Worcestershire Chess Association

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

Competition titles in green are links to further information or the event organiser
ECF Online tournaments Something on nearly every day!
Sat 13 Apr 2024. Staffordshire English Junior Coaches and Organisers Association Zonal Qualifier at Burntwood Instutute Rugeley Road, Walsall WS7 9BE. Under-8, -10, -12 -14, -14, -18, and Under-20 tournaments. Five rounds , time control 15 min + 10 sec, starting at 9am and prize-giving at about 4pm.
Sat 20 Apr 2024. Cannock & Dist CL25th Anniversary Rapidplay at Rycroft Community Hub, New Forest Road, Walsall WS3 1TR. Open, Major (u1750) and Minor tournaments (u1500), six rounds starting at 10am, time control 20 min +20 sec.
Sat 27 Apr. David Dunn Memorial Rapidplay at Moseley All Services Club, 91 Church Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 9EA. Open, u2000, u1750, u1500 sections, seven rounds starting at 10:30am, time control 15 min + 10 sec.
Fri-Sun 26-28 Apr 2024. Bristol Chess Congress at Bristol Grammar School, University Road, Bristol BS8 1SR. Open (FIDÉ rated), Boniface (u1900), and Foundation (u1600) tournaments, time control 90 min + 30 sec, half-point byes
Sun 28 Apr. She Plays To Win Warwickshire Rapidplay at University of Warwick, Library Road, Coventry CV4 7AL. Open, Secondary u1600 and Primary u1600. Five rounds starting 1pm, time control 15 min + 5 min.
Sat 11 May. National Quarter finals matches for u1450 and Minor Counties teams. Venues TBA.
Sat 18 May. National Quarter finals match for u1650 teams. Venues TBA.
Sat & Sun 18, 19 May. Leamington Open at Warwick Trident Park, Poseidon Way, Royal Leamington Spa. CV34 6SW. Five rounds, Open, u2000, u1750, u1500 sections. FiDÉ rated, ECF gold membership required, half point bye available rounds 1-4.
Sat-Mon, 25-27 May 2024. Cotswold Congress at The King’s School, Pitt Street, Gloucester GL1 2BG. Open, Major (u1850), Minor (u1635), 6 rounds, half point byes in rounds 1-5, time control 90 min + 30 sec.
Sun 2 Jun. Worcestershire Megafinal UK Chess Challenge at Malvern College, College Road, Malvern WR14 3DF, 11am start for round 1. Six rounds, time control 15 min + 10 sec.

Malvern secure Championship League with a match to spare

10 Apr 2024. Malvern beat Redditch in the fixture at Alvechurch increasing their leadin the table. This result puts Malvern out of reach of second placed Longbridge.

Former Droitwich CC secretary dies

6 Apr 2024. It is with sadness I report the death of Bill (WW) Watson, formerly scecretary of Droitwich CC. Bill suffered a stroke two years ago bringing to a close a long playing career for Droitwich and Worcestershire. He played regularly for Worcestershire II team in the 1980s and then in the u125 and u120 teams until 2016. In the 1990s Bill was a member of the association’s congress committee. He is survived by wife Wendy and two sons and two daughters.

Malvern have unassailable lead in Challengers League

3 Apr 2024. Malvern, with two matches yet to play, cannot be caught by either Longbridge or Worcester Rooks in the Challengers League. See result of latest Redditch Malvern fixture.

Online teams successful again

2 Apr 2024. Worcestershire teams again chalked up three match wins in the 4NCL Online season 9. Worcestershire Wolfpack A beat Cozy Tomatoes (an international team) 3-1; team B beat Wessex Some Stars F 2½-1½; and the cadets team beat War & Piece Nimrod 4-0. The Cadet team’s opponents this round included an ex-Worcestershire player Alan Ruffle. The A and B teams are top of their groups in Division 4 and it’s possible that there will be an all Worcestershire final if both teams again win in the final ordinary round of the Spring 2024 season. The Cadets team are thirteenth out of 33 teams in Division 5. See full results with links to games.

New chess club in Bewdley Library

25 Marc 2024, John Wrench reports. The club meets every Thursday afternoon 2:30 to 4:30 pm in the library at Dog Lane, Bewdley DY12 2EF.

Draw for Bennett Cup semi-finals

24 Mar 2024 Brian Turner reports. Joe Friar (w) plays Lee Davis and Ray Collett (w) plays Ian Clarke.

Wheatley Cup finalists decided

20 Mar 2024. Redditch beat Kidderminster and will play Worcester in the final. See Wheatley competition results.

11 Mar 2024. Worcester beat Shirley & Wythall on handicap and will play Kidderminster or Redditch in the final.

Online teams all successful

19 Mar 2024. All three teams won their round 5 4NCL matches. Worcestershire Wolfpack A beat East Kilbride E; Worcestershire Wolfpack B beat Charlton Cobras; and Worcestershire Wolfpack Cadets beat West Wickham. In Division 4, team A is 2 points clear of their nearest rivals in Group B, team B is 4points clear of nearest rivals in Group A. The Cadets team is placed 18th out of 33 teams in Division 5. See full results with links to games.

Worcestershire teams lead Wolverhampton League

14 Mar, John Wrench reports. Halesowen are at the top of Wolverhampton League Division 1. In second place is Kidderminster’s promoted team with two matches in hand.

Worcestershire player beats grandmaster

13 Mar 2024. Several county players travelled to Hereford to play GM Keith Arkell in a simultaneous exhibition. Only Scott Oxtoby (Worcester) was successful. Keth’s overall score was +33 -4 with no draws. The evnt was organised by Lee Davies. See more.

County teams in national quarter-finals

12 Mar 2024. All three Worcestershire county teams will be playing in the ECF national stages. Dates for the quarter final finals are 11 May in the Minor Counties and the u1450 competition and on 18 May for the u1650 competition. All semi-finals will be on 8 June and the finals on 6 July. This is the first year that Worcestershire has had three teams in the national stages.