Latest MCCU News

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.

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.

County team entries

16 Oct 2024, Stephen Smithson reports. Lincolnshire and Staffordshire have asked to be nominated for the national stages of the u1850 and u1450 county teams competions. So longas teams fulfill their fixtures MCCU should be able to nominate 2 teams for the Open / Minor Counties competitions and 3 for the u1650 competition.

Congratulations to Ameet and Jonah

14 Oct 2024, ECF reports. At the Fagernes International in Norway, Ameet Ghasi (Warks) fulfilled his third GM norm and Jonah Willow (Notts) gained his first. Ameet will become England’s 42nd GM. Ameet’s achievement is remarkable because he works for Biogen, a pharmaceutical company, and is an amateur. Picture courtesy of Brendan O’Gorman.

Warwickshire win first county match

5 Oct 2024. Watwickshire u1650 team playing at home beat Staffordshire in a close match. Full results.

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Next in the Midlands

Sat & Sun16 & 17 Nov Birmingham Open at King Edward VI Five Ways Sch, Scotland Lane, Bartley Green, Birmingham B32 4BT. Open, u2000, u1750, and u1500 tournaments.

Sat 23 Nov & Sun 24 Nov. Derbyshire Chess Congress at Trent College, Derby Road, Long Eaton Nottingham NG10 4AD. Five rounds, Open, Major (u1950), Intermediate (u1750), Minor (u1580) and Foundation (u1350) tournaments, time control 90 min + 10 sec. Half point byes available in rounds 1-4.

Next Junior tournament

Fri 22 Nov. Birmingham & District Junior Chess League at Queen Mary’s GS Sutton Road Paddock, Walsall.

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.