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2009 King's Cup Commentary: Round 20

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Go to: Before the Tournament, 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 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, Final Round 3, After the Tournament.

One last round to go today. Players are a little tired, and at least one has lost his temper; the eighth game of a day is always tough. For a few minutes after the students were done for the day, the music was turned off, and it was disconcerting how loud the air conditioning sounded in its absence. Fortunately, they brought the music back louder than ever to keep our spirits up for one more hour. (My own spirits are being kept aloft by cha yen (Thai iced tea), my favourite source of caffeine.)

The top four boards have taken the longest to finish, leaving us all in suspense. Charnwit Sukhumrattanaporn (THA), in the lead by one game, plays Lukeman Owolabi (NGA) at Board 1. One game back, Jason Katz-Brown (USA) plays Helen Gipson (Eng) (two games off the lead) at Board 2. The other four 13-6s are playing 12-7s.

In the end Charnwit opens his lead to two games, putting him in excellent position for the finals. He likely needs to win only three of the seven games tomorrow, and can definitely qualify with four. Two games back are Jason +1242, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA) +1182 and Helen +366. Helen plays Charnwit first tomorrow morning, and Nigel Richards (NZL) in the second round; if she can beat these two tough opponents, she'll have a good shot at the finals but given her low spread needs to win an extra game as she can't count on being at the top of her win group on spread. Jason and Pakorn need to try to win five. The top four will spend the first two (and possibly three) rounds playing some of the twelve 13-7 players (except for the Charnwit-Helen match), each of whom still have an outside chance if they win six or seven games.

Dinner in the food court with Amnuay Ploysangngam (THA) was delicious. I know "food court" doesn't sound appetizing to North American tastes, but the worst Thai food court food I've eaten so far has been better than typical Thai food back home, and I'm also delighted that Amnuay has introduced me to several new dishes that I hope I can find when I get back.