Nigel Short won the 7th Bangkok Chess Club Open on Friday. In the last round the English grandmaster drew with IM Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam, who earned a GM norm. Short won 3.3 rating points to get to a virtual 2700 Elo exactly.

Nigel Short victorious in Bangkok, and back in the "2700 club"  

In our first report we saw that in round 6 Nigel Short had just taken over the lead from Indian IM M.R. Venkatesh, who had started so strongly with 5/5. One day later there was the interesting confrontation between Short and Women's World Champion Hou Yifan from China. This game was also won by Short:

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Venkatesh lost for the second time in a row; the Indian blundered in his game against Vietnamese IM Nguyen Duc Hoa.

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2011 winner Jan Gustafsson, who was already a point behind Short after six rounds, dropped another half point against another Indian IM, Roy Saptarshi.

In the penultimate round Short secured tournament victory (well, at least shared) thanks to another win with the white pieces in an instructive rook ending.

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In the last round Short drew with Nguyen Duc Hoa. This way Englishman finished sole first while the Vietnamese clinched a GM norm.

Winner Nigel Short between Indians Sriram Jha and M.R. Venkatesh

The following game from the last round had a nice finish:

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The 12th Bangkok Chess Club Open took place 13-19 April at the luxurious Dusit Thani Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. There was also a 7-round Challenger and together with the open there were over 230 players from 34 countries.

Bangkok Chess Club Open 2012 | Round 9 (final) standings (top 30)

Thai dancers during the closing ceremony