10th BCC Thailand Open Chess Tournament

GM Sune Berg Hansen leading after six rounds

GM Sune Berg Hansen

The 10th BCC Thailand Open Chess Tournament is closing the April mini-tour Doeberl Cup - Sydney International - Thailand Open. The venue is the Grand Ballroom in the luxurious Century Park Hotel, Bangkok, and the tournament will take place during Thailand's Songkran (New Year) holidays, 14-20 April 2010.

There are two groups of play: Open category for all players (9 rounds), and Challenger category (7 rounds) restricted to players rated below 2100 or unrated. 106 participants are registered for the Open and 74 are in the Challenger. Top-seeded player is GM Nigel Short (ENG 2686).

The top seeds Short and Hansen faced each other in the fifth round and fought tenaciously, but in the end a draw could not be avoided. Danish S.B.Hansen took the advantage of white pieces in the sixth round and won against IM Lahiri Atanu. Meanwhile, Nigel Short drew on the top board, allowing Hansen to move into the sole lead with 5.5 points.

GM Marat Dzhumaev, IM Simon Ansell and Vaibhav Suri won on the lower boards and joined GM Short on the shared second place. Top round seven match is the Grandmaster encounter between Dzhumaev and S.B.Hansen.

Sune Berg Hansen and Nigel Short during round six

Round 6 top results:
IM Sunil Mokal Prathamesh - GM Short Nigel ½ - ½
GM Hansen Sune Berg - IM Lahiri Atanu 1 - 0
FM Stokke Kjetil - GM Dzhumaev Marat 0 - 1
FM Kojima Shinya - IM Ashwin Jayaram ½ - ½
Vaibhav Suri - Shen Siyuan 1 - 0
IM Ansell Simon - IM Sharma Dinesh K. 1 - 0
IM Macak Stefan - Topi-Hulmi Teemu 1 - 0
IM Roy Saptarshi - FM Moosavian S.Hamed ½ - ½
Palit Somak - Koohestani Sh. 0 - 1
Singh Gurpreet - FM Voigt Martin ½ - ½
WGM Mohota Nisha - IM Yap Kim Steven ½ - ½
GM Pogorelov Ruslan - Tuomala Timo 1 - 0

Round 6 standings:
1. GM Hansen Sune Berg DEN 2556 - 5.5
2-6. GM Short Nigel ENG 2686, IM Ansell Simon ENG 2385, IM Sunil Mokal Prathamesh IND 2403, GM Dzhumaev Marat UZB 2525 and Vaibhav Suri IND 2331 - 5.0
7-11. FM Kojima Shinya JPN 2312, IM Ashwin Jayaram IND 2446, IM Lahiri Atanu IND 2368, IM Macak Stefan SVK 2470 and Koohestani Sh. IRI 2240 - 4.5
12-28. Shen Siyuan CHN 2386, FM Stokke Kjetil NOR 2382, IM Shetty Rahul IND 2255, Singh Gurpreet IND 2275, WGM Mohota Nisha IND 2304, GM Pogorelov Ruslan UKR 2486, FM Voigt Martin GER 2321, FM Pitirotjirathon Jirapak THA 2298, FM Moosavian S.Hamed IRI 2407, FM Saeheng Boonsueb THA 2285, IM Sharma Dinesh K. IND 2361, FM Khaqhani Babak IRI 2296, FM Soozankar A.M. IRI 2251, Llopis de Aysa Manuel ESP 2128, Topi-Hulmi Teemu FIN 2289, IM Roy Saptarshi IND 2419 and IM Sorensen Torben MLT 2423 - 4.0 etc

Round 7 top pairings:
GM Dzhumaev Marat - GM Hansen Sune Berg
GM Short Nigel D - IM Ansell Simon T
Vaibhav Suri - IM Sunil Mokal Prathamesh
Koohestani Sh. - IM Macak Stefan
IM Lahiri Atanu - FM Kojima Shinya
IM Ashwin Jayaram - IM Roy Saptarshi
FM Pitirotjirathon Jirapak - GM Pogorelov Ruslan
IM Sorensen Torben - FM Khaqhani Babak
FM Moosavian S.Hamed - IM Shetty Rahul
Shen Siyuan - Singh Gurpreet
Topi-Hulmi Teemu - FM Stokke Kjetil

More details on the tournament can be found at the Bangkok Chess Club website

Century Park Hotel in Bangkok