The future gets brighter for Thailand Chess!

Today I'm able to visit the first day of the ongoing Thailand Juniors Chess Championship. As I entered the playing hall, the sea of players, parents, officials, coaches, and spectators caught me in awe! Thailand's Chess is ever growing rapidly. The mammoth crowd keeps on increasing year by year. 

The turnaround of participants this year dwarfs the number of the previous stagings of the very important annual event. One can simply notice that each section has a lot of new faces. Even the younger sections are now filled with enough players to make the organizers run the planned number of rounds unlike in past editions wherein some sections had to be merged due to lack of entries.

Yes! the number of wood pushers in the land of smiles keeps on rising. Seeing the tremendous growth in number especially in the younger generation is pivotal for Thailand to continue scaling greater heights in the world of chess. This would pave the way for producing more young masters on the horizon. The country had just recently achieved a marquee feat when the youthful Prin Laohawirapap finally nailed his International Master title, drawing inspiration and hope for everyone.

On another note, the highly patronized and admired Bangkok Chess Club International Open will be commencing its 21st staging, to be held in the beautiful seaside district of Hua Hin, barely 3 hours away from the capital Bangkok. The highly successful BCC Intl Open will see the participation of 270 players from 41 countries in the Open section and 98 players from 25 countries in the Challenger section.

Thailand Chess Association's President Mr. Sahapol Nakvanich attributed the growth to the association's programs and events as well as the non-stop events run by the many different clubs, especially in the metropolis.

Indeed, Thailand Chess is very much alive!

Chesserly yours,

NM Winston Joseph Ruales Silva