Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

Hong Kong Players Very Successful in the Shenzhen Nanao 4 Regions Cross-Strait Tournament

July 30th, 2015

Hong Kong Delegation

With 8 players and 6 accompanying adults we set out on Sunday 26 to play in the Nanao Cup 2015, an event deep in Shenzhen inviting players from Shenzhen, Macao, Taiwan and Hong Kong to join. While at the venue we found more players from Hong Kong and as such we had a good representation.

Crowded with over 250 Participants …

Briefing … touch move, 3 times illegal is losing and cross your fingers is draw offer …

The event attracted over 250 players (spread out over the age categories U6, U7, U8, U10, U12 and an Open group) who awaited a gruesome 9 rounds of chess in just 3 days.

But the Hong Kong players were up for the task.

In the U6 Group we had Caissa’s upcoming star Mahir, who learned how to play chess just a few months ago, ending 6th place with 5 points – and he received a medal for this result. That is an excellent result as particularly in this age group Chinese youth is comparatively strong.

Mahir warming up in the lobby with new friends from Shenzhen

Mahir and his dad ready for the next round

In the U7 group we had Zig and Thanneermalai play for Hong Kong. When Thanneermalai had gotten used to the magnetic chess boards and small sized pieces on the last day he was unstoppable with 3 straight wins. Together with his earlier 2 wins he collected 5 points to end on 12th place. Well done!

Thanneermalai with pep-talking mom and sister

Zig was our other player in U7 and he played like a bulldozer. With 7 points he ended impressively on the 2nd place and received a nice trophy. Very impressive Zig!

Zig with his brother Ngai and his dad

Zig confident every time before going into action!

We had no players in U8 but in U10 we had our Caissa gunners Miguel Angel and Mei Jing. And they lived up to their reputation.

Because Mei Jing lost her last game she fell down to 15th place but still on 5th place of all girls with 5 points. As such she still got a medal. Good job Mei Jing!

Mei Jing thinking a few moves ahead already against seemingly nervous opponent …

Yes Mei Jing – you still got a prize!

Miguel Angel played a great tournament. He lost once, coming just 1 move short in a pawn end game, and he drew once. The level of his play was very high and with 7.5 points he ended 2nd place! Miguel Angel got a chance to put his new opening to practice in this strong field. Great preparation for the Open Dutch next week. Well done Miguel!

Miguel Angel with Melvin and Matthew – what is that we’re eating? A fish eye ball!

Miguel Angel - Hong Kong's U10 star player: lonely at the top?

Miguel Angel – Hong Kong’s U10 Lone Wolf star player

In the U12 category we had Ngai and Kannamai from Hong Kong. Kannamai scored 3 points and managed to get a 6th prize medal for girls. Good job Kannamai.

Kannamai in deep concentration

Kannammai on the stage - can you spot the proud dad?

Kannamai on the stage – spot the proud dad …

Ngai scored just below 50% and with 4 points ended 19th in this very strong age group. Not bad at all Ngai – this is truly a strong age group.

Mahir, Mei Jing, Miguel, Zig and Ngai with proud Caissa President David Garceran NIeuwenburg

Mahir, Mei Jing, Miguel, Zig and Ngai with proud Caissa and HKCF President David

In the Open category we had Caissa’s star player U16 Melvin and star coach IM Matthew Tan defending our honor.

Melvin scored 3 points by playing a handful of draws. Some bad luck kept him from more points but as this event was in preparation for the Dutch Open Melvin will join next week, the experience was very much worthwhile for him. With a little adventurous play we will see the best of him in Holland.

Melvin in action

Melvin overseeing the outdoor late evening analysis by Matthew

Matthew, among the top 3 in this group, all with 8 points, ended 2nd place on tie-break. Great score Matthew!

Matthew in action

David handing out the prizes in the Open group – this one goes to Matthew!

Prize winners Nanao Cup 2015

Unfortunately no prizes for battle chess ...

In the meanwhile … battle chess in the lobby…

David receiving a commemorative plaque for Caissa and HKCF

David with a commemorative plaque for Caissa and HKCF

Thanks all, players, parents, organizers. It was a great event in very good atmosphere. We’ll be back!

First 7 players registered for Open Dutch Youth Championship

June 2nd, 2015

The Open Dutch Youth Championship is now only 2 months away. We have 7 Caissa kids enrolled and with over 10 accompanying persons joining our Hong Kong Bauhinia should create an impact among the Dutch tulips!

Melvin, one of the top scorers in the Secondary section of the HKJCC inter-school, and doing well in our Friday Spring Open, will play in Group B, 1999 or later.

Jasmine and James will play in Group D, 2003 or later.

Miguel Angel, Dutch Champion 2 years ago in Group G, is our player in group E, born in 2005 .

Harold and Mei Jing will play in Group F, born in 2006.

Jinwen, current School World Champion U7, will aim for his next title in Group H, born in 2008 or later.

Of course coach Matthew will also be in Holland to support our team.

If still interested to join – do let us know!

Caissa Starts Preparing HK Youth who Participate in the FIDE World School Championship

April 20th, 2015

World School Championship 2015 - Pattaya Thailand

The official site of the FIDE World School Chess Championship 2015 is up and running and the start of this mega chess event is only some two weeks away.

In an earlier post we listed the players who are going to represent Hong Kong in this event and we are glad to see we have another Caissa student join, Aaditya Kadam, former U7 Hong Kong National Champion.

What will we be / are we doing in preparation?

All our Caissa kids have already started with extensive training with our coach IM Matthew Tan and rest assure that our friends who do not train with Caissa have also been sitting around the board already, training with their coach IM Marcos Llaneza.

Both coaches Matthew and Marcos will join the players in Pattaya to support them also on the spot.

IM Matthew Tan training the Caissa Girls Anika and Mei Jing

As for Caissa, our training is done in groups of 2, max 3, players. Richard with Miguel Angel, Anika with Mei Jing, Aaditya with Alan, Miguel Angel also with Aaditya and so on. Each session is 90 minutes and covers all aspects of chess. With 1.5-4.5 hours training per week, complemented with 1-2 weekly games of Standard chess, the players have already invested a lot of their precious time into the preparation in the past weeks. Applause!

On Saturday May 2 (still tentative) we intend to hold a parent information evening, not only for Caissa student parents but all HK players parents are welcome, to prepare both players and accompanying persons on what to expect, daily routines, when to analyze games, social activities, joint meal taking etc.

On Sunday May 3 we will have a practice inter-land chess match via internet playchess.com against top youth from Holland (playing at European Championship at that time). From 4pm-8pm eight of our players divided in 2 teams of 4 players will play a round robin of 4 rounds against their Dutch opponents and after each round the individual games will be analyzed in the group with Matthew.

Our 8 players from Caissa students/members are:

Richard
James
Miguel Angel
Aaditya
Mei Jing
Anika
Harold
Alan

We will stream the event on Youtube for anyone to watch!

Finally, within 1-2 weeks before departure (exact time still to be scheduled) we will have a 2x 2 hours training and preparation with all Caissa students together, for bonding and team spirit. Individual tailored players report will be created by Matthew to enhance strengths and avoid weaknesses at the event.

We are getting ready …

Caissa Successful in Shenzhen – 4 players win prizes

October 19th, 2014

Caissa players Joseph, Mei Jing, David, Miguel Angel, Koji and Richard

Last Saturday, 6 players and 2 supporters from Caissa crossed the border into Shenzhen early in the morning. The first round started at 9am and a total of 5 rounds were played until 5pm. With 2 more rounds on Sunday this was an action packed chess weekend.

The location of the event was a very nice school, and the hotel right around the corner was excellent, but also somewhat out of the way of residential facilities and it took quite a while to get a taxi to take us to Coco Park where some of our Shenzhen friends play outdoor chess and where we would have dinner.

Dinner at Coco Park

Nonetheless, over 2 days Mei Jing took the tournament seriously and scored 6 out of 7 ending second overall in group C among 120 players, also winning the first prize in the Girls category. Bravo Mei Jing!

Mei Jing (left) Best Girl with 6 out of 7

In the highest youth group Richard and Miguel Angel defended our honour with all they had. Miguel Angel had a glitch halfway the event and it was Richie who stayed on top of the pack until the last round, when he lost. Both Richard and Miguel Angel ended with 5.5 out of 7 within the prize range, 3rd and 7th respectively. Well done boys!

Richie 3rd and Miguel Angel 7th both with 5.5 out of 7.

In the Open Group, with a handful adults, including 2400+ rated International Master Li Bo who ended 6th in the recent HK International Open, and dozens of strong youth players, Koji and Joseph started off with a loss. Koji could not really find his rythm but Joseph, the player in form in our Autumn Open, recovered well and towards the end of the tournament with 5 out of 7 ended on 9th place. David started off very well with 3 out of 3 but lost 2 consecutive games after that, in an unnecessary fashion. His recovery on the second day with 2 wins pushed him up to 7th place with 5 points, like Joseph, and within prize range.

David, on behalf of Caissa, receives a plaque, token of appreciation

This was a very nice event, with hundreds of young players, well disciplined and clearly enjoying their weekend behind their board and pieces. What else can you ask as organizer. Well done Huateng Chess Club.

HK – Macao Interport Postponed

October 19th, 2014

The planned 16 November 2014 traditional Interport Chess match between Macao and Hong Kong, to be hosted by Caissa in Hong Kong, has to be postponed because as of now the Hong Kong Chess Federation have still not announced the date of the Hong Kong Junior Championships which normally take place in November.

In order to avoid possibly unnecessary logistics and dissapointment like happened before, we have agreed with the Macao Chess Federation to pick a date in the first quarter of 2015.

It would be helpful if HKCF start to publish a yearly, or at least half yearly calendar of their few, but important youth events, around which other organizers can work for their tournaments.

Here are two events we previously organized:

December 2013 edition: Macao Wins
March 2013 edition: Hong Kong Wins

Guangzhou East Lake Chess Academy Wins the Caissa CNY Cup

February 17th, 2014

Guangzhou wins the Caissa CNY Cup 2014

In a busy and energetic match between 16 youth players from Hong Kong and Guangzhou our guests from Guangzhou scored 34 points and defeated the home team with 30 points.

Under 8

Our team in this age group consisted of our top 5 players in the U7 championship last year, including our national champion Aaditya who made his mark by scoring 4 wins out of 4 to receive the top scorer prize in the U8 group.

Under 8 Players – Aaditya’s white queen looks very active …

Staring Stand-off …

Mei Jing also played a strong tournament winning 3 times and together with Harold’s 2 points and Steven’s win the Hong Kong team won the U8 age category prize with a score of 10 to 6.

Well done all!

Under 10

In this age category both James and Rachel had won all their 4 games and in their decisive 5 minutes blitz it was James who won to collect the top scorer prize.

U10 Group – All eyes on Ronald’s board …

Ronald and Miguel Angel’s score of 3 and 1.5 points respectively resulted in our very strong line-up to gross 12.5 points out of 16 and to win this age group prize.

Under 12

Despite some late minute changes, and thank you Mike for stepping in at only half a day’s notice, our line up was complete with 4 good players with solid experience. However, the Guangzhou team had also brought in 4 of their best and today our boys just could not find the right rhythm.

U12 Group in action

The age group prize went to the Gangzhou team and the individual top scorer prize went to Zheng Jia Tong after he won a decisive blitz match against his team mate Zhu Qin Zhou who had also scored 4 wins.

Under 14-16

The players in this age group remained very close the entire match and most of the wins were decided in the last minutes of the game, hence, the time control factor was significant.

U14-16 Group serious and focussed

Benjamin in Thought

Yee Chit with 3 points was our team’s top scorer. Raphael, probably the youngest in this age group, scored a solid 2 points and Benjamin won his last game solidly having avoided the time control pressure that in the previous games were a major factor in the outcome. Melvin, this time, couldn’t find a winning chance.

The age group prize went to Guangzhou as did the individual top scorer prize that went to Xie Tan who scored the full 4 points.

Congratulations to our friends from East Lake Guangzhou and we look forward to the return match.

Guangzhou Happy Winners

Hong Kong team U14-16 (left to right): Raphael, Melvin, Benjamin and Yee Chit

Under 14-16 Age Group Winners Guangzhou Team

U12 Team (left to right): Arjun, Oliver and Ernest (missing Mike)

U12 Age Group Winners Guangzhou Team

Under 10 Age group Winners Hong Kong team (left to right): Miguel Angel, James, Rachel and Ronald

Under 10 Guangzhou Team

Under 8 Guangzhou Team

Hong Kong Team Ready to meet Guangzhou Team at Caissa on Saturday

February 9th, 2014

In an earlier preview we announced the traditional-around-Chinese-New-Year match between Hong Kong youth and Guangzhou youth to take place on Saturday 15 February. We are glad to organize this at our Sheung Wan chess club location and we look forward to the match

The confirmed Hong Kong team is as follows:

Under 8 (after 1 January 2006)

Harold Kwong
Mei Jing Garceran Wang
Steven Chun Shing Kong
Aaditya Kadam

Under 10 (after 1 January 2004)

Miguel Angel Garceran Wang
James Kwong
Ronald Choy
Rachel Lu

Under 12 (after 1 January 2002)

Richard Takasumi
Pak Shing Ernest Cheung
Oliver Yau
Nathan Arjun

Under 14-16 (after 1 January 1998)

Raphael Chang
Benjamin Oh
Melvin Cheung
Yee Chit Wong

Good luck all!

Interport Caissa Pearl Delta Cup Stays in Macao

December 2nd, 2013

The Pearl Delta Cup 2013 and other Prizes

On a beautiful Saturday morning 16 Hong Kong youth chess players and 23 accompanying supporters took the ferry to Macao to play in the Hong Kong – Macao Interport Chess Match and defend the Pearl Delta Cup the Hong Kong team had won in the home match on 2 March 2013.

In Macao, Jose Silvereinho, the President of the Macao Chess Federation, welcomed us at the ferry terminal and with a coach bus he had arranged we were smoothly brought to the chess venue about 15 minutes before start of the first game. The venue turned out to be a very nice place, provided to the Macao Chess Federation by the government several years ago, with our opponents and their supporters awaiting us.

Hong Kong Team at Macao Ferry Terminal

Jose had already let know that this time Macao’s line up was the strongest possible with 11 out of their 16 players representing Macao at the World Youth Chess Championship in Al Ain in December 2013 …

Our line-up was still very solid and the reason why most of our youth do not participate (we do have 2 Caissa players representing Hong Kong) in the World Youth is not related to lack of quality but more so the absence of government support into the Hong Kong Chess Federation to subsidize the costs, e.g., with 80% like the Macao government does.

If there was any worry about our line-up, it was related to the fact that seven of our players had to play in older age categories. But all seven were Hong Kong’s top players in their age categories and they would surely put up a fight one age group up.

The tournament was played over 4 rounds, a round robin, meaning that all players would play against all 4 opponents in their group.

Our U6-U8 team with Harold, Mei Jing, Regis and Maxwell faced very strong opposition. Despite some very impressive wins of several of our players, the Macao team won this age group convincingly. Yet, Mei Jing, with her 2 points, won the best girl trophy and saved our honor.

Regis, Max, Harold and Mei Jing – Tension before Start of the Game

James Watches with Interest How Mei Jing Slowly Improves her Position

Our U10 team with Marco, Rachel, Miguel Angel and Gerent was our best performing team. We won the age group prize, also because we had a very strong Marco score 3.5 points and as a side effect collected the individual 1^st prize – well done! Rachel, Miguel Angel, Gerent and a Macao player had all scored 2 points and had to play a tie-break round robin for 3^rd prize which was won by the Macao player. The 2 points for Rachel, however, entitled her to get the best girl trophy and as such in this age group we grossed three prizes!

Rachel, Gerent, Miguel Angel and Marco Highly Concentrated

Our U12 team with James, Ray, Samira and Bryant faced probably the strongest Macao team relative to age. James was able to score a couple of points here but unfortunately, apart from Ray who courageously played his first tournament, the fact that our other three players were younger than U12, and much less experienced on the whole, took its toll.

Regis, Samira, James and Bryant Start Round 2

Ray, Samira, James and Bryant Start Round 2

Samira and Ray somewhat nervous – background Richard and Melvin ready(ing)

Our U14 team, with Melvin, Katrina, Edrien and Richard, put up great resistance. All players scored some points. After 4 rounds Richard had to play a tie-break for first place which he lost to a much older and more experienced player and Katrina had a tie-break match for third prize which she unfortunately lost on time before she could start check mating her opponent with a queen up in the end game.

Richard, Melvin, Edrien and Katrina Ready

Macao deservedly won and many congratulations to our Macao friends. We were glad to have participated in a very well-organized match in a friendly atmosphere and we look forward to meet again next year, which will be a home match.

Macao Chess Federation had Prepared Lunch after 2 Rounds

On our organization side, we will try to improve on the recruitment of our players, via e.g., an open registration, to avoid that too many players have to play an age group up – as this is a significant influencing factor. Apologies.

The Play-off Games

Some Trophies and Medals for Everyone. But the Cup (Middle Photo in Jose’s Hands) Stays in Macao …

Updated (10/6) – Richard Takasumi Defends Hong Kong in 14th ASEAN in Thailand

June 7th, 2013

After James Kwong in Maribor, Miguel Angel and Mei Jing Garceran Wang in Halkidiki it is now Richard Takasumi, the 2012 Youth Blitz Champion of Caissa Discovery Bay and number 2 of Hong Kong Under 10, to represent Hong Kong in an international FIDE organized youth championship: the 14th ASEAN Age Group Championship.

Richard Takasumi Defending the Hong Kong Flag

The rapid and blitz tournaments on 6 and 7 June have wrapped up and the remainder of the tournament is standard play. An update mail from Richard’s father we interpret as Q&A as follows:

Q: How did Richard do in the rapid and blitz sections?

A: In the rapid (25 mins) and blitz Richie scored 4/7 and 5/9 respectively. Not bad in a decent field with around 10 players rated 1500+ and a lot more unrated players of similar strength.

Q: How does Richard feel participating in this tournament?

A: Richie is having a good time, in the first round of the blitz he was so excited that the clock and pieces were knocked over the board!

He is putting in a good effort in all his games and he is looking forward to the main event so he can take his time and think about his strategies more.

From the remainder of the update we understand that the venue and organization have been great. The only negative seems to be that Richard, being the only player from Hong Kong, is massively outmanned by the other teams.

We fully agree with Richard’s father that it would be great to do these events as a group. Time and again we find our Hong Kong youth in a disadvantaged and isolated position against players from national squads who are trained and prepped and even proudly clothed in country uniforms from their national federations.

In any case, even without any extra element of such support, Richard has shown some fireworks in several games, of which below is from rapid round 2: the board is completely on fire! No matter the result, we at Caissa are proud to see such fighter spirit representing Hong Kong.

After a slow warming up in the first 2 rounds of the standard chess main event Richard now has 2 out of 4. In the last game, with white against a Thai opponent playing Petroff’s defense, Richard’s combination of a 21. right-hook h4, 22. left hook Na4 and 24. uppercut sacrifice Re6x was too much for black to take. Courageous play. Well done Richie!

School World Chess Championship 2013: Mei Jing Garceran Wang ends 5th of the world in Girls U7!

May 17th, 2013

The School World Chess Championship 2013 in Halkidiki, Greece, has come to an end. Hong Kong’s official delegates to that championship, our Caissa players Miguel Angel Garceran Wang (U9 category) and his sister Mei Jing Garceran Wang (U7 girls category) had a great learning experience on and off the board spread out over 10 days and 9 rounds of tough chess.

The venue, Porto Carras is, at a distance of 1.5 hours drive away from the airport of Thessaloniki deep into a “tentacle” of one of the many peninsulas, a very remote place. With just one small tourist-less village nearby and with less than a handful of even smaller lifeless hamlets scattered around elsewhere, participants had little choice but to stay in the self-contained resort set-up. The weather partly rainy, and when the sun shone, too cold to swim, was good for indoor and some outdoor preparation for the chess event.

Preparation in the only nearby village easily accessible by ferry or car

The so-called 5-stars hotels at Porto Carras, impressive from the outside, reflected a troublesome state of maintenance with leaking roofs, elevators clearly in need of a touch-up, unstable wifi, malfunctioning aircons and various other small issues challenging the 5-star status. However, the 3 meals a day were well organized with a diverse choice of food and, in general, the service from and the attitude of the Greek were very pleasant and easy-going.

The tournament itself was, somewhat unfortunately for a world championship, completely unceremonious, but well organized and without incident.

Ready for round 1: special support from grandpa who came over from Holland

OPEN U9

Miguel Angel started off round 1 with a strong (rated 1616) player from England, Aditya Verma. Playing the Veresov-Richter attack, Miguel Angel came well out of the opening but made a positional mistake by going for a king side attack after black’s weak move 5. … Qa5: the center breakthrough was necessary to avoid havoc from the black knight eyeing a route via b6 to c4.

In game 3, against (1707 rated) Roumanian Stefan Taga similarly, Miguel having maneuvered his Philidor defense well through known waters, gave away both his win and draw chances by not trading pieces off towards an opposite colored bishop ending. Such is the level at a world championship like this in this age group that positional misjudgments become fatal.

Stefan Taga and Miguel Angel ready for their match in round 3.

Miguel Angel’s critical positions in round 1 and round 3

In the forthcoming rounds Miguel Angel would play strongly and whereas his wins were convincing, his losses were at times avoidable like the ones in round 1 and 3. It must also be said that lack of proper night rest could have affected the concentration. Both his father/coach, sick and bedridden for several days, and his sister, sick with an ongoing cough, kept the whole company in a light sleep for a whole week.

With 4 points Miguel Angel ended 45th of the world U9, but the learning from playing and analyzing the games was in any case invaluable and worth the efforts of getting to Porto Carras. Not bad Miguel Angel, as 8 years old in this age group!

GIRLS U7

Mei Jing started off with a solid 1.5 out of 3. The second game’s loss, in a winning position against Azarbaidzan Bailarova Jala, heralded a coming cough-flue though, that caught Mei Jing off balance, losing in round 4 against Mongolian Enkhasaran Batsaikhan with a queen up and in round 5 against United Arab Emirates Almaamari Zainab Darwish with a piece and pawn up.

Mei Jing’s winning positions in round 4 and 5 unfortunately did not translate into wins

Mei Jing’s recovery, despite midnight coughs of several hours, after round 5 was very strong. With 4 wins in a row in rounds 6 through 9 Mei Jing became 5th in the world for girls U7 and bring her medal home to Hong Kong. Well done Mei Jing!

Mei Jing ready for round 9 which turned into a crucial win against Sri Lanka Gamage M Nuwathi Silva

Mei Jing (3rd left) among the prize winners

Miguel somewhat disappointed but Mei Jing happy with her prizes among a proud mom and granddad