Latest MCCU News

Last u1850 match won by Lincolnshire

21 Feb 2026. In the match for the u1850 team championship Lincolnshire beat Staffordshire 4-8. See results. Lincolnshire stand second in the u1850 table and can expect a nomination for the national stages.

Coventry Open results

15 Feb 2026. Over a hundred and twenty players competed in five tournaments in this event organised by IO Alex Holowczak at The Alan Higgs Centre, Coventry. Xian Junhao (CHN) made a clean sweep in the Open with 5 points from his five games. Leading Midlanders were Joe Friar (Worcs) and Finley Bowcott-Terry (Warks) on 4 points. Mark Obi (Warks) won the Major (u2000) with 4½ points; Alaric Stephen (Worcs) won the Intermediate tournament (u1750) with 4½ points. There was a four-way tie for first place in the Minor (u1500): Shane Cooksey (Staffs), Chris Fraser (Notts), Markas (Mykhnenko (Warks), and Yu Jiwei (Cheshire) all on 4 points. There was also a u1000 rapidplay tournament. This was won by Adhrit Ragunandan (Warks) with 5 points from his five games. The Arbiters were Dipal Patel (Warks), David Cebolla Ruiz (Warks), and Dan Turner (Staffs). See full results.

Herefordshire Chess Association

13 Feb 2026. The association has a new website

National stages of county team competitions

11 Feb 2026. The controller of the national stages, Mark Murrell, has asked the MCCU to nominate counties for the national stages by 23 March. The default date for the preliminary round is 25 April. The default date for quarter finals for Open, Minor, u1850 and u1450 teams is on 9 May, and the quarter-finals for u2050 and u1650 teams is on 16 May. All semi-finals are sceduled for 13 June and the county team finals will be on 4 July.

Paul Sharratt

10 Feb 2026. It is with sadness I report the sudden and unexpected passing of the MCCU CEO Paul Sharratt (Worcs). Paul contributed immensley to Midlands chess having been Worcestershire's delegate for many years serving the MCCU initially as secretary, chairman of its meetings and stepping up to become CEO after Ray Dolan’s retiral from the post last summer. Under Paul's leadership Midlands inter-county chess has recovered from a very low ebb. In earlier times Paul was secretary or president of three chess leagues: Birmingham, Dudley, Worcester, and Worcestershire. Paul did not restrict his service to the Midlands and contributed greatly to the ECF national safeguarding team. He will be greatly missed and difficult to replace. See tributes on the Worcestershire CA and English Chess Federation websites.

Worcestershire u1650 beat Staffordshire

7 Feb 2026. In a close match Worcestershire secured a 7-5 victory over Staffordshire. See details.

Nottingham Rapidplay

1 Feb 2026. GM Mark Hebden (Leics), Nigel Birtwistle (Lincs) and Matthew Inglis (Notts) shared first prize in the Open tournament with 4½ points from six games. The Major (u1900) tournament was won outright by Arav Ajaykumar (Leics) with 5 points and the Intermediate (u1700) tournament by Nicolas Rojas (Cheshire) with 6 points. Ives Lau (Nots) won the Minor (u1500) tournament with 6 points and Taylor Morrison (Notts) won the Improvers tournament with 5½ points. Over a hundred and fifty players competed in this event at Nottingham HS organised by Nottingham CA with Hambel Willow, Phill Beckett, Stephen Humphreys and Simon Scott acting as arbiters. Mr and Mrs Guarathne, Mr Kumar and Mr Grainger staffed the hot drinks stall and raised over £100 for humanitarian relief in Ukraine.

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Text in blue-green links to entry form, website or email contact

Next in the Midlands

Sat 28 Feb & Sun 1 Mar University of Warwick Congress at Westwood Teaching Centre, kirby Corner Road, Coventry CV4 8EJ. Open, Major (u1850) and Minor (1500) tournaments, five rounds, time control 60+30, half-pont bye available in rounds 1-4.

Next Junior tournament

Sat 7 Mar. Coventry Junior Open at Meadow Park School, Abbey Road, Coventry CV3 4BD. 1pm to 6pm, ECF Gold membership required. Seven tournaments, 3 for under-18s and 4 for under-11. Five rounds, time control 15+10,

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Sat 21 Feb & Sun 22 Feb. British Universities Championship at Copthorne Hotel, Merry Hill-Dudley, The Waterfront, Brierly hill, DY5 1UR. Nine round team rapidplay and individual blitz tournament

Sat & Sun 7 & 8 Mar. English Youth Championships 2026 at Nottingham High Sch. Under-8, 10,12, 14, 16 and 18, Open and Girls 5-round tournaments, time control 60+30,

Sat & Sun 14 &15 Mar. British Rapidplay Championship 2026 at Holiday Inn Peterborough West, Thorpe Wood, Peterborough PE3 6SG. One open section, 11 rounds, time control 15+10.

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.