The New Zealand Chess Federation (NZCF) is currently holding the 132nd New Zealand Chess Congress in Auckland at the Waipuna Hotel and Conference Centre.
This festival of chess incorporates a number of events and is the highlight of the New Zealand chess calendar:
New Zealand Chess Championships,
New Zealand Major Open
New Zealand Rapid play Chess Championships
New Zealand Lightning Chess Championships
New Zealand School Pupil and Age Group Championships
A New Zealand Junior U1000 rated event.
The New Zealand Chess Championship was first held in Christchurch in 1879. After a 9 year break it was held for the second time in 1888/9 and has been run almost every year since then (apart from the odd year missed during the 2 world wars). No other country has had a national championship with as many editions as New Zealand’s.
There are 590 entries across the 6 events from over 250 individual players, making this one of the largest NZ Chess Congress ever held.
Players from 19 countries have entered, including:
Grandmaster (GM) Gabor Nagy (Hungary)
International Master (IM) Herman can Riemsdijk (Brazil)
FIDE Master (FM) Yining Chen (China)
And New Zealand’s own:
IM Anthony Ker (14-time NZ Champion)
IM Russell Dive (7-time NZ Champion)
FM Daniel Gong (2-time NZ Champion)
FM Alphaeus Ang (former NZ Champion)
FM Felix Xie (former NZ Rapid and Lightning Champion)
FM Bob Smith (2-time NZ Champion)
Sarah Sun (2024 NZ Women’s Champion)
Candidate Master (CM) Isabelle Ning (2023 NZ Women’s Champion)
Dr Tony Booth – at 86, the oldest competitor
As well as a number of national representatives across all age groups and genders.
There are also a record number of juniors participating in the 2 junior events.
20 games from each round will be broadcast live on www.chess.com and www.lichess.org
Links:
https://www.chess.com/events/2025-new-zealand-chess-congress
https://lichess.org/broadcast/new-zealand-chess-congress-2025
The event is hosted by the Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club, with Chief Organiser Paul Spiller MNZM leading a large team of officials and volunteers.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Richard Christie (NZCF Administrator) admin@newzealandchess.co.nz 021 111 5662
Paul Spiller (Chief Organiser) PaulSSpiller@outlook.com
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Website: www.newzealandchess.co.nz