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2010 King's Cup Commentary: Round 9

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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.

Someone asked me, "What does 'HP' mean on the scoreboard?" (No, it doesn't stand for "hit points", although that would be an interesting addition to the game.) In addition to the top prize of US$10,000 and the honour of having one's name engraved on the King's Cup, and the smaller place prizes down to tenth place, there are two kinds of bonus prizes at this tournament.

Any player who finishes below third place will earn THB 50 (currently about USD 1.50) for each game he or she won on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, and twice that for each game won on Sunday ("Bonus Prize"). If they sweep on any of those days, their bonus for that day is quintupled ("Super Bonus Prize").

Additionally, tournament organizer Amnuay Ploysangngam (THA) has assigned each player a base handicap value of +0 to +8. A player earns two handicap points for each win, one for a tie and zero for a loss. Combined with the base handicap value, this gives the player's total Handicap Points, or HP. The player with the top HP (again, excluding the top three finishers) wins THB 10,000 (about USD 300), the next highest gets THB 5,000 and the third highest HP gets THB 2,500 ("Handicap Result Prize").

The only player to sweep yesterday was Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA), but as he's in second place right now, he's not currently eligible to pick up the 5*6*50 = 1500 baht Super Bonus Prize for that day.

Right now the HP leader is fourth-place Thacha Koowirat (THA), whose +3 handicap when added to his 7 wins (doubled) makes him the only one with 17 HP.

Nawapadol Sayavesa (THA) has bested Warodom Geamsakul's (THA) low win with a 324-322 victory over Thavachai Thivavarnvongs (THA).

After I had to caution one overseas player this round to play in a more respectful and sportsmanlike manner, I was impressed when Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA) insisting on deducting an unnoticed ten-point time penalty from his now 394-483 loss to Siu Hean Cheah (SGP), despite Cheah's protestations that it was unnecessary.

Most of the Aussies apparently took note of their player numbers a few days before the tournament began, and I've had to gently correct them since, as there were about a dozen last minute roster adjustments (additions and deletions). For those that were wondering, the player numbers are assigned alphabetically by country and player name, with some really last-minute changes moved to the end, and the New Zealand team of Nigel Richards (NZL) placed at the beginning because I'm told that Nigel's favourite player number is 1.

Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA) beat Thacha Koowirat (THA) 450-424 to take a one-game lead at 8-1 over Panupol, Jason Katz-Brown (USA), Thacha Koowirat (THA), Charnwit Sukhumrattanaporn (THA) and Cheah.