One Night in Bangkok || Arjun Erigaisi vs Prin Laohawirapap || 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026

Hello everyone and welcome to the most requested game from round one of the FIDE Chess Olympia 2026. We have table three, it is India versus Thailand and on board one we have Arjun Nergaisi versus Prin Lalavirapap. And obviously you can see there's a certain rating difference between the two of them, almost 400 points, but when has that ever stopped anyone from having a good time? So it's an incredible game, I'm not gonna say anything other than that. Let's dive straight into it and let's enjoy some chess. And for those of you who didn't see the game, you will see why it's the most requested one. So pawn to d4 from Arjun and Prin strikes with knight to f6. Pretty sure it's Prin, not Prin, but I can't really know. And yeah, I forgot to introduce him. He's 20 years old, he's the only international master from Thailand and he is the highest rated player in Thailand. And he is not even a grandmaster and he played a lot of strong tournaments, but by far the strongest one that he played is the FIDE World Cup in 2023, but he was eliminated already in round one by Rasmus Svane. So yeah, let's check it out. Arjun obviously needs no introduction, he's world number nine, and I mean, he's Arjun Egesi. So yeah, knight f6, we have knight to f3, pawn to d5 and pawn to e3. The Kola system, we have pawn to c5, c3, and now pawn to e6. So this is something that people have started playing quite a lot recently. Everyone used to play the London system, but then they decided, let's not develop the dark square bishop, so we're going to play the Kola system. Knight b to d2, we have knight b to d7, and bishop to d3. And OK, pretty standard position, bishop to e7 is what Prin went for, bishop to d6 is the most played move in this position. So bishop e7, we have castles, castles, knight to e5, again, rook e1, queen to e2, knight e5, those are the three most common moves here. But if you've ever played anything similar, you know that this move is perfectly fine. And then you have players that allow this knight to remain on e5, and you just continue development with something like either queen c7 or c4, or you capture the knight. And then we have captors attacking the pawn, and pawn to f4. And you have this position where white does have a very strong pawn on e5, but he has doubled e-pawn. So the e3 pawn is a little bit weak. Later on, if you can consolidate, if you can push e4, f5, it should be very good. And you always have to be very careful if something happens on the king's side, the rook can very easily enter the game because the light-squared bishop has no access. So this can be played many different ways. So pawn to g6, so you don't have to worry about any queen infiltrating or rook f3 from Arjun. And okay, it's a pretty standard position where you could try, well, a couple of moves, really. But only one move has been played in this position, and that is pawn to f6. But here we have knight to b6, and it is now as of move 11 that we have a completely new game. So c captures on d5, and now the question is how to recapture. Do you capture with the knight, with the queen, or with the pawn? With the queen, it is okay. Nothing really happens if you capture with the queen. Interesting is what happens if you capture with the pawn. Then c4 is coming, so you're going to play b3, but still c4, and then bishop c2, d4 even, and then you get something like this, where you can trade on c4, for example. Then you capture on e3, and then after bishop captures, you decide what you want to play. Bishop to e6, you offer a queen trade, and white is up a pawn, but black should be comfortable here. But still, you know, you don't, at least for my level, I don't really see the compensation here. I feel that white should be better here. But okay, after c captures, knight captures on d5, instead of the pawn or the queen, and now queen to e2 by Arjun. We have pawn to a6 by Prin, and knight to f3, pawn to b5, and pawn to e4. We have knight to b4, attacking the bishop, and Arjun just tucks it back for later use on b1. So, pawn to c4. Now, if the knight moves, then Prin can get b4 and c3 in. That's going to be very interesting. We have bishop to e3, bishop to b7, and now pawn to f5. Arjun ready to break through here, or to play f6 and then create some permanent dark square weaknesses. Because if this pawn remains on e5 and this on e4, there's going to be a wall here, and Arjun can have all the time in the world to do whatever he wants on the king's side. And interestingly, best here would be to play e captures on f5. But it's not an easy decision. For example, captures knight d3, and now if f6 attacking the bishop, you can go bishop to b4. And now it's a bishop captures, you can capture with the queen or with the pawn. Again, the engine likes capturing with the queen, but says capturing with the pawn is perfectly fine. And I personally would probably capture with the pawn. And then queen to f2, you get something like this. But yeah, it's, you know, not everyone's cup of tea. This does look a little bit dangerous, but still this pawn looks beautiful. So it was maybe the way to go. But in the game, Prin goes rook to e8. He says, I'm not afraid of any king's side attack. I can put my bishop on f8, and good luck checkmating me there. Arjun plays pawn to f6. We have bishop to f8, and queen to f2. And queen to f2 is a nice move. h4, maybe it would have been even better. But okay, queen to c7. We have a3 attacking the knight here, knight to c6. And now, again, king h1 goes a long way. We have bishop to b6 by Arjun, and now queen to b8. And here, queen to h4 is very, very interesting. Because what's the idea here? Why not go for this? Well, after knight captures on e5, you don't really have anything here. Knight g5, and then just h6. And there's no way to break through. There are no sacrifices. You can't really get the bishop into the game. So f3 is covered. So yeah, there's really nothing you can do here. So instead, after queen to b8, queen g3, we have pawn to b4, and now a captures on b4. We have knight captures on b4, and bishop to e3. We have queen to c7, and now comes rook to a3, with the idea of rook c3. But also, you can get this rook to c1, so you can double up here. You can move the queen and the knight. Maybe you actually do play it like this, and then you bring this rook all the way to h3. So Arjun built a wall here, and it's not easy to get through it. And he just wants to have his fun and have all the time in the world to attack the black king. We have rook a to d8. Prince says, all right, go for it. And Arjun doesn't go for it. Again, h4, certainly very interesting. And also, yeah, instead of this rook to a3 move, also what's interesting, we can also show that h4 right away. But h4 is a move in any position. Then if h5, queen g5. This is really, really strong. And probably black does not survive this. But yeah, pretty elusive idea, you know, to spot, I guess. So rook a3, we have rook a to d8, and now rook to c3, knight to d3, and bishop captures. We have rook captures on d3, rook captures, and pawn captures on d3, followed by queen to f4. Okay, so the d2 square is defended, and again, nothing is breaking through this. But how do you trick this defender on f8? It's certainly not easy. We have queen to c2, and now Arjun does push the pawn to h4. We have h5, and now not g4, but instead, knight to d2. And okay, this is perfectly fine. So Arjun is making sure that everything is constantly defended, and then he will, you know, put the final touch with pawn to g4. We have rook to c8, and now pawn to g4. This is the only way to win for Arjun, and he finds it. We have bishop to c5, attacking the bishop. Bishop captures, queen captures with check, and king to h2. We have king to f8, and g captures on h5. Again, the only way for Arjun to win the game. We have g captures, queen to g5, and king to e8. We have rook to f3, and rook to d8, putting the rook behind the passed pawn, and making sure that if any checks happen, then you can hide the king on c8, and then all the way to the queen's side. And the question is what to play here. You can capture on h5, that's perfectly fine. Arjun goes for queen g8 check, that's also perfectly fine. And now queen to f8. We are now on move 39, and one more move needs to be made to reach time control, and for players to be granted additional 30 minutes. And okay, queen to f8, we have queen to h7. This is move 44, Arjun, and now comes queen to b4. So not a lot to think about here, because you don't have time, but also because Arjun is just completely winning here. Queen to h8 check, we have queen back to f8, and now queen captures on h5. Rook to d4, finding very, very interesting ways to stay in the game. Rook to g3, and now comes king to d8. Arjun's idea was that if bishop captures on e4, then he's just going to capture, and then if a pawn to d2, you can give back. The knight doesn't really matter, but you can also play knight f2, and then you have d1 covered, and this should be enough. But we have king to d8 by Prin, and now we have queen g5. Simplest way would be rook g7, this seems like the way to go, and then if rook to d7, queen g5, with the idea of rook g8 and winning the queen, and then if queen to c5, now you go king to h3 to avoid a check, and your plan is basically queen to g1, and then you remaneuver the queen over to the queen's side. So by simplest, I mean the way to go, but yeah, good luck seeing all of this. So after king d8, queen g5 was played by Arjun, now he says, all right, you have nothing here, I'm just going to push my h-pawn and win the game this way. So okay, queen b4 by Prin, and now we again enter a very delicate territory where there's only one way for Arjun to convincingly win the game, and maybe it's not the first move you think of. I don't know, what was the first move you thought of? Probably you were staring at that b-pawn, or maybe just thinking about giving a check, or maybe you just want to push the pawn. So those are all fine ideas, but the only way to win convincingly is rook g4, because you just defend the pawn, look at this, this defends this, this defends this, this defends this, and you just push the pawn, and nothing to worry about. If bishop captures on e4, you can even go queen e3, and if queen captures on b2, pinning the knight, you can go king g3, and yeah, that's pretty much it. So what you would have to do after rook g4 is just go queen captures on b2, and then queen to e3. Again, no worries in the world, nothing is breaking through this, and you just push the h-pawn to victory. So that's the way to do it. But Arjun played pawn to b3, which is, you know, definitely understandable. He wants everything from life, and he doesn't want to give even a little bit. So okay, rook captures on e4, a beautiful exchange sacrifice. Bishop captures on e4, doesn't really achieve anything, but rook captures is now very, very interesting. And the idea is that if you capture that, then you get queen captures on e4, and then rook, I mean, you're getting checkmated, so you have to play rook captures on d3, and then you gobble up everything here, captures on f7, with check, king to b6, captures on e6, with check, king a7, and okay, black is up a bishop, but the two connected passed pawns are enough to hold the game. Queen g4, you're not getting checkmated, and this is fine. So after rook captures on d3 with check, sorry, so after rook captures on e4, not capturing the rook, but instead rook captures on d3 with check, king to c7, and now there is only one move that wins the game for Arjun. What move is that? That is the question. Yes, it's the simplest one. It's the one your uncle would play, and that is knight captures on e4. But Arjun doesn't find it, and the reason it's winning is because after queen captures, yes, it still looks very scary, but you can give a check, and after king b8, you can bring the rook back, and there is no mate. But yeah, you have to calculate a few more checks, like queen e2, check, you're going to go to h3, queen d3, check, you're going to go queen to g3, and now queen f5, check, you're going to go king h2, and now there really are no more checks, and now it's time for white to consolidate and figure out how to play. And it's still not simple, I mean, you would have to use your queen to shield the king, and then bring the king all the way, obviously not via that square, something like this, get it all the way here, get the queen to c3, have constant pressure against the black king, and then use all of that combined with your past h-pawn, so that is how you would win the game. But yeah, not simple at all. So knight f3 by Arjun, because he's also already down below 10 minutes on the clock, rook to e2, check, king h3, and now bishop captures on f3. And it seems that Prynne is now back in the game. Rook captures on f3, and here we have queen to e1. And this looks, I mean, incredibly dangerous. You could easily lose the queen or get checkmated, and the only way for Arjun to survive this is to play queen to f4, which was not played, believe it or not, because now after queen to h1, check, you can go to g4, and after rook to g2, check, you will block, and then you trade, and that's pretty much it. And if queen to d1, check, you can even go to g5, and now white is winning, because the h-pawn will march and become a queen. So after queen e1, queen to g7 was played, and now there is only one move that wins the game, but not for Arjun, for Prynne. And Prynne got his one chance in the game, and he took advantage of it. I'm pretty sure you see it, because everyone sees that there was nothing Arjun could do to stop it, other than the move that we've discussed. He played queen to h1, check, and that is it. King to g4, look at this. Arjun probably was calculating rook g2, check, and then you can block with rook g3, and then everything is fine. If queen d1, check, you can just go king h3, and you can repeat, king g4, king h3, everything is fine. But rook to e4, check, by Prynne, and now we have rook to f4. You have to, I mean, you have to do it, because if you go back with the king, let's say king g3, you will see queen g1, check, and then after king h3, queen h1, check, and after king g3, queen captures on h4 with, check, and after king g2, rook to e2, check, king g1, and now, of course, queen d4, check, nicely connecting with the a1 square. Absolutely phenomenal. This is just beautiful. And if you go king to f1, then just queen d1, that's also perfectly fine, so the rook is defended, and if you go king h1, then queen to a1, check, and now once you give up everything, that's going to be it. Or you don't even have to do it that way, you could play queen to g1, but this also doesn't help, because of rook to e1, and you're going to lose the queen. So, okay, checkmated. So, whatever you do. So, rook to f4 had to be played, and now comes queen to d1 with, check, king to g3, and queen to g1, check, we have king to h3, again, if king f3, rook e3 is mate in one, so king h3 was played by Arjun, and now comes the rook to e3 with, check, and he was in this position, unmoved 54, that world number nine, Arjun Nergaisi resigned the game, as there is nothing more to be done here. After this game, he is no longer world number nine, he lost quite a bit of rating points, now he's world number 12, but it's a long Olympiad, you know, he will probably bounce back. And not a lot to say about the position, if you go queen to g3, that's just mate in one, and of course, if rook f3, you will first capture the rook, and then you have to play queen g3, and then rook captors or queen captors will be checkmated. So, incredible game, incredibly difficult game, you know, everyone was saying online, you know, how did Arjun lose this, he was winning for the entire game, yeah, he was winning, but he had to find very unique moves to actually win this game, and they were not easy, I mean, they were not easy, and he had to burn a lot of time, and huge congratulations to Prin on such a spectacular showing, he got one chance in the game that Arjun missed, and he took advantage of it, and he takes down world number nine, Arjun Nergaisi, and India's board number one. That doesn't change the fact for the match, they lost the match, because everyone else won, for Team India, Nihal won, Gukesh won, and Vedit won, so yeah, but it's not a clean sweep, it's not a 4-0, and Prin is definitely the hero of round one of the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026. So yeah, that's the game, really hope you guys enjoyed it, like I said, if you want to learn more about the Kola system, or the London system, or any system, first link in the description below, download Lotus Chess, and it's just that easy, it's the best way to learn chess, and you know, try it, you will love it. I would like to thank Alexander Zlatkovsky, Carmen Polifronio, James Seripka, John Anderson, and Robert Palande for a contribution to my channel, thank you a lot, I really appreciate it. As usual, you can check two of my previous videos here, thank you for watching, and I will see you soon, continuing to check up on your wonderful suggestions, and whatever else happens in the chess world. Thank you all, I will see you soon, and have an excellent rest of your day.