Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

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

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

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

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

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

Aravind in Deep Thought against yet another Young Opponent

Caissa Teams win Medals in Singapore Seragoon Inter-Team Chess Championship

September 17th, 2013

In the late evening of lucky Friday the 13th, six of Caissa’s Advanced group players, accompanied by several supporters, boarded our national carrier to fly to Singapore and participate in the 2013 Serangoon Inter-Team Chess Championship.

Team 1 and Team 2 in Singapore!

Team 1: Open Rated Mixed 4 Members Team – David, Koji, Richard and Miguel Angel

Team 1 Ready

Team 2: U16 Unrated Mixed 2 members Team – Bryant and Mei Jing

Team 2 ready

The tournament was not that large scale with a total of some 25 teams, but it was well organized and pleasantly located in a quiet residential neighborhood it was a worthwhile test for our Caissa teams gaining experience playing abroad. It was nice also, that Bryant had secured a handful of local supporters through his family who watched with interest how this chess tournament evolved over two days.

In 7 rounds Swiss, first 4 rounds on Saturday afternoon and 3 on Sunday morning, the top teams would qualify for the knock out rounds on Sunday afternoon.

Bryant had dinner with his family while the rest ventured into Chinatown to try the chilli/pepper crabs

Chinatown and chilli/pepper crabs

Koji played very convincingly and with 6 out of 7 grossed most points for Team 1 in this stage of the tournament, followed by David with 5 points, Richard with 3 points and Miguel Angel, who at the airport was doubtful to even join us because of slight fever and other such symptoms, with 2 points.

Caissa Team 1 Playing (round 3)

In the overall ranking Team 1 ended 5^th and in the Open Rated category all players could collect a medal for 3^rd prize – and on to the knock out rounds!

Mei Jing and Bryant in Team 2 actually played a round robin and Mei Jing was in very good form scoring 4 wins out of 6 and with Bryant’s win that was also enough to qualify for a 1^st Prize medal in U16 Unrated category and play some more chess in the knock out stages…

Bryant and Mei Jing Collecting their 1st Prize

Team 1 in the 1/16 finals steamed on with 3 wins and a draw (Miguel Angel) and went on to 1/8^th finals. Unfortunately this time the scoring engine Koji had a small hick-up and the point scored by David and the draw by Miguel Angel was not enough to go to the quarter finals.

In Team 2 Bryant had a good chance to repair Mei Jing’s loss in a King + Pawn against King end game but a stalemate prevented Bryant to claim the full point and Team 2 was also out in the 1/8^th finals.

All Individual Scores

A good chess experience richer, Caissa will definitely be going to other places.

Rapid Tournament Concludes Caissa 1st Year Anniversary Festival

July 14th, 2013

After Alexander Ipatov’s visit in June and Collin Madhavan’s full-house clinics in July, Caissa Chess Club Hong Kong wrapped up her first year anniversary chess festivities with a concluding Summer Rapid tournament yesterday.

The event attracted international players as well as local Hong Kong players, young and old, experienced and starters. For all 24 youth players from Hong Kong the event was FIDE CiS rated (a first-timer in Hong Kong!) and, also with FIDE Arbiter Collin Madhavan strengthening the organization, the tournament went as smooth as we could hope for with such a unique diverse group.

FA Collin Madhavan quickly going through the rFIDE ules of Rapid

FA Collin Madhavan quickly going through the FIDE Rules of Rapid

Delegatin from Shenzhen with 5 youth players

Delegation from Shenzhen with 5 youth players

Left to right: Eugene, Umberto and Stuart from Shenzhen with their chess buddies Billy and Cyril.

In the Open Group Hong Kong’s Andrew (8 points) stayed closest to the winner Eugene (UKR) (8.5 points) who had come in from Shenzhen with his two friends Stuart and Umberto.

The third place was taken by Caissa’s own Hannah (6.5 points) who could definitely claim the most exciting win of the tournament with a checkmate with only 1 second on the clock. Well done Hannah!

1 minute on the clock - Hannah wins with white ...

1 second on the clock – Hannah wins with white …

Prize Winners Open Group in between David and Bee Shan: Hannah, Eugene, and Andrew

Prize Winners Open Group standing in between Organizers David and Bee Shan: Hannah, Eugene, and Andrew

In the P4-P6 youth group we saw some powerful play from Shenzhen youth. Both Jiatong and Xingzhe scored an impressive 6 points which resulted in their respective 1st and 2nd places. Third place was claimed by Hong Kong’s James Kwong with 5.5 points.

Players in Action

Prize Winners P4-P6 category: (left to right) James, Xinzhe and Jiatong together with David and Mr. Liu and Ms. Li who accompanied the Shenzhen youth.

Prize Winners P4-P6 category: (left to right) James, Jiatong and Xingzhe together with Mr. Liu and Ms. Li who accompanied the Shenzhen youth.

In the P1-P3 category our 3 local Hong Kong boys claimed all prizes with Caissa’s Gerent (5 points) and Caissa’s Miguel Angel (4.5 points) getting 1st and 3rd prize respectively and Harold (5 points) receiving second prize.

David and Collin behind (left to right) Gerent, Harold and Miguel Angel.

David and Collin behind (left to right) Champion Gerent, Harold and Miguel Angel.

The tournament, as official end-of-season celebration, was also the stage to put Caissa’s top performing members in the well deserved spotlight.

In the Intermediate Group the 1st Prize was won by Bryant and the 2nd Prize by Max. Both are promoted to the Advanced Group. In the Beginners Group Saga won 1st Prize. James, who won 2nd Prize was abroad and will receive his trophy at opening of the 13-14 season.

Bryant (left) and Max (right) receive 1st and 2nd Prize respectively

Saga receives her Champion of Beginners Group Prize

Finally, the 5 prizes (a digital DGT chess clock, a chess board with pieces and several chess books) of the trivia questions showed Aravind was the most knowledgeable being the only participant to get a 100% score.

Eugene, champion of the tournament, forfeited his prize in favor of giving a youth player the chance to get a prize. Eugene, congratulations: you were the undisputed Champion today.

All results and ranking can be found here: cross table caissa summer rapid 13 july 2013.

Photos are posted on Around DB Magazine.

1st Year Anniversary Tournament Interim Players List

July 4th, 2013

Next week Caissa will conclude her first season with 5 days of chess activities: Two chess clinics by coach FIDE CM Collin Madhavan on Monday/Tuesday in Chai Wan and Thursday/Friday in Discovery Bay and of course the Seasons-End Rapid Tournament.

As of today 30 players have registered: 14 players from Primary School and 16 players somewhat older …

All players will play in one group, competing for their own age category prizes, and it would be wise not to underestimate the youth of whom some are the top players in Hong Kong in their age category; we will surely see some fine action from them.

What is completely new to Hong Kong is that for all youth this tournament will be FIDE CiS rated and most players have already been given a one year FIDE CiS Premium Membership.

Hong Kong lacks a rating system for children and we hope that other tournament organizers will use the created FIDE CiS accounts to rate their tournaments as well so that once a critical mass has been reached we can organize more meaningful grouping of youth than by schoolyear so that both weaker and stronger players stay motivated as they move up their skills playing against opponents of similar strength.

In the group of players competing for the Open group prizes we see a strong mixture of young players and veterans, chess coaches and students, players from Hong Kong and abroad.

It will be fun …

Registered participants per 4 July 2013

Tournaments in the Pipeline and some Reorganization Plans

January 16th, 2013

January is moving well ahead. The first two meetings in January were slow starting with 8 and 15 players showing up on the 3rd and 10th respectively, but that will soon pick up. As practice is needed for the coming tournaments!

Group A Gathering around Club Coach Hannah Ball for the Latest Tips

A glance at the chess calendar shows we have the first tournaments in Hong Kong and nearby areas coming up soon.

The HKCF Hong Kong Chess Preliminaries will start on 28 January running 9 Monday evenings into April 8. For the juniors HKCF have the Hong Kong Inter-School Championship coming up on 23 and 24 February. Also for youth, the Hong Kong Chess Association March Challengers Tournament is scheduled for 9 and 10 March. All highly recommendable events.

Caissa, supported by HKCF, is also working together with Macao to hold the traditional Interport match between the two cities on 2 March in Discovery Bay.

Until end of March, plus or minus one tournament, that’s all for Hong Kong. This in sharp contrast with Singapore where the Singapore Chess Federation is organizing 11 events (standard, rapid, blitz, transfer) in the same period of which 6 are Open and even FIDE rated. Their impressive calendar runs all the way until end of this year with well over 40 events – again, most are FIDE rated. If a weekend trip to somewhere in this area is on the top of your list anyway, combining it with a tournament in Singapore will be good to boost chess skills.

Or a weekend in Bangkok for the BCC Checkmate Open 2013 on 2 and 3 February could be interesting to polish chess skills and enjoy the delicious Thai food.

Talking about chess skills, Caissa has grown in half a year on Thursdays from 5 to over 25 youth players, of varying levels of skills and noise … Mostly we have therefore nowadays two coaches on Thursdays, but with such a large group it is still challenging to divide the group into manageable sub groups for players to be paired with peers and guided according to their playing levels.

The club will be reorganizing the Thursdays and is planning to add the Saturday and possibly other days. The reorganization will be around dividing players specifically in groups A, B and C, with group A comprising the advanced players and group C the most beginning players. We will also form a squad which will consist of players who are very ready and willing for tournament play and representing the club in, for example, international team events. Participation in such events will be full sponsored by the club, including travel and lodging if required.

We aim to have the reorganization finalized from April and we will keep you posted about further progress.

Hong Kong Open Finals 2012 End Results

May 29th, 2012

HK Tsang - Champion Hong Kong Finals 2012

The very last game to finish between CY Chong and David Or (1-0) officially concluded the Finals. From the beginning until the end it remained crowded at the top. Four people ended with a total of 8 points, closely followed by a mid-range group of again 4 people scoring between 5.5 to 7 points. The bottom four players remained at a modest but significant distance from the rest of the crowd: next year gentlemen!

Congratulations to HK Tsang with his championship title and a special proficiat to Bryan Lee and Andrew Koenigsberg who managed to score the highest increase in their rating points due to very strong tournament rating performance!

Hong Kong Chess Federation, again, managed to organize an excellent tournament. Looking forward to coming events.

The end result: