English Grandmaster Nigel Short was crowned the 2015 Thai Open Chess Champion after a nail-biting final round in which the top two seeds crashed to their only losses of the tournament.
A large crowd gathered at the Dusit Thani in Pattaya on April 19 for the climax of the tournament and watched as top seed Wang Hao fell to Indian sixth seed Surya Ganguly in an exhausting 69 move encounter where Wang spoiled an endgame which appeared headed for a draw.
Grandmaster Nigel Short holds up the trophy after being crowned the 2015 Thai Open Champion at the Dusit Thani Pattaya resort on Sunday, April 19.
Instead of tying for first and winning his first Thai Open title, Wang dropped to fourth place and was overtaken by both Ganguly and Short, who ground down Diptayan Ghosh, plus Poland’s Kamil Dragun, who upset second seed Paco Vallejo.
The top three players shared 220,000 baht, with Short edging out Ganguly for the title thanks to the strength of his opposition during the course of the 9 day event.
Wisuwat Teerapabpaisit was one of the top Thai players in the tournament.
For Short the win was his second Thai Open title, following his 2012 triumph in Bangkok. His expectations were low after he lost in the fourth round to Filipino Oliver Barbosa but the English veteran responded by scoring 4.5 points from his final five games. This would still not have been enough however had Wang continued his winning ways, but Ganguly showed great endgame skills to outplay the top seed, paving the way for Short to take the title.
Thailand’s challenge for the top podium places ended in something of a whimper as Boonsueb Saeheng lost his final game to India’s P. Kartikeyan, but he still took the prize for best Thai player on a tiebreaker from Wisuwat Teerapabpaisit.
The Thai Open, organised by the Bangkok Chess Club, attracted 299 players from 42 countries to the Dusit Thani, one of Pattaya’s most luxurious resorts. Next month the Dusit Thani will host almost twice as many players at the 2015 FIDE World Schools Chess Championship, being staged from May 6-15.
Dusit Thani was the cerebral centre of Pattaya last week as 299 chess players from 42 countries took part in the 9-day championship.
Wang and Ganguly enjoy a lighter moment during the tournament with cocktails and chess onboard a small fishing boat in Pattaya bay.
A potential budding Grandmaster ponders his next move.
