County Team
News
Worcestershire
League
Dudley & District
League
Juniors Worcs online Correspondence
Chess
Individual
competitions

Next events - Words in green are hyperlinks to pdf entry form, congress website, or contact’s e-mail

  • ECF Online tournaments Something on nearly every day
  • Sun 11 May, Delancey UK Chess Challenge Birmingham Megafinal at King Edward VI Five Ways School, Scotland Lane, Bartley Green, Birmingham, B32 4BTand Herefordshire Megafinal at Hereford Cathedral School, The Zimmerman Building, Church Street, Hereford, HR1 2LT. Megafinals start at 9:30am, six rounds rapidplay, time control 15 min + 10 sec, Prizes for highest boy and girl scorers in each year group.
  • Wed 14 May. Play a GM at Stroud Chess Club. GM Peter Wells takes on 30 opponents at Star Anise Café in Stroud. Starts at 7pm.
  • Sat 24 to Mon 26 May, Cotswold Congress at The King’s School, Pitt Street, Gloucester GL1 2BG. Open, Major (u1860), Minor (u1635) tournaments, five rounds (half point bye available rounds 1-4), time control 90 min + 30 sec increment from move 1, free parking available on site.
  • Sat 28 Jun. Delancey UK Chess Challenge Worcestershire Megafinal at St John’s Campus, University of Worcester. Megafinal begins at 10am, six round rapidplay, time control 15 min + 10 sec, Prizes for highest boy and girl scorers in each year group.
  • Thu 24 Jul. Hereford Chess Club host a simul with GM Nigel Davies. Limited places available £15 starting at 7pm at The Herdsman Public House, Widemarsh Street, Hereford.
  • Sat & Sun 23, 24 Aug. Worcestershire Chess Association Closed Championships at King’s School Worcester. Five rounds, but no Saturday evening play because the first round is rapidplay. Titles and trophies for Individual, Women's Junior, Senior, Veteran and Minor champions (u1650).
  • Sat 27 Sep. UK Open Blitz Championship Birmingham Qualifier at Quinborne Community Centre, Ridgacre Road, Quinton, Birmingham B32 2TW

Redditch win Wheatley Final

23 Jul 2025. The home team Redditch won the Wheatley Cup final with Worcester. Teams had similar ratings and there was no handicap. Game results went according to the form book and Redditch won 3-1. See full result.

16 Jul 2025. Worcester and Kidderminster fielded evenly match players and there was no handicap in the second semi-final. Worcester won 2.5-1.5. See full result.

10 Jul 2025. Longbridge turned out a strong team against Redditch. The over-the-board game results gave 2.5 points to Longbridge, but this failed to overturn the handicap of 1.1 points faced by the stronger team so Redditch qualify for the final when they will play either Kidderminster or Worcester. The other semi-final is on 16 July. See full result.

 

Picture on right: The winning 2025 Redditch team (Adrian Griffiths)

2025 Wheatley Cup winners Redditch

Worcestershire Chess Association annual meeting

2025 WCA Trophy winners and awardee. Picture credits: Ray Collett l, Paul Sharratt r)

2 Jul 2025. President Ray Collett (Worcester) and secretary Paul Sharratt (Stourbridge) reported on a successful year with an influx of young enthusiastic players. Worcestershire played in the Midland Counties Junior team championships for the first time for many years. Simon Berry (Worcester) took a team of junior players to Nottingham where they gained useful experience. Worcestershire Wolfpack A team won Division 4 of the Four Nations Chess Online League in December. Redditch was the dominant club in the Worcestershire League winning three trophies: the Bonham rose bowl for the Championship League, the Cobham trophy for the Challengers League and the Rapidplay 1 League plaque. Kidderminster won the Worcester & District League and Rapidplay League 2 plaque. Individual winners were Lee Davis (Malvern) in the Bennett Cup and Paul Serafini in the Ball Cup. Eric Horwill (Stourbridge) was unable to attend the meeting. He was awarded the Jim Friar award for services to chess in Worcestershire by Paul Sharratt separately to celebrate fifty years of Eric’s high class play for the county first team. Eric first played for Worcestershire in the 1940s and has continued playing throughout and beyond a busy career in education, both over the board and by correspondence. The meeting re-elected senior officials and resolved to hold a further meeting to add officials to its leadership team. Members voted for a default 3hr playing session in the Championship League and a time control of 60+30 unless a club elects at the start of the season to play home matches with a shorter 45+30 time control. There were no other changes to Worcestershire Leagues.

 

Cup winners

29 May 2025. Both Bennett and Ball Cup finals were played at Worcester City club. In the senior competition for the Bennett Cup Lee Davis (Malvern) confounded my prediction of 15 May and won the final against Joe Friar (Kidderminster). This is Lee’s seventh win of the trophy - his first was in 1981. The Ball Cup competition for u1650 players was played between Giles Stanton (Redditch) and Paul Serafini (Worcester). Paul gained the exchange for a pawn, but Giles’s bishop was in a commanding central position. Paul engineered a strong attack on the white king, forced the exchange of a pair of rooks and neatly wrapped up the game using a a passed rooks pawn. This is the first season of competitive play for Paul and winning the Ball Cup at his first attempt is a fine achievement. Congratulations to Lee and Paul!

bennet and ball Cup finalists ready for their games

Worcestershire clubs in Birmingham League

26 May 2025, Dan Lambourne reports. Stourbridge won BDCL Division 3 and Longbridge were runners-up in BDCL Division 4. Redditch players played each other in the final of the BDCL u1900 individual tournament with David Smith beating Ben Attwell.

Worcestershire players at Cotswold Congress

26 May 2025. Seven Worcestershire players travelled to Gloucester for the six round Cotwold Congress. In the Open Ian Clarke (Malvern) and david Smith (Redditch) scored 2½ points and Ben Attwell Redditch 1½ points in a field of 42 players. In the Minor tournament, Giles Stanton (Redditch) was the most successful followed by Colin Vernon (Worcester) on 2½ points and Alex Nicholls on 1½ points. Andrew Farthing (Worcester) did not play. Instead he ran a chess bookstall raising over £800 for St Richard’s Hospice Worcester

Stephen takes the helm at ECF

15 May 2025, ECF website reports. Owing to restructuring of director’s roles at the ECF, former CEO Mike Truran has taken the role of Financial Director and Stephen Woodhouse (Longbridge) has accepted the CEO role on a temporary basis until the October ECF Council meeting decides on a permanent replacement in September.

Stourbridge win BDCL Division 3

15 May 2025, LMS reports. Stourbridge made sure of winning Birmingham & District CHess League Division 3 by beating South Birmingham 4½-1½.

Worcestershire teams knocked out in national quarter finals

17 May 2025. Worcestershire under-1650 team played Kent and lost 6-10 at Reading (Berks). Adam Ware (Stourbridge), Paul Serafini (Worcester), Steve Alcock (Stourbridge), and Aiden Griffiths (Worcester) won their games. See match card.

11 May 2025. Worcestershire played Devon in the Minor Counties Championship at Banwell, Somerset. The final score was 6½-9½. Devon scored heavily on the lower boards and Worcestershire top boards held thier own in spite of being out-rated. Dan Lambourne and Harry Evans (Redditch), Ian Clarke (Malvern) and Ed Higgs (Worcester) won their games. See match card.

2025BennetCupfinalist1

Challenger hoping to reverse 2024 result

Frair and Davis in Bennett Cup Final

15 May 2025, Brian turner reports. In the second semi-final, Lee Davis beat Scott Oxtoby at Worcester setting up a final between Davis and Friar. Rivalry between these players is intense with tussles between them for the County Individual Championship in 2023 and 2024. In spite of his international experience, Lee must be the underdog because Joe Friar won the Bennett Cup last year and Joe’s current rating is well ahead of Lee’s

9 May 2025, Brian Turner reports. In the semi-finals of the Bennett Cup, Joseph Friar beat Edward Higgs and is through to the final.

See Bennett Cup cross-tables.

Joe, last year's winner

Defending his trophy

Stourbridge win BDCL Division 3

15 May 2025. Stourbridge beat South Birmingham in the play-off 4½-1½. See details.

Stanton favourite in Ball Cup final against Serafini

8 May 2025. The remaining game in The Ball Cup all-play-all section is complete. The all-play-all stage winner is Giles Stanton, who will play the runner-up, Paul Serafini in the final. See Ball Cup cross-table.

Worcestershire players finalists in BDCL u1900 tournament

8 May 2025, Dan Lambourne reports. David Smith beat Ben Attwell in the final

Joe Friar wins again

5 May 2025. Kidderminster held its annual President’s Cup Rapidplay (10+5) and tewnty players competed. County champion Joe Friar was first winning all his games on 5 points. Joint runners-up were John Wrench and John Varilone on 4 points. See cross-table.

SB Dudley Boyz win Dudley & DCL Division 2 championship

1 May 2025. SB Dudley Boyz are champions for Division 2, but lost the last fixture of this Division this season to tail-enders Warley Quinborne. See DDCL Division 2 table.

Read older news ...

All rights reserved © 2024-5 Worcestershire Chess Association