Ipatov & Troff Tie for First at SPICE Cup
GM Alexander Ipatov and IM Kayden Troff tied for first place at the SPICE Cup Open 2013, held 15th-19th October in Saint Louis, Missouri. The winners finished on 6.5/9, half a point more than a group of six players. For Troff it meant double success, as his score was enough for his second GM norm. IM Raja Panjwani of Canada also scored a GM norm while FM Kostya Kavustkiy of Ukraine scored an IM norm.
The 2013 SPICE Cup Open was sponsored by Webster University and the Susan Polgar Foundation. The games were not transmitted live but we thank Susan Polgar for providing a few of the tournament's key encounters.
In the fifth round, 24-year-old Russian GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov start with 1.b3 and slowly outplayed CM Li Ruifeng of the USA. White's space advantage and activity in the ending was quite hard to deal with.
In the same round, former World Junior Champion Alexander Ipatov of Turkey beat IM Panjwani Raja of Canada. Don't miss White's 21st move which started a devastating attack after Black declined the offer.
That 1.b3 move seems to be getting quite popular. Ipatov also played it in his game with 15-year-old IM Kayden Troff of the USA, although this turned into a double fianchetto. Troff defended this game to a draw with very solid chess.
The game between the eventual winners
In the penulatimate round, Ipatov beat American IM Mackenzie Molner to grab sole lead:
Ipatov was the only player on 6.5/9 and then drew his last round game with Aleksandr Rakhmanov on top board. Kayden Troff caught him in first place thanks to the following win:
The top woman prize was won by WFM Sarah Chiang, who finished with 4 points. IM Akshat Chandra and FM Samuel Sevian tied for first place for the under 2400 prize while FM Kostya Kavutskiy and FM Awonder Liang shared the under 2300 prize.
SPICE Cup Open 2013 | Final standings (top 30)
| # | Name | Rtng | Tot |
| 1 | GM Alexander Ipatov | 2625 | 6.5 |
| 2 | IM Kayden Troff | 2431 | 6.5 |
| 3 | GM Quang Liem Le | 2712 | 6.0 |
| 4 | GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov | 2603 | 6.0 |
| 5 | GM Alexander Shabalov | 2520 | 6.0 |
| 6 | GM Alex Yermolinsky | 2516 | 6.0 |
| 7 | GM Mackenzie Molner | 2493 | 6.0 |
| 8 | IM Raja Panjwani | 2422 | 6.0 |
| 9 | GM Ray Robson | 2628 | 5.5 |
| 10 | GM Fidel Corrales Jimenez | 2575 | 5.5 |
| 11 | IM Keaton Kiewra | 2404 | 5.5 |
| 12 | GM Manuel Leon Hoyos | 2552 | 5.0 |
| 13 | GM Aleksandr Lenderman | 2539 | 5.0 |
| 14 | GM Anatoly Bykhovsky | 2521 | 5.0 |
| 15 | GM Denes Boros | 2494 | 5.0 |
| 16 | IM Leonid Gerzhoy | 2478 | 5.0 |
| 17 | GM Andre Diamant | 2461 | 5.0 |
| 18 | IM Priyadharshan Kannappan | 2425 | 5.0 |
| 19 | FM Samuel Sevian | 2393 | 5.0 |
| 20 | IM Akshat Chandra | 2318 | 5.0 |
| 21 | FM Kostya Kavustkiy | 2272 | 5.0 |
| 22 | FM Awonder Liang | 2207 | 5.0 |
| 23 | GM Ben Finegold | 2482 | 4.5 |
| 24 | FM Jeffrey Xiong | 2345 | 4.5 |
| 25 | FM Robby Adamson | 2278 | 4.5 |
| 26 | CM Ruifeng Li | 2246 | 4.5 |
| 27 | Andrew Tang | 2174 | 4.5 |
| 28 | IM Joshua Ruiz | 2399 | 4.0 |
| 29 | IM Vitaly Neimer | 2378 | 4.0 |
| 30 | FM Joel Banawa | 2367 | 4.0 |
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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