U-1825 Worcestershire lose to Greater Manchester

10 Oct. In the first ever MCCU competition online match, Worcesterhire lost 3½-8½. Captain Paul Sharratt (Stourbridge), Phil Maybury (Warley Quinbourn) and Dillan Duke (Worcs Jun Chess Acad) won their games. I was watching online and was impressed with Dillan’s mature patient play in an awkward middlegame and then quick to seize on his opponent’s error in the endgame. The team also thanks our other young player Jack for stepping in to play board 12 after a very late cancellation thus allowing the county to avoid a default. See full result.

End of West Midland Area’s Summer season

8 Oct. League champions were Sutton Coldfield first team who convincingly demonstrated their superiority in the last match against runners-up Solihull first team. Two Worcestershire teams improved on their positions in the Spring season: Greenlands first team and Redditch were both third sharing the same number of match and games points. Worcester first team just avoided relegation finishing above bottom markers Warwick Univ Alumni. Division 2 champions were Coventry Chess, just three game points ahead of John Wrench’s Isle of Wight team. Kidderminster were fifth, Greenlands second team sixth. Worcester second team were last but one. See detailed league tables and links to match score cards.

Greenlands becomes Longbridge

6 Oct. Greenlands chess club will play its last ever match on Thursday. The West Midlands Area Online League will host this historic event on 8th October. Members are moving across the road to the Austin Sports & Social Club as soon as current Covid restrictions allow. The club is mchanging its name to reflect the new venue and will be called Longbridge Chess Club with a new email address.

Nigel Towers candidate for ECF Home Chess Directorship

30 Sep. Nigel of Redditch Chess Club who has already volunteered three years of his time to act as Secretary to the ECF Board is standing in a by-election for the unpaid post of Director of Home Chess. Nigel has been a prime mover in establishing English online chess and is ECF Manager for online chess. He has organised competitions locally, nationally and internationally and has helped develop the ECF rating and grading systems. He was an organiser for over-the-board events such as the ECF Blitz, and ECF Seniors as well as Senior team events in Croatia and Hungary. You can read his plans to develop home chess in his election address. Worcestershire players who wish to support Nigel’s candidacy should contact Worcestershire Secreatry Paul Sharratt and their direct members representatives to express their preferences before 17 October. Voting will be at a Zoom meeting of Council members - union, county, direct members representatives and officers - to be held on 17 October.

Worcestershire teams in West Midlands Area

1 Oct. Redditch was the only team to win one of their two matches in fixtures this night. Redditch won one and drew one, but lost on aggregate. Greenlands and Worcester drew one match and lost one match each against Sutton and 1 SB1 respectively. In Division 2, Kidderminster beat Solihull 2, but Stourbridge lost to Isle of Wight and were nearly annhilated by Coventry.

24 Sep. Greenlands and Redditch drew in Division 1 so that Greenlands are now second in Division 1 to Sutton Coldfield. Worcester lost in a three-board encounter with Solihull and may face a relegation battle. In Division 2, Stourbridge beat Greenlands and Kidderminster lost to Lichfield. Stourbridge and Greenlands are mid-table but still have a chance of finishing as champions. Worcester lost a bottom-of-table fight with Solihull and are now firmly at the bottom of the table.

17 Sep. Two Worcestershire clubs gained places in the sixth round for Division 1. Greenlands 1 beat Warwick University Alumni and Worcester 1 had ist best night in the league beating Redditch. Greenlands 1 is placed second in Division 1 behind a very strong Sutton Coldfield team, but Sutton have amtch in hand. Worcester 1 are mid-table and Redditch shares the bottom spot with South Birmingham 1. In Division 2, Stourbridge beat Coventry Chess, Kidderminster 2 beat Worcester 2, and Greenlands drew with Mutual Circle. Sutton Coldfield lead Division 2 with Greenlands placed third, Stourbridge fifth, and Worcester just ahead of bottom placed Solihull 2. See full results.

Worcestershire field open and u1825 team in the Midlands online championships

20 Sep. Worcestershire have entered two teams in the first MCCU online team champoionships. These matches will be played on Saturdays starting at 6:30pm using the lichess platform and a time control of 1 hour with 15 second increments.

Worcestershire lose to Mancunians in friendly match to trial lichess.org

12 Sep. In the first county match of the 2020-1 season, Worcestershire lost narrowly to Greater Manchester in a thirteen board friendly to trial the lichess.org platform for MCCU county matches this season. See full results.

County players help North to a victory over Southerners

5 Sep. Five county players helped the North win. Kevin Hurney (Greenlands) and Matthew Holmes (Worcester) won their games and Tony Shaw (Worcester) drew his.

Worcestershire are national Minor Counties Champions!

22 Aug. Worcestershire beat Somerset 6½-5½ in the 2020 final for the Minor Counties Online championship. This match was tougher for Worcestershire than the previous encounter in the group stage. On board 1 Kevin Hurney again faced IM Jack Rudd playing at lightning speed. This time Kevin secured a draw. Somerset scored heavily on the top boards, but the Worcestershire lower boards were again the engine for success. Worcestershire players with wins were: Julie Wilson and Hossam Aboushady (both Stourbridge), Tony Shaw and Matthew Holmes (both Worcester). See full results.

 

8 Aug. Worcestershire beat Berkshire in National semi-final. In the Minor Counties Open competitionworcestershire won 7-5 in a match of two halves. Berkshire dominated in the upper boards and Worcestershire won all the games on boards 8 to 12. Worcestershire winners included four players from Worcester City: Ray Collett, Robin Hayles, Tony Shaw, and Matthew Holmes with Hossam Aboushady (Stourbridge) and Ian Ellis (Greenlands) being the others to score for the county. See full results.

 

7 Aug. West Midlands Area League Summer Season starts on 13 August. Three Worcestershire club teams play in Division 1: Greenlands; Redditch; and Worcester 1. The other first division teams are Solihull 1, South Birmingham 1 and 2, and Sutton Coldfield 1. Ten teams play in Division 2: Greenlands 2, Kidderminster, Stourbridge and Worcester 2 from WCA who play Coventry Chess, Isle of Wight, Lichfield, Mutual Circle, Sutton Coldfield 2, and Solihull 2. Worcester 1 are in action on the first night in Division 1. The first night sees all four Worcestershire teams play in Division 2. Full fixture lists are available from the ECF League Management System.

 

3 Aug. Worcestershire go through to the finals for the Minor Counties Open. Worcestershire were pipped on tie-break by Shropshire who were held to a 6-6 draw by Hampshire, for the runners-up position in Open Division 2B of the ECF Counties Online competition. In spite of this, Worcestershire go through to the knock-out stage of the Open team Minor Counties competition. Worcestershire play Berkshire on Saturday 8 August at 6:30pm.

 

25 Jul. Worcestershire beat Hampshire 8½-3½. All four of Worcester City’s players in the team - Ray Collett, Robin Hayles, Tony Shaw, and Matthew Holmes scored wins - as did Kevin Hurney (Greenlands), Nigel Towers (Redditch), Russell Scott (Redditch) and Ian Ellis (Greenlands). Shropshire were held to a draw by Somerset and have the same number of match points as Worcestershire, so unless they lose against bottom-of-table Hampshire in their match next weekend Worcestershire won’t get to the finals.

 

25 Jul. WGM Katarzyna Toma picked for English Olympiad squad. Katarzyna (Evesham) is in the reserves for the Online Olympiad. Teams have six players of which at least three are female and two are juniors. England start their campaign on 1 August and you can watch play chess.com.

 

23 Jul. Alex Holowczak appointed Chief FIDÉ Arbiter for Online Olympiad. The FIDÉ over-the-board Olympiad scheduled for August was replaced by an Online Olympiad starting 25 July. Alex (Oldbury) heads a team of fourteen Arbiters for this tournament.

 

18 Jul. Worcestershire scored its first online win beating Somerset 8-4. Harry Evans (Redditch), Nigel Towers (Redditch), Stephen Woodhouse (Greenlands), Scott Russell (Redditch), Hossam Aboushady (Stourbridge), Robin Hayles (Worcester) and Matthew Holmes (Worcester) won their games. This win makes it possible for the team to progress to the KO stages of the competition. See full results.

 

4 Jul. Worcestershire lose to Cumbria. Although Worcestershire players have faced those from Cumbria in corresepondence chess, it’s possible that these two counties have never met in over-the-board play. Worcestershire again was unable to recruit many leading players and the team welcomed Kevin Hurney (Greenlands) to play on board 1. The match was played over 14 boards and Cumbria gained victory by a single point. Congratulations to Harry Evans (Redditch), Nigel Towers (Redditch), Hossam Aboushady (Stourbridge), Scot Russell (Redditch) and Arnold Kirkland (Droitwich) who won their games. There are now links to the game scores at chess.com for each game. See full results.

 

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