Latest MCCU News

Lincolnshire overwhelm Staffordshire in county fixture

18 Jan 2025. Four teams travelled to Bramcote, Notts, but Staffordshire were four players short in the championship match and lost heavily. See Midland championship results. The u1650 match was keeny contested and ended in aa draw. See u1650 results.

Shropshire New Year Congress

5 Jan 2025. The open tournament was shared by Shabir Okhai (Leics) and FM Tin Kett (WLS) both on 4 points from 5 games. Julie Van Kemenade (Shrops) won the prize for best female performance. Glyn Pugh (Cheshire) won the Major (u1900) outright with 4½ points. There was a three-way tie for the Intermediate (u1700) between Neil Homer (Derbys), Nicholas White (Bucks) and Waylon Chan (Shrops) all on 4 points. The Minor (u1500) tournament was won outright by Cesar Pileggi (Shrops) with 4½ points. Over 160 players participated and arbiters were Peter Purland and Dan Hilditch-Love. See Shropshire CA report on Facebook and pictures.

Escott Memorial winners

15 Dec 2024. IM Tarun Kanyamarala (IRL) won the Open tournament with 4½ points from his five games. The u2000 tournament first place was shared by Doruk Unver (Birmingham) and Dymtro Romaniuk (Somerset) and the u1600 tournament was won outright by Matthew Rowe (Worcs). Over a hudred players competed and the event was held at Sutton Coldfield and organised by IAs Alex Holowczak and Matthew Carr.

Storm Darragh blows away county match

7 Dec 2024. The u1650 match between Worcestershire and Warwickshire was blown away by storm Darragh. Captains agreed to postpone the match because of the severe weather alert.

Warwickshire beat Lincolnshire

30 Nov 2024. Warwickshire u1650 team beat Lincolnshire at Leicester. See match card.

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.

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Next in the Midlands

Sun 2 Feb 2025. Nottingham Rapidplay at Nottingham High Sch, Forest Road East, Nottingham NG1 4HH. Open, Major u1900, Intermediate u1700, Minor u1500, and Improvers u1300 tournaments. Six rounds, 20+10 time control.

Next Junior tournament

Sat 1 Feb Warwick Junior Open at Bridge Sports Centre, Warwick schools Foundation, Banbury Road, Warwick CV34 6PL, starts 1pm, prize giving 6pm. Five rounds, time control 15 min + 10 seconds for your moves. Under-11 Open, u1000 and u600 sections and under-18 Open, u1400 and u1000 sections. Medals for players scoring 3 points and more.

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

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.