Latest MCCU News

Herefordshire Chess Association

13 Feb 2026. The association has a new website

National stages of county team competitions

11 Feb 2026. The controller of the national stages, Mark Murrell, has asked the MCCU to nominate counties for the national stages by 23 March. The default date for the preliminary round is 25 April. The default date for quarter finals for Open, Minor, u1850 and u1450 teams is on 9 May, and the quarter-finals for u2050 and u1650 teams is on 16 May. All semi-finals are sceduled for 13 June and the county team finals will be on 4 July.

Paul Sharratt

10 Feb 2026. It is with sadness I report the sudden and unexpected passing of the MCCU CEO Paul Sharratt (Worcs). Paul contributed immensley to Midlands chess having been Worcestershire's delegate for many years serving the MCCU initially as secretary, chairman of its meetings and stepping up to become CEO after Ray Dolan’s retiral from the post last summer. Under Paul's leadership Midlands inter-county chess has recovered from a very low ebb. In earlier times Paul was secretary or president of three chess leagues: Birmingham, Dudley, Worcester, and Worcestershire. Paul did not restrict his service to the Midlands and contributed greatly to the ECF national safeguarding team. He will be greatly missed and difficult to replace. See tributes on the Worcestershire CA and English Chess Federation websites.

Worcestershire u1650 beat Staffordshire

7 Feb 2026. In a close match Worcestershire secured a 7-5 victory over Staffordshire. See details.

Nottingham Rapidplay

1 Feb 2026. GM Mark Hebden (Leics), Nigel Birtwistle (Lincs) and Matthew Inglis (Notts) shared first prize in the Open tournament with 4½ points from six games. The Major (u1900) tournament was won outright by Arav Ajaykumar (Leics) with 5 points and the Intermediate (u1700) tournament by Nicolas Rojas (Cheshire) with 6 points. Ives Lau (Nots) won the Minor (u1500) tournament with 6 points and Taylor Morrison (Notts) won the Improvers tournament with 5½ points. Over a hundred and fifty players competed in this event at Nottingham HS organised by Nottingham CA with Hambel Willow, Phill Beckett, Stephen Humphreys and Simon Scott acting as arbiters. Mr and Mrs Guarathne, Mr Kumar and Mr Grainger staffed the hot drinks stall and raised over £100 for humanitarian relief in Ukraine.

Birmingham FIDÉ Rapidplay

25 Jan 2026. Finlay Terry-Bowcott (Warks) took first prize with 6½ points form 7 rounds. In the Major (u2000), Francis Sagyaman (Warks) won with 6 points from 7 rounds. The intermediate was won by Blake Yoe (Oxon) with 6 points and Mohananditya Poluru (Shrops) made a clean sweep of the Improvers tournament (u1500) with 7 points. The event was organised by IA Alex Holowczak (Worcs) and arbiters were IA Matt Carr, FA Richard Buxton, and NA Dan Turner (all Staffs). Over a hundred and twenty players competed.

Nottinghamshire win u1850 and u1450 Midlands team titles

24 Jan 2026. Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire played u1850 and u1450 fixtures. Notts were victorious in both. See match cards for u1850 and u1450.

17 Jan 2026. Warwickshire beat Lincolnshire 5-7. See match card.

10 Jan 2026. Worcester tried out a new home venue in Kinver and both teams correctly judged that snow would not impede their travel. Worcestershire’s clear victory was in line with players’ current ratings. See details.

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Next in the Midlands

Sat & Sun 14-15 Feb Coventry Open at The Allan Higgs Centre, Allard Way, Coventry CV3 1HW. Open, u2000, u1750, and u1500 tournaments. Five rounds, ECF and FIDE rated, time control 80+10, half-point-byes available in rounds 1-4.

Next Junior tournament

Sat 14 Feb, Leicestershire EJCOA Zonal Qualifier for National Youth Championships at Fairfield Preparatory School, Leicester Road, Loughborough, Leics LE11 2AE. Under-14, 12, 10, and 8 tournaments, starting at 10am, finish 5pm, 5 rounds, 20+5 time control.

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Sat 21 Feb & Sun 22 Feb. British Universities Championship at Copthorne Hotel, Merry Hill-Dudley, The Waterfront, Brierly hill, DY5 1UR. Nine round team rapidplay and individual blitz tournament

Sat & Sun 7 & 8 Mar. English Youth Championships 2026 at Nottingham High Sch. Under-8, 10,12, 14, 16 and 18, Open and Girls 5-round tournaments, time control 60+30,

Sat & Sun 14 &15 Mar. British Rapidplay Championship 2026 at Holiday Inn Peterborough West, Thorpe Wood, Peterborough PE3 6SG. One open section, 11 rounds, time control 15+10.

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.