Worcestershire Chess Association

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!
Mon 28 Apr, on BBC2. Chessmasters: The Endgame. Starts at 8pm.
Sat 10 May. Worcestershire plays in the national quarter finals of the Minor Counties team tournament. Contact Paul if you would like to play.
Sat 17 May. Worcestershire u1650 team plays in the national quarter finals. Contact Paul if you would like to play.
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.
Sun 11 May, National Minor Counties Quarter Final Worcestershire against Devon at Banwell Village Hall, Banwell, North Somerset BS29 6BS. Contact Paul Sharratt if you would like to play.
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.

Redditch will win Championship League

17 Apr 2025. Kidderminster put an end to Longbridge’s hopes of catching Redditch with an away win overLongbridg in the Championship League.

Online teams maintain stations in 4NCL

14 Apr 2025. In spite of a drubbing in the final round, Worcestershire Wolfpack A team avaoided relegation from Division 2 due to a splendid win in round 6 against the leading team in their group. The B team secured a 4-0 victory in the final round and lifted themselves to third position in Group A of Division 3. Worcestershire Wolfpack C beat Watford and were fifth in Division 5. The D team lost heavily against Witney Huston and finished sixteenth in Division 5 out of the twenty six teams playing. See full results and links to games.

Redditch win Challengers League, Kidderminster win Rapidplay League 2

9 Apr 2025. Bottom placed Malvern inflicted the only loss of the season in the Challengers League on table topping Redditch. This fixture completed the table for the Challengers League. Redditch are first on 9 match points, Worcester Rooks are just in second place with 6 match points and 12½ game points with Malvern third also with 6 match points but only 11½ points. See completed 2024-5 Challengers League table.

9 Apr 2025. Kidderminster whitewashed Redditch to take the Rapidplay League 2 championship. Redditch still have three reamining fixtures to complete, but they cannot catch Kidderminster who have won all their matches so far. See 2024-5 Rapidplay League 2 table.

Redditch poised to win Championship League

8 Apr 2025. Redditch are poised to win the league title after a convincing performance at their away fixture with Halesowen. Longbridge would have to win all three remining fixtures to draw level on match points.

Counties & Districts Correspondence Team Chess Championships discontinued

3 Apr 2025. The International Correspondence Chess Federation Delegates for England have announced that the championships will be discontinued "due to lack of administrational support" and the competitions inaugurated in 1922 will cease. In recent years Jim Keen (Worcester) has been the Worcestershire team Captain who led the team to third position in Division 3 last season. Worcestershire's perfomances in these championships is archived here.

Wolfpack teams move up in 4NCL Online

1 Apr 2025. In division 2 the A team won its first match and move into 5th position ion group A beating Wells Hartbreakers. The B team had a walkover win against Oxford 3 who were unable to field a team in Division 3. The C team drew their match with Leyland in Division 5 and move up to sixth position in Division 5. The other Division 5 team, Worcs Wolfpack D beat Collyers 2nd 3-0 with board 4 result declared void and are fourteenth in the table out of 26 teams. See details and links to games.

Kidderminster sure to win District League

1 Apr 2025. Kidderminster beat Stourbridge in a crunch match to decide the destination of the District League trophy. There are only two fixtures to be played and Stourbridge cannot now catch Kidderminster. See match card.

Redditch poised to win Challengers League

26 Mar 2025. Redditch drew with Worcester Rooks in their fixture, but are assured of winning the 2024-5 Challengers League title.

Online teams score three match wins

18 Mar 2025, Round 5. Team A suffered another defeat but prospects for mainataining a place in Division 2 are no worse because another tailender defaulted their games. Team B beat Giuldford 2 in Division 3 with the help of a win by Mark Bethel (Longbridge) in his debut game for the Wolfpack squad. The B team just in the top half of the group A table. In Division 5, the C team secured a win against Barnet Knights C through defaults and team D won against Chess Challengers C. The C team is in in eighth place and the D team is in sixteenth position out of twenty six teams. See details and links to games

Online teams maintain positions in 4NCL League

4 Mar 2025. Team D received a bye in Division 5. Team A drew and kept alive their chances of surviving in Division 2 ending the round third from bottom place in Group A. Team B lost and are now fifth of the eight teams in group A of Division 3. Team C drew and are eleventh out of 25 teams, yet still have chances for promotion. Peter Kitson, Glen Cox (both Worcestershire Online), Paul Serafini and Sai Rentachintala (both Worcester) won their games. See details and links to games.

Funeral of former Worcestershire champion and association vice-president

2 Mar 2025. Eric Horwill reports the sad passing of Peter Keate, a former vice-captain of Worcestershire I team in 1965 and a Vice-President of Worcestershire Chess Association for nearly half a century. He died on 15 January. Peter shared the Worcestershire individual championship in the 1965/6 season with Theo Grove. In the early 1960s, Peter played top board for Dudley in the Worcestershire League and he played in numerous county matches for Worcestershire. He was also a founding member of the Dudley & District Chess League. Peter was a lecturer in English at Halesowen College and made a study of Worcestershire archives. Former Worcestershire county team captain Maurice Bissell told me he often gave Peter a lift to matches and Peter was always pleased if the route followed the course of a Roman road. A fellow player at Dudley, Eric Horwill, found Peter to be a very private person: "He was a good friend and quite generous in company!"