Latest MCCU News

Winners at Chess Pick Warwick

7 Nov 2026. In the rapidplay competition, the winner was Yee Chit Wong (London) with 5½ points from 6 rounds. Highest placed Midlander was Finlay Bowcott-Terry (Warks). See details

Lincolnshire win first match in the Midlands team championship

7 Nov 2026. Lincolnshire beat Worcestershire 9-7 at Sharnford. See details.

Worcestershire are Midlands new u1850 team champions

31 Oct 2026. The closely fought match played at East Groscote, Leics between Lincolnshire and Worcestershire ended 8-8, but Worcestershire won on board count tie-break. See details.

Derbyshire u1650 leads Midlands table

31 Oct 2026. Derbyshire beat Warwickshire 7-5 at Rolls Royce Derby and go to the head of the table. See details.

Local winners at Coventry Rapidplay

18 Oct 2026, Chun Chiu reports. Magnus Borissow (Warks) won the Open, closely following by Roman Kovalskyi and Tara Tamilselvan (Leics) in joint 2nd. Luke Boynton (Warks) won the Open rating prize. In the u1850 section, the 1st place was shared between Piotr Arp (Warks), Andrew Collins (Warks) and Rhys Edwards (Warks). The u1850 rating prize was won by Vassily Sagyaman (Warks). Ali Bora Sarisin (Warks) came 1st in the u1500 section, and Yang Tan (Warks) came 2nd. 3rd place in the u1500 was shared between Markas Mykhnenko (Warks), Scott Middleton-Tolley (Warks), Prasanna Attada (Shrops) and Taylor Morrison. The u1500 rating prize went to Martin Hawkes (Warks).

Derbyshire Congress

18 Oct 2026. GM Mark Hebden (Leics) shared first place with Sooraj Raju (Leics), FM Ieysaa Bin-Suhayl (Norfolk), and Lachlan Tyrrell (Wales) all with 4 points in the Open tournament. In the Major (u1950), there was a three-way tie: Mark Obi (Warks), Thomas Glenn (Warks), and Robert Taylor (Leics) on 4 points. The Intermediate (u1750) was shared by Ives Lau (Notts), Emlyn Hauber (Yorks) and Felipe Oggioni (Somerset) on 4 points. The Minor (u1600) was shared by James Howarth (Middx), Craig Cowley (Staffs) and Wiktor Sulkowski (Derbys) on 4 points. Vincent Naan (Notts) was the sole winner of the Foundation (u1375) tournment. The event was held at Trent College, Long Eaton. It attracted over 130 players was directed by David Woodhouse and chief arbiter John Shaw (both Derbys).

Early county matches of the season

10 Oct 2026. In the under-1650 competition, Leicestershire overwhelmed Worcestershire - see details - and Staffordshire drew with Lincolnshire - see details.

26 Sep 2026. Leicestershire u1650 fell victim at home to Derbyshire. See detailed results.

24 Sep 2026. Captains of u1850 teams agree to increase the default number of boards to 16.

23 Sep 2026. Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire will field teams to play for the Midlands u1450 championship. Date and venue to be confirmed.

19 Sep 2026. Staffordshire u1650, playing away, easily beat Warwickshire. See detailed match result.

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Next in the Midlands

Sun 15 Nov. Birmingham Rapidplay at Quinborne Community Centre, Ridgacre Road, Quinton, Birmingham. Open, Major (u1800), Intermediate (u1500), Minor (u1200) turnaments. All start at 10:30am, have seven rounds, and time control 15+10.

Next Junior tournament

Sat 21 Nov. Staffordshire Junior Championship at Painsley Catholic Coll, Sation Road, Cheadle, Stoke-on-Trent ST10 1LH.

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Sat 21 Nov. UK Open Blitz Finals at Woodland Grange Hotel, Old Milverton Lane, Royal Leamington Spa, Warks.

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 Stephen Woodhouse (Worcs) 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.