Latest MCCU News

Cannock League’s 25th Anniversary

14 Apr 2024, Ray Dolan reports. Cannock & District Chess League was founded exactly 25 years ago by Robert Mayne, Brian Lynam, Robin Lewis and Ray Dolan. The league started with two divisions and has now grown to four. It also organises the Chase Trophy competition and the Robert Ward competition for trophy and plate. Ten clubs and thirty teams now play in the league. They celebrate with a rapidplay congress at Wallsall (see alongside). League Champions in 2022-3 were Wolverhampton, but Tamworth are in the lead this season. The current officers of the league are: Steve Whatmore (President), Peter Oliver (Secretary), Eunice Dolan (Treasurer), Ken McNulty (Web editor), Ray Dolan (Publicity), Peter Evans (ECF-delegate).

Clean sweep for Hebden at Peterborough

1 Apr 2024. Leicestershire GM Mark Hebden won all 7 games at the 4NCL congress held at Peterborough. Sharing second and third place with 5½ points were RM Sooraj (IND) and Sahbir Okhai (Leics).

South Birmingham win BDCL lightning tournament

13 Mar 2024. South Birmingham A team dominated section A. Mutual Circle C won section B and Olton D won section C. The event was held at Tyseley WMC and organised by John Mildenhall.

National stages County team competitions

29 Feb 2024. Lincolnshire are eligible to participate in the Minor Counties, u1850 and u1650 competitions; Worcestershire are eligible to play in the Minor counties, u1650 and u1450 competitions; and Staffordshire in the u1850 and u1450 competitions. The deadline for nominations is 24 March. The dates for matches have been published by the ECF: 27 Mar u1850 Prelim: 11 May for Open, Minor, u1850, u1550 quarter-finals; 18 May for the u2050 and u1650 quarter-finals, 8 June for all semi-finals and 6 July for the finals.

British Universities Championships at Leicester

25 Feb 2024. In the rapidplay team championships Oxford beat Cambridge on tie-break both teams having 16 match points. Warwick University won the Plate, LSE the Bowl, and Bristol 3 the Shield tournaments. Eighteen universities were represented and each team played nine rounds. Midland universites sending teams were: Birmingham, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick. An individual Blitz tournament was held and Wing Ki Kwong (UCL) was first of 130 players with 8½ points from 9 games.

Coventry Congress results

18 Feb 2024. The Open was won by Finaly Terry-Bowcott (Warks) with 4½ points from 5 games. The major was won by Arav Baid (Gtr Manch, 4½ points); the Intermediate first place was shared by Dinuga Basnayake (Notts) and Jerome Stellio (Staffs), both on 4 points. Three players shared first place in the Minor: Granville Hill (Liecs), Shivam Patel (Warks) and Gregory Kornilovich (Warks). Over 120 players competed in this congress organised by Alex Holowczak See full results.

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Next in the Midlands

Next Junior tournament

Sun 5 May. Herefordshire Megafinal UK Chess Challenge at Hereford Cathedral School, Zimmerman Building, Church Street, Hereford HR1 2LT. Trophies for winners, medals for high scorers and qualification for Gigafinal in Delancey UK Chess Challenge in many age categories. 10am start, prize-giving 5pm. Time control 15 min + 10 sec

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national event

Sat & Sun 2-3 Mar. British Rapidplay Championship 2024 at Holiday Inn, Peterborough West, Thorpe Road, Peterborough. Start 12:30pm to 4:30 pm. Eleven rounds, time control 15 min + 5 sec.

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.