Tournament Review: 47th Thailand Chess Championship 2024

Hello! This post is a review and analyze my games in Thailand Chess Championship 2024 which organize by Thailand Chess Association. The tournament compete on April 17-21, 2024 at Sport Authority of Thailand (SAT) 25th floor, Bangkok. This tournament divided into Open and Women division. However, all player in the Open division are male. So I compete in the Open division.

The tournament used a swiss paring of 9 rounds with time control 90 minutes with 30 seconds increment from move one. Player played 2 games per day for 4 days and 1 game in last day. Each board usually takes 2-4 hours to finish the game.

This is my returned to on the board tournament after 1 year. The tournament was full of Thailand’s leading player, club players, staff, arbiter and many players from Chess Sport Association for Thai Disabled. Everyone prepare well so winning on each board does not come easily. There is a quota of 3 players remaining for those who perform well in the tournament, qualified for the final chess olympiad 2024 to compete in the 45th Chess Olympiad 2024.

1st Day ; April 17

Game 1  This opponent has amazing chess skill even though he is blind. The opening in this game was perfectly. His only mistake in the middle game make pawn structure and king’s position weak, thus entered me to clearly winning position.

Game 2  My big challenger is coming when I was paring with FIDE Master who 1st starting rank in tournament. I suprise him with reti opening and my position in the opening is okay. Some mistake in middle game make I lost a center pawn. However my pawns structure are strong so my opponent takes effort to overcome. after game run into time trouble, I make a blunder thus losing a whole piece.

2nd Day ; April 18

Game 3  Both sides play well in the opening but my opponent blunder a bishop in early-middle game then he resigned.

Game 4  I meet my second blind opponent in this tournament. He prepared the opening so well thus entered equal position in middle game. Unfortunately, a few mistake led to black king being a checkmate.

3rd Day ; April 19

Game 5  My opponent was clearly better at opening than me. My position was under a pressure in early-middle game, but my opponent missed a change then my position come back to equal. In the end, both side entered time trouble so I decided to end the game in a drawn by perpetual check.

Game 6  This player was a strong FIDE master. He surprised me by italian gambit and I did not make a mistake. There is queen exchange on move 10 making the position equal that I was under a little pressured in terms of space. Both sides played well until the rook endgame with my position still equal. After that, both side began to entered time trouble and he has far better endgame skill than I do. So he was able to won in the end. This game takes 4 hours to completed.

4th Day ; April 20

Game 7  This game opening with French defense, which black has a safe position. Entering the middle game, I play better than him. Until I was able to put pressure on the position to get into situation of game that I can won.

Game 8  I have made mistakes in the opening. My dark square bishop was captured by black knight. My king was under a lot of pressure in the middle game. Then my opponent traded pieces into a rook endgame which black has an extra pawn. The pawn structure in the endgame is imbalance. He pressure my position and he won.

5th Day ; April 21

Game 9  My opponent decided to sacrifice a bishop in the opening in exchange for attacking a center and black king, but the compensation was not enough. So he lose a piece and was quickly attacked back.

After the competition is ending, I scored 5.5/9 points and was the 11th place in Open division. I received a prize of 1,000 THB (about 27 USD) along with medal. It is a result of which I am very proud. This tournament allowed me to meet top players and gain a lot of playing skill and practice from them. Even though I was a bit tired after 5 days of competition, this experience was very worthwhile for me.

Finally, the winner of this tournament is FM Thanadon Kulpruethanon @bank2010 who I study chess from his YouTube channel. Congratulations!