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2025    
Feb    
22nd Welsh Secondary Schools Championships Cardiff Business School,
Colum Drive,
Cardiff CF103EU
Entry Form
23rd WCPL / Under 1850 League Rd 4 Heronston Hotel
Bridgend
Info

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News

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ECU E-Magazine 2024 2025 Spring Congress and Junior Championships Results    
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BCET awards notice
to be published
2025 South Wales
Winter Congress
Results
ECU E-Magazine
December 2024
Adam Hunt IM RIP
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January 2025
Live Rapidplay
Rating List
Sligo 2025 2025 Dragon
League Results
FM and CM titles awarded at 2024 European Club Cup

WCU Fees 2024-2025

Please note that the WCU fees for season 2024-2025 remain the same as season 2023-24.

These are:

Existing WCU members

Seniors /  Adults: £20      Juniors (U-18 on 1/9/2024): £10

New WCU members

Seniors /  Adults: £10      Juniors (U-18 on 1/9/2024): £5

Anne Veale RIP

It is with great sadness that we have learned that Anne Veale (who used to be a member of Upper Killay and Swansea Chess Clubs) has passed away. 

Anne was involved in junior chess in West Wales in the 1980’s.

The WCU would like to express our sincere condolences to Anne’s family and friends at this sad time.

The funeral will take place on 6th September at St Ann Church, Dunvant followed by cremation at Swansea Crematorium at 2.00pm.

Golding and Grieve win 2024 South Wales International

FM Alex Golding (ENG) and IM Harry Grieve (ENG) tied for first place in the 2024 South Wales International in Bridgend with 7/9.

GM Jose Fernando Cuenca Jiminez (ESP), FM Aaravamudhan Balaji (ENG), IM Yichen Han (NED), GM Boris Chatalbashev (DEN) and FM Daniel Kozusek (WLS) tied for third place on 6.5/9.

The full results can be found here.

 

Welsh Chess Chat E-Magazine issue # 1

Jonathan Blackburn has produced this e-magazine which he hopes to produce monthly.

Issue # 1 can be viewed here.

2024 World Seniors Team Championship, Krakow, Poland

Two teams are currently competing in these championships between 1st and 12th July. 

Wales Silures are competing in the Over 50’s championship. The players are:

Sven Zeidler
Lee Davis
Mark Adams
Anthony Hughes
Gary Thomas

Their results can be found here:

Another Wales Silures team are competing in the Over 65’s championship. The players are:

Peter Varley
Rudy van Kemenade
John Fletcher
Peter Quinn
Anthony Hughes

Their results can be found here.

The Championship website is here:

We wish them well.

A O Jones Rapidplay 2024

 

The annual WWCL Rapidplay for the AO Jones trophy was held at Morriston Rugby Club on Saturday 18th May 2024.  We’ve opened the event to non -WWCL members for some years now and again attracted players from the East Glam & Dyfed leagues. The AO Jones trophy is awarded to the highest placed WWCL member.

The event is a 6 round swiss (20 mins & 5 second increments), run as one tournament. All the entry fees were returned as prizes.

FM Grzegorz Toczek (2328) was the top seed, with Adam Musson (2043) and Derek Jones (2023) the only other players rated over 2000 on the WCU rating list. The event gave a number of lower graded players the chance to play a Fide Master & member of the current Olympiad Team. Grzegorz didn’t have it all his own way, conceding a draw to Ian Jones (1972) in Rd3 and to 14-year-old Vismith Prabhu (1388) in Rd4. Vismith also drew with Derek Jones (2023) in Rd6.

Results

1st= Ian Jones (Morriston), winner of the AO Jones trophy & Grzegorz Toczek (Cardiff)

3rd= Adam Musson (Morriston) & Derek Jones (Cardiff)

U-1500

1st Farouq Nasir (Morriston)

2nd Sam Brown (Morriston)

3rd Bill Davies (Rhondda)

Junior

1st Vismith Prabhu (White Knights)

2nd Bobby Taylor (Morriston)

The full results can be seen on Chess-Results website here.

2024 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship New York

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

DEADLINE FOR INTEREST: 15 July 2024

The 2024 FIDE World Individual Rapid and Blitz Championships wil be held in New York during the last week in December.

Anyone interested in representing the WCU in this event needs to contact the International Director, Peter Bevan (email: internationaldirector@welshchessunion.uk) by 15th July.

Regrettably, the WCU cannot provide any financial support towards this event.

The regulations are available here.

Pembrokeshire Junior chess event

 

What another fantastic Chess tournament here at Redhill Prep!

Well done to all the children who took part there were some excellent games played.

14 schools from across Pembrokeshire and beyond were represented today proving this game remains ever popular!

Here are the medal winners:

1st place- Gold Medal: Samuel Addison
2nd place- Silver Medal: Huw Holliday (Redhill Prep), Sebastian Kummer (Neyland Primary), Theo Otterburn (St. Michael’s) David Pinch Award: Jude Taylor (St. Marks)
Huge thank you to Ian Eustis (WCU), FM Alexis Harakis, Martin Jones and Scott Hammett. Without you we wouldn’t be able to hold this tournament and each of you volunteer your time which is much appreciated.

Also thanks so much to Friends of Redhill for all their hard work today. Next tournament in the autumn term, keep your eyes peeled! 

Reported by Vicky Brown