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Last updated 16 February 2024

Older news in the 2023-4 season

Birmingham Rapidplay

28 Jan 2024. IM Yichen Han (NED) won the Open outright with 6½ from seven games. Karan Kukreja (Warks) won the Major (u2000) with 6 points. Dhairya Pandya (Warks) won the Intermediate (u1750) and Rowan Eccleston (Lancs) the Minor (u1500) both with 6½ points. The event was organised by Alex Holowczak and 140 players competed. See full results.

East Midlands Congress results

28 Jan 2024. Matthew Dignam (Herts) claimed first prize in the u2400 competition with 4½ points finishing above GM Keith Arkell (Worcs) on 4 points. Jacob Liu (Herts), Mihir Sharma (Northants), Piers Hinds (Notts) and Kevin Williamson (Beds) shared first place in the u1900 tournament. Tara Tamilselvan (Leics) won the u1500 competition outright with Warwickshire junior Siyao gaining a rating prize. The event was held at Northamton University, organised by Joshua Morris, and chief arbiter was IA Adam Raoof.

Lincolnshire win u1650 team championship

20 Jan 2024. Lincolnshire playing at home beat Worcestershire. This makes Lincolnshire double champions having also beaten Worcestershire in the Open competition. See score card.

Shropshire Congress results

14 Jan 2024. Adithya Vaidyanathan (Warks) was first in the Open with 4½/5 followed by Martin Lewis (Worcs) and Nigel Ferrington (Shrops), both on 4 points. The major tournament was won by Joe Rastall (Worcs) 4½/5 with Andrew Leak and Toby Neal placed 2-3rd with 4 points. In the Intermediate, Dhairya Pandya (Warks) was first on 4½/5 and Andrew Flavell (Shrops) and Andrew Roger (IRL) 2-3rd on 4 points. The Minor tournament was shared between Alex Brims and Andrew Jones (both Shrops). See congress result details.

Midlands winner at Hull and East Riding Rapidplay

7 Jan 2024. Samuel Milsom (Lincs) shared first prize in the Open scoring 4½/6.

Midlands players at Hastings

6 Jan 2024. The Caplin Masters was won by Abhijeet Gupta (India) with 7½/9 and sharing third to eleventh position English players were Ameet Ghasi (Warks) and Shreyas Royal (London) on 6½ points. There were numerous tournaments in addition to the Masters. Amrik Singh (Warks) was placed third in the Hastings u1950, Hambel Willow (Notts) third in the New Year u1800 tournaments. IA Matthew Carr (Staffs) controlled the Blitz tournaments.

Lincoln Rapid results

9 Dec 2023. GM Matthew Turner, 5 points, just pipped GM Mark Hebden (Leics), on 4½ points, in this six round tournament. The u1900 tournament was won outright by Danny McMenamin (5 points, Lancs) and the u1600 tournament was won by Callum Cosens (5½ points, Lincs). Nearly ninety players took part.

Lincolnshire win MCCU Team Championship

3 Dec 2023. Both Lincolnshire and Worcestershire have accepted MCCU's nomination to play in the national stages.

2 Dec 2023. In a hard fought match at Sharnford, Leics, Lincolnshire beat Worcestershire 9-7. See score card.

New officials at Staffordshire CA

29 Nov 2023, Ray Dolan reports. At the annual meeting, Ray Dolan becomes General secretary, Peter Evans is the new Treasurer, and new MCCU delegates were appointed: Eunice Dolan and Stephen Smithson. Meir chess club was named the club of the year and Sports personality of the year was Jonathan Blackburn.

Massive pile up at Birmingham Open

26 Nov 2023. No fewer than five players ended on top of the Open tournament with 4 points each: John Potter (Derbys), Russell James (Warks), Kajus Mikalajunas (Leics), Benjamin Larkin (Warks) and Ruqayya Rida (Essex). The Major tournament was won by Santiago German (Philippines) with 4½ points; the Intermediate was shared by Tomek Dziedzic (Oxon) and James Thomas (Wales) who scored 4½ points and the Minor was won by Nicholas White (Bucks) with a clean 5 points from his games. The congress was held at King Edward VI Five Ways School, Bartley Green, Birmingham, attracted over 150 players and was organised by Alex Holowczak.

Nottinghamshire Centenary tournaments

3 Nov 2023. GM Eldar Gasanov (UKR) won the Grandmaster International tournament with 6½ points. IM Jonah Willow (Notts) was placed 2nd-3rd with Thomas Beerdsen (NDL) on 6. The parallel junior tournament was won by Furkan Bahtiyar (TUR) with 9 points and two Nottinghamshire juniors, Senith Gunarathne and Dinuga Basnayake tied for 2nd and third place on 7. The event was organised by Tim Wall.

WGM Kata Toma appointed ECF Non-Exec Director

1 Nov 2023. WGM Kata Toma (Worcs) has been appointed to a voluntary Non-Executive Director post. Stephen Woodhouse (Worcs) writes: "Kata will bring her playing and wider international experience to bear when advising the [ECF] Board and working with the other Directors."

Birmingham Rapidplay results

22 Oct 2023. There was a clean sweep by Warwickshire players in this event. IM Ameet Ghasi won the Open tournament scoring 6 points from 7 rounds. The Major (u2000) tournament was won by Furcan Ancar with 7 points; the Intermediate (u1750) by Steve Edwards; the Minor (u1500) by Omar Khemoudj with 6 points. The event was organised by Alex Holowczak and attracted 150 players. See full results.

Staffordshire u1450 blast Worcestershire to take Midlands team title

21 Oct 2023. Captains agreed to play an eight-board match for the u1450 Midlands team championship at Newcastle-u-Lyme Bridge Club. Staffordshire nearly had a clean sweep with only Worcestershire`s captain able to score. See score sheet.

ECF re-elects Home Director and combines membership categories

15 Oct 2023. There were two contested elections for ECF directorships. Nigel Towers (Worcs), the incumbent Director for Home Chess, won an overwhelmingly. The vote for a vacant Non-Executive Directorship was much closer with WIM Sarah Longson (Greater Manchester) beating WGM Katarzyna (Worcs) by 125 to 99 votes. A proposal from the ECF Board to merge silver and gold membership categories starting in September 2024 was narrowly accepted by 136 to 122 votes.

GM Hebden wins Derbyshire Open

24 Sep 2023. Mark Hebden (Leics) had a perfect 5/5 score to win the Open tournament. Other winners were: Major (u2000) Dragoljub Sudar (Notts) 4½, Intermediate (u1800) Matthew Bubis (Derbys); Minor (u1500) David Dunne 4½ (Yorks); Foundation (1350) Jonah Tomsett (Notts) 4½. A total of nearly 150 players competed in this inaugural Derbyshire event. See full results.

MCCU Generation Game at Walsall

23 Sep 2023. To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the MCCU, Ray Dolan (CEO MCCU) organised a massive 56-board match between young and old players at the Rycroft Community Centre Bloxwich.

MCCU generation game

Cllr Mark Statham (standing left) ready to make the first move to start the Generation Game board 1 game between Keith Thomas (Oscott CC) vs Stephen Gaskell (vice-captain of the Bloxwich Junior CC) with chief arbiter Ham Patel, and arbiter Andrew Lambert.

Warwickshire junior initiative

13 Sep 2023, Alex Holowczak writes. Warwickshire Primary Schools Team Championship is a new initiative, and I am hopeful that those of you who work in schools in the LEA areas of Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire can enter this tournament. The rough format is to have zones of 5 or 6, with a 1-day Final on a Saturday in the Spring. We will firm up those arrangement once we know how many teams enter.

Counties square up for new season

7 Sep 2023, Peter Sherlock reports. Only three counties have entered the county team competitions. Lincolnshire and Worcestershire play for the Midland counties title in November. In the rating-limited tournaments, Lincolnshire u1850 play Staffordshire, Lincolnshire u1650 play Worcestershire and the first county match will be between Staffordshire u1450 and Worcestershire. Warwickshire is not fielding a team this year and Shrops, Notts and Leics have not returned to the competitions. Counties still have the opportunity to compete for the u2050 Midlands title because the entry date is not until the end of January. See list of fixtures.

Blitz qualifiers from Kenilworth

3 Sep 2023. In this ECF regional Blitz qualifying event, IM Jonah Willow and GM Mark Hebden (Leics) qualified for the Open finals and Elis Dicen (Warks) and WGM Kata Toma (Worcs) qualified for the Women’s finals.

Fast play at Coventry

3 Sep 2023. Coventry Rapidplay. IM Yichen Han completed the double with a win in the Rapidplay Open scoring 6 points from seven games. The Major (u2000) was won by Callum Davies (Wales) with 6½ points; the Intermediate (u1750) by Yaseen Rajjoub (Warks) wth 6 points and the Minor (u1500) by Vassily Sagyama (Warks) with 6½ points.

2 Sep 2023. Coventry Blitz. IM Yichen Han (Oxon) won the Open with 13 points from fourteen games. Nathanael Paul (Shrops) won the Major (u2000) with 11½ points; the Intermediate (u1750) by Pranav Mathur and the Minor (u1500) by Vihaan Mathur both from Warks Junior scoring 13½.

 

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