UPCOMING
- Join English Chess Federation England Juniors Club to find online events
- Sat 30 Aug WJCA Online tournament. The tournament will take place on lichess.org and start will be at 10 am. Contact Simon Berry if your wuld like to play.
- Sat 6 Sep, first chess club of the Autumn term 10am at King’s School Worcester, next to the Worcester Cathedral. Future meetings in autumn term are on Saturday 20th September Saturday 4th and 18th October 2025
- Tues 9 Sep. Introduction to Chess 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the Dice Box, 9 The Shambles Worcester WR1 2RF.
NEWS
Chess coach at Worcestershire Chess Championships24 Aug 2025. Simon played in the Worcestershire Championships and scored 1½ points. The picture shows him playing and Simon commented that at that point the position on th board was better than his posture! James Allsopp from Malvern successfully defended his title won last year fending of Muhammed Mehmood from Halesowen. The Worcestershire individual championship was won by WGM Kata Toma. See report of the congress on the Worcestershire Chess Association website. |
End of term celebrations
5 Jul 2025, Simon Berry reports.On the last day of term Scott led the fast and furious bughouse chess and Simon a chess quiz. The club will now take a break over the summer, but the young chess players can look forward to the club returning in early September.
WJCA players win prizes at Chess Megafinal
28 Jun. Oleksii Yarumchuk (Dyson Perrins Sch, Malvern) gained first place in the Under-14 setion, Dylan Kirkbright shared third place in the under-18 section and Ethan Twohig (Northwick Manor School, Worcester) shared third place in the under-10 section of the Delancey UK Chess Challenge Megafinal held at the University of Worcester. Dylan Aston, Harry Barraclough, Yehia Elmaradny, Thomas Hughes, Jack Jenkinson, Toby Larkins, and Maurice Spaughton also played and gained useful tournament experience.
Tobias plays at Shropshire Junior tournament
5 Apr 2025. Tobias Larkins scored 3 points out of six games in the under-8 section of the Shropshire Junior held at Wellington. Tobias won two games, drew two and lost two one against the winner of the tournament.
Jack wins first club online tournament
23 Nov 2024. The club organised an online tournament because chief coach Simon has hurt his ankle badly from a fall last weekend. Scott and Simon organised a five-round rapidplay tournament for members and ten players competed in a Swiss tournament. The winner was Jack Jenkinson who won all his games followed by Ethan Twohig on 3½ points and Jonah Brown finished in third place on tie-break with 3 points from three other players. See full results and links to games.
WJCA players at Birmingham Junior Open
19 Oct 2024. Ethan Twohig (Northwick Manor Sch) had a superb result in the under-9 tournament at King Edward VI Five Ways School Birmingham. Ethan was 2nd with 4 points from five games in a field of 27 players.
Academic successes for Worcestershire Juniors
18 Aug 2024. Joshua Clarke (Malvern), former Worcestershire junior champion, is going to Edge Hill University to study Psychology and Ed Higgs (Worcester) is going to study at Aston University.
Members win trophies and medals at Malvern
2 Jun 2024, Simon Berry reports. At the UK Schools Chess Challenge Worcestershire Megafinal held at Malvern Colege, Ethan Twohig (Northwick Manor Pri Sch Worcester) scored 4 points to finish equal third in his group and top of the under 8 section, earning qualification for the Gigafinal. Lottie Fraser was top girl in the under 11 section and qualified for the Megafinal. In the Under 18 section James Allsop scored 4½ points, finishing third and qualifying for the Gigafinal. Dylan Aston (Bishop Perowne HS, Worcester) and Ned Guyett (Nunnery Wood HS, Worcester) both scored 3½ points and qualified for the Gigafinal. Ruby Rastall (Heart of Worcestershire Colege) was second best girl in the under 18 section and also qualified for the Gigafinal.
Fomer member makes clean sweep at Hereford
5 May 2024. Dillan Duke (Hereford 6th Form Coll), scored 6 points from his six games at the UK Schools Chess Challenge at the Hereford Megafinal. He qualifies for a Gigafinal. Four club members played at the event. Ethan Twohig (Northwick Prim, Worc) just missed out for progress to a Gigafinal in the Under-8 section. Dylan Kirkbright (Bishops Perowne, Worc) and Dale Jackson played in the under-15 while Thomas Hughes (St Barnabus, Drakes Broughton Pri) played in the under-10 section.
Medals for members at Birmingham Junior Open
23 Mar 2024. Two Worcester players won medals in the Under-18 B tournament. Samuel Thomas won a gold medal for his first place with 4½ points from his 5 games. James Allsopp won a silver medal sharing third place on 3½ points. In the Under-11 group C tournament, Jonah Brown (3 points) and Harry Barraclough (2½ points) won bronze medals. At the last meeting of Spring term, chess coach Scott Oxtoby took players through his winning game against grandmaster Keith Arkell played last week at Hereford.
Former club player Dillan Duke beats Grandmaster.
13 Mar 2024. Dillan took on GM Keith Arkell former English champion in a simultaneous exhibition at Hereford. The grandmaster played 37 opponents, won 33 games and lost 4 incluing the one against Dillan. Dillan now plays for Malvern first team.
Three WJCA players at Warwickshire Under-11 tournaments
20 Jan 2024. Harry Barraclough, Dylan Aston and Linus Oxtoby travelled to Warwick for the Under-11 Junior tournaments. Harry Barraclough was the most successful scoring 3½ points, placed fourth on tie-break and improved his rating.
Festive ending to season
9 Dec 2023. At the last meeting before Christmas, seventeen enthusiastic chess players tried chess variants - such as 3 way chess and "bughouse chess" as well as standard games and a short Christmas quiz. The club is proving very popular and the young players are already looking forward to returning in January 2024.
Members score at Birmingham
8 Oct 2023. Abel Sebastian played in his first chess congress when he travelled to play in the Birmingham Junior Open. He scored two points from his games in the strong Under-18 tournament. Harry Barraclough also played, but in the Under-11 section and scored 4 points from five games and coming second in his section of 24 players.
More WJCA players qualify for UK Chess Challenge Gigafinal
10 Jun 2023. In the Shropshre Megafinal Jonah (under-10) and Jack (under14) qualified to join James who had already qualified from an earlier Megafinal. Click for full results.
Players at Birmingham Megafinal
7 May 2023. James Allsopp finished 6th with 3½ points and qualified for a Gigafinal. Two other WJCA players took part and scored well, but not quite good enought to get to a Gigafinal. The tournament was held at UK Chess Challenge Megafinal held at Archbishop Ilsley Catholic School, Acocks Green.
WJCA players at Shropshire Junior Congress
18 Mar 2023. James Allsopp win second prize at the Shropshire Under-14 tournament. Three Worcester players competed scoring 4½ for second place and 3 points in the under-14 tournament and 3 points in the Under-10 tournament. Click tounament for full results.
WJCA player James Allsopp wins Worcestershire Junior Quickplay
19 Dec 2022. James Allsopp emerged winner on tie-break from four other players to claim the under-16 trophy. Another club member, Samuel Thomas, matched James’s score, but was placed 4th on tie-break. In the under-11s, club member Jonah Brown (Claines Primmary Sch) was placed 3rd.
3 Oct 2022. In a Division 2 team battle, Worcestershire were third, below Suffolk and ahead of Richmond Juniors. Ned Guyatt (Nunnery Wood HS, Worcester) scored 22 points ahead of county junior champion Josh Clarke (King’s School Worcester).