IM Ben Finegold, Photo Betsy Dynako from Chicago 09
Finegold told CLO about his third round miniature victory over Davorin Kuljasevic: "He made an inaccuracy in the opening with 8...Nxd5?! The last 4-5 years, GMs only play 8...exd5. Then, he made another risky move with 10...Qxc3+. Years ago, some GMs tried 10...Nf6, which seems all right. Then he made a final error with 13...c5? which traps his queen."
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Finegold also won an interesting Sicilian game in round five (Watch that queen's rook go!) against IM Gabor Papp, creeping closer to the norm.
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Although Ben is grabbing many of the headlines this time, there have been a number of stand-out battles in the competition, including this wild game between Robson and Bhat. See more games on Monroi.com.
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There are other norm chances in the "B" group: Rensch is going for his final IM norm while IMs Antal and Robson need to go on a big streak to earn GM norms.
In the "A" Group, three GMs lead, John Ludwig Hammer of Norway, Yury Kuzubov of Ukraine and Dmitry Andreikin of Russia. This is a young group of visiting GMs: they are 19, 19 and 18.
SPICE CUP
Standings after five rounds (corrected from earlier post)
A group
1-3. GMs Hammer, Kuzubov, Andreikin 3.0
4. GM Mamedov 2.5
5. GM So 2.0
6. GM Akobian 1.5
B group
1. IM Finegold 4.0 (needs 2/4 for GM norm and title)
2-3. GM Bhat, GM Perelshteyn 3.5
4. IM Antal 3.0 (needs 3/4 for GM norm and title)
5-6. IM Papp (needs 3.5/4 for 2nd GM norm), IM Robson (needs 3.5/4 for GM norm and title) 2.5
7-8. FM Rensch (needs 2/4 for IM norm and title), IM Kuljasevic 2.0 (needs 4/4 for GM norm and title)
9. GM Diamant 1.5
10. IM Ippolito 0.5