Worcestershire Chess League

Summer Cup competitions

Published 8 August 2025

About the competitions

 

The Summer Cups competitions were initiated by Steve Crees (Longbridge) expanding the summer matches previously held between Longbridge and Redditch Chess Clubs. The first county wide competition was organised in 2023. matches are for teams of four players from clubs affiliated to Worcestershire Chess Association. The current controller for this competition is Dan Lambourne (Redditch).

 

In 2025 open teams competete for Towers Cup and the Summer Cup is for teams with players rated under 1650. The same teams entered as last year:

Open teams: Kidderminster, Longbridge Malvern, Redditch and Worcester

u1650 teams: Kidderminster, Longbridge Redditch and Worcester

Matches will be played at Redditch's summer venue Meadow Farm, Dagnall End, Redditch

SUMMER CUP Rules 2025 (v.1.5)

 

The Time Control will be 45/30. Matches should start no later than 7:30pm. All moves must continue to be written down.

 

Each entered team must provide 4 boards, where players play 1 game only per evening, for the maximum of two evenings.

 

In relation to board order: players are to be listed in approximate rating order, according to that month's ECF standard ratings. This condition shall be regarded as satisfied if no player is rated more than 75 points below any player placed lower on the list. If a player does not appear in the list or only has a P rating, then other ECF or FIDE ratings will be used, including historic ratings if needed. If no over the board rating is available, an estimate based on online rating or an estimate from the player's club secretary will be used. These unrated players must be registered with the Controller with an estimated rating before playing in the match. Teams with agreed ratings must be named before the start of each round.

 

The clocks will be paused, and 2 additional minutes shall be added to the Time Control of the opponent if an illegal move is played by the other player. The game will be lost by a player if that player makes a second illegal move.

 

FIDE Laws of Chess will apply other than the specific rules shown here.

 

Normal scoring of one game point for a win, half point for a draw. No handicap.

 

There will be two competitions, an Open Competition and an U1650 Competition and will be open to all clubs registered with the Worcestershire Chess Association. If two or four teams enter a cup, then a knockout system will be used.

 

If three, five or six teams enter a cup, then a Jamboree over two rounds will be used. An alternate format will need to be decided on if there are 7 or more teams entered. The draw will take place before the first match in each section, with the drawing of names of each team from a bag. The first team drawn will be allocated to team slot A, the second team drawn will be allocated to team slot B and so on, until each team is drawn.

 

Knock Out Format

 

Colours to be determined on board 1 by the drawing of pawns in the normal way. Corresponding boards will alternate colours as usual.

 

In the event of a drawn match 2-2, board count shall be used, meaning the team with the lowest board count will be the winner. For example, if one team wins on boards 1 & 3 = 4 and the other team wins on boards 2 & 4 = 6, the team accumulating a board count of 4 in this example would win the match.

 

If board count remains equal, for instance, where one team wins on boards 1 & 4 = 5 and the other team wins on boards 2 & 3 = 5; then the elimination of the bottom board 4 should reveal a winning result on a subsequent board count basis pertaining to the top three boards.

 

If all else fails, it is necessary that the result must be determined on the night; so, in that scenario, if all four boards are drawn games; the team playing black on board 1 shall be the winner. A third/fourth team play-off can be played if both teams agree.

 

Draw: - Semi-Finals: 1. A v B 2. C v D Final: 1 v 2

 

Jamboree Format

First named players of each pair have the white pieces

Three Teams Entered
Table	Round 1	Round 2
1	A1 v B1	B1 v C1
2	C1 v A2	C2 v A1
3	B2 v C2	A2 v B2
4	C3 v B3	B3 v A3
5	A3 v C4	A4 v C3
6	B4 v A4	C4 v B4

Five Teams Entered
Table	Round 1	Round 2
1	D1 v A1	C1 v E1
2	E1 v B1	B1 v D1
3	A2 v C1	A1 v C2
4	B2 v D2	E2 v B2
5	C2 v E2	D2 v A2
6	D3 v C3	B3 v A3
7	A3 v E3	E3 v D3
8	C4 v B3	C3 v B4
9	E4 v D4	A4 v E4
10	B4 v A4	D4 v C4

Six Teams Entered
Table	Round 1	Round 2
1	A1 v B1	B1 v F1
2	E1 v C1	C1 v A1
3	F1 v D1	D1 v E1
4	A2 v C2	C2 v E2
5	F2 v B2	B2 v A2
6	E2 v D2	D2 v F2
7	E3 v A3	B3 v C3
8	D3 v B3	A3 v D3
9	C3 v F3	F3 v E3
10	D4 v A4	B4 v D4
11	C4 v B4	A4 v E4
12	E4 v F4	F4 v C4

The team with the most game points will win the Jamboree. If there is a tie, then the following tie breaks will be used.

 

Board number is defined by the place of a player in each team, NOT the table they play on. As an example, in round 1 on table 3 of the five-team draw, A2 is counted as playing on board 2 whilst C1 is counted as playing on board 1.

1. Most game points from games between tied teams

2. Board count from games between tied teams*

3. Bottom board elimination from games between tied teams*

4. Most games won as black from games between tied teams*

5. Side who played black on highest table between tied teams*

* If teams agree before the start, tie-breaks 2-5 can be removed and if teams are still tied after the first tie break, then the cup will be shared. If the tie is between two sides who haven't played then tie breaks 1-5 can't be used, and therefore the cup will be shared.

 

Additional Rule: - To cover multiple team entries from the same club, no player may play for more than one team in the same competition. So, if a player plays for one team in the first round of the Open, then they are unable to play for any other team in the second round of the Open. A reminder that the U1650 and Open are treated as separate competitions, so a player can play in both the U1650 and Open if required.

 

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