News 2018-19

ECF County Championship Centenary Finals Day

This year's County Championship held its 100th event on Saturday, 13th July at Kettering Conference Centre.

All seven matches being played fitted comfortably into a single playing room  on the first floor. There would have been space for Minor competition had that been played too. There was a separate analysis room and refreshments (drinks, sanwiches and snacks) were available from a kiosk in the foyer.  

Proceedings began with an introduction by Adrian Elwin, Director of Home Chess, and Sean Hewitt, Chief Arbiter.

Play began following the one minute silence to remember Marcus Mission (Cambridgeshire) and Bryan Fewell (Hertfordshire), two well known players who had past away earlier this year. In his time as BCF Home Director Bryan did much to support and enhance the County Championships, including the creation of the separate grade limited sections in 1992.  

The ECF website hosted Live Boards (Open section), which were managed by Matt Carr. Mark Murrell also posted a Blog commenting on the matches.

The match results given below contain hyperlinks to the match cards maintained on the ECF League Management Results website.

• Open: Yorkshire 11 v 5 Surrey
  
• Minor Countes: Lincolnshire 16 - 0 Devon
  
• u180: Essex 8½ - 7½ Lancashire
  
• u160: Middlesex 8½ - 7½ Suffolk
• u140: Yorkshire 9½ - 6½ Worcestershire
  
• u120: Yorkshire 4 - 8 Essex
  
• u100: Staffordshire 7 - 5 Nottinghamshire
  

Congratulations to the four SCCU teams that made the Final:

• Surrey Open - Runners up
• Essex u180 - Winners
• Middlesex u160 - Winners
• Essex u120 - Winners

Trophies were awarded by Adrian Elwin, ECF Director of Home Chess. All players that took part on the day received individual trophies.

SCCU / London Club Championships

The inaugural SCCU/London Club Championships took place on Saturday, 29 June 2019 at St Lukes Church, Kidderpore Avenue, London NW3 7SU.

• Major (180 ECF) - 7 teams entered
• Intermediate (150 ECF) - 9 teams entered
• Minor (120 ECF) - 10 teams entered

Although it had been intended to run all sections as Swiss tournaments, on the day some adjustments were made to the pairing of Major and Intermediate.

• In the Major a seventh round was squeezed in so that it ran as an all-play-all.
• In the Intermediate teams were grouped together in one of three triangular matches (played over two rounds with jamboree pairings) to avoid giving a bye to any team in the conventional Swiss. An unfortunate weakness of the hybrid pairing was that the two highest scoring teams (Hatch End and Pimlico) never got to play each other. The two teams finished equal on match points (11/12) with Hatch End prevailing on tiebreak by a single game point.
  

The winning teams (left to right) are:

• Major (180 ECF) - Muswell Hill
  
• Intermediate (150 ECF) - Hatch End
• Minor (120 ECF) - DHSS 2

Clicking on names of the winning teams will link to the respective tournament results.

SCCU County Championships

With all matches, apart from u120 Hertfordshire v Kent (to be played Saturday 23rd March), the winners of each division can now be announced.

The provisional nominations, subject to completion of the u120 division, and confirmation of acceptance by county secretaries are given below; these nominations need to be confirmed by the SCCU to the ECF National Controller by Sunday 24th March.

 Note:  Teams that have accepted ECF nomination are shown in BOLD.

SCCU Junior Jamboree 2019

• Under 18 Major
• Under 18 Minor (restricted to ECF grade u130)
• Under 14 Major
• Under 14 Minor (restricted to ECF grade u110)

FM Steve Berry - An Appreciation

posted: 19th January 2019

At today's county championship encounter between Surrey and Essex Open teams, the Surrey match captain reports:

"The Match started with fine words said by Russell (Granat) about our recently deceased friend, FM Steve Berry. The much appreciated Words were followed by a well observed minute of silence. Steve will be much missed by all who knew him."

Surrey Congress, Incorporating SCCU Individual Championship

updated: 2nd December 2018

Surrey Congress took place at Kingston University on Friday 26th to Sunday 28th October.

The Surrey Prizes were sponsored by Kingston Chess Club.

Frank Winter FIDE OPEN (42 players)

1st= IM Richard Bates, FM Adam Taylor, Ben Ogunshola (4/5)

Grading prize (U1980): Nasir Rizvi (3.5/5)

Surrey Prize: Jovica Radovanovic (3.5/5)

SCCU Individual Championship

SCCU Champion (joint): IM Richard Bates, FM Adam Taylor, Ben Ogunshola

Congratulations to all three winners, each of whom has qualified for the British Championships to be held at the International Centre in Torquay, 26th July to the 4th August 2019. This is Richard's record-breaking fourth consecutive SCCU title!

Eric Weimann FIDE Major (35 players)

1st= Nick Grey, Oliver Finnegan (4.5/5); 3rd Alexandros Pappas (4/5)

Grading Prize (U1600): Boris Stoyanov (3/5)

Surrey Prize: Graham Alcock (3.5/5)

Bill Waterton Minor (19 players)

1st Soham Kumar (4.5/5); 2nd James McKenna (4/5); Tim Cutter (3.5/5)

Grading Prize (U100): Diego Cordova (3/5)

Surrey Prize: Tom Usharovsky (3/5)

Full Results

These are available on chess-results.com through the following links:

• Frank Winter FIDE OPEN
• Eric Weimann FIDE Major
• Bill Waterton Minor
  

ECF County Team Championship

updated: 31st October 2018

This is the 100th contest for the title of National County Champions, providing good cause for celebration.

Please, note the following dates in your diary:

Nominations by the Unions need to be submitted to the National Controller by 24th March so that the draw can be published on or before 1st April.