For those who would like to access any of the historical news items from the old website, here’s the link:
Latest News
Week 4 Highlights
Mansfield follow up their 5-0 win at Grantham with a 4-1 win over West Bridgford. Gambit 1 trounce Newark 4.5-0.5. In Div 1 the League table already looks telling. After two games, two teams are on 100% – Mansfield with a 9-1 points difference and Gambit 1 on 8-2. The only other unbeaten team is University 1, yet to play…
Week 3 Highlights
Mansfield, Post-Covid 3x League champions, launch their campaign with a statement 5-0 win at Grantham, despite being outrated on the top two boards. Nomads 1, who last appeared in Division 1 in 2005, narrowly lose at West Bridgford 1. In Division 2 Beeston 1 and R&B 1 fight out a 2-2 draw, of 4 decisive games. In D3 wins for…
NPSCA Chess Lessons Start on 12th October
Th Nottinghamshire Primary Schools Chess Association provides lessons at Nottingham High School. The first session takes place on Saturday 12th October. For for more information please see https://nottsprimarychess.uk/, or email.
Week 2 Highlights – More teams in action, promoted clubs struggle
Grantham 1 returned to the top flight after a 4 year absence and lost narrowly to Gambit 2. It doesn’t get easier for Grantham. Next up, they host the Champions, Mansfield. West Bridgford 2 and Nomads 2, the promoted clubs in Division 2, both lost. WB2 lost narrowly to Radcliffe & Bingham 1. The teams were matched on rating, Alan…
Continue Reading Week 2 Highlights – More teams in action, promoted clubs struggle
Week One Update & Week Two Preview
Intra-Club Matches Gambit 2 could not pull off their usual upset win against Gambit 1, losing 1.5- 3.5. As the ‘home’ team they had the disadvantage of 3 Blacks. The reverse fixture in January might be closer. Gambit 5 did share the points with Gambit 4. Three more intra-club matches follow next week. Radcliffe and Bingham 4 host R&B 3.…
New League Season 2024-25
Fixtures for the new season are now on LMS. The season will kick off on Tuesday 10th September with Gambit 2 v Gambit 1 and Gambit 5 v Gambit 4. Can Gambit 2 pull off another upset? There are new League rules, including that the standard time limit for all clubs is now 65 minutes + 10 second increments. You…
AGM – July 8th 2024 Minutes
The AGM of the Nottinghamshire Chess Association was held on the 8th July 2024. NCA-AGM-Minutes-July-2024.pdf NCA-AGM-2024-Appendix-1-Reports.pdf NCA-AGM-Appendix-2-Treasurers-Report.pdf
AGM Monday 8th July 2024
The Nottinghamshire Chess Association AGM will be held on Monday 8th July at The Wolds, Loughborough Road, West Bridgford starting at 7:30 pm Clubs are entitled to attend, with one voting member per club plus one for each team in the NCA league for 23-24 season (including minor league teams). Officer Reports: please send to Nick London by 1st July…
Executive Committee 25/04/2024 Minutes
A meeting of the executive committee was held on 25th April 2024. The minutes of the meeting can be viewed by clicking on the minutes link.
Nottinghamshire County Championships 2024
Nottinghamshire County Championship 2023/2024 Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June 2024 The Royal British Legion Hall Radcliffe-on-Trent Nottingham NG12 2BB Organised by Gambit Chess Club Eligibility: 1 Born in Nottinghamshire 2 Living in Nottinghamshire 3 Working in Nottinghamshire 4 Attending an educational establishment in Nottinghamshire 5 Member of a chess club based in Nottinghamshire or affiliated to Nottinghamshire Chess Association…
Rules Revision Meeting 2024 Minutes
The annual rules and revision meeting will took place at 7:30pm on the 20th May at The Wolds pub, W Bridgford. Minutes of meeting
Rules Revision Meeting 20th May 2024
The annual rules and revision meeting will take place at 7:30pm on the 20th May at The Wolds pub, W Bridgford. Attached are the proposals for the meeting. Votes during this meeting are on the basis of one vote per club plus one vote for each team participating in the NCA league this season. RRM Proposals 2024.pdf
47th Nottingham Congress
Following the successful conclusion of our Rapidplay last Sunday, we are now taking entries for our weekend congress. Full details can be found on our Competitions/Tournaments page.
33rd Nottingham Rapidplay
Capacity has now been reached. We are pleased to announce our that our annual Rapidplay will take place on Sunday, February 4th 2024 at our usual venue, Nottingham High School, starting at 10:00 am. This will be a 6 round Swiss system event, with five ECF rated sections. The basic entry fees are £20 for Adults and £15 for Juniors, whilst…
Centenary Grandmaster Tournament: Report
The grand finale event to celebrate our centenary was a Grandmaster round-robin tournament in early November. A range of invited English and overseas young stars competed against each other and against the established GMs in the hope of gaining title norms as well as valuable experience in a hard-fought event. The venue was the Nottingham Mechanics Institute which proved to…
33rd Nottingham Rapidplay
We are pleased to announce our that our annual Rapidplay will take place on Sunday, February 4th 2024 at our usual venue, Nottingham High School, starting at 10:00 am. This will be a 6 round Swiss system event, with five ECF rated sections. The basic entry fees are £20 for Adults and £15 for Juniors, whilst the prizes in each section…
NCA Centenary Grandmaster Tournament
Top-level chess comes to Nottingham in early November when invited Grandmasters take on some of England’s best young players, including the cream of Nottingham’s chess talent. It takes place from Monday 30 October – Friday 3 November. This special tournament is being organised to celebrate NCA’s centenary since its foundation and is the strongest tournament to be held in the County since…
Derbyshire Congress
The inaugural Derbyshire weekend congress takes place 23-24th September, with sections for all standards of player. Notts player are encouraged to support this new event on our doorstep. Click on [Continue Reading] for a link to the Congress web site.
Nottingham Chessfest 2023
NCA has celebrated its first 100 years with the first ‘Chessfest’, an open-air event held in Nottingham’s Trinity Square – and all involved agree it was a tremendous success. An estimated 500 people visited the event during the 6 hours that we took over the Square, including lots of enthusiastic children, parents and many passers-by who stopped for a game…
Rules Revision Meeting on 22nd May 2023 – Agenda and Proposals
Further to the previous post, the Agenda and Proposals for the meeting have been sent to clubs They are also available here (you will need to press the “Continue Reading” button first). The EC Minutes, where the Centenary events were discussed, including the Centenary Working Group report are also available here.
Continue Reading Rules Revision Meeting on 22nd May 2023 – Agenda and Proposals
County Correspondence Team
The Counties and Districts Correspondence Chess Competition started on 14/4/23. Our team is in the Ward-Higgs, Division 1 section. Nottinghamshire team. 1 SIM Jonathan Tait 2419 2 CCM Gordon Anderson 2378 3 CCM Richard Webster 2361 4 CCM John Shaw 2322 5 CCE Phil Morgan 2232 6 Kevin Williamson 2120 7 Glenn Halfpenny 1800p 8 Andrew Robins 1800p We have…
George Murfet and Len Morrell
Radcliffe and Bingham Chess Club has recently suffered the loss of two long-standing members of the Nottinghamshire chess community, both well known to generations of chess players in the area as teammates and foes over the board. George Murfet had early roots in the area and was an ‘old boy’ of Nottingham High School – from where I gather he…
RIP Alan Morrey
Sadly we have lost another former pillar of the Notts Chess community. Alan was a valued member of the Sutton/Ashfield and Rainworth clubs for many years and held NCA posts, for example publishing the monthly Notts Bulletin in pre-website days. We hear that he passed away on 14/02/2023, aged 87 years old, and the funeral will take place, 3.00 pm…
RIP George Murfet and Len Morrell
We are sad to announce the loss of two longstanding members of the Notts Chess community. We understand that George’s funeral will be held at 14:30 at Wilford Hill Cemetery on Monday March 6th. If you wish to attend, we suggest you check with the Cemetery, as we don’t have direct contact with his family. We will pass on details…
46th Nottingham Congress
We are pleased to announce that the Congress will take place on the weekend of April 15th & 16th at our usual venue, Nottingham High School. It will be a five round, ECF-rated, standard play Swiss, with five sections. Full details of the event, the entry form and access to online entry are available on our Competitions page.
32nd Nottingham Rapidplay
The event went ahead successfully on Sunday, 29th January. A full report and results are available by clicking Continue Reading on the News page.
County Correspondence Team
Playing in the Second Division of the Counties Championship, our team had a successful 2022/23 season, finishing in second place and so gaining promotion to Division 1. A link to the results can be found here by clicking Continue Reading on the News page.
32nd Nottingham Rapidplay
We are pleased to announce our next tournament, the Rapidplay, to be held on Sunday 29th January 2023 at Nottingham High School, our usual venue. The main details, such as the rating limits for the five sections, can be seen on our competitions page, where a downloadable entry form with all the details can be seen. There is also a…
Revised League Fixture List
A new version of the fixture list for 2022-23 has been posted via email to all club secretaries and team captains. The new version includes additional teams in division 4 and division 5. It also includes fixtures for the new rapid play ‘Minor League’ which is intended to give juniors and those new to league chess an opportunity to play competitive…
Nottinghamshire County Championships
Nottinghamshire players, past and present, are invited to enter the County Championships on Sunday 13 November at Bramcote Memorial Hall. The NCA Annual General Meeting agreed with the Tournaments Committee’s proposal to run a six-round Rapidplay in the hope that this new format may attract larger numbers of players and also help to celebrate the NCA’s centenary year in style.…
Website for Notts Chess Foundation
The new charity for chess in Nottinghamshire has been established for year. It has contributed to the success of several initiatives in the county and the trustees are looking forward to extending chess development in the next 12 months. The website for the charity has now been launched. You can visit it and take a look at some of our…
League Fixtures 2022-23
A draft fixture list has now been circulated to all club secretaries, for comment and corrections. Clubs should check this list and provide any feedback to the League Secretary by Sunday 4th September. First match week is currently expected to be 19 – 23 September.
Junior Newsletter
The latest edition of the Newsletter has been issued and is available at Junior Newsletter August 2022 Simon Scott
Best Games and Swindles
With the return of “over the board” chess also comes the chance to show off your best efforts. Any games played in NCA tournaments (Rapidplay or Congress) league or county teams in the past 12 months are eligible. There are prizes for best games (open and under 1800 sections) and also for your best swindles. Please send entries to me…
Future Events
The latest edition of the Junior Newsletter is now available on the Juniors page. It includes details of several upcoming events suitable for Juniors. We are also looking for views on the format for our County Championship later this year. Please take a look on the competitions page
2022 EJCOA NATIONAL YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS
The East Midlands Regional Final will be held at Nottingham High School on Saturday, May 21st. There are numerous age-group sections from under 20 down to under 8. Each will be five rounds of Rapidplay (25 mins + 10 sec/move) starting at 10:00 and finishing 17:45. Entry Fee £15. The top boy and the top girl in each age category…
Congratulations to Jonah Willow!
Jonah competed in Dublin, achieving his final IM Norm and qualifying for the International Master title. On his return to Nottinghamshire, he followed this up by winning the Open Section of the Nottingham Congress. Further details of the Congress can be seen on the Competitions page
45th Nottingham Congress
We are pleased to publish details of our Congress, to take place at Nottingham High School on 23rd & 24th April, and start taking entries. Full details are available here Competitions – Nottinghamshire Chess Association
Nail-biter in NG9
On 26th February, our Notts u1450 juniors hosted Leicestershire u1450 for a winner takes all clash at Bramcote. A good natured and well fought match, prefaced with Leicestershire’s captain and a couple of their players kindly helping us with setting up some of the tables and boards. As the match started, it quickly looked like a lot of the games…
31st Nottingham Rapidplay – Sold Out!
We are pleased to announce that we have received the maximum 150 entries and so entries are now closed. Entrants should monitor the Competitions/Tournaments page of the website for any late developments.
31st Nottingham Rapidplay
In view of the improving Covid situation, and the entries we have received so far, we are reasonably confident at present that the Rapidplay will go ahead as planned. Of course, Covid has a history of throwing out curve balls, so please keep an eye on the website in the run up to the event.
31st Nottingham Rapidplay
In view of the continuing uncertainty about Covid developments, we cannot yet be absolutely certain that the event will be able to go ahead. However we have decided to start taking entries, which will be limited to a maximum of 150 in total. A full update on the current situation can be seen on the Tournaments tab of our Competitions…
Correspondence Chess
Back in July we reported that our team captain, Phil Morgan, had been awarded the Welsh Correspondence Chess Expert title. We’re happy to add our congratulations now that he has earned the ICCF Correspondence Chess Expert title.
Correspondence Chess
The 2021 season has now been completed. Nottinghamshire finished in third place in Division 2 of the Counties League competition behind, East Wales B and Yorkshire A. You can view the full Results here The 2022 season will begin in February. If you are interested in playing for Nottinghamshire in this competition, please contact Phil Morgan, County Correspondence Captain before…
4NCL Online Season 4
Our team went down to a narrow defeat by 1.5 – 2.5. Martin Pettinger maintained his unbeaten record with a draw on Board 1. Alex Bentley scored an excellent win with black on Board 2. However Eagle and Child powered home with wins on the lower boards in tense finishes that went down to the wire. The match result was…
31st Nottingham Rapidplay
We are currently planning to hold this ECF-rated event on Sunday 20th February 2022 at the usual venue, Nottingham High School, starting at 10:00am. However, in view of the current uncertainty about Covid developments, we cannot yet confirm this or start to take entries. Hopefully circumstances will allow us to do this in early January. Meanwhile, the currently expected details…
4NCL Online Season 4
Ashfield Anonymous C has progressed to the Final of Division 4 of the 4NCL Online with a 3-1 win over Hertford 2. We reached this stage by winning our League section, scoring 13/14 points. Our top board, Martin Pettinger, has won his 8 games in this season’s competition. The Semi-Final was a new and daunting experience for the team as…
Tom Guy (d.19 July 2021)
We were sad to learn of the death of Tom after a long battle with cancer. He was active in the Notts area in the 1970s and 80s, being a regular for the Nottingham Players club before moving to West Bridgford CC in 1975. He also represented the County both over the board and in correspondence chess, continuing to do…
Season 2021-22
Following the request for volunteers to captain teams, our thanks to David Levens, Mick Frings and Mike Swanwick, who will captain Notts U2050, U1450 and U1450 Juniors teams. The following details were supplied by Peter Sherlock, MCCU County Championship Controller… U2050 section – only Nottinghamshire have entered and will go through to the National Stages as MCCU1. Entries for this…
Volunteers Needed!
Following the recent online AGM there are three areas in particular where the association needs volunteers to step forward to help us get chess back on the board! Executive Committee – There are two vacancies for EC Members. If you have any ideas on how to develop chess in the county, this is the ideal place to put them forward.…
Annual General Meeting – 23/7/21
The AGM will be held by Zoom on Friday 23/7/21 at 7:30pm. If you wish to represent your club, or to view the various officers’ reports, please contact your club secretary.
Correspondence Chess
Congratulations to our team captain, Phil Morgan, who has achieved the title of Welsh CC Expert.He provided an update on this year’s team, which is currently participating in Division 2 of the County Correspondence competition. The event started late, in February 2021, so will officially end in January 2022.At the end of June, we stood in first place on 10…
New Chess Charity for Nottinghamshire
Nick London explains below the details of this new local charity.He notes, in particular, that further trustees are needed to take part in the work of the charity, and that the NCA can nominate three further people to fill this role. The AGM, scheduled for 23rd July, will be an opportunity to express interest in this.If anyone reading this is interested, and would like to…
Welcome to our new website!
As we will all, hopefully, be getting back to something like normal in the coming months, we are now launching the new NCA website. News of what is planned will appear here, as and when “chess life” opens up again.
Notts League Update
Due to Coronavirus restrictions the 2019-2020 season was suspended in March 2020 with most teams having two or three matches still to play. It was hoped that these could be completed later in the year when allowed, but (as restrictions went on) the LMC eventually decided to end the season with proportional points allocated for those remaining matches.
Nottingham Congress, Rapidplay and County Championship
During the Coronavirus restrictions we have been unable to hold these annual events. We expect that they will return following the lifting of virus related restrictions.
Continue Reading Nottingham Congress, Rapidplay and County Championship
County Teams Update
During the Coronavirus restrictions there have been no “over the board” county matches and there was little support for playing online team events.