Paul Mottram 07 Mar 2022
The Leicestershire U1850 team defeated Greater Manchester 6.5-5.5 in a close match at Newcastle Under Lyme on Saturday 5th March. With just these two teams entered it was a straight head to head them between to decide the Midland Championship. There were great wins for Gijs Kruitbosch, Julian Tarwid, Lindsay Pyun, Chris Knight and Ben Noyvert with a notably strong showing from the top 8 boards. Full details are on the match scoresheet.
Assuming we accept our nomination for the National knockout stage of the competition we'll go straight through to the National Quarterfinal which is scheduled for Saturday 14th May. We'll need a much larger squad of players to do so so please contact Paul Mottram (email: chess@paulmottram.com, mobile 07989151175) if you would be interested in becoming part of it.
Paul Mottram 01 Jan 2022
This season, following the changes to 4 figure ratings and also the grade boundaries for county teams, Leicestershire has entered an U1850 and an U1450 team into the midlands competition.
The U1450 team, captained by Neil Roberts have already played one match (a 4-8 loss to Notts) on 27th Nov but have further matches against Warwickshire and Notts Juniors on the 22nd Jan and 26th Feb respectively.
The U1850 (captained by Paul Mottram (email: chess@paulmottram.com) have just one match against Greater Manchester which has been moved from its' original February date to Sat 5th March. County qualified players are welcome to get in contact if they would like to be considered for either team.
Paul Mottram 09 Jun 2020
Leicestershire have entered Open and U1825 teams in the new Online ECF County Team Competition that is being hosted on chess.com at 6:30pm on Saturday evenings. Teams are of 12 boards and the time control is 60 mins + 10'. The group stages start on Saturday 13th June and run through to the end of July with the knockout stages taking place in August. Any players interested in playing should contact Paul Mottram (paul@paulmottram.com).
The fixtures are as follows:
Open
13-Jun Leics V Yorks
20-Jun Devon V Leics
04-Jul Leics V Yorks
18-Jul Cheshire & N Wales V Leics
25-Jul Middx A V Leics
U1825
13-Jun Northumberland V Leics
20-Jun Leics V Lincoln
18-Jul Norfolk V Leics
25-Jul Leics V Greater Manchester
Paul Mottram 08 Mar 2020
Having won all four matches of the season so far after a narrow 6.5-5.5 victory over a 'stronger than on paper' Shropshire team at Thurmaston on 15th February (scoresheet), Leicestershire were already assured of qualification to the national stages as they approached their final match of the season against Worcestershire at Alvechurch on Sat 7th March. Unfortunately on the day a clean sweep of wins wasn't to be and always behind, the team came down with a surprising 4.5-7.5 defeat (scoresheet) against a side that had only won one other match this season.
The day had a silver lining however, as after the results of other matches in the group came in, it became clear Leicestershire have won the Midland U120 title with 8 pts (no other team can score more than 7pts). After a frustrating season last year where the team always seemed to be just on the wrong side of a number of very close matches, the Leicestershire U120 team have regained the title they won in their debut season in 2017-18.
The task now will be for them to regain their early season form in time for the National Quarterfinal in mid May.
Paul Mottram 19 Jan 2020
The U120s maintained there unbeaten record with their 3rd win of the season against Staffs on Sat 18th at the bridge club in Newcastle Under Lyme.
Leicester were always in front, with a very quick win from Peter Hickman putting us into an early lead.
The results on the top four boards were tight with honours evenly shared between the two counties, but it was on the bottom 8 boards, where Leics out-graded Staffs by on average about 8/9 pts per board, that Leics scored more heavily with 5.5/8.
Further wins were registered by Barrie Cooper, Paul Mottram, Granville Hill and Andy Carter. The result puts Leicestershire firmly at the top of the group with two more matches to play.
Match Scoresheet
Paul Mottram 19 Nov 2019
On Sat 16th November at the Wigston Liberal Club, the U120 team maintained their good start to the season by winning surprisingly comfortably against Notts 8-4 when on paper their seemed little between the two teams.
Always ahead and winning with a few matches still to finish, the 7 Leicestershire wins were recorded by Barrie Cooper, Vijay Gulab, John Vivian, Paul Mottram, Stuart Hollingworth, Martin Steel and David Gamble. With no more matches until after Christmas, the team will go into the new year jointly leading the table with 2 wins out of 2.
John Denton 16 Nov 2019
Match sheet attached
Andrew Wilson 03 Nov 2019
We were always favourites for this one, out-grading Staffs on every board and the games generally went with grading. Trevor Woods and Harry Kershaw got proceedings off to a flying start with very quick wins, leading to suggestions that Trevor had left his car engine running. Further wins followed from Granville Hill and Ben Pourmozafari, by which time we had taken a 3 point lead and never looked back.
Staffs did give us a tough time on the top 4 boards where we only gained ½ a point in total, despite valiant defending from John Pattison and Chris Knight (who drew the short straw of playing the Staffordshire captain’s son). However, elsewhere wins for Andy Carter, John Manger, Terry Adcock and Michael Busby compounded our lead.
Further wins followed from more difficult circumstances. Paul Mottram survived an early error by finding a mating attack whilst a piece down and with team victory secured, Les Corlett was able to indulge in some showboating, letting his opponent win his queen for half a dozen moves or so, before claiming it back on the way to victory (all intentional I’m sure).
All in all, a good afternoon which saw us as winners by 11 ½ -4 ½. The final scoresheet is attached.
Paul Mottram 27 Oct 2019
The U140 team won their first match against Derbyshire 9.5-6.5 on Sat 19th October at the Syston Social Club. With Derby defaulting a board and some early wins, Leicester were always comfortably in front and only a couple of late Derby wins narrowed the scoreline somewhat. Ian Farquharson, Ben Pourmozafari, John Manger, Terry Adcock, Paul Mottram and Mick Griffiths all recorded wins for the home team. Match Scoreheet
A week later (Sat 26th October) the U120 team also took on Derbyshire, this time at the Wigston Liberal Club. Again Derby were short of players (2 this time) which played a potentially significant factor in the final scoreline - a close 6.5-5.5 win for Leicester. Shaun Wilkinson, Granville Hill, Andy Carter and David Gamble all scored wins. Match Scoreheet
John Denton 12 May 2019
Leicestershire's first team played yesterday at Bedford against a strong Middlesex side in the quarter-final of the Open Counties Championship, and went down by 6 points to 10. We led briefly when Paul Colburn won the first game to finish, but unfortunately this proved to be our only win. However, ten games were drawn, many against significantly higher graded opponents, so we put up a decent showing against a team which might well have beaten us by a bigger margin. Thanks to all who took part, and I hope to see you all again in action for the first team next season.
Results sheet attached (I have used the MCCU result sheet for convenience.) Grade order may look a little strange - this is because FIDE ratings were used to determine board order, but I have not shown them on this sheet.
Leics v. Middx 11 05 19 result
John Denton 24 Mar 2019
Yesterday we posted a hugely disappointing result, when we missed our chance to secure the Midlands Championship for the first time in 19 years, losing 7 - 9 to a much weaker Worcestershire team. The only explanation seems to be that a number of players (myself included) had an 'off' day. In one game, our player blundered a piece on move 7, I passed up the chance to win the exchange thinking I'd seen something better, but instead missing a simple tactic which gave my opponent a won position... and so on.
The only consolation is that we still take one of the three qualifying places for the knockout stages of the national counties competition. Our quarter final match in the Open section takes place on Saturday 11 May, and once again I would ask all our leading players to keep the date free in their diaries. I will advise on our opponents and venue as soon as this information is available.
The match scoresheet is attached.
Thanks to everyone for taking part.
Paul Mottram 11 Mar 2019
John Oliver reports on the final U120 match of the season:
This was a match we were expecting to win, thus finishing the season on a high note,
or at least that's what i thought - fate had other ideas.
Three games finished early on, putting Staffs 2.5 - 0.5 ahead,
but then Vijay Gulab and Paul Mottram fought back, winning their games to level the score.
subsequent points equalised out over the next 6 games and at 5.5 - 5.5, I was left in the hot seat.
The time was 3.40 pm and your's truly was about to lose the exchange - not good.
i eventually succumbed, leaving Staffs victorious by the narrowest possible margin.
Other Leics wins were recorded by John Glover and David Gamble.
Despite only 1 win and 1 draw from 5 matches this season,
the U120s have been competitive, never losing by more than 7 - 5.
So that's it for this campaign, except to say thank you Paul,
from all of us in the squad, for doing a great job as team captain.
Report by John Oliver
John Denton 02 Mar 2019
Attached is the match scoresheet
John Denton 02 Mar 2019
What a great team effort to squeeze out a win by the narrowest of margins! Going into the match, I wasn't overly optimistic following a couple of late withdrawals over the last few days. However, a special mention is due to our reserves Jim Bingham, Pat Reid and Andrew Wilson, who all stepped in at short notice to ensure that we could field a full team. The grading difference on most boards was small, leading to a predictably tight match. Indeed, with over half an hour to play, the score stood at 7 - 7. The two Wigston players, Martin Burrows and Phil Horspool both had a plus in the remaining two games. Phil was exchange for a pawn up, and despite being fairly short of time, he managed to secure the win which guaranteed we would at least draw the match. Martin's game was played out to a draw - somewhat frustrating when he had appeared very close to victory, but sufficient to secure the match win for us.
This leaves us in a strong position to secure qualification for the knockout (National) stage of the competition; a win in our final match at home against bottom markers Worcestershire would secure our place.
Andrew Wilson 24 Feb 2019
Notts U140 have reached the national final in 4 of the last 5 years and outgraded us on all but one of the 16 boards, so it was no surprise that we found things tough going and ended up with a 6-10 defeat. Leics were just one point behind for most of the afternoon, thanks to early wins for Ben Pourmozafaris and Trevor Woods keeping us in contention. However, it was quite clear from the remaining boards in play that this deficit was not going to be overhauled, with only Bob Collins being able to add to our wins tally.
This is our last game in the Midlands section, and likely the last game of our inaugural season. However, we do currently stand in 3rd place out of seven which could be enough to see us through to the national finals, depending on whether Derby get anything out of their final game against Warks next week.
Scoresheet attached.
Paul Mottram 18 Feb 2019
Leics U120 finally managed to chalk up a first win of the season against Worcs at Syston after the near misses of the last two matches.
After discovering the venue had been double booked in error and relocating to an alternative smaller player area on the ground floor, the match took a more predictable course with Leics always slightly maintaining the upper hand as the grading differential between the boards suggested it should. With two games still to finish the score was 6-4 in our favour. Safety first quickly then became the priority and the two Leicestershire players involved where happy to accept the draw offers that came their way to secure the win.
George Worrow-Goodin, Granville Hill, Guy Whitehouse, Vijay Gulab and Mike Griffiths all won for the home team.
National qualification from the Midland group remains well out of Leicestershire's own control after this result, although for now remains a mathematical possibility if two matches, not involving Leics, go a certain way and Leics win their final match by a very wide margin.
Paul Mottram 10 Feb 2019
John Oliver writes: After a welcome 3 month winter break, the U120 team was back in action, at home to Notts, on the 2nd Feb.
In contrast to notts, who had 5 points from 3 matches, we only had 1 point from our previous 2
and badly needed a win, but the match did not go our way early on.
I checked the results sheet after approximately 40 mins and stared in disbelief, we were 2 - 0 down.
3 draws soon followed, including my own, after which both sides picked up a win.
Next, a further draw left the score 5 - 3 in favour of Notts.
The match then took on a dramatic turn, when Leics scored 2 comeback wins to level at 5 - 5.
Another draw followed and we were bound to win the last game.
Alas, no...............a catastrophic blunder, loss of a queen, it was all over
and so were our chances of progressing beyond the league stage this season.
Our 3 wins were recorded by Guy Whitehouse, Vijay Gulab and Mike Thornton
and the match was played in the comfort of the Syston Social Club.
Paul Mottram 22 Jan 2019
Despite a valiant effort against a very strong Lincolnshire side, Leicestershire came up just short, losing out 7.5 - 8.5 in the Minor Counties competition.
We were weakened by two withdrawals through illness in the couple of days prior to the match, but our late replacements performed well, with Andrew Wilson drawing an ending which looked dead lost for a long time, and Jim Bingham producing a nice finish to win a R + P ending. With Paul Colburn winning a possibly lost game on time, and my win against an opponent who beat me last time round, we looked to have a chance, but too many games went against us (we lost five of the top six boards). It was a very hard-fought affair, with no draws on the top eight boards! Thanks to all who played for a very spirited showing where we almost managed to defy the form book. Our next match is away to Nottinghamshire on 2 March. Report by John Denton
Mike Salisbury 08 Jan 2019
Leicestershire first team beat Warwickshire by 8½ - 7½ at home on Saturday. At around 5pm, it seemed highly unlikely that we would win the match. As can be seen from the scoresheet, it was a close affair, but the result sheet only tells part of the story; for much of the last hour, it looked like we would lose the match, since both Paul Colburn and Morgan Blake appeared to have dead lost positions and Martin Burrows had only a small plus which looked like it might end in a draw. But then Paul somehow forced a draw and Martin managed to squeeze out a win. Morgan was four pawns down (!), but his opponent only had seconds left, so Morgan offered the draw, which his opponent accepted to avoid losing on time, and we scraped home to win the match. Exciting stuff, but not good for captains of a nervous disposition! Our next match is away to Lincolnshire on 19th January. Thanks again to all for playing, and well done to the team for a very hard-fought win! Report by John Denton
Neil Roberts 14 Dec 2018
The U100s achieved a narrow 6-5 win over Notts. The teams were very evenly matched, with most boards having very little grade difference.
There were well earned victories for Harry Kershaw, Stephen Matts, Andrew Dean, Stewart Gordon, Brian Wood & Adam Kerbel, and close encounters in the other matches
With the scores tied at 5-5 and all other matches in the room completed, including U140s games, Brian Wood held his nerve in a tight end game with several people crowded round to cement the victory.
Well done to Brian and all concerned.
Our next match is at home, in Thurmaston, to Staffs on Jan 26th. Another victory would see us into the National stages again.
Andrew Wilson 09 Dec 2018
The U140 team achieved a narrow victory against a resilient Lincs side by a single point, with the match outcome being decided on the final board.
Leics were ahead throughout proceedings and just needed one point from the remaining 3 boards to seal victory, however, none of these were in advantageous positions.
Shaun Wilkinson needed to make 7 moves in under 5 minutes to make the time control, in what was quite a blocked in position. Perhaps not fully aware of his 15 minute time advantage, Shaun’s opponent offered a draw which Shaun sensibly accepted. This left Jim Bingham and Les Corlett battling it out for the necessary ½ point for victory. Jim seemed to have drawn the short straw against a very strong junior player and despite an impressive, lengthy, rear-guard action, could not hold him off forever. This transferred all of the pressure onto Les Corlett, playing against the Lincs captain, who had a space advantage in a knife edge endgame. Opinion was divided in the room as to whether the Lincs captain could force a win but Les kept the position difficult for his opponent to compute and with the risk of a possible reversal if he tried to force play, Les had his draw offer accepted to seal the tie.
The win puts Leics mid table and so we are still able to make it through to the National finals if we can win both of our remaining ties.
Neil Roberts 17 Nov 2018
Leics could tell they faced a tough match when the teams were announced, being outgraded on all boards, and by about 14 on average.
But despite this, the match got off to a good start with Rory Haywood & Neil Roberts each beating stronger opponents early in the proceedings.
About half way through the match we found ourselves 4-3 down but with reasonable chances in most of the remaining matches.
At 6-4 down the 2 remaining matches were Andy Carter’s, which was close with Andy having a slight edge, and Adam Kerbel’s.
Adam’s game came down to a rook and 4 pawns each end game, which unfortunately, despite a valiant effort, Adam lost.
Considering that he is only 12 and that this was his first match at this level, Adam played a remarkably mature game and was unlucky not to gain some reward for his efforts.
With the match lost, Andy accepted an offer of a draw from his opponent.
Overall the team should be pleased with their efforts, and can look forward to the next match, away to Notts on Dec 8th, with some confidence.
Andrew Wilson 11 Nov 2018
The U140’s secured their first win in their debut season against a resilient Staffordshire side.
Despite having a grading edge, Leics found it tough going, quickly going behind. Julian Tang put in another star performance with his third county win in a row, getting Leics back to level terms. However, the advantage quickly turned back to Staffs. Despite wins for team debutants George Worrow-Goodin, Gijs Kruitsbosch, Trevor Woods and Harry Kershaw, plus Ian Farquharson, Leics trailed throughout the first 3 ½ hours of the match. With just the top two boards to be decided, Leics were down 6 ½ -7 ½ but wins in quick succession from Jim Bingham and Andrew Wilson sealed the victory.
Paul Mottram 07 Nov 2018
Despite having given Worcs an 8 - 4 drubbing in their opening match,
Warks beefed up their higher boards for our match at Greenlands Chess Club on 3rd November.
However, we too put out a stronger side than the one which lost to Derbyshire a fortnight earlier and
the net result was a close contest throughout.
Julian Tang put Leics ahead in only 75 mins and we hung onto that 1 point lead
until at 4 -5 in our favour, Thomas Blay pulled off a vital win
from a very tight looking game, to open up a 6-4 advantage.
Unfortunately, by that stage both Peter Hickman and I were hanging on
and the match duly ended when i conceded my game at 4.45pm.
George Worrow-Goodin, Mike Griffiths and David Gamble were the other winners,
with draws from Richard Davis and Jason Lv.
Along with Notts, Warks are always a team to beat,
so this was a decent result for us.
Report by John Oliver
Andrew Wilson 28 Oct 2018
Leicestershire newly formed U140 had their first county championship outing on 27 October against Worcestershire.
An early victory for Julian Tang got matters off to a good start but the scoreboard soon moved against Leicestershire, with only John Oliver able to claim victory in all of the remaining 15 boards.
Whilst the final score of 5 ½ - 10 ½ proved to be convincing, this was not wholly reflective of play and could have been very different with a couple of reversals. Les Corlett and Milly Kotecha created superior positions before falling victim to tactics, whilst John Manger was caught out when a promising attack became overextended. The pick of a number of draws were Bob Collins and Nick Wyld who were both at the wrong end of passed pawns. Bob came back with some aggressive counter play which forced his opponent to resort to a perpetual check whereas Nick set up an impenetrable blockade for the enemy king to save the day.
The final scoresheet can be found at: http://www.mccu.org.uk/cm18-19/u140/u140_leics_worcs27oct18.htm
Paul Mottram 28 Oct 2018
After reaching the National Semi-Finals this year, it was a bit of a wake up call
to lose the new season's opening U120 fixture away to Derbyshire.
An early win went in favour of Derbyshire and quite soon we were 4 - 1 down.
Derby held on to this 3 point lead and with 2 games to still to finish, it was 6.5 - 3.5.
A late Leicester flourish, with a draw from Julian Tang and a win by captain Paul Mottram,
meant a fairly respectable final scoreline of 7 - 5 in favour of Derby.
Trevor Woods and David Gamble provided the only 2 other wins for leics.
It is well to remember that we lost the opening match of this campaign last year and
also, a number of prominent players are no longer eligible to play in the side.
Report by John Oliver
Paul Mottram 16 Sep 2018
In 2018/19 Leicestershire will have teams in the Open, U140s, U120s, U100s in the Midland Championships. Please contact the relevant Team Captains if you would like to represent your County
2018
20th Oct: U120 Derby V Leics
27th Oct: U140 Leics V Worcs
3rd Nov: U120 Warks V Leics
10th Nov: U140 Staffs V Leics
17th Nov: U100 Leics V Warks
24th Nov: U140 Derby V Leics
8th Dec: U140 Leics V Lincs
8th Dec: U100 Notts V Leics
2019
5th Jan: Open Leics V Warks
19th Jan: Open Lincs V Leics
19th Jan: U140 Warks V Leics
26th Jan: U100 Leics V Staffs
2nd Feb: U120 Notts V Leics
16th Feb: U120 Leics V Worcs
23rd Feb: U140 Leics V Notts
2nd Mar: Open Notts V Leics
9th Mar: U120 Leics V Staffs
23rd Mar: Open Leics V Worcs
Paul Mottram 10 Jul 2018
The U100 team achieved a stunning result in coming from behind to beat Lancashire 7-5 in the National U100 final at the Trident Centre, Warwick on Saturday 7th July.
Andrew Wilson, the captain writes:
'The manner of victory made it extra special having been 4-0 down after an hour or so.
Lancashire were offering us draws thereafter, which would perhaps usually have been taken but everyone was mindful of the match situation and dug in and played for the win. We then went on to win 7 of the remaining 8 boards to come out 7-5 victors.
With 3 boards to play we were 4-5 down with John Oliver, Anika Khare and Sean Mcdonald still in action. Sean and Anika's positions looked won although both required careful and steady conversion of pawn majorities, whilst John’s position appeared quite equal on material and positionally.
At this stage there was the prospect of it going to board count, which we would have won on provided Anika won her game plus one of either John or Sean. John then won with a pawn breakthrough meaning it was all down to Anika's game. By this time she had linked passed pawns and it was only a matter of time until her opponent conceded.
Sean played on under pressure unaware of the match result. Strictly speaking his opponent should have been defaulted for asking a colleague the match score and the arbiter would have done this had Sean insisted. However he didn't want to win that way and to top off the day Sean won through to end up at 7-5.
Trophy retained!'
Paul Mottram 11 Jun 2018
The U120 team suffered a narrow 5.5-6.5 defeat at the hands of Norfolk in the National U120 Semifinal at Wisbech on Sunday 10th June.
In truth it never really looked like being a Leicestershire win as the team was always a little behind and and with 2 matches remaining Norfolk were poised to win with the match score on 6-4. However all was not quite lost as Vijay Gulab then pulled off a win in the penultimate match leaving Les Corlett the unenviable task of having to pull off a win from very much a drawn looking endgame with equal pawns and opposite colour bishops on the board. A win would have won Leicestershire the match as the board count situation was in our favour, however Les's opponent remained unflustered and no progress could be made to force a win.
Although it would have been a fairy tale ending for the U120 team, in it's debut season, to join their U100 brethren in the National Final, it's still been an excellently consistent year for the team. There's a Midland title in the bag and 5 wins out of 8 matches in total at an average of 7pts (out of 12) a match is not to be sniffed at. The three losses have always been by small margins (2 by a single point and the worst result was a 2 point defeat to Notts).
Les Corlett (6.5/8) and Andrew Wilson (4.5/5), both U100 stalwarts as well, have been unbeaten this season and George Worrow-Goodin has also excelled with 6pts from 8 matches.
Paul Mottram 11 Jun 2018
The U100 team have advanced to the National Final for the 2nd year in succession and will have a chance to retain their title if they beat Lancashire on the 7th July. Surprisingly Surrey, were unable to raise a team for the semifinal and so defaulted the entire match to Leicestershire.
Paul Mottram 20 May 2018
John Oliver reports: Having beaten Notts 7.5 - 4.5, on the way to the Midlands title, it was a bit disappointing to meet up with them again in the National 1/4 Final, but at least it meant a home venue at Thurmaston and on a warm, sunny afternoon, forsaking the royal wedding, we were fairly confident of beating Notts again. This time however, it turned out to be a very close match.
After an early drawn game, Leics quickly lost a game to put Notts ahead and it was a struggle thereafter, until Leics finally managed to pull level at 5 all, after which it was long wait until it went 6 - 5 in our favour. Yet again, it left Andrew Wilson in at the death and his drawn game clinched the match decisively at 6.5 - 5.5, although had he lost, we would still have gone through on board count. Success breeds success for the U100 team! Wins came courtesy of Les Corlett, Mick Adams, Andy Carter, Sean McDonald and Brian Wood
Paul Mottram 14 May 2018
The U120 team had a convincing 8.5-3.5 win against Surrey in the National County Team Quarterfinal at a neutral venue at Brogborough on Saturday 12th May.
Surrey lost their top board before the match even started as it came to light that the player concerned was ungraded and without an ECF approved estimated grade. As this all happened the previous evening they proved unable to find a replacement despite their indication that they thought they had got one, which frustratingly resulted in a wasted journey for John Oliver. As for the match, Leicestershire quickly built up a 2 point lead which was extended markedly as a flurry wins came from some of the later matches to finish. Michael Busby, Nick Wyld, Andrew Wilson, George Worrow-Goodin, Granville Hill, Vijay Gulab and Mike Griffiths all chalked up victories. Leicestershire's Semifinal opponents in early June will be Norfolk.
John Oliver 26 Mar 2018
Leicestershire U120's are the Midland Counties Champions, after beating Derbyshire on Saturday 24th March.
A tough match was anticipated and that's exactly how it turned out. Derbyshire notched up the first win, which was soon matched by a Leicestershire win and that's how it continued, neck and neck all the way, until the score reached 5 - 5. Then, with 2 games left to finish, Andrew Wilson, once again, produced another fine win, after which captain Paul Mottram's opponent, a pawn down, and seemingly oblivious to the delicate match position agreed a draw. Final score 6½ - 5½ to Leicestershire and the win was enough to secure the Midlands title. Lincolnshire could have finished level with us on 8pts, had they beaten Nottinghamshire, but in a bizarre twist of fate, didn't bring any boards to their match, which was subsequently declared void.
Over the six U120 matches, 2 of our players did exceptionally well, Les Corlett with 5 wins and 1 draw and George Worrow-Goodin (last year's Junior Team Player of the Year) with 4 wins and 2 draws.
Currently, Leics hold 3 titles, 16/17 U100 national, 17/18 U100 Midlands and now 17/18 U120 Midlands, with both teams going forward to the 17/18 national stages.
Paul Mottram 16 Mar 2018
After the euphoria of 3 consecutive wins, our nascent U120 team went down 7 - 5 away to Nottinghamshire on Saturday 10th March. Notts quickly established a 3 - 1 lead and we were never able to bridge the gap. We did however notch up 3 wins and a draw on the top 6 boards, but unfortunately, the bottom 6 could only manage 3 draws. Losing this match has created an intriguing situation, insofar as there are now 4 teams leading on 6 points, with the remaining 3 teams on 4 points. This means there is still everything to play for in the final matches on the 24th. For more details, check out the table on the MCCU website. The scoresheet can be found below. Report by John Oliver
Paul Mottram 13 Feb 2018
The Leicestershire U120 team won their match against Warwickshire 7-5 on Saturday 10th at the junior training venue at Westleigh.
In between this match and our previous one on 13th January, Warkwickshire lost 2 matches, but still topped the table with 6 points. It was therefore going to be an important match for both sides, with the outcome unpredictable. An early win went Warkwickshire's way, after which the scores levelled out at 1½ each. With 6 games completed, just 1 point separated the two sides and with 1 game remaining, it was 6 - 5 to Leicestershire. Then, what looked like a comfortable draw for Andrew Wilson on board 4, became a frantic time scramble, resulting in a controversial finish, but critically a won game for us. Warwickshire appealed and tried to claim the game on the basis of 'interference', when acting Leicestershire captain Granville Hill supported our player, who had claimed a 3 fold repetition of the position. The MCCU Controller later ruled that it was perfectly legitimate for the Captain to be involved in such a matter and the result stood. This latest win has put Leicestershire in a very good position, with 2 matches left to play. The scoresheet can be found below. _Report by Paul Mottram and John Oliver._
John Denton 20 Jan 2018
Leicestershire's county team lost by 8½ - 7½ away to Worcestershire on Saturday.
We were looking set for a narrow victory in a very close match where Leicestershire lead by 1 point with boards 6 and 16 to finish. On board 6, Worcestershire debutant Zbigniew Koncki (Zibby), playing Sean Sheahan, had a crazy time scramble with 20+ moves to make with only a few minutes left. He defended well and got the moves in with only a few seconds to spare. He was under pressure for the most part in a game where Sean Sheahan may have missed winning chances? Zibby then found a way to break through with an unstoppable attack on f2 forcing his opponent's King into the open where it succumbed to a Queen and Rook attack. So it was all square with only board 16 to finish. Worcestershire's Ray Collett who was a last minute substitute, was a pawn up in a tight endgame when John Mitchell's time ran out, resulting in a win for Worcestershire by the narrowest margin.
Paul Mottram 19 Jan 2018
Leicestershire's Under 120 team had a very convincing 9½ - 2½ win against Staffordshire on Saturday 13th January playing away at Newcastle Under Lyme.
With a small 108 to 106 average grade advantage, in theory it should have been much closer, but always ahead we swept the top 3 boards and also the bottom 5. Having now played 3 matches out of 6, Leicestershire is competitively placed in 2nd in the table (out of 7) but now face the top placed team Warwickshire, who are unbeaten thus far, in the next match on the 10th February.
John Oliver 08 Jan 2018
Leicestershire's Under 100 are the Midlands county champions, beating Warwickshire by 6½ - 5½ on Saturday.
Prior to the final group match, away to Warwickshire on Saturday 6th January, captain Neil Roberts expected his team to be outgraded and that proved to be the case on most of the bottom boards. It was an ominous sign, especially after Warwickshire took an early 2 - 0 lead, but Leicestershire fought back, with Rory Haywood scoring a crucial win on board 8. After that, it was Leicestershire winning on higher boards and Warwickshire on the lower boards. Eventually, Leicestershire were ahead 5½ - 4½, but then it became 5½ - 5½, leaving the fate of the match to be decided on board 4. Andrew Wilson was offered a draw, which he wisely turned down, before going on to outplay his opponent in a king and pawn endgame, thereby clinching not only the match, but also the Midlands title. A great day for Leicestershire chess. The final score was a win by 6½ - 5½.