2020 County Online Championships

Published 8 July 2020

Online National County Chess 2020

 

The national stages for the 2019-20 county team competitions could not take place because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit England harder than other European countries. In response, ECF organised County Championships Online. Counties were offered Open and under-1825 competitions for teams of 12 players with the possibility that captains could agree to play a larger number of boards. The time control was set at 60 minutes plus 15 seconds increment from move 1 and the chess.com platform was adopted. In spite of the limited time available for preparing the competition, a total of 32 teams entered, including some that had not participated for many years. Seven MCCU counties entered teams into the Open competition and three teams in the under-1825 competition.

Teams in the two competitions - Open and Under-1825 - were then assigned to pools, the winners and runners-up of which proceded to final stages matches with teams from other pools to decide national champions. Division 1 teams (Greater Manchester, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire) compete for the Open and Major championships. Derbyshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire compete for the Challenger and Major championships.

These competitions were arranged to begin in June and finish in August. Play started with Preliminary Challenge matches played on 6 June to allow players, captains and orgaisers to familiarise themselves with the online format and reporting procedures. The preliminary match results did not contribute to the competition, but did allow players to chalk up online graded game results. Competition matches were then played fortnighly.

 

Links to 2020 online fixtures and results

 

Open fixtures and results Division 1A

Open fixtures and results Division 1B

Open fixtures and results Division 2A

Open fixtures and results Division 2B

Open semi-finals and final

Major Open semi-finals and final

Open Challengers semi-finals and final.

Minor Counties Open semi-finals and final

Under-1825 fixtures and results Groups A and B

Under-1825 fixtures semi-finals and final

 

Preliminary Open Challenge matches and results

Preliminary under-1825 Challenge matches and results