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Back to 2010 King's Cup Live Coverage

2010 King's Cup Commentary: Round 2

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Back from a 45-minute lunch break, players have begun the five-round afternoon session here in the atrium of the Siam Discovery Mall, part of a massive upscale three-mall complex in the Siam Square district. We'll be playing here today and tomorrow, next to a fountain that partially drowns out the mall's instrumental background music and the sounds of passersby; some overseas players are afraid to play in an environment that is noisier than a library, but I'd have to say I've been in noisier events already this year. On the weekend we move to the Siam Paragon mall in the same complex, to a very large convention hall, where we will be joined by thousands of schoolchildren playing in English, Thai, with mathematical symbols, and playing all sorts of other mind games. That might get a little noisy.

While this part of the event is being played in English, all announcements are being made in English (by me) and Thai (by Ravee Joradol). Ravee is fluent in English and is a familiar sight at the U.S. NSC, but I think it will be several years before my Thai advances past "Sawasdee krap!"

It's Kamol Tienkarojanakul (THA) vs. Manop Phiphatboonserm (THA) at Board 1, and the only games to start late were ones involving event staff Amnuay Ploysangngam (THA) and Nawapadol Sayavesa (THA). I'm amazed that they have the time and energy to play at all.

Lunch has been delivered to my table, along with my another Thai iced tea, my favourite drink. This will be my third of the day, which is unusually early, but I got only three hours of sleep last night, thanks to being more than a little disoriented from jet lag when I woke up and it took me one hour to notice that I'd woken up two hours early. It's nothing three glasses of "cha yen" can't fix.

Lunch looks like an omelet with onions and breaded minced pork, along with two only mildly threatening looking sauces. One is hot, sweet and sour. The other is allegedly ketchup, and I'm sure there's ketchup in it, but it looks to me like there's a good deal of chili oil in it too. It all needless to say tastes fabulous.

Taewan Sutthasin (THA) beat William Wu (TWN) 654-161 down at Table 16 this round. Under Thai rules, what would be a +493 spread is limited to the maximum allowable +350; this is automatically calculated by tsh. The closest loss this round was Amnuay Ploysangngam's (THA) 382-381 loss to Thavachai Thivavarnvongs (THA).