Birth of Thailand's new stars
While Chess activities at the height of the pandemic soared to record highs, we also witnessed a great number of up-and-coming young stars around the world unleashing their prowess over the 64-square battlefield.
Thailand is not an exception. This article will be the first of many parts as I try my best to identify the brightest hopes of a country known as “the land of beautiful smiles”, a country I began to call home as I’m nearing my fifth year here of what I call a beautiful journey concerning my personal views.
Anyway, I have created my short list of Thailand’s brightest hopes based on merits acceptable to most if not all. And I would like to begin with a young lad named Shin Jingjang, a local boy of Japanese descent who in recent years has steadily climbed the national ranking.
Simply called Shin by friends and peers alike, or even “Shin London” by chess friends, a fine young man who can easily be mistaken to be a member of a boy band because of his handsome looks, had recently made headlines by qualifying for the Thailand Men’s Olympiad team that saw action in the last chess Olympiad held in Chennai, India.
For quite some time, Shin is a regular fixture in many local events, i.e., club tournaments, various open competitions, Thailand Chess Association events such as the age group events, and national qualifyings, among others. In short, he had been playing chess for quite a while in the local scene. Generally speaking, one can say that Shin got mixed results or I would say mediocre ones in the early goings of his young chess career. He studied from one coach to another with still a lack of seriousness to the game until he met his present coach FM Deniel Causo of Double Bishop Chess Academy where things started to get more serious and better results started to pour in.
Under FM Causo’s tutelage, Shin started to unlock some of his hidden potential or we may say a clearer display of analytical prowess for the game of Kings. Presently he is number 15 in Thailand’s National ranking for all active players, such is already a great feat for a 16-year-old kid who also manages his academics very well as a Year 12 student of the much-revered Harrow International School of Bangkok.
On another note, one would admire this young fine lad all the more as very pleasant things were revealed in my candid chat with him. Shin stated clearly that he wants to do charity chess events with the proceeds going to help the different programs of the Thailand Chess Association (TCA). He firmly believes in the vision of TCA President Sahapol Nakvanich, one of which is to see more Thai kids embracing the game of chess as well as helping kids from rural areas or provinces to be able to play in international events (not just kids from international schools). What a beautiful mind!
As I’m writing this piece, I just got the news that Shin delivered the 2nd best result for all Thai players who took part in the rapid segment (behind Poleon, another very promising young player who placed 8th in the U14 section (which serves as a very good warm-up for the ensuing standard event slated the next day) of the on-going Asian Youth Chess Championships 2022 held in the resort city of Bali in Indonesia.
(…to be continued, wherein I will present and analyze one of the best games Shin had played in recent events, followed by other youth hopefuls for Thailand Chess)
All the best,
NM Winston Joseph Silva
