News

Thai Open: Short, Kunte, Vallejo and Zaw lead after five rounds

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Thailand Open: Short, Kunte, Vallejo and Zaw lead after five roundsNigel Short (England), Abhijit Kunte (India), Francisco Vallejo (Spain) and Zaw Win Lay (Myanmar) are sharing the lead after five rounds at the Thai Open in Pattaya City, Thailand. Top stars Short and Vallejo both started with four wins, and today drew their mutual game in just nine moves.

The Thai Open, with a first prize of 100,000 Baht (about 2300 Euro or US $3300), is being played at the Dusit Thani Resort in Pattaya City, Thailand. This year a record entry of more than 200 players are participating. The top four boards are broadcast live here.

Playing Hall

The field is headed by Spanish number one Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain and former world title challenger Nigel Short from England, the two highest ranked of the ten Grandmasters in the Open. Other well known players participating this year are Jan Gustafsson and Alina l'Ami, the wife of Dutch GM Erwin l'Ami.

Alina, who unfortunately hasn't blogged yet from Thailand on her excellent site, did send the following tweet yesterday: "My deep respect for Vallejo Pons and Gustaffson [sic], who came directly from Bundesliga to Thailand, arriving just 40 min before their game!"

In fact players from 40 countries have travelled to Pattaya for the tournament, with the stand-out first round game being between 10-year-old Zhansaya Abdumalik from Kazakhstan and Thai number one Wisuwat Teerapabpaisit.

Short-Vallejo

Abduumalik, the co-winner of the 2010 World U/10 Girls Championship, looked to be holding her own for much of the game but eventually dropped a pawn to Teerabpaisit and experience prevailed after 63 moves and four hours play.

In these early rounds few big upsets could be witnessed, and in fact many games followed the famous 'master beats amateur' scenario. The first half points were dropped by GM Sune Berg Hansen (who won the tournament last year), in round 2 against Jarred Neubronner of Singapore, and GM Tejas Bakre (India) who also drew against Ralf Steinbrecht of Germany.

After four rounds only top seeds Paco Vallejo and Nigel Short had won all their games. Naturally they were paired against each other for the 5th round, but unfortunately they decided to play it (very) safe. They drew in just nine moves, Short blaming the tough tournament schedule for the quick finish.

Short-Vallejo

The co-leaders were caught by two of the chasing pack of players: Indian GM Abhijit Kunte and Zaw Win Lay of Myanmar. Another ten, including three Grandmasters, are sitting just half a point further back.

Thai fans did have plenty to cheer about as 15-year-old Warot Kananub continued his giant-killing run, defeating Indian International Master Rahul Shetty. Kananub is currently undefeated in five games against far higher ranked opposition at the Thai Open and could be on his way to becoming Thailand's first International Master.

This year the tournament coincides with the Songkran festival, the traditional Thai New Year (13-15 April). At the moment of writing no doubt many players are joining the festivities, although their next game is scheduled for tomorrow nonetheless...

Selection of games rounds 1-5



Game viewer by ChessTempo


Thailand Open 2011 | Round 5 Standings (top 40)
Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3
1 GM Vallejo Pons Francisco ESP 2707 4.5 16.5 0 10.0
2 GM Short Nigel D ENG 2676 4.5 16.0 0 9.0
3 GM Zaw Win Lay MYA 2382 4.5 15.5 0 10.0
4 GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2526 4.5 15.0 0 9.0
5 GM Murshed Niaz BAN 2455 4.0 16.5 0 9.5
6 FM Illingworth Max AUS 2345 4.0 16.5 0 9.5
7 FM Sklyarov Dmitry V. RUS 2415 4.0 15.0 0 9.0
8 GM Gustafsson Jan GER 2647 4.0 15.0 0 8.5
9 Hou Qiang CHN 0 4.0 14.5 0 9.0
10 GM Sriram Jha IND 2442 4.0 14.5 0 9.0
11 IM Morris James AUS 2227 4.0 14.0 0 8.5
12 Sanjay N. IND 2335 4.0 13.5 0 8.5
13 IM Yang Kaiqi CHN 2399 4.0 12.5 0 8.0
14 Tuomala Timo FIN 2231 4.0 12.0 0 8.0
15 IM Aung Aung MYA 2324 3.5 16.5 0 10.0
16 GM Schebler Gerhard GER 2460 3.5 16.0 0 9.5
17 WGM L'Ami Alina ROU 2297 3.5 16.0 0 9.5
18 FM Illner Achim GER 2353 3.5 16.0 0 9.0
19 FM Kojima Shinya JPN 2329 3.5 16.0 0 9.0
20 GM Hansen Sune Berg DEN 2603 3.5 15.5 0 10.0
21 FM Stokke Kjetil NOR 2407 3.5 15.5 0 9.5
22 Mariano Nelson III PHI 2197 3.5 15.5 0 9.5
23 Kananub Warot THA 1989 3.5 15.0 0 9.0
24 GM Bakre Tejas IND 2530 3.5 15.0 0 9.0
25 Eng Andre Jerome SIN 2150 3.5 15.0 0 9.0
26 Hopman Pieter NED 2365 3.5 15.0 0 8.5
27 Singh Gurpreet Pal IND 0 3.5 14.5 0 8.5
28 FM Pitirojirathon Jirapak THA 2278 3.5 14.5 0 8.0
29 IM Mohota Nisha IND 2324 3.5 14.0 0 9.5
30 FM Voigt Martin GER 2325 3.5 13.5 0 8.5
31 IM Palit Somak IND 2378 3.5 13.5 0 8.0
32 Neubronner Jarred SIN 2262 3.5 13.0 0 8.5
33 FM Berezovics Alexander RUS 2206 3.5 11.5 0 7.0
34 WGM Swathi Ghate IND 2307 3.0 19.0 0 12.0
35 IM Lahiri Atanu IND 2350 3.0 16.0 0 10.0
36 IM Saptarshi Roy IND 2395 3.0 15.0 0 9.0
37 Arvind Shastry IND 2297 3.0 15.0 0 8.5
38 WFM Abdumalik Zhansaya KAZ 1941 3.0 14.5 0 8.5
39 Prince Bajaj IND 2185 3.0 14.5 0 8.5
40 IM Willemze Thomas NED 2390 3.0 14.5 0 8.5



Links

PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!

Company Contact and News Accreditation: 

Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097

More from PeterDoggers
Arjun Officially Joins Carlsen, Caruana, Nakamura In 2800 Club

Arjun Officially Joins Carlsen, Caruana, Nakamura In 2800 Club

Shabalov, Knaak, Klinova, Burchardt Winners At World Senior Championships

Shabalov, Knaak, Klinova, Burchardt Winners At World Senior Championships