Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

Discovery Bay in Hong Kong 2013 National Inter-School Chess Championship

February 25th, 2013

The Hong Kong national school team competition was held on Saturday 23 February (Secondary) and Sunday 24 February (Secondary and Primary) at the South Island School premises. The event attracted over 240 participants and about as many supporters and spectators.

Although at least 6-7 players from Caissa go to Discovery Bay International School (DBIS) there was unfortunately no DBIS team. Discovery Bay was thus represented through Discovery College participating with one team in the Secondary and four teams in the Primary section: a growth of four teams compared to last year!

Day 1: Secondary

The Discovery College Secondary team had a rough first day, scoring one draw in the four rounds played. The team had two players competing for the first time in this section: Caissa’s Sophie Whalley, who played her first tournament ever, and Kevin Xin, last year still playing in the Primary Section.

Day 2: Primary and Secondary

To avoid traffic conditions related to the Marathon a coach bus was organized for door to door transport of all the teams. Unfortunately the bus ride was 45 minutes longer than was indicated and instead of 8.45am the teams arrived at 9.30am. Secondary was well in time with a BYE in their round 5 and as the event was delayed a little bit and because our four DC teams were paired against each other in round 1 there was luckily no impact.

Players and parents and supporters getting on the bus

Discovery College chess players, their parents and supporters getting on the bus

Secondary

The second day went much better: excluding the BYE the team had in round 5, all players made their marks: Kevin Xin winning both games, Michael Xin and Sophie Whalley scoring 1.5 out of 2, and Ken Arima scoring 1 out of 2.

Because of this good end sprint the team climbed up to end on 16^th place out of 23.

Sophie glad after her first win while Michael, Kevin and Ken still have some work to do.

Primary

With the exception of two or three players, our players in teams B, C and D had never played a tournament yet – some players had only learned how to play chess several weeks or months ago. Obviously the experience of participating in the event, and hopefully liking it while scoring a point here and there, was the main purpose. Team A was the DC team with the most experienced players and it was their target to rank higher than last year’s 32^nd place out of 47 teams.

In a nutshell, DC teams achieved all the goals set for this year. In team D, ending 65^th of 66 teams, the average score of the players was over 2 points so no player remained empty handed in their first appearance!

Team D having lots of fun: (front to back) Hyng Junm Koza, Arnav and James

Team D having lots of fun: (front to back) Hyng Jun, Koza, Arnav and James

From team B and team C, ending 51^st and 52^nd respectively, we see some noteworthy performances from Jonathan Chow and Max Moore (team B) scoring 3.5 and 5.5 points respectively but also Aryan and Joaquin scored in their first appearance. Suneh Bhatia and Kian Heathman (team C) scoring 4.5 and 3 points respectively is an excellent result, but also Eshanya and Feliz managed to win in their first chess event. Great!

Team C: (front to back) Felix, Suneh, Eshanya and Kian

Team B and C sitting in a long row. Team B, foreground (front to back): Jonathan, Maxwell, Aryan and Joaquin

DC team A was a contender for a top 5 position up until the last round. However, 3^rd place in the final ranking was taken by ISF team A through a 4-0 win over our DC team A that pushed us down to 22^nd place of 66 teams – still a significant improvement indeed over last year’s performance. Noteworthy here are the scores of Chor Wei Tang with 5 points (5 wins in a row) and of Miguel Angel Garceran Wang on board 1 who with 6 points won some silverware, the 4^th prize of the individual players of board 1. Congrats Miguel Angel! But also Bryant and Mei Jing performed well as this team, scoring well, continuously faced the strongest opponents.

Final ranking Primary.

Team A in the last round against ISF A: (front to back) Miguel Angel, Bryant, Chor Wei and Mei Jing

In addition to the highlighted “noteworthy” scores, the most noteworthy fact of the day was the individual commitment of all players trying to push their own boundaries among great team spirit and it seems the foundation is laid to grow this further.

The team spirit, by the way, was not in the least thanks to the many parents who accompanied the players with good mood and with over a dozen homemade dishes, drinks and other snacks. If there would be a prize for coziest corner, it would definitely have gone to the DC conquered tables in the waiting area.

DC Snack Area

Also in between rounds the chess analyses went on

Also in between the seven rounds the chess analyses went on …

… and in such a tempting snack corner also the dads tried their luck

Hong Kong – Macao Interport Chess Pearl Delta Cup 2013 Players Line-up

February 22nd, 2013

Preparations are in full progress at Caissa for the traditional Interport Chess match between Hong Kong and Macao on Saturday 2 March; a tradition that dates back several decades.

By courtesy of Mr. Prosper Kan, who as a youth player on the Macao side participated with his 11-years old brother Christopher Kan (drawing his game) in the 1961 event, we can see a glimpse of that time through the below South China Morning Post article (thanks Jose Silveirinha, head of the Macao delegation visiting us next week, for sharing).

The Interport Chess Match between Macao and Hong Kong goes decades back.

Whereas participating youth players in those times were an exception, in our time the event has transformed into a youth match. We will have four age categories and two teams of two players in each. Different from the recent successfully organized tournament with Guangzhou East Lake Chess Club, players will not play against their city team mates. The city that accumulates most points gets to keep the Pearl Delta Cup for a year.

The players have almost all been confirmed and the Hong Kong team has lined up a lot of players who have earned their reputation in the most recent tournaments as well as some upcoming talents.

Players in the Hon Kong -Macao Interport Chess Pearl Delta Cup 2013

Players in the Hong Kong – Macao Interport Chess Pearl Delta Cup 2013

Good luck boys and girls!

HONG KONG CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2013 PRELIMINARIES ROUND 3

February 20th, 2013

After round 3 of the Hong Kong Open Chess Preliminaries only four players still remain with a 100 percent score. For such a relatively large group this is quite remarkable and it shows the strength and competitiveness being both wide and fierce this year. As next week the top 4 will play against one another, and consequently there will be at least another 50 percent reduction in ‘only-winners’, in the coming weeks we can expect ferocious play in a large pool of players who will all remain within reach of a top 9 finals qualifying position for the time being.

Caissa’s hopelessly-in-form-crisis David Garceran Nieuwenburg will likely not be in that pool anymore after Brian Wong converted David’s very early pawn loss flawlessly into a full point.

The other Caissa players Peter Whalley and Hannah Dale, however, are maneuvering themselves well into pole position. Peter held another Master, CM Chak Man Chan playing Alekhine, to a draw and remains unbeaten. Hannah evolved her French position into a middle game where here two rooks and queen threw their might on the open f, g and h files to topple the white castled king.

Interestingly, Billy Lo defeated the Spanish new-kid-in-town FM Javier Martin Perez and Robin Lai drew against FM Luen-Wah Luk.

Next week, in addition to the games played among the top 4, we can look forward to the confrontation of the two FMs Luen-Wah and Brian Dew and the game between FM Javier and Robin Lai who seems to be on track, in addition to being a Master in Chinese Chess, to reach that level in International Chess.

Interesting will also be the clash between generations when Peter and Hannah will meet their 12 years old opponents Hung Rey Leong and Michael Yang respectively.

Rank after Round 3 and Pairing Round 4 Hong Kong Chess Preliminaries 2013

Hong Kong Youth Shines in Two City Chess Tournament with Guangzhou East Lake Chess Club

February 17th, 2013

Queen Elizabeth Stadium Wan Chai

The traditional Lunar New Year invitational chess match between youth from Hong Kong and Guangzhou East Lake Chess Club organized by the Hong Kong Chess Federation in the Queen Elizabeth Stadium on Saturday 16 February was a noteworthy event.

In five different age categories (Under 8, 10, 13, 15 and 18 years) our youth competed from 2pm until 8pm in a round robin format (everybody in each age group plays against everybody) both against fellow Hong Kong players as well as our guest players from Guangzhou.

In the U8 group,Hong Kong’s pride was in good hands with our four talents Adrian Leung, Gerent Lee, (and Caissa’s!) Miguel Angel Garceran Wang and Mei Jing Garceran Wang: the top 5 boys and the highest ranked girl of the Hong Kong U8 Championship!

Hong Kong Under 8 Participants (left to right): Mei Jing Garceran Wang, Miguel Angel Garceran Wang, Gerent Lee and Adrian Leung

Mei Jing ended with 1.5 points somewhat below what could have been achieved … if all the other interesting things in the venue would had distracted her less … but as youngest player of this age group she is learning fast and her draw against the number 2 who had to cling to giving perpetual check, for example, was very convincing.

Gerent, playing fast as lightening, had some bad luck here and there but ended with 4 points well on 4th place. Adrian, another blitz mover, got 3rd prize with 5 points on tie-break.

Mei Jing and Gerent: What to Open With?

It was Caissa’s home grown Miguel Angel though, who showed best form of the day and with 7 out of 7, the only 100 percent score of all age groups of the day, deservedly was crowned champion U8.

Under 8 Final Ranking

The U10 group was also well represented by our star players (all in the top 6 of the Hong Kong Championship in this age group): Richard Takasumi, Coleman Lee, Colin Wong and Peter Zhao. Colin and Peter ended 5^th and 4^th respectively with 3 points just out of the prize zone.

Colin Wong (foreground) about to checkmate his opponent while Richard Takasumi (back left) pushes his white pieces deep into black territory, closely watched by Peter Zhao

Richard and Coleman were the players in best form and ended with 6.5 points convincingly shared 1^st. As they had played a draw against each other earlier, a blitz game of 5 minutes per player was to be played to determine the winner. This attractive blitz game which was won by Richard.

Playing a 5 minutes blitz for 1st/2nd place: Coleman Lee (left) and Richard Takasumi

U10 Final Ranking

The U13 group and up consisted of 6 players and a 5 games round robin. From Hong Kong we had Michael Yang (Hong Kong Champion in this age category), Humphrey Hui and Ngai Yeung (Hong Kong’s highest ranked girl in this age group) participating.

Ngai Yeung with black against Michael Yang

Michael Yang continued to be in great form and with 4 points was the undisputed number 1 in this group.

U13 Final Ranking

In the U15 age group Jeffrey Lam, Julian Lee and Saloni Anandpara, all Hong Kong top 10 players in their relevant age categories, had to stay very focused in a strong group.

Julian with white against Saloni's French set-up while in back (left) Jeffrey calmly awaits his oponnent's move

Differences were so minimal that the top 3 in this group had to be decided by several blitz games between Jeffrey, Julian and the Guangzhou player who in the end managed to win first prize.

End Ranking Under 15

Also in the U18 age group Hong Kong had lined up some if its finest players in this category through Enoch Wong, Christopher Masters and Jonathan Ho.

Christopher Masters relaxed behind the white pieces with in the background Jonathan (left) playing against Enoch.

Christopher played one of the most spectacular games of the day with a rook sacrifice in the early middle game forcing his opponent’s black king to walk out of its castled position into the middle of the board and the end of the game.

Enoch scored one more point though and ended to become champion with 4 points.

Under 18 Final Ranking

Congratulations to all players from Hong Kong and our guests from Guangzhou, and not the least to the organizers, Jackson and Andrew, who all pulled off a very exciting chess afternoon.

Prize Winners U8; Adrian Leung left and the champion Miguel Angel Garceran Wang to the right

Prize Winners U10: Coleman Lee (left) and champion Richard Takasumi in the middle

Prize Winners U13: champion Michael Yang in the middle

Prize Winners U18: Christopher Masters (right) and champion Enoch Wong in the middle

Pearl Delta Cup 2013 on Saturday March 2

February 8th, 2013

The once a year or so traditional friendly chess match between Macao and Hong Kong youth dates back already several years. On Saturday March 2, supported by Discovery Bay BMSE and Hong Kong Chess Federation, Caissa takes on the hosting and organization of this chess event at the Caissa chess club in Discovery Bay North Plaza.

In four age categories, U14-18, U12, U10 and U8, each city will assemble two teams, A and B, of two players in each team. Players represent their cities and will thus not be paired against their own team members.

The games will be played in rapid format according to FIDE rules with time control of 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment.

The Pearl Delta Cup shall go to the city with most accumulated points. For U8, U10, U12 and U14-U18 there will be an individual prize in each age group for the highest score in that age group. All participants will receive a medal.

The wining city will get the Pearl Delta Cup to keep for one year.

We cordially invite anyone to come watch and support our youth!

The event starts from around 12.30pm and lasts until around 7pm.

hong kong chess championship 2013 preliminaries round 2

February 5th, 2013

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 …