Latest MCCU News

Five Midlands teams in county finals

11 Jun, ECF website reports. Two Warwickshire teams are in the finals - u180 and u120 tournaments playing Essex and Norfolk respectively. Lincolnshire battle in the Minor Counties against Surrey, Nottinghamshire in the u140 against Yorkshire and Leicestershire were gifted a walkover in the u100 to play Lancashire in the final.
10 Jun, ECF website reports. Two Midlands team were in action on Sunday. In the u120 competition, Warwickshire just beat Middlesex and Leicestershire lost narrowly to Norfolk.
9 Jun, ECF website reports. Two out of three Midlands teams made it to the finals. Lincolnshire beat Devon in the Minor Counties competition and play Surrey in the final, Warwickshire u180 beat Middlesex and play Yorkshire in the final. In the u140 competition, Nottinghamshire beat Essex while Worcestershire lost to Yorkshire who play Nottinghamshire in the final. Other Midlands teams are playing onSunday 10 June in the u120 and u100 tournaments.

Midlands Chess annual meeting

27 May, John Grasham reports. The agenda for the annual meeting on 30 June has been published and members will discuss proposals from Leics & Rutland to alter the MCCU county team competition rules. John is standing down from the role of MCCU secretary this year. CEO Ray Dolan described his valuable work as a great asset to the MCCU thanked him for work over the last six years.

Seven Midlands county teams in national semi-finals.

20 May, ECF website reports. Warwickshire and Leicestershire have two teams each in the semi finals scheduled on 9 June.Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Worcestershire have one team apeice in the semi-finals. Warks have appealed their result in u100 match against Essex, but the appeal was unsuccessful.

19 May. In the u180 fixtures both Midlands teams lost: Warwickshire to Middlesex and Notts to Essex. In the u140 competition, Worcestershire beat Hampshire and Nottinghamshire beat Lancashire. In the u120 tournament, Warwickshire beat Merseyside, Leicestershire beat Surrey, but Nottinghamshire lost to Middlesex. In the u100, Leics beat Notts and there is an appeal against a ruling that Warks fielded an ineligible player in their u100 match against Essex.
12 May. In their minor counties fixtures, Lincolnshire beat Norfolk at Peterborough, but Worcestershire went down to the Devonians and Warwicksire lost to Suffolk. In the u160 competition, both Midlands teams were eliminated Warwickshire losing to Middlesex and Nottinghamshire to Lancashire.
5 May. In the u120 matches, Warwickshire won thier preliminary stage match against Essex and Leicestershire their quarter final match against Surrey.

Rugeley half-centenary Rapidplay results

7 Apr, Matthew Carr reports. Rugeley club celebrated its 50 years with a rapidplay. Over fifty players entered the three 7-round tournaments and there was a strong field in the Open. FM Gary Kenworthy won the Open on 5½ points. The top two Midland players were Marek Mazek (Heywood, GMC) and IM Laurence Cooper (Staffs) on 5 points in second place. There was a tree-way tie in the Major for first place with 5½ points: Peter Collins (Lichfield, Staffs); Phil Bull (Wolverhampton) and Douglas Barnet (Crew). Robert Marks (Solihull, Warks) stormed to first on 6½ points in the Minor. Full results are at ChessResults.com and there is a report at Rugely Chess Club.

Manvith Sandhu wins Warks Junior tournament

7 Apr, Alex Holowczak reports. Talented 10-year-old Warwickshire youngster Manvith from Hallfield School, Birmingham was first on 4½ points in the A tournament for players graded over 75. Over fifty players took part. See other winners on the junior news page.

MCCU annual meeting

6 Apr, Ray Dolan reports. The AGM will be held at Derby on Saturday 30 June 2018 at 2pm.

Jonah Willow wins Midlands under-18 tournament

5 Apr. Jonah (W Nottingham) scored 5½ points from six games and Laura Davidson was highest scoring female player on 3 points. Finlay Terry-Bowcott (Halesowen, Worcs) and Abigail Weersing (Essex Jun) shared first on 5½ points in the under-14 tournament. Joe Hirst (Newcastle-u-Lyme, Staffs) got a clean sweep with 6 points in the under-11 with Jessica Mellor (Guildford) and Margarita Sanchez (Coventry Acad, Warks) highest placed girls. In the under-9 tournament, Lohia Sohum was first with 6 points and highest Midlander Kanav Monga (Coventry Acad, 4½ points). The highest scoring girls in the U9 section, were Elis Dicen (62, Warks) and Munkhdemberel Pagamdulam (100, Mongolia) who both scored 3½ points.

Resurgence of Midlands Correspondence Chess

4 Apr, Philip Morgan reports. In Division 3 of the County and District Correspondence Chess Championship in which 6 of the 11 teams represent Midland Counties - Worcesterhire A and B, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire B. ( The latter should be more accurately called Warwickshire D, as the county has 3 teams playing in the higher divisions of the competition A top quality Board 1 match between SIM Jonathan Tait, Notts, and IM David Anderton of Staffs. ended 2 draws. Lincolnshire sat on top of the table for some time with 9½ points from their 16 completed games. Worcestershire A have just overtaken them with 10 points from 14 completed games. They are being strongly pressed by Nottinghamshire and Essex D, each on 12 points from 9 games. An exciting finish seems in prospect. Full details on ICCF website.

Counties' draw for national stages

2 Apr, Peter Sherlock reports. The draw is published but some fixtures are awaiting results from regional matches delayed by the weather. See national stage county match fixtures 2018.

Graham Humphreys 1929-2018

27 Mar. I have been informed the funeral is at 3.30pm,on Friday April 13th at Gornal Wood Crematorium, Coopers Bank Road, Dudley DY3 2PT.
21 Mar. The death of Graham Humphreys was reported by Wolverhampton & Dist League. His services to chess extended from 1951 to 2010. His first appointments was in 1951 to help organise the Birmingham Easter congress. He was continuously Staffordshire's junior chess secretary - latterly with Traci Whitfield - between 1951 and 2010, the Midland Counties' Director for Junior Chess from 1954-2010, and a member of the British Chess Federation Junior Committee 1955-75. Staffordshire honoured his with a long-service award in 2011 and a Wolverhampton League trophy commemorate his contributions to chess. The obituary written by David Fone is on the Wolverhampton DCL website.

Midlands nominations for national team championships

31 Mar, reported by Peter Sherlock. The MCCU nominations for the u120 competition were revised to give Notts a place rather than Lincs as a result of the decision of the disputes committee.
26 Mar, reported by Pater Sherlock. The draw for the national stages will be held on 1 April.
25 Mar. Minor – Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire; U180 – Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire; U160 – Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire (reserve Greater Manchester); U140 – Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire (reserve Derbyshire); U120 – Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire; U100 – Leicestershire and Warwickshire, (reserve Nottinghamshire).

Lincolnshire retain Midlands team championship
Nottinghamshire win u140 team championship
Leicestershire win u120 team championships

24 & 25 Mar. In the weekend matches in the championship, Lincs retain their title with a win over Warks and Worcs got an unexpected win against Notts to gain a chance in the national stages. Lincs, Warks and Worcs will be offered nominations for the national stages. The u120 championship was thrown into disarray because of a dispute in the Lincs-Notts match. With it impossible to convene a committee to hear evidence from both counties in time for the ECF deadline for nominations for national stages, the controller had to make a decision with four teams in the running. He ruled a match draw, but a disputes committee will review the decision. A very difficult end to an exciting u120 season.

Graham Humphreys 1929-2018

27 Mar. I have been informed the funeral is at 3.30pm,on Friday April 13th at Gornal Wood Crematorium, Coopers Bank Rd., Dudley. DY3 2PT
21 Mar. The death of Graham Humphreys was reported by Wolverhampton & Dist League. His services to chess extended from 1951 to 2010. His first appointments were in 1951 to help organise the Birmingham Easter congress. He was continuously Staffordshire's junior chess secretary - latterly with Traci Whitfield - between 1951 and 2010, the Midland Counties' Director for Junior Chess from 1954-2010, and a member of the British Chess Federation Junior Committee 1955-75. Staffordshire honoured his with a long-service award in 2011 and a Wolverhampton League trophy commemorate his contributions to chess. The obituary written by David Fone is on the Wolverhampton DCL website.

Under-120 teams all have chances

10 Mar. In the u120, Notts beat Leics and Derbys beat Lincs. In the final match of the u100, Warks clinch a chance in the national stages with a draw against Notts.

Bad weather hits counties fixtures

1 Mar. With some of the worst weather conditions in the last 50 years, all three county matches scheduled for 3 March were postponed. The pair of Worcs-Notts matches have been rescheduled for Sun 25 March and the Warks-Lincs match for Sat 24 Mar.

Click "News" on the menu bar above for other recent items.

Next in the Midlands

Wed 4 Jul. Civil Service Chess Championship at Carrs Lane Conference Centre, Birmingham B4 7SX. A rapidplay event starting 10:30am.

Next Midlands & national junior events

Sun 1 Jul. Rugby Junior Congress at Lawrence Sherriff School, Clifton Road, Rugby CV21 3AG. Five rounds, 12 noon-5pm, Under-18 and under-11 tournaments.

Next National Event

Jul 27 to 5 Aug. British Chess Championships at Hull City Hall, Victoria Square, Carr Lane, Hull HU1 3RQ. Weekend, junior and graded tournaments.

The "chess counties" forming the MCCU

Eleven "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 grade 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 grading 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.