Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

Brian Dew (FM) Wins Hong Kong Chess Championship Preliminaries 2013

April 17th, 2013

The clash in the 9th and last round last Monday between the two Fide Masters, Javier Martin Perez and Brian Dew, turned out to provide Brian the score needed to win the Preliminaries – and a result that pushed Javier to 10th place, just 1 place below qualification. But, congratulations Brian! And also to Caissa’s Peter Whalley who kept Brian leashed to a draw in round 1.

Unfortunately in round 9, Peter and Caissa’s Hannah Dale both lost their games against Ian Scott and Sai Wai Lai respectively. However, given the very strong competition this year the score of 4.5 points out of 9 is not bad at all.

Brian’s winning of the Prelims was somewhat partly helped in the last round by the strong performance of Jake Chan who (unexpectedly?) defeated Melvin Yu who had been top of the leader board for weeks. Jake ended very strong on 3rd place: well done.

Somewhat unfortunate to see the 12 year old youth talent Michael Yang dropped below the qualifying 9th place for the first time after several weeks upon his loss against Chak Man Chan (CM) – who instead qualified on 9th place through this result. But Michael has many years ahead, and we can expect it won’t be longer than next year that we will hear from him again in the 2014 prelims!

All scores from all rounds can be found in this cross table.

HONG KONG OPEN 2013 CHESS PRELIMINARIES ROUND 8

March 26th, 2013

After the dust of the skirmishes in the penultimate round of the Hong Kong 2013 Chess Open Preliminaries last Monday had settles we see four players emerge with 6 points and seven players with the minimal distance possible of 5.5 points.

Melvin Yu’s loss against Alberto Muniz did not dethrone him from first place and if in the last round Melvin manages to defeat Jake Chan, he could possible become the champion. But Melvin better had a very good day because Jake hasn’t lost a single game against three of the top 5 players he met so far.

In that background, next week’s games between Alberto and Chor Yuen Chong and the two FIDE Masters Brian Dew and Javier Martin, will be as important as Luen-Wah Luk’s (FM) game against Edgardo Borigas. Michael Yang, the only youth player (Under 13) who has sustained himself in the top 10 will now have to prove his talent against Chak Man Chan (CM) to qualify for the Finals.

Looking at the tie-break points right now, the loss of our Caissa heroes Peter Whalley and Hannah Dale last week have probably put them out of the top 9 range and Finals of this year. But no worries – both had just picked up chess only a few months after a long hiatus. This was just a warming up …

Pairing Round 9 HK Open Preliminaries 2013

HONG KONG OPEN 2013 CHESS PRELIMINARIES ROUND 7

March 20th, 2013

With draws on the first two boards in round 7 between Melvin Yu and Brian Dew (FM) and between Jake Chan, who is playing a great tournament so far, and Alberto Muniz, there have been very little changes in the top 10. As predicted, this year’s group top 20 is very close in strength and the final ranking will likely remain unclear until the very last 9th round.

Whereas Edgardo Borigas’ second loss in a row, this time against Chor Yuen Chong, has pushed him to 9th place with 4.5 points, still just within qualifying for the finals, Robin Lai, Yuen-Wah Luk (FM) and Michael Yang consolidated their position in the top 10 with a win.

It is also great to see that Caissa’s Peter Whalley has crawled, still undefeated, into the top 10 and also Caissa’s Hannah Dale on 13th position now with 4.5 points is well within range of a top 9 position.

In round 8 each player in the top 10 will be playing against another top 10 player and for sure some players currently right under top 10 will seep into this elite group after next week.

Therefore, chances for our Caissa players are right there next week. But it won’t be easy for Peter facing Edgardo who will be determined to stop his losing streak and Hannah meeting Yui Kuen Pang who should be motivated to continue his winning streak after a poor start.

Let’s wait and see.

Top 34 after Round 7 and Pairing Round 8

HONG KONG OPEN 2013 CHESS PRELIMINARIES ROUND 6

March 13th, 2013

Edgardo Borigas fell to 3rd place after his loss against Brian Dew (FM) in round 6 and Melvin Yu secured 1st place, 0.5 points loose from Brian, by defeating Luen-Wah Luk (FM).

Next week’s game between numbers 2 and 1, Brian and Melvin, will be important, but likely not crucial for the end results yet. Chor Yuen Chong who drew against Jake Chan are both still in full pursuit and also Alberto Muniz is back where he belongs: in a position with 4.5 points to be a serious title contender. As a matter of fact, the whole top 12 can still be regarded as serious title contenders …

The draw between both Caissa players Peter Whalley (draw number 5!) and Hannah Dale have secured them a position with 3.5 points to credibly aim for a place in the top 9 and as such a ticket to the Finals later this year.

Top 34 after Round 6 and Pairing Round 7

Hong Kong Open 2013 Chess Preliminaries Round 5

March 6th, 2013

As mentioned in an earlier entry, this year’s preliminaries are fierce and after 5 rounds, with Edgardo Borigas and Melvin Yu, the only two players who had 4 points after 4 rounds, drawing against each other, no one can boast a score of 100 percent anymore.

Chor Yuen Chong, playing with black, recovered well from his loss against Melvin last week by beating Robin Lai in what seemed to be a shoot-from-the-hip style of middle game with Robin managing to have his white pawns on a5, b5, c5 and d5 and Chor Yuen similarly having planted his king side pawns on the 3rd rank – with almost all other pieces still on the board that is!

Also in the top 10, in addition to Melvin and Edgardo, we have 3 other players who haven’t lost yet: Luen-Wah Luk, Brian Dew and Peter Whalley (! Caissa). Unfortunately, next week Peter will play against fellow Caissa member Hannah Dale.

Other Caissa player David Garceran Nieuweburg, who is feverishly browsing the internet to find out more about Ginko Biloba and other food supplements and sleep therapies to help brain power … sank to 45th place after losing against Mason Ching.

Rank after Round 5 and Pairing of Round 6

HONG KONG CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2013 PRELIMINARIES ROUND 3

February 20th, 2013

After round 3 of the Hong Kong Open Chess Preliminaries only four players still remain with a 100 percent score. For such a relatively large group this is quite remarkable and it shows the strength and competitiveness being both wide and fierce this year. As next week the top 4 will play against one another, and consequently there will be at least another 50 percent reduction in ‘only-winners’, in the coming weeks we can expect ferocious play in a large pool of players who will all remain within reach of a top 9 finals qualifying position for the time being.

Caissa’s hopelessly-in-form-crisis David Garceran Nieuwenburg will likely not be in that pool anymore after Brian Wong converted David’s very early pawn loss flawlessly into a full point.

The other Caissa players Peter Whalley and Hannah Dale, however, are maneuvering themselves well into pole position. Peter held another Master, CM Chak Man Chan playing Alekhine, to a draw and remains unbeaten. Hannah evolved her French position into a middle game where here two rooks and queen threw their might on the open f, g and h files to topple the white castled king.

Interestingly, Billy Lo defeated the Spanish new-kid-in-town FM Javier Martin Perez and Robin Lai drew against FM Luen-Wah Luk.

Next week, in addition to the games played among the top 4, we can look forward to the confrontation of the two FMs Luen-Wah and Brian Dew and the game between FM Javier and Robin Lai who seems to be on track, in addition to being a Master in Chinese Chess, to reach that level in International Chess.

Interesting will also be the clash between generations when Peter and Hannah will meet their 12 years old opponents Hung Rey Leong and Michael Yang respectively.

Rank after Round 3 and Pairing Round 4 Hong Kong Chess Preliminaries 2013

hong kong chess championship 2013 preliminaries round 2

February 5th, 2013

Results of round 2 of the Preliminaries were by and large within the range of expectations. The three Masters won their games in this round. On the other boards, noteworthy was Arturo Dumalaog draw against Alberto Muniz. It is also good to see that the 12-years old youth players Rey Hung Leong, Benjamin Oh and Michael Yang won their games against rated players Cyrus Lai, Sai Wing Lai and Caissa’s David Garceran Nieuwenburg respectively and are now ranked in the top 10.

Hannah Dale from Caissa lost against Robin Lai who since his convincing top 10 spot in the HK International Open last year seems to be playing only strong games.

It was Peter Whalley, then, who saved Caissa’s honor by defeating Keung Yeung Chun, showing the draw last week against the highest rated player Brian Dew was not a coincidence.

Peter handled the sharp 4. Bc4 variation against Keung Yeung’s Alekhine such that the small advantages accumulated (after moves like 7. … c6) resulted into constant pressure and a pawn win and finally the full point.

Next round Peter meets another Master, Chak Man Chan, on his way to glory …

Hong Kong Chess Championship 2013 Preliminaries Round 1

January 29th, 2013

On Monday, 28 January, the first round of the Preliminaries was scheduled to start at 6:30pm but an overwhelming interest in the last moments took the organizers by surprise.

The good news for Hong Kong chess was obviously that more people had come than expected (read: timely registered), whereas the bad news was that allowing all these people to join would exceed the Fire Ordinance maximum.

Next time, register timely so the organizers can look into sourcing additional locations in time.

Full House at Hong Kong Chess Championship 2013 Preliminaries Round 1

With 49 players then, round 1 started at 7pm, with some noteworthy bits and pieces:

With Javier Martin Perez from Spain we have another Fide Master participating …
Youth player Benjamin Oh defeated 1963 Fide rated Sigappi Kannappan
Hysan Wong held a draw against Candidate Master Chak Man Chan
Caissa’s pride, Peter Whalley, caused another casualty at master level by drawing against Fide Master Brian Dew who with a Fide rating of 2226 is the highest rated participant
Caissa’s female pride Hannah Ball won her game against Brian Wong convincingly
‘Almost-Caissa member’ from Discovery Bay, Jean-Sebastien Bret, could not hold the game against the typical Chor Yuen Chong style of gradually accumulating small advantages
Caissa’s David Garceran Nieuwenburg won against Jefferson Lee in a hard-fought Sokolsky in which Jefferson lost a piece in the endgame by exchanging rooks in the wrong order

After round 1 the ranking is as follows:

Results and Rank after Round 1

Hong Kong Chess Championship 2013 Preliminaries – Participant List Published

January 25th, 2013

The list of registered players counted 46 for the Hong Kong Chess Championship 2013 Preliminaries. Round 1: Monday 28 January.

Alberto Muniz Pardino - Sportmanship

Last year’s top players, Hong Ki Tsang, Andrew Koenigsberg, Bryan Lee and Alberto Muniz Pardino were pre-qualified for the Finals. Alberto, however, opted out of his right to pre-qualify and he will play again, all the way from the bottom. That mindset we appreciate! With already so little play in Hong Kong, missing out 9 games of chess in these preliminaries seems a waste of an opportunity. Alberto has a true chess heart. And he runs (or ran?) Marathons …

By the way, ‘all the way from the bottom’, doesn’t mean a walk in the park. With Brian Dew, Luen-Wah Luk and Chak Man Chan we have three masters participating.

Also, 19 of the 46 players are rated and of the non-rated players there are a some strong performers from various tournaments held last year, including some talented youth players.

From Caissa we have Peter Whalley, Hannah Ball and David Garceran Nieuwenburg participating who together with Jean-Sebastien Bret will be tasked to defend Discovery Bay’s honor.

We’ll do our best.