Latest News

16th May: The 2013 Leicestershire Junior Championships took place on Saturday May 11th at Countesthorpe College. After deciding to launch this event only 4 weeks prior we were more than pleased to have received a total of 85 entrants. Children came from all over the county to compete in 8 age sections over 6 rounds of chess to decide the county champions. Click on the juniors tab for the results.

14th May: The draw for the first round of all four sections of the 2013 County Championships has taken place. For the latest results and crosstable click the appropriate section:

13th May: The e2e4 Nottingham Congress was held at the Park Inn, Mansfield Road, Nottingham on 10-12 May 2013. The open section was won by Mark Hebden. Full details are online here.

19th April: The 2013 Summer Cup competitions get underway next month with the first rounds due to be completed by May 24th. The draw for the Chapman Cup, Wylie Cup and Harrod Cup can be found here.

12th April: The 2013 County Championships will take place at Wigston Chess Club and will again operate as a swiss. There are 4 sections:

The Championship and Major dates can be found on the county championships tab - please put these dates in your diary if you are wanting to play. Entry is free and there will be an online entry form posted on here shortly, or you can email the controller Andy Morley

8th April 2013: The first Leicestershire Junior County training session was held on Saturday 6th April at the Braunstone Civic Centre from 1:30pm to 4pm. We had 19 juniors come along from various clubs: Braunstone, Heathcote Arms, Kirby, Loughborough and Red Admiral along with a few players not yet associated to any club - full details on the juniors tab.

5th March 2013: Junior chess in Leicestershire has been given a major boost with the kind sponsorship of Biopolymer Solutions Ltd. Long standing Loughborough club member and county first team player John Mitchell is a director of the company which will be sponsoring the upcoming junior training day - more details on the juniors tab.

4th March 2013: A battling performance from the County first team saw us lose by the narrowest of margins against a strong and youthful Greater Manchester team (7 players under 19) - the final score being 7½ - 8½. The match report and scoresheet can be found here

17th February 2013: The County Under 100 team lost their latest match away to Nottinghamshire on Saturday by 6½ - 4½ - the scoresheet can be found here.

7th February 2013: The County first team drew their latest match 8 - 8 away to Worcestershire on Saturday - the scoresheet can be found here. The last match of the season is on 2nd March away to Greater Manchester - this match will be played at a neutral venue near Stoke.

21st January 2013: The Willowbrook club premises have closed down so for the remainder of the league season their home matches will be played at the Latimer club on Surrey Street, Leicester - team captains please note.

6th January 2013: The County first team were beaten 9 - 7 at home by Derbyshire on Saturday. A flurry of early draws followed by a good win by Chino Nwachukwu promised more and despite late wins from Paul Colburn and Ray Burgess, too many losses in the middle was our downfall. The scoresheet can be found here.

6th January 2013: The County Under 140 team had a convincing 12 - 4 victory over Derbyshire on Saturday. Although Leicestershire put out a much weakened team, with 25 players unavailable, the victory was comprehensive. The scoresheet can be found here.

17th December 2012: The County first team opened the season with a disappointing 9 - 7 defeat away at Lincolnshire on Saturday. And it could have been worse, in the last 2 games to finish both Graham Sharpe and John Denton rescued draws from the jaws of defeat when their opponents could not convert wins. Report and scoresheet can be found here

10th October 2012: The annual H E Atkins Leicester Chess congress was held from September 28th to 30th and was a great success. There was a significant increase in entrants over last year with over 100 players taking part. The was local success too, with Mark Hebden winning the Open section and Toby Hoch of Braunstone winning the Minor section. Other local players also won grading prizes - full details here. Apologies for the late report, your webmaster took a week's holiday!

23rd September 2012: Congratulations to Martin Burrows who has won the 2012 County Championship. Full details can be found here. Martin led going into the final round with 4½ points with his only challenger being Alan Byron on 4 points. Both drew their last round matches.

17th September 2012: The league handbook for the coming season 2012-13 is now online - it contains the club directory, rules, fixtures and gradings etc. The printed copy will be distributed at the Charity quickplay and presentation evening on Wednesday 26th September at the Latimer club.

22nd August 2012: The County Championships Challengers, Major and Minor sections have now been completed. Congratulations to the winners of those sections, Karl Potter (Challengers), David Reynolds (Major) and Ray Beach (Minor). Full details can be found here.

28th July 2012: Braunstone hosted its first Junior Chess Training Day on Thursday July 26th at the Braunstone Civic Center. The event was well attended with 13 children coming along to the day with many of them new to competitive chess.

David Levens the ECF director of junior training provided an excellent training session in the morning. Thanks to Andy Morley who ran a faultless tournament for the children in the afternoon. It was certainly a good advert for the Leicester Chess Congress at the end of September. A special thanks to Paul Colburn who put so much hard work into organising the event.

The individual prize was won by Conor Reid who scored a faultless 5 out of 5. Full details of the event with photos can be found here. The event has even made the front page of the English Chess Federation website

8th July 2012: Hugh disappointment for the Leicestershire County first team as they drew 8 - 8 with Hertfordshire on Saturday in the Minor Counties Final, only to lose the trophy on board count. For a comprehensive report and scoresheet click here.