Latest MCCU News

Birmingham FIDÉ Congress.

24 May 2026. Winners of the five-round tournaments were: U2400 MR Sooraj (4½ points, India); u2000 Lachlan Tyrrell (4½ points, Wales), u1600 Phan Chinh (5 points Warks), and u1300 Arthur MacCumiskey (5 points, Warks). The event was organised by Domenico Napolitano and Chief Arbiter was IA Adam Raoof at Archbishop Isley Catholic School, Acocks Green, Birmingham and attracted seventy players. See details.

ChessPick Warwick Open & Blitz

16 May 2026. In this mixed format competition, there were 6 rounds of blitz each win counting 1½ points, and nine rounds of blitz with each win counting as one point. GM Dan Gormally was first with 15½ points combined winning all the rapidplay games. IM Siva Mahadevan (Surrey) won second prize and shared first place in the blitz with Finalay Terry-Bowcott (Warks). See details

Midlands teams knocked out of u1650 competition

16 May 2026. Worcestershire u1650 were felled by a car breakdown and a family emergency in their match with Kent. In spite of these two defaults, the score was 8-8, but Kent won on board count - see more. Staffordshire lost heavily to Surrey - see more.

Leamington Open

10 May 2026. There was a tie between Joe Friar (Worcs) and Karan Kukreja (Warks) with both on 4 points in this five round competition. The Major (u2000) tournament was won by James Pack (Suffolk) with 4½ points. The Intermediate (1750) first pace was shared by Anvikkashri (Warks), Dushyanth Gan Nalabothula (Herts) and Georgios Iordanidis (Leics) all on 4 points and the Minor (u1500) tourament was won by Glyn Hill (Shrops). The event was organised by Alex Holowczak (Worcs) for Leamngton & District Chess League. Just under a hundred players competed.

Midland teams fail in bids for semi-final places

9 May 2026. Harry Evans’s Worcestershire team just failed against Devon in the Minor Counties national quarter-final match at Chedzoy, Somerset losing 7½-8½. See match card. In the u1850 quarter final Lincolnshire-Yorkshire, Lincolnshire lost 6½-9½. See details. Meanwhile, Staffordshire lost to Norfolk in a u1450 quarter final. See details, and Nottinghamshire u1450 also lost to Essex. See details.

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Next in the Midlands

Sun 14 Jun. Birmingham Rapidplay at Quinborne Community Centre, Ridgeacre Road, Quinton, Birmingham B32 2TW. Open, u2000, u1750, u1500 sections, starting at 10:30pm, seven rounds, time control 15+10,

Next Junior tournament

Sun 7 Jun, UK Chess Challenge Derbyshire Megafinal at Derby Leisure and Events, The Pavilion, Moor Lane, Allenton, Derby DE24 9HY. Open to juniors born after 31 Aug 2007. Six round rapidplay, time control 15 min + 10 sec, Prizes for highest boy and girl scorers in each year group.

Online competitions

Link for all ECF online events.

Link for all 4NCL online events.

Next national events

Sat 13 Jun. ECF County team championship semi-finals.

Sat to Sun 9 to 16 Aug British Chess Championships at University of Warwick, Warwick Road, Coventry CV4 7AL. Numerous tournaments, senior, junior, rapid, blitz rated and weekend.

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.