Club nights Thursday evenings

April results for city teams

18 Apr 2024. Worcester Knights lost heavily at home to Longbridge in the Rapidplay League. Only Rob Sutton was able to finish the night without being in deficit. See score card.
17 Apr 2024. Worcester Rooks won their away Challengers fixture against Redditch. Phil Austin, Tony Shaw and Aiden Griffiths won their games. See score card.
11 Apr 2024. Kidderminster brought an under-strength team to Worcester for the Championship fixture. Worcester won 4½-½. This was the City team’s first win since October when the team beat Kiddrminster away. Stephen Mellor, Ed Osbourn and Joe Rastall won their games. See score card.
4 Apr 2024. Three of the games in this Challengers League home fixture were drawn and Joe Rastall was the only player to win. That win secured the match points. See score card.

Club Championship and Rapidplay finals

28 Mar 2024. A further two rapidplay games were played and the finalists have been named. Championship - a Qualifier match between Scott Oxtoby and Aiden Griffiths scheduled for 9 May the winner of which plays Joe Rastall for the club championship on 23 May. Rapidplay Championship - Ed Higgs plays Rob Sutton in the first semi-final and the second semi-final will be played on 16 May between Joe Rastall and Chris Lee.. The winners will play off for the Rapidplay Championship on the same night.

Knights draw penultimate fixture of their season

27 Mar 2024. The penultimate fixure with Kidderminster away was drawn with identical results in both legs. Rob Sutton and Dorin Luca won both games. See score card.

Bishops win final match of their campaign

21 Mar 2024. Worcester Bishops beat soon-to-be-crowned District League champions Kidderminster in their last match of the season. Chris Lee played a queen sacrifice in the late middlegame to get a knight ending where his pawns could be promoted. See score card.

Worcester players help county teams in online 4NCL matches

19 Mar 2024. In round 5, Peter Kitson and Ed Higgs won their games for Worcester Wolfpack A; Ray Collett won for Worcestershire Wolfpack B; and Dorin Luc and Phil Austin won in the Cadets team. See details with links to games.
5 Mar 2024. In round 4, Peter Kitson and Ed Higgs won their games for Worcestershire Wolfpack A; Dorin Luca won his game for Worcestershire Wolfpack B. See details with links to games.

Worcester player beats GM 13 Mar 2024. Three club members travelled to Hereford to take on GM Keith Arkell. Scott proved a winner defeating the former English Champion in 27 moves. Aiden and Joe lost their games.Keith is third from left in the picture. Worcester book a place in the Wheatley Cup final 11 Mar 2024. Chris Lee's team journeyed to Wythall to play Shirley & Wythall in a semi-final in this team handicap competition. Chris was the only Worcester player to win. With the over-the-board score being 2-2, Worcester with the lower rated players go forward to the final against Redditch or Kidderminster. See score card.

Latest league results

8 Mar 2024. Worcester City lost their away fixture at Malvern in the Championship League. Only Phil Austin and Joe Rastall escaped with draws. See score sheet.
7 Mar 2024. Worcester Bishops beat Longbridge in the District League. Captain Aiden Griffiths was the only player to win. See score card.
29 Feb 2024. Worcester Rooks drew with Malvern in the home match in the Challengers League. See score sheet.
28 Feb 2024. Worcester City travelled to play Redditch away for their penultimate match of the season and won 3-2. Boards 1 to 4 drew and captain Rob Sutton was the only player to achieve a win. Board 2 saw a complex game with both players short of time finishing as a draw, both players having a rook and two pawns on the same side of the board. See score sheet.
22 Feb 2024. Worcester Knights drew the first leg of their home fixture against Stourbridge, but were outplayed in the second leg. Scott Oxtoby won both his games. See score sheet.

Worcester win online team battle against Ukmergé

21 Feb 2024. Worcester City is twinned with Ukmerge in Lithuania and both cities have well established chess clubs. The play online matches as part of the Twinning programme. The chess club at Ukmerge is called Juodasis Rikis – The Black Bishop.  In the first online match last summer, Ukmerge defeated Worcester 42-28. The two teams met again and Worcester emerged victorious winning by 54 points to Ukmerge’s 42. The format of both matches was a team battle and the playing session was one hour. Unlike an ordinary chess match where players have one game only, in a team battle each player can have as many games as possible within the hour the ‘arena’ is open.  Pairing of players was performed online by the chess server. The time control was 7+3. The fast play leads to plenty of upsets. Fifty eight games were played and the ferocity of play resulted in only two drawn games.  Worcester’s highest scoring player was club president Rob Sutton 12 points followed by Joe Rastall on 10 and new player Dorin Luca with 8 points. You can play through an example of Rob’s winning ways by visiting https://lichess.org/Vt8F0CyZ a miniature that ends in a pretty mate. Full results and a link to the team battle on lichess.

City team draw against Longbridge in the championship League

15 Feb 2024. Worcester City scored its second match point with a draw in the away fixture against Longbridge. Joe Rastall was the only Worcester player to win. See score sheet.

President wins blitz championship

1 Feb 2024. Well over a hundred games were played in the club’s annual blitz tournament. There were two preliminary 7-round all-play-all tournaments to determine the semi-finalists. Group A was won by Stephen Mellor with 7 points well clear of new member Dorin Luca on 5½ points and Ray Collett on 5 points. Rob Sutton won the group B tournament with 6½ points. Ed Osbourn was second on 6 points and Scott Oxtoby third on 5 points. In the semi-finals Mellor beat Osbourn and Sutton beat Luca. The first game of the final ended in a draw, but in the second, Sutton prevailed to become the 2024 Blitz champion. Best performing of new players was Alfie Brazier who scored 1½ points in group B.

img

Read older news ...