Category: Tournaments

11 players are tied for the lead after Monday’s third round of the Bangkok Chess Club Open, South-East Asia’s strongest tournament of 2016, but defending BCC Open Champion Nigel Short is not one of them.

English Grandmaster Short’s title hopes are in tatters after the third round when he was beaten on the counter-attack by previously unheralded Vietnamese 21-year-old Hoang Son Dang.

FIDE Master Dang now joins 6 Grandmasters and 3 International Masters, along with one other FIDE Master, as co-leaders. The leaders include 2014 BCC Open Champion Paco Vallejo – who has already needed 215 moves to win 3 marathon games – and US rising star Awonder Liang, 13.

Monday was the tournament’s first and only day with two rounds for the 325 players from 43 countries who are competing in the 16th Bangkok Open tournament, held in the centre of Bangkok at the Dusit Thani Hotel.

The third round was also a great one for local hope Boonsueb Saeheng, one of only two Thai players who shared the lead with a perfect score after the second round. In his third game Saeheng was under extreme pressure playing against Greek Grandmaster Stelios Halkias but hung tough to draw and stay within striking distance of the tournament lead.

Halkias and Short were not the only top seeds to falter in the third round. German Jan Gustafsson, the 2011 Bangkok CC Open Champion, was well held by India’s 13-year-old rising star Kalyan Arjun.

The sensation of the second round played earlier on Monday was the loss by English Grandmaster Stephen Gordon to Indonesian 25-year-old Jenius Hakiki. In a position where he was the only player pushing for a win, Gordon lost on time, just one move before the time control.

“I just forgot about my clock,” admitted Gordon. “I had 45 seconds on the clock and then when I looked again it had all gone. It has never happened to me before and I hope never again.”

Round 4 of the Bangkok CC Open begins on Tuesday at 2pm at the Dusit Thani Hotel and offers free entry to spectators.
The competition concludes on April 17.

Press Office,
16th Bangkok Chess Club Open

A record 324 players from more than 40 countries are competing in the 16th Bangkok CC Open tournament – Thailand and South-East Asia’s strongest tournament of the year to date – being held in the heart of Bangkok at the Dusit Thani Hotel.

English Grandmaster Nigel Short, the winner of last year’s tournament, has returned to defend his title but he is seeded only second behind Spanish Grandmaster Francisco ‘Paco’ Vallejo Pons. Many other top players from around the world, including a total of 17 Grandmasters are ready to fight these two for first place.

The first round saw no upsets at the top boards where Short, Surya Ganguly and Ildar Khairullin with the white pieces, and Vallejo, Loek van Wely and Jan Gustafsson, with black won their games against lower rated opposition.

Vallejo, however, had to fight for five hours to overcome Kim Yew Chan, the Malaysian youngster holding firm for much of the game and missing a brilliant drawing opportunity on move 54.

Short, his brain hard-wired differently, beat New Zealand’s top female player, astro-physicist Helen Milligan, Short eventually converting a rook endgame.

The upset of the day was achieved by local veteran Poompat Sivara  who drew easily with Indian Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte. Belying the huge differential in world rankings, Kunte was in trouble almost from the start and was lucky that Sivara chose to repeat moves and take a draw when victory was close at hand.

One month to go and the 16th Bangkok Chess Club Open is heading for a record breaking entry. Truly international, it is almost an A–Z of 46 countries from Afghanistan to Việt Nam. And with 57 varieties of titled players, you have every chance of making your own title norm.

More details and entry form are available here:

• Tournament Regulations
• Registered Participants
• Registration Form
• Dusit Thani Room Reservations

US chess prodigy FM Liang Awonder is bringing his unique skills to the 16th Bangkok Chess Club Open in April this year. This remarkable 12-year old has already achieved three International Master norms and his application of the IM title is due for approval, making him the world’s youngest IM.

At eight years old, Liang was the youngest ever to beat an International Master; at nine years old he became the youngest person ever to defeat a Grandmaster with a victory over GM Larry Kaufman at the Washington International – beating Fabiano Caruana’s record by over 10 months.

~ Photo by Austin Fuller ~

Can you beat this talented 12-year old? Join us at the 16th BCC Open and find out. Registrations for the tournament have passed 115 from 34 different countries, including 18 Grandmasters. More details and entry form are available here:

• Tournament Regulations
• Registered Participants
• Registration Form
• Dusit Thani Room Reservations
• Paypal page for entry fees

Two young chess prodigies are joining the 16th BCC Open – 22 year-old Dutch grandmaster Benjamin Bok has a live rating of over 2600 after winning this year’s London Classic Open with a 2771 rating performance, and Russian GM Ildar Khairullin, who has a live rating of 2652. This 25 year-old super-GM beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov at the Aeroflot Open (2760 rating performance), and is two-time junior world champion, as a winner of U-14 (2004) and U-18 (2005) categories.

There are now 86 players registered, including 18 grandmasters, and representing 30 different countries.

More details and entry form are available here:

• Tournament Regulations
• Registered Participants
• Registration Form
• Dusit Thani Room Reservations
• Paypal page for entry fees