Latest MCCU News

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.

UK Open Blitz

16 Nov 2024. The top 16 finalists played at Leamington Spa, Warks. GM Eldar Gasanov (UKR) clinched the UK title with 11½ points from his 15 games and GM Danny Gormally (Northumberland) gained the English title scoring 11 points. In the women’s competition the top three players scored 12½ points: WFM Eunice Mei-Xian Hng (SNG) was crowned UK champion and two players were named joint English Women’s champions: WFM Kamila Hryshchenko (Sussex), and WFM junior prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan (Middx). Prizes were presented by the ECF Director for home chess, Nigel Towers (Worcs).

Junior Inter-county Team Championship

16 Nov 2024. Oxfordshire gained first place with 9 match points winning all but one of their matches. Leicestershire, placed second, were the only team to hold Oxfordshire to a draw. Oxfordshire's star player was their board 2 Amy Ba the only player to win all five games. Second placed team was Warwickshire under-10s (!), scoring 7 match points and beating their under-11 team on tie-break into third position. Nottinghamshire Knights were fourth. Seven counties sent nine teams to Nottingham. The event was organised by the English Primary School Chess Association at Nottingham High School. See full results.

Midlands team champ results

19 Oct 2024. Worcestershire beat Staffordshire in the first match in The Midland Counties Team Championship 7-5 at a match in Droitwich. See full results.

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Next in the Midlands

Sat & Sun 14-15 Dec Keith Escott Memorial Congress at Plantsbrook School, Upper Holland Road, Sutton Coldfield B72 1RB. Open u2000 and u1600. Five rounds, time control 80min +10 sec.

Next Junior tournament

Sun 1 Dec. Staffordshire Junior Chess Championships at Stafford GS , Burton Manor Road, Stafford, ST18 9AT. Six rounds, 9am-6pm, 15 min + 10 sec

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Fri 29 Nov-Sat 7 Dec. XTX Markets London Chess Classic at Emirates Stadium, London. This event includes GM tournament with Ju Wejun, ECF champion Gawaine Jones, and 6 other players. Also a schools festival, GM simul, and the LCC festival with u2000 and other tournaments for players of all ratings. Follow live games.

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.