Archive

Muted return to county chess in 2021-2

New Worcestershire Champions

21 Aug. At a closed congress in Worcester, Stewart Fishburne was the winner. Julie Wilson retained her Women’s title.

New Midland IM

4 Aug, Simon Scott reports. FM Jonah Willow (Nottinghamshire) was awarded the IM title at the FIDÉ Council meeting Chennai.

Nigel Birtwistle MCCU nominee for British

6 Jul, Ray Dolan reports. Nigel Birtwistle (Lincs) has accepted an MCCU nomination to play in he British Championship starting 13 August.

Cleethorpes Rapidplay results

3 Jul. The Open was won by GM Matthew Turner 5/6 with local player Samuel Milson and IM Gediminas Sarakauskas sharing second place on 5/6. The Major tournament wa shared between Alex Royle (Lincs) and Ionel Dragan (Notts) both scoring 4½ points. Minor was won outright by Eldars Gulijevs (Notts) with 5½ points. Over 90 contestants played.

Warks u1650 lose to Surrey in the national final.

2 Jul. Warwickshire fielded the only Midlands finalist team, but lost heavily to Surrey. The Open finals was won on tie-break by Northumberland against Yorkshire.

Birmingham Rapidplay results

12 Jun. GM Mark Hebden (Leics) shared first place in the Open with Yichen Han (Northumberland). Both players finished on 6 points from 7 rounds. IM Lawrence Cooper (Shrops) was on 5½ and young Finlay Terry Bowcott (Solihull) on 5. The Major was won by Heinrich Basson (South Africa) on 6/7; the Intermediate by Alexander Chmelev (Twickenham) on 6½/7; and the Minor was shared by Sathya Vaidyanathan (Warks Juniors) and Joseph Ward (Leics) on 6½. The organiser was Alex Holoczak and the event was a sell-out with 150 players.

Warwickshire under-1650 only Midland finalist

11 Jun. Warwickshire were the only successful Midland semi-finalists beating Yorkshire convincingly in the under-1650 competition. Greater Manchester lost to Yorkshire in the Open, Warwickshire lost to Norfolk in the Minor counties’ competition, Nottinghamshire pulled out of their match against Essex in the under-2050, and Nottinghamshire under-1450 lost heavily to Essex. See national results.

Warwickshire under-1650 progress to semi-finals

21 May. Warwickshire under-1650 team beat Essex in the only quarter final in this competition and will meet Yorkshire in the semi-finals. See score card.

Worcestershire fall to Cambridgeshire

14 May. Worcestershire went down narrowly to Cambridgeshire in the Minor Counties tournament. The result was in doubt until the end of the last game. Greater Manchester defaulted their match against Middlesex in under-1850 tournament. See score card. Greater Manchester defaulted their under-1850 match against Middlesex.

Midland teams in national stages

21 May. Warwickshire under-1650 team beat Essex in the only quarter final in this competition and will meet Yorkshire in the semi-finals.

14 May. In the first quarter final match Worcestershire went down narrowly to Cambridgeshire. The result was in doubt until the end of the last game. Greater Manchester defaulted their match against Middlesex in under-1850 tournament.

30 Apr. Nottinghamshire seniors again saw off their junior opponents and progress to the quarter finals in the under-1450 competition. Nottinghamshire will face Essex in the quarter finals.

13 Apr. In the Open, Greater Manchester face Yorkshire in the first semi-final on 11 June; Worcestershire in the Minor face Cambridgeshire in a quarter final on 14 May; Nottinghamshire play Essex in the under-2050 semi-final on 11 June; Greater Manchester play Middlesex on 14 May in the under-1850 quarter final; Warwickshire play Essex in the under-1650 quarter final on 21 May; in the under-1450, Nottinghamshire are re-matched against their junior team on 30 April competition. Although Worcestershire under-1650 were offered a place in the national stages, after negotiations involving Lancashire and Yorkshire their team was withdrawn.

Double triumph for Warwickshire

19 Mar. Warwicksire beat Worcestershire to become Midland Counties Team Champions. Warwickshire also won the u1650 competitionwhere their team also beat Worcestershire, but only on board count.

5 Mar. Leicestershire u1850 team beat Greater manchester to become 2022 Midland u1850 champions. Both teams will be eligible to take up a place in the national finals.

26 Feb. Leicestershire u1450 just held off Nottingham Juniors to clinch a 6½ - 5½ win at Nottinghamshire. Nottinghamshire are the u1450 champions.

22 Jan. In the first match since the end of November, Nottinghamshire Juniors lost to Nottinghamshire

Omicron 3-0 MCCU: Matches postponed

22 Dec. Shropshire and Worcestershire postponed their fixture due in the New Year. GMC and Leics also put back their fixture due on 5 Feb to 5 Mar.
11 Dec. Worcestershire and Warwickshire called off their Midlands Championship match at short notice after both teams suffered difficulties in raising teams and players withdrew at short notice. It's understood that one of the team captains was taken ill. Although the counties have agreed to reschedule the match, the rapidly spreading Omicron Covid variant and Government plans to further restrict social mixing, there must be serious doubts that these matches can be played this season.

27 Nov, Mick Frings reports. Warks have withdrawn from the u1450 competition.

27 Nov, Mick Frings reports. Nottinghamshire playing away beat Leicestershire 8-4. Use left-hand menu for details.

14 Nov, Peter Sherlock reports. Warwickshire are the first MCCU u1650 champions, by a whisker winning on board count at Stratford-upon-Avon. Use left-hand menu for details.

13 Nov. The Warks-Shrops In the Minor Counties Competition was postposned.

10 Nov, Kevin Gallagher reports. Derbyshire have had to withdraw from the MCCU competition because of lack of support.

Covid reduces number of teams

18 Sep 2021. The 2021-2 season has a reduced number of entries. THere appear to be two prime reasons: the change from grade to rating boundaries and the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic. The change in rating boundaries means that many counties are unsure who will be eligible to play or who they can ask to captain their team. The Covid-19 epidemic seems to have made many older players nervous about playing long games in close proximity to an opponent they may not have met before. To accomodate these issues, there have been changes to the rules. Reference to grades have been altered to ratings and a new rule 22 has been introduced to ensure teams follow guidelines for safe play.

Open - Greater Manchester and Lincolnshire have entered a team in the Open and both have been permitted to do so without competing in the MCCU Open and Minor competition.

Open/Minor - Three teams will compete for the Midland Counties Championship: Shropshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Counties will decide which section (Open or Minor) in the National Stages they wish to enter on December 31. [Shropshire subsequently withdrew from this competition].

u2050 section - only Nottinghamshire have entered and will go through to the National Stages as MCCU1. Participating counties will compete for MCCU2 & MCCU3.

U1850 section - Derbyshire, Greater Manchester and Leicestershire.

U1650 section Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

U1450 section Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Notts Juniors and Warwickshire. Warwickshire have, as yet, no captain so they will withdraw if they don't find one before their first fixture on December 4. Lincolnshire and Staffordshire are not participating this year.

17 Sep. Covid precautions during MCCU matches. A new rule has been adopted to reduce the chances of players spreading infection. Players should use masks or face coverings when sat at the board to protect other players' health.

11 Sep. MCCU Controller consults on Covid precautions for county team matches.

30 Jul. MCCU harmonises county team matches with ECF. After consultation, the MCCU county team competitions controller has set new ratings boundaries for the MCCU 2021-2 tournaments and counties have been invited to enter teams.

1 Jun 2021. ECF county competitions. The 2021-2 season will see tournaments for Open, Minor (mean max rating 2050), and teams of players with ratings under 2050, 1850, 1650, and 1450 county teams. These boundaries are equivalent to u180, u155, u125, u100 grades.

31 May 2021. All change from grades to ratings. The ECF switch from grades to ratings will require revisions to rules to set up boundaries for the new tournaments.