Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

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HK – Macao Interport Postponed

October 19th, 2014

The planned 16 November 2014 traditional Interport Chess match between Macao and Hong Kong, to be hosted by Caissa in Hong Kong, has to be postponed because as of now the Hong Kong Chess Federation have still not announced the date of the Hong Kong Junior Championships which normally take place in November.

In order to avoid possibly unnecessary logistics and dissapointment like happened before, we have agreed with the Macao Chess Federation to pick a date in the first quarter of 2015.

It would be helpful if HKCF start to publish a yearly, or at least half yearly calendar of their few, but important youth events, around which other organizers can work for their tournaments.

Here are two events we previously organized:

Joseph Unstoppable in Autum Open

October 18th, 2014

Last Friday it turned out to be Mission Impossible also for Koji to try to stop in-form Joseph cruising towards his 5th victory. Henry, who only conceded a loss against Joseph did good business in solidifying his 2nd spot with a win against Richard.

Long is appearantly throwing all rustiness off him that came from 10 years no play as he secured an important win against Hannah who hasn’t found her form yet.

Ray convincingly drew against Miguel Angel and James with black against Michel defended fiercefully enough to win the game and as such he slowly crawled to 3rd place already which comes with the honor to try to stop Joseph next week in round 6…

 

Autumn 2014 open R5 ranking R6 pairing

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:

Register now for:

Joseph stays in the lead in 2014 Autumn Open

September 20th, 2014

Joseph and Henry, both with the full 2 points after round 2, had an intense game in round 3 – but won by Joseph quickly once Henry’s position was breached.

The longest game of the evening was David against James ending in a thriller on the clock … James who came out of the opening a piece up ended in an end game with a knight against David’s 3 extra pawns. David just managed to win by checkmate with 1 second left on the clock.

Michel won a a piece relatively early in the game but Koji found creative ways to remain active with the rest of his pieces, among which his queen, which had a game-ending effect when Michel marched his king into a dangerous net of harmful checks.

Toby did not come well out of the opening and Richard knew well enough how to benefit from the opening advantage and end the game not too long into the evening.

Hannah came a pawn up against Melvin and that was enough for Hannah in the endgame to win.

Similarly, Long managed to defeat Miguel Angel convincingly in the late middle game after he had won material earlier in the game.

Next game will take place on 10 October and that leaves some time for either Koji or David to prepare some surprise for the for now unstoppable Joseph.

 

Results Round 3 and Standing after Round 3

Results Round 3 and Standing after Round 3

HK Open Local 2014 – Typhoon Kalmaegi Impacts Round 3

September 16th, 2014

Last year around this time we organized the FIDE Trainers Seminar in Hong Kong when Super Typhoon Usagi hit town. Last Monday it was Typhoon Kalmaegi that paid us a visit – unfortunately in the late evening of the HKCF organized HK Local Open.

 

Typhoon Kalmaegi covering Hong Kong skies

Typhoon Kalmaegi covering Hong Kong skies

 

It was announced just after 9pm that Signal 8 would be hoisted around 10.30pm, and we all know this means: the whole town would be coming to a stop by then in terms of e.g., transportation.

This year’s edition attracts a good crowd but from Caissa we only have two members playing, David and Michel – both of whom needed to get the 10pm ferry to Discovery Bay or get stuck until next morning in a “typhoon shelter” (bar) or so.

Coincidentally David and Michel, the players to have to travel probably farthest to get home were also the last to play. David, with white, after coming out of the opening well with his favorite Veresov Richter attack against highest rated FM Luen-Wah Luk, stood firm in the middle game and at the end of the middle game had a slighly better position, also on the clock. However, a draw was agreed also as to avoid the chance of getting stuck in Kalmaegi’s embrace.

Michel, with black, dominated the position until the end against Raymond Wu but under pressure to leave exchanged his bishop for a forward pawn when Raymond didn’t agree to a draw – nonetheless Michel had to forfeit the game as there was no time to continue in order to be back in time.

Brian Wong, against Joe Lau, and Alberto Muniz (against Jonathan Ho) won their games and are the only players with 3 points – meeting each other next week. Another interesting game next week will be between Luen-Wah Luk and Chor-Yuen Chong both among the highest rated players.

 

HK Open Local 2014 attracting a good crowd (photo from round 1)

HK Open Local 2014 attracting a good crowd (photo from round 1)

Cross Table Ranking after Round 3 and Pairing Round 4

Cross Table Ranking after Round 3 and Pairing Round 4

Autumn Youth Grand Prix Starts Sunday 31 August – Strong Line-Up!

August 22nd, 2014

Sunday 31 August we will start our first Youth Grand Prix (YGP) event in the 2014-15 YGP cycle of 6 such events. This first event is Standard chess with 90 minutes per player time control and we have some of hong Kong’s finest players lined up, alphabetically:

  • Marco Ching
  • Samach Chow
  • Ronald Choy
  • Mei Jing Garceran Wang
  • Miguel Angel Garceran Wang
  • Wing Ki James Kwong
  • Wing Shun Harold Kwong
  • Ray Leung
  • Toby Mak
  • Benjamin Oh
  • Richard Takasumi
  • Teddy Yang
  • Oliver Yau

How did it work again?

At this moment we have 13 players. For this Standard chess event each player brings in 5 YGP points (for a Rapid and Blitz event each player brings in 3 YGP points).

Currently the pool of YGP points in this event is thus 13×5=65 points.

As explained, the winner of the event will get 30% of the points, 2nd place will get 25%, 3rd place 20%, 4th place 15% and 5th place 10%. In other words, if no more player joins (but registration is still open!), the 1st place will get 18.5 points (0.3×65), and similarly the 5th place will get 6.5 points and so on.

After 6 YGP events we will see who has most YGP points. The top performers can qualify to play fully sponsored, including travel and lodging, in the Open Dutch Youth first week of August 2015 in U14, U12 or U10.

Of course at the end of 7 rounds of this first event we will also have trophies and cash prizes. But more so than winning in this particular event, the best thing is you get to practice Standard chess against your peers and some of Hong Kong’s strongest players. We look forward to see some tough and exciting games with lots to learn.

Finally, note that in the first 4 rounds you can have maximum 2 BYEs, if mentioned the Wednesday before the Sunday game. This kind of BYE will give you 0.5 points.

Winter 2014 Finals – Edwin Borigas Champion Blitz

March 1st, 2014

After GM Hou Yifan finished her simul around 11.15am, the rest of the day the chess club was dedicated to the Winter 2014 Farewell Blitz Open.

The preambule to this event was the Standard Chess competition that was spread out over 7 weeks in the dark winter months of January and February.

The full capacity of 32 players was still further strecthed to accommodate 36 players: 18 players were U12, 11 players had a FIDE rating, we had 5 children join from Shenzhen and we were glad to see our adult friends from Shenzhen Umberto, Stuart, and Eugene, coming in again to play in our tournament.

Over 9 rounds the tournament ended on a high note for Edwin Borigas who, on tie-break against Daniel Lam (the winner of the Standard Chess competition) became the champion with 8 points. Eugene Livensky, the winner of our anniversary rapid tournament in July last year, ended 3rd with 7 points.

The number 2 in the Standard Chess competition, Joseph Wong, ended 4th with 6 points to claim the Best Unrated prize.

 

Edwin Borigas Champion Open Blitz

Edwin Borigas Champion Open Blitz

 

Prize Winners Adult Group

Clockwise: Daniel Lam Collects Champion Standard Chess and 2nd Prize Blitz, Joseph Best Unrated Player Prize and Eugene 3rd Prize

 

In the U12 category we proudly crown our own Caissa member Richard Takasumi to Champion again, on tie-break, followed closely by numbers 2 and 3, Ronald Choy (the Champion U12 in Standard Chess) and James Kwong, also with 5 points.

 

Richard Takasumi Champion Open Blitz U12

Richard Takasumi Champion Open Blitz U12

Ronald Choy Champion U12 Standard Chess and 2nd Prize Blitz U12

Ronald Choy Champion U12 Standard Chess and 2nd Prize Blitz U12

 

Thank you all for your competitive but Fair Play mindset. It made possible to have a smooth tournament, despite the crowdedness and mixture of players from 6 years old up – and we look forward to organize more.

 

Final Ranking Caissa Winter 2014 Blitz Open

Final Ranking Caissa Winter 2014 Blitz Open

 

Some more photo impressions:

 

Front to left: Arjun - James, Cyril - Billy, Eugene - Stuart

Front to Back: Arjun – James, Cyril – Billy, Eugene – Stuart

Front to back: Edwin – Stuart, Daniel – Yee Chit

Hoda in Deep Thought against his Young Opponent

Hoda in Deep Thought against his Young Opponent

Aravind in Deep Thought against yet another Young Opponent

Winter Competition: Daniel Lam and Miguel Angel Garceran Wang Lead

February 14th, 2014

Adult Group

After 4 rounds in the Winter Competition we see that, despite a draw against David, Daniel has taken a solid lead. Next week, in the last round only James can in theory stop Daniel. It looks like potentially we can have 3 players end with 3.5 points and it will be exciting until the end.

Joseph played an attractive attacking game against the French set-up chosen by James. Joseph put constant pressure across his opened h-file as well as in the center according to the principle of attacking two weaknesses at the same time. However, James defended tediously and consuming almost all his time, but some 3 minutes, agreed to a draw with so little time when Joseph blundered a piece.

Hannah and David played a balanced game in which Hannah’s white rooks controlled the d-file but David’s black pawns had occupied attractive territory on the queen side where the white king had castled. Avoiding tactics of check mates in the middle of the board the game ended in a draw as well, which was, given the cold temperature in the venue, not a bad idea.

 

Round 4 Rank Adult Winter Competition 2014

 

Youth U12 Group

By defeating his sister Mei Jing, Miguel Angel tops the rank now after Ronald and Rachel drew against each other.

Jonathan with black counter-pinned Oliver’s pin such that after the dust of various exchanges was settled he was a piece up and could win the game. Regis won heavy material in the early stage of the game and did not make a mistake on the road to collecting his first point against Hugo.

 

standing after r4

Chinese New Year Break Chess Clinic

February 5th, 2014

At our Sheung Wan location seven students invested 4 hours of their vacation, 2 hours on Monday and 2 hours on Tuesday, to participate in our holiday-break chess clinic.

We looked at various ideas behind openings (open, closed, semi-open/closed, flank) focusing on the French Advance variation; an instructive semi-open opening to become familiar with occupation of center space and attacking the center from the flank.

 

Talking about the Pin

Talking about the Pin

 

After a brief exploration of king pawn endgames and associated critical squares we further discussed some of the greatest chess players like Philidor and the World Champions Steinitz, Lasker and Carlson and what they brought to chess. In between each topic we played 5 minutes blitz chess.

 

cny clinic 2014 sheung wan 1

 

cny clinic 2014 sheung wan 2

 

After some exercises around the Pin we played a 10 minutes blitz team match of blind chess: Gauri, Mei Jing, Ray and Adrien in one corner of the room were only allowed to look at and move their own black pieces while Horatio, Ian and Miguel Angel in another corner of the room could only see and move their white pieces. They needed to cooperate as a team and two cheats were allowed … 20 moves later, after time was up for the black team, in a very equal position, the match was completed with all pieces on the board.

 

The graduates ... always in for a joke ...

The graduates … always in for a joke …

 

It was fun