Last Monday, 3 September, the HKCF (Hong Kong Chess Federation) organized Hong Kong Open started in the Queen Elisabeth Stadium. The competition will be played over 7 rounds among 24 players. Two of these combatants, Peter Whalley and David Garceran Nieuwenburg, are our Caissa chess club members.

Peter unfortunately faced the only FIDE Master in the tournament, Luen Wah Luk, already in round 1. Despite some chess warming up on Thursdays at Caissa, Peter, with black playing a Scandinavian, is still a bit rusty after years of chess inactivity. Let’s see what happens in round 2 against Aravind Mahadevan next week.

David played a Sokolsky (again) and faced some troubles against a Queen Indian set-up with 1. … b6 and a later unexpected … d5. In the end game it surely helped David to the win when Ching Yuen Hui blundered away his queen in a somewhat equal position. Round 2 next week will be against Gordan Yu.