Whakatāne High School student Albie Cameron has secured himself a spot in the chess national finals after his performance at the recent Chess Power Tauranga Regionals.

Albie, 13, took on students up to four years his senior to take out second place in the competition.

He lost only one game of the seven-round tournament, finishing with six points.

Winner Jacob Askin from Tauranga Boys’ College, who was the only person to defeat Albie, earned 6.5 points.

Both they and third-place- getter Doyoon Kwak, also of Tauranga Boys’ College, have qualified for the national finals.

Albie, the only Eastern Bay representative to attend, said he did not expect to do as well as he did at the regionals, and it seemed to surprise some of his opponents, too.

“I could see that I was coming second. At one point I was coming first, but then I lost that game. I was still really proud of myself.”

Albie’s dad taught him how to play chess a couple of years ago and he has kept up with it since.

“I figured out how to do it online and just trained myself to get better,” he said.

That training has bloomed into about 40 minutes of practice every day, give or take.

“We’ve got a bit of a drive to school, so I just do it in the car on my way.”

Albie said he was feeling good ahead of the nationals in October, although it presented a scheduling issue – both the chess national finals and the HoopNation Tauranga Classic basketball tournament are happening on the same weekend, but in different towns.

“I have to choose between nationals and basketball. I’ll probably go for nationals, though.”

Whakatāne High School teacher-in-charge of chess Steve Williamson said Albie was a good example of the young talent coming through the chess ranks.

He said the high school had been playing off against students from Trident High School, in addition to having their own thriving chess club, and they intended to attend more tournaments in future.