Bangkok 01-03: Indians off to a steady start

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 12/04/2016

Of the one hundred ninety-eight players competing at the Bangkok Open in Thailand, the home country has the second largest contingent of competitors participating, with a total of twenty-seven players. The highest representation is from India, with thirty-five chess loving tourists! It has been observed regularly now that Indians in overseas tournaments are akin to cats among the pigeons. With so many underrated Indians in the fray, there is bound to be a handful of upsets. An illustrated report.

Bangkok 01-03: Indians off to a steady start

It is the contrasting nature of some of the greatest cities that make them so special. Bangkok is one such place — here, they say, the exotic collides with the mundane to create an experience that you are left wanting more of. For years now, Indians have been making their way to this enchanting city to do tourism, and play chess! For most, this is a perfect opportunity to combine their love for the game with something more normal, that is, travelling. Perfectly mirroring the idea of this city itself.

A record 320 players from more than 40 countries are competing in the 16th Bangkok Open tournament — Thailand and South-East Asia's strongest tournament of the year to date.

The tourney is a nine round swiss that began on 11 April 2016. Each player is accorded with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game. In addition, there is a thirty seconds increment per move, starting from move one.

The strongest tournament till date in South-East Asia underway

Fun fact: of the 198 players competing in this tournament being held in Thailand, the home country has the second largest contingent of competitors participating, with a total of 27 players. The highest representation is from India, with 35 players!

It is being held in the heart of Bangkok at the Dusit Thani Hotel.

The leader of the Indian challenge: GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2647)

In the first round, Ganguly outplayed Denmark's Niels Skou (2023) without much effort

[Event "Bangkok CC Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.04.10"]
[Round "1.4"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Skou, Niels"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C91"]
[WhiteElo "2647"]
[BlackElo "2023"]
[PlyCount "85"]
[EventDate "2016.04.??"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "THA"]
[WhiteClock "0:30:35"]
[BlackClock "0:30:31"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. d4 Bg4 10. Be3 Na5 11. dxe5 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 dxe5 13. Bc2 Qd7 14. h3 Nc4
15. Bc1 c5 16. b3 Nb6 17. Nd2 Qe6 18. Nf1 Rfe8 19. Ne3 a5 20. Qe2 c4 21. bxc4
bxc4 22. Rb1 Qc6 23. Nf5 Bc5 24. Bg5 Re6 25. Red1 g6 26. Ng3 Kg7 27. Be3 Ree8
28. a4 Nfd7 29. Rb5 Ra6 30. Nf1 Rc8 31. Bg5 h6 32. Bc1 Be7 33. Ne3 h5 34. Nd5
Bc5 35. Qd2 Rh8 36. Qg5 f6 37. Qg3 Raa8 38. Be3 Ra6 39. Bxc5 Nxc5 40. Ne7 Qe8
41. Nf5+ Kh7 42. Rxc5 gxf5 43. Rc7+ 1-0

In the second round, he breezed past Robert Grafil (2202) of Phillippines

[Event "Bangkok CC Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.04.11"]
[Round "2.4"]
[White "Grafil, Franz Robert"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E68"]
[WhiteElo "2202"]
[BlackElo "2647"]
[PlyCount "56"]
[EventDate "2016.04.??"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "THA"]
[WhiteClock "0:00:31"]
[BlackClock "0:06:37"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. Nc3 d6 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. O-O e5 8. e4
exd4 9. Nxd4 Nc5 10. b4 Ne6 11. Nb3 a5 12. bxa5 Nd7 13. Bd2 Ne5 14. Qe2 Nc6 15.
Rac1 Nxa5 16. Be3 b6 17. e5 Bb7 18. Bd5 c6 19. Bxe6 fxe6 20. exd6 c5 21. f3
Qxd6 22. Bf4 Qc6 23. Ne4 Nxb3 24. axb3 Bd4+ 25. Be3 Ra2 26. Nd2 Rxf3 27. Qxf3
Bxe3+ 28. Kg2 Qxf3+ 0-1

And in the third, he beat Mohamad Ervan (2301) of Indonesia

GM Swapnil Dhopade (2499) has also begun with 3.0/3

GM Abhijit Kunte (2505) began with an extremely suspicious Smith-Morra gambit against Thailand's veteran Poompat Sivara (2005), which is probably just lost, but his opponent decided to repeat!

[Event "Bangkok CC Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.04.10"]
[Round "1.9"]
[White "Sivara, Poompat"]
[Black "Kunte, Abhijit"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B21"]
[WhiteElo "2005"]
[BlackElo "2505"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "2016.04.??"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "THA"]
[WhiteClock "0:46:59"]
[BlackClock "1:15:08"]

1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Nf3 e6 6. Bc4 Nb6 7. Bb3 dxc3 8.
Nxc3 d5 9. exd6 Qxd6 10. Qe2 Nc6 11. O-O Be7 12. Nb5 Qb8 13. g3 e5 14. Bg5 f6
15. Be3 Na5 16. Rac1 Nxb3 17. Nc7+ Kf7 18. axb3 Bd6 19. Bxb6 axb6 20. Qc4+ Ke7
21. Nd5+ (21. Nxa8 $16) 21... Kf7 22. Nc7+ Ke7 23. Nd5+ Kf7 24. Nc7+ 1/2-1/2

GM S.L. Narayanan (2501) has also begun with 3.0/3

It has been observed regularly now that Indians in overseas tournaments are akin to cats among the pigeons. With so many underrated Indians in the fray, there is bound to be a handful of upsets. We present you some of the highlights:

Abhishek Das (2241) held Australian prodigy IM Anton Smirnov (2479) in the third round

WCM Saloni Sapale (1979) held German GM Gerhard Schebler (2430) in the first round [Photo: Priyadarshan Banjan]

Arjun Kalyan (2299) unleashed immaculate preparation in a Ruy Lopez Marshall Attack against GM Jan Gustafsson (2629), where the German grandmaster playing black was forced to repeat!

[Event "Bangkok CC Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.04.11"]
[Round "3.5"]
[White "Arjun Kalyan"]
[Black "Gustafsson, Jan"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C89"]
[WhiteElo "2299"]
[BlackElo "2629"]
[PlyCount "48"]
[EventDate "2016.04.??"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "THA"]
[WhiteClock "0:43:29"]
[BlackClock "0:49:54"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3
d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d4 Bd6 13. Re1 Qh4 14. g3 Qh3 15.
Bxd5 cxd5 16. Qf3 Bf5 17. Nd2 Rae8 18. Re3 Re6 19. Qxd5 Bxg3 20. hxg3 Rxe3 21.
fxe3 Qxg3+ 22. Qg2 Qxe3+ 23. Qf2 Qg5+ 24. Qg2 Qe3+ 1/2-1/2

Vinayak Kulkarni (2084) has been causing upsets since the beginning of this year now. He beat IM French IM Sophie Milliet (2353) in the second round and is on 2.0/3. [Photo: Priyadarshan Banjan]

With many prizes up for grabs, Indians are sure to return with many of those trophies on the display!

Ranking after Round 03:

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	Rp	K	rtg+/-
1	3	GM	Van Wely Loek			NED	2654	3,0	0,0	5,5	5,50	3,0	6,0	3030	10	4,7
	4	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar			IND	2647	3,0	0,0	5,5	5,50	3,0	6,0	2592	10	0,7
	7	GM	Bok Benjamin			NED	2604	3,0	0,0	5,5	5,50	3,0	6,0	3005	10	5,0
	11	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade			IND	2499	3,0	0,0	5,5	5,50	3,0	6,0	2594	10	5,8
5	1	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco			ESP	2691	3,0	0,0	5,0	5,00	3,0	6,0	3042	10	4,2
	16	IM	Liang Awonder	U18		USA	2410	3,0	0,0	5,0	5,00	3,0	6,0	2434	10	2,8
	20	FM	Yeoh Li Tian	U18		MAS	2400	3,0	0,0	5,0	5,00	3,0	6,0	2401	10	2,0
	25	IM	Stokke Kjetil			NOR	2354	3,0	0,0	5,0	5,00	3,0	6,0	2332	10	0,9
	29	FM	Dang Hoang Son			VIE	2325	3,0	0,0	5,0	5,00	3,0	6,0	2658	20	30,6
10	10	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	U18		IND	2501	3,0	0,0	4,5	4,50	3,0	6,0	2989	10	6,8
	22	IM	Himanshu Sharma			IND	2384	3,0	0,0	4,5	4,50	3,0	6,0	2375	10	1,7
12	17	IM	Ahlander Bjorn			SWE	2407	2,5	0,0	6,5	5,25	2,0	5,5	2331	10	-2,2
	23	IM	Dimakiling Oliver			PHI	2372	2,5	0,0	6,5	5,25	2,0	5,5	2320	10	-0,2
14	36	FM	Saeheng Boonsueb			THA	2292	2,5	0,0	6,0	4,75	2,0	5,5	2408	20	13,6
15	5	GM	Gustafsson Jan			GER	2629	2,5	0,0	5,5	4,25	2,0	5,5	2527	10	-1,1
	8	GM	Halkias Stelios			GRE	2553	2,5	0,0	5,5	4,25	2,0	5,5	2374	10	-5,0
	13	IM	Smirnov Anton	U18		AUS	2479	2,5	0,0	5,5	4,25	2,0	5,5	2486	10	0,8
	43		Abhishek Das			IND	2241	2,5	0,0	5,5	4,25	2,0	5,5	2418	20	19,6
19	53	FM	Pitirotjirathon Jirapak			THA	2218	2,5	0,0	5,5	4,25	2,0	5,0	2205	20	3,0
	150		Ocido Michael			PHI	1813	2,5	0,0	5,5	4,25	2,0	5,0	2326	40	86,8

Watch the Round 04 games LIVE on Playchess by clicking above!

Links:

Pairings for Round 04

Photos and games exclusively provided by Bangkok Chess Club