The six leaders in the Open section were pitted against each other on the top three boards. First to finish were Paulo Bersamina and Babu Lalit on board 3, following a short and balanced affair.
On board 1, Evgeny Romanov kept grinding like a grandmaster against James Morris’ well-organised defences, and could have paid a heavy price for his optimistic play. In the end however, White’s passed pawn prevailed.
Arif Hafiz and Surya Ganguly appeared to have all the fun to themselves in one of the most mind-boggling games of the tournament so far. The Indonesian IM entered the tournament hall late like Fischer, went on to play an early Ke2 like Steinitz and proceeded to get in time trouble like Reshevsky. What followed was the kind of swashbuckling slugfest only an engine can comprehend:
Hafiz, Arif Abdul (2343) – Ganguly, Surya Shekhar (2572)
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 exf4 4.d4 Qh4+ 5.Ke2 d5 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.exd5 O-O-O 8.dxc6 Nf6 9.Qd2?? (Blunder. Qd3 was best.) 9..Bc5 10.Kd1 (Rhe8) 10..Rxd4 11.Bd3 Qh5 12.Rf1 (cxb7+ was best) 12..Rhd8 13.Ne2 Ra4?? 14.Bf5+? Qxf5 15.cxb7+ Kxb7 16.Qxd8 Bd6 17.b4? (Diag)
Qd5+ 18.Bd2 Ne4 19.Ke1 Bxf3 20.Rxf3 Qxd2+ 21.Kf1 Rxa2 22.Re1 Bxb4
0-1
Cast in the pursuers’ role within a large chasing pack of players on 4/5, top seeds Gustafsson and Short both produced dominant displays albeit with varying levels of fortune.
As the former did not manage to make his pawn advantage count in a Rook endgame, the latter capped his positional advantage with a winning sacrifice.
Games: https://www.chess.com/events/2025-bangkok-open/games
Open section: https://chess-results.com/tnr1137279.aspx?lan=1
Challenger section: https://chess-results.com/tnr1137307.aspx?lan=1
