Titles for Rensch and Finegold
September 27, 2009
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Daniel Rensch
Ben Finegold earned his final GM norm in round 8 of the SPICE Cup at Texas Tech, while Daniel Rensch followed suit, earning his final IM norm, in round nine. The Arizona-based FM and American Chess Events president drew against Ray Robson in round nine to qualify for the IM title. 14-year-old U.S. Junior Champion and World Cup wildcard Ray Robson needed a win in that game to earn his final GM norm, but as anyone watching this kid would surely agree, for Ray, it's only a short matter of time. Read Daniel's story on CLO earlier this year, "Road to GM: Not Broken" to learn more about his inspiring story.

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The B "group" saw a 3-way tie for 1st between GM Eugene Perelshteyn, GM Vinay Bhat and GM-elect Finegold. Finegold was a full point ahead before the round, but somehow I don't think he'll be that upset to share the title with Eugene, who defeated Ben, and Vinay, who also won a very nice last round game. Although there were many wins for Bhat at the end, the final position is very pretty.

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The "A" group is a double round robin, so it's still in progress. Follow the action live on Monroi.com.

SPICE Cup "B" group

Final standings:

1-3 Finegold, Ben IM 2515 USA 6.0
1-3 Bhat, Vinay GM 2459 USA 6.0
1-3 Perelshteyn, Eugene GM 2542 USA 6.0

4 Robson, Ray IM 2527 USA 5.5

5 Papp, Gabor IM 2562 HUN 5.0

6-8 Rensch, Danny FM 2388 USA 4
6-8 Antal, Gergely IM 2486 HUN 4
6-8 Kuljasevic, Davorin IM 2547 CRO 4

9 Diamant, Andre GM 2526 BRA 2.5

10 Ippolito, Dean IM 2459 USA 2.0