Club trophy
Junior Championship
Recent champions: Ayaan Bhatia (2025), Dian Guan (2024), Mason Khong (2023), Franklyn Zhang (2022).
Juniors
Junior chess on Tuesdays
The club has one of the largest junior memberships of any chess club in New Zealand. Junior Hour runs every Tuesday in term time, and the path into senior club chess is open to every junior.
Junior Hour
- When
- Tuesdays, 5:50pm–7:00pm
- School holidays
- No Junior Club during the holidays
Junior Hour is run by club volunteers, with parents providing supervision and help. It caters mainly for beginners: 15 minutes of interactive chess lessons, then games and other chess activities.
Players are paired by the club’s system, and every result counts towards the Junior Hour Ladder.
Junior Hour Ladder
Standings, pairings and the Tuesday sign-in run on the club’s Chess Club Manager.
- Ladder standings
- My pairing tonight
- Sign in for Junior HourThe sign-in opens every Tuesday at 6pm.
Juniors v Seniors Challenge Nights 2026
These nights bridge the gap between Junior Hour and the senior club. Parents of juniors and seniors: please make an effort for these dates. New and potential members are especially welcome.
- Juniors registration & Juniors v Seniors Challenge Night 1 · 60 min + 5 s
- Juniors v Seniors Challenge Night 2 · 60 min + 5 s
- Juniors v Seniors Challenge Night 3 · 60 min + 5 s
2026 term dates
- Term 1
- 26 January 2026 – 2 April 2026
- Term 2
- 20 April 2026 – 3 July 2026
- Term 3
- 20 July 2026 – 25 September 2026
- Term 4
- 12 October 2026 – 20 December 2026
From Junior Hour to the senior club
Next step
Club tournaments
Juniors who know how the pieces move and can keep score are welcome in the rated 7:15pm club tournaments, alongside adults.
Schools
Interschools
HPCC has organised the NZCF East Auckland Interschool Chess Championships since 2023 for primary, intermediate and secondary teams.
Some of New Zealand’s strongest players started at our junior club, including WIM Jasmine Zhang, FM Luke Li and FM Daniel Gong, who all represented New Zealand at Olympiad level.
For parents
- Please email us before your child’s first visit and say they are joining the Junior Club.
- Parents provide supervision and help during Junior Hour — you are welcome to stay.
- Each child needs their own membership form.
- Junior Club does not run in the school holidays; senior tournaments continue during school holidays.