Play

Club nights

Every Tuesday we run two sessions: Junior Hour at 5:50pm, then the rated club tournament from 7:15pm.

See this season’s calendar Draws & standings

A typical Tuesday

5:50pm – 7:00pm

Junior Hour

Run by club volunteers, with parents providing supervision and help. It caters mainly for beginners.

The hour starts with 15 minutes of interactive chess lessons, followed by games and other chess activities. Players are paired by the club’s system, and results and rankings are recorded on the Junior Hour Ladder.

More about Juniors

From 7:15pm · clocks start 7:30pm

Club night tournament

For players of all abilities — chess notation is required. How long the session runs depends on each tournament’s time control.

Members must commit to playing every session of the tournaments they enter, and advise the arbiter in advance if they will miss one.

Senior tournaments continue during school holidays.

Club etiquette

Juniors: arrive at 5:50pm to help set up.
Commit to playing every round of the tournaments you enter — some tournaments span many weeks.
If you will miss a round, tell the arbiter in advance.
Keep score: chess notation is required in the club tournament.
At the end of the night, help pack up boards and clocks and put the chairs back where they belong.

The year’s tournaments

Our club night tournaments are NZCF rated and our Club Championship tournament is FIDE rated.

Club tournaments (2026 formats)
Tournament	Format	Time control	Rated
Parkinson Cup	8 rounds	75 min + 15 s	NZCF
Autumn Lightning Cup	1 night	3 min + 2 s	—
Fairhurst Pawn	6 rounds	75 min + 15 s	NZCF
R Sutton Rapid	8 rounds, two per night	25 min + 5 s	NZCF
Club Championship	7 rounds, round robin for the top 8 rated members	75 min + 15 s	FIDE
Club Reserve Championship	7-round Swiss, same nights as the Club Championship	75 min + 15 s	FIDE
President’s Cup	2 nights	5 min + 3 s	—
Ross Spiller Cup	6 rounds, two per night (Allegro Rapid)	25 min + 5 s	NZCF
Booth Shield	7-round Swiss	75 min + 15 s	NZCF
Gentil Knight Blitz Championship	1 night	3 min + 2 s	—

How ratings work

NZCF ratings

A rating period is 3 months. For an unrated player to get a published NZCF rating:

A minimum of 5 games in a rating period is required.
This applies separately to standard and rapid — there is no crossover between the two.
With 3–4 games in a period, the games are rated but the rating is not published.
With only 1–2 games, the games are discarded.

FIDE ratings: playing an unrated opponent

In Swiss or open tournaments, a rated player’s game against an unrated opponent is not counted for the rated player. In a round robin it is: the unrated player’s performance is evaluated at the end to establish a provisional rating, which is used to calculate the rated players’ changes. The Club Championship top group is a round robin, so this exception applies there. Either way, the unrated player’s results against rated players count towards their first FIDE rating.

Effect of a game against an unrated opponent on your FIDE rating
Tournament format	Effect of a win, loss or draw
Swiss system / open tournament	No change. The game is not rated for you.
Round robin (all-play-all)	Rating is affected. The game is rated after the tournament, once the unrated player’s performance is calculated.

Rating questions

How does the FIDE-rated Club Championship work?

You must be an HPCC member to play.

The arbiter selects the top 8 members for the Club Championship; everyone else plays in the Club Reserve Championship — effectively two grades. Both grades are FIDE rated and are played on the same night in the same room.
The club pays the NZCF a fee of $2.50 per player.
The arbiter reports to the NZCF monthly for the duration of the tournament. Players without a FIDE ID get one issued as part of the tournament reporting process.
To appear on the FIDE rating list (published on the 1st of every month) you must play at least 5 games against FIDE-rated opponents and achieve a performance rating of at least 1400.

Looking for tournaments elsewhere? The NZCF events calendar lists events across New Zealand.