A handful of BCC Open laureates joined with the organisers and a surprise guest at the seaside pool of the Sheraton Hua Hin Resort and Spa for the yearly photoshoot this Thursday.
Under the bright morning sun and the watchful lens of our very wet photographer Kwang Ng, tournament top seed GM Loek Van Wely faced a high profile visitor in the person of Johanna Bjorg, the President of the Icelandic Chess Federation who is currently enjoying a two-week holiday in Thailand. With his trademark frankness, the Dutch GM admitted to being lucky escaping with a draw.
“I was lucky not to get harpooned”
The second duel featured veteran GM Nigel Short and Nina Tuorila, the daughter of the tournament director. His assessment of the game was as sober as it was fitting: “I was lucky not to get harpooned”.
2024 edition winner Vitaliy Bernadskiy then faced Thai leader Prin Laohawirapap under the watchful eye of Van Wely, who then proceeded to challenge current BCC Open champion Evgeny Romanov. The Macedonian GM, probably blinded by the morning sun, almost played an illegal move but avoided further embarrassment by offering a draw.
By that time, Johann Bjorg had jumped back into the pool to single-handedly challenge a pair of opponents in two-time winner Suriya Ganguly and his daughter.
The long awaited blitz qualifiers took place on Tuesday night. Whilst most heavyweights made it through, there were some high profile casualties as IMs Satria Cahaya, Thai star Prin Laohawirapap and Paulo Bersamina failed to finish in the top two spots of their respective groups. The finals will be played tonight, in the form of a 16 player round robin tournament. Rating favourites include GM Visakh from India, his mysterious colleague Timur Gareyev who came to Hua Hin especially for this occasion, and BCC Open co-leader on 4/4, IM Khuong Dau.
The latter met with fellow IM Santosh Ajay on board one of today’s BCC Open fifth round. The only two players still on a maximum score buried the hatchet in grandmasterly fashion after 14 moves. Not an altogether unexpected turn of events considering the standings – and even less so knowing that one of the protagonists inquired beforehand about minimum move requirements prior to draw offers.
On board 3, top seed Loek Van Wely obtained a promising position against 2024 edition winner Bernadskiy in spite of ignoring one of the key commandments of opening play – “Thou shalt develop thy pieces posthaste”.
White’s advantage proved sufficient in the end, as the Ukrainian grandmaster resigned in a lost 3 vs. 1 + Rook endgame.
“There’s some life in the old dog yet.”
Winners on the day also include IM Ghosh Aronyak who defeated GM Zhao, and GM Nigel Short, who dominated IM Ariel Erenberg positionally with the Black pieces. The British legend snatched a stray pawn on h3 and later liquidated into a won pawn finale after a somewhat chaotic middlegame. In the winner’s own words: “There’s some life in the old dog yet.”
The previous round had left us with ten leaders on a perfect score. As six of them parted amicably, we were left with two decisive results. IM Khuong Duy Dau defeated his colleague Suresh Harsh after the latter dropped an exchange in time trouble after enduring some positional pressure. On board two, GM Ido Gorshtein parted with his fianchettoed Bishop early on, setting the scene for some interesting developments.
With this result, IM Santosh Ajay becomes co-leader with Dau – a duo which in all fairness wasn’t on many bingo cards when we started the round. These two U-18 talents will face one another in the marquis match-up of round 5, with a peloton of players on 3,5/4 including grandmasters Short, Van Wely, Zhao and Ganguly in pursuit.
In the challengers section, WFM Astrid Barbier continued her march on board one with a convincing win over local player Poompat. A veteran of the BCC Open, he candidly admitted to being outplayed in an opening of which he did not quite grasped all the intricacies. Four players share a maximum score of 4 out of 4 – Barrier, Danushka, Adalja and Gutsulyak.
At the outset of Round 3 of the BCC Open, only two things appeared certain. For starters, April 13 marks the beginning of a three-day celebration of the Thai New Year, known as Songkran. As with many things in Thailand, Songkran is essentially a matter of personal taste. It can be a religious celebration and a time-honoured way to pay respects to the elders. Or it can be a raucous, 72 hour long water gun showdown, complete with improvised swimming pools and trucks pouring barrels of water over the heads of hapless motorists and passers-by. Your choice.
The other given is that the 112 available spots for the yearly BCC blitz tournament are all but taken, mere hours after registration opening earlier today.
Just as closely contested were the games played on the top boards of this third round. Among the top ten seeds, four players emerged from a wave of draws. GM Ido Gorshtein quickly overcame IM Ritviz in a Rossolimo Sicilian after White opened up the position on move 10, possibly underestimating the long range potential of Black’s as of yet undeveloped pieces. On board 6, IM Aronyak dismantled Dagur Ragnarsson’s position with an exchange sacrifice on e6 while on board 7, GM Visakh capitalised on his positional pressure to force a decision against untitled youngster Adam Bivor. Lastly, second seed Brandon Jacobson defeated IM Dhulipalla in a tricky endgame following some very original opening play:
The second round of the BCC Open’s Masters tournament started with a slight delay, due to the enhanced security and anti-cheating measures implemented by the organisers. No metallic object, telephone, smartwatch nor, much less so, suspicious transmitting beads made it through to the tournament halls. Even GM Romanov’s trademark thermos bottle was thoroughly checked.
Although not as lopsided as on the initial round, today’s pairings still mostly featured rating gaps of more than 250 points. Many games on the top boards unfolded in similar fashion, with the underdogs holding the favourites through balanced opening and middlegame positions, albeit at the cost of widening deficits on the clock. The late Simon Webb put it best in his classic “Chess for Tigers”: a tiger will stalk its prey for as long as necessary to make sure he doesn’t go hungry.
But every rule has its exceptions, and, as Webb cunningly noted, even rabbits can have surprisingly sharp teeth when cornered. Top seed GM Loek Van Wely was made to labour a pawn down against Nithin Babu before transposing into a drawn 3 vs. 4 + Rook endgame.
Meanwhile, GM Romanov drew from an inferior position against Jianwen Wong after pressing for a win earlier on.
Here the engine gives White a decisive advantage after 41.h4, taking advantage of the lack of coordination between Black’s pieces while creating more weaknesses on the Kingside.
A few hours earlier, the Challengers section witnessed a first in BCC Open history when two Irish players, after braving swarms of drones and related hazards on their way to Hua Hin, squared off today on board 46, in what posterity might remember as Shamrocks at Dawn.
“Undinal songs urge the sailors on, Till lured by the sirens’ cry” *
Following a memorable 22nd edition on the bank of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok last year, the BCC Open set its sails to the Western shore of the Gulf of Thailand. Veterans from the 2024 event find themselves on familiar grounds however, as the tournament is again hosted by the Sheraton Resort and Spa in Hua Hin.
With a record 357 players representing 48 countries at the start of round one, it can be said that the ongoing geopolitical uncertainty was less of a deterrent than the earthquake which shook both buildings and resolve a little over a year ago in Thailand. It is especially heartening that many of this year’s participants have shown much resourcefulness in order to get to Hua Hin.
Sixteen GMs lead the field, including previous editions’ winners Loek Van Wely, Nigel Short, Surya Ganguly, Vitaliy Bernadskiy as well as defending champion Evgeny Romanov. Along with the other favourites, they made rather short work of their lower-rated opponents. But with a total of 120 titled players and a median rating above 2050 in the Masters’ group, the old hands’ continued dominance is not a foregone conclusion.
Accessible to all players rated under 2000 Elo, the Challengers group gathers 117 competitors from 34 countries, including thirteen local Thais. Oddly enough, the top two seeds both hail from the unlikely place that is Belgium, while the field also includes a couple of blind ladies as well as a player who fell asleep at the board for twenty minutes – but nevertheless managed to win his game.
