A 12-year-old Tauranga student has won New Zealand's Junior Master chess title.

Joshua Barnes, a local homeschooled student, received the prestigious award over Labour Weekend.

He competed with his team at the Chess Power Nationals on Saturday at Alfriston College in Auckland.

Following this, Joshua competed in the Champions Trophy on Sunday, which is an invitation-only event for qualifying individuals, and aimed at finding the best junior chess players in New Zealand.

After winning seven of the nine rounds on Sunday, he reached the goal he had set for himself at the beginning of the year and was awarded the Junior Master title.  

Junior Master is a title awarded by Chess Power to players under the age of 18 who win a major national Chess Power event such as the Champions Trophy.

"The Junior Master title is significantly difficult to achieve," says Chess Power CEO Paul MacDonald.

Joshua's mother Gemma Barnes says he has been studying and practising hard towards it. 

"I would like to thank Paul for providing tournaments and opportunities for junior chess players," says Joshua.

He also has special thanks for the coach he has been working with this year, Bob Smith, who is a former NZ Chess Champion and a World Chess Federation Master.

Gemma says Bob is currently overseas but they contacted him with Joshua's exciting news.

Joshua says his next goal for chess is to work on improving his ratings for NZCF (New Zealand Chess Federation) and FIDE (International Chess Federation) and hopefully represent New Zealand one day. 

For further details on Chess Power tournaments see www.Chesspower.co.nz

For information on the next Bay of Plenty Chess Power tournament click here