Latest MCCU News

Winners at Staffordshire Congress

17 Aug 2025. A clean sweep by FM Jonathan Blackburn (Cheshire) earned him first prize in the FIDÉ Open tournament and local favorite Jacob Boswell (Staffs) was in second place with 4 points from five games. Kyle Redd (Warks) and Amrik Singh (Warks) shared first place in the Major (u1950) tournament. Alan Thomason (Cheshire) was first in the Intermediate (u1700) and Mark Hughes (Staffs) won the Minor (u1450) both scoring 4½ points. Nearly one hunderd players took part. Tournament director was Neil Hankey (Cheshire) and IA Matthew Carr and NA Colin Abell (both Staffs) were arbiters.

County team entries for 2025-6 season

17 Aug 2025. Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Worcestershire have entered open team championship for the Midlands title. Lincolnshire and Staffordshire play for the u1850 title. The most popular competition was the u1650 tournament where Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire play. Staffordshire has a team ready for the u1450 tournament and will go through to the national finals if no other team comes forward. It is possible that more teams will enter before the end of August.

Midland players at British

10 Aug 2025. The highest placed Midland players were Siva Mahadevan (Warks) 6 points, IM Brandon Clarke (Staffs) GM Mark Hebden (Leics) 5 Points. The championship was won on tie-break by GM Micky Adams (Surrey) with 9 points from GM Nikita Vasiukov. The Women's championship was shared by WGMs Elmira Mirzoeva (London) and Lan Yao (Surrey) both on 5½ points. WFM Elis Dicen (Warks) 5 points was the highest placed Midland woman.

UKCC Northern Gigafinal

13 Jul 2025. Adithya Vaidyanathan (Birmingham) won the under 12 boys tournament. See leading Midland player scores in other sections. This 400 player event was organised by Delancey UK Chess Challenge at Manchester for winners of Gigafinals in the Midlands and other areas.

Arrangements for MCCU stage county matches

13 Jul, Stephen Smithson reports. County secretaries have been asked to confirm entries to the MCCU team championship, the u1850, u1650 u1450 team championships by the end of July and to arrange dates for matches by 31 Aug. If a county wishes to play u20250 matches please contact Stephen. The u1850 and u1650 matches will be over 16 boards and the u1450 over 12 boards. The default time control for MCCU matches will be G110/10. It is expected that MCCU nominations for the national stages will be required for the third week in March 2026

Birmingham FIDÉ Rapid and Blitz results

5 Jul 2025. Finlay Bowcott-Terry (Warks) had double success winning both the Open Rapidplay (3½ points from 4 games) and Blitz tournaments (6 points from 6 games). The u1650 rapidplay tournament was won by Ethan Lynch (Warks) (4 points from 4 games). The event was organised by Domenico Napolitano at Archbishop Isley Catholic School, Acocks Green, Birmingham. Just under 40 players competed. See full results.

ECF looking for members representatives

3 Jul 2025. Nominations, including self-nominations, have to be received by the Chair of the ECF Council by 14 July. Representatives are Members of the ECF Council, must be Direct Members in the category for which they are elected, and remain Direct Members throughout their period of office. All reasonable expenses incurred in acting as a Direct Members’ Representative will be reimbursed by the ECF. Ten representatives are required: two Honorary and life members; 2 platinum members; 4 gold members; and 2 bronze members. If more than ten players are nominated, there will be elections.

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Next in the Midlands

Sat & Sun 16 & 17 Aug, Staffordshire Chess Congress at Kings Hall, Kingsway, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 9SB. Five rounds, Open, major (u1950) Intermediate (u1700), Minor (u1450), time control 110 min + 10 sec increment. Pay and display parking £5.20 all day Saturday, free on Sunday.

Next Junior tournament

Sat 6 & & Sep, UK Chess Challenge Online Gigafinal, the Saturday stage qualifies for Sunday.

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Sun 7 Sep, Nottingham Regional Qualifier for the UK Open Blitz tournament at Nottingham Nottingham High School, Waverley Mount, Nottingham NG7 4ED

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.