Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

GM Raymond Keene OBE Visits Caissa for Speech on Sochi and a Simul

November 20th, 2014

We have had the honor of some of the world’s chess best visiting our club already a couple of times. Women World Champion GM Hou Yifan held a simul earlier this year. Both Junior World Champion GM Alexander Ipatov and trainer GM Efstratios Grivas, Secretary of the FIDE Trainers Commission, visited us for simul and lectures as well. Another top trainer, GM Dimitri Komarov, visited us casually but unfortunately due to the visit of a Super Typhoon, there were very few left to meet him.

This time, on December 7, after our Blitz Tournament (you can still enrol!), GM Raymond Keene will be visiting us in Sheung Wan for a short speech on his view of the 2014 World Championship Match in Sochi between Anand and Carlsen – after which he will give a simul too.

 

Raymond Keene Visit Caissa on 7 December 2014

Raymond Keene Visit Caissa on 7 December 2014

 

GM Keene is a veteran in the chess world with an enormous track record.

As a player he was British Champion and European Gold Medalist and he represented his country in the Olympiads several years. Among his personal bests in chess displays, challenging multiple opponents at the same time, are the 107 simultaneous opponents at Oxford in 1973 where he won 101, drew 5 and lost one, and Leon, Mexico, 2013, defeating 17 opponents simultaneously without sight of the boards or pieces! Note that GM Keen is one of the co-founders of the World Memory Sports Council (HK Local branch is here: http://hongkongmemorysportscouncil.com/).

As an organizer he was involved in various world chess championships and as an author he has (co-)written many chess articles and over a hundred of chess books.

GM Keene will hand out the prizes of our Blitz tournament on 7 December and he will also hand out the prizes to the YGP1 prize winners.

Register now to to attend his speech and play a simul against him, starting from 5pm (finishing 7pm).

Great Results for Caissa Youth in QBS Junior Star Tournament

November 10th, 2014

Junior Chess Star CompetitionThe chesskids team tasked with organizing the 3rd Quarry Bay School Junior Chess Star Competition did a great job last Sunday.

In 2012 and in 2013 Caissa members had brought home Champion and other prizes and that set the bar high for this year’s group. But they were up to their task!

In this all ESF Schools event the Primary 1-4 years play in one group and the Primary 5-6 play in another group

Among Caissa members we had 14 participants:

  • P1-P4: Mei Jing (last year’s 2nd place), James G, Justin, Noah and Seth (Discovery College), Harold (Kowloon Junior) and Louis (Quarry Bay)
  • P5-P6: Miguel Angel (last year’s 1st in P1-P4) and Ashlin (Discovery College), Toby, Thomas and Howard (Quarry Bay) James K (last year 2nd, Kowloon Junior) and Jay (Bradbury).

P1-P4

Justin and Noah scored 3 points out of 6 games and ended 14th and 12th respectively. This was Noah’s first tournament and scoring 50% is an impressive result.

 

Noah ready behind his black pieces and Harold looks relaxed against Mei Jing in the back...

Noah ready behind his black pieces and Harold looks relaxed against Mei Jing on the next board …

 

Seth, Louis and James G scored 3.5 points ending on 9th, 10th and 11th place – unfortunately for James G he just ended outside of the prize range. Congrats to Louis and Seth with their medals. A fine result for both boys and very impressive of Seth who played his first tournament ever.

With 5 points Harold ended 2nd having lost only to Mei Jing who became Champion with 6 out of 6. Well done!

 

Prize Winners P1-4 Group

Prize Winners P1-4 Group

Mei Jing Champion P1-4: Girl Power!

Mei Jing Champion P1-4: Girl Power!

End Ranking P1-4

 

P5-P6

Jay had a tough day and did not get his engines started. Thomas started very well with 2 out of 3 but perhaps in the end fell the energy drain away and he found it difficult to get back into his winning streak of the morning.

 

Thomas with black against Rachel

Thomas with black against Rachel

Jay in action

Jay always in good mood!

 

Howard recovered well from his first round loss and ended 11th, just 1 place out of reach of prizes. Miguel Angel this year ended 5th and won a medal. Toby ended 3rd getting a trophy and James K with a score of 6 out of 6 claimed the title.

Good job all!

 

Prize Winners P5-6

Prize Winners P5-6

 

Unfortunately we do not have the end ranking with points of this group, but below is the ranking:

 

End Ranking P5-P6

End Ranking P5-P6

Rectification HK Junior Championship

November 5th, 2014

Rectification to the previous entry:

It came to some people’s attention that although there has not been an announcement on the HKCF site, another website, www.hkjuniorchess.org of Hong Kong Junior Chess Club (HKJCC), is open for registration of HK Junior Chess Championship 2014. The website uses its own logo and it does not mention HKCF.

When it comes to representing Hong Kong in FIDE tournaments based on the event, we note that there is a difference in the notes of 2014 flyer issued by HKJCC with the flyers of previous years issued by HKCF and HKJCC as below:

2014: “The HK Juniors Chess Club would support all winners to represent HK in the corresponding junior international events……”
2013: “All winners may have the priority to represent HK in the corresponding junior international events…….”

We asked Jackson Li, President of HKCF some questions, to please:

– 1: clarify the relevance, if any, of these differences for the players
– 2: explain what the relationship is between HKCF and HKJCC
– 3: in that context, confirm that HKCF is the only organisation which can nominate both junior and adult players to represent HK in the FIDE tournaments organised by FIDE and the Federations of other countries

In response we learned that historically the HKJCC Championship was founded by Ms. Ho and only later run under the HKCF support. This year Ms. Ho decided to go on her own and that’s why that event no longer has HKCF endorsement.

Answers to the concrete questions were as follows:

-1: Previously, winners had priority to represent HK and now not.
-2: The relationship between HKCF and HKJCC is just like HKCF and Caissa; while HKCF respects the efforts of various clubs in promoting chess, HKCF do not have any preferential terms over one and another.
-3: HKCF is still the only organisation that can nominate both Junior and adult players for FIDE events.

We are making a fuzz out of this because:
1) there is a strong impression among public that this is an official qualifying tournament – which it is not, it is not even endorsed by HKCF;

 

Information on Ms. Ho's website gives the idea there is an official status to HKJCC tournaments

Information on Ms. Ho’s website gives the idea there is an official status to HKJCC tournaments

 

2) because of this impression some events had been cancelled, like the HK-Macao Interport because of the wrong reasons – trying not to clash calendars. In that sense the late notice of all HKJCC organized tournaments is disturbing – but now less so as these tournaments are not any more official than e.g., the upcoming Quarry Bay School Junior Star (9 Nov) event, the Active Kids Novice (16 Nov) tournament or Caissa Rapid and Blitz tournaments (29 Nov and 7 Dec).
3) Ms. Ho is the HKCF Juniors coordinator and we find this set-up a serious breach around managing conflict of interests.

Whereas in our previous entry we recommended U13 and U17 to join the HKJCC tournament we take back this recommendation and invite players of that age group to freely choose between HKJCC or DB Rapid on 29 November as both are not officially FIDE qualifying events without any official status, however, the DB rapid is a Youth Grand Prix qualifing tournament for U14 to get a fully sponsored trip to a prestigious international tournament. Don’t miss it out!

Macao Chess Federation 2015 Chess Calendar

November 3rd, 2014
Macao Historic Center

Macao Historic Center

 

As any proper Federation the Macao Chess Federation has planned their 2015 activities well ahead and shared this with us.

Hong Kong adults and youth can play in any of these tournaments, however, to represent Macao in an international event requires a Macao ID. Fair enough, of course. For Hong Kong youth (and adults) and Macao players it is in itself already a good experience to play against different opponents.

Registration is on the spot around 2.30pm and play starts around 3pm. If you are interested to join any of these events let us know or go straight to the City of Dreams to register.

The Interport between Hong Kong and Macao (planned in November but cancelled because the Hong Kong Chess Federation still hasn’t announced when it will hold the Hong Kong Youth Championship in November) is going to be rescheduled to beginning 2015.

Hopefully the Hong Kong Chess Federation will also produce a calendar for 2015 so we can work around their planned events efficiently.

Joseph Wins Autumn Open, Henry 2nd and James 3rd

November 1st, 2014

The last round of the Autumn Open 2014 last Friday evening turned out to be a roller coaster ride as was the case with the YGP: until the last minute it was not clear who would win which prize.

 

At the start of Round 7 everything was still possible on the top boards - Henry having a bird's eye perspective of his game against Koji

At the start of Round 7 everything was still possible on the top boards – Henry having a bird’s eye perspective of his game against Koji

 

At the start of round 7 Joseph led the tournament with 5.5 points out of 6, having played a draw only to James, and he seemed to be cruising towards an undisputed title. However, in the last round the not-so-rusty-anymore Long turned out to be strong enough by now to win an endgame of double rooks and pawns in an impressive manner – very precise play.

James, who had 4 points at the start of round 7 played a solid game with black against Melvin. Instead of trying to create counter play Melvin mostly reacted to James’s threats which helped James controlling the game and finally promote a pawn decisively. James now had 5 points.

Henry, who already had 5 points at the start of round 7, was kept under pressure with black by Koji (4 points at the start of round 7) who had a dominating knight controlling the middle of the board, unopposed by Henry’s enclosed bad bishop. Koji’s win secured Joseph his title and among Henry, James and Koji with 5 points it were Henry and James who ended 2nd and 3rd on tie-break and Koji just out of the prize zone.

On the other boards Hannah and David won against Toby and Ray respectively.

Congratulations to Joseph, Henry and James for their top 3 position and to all other players for upholding a very good atmosphere and some fine play throughout the event. Especially also a big applause for the youth players Toby, Ray, Melvin, Richard and Miguel Angel who dared to challenge the adults.

 

Prize Winners James, Joseph and Henry with trophies and envelopes!

Prize Winners James, Joseph and Henry –  well done gentlemen!

 

Final Ranking Cross Table Caissa Autumn Open 2014

Final Ranking Cross Table Caissa Autumn Open 2014