Worcestershire Chess Association

The title of Worcestershire Champion is currently awarded to the highest scoring player in the Worcester Closed congress. In the 1980s, the championship was won by the leading scorer in the Worcestershire Closed Championship held at Easter time. When the closed championship ceased and between 1995 and 2001, the county decided to award the title to the highest scoring player in the open section of a Worcestershire tournament organised by Castle Chess. The format of the competition was a knock out tournament in 1920, but the organisation of other years’ competitions is not known.

 

The earliest Worcestershire champion so far discovered was GEH Bellingham towards the end of the nineteenth century. The records from 1919 to 1945 come from a typewritten list unearthed by Andrew Farthing from the association's records. Peter Kitson, a three-times winner, copied a list of former champions engraved on the plinth to provide the names of champions from 1946 to 1985. The web editor’s records of county meetings and congress results provided the names for recent seasons. In several years the trophy was shared. The trophy for the Worcestershire Chess Champion was missing between the years 2003 and 2020, but has since been located, the list of winners brought up-to-date and was presented to the 2021-2 champion.

 

Season	Champion	Season	Champion
1895-6	GEH Bellingham (a)	1967-8	RJ Clunie
1919-20	EE Westbury	1968-9	RJ Clunie
1920-1	EE Westbury	"	SE Reese
1921-2	EE Westbury	1969-70	Dr BG Dudley
1922-3	EE Westbury	1970-1	CA Gray
1923-4	TH Tylor	1971-2	Dr BG Dudley
1924-5	TH Tylor	"	PC Robertson
1925-6	EE Westbury	1972-3	J Heath
1926-7	GC Brown	1973-4	J Heath
1927-8	Dr A Learner	1974-5	J Anderson
1928-9	Dr A Learner	1975-6	J Anderson
1929-30	CG Butcher	1976-7	SW Small
1930-1	CG Butcher	1977-8	J Anderson
1931-2	PA Ursell	1978-9	KC Arkell
1932-3	RW Bonham	1979-80	AJ Taylor
1933-4	RW Bonham	1980-1	KC Arkell
1934-5	Dr A Learner	1981-2	R Trow
1935-6	CG Butcher	1982-3	D Pye
1936-7	CG Butcher	1983-4	SW Small
1937-8	CG Butcher	1984-5	Dr RA Collett
1938-9	CG Butcher	1985-6	SW Small (d)
1939-40	RW Bonham	1986-7	KR Milner (e)
1940-1	RW Bonham	1987-8	E Myers (d)
1941-2	RW Bonham	1988-9	KR Milner (d)
1942-3	RW Bonham	1989-90	D Goodwin
1943-4	RW Bonham	1990-1	DPM Goodwin
1944-5	RW Bonham	1991-2	SW Small
1945-6	RW Bonham	1992-3	SW Small
1946-7	RW Bonham	Competition suspended
1947-8	JE Dutton	1995-6	MP Burrows
1948-9	RW Bonham		S James
1949-50	RW Bonham	1996-7	PR Kitson
1950-1	RW Bonham	1997-8	MP Burrows
1951-2	RW Bonham		PR Kitson
1952-3	RW Bonham	1998-9	MP Burrows
1953-4	RW Bonham		PR Kitson
1954-5	RW Bonham	1999-2000	MP Burrows
1955-6	HEG Courtney		CP Hibbard
1956-7	HEG Courtney	2000-1	MP Burrows (b)
1957-8	RW Bonham	Competition suspended
1958-9	RW Bonham	2013-4	Brian Turner
1959-60	RW Bonham	2014-5	Brian Turner
1960-1	Dr BG Dudley	2015-6	no competition
1961-2	GF Harris	2016-7	Kevin Hurney
1962-3	GF Harris	2017-8	Lee Davis
1963-4	E Staudt	2018-9	Jeremy Fallowfield
1964-5	Dr BG Dudley	Competition suspended (c)
1965-6	TRD Grove	2021-2	Stewart Fishburne
"	PS Keate	2022-3	Peter Kitson
1966-7	LS Blackstock
(a) Reported by Berrow's Worcestershire Journal. (b) Kidderminster Shuttle 23-10-01 downloaded 17-6-09 from HTTP://ARCHIVE.KIDDERMINSTERSHUTTLE.CO.UK/2001/10/23/301600.HTML, but no longer available. (c) Covid-19 epidemic. (d) Ray Collett’s records. (e) Worcester Evening News Wed 22 Apr 1987.