Latest MCCU News

Escott Memorial winners

15 Dec 2024. IM Tarun Kanyamarala (IRL) won the Open tournament with 4½ points from his five games. The u2000 tournament first place was shared by Doruk Unver (Birmingham) and Dymtro Romaniuk (Somerset) and the u1600 tournament was won outright by Matthew Rowe (Worcs). Over a hudred players competed and the event was held at Sutton Coldfield and organised by IAs Alex Holowczak and Matthew Carr.

Storm Darragh blows away county match

7 Dec 2024. The u1650 match between Worcestershire and Warwickshire was blown away by storm Darragh. Captains agreed to postpone the match because of the severe weather alert.

Warwickshire beat Lincolnshire

30 Nov 2024. Warwickshire u1650 team beat Lincolnshire at Leicester. See match card.

Derbyshire Congress

24 Nov 2024. Unusually all completed setournaments were won by a single player with no tie-break required. Kajus Mikalajunas (Leics) won the Open tournament with 4½ points from five games. Dragoljub Sudar (Notts) won the Major with a clean score of 5 points. Advik Saxena (Midx) won the Minor with 5 points and Yichen Zheng (Merseyside) the Foundation tournament with 4½ points. The Intermediate tournament was shared between Stephen Williams (Wales) and Jonah Tomsett (Notts), both on 3½ points from 4 games. The congress attracted nearly 150 players and was organised by David Woodhouse John Shaw, Derrick Walker and John Swain. See full results.

Worcestershire and Staffordshire u1650 team draw

23 Nov 2024. In the second u1650 county match held in Stafford, the teams drew. See full results.

Birmingham Open

17 Nov 2024. Arav Baid (Gtr Manchester) made a clean sweep with 5 points to win the Open. Highest placed Midlander was Tom He (Birmingham) on 3½ points. Ranxi Shao won the Major (u2000) with 4½ points; Ted Ronald (Leics) won the Intermediate (u1750) with 5 points; and Philip Clare (Gtr Manchester) won the Minor (u1500) with 4½ points. Over a hundred players took part in this event organised by IO Alex Holowczak and IA Matthew Carr.

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Text in blue-green links to entry form, website or email contact

Next in the Midlands

Fri 3 Jan to Sun 5 Jan 2025. Shropshire Chess Congress at The Wrekin Housing Group, Colliers Way, Old Park, Telford TF3 4AW. Open, Major u1900, Intermediate u1700, Minor u1500 tournaments 5 rounds. Half-point byes available rounds 1-4.

Next Junior tournament

Sat 18 Jan 2025. British Schools Team Chess Challenge Qualifier at Blue Coat School, Somerset Road, Birmingham B17 0HR. Teams of four players, five rounds.

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Sat 28 Dec - Sun 5 Jan 2025. Hastings International Chess Congress

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.