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The upcoming Poppies Chess Challenge is being billed as the ‘Battle of the Young Guns’ and local fans of the ancient boardgame won’t want to miss it.
It’s on at Poppies Books in Picton Street, Howick, on Saturday, July 26, with the action set to get under way at about 10.30am and run until midday.
The competition is jointly sponsored by the Howick Village Association and the Middle Game Chess Foundation.
The foundation is a new organisation established by people including east Auckland local Paul Spiller, a former Oceania president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) from 2014-2023 and current vice-president and life member of the New Zealand Chess Federation.
Involved in the foundation also is two-time New Zealand chess champion Martin Dreyer, who was awarded the title of ‘master’ by FIDE in 1992.
They created the foundation with other like-minded chess enthusiasts to support young players developing their chess skills and to help fund teams to compete in the International Chess Olympiad held every two years.
“Tony Moores at Poppies has very generously supported this event, which was first started in 2019 and has continued every year since, even through Covid,” Spiller says of the Poppies Chess Challenge.
“This year we have two very exciting and talented young chess players who’ll battle it out in a best-of-six games Blitz chess match.
“That means for every game the players only get three minutes on their chess clocks, but get an increment of two seconds every time they make a move. The action will be fast and furious.”
Set to compete are 12-year-old FIDE master Daqi Mao, who Spiller says has been making big improvements in his chess over the last 12 months.
Daqi jointly won the New Zealand Rapid Chess Championships in Auckland in January and then gained his FIDE master title at the Oceania Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
“He clinched the title with a win over multiple Australian champion, grandmaster Darryl Johansen,” Spiller says.
“I believe he’s the youngest New Zealand player to ever beat a grandmaster.
“He continued with a first-equal-place in the Latvian tournament in March, the annual one-day event hosted by the Howick Pakuranga Chess Club at Te Tuhi in Pakuranga.
“Since then he shared first-place in the recent Peter Stuart Memorial in Auckland and took out second place in the North Island Championships held during the recent school holiday break in New Plymouth.
“Candidate master William Liu is another very strong young player rising through the ranks.
“He’s been able to hold Daqi to draws in several of their recent encounters and will provide some strong opposition.
“It’ll be a very entertaining contest that usually draws a big crowd inside and outside the Poppies store.”
Howick Pakuranga Chess Club life member Dr Tony Booth will serve as match arbiter.
