Wigston Win National Club Rapidplay

(28 Sep) Fielding by far the strongest side and in a small entry, Wigston (Leics) won the national championship with 16 game points out of a possible 20. Another winning MCCU side was the host team from Syston (average grade 107) who won the handicap competition. For full results and a report from organiser Cyril Johnson click here .

MCCU players storm Paignton

GM Keith Arkell (Cheddleton & Pointon, Staffs) bounced back after a recent loss of form to win the Premier with 6/7. Peter Hempson (Eccleshall, Staffs) won the Senior with 4½.

MCCU players in Contests for Top ECF positions

Nominations closed on Wednesday 9 September for ECF elected posts. There will be contests for the President, the two Non-Executive Directors, the Director of Home Chess and the FIDE/ECU Delegate. The election will be held at the ECF Finance Council Meeting to be held shortly where most county and union ECF delegates and some representatives of leagues and congresses, will have voting rights.

Chris Majer, the current Chief Executive, was nominated by 5 of the 7 constituent members of the ECF and is unopposed. Most incumbents will also be re-elected unopposed and there remains a vacancy for Finance Director.

There are two unopposed changes. Peter Wilson steps down from the role of Director of Marketing and is succeeded by Stewart Reuben. Stewart leaves the post of Director for International Chess and is succeeded by Lawrence Cooper (Stafford). In spite of the grand-sounding titles that some of these positions have, all are voluntary and unpaid.

Connaugh-Joseph de Mooi from the BBC Eggheads team will face John Paines, a Director of MENSA for the President’s post. De Mooi has the higher media profile, but Paines has existing involvement on as a member of the Governance Committee.

The contest to be the ECF delegate for the World Chess Federation / Federation Internationale Des Echecs and the European Chess Union is a re-run of the previous fight for President when Gerry Walsh beat Nigel Short by a short head.

The Director for Home Chess is contested by incumbent Cyril Johnson (Leics) and Adam Raoof (Hendon). Both are good organisers of chess tournaments.

Three members have been nominated for the two Non-Executive Directorships: Sean Hewitt (Leics) who would be a new face if elected, Alan Martin (Southern Counties Chess Union, incumbent), and John Wickham (East Anglian Chess Union, incumbent).

You can access all papers for the ECF AGM, which include election addresses from candidates who are keen to be elected.

MCCU County Matches 2009-2010

Entries for the MCCU County Tournaments have now closed with 29 teams taking part. Each Tournament will be run as an All-Play-All. A new 2009-10 county teams' page has now been created on this site.

Chris Majer for CEO role at ECF

After consultations by e-mail and telephone, all MCCU Board members thought Chris should continue in the role of CEO for the English Chess Federation. It is understood that Chris is concerned about slow progress with the Holloids free school chess sets project and whether as a result he should seek re-election as CEO. MCCU board members felt that the difficulties surrounding this project are not of his making and he deserves our support.

Quarter Shares at Hereford Chess Congress

A four-way tie for first in Open: Carl Bicknell (Burton-on-Trent and Oxford University), Richard Bryant (Oswestry), Iolo Jones (Cardigan), and Sven Zeidler (Nationwide). Sola Falayan (Sutton Coldfield) was first in the Major and John Clark (Worcester City) first in the Minor. This well-run congress was held 29-31 August at Aylestone School, Hereford, organised by Herefordshire Chess Association, and controlled by Phil Meade (Cheltenham). For a full report, click here.

Rapidplay raises £800 for Macmillan Cancer Support

The Bloxwich Rapidplay held 23 August was a huge success. Four players tied for first in the Open: Lawrence Cooper (Stafford), Tony Hynes (Birmingham), Jim Sherwin (Bath) and Brian Turner (Malvern). In the Major, Phil Adshead (Leigh) and Ray Lawrence (Sutton Coldfield) shared the tops spot and Adrian Hussain (Boldmere St Michaels) won the Minor. The organiser for this event was Ray Dolan, "sports personality of the year". For full results click here.

Grey Power Keeps MCCU Fire Burning at the British

David Anderton (Walsall Kipping) won the British Senior Title. Best placed MCCU player in the British itself was GM Mark Hebden placed 2-3rd with 8½ from 11. Former English Champion and Droitwich (Worcs) player GM Keith Arkell was ill for part of the congress and finished down the field. Full results are on the ECF website.

Over 60 Play in First Worcestershire Open

John Pitcher (S Birmingham) won the Open, Chris Smith (Warley Quinborne) the Major and Manpreet Sangha (Rushall) the minor. The event was held at Catshill, Bromsgrove 25 and 26th July. Promotor Andy Moore said about £200 was raised for charity and a second edition is already being planned for 2010. Andy was ably assisted by Ray Dolan (Cannock) and Andrew Farthing (Worcester City). For full results and pictures please click here.

ECF County Chess Results

Leics and Warks fail in title bids. The finals were held on 4 July at Moat College, Leicester. Yorkshire won the Open beating Lancashire 9-7. Leicestershire failed in their title bid for the Minor Counties Championship losing 6-10 to Hertfordshire.Yorkshire defeated Lanacashire in the U-175 finals, but by a larger margin 11-5. In the U-150, Warwickshire losing 6½-9½ failed to topple holders Yorkshire, who achieving a remarkable triple. In the U-125 event, Suffolk regained the title from Kent winning 10-6. Southerners were to the fore in the U-100 where Kent beat Surrey 6½-5½. The event was controlled by David Welch, Adrian Elwin, John Shaw and John Wickham [Based on Cyril Johnson's report in July/August issue of ChessMoves].

MCCU 2009 AGM

At the meeting held 29 June at Lichfield, there were few changes in MCCU personnel. Ray Collett (Worcs, Publicity Director) picks up the extra job of webmaster replacing Sean Hewitt who stepped down after running the site for several years. John Packenham (Warks) takes over from Chris Gibson (Northants) as one of the two Non-Executive Directors. In relation to financial matters, counties in membership 2008-9 will benefit from a significant rebate because the MCCU has been running a surplus. It was agreed that MCCU would adopt the national grade bands for the MCCU stages of inter-county matches: Open, U-180, U160, U-140, U-120, and U-100. A rota will be established for those MCCU congresses whose results are used by the MCCU for deciding who to nominate for a place in the British Championship. [Based on report prepared by Andrew Farthing for Worcs CA.]

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For July 2009 to June 2008 please click here.

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