CM Emile Boucquet Wins Caissa Friday Standard Autumn Open 2024

Over 6 rounds, Friday evenings turned into nights for most of the 27 players who decided to play the Friday Standard at Caissa. With time control of 90 minutes and no increment, we were back in the world of good-old-analogue clocks some of us grew up in.

Those Were the Times ...

It cannot be said enough - playing long time controls is one of the best ways to improve your chess level, and thus enjoy chess more and more.

Some of Hong Kong's most talented youth, both Caissa students and not, were part of the players crowd alongside strong adult players.

In round 3 Caissa youth talent Brandon was paired against Caissa coach Emile and after an exciting game where Brandon saw his knight trapped on a1, Emile was the only player with 3 wins in a row together with another youth talent, Zion.

After 29. ... Bd2 the Knight on a1 is very unhappy ... (replay the game here: https://chess-results.com/partieSuche.aspx?lan=1&art=4&tnr=997714&rd=3)

Round 4 was thus the face off between Emile and Zion. With the queens off the board in 5 moves the game turned into a battle of the light pieces. Zion defended well with black but Emile's long term rook-control of the open d-file was an asset Zion on the black side did not have an equivalent of.

35. Rd7. A rook on the 7th rank (or black rook on the 2nd rank) increases the nominal value of that rook greatly.

Some Round 3 Games

Throughout the entire tournament Chief Arbiter David Garceran Nieuwenburg was assisted by player and "junior assistant arbiter" Declan!

Declan and Brandon Helping Out Entering Games in ChessBase ... and Having Fun ...

The last round on Board one was the battle of Caissa coaches Emile and Alberto. In an Accelerated Dragon the game was equal for a long time but Emile finally pushed through with an annoying (for black) pawn on f6 taking out a lot of dynamic energy from the black position.

Impression of the Last Games in the Last Round

Brandon in the last round played solidly against Jonathan. Time troubles for Jonathan, who is not from the "analogue generation", worsened his position gradually. Brandon did good business by winning and ending 2nd Place. Well done Brandon!

The Chiu Brothers missed the last round but due to the great performance Zion still ended 3rd place with 4 points. Youth player Hong Shun played a great tournament too as did Lok Sum, who gave Champion Emile a very large headache in round 5, and Zeth, all with 4 points winning a trophy.

Best U10 was Ching Yin, Best U12 Silas and Best U16 Paul. Best Girl was Claire Yu Tung. Congrats all!