New Plymouth Chess Club

18/04/2026

Today's piece in the Daily News...

A block of Whittaker’s chocolate proved the right fuel for one of New Plymouth’s brightest chess talents at the Oceania Youth Chess Championships in Christchurch.

15/04/2026

After a successful 2025, our young club member Aarush Khanolkar has been selected to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Chess Championship in the Under 12 section, to be held in Sri Lanka from 16-26th May 2026.

To help with some of the travel and participation costs Aarush's dad has set up a givealittle page. We invite chess lovers and all of our supporters to consider sponsoring Aarush's participation at the Commonwealth Chess Championship. Please visit below link to sponsor. Alternatively, if you are a business considering sponsorship, please get in touch with us.

https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-aarush-represent-nz-chess

We are very proud and excited to see what 2026 brings for Aarush!

14/04/2026

The 2026 Oceania Youth Chess Championships, held from 9–13 April at the Christchurch Town Hall, brought together 223 top junior players from across the region, with participants from five countries competing in 14 FIDE-rated events over nine rounds.

We’re thrilled to celebrate Geetham Addagada, a talented 10-year-old from New Plymouth Chess Club, who delivered an outstanding performance to win the 🥈 silver medal in the Under-12 category, scoring 5.5/9!

With Under-12 to Under-20 age groups merged, Geetham faced older and more experienced players throughout the tournament. His strong focus, skill, and determination helped him secure second place—an incredible achievement!

A big thank you to Aprilis Mortgages for sponsoring Geetham’s participation. They will continue to support him as he represents New Zealand in the Under-10 division at the Commonwealth Chess Championship 2026 in Sri Lanka.

👏 Congratulations, Geetham! We’re proud of you and excited to see what’s next!

14/04/2026

Regular chess starts at the club tonight. Here's our calendar for 2026. We have a variety of tournaments and events round the year, mostly meeting on Tuesday nights.
PM us or drop us an email at [email protected] if you'd like to join the club.

12/12/2025

Big congratulations to the winners of the Club Championships!

Club Captain, Amrish Khanolkar presents the Club Champion's trophy to our 2025 Club Champion, 10 year old Dinuga Wickramathanthri.

The 2025 Club Junior Champion, Aarush Khanolkar receives the Junior Champion's Trophy from Club President, John Ansell

Amrish presents the Intermediate Cup to joint 2025 winners, Chris Avery and Ubed Hameed.

30/11/2025

It's almost here. sign up now!!!!

The Taranaki Rapid is coming again! Time to sign up.
Saturday 6 December 2025
6 round open Swiss tournament
Entry fee: $40 adults, $30 Juniors under 20 yrs.

Use this online link to register: https://forms.office.com/r/y6c3e2myDx

31/10/2025

The Taranaki Rapid is coming again! Time to sign up.

Saturday 6 December 2025

6 round open Swiss tournament

Entry fee: $40 adults, $30 Juniors under 20 yrs.

Use this online link to register: https://forms.office.com/r/y6c3e2myDx

02/07/2025

Watch the North Island Chess Championships live!

You can watch the action on the top boards live on lichess.com

https://lichess.org/broadcast/north-island-chess-championships-2025/RUCS1xRL

The tournament runs from 4 - 7 July.

8 Round Swiss | 90 mins, 30 secs increment all moves | standard | New Plymouth, New Zealand

08/05/2025

We are pleased to announce that the New Plymouth Chess Club with the New Zealand Chess Federation are to host the North Island Chess Championships for 2025. This prestigious event was last held in New Plymouth in 1991. For more information and how to enter, please check out the link below.

North Island Championships 2025 North Island Championships 2025 1884 1884 people viewed this event. Friday July 4th 2025 – Monday July 7th Organised by: New Plymouth Chess Club Venue: Vogeltown Bowling Club rooms, 26 Norman Street, Lower Vogeltown, New Plymouth Schedule: Two rounds per day, starti...

11/12/2024

Congratulations to the winners of the New Plymouth Chess Club end of year tournaments. A new champion has been crowned!

Dang Khoi Pham was the 2024 Club champion, Dinuga Wickramathanthri was both the intermediate and junior champion. Here is Dang Khoi Pham (a student at Highlands Intermediate School receiving the cup from last year's winner, Brayden Ross.

2024 Club Championships:

Winner: Dang Khoi Pham (with 6 points from 8 possible)(pictured)
Runner Up: Geetham Addagada (5 points)
3rd place: Delavan Domney (student at High School): (4 points) (pictured)

2024 Intermediate Cup:

Winner: Dinuga Wickramathanthri (9 points from 12 possible)(pictured receiving cups from President John Ansell)
Runner Up: Hennie Jordaan (8.5 points)(pictured)
3rd equal: Oliver Clement & Paul Townsend (8 points each)

2024 Junior Champion (6:30PM Group):

Winner: Dinuga Wickramathanthri (12 points from 12 possible)
Runner Up: Aarush Khanolkar (10.5 points)
3rd place: Janvi Addagada (10 points)

26/11/2024

*ATTENTION*

This week (of 25 November) is our last coaching session for beginners for this term. We will reschedule the next coaching series in the new year