News Archive: Year 2018
20 December 2018
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Andrew Leung Wins Caissa 7th Winter Rapid
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This year's winter rapid was spread out over 2 weeks. We planned for 2 and 9 December but to avoid a clash with another event we changed to 2 and 16 December. With 16 December already in (school) holiday territory unfortunately many regulars were gone. Learning moment for us and next year we will stick to our schedule.
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With 24 players we still had some fireworks going on at the boards. Over 8 rounds, Andrew Leung with 7.5 points was the deserved winner in the Open Group, follwed by Henry Ho with 6 points and David Garceran Nieuwenburg with 5.5 points...
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10 December 2018
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Malvern College End of Term Tournament
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We had a total of 45 CCA students joining the End of Term on Saturday 8 December. With both Principal Dr. Lister and Vice Principal Nicola Dudley present, the students got a boost of recognition. It was a pleasant event with many parents present, coffee and tea provided by the school and coaches Alberto, Matthew and Marcos making it happen chess-wise.
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All players got a medal and in addition the following players won trophies:
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Secondary Section: 1st Place, Mei Jing, 2nd Place, Jasper
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Upper Primary: 1st Place, Charisse, 2nd Place, Ian
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Lower Primary Best: Lixian
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Lower Primary Best Girl: Eva
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Lower Primary Stepping Stones Advanced: 1st Place, Junwei, 2nd Place, Theo
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Lower Primary Stepping Stones Beginners: 1st Place, Chessa, 2nd Place, Aaron
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05 December 2018
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Open Day Malvern College Hong Kong
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On 1 December Malvern College Hong Kong held their Open Day. Among a wide variety of activities Caissa organised activities and information sessions around chess both for the current student base as well as prospective students.
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Malvern College Hong Kong is strongly supportive of chess as part of doing worthwhile activities and it was great to see dozens of our CCA students, Caissa teaches 5 times per week at Malvern College, bring in their parents to the newly established Malvern College Chess Club.
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On 8 December we will hold our first End of Term tournament for our Malvern chess students only. We look forward to it!
04 December 2018
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Autumn EOM 2018 Group A Winner Michelle Chan
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On 25 November the last leg of the three End of Month (EOM) Autumn 2018 series was held in the Caissa Sheung Wan centre. Adding up all points scored in each EOM the top 3 players across each of the 4 different groups (A, most experienced, D, starters) was finally determined.
In Group A, Michelle, Marcus and Khrish remained in the top 3 ...
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22 November 2018
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Tushar Anand Wins Caissa Autumn Open - again?!
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Last Sunday, 18 November, the 7th and last round of the FIDE rated Standard chess Caissa 5th Autumn Open was played. Going into the 7th round, in the Open group Ozbek led with 5 points out of 6 games, followed by Tushar, Edgar, Aradhy and David all with 4 points. Anything could thus still happen when it came to the Champion Title and other prizes.
Read MORE
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12 November 2018
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More than 10 Caissa Students get prizes in the HKJCC 2018
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The yearly recurring Hong Kong Junior Chess Club attracted last weekend over 180 youth players across the age categories U7, U9, U11, U13 and U18. We had well over 25 Caissa students participating and 10 of them went home with a prize and some even with a title!
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In U18 (results here) long standing former Caissa student Ernest won the title and Charles got 3rd prize. in U13 (results here) Seth (U11 player) won the title! Miguel and Gerent brought back home 4th and 5th prizes. In U11 (results here) Wilfred convincingly won the title. In U9 (results here), the 2nd through the 6th prizes went all to Caissa students, respectively Savin, Advay, Boris, Rico and Channing! Finally in U7 (results here) Jonathan got 2nd prize.
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Well done all! Also organizers, well done. The live streaming and live boards was a good experiment.
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Thanks coaches Matthew and Marcos for visiting, your analyses and pep talk to our students!
1 November 2018
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IM Marcos Llanea Vega is back in Hong Kong as Caissa Trainer!
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After IM Matthew Tan joined Caissa several weeks ago, we are very glad to announce that IM Marcos Llaneza has now also joined Caissa as Senior Trainer Master.
Marcos is not unfamiliar with Hong Kong. In the past he had already worked here for several years as trainer, and as player he has extensive tournament experience in Asia, and China in particular.
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In the short term, by and large, Marcos will be taking over David Rivas' schedule but as we expand and deepen our chess program we are sure Marcos will become a familiar face to all our students.
Welcome aboard Marcos!
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Read MORE about Marcos' profile.
30 October 2018
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Goodbye to Coach CM David Rivas Vila - Thank You David!
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David, after 2 years having been a Caissa senior coach, has returned to Spain to further pursue his career in engineering. It was a pleasure to have David in our team. Highly professional, very accessible, friendly and a strong chess player who won several titles and trophies while in Hong Kong, we will dearly miss him.
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We thank David for all his excellent work, both in group classes at our centres, at schools running extra curricular activities, at private lessons, or accompanying our youth players overseas as well as devising structure and content with Alberto for our unique EGTP program introduced last season.
Good luck in your next adventure back in Spain, David!
27 October 2018
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October EOM in Discovery Bay: Michelle in the Lead Group A
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The second leg of the EOM took place last Saturday in Discovery Bay with 26 of our students participating in the event.
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6 October 2018
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Caissa Sponsored (CGP) Henry Ho Gets FM Title in 43rd Olympiad
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As you shall already known, the Olympiad have came to an end. It was a wonderful experience to be able to play in the world stage and witness the battle of top players with my own eyes.
Though I didn't manage to draw any GM during the event, I was able to adopt from the weakness in early rounds and changed my play style in latter rounds. The game in round 10 was extremely tense versus a similar level opponent that was 1 win short from the FM norm and can be called the best game in my life, that in-game moment actually reminds me the level of excitement was the initial reason that I wanted to play chess.
It have been a tough and enjoyable 2 weeks to be able to fully dedicate into chess. A lot have been learnt and I was lucky enough to score 6/9 with a FM norm.
Would like to thank you again for Caissa's kind support and I have attached some photos for sharing.
Regards,
Henry
30 September 2018
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IM Matthew Tan Is Back at Caissa! Wins 7th Blitz Open
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Because of Mangkhut, the most devastating typhoon in recent times hitting Hong Kong on 16 September, the 7th Blitz Open was rescheduled to 20 September. With 25 registered players the group was not the largest. However in each age category the top players were mostly present. In the Open we also had Caissa's IM Matthew Tan and CM David Rivas playing alongside strong players like FM Peter Yu and notoriously well performing players like Andrew Leung and Tushar Anand.
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24 September 2018
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EOM September
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Yesterday Sunday 23 September we held the first leg of the three months spanning End of Month (Autumn 2018) training chess tournament for players up to Step 3 level. In our controlled environment, with only Caissa students participating, the players are readying themselves for tournament play.
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20 September 2018
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Playing Chess in Japan!
by coach CM David Rivas Vila
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I would like to start this article telling that Japan is one of my favorites countries together with Brazil and, of course, Spain. So, the opportunity to play chess in Japan was too perfect to be dismissed. Tokyo is one of the most modern cities in the world, Japanese people are kind and hospitable, their culture is millenary, food is amazing... what else can you ask for?
Thanks to Caissa Grand Prix results, I was invited to participate in this event. I am enormously ...
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5 September 2018
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IM Matthew Tan back in Hong Kong at Caissa!
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From the week of 17 September IM Matthew Tan will join Caissa for a long term position as Master Trainer. As an IM and active competition player, with a degree in mathematics and a teacher license, he is a strong asset to our trainer staff and training program both from technical as well as didactic point of view.
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In addition to all the above, the ones who recall him from a few years ago, will agree he is of fine character, positive, professional and friendly. Qualities we expect from all our trainers at Caissa.
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4 September 2018
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S.O.S Start of Season Rapid: Ole!
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The S.O.S Open Rapid 2018 held on 2 September 2018 burst the new season open with a very strong player field across 8 different country chess federations. From those, a tourist Spanish armada of 3 guest players had arrived, all well into 2,000+ rating. Together with coach David, although also under Spain chess federation flag but first and foremost Cassia's torch bearer, and the highest over 2200 rated player Bjorn, from Sweden, local 2000+ player Tushar under Indian flag and former HK Champion Andrew, there was not going to be any walk-over today. Indeed.
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Photos on our Caissa Clickr Album.
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See first photo, 2nd person on the left, also from Spain, GM Francisco Vallego Pons at leisure trip in Hong Kong. The current #32 in the world had a plane to catch the evening before our event. Thanks for visiting us!
9 August 2018
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2017-18 CGP U14 Winner James Wing Ki Kwong in the Prizes in Shanghai
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The 3rd Eastern Asia Youth Chess Championship took place in Shanghai from 2-9 August. A relatively large delegation of Hong Kong youth went there to represent Hong Kong in various age categories.
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With Standard chess most players did quite well, most of them scoring 5 out of 9.
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But the strength with Hong Kong players, largely due to limited Standard time control games in Hong Kong for youth compared to other countries, lies thus in faster time controls. Several players ended convincingly in the top 10.
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In U14, Caissa fully sponsored CGP winner Wing Ki Kwong showed this by claiming 2nd Prize both in Blitz and Rapid. Well done!!!
In U8, Samuel Lam, the CGP winner of 2017-18, who will be sponsored to go to World Youth in Spain later this year, got 2nd Prize in Blitz.
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Keep it up!
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And ... congrats to all our students and players who did a great job in Shanghai.
2 June 2018
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David Rivas Scores Another Title: Friday Spring Open Champion!
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The Friday Spring Open standard time control was the last event in the 2017-18 CGP, Caissa Grand Prix, cycle. It was planned to be over 7 Friday evenings. Because of a fire alarm evacuation incident in the building, in the end the tournament concluded over 6 rounds, well managed by IA Alberto Muniz. All results are here.
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With this final result we also have the final standing of the CGP of 2017-18. Congratulation to the winners of full sponsorship. For the youth players this means let's get ready to prepare for to the World Youth in Spain in 2018: Seth Peramunetilleke (U12), Mahir Uppal (U10) and Samuel Lam (U8). Good luck!!!
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27 May 2018
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EOM May edition: anything can happen in this Spring edition
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Yesterday we held the 2nd leg of the Spring EOM in Discovery Bay. Players were again playing in a single group but played for prizes in their category. All results are here.
In Group A, Gabriel managed to beat Boris in the last round - which resulted in the top 3 player...
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14 May 2018
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David Rivas Vila Wins 5th Annual Spring Blitz!
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After the larger scale Labour Day Rapid event in Stanley on 1 May, a smaller crowd of 25 players showed up on Mother's Day, Sunday 13 May, to participate in our annual Blitz. However smaller, the average rating of this group was considerably higher.
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02 May 2018
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Andrew Leung Wins Labour Day Rapid 2018 Open in Packed Stanley
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A very hot, blue sky, National Holiday had awoken dreamy Stanley into a bustling beach city. In the modern eye-catching Municipal Building, where Caissa's training centre in Stanley is located, some 80 players had come to join our 2nd Labour Day Open play Rapid chess, last year won by FM Marcos Medarde Santiago.
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25 March 2018
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And the Winner of the Sunday Winter League is ... David Rivas Vila!
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On March 25, in the 7th and final round of the very smoothly run FIDE rated Caissa Sunday League (thanks International Arbiter coach Alberto!), coach David Rivas' draw against Tushar Anand was enough for him to be crowned Champion.
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24 March 2018
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Winter 2018 EOM Ends: Medals and Trophies Festival
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After 3 months playing each "end of the month" we finally concluded on 24 March this year's winter cycle in which 55 of our students participated. The results for March can be found here and...
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08 March 2018
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Winter 2018 EOM January and February Leg Completed. One More to Go in March!
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On January 21 the first leg of the Winter 2018 cycle was held in new format, Swiss over 5 rounds Rapid. Kelson was the only player to score 100 percent.
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On February 25 the second leg was played. There were no players with a prefect score which is a good sign as differences in strength become less and less and players get to play worthwhile games against equally strong opponents. Many medals had to be decided on tie-break.
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With the March leg to come this month, anything can still happen with the trophies and final rankings of the Winter 2018 EOM.