Spring Standard U1800

By now, the U1800 Standard League has become a permanent fixture on the Caissa Tournament calendar. We play 6 rounds over 3 Sunday afternoons on the fast classical 60+0 time control. With this concept we provide the perfect conditions for students getting their first experience with classical or unrated players chasing their first rating in a safe environment.

In the Spring Edition we have a full house with 33 players of which 9 players are rated. No less than 10 players (!) are playing their first ever classical tournament. Special shoutout to Ruiyan Ying, Ching Shun Yeung, Cho Hang Wong, Yutian Alexander Tu, Pui Sing Jonathan Tsin, Ho Tin Luk, Ting Wo Lau, Tsz Yin Lam, Boyu Cheng, Lorenzo Valentino Beebe and Sze Wai for taking this first important step with us!

With the Spring Standard U1800 already being the fourth edition it is also time to give honourable mentions to our loyal tournament players who haven't missed an edition so far! Xiangyi Meng, Aravind Mahadevan, Lolly Yanxi Chen, Zeming Chen, Tejas Aravind and Yantao Huang are the six players who have been part of all the action so far!

Before diving into the action we want to mention that title defender Chi Ngo Chan couldn't make it, but had a good reason for that! He joined two tournaments in Australia and gained a whopping 161 rating points with a top 10 and a top 3 finish.

Rounds 1 and 2

We didn't have to wait for upsets, because in the very first round Julien Wing Shek Cheung was able to overcome Aravind Mahadevan with Black after winning a pawn in the middlegame and converting that into a full point in the endgame. Yantao Huang also did his part in the upsets by beating Man Ho Nathan Huang, while Ho Tin Luk was held to a draw by Ellie Yi Chan.

The second round went much better for the rated players as only Bingyang Lu didn't take the full point and had to allow a draw against Julien.

Rounds 3 and 4

Round 3 saw a very interesting pairing on board 1 with Shayne Meng taking on rating favourite Vihaan Bedadam. It was Vihaan who had the better nerves and raced to 3/3 along with Yu Tung Li who beat Linxi Zou.

A bit further down the list, we saw Alexander Yutian Tu win his first ever classical game at the age of 7, congratulations Alexander!

In the fourth round we had the battle of the leaders, which ended peacefully. This opened the door for Jonas Yee Shun Lau to join the leaders by beating Aravind who was enjoying a mini comeback so far.

Vihaan, Yu Tung and Jonas share the lead with 3.5/4 with Ellie Liu and Lolly Chen in striking distance with 3/4. The final day proves to be exciting!

Rounds 5 and 6

On the final day, an extra board was set. Coach Emile and Coach Matthew played a couple of practice games in preparation of the upcoming World Team Rapid and Blitz Championship in which both are playing. This very much to the liking of the many students present with many of them watching the games unfold.

Back to tournament action! Yu Tung and Jonas fought out on the first board who would still be in the running for the title in the last round. By playing a draw, both players kept their chances alive. On the second board Vihaan was able to defeat Lolly and took the sole lead going into the last round.

Vihaan was paired with the white pieces against Jonas and for the biggest part of the game it seemed like he would clinch first place. Jonas thought otherwise and kept tenaciously defending a close to lost position with some very creative chess. After a couple of small mistakes, Jonas was able to take over the initiative deep in the endgame and convert it into win.

On the second board Yu Tung did her very best to keep her chances alive, but after many moves a draw was the verdict. That put Jonas (5/6) on top of the table, Vihaan (4.5/6) with a strong tiebreak in second place followed by Shun Wang Liu, Julien and Yu Tung all also with 4.5/6. Chun Him Chan took the sixth place trophy home, while Shayne (U10), Tejas (U12) and Clare Nguyen (Girls) also won prizes in their respective categories.

Congratulations to all the winners!

The prize winners:

Atmosphere photos: