Latest MCCU News

First county matches of the season

26 Sep 2026. Leicestershire u1650 fell victim at home to Derbyshire. See detailed results.

24 Sep 2026. Captains of u1850 teams agree to increase the default number of boards to 16.

23 Sep 2026. Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire will field teams to play for the Midlands u1450 championship. Date and venue to be confirmed.

19 Sep 2026. Staffordshire u1650, playing away, easily beat Warwickshire. See detailed match result.

British Championships

9 Aug 2026. Youth was to the fore at prize-giving. Eleven year old Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest women’s champion and seventeen year old Shreyas Royal was the youngest ever open champion. See ECF report. MCCU's nomination for the British Joe Friar (Worcs) scored 3½ points slightly improving his rating. Joe was originally planning to enter the Major Open, but was offered the chance to play in the top tournament as MCCU’s nomination.

Midland winners at the Britsh Championship

9 Aug 2026. Ameet Ghasi (Notts) scored 6 points in the Open and Kata Toma (4 points, Worcs) was top scoring woman player from the Midlands. Sooraj Menothuparambil (Leics) won the u2300 rating prize. Martin Burrows on 5½ points (Leics) was placed second equal in the Senior (+50) tournament and Mark Page (Warks) was second equal in the Senior (+65) tournament. David Ireland (Warks) won the u2050 afternoon tournament and Jason Madden (Warks) won the u1600 morning tournament. The following Midlanders shared first place in their tournaments: Harrison Condron (Leics) in the afternoon u1750; Christopher Evans (Worcs), James Ped (Warks), Vassily Sagam (Warks), and Miheli Gunurathne (Nots) in the u1750 weekend Soanes tournament; and Alex Shen (Leics), Daniel P Jones (Staffs), and Andrew Phillips (Staffs) in the u1750 rapidplay. Leonardo Condron (Leics) won the under-10 tournament.

Team entries for Midlands team competitions

8 Aug 2026. MCCU County Championship Controller, Stephen Smithson, is delighted to report that 8 Midlands Counties have confirmed that they are entering one or more teams in the 2026-27 Championship.  This is wonderful and exciting news for the hundreds of chess players across our region who will be able to compete in a Section suitable for them.  Many of them will also thereby earn a chance to continue to the National Stage of the Championship. Current entries are: Midlands Championship - Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Worcestershire; Under-1850 - Lincolnshire, Worcestershire; Under-1650 - Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire; Under-1450 - Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. Furter entries can be made by 23 Aug for the Championship, under-1850 and under1450 competitions. Staffs and Warks are still considering whether to enter the championship and Leics is considering whether to field an under-1850 team. The union will request applications for nominations to play in the under 20250 national stage.

Click "News" on the menu bar above for other recent items.

Text in blue-green links to entry form, website or email contact

Next in the Midlands

Sat & Sun 17 & 18 Oct. Derbyshire Chess Congress at Trent College, Long Eaton Nottingham NG10 4AD. Five rounds, five sections: Open, Major (u1950) both FIDÉ and ECF rated, Intermediate (u1750), Minor (u1600), and Fundation (u1375). Time control 90 min + 10 sec. Half point byes available in rounds 1-4.

Sun 18 Oct. Coventry & District CL Rapidplay at Massey Ferguson Social Club, Broad Lane, Coventry CV5 7NL. Open, u1850, and u1500; 7 rounds; time control 15+10, ECF and FIDE rated.

Next Junior tournament

Sat 21 Nov. Staffordshire Junior Championship at Painsley Catholic Coll, Sation Road, Cheadle, Stoke-on-Trent ST10 1LH.

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

English Chess Championships at Holiday Inn, Peterborough-West.

Mon 25 Oct - Sat 31 Oct. Open, Women, 50+, 65+ standardplay, G90+30, 9 rounds;

Sat & Sun 24 & 25 Oct. Open and Women Rapidplay, G15+10, 11 rounds

Sun 1 Nov. Open and Women Blitz, G3+2, 15 rounds

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.