Last Saturday, 6 players and 2 supporters from Caissa crossed the border into Shenzhen early in the morning. The first round started at 9am and a total of 5 rounds were played until 5pm. With 2 more rounds on Sunday this was an action packed chess weekend.

The location of the event was a very nice school, and the hotel right around the corner was excellent, but also somewhat out of the way of residential facilities and it took quite a while to get a taxi to take us to Coco Park where some of our Shenzhen friends play outdoor chess and where we would have dinner.

 

 

 

Nonetheless, over 2 days Mei Jing took the tournament seriously and scored 6 out of 7 ending second overall in group C among 120 players, also winning the first prize in the Girls category. Bravo Mei Jing!

 

 

In the highest youth group Richard and Miguel Angel defended our honour with all they had. Miguel Angel had a glitch halfway the event and it was Richie who stayed on top of the pack until the last round, when he lost. Both Richard and Miguel Angel ended with 5.5 out of 7 within the prize range, 3rd and 7th respectively. Well done boys!

 

 

In the Open Group, with a handful adults, including 2400+ rated International Master Li Bo who ended 6th in the recent HK International Open, and dozens of strong youth players, Koji and Joseph started off with a loss. Koji could not really find his rythm but Joseph, the player in form in our Autumn Open, recovered well and towards the end of the tournament with 5 out of 7 ended on 9th place. David started off very well with 3 out of 3 but lost 2 consecutive games after that, in an unnecessary fashion. His recovery on the second day with 2 wins pushed him up to 7th place with 5 points, like Joseph, and within prize range.

 

 

This was a very nice event, with hundreds of young players, well disciplined and clearly enjoying their weekend behind their board and pieces. What else can you ask as organizer. Well done Huateng Chess Club.