Leicestershire & Rutland Chess Association is the body recognised by the English Chess Federation as being responsible for chess in the city of Leicester and the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The Association is affiliated to the Midland Counties Chess Union.
Ray Burgess writes:
Roland Graf passed away peacefully on Tuesday March 25th 2025.
Roland was a unique character in Leicester Chess responsible for running or being part of several clubs in the League. They include Highcross, Foxhunters, Grasshoppers, Leicester Academicals and I think Leicester University.
I recall Roland playing in the first H.E Atkins tournament in the open section in1972 and I was able to watch one of his games. He opened with the Orang Utan (1b4) which proved to be entertaining viewing.
Looking at the ‘Chess’ magazine from October 1972 they had a grading list and Roland’s rating is given as 192 BCF.
None of the people who attended the Leicestershire League AGM’s during the 1970’s and 1980’s could forget Roland coming up with his own radical and ‘innovative’ proposals!
From our club records he first played against Thurnby1 for Foxhunters1 on 21-11-1978, where he beat Colin Horsley on board 4. At this point his grade had dropped down to 160 BCF.
After being out of Leicester Chess for quite a while, Alan Edwards persuaded him to come and play for us. His first game being in the 2008/2009 season was against Loughborough1 and his opponent was Otto Hardy. So, it was commendable that he was able to win this encounter. Roland’s last League game for us was against Braunstone1 on 24-4-2024 which resulted in a loss against D Wilkinson.
Although Roland was looking forward to playing for Thurnby this season, ill health and mobility problems meant he was unable to do so. And he was badly missed by all at the club.
Leicestershire have lost another long serving player, with the death of Roland Graf, at the age of 82. Roland was involved in chess in Leicestershire since his schooldays, as a pupil at the Wyggeston Boys Grammar school. He and a number of his schoolmates joined the Leicester Club and were part of a successful young team, winning the division 1 title as Leicester “B” in 1963 – just after Roland himself had gone off to Cambridge University. On his return to Leicester he founded the Highcross club, along with John Robinson, Dennis and Mike Cowley and Mick Stokes. Many people will not remember Roland as the organiser he was, but he went on to establish the Foxhunters Club in 1972, then merged with the Highfields Club in 1980 to form the Grasshoppers. He then attended Leicester University as a PhD student and was the organiser of the club for a number of years, giving the club the continuity and the out of term contact a university team needs. Under the title of the Leicester Academicals (not all of the players attended the University) the club won division 1 in 1985/6 and were runners up the following year. The University formed its own team, consisting wholly of students in 1989 and Roland transferred the club to the (then) Polytechnic, before moving back to the Highfields Community Centre where the club became Kingfishers. During that period, in 1995,
Roland also won the County Individual Championship. Shortly afterwards, he gave up league chess until, in 2008, he was tempted to make a comeback, at the age of 65, joining Thurnby. He played regularly for Thurnby right up until last season , maintaining his rating around 1900 – quite an achievement for a man of his age and declining health. Personally, I had many interesting games against Roland and found him tricky because he always played quickly. Away from the chess board he was quite an eccentric character, with a similarly eccentric sense of humour and we have lost someone who was, I think, unique!
Andy Morley
Last night (26 March), Loughborough ran a quickplay tournament for its members. Our thanks go to Jim Miller for running it. Keir Hayden won the competition. Full article
Ray Burgess writes:
It is with sadness that I have just learned that Mick Tate passed away at the end of November 2023 at the age of 82.
My first memory of him was that he played for the works team, Samuel Pegg along with Barry Walker who were the mainstays of that side. And according to our club records the first game he played against Thurnby was for Humberstone 1 on 12-11-74 against Greg Hutchinson. Full article
The Staffordshire Chess Congress is returning in August. The Congress will be held at King’s Hall, Kingsway, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 9SB on Saturday 16th and Thursday 17th of August 2025. This is a prestigious venue, and its use has been generously donated by the City of Stoke-on-Trent as part of the City’s centenary celebrations.
Entry forms and further information may be found on the congress website:
Congress Website
Many congratulations (and apologies for the delay in posting) go to Ted Ronald, who, within a very strong field, won the U1850 section outright at the International Isle of Wight tournament. Whilst your author doesn't understand the tie-break rules, the fact is that Ted finished number 1 and earned a well deserved victory.
Well done Ted!
Market Harborough’s Ron Cooper, Syston’s Aron English and Anstey’s Zara Mehta finished joint first in the Coventry Congress minor section (u1500). All but one of Cooper’s opponents were from LRCA – he defeated Melton’s Peter North and Latimer’s Granville Hill either side of a draw with Aron English. Cooper and Mehta split the point in a tense final round, giving them both 4/5. The impressive Mehta had beaten the top seed in round one before defeating two other opponents rated more than 100 points higher. Aron English also made it 4/5 with a win v LRCA junior Aadharshini Amudhavel in the final round to take a slice of the first-place spoils.
Entries are now invited for the 2025 County Individual tournaments which will be held at the Wigston Chess club and the Anstey Chess club during the summer. The Tournament controller is Andy Morley, with Ben Vaughan managing the events being held at Anstey
The deadline for entries is April 25th See the County Championships section for more details Full article
Huge kudos to Shabir Okhai who finished joint first, alongside FIDE Master Tim Kett, at the Shropshire Congress earlier this month.
The Syston secretary took a bye in round 1, drew his 2nd game, but then won three on the spin to secure his first Open classical, congress title. The final game was a win with black v top seed Tomasz Sygnowski. You may find the game here https://chess-results.com/PartieSuche.aspx?art=36&id=5658910.
Loughborough's Kajus Mikalajunas clinched first place in the Open Section of the Derbyshire Chess Congress, finishing with an impressive score of 4.5/5. The tournament was held on 23rd and 24th November at Trent College in Long Eaton.