SPICE Institute and SPICE Cup
On May 12, 2007, Polgar was the undergraduate commencement speaker at Texas Tech University. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate degree. On the same day, as reported on the LubbockOnline website, it was announced that she would become the coach of the Texas Tech chess team and would be the director of the new Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE). In 2008, SPICE announced an extremely generous pledge from a private donor, who provided $320,000 for TTU chess scholarships over the next five years.
In 2007 Texas Tech and Susan Polgar hosted the first SPICE Cup which has since become the highest rated international round robin chess tournament held in the United States. The SPICE Cup draws tens of millions of viewers worldwide, who are able to follow the event online. In October 2010, the SPICE Cup became the highest rated international invitational chess tournament in US History. In 2008, the SPICE Cup rated category 15. It jumped to category 16 in 2009. SPICE Cup 2010 rated category 16 (2631 average FIDE rating) but for 2011 the SPICE Cup has a preliminary two 2700+ player for the first time with negotiations in process with four or five other similarly ranked players, and will potentially rate 17/18.
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Famous quotes containing the words spice, institute and/or cup:
“Variety’s the very spice of life
That gives it all its flavour.”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)
“Whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The morning cup of coffee has an exhiliration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)