Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

Samira jumps to 2nd position and Suneh sets scholar’s mate record for the club

January 31st, 2015

After 33 rounds since the start of this season in September 2014, the Discovery Bay internal club competition for the club members Saturdays, shows a ranking in flux. Most noteworthy, compared to the ranking on 25 October, is that Samira (Advanced group) has settled strongly on 2nd place and the Intermediate group players Suneh, Jay and Wo Hang have claimed a spot in the top 10. From the Beginners group Seth and Noah have pushed themselves up close to the top 10 – very impressive.

Chor Xi (white) against Nathan

Good to see that our very youngest players Nathan and Chor Xi start winning regularly and much less so lose because of falling for opening tricks. Speaking of which, we had last week an absolute record set by Suneh, who in a round robin of 5 players beat all his 4 opponents by Scholar’s mate variations – even playing with black, Suneh’s opponents’ white kings collapsed on f2.

Jay with white against Suneh - today no Scholar's mate ...

Jay with white moved his queen out well against Suneh’s Bb6 and Qc5 battery aiming for f2 – today no Scholar’s mate

Christopher 9white) against Koza in foreground and Samira scoring her 2nd win of the day against Joshua in the back.

Christopher (white) against Koza in foreground and Samira scoring her 2nd win of the day against Joshua in the back.

Note that we play with the Keizer System. It can thus be so that players who have played less, but against opponents who are higher ranked, will have a higher ranking than players who played more and/or won more games, but against lower ranked opponents. You can read a good explanation on the Keizer System here. Below the ranking as of 31 January 2015.

DB Internal Competition - Rank After Round 33 on 31 Janaury 2015

DB Internal Competition – Rank After Round 33 on 31 January 2015 (Punten = points, Wa = value, Gsp = played, Gw= win, Rm= draw, Vl = lose)

Winter Open Round 1 Results and Pairing Round 2

January 12th, 2015

On Friday 9 January we started our winter cycle of standard chess (90 minutes per person) in the Open group. We had an ovewhelming amount of 6 BYEs in the first round. Nonetheless, the two games that were played were very worthwhile.

Conrad, who hadn’t played for a decade other than online, played against Koji in a game that took almost the full 180 minutes allowed before Conrad could claim the win.

The only other game, David against Melvin, was an even longer game, decided by time with Melvin having the better position on the board but losing on time with David just 1 second more on the clock.

Cross Table after Round 1 Caissa Winter Open 2015

Hong Kong Prelims Round 1

January 7th, 2015

On Saturday 3 January we started our first training and meeting of the year. With several members still out of town both Saturday and the following Sunday were a little slow.

In addition to the restart of the Caissa chess engine (you can still register for our Winter Open and Youth YGP), on Monday 5 January the Hong Kong preliminaries at Queen Elizabeth Stadium started as well – with a relatively large crowd of over 50 players. It was the first concrete event in the hands of the new committee and it was well done. In a relaxed but properly controlled atmosphere KK Chan, the new VP and Director of Tournaments run the show very professionally.

Nervousness ahead of Round 1 HK Prelims

A leap forward was also that all games now can be downloaded as PGN and you can replay all games – and prepare for your next opponent.

That can be useful also for Friday and Sunday when we will start our own Caissa events, the Winter Open and the Winter Youth Grand Prix 2 respectively, with players who also play in the Prelims.

Stay tuned.

By the way, the only two Caissa members playing in this edition of the Prelims, James Wing Ki Kwong and David Garceran Nieuwenburg, won their first game!

Stay even more tuned …

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 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

Caissa Successful in Shenzhen – 4 players win prizes

October 19th, 2014

Caissa players Joseph, Mei Jing, David, Miguel Angel, Koji and Richard

Last Saturday, 6 players and 2 supporters from Caissa crossed the border into Shenzhen early in the morning. The first round started at 9am and a total of 5 rounds were played until 5pm. With 2 more rounds on Sunday this was an action packed chess weekend.

The location of the event was a very nice school, and the hotel right around the corner was excellent, but also somewhat out of the way of residential facilities and it took quite a while to get a taxi to take us to Coco Park where some of our Shenzhen friends play outdoor chess and where we would have dinner.

Dinner at Coco Park

Nonetheless, over 2 days Mei Jing took the tournament seriously and scored 6 out of 7 ending second overall in group C among 120 players, also winning the first prize in the Girls category. Bravo Mei Jing!

Mei Jing (left) Best Girl with 6 out of 7

In the highest youth group Richard and Miguel Angel defended our honour with all they had. Miguel Angel had a glitch halfway the event and it was Richie who stayed on top of the pack until the last round, when he lost. Both Richard and Miguel Angel ended with 5.5 out of 7 within the prize range, 3rd and 7th respectively. Well done boys!

Richie 3rd and Miguel Angel 7th both with 5.5 out of 7.

In the Open Group, with a handful adults, including 2400+ rated International Master Li Bo who ended 6th in the recent HK International Open, and dozens of strong youth players, Koji and Joseph started off with a loss. Koji could not really find his rythm but Joseph, the player in form in our Autumn Open, recovered well and towards the end of the tournament with 5 out of 7 ended on 9th place. David started off very well with 3 out of 3 but lost 2 consecutive games after that, in an unnecessary fashion. His recovery on the second day with 2 wins pushed him up to 7th place with 5 points, like Joseph, and within prize range.

David, on behalf of Caissa, receives a plaque, token of appreciation

This was a very nice event, with hundreds of young players, well disciplined and clearly enjoying their weekend behind their board and pieces. What else can you ask as organizer. Well done Huateng Chess Club.

Joseph leads Autumn 2014 Competition after Thriller against David

October 11th, 2014

David changed his d4 Veresov for a Queens Gambit last Friday trying to stop Joseph from winning his 4th game in a row. Joseph responded with a Slav, d5, c6, e6 set-up and was able to mount serious pressure on David’s king side which nonetheless held – even such that David managed to sneak into black territory with his knight and win a rook when Joseph did not pay attention enough. After that David spend too much time trying to convert the winning position into a point and in a high time pressure situation even lost the game in a neat checkmate orchestrated by Joseph’s queen and knight.

James tricked Ray into losing his queen early in the game and the two pieces Ray got back was never enough to prevent James from playing the game out as a technical win.

Henry played solidly against Hannah’s French and came maybe with a slight plus out of the opening. In what still seemed an even game it came to a shock to Hannah to find herself having overseen a sudden check mate by Henry.

Melvin had to face Michel’s French and when he gave away a piece on the way to the middle game this was the second game that could be played out technically without problems for Michel.

Miguel Angel and Toby played a dynamic game against each other and although Miguel Angel won some material early in the game Toby managed to put his black rooks on the 2nd rank as he invaded white’s queen side. Yet, an inaccuracy by Toby let to too much material loss and a win for Miguel Angel.

Next week it is up to Koji to try to stop Joseph …

Ranking after 4 Rounds and Pairing Round 5

Check it out – Registration open for all our activities until end of 2014: Clinics, Tournaments, Grandmaster simul and training …

September 24th, 2014

We are pleased to announce you can now register online for all our events we organize until the end of 2014:

Shenzhen Tournament 18-19 October – highly recommended for youth and adults to play against new opponents once in a while …
Autumn Break Chess Clinics 20-21 and 22-23 October
GM Farrukh Amonatov visit: clinic and simul 6-8 November – bringing top class chess to Hong Kong and an unique opportunity to meet the trainer behind the Russian Junior team
Hong Kong – Macao Interport 2014 Pearl Delta Cup. Tentative 16 November – stay tuned!
DB 4th Rapid – Autumn Open 29 November – casual but competitive one day tournament with nice prizes
Winter 2014 Open Blitz Sheung Wan 7 December – end the year with blitz bang and win nice prizes in this one day event

Youth Grand Prix – Autumn Round 3: Benjamin in the Lead

September 15th, 2014

After 3 rounds Benjamin triumphantly leads with 3 straight wins after defeating Sabrina last Sunday. He is closely followed by James and Miguel Angel who won their games against Harold and Samach respectively.

Ronald, Rachel and Teddy had straightforward wins against the youngest players Louis, Samuel and Steven. Ray played precise, with confidence and winning appetite against Thomas who actually played a good game but Ray’s energy was overwhelming. In chess, skills, knowledge, calculation and inspiration are all magnified when combined with the absolute will to win. Today it was Ray who was energized more. Tomorrow, an energized Thomas will win his game – and thus by playing chess we all gain qualities that are useful in real life!

Coming back from dubious philosophy to the competition, Richard and Mei Jing played a tense game that ended with a king and few pawns against king with few pawns in a Stonewall set-up: draw. In the longest game of the day Andy with white managed to beat Oliver by controlling an open file with his rook which he placed on the 7th rank; and according to the great Nimzowitsch this is a decisive advantage. Marco had a 0.5 points BYE for not being able to play today and Toby got a full point BYE due to odd number of players.

Rank After Round 3

Autumn Open Round 2: Only Joseph and Henry at 100 percent

September 13th, 2014

Last Friday, compared to last week when half of the players were in Singapore, we had full house and with the lucky odd number of 13 participants it was David who got a BYE.

Michel played with black against Ray who, despite an unfortunate trade order which cost him a pawn, played an excellent game but the pawn was enough for Michel to pressure the game into a win.

Michel in Deep Thoughts

James played with white against Long You who after over a decade of chess hibernation is picking it up again – starting at our tournament. Long won a pawn on the h- file but found himself after that in a difficult position to deal adequately with James’ active pieces.

With all heavy pieces behind a long and closed pawn chain Richard and Melvin ended their game in a draw – it seemed not easy to break through without weakening the own structure.

Richard and Melvin moving towards - backgroud James against Long

Richard and Melvin moving towards draw with contours of a long pawn chain – backgroud James against Long

Henry played a solid game against young Toby whose slight inaccuracy resulted in a short route towards win for Henry.

Close to the tabiya of an Old Indian set-up, Miguel Angel with black played a5 against Koji at the wrong moment. As a consequence, white’s bishop on e3 increased in power, eyeing the weak b6 square, such that black was quickly running out of good moves and towards a loss.

Perhaps the highlight match of evening was Joseph against Hannah. French expert Hannah could this time not hold Joseph and through Joseph’s win both he and Henry lead with 2 points now. They will meet each other next week.

Joseph pushes his white pieces into Hannah's queen side - background Henry against Toby

Joseph trying to control his queenside to meet Hannah’s adventurous black queen – background Henry against Toby

Rank Round 2

Autumn YGP Round 2 and Autumn Open Round 1

September 10th, 2014

Autumn Open

Because of the tournament in Singapore in which Caissa participated with several teams, round 1 last Friday of the Autumn Open only had 3 games going with BYEs from James, Richard, Koji, Hannah and David.

The game between the two youth players Toby and Ray ended with a win for Toby. Melvin, another youth, lost with white against Henry and Joseph, number 2 in the winter competition earlier this year beat Michel who, perhaps still a little bit jet lagged, blundered a rook.

An interesting game in the next round will definitely be between Joseph and Hannah who in the last winter competition had an intense and explosive game.

Rank after R1 Caissa Atumn Open 2014

Pairing R2 Caissa Atumn Open 2014

Autumn YGP1

Also in this group last Sunday we had 5 BYEs from Richard, James, Miguel Angel, Harold and Mei Jing who were playing for Caissa in Singapore.

Nonetheless we had some interesting results.

On board 1 Benjamin scored a win against Andy who in the previous round had beaten Richard, one of Caissa’s best youth. And on board 2 Sabrina continued her winning streak against Steven who had managed to beat Marco in the previous round.

Samach, who had a BYE last week drew against Oliver on board 3 and on board 4 Ronald was back winning against Teddy after his last week loss against Benjamin.

On board 5 Marco made no mistake this time and scored a point against Toby while on board 6 the advantage in the game moved back and forth between Thomas and Samuel, finally ending with a win for Samuel.

On board 7 Ray played a solid Philidor against Rachel but a small miscalculation resulted in material loss and a point for Rachel.

Louis had a BYE.

the new pairing will be announced every Thursday with Wednesday the cut-off to request a BYE (only 2 BYEs allowed in first 4 rounds).

Rank after R2 Caissa Atumn YGP1 2014