News

6.3.26 Division 4 winners are Rushall

Rushall’s victory in their final game of the season at Stafford ensured that they win the first trophy of 2025/2026.

6.2.26 Norton Canes New Match Venue

All league and cup matches will now be played at Grangemoor Working Men's Club, 112 Cannock Road, Burntwood WS7 0BG. Social chess will still continue at The Lido.

18.7.25 Lichfield Venue

Due to a proposed venue charge at The Brewhouse and Kitchen, Lichfield have changed their Monday night venue. They will now be playing in the upstairs room at The King's Head Hotel on Bird Street. Cannock League games have been split between there and the Guildhall on Thursdays.

10.7.25 Mercia Venue

Mercia are once again on the move, back to Hurst Hill Labour Club, 22 Clifton St, Coseley, WV14 9EY. Still 7.30pm on Tuesdays.

11.6.25 AGM

The AGM & prize giving was well attended last night, with some lively debate on several matters. It was also pleasing to receive some very positive feedback on the way that the League is being run.

The main changes agreed upon were:

The rating limit for Division 1 is to be reduced to 7400 ECF & the Chase Trophy to 7075 ECF. All other competition limits remain the same.

Tie-breakers for drawn Chase Trophy & Shield knockout games will be changed to reverse board count.

Peter Nixon & Joe Hardy have agreed to help Peter Evans with his delegate duties. Thanks to both for their support.

In addition, Ray & Eunice Dolan are looking to retire from CDCL duties in 12 months time, so we are keen to welcome any volunteers who would like to replace them as Treasurer & Publicity Officer. Peter Oliver will take over from Ray as the League President when he retires, so we will also be looking for a replacement Secretary & Vice President at that time. Anyone who would like to volunteer or find out any further details please contact Peter on pjroliver@gmail.com

Our Fixtures Meeting has been arranged for Wednesday 16th July at the Bridgtown Social Club from 7.30pm onwards. All entries for league & cup teams will need to be with the Records Secretary by 1st July 2025. Please can all clubs email Steve on stephenwhatmore@hotmail.com before this date.

Entries for our individual competitions will be invited in August.

28.5.25 Staffordshire Congress

Stoke-on-Trent is turning 100 years old as a city, and we will help to celebrate a century since receiving the well-deserved status, honouring the rich history, vibrant culture, and unique identity that have made Stoke-on-Trent a global name.
As part of the celebrations, we have been granted use of the beautiful, and prestigious, Kings Hall.
We'd love to have you with us! It's on the 16th and 17th August 2025.
For further details, see https://www.northstaffschess.com/p/staffordshire-chess-congress-2025.html
or in the ECF calendar here https://www.englishchess.org.uk/event/staffordshire-chess-congress/

Neil Hankey

17.5.25 AGM

Just a reminder that our 2025 AGM is on Tuesday 10th June at Bridgtown Social Club. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

16.5.25 Chase Trophy

Fittingly, the final match of the season was the Chase Trophy Final. Tamworth & Wolverhampton drew 2-2, but like in their semi final, Tamworth won on board count. Congratulations to them on winning their 2nd Chase Trophy in 3 years.

28.4.25 Division 2

Congratulations to Stafford, who have retained their Division 2 title with a game still to play. Lichfield B needed to get a result in their penultimate match to ensure that they could still win the division by beating Stafford in their last match, but Oscott took the points with a 3-1 win. Stafford have used 13 players in their 11 games, so they've made use of their squad of players very effectively.

22.4.25 Division 1

Lichfield’s quest to win all 4 Divisions came unstuck as Rugeley defeated them to win Division 1 for the first time. Rugeley achieved this thanks to the extraordinary performances of Nikoli Tisma-Walker, who won all 6 of his games on board 1 & a solid 3.5/4 from Matt Carr on board 2. Congratulations to them.

15.4.25 Dolan Trophy

Rugeley CC's Oliver Johnson beat Albert Chacko in the Final to become the 6th different winner of the Dolan Trophy. Congratulations to Oliver, who won the trophy ahead of 14 other entrants, making it our most competitive Dolan Trophy competition yet.

14.4.25 Chase Shield

Congratulations to Rushall who narrowly defeated Stafford in the final to win the inaugural Chase Shield.

12.4.25 Member club venue details

The CDCL would like to advise all players that we include the venue addresses of member clubs that have been given to us on this website. However, we have no control over individual club websites or individual club ECF LMS pages. It has come to our attention that some of these have not been updated following a club’s change of venue. We would strongly encourage all clubs to check their own ECF LMS pages in particular & update them promptly if they are incorrect.

11.4.25 AGM

Our AGM has been arranged for Tuesday 10th June at Bridgtown Social Club. An agenda will be distributed in due course.

3.4.25 Mercia Venue

Mercia are now back playing at The Crown Pub, High St, Sedgley DY3 1RJ.

1.4.25 Division 3

Lichfield A's 4 nil victory against Rugeley gave them the Division 3 title for the 3rd consecutive season. Congratulations to everyone involved.

27.3.25 Robert Ward Trophy Final

Congratulations to Steve Whatmore who defeated Manish Gandhi to win the Robert Ward Trophy.

17.3.25 Division 4

Lichfield & Rushall B played each other with both knowing that they had the chance of winning the Division in their own hands. Lichfield dominated however & won their third Division 4 title in the past 4 seasons. Congratulations to their squad, but especially Stuart Andrews who saved his best chess for this competition with 5 wins out of 5. A reminder of the link to the ECF LMS site https://ecflms.org.uk

3.3.25 Robert Ward Plate Final

Congratulations to Ken McNulty who defeated Peter Rose to win the Robert Ward Plate.

2.3.25 Upcoming Rapid Play

Norton Canes are running a Rapid Play event on Saturday May 10th. The link to the event is:

https://lido.schoolofchess.co.uk/swiss-rapid-chess-day/

15.2.25 Upcoming Congresses

Saturday August 16th sees the start of a two day congress celebrating of the hundredth anniversary of the founding the City of Stoke-on-Trent. The Staffordshire Congress will return at the King's Hall, Stoke-on-Trent. Further details and an online entry form are here.

The ever popular Crewe Congress will take place at Crewe Alexandra Football Club from Friday 27th June to Sunday 29th June. For an entry form and further information see here.

20.12.24 Dolan Trophy

The Group stage has now been completed. 6 players with 2 & 1.5 points will automatically qualify for the quarter finals, with the 4 players on 1 point playing off to join them.

28.11.24 Mercia New Venue

It is now Hurst Hill Labour Club, 22 Clifton St, Bilston WV14 9EY. Start time is still 7.30pm on Tuesdays.

29.10.24 Change of Email Address

League Secretary Peter Oliver has changed his email address to pjroliver@gmail.com

26.10.24 Chase Trophy Result & Draw

Round 1: Stafford 0.5 - Rushall 3.5

Semi Final draw: Rushall v Tamworth & Wolverhampton v Rugeley - dates to be agreed.

31.8.24 Stafford New Venue

Stafford will be moving to Walton Village Hall, Green Gore Lane, Stafford ST17 0LD with effect from 6.9.24. There is no bar, but refreshments will be available for a nominal fee. There is ample parking at the venue.

24.8.24 Robert Ward & Dolan Trophies

The draws have been made for these competitions & can be found on the CDCL LMS page. First round ties need to be played before 1.11.24.

22.8.24 Mercia New Venue

Mercia have moved to Lanesfield British Legion, Ward Grove WV4 6PW. They are still meeting on Tuesdays from 7.30pm.

1.8.24 Individual Competitions
Invitations have been sent to all club secretaries & last year’s entrants for the 2024-2025 Robert Ward Trophy & Dolan Trophy. All rules are covered in the Committee & Rules section of this website, with entries to the recordsecretary.cdcl@hotmail.co.uk email address needed by Thursday 22nd August.

20.6.24 AGM

Photos from our prize giving have been loaded onto our Photo Gallery link. The main points from last night's AGM were:

Time controls - it was agreed that the time control in divisions 1-3 would be 80 minutes with a 10 second increment per move. Division 4 remains at 60 minutes without increment.

Start times - will remain at 7.15pm or 7.30pm as now, but in exceptional circumstances (e.g. being required to vacate the premises at 10.00 pm) the home club may request a 7.00pm start. The away team then have the option of accepting that, or reverting to the advertised 7.15pm or 7.30pm start with a mutually agreed reduction in playing time.

Cancellations - Any team requiring to cancel a fixture must give at least 72 hours notice to the opposing team and the Records Secretary (except in the event of inclement weather or traffic emergency which prevents travel) and within 7 days agree a new date for the match.

League Officers - Ray Dolan was elected President, and Peter Oliver was elected Vice-President. All other officers remain the same.

Divisions and Fixtures for 2024/25 - There will be the same 4 divisions as last season with the same rating limits. Entries for the 4 divisions were noted last night, but any further entries need to be notified to Records Secretary Steve Whatmore by Friday 28th June. In addition to the Chase Trophy, there will be a new knock-out competition aimed at division 3 and 4 teams, with a rating limit of 5625 (i.e., half way between the limits for divisions 3 and 4). Entries for this also need to be notified to Steve by Friday 28th June.

The Fixtures Meeting will be on Wednesday 3rd July from 7.15pm at the usual venue of the Bridgtown Social Club in Cannock. Any club which is unable to be represented then should arrange the fixtures by email or phone asap.

League Fees - remain at £7 per team & are to be paid at the Fixtures Meeting or as soon thereafter as possible.

23.5.24 Robert Ward Trophy & Season Summary

After 2 draws, Stephen Gaskell & Tony Preece played an Armageddon game to decide the winner of the Robert Ward Trophy. Stephen won the toss & chose white – sadly for Tony the extra minute paid off & his time ran out to give Stephen the trophy. Congratulations to him.

Our 2023-2024 season is now complete.

Some wonderful chess has been played with 4 different clubs winning Trophies.

Individually, stand out performances in Division 1 have earned Tamworth the Championship – Mircea-Marius Mesesan scored 8.5/9 & Andrew Smith 8.5/10.

In Division 2 a rapidly improving Bowie Carter scored a very impressive 4.5/5 for Lichfield B, while Oliver Johnson led the way with 5.5/6 in Division 3 for Rugeley.

In Division 4 around 20 players achieved 100% records, but most pleasingly, many new players have started their competitive chess journeys, gaining invaluable experience.

Our 3 individual competitions were well supported & our 25 year anniversary rapidplay tournament was a great success.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the League in 2023-2024, and we hope to see as many of you as possible competing again next year. Don’t forget, our AGM & Prize Giving is on Wednesday June 19th.

3.5.24 Division 2

Stafford & Tamworth went head-to-head knowing that whoever won their game were Division 2 Champions. In a tense match Stafford took the honours with a narrow 2.5-1.5 victory. After losing 3 of their first 4 games, they went on a 6 match unbeaten run to claim the Division crown. Congratulations to all 13 players who played a part in their season.

24.4.24 Robert Ward Trophy Final

Current holder Tony Preece will take on Rushall’s Stephen Gaskell in this year’s final. The match has been arranged for Tuesday 7th May at Norton Canes.

23.4.24 AGM date change

Due to a clash of commitments, our AGM has been put back by 24 hours to Wednesday 19th June - start 7.30pm. As ever, it will still be held at the Bridgtown Social Club, in the darts bar. A full agenda will be sent to all clubs prior to the meeting. Anyone wishing to make any suggestions to add something to the agenda is welcome to contact League General Secretary Peter Oliver.

21.4.24 25th Anniversary Rapidplay Tournament

Our 25th Anniversary Rapidplay took place on April 20th.

It was wonderful to see so many local players come to support the league & enjoy a day’s chess.

League General Secretary Peter Oliver & his team did a wonderful job in organizing the event, with special thanks for his website support to Ken McNulty. Ray & Eunice Dolan sorted the venue for us, & were naturals in providing refreshments as well as welcoming a reporter from the Express & Star. We had special guests Mark & Corin Statham – Bloxwich East Councillors, who were introduced to the players & made the ceremonial first move on board 1 of the Open section (photos in the gallery)

Congratulations to Karan Kukreja from Warwickshire Juniors CC, who won a very competitive Open section, while a local CDCL regular Daniel Turner, who plays for Rugeley, won the Minor section. Results here: https://chess-results.com/tnr926530.aspx?lan=1

International Arbiter & long time CDCL supporter, Matt Carr, ran the event as smoothly as ever. Thank you to him for his time & expertise. His next local venture is another Rapidplay, this time at Burntwood on Saturday 1st June. For further information please go to https://congress.org.uk/congress/381/home