Thailand’s national chess team at the SEA Games in Cambodia is not discouraged by the questionable arbiter decisions of the Cambodian host and expects to win four out of seven golds in the chess competition.

Questions have been raised over the arbiter decisions in two games, one between a Thai player and a Cambodian and the other between a Thai and a Vietnamese player.

In the game between Thai chess player Tupfah Khumnorkaew and his Cambodian rival, the Cambodian arbiter decided that the game was a draw, on the grounds that Tupfah made a foul move, forcing the Cambodian player to refuse to continue the game.

In the second match, between Tupfah and a Vietnamese player, the Thai player protested to the arbiter that his rival had fouled, but his protest was rejected, resulting in the Thai player being dropped from the competition.

Sahapol Nakvanich, president of the Thailand Chess Association, told Thai PBS that the Thai team has agreed to accept the judgements of the Cambodian arbiters, even though it disagreed with them, because the team does not want to exacerbate the problem.

Even before the start of the SEA Games this month, Thailand and Cambodia had been bickering over pointless issues, such as the term of “Muay Thai” being replaced by “Mun Khmer” by the host and the high live broadcast fee for the games demanded by Cambodia, which was resolved with the intervention of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.