Alexander J. Klemm
Yesterday’s invitational dinner in the
Library Room of the Dusit Thani Hotel was hosted by tournament sponsor
and founder of PYN Fund Management Petri Deryng. On this occasion GM
Nigel Short called the Bangkok Chess Club Open the best open tournament
organized by amateur players that he has ever been to, and GM Jan
Gustafsson confirmed that he is only playing two opens this year,
Gibraltar and Bangkok! Among the guests were also Women’s World Champion
GM Hou Yifan, Her Excellency Ambassador of Finland to Thailand Sirpa
Mäenpää, President of Myanmar Chess Federation Mr. Maung Maung Lwin, as
well as several more players and organizers. The discussion topics
swayed from chess in Asia to issues about double-rounds, from chess
player’s faith to the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic. The
celebratory mood hit a peak when GM Short started playing chess with
filled wine glasses…
…but
maybe that’s a story better to be told on another day. Let us look at
Monday’s action in round 6 instead, which saw the matchup between leader
IM M.R. Venkatesh against second-placed GM Short on board 1. The
British GM showed his class and came up on top. On board 2, GM Hou Yifan
came back from a technically lost position to defeat FM Martin Voigt,
and last year’s champion GM Jan Gustafsson recovered from an upset in
the previous round with a win against WGM Kruttika Nadig.
1. IM Venkatesh M.R. (5) 0 – 1 GM Short Nigel (4½)
2. GM Hou Yifan (4) 1 – 0 FM Voigt Martin (4)
3. Stany G.A. (4) 0 – 1 GM Amonatov Farrukh (4)
4. GM Ghane Shojaat (4) 1 – 0 GM Xiu Deshun (4)
5. IM Nguyen Van Huy (4) 1 – 0 FM Teerapabpaisit Wisuwat (4)
6. IM Mohota Nisha (4) 1 – 0 GM Neelotpal Das (4)
7. WGM Nadig Kruttika (3½) 0 – 1 GM Gustafsson Jan (3½)
After
round 6 GM Short is leading with 5½ points, followed by GM Hou Yifan,
GM Amonatov, GM Ghane, IM Venkatesh, IM Nguyen Van Huy, IM Mohota, IM
Nguyen Duc Hoa, and Wan Yunguo with 5 points.
Here are two critical games from round 6:
IM Venkatesh - GM Short
1.c4
e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.g3 Be6 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 Qd7 6.Rb1 g6 7.b4 Bg7 8.b5 Nd8 9.a4
Ne7 10.Nd5 0–0 11.a5 a6 12.b6 c6 13.Nc7 Rc8 14.Ba3 f5 15.Nf3 h6 16.0–0
Bf7 17.c5 d5 18.d4 e4 19.Ne5 Bxe5 20.dxe5 Ne6 21.Nxe6 Bxe6 22.f4 exf3
23.exf3 f4 24.Rb4 fxg3 25.hxg3 Nf5 26.Qe1 g5 27.Bb2 Qe7 28.Qf2 Rf7
29.Bh3 Rcf8 30.Bxf5 Rxf5 31.f4 gxf4 32.Rxf4 Rxf4 33.gxf4 Kh7 (In a
slightly better position for black, white makes a decisive mistake.)
34.Kg2? (34.Kh2 Qf7 35.Qf3 was needed.) 34..Rg8+ 35.Kf3 Bg4+ 36.Ke3
Qxc5+ 37.Kd2 Qxa5+ 38.Kc1 Bf5 39.Rh1 Rg4 40.Qh2 Qc5+ 41.Kd1 Rg6 0-1
GM Hou Yifan - FM Voigt
1.e4
c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nh3 e6 7.Nf4 Bd6 8.c3 Nf6
9.h4 Qc7 10.Qf3 Nbd7 11.h5 Bc2 12.h6 gxh6 13.Bd3 Bxd3 14.Nxd3 Bxg3
15.fxg3 Rg8 16.Bf4 Qa5 17.0–0 Qh5 18.Bc7 Qxf3 19.Rxf3 Ne4 20.Re1 f5
21.c4 Ndf6 22.Be5 Ng4 23.d5 0–0–0 24.dxc6 Rxd3 25.cxb7+ Kxb7 26.Rxd3
Nxe5 27.Rb3+ Kc6 28.Ra3 Kb6 29.c5+ Kb7 30.b4 a6 31.Rb3 h5 32.a4 Nc6
33.Rd1 Kc7 34.b5 axb5 35.axb5 Ne5 36.Rc1 Nxg3 37.Ra1 Ne2+ 38.Kf1 Nd4
39.Rb4 Rg4 40.g3 (With both players in acute time trouble, black starts
making inaccurate moves that waste his winning advantage.) 40..Nc2?
(40..Nd3 41.b6 Kb8 is much better.) 41.Rxg4 hxg4 42.Ra7+ Kb8 43.Rxh7 Nd4
44.Re7 Kc8 45.b6 Nec6 46.Rc7+ Kb8 47.Kf2 e5 48.Ke3 Nb4 49.Rf7 Nd5+
50.Kd3 Nb4+ 51.Kc4 Nbc6 52.Kd5 e4 53.Rf8+ Kb7 54.Rf7+ (The position is
equal but with only seconds on both clocks black wants too much.)
54..Ka6?? 55.b7 Ka7 56.Rc7 e3 57.Rxc6 Nc2 58.Rb6 Kb8 59.c6 1-0
The top game of round 7 will see GM Short vs. GM Hou Yifan.
In
the Challenger category things are well under way too. After four
rounds of play, only three players remain with a perfect score: Malakar
Man Prachanda, Arnulfo Gavilan Jr. and Marvin Ting.
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