10th BCC Thailand Open Chess Tournament

GM Sune Berg Hansen maintaining the lead after round seven

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).

Danish Grandmaster Sune Berg Hansen maintained the lead heading into the round eight by beating GM Marat Dzhumaev with black pieces. Nigel Short is only half a point behind, sharing the second place with Indian IM Sunil Mokal Prathamesh. The fourth Grandmaster in the tournament, Spanish resident Ruslan Pogorelov, had another tough day and lost to the local FM Pitirotjirathon Jirapak.

Sune Berg Hansen and Nigel Short

Top round eight matches are GM Hansen Sune Berg - IM Sunil Mokal Prathamesh and GM Short Nigel - IM Lahiri Atanu.

Round 7 top results:
GM Dzhumaev Marat - GM Hansen Sune Berg 0 - 1
GM Short Nigel D - IM Ansell Simon T 1 - 0
Vaibhav Suri - IM Sunil Mokal Prathamesh 0 - 1
Koohestani Sh. - IM Macak Stefan 1 - 0
IM Lahiri Atanu - FM Kojima Shinya 1 - 0
IM Ashwin Jayaram - IM Roy Saptarshi ½ - ½
FM Pitirotjirathon Jirapak - GM Pogorelov Ruslan 1 - 0
IM Sorensen Torben - FM Khaqhani Babak 1 - 0
FM Moosavian S.Hamed - IM Shetty Rahul 0 - 1
Shen Siyuan - Singh Gurpreet 1 - 0
Topi-Hulmi Teemu - FM Stokke Kjetil ½ - ½

Round 7 standings:
1. GM Hansen Sune Berg DEN 2556 - 6.5
2-3. GM Short Nigel D ENG 2686 and IM Sunil Mokal Prathamesh IND 2403 - 6.0
4-5. IM Lahiri Atanu IND 2368 and Koohestani Sh. IRI 2240 - 5.5
6-16. GM Dzhumaev Marat UZB 2525, Vaibhav Suri IND 2331, IM Ansell Simon T ENG 2385, IM Ashwin Jayaram IND 2446, WGM Mohota Nisha IND 2304, Shen Siyuan CHN 2386, IM Shetty Rahul IND 2255, FM Pitirotjirathon Jirapak THA 2298, Llopis de Aysa Manuel ESP 2128, FM Soozankar A.M. IRI 2251 and IM Sorensen Torben MLT 2423 - 5.0 etc

Round 8 top pairings:
GM Hansen Sune Berg - IM Sunil Mokal Prathamesh
GM Short Nigel D - IM Lahiri Atanu
Koohestani Sh. - IM Ashwin Jayaram
WGM Mohota Nisha - GM Dzhumaev Marat
IM Shetty Rahul - IM Sorensen Torben
FM Soozankar A.M. - Shen Siyuan
IM Ansell Simon T - FM Pitirotjirathon Jirapak
Llopis de Aysa Manuel - Vaibhav Suri
IM Macak Stefan - IM Borsos Bogdan
IM Roy Saptarshi - Topi-Hulmi Teemu
FM Kojima Shinya - IM Yap Kim Steven

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

Century Park Hotel in Bangkok