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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
  • 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.

Worcestershire teams knocked out in national quarter finals

17 May 2025. Worcestershire under-1650 team played Kent and lost 6-10 at Reading (Berks). Adam Ware (Stourbridge), Paul Serafini (Worcester), Steve Alcock (Stourbridge), and Aiden Griffiths (Worcester) won their games. See match card.

11 May 2025. Worcestershire played Devon in the Minor Counties Championship at Banwell, Somerset. The final score was 6½-9½. Devon scored heavily on the lower boards and Worcestershire top boards held thier own in spite of being out-rated. Dan Lambourne and Harry evans (Redditch), Ian Clarke (Malvern) and Ed Higgs (Worcester) won their games. See match card.

Bennett and Ball Cup news

9 May 2025, Brian Turner reports. In the semi-finals of the Bennett Cup, Joseph Friar beat Edward Higgs and is through to the final. The second semi-final between Lee Davis and Scott Oxtoby will be played on 15th May. The Ball Cup all-play-all section is complete. The winner is Giles Stanton, who will play the runner-up, Paul Serafini in the final. See Ball Cup cross-table.

Joe Friar wins again

5 May 2025. Kidderminster held its annual President’s Cup Rapidplay (10+5) and tewnty players competed. County champion Joe Friar was first winning all his games on 5 points. Joint runners-up were John Wrench and John Varilone on 4 points. See cross-table.

SB Dudley Boyz win Dudley & DCL Division 2 championship

1 May 2025. SB Dudley Boyz are champions for Division 2, but lost the last fixture of this Division this season to tail-enders Warley Quinborne. See DDCL Division 2 table.

Redditch win Rapidplay League 1, Kidderminster Rapidplay League 2 championships

30 Apr 2025. In the final fixture showdown, between leaders Redditch and Kiddersminster In Rapidplay League 1, neither team was able to outplay the other with draws in both legs of the fixture. This leaves Redditch top and 2014-5 Rapidplay League champions. All the games in the first leg ended decisivel, but perhaps players ran out of steam for the second leg because all games were drawn. See details.

30 Apr 2025. Kidderminster trounced Redditch in the last fixture of the season to win the Rapidplay 2 League championship. Kidderminster team captain Cameron Henry is only fifteen years old and almost certainly the youngest team captain ever to see his team to a league championship in Worcestershire. Kidderminster racked up twice as many match points as nearest rivals Redditch. In the final fixture of the season Cameron’s team won ½-3½. See details.

Nigel Towers honoured at ECF meeting

26 Apr 2025. Congratulations to Nigel (Redditch) who was made an honourary Life Vice-President for his contributions over many years. He promoted online competitions during Covid, organised Seniors competitions, and recently stepped down from the voluntary post of Director of Home Chess. At the same meeting it was decided to increase ECF membership fees in line with inflation. A detailed report is available on the Shropshire CA website .

Redditch win Championship League, Longbridge are runners-up

24 Apr 2025. In the last fixture in the 2024/5 Championship League Longbridge beat Malvern to confirm Longbridge’s staus as runners-up. In the end Redditch finished four points ahead of Longbridge.

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.

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