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.
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.
Anstey's Ted Ronald won the Intermediate section outright with a 100% record, scoring an impressive 5 wins out of 5, beating some strong opposition.
Special mention to the runner-up too, Wigston's Phil Watkinson with 4.5 points out of 5 in what was clearly a good section for Leicestershire!
Congratulations to both players.
Market Harborough’s David Holmes is outright winner of Birmingham Rapid Play Minor. Five wins, two draws = 6/7 in a section of 40. Many gathered around the top two boards to watch the dramatic ending in round 7. After David won his final game, Yechu Chen on board 2 (Oxfordshire Juniors) needed a win to finish joint first …his opponent was 1 second from flagging…but somehow held on for a draw. Exciting stuff.