The SPICE Cup 2010 will take place on Thursday, October 28 - Sunday, November 7 at the beautiful campus of Texas Tech University. This prestigious event is growing bigger every year. It is expected to be the highest rated international invitational tournament in U.S. history to date.

To make the tournament a lot more exciting, the SPICE Cup committee has unanimously voted to adapt the following new rules for the A group, a combination of Sofia rules and Bilbao system:

- No draw offer allowed prior to move 30
- A win = 3 points, a draw = 1 point, and loss = 0 point

Official website: http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/

The format of the A group will once again be a 6-player DRR (category 16) event. GM Almasi of Hungary is the final player confirmed. The average FIDE rating of the A group is 2637.5. More than 30 GMs inquired about an invitation for the final spot in the A group. Here is the finalized list of participants, where we find two representatives of the 2700+ club.

GM Zoltan Almasi (HUN) 2717 (#2 in Hungary)
GM Alexander Onischuk (USA) 2701 (#3 in the U.S., former U.S. Champion)
GM Wesley So (Philippines) 2674 (#1 in the Philippines)
GM Georg Meier (Germany) 2648 (#2 in Germany)
GM Ray Robson (USA) 2562 (Youngest American GM in history)
GM Eugene Perelshteyn (USA) 2523 (winner of 2007 SPICE Cup)