The tournament now in full swing at the Pacific Hall, Sriracha Pacific Park Mall
Actually, it is all a bit confusing to some as is it the Thailand Pattaya Open or the Pattaya Open or even the Pattaya Chess Club Open, perhaps all of these, but it is also not held in Pattaya but in Sriracha, some 30 km away?
Well, it does not matter, not even if it is really a chess festival the Seniors and Youth Championships was held from 5-9 October 2024 and the Open and Amateur is being held from 9-18 October 2024.
The Seniors saw a total of nine players, and so it was changed into a round-robin event with each player getting a bye.
It was always going to be a two-horse race, and top seeded John Langreck from the USA emerged the winner on tie-breaks over Malaysian - FM Ismail Ahmad, after both pulled away from the rest with 7/9. In sole third place was Geoffrey Brown from England with 5.5/9.
Final standings in Seniors
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Langreck, John | USA | 2035 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 24,00 | |
| 2 | 4 | FM | Ismail, Ahmad | MAS | 1835 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 22,00 |
| 3 | 5 | Brown, Geoffrey M | ENG | 1814 | 5,5 | 0 | 4 | 15,50 | |
| 4 | 7 | Lim, Kian Hwa | MAS | 1693 | 4,5 | 1 | 3 | 14,25 | |
| 5 | 2 | Zaw, Win | MYA | 1977 | 4,5 | 0 | 4 | 10,25 | |
| 6 | 6 | Sakdavisarak, Komgrib | THA | 1709 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7,00 | |
| 7 | 9 | Osterhus, Omar Torbjorn | DEN | 1588 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2,50 | |
| 8 | 3 | Silalikhit, Jakkapan | THA | 1836 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5,50 | |
| 9 | 8 | Zamahari, Abang Draup | MAS | 1590 | 0,5 | 0 | 0 | 1,00 |
The Youth was had separate category prizes for U-8, U-10, U-12, U-14, and U-16, meaning that with 20 participants, everyone took home a trophy!
Murali Aurik (CYP) was both the overall winner with 8/9 as well as the U-12 Champion, and Thailand’s Limpetcharakul Nutnapon in third overall with 6.5/9 was the U-16 Champion while Tapanakulsak Peramin in fourth place overall with 5.5/9 was the U-14 Champion.
Final standings in Youth
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Murali, Aurik | U12 | CYP | 1629 | 8 | 0 | 47 | 35,5 | ||
| 2 | 5 | Vishesh, Srikant | U12 | IND | 1613 | 7 | 0 | 48,5 | 36,5 | ||
| 3 | 7 | AFM | Limpetcharakul, Nutnapon | U16 | THA | 1545 | 6,5 | 0 | 46 | 36 | |
| 4 | 1 | Tapanakulsak, Peramin | U14 | THA | 1669 | 5,5 | 1 | 48,5 | 36,5 | ||
| 5 | 8 | Punyanitya, Prempipath | U14 | THA | 1532 | 5,5 | 0 | 38,5 | 30,5 |
The Open is now underway with 58 players from 21 countries, and has 9 titled players including the top two seeds, GMs Lalit Babu M R from India and Samy Shoker from Egypt.
Round 2 pairings
| Bo. | No. | White | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Black | Rtg | No. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 | Zaw, Ye Htut | 1933 | 1 | 1 | GM | Lalit, Babu M R | 2496 | 1 | ||
| 2 | 2 | GM | Shoker, Samy | 2456 | 1 | 1 | Xu, Ziyuan | 1966 | 17 | ||
| 3 | 22 | Sivara, Poompat | 1894 | 1 | 1 | IM | Mohammad, Nubairshah Shaikh | 2418 | 3 | ||
| 4 | 4 | IM | Arfan, Aditya Bagus | 2405 | 1 | 1 | Tamhankar, Siddhant | 1951 | 19 | ||
| 5 | 6 | FM | Chernyavsky, Alexander | 2339 | 1 | 1 | Wang, Justin Zhide | 1871 | 25 | ||
| 6 | 24 | Wongsawan, Thoetsak | 1886 | 1 | 1 | WGM | Enkhtuul, Altan-Ulzii | 2196 | 7 | ||
| 7 | 8 | FM | Sai, Han Thiha | 2194 | 1 | 1 | He, Chenglu | 1857 | 27 | ||
| 8 | 26 | Krishay, Jain | 1863 | 1 | 1 | CM | Nay, Lin Tun | 2058 | 9 | ||
| 9 | 10 | Bruun, Henrik Emil | 2031 | 1 | 1 | Lum, Zhun Hoong | 1795 | 33 | |||
| 10 | 12 | Skiotis, Pano | 1998 | 1 | 1 | Pian, Junyao | 1715 | 42 |
The Amateur has 13 participants.
The organiser is Golden Cat, seen hard at work with Chief Arbiter Maung Maung Lwin, with registrations and pairing handled by Bowtie.
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