Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

Caissa Players active in HKCF Spring Competition

April 30th, 2015

Six rounds have been played in the HKCF organized Spring competition and closing in towards the 9th round we have a look at what is going on.

First, applause for U12 Rachel who leads the pack with 5 points. The highest ranked Caissa player at the moment is David, on 2nd place with 5 points as well, and he will meet Joe, also with 5 points, next week. Should be an interesting game.

Youngest Caissa kid U7 Alan (Pang Bo) is doing very well with 3 points already. Good luck against Mason next Monday!

Aaditya was too late to play in the competition but visits each Monday: here practicing with his Caissa buddy Alan

Aaditya was too late with registration to play in the competition but he visits each Monday … here practicing with his Caissa buddy Alan

Caissa boys U10 Miguel Angel and U12 Oliver, both with 2.5 points, unfortunately will play against each other next Monday but that should actually be a good match, also in preparation for the World School Chess the week thereafter.

Caissa girl U9 Anika, with 1.5 points, is playing better chess than the results show at the moment and the break through to a series of wins is about to happen – even better so if that would start in Pattaya at the World School!

U10 Andy, who also plays in the YGP3, is having an excellent performance with 4 points. U12 Ronald, who skipped YGP3 but won a prize in previous YGP2, is also doing well with 3 points.

Henry and Conrad both play on Fridays in the Caissa Spring tournament. Whereas Conrad is gradually collecting a few points, Henry still needs to start his turbo boosters to get out of the bottom zone – where he doesn’t belong. Come on Henry!

Spring Open and YGP3 Round 2 Results

April 29th, 2015

Last Friday Alberto played with white against Matthew but got entangled enough to lose in what turned out to be Matthew’s pet French line. Long with white beat Koji and David with white got the initiative against Conrad’s pawn sacrificing Budapest gambit when Conrad did not punish David’s dubious early a3 pawn move.

There will be no chess this coming Friday 1 May and the pairing will be done the Wednesday before the next game.

Caissa Spring Open 2015 Cross-Table after Round 2

In the YGP 2nd round last Sunday, the clash of the titans between Miguel Angel and James Wing Ki ended in a win for James who simply got too much activity from his two pieces against Miguel’s rook.

Another noteworthy game was between Oliver and Anika – a rook (Oliver) against 2 bishop end game which lasted well over 3 hours to end in a draw. A record for our club!

In the below cross-table you can find all other results.

Also note here, there will be no round 3, as per schedule, on Sunday 3 May and pairing will be done on Wednesday before the Sunday match.

Caissa YGP 3 Spring 2015 Cross-Table after R2

Caissa Youth in Final Preparation for the World School Chess Championship: Pizza

April 27th, 2015

In the upcoming youth internet match against The Netherlands on Sunday, May 3 we will play two rounds against eight top youth players on the other side of the world – let’s get in the mood for the upcoming World School Championship!

Our eight Caissa players are: Richard, James, Miguel Angel, Harold, Mei Jing, Anika, Aaditya, and Alan (in order of age, more or less). Each player will play one game with black and one with white.

Practice for World School in the weekend - with parents supporting

Caissa Kids Practice for World School in the weekends – with parents supporting

Aaditya looks around while Anika studies the position from higher altitude. In the back Richard watches his dad Koji play against Miguel Angel

Aaditya looks around while Anika studies the position from higher altitude. In the back Richard lunches and watches his dad, Koji, play against Miguel Angel

We will primarily play for honor and glory but we are also trying to arrange a nice prize for the players of the winning team.

Through our Dutch partners, Pathena Chess and Delemare Chess Academy, internet accounts via the Royal Dutch Chess Federation will be arranged on Playchess.com.

After each round we will get together to briefly discuss the games as to also create a valuable learning experience.

Time: 15.00 – 19.00
- Pizza lunch: 15:00-16:00 (that should motivate!)
– Round 1: 16.15 – 17.00
– Discussion of games and break
– Round 2: 17.45 – 18.30
– Discussion of games and conclusion

Playing time: 20 minutes per person + 5 sec increment per move

We will be trying to stream the match live on our Caissa YouTube channel – stay tuned!

Spring YGP3 Round 1 Results and Pairing

April 23rd, 2015

In the Spring Cycle events the Youth Grand Prix 3 started last Sunday with. The addition of a few new faces of upcoming talents mixed with some of the more familiar faces will surely make this 3rd and last YGP Standard chess event a worthy conclusion.

Familiar and New Faces behind the Boards

Cross Tabel after R 1 Spring 2015 Caissa Hk

Cross Table after Round 1

After round 1 not so much can be concluded yet. On the other hand, for round 2 we already have a clash of previous YGP champions in their age groups: Miguel Angel with white against James with black. We look forward to it!

Below the rest of the pairing.

Spring Cycle Standard Chess Events Started

April 23rd, 2015

Last Friday the first round of the Spring Open on Friday evenings started with a possibly strongest field ever with top player Alberto Muniz and IM Matthew Tan participating too (Matthew will play but not for the prizes).

It is a great opportunity if you can play a Standard time control chess game against a Master in Hong Kong, there are less than a handful active, and the honor for round 1 was David’s. Matthew with white handled David’s Philidor with an interesting c3 set-up to create a strong center and in the end game Matthew stayed precise enough to win.

Alberto’s Sicilian against Koji with white seemed on the surface a trade of many pieces but the few pieces and pawns left after the trades were better positioned for black and for Alberto to score a full point.

Conrad with white sacrificed a few pawns in the first move against Long and managed to get so much play that despite the material imbalance the game went into draw mode by 3 times repetition of the same position.

Henry with white could win a full point against Melvin after Henry’s far advanced center pawn proved to be worth more than the pawns Melvin went for on the queen side.

An exciting first round!

Cross Table after Round 1

Pairing Round 2

Caissa Starts Preparing HK Youth who Participate in the FIDE World School Championship

April 20th, 2015

World School Championship 2015 - Pattaya Thailand

The official site of the FIDE World School Chess Championship 2015 is up and running and the start of this mega chess event is only some two weeks away.

In an earlier post we listed the players who are going to represent Hong Kong in this event and we are glad to see we have another Caissa student join, Aaditya Kadam, former U7 Hong Kong National Champion.

What will we be / are we doing in preparation?

All our Caissa kids have already started with extensive training with our coach IM Matthew Tan and rest assure that our friends who do not train with Caissa have also been sitting around the board already, training with their coach IM Marcos Llaneza.

Both coaches Matthew and Marcos will join the players in Pattaya to support them also on the spot.

IM Matthew Tan training the Caissa Girls Anika and Mei Jing

As for Caissa, our training is done in groups of 2, max 3, players. Richard with Miguel Angel, Anika with Mei Jing, Aaditya with Alan, Miguel Angel also with Aaditya and so on. Each session is 90 minutes and covers all aspects of chess. With 1.5-4.5 hours training per week, complemented with 1-2 weekly games of Standard chess, the players have already invested a lot of their precious time into the preparation in the past weeks. Applause!

On Saturday May 2 (still tentative) we intend to hold a parent information evening, not only for Caissa student parents but all HK players parents are welcome, to prepare both players and accompanying persons on what to expect, daily routines, when to analyze games, social activities, joint meal taking etc.

On Sunday May 3 we will have a practice inter-land chess match via internet playchess.com against top youth from Holland (playing at European Championship at that time). From 4pm-8pm eight of our players divided in 2 teams of 4 players will play a round robin of 4 rounds against their Dutch opponents and after each round the individual games will be analyzed in the group with Matthew.

Our 8 players from Caissa students/members are:

Richard
James
Miguel Angel
Aaditya
Mei Jing
Anika
Harold
Alan

We will stream the event on Youtube for anyone to watch!

Finally, within 1-2 weeks before departure (exact time still to be scheduled) we will have a 2x 2 hours training and preparation with all Caissa students together, for bonding and team spirit. Individual tailored players report will be created by Matthew to enhance strengths and avoid weaknesses at the event.

We are getting ready …

Ritvik, Ben and Samuel Successful in AK Novice Tournament

April 13th, 2015

We congratulate our students who played in last Sunday’s Active Kids Novice tournament.

Wendy in the 11+ age category scored 3 points and ended 6th; however, places 2-4 were not that far with 4 points and Wendy would have gotten 2nd prize if she would have won her last game. Next time Wendy!

In the 9-10 age category Samuel played a very good tournament. He stayed calm, even under high pressure of the last decisive game, which he had to win to receive a prize. And he did. Towards an end game with both sides promoting pawns Samuel kept his cool which resulted in 3rd prize – his first silverware. Well done Samuel!

AK Novice Tournament 9-10 years End Ranking

AK Novice Tournament 9-10 Age Category

Samuel poses with IM Marcos Llaneza

In the age category 7-8 years Andrew ended 6th place, like his sister Wendy in 11+, and with 3.5 points he was very, very close to a prize too.

However, the spotlight of this age category went this time fully to Caissa’s young and upcoming talents. Ben, who had the previous day already won a prize in Caissa’s Open spring blitz, was hungry enough to again collect a prize and ended 2nd with 4.5 points.

Ritvik, always in for a few jokes, is quickly growing into a solid, calm and serious player when behind the board, and that reflected in the excellent result of 5 points and the Champion Prize to remember this great achievement for many years to come.

Well done to our boys who won the prizes but also to our students who didn’t – yet! Keep on training and playing and your time will surely come.

AK Novice Tournament 7-8 Age Category

Ritvik and Samuel – deservedly proud and happy!

Caissa’s IM Matthew Tan Wins Discovery Bay Spring Open Blitz

April 11th, 2015

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!

Daniel Lam (nick-named the man who never left any Caissa tournament without a prize) with white against IM Matthew Tan

IM Matthew Tan in actions with black against Daniel Lam (the man who never left any Caissa tournament without a prize!)

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.

Param's game observed by his sons Gobind and Arjun

Param’s game against Ben observed by his sons Gobind and Arjun

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.

Tushar Anand – the surprise of the tournament?

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!

IM Matthew Tan received Champions Trophy from National Arbiter and Caissa President David Garceran Nieuwenburg

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.

Melvin (black) vs. Zhechao Luo

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!

Vincent started in round 4 and despite 3 games less he managed to get 3rd prize in U12-14!

James Wing Ki Kwong Champion U12-14 receives prize from Matthew

James Wing Ki Kwong Champion U12-14 receives Champion prize from Matthew

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!

Kevin wins 3rd Prize in U10

Teddy, Champion U10, with proud mom

Kevin, Lucas, Jay and Teddy enjoy 4 person chess during lunch

Kevin, Lucas, Jay and Teddy enjoy snacks and 4 person chess during break

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.

Ben about to score his 3rd straight win against Hannah…

Zhenai Huang with black became Champion U8 playing against Ben Han who ended 2nd in U8

Zhenai Huang Champion U8

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

Long receives his Champion Prize of the Winter Competition

Long hands out 2nd Prize of the Winter competition to Miguel Angel – good job Miguel!

Last Chance to Register for 11 April Blitz

April 9th, 2015

Caissa and Discovery College continue to collect Prizes

April 2nd, 2015

March was a good month for youth chess in Hong Kong. First of all we played out the Caissa Winter YGP with our Teddy emerging as champion.

A week later we had a dozen of our players participate in the Aktive Kids event bringing home personal and school trophies.

The week thereafter, on March 22, our kids again booked success, for school and personal, in the HKCF official inter-school event.

On 28-29 March it was HK Chess Juniors’ turn to hold an inter-school event and it went smooth. Compared to the official HKCF tournament a week earlier the venue was very crowded and too many parents within ‘intervening’ distance but the advantage was that the location offered outdoor areas where children in between their rounds could play.

Coach Matthew making sure the team is ready – and they were!

Discovery College participated with one team in Lower Primary and these Caissa pupils showed great spirit.

James on board 1 faced tough opponents and scored a good 3 points. On board 2 Seth, after a small dip after round 1, won a few in a row and ended with 4 points. Nathan on board 4 was less distracted now by the clocks and also scored 4 points, very good for a P1 student. Noah on board 3 was in top form and scored the full 7 out of 7 – and like last week collected a personal prize, but this time the top scorer prize!

James (back), Seth (standing) and Nathan and Noah analysing during the breaks

Noah, Nathan, James and Seth celebrate with Matthew

Proud coach Michel with happy Nathan and Noah

The team ended 5th out of 22 teams and that is a great result – well done DC team!

But Caissa also has students who do not go to Discovery College. In the Lower Primary Ritvik ended 7th with his Swiss German team and with 5.5 points got a personal prize: 3rd prize topscorer board 1. Nice!

Jake, who just started 3 weeks ago as Caissa student from scratch played on board 2 of the Hong Kong International C in his 1st tournament and for him this tournament was about getting experience only.

Caissa’s players in the Upper Primary were also active. Caissa student Howard played a great tournament and in his Quarry Bay School team B got 2nd top scorer prize on board 1 with 6.5 points. Impressive!

On board 2, Caissa member Toby Mak in the Quarry Bay School A Team, scored 6 points and got 2nd Prize Topscorer board 2 and 2nd prize for the team. Anika from Swiss German team A scored 5 points on board 2 – and with some more luck would have had a full point more.

Finally, in the Secondary we are very proud of Melvin Cheung who got shared 1st prize topscorer on board 1 of HK International Team A with 6 points. That is by any standard an impressive score. Congrats Melvin.

Melvin with 6 points on board 1 wins 2nd Prize

Melvin with 6 points on board 1 wins and wears 2nd Prize medal