Caissa in Top 3 in All Age Categories in Hong Kong School/Club Team Championship - U11, U13, U18 Report

davidgn0
11 hours ago
4 min read

On Sunday 29 March, one day after the successful U7 and U9 part of Scholastic Hong Kong event, Caissa would be present with 7 teams!!! Among which 3 all-girls teams. We really take girls chess close at heart, and we hope next time one of the other clubs will also be able to bring in more girl power.

There were also quite a few players, Caissa students, who represented their school or another club. It was great to see them perform well too and having fun.

Team Caissa U11, U13 and U18.

In U11 Caissa was represented with 2 teams of some of the finest players in their age category in Hong Kong as well as some strong up and coming talents.

Caissa Team A left (from left to right): Clement, Tejas, Declan and Julien and right Caissa Team B: Bloomberg, Nemo, Yue Hei and Yue Chun

Caissa Team A performed like a well-oiled chess machine. Team spirit was high. Round 4 was the crucial match against HKYCA which ended in a 2-2 draw. Both HKYCA and Caissa Team A kept winning but on 0.5 points second tie-break, Caissa Team A ended 2nd place. Declan board 2 (6 points) and Julien on board 4 (7 points!) won the 1st prize on their boards.

*Caissa U11 Team A Ready with Coach Emile*

Caissa Team B did not stay too far behind, ending 4th place with Yue Hei on Board 4 with 6.5 points the best Board 3 player. Round 4 was also crucial here for whole Caissa: Bloomberg playing very strong on Board 1 was a queen up in the end game against TCA Team A Clayton, but Bloomberg forgot that a bishop pawn on the 2nd rank with the king tucked in on the rook file on the first rank means K+Q vs K+pawn is a draw. That was an important match point!

Nonetheless, great performance of both teams!

All results on chess-results here.

U11 Caissa Teams A and B in Action

In U13 Caissa was represented by 3 teams: Caissa Team A and Caissa Girls Team A and Caissa Girls Team B!

Left to right - Caissa A: Bryan, Ziwen, Jayden and Matias, Caissa Girls A: Adrianne, Abigail, Zanna and Yui, Caissa Girls B: Sophia, Summer, Yau Ning and Shanaya

For Caissa Team A round 2 against TCA and round 5 against HKYCA were the matches the team lost points. These teams ended 1st and 2nd place respectively, but with a great score of Matias and Bryan with 4 points, Jayden with 5 points and Ziwen with 6 points Caissa Team A clinched 3rd place.

U13 Team A in Action

Caissa Girls Team A ended on the 4th place with only 1 match point less than 3rd place. Caissa Girls Team B ended on the 7th place out of 17 teams in this age category. Great results!

Caissa Girls Team A vs Team B with Girls Team Captain / Coach Astrid on the Foreground ...

All results U13 in chess-results here.

Like the day before, there was good quality team time for analysis, lunch or simply having a lot of fun!

In the U18 Category Caissa had 2 teams competing: Caissa Team A and the Caissa Girls.

Caissa U18 Girls (left to right): Lolly, Vivienne, Rita, Clare followed by Kyle, Athan, Brandon and Nathaniel

The U18 age category has some of the best players in Hong Kong. The U18 Caissa Girls faced strong competition. Other than the 4 Caissa girls there were only 2 other girls spread out over the other 10 teams. Our U18 Caissa girls played in U18 but were just a little over U13 age limit and this group will be readier and readier for next tournaments, and there are girls in the Caissa pipeline as well as we saw in U13.

The Caissa Girls ended on the 7th place, with all players scoring 3 points.

Caissa Girls in Action

Caissa U18 Team A, very strong across the board and with on Board 1 one of Caissa's longest students, Hong Kong Top talent Brandon in the team, could aim for the 1st place. The crucial round was Round 3, facing an equally strong TCA Team A. It was on board 3 where a very good position was not converted to a win against Paul, who kept his cool, and the draw on that board resulted in a 1.5-2.5 loss. TCA Team A did not make any mistake after and claimed 1st place, Caissa Team A followed on second place. An EXCELLENT result. Again!

And well done to Nathaniel on board 4 who got Best Board prize with 7 out of 7 and Athan with 6.5 points got the Best Board 3 prize. Kyle got 2nd Prize for Board 2 with 5.5 points and Brandon 2nd Prize for Board 1 also with 5.5 points.

All U18 results in chess-results here.

Caissa U18 Team A in Action

It was an excellent event, well run by a fresh generation of organisers, also willing to cooperate with HKCCFL who had provided chess materials, like the DGT boards.