Thailand’s Most Glamorous Chess Fan Yingluck Shinawatra Celebrates 53rd Birthday

By René Gralla

She is one of the most brilliant and attractive chess fans these days: Yingluck Shinawatra who became Thailand’s first female Prime Minister on August 5th, 2011, after a landslide victory of her Pheu Thai Party as the result of the general elections on July 3rd, 2011, by conquering 265 of the 500 seats in The House of Representatives at Bangkok. The younger sister of elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra who ran „Prathet Thai“, translation: „Land Of The Free“, as being its Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006 – until he was toppled and forced into exile by a military coup on September 19th, 2006 – has celebrated her 53rd Birthday on June 21st, 2020. Though Yingluck Shinawatra’s schedule uses to be busy and challenging, the tough and charming career woman regularly finds the time for some relaxing moments to chill out at the board of 64 squares. Whilst shaping politics at the beginning of the second decade of the third millennium, Thailand’s most glamorous Head of Government supported the renowned Bangkok Chess Club, and she helped to bring new attention to Siam’s traditional chess variant „Makruk“ by closely working together with Kittirat Na-Ranong who was Deputy Prime Minister in her cabinet apart from having been elected President of the Thailand Chess Association in 2013.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (right) meets Bangkok Chess Club Chairman Kai Tuorila (left) on the occasion of the 12th Bangkok Chess Club Open in April 2012 (at the center in the background: Deputy Prime Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong – who will be elected President of the Thailand Chess Association one year later).

After having got to the helm of chess sports in The Kingdom of Smiles, Kittirat Na-Ranong not only has focused on International Chess but has started to intensively promote Makruk as well. His most spectacular stroke of genius in that respect: He has taught the rules of Makruk to former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov when the latter paid a visit to Bangkok in December 2013.

Former World Champion Garry Kasparov (left) discusses Makruk with Kittirat Na-Ranong (right), President of the Thailand Chess Association, at Bangkok in December 2013.
Quelle: http://www.chessasiapacific.com/kasparov-sees-chess-of-all-kinds-in-thailand/

Siam’s own brand of The Game of Games is very popular throughout Thailand, therefore it is a quite surprising fact that there can not be purchased any downsized magnetic sets of Makruk. That is deplorable because Makruk editions en miniature would be very helpful in view of the current restrictions on social life worldwide that have been taken in order to fight the Corona pandemic. Magnetic Makruk would enable aficionadas and aficionados to comfortably play on the lawn of a park or on the beach. That obvious deficiency has motivated Hamburg-based author René Gralla to tinker a little bit in his quiet closet. The result: René Gralla has transformed a miniaturized set of International Chess …

Portable edition of International Chess (photograph by: Bernd-Jürgen Fischer).

… into a corresponding prototype of magnetic Makruk.

Handmade prototype of magnetic Makruk that has been fabricated by René Gralla (photograph by: Bernd-Jürgen Fischer). Please pay attention to the four elephants that are actually waiting on those positions that are occupied by „Bishops“ in International Chess (the elephants en miniature have been purchased at the specialized shop for Asian handicrafts „Om Shankari“ at Hamburg, Germany, in the street Hahnenkamp No. 12 close to the railway station Hamburg-Altona). Talking of several markups on some squares of the playground: these hotspots are the legacy of the ancient Indian game Ashtapada. Those special zones had been „castles“ where pieces were safe from being captured. Later Chaturanga, the prototype of chess that has been created in India sometimes during the 5th century A.D., has been played on the board of Ashtapada as well – with the initial protective function of the old „fort“-style sections having been abolished, therefore the obsolete strongholds only used to fullfill decorative purposes from now on. Since Makruk is that very living variant of chess that actually is closest to the original Indian edition Chaturanga, therefore the traditional design of the board of Chaturanga – the typical ornaments of Ashtapada including – has been used to transform a set of International Chess into Makruk. That shall underline the strong cultural links between India’s Chaturanga and Thailand’s Makruk.

The simple trick: now the well-known starting out positions of „The Bishops“ in the battle formation of International Chess are occupied by exotic elephants – thus playing the part of noblemen (in Thai language: „Khon“) in the theatre of Makruk because daring noblemen were supposed to mount imposing pachyderms before storming into real battles. Plus: the so-called „Met“ of Makruk that is the counterpart of the notorious „“Queen“ of mainstream chess will be represented by a former „Bishop“ figurine piece that finds itself in a new and more prestigious role by serving the commander in chief of either the white or black army (the technical term in the world of Makruk: „Khun“) as being the close advisor of His Lordship on the board. The foregoing concept works and is real fun: that is the conclusion that has unanimously been made by Weeraphon Junrasatpanich, the winner of „The King Naresuan The Great Makruk Memorial 2015“ at Hamburg, Germany, and René Gralla after a friendly game at the rustic pub „Thämer’s“ at Hamburg’s scenic town square Großneumarkt on June 13th, 2020. Therefore René Gralla, the creator of magnetic Makruk, and Weeraphon Junrasatpanich have dedicated that innovation to Yingluck Shinawatra who is the one and only female pop star of Thai Chess. René Gralla and Weeraphon Junrasatpanich hope for having the chance to hand over that belated birthday present to Yingluck Shinawatra sometimes and somewhere on this planet. But that will probably take a while for Yingluck Shinawatra had to flee Thailand after a cold coup d’état: she was removed from office by the Constitutional Court on May 7th, 2014, and that was the prelude to one more putsch by the Royal Thai Armed Forces on May 22nd, 2014. Today Yingluck Shinawatra is rumoured to hold a UK passport and to be in London – apart from having been granted citizenship by the government of Serbia …