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King’s Cup
June 17–20, 2010

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2010 King's Cup Commentary: Round 14

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Go to: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Final Round 1, Final Round 2.


We've moved today to the 12,000 square metre (130,000 square foot) Royal Paragon Hall facility, which is full to capacity with students playing in English, Thai, with mathematical symbols, at Sudoku, Sudoku variants, trivia, crossword puzzles, and so on. The International Open division is on a riser in the middle of the main hall, so players have to run a long gauntlet of other events before making it to our playing area. I had warned players to allow plenty of time to get here in the morning: it takes a good ten minutes to make it to your seat from street level, if you're lucky with the elevators.

As of our officially published start time, 15 players were still missing and had their clocks started. Most of them trickled in over the next 22 minutes. Thavachai Thivavarnvongs (THA) and Jason Katz-Brown (USA) notably arrived with three minutes left on their clocks, and have elected to play their opponents with those remaining three minutes. (Thavachai loses to Karen Richards (AUS) 455-400.)

The atmosphere is festive, with the Thai Crossword Game theme song blaring from the loudspeakers, occasionally drowned out by the announcer giving instructions to the students in Thai, or by the marching band rehearsing for the opening ceremony that will take place between the first two rounds.

Amnuay Ploysangngam (THA) is busy in an official capacity, but had the foresight to play his first game last night, with Weera Saengsit (THA), losing 384-434 but saving himself what would have been a 100-point forfeit.

Nawapadol Sayavesa (THA), also on the tournament staff, kept thinking he could play his game against Olga Visser (AUS), but eventually agreed to a forfeit, after being called away on tournament business once too often.

Two players are entirely unable to play this morning: Weeranee Tanasanvimol (THA) and Maneeda Tanasanvimol (THA), and they have been removed from the pairings for now.

I can see Jason's table from here; he seems to be managing his clock well. He's down to 35 seconds, and his opponent, Siu Hean Cheah (SGP) has only seven minutes; Jason leads by something like 380-340.

A few turns later, they're down to one second and 5:26. Cheah leads 413-410, Jason has RU left on his rack and Cheah is about to make his outplay. Cheah wins 426-410; nice try, Jason.

Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA), amazingly, arrived before I did, despite having had to go home last night to get his suit jacket. He knew he would be playing Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA) at Board 1, and that he would need every second of his allotted 25 minutes. Daniel Srichawla (THA), who arrived about 15 minutes late, would have done better to take the forfeit, as he lost to Thitipol Barameemuang (THA) 643-362.

Pakorn beats Panupon 473-406 amid the usual throng of excited onlookers, and maintains his onegame lead at 12-2. The only player now at 11-3 is Cheah; Panupol, Jason, Chollapat Itthi-Aree (THA) and David Eldar (AUS) are two games back at 10-4.

We break now for the opening ceremony; pairings for the following round will not be lagged (i.e., not Fontes), so Pakorn will play Cheah at Board 1, Panupol vs. David at Board 2, and Chollapat and Jason at Board 3.


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