Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

Tag Archives: hong kong open 2014 local

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 15th 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 2nd best Hong Kong player in the International Open ending on 21st place.

 

hkopenlocal2014

 

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.

 

Pairing Round 4

Caissa Autumn Open 2014 Pairing Round 4

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