No "Back to School Rapid" this year, or so we thought... We welcomed a full house with 34 registrations of which 29 were younger than twelve!!
After two rounds with no major upsets, Daniel King Wai Lam was held to a draw by Zachary Tong. Four talented youngsters capitalized and shared first place with a perfect 3/3. After two long hard fought draw between Daniel Wing Shing Luu and Xiangyi Meng (Shayne); and Chi Ngo Chan (Declan) and Shun Wang Liu (Ernest), Daniel Lam put himself back in shared first place with a win over Aurelien Banon.
Daniel Lam overcame Shayne, while Ernest and Declan also won their matches in round five. Daniel Lam (5.5) did what he had to do by defeating Ernest (4.5) who finished in first place. This made Declan the last hope to have youngster win the tournament, but he couldn't break the defences of Shayne and had to accept a draw. This put Declan in sole second place for the second Caissa FIDE Rapid tournament in a row.
Congratulations to the winners! Relive the atmosphere and find out about some interesting moments in the photo story below:
Eventual winner FM Daniel Lam in action
A very relaxed Declan set another strong performance
Caissa talent Daniel Luu is one of the newest faces on the top boards. He finished in ninth place after sharing first in round four.
A happy arbiter Coach David means it was a smooth event. In the background we can see Declan not concentrating on his game.
Caissa talent Shreenidhi continues her strong 2026 run with claiming first girl and a rating gain of 34 points.
Caissa talent Shayne as concentrated and serious as always
Well... maybe not always
Many spectators witness Caissa talent Chi Wang Lau (Clement) about to promote and defeat his 200 higher rated opponent! Clement added a whopping 71 points to his rating today.
Caissa student Tejas Aravind just played a nice rook sacrifice with ...Rxe4 to defeat the almost 300 higher rated second seed!
Caissa student Ceres Sun Shi played her first ever FIDE rated tournament. The start is always tough, but the wins will come!
Caissa talent Ernest looks like he needs some sleep
And there we have it!
It is usually difficult to get good pictures of Declan, so given this rarity that we have two in one event, we have to also share this one!
Caisas talent Sze Wai Chan (Bloomberg) put in a solid performance today.
Connect four - from left to right: Aravind Mahadevan, Al-Ali Bilal, Aurelien Banon and Franco Kuan are the four brave adults who joined FM Daniel Lam in this minefield of young underrated players. Hats off!
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