2025-6 season, older news
Worcester Knights draw with runaway leaders in Rapidplay League 1
29 Jan 2026. Neither club was able to field its highest ranking players for this fixture and the result was a draw in both legs of the fixture. Boards 1 and 2 exchanged wins and Scott Oxtoby won both his games. See match cards.
Bishops do battle while City lose to Malvern
15 Jan 2026. John Peters was the only member of the City team to win in the match against Malvern. Both his game and Scott Oxtoby’s were hard fought and ended in rook and minor piece endings. See match card. In the local Derby White Bishops versus Black Bishops, the higher rated White Bishops won 3-1. Simon Berry was the first to finish pocketing a win for the Black Bishops, but scores were equalised when David Cleak won a hard fought Bishop and pawn ending. Arnold Kirkland took the white team into the lead when he ground out a win in a minor piece ending with and extra pawn. The final game to finish looked good for the white team, but in a time scramble the skipper of the black team won back a piece, but eventually lost. See match card.
City players give county big win against Derbyshire
10 Jan 2026. Skipper of Worcestershire u1650 team, Aiden Griffiths, used a new venue for Worcestershire county chess used by new club Kinver founded by county secreary Paul Sharratt meets. Seven Worcester players were in the team. Seamus Flynn, Alex Nicholls, Chris Lee, David Cleak, and Paul Serafini won their games to make Worcestershire victors over Derbyshire by 7½-2½.
Snow postpones first match of 2026
8 Jan 2026. A heavy flurry of snow just before the club was due to open for the first night of 2026 caused many players to stay at home. The Club did open, but the scheduled home match in the District League was postponed.
Worcester beat Heimbach-Weis/Neuwied in online team battle
28 Dec 2025. After the visit of Johannes Utsch, German club player in December, he Ray Collet arranged an informal team battle on lichess. The time control was 7 minutes plus an increment of 3 seconds from move 1. Worcester players came out on top by 32 points to 30. Top scorer for the Worcester team was Dorin Luca (dorinix) with 8 points and top scorer for the German team was IM Yuri Boidman (ChainsOfFantasia) with 7 points. Altogether there were 35 games played in the battle. To play through the games visit lichess.org.
Four-player chess most popular at Christmas variants night18 Dec 2025. President Rob Sutton led the club’s Christmas variants night and secretary Ray Collett looked after the catering. The most popular variant was four-player chess. Latest League results 11 Dec 2025. A poor night for the club’s teams. In the Challengers League, the Rooks lost 1 - 3 to Redditch. Captain Scott Oxtoby and Scott Maclean came away with draws. See match card. Worcester Pawns in the Rapidplay League 2. Worcester lost the first leg 1-3 and the second 0-4. Only Simon Berry was able to win a game. See details. |
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Second round of club Championship
27 Nov 2025. Scott Oxtoby, Ray Collett, Ed Osbourn, Joe Rastall, John Peters, Viktor Gorbunov, and Bilal Butt booked their places in round three of this knock-out tournament. George Sharpe and new member James Nicholl have to replay because they drew, while a further 10 players have still to play their round 2 games.
League results
26 Nov 2025. City team travelled to Kidderminster and drew their match in the Championship League. New member Alaric Stephen and captain Rob Sutton won their games. See match card.
21 Nov 2025. City beat Malvern 3-2 in an away match. Dorin Luca, and Rob Sutton won their games. With a win under their belt, the team have lifted themselves from the bottom of the table and should go into their match next Wednesday feeling more confident. See details.
20 Nov 2025. Worcester’s Bishops Team played against each other and drew. Seamus Flynn, George Sharpe, Aiden Griffiths and Colin Vernon won their games. See details.
13 Nov 2025. The City team failed to open their account in the Championship League losing to a strong Longbridge B team 2-3. Phil Ausin was the only City player to win.. See details.
11 Nov 2025. Scott Oxtoby’s team won their away fixture in the Challengers League 3-1. Dorin Luca on board 1 and new member Alaric Stephen on board 4 won their games. See details.
White Bishops lose to Redditch6 Nov 2025. If players’s ratings are to be believed, this should have been a close match in the Worcester & District League. Things started to go badly for Worcester White Bishops when Toni Reed got a quick win on board 1. In the end Redditch players went home with a 4-0 victory to their credit. See full details. Club president wins September Fun Blitz23 Oct 2025. So many players took part in the opening September Fun Blitz on 4 September, that the event had to be extended into October to complete the finalists’ play-offs. In the semi-finals Rob Sutton beat Joe Rastall and Scott Maclean beat Scott Oxtoby. The tournament concluded with the final on 23 October when Rob Sutton opened with a King’s Gambit. Scott accepted the gambit pawn and players castled on opposite sides. Rob lured Scott’s queen up the board and trapped her to force Scott’s resignation. See full results. |
 President wins Sep Fun Blitz |
Latest League results
23 Oct 2025. Worcester Rooks drew with Malvern. New member John Peters won his game as did Stephen Mellor. See details.
16 Oct 2025. Another night with two fixtures. In the home Worcester & District League fixture, the Black Bishops drew with Longbridge. New member George Sharpe and Viktor Gorbunov won their games. See details. Worcester Knights had the away fixture at Redditch in the Rapidplay League 1. The Knights drew the first leg of the fixture but lost the second. John Peters won both his games. See details.
9 Oct 2025. Two fixtures, one away and one at home. In the Rapidplay League 2, Worcester Pawns won both legs of their away fixture against Redditch. Tony Shaw, new player George Sharpe and returner John Hesketh won both of their games. See match card. The City team, playing at home against Redditch lost 1-4 with only Ed Higgs and Dorin Luca escaping with draws. See details.
Awards ceremony2 Oct 2025. Before the first round of the club championship, secretary Ray Collett presented prizes for 2024-5 tournament winners to Ed Osbourn, club champion, JoeRastall, All-Play-All Rapididplay champion, and Alex Nicholls for the most improved player. President Rob Sutton presented the cup for the best performance in the Campionship team to Ray Collett. Also in the picture is Paul Serafini with the Ball Cup previously awarded by Worcestershire Chess Association. Ed Osbourn said he had been a member for many years - longer than the president - and was delighted to have won the championship- for the first time. Club Championship results in round 12 Oct 2025. First round winners were Alaric Stephen, Sai Rentachintala, John Peters, Ray Collett, Seamus Flynn, Ed Osbourn, Scott Oxtoby and Rob Sutton. Chris Lee and Alex Nicholls have to replay, Joe Rastall, Stephen Mellor, Ed Higgs, Colin Vernon, James Nicholl, Scott Maclean and Chris Archbold received byes and go directly into round 2. |
Black Bishops earn their first league win
24 Sep 2025. Skipper Alex Nicholls selected two new players, George Sharpe and Rick Griffiths-Reed for the Worcester & District fixture at Redditch and they both won. Simon Berry on board 2 had a good win over a higher rated opponent and the team went home with a 3-0 victory to their credit. See match card.
Early League results
18 Sep 2025. White Bishops beat Kidderminster. In a Worcester & District league home match, the White Bishops won 2½-1½. Terry Pountney defended a poor position stoically to deprive David Cleak a win. See details.
17 Sep 2025. City team lose to Longbridge A. Facing a full-strength Longbridge team away was never easy. Only team captain Rob Sutton and Phil Austin were able to escape with draws. See details.
16 Sep 2025. Worcester Pawns have uup and down night at Longbridge. Worcester Pawns played Longbridge in the first Rapidplay League fixture of the season. The first leg of the fixture was lost, but the team rallied and reversed the score in the second leg. New members George Sharpe and Christopher Archbold played their first league games for the club. See full match scores.
10 Sep 2025. Bruising start for Black Bishops. The Black Bishops playing in the Worcester & District League lost their first league fixture 0-4 to Kidderminster. See details.
Worcester beat Cheltenham
9 Sep 2025. Paul Serafini led a Worcester team to victory in an early season friendly away match.Worcester won 4½ - 2½. Phil Austin, Paul Serafini and new players Todd Reeves and Bilal Butt won their games. See match card.