On Saturday 8 December Caissa organized the 1st Discovery Bay Open Blitz Chess tournament. A total of 23 players had registered of whom 13 for the adult category, four players for the 9-12 years category and six players were in the 6-8 years category. We were glad to have two players from overseas: Cyril Anicete (from Shenzhen) and Julian Kuan (currently studying in Australia) – and they did make an impact!

The group was mixed but youth played against adults with confidence. Benjamin Oh (actually 9-12 years) even opted to play for the adult prizes.

 

 

 

 

But also between youth players we had many interesting games among which Benjamin Oh against Richard Takasumi (1-0), Richard Takasumi against James Kwong (1-0) and Caissa’s Miguel Angel Garceran Wang against Gerent Lee (1-0).

 

 

 

Gordon Moffoot started off very well but lost his winning streak after the break, ending 15th with 4 points. Jing Wang, playing her first tournament ever was especially fighting her nerves but with 3 points she need not be unsatisfied.

 

 

Peter Whalley scored 5 points, ending 10th and Hannah Ball showed again her qualities by scoring 5.5 points, ending 5th.

 

 

Apart from the Caissa players Jing, Gordon, Peter and Hannah we also had Miguel Angel from Caissa and he again proved his talent as 7 years old by ending overall number 9 with 5 points and becoming winner of the 6-8 years age group.

Richard Takasumi also had 5 points and was the winner of the 9-12 years age group, ending one place higher than Miguel due to tie-break and as such Richard was crowned overall Discovery Bay Open Youth Champion 2012.

 

 

 

The prize winners in the adult group were Billy Lo (6th), Hannah Ball (5th), Anthony Wong (4th), Joseph Wong (3rd), Julian Kuan (2nd) and Cyril Anicete (1st and DB Open Champion 2012).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discovery Bay not-yet-converted-to-Caissa citizens Jean Sebastien Bret and Pushkar Sane ended on the 7th place with 5 points and 12th place with 4.5 points respectively. Gentlemen, time to join the club!

Aravind Mahadevan’s 14th place with 4 points had a lot to do with the impact of illegal moves to the outcome of the game and also most youth players, including Jonah Yap, Hansel Yan, Aaricia Chan and Harold Kwong had a steep learning curve regarding this aspect of blitz chess. Let’s hope these players are not discouraged but that they feel passionate enough to turn the blitz chess specifics to their advantage … until we meet again next year!