Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

Welcome to the New Season

August 19th, 2015

Welcome back all! We are about ready for the start the 2015-16 season. First lessons commencing on Saturday 22 August.

We do have some changes though. After 3 years of experience, we now have a better feeling of what works. As such we have decided to discontinue the membership system for only playing on Saturday in DB from 1.30pm.

Instead of membership, we will focus on increasing quality of play so our students remain interested as they learn more. We have occasionally seen interest go down with members who only play once a week for an hour and thus make no motivating progress. We will simply follow many other activities or sports like musical instruments, football, rugby or tennis where training is an integral part of the activity, before and during competition – in fact, no competition when no training seems a healthy norm.

While from September 2015 on we will thus focus on training we will also introduce a “Last Saturday of the Month” (in DB) and “Last Sunday of the Month” (in Sheung Wan) competition, only for our students enrolled in a course. Our students will thus, on a monthly basis, still be able to practice what has been learned. Saturday DB students can participate in the Sunday SW competition and the other way around. Private students or students at other locations can join also in both the DB and the SW last week of the month competition. We will give out small prizes like a trophy or medal for each such monthly competition.

All our students will be entitled to the discounts for Caissa events that were given to members previously.

Note finally that classes will start in August but only on Saturday and Sunday as per last year’s schedule. From September on we will start with a more extensive schedule which will also include weekdays after school both in DB and SW.

The tentative training schedule is already online and we aim to have the finalized training schedule for September finished by the end of this week. In the meanwhile I hope to start seeing some of you already this weekend!

National Blitz Championship 2015: four National Champions from Caissa

June 28th, 2015

HKCF National Blitz 2015

The Hong Kong Chess Federation 1st National Blitz Championship was an important event in various ways. It would, for the first time in decades, hand out formal National Champion titles and as such formal entitlement to represent Hong Kong in international events. Also, the event was FIDE rated and along the youth age categories there was this time also an Open section for adults.

And the event was a great success for Caissa players, young and old! We already alluded to the fact that some of our players were smoking hot on our chess party yesterday, such that prizes would seriously expected to be within reach, the actual results were better than we could expect.

NA Sydney Lai gives instructions to the youth section

In U8 we only had 2 Caissa students, Seth and Mahir. Mahir, among the youngest in this age group, played his first tournament and scored 3 points but gained lots of experience which is the only goal in your first tournament. Seth, whose strength lies in longer chess games, with 6 points out of 11 had a good tournament in a 3 minutes + 2 seconds time control.

Congratulations to the top 3, Steven, Zeth and Samach who all played in one of the Caissa YGP events and scored well there too. Here are all results of U8.

In U10 we had our hot shot students Samuel, Kevin, Meijing, Aaditya and Miguel Angel lined up with Caissa member Harold.

Miguel Angel proved to be strongest player in this age group: congratulations Champ! Aaditya ended 4th just one place out of a prize. Meijing became Girl Champion – there was unfortunately only one girl. We are very proud of all our students who scored many points. Also congrats to our long time chess friends Adrian and Gerent with their 2nd and 3rd place.

Miguel Angel National Blitz Champion U10!

Mei Jing U10 Champion Girl 2015

In U12 our Caissa gunners were Jay, Richard and Oliver. Jay has had very limited practice in 3 minutes + 2 seconds but still managed to score 4 points.

Although in the direct confrontation Oliver beat Richard, it was Richard who managed to stay on top after 11 rounds impressively defeating all other top 6 players. Oliver just fell out of prizes on 4th place and big congrats to Richard with his National Champion title.

Richard National Blitz Champion U12

All other players were pooled in the Open group. From Caissa we had Tejpal, Koji, Conrad, Melvin and Long participating.

Tejpal just (re)started chess recently and this tournament is for him to oil his engine. The 3.5 points scored is not bad after a very long time hiatus. Koji and Conrad managed to score 5 points, just short of 50% ending solidly in the middle range.

The U16 and other age categories higher than U12 were pooled in the Open and Melvin with 5.5 points ended 6th place overall but that score brought him the title of National Champion U16. Well done Melvin, we are proud of you!

In Open, Long, our 2 times in a row Caissa champion in our Friday evening cycles, ended 2nd place and was the only person to draw against the new National Champion Daniel. Well done Long! And congratulations to our friend Daniel too.

Melvin U16 National Blitz Champion

Long Open National Blitz Runner Up

Long You Champion Winter 2015 – Miguel Angel 2nd and David 3rd

March 2nd, 2015

Last Friday, in the 7th and last round, Long was leading with 5 points but he was not present and David with 4 points on 2nd place was not playing either. Therefore the top 3 positions were not secured until the very last game ended.

That game was between Melvin and Miguel Angel. If Melvin would win he would join Miguel Angel and David with 4 points and depending on the results of James and Henry, this could mean a prize…

The last game of the tournament: Melvin with white against Miguel Angel in Round 7

However in an endgame with strong queen attack that was en route to be winning for Melvin, Miguel Angel lured Melvin’s white king towards the middle of the board into checkmate.

The other key match that could still change the ranking in the top 3 was between Koji and James. Gradually pieces went off the board until a 2 rooks vs. 5 pawns endgame was left in which Koji managed to stay more precise, winning a few pawns and the game.

Koji with white against James and Ray with white in the background against Henry

Conrad with white against Michel

Although there were no prizes at stake in the games between Henry and Ray and Conrad and Michel – both boards showed dynamic positions. While Michel with black pressed his h and g pawns far up, supported by a rook, piece and queen, Conrad suffered a piece loss. After this his play through the middle was insufficient to prevent a stampede of the well coordinated black pieces trampling the white king.

In the game between Ray and Henry it was Ray who was slamming on the door of the black king with his pawns pushed up all the way to h5 and g5, supported by queen and pieces. However, Ray chose to break the black protective pawns in front of the black king in peril by playing g6 instead of h6. This made a difference of day and night as Henry freed up his Rh8 after capturing f7xg6 and with his active queen and knight was able to execute a decisive attack on the queen side.

With these results, Long stayed number 1 and became Champion with 5 points. Miguel Angel, single digits in age, ended also with 5 points and collected 2nd prize (and counted and recounted his 750HKD prize money …). David with 4 points ended 3rd. Trophies will be given next week.

Thanks all for the good atmosphere and several fine games played over the board.

Final Ranking Caissa Winter 2015 Open

Cross table after 7 rounds

Long You Stays on Top but …

February 24th, 2015

After Long beat James in their encounter before CNY, Long has freed himself a full point from his followers. However, as Long will not be in town this Friday the top 3 places are not settled at all yet.

See below for ranking after round 6 and pairing round 7…

Cross Table after Round 6

Pairing Round 7

Return to Business as Usual after Golden Week

October 8th, 2014

The first week of October is traditionally, with the National Day on October 1 and the following Chung Yeung festival, a golden opportunity to combine those national holidays with a weekend and enjoy a nice break.

This year the occupation by demonstrators of key traffic arteries in Hong Kong required some maneuvering of plans for many people. But not for those participating in the biggest yearly chess tournament in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong International Open, as always planned during this Golden Week. The event, with a handsome prize fund this year from the Kasparov Foundation, took place at Hong Kong University in Pok Fu Lam, away from the crowds.

Although here and there some of the local players suddenly had to report duty at work because of the demonstrations, of course affecting their results, by and large the tournament went smoothly and as expected with a dozen or so overseas GMs, IMs, FMs and CMs participating, the top spots were out if reach for the locals. Only one Hong Kong player managed to get in the top 20: congratulations to Alberto for his 15^th place with 6 points.

Alberto Muniz - higehst scoring among HK Players

Alberto Muniz, highest scoring player among HK Players – by the way, can you spot the 3 Caissa players in their white club shirts (photo borrowed from Cyrus Lai’s Facebook)

The Hong Kong Local Open on Mondays in Queen Elisabeth Stadium, close to the demonstration zone, remains a challenge to get to for some players – including Caissa’s Michel who had to forfeit twice. Nonetheless, round 6 was played last Monday and also here Alberto did good business by defeating Jake and he is with Brian 1.5 points loose from the competition. An interesting game next week will be between Brian and Caissa’s David and Alberto against Chor Yuen, who was the 2^nd best Hong Kong player in the International Open ending on 21^st place.

On a smaller scale, the Caissa Autumn Open 2014 will also proceed with round 4 on Friday 10 October. Koji, Richard and Long have requested a BYE. The other 5 boards will surely produce some exciting games.

Business as usual.

Caissa Autumn Open 2014 Pairing Round 4

Ready for Start of New Season

August 12th, 2014

We welcome everybody back and we look forward to season 2014-15 which promises to become action packed with chess activities.

In addition to our Saturday club competition in Discovery Bay we will be organizing 10 tournaments spread out over the season covering one weekend day blitz and rapid events as well as 7 rounds standard chess tournaments spread out over 7 weeks. For youth, Grand Prix points can be earned which will entitle the top performers to a fully sponsored trip to a major chess event abroad, likely the Open Dutch Youth Championship in summer 2015. At this event our Caissa’s Miguel Angel became Dutch Open Champion in U8 (Group G) last year and in August this year he did very well again to become 2nd place in the U9 (Group F) category. Let’s get some more prizes to Hong Kong next year!

We will continue to organize friendly club team matches against our sister clubs from Macao and various clubs scattered around in Southern China and we will try to expand our reach further.

At this moment we are recruiting participants to join in the team tournament in Singapore on 6-7 September. As Caissa member you will be sponsored 1,000HK$ for this trip. Enroll now to become member (youth only 1,250HK$ per year)!

Caissa Team 1 in Last Year’s Event

From Friday we will start our courses – please enroll online for the courses starting this weekend if you haven’t done so yet.

On coming Saturday 16 August we will officially start the season by handing out trophies to the top performers of 2013-14.

In the Intermediate Group Ian will receive 1st Prize and And Joshua 2nd Prize and both can play in the Advanced Group.

In the Beginners Group the 1st Prize goes to Wo Hang, 2nd prize to Alex and 3rd prize to Kian. All three players will go to the Intermediate Group.

A trophy for the Most Improved Player will go to Seth who in record tempo finished Step 1 from Scratch and managed to score 304 Keizer System points in just 13 games.

Final Ranking 2013-14 Season and Prize Winners

Joshua and Ian lead Intermediate Group and Wo Hang and Seth lead Beginners Group

May 26th, 2014

After 26 rounds, and with the last competition day on 28 June closing near, we slowly see the contours of the end ranking and potential prize winners. Note that we have 2 prizes (trophies) for the Intermediate group: both are allowed to go to the Advanced group next season. In the Beginners group we have 3 trophies and all 3 winners will enter the Intermediate Group.

Lucas and Suneh watch how the Bryant seems to be faring well again Mei Jing with Wilson vs. Jing Miguel Angel vs. James in the background studied by standing Koji.

Lucas and Suneh watch how Bryant seems to be faring well again Mei Jing with Wilson vs. Jing and Miguel Angel vs. James in the background studied by standing Koji.

With Ian’s and Jay’s absence in the Intermediate group Joshua overtook Ian and Lucas pushed himself up into the top by beating two of the highest ranked players.

Despite being absent in the Beginners group, Wo Hang remains ahead of both Seth and both Alexes but the gap is closing …

Rank after 26 Rounds

Ian consolidates top spot position

May 10th, 2014

On the 5th consecutive day of rain, thunderstorms and ligthing our 10 May club meeting started with discussing rooks – a thundering white rook that had penetrated onto the 7th rank versus the black rook miserably protecting its b-pawn from b8.

Discussing the Relative Value of Rooks

In the middle Suneh watches Ian warm up with Chor Wei up before Round 19

Maximilien warming up with white against Joshua – on the second board we see creative play with the black queen from Alex M against Saga …

In round 19 Joshua did good business to walk into a stalemate against Ian and Jay scored an important win against Suneh. Seth managed to play out his advantage on the board against Roshan before his time was up and as such Seth climbed further up, meeting the player in top form, Ian, in round 20. Ian won this game.

Round 19 Results

Round 20 Results

Jay beat Kian and Joshua beat Maximilien in round 20 which resulted in Wo Hang, who was absent in the last 2 rounds, moving to 4th place. It is not clear who can stop Ian from becoming champion but the race is still full on for the 2nd and 3rd place.

Ranking after 20 Rounds

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

Club Reopens Saturday 8 February – Happy Chinese New Year!

January 30th, 2014