Counties Championship 2022

Historical winners list (1908 – 2017) | Archive of previous years | 100 Years of the County Championship

Results
Open – Northumberland v Yorkshire (Darlington) – 8-8 – Northumberland win on board count
Minor Counties – Devon v Norfolk (Knaphill, Woking) – Devon win by 9-7
U2050 – Essex v Surrey (Wanstead House) – Essex win by 8.5 – 7.5
U1850 – Yorkshire v Middlesex (Ullesthorpe) – Middlesex win by 9-7
U1650 – Surrey v Warwickshire (Wanstead House) – Surrey win by 13.5 – 2.5
U1450 – Essex v Surrey (Wanstead House) – Essex win by 7 – 5

Replay the games
https://www.englishchess.org.uk/replay-the-games-counties-championship-finals-2022/

Open Finals – Northumberland vs Yorkshire
Pictures courtesy of Carl Stephens / Matthew Carr


Open Finals – Northumberland vs Yorkshire
Pictures courtesy of David G Mills

Minor Counties Finals – Devon vs Norfolk
Pictures courtesy of Satish Gaekwad

U2050/U1450 Counties Finals – Essex vs Surrey
Pictures courtesy of Mark Murrell/Mike Gunn

U1850 Counties Finals – Yorkshire vs Middlesex
Pictures courtesy of Ravi Sandhu

U1650 Counties Finals – Surrey vs Warwickshire
Pictures courtesy of Mike Gunn


The Second 100 Years of County Chess begins again …

Finals Day 2022

The finals for the different sections of the 2022 Championships will be held on 2nd July at four different venues across the country.

Follow the top board action live from around the country through the links below, which will go live shortly before 1:30pm —

  • Live commentary of the Open, Minor Counties & U2050 events by GM Peter Wells & WIM Natasha Regan – COMMENTARY
  • Live scores from all 6 finals at a glance in the LMS – TODAY’S FIXTURES
  • Championship matchcards live in the LMS – OPEN  |  MINOR  |  U2050  |  U1850  |  U1650  |  U1450

Open Championships
The final of the Open Championships will be an all-Northern Counties match between Northumberland and Yorkshire in Darlington at 2.00pm
The local mayor will formally open proceedings
Live on Lichess – https://lichess.org/broadcast/ecf-county-championships-finals-open/round-1/Cz2qawjk
Live on the LiveChessCloud – https://view.livechesscloud.com/#db57e803-5e71-4c28-a4f7-2e4271f32f40

Minor Counties
The Minor Counties final will be between Devon and Norfolk, and will take place at a venue in Woking at 1.30pm
Live on Lichess – https://lichess.org/broadcast/ecf-minor-counties-championships-knaphill-nr-woking/round-1/GdMkvQI6
Live on the LiveChessCloud – https://view.livechesscloud.com/#99024a76-ff89-40c4-b275-92be669a590a

U2050
The final will be between Essex and Surrey at Wanstead House in northeast London at 1.30pm
Live on Lichess – https://lichess.org/broadcast/ecf-u2050-counties-championship-final-essex-v-surrey/final/e84Nzqg2
Live on the LiveChessCloud – https://view.livechesscloud.com/#6bdc39ed-009c-41e1-8182-71be6d8b2cff

U1850
The final will be between Yorkshire and Middlesex at Syston in Ullesthorpe in Leicestershire at 1.30pm

U1650
The final will be between Surrey and Warwickshire at Wanstead House as above at 1.30pm

U1450
The final will be between Essex and Surrey at Wanstead House at 1.30pm alongside the U2050 final between the same two counties



Championships Results
(in the ECF LMS)

Open | Minor Counties | U2050 | U1850 | U1650 | U1450 | Draws | Draws (PDF)

The ECF OTB County Championships Finals return for 2021-22
After a two-year hiatus between October 2021 and April 2022, the five Unions of the Federation had the opportunity to conduct qualifying competitions for the new look County Championship under ECF ELO ratings and monthly official rating lists for the first time (the FIDE-rated Open has been using FIDE monthly lists for a while now). The national stages will be held on their traditional dates between late April and early July with qualification by Union nomination (by Sunday 27 March 2022) in the traditional way for the following championships —

Open
FIDE & ECF rated (no rating limit)
Gold ECF membership required for more than 1 game and FIDE registration that is not Russian or Belarusian.

Minor Counties
For teams with a maximum team average ECF rating of 2050
Bronze ECF membership required

ECF rating limited sections
For teams with players rated U2050, U1850, U1650 and U1450
Bronze ECF membership required.

The 1st September monthly standard Official Original list (Blue September 2021) determines eligibility for the purposes of the rating limited sections and team average in the Minor Counties. 

Ratings for all
Players can view all their historical and latest official monthly ratings for over-the-board and online ECF rated chess on the ECF rating system database at https://www.ecfrating.org.uk/v2/new/list_players.php. Live ratings can be found in the list of a player’s games.

Qualifying competitions
These have been held by four of the five Unions, whose current results can be viewed here —

East* | Midlands | North | South
(*via EACU menu and then County Tables)

A Covid-19 adjustment for 2021/22 will see the draws published for each championship (other than the U1850) not later than 28 days before the quarter final default play by date for a particular championship.  The U1850 draw will be published as soon as possible following the close of nominations as there are likely to be one or more preliminary round matches.

Rules 2021/22
The new rules incorporating the changes to the rating limited sections, eligibility criteria, rating lists and board orders are set out in the PDF linked below. Section E (socially distanced chess) and Section F (hybrid chess with teams at separate venues) of the ECF Tournament Rules for ECF rating will be incorporated into the rules to give as much flexibility as possible for the playing of chess whilst we adapt to live with Covid-19.

County Championship Rules 2021-22 (May 2022 update)

Championships schedule

27th March – Close of nominations
23rd April – U1850 Preliminary Round
14th May – Open, Minor Counties, U1850 & U1450 Quarter Finals
21st May – U2050 & U1650 Quarter Finals
11th June – Semi Finals of all championships
2nd July – Finals of all championships