Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

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

Discovery College Youth win Prizes again in HKCF Inter-School

March 25th, 2015

With 4 teams from Discovery College, all Caissa players and students of course!, we set out Sunday morning on 22 March to participate in the HKCF national inter-school event of this year. Unfortunately due to late cancellations we ended up one player short.

The DC Secondary team, with only first year secondary students, had to face very strong and older opponents – but despite this Richard on board 1 and Carlo on board 4 impressed by scoring 5 and 4.5 points respectively. Bryant on board 2, who in several games started off well but then could not convert his better position into a win, scored 1.5 points and Samira on board 3 also scored 1.5 points.

2015interschoolDCsecondary

The DC Upper Primary Team B was the team with only 3 players and of course that hits the motivation. In the last few rounds the team got more settled and started to collect some points. Due to inexperience some games with clear winning advantage were unfortunately not converted into wins but hopefully our kids will see this as a motivation to increase experience and play more often.

2015interschoolDCprimaryteamb

The DC Upper Primary Team A has become a serious title contender already for some years. Also this year we see impressive scores from Miguel Angel on board 1, Mei Jing on board 2 and Chor Wei on board 3 with 5.5, 6 and 5 points respectively. Koza, although starting well, let go a bit in the end but together with the point he scored this team ended on the 4th place and all players received a medal.

Furthermore Miguel Angel received a 3rd Prize medal for 1st board player and Mei Jing collected 2nd Prize for 2nd board player and the 1st Prize for best girl. Way to go Mei Jing!

Mei Jing showing off her 3 medals

The DC Lower Primary Team, Disco Knights, impressed a lot. James on board 1 played calmly and scored a good 4 points on board 1. Noah was especially in form and with 5 points he received 3rd Prize medal for board 2. Well done Noah – your first prize is in – surely more to come!

DC Disco Knights pep-talked by coach Michel

Kian on board 3 played very well but was unlucky at times and with a good score of 4 points remained just out of the prize zone. Nathan, in his 2nd tournament, but first one with a clock from the beginning, kept an eye too many on the clock. However, a memorable game he played check mating his opponent on the back rank with 2 bishops. Nathan is an upcoming talent and we will see more from him.

Disco Knights before Action

Disco Knights in Action

The team ended 5th place. Well done boys!

2015interschoolDClowerprimary

Seven Caissa Players in Hong Kong Delegation to World School Chess Championship 2015 in Pattaya

March 20th, 2015

The FIDE World School Chess Championship in 2015 will take place in Pattaya, Thailand, from 6-15 May. It is truly great to see that HKCF leapfrogged in terms of supporting so many Hong Kong players to attend the event.

A group of 13 of our top youth players, accompanied by 16 persons, shall defend our honor. These heroes (and we are very proud to have seven Caissa kids among them!) are:

Benjamin Oh U15
Katrina Lee G15
Oliver Yau U13 (Caissa Member)
Richard Takasumi U13 (Caissa Member and Student)
James Kwong U11 (Caissa Member)
Miguel Angel Garceran Wang U11 (Caissa Member and Student)
Huang Ho Pang U11
Mei Jing Garceran Wang G9 (Caissa Member and Student)
Deng, Yu Dong Michael U9
Harold Kwong U9 (Caissa Member)
Anika Roy G9 (Caissa Student)
Alan, Pang Bo U7 (Caissa Student)
Bao, Jinwen U7

We will be updating regularly.

Dusit Thani Pattaya World School Chess Championship 2015 – what a terrible place to go to :)

Active Kids Tournament – Caissa Pupils bring back home Personal and School Prizes to Discovery Bay

March 17th, 2015

REPORT by Caissa coach IM Matthew Tan

On the 15th of March Active Kids held a chess tournament at the ISF. The tournament consisted of 6 rounds of 50 minutes. I personally, was first of all curious about how our students would perform, but also interested in how things were organized here in Hong Kong. And what an experience it was!

Analysis Corner Caissa with coaches Michel watching and Matthew overlooking Seth and Noah’s analysis – and Pang Bo paying attention

Caissa was represented by no less than 9 players, spread out in all three categories. In the youngest section, Under 6, we had Nathan defending the Caissa honor. Nathan, who has yet to turn 6 and start his lessons, showed no signs of nervousness at his first tournament! After a lucky escape in the first round, he managed to win 3 games in a row and finish on 4 points. This was enough to claim the first prize U5, a trophy almost twice the size of his own head!

Nathan with his well deserved cup with proud coach Michel

Coaches Michel and Matthew standing with Ben where fellow Caissa pupils Mei Jing, Miguel Angel (back) and Ritvik are seated and ready!

With most of our kids playing in the primary section, we were hoping on some successes here as well. Noah had a tournament with ups and downs. Losses were followed by quick wins and after drawing with Seth in the last round he finished with 2.5 points. Seth had a completely different tournament. He started of really well, had to face some of the strongest players of the group which set him back a bit. In the end the 2.5 points we’re quite a decent result.

Ben’s tournament likely felt somewhat disappointing to him. He played really good games, but because of his lack of experience he sometimes couldn’t deliver the killing blow. He ended up at 2 points, but we’re sure he’ll do way better next tournament.

Ritvik and Kevin played more or less the same kind of tournament. Starting off really well, losing against a stronger player, getting back to the topboards again but eventually getting knocked down again. They both finished at a very reasonable 3 points and with a little more luck they can definitely contest for the prizes next time.

The only two left in this section were Miguel Angel and Mei Jing. Both managed to win their first 4(!) games. In the penultimate round they also got good positions, but when the clock arrived (after 30 minutes) they couldn’t control their nerves and eventually lost.

In the final round Miguel Angel drew his game which secured him the first place U10. Mei Jing lost, again after the clock arrived, but was the awarded the best female player prize nevertheless.

Mei Jing best girl Primary

Miguel Angel Best U10

Also because of the strong individual performances, the Discovery College school (Miguel Angel, Mei Jing, Seth and Noah) finished third place in this section.

Discovery College Players with 3rd Prize for the school (left to right): Miguel Angel, Noah, Mei Jing, Seth and Nathan

Finally, in the secondary section we had Richard playing for the top places. A win in the final round would’ve gotten him a shared first place, but despite his loss he ended 4th in the Secondary section.

All in all, as a coach I was really happy with the fighting spirit shown by all of the players. Even after a disappointing game, they would patch themselves up and give even more in the next game. I can only imagine what more there is to come!

(All results here: U6, Primary, Secondary)

Teddy Wins Winter YGP2

March 12th, 2015

By defeating Marco, Teddy became the winner of U10 and the Champion of the YGP2 with 5.5. points. Teddy, our Caissa pupil, has developed strongly in the last couple of months. Well done!

Front: Harsh (white) vs. Oliver. Back: Marco (white) vs. Teddy

James, who won against Richard, became winner of U12 and also got 5.5 points but ended 2nd overall on the 4th tie-break, that is, Teddy had more wins with black.

Andy defeated Miguel Angel by a good occupation of Miguel’s back rank with his white rook. Herewith Andy ended 2nd in U10 and Miguel Angel 3rd.

Although Oliver won his game against Harsh, it was Ronald by defeating Mei Jing who with 4.5 points could claim 2nd prize in U12.

Final Ranking Cross Table Winter 2015 YGP2

Ronald had left earlier and did not get his prize handed out – but the other prize winners got their trophy and cash prizes handed out by coach Michel.

Miguel Angel 3rd place U10 YGP 2

Andy Au 2nd Prize U10

Teddy Yang, Winner U10 and Tournament Winner

James Kwong Champion U12

Finally the ranking of the YGP:

Ranking YGP per 8 March 2015