Summer 2025: a Caissa Recap

The summer in Hong Kong is traditionally a duller season for the chess scene. While the tournament calendar in May and in the first half of June is absolutely packed also with our own first Harrow Scholastic Tournament with GM Ding Liren, things tend to calm down a bit from mid June onwards.

At least for (big) tournaments in Hong Kong that is. There are still a couple of smaller events and for those that want to keep improving over summer, we had the summer camps. For 8 weeks, Caissa conducted week-long (5 days) chess camps, 3 hours each day. Over 150 kids attended and were eager to learn about the wonders of chess. Naturally, this was a fun period for us coaches with many new faces and many learning opportunities for our students.

For our stronger students, we sent coaches to Bangkok and to Zhuhai to guide a Caissa Team in international events. You can read all about the results and the atmosphere in the Bangkok 1st Summer International Open and Eastern Asian Youth Championships 2025 on our blog.

This year, there was space for a special event in the Hong Kong summer chess calendar: The Asian Amateur Chess Championships. Over 350 players battled out in 6 categories who could call themselves Asian Amateur Champion 2025. Congratulations to all the winners and to the Caissa students who showed some good performances!

Lastly, we’ve had some team changes over summer. Welcome to Ella Ng! Ella is handling our day to day operations. She is the person who has been answering all your questions and enquiries on the Caissa main number!

Coach Alberto has left Caissa as a full time staff member to pursue a career in other domains. He is still active as a parttime trainer and will be a regular face at our tournaments, this time as a player rather than an arbiter!

Alberto has been with Caissa since 2016 and has shaped our organisation into one of the leading chess providers in Hong Kong today. He has spent countless hours tirelessly working behind the screens, introducing countless people to the game of chess. Our team has had a farewell party with Alberto, but once again: thank you Alberto!