Worcestershire Chess Association

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
Thu 12 Nov. Worcestershire Wolfpack Juniors play in round 6 of the 4NCL team tournament. Contact Simon Berry if you would like to play.
Sun 15 Nov. Birmingham Rapidplay at Quinborne Community Centre, Ridgacre Road, Quinton, Birmingham. Open, Major (u1800), Intermediate (u1500), Minor (u1200) turnaments. All start at 10:30am, have seven rounds, and time control 15+10.
sat 12 Dec. The county first team play Leicestershire in the Midlands Team Championship at Coleshill. Contact Harry if you woul like to play.
Sat & Sun 23-24 Jan 2027 at Holiday Inn Peterborough. Worcestershire Windmills play in 4NCL Division 4. Contact Ben Attwell if you would like to play.

Worcester first team lose to Lincolnshire

7 Nov 2026. Captain Harry Evans (Redditch) writes: "we gave a great account of ourselves as a county. After lots of interesting games we fell just short, losing the match 7-9, with Joe Friar, John Edge, Ben Attwell and Matt Gillings winning their games".

County player wins at Guernsey International Chess Festival

7 Nov 2026. Former Worcestershire Champion WGM Kata Toma took first place in the Open tournament with 6 points from 7 games half a point clear of Polle Van Arendonk (NED).

Junior online team move up

5 Nov 2026. In the 4NCL junior Online Division 3, Worcestershire Wolfpack moved into sixth position with chances for promotion after a win aginst Chess Challengers B. Thomas Hughes won both his games. See details.

Worcestershire online teams defeated

3 Nov 2026. All four Wolfpack teams were defeated in round 5 of the 4NCL competition. No Wolfpack player was able to win and team A lost to Wells Hartbreakers 1, team B lost to Asfield Anonymous B, team C lost to Oxford & Witney 2 and team D lost to Malpas and Friends X. See details.

Worcestershire are Midland u1850 team champions

31 Oct 2026. Worcestershire and Lincolnshire played at East Groscote, Leics in the MCCU 16-board match. It had been hoped that Nottinghamshire and Herefordshire would be able to play in this tournament this season, but in the end they were unable to raise sufficient players. Worcestershire led as the first games were decided, but Lincolnshire evened the score and the match result depended on games on boards 1 and 3. Worcestershire lost on board 1, but had an unexpected win on board 3 where Ray Collett’s opponnent refused a draw. This left the match score 8-8 and Worcestershire had a slightly lower board count to take the title. This is the first year that Worcestershire have competed for the u1850 team title and this is very much due to captain Alex Nicholls who created a winning team from scratch. See details.

Evesham players at Coventry Rapidplay

18 Oct 2026. Five Evesham players and augmented by a Pebworth player travelled to the Coventry Rapidplay held at Warwick University. Graham Kemp was the most successful with 4 points from his seven games in the Minor (u1500) tournament. Altogether Evesham players netted 14 points.

Colin FIDE title confirmed

13 Oct 2026. The World Chess Federation has confirmed the title of National Insructor for Colin Vernon (Warndon) who completed his online course at the end of August.

Windmills at Bedford

10 Oct 2026. In the first weekend at Bedford, Ben Attwell’s county 4NCL team scored a win against AlphaChess Plunderers B in round 1 and drew against Goodnights in round 2. Skipper Ben attwell and Matt Gillings won both their games. See match cards.

First tournment 960 game

Protagonists shake hands at the start of the first game in the association’s new 960 individual competition at Worcester City Chess Club. Worcester president does not look impressed! Players started with position #687 (QRKNNRBB)

First 960 chess tournament game in Worcestershire

9 Oct 2026, Paul Serafini reports . Also known as Fischer Random Chess, Chess960 mixes up the starting positions of the pieces on the back rank, creating 960 possible starting arrangements. It takes players away from familiar opening theory and puts the emphasis on creativity, calculation and thinking for yourself right from the first move! See tournament cross-table.

2026 Woodcock Prize for the most enterprising game

6 Oct 2026. Joe Friar (Kidderminster) won the prize for his speculative queen sacrifice on move 8 that won his game against Matt Gillings in a Worcestershire Chanpionship League game last season. "White played a bold and enterprising queen sacrifice ... quickly departing from theory. This was followed by impressive coordination of minor pieces in the rest of the game to turn the speculative compensation into a victory. Under sustained pressure, Black resisted well and did not make any major mistakes until move 23. White then showed vision and tactical acumen to take full advantage."Click here to play through the game yourself. Two other games were highly commended: Keith Baxter-Joseph Friar and RJE McNally-Peter Kitson. Worcestershire Chess Association is most grateful to the panel of judges: John Edge (Halesowen), John Peters (Worcester), Cory Hazlehurst (Longbridge) and Carl Hibbard (Worcs).

4NCL Wolfpack online team results

6 Oct 2026. Worcestershire Wolfpack A beat Guildford 1 and are second in their group in Dvision 1. The B team drew with Streatham & Brxiton B in Division 2. Worcestershire Wolfpack C beat English Deaf Chess Association in Division 3 and the D team lost to West Wickham. Dan Jones (Stourbridge) won his debut game for the C team. See full results with links to games.

Kidderminster CC honours leading players

2 Oct 2026, Lorraine Henry reports. Joe Friar was the outstanding player at Kidderminster last season. He won seven trophies. Jon Francis won the club’s Minor Championship and Brandon Wilkes received the Clive Billinge Trophy for his commitment to the club. President John Wrench described the past year as a great chess season with many new players. He pointed to the the success of the club’s team in Rapidplay league 2 where 16-year old Cameron Henry led them to their second successive league title.

Kidderminster's Leading player surrounded by trophies