The Otago Chess Club

7 Maitland Street, Dunedin, New Zealand
New Zealand's oldest incorporated society

The club would like to acknowledge the support of the following organisations...

Calendar

Notice: Social play on Tuesdays 1pm to 3pm is currently suspended - watch here for when it is reinstated.

The current event on the 2026 Calendar is the first leg of the rapid championsip starting on 20 May, followed by the 2nd Blitz tournament on 3 June and the Cleland trophy starting on 10 June.

The Otago Winter Rapid Open on 7 June is open for registrations.
The Otago Interschool Teams are on 6 June for Intermediate and Primary schools and 14 June for Secondary schools
The Otago U13 Championship is on 8 August
The Otago Junior (U20) Championship is on 22 August
Email otagochess@gmail.com for more information or to register.

The first leg of the Club Rapid Championship started on 20 May with four grades under the rules.
View the results and rating performances.

The Graham Haase Memorial tournament finished on 13 May with 25 players taking part. Romero Suggate took the trophy for 2026 with an unbeaten 4½/5 including a half point bye. Second was Ben Suazo on 4 with Ryan High, Jonno Christie and Quentin Johnson sharing third on 3½. See Crosstable and rating performances.

The Perpetual Handicap for 2026. The leader in the Standard is Jonno Christie on +58, followed by Brent Southgate on +54 , with Oliver Lee on +43. The leader in the Rapid is Romero Suggate on +34, followed by Lewis Kim on +32, with Oliver Lee on +28. The leader in the Blitz is Oscar Lobb on +100, followed by Romero Suggate on +19, with Jonno Christie on +14.

The April 2026 NZCF ratings are out - Only players with 20 rated games or more are shown on this list. Check out the full list on the NZCF Ratings page.

The first leg of the Club Standard Championship ended on 8 April bar one game left to play. There were three grades under the rules (these have been reinterpreted due to NZCF rating deflation: Intermediate trophy is now U1700 and Junior Trophy is now U1400).
The B Grade was won by Oscar Lobb on 4/5, ahead of Tyne Grant 2nd on 3 points, and Hamish Gold and Terry Duffield 3rd= on 2½. Oliver Lee shared first in the C Grade on 4/6 with Brent Southgate after missing the final round. Third was shared by John Armstrong and new member Aidan Dixon on 3½. The A Grade ended up with top seed Quentin Johnson taking 1st on 3½/5 a point ahead of Romero Suggate, Greg Familton and Ben Suazo in joint second place.
View all crosstables and the A and B Grade draw
View A-Grade results, B-Grade results and C-Grade results - See News.

The Otago Autumn Rapid Open was held on 1 March and attracted 33 entries including players from France, Christchurch, Timaru and Oamaru. Top seed Ollie Archer made no contest of the event, winning with 6/6. Second was shared by Romero Suggate, Riley Jellyman and Quentin Johnson on 4½. The U1400 grade was won by Jacob Christie on 4 points, with second shared by Caleb MacDonald, Sean Balbalin and Scott Samuel on 3½. View final scores on Vega - See News.

The catalogue of the Club's library of over 600 items is available - see Library

For links to other chess sites including free chess training resources, visit the favourite links page of the club wiki.

The Otago Chess Club meets on Wednesday evenings, 7:00pm at 7 Maitland Street, Dunedin and social play on Tuesdays 1pm to 3pm (Social Chess on Tuesdays is currently suspended) - Email otagochess@gmail.com for more information

The Dunedin Junior Chess Academy has been replaced by Otago Junior Fridays for Otago Chess Club Junior members and started for term 2 2026 on Friday 1 May and runs until Friday 26 June
Email otagochess@gmail.com for inquiries

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This site was last updated on 21 May 2026