News items for County in 2020-1
Summary. With Covid restrictions still in place, all play was online and there was no over-the-board league in 2020-1. This is the first time since the Second World War over 60 years ago that the association has not been able to play league chess in person. Although the county was invited to play in the inter-county ECF online competitions in 2021, there was insufficient time to raise a team. The West Midlands Area League for online quickplay continued with their Summer 2020 season finishing 8 October. The league played two additional seasons: Autumn 2020 (November to February) and Spring 2021 (March to May).
Worcester player wins national u1700 and GM Keith Arkell wins online British
7 Aug 2021. Colin Vernon won the ECF online u1700 competition. There was a field of sixty and Colin was seeded ninth. He ended in sole first place scoring 5½ points. See full results.
7 Aug 2021. Keith Arkell finished first on 7½ points above Michael Adams and Bogdan Lalic in controversial circumstances after two of his opponents were disqualified. See full results.
Malvern player first in 4NCL online tournament
23 May 2021. Kieran Lappin (Malvern) finished first in the 8th 4NCL Online Congress u1700 tournament
Change at Stourbridge
16 May 2021. Dave Scriven, who has served for many years as club secretary has stepped down. Paul Sharratt takes up the reigns.
Longbridge are online league champions
25 Apr 2021. Longbridge concluded a successful season with wins over Warwick University Alumni, whereas their nearest rivals Solihull conceded draws to Redditch. Longbridge second team were also highest placed Worcestershire team in Division 2 ending up third behind champions South Birmingham and runners-up Isle of Wight.
25 Mar. Three county teams, Longbridge, Worcester and Redditch were on the Division 1 starting grid for the fourth online season. They battle Hereford, Warwick University Alumni and Solihull. In Division2, four Worcestershire teams - Stourbridge, Worcester, Kidderminster, and Longbridge - are joined by South Birmingham, Isle of Wight, Solihull and Mutual Circle.
Malvern starts online arena tournaments on lichess.org
10 Mar 2021, Kieran Lappin reports. Following in the footsteps of the successful Marches Arena weekly tournaments, Brian Turner has set up a rapidplay arena for Malvern on Wednesday evenings. If you enjoy 10 min plus 5 seconds Arena format, contact Brian Turner.
Malvern Arena reaches 10th edition
17 Feb 2021. Secretary Brian Turner organises a ten-minute lichess.org Arena tournament for members. The first trial tourney was held on 9 Dec and attracted 6 players. Since then, Malvern players have met every Wednesday evening. Six different players have have won a gold medal. The format is 10 min + 5 sec increment with no Berserking or extra points for winning streaks. If you want to join Malvern online, contact Brian Turner.
Alex Holowczak Chief Arbiter FIDE World Corporate Championships
16 Feb 2021. Alex (Warley and Worcs) has been appointed as chief for the international competition with nearly 300 teams from 78 countries.
Junior Academy player scores well in 4NCL Open tournament
17 Jan 2021. Worcs Jun Acad player Duke Dillan scored 2½/5. In the under-1400 tournament, Colin Vernon (Worcester) was second with 4½/5 points.
Longbridge close to WMA championship in third season
14 Jan 2021. Worcester have dropped back failing to get four players to 'sit down' in both rounds in the New Year and Longbridge 1 lead by a nose.
Worcestershire players in ECF Caplin Online Championships
Dec-Jan 2021. WGM Kata Toma scored 4½ points and was the highest placed woman and Harry Evans (Redditch) finished mid-table on 3½/7. Phil Maybury (Warley) was 4th in the Morning Major Open and Colin Vernon (Worcester) was 3rd in the under-1700 and under-1400 tournaments. Stewart Fishburne (Halesowen) was 2nd in the Over-65 Rapid tournament. GM Kieth Arkell (Halesowen) was sole first in the Over-50 Rapidplay. Dillan Duke was sixth in the under-14 rapidplay and youngest player Jung Yungeong (Greenlands) scored 3/7 in the under-10 championship.
County clubs lead West Midlands League into 2021
20 Dec 2020. In Division 1, Worcester 1 lead with Redditch and Longbridge 1 not far behind. In Division 2 currently led by Mutual Circle, Kidderminster are fourth, Stourbridge fifth, and Worcester 2 is in bottom position.
chess.com crash stops West Midlands Area league
19 Nov 2020. About thirty minutes after start of play in WMA round 2, the chess.com server crashed stopping play. WMA organisers are considering options and it seems likely that the abandoned matches will be re-scheduled after the last fixtures. Any completed games are likely to be submitted for grading but will not count for the WMA competition.
Worcestershire beat Shropshire
14 Nov 2020. In the Midlands County team championship competition, Worcestershire beat Shropshire 8 - 4. Stephen Mellor (Worcester), John Wrench (ex-Kidderminster), Julie Wilson, Paul Sharrattt (both Stourbridge), Scott Russell (Redditch) and matthew Holmes (Worcester) won their games. You can play through winning games using links from the ECF League Management System.
Nigel Towers in English Blitz team
7 Nov 2020. Nigel played for English Players Team in the 9th Americas vs Europe season team Blitz team competition scoring 6 out of 19 games against much higher rated opponents. The English team was in fifth place behind Russia, Serbia, Argentina, and Italy.
Worcestershire fall to Greater Manchester in Open competition
31 Oct 2020. Worcestershire were again spooked by Mancunians losing 2½-12½. Matthew Holmes (Worcester) playing on board 130 was the only winner with Marcus Walsh (South Birmingham, Bd 1), Paul Sharratt (Stourbridge, Bd 10) and Ian Ellis (Longbridge, Bd 14) achieving draws. Full result with links to game scores.
Laurence Wheatley 1931-2020
23 Oct 2020. Chess players learned of Laurence’s passing very belatedly. He was a stalwart of Greenlands Chess Club and Birmingham & District Chess League as well as Worcestershire Chess Association. The Wheatley Cup was presented to the association in memory of his parents and he organised an innovative team knock out competition with Worcestershire Chess Association. This competition handicapped stronger teams by requiring them to win by a margin based on the difference in grades between players in the opposing teams. The handicap applied was based on a formula derived from players’ grades and the effect of the handicap made it equally probable the either team would win.
Worcestershire players at Birmingham Rapidplay
20 Oct 2020. Ian Clarke (Malvern) scored 3 points from 7 games in the open and son Joshua 4½ points in the Minor tournament.
Worcestershire players leading English chess
17 Oct2020. At the online English Chess Federation AGM, Nigel Towers (Redditch) was elected to the vacant home chess directorship. Nigel Alex Holowczak (Oldbury) remains Director of Junior Chess & Education and Stephen Woodhouse (Longbridge) reamains a Non-executive director. All ECF directorships are unpaid.
U-1825 Worcestershire lose to Greater Manchester
10 Oct 2020. 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 2020. 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 new ECF Director of Home Chess
19 Oct 2020. Nigel (Redditch) fought off a strong challenge to be elected to the voluntary post.
30 Sep 2020. 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. Worcestershire players who wish to support Nigel’s candidacy should contact Worcestershire Secretary 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 2020. 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 2020. 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 2020. 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 2020. 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 2020. Five county players helped the North win. Kevin Hurney (Greenlands) and Matthew Holmes (Worcester) won their games and Tony Shaw (Worcester) drew his.