Hong Kong’s main youth chess event will take place this weekend. We look back to see who the players were who made some fame for themselves last year – and how will they fare this time?

Under 18

In this age category we see 4 players from the top 15 of last year, including last year’s number 1, Christopher Masters, and the number 2, Mark Law.

It will be interesting to see how they and last year’s number 9, Marcus Ho, and number 14, Edmund Yuen, can consolidate their position in the top 15 with competition streaming in from last year’s top 15 players in the age group U13, including the number 1 in U13 last year, Yee Chit Wong, and Julian Lee, number 11 in U13 last year.

Caissa has no players in this age category.

Under 13

With Yee Chit and Julian now in U18, also in this age group we see 4 players who were in the top 15 of last year still in this group, most notably last year’s number 4, Jeffrey Lam, and number 6, Adrian Chui. It is expected that competition is notably intensified with last year’s U10 players streaming in, like Benjamin Oh (number 1 last year in U10), Issac Fung (last year number 3 in U10), Ryan Au (number 4 U10) and Hung Ray Leong (number 5 U10).

Caissa has Sophie Whalley in this age category. 

Under 10

With 4 players of the top 5 of last year’s U10 now playing in U13, there are still 8 players in this group who were in the top 15 of U10 last year as well, among which Richard Takasumi, last year’s number 2 in U10 and recent winner of the QBS P4-P5 tournament, Jun Rey Leong (number 4 U10), Gerald Jiarong Xu (number 6 U10 and recent winner of the October 2012 Student Challenger Tournament in the 6-9 years age group), Mike Tsoi (number 8 U10) and Jason Chow (number 9 U10).

The streaming in of talent from last year’s U7 is large (7 players from the top 10 of last year’s U7) and the U10 category will likely be the most heavily contested age group. Because the age difference between U7 and U10 is relatively small, the impact of joining into this group of Marco Ching, last year’s U7 number 1, Peter Zhao (number 2 U7), David Li (number 3 U7), James Kwong (number 4 U7 – and now with great experience from the Youth World Chess Championship in early November), Ben Jabal (number 5 U7), Ronald Choy (number 7 U7) and Nicholas Woo (number 9 U7), will be felt.

Caissa has Bryant Chong, Franz Herrmann, Ruaidhri Neville and Chor Wei Tang in this age category.

Under 7

Only 3 players from last year’s top 15 have remained in this group. However, for Gerent Lee (last year’s number 11), Andy Au (number 13) and Miguel Angel Garceran Wang (number 14 last year and recent winner of QBS P1-P3 tournament and Hong Kong Youth Blitz Chess Champion U8) it will certainly not be walk in the park as in this age group new and unknown talents often first appear. Hard work will be required to stay in the top 15 of this year.

Caissa has Mei Jing Garceran Wang, Miguel Angel Garceran Wang and Aleesha Naqvi in this age category.