The SPICE Cup Invitational 2012

The SPICE Cup Invitational is happening in St. Louis, Missouri from October 16 to 20, 2012. It is expected to be a Category 18 tournament, just four notches below the highest FIDE tournament category.

The participants for this event (Invitational category) are six members of the Top 100 FIDE Ratings List (with their respective September 2012 ELO ratings and countries):

• [player]Maxime Vachier-Lagrave[/player], 2697, [country]France[/country];


• [player]Ding Liren[/player], 2694, [country]China[/country];


• [player]Le Quang Liem[/player], 2693, [country]Vietnam[/country];


• [player]Csaba Balogh[/player], 2668, [country]Hungary[/country];


• [player]Wesley So[/player], 2667, [country]Philippines[/country];


• [player]Georg Meier[/player], 2656, [country]Germany[/country].

We at ChessHive, being fans of [player]Wesley So[/player] and [country]Philippines[/country] chess, will certainly bring the updates as they unfold. So stay tuned!

Ivanchuk Wins over Wang Hao in Round 11

Check out the excitement in [player]Vassily Ivanchuk[/player] when he was about to win over [player]Wang Hao[/player] on Board 1 of Round 11 [event]Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad[/event].



Because of this win, [country]Ukraine[/country] edged out [country]China[/country] to take the 3rd spot and bring home the Bronze medal in Open category of the tournament.

Check out how the game went on from: Vassily Ivanchuk vs. Wang Hao.

Philippines vs. Romania Results in Round 11 Istanbul 2012

Team [country]Philippines[/country] certainly has run out of luck in the last three rounds of the [event]Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad[/event]. It started with a devastating loss to China in Round 9, a draw to Vietnam in Round 10, and now a loss to Romania in Round 11.

[player]Wesley So[/player] in Board 1 is the top player we expected to deliver the upsets against the opposing teams, even against the higher-rated players as he used to do in the past, has settled with 2 wins and 9 draws in the course of the tournament.

The final tally for the final Round 11 is: Philippines (1) vs. Romania (3):

Bo.	Philippines	Score	Romania
1	Wesley So	1/2-1/2	Constantin Lupulescu
2	Oliver Barbosa	1/2-1/2	Mircea-Emilian Parligras
3	Eugene Torre	0-1	Levente Vajda
4	Mark Paragua	0-1	Vladislav Nevednichy

Check out the games in the following pages:

• Constantin Lupulescu vs. Wesley So


• Oliver Barbosa vs. Mircea-Emilian Parligras


• Levente Vajda vs. Eugene Torre


• Mark Paragua vs. Vladislav Nevednichy

At the conclusion of the tournament, [country]Philippines[/country] (Open) finished No. 21, even behind Bulgaria, Moldova and England which it defeated in the earlier rounds.

For more info: see: How Team Philippines Fared in Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad.

Round 9 Results for Team Philippines in Istanbul 2012

It was a devastating defeat for Team Philippines against China in Round 9 of Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad. The score: 3.5 vs. 1.5, in favor of China. Only Wesley So on Board 1 managed to avoid a loss -- he drew his game against another 2700+ ELO rated player Wang Hao.

Bo.	Philippines	Score	China
1	Wesley So	1/2-1/2	Hao Wang
2	Oliver Barbosa	0-1	Liren Ding
3	Eugene Torre	0-1	Xiangzhi Bu
4	Mark Paragua	0-1	Chao Li

These were the first losses for Eugene Torre and Mark Paragua in this tournament. So far, only Wesley So has no loss, with 2 wins and 7 draws.

There are only 2 rounds left, so we can only wish more luck to our team Philippines!

You can replay the games from these pages:

• Wesley So vs. Hao Wang


• Liren Ding vs. Oliver Barbosa


• Eugene Torre vs. Xiangzhi Bu


• Chao Li vs. Mark Paragua

After this heartbreaking loss to China, Philippines is ranked No. 12 going into the 10th round, which they will be up against Vietnam.

Vietnam is ranked No. 16 after 9 rounds and was seeded 27th at the start of the tourney. Check out the profile of Team Vietnam.