The friendly match on Sunday 11 November between ISF School and Caissa Discovery Bay Chess Club in Wan Chai started with a good lunch.
Some Caissa Players and Parents Warming Up with a Lunch
Caissa could gather 7 players in the end but because ISF brought 5, as earlier agreed, Mei Jing was glad to skip the match (very nervous) and we had to rotate 2 players.
ISF is one of the best schools when it comes to youth chess and that was exactly what we found out through 2 rounds of 30 mins per person per game.
Round 1
On board 1 we had two of Hong Kong’s youth champions facing off: Caissa’s Miguel Angel Garceran Wang (Hong Kong Junior U8 Blitz Champion) against Marco Ching (Hong Kong Junior U8 Champion). Miguel built up his attack with queen and knight carefully on the king side and managed to win enough material for a quickly following check mate.
On board 2 Caissa’s Ruaidhri, not yet used to notating of a game, gave away a heavy piece in the confusion around writing down the moves and lost the game against Ben Jabal.
Round 1: Board 1 (back) Marco (left) against Miguel and board 2 (front) Ben against Ruaidhri (right).
On board 3 Caissa’s Bryant against Sabrina also got distracted by having to write his moves and in response moved increasingly faster, which resulted in inaccuracies and a loss.
On board 4, Caissa’s Chor Wei got in troubles on the back rank against Christopher and he had to give away material. Enough for Christopher to win.
On board 5 Caissa’s Franz played his first tournament and with writing of moves and all had to admit a loss early in the game.
Round 1: (front left) Bryant, (middle right) Chor Wei and (back right) Franz
Caissa lost the first round with 4-1 …
Round 2
In round 2 Miguel Angel (with white) beat Marco again (well done!). Ruaidhri, not having to write down the moves anymore, was a piece and a couple of pawns up against Ben but he could unfortunately not convert his winning position into more than a draw. In any case, a big improvement. Bryant, Chor Wei and Jay (who had replaced Franz) played better without the hassle of writing but put themselves at a disadvantage by playing much faster than needed. Round 2 Caissa lost 3.5-1.5.
Yet the mindset of the players was excellent, very motivated. With the exception of Miguel Angel, nobody had yet written down their games before in a tournament. All such details matter and it is just a matter of time, and continued practice, that results will improve.
Individual Tournament
After the friendly match we played 5 rounds of individual chess of 15 mins per person per game. This tournament was finally won by ISF’s Marco who managed to defeat Miguel (2nd place) this time. Congratulations to Marco.
Mei Jing with 3 Queens (!!!) Chasing Chor Wei's King into Checkmate
A thanks to Sydney Lai for hosting and running the event.
We’ll be back!
