BCC Open: Short catches Venkatesh, takes lead

The 12th Bangkok Chess Club (BCC) Open is taking place from April 13th-19th, with top seeds GMs Nigel Short, rated 2697, Jan Gustafsson, 2642, Hou Yifan, 2639, and Farrukh Amonatov 2604. The next highest ranked player, IM M.R. Venkatesh, is almost a hundred points lower on the rating scale – although we have counted eight GMs behind him in the starting list. The time controls are 90 minutes for the game plus 30 seconds per move. No zero tolerance rule here: five minutes before the games start, the Chief Arbiter shall make the announcement accordingly. If any player is not present within an hour after the game is started, he shall lose by default. Classic and sensible.

After five rounds Indian IM M.R. Venkatesh was leading with stunning 5.0/5 points!

Hou Yifan strolls while Nigel Short works on his game against M.R. Venkatesh

Monday’s action in round six saw a matchup between tournament leader IM M.R. Venkatesh against second-placed GM Nigel Short on board one. 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.

Last year’s champion GM Jan Gustafsson recovered from an upset in the previous round with a win against WGM Kruttika Nadig.

Top standings after round six

Top pairing on Tuesday, April 17 is Nigel Short vs Hou Yifan. The game, which will be broadcast live on Playchess, starts at 15:00h local time, or 10:00h CEST, 04:00 a.m. NY. You can find the time for your location here.

Pictures from Bangkok

Our playing correspondent WGM Kruttika Nadig sent us some impressions from the tournament.

... with the obligatory swimming pool in the courtyard

Inside the Dusit Thani a conference room where the games take place

The tournament coincides with Songkran, the Thai New Year which is publicly celebrated by people throwing water at each other. Thais roam the streets with containers of water or water guns, sometimes mixed with mentholated talc, or post themselves at the side of roads with a garden hose and drench each other and passersby.

The Bangkok Chess Club

The Bangkok Chess Club meets every Tuesday evening at Roadhouse Barbecue on the corner of Surawong and Rama IV Roads, near the Sala Daeng skytrain station (walk through Thaniya Plaza to Surawong Road and turn right), and the Silom MRT station. Players begin to arrive from 6:30pm and tournaments usually begin at about 8:00pm. With over 200 active players of every standard from beginners to masters, you are bound to find players to give you a good game – all are welcome. And it is free – though nobody would object if you bought the organiser a drink ;-). The Bangkok Chess Club also meets every Friday evening at the Queen Victoria Pub and Restaurant in Sukhumvit Soi 23 – a short stroll up Soi 23 or through Soi Cowboy from Sukhumvit MRT and Asoke BTS.

Links Official tournament site Small selection of games in PGN (courtesy Mark Crowther of TWIC, who is keeping a watch for full material from Bangkok) The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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