Gustafsson, Van Wely Tied For 1st In Bangkok Where Not Only Chess Is Played
With three rounds to go, GMs Jan Gustafsson and Loek van Wely are tied for first place at the Bangkok Open, with 5.5 out of 6. Nigel Short suffered a second loss on Thursday, and a third in the boxing ring!
It's time for an update on the Bangkok Open, the tournament in Thailand's capital where the Songkran festival has now started. From the first report earlier this week you might remember that 11 players had started with three wins.
Dutch GM Loek van Wely was the only player who continued with victories for two more rounds. As the tournament leader he had the luxury to play White against Paco Vallejo in today's round six, but that didn't guarantee a safe game. Vallejo was winning at some point, but failed to do so.
Van Wely vs Vallejo, a rather crazy game on board one. | Photo courtesy Bangkok CC Open.
Vallejo had beaten the 13-year-old U.S. talent Awonder Liang in round four after arriving half an hour late. It was yet another long game for the Spaniard, who reached a typical Grünfeld ending that Vladimir Kramnik likes to play but only reached a winning position by move 52.
Vallejo shaking hands with Liang, already having half an
hour less on the clock. | Photo courtesy Bangkok CC Open.
Yesterday Van Wely reached clear first place as he beat 17-year-old GM Narayanan Sunilduth of India. After four long games Vallejo needed a rest and drew in 15 moves with another Dutch grandmaster, 21-year-old Benjamin Bok, the winner of the London Chess Classic's open tournament last December.
Van Wely was the only player on 5.0/5. | Photo courtesy Bangkok CC Open.
Today German GM Jan Gustafsson joined Van Wely in the lead by beating Chinese teenager Nie Yinyang convincingly. The 15-year-old Chinese player had played very well until that point, beating both GM Gerhard Schebler of Germany and IM Anton Smirnov of Australia.
Last year's winner Nigel Short won't be fighting for first place this year. He suffered another loss, against Myanmar's Wynn Zaw Htun. Earlier in the day he had also lost to France's Sophie Milliet...in a Thai chess-boxing contest!
Nigel Short vs Sophie Milliet in quite a different
setting! | Photo courtesy Bangkok CC Open.
“Certainly Short's play against Htun showed clear signs of possible concussion from the earlier bout,” says the tournament report.
Ouch! I hope that's enough punishment for the tournament
— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) April 14, 2016#Bangkchess2016 https://t.co/bZhpiIqBCt
2016 Bangkok Chess Club Open | Round 6 Standings (Top 20)
| Rk. | SNo | Title | Name | Typ | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | rtg+/- |
| 1 | 3 | GM | Van Wely Loek | NED | 2654 | 5,5 | 0 | 24 | 8,2 | |
| 2 | 5 | GM | Gustafsson Jan | GER | 2629 | 5,5 | 0 | 22 | 1,1 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | Vallejo Pons Francisco | ESP | 2691 | 5 | 0 | 25,5 | 2,5 | |
| 4 | 7 | GM | Bok Benjamin | NED | 2604 | 5 | 0 | 25 | 4,8 | |
| 5 | 11 | GM | Swapnil S. Dhopade | IND | 2499 | 5 | 0 | 24 | 9,6 | |
| 6 | 4 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | IND | 2647 | 5 | 0 | 23,5 | -0,6 | |
| 7 | 22 | IM | Himanshu Sharma | IND | 2384 | 5 | 0 | 21,5 | 11,5 | |
| 8 | 18 | IM | Wynn Zaw Htun | MYA | 2407 | 5 | 0 | 20,5 | 6,1 | |
| 9 | 33 | FM | Mohamad Ervan | INA | 2301 | 5 | 0 | 20 | 28,6 | |
| 10 | 12 | GM | Gordon Stephen J | ENG | 2496 | 5 | 0 | 19,5 | -1,3 | |
| 11 | 10 | GM | Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan | U18 | IND | 2501 | 4,5 | 0 | 24,5 | 2,1 |
| 12 | 39 | FM | Pitra Andika | INA | 2260 | 4,5 | 0 | 24 | 29,2 | |
| 13 | 20 | FM | Yeoh Li Tian | U18 | MAS | 2400 | 4,5 | 0 | 23,5 | 7,6 |
| 14 | 29 | FM | Dang Hoang Son | VIE | 2325 | 4,5 | 0 | 23,5 | 31,6 | |
| 15 | 49 | Nie Xinyang | U18 | CHN | 2227 | 4,5 | 0 | 23 | 77,6 | |
| 16 | 23 | IM | Dimakiling Oliver | PHI | 2372 | 4,5 | 0 | 22 | 4,8 | |
| 17 | 25 | IM | Stokke Kjetil | NOR | 2354 | 4,5 | 0 | 21,5 | 2,1 | |
| 18 | 6 | GM | Khairullin Ildar | RUS | 2629 | 4,5 | 0 | 21,5 | -7,9 | |
| 19 | 16 | IM | Liang Awonder | U18 | USA | 2410 | 4,5 | 0 | 21,5 | 3,6 |
| 20 | 15 | GM | Schebler Gerhard | GER | 2430 | 4,5 | 0 | 21 | -5,2 |
(Full standings here.)
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!
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