Energetic, robust and a bit shy, Puchen Wang seems like a typical 9-year-old, but he has the chess brain of someone nearly twice his age.
The prodigy from Mt Eden has blitzed the national junior chess championships for the second year in a row, taking the under-12, under-14 andunder-16 titles.
Puchen has been asked to represent New Zealand at the world junior championships in Spain in October and his parents, Victor and Amy Wang, are trying to scrape up about $4000 so he can go.
The family emigrated from Shanghai two years ago and are amazed at the enthusiasm for Puchen's talent from Auckland Chess Club members.
Puchen is the youngest member of the club and loves the twice-weekly club nights, when he competes against adults.
He started playing a Chinese version of chess against his mother at the age of 4.
"Within half a year he was beating me, and in a year he beat nearly all the students in the neighbourhood," said Mrs Wang.
When he was 6 he was introduced to the Western game by a chess coach, and started beating the other students after about six months.
Mum and dad are no longer a challenge, and Puchen lights up when his coach, Ewen Green, brings some real competition.
Puchen is at a loss to explain why he likes chess so much: "I just do."
