Chuchart Trairatanapradit (), popularly known as Tai Pichit (; born 10 January 1963) is a Thai former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

player. Pichit participated at the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship, or simply known as the World Championship, is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the richest event to date with a total prize money of £2,395,000, including ...

three times, reaching the first round in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. Pichit's best overall ranking finish was at the 1994 Thailand Open, where he reached the last 16 stage.

Career

At the 1991 Thailand Masters, Tai lost 4–5 in the first round to

Allison Fisher Allison Fisher (born 24 February 1968) is an English American professional pool and former professional snooker player. She is considered one of the greatest female snooker players & widely regarded as the greatest female pool player of all ti ...

. He won the IBSF World Amateur Championship in 1993, defeating Praput Chaithanasakun 11–6 in the final, and turned professional in 1994. At the 1994 Thailand Open he beat Colin Morton 5–2 in the wildcard round and then and

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and a current Sports commentator, commentator and pundit. One of the most successful players in snooker history, he turned professional in 1985, ag ...

5–2, before losing to

Darren Morgan Darren Morgan (born 3 May 1966) is a Welsh former professional snooker player who now competes as an amateur and is considered amongst the best in the world. Morgan won the World Amateur Championship in 1987 and played on the professional m ...

4–5 in the second round. One year later, he participated at his first World Snooker Championship, qualifying for the 1995 edition of the tournament. Pichit defeated Mark Whatley 5–3, Adrian Rosa 5–1, Mike Dunn 5–2, Warren King 10–0, Stuart Reardon 10–8,

Alex Higgins Alexander Gordon Higgins (18 March 1949 – 24 July 2010) was a Northern Irish professional snooker player and a two-time world champion who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the sport's history. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgi ...

10–5, Euan Henderson 10–6 and

Mike Hallett Mike Hallett (born 6 July 1959) is an English former professional snooker player and commentator. He won the 1989 Hong Kong Open. Career Hallett was born in Grimsby on 6 July 1959. Having won the British Junior Snooker Championship, national ...

10–8 to set up an encounter with

Willie Thorne William Joseph Thorne (4 March 195417 June 2020) was an English professional snooker player. He won one ranking title, the 1985 Classic. He also reached the final of the 1985 UK Championship, losing 16–14 to Steve Davis after leading 13– ...

, which he lost 6–10. He also participated in the

1996 UK Championship The 1996 UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Guild Hall in Preston, England. The event started on 15 November 1996 and the televised stages were shown on BBC between 23 November and 1&nb ...

, defeating

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won ten ranking events. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his swift and attacking style of play, White has reached six World Snooker Championship finals ...

9–7 in the first round, and advanced to the second round, where he was defeated by Joe Johnson 6–9. In 1998–99, Pichit was ranked 124th, the highest ranking in his career. However,he ended the season at 150th, which meant that he did not qualify to continue on the professional circuit.

Personal life

Pichit was a Buddhist monk (

bhikkhu A ''bhikkhu'' (, ) is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male, and female monastics (''bhikkhunī''), are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community). The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the pratimok� ...

) before he became a professional snooker player.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Pro-am finals: 2

Amateur finals: 6 (2 titles)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pichit, Tai Living people Tai Pichit Asian Games medalists in cue sports Cue sports players at the 1998 Asian Games 1963 births Tai Pichit Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games Tai Pichit