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Next events - Words in green are hyperlinks to pdf entry form, congress website, or contact’s e-mail
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17 Jul 2024. Joe Friar was won all 10 games to finish first ahead of new player Jay Haycock on 9 and John Wrench on 8 points. Twenty members of the clu took part
14 Jul 2024. Joe Friar (Kidderminster) who narrowly missed out last year, made certain of gaining the Worcestershire individual achampionship by winning the first three round games and then drawing in the final round with Welsh international player Lee Davis (malvern). Julie Wilson (Stourbridge), a former Welsh international player retained the women`s title as did senior champions Darren Whitmore (Longbridge), Veteran champion Lee Davis (Malvern) and Minor Champion Chris Lee (Worcester). The new junior champion is James Allsopp (Malvern). The county chess association is most grateful to The King`s School Worcester for the use of the venue. The tournament was organised by Scott Oxtoby (Worcester) and the tournament controller was Aiden Griffiths. Full results.
11 Jul 2024. Aiden Griffiths (Worcester), Scott Oxtoby (Worcester), David Smith (Redditch) and Colin Vernon (Worcester) qualified as ECF level 1 arbiters.
25 Jun 2024. There will be two rapidplay tournaments in 2024-5: one for open teams and the other for players rated below 1650. Officials made this decision at the annual meeting held at Droitwich to provide more opportunities for Worcestershire players to engage in quick play league chess. Members also decided hat all standard play matches should have the same time contol, 45+30.
22 Jun 2024. President Ray Collett, secretary Paul Sharratt and delegate Aiden Griffiths travelled to Derby for the annual meeting of the Midlands Counties Chess Union in an attempt to re-invigorate county matches in the region. The Union would organise Open and u1650 competitions and invite entries much earlier than last year. A new county competitions controller Steven Smithson (Staffs) was elected. He would recommended a shorter time control of 110+10 for the u1650 competition. Worcestershire delegates also suggested that a janboree might be more satisfactory than individual matches between counties. Paul Sharrett was re-apponted as honorary finance diretor and Ray Collett as editor for the MCCU website.
9 Jun 2024. In the open tournament, Joe Friar gained 3 points from his 7 games.
6 Jun 2024. Joe Friar playing black won the final in a game at Worcester. Ian tried 1.Nc3 to which Joe responded 1...c5 leading to a Sicilian type position. Unfortunately Ian blundered a piece in the late opening and Joe cleaned up.
4 June 2024. Tony Boyle, former first team player for Worcestershire won the nine-player Sammy Cohen draughts tournament at Warrington.
Arnold Kirkland receives award for services to Worcestershire Chess30 May 2024. President of the association presented to Arnold Kirkland the Friar Award for services to Worcestershire Chess at Worcester City Club’s annual meeting. President Ray Collett said, "Arnold has made an outstanding contribution over many years as a player and organiser. He helped to organise Worcestershire Closed and junior chess congresses in the 1990s. He was secretary and team captain for Droitwich Chess Club between 1989 and 2017." |
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22 May 2024. IA Alex has been appointed Technical Administration Panel chair for the Chess Olympiad to be played in Budapest in September.
22 May 2024. The last match of the Worcestershire League season saw Stourbridge with a home win in the Challengers League. Malvern are league champions. Malvern also topped the Challengers League. The District League was won by Kiddermister, the Rapidplay League by Longbridge and the Wheatley Cup by Redditch. See the 2023-4 season results.
18 May 2024. In the national quarter finals for u1650 teams Worcestershire played Surrey at Cumnor, Oxon. The final score was 6½-9½ with junior James Allsopp (Malvern), David Cleak (Worcester), Giles Stanton (Redditch), Steve Alcock (Stourbridge) and Aiden Griffiths (Worcester) winning their games. See full results.
16 May 2024. The finalists are Ian Calrke (Malvern) and Joe Friar (kidderminster). In the second semi-final, Ian played a French Defence and outplayed Ray Collett (Worcester).
11 May 2024. The county first team travelled to Abingdon for the Minor Counties quarter final. Although early results were encouraging, Sussex took the honours. Lee Davis (Malvern), Ben Attwell (Redditch), Joe Rastall, Ray Collett and Dorin Luca (all Worcester) won their games. See full results of an exciting match.
9 May 2024. Worcester’s top junior Ed Higgs beat John Varilone (Kidderimster) to win the 2023-4 Ball Cup competition. On the same evening at Worcester, the first semi-final of the Bennett Cup was played. Joe Friar (Kidderminster) beat Lee Davis (Malvern).
1 May 2024. David Smith’s Redditch team needed to win 3-1 against a much lower rated Worcester team led by Chris Lee. In the end, it was not the underdog’s evening and only Worcester’s captain escaped with a draw. See full result.
30 Apr 2024. The A team had a hard time with Worcestershire Wolfpack B. The underdogs seemed to be confirming their reputation with the first result, but went on to draw the match with junior Samuel Thomas (Worcester) winning for the B team on board 4. The final score was 2-2, the board count was 5-5, but the second tie-break - elimination of the lowest board - gave the A team its victory (See full result). Both A and B teams get promotion to Division 3 for the next season that starts on 10 September. If you would like to play online standard play chess, please contact the Worcestershire Wolfpack squad’s co-manager Ray Collett.
30 Apr 2024. The Division 2 champions were decided in a match at South Birmingham where Kidderminster drew, and become runners-up. See full result.
County players at David Dunn memorial Rapidplay27 Mar 2024. Joseph Friar (Kidderminster) shared first place in the Open with 5½ points from seven games with Elis Dicen (Coventry). The other county player in the Open was Harry Evans (Redditch) with 5 points. Three players entered the Intermediate (u1750) tourament: Mark Riley (Kidderminster) and David Smith (Redditch) scored 4 points and John Varilone (Kidderminster) scored 3. The event was organised by Terry Walker and the arbiter was Matthew Carr and held at the Moseley All Services Club, Birmingham. See full results. |
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18 Apr 2024, John Wrench reports. Kidderminster and Halesowen teams faced each other to battle for the league championship. The match was a 2-2 draw with all the games being draw. This result makes Halesowen champions on 14 match points and Kidderminster runners-up on 13 match points. John Wrench wrote that Kidderminster "As a promoted team ... didn't really expect to be in a title race!". Wolverhampton League Division 1 comprises 9 teams from Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Worcestershire.
13 Apr 2024. The A team faced Charlton Cobras C and won 2½ - 1½. The B team played a higher rated Atticus team from Liverpool and also won 2½ - 1½. Team members who won their games were Ed Higgs (Worcester), Jim O'Dell (Kidderminster), Stephen Woodhouse (Longbridge) and Ray Collett (Worcester). This result should mean that both teams are promoted to Division 3 for the next season starting in September 2024 and the Division 4 Championship final will be an all Worcestershire match between the A and B teams played on lichess on Tuesday 30 April. See full results and links to games.
18 Apr 2024. Longbridge had to win at least one of the two legs of their fixture against Worcester Knights to overcome Redditch’s single point lead. Longbridge made certain of their rapidplay title by winning both legs. See score card.
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