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

Prize Giving Ceremony / Party to Celebrate end of Spring Cycle Series

June 26th, 2015

Yesterday we concluded the last prize winning ceremony of this season by handing out the prizes to the winners of the Spring Open, held on Friday evenings.

All players of the Friday Autumn, Winter and Spring events were invited to join the prize giving and enjoy some snacks, including famous Dutch fingerfood, authentic from the only Dutch restaurant (Orange Tree) in town. Of course, this was a good moment also to play some blitz chess in preparation for the next day’s National Blitz Championships.

Social Blitz with Dutch snacks in the foreground

In this Spring Cycle we had Matthew Tan joining, but he would not play for any prize. However, it was great to have an IM playing with us and analyzing with his opponents where they went wrong … and as a thank you we found it appropriate to give him an Honorary Champion prize.

Readying for the Prize Ceremony

The Prize Winners

Matthew receives his prize form David will Tejpal manages to bring his son Mahir back ... Mahir is hungry now and surely we'll see more from him without any need to hold him back!

Matthew receives his prize from David while Tejpal manages to bring his son Mahir back … Mahir is hungry now and surely we’ll see more from him without any need to hold him back!

Long You managed to prolong his Winter Champion title and was a convincing Champion of the Spring Open. Congrats Long!

Henry and Melvin tied for 2nd and 3rd place but Henry won the tie-break. Well done to both and glad to see Melvin seems very ready for the Open Dutch where he will be playing in the Caissa shirt in the U16 category.

Matthew hands out Champion Prize to Long You

Henry receives 2nd Prize from Matthew

Melvin gets 3rd Prize from Matthew

After the prize ceremony we finished the 7 rounds blitz. It was finally won by Matthew, followed by James (great result James!) and Long. Tomorrow will be the National Championships in which Long, Richard, David, Melvin, Miguel, Tejpal, Koji and Mei Jing all will participate. Judging from today’s play we truly expect to have some serious title contenders among this Caissa group…

Final Ranking Social Blitz

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

Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong

Tag Archives: Long You

National Blitz Championship 2015: four National Champions from Caissa

Prize Giving Ceremony / Party to Celebrate end of Spring Cycle Series

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

Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

chess in hong kong