Latest MCCU News

First u1650 matches played. Staffs and Warks win

27 Sep 2025. Warks-Worcs.Worcs defaulted a board in a 12-board match and in the end Warks won with that advantage. See details.

27 Sep 2025. Derbys-Staffs. Peter Evans and David Pickering report. Over 16 boards, the final result was an 8-8 draw at Rolls Royce Derby. As Derbyshire’s Under 1450 players have not yet formed a team, the captains agreed to reserve the lower four boards for under 1450 players. The lead changed hands several times. Eventually two boards were left. Staffs won the sixth board to reach 8 points and on the last board with the clocks ticking away, and the Derbyshire player achieved a past pawn and victory with only 2 minutes to spare. A hard but cleanly fought drawn match. One player remarked that he enjoyed his hard fought game - the last to finish - and David Pickering commented That county chess allows time to play a game to its logical conclusion. See details.

Matches for the MCCU team championships

12 Sep 2025, Stephen Smithson reports. The fixtures lists are available on the ECF League management System. The first match for the MCCU county team championship is in mid-November; the first of ten u1650 matches is on 27 September, and the u1850 match between Lincolnshire and Staffordshire is on 21 February 2026.

Winners at Staffordshire Congress

17 Aug 2025. A clean sweep by FM Jonathan Blackburn (Cheshire) earned him first prize in the FIDÉ Open tournament and local favorite Jacob Boswell (Staffs) was in second place with 4 points from five games. Kyle Redd (Warks) and Amrik Singh (Warks) shared first place in the Major (u1950) tournament. Alan Thomason (Cheshire) was first in the Intermediate (u1700) and Mark Hughes (Staffs) won the Minor (u1450) both scoring 4½ points. Nearly one hunderd players took part. Tournament director was Neil Hankey (Cheshire) and IA Matthew Carr and NA Colin Abell (both Staffs) were arbiters.

County team entries for 2025-6 season

17 Aug 2025. Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Worcestershire have entered open team championship for the Midlands title. Lincolnshire and Staffordshire play for the u1850 title. The most popular competition was the u1650 tournament where Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire play. Staffordshire has a team ready for the u1450 tournament and will go through to the national finals if no other team comes forward. It is possible that more teams will enter before the end of August.

Midland players at British

10 Aug 2025. The highest placed Midland players were IM Jonah Willow (Notts) 6½ points; Siva Mahadevan (Warks) 6 points; IM Brandon Clarke (Staffs) and GM Mark Hebden (Leics) 5 Points. The championship was won on tie-break by GM Micky Adams (Surrey) with 9 points after play-offs with GM Stuart Conquest. The Women's championship was shared by WGMs Elmira Mirzoeva (London) and Lan Yao (Surrey) both on 5½ points. WFM Elis Dicen (Warks) 5 points was the highest placed Midland woman. MCCU’s nomination, young player Senith Gunarathne (Notts) scored 2½ points, increased his rating and secured a win against FM Dave Ledger.

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Next in the Midlands

Sat 4 Oct, Birmingham FIDÉ Rapid and Blitz at Archbishop Isley Catholic School, Shirley Road, Acocks Green, Birmingham B27 7XY. Open and u1650 sections five rounds 15+5 starting at 10:15am; Blitz 3+2 starting at 2:45pm one open section only.

Mon to Sat 26-31 Oct, Coventry International at Holiday Inn, Coventry M6, Jnct 2. Nine rounds. Masters. Limited to 100 competitors. Time control 90 min + 30 sec.

Next Junior tournament

Sat 29 Nov. Midlands Juniors vs Wales Juniors match in Shropshire

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Sat 27 Sep, Birmingham Regional Qualifier for the UK Open Blitz tournament at Quinborne Community Centre, Quinton, Birmingham B32 2TW

The "chess counties" forming the MCCU

Ten "Chess Counties" form the Midland Counties Chess Union and cover the areas shown in the map on the right. A small Board of volunteer directors currently led by Chief Executive Ray Dolan (Staffs) is elected annually by delegates from member chess counties. The Board organises regional competitions based on policies agreed annually by delegates from member chess counties.

By playing in the competitions hosted on this website you agree that your name, chess rating and your membership status with the English Chess Federation (ECF) may be published on this website for the purposes of recording the results of the competitions. You also agree that such information will be passed to the ECF, the governing body, for rating purposes, and published on their website.

The MCCU

The current webmaster is Ray Collett (Worcs). The website's policy is to report results of the MCCU competitions, principally the MCCU county team tournaments and congresses. Brief results of other chess congresses held in the MCCU area and and links to organisers' websites are on the "News" pages. A calendar of upcoming chess congresses is on the "Congresses" pages. Some important national and international chess events will also be reported if there is a "Midlands" interest. In the menu bar above: "About" gives more information about the MCCU and has links to rules and administrative papers; "Guide" explains the site's organisation and provides links to most of the site's key pages.

Please send news of Midlands chess events, corrections, notifications of broken links, and suggestions to improve the website to Ray Collett.