Good news. The Hong Hong Chess Federation is increasingly staging events never held before.

To start with, last week the Spring Rapid 2015, a rapid FIDE rated tournament of 9 rounds held over 3 evenings, ended with bang for Daniel Lam who won the event with a score of 9 points. Congrats Daniel!

Then, last Monday HKCF held the Spring Blitz 2015, also FIDE rated, attracted 36 players. The speed of 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment is something that requires serious practice and our local heroes have not had the chance to play such a tournament in Hong Kong.

In the top 5 we only find Lo Cheuk Wai as known Hong Kong player among an international audience. Thierry Henkinet is the new kid on the block and seems a good addition to the HKG federation. Alexander, on a stop-over from Shanghai, collected medal for 3rd prize. Long, winner of our Caissa Winter and Spring editions, hopefully will change his federation from Germany to Hong Kong soon! To be in this top 5 is not easy.

Top 5

The undisputed winner of the event was Caissa’s Matthew Tan, from Holland, with a monster score of 11 wins. We hope he will have fond memories of the medal he won because it was the first FIDE rated Open Blitz event organized by HKCF – he made history!

Matthew Tan receives 1st prize medal from arbiter KK Chan

Of course, this spring blitz event was a prelude of what is to come and our local heroes have time to practice more in the coming weeks.

Because … HKCF is going a step further by organizing first-time-ever National Championships, FIDE rated, in Blitz and Rapid on 27 June and 5 July respectively. These events are for all age youth groups and Open (yeah, finally also something for adults!).

Hope to see you all there!