TOURNAMENT HISTORY

NUCC (Northern University Chess Championship)

At the end of the 2015 summer term, the outgoing President of Durham University Chess Club, Peter Hornsby, attempted to arrange a friendly match against York University to celebrate the end of the exam period. However Leeds University were also interested in participating, so with the help of Joel Wagg and Alexander Taylor a small scale rapid-play team competition was set up for students to take place at the University of York. It was labelled ‘The Northern Universities Chess Championship’ (NUCC) inviting teams from across the UK. There were 32 students representing a handful of universities on the 14th of June 2015, which resulted in Durham prevailing over York in a thrilling finale to claim the inaugural title.

Eager to build on this success this group of friends sought support to enhance this student venture for the next academic year. This was achieved through a chance meeting with the director of the ‘British Chess Magazine’, who generously agreed to sponsor the next event and provide memorabilia for tournament prizes. ‘Purling London’ also kindly donated a prestigious Chess board which was to be used as the overall first trophy for the winners, and has been used ever since.

On the 6th November 2015 twenty teams from a dozen universities took part in the second instalment of NUCC at York University, with Edinburgh the eventual winners. The success of the tournament was recognised through publications in the Yorkshire Post, The British Chess Magazine and the Durham Palatinate, significantly raising the profile of NUCC.

Purling London donated one of their luxury Chess sets as the trophy for the first placed team with each winning team having their name engraved on a square every year, which has been used ever since.

Buoyed by this success members of the NUCC committee launched a sister tournament in the south at the University College of Law, which despite being the first event it immediately matched the enthusiasm seen in York, with Oxford University triumphing overall. Lord Lyndon Harrison of Chester offered his valuable support in attending, and awarding the prizes in the closing ceremony.

'20/20 Chess'

A development and re-branding of NUCC came out for the 2016-17 season, '20/20 Chess', which was designed to crown the best rapid-play team in the country with 20 minutes per player with no increment as the time controls reflecting the name. New sponsors were brought in from Chess and Bridge who kindly provided Chess sets and prizes, along with slick new digital clocks raising the profile and professionalism of the tournaments. Chess Openings Wizard became the first Chess software company to support us offering yet more prizes all the way from the United States, demonstrating how 2020 has received recognition around the world!

Events have since been held across the UK, in record breaking numbers in London, Leeds, York, Birmingham and Manchester with the top teams, many of them from schools and clubs as well as universities, qualifying for the ‘2020 Grand Final' which takes place ever year in February/March.

After several successful years the organizers were in a position to re-structure the competition in order to raise money for their chosen charity, Oxfam who agreed to partner with 2020 Chess. Please go to Oxfam.co.uk for more details about the fantastic work they do.

Warwick University were the first winners in 2017 in York, with the Mayor Barbara Boyce kindly attending to award the prizes.

Surbiton Chess Club claimed the title in 2018 in Birmingham, and Imperial triumphed in the same location in 2019 with the strongest ever side to take part featuring three International Masters.

Warwick University regained their title in February 2020 at the same venue, then the pandemic hit and the UK went into lockdowns.

After a two year hiatus, over the board '2020 Chess' resumed, and a group of friends calling themselves Storona Koroyla, which means 'King's Castles' in Ukrainian, were the victors in 2022.

Warwick University won again the following year in 2023, followed by Birmingham University in January 2024 then most recently North Staffordshire Knights in March 2025.

The tournament will take a break in 2026 but hopefully will return in some form in 2027.

2020 Chess has also been officially recognised by the English Chess Federation and accepted onto the council, more details can be found here:

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/about/ecf-council-and-board/

Briliant Birmingham University battle to victory!

20th January 2024 at Birmingham University

20/20 Chess had a new winner for the 2024 season, and it was deservedly claimed convincingly by the hosts Birmingham University!

They won all five matches and only dropped 4 game points across the tournament: 

20/20 Chess 20th January 2024 | ScorchChess (scorchapp.co.uk)

We then had time for an individual blitz tournament which Phil Purcell won in a play-off: 

Birmingham 20/20 Blitz 20th January | ScorchChess (scorchapp.co.uk)

Thank you to Philip Press and his colleagues at the University of Birmingham for hosting the event, and for James Connors for helping with the pairings and scoring the results.