Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark will feature prominently in the Bangkok Chess Club Open 2012 to take place at the Dusit Thani Hotel Bangkok on 13 April when the Songkran Festival starts and end on Thursday 19 April.
Bangkok Chess Club, who has been organizing the event for the past 12 years, expects this year’s tournament to attract over 250 participants from more than 40 countries and over 20 of those players are from Scandinavia.
The plans for this year’s tournament was revealed at a press conference held at the Dusit Thani Hotel Tuesday 13 March with the panel comprising of Mr. Kai Tuorila, Chairman of Bangkok Chess Club, Mr. Panupand Vijjuprabha International Arbiter of FIDE, Mr. Jirapak Pitirotjirathon the FIDE Master, Mr. Alex Willats the General Manager of Dusit Thani Hotel Bangkok, Dr. Pichai Nimityongskul the Secretary General of Thailand Chess Association and Dr. Palphol Rodloytuk from Shinawatra University.
Mr. Kai Tuorila highlighted some ambitious expectations for this year’s tournament and said that it will be the strongest and biggest tournament ever in Thailand. According to Mr. Kai Tuorila most of the players will come from Europe and Asia.
Peter Darby, Director of Bangkok Chess Club who also took part in the press conference added that the participants will pay their own air tickets. But they will all be accommodated at the Dusit Thani Hotel who is a major sponsor, alongside PYN Fund Management, a Finnish company with large investments in Thai equities.
Mr. Alex Willatz, Dusit Thani Hotel Bangkok expressed his gratitude for choosing the Dusit Thani Hotel as the venue to host the event and wished this year’s tournament all success.
Dr. Pichai Nimityongskul of Thailand Chess Association said that chess is getting increasingly popular in Thailand.
”It is a pleasure to see chess in Thailand expanding. The tournament will be a great promotion for Thailand, but also to promote friendship among the countries who participate in this tournament” he said.
The games may be watched live by chess lovers all around the world via the Internet. In Bangkok spectators are more than welcome to see the games live – provided they remember to keep their mobile phones on silent so as not to disturb the deep concentration of the participants.
