About Us

The Cockle Bay Chess Club (as the Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club was originally known) was formed in the late 1960s by leading New Zealand chess player FM Richard Sutton. Richard twice won the New Zealand Chess Championships in the early 1970s and represented New Zealand at the Skopje Olympiad. At that stage, he was one of NZ's strongest players.

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In the early days, the club met in Richard's house in Cockle Bay and then hired the use of the downstairs All Saints' Church community hall in Cook Street. Richard taught dozens of kids chess in those early days at the junior club, a tradition that has carried on to the present day.

Over the years, the HPCC had to make various location changes, first moving to the basement of the Howick Bridge Club, then the St John's Hall at Highland Park, then back to the Haseler Hall underneath the All Saints Anglican church in Selwyn Road. A few years ago, the club moved once again to its current operating premises downstairs at the Howick Bowling Club. In 1975, the Howick Chess Club amalgamated with the Pakuranga Chess Club, primarily being run by Peter McCarthy, the father of Katrine, a strong figure in the Women's NZ chess scene. At this point, re-christening took place and the club became the Howick-Pakuranga Chess Club, the name that remains today in 2025.

Richard Sutton and his family moved to Dunedin in the late 1970's with a posting as a law professor at Otago University. Life Member Tony Booth took over the role as club president and has remained an active player, chess teacher and administrator in the club for over 50 years. 

In the late 1970's well known Scottish International Master Dr. William Fairhurst emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Howick and regularly made appearances at the club. He was a ten time Scottish chess champion and highly acclaimed bridge designer.

The club inaugurated a weekend chess tournament in 1977 which has been run continuously ever since. It is now named the "Latvian tournament" after long-time member and benefactor Janis Borovskis, a Latvian emigree after World War 2. It is one of the longest running weekend events in Auckland and now regularly attracts well over 120 players.

The Howick-Pakuranga Club remains one of the most active clubs in New Zealand in running NZCF events. It has hosted the national championships in 1990, 1999/2000, 2019 and most recently 2025. It has organised countless Junior, Interschools, Seniors and Women's Chess Championships. Over the years the club has hosted many lectures and simultaneous exhibitions by some of the world's leading grandmasters including GM Nigel Short, GM Gawain Jones, GM Surya Ganguly, GM Hajo Hecht, GM Julen Arizmendi, GM Stuart Conquest and GM Drazen Sermek. Many other community chess events have also been organised and sponsored by club officials.

Many of New Zealand's top junior chess players began their chess career at the Howick-Pakuranga club and have gone on to represent New Zealand in international competitions, notably WIM Jasmine Zhang, FM Luke Li , FM Daniel Gong have all represented New Zealand at Olympiad level.

The junior chess club continues to thrive with now one of the largest junior memberships of any chess club in New Zealand.

HPCC President FM Martin Dreyer is a winner (twice) of the NZ Chess Championship, as is club member Peter Mckenzie and life member FM Ewen Green. Long-time HPCC junior coach FM Leonard McLaren is also a former co-NZ Champion. 

Life member and club stalwart Dr. Tony Booth is also an NZCF life member and vice-patron of the federation. Club secretary Paul Spiller is currently NZCF vice-president and is a former NZCF president and former president of the Oceania Zone 3.6.