Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club

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Round 2 Winter Open – Results

January 18th, 2015

Last Friday fortunately we had no BYE. Melvin, who last week lost because of one second short on the clock played again a good game and this time he was rewarded the full point when he managed to give an x-ray check with his white queen on h8 and black Kf6 and (unprotected) Qd4.

Melvin with white against Koji in Round 2

Conrad Ackerman, the new contender who last week managed to beat Koji in the heat of time pressure chose a very solid approach with white against David. David, a Philidorian and used to manoeuvring his black pieces in little space, rushed an unprotected pawn onto g5 to lure the white pieces, mostly on the 2nd and 3rd rank so far, into black terrain. Conrad accepted the challenge and in addition sacrificed a piece for two pawns to nestle his knight in the 6th rank and started an assault on black’s exposed king. But black held and with little time on the clock David won the game.

Conrad with white while David takes the photo …

Miguel Angel seemed somewhat out of concentration and against James it is best to stay very focussed – soon Miguel Angel was two pawns down, more than enough for James to win the game on auto-pilot.

Ray, similar to Miguel Angel, seemed to lack the focus so necessary to beat an experienced player like Michel. Through a wrong recapture by Ray, Michel’s white pieces could easily go for a brutal checkmate approach towards the black king and claim the win.

Henry and Long had the longest game. Henry had to defend tediously with white against Long’s black dominance the entire game. But when it got to the end of the 180 minutes of the match, there was not enough material on the board anymore to create a checkmate and the game ended in a draw.

Henry against Long (undistractible!) in Round 2

Results Round 2 Winter Open Cassia

Ranking Caissa Open Winter 2015 after Round 2

Pairing for round 3 will be done Wednesday noon.

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

GM Hou Yifan Simul and Open Blitz Finals Saturday March 1: Full House!

February 25th, 2014

Saturday 1 March will be the busiest day in our club’s young history. In the morning from 9am to 10.30am we are honored with the visit of Women World Champion GM Hou Yifan who will play simultane chess against 20 players. Although the odds of beating Yifan are not that large it will definitely be a memorable event for all players – and in addition all will get a souvenir, of course.

Then at 11am, with just 30 minutes in between, we will move from the simul to our Winter 2014 Blitz Open. And at full club capacity of 32 players the list of participants is as follows (for the ones who wish to prepare …):

Rachel Lu
Jonathan Lee
Ronald Choy
Oliver Yau
Joseph Wong
Hugo Lee
Arjun Nathan
Hannay Ball
James Nichols
Miguel Angel Garceran Wang
Mei Jing Garceran Wang
Daniel Lam
James Wing Ki Kwong
Bosco Yau Kwun Hou
Billy Lo
Issac Fung
Aravind Mahadevan
Stuart Holt
Eugene Livensky
Umberto Dalpian
Yee Chit Wong
Andrew Ng
Raphael Chang
Richard Takasumi
Koji Takasumi
Cyril Anicete
Liu Shuaikai
Wang Yuanfeng
Bao Jinwen
Yin Hao
Chen Delang
Chen Yicong

Daniel Lam and Ronald Choy win Winter 2014 Standard chess Competition

February 24th, 2014

In the last round in the adult group Daniel pressured James position such that a collapse was just a matter of time. And when it came Daniel had secured first place with an impressive 4.5 points out of 5. His trophy is awaiting him on 1 March at the Open Winter Blitz.

Joseph won a piece in the middle game against Hannah and despite Hannah being able to get some pawns back, Joseph’s minor pieces majority constantly eyed the weaknesses around Hannah’s pawn majority which could not get enough traction for serious counter play.

Final Ranking

In the youth group Ronald got his last point through a win by default as his opponent did not show up. Despite Rachel, after a long game against Arjun, also won her last game and ended with 6 points like Ronald, it is Ronald who by tie-break became champion and he can collect his trophy coming Saturday at the Open Winter Blitz finals. Also congratulations to Rachel for a good result.

Hugo called in sick and as Oliver had canceled earlier this seventh and last round had to be reshuffled so that both Mei Jing and Jonathan could play – against one another. And what a game it was. Mei Jing managed to win a piece early in the game with white but Jonathan gradually collected several pawns for this piece and in the endgame it was Mei Jing who had to try to hold a draw with her knight against 3 pawns. The game finally ended in a draw with two lonely kings on the board. Well done Jonathan and Mei Jing – that is fighting spirit we like to see.

Regis gave away several important squares to Miguel Angel which weakened the coordination of his pieces. Miguel Angel benefited well from this and gained material advantage enough for a calm win.

Final Ranking Youth Cross Table

The Winter 2014 competition has herewith ended and we look forward to see many of these players back on Saturday 1 March when we will formally conclude the winter with an Open Blitz Finale.

Winter Competition: Daniel Lam and Miguel Angel Garceran Wang Lead

February 14th, 2014

Adult Group

After 4 rounds in the Winter Competition we see that, despite a draw against David, Daniel has taken a solid lead. Next week, in the last round only James can in theory stop Daniel. It looks like potentially we can have 3 players end with 3.5 points and it will be exciting until the end.

Joseph played an attractive attacking game against the French set-up chosen by James. Joseph put constant pressure across his opened h-file as well as in the center according to the principle of attacking two weaknesses at the same time. However, James defended tediously and consuming almost all his time, but some 3 minutes, agreed to a draw with so little time when Joseph blundered a piece.

Hannah and David played a balanced game in which Hannah’s white rooks controlled the d-file but David’s black pawns had occupied attractive territory on the queen side where the white king had castled. Avoiding tactics of check mates in the middle of the board the game ended in a draw as well, which was, given the cold temperature in the venue, not a bad idea.

Youth U12 Group

By defeating his sister Mei Jing, Miguel Angel tops the rank now after Ronald and Rachel drew against each other.

Jonathan with black counter-pinned Oliver’s pin such that after the dust of various exchanges was settled he was a piece up and could win the game. Regis won heavy material in the early stage of the game and did not make a mistake on the road to collecting his first point against Hugo.

Winter Competition: No Players Remain with 100% Score!

January 29th, 2014

After the third round of the Winter competition all players, both in the adult group as well as in the youth group, had to concede at least half a point.

Adult Group

Given the fact that some players could not make it last Thursday, James and David played their game of round 4 while Joseph and Daniel played their 3rd round according to schedule.

James with white played a solidly hypermodern-style move order which did not put black under high pressure, but it also did not give much for black to work on other than positional maneuvering. In that stage of the middle game, when white seemed to be having a small plus, black was given the opportunity to simultaneously attack the center and the h-file looking into the king’s castled position. A small amount of material was won which was enough for David to win the game.

Joseph played with white against Daniel and around move 13 could have pushed for a possibly decisive plan. Not doing so offered Daniel enough counter ideas for black to win the game.

Yesterday, Tuesday, David and Daniel played their round 5 game ahead of schedule and Hannah caught up her game against James.

After Hannah’s initial initiative around the open h-file and in the center, James solidified his position such that he could start a strong black pawn attack on the queenside which turned out to be causing Hannah to weaken key squares around her long side castled king and lose several critical pawns and the game.

David played an attacking game with white against Daniel. In the middle game he had a pawn on h6 and two center pawns on e5 and d5 and with the rooks supporting them from behind the position looked good for white. Daniel’s defense and counter-attack resulted in temporary initiative after a wrong bishop capture by David. This cost David valuable time and with 40 something seconds left on the clock he was forced to repeat 3 times the same position through check and settle with a draw.

Results after Round 3

Youth U12 Group

At the start of round 3, Ronald, Rachel and Miguel Angel were the three players with the full score of 2 points.

Ronald with white opted to exchange queens early in the game but that didn’t take the dynamite out of it. Miguel Angel won a pawn on f2 but accepted Ronald’s draw offer when the position still had a lot to go for.

Ronald with white against Miguel Angel offering a draw

Rachel drew against Oliver after some confusion about the process. It is important to know that you can only offer a draw when you have done your move and, if a draw is offered to you, you cannot accept a draw after you have done your move. If you feel this process has not been followed it is important to get the arbiter in and definitely do not talk and exchange ideas about the chess game with your opponent.

Jonathan climbed back up in the ranking by defeating Regis as did Mei Jing after her win against Hugo and Arjun’s win against Ray gives him his first lift up. Anything can still happen in the coming Year of the Horse!

Cross Table and Ranking after Round 3

Joseph and Rachel top the Winter Competition Ranking

January 21st, 2014

Adult Group

With the adjournment of the game between Peter and James only two games were played in the adult group last Thursday evening. Daniel had to maneuver very carefully with white in an open and exciting French Winawer. Hannah managed to push her center pawns all the way up to 2nd and 3rd rank but with little, and less time on the clock than Daniel, Hannah did not find the strongest and seemingly winning moves, nor the forced draw that could be achieved by giving away all her pawns and march with her king to the white a8 square where white’s dark square bishop could never help promote the a2 pawn. Daniel kept his cool well and won the game.

David played a Veresov against Joseph but gave away a pawn by executing the wrong move order and Joseph’s position was stable enough to slowly roll up the white pieces and claim a good win and first place in the ranking.

Cross Table Adult Winter

Youth Group

In the youth group Miguel Angel with white breached Jonathan’s position via a knight pin on f6 and from there slowly accumulated material enough to get into a winning position.

Mei Jing did not pay attention in the opening to Rachel’s queen maneuver to b6 attacking both the knight on g8 and the b2 pawn. Once the knight was off the board Rachel routinely played the game out and with 2 points Rachel leads the competition now.

Rachel black bishop captured Mei Jing’s knight on g1 early in the game

Arjun allowed Ronald to line up his 3 heaviest pieces against his white king. A sacrifice could not avert the black pieces assault and Ronald scored his second win in the competition.

Oliver with white made well use of the positional error of Regis playing his black queen to f6 too early in the game. The black position collapsed soon when the queen was chased away and left some pieces undefended.

Finally, Hugo won his game against Ray because Ray could not make it in time to the club.

Cross Table and Rank Youth

Results Winter Competition Round 1

January 13th, 2014

Thursday 9 January was the first round of the adult group and on Sunday 12 January the youth group played their first round of Standard Chess in the Caissa Winter Competition 2014 in Sheung Wan.

Adult Group

In the adult group we had originally 7 players but unfortunately one player withdrew after round 1 because of uncertainty where the Blitz finals would be held at. The game was declared void.

To clarify, the finals are planned to be held in Sheung Wan, but as we have changed the format of the finals into an OPEN tournament, if we exceed 32 players we will move to the Discovery Bay chess club venue. All players, adult and youth, who played in the Standard Chess edition will be automatically qualified for the OPEN Blitz Finals.

Because of the void declared game, effectively there was one game played as both Daniel Lam and Hannah Ball had given notice they could not make the first round.

The matches Daniel -James and Hannah-David will be played after round 5 and below is the ranking and schedule of the Round Robin pairing.

Youth U12

In the youth U12 group on Sunday we had 10 players facing off in round 1.

Youth U12 in Round 1

The longest game was played between Miguel Angel and Arjun in a game in which Miguel Angel won a center pawn which he could push deep into the black position enabling him to grind a win for his white pieces after 2 hours.

Jonathan managed to win a rook in the middle game and maneuvered his material advantage into a sure win against Ray.

Rachel won an early pawn on f7 against Hugo and despite early resistance Rachel’s white pieces kept on improving their position which let to inevitable material gain and a win.

Ronald and Oliver had an equal game going into a pawn end game with queen + rook against queen + rook. However, Ronald benefited well from Oliver’s more exposed king and turned the game into a win.

Ronald with white against Oliver

Mei Jing was a piece up since the middle game but Regis created some counter play through pushing his white queen side pawns up until the 6th rank. While doing so Regis oversaw a checkmate on the back rank which brought Mei Jing the full point.