Welsh Chess Union (Undeb Gwyddbwyll Cymru)

Latest News

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2025
17th – 19th January	Winter Congress	Heronston Hotel. Bridgend Info
1st February	Welsh Primary School Championships	Cardiff Business School, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF103EU Entry Form
2nd	WCPL / Under 1850 League Round 3	Heronston Hotel Bridgend
7th – 9th	50th Dyfed Chess Congress	International Politics Building, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth Info
15th – 16th	Welsh Junior Championships and Spring Congress	Cardiff
22nd	Welsh Secondary Schools Championships	Cardiff Business School, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF103EU Entry Form
23rd	WCPL / Under 1850 League Rd 4	Heronston Hotel Bridgend

2025 World Schools Championship Serbia 19th-29th March

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

DEADLINE 3 February 2025

The World Schools (individual) Chess Championships will be held at Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia from 19 March to 29 March.

There are open and girls competitions in each of the following ages: Under 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 on January 1st 2025.

There will be nine rounds and the rate of play will be all moves in 90 minutes with a 10 second increment.

The entry fee is 140 Euros for players and 60 Euros for accompanying persons.

Accommodation costs are 75 Euros per person per day for a double room and 97 Euros per person per day for a single room.

Players interested in entering this tournament must contact the Director for Junior Chess, Mr. Ian Eustis by Monday, February 3^rd at the very latest, and preferably before.

Financial assistance will be restricted to the cost of the entry fees.

News


January 2025 Live Rapidplay Rating List	Sligo 2025	2025 Dragon League Results

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.

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

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

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

U-1500

1^st Farouq Nasir (Morriston)

2^nd Sam Brown (Morriston)

3^rd Bill Davies (Rhondda)

Junior

1^st Vismith Prabhu (White Knights)

2^nd Bobby Taylor (Morriston)

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

[Show slideshow]

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.