Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

GM Hou Yifan Simul and Open Blitz Finals Saturday March 1: Full House!

February 25th, 2014

Saturday 1 March will be the busiest day in our club’s young history. In the morning from 9am to 10.30am we are honored with the visit of Women World Champion GM Hou Yifan who will play simultane chess against 20 players. Although the odds of beating Yifan are not that large it will definitely be a memorable event for all players – and in addition all will get a souvenir, of course.

Then at 11am, with just 30 minutes in between, we will move from the simul to our Winter 2014 Blitz Open. And at full club capacity of 32 players the list of participants is as follows (for the ones who wish to prepare …):

  • Rachel Lu
  • Jonathan Lee
  • Ronald Choy
  • Oliver Yau
  • Joseph Wong
  • Hugo Lee
  • Arjun Nathan
  • Hannay Ball
  • James Nichols
  • Miguel Angel Garceran Wang
  • Mei Jing Garceran Wang
  • Daniel Lam
  • James Wing Ki Kwong
  • Bosco Yau Kwun Hou
  • Billy Lo
  • Issac Fung
  • Aravind Mahadevan
  • Stuart Holt
  • Eugene Livensky
  • Umberto Dalpian
  • Yee Chit Wong
  • Andrew Ng
  • Raphael Chang
  • Richard Takasumi
  • Koji Takasumi
  • Cyril Anicete
  • Liu Shuaikai
  • Wang Yuanfeng
  • Bao Jinwen
  • Yin Hao
  • Chen Delang
  • Chen Yicong

Daniel Lam and Ronald Choy win Winter 2014 Standard chess Competition

February 24th, 2014

In the last round in the adult group Daniel pressured James position such that a collapse was just a matter of time. And when it came Daniel had secured first place with an impressive 4.5 points out of 5. His trophy is awaiting him on 1 March at the Open Winter Blitz.

Joseph won a piece in the middle game against Hannah and despite Hannah being able to get some pawns back, Joseph’s minor pieces majority constantly eyed the weaknesses around Hannah’s pawn majority which could not get enough traction for serious counter play.

 

Final Ranking

Final Ranking

 

In the youth group Ronald got his last point through a win by default as his opponent did not show up. Despite Rachel, after a long game against Arjun, also won her last game and ended with 6 points like Ronald, it is Ronald who by tie-break became champion and he can collect his trophy coming Saturday at the Open Winter Blitz finals. Also congratulations to Rachel for a good result.

Hugo called in sick and as Oliver had canceled earlier this seventh and last round had to be reshuffled so that both Mei Jing and Jonathan could play – against one another. And what a game it was. Mei Jing managed to win a piece early in the game with white but Jonathan gradually collected several pawns for this piece and in the endgame it was Mei Jing who had to try to hold a draw with her knight against 3 pawns. The game finally ended in a draw with two lonely kings on the board. Well done Jonathan and Mei Jing – that is fighting spirit we like to see.

Regis gave away several important squares to Miguel Angel which weakened the coordination of his pieces. Miguel Angel benefited well from this and gained material advantage enough for a calm win.

 

Final Ranking Youth Cross Table

Final Ranking Youth Cross Table

 

The Winter 2014 competition has herewith ended and we look forward to see many of these players back on Saturday 1 March when we will formally conclude the winter with an Open Blitz Finale.

Guangzhou East Lake Chess Academy Wins the Caissa CNY Cup

February 17th, 2014
Guangzhou wins the Caissa CNY Cup 2014

Guangzhou wins the Caissa CNY Cup 2014

 

In a busy and energetic match between 16 youth players from Hong Kong and Guangzhou our guests from Guangzhou scored 34 points and defeated the home team with 30 points.

 

Under 8

Our team in this age group consisted of our top 5 players in the U7 championship last year, including our national champion Aaditya who made his mark by scoring 4 wins out of 4 to receive the top scorer prize in the U8 group.

 

Under 8 Players - Aadithya's white queen looks very active ...

Under 8 Players – Aaditya’s white queen looks very active …

Staring Stand-off ...

Staring Stand-off …

 

Mei Jing also played a strong tournament winning 3 times and together with Harold’s 2 points and Steven’s win the Hong Kong team won the U8 age category prize with a score of 10 to 6.

Well done all!

 

U8 Caissa Hong Kong CNY Youth Chess Match against Each Lake

 

Under 10

In this age category both James and Rachel had won all their 4 games and in their decisive 5 minutes blitz it was James who won to collect the top scorer prize.

 

U10 Group - All eyes on Ronald's board ...

U10 Group – All eyes on Ronald’s board …

 

Ronald and Miguel Angel’s score of 3 and 1.5 points respectively resulted in our very strong line-up to gross 12.5 points out of 16 and to win this age group prize.

 

U10 Caissa Hong Kong CNY Youth Chess Match against Each Lake

 

Under 12

Despite some late minute changes, and thank you Mike for stepping in at only half a day’s notice, our line up was complete with 4 good players with solid experience. However, the Guangzhou team had also brought in 4 of their best and today our boys just could not find the right rhythm.

 

U12 Group in action

U12 Group in action

 

The age group prize went to the Gangzhou team and the individual top scorer prize went to Zheng Jia Tong after he won a decisive blitz match against his team mate Zhu Qin Zhou who had also scored 4 wins.

 

U12 Caissa Hong Kong CNY Youth Chess Match against Each Lake

 

Under 14-16

The players in this age group remained very close the entire match and most of the wins were decided in the last minutes of the game, hence, the time control factor was significant.

 

U14-16 Group serious and focussed

U14-16 Group serious and focussed

Benjamin in Thought

Benjamin in Thought

 

Yee Chit with 3 points was our team’s top scorer. Raphael, probably the youngest in this age group, scored a solid 2 points and Benjamin won his last game solidly having avoided the time control pressure that in the previous games were a major factor in the outcome. Melvin, this time, couldn’t find a winning chance.

The age group prize went to Guangzhou as did the individual top scorer prize that went to Xie Tan who scored the full 4 points.

 

U14-16 Caissa Hong Kong CNY Youth Chess Match against Each Lake

 

Congratulations to our friends from East Lake Guangzhou and we look forward to the return match.

 

Guangzhou Happy Winners

Guangzhou Happy Winners

Hong Kong team U14-16 (left to right):  Raphael, Melvin, Benjamin and Yee Chit

Hong Kong team U14-16 (left to right): Raphael, Melvin, Benjamin and Yee Chit

Under 14-16 Age Group Winners Guangzhou Team

Under 14-16 Age Group Winners Guangzhou Team

U12 Team (left to right): Arjun, Oliver and Ernest (missing Mike)

U12 Team (left to right): Arjun, Oliver and Ernest (missing Mike)

U12 Age Group Winners Guangzhou Team

U12 Age Group Winners Guangzhou Team

Under 10 Age group Winners Hong Kong team (left to right): Miguel Angel (James, rachel and Ronald

Under 10 Age group Winners Hong Kong team (left to right): Miguel Angel, James, Rachel and Ronald

Under 10 Guangzhou Team

Under 10 Guangzhou Team

Under 8 Guangzhou Team

Under 8 Guangzhou Team

Winter Competition: Daniel Lam and Miguel Angel Garceran Wang Lead

February 14th, 2014

Adult Group

After 4 rounds in the Winter Competition we see that, despite a draw against David, Daniel has taken a solid lead. Next week, in the last round only James can in theory stop Daniel. It looks like potentially we can have 3 players end with 3.5 points and it will be exciting until the end.

Joseph played an attractive attacking game against the French set-up chosen by James. Joseph put constant pressure across his opened h-file as well as in the center according to the principle of attacking two weaknesses at the same time. However, James defended tediously and consuming almost all his time, but some 3 minutes, agreed to a draw with so little time when Joseph blundered a piece.

Hannah and David played a balanced game in which Hannah’s white rooks controlled the d-file but David’s black pawns had occupied attractive territory on the queen side where the white king had castled. Avoiding tactics of check mates in the middle of the board the game ended in a draw as well, which was, given the cold temperature in the venue, not a bad idea.

 

Round 4 Rank Adult Winter Competition 2014

 

Youth U12 Group

By defeating his sister Mei Jing, Miguel Angel tops the rank now after Ronald and Rachel drew against each other.

Jonathan with black counter-pinned Oliver’s pin such that after the dust of various exchanges was settled he was a piece up and could win the game. Regis won heavy material in the early stage of the game and did not make a mistake on the road to collecting his first point against Hugo.

 

standing after r4

Hong Kong Team Ready to meet Guangzhou Team at Caissa on Saturday

February 9th, 2014

Caissa Hong Kong - East Lake Guangzhou

 

In an earlier preview we announced the traditional-around-Chinese-New-Year match between Hong Kong youth and Guangzhou youth to take place on Saturday 15 February. We are glad to organize this at our Sheung Wan chess club location and we look forward to the match

The confirmed Hong Kong team is as follows:

Under 8 (after 1 January 2006)

  • Harold Kwong
  • Mei Jing Garceran Wang
  • Steven Chun Shing Kong
  • Aaditya Kadam

Under 10 (after 1 January 2004)

  • Miguel Angel Garceran Wang
  • James Kwong
  • Ronald Choy
  • Rachel Lu

Under 12 (after 1 January 2002)

  • Richard Takasumi
  • Pak Shing Ernest Cheung
  • Oliver Yau
  • Nathan Arjun

Under 14-16 (after 1 January 1998)

  • Raphael Chang
  • Benjamin Oh
  • Melvin Cheung
  • Yee Chit Wong

Good luck all!

Women World Champion GM Hou Yifan Visits Caissa – Play a Game against the World Champion!

February 7th, 2014
Women World Champion GM Hou Yifan

Women World Champion GM Hou Yifan

Thanks to the efforts of Mr. K.K. Chan it is a pleasure to announce that Women World Champion Grandmaster Hou Yifan will be visiting Hong Kong. Of course we at Caissa gladly cooperate with this initiative as it doesn’t happen often we get world class players in town. In fact, it might have happened only one time before in the last decades when Junior World Champion GM Alexander Ipatov visited us last year.

GM Hou Yifan broke some records by being the youngest China National Women Champion, youngest Women World Champion, youngest female Grandmaster and such.

Now is your chance to play a game against her, take a photo and get an autograph! GM Hou Yifan is holding simultane chess sessions at our venues in Discovery Bay and Sheung Wan. She will be playing against 20 players and you can be one of them if you hurry up: in Sheung Wan we have only 7 places left as of today.

Register today!

Chinese New Year Break Chess Clinic

February 5th, 2014

At our Sheung Wan location seven students invested 4 hours of their vacation, 2 hours on Monday and 2 hours on Tuesday, to participate in our holiday-break chess clinic.

We looked at various ideas behind openings (open, closed, semi-open/closed, flank) focusing on the French Advance variation; an instructive semi-open opening to become familiar with occupation of center space and attacking the center from the flank.

 

Talking about the Pin

Talking about the Pin

 

After a brief exploration of king pawn endgames and associated critical squares we further discussed some of the greatest chess players like Philidor and the World Champions Steinitz, Lasker and Carlson and what they brought to chess. In between each topic we played 5 minutes blitz chess.

 

cny clinic 2014 sheung wan 1

 

cny clinic 2014 sheung wan 2

 

After some exercises around the Pin we played a 10 minutes blitz team match of blind chess: Gauri, Mei Jing, Ray and Adrien in one corner of the room were only allowed to look at and move their own black pieces while Horatio, Ian and Miguel Angel in another corner of the room could only see and move their white pieces. They needed to cooperate as a team and two cheats were allowed … 20 moves later, after time was up for the black team, in a very equal position, the match was completed with all pieces on the board.

 

The graduates ... always in for a joke ...

The graduates … always in for a joke …

 

It was fun