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!

Round 7 Results: Philippines vs. Hungary -- Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad

The veteran Eugene Torre saved the day for Team Philippines, as he managed to maneuver a win in Board 3 against the Hungarian Ferenc Berkes in Round 7 of Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad, to even the score at 2-2.

The team's goal at the start of the tournament was to be just among the top 20 finishers amidst all the countries competing in this Olympiad, but it seems they underestimated themselves. All the players' performance so far are way above their level -- their ELO ratings.

The score card of the match between the 35th seed Philippines vs. the 4th seed Hungary follows:

Bo.	Philippines	Score	Hungary
1	Wesley So	1/2-1/2	Peter Leko
2	Oliver Barbosa	0-1	Zoltan Almasi
3	Eugene Torre	1-0	Ferenc Berkes
4	Mark Paragua	1/2-1/2	Csaba Balogh

You can replay the games from these pages:

• Wesley So vs. Peter Leko


• Zoltan Almasi vs. Oliver Barbosa


• Eugene Torre vs. Ferenc Berkes


• Csaba Balogh vs. Mark Paragua

Or download the (zipped) PGN file of the games.

Update: Philippines in Round 8

With the draw in Round 7 with Hungary, the ranking of Team Philippines slid down from No. 6 to No. 10. They will be facing the 11th seed England in Round 8.

Round 6 Results - Istanbul 2012 Chess Olympiad (Philippines vs. Bulgaria)

The big news: a turnaround win by Oliver Barbosa vs. Kiril Georgiev on Board 2.

All analyses lead to Barbosa already losing the game beginning from his 50th move, when 7 moves later, on Georgiev's 57th move, he (Georgiev) made a big blunder, which cost him the game, and his team the match.

Just like in 2010, the Wesley So vs. Veselin Topalov matchup ended in a draw. The former world champion, GM Veselin Topalov, may have been aggressive going to the middle game, but the underdog, GM Wesley So, never lost his grounds. Eugene Torre and Mark Paragua halved their points as well with their respective opponents.

The final tally: 2.5 to 1.5 in favor of The Philippines!