Chiang Mai, Thailand, Saw A Record Breaking Asian Youth Chess Championships 2018

CHESS IN THAILAND

What is it about chess and Thailand? Well, according to the World Chess Federation, it is a country ranked just 111th in the world and without even an International Master.

Yes, of course everyone does know about the Bangkok Club Chess Open, now in it’s 18th edition and still setting standards in the organisation of international chess events.

In the last decade, the Asean Age-Group Chess Championships often made its home in Thailand and more recently, under the leadership of  Thailand Chess Association (TCA) President Kittiratt Na-Ranong, also begun hosting FIDE events such as the World Schools Chess Championships 2015 in Pattaya and last year, the Asian Amateur Chess Championships 2017 in Chiang Mai.

Of course no one questions Thailand as one of the leading tourist destinations in the world!

PRE-EVENT PREPARATIONS

Arguably the Asian Amateur Chess Championships 2017 held a few months earlier could be said to have served as a dress rehearsal for the Asian Youth Chess Championships 2018 as it was held at the very same city and even the same venue and hotel with very much the same core local team in place.

But this time around with five times the numbers of players, accompanying persons, officials and helpers!

So in the end it could be said that the Asian Youth Chess Championships was organised by the TCA under the auspices and with the support of  the Asian Chess Federation (ACF), and held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 1-10 April 2018, attracting  a record breaking 571 players (of which no less than 116 were titled) from no less than 26 countries.

As always, the support from ACF was tremendous, Deputy President Bharat Singh officiating at the Opening Ceremony and General Secretary Hisham Al-Taher at the Awards & Closing Ceremonies and with Official Press Officers supporting the excellent local media team.

There were a number of supporting events, from Blindfold King Timur Gareev giving a simultaneous exhibition to Nurtr presenting the new Live & Steaming Video Chesss Training Program of Ramesh RB to Jacob Aagaard conducting free workshops on Chess Improvement.

THE RESULTS BREAKDOWN

In recent years India has all but made the Asian Youth Chess Championships its own and this time around it was no different when it took a total of 35 gold medals from their 68 in total won and so staying very comfortably ahead of Vietnam which had 21 gold medals from its total of 52.

China was in third place but far behind the top two with just 8 gold from its 32 medals won.

When combining individual and team results, 13 countries, 50 percent of the total participating, were able to medal but it became 12, one less, when counting just the individual results.

Here again India is still the easy winner with 14 gold from it’s 33 medals and Vietnam is still second with 7 gold from winning 21 medals but third placed China is now a closer third place finisher with 5 gold from a total of 14 medals won.

Out congratulations to TCA for a record breaking event and to getting on top of the enormous logistical challenges with a much larger than expected turnout!