The new Howick Chess Centre will be officially opened on Sunday.
A joint project between Howick’s Paul Spiller (Chess Enterprises New Zealand) and the New Zealand Chess Federation, the new chess centre will act as a chess hub to store all the equipment, stock for sale, archives and chess library for the NZCF as well as provide office space and a small tournament room for events and coaching.
Spiller has also put on display a collection of historical photos of the early New Zealand Championships that have been restored by New Zealand vice-patron Grant Kerr.
Other historical items including photos and posters are also being displayed from his own collection.
“It is still a work in progress but I am on the lookout for any chess memorabilia that the chess community may wish to display or donate.,” said Spiller.
“Book and magazine collections have been donated by Andrew Day, Grant Kerr and from the estate of the late Edith Otene and now number several hundred.
“Opening of this chess centre is very much an experimental project that I have committed to until at least July next year at such time I will reassess the venture’s viability.”
The centre will open at 10am on Sunday with a small chess tournament Chennai Olympiad Fundraiser to raise funds for Olympiad teams who will travel to Chennai in a few weeks.
Spiller also hopes to host the New Zealand Seniors Championships in August and some junior coaching clinics and other rapid one day events between now and the end of the year.
In January he will hold the Bob Wade Memorial Masters and Bob Wade Memorial Challengers tournaments, both 10-player round robins with the Masters being an International Master event. Expressions of interest to play in these events are being sought now.
The centre is located upstairs in the 100-year-old Golden Sheaf Bakery building at 12 Central Terrace which is down the drive adjacent to the Times Media offices in the carpark directly behind Poppies bookstore in Howick.
