The power of chess is being unleashed in Tauranga today as local school students battle it out to win a place in the national tournament.

Chess Power are holding the Term 2 Tauranga Regionals tournament at the Tauranga Bridge Club in Otumoetai from 9am – 2.15pm and the public are welcome to come along and watch.

The tournament, designed for new players and experienced alike, has 75 students from Year 1 through to college age competing today.

'We have Year 1-6 pupils from St Marys, ACG, Te Kura o Manunui [previously known as Brookfield School], BOP Home School and one student from Otumoetai Primary,” says Chess Power CEO Paul McDonald.

'In Years 7 and 8, we have students from Mokoia and Nukuhou North School, and a homeschool called Arrows.

'In the high school division, we have students from Whakatane High School, BOP Home School and one student from Tauranga Girls' College but she doesn't have any team mates.”

Studies have shown that chess helps grow kids' minds, helping develop critical thinking, cognitive function and decision making. These are all skills that help kids through the rest of the lives.

A Chess Power tournament for school students is taking place in Tauranga today. Photo: Supplied.

Paul says a lot of schools either don't know about the Chess Power tournaments, or they don't think that their students do chess.

'Our experience is there are always kids playing chess and schools seem not to be aware of how active kids are with chess.

'So they may draw the conclusion that their students don't do chess because they don't have a chess club at the school, so they don't enter.

'If at assembly they ask kids 'who plays chess?', they might see that there are a lot who do play, and who can then enter. And they might do well.”

Paul says he finds that different regions have more popularity with chess.

'And it sort of ebbs and flows. Sometimes we can get 200 kids to a regional tournament.

'Rotorua is a good example of that, where we have so many kids playing chess we have to split them into two separate days.”

The Po'e-Tofaeono siblings, Grayson, Hunter and Tyleah, have gone from strength-to-strength after only a year of learning to pay chess. Photo: Supplied.

Paul, who lives north of Auckland, says they run about 200 chess events each year across New Zealand.

'We have about 30 people who work for us. The arbitrator today at Tauranga is Bruce Pollard. He is an international chess arbiter, and he travels around the country, running 26-30 regional tournaments each term.

'He goes from city to city right across the country running a regional tournament each day.”

Paul says they started Chess Power about 13 years ago.

'We've been running this tournament every year, twice a year.”

The schools competing today are fighting to get into the Chess Power nationals in October.

'The winning teams in each division get five places at nationals.

'It's also an individual event, so the top three individuals in each age division get invited to nationals to compete for the champion's trophy.

'We want to recognise individuals as well as teams – like the student from Otumeotai Primary who doesn't have any team mates but may do well individually.

'Also the top girl in each division gets a trophy. It's been male dominated but girls are quite good at the game, and need more opportunity.”

There is also a Rookies division, designed especially for kids who are new to chess.

'Often they are year 1 and 2. The earlier they start the better.”

The nationals will be held in Auckland in October, and will have around 600 students participating. Details are still to be finalised.

'That's quite a big event, gathering kids from all over New Zealand.”

The students that win at the national tournament receive a Junior Master title with a framed certificate.

'A lot of the kids who do well are either talented in lots of other areas or work really hard academically. Often they're very good at maths as well, as with maths, you have to look at spatial awareness and logical thinking.”

NZ Chess Power's Paul McDonald with the Po'e-Tofaeono siblings. Photo: Supplied.

The winner of last year's Champions Trophy was JM Grayson Po'e-Tofaeono, a Samoan boy from Auckland. Grayson also achieved the Junior Master title by scoring 8 out of 9 and coming first on tie-break at the Chess Power Team Nationals 2021 Junior Division.

'His whole family got into chess.”

In 2019 Tyleah, Hunter and Grayson Po'e-Tofaeono, who at the time were 11, 10 and 8, went from strength-to-strength after only a year of learning to pay chess.

As part of the team at Hillsborough Primary, the trio qualified in 2019 for the National Interschool Chess Championships in Australia through winning the Auckland Regionals, Power Champions Tournament, and then nationals in Christchurch.

'The Pacific community are not that heavily engaged in chess, but the ones who do take it up do really well.”

Paul says they'd love more schools from Tauranga to be involved in the Term 3 tournament, which is being held on Friday August 25. Schools can register on the chesspower.co.nz website.

'A venue hasn't been confirmed. If a school wants to host an event they'll receive a discount; it's only $5 a player if they host.”

To find out more go to www.chesspower.co.nz or email Paul McDonald on paul@chesspower.co.nz