Mid-tournament syndrome is that moment in the week when games get evenly matched, and hence the action doesn’t decant quite as quickly. For the correspondent, it’s usually that time when one realises he actually needs that other cup of coffee or that extra kick of insulin. When things are quiet in the press room, and one would wish Yasser Seirawan were there to delight the audience with some witty anecdote from the defunct century.

Round 4 had left us with a trio of leaders, two of whom were squaring off on the top board. The game between GM Babu Lalit from India and Indonesian IM Ariz Abdul Hafiz, was a finely balanced affair although Black’s Queen had ventured off to snatch a pawn as early as move 4.

On board two, Macedonian GM Romanov made short work of the third co-leader, FM Arca from the Philippines after the white Queen went on an unsuccessful fishing expedition on the Kingside.

Meanwhile, Thai star Prin Laohawirapap was facing a resurgent Nigel Short. After dominating the opening phase with the Black pieces, Prin got low on time and struggled to maintain his advantage before going astray wih 24… h5, when the position became level but with the momentum firmly on White’s side. There were a couple more plot twists, with White going astray shortly after entering a 4-Rook endgame. Black however failed to capitalise, capturing the wrong pawn (35…. Rxd4 instead of … Rxb2) after which the soon to be sexagenarian grandmaster had no difficulty steering the position towards a peaceful conclusion.

Short, Nigel D (2594) – Laohawirapap, Prin (2380)

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bd3 g6 7.O-O Bg7 8.Kh1 O-O 9.f4 Nbd7 10.Qe1 Nc5 11.Nf3 b5 12.Bd2 b4 13.Nd1 Bb7 14.Nf2 a5 15.e5 Nfd7 16.Be2 Qc7 17.exd6 exd6 18.c3 Rfe8 19.Qd1 Na4 20.Rb1 Ndc5 21.Bb5 Bc6 22.Bxc6 Qxc6 23.Nd4 Qd5 24.f5 h5 25.fxg6 fxg6 26.Qc2 Ne4 27.Nxe4 Rxe4 28.Qxa4 Bxd4 29.cxd4 Re2 30.Rf3 Rxd2 31.Re1 Kg7 32.Qd7+ Kh6 33.Qe7 Qg5 34.Qxg5+ Kxg5 35.h3

35…Rxd4 (…Rxb2!) 36.Re6 Rg8 37.b3 Rd2 38.Kh2 Rg7 39.Rf8 Rxa2 40.Rxd6 Ra3 41.Ra6 h4 42.Rd8 Rxb3 43.Rxa5+ Kh6 44.Rb5 g5 45.Rd4 ½-½

As several players on 3.5 points came out victorious, we enter tonight’s blitz final stage – as well as round 6 – with an unexpectedly large squad of competitors leading with 4.5/5.

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

Today’s round was preceded by a colourful display of some thirty Thai children in traditional costumes in the playing hall. Not as late entries to the BCC Open mind you, but to take part in a junior Makruk (Thai chess) tournament organised by the eponymous association.

For those BCC participants who are eager to discover this interesting chess variant, the Thailand Makruk Association will organise two separate tournaments on April 19 and 20 starting at 9:00am. These events will consist of 6 rounds with a tempo of 15 minutes with 5 second increments and will take place in the BCC Open analysis room, also known in the Sheraton vernacular as the Pompadour room.

One would have been forgiven for thinking that many of the day’s games would be expedited in anticipation of tonight’s blitz qualifiers which will see a capacity crowd of 112 battle it out for the privilege of a spot in tomorrow’s final.

But the opposite happened, and this round was not a walk in the park for any of the leaders by any stretch of the imagination. Board 1 ended in a draw between GM Romanov and IM Bersamina.

BCC champions Bernadskiy and Ganguly pressed hard against Hafiz Arif and Michael Concio respectively. The reigning champion could not take advantage of his opponent’s time pressure woes and ended in a lost pawn endgame. The 2016 and 2020 winner was more fortunate, scoring a hard-fought draw.

On board 4, Lalit Babu produced a positional gem against Alexander Chernyavsky. But yet another upset came on the fifth table, at the hands of FIDE Master Arca:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 5. e3 Bf5 6. Nh4 Bg4 7. Qc2 e6 8. h3 Bh5 9. g4 Ng8?!

OK, so here’s one for the conspiracy theorists: Black keeps the Knight because it is the key piece in the ensuing endgame. 10. Nf3 And here’s one for the others: White could refute it by playing 10. Qb3 here instead. 10… Bg6 11. Qb3 Ra7 12. Ne5 Nd7 13. Nxg6 hxg6 14. e4 dxc4 15. Bxc4 b5 16. Be2 c5 17. d5 c4 18. Qc2 Bc5 19. Bf4 e5 Black concedes a passed pawn but crucially starts to win the battle for the dark squares. 20. Bg3 g5 21. a4 Rb7 22. axb5 axb5 23. b3 Castling was a lesser evil. 25… Bd4 24. Rc1 Nc5 25. bxc4 b4 26. Nb5 b3 27. Qb1 Nf6 28. f3 O-O 29. Nxd4?! (Kf1 and White retains a fighting chance). Qa5+ 30. Kf1 exd4 31. Bf2 31… b2 32. Rd1 Na4 33. Bxd4 Nc3 34. Bxc3 Qxc3 35. Qd3 Qe5 36. Rb1 Rfb8 37. Bd1 Nd7 38. Qe3 Rb4 39. h4 Nb6 40. c5 Nxd5 0-1

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

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

Round 3 of the Bangkok Chess Club Open witnessed several closely contested battles as the Elo gap between opponents continued to shrink. Of particular interest to local observers was the encounter on board 5 between Indian GM Lalit and the young Thai candidate master Jonathan Bodemar. Agreed, it is a rather odd name around these parts, so please bear with us for a moment.

Born in 2006 of a Swedish father and a Thai mother, Jonathan already has the recent Budapest Olympiad under his belt and will also take part in the Sea Games at the end of this year.

Unlike many young chess talents in this day and age, he has multiple interests including swimming and basketball. The busy school curriculum in Thailand as well as his Swedish lessons have so far left him with relatively few opportunities to delve in chess, but this could change as he plans to enlist in a university in Sweden next year.

Although his game today went in favour of his grandmaster opponent, Jonathan will likely continue to challenge his compatriot IM Prin Laohawirapap for the tournament’s first prize rewarding a representative of the Thailand Chess Association.

On a neighbouring board, former World Championship contender GM Short bounced right back from his disappointing game of yesterday with a spectacular sacrificial attack. Playing against Andersen must have conjured up shades of another, much more ancient Anderssen, straight out of a romantic game of the mid-19th century…

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. f4 The Grand Prix attack, a favourite of the British chess circuit back when Nigel Short was a young man. 3… g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bb5+ Bd7 6. Bc4 Nc6 7. O-O e6 8. Kh1 Nf6 9. d3 O-O 10. a3 a6 11. Ba2 b5 12. e5 dxe5 13. fxe5 Ng4 14. Bg5 Qc7 15. Ne4 Ncxe5 16. Bf4 Qb6?! Right piece, wrong square. Moving the Queen to c6 instead would grant Black a good position. 17. Nxe5 Nxe5 18. Be3 Rfc8 19. b4 Bc6 20. Nxc5 Qd8 21. Qe2 Nd7? Allows White to ignite some serious Songkran fireworks; … a5 was indicated.

2.Rxf7!! Bxa1?! (…Nxc5 was best but also insufficient: 23. Raf1 Rc7 24. Rxg7+ Rxg7 25. Bxc5 Bd7 26. Bxe6+ Bxe6 27. Qxe6+ Kh8 28. Rf8+). 23. Nxe6 Qh4 24. Rxd7 Bxd7 25. Bg5 Rxc2 (or 25… Bxe6 26. Bxe6+ Kh8 27. Bxh4 Re8 28. Bg3 Bf6 29. Qf3 Bg7 30. h4 Ra7 31. Qc6) 26. Nd4+ Rxa2 27. Qxa2+ Kg7 28. Qxa1 28… Qf2? (28… Qxg5 29. Ne6+ Kh6 30. Qg7+ Kh5 31. Nxg5 Kxg5 32. Qxd7 Kh6 33. Qe7 a5 34. bxa5 would have prolonged the game somewhat) 29. Nf5+ Kf7 30. Qf6+ and checkmate. 1-0

The sensation of the round came from board number one, with top seed Jan Gustafsson committing hara kiri in a balanced position, all while his nearby rivals had a relatively quiet day at the office.

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

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

After a not overly eventful first day, has come the moment when experienced amateurs get to make an appearance on the top ten boards. As fate would have it, three of Bangkok Chess Club’s finest blitzers were paired with some of the field’s most illustrious contenders in this second round. Indefectible optimist Ron Hoffman from the Netherlands faced two-time BCC Open winner GM Surya Ganguly while the cunning evergreen FM Ko Ko Ohn from Myanmar challenged GM Stephen Gordon, as Belgian Tom Barbé sat across IM Paulo Bersamina from the Philippines.

All three were crushed mercilessly. Well, actually no. While Ron went behind early on, Tom offered commendable resistance and Ko Ko can be credited with surviving well past the time control.

Earlier, an intense battle had unfolded between the 3rd seed GM Evgeny Romanov and untitled Vietnamese player Tran Vo Quoc Bao, whose energetic play could have led to a major upset.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 a6 6. h3 7. Nf3 Be7 8. g4 h6 9. Rg1 b5 10. g5 hxg5 11. Nxg5 Bb7 12. Be3 Qa5?! Inferior to … Nc6, with an equal position. 13. Qf3? White returns the favour. Instead 13 a4 would have been better for White. 13… Nbd7 14. Bd2 Qc7 15. a3 Rc8 16. Be2 Nc5 17. h4 Rxh4 18. Qg3 Rxe4 19. Ngxe4 Ncxe4 20. Qxg7 Nxd2 21. Qh8+?! An innacuracy. Kxd2 was best. 21… Kd7 22. Qh3+

…Ke8? Black could have capitalised on his enterprising play with …Kc6, when the King finds shelter on the queenside with a clear advantage resulting. 23. Kxd2 Ne4+? 24. Nxe4 Although the position remains messy at first sight, the grandmaster has no difficulty wrapping up the win from here. 24… Qxc2+ 25. Ke1 Qxe4 26. Rg4 Qc2?! 27. Rg8+ Bf8 28. Rd1 d5? 29. Qh8 Qc5 30. Qxe5+ Qe7 31. Rxf8+ 1-0.

This leaves veteran GM Nigel Short as the round’s main casualty. His game against Yasseen De Herdt of Belgium was a tense affair, with the English star blundering away a half point after gaining the upper hand in the middle game.

On an unrelated note: the Thai New Year or Songkran festivities are in full swing, meaning that those players adverse to unsolicited showers may do well to avoid Bangkok’s touristy areas over the next couple of days.

As for those who prefer to stay indoors, don’t forget to avail yourself of the games at 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

Round one of the 22nd edition of the Bangkok Chess Club Open started right on schedule at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Riverside Hotel in Bangkok. With an even 200 players competing in the Open section and another 100 in the Challengers group, this year’s turnout is somewhat below expectations. Some players who had initially registered likely got spooked by the recent earthquake in Myanmar, which was also felt in neighbouring areas, including Bangkok.

Nevertheless, this year’s lineup is stellar with popular favorites such as top seed Jan Gustafsson returning to his old stomping grounds, alongside fellow former winners Nigel Short and Surya Ganguly as well as the defending champion, Vitalyi Bernadskyi.

The tournament venue is located alongside the Chao Phraya, which is also known as the river of kings – probably because it is what it means in Thai. While still on the topic of Thai names, it is noteworthy that Bangkok holds the world record for the longest city denomination: Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit. A useful tidbit of information for those minded to discard chess for Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy, but still value theory.

Among a sea of lopsided first round pairings which typically resulted in a comfortable win for the higher rated player, the encounter between Chinese teenager Lanqin Yang and FM Alexander Chernyavsky stood out in striking fashion.

Yang, Lanqin – Chernyavsky, Alexander
Pirc Defense: Classical Variation

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nf3 d6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. Qd2 Bg4 7. d5 Bxf3 8. gxf3 Ne5 9. Be2 c6 10. O-O-O Ned7 11. Be3 a6 12. Kb1 Qc7 13. f4 b5 14. dxc6 Qxc6
15. f3?! A move one should never play, according to GM Finegold. Qd4 instead would maintain White’s significant opening advantage.
15… Rc8 16. h4 Nb6 17. Bxb6 Qxb6 18. e5 Nh5 19. exd6 O-O?! Looking for complications, which is understandable given the difference in ratings but not necessarily wise. …Qxd6 was best.
20. dxe7 Rfe8 21. Nd5 Qc5? 22. f5 White is now winning.
22… Ng3? Strike that – very winning. 23. f6 Bh8?! 24. Rhg1?!

Already under time pressure, White misses the clincher 24. h5!
24… Qd6 25. Rxg3 Qxg3 26. Qg5 Qf2? 27. Bd3 Rc5 28. Be4 Qe2 29. Qg1?? Heartbreak. Rc1 wins instead. Now the position is equal, though not for long…
29… Rxd5 30. Rxd5 Bxf6 31. h5 Rxe7 32. hxg6 hxg6 33. Rd8+ Kg7 34. Qh1 Bh4 35. a3?? From ecstasy to agony in a matter of minutes. The seasoned FM doesn’t let his chance pass by: 35… Rxe4 0-1

In other news, local player Apichit Buakird heroically held Czech GM Kraus to a draw with the Black pieces. He promised to share his impressions of the game with the BCC press team as soon as he gets sober.

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