Results of round 2 of the Preliminaries were by and large within the range of expectations. The three Masters won their games in this round. On the other boards, noteworthy was Arturo Dumalaog draw against Alberto Muniz. It is also good to see that the 12-years old youth players Rey Hung Leong, Benjamin Oh and Michael Yang won their games against rated players Cyrus Lai, Sai Wing Lai and Caissa’s David Garceran Nieuwenburg respectively and are now ranked in the top 10.

Hannah Dale from Caissa lost against Robin Lai who since his convincing top 10 spot in the HK International Open last year seems to be playing only strong games.

It was Peter Whalley, then, who saved Caissa’s honor by defeating Keung Yeung Chun, showing the draw last week against the highest rated player Brian Dew was not a coincidence.

Peter handled the sharp 4. Bc4 variation against Keung Yeung’s Alekhine such that the small advantages accumulated (after moves like 7. … c6) resulted into constant pressure and a pawn win and finally the full point.

Next round Peter meets another Master, Chak Man Chan, on his way to glory …