IM Dean Ippolito at SPICE

New Jersey IM Dean Ippolito came very close to gaining a GM norm at the 2010 SPICE Spring Invitational in Lubbock, Texas. But his loss to IM Gergely Antal in Round 8 (see video above of his resignation) ended his title chase in this tournament — though it gave Antal a shot at his own norm. Dean did score a couple of nice wins along the way, though, including a tactically sharp victory over celebrated youngster Darwin Yang.