Autumn EOM 2025: September edition in Sheung Wan

After the summer break the EOM (End of the Month) is finally back on the agenda! The EOM has grown from a (small) practice tournament for our students to a true Caissa classic. So although many of our students already got back into competitive play in the Back to School rapid, the EOM is really coming home. Let’s dive into the results!

C/D

Looking at the results, you would think that Jovi Ngai won the tournament in a smooth fashion. The people who were present know better. In the second round, Dylan Lau capitalized on a tactical oversight by Jovi and it looked like an upset was in the making. Luckily for Jovi, the chess gods (Caissa!) smiled upon him and he managed a comeback.

Dylan came close, he is one of our youngest and his time will surely come! For Jovi, this was the confidence boost he needed. After two more wins, he was well ahead of the pack and agreed to a quick draw with Caleb Yang in the last round to clinch first place.

A draw in the last round is very common in top tournaments. Especially when it is to secure a tournament win. For the other side, there is always a risk involved.. Caleb’s gamble paid off this time and he ended in second place. Theodore Liu and Lucas Cheng took third and fourth place with the same number of points, but with a worse tiebreak.

Brothers Alexander and Arthur started terribly and were on their way to having a horror tournament. Being the only two players with three losses out of their three first games, they were very eager to turn tables and picked up wins in round four.

Faith had it they were paired against each other. Alexander won the duel of brothers and that propelled him onto the podium of the B-group with a third place medal!

The honours of the D-group went to Ernest Ye and Ashton Tong. Both scored wins early on in the tournament and finished with a better tiebreak than Alexander.

In between rounds coach Astrid provided the necessary entertainment with arts and crafts.

Relive the tournament and check what happened on Chess Results.

Congratulations to all the winners!

A/B

In the A/B group we saw many familiar faces, but also a couple of new ones! We had students from the school squad in Malvern joining, we had some new students signing up and of course the players who were promoted from the C-group coming to test their luck in the B-group!

No last round quick draw this time! After four rounds everything was still wide open. Kaito Smidt-Olsen took on newcomer Julien Cheung in a duel for all the marbles. Both had won all their games so far. Julien came very close to winning the game, but played too slowly. Under severe time pressure, he let Kaito back into the game. When it seemed like the game would fizzle out to a draw, Julien lost on time and Kaito finished his clean sweep!

Siblings Nemo and Lolly Chen finished in fifth and sixth place, also having won all their games. Arriving too late for the first round, they didn’t get paired and squandered their hopes for tournament victory then and there. They still deserve a special shoutout for staying composed and racing through the field like this.

Ernest Liu and Zanna Zee also scored four points and took fourth and third place, but it was Julien who deservedly took home the second place medal!

In the B-group, things were somehow even more exciting. After five rounds, five players were left standing with the same number of points: 3/5. Of course, there can only be one winner, and it was freshly promoted Jayden Luk Chun Yin who had the best tiebreak and clinched first place.

In order followed: Ethan Tu, Rita Zhou, Lucas Chui and Spencer Sun. Ethan and Spencer were also promoted from the C-group. For the final standings after the two upcoming legs, absolutely anything is still possible in this group!

Also for the A/B group you can see all the results online!

Congratulations to all the winners and see you in Discovery Bay on 26 October!