CLICK HERE to view PHOTO ALBUM of the event

 

 

The weather today was dark, gloomy, windy, rainy – perfect for chess! However, because our Blitz Open Spring 2015 edition was in the weekend of the tail of the Easter holidays several regulars and others could not join. But the 29 players, including 5 visiting youth players from Shenzhen, managed to pull off a fine event, with some excellent chess in a friendly environment.

Over 9 rounds, adult players and youth players of the age categories U8, U10, U12 & U14 all played against one another, but competed for prizes in their own respective age categories.

Whereas in November last year we had IM Marcos Llaneza visit us to win the Rapid Open with 7 out of 7, we had this time another International Master participate, Caissa’s own trainer IM Matthew Tan!

 

 

Open (adult)

Zachary, Hiu Chun and Param were new faces in our tournament and the scores of 3.5 and 4 points were not bad at all in this strong field.

 

 

Melvin, who excelled in the recent inter-school, and Hannah Ball, first time back behind the boards after a while, scored 4.5 and 5 points respectively to end 13th and 12th. Both Aravind and Long, Caissa’s Open Winter Standard Chess Champion, scored 5.5 points and Billy with 6 points just fell out of the prize zone on 4th place, again … come on Billy, next time you’ll bring some some silverware!

Third place was for Daniel with 7 points and new-kid-on-the-block Tushar impressed by ending 2nd place with 7.5 points.

 

 

However, out of reach from any participants, we crown Matthew to our new Discovery Bay Blitz Champion with 9 wins in a row. Congrats Matt!

 

 

U14-U12

Gobind never truly got in his rhythm and Jay had some ups and downs, also with illegal moves, that resulted in somewhat deflated 3 points for him. Lucas scored a decent 4 points. Vincent also scored 4 points, after having missed the first 3 rounds (!), and got 3rd prize in this age category.

 

 

Zechao Luo from Shenzhen with 5 points ended 2nd and James Wing Ki, also with 5 points but a better tie-break, was crowned to Champion in this age group. Wing Ki has a lot of crowns already – way to go!

 

 

 

U10

Mei Jing had an off-day with just 3 points and also Pak, previous prize winner in this age category, had some troubles getting into highest gear, scoring 4 points. Harold Wing Shun and Kevin both scored 4.5 points but Kevin won 3rd prize on tie-break. Miguel Angel with 5 points ended 8th overall and 2nd in U10 but Teddy was, again, most impressive ending 6th overall and with 5.5 points the highest youth player and Champion of U10. We are proud of you Teddy! We will miss you when you leave to the UK later this month for several years boarding school. Good luck buddy!

 

 

 

 

U8

Zhenxi Chen from Shenzhen won 3rd prize and Caissa’s Ben, who started with 3 wins in a row, collected 2nd prize with a very good 4 points – well done Ben. Most impressive though was Shenzhen’s little girl Zhenai Huang who scored 5 points and became Champion in this age group.

 

 

 

Finally, today was also the day to hand out the prize to the Champion of the Winter standard chess cycle, Long You. Congratulations Long!