perelshteyn 2/2
2. Hernandez 1.5/2
3-4. Hera, Becerra 1/1
5-7 Krush, Schneider , Hoyos 1/2
8-9 Gulko, Lugo 0/2
10. Miton 0/0

The top seed of the 2007 SPICE Cup Invitational Tournament GM Kamil Miton
has finally arrived to Lubbock, Texas tonight. His flight from Poland was
cancelled. So his family had to drive him more than 5 hours to the airport
in Warsaw. From there, he flew to London. From London, he flew to Chicago
then Dallas and finally Lubbock! He made a commitment to this tournament and
he did everything possible to get here. A true warrior! He will begin the
third and fourth round tomorrow and as normal and he will make up his games
against GM Becerra and GM Hera next week. Susan Polgar.

The game Krush Perelshteyn is instructive, Irina shouldn't have taken that
d6 pawn! What a gamble, but game over in 35. In round 2 Black continued to
score well, with 2 wins, 1 white win, and 1 draw.

Phil Innes

Just give her the black bits! Krush does it again with black, finishing with
a nice shot at move 23. Monroi has a game replay engine, but can't find game
scores. Perelshteyn also performs with black and has a strong early lead.
//PI

Round 4 result

Gulko 0-1 Krush
Hernandez 1/2 Lugo
Becerra 1-0 Hera
Schneider 1/2 Hoyos
Miton 0-1 Perelshteyn

1. Perelshteyn 3.5/4

2-4. Becerra 2/3
Hoyos 2.5/4
Hernandez 2.5/4

5-7. Krush 2/4
Schneider 2/4
Hera 1.5/3

8. Miton 0.5/2
9. Lugo 1/4
10. Gulko 0.5/4

Susan Polgar

{{TWIC is back, with new site, and covering Spice}}
see http://chess.co.uk/twic/twic679.html#6

1. Perelshteyn 4/5

2-3. Becerra 2.5/4
Hernandez 3/5

4-8. Hoyos 2.5/5
Krush 2.5/5
Schneider 2.5/5
Hera 2/4
Miton 1.5/3

9. Lugo 1.5/5

10. Gulko 1/5 News

Other media coverage on local TV networks, print media and local radio
stations , in addition to the NY Times, TWIC, Chessville, USCF online,
Chessdom, MonRoi, etc. I expect many more chess and general news sources to
do the same shortly.

In a very short period of time, more than 65 sponsors and supporters stepped
up to make this tournament happen. With this kind of media attention, I hope
to be able to raise more sponsorship for more prestigious events like this
in the future.

Round 6 - Tuesday, November 13th at 3 pm

Gulko, Boris - Schneider, Dmitry
Miton, Kamil - Krush, Irina
Hernandez, Gilberto - Hoyos, Manuel Leon
Beccerra, Julio - Perelshteyn, Eugene
Hera, Imre - Lugo, Blas

Miton will make up his game against Becerra at 9 am. Hoyos will also play
his last round game against Blas Lugo at 9 am because he has to leave one
day early to Turkey to represent Mexico at the World Youth Championship.

All games will be broadcast LIVE on http://www.monroi.com/ and ICC (
http://www.chessclub.com/ ).

Susan Polgar

Thanks for the updates ...

"SAT W-7" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the updates ...

yeah - its been quite a good tournament chessically- coming to an end now...
posted for s. polgar. //pi

Other than the Becerra - Perelshteyn matchup, it was 4 GMs versus 4 IMs and
the 4 GMs all had White. At one point, it looked like it would be 4-0 for
the GMs. In time pressure, Hoyos pulled out a draw but others were not as
lucky. Gulko skillfully defeated Schneider in a very difficult Rook and Pawn
then eventually King and Pawn endgame for his first win. Miton defeated
Krush to move into +1 and Hera defeated Lugo to also move into +1.

Standings after 6 rounds:

1. Perelshteyn 4.5/6 (+3)

2-5. Becerra 3.5/6 (+1)
Hernandez 3.5/6
Hera 3/5
Miton 3/5

6-8. Hoyos 3/7 (-1)
Krush 2.5/6
Schneider 2.5/6

9-10. Gulko 2/6 (-2)
Lugo 2.5/7

Round 7 - Wednesday, November 14th at 3pm

Perelshteyn, Eugene - Hera, Imre
Krush, Irina - Hernandez, Gilberto
Hoyos, Manuel Leon - Beccerra, Julio
Schneider, Dmitry - Miton, Kamil
Lugo, Blas - Gulko, Boris

Make up game between Miton and Hera will take place at 9 am tomorrow

Susan Polgar

"SAT W-7" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the updates ...

its interesting what GMs commentaries are, since they often look to
White&Black scores in tournaments as a sort of index of creative play or
degree of struggle - and while i reported to eastern europeans the good
start with black of irina krush, in terms of another polgar back came the
response overnight about his fellow hungarian:-

posted for a.adorjan //pi --maybe i'll ask his opinion if women are better
playres of the black bits than men ?!? )
--------

Addition: JUDIT POLGÁR (so far) WON MORE with BLACK ( 3 )

in the'Tournament of Champions'than the whole field in Mexico World
Championship( 2 )

It seems most of the top players ambitious to make a monkey of themselves.

Or is there any other explanation?

( AA )

Gulko, Boris - Miton, Kamil
Hernandez, Gilberto - Schneider, Dmitry
Beccerra, Julio - Krush, Irina
Hera, Imre - Hoyos, Manuel Leon
Lugo, Blas - Perelshteyn, Eugene

Games will begin at 3 pm and can be seen LIVE on http://www.monroi.com/
News from Susan Polgar

I assume that means 3:00pm Texas Time or maybe even Southern Time. Or 5:00
pm EST

Round 7 standings:

Perelshteyn 5/7 (+3)

Miton 4.5/7 (+2)
Becerra 4.5/7

Hernandez 4/7 (+1)
Hera 4/7

Hoyos 3/7 (-1)
Krush 3/7

Gulko 2.5/7 (-2)
Schneider 2.5/7
Lugo 3/8