Latest MCCU News

Midland teams knocked out in counties quarter finals

17 May 2025. Worcestershire u1650 team payed Kent at Reading, but lost 6-10. See match card.

11 May 2025. Worcestershire played Devon in the minor Counties competition at Banwell, North Somerset and lost 6½-9½. See match card.

10 May 2025. Lincolnshire played Cambridgeshire in the Minor Counties championship at Dogsthorpe, Peterborough and lost on board count. See match card.

10 May 2025. Derbyshire lost to Cambridgeshire at Peterborough in the under-1850 competition. See match card.

4 May 2025. Lincolnshire lost to Suffolk at Peterborough in the under-1850 championship. See match card.

Two MCCU players honoured at ECF meeting

26 Apr 2025. Congratulations to Nigel Towers (Worcs) and Dave Thomas (Warks). Nigel was made an honorary Life Vice-President and Dave an honorary Life Member. Nigel has recently stepped down from the voluntary post of ECF Director of Home Chess having organised online competitions during Covid, and several Seniors congresses for the ECF. Dave is current President of Warwickshire CA, registration officer for the Four Nations Chess League and has previously served as an ECF voluntary Director for Membership and for Marketing. The same meeting also approved an increase in ECF subscriptions in line with inflation. A detailed report is available from Chris Lewis on the Shropshire CA website.

National stage county competitions draw

7 Apr 2025. Seven Midlands teams compete in the national quarter finals. In the Minor Counties competition, Worcestershire face Devon and Lincolnshire face Cambridgeshire: in the u1850 Lincolnshire play Suffolk and Derbyshire play Cambridgeshire: in the u1650, Worcestershire play Kent and Lincolnshire play Surrey. Quarter final matches are due to be played on the weekend of 10/11 May and 17/18 May. In the u1450, Staffordshire play Essex in the semi finals scheduled for the weekend of 7/8 June.This year there is no MCCU team in the Open or the u2050 competitions.

Clean sweep by Nottingham University player

5 Apr 2025. Simon Schweizer (Notts) won all eleven games in the Birmingham FIDÉ congress organised by Domenico Napolitano (Middx) at Archbishop Isley Catholic School, Birmingham. Simon was two points ahead of runner-up Ilya Iyenger (Middx).

National stage county competitions dates

28 Mar, Mark Morrell, controller of the national county team competitions has published default dates for the KO stages: Preliminary rounds, 26th April; quarter-finals 10th May (Open, Minor, u1850 and u1450) or 17th May (u2020 and u1650); semi-finals 7th June and finals on 5th July.

Nottingham Congress

11 Mar 2025, Neil Graham reports. The MCCU nomination for a place in the British Championship will be offered to the highest scoring Midland player in the Open tournament. The congress is at Nottingham on Saturday and Sunday 10 and 11 May.

Staffordshire accepts invitations to national stage

9 Mar 2025, Stephen Smithson reports. Staffordshire have accepted a nomination to compete in the Open competition. Lincolnshire and Worcestershire have accepted nominations to play in the Minor Counties Championships. In the rated limited competitions, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire will be playing in the u1850; Worcestershire and Lincolnshire in the u1650 and Staffordshire in the u1450.

Coventry Congress winners

22 Feb 2025. Local player Finlay Bowcott-Terry (Warks) won the Open tournament with 4½ points from five games. The Major (u2000) was won by Sebastian Griffin-Young (Notts) and the intermediate (u1750) by Vihaan Mathur (India) both winning with 4½ points. There was a four-way tie at the head of the Minor (u1500) competition between Ron Cooper (Northants), Aron English (Leics), Otto Bryant (Oxon) and Zara Mehte (Leics). The event was organised by Alex Holowczak with Rom Hammond, Dipal Patel and Dan Turner and attracted over a hundred players.

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Next in the Midlands

Sun 10 Aug, Lincoln Rapidplay at Southside, Colegrave Street, Lincoln LN5 8DW. Six rounds starting at 10am. Open, Major (u1800) and Minor (u1500) tournaments. Time control 20 min + 10 sec.

Next Junior tournament

Sat 28 Jun. Delancey UK Chess Challenge Worcestershire Megafinal at St John’s Campus, University of Worcester. Megafinal begins at 10am, six round rapidplay, time control 15 min + 10 sec, Prizes for highest boy and girl scorers in each year group.

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Mon 10 Mar, on BBC2. Chessmasters: The Endgame. Starts at 8pm.

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.