The Christchurch Chess Club was founded in 1866. The club then became nearly inactive until 1877, when it was revived to prepare to host the 1879 NZ Chess Championships. Following the Championships, some disgruntled members left the club, and the Canterbury Chess Club was born, on the 18th of October, 1879. The Canterbury Chess Clubs have provided chess equipment and a place to play for nearly 150 years. Throughout that time, many tournaments have been run by the club, including the New Zealand championships, or Congress as it is known. The Canterbury Chess Club was also instrumental in founding what was then called the NZ Chess Association (now called the NZ Chess Federation) in the 1960s - the NZCA (now NZCF) was originally based in Christchurch. The South Island Championships have been run by the Canterbury Chess Club, whether at our clubrooms or at other venues, on many occasions as well. This year the Trust ran the Competitive team competitions in term 2 followed by the Social and Girls’ team competitions in term 3. These competitions were for teams of four players. Pupils could play in both term 2 and term 3.

For the first time this year we will organize the Global Chess Festival and hope that this will become a tradition and our young members will be part of the international chess scene. The first Global Chess Festival will start at 10 o’clock on the 17^th of October 2015 and we are looking forward to receive competitors from all schools.