Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

Round 3 Spring Open Results and Pairing Round 4

May 20th, 2015

Last Friday Henry put up a great opening and middle game fight against Matthew but had to accept a loss when in the later part of the game he did not really blunder but also did not always played the best moves. Enough for an IM to crunch out a win…

Melvin, on a fast track of continuous improvements, drew against former champion Long and might not have gotten himself enough after a strong recovery of an early pawn loss.

Newly joined Ray played well and sensibly against Conrad but had to concede a loss after an inaccurate exchange.

Coming Friday in round 4 all players will be in town and it is up to Long to stop Matthew!

Bryant and Seth in Race for DB Saturday Club Championship

May 19th, 2015

After 48 rounds into the Caissa Discovery Bay internal competition Bryant kept his first position by defeating Seth in round 47 in an endgame that was a winning position for Seth who chose to run with the wrong pawn.

Bryant (white) vs. Seth

Because Suneh beat Jay in round 47 he climbed to 2nd position but in round 48 it was the same Bryant who stopped Seth earlier who beat Suneh and because Seth won against Chor Wei in round 48 he is back in 2nd position.

Noteworthy is also the impressive sprint of Vincent who just recently joined but by defeating high ranked players has climbed up to 15th place only after 8 games.

Ranking after round 48 (Punten = points, WA = value, Gsp = played, Gw = win, Rm = draws, Vl = lost)

World School Chess Ends – One World Champion and one 3rd Place!

May 14th, 2015

On the site of the Hong Kong Chess Federation you can find a short entry on the end results of the World School Chess Championship 2015 in Pattaya. Playing under HKCF flag, Bao Jin Wen became World Champion U7 and Michael Deng ended 3rd pace in U9.

Michael Deng with Proud Mom

U7 World Champion Bao Ji Wen with Proud Family

This is probably the best performance ever for Hong Kong. As commented on the HKCF web site, these chess results are indeed remarkably good, however, what was at least as big a win was to see our Hong Kong children bond towards a team. Elephant riding, go-karting, water polo and by and large taking joint meals was the energizing glue between the heavy chess program at World Championship level, aka, playing 4 to 6 hours of serious chess competition per day, especially on the days of double rounds.

Scoring Table Hong Kong Players

The tournament over 9 rounds was run very smoothly in an amicable atmosphere. Everything started and ended in time and there were no incidents that affected the mood of players negatively.

After the children were in the playing hall, the nerves of (grand)fathers and coaches were tested ...

After the children were in the playing hall, the nerves of (grand)fathers, offcials and coaches were tested …

Our U9 Caissa girls Mei Jing and Anika scored 4.5 and 4 points respectively – a good score and the baseline for what is to come.

Anika Showing other Talents on Social Nite

Anika Showing some of her other talents on Social Nite

Also our Caissa boys Alan Pang Bo, Aaditya, Harold, James, Miguel Angel, Oliver and Richard were nothing short of their peers with scores ranging from 3 to 4.5 points. Also here, this is the baseline to improve from in the future.

U11 Huang Ho Pang and U15 Benjamin with 5 and 4 points respectively can also look back at a fine tournament.

Only rarely a computer game came out – here the “leak” was with Miguel Angel and Oliver…

Aaditya Mom Pep-talking

Pep-talk for Harold

Oliver’s Grandma Pep-talk

Pep-talk for Miguel Angel

Lucky Richie – no pep-talk but quickly going through some lines with dad before start of the game …

James and Harold meet the new U7 World Champion Bao Jin Wen

James and Harold congratulate the new U7 World Champion Bao Jin Wen

Having Fun Playing against the New World Champion U7

Thank you all fathers, mothers, grandmoms/dads and Caissa’s coach Matthew and Active Kids’ coach Marcos for having contributed in making this event a success by any standard.

Also good job to Alberto Muniz, who was Hong Kong’s section International Arbiter in the girls section.

In this event Hong Kong made a difference. More to come …

Pairing Round 3 Spring Competition and YGP3

May 14th, 2015

With many of our top youth playing in the World School Chess we had to postpone one round of both the YGP3 Cycle on Sunday and Spring Cycle on Friday evening as well as Saturday competition in Discovery Bay and all lessons of last weekend.

But we will be back and below the pairing of round 3 of both the Spring Open on Friday, with still various BYEs due to late traveling in from Thailand of a handful of players, and the YGP3 on Sunday which should be full house!

Pairing Round 3

Status after 6 rounds World School Chess Championship

May 11th, 2015

Today was a rest day, that is, from 3.30pm a voluntary blitz tournament would be organized as a side activity. The morning would thus require no preparation today, so what better to do than going for … elephant riding! So there we went with 22 of us.

Elephant Riding. Left: Oliver, with Huang Ho and Huang Ho’s Mom. Right: Anika and Dad with Meijing

James and Harold with their Dad

After elephant riding, dehydrated and all, some water polo in the swimming pool offered an excellent way to cool down. James, Harold, Miguel Angel and Richard were the team that took on Matthew, Oliver, Anika, Meijing, Aaditya and Alan. With two versions going around not sure who won …

Water Polo to Cool Down

After all the fun, tomorrow morning will be the start of a serious day again with preparation from 10.15am to push ourselves up the ranking. Note, by the way, the impressive score of U7 Bao Jin Wen of 5.5 out of 6!

World School 2015 in Pattaya after 3 Rounds

May 9th, 2015

As mentioned on the HKCF web site the World School Chess in Pattaya is 3 rounds into the event.

With 14 players and about at least as many supporting and accompanying persons and two top trainers, IM Matthew Tan and IM Marcos Lleneza, we are the largest HK delegation for as long as most can remember.

The hotel is of nice quality, the food comparatively weak, but the chess playing hall is excellent with enough space for the players, high ceiling and no parents allowed whatsoever … what a relief to children, trainers and officials! Per federation only 1 person at a tine can access the playing hall to have a look from the side line and so far all is going smooth.

Day 1: the HK Delegation gets briefed by Caissa and HKCF President David

HK getting seated for the opening ceremony (notice the Caissa flag?!)

Alan in Thinking Pose before Start of Round 1

Anika before Round 1

Our Caissa flagship-kids after round 3 are Anika and Richard with 2 points – below the full list:

G9 Anika: 2
O13 Richard: 2
O9 Aaditya: 1.5
O7 Alan: 1
G9 Mei Jing: 1
O9 Harold: 1
O11 James: 1
O11 Miguel Angel: 1
O13 Oliver: 1

The points truly do not reflect the playing strength as some of our players simply gave away very good to winning positions and we will try to tighten this in coming days.

Analysis after Round 1

Marcos and Matthew both in full Analysis gear with their pupils

Marcos and Matthew both into Full Analysis with Their Pupils after Round 2

Of course we also follow and support our non-Caissa players, we are here as one HK team, and some are doing very well so far:

O7 Bao Jin Wen: 2.5
O9 Michael: 2.5
O11 Huang Ho Pang: 2.5
O15 Benjamin: 2
G15 Katrina: 1 (Katrina will not play from round 4)

Despite being in the country of excellent food, the meals are not the greatest assets of this tournament and after round 3 we decided with a group of 17 Hong Kong players/supporters/trainers to venture into the city …

17 of us in Tuk Tuk

Nice and Easy Dinner at Food Court in Mall

Entertainment in Mall

Pathena Netherlands vs. Caissa Hong Kong Internet Match Decided in “extra time”

May 4th, 2015

VIEW THE FULL ALBUM HERE

Our Caissa Hong Kong Kids (left to right): James, Aaditya, Alan, Anika, Mei Jing, Richard, Miguel Angel and Harold

Sunday 3 May, in preparation of the World School Championship in Pattaya, Thailand, starting later this week, we had organized a practice internet match against the top youth of the Netherlands in the U9-U11 age group.

As mentioned earlier, through our Dutch Partners we were provided with Playchess.com accounts and as a first ever for Hong Kong chess our 8 kids played against a team of their age peers over 9,000KM away.

The Dutch team comprised of following players:

1. Tommy Tran
2. Liqin Lu
3. Javeria Komal Zubair
4. Circe Janse
5. Saad Komal Zubair
6. Kimmily Tran
7. Jesse van Dongen
8. Yisha Chen

Pathena Dutch Team

Alan and Anika having fun warming up before the match

Richard and Harold right before the Match: Jokes on the Chat …

The pairing was based on two rounds: in round one board 1 of HK played against board 1 of Holland, board 2 against board 2 and so on. In round two, board 1 of HK played against board 2 of Holland, and board 2 of HK against board 1 of Holland, board 3 against board 4 etc.

The scores of our team members were (R1, R2):

1. James (0,1)
2. Miguel Angel (1, 1/2)
3. Richard (1, 1/2)
4. Aaditya (0, 0)
5. Alan (1, 1)
6. Harold (0, 0)
7. Mei Jing (0, 1)
8. Anika (1, 0)

Both round 1 and 2 thus ended in 4-4!

Analysis by parents and grandparents …

Mei Jing in Deep Thought

It was suggested by the Dutch team to play a decisive blitz and we do not walk away from a challenge, of course not …

The Decisive Blitz Round: our Top 4 Boards

However, whereas in regular time we might have gotten somewhat too little from the 4-4 results, especially in round 2, our Dutch opponents were clearly the better blitzers. The maximum we could get out of this decisive round was 2.5 points: James and Anika won their games and Miguel Angel drew. Nonetheless, a big applause to all our players who gave it their all during this long and memorable day.

Congratulations to the Pathena Holland team. Well done! We are looking forward to a rematch though!

Special thanks to our Dutch partners Pathena Chess and Delemare Chess Academy for having coordinated the Playchess.com internet logistics and for having provided through the Royal Dutch Chess Federation Playchess.com accounts for our kids who can still use these for a year for free – and we will practice online blitz! Also thanks to Matthew for his coordination here on the ground with the Dutch.

Final thanks to all our Caissa kid parents for helping to bring in laptops and staying positively involved until the end.