Latest MCCU News

Honour for former MCCU president

28 Jun 2026. Staffordshire Chess Association honoured Eunice Dolan with a life Vice-Presidency at its annual meeting to recognise her contributions to chess in Staffordshire. Eunice was a founder member and coach at Bloxwich Junior Chess Academy, and has been treasurer of Cannock & District Chess League and the first Female president of the MCCU in the years 2022-25.

MCCU names player for British Championship

23 Jun 2026. Joe Friar (Worcs) was planning to enter the Major Open at Warwick University this summer. Joe won an individual tournament in Worcestershire and was placed second on tie-break at the last Worcestershir Closed Congress where he tied on points with WGM Kata Toma. The union’s executive committee members considered several players nominated by county associations. This year the unexpected loss if the union’s CEO meant it was not possible to organise an over-the-board contest to select a nominee and are determined that next year’s nominee would be selected on the basis of results in congresses held in the MCCU area.

Birmingham Rapidplay

14 Jun 2026. Finlay Bowcott-Terry (Warks) had a clean win in the small Open section with 7 points from 7 games. Second was Cory Hazlehurst (Worcs) on 5 points. The Eduoardis Ter Gevorkian (Warks) was first in the Major with 6 points. The Intermediate was won by Daniel Jones (Worcs) on 6 points and the Minor was won by Kaiqiao Chen (Oxon) with 6 points. The event attracted over a hundred players. The organiser was IO Alex Holowczak, Chief arbiter IA Matthew Carr (Staffs) assistade by NA Richard Buxton (Warks), NA Dan Turner (Staffs) and NA Mrudal Tarihalkar (Warks).

Midland counties lose semi-final matches

13 Jun 2026. Lincolnshire lost to Norfolk in the national Minor Counties semi-final at Peterborough. Derbyshire lost the away u20250 national semifinal against Yorkshire at Sheffield. All Midlands teams have now exited the national stages and ther is no Midland presence at the finals. Go to links for match details.

Birmingham FIDÉ Congress.

24 May 2026. Winners of the five-round tournaments were: U2400 MR Sooraj (4½ points, India); u2000 Lachlan Tyrrell (4½ points, Wales), u1600 Phan Chinh (5 points Warks), and u1300 Arthur MacCumiskey (5 points, Warks). The event was organised by Domenico Napolitano and Chief Arbiter was IA Adam Raoof at Archbishop Isley Catholic School, Acocks Green, Birmingham and attracted seventy players. See details.

ChessPick Warwick Open & Blitz

16 May 2026. In this mixed format competition, there were 6 rounds of blitz each win counting 1½ points, and nine rounds of blitz with each win counting as one point. GM Dan Gormally was first with 15½ points combined winning all the rapidplay games. IM Siva Mahadevan (Surrey) won second prize and shared first place in the blitz with Finalay Terry-Bowcott (Warks). See details

Midlands teams knocked out of u1650 competition

16 May 2026. Worcestershire u1650 were felled by a car breakdown and a family emergency in their match with Kent. In spite of these two defaults, the score was 8-8, but Kent won on board count - see more. Staffordshire lost heavily to Surrey - see more.

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Next in the Midlands

Sat 15 Aug. Lincoln Rapidplay at Lincoln Cathedral, Minster Yard, Lincoln LN2 1PX. Open, Major (u1800), and Minor (u1500) tournaments, six rounds starting 10am, time control 15+10.

Next Junior tournament

Fri to Sun, 3-5 July, EJCOA Youth Championships at Nottingham HS, Forest Road East, Nottingham NG7 4ED. Five rounds, FIDÉ rated Swiss tournament, Under-8, -10, -12, -14, -16, -18 and -20 categories. Coaching, lectures amd Simultaneous exhibitions included.

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Sat to Sun 9 to 16 Aug British Chess Championships at University of Warwick, Warwick Road, Coventry CV4 7AL. Numerous tournaments, senior, junior, rapid, blitz rated and weekend.

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.