British Women's Chess Association

BWCA Home

Welcome to the homepage of the British Women's Chess Association. The BWCA is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to promote girls' and women's chess throughout the British Isles.

Girls and women are currently massively under-represented in chess throughout the world, including the British Isles. The BWCA believes that through the provision of single-sex competitions and training events, more girls and women will be attracted into taking up, and continuing to enjoy, playing chess. Almost all of Britain's leading female chess players feel that they have benefited from this kind of positive discrimination.

The BWCA produces its magazine, Queen's File four times a year, with a mixture of national and international news, plus BWCA information.

Tournament News - York and District Open Age Schools Championships

Sunday 23 November at Guildhall St Helen's Square York.
6 rounds 11.30 - 5.30
Entry fee £3 per player: cheques to York and District Chess Association
Entry forms from/to David Baren 29 Pear Tree Avenue Upper Poppleton York YO26 6HH Tel 01904 794636

Croydon Palace Trophy - A new event

The BWCA is pleased to announce a 6-player, FIDE-rated all-play-all for Britain's strongest girl players, to be held alongside the BWCA championships in February. The line-up (with nationalities and January 2003 FIDE ratings in brackets) is :

Teresa Khoo (ENG, 2108)

Marte Egeland (NOR, 2086)

Elaine Rutherford (SCO, 2055)

Annie Powell (WLS, 2036)

Sabrina Chevannes (ENG, 1972)

Sarah Hegarty (ENG, 1905)

The tournament was won by Elaine Rutherford with 3.5/5.

BWCA Girls Championships and Women's Rapidplay 2003 - Entry Form

The entry form for the 12th National Girls' Chess Championships is available fordownload as a Word document.There is a £2 reduction in the entry fee for BWCA members, and anyone joining at the championships will have £2 deducted from the membership fee.

The entry form for the BWCA Women's Rapidplay (incorporating the U-16 and U-18 titles) is available for download as a Word document. It takes place on Sunday the 9th of February only. There is a £2 reduction in the entry fee for BWCA members, and anyone joining at the championships will have £2 deducted from the membership fee.

There will be free coaching from 1998 World Girls U-18 champion and England Olympiad team member WIM Ruth Sheldon, and the opportunity to watch the games being played in the Croydon Palace Trophy.

The championships are the 8th and 9th of February 2003 and the venue is Old Palace School, Croydon. The school is close to East Croydon Station, which has fast connections to London and the South Coast, and car parking is available at the venue.

For a map of the venue either enclose an SAE with entry or visit the link in this sentence.

Olympiad Diary

Several BWCA members are representing their countries at the Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia, from the 26th October - 10th November 2002. The Scottish player Heather Lang is contributing an Olympiad Diary to the BWCA website. URL is http://www.bwca.printf.net/diary2002.shtml.

UPDATE: The diary received over 12000 hits in the space of the two weeks of the Olympiad, and has since been linked to by the Mig column on the Chessbasewebsite, among others.

BWCA Training events

The April / May training events were a great success. Report in the Spring/Summer 2002 issue of Queen's File.

News : BWCA Girls Championships and Womens Rapidplay

These took place in York on the 16th-17th February 2002.

U8/9

1st Jessica Thilaganathan 8/9, 2nd Sheila Dines 7.5, 3rd=Bethany Halpin, Jade Willis 6.5
U8 champion Stephanie Hale 4.5

U10/11

1st Eleanor Hayden 7/7, 2nd Emma Williams 6, 3rd= Abi Fryer, Katie Hale (U10 champion) 5

U12/14

1st= Colleen Halpin, Charlotte Wilcox 4.5/6
U12 champion Katie Nightingale 3.5

BWCA Women's Rapidplay (including U16 title)

1st Heather Lang 6/6, 2nd Rachel Mothersill 4.5, 3rd Patricia Adams 4
U16 Karen Bradley 3.5