UK Armed Forces Chess Championship
This year’s event is taking place at RAF Cranwell, 4th-7th April. It follows the usual format, a 7 round Swiss with the titles of Royal Navy Champion, Royal Air Force Champion, British Army Champion, MoD Champion and Veteran Champion all at stake.
As well as this, the top performing players will go on to represent the UK at the NATO Chess Championship later on in the year.
The event will be proceeded on the 3rd of April by a simultaneous display given by the famous English Grandmaster, 'The Ginger GM', Simon Williams.
Places in the Simul and accommodation is limited, so please enter as soon as possible.
Click the link below for full details and an entry form.
Perrott Trophy 2024
New Open File
Winter 2024
Open File Winter 2024 has just arrived. Guest Edited by Chas Chapman (we are currently looking for a new editor from the membership).
It is another packed edition - reflecting the growth of chess in the UK armed forces. This edition has coverage of the NATO Chess Championships in Greece and the UKAFCA Rapidplay at RAF Benson. We also say a farewell to former Services Champion, Frank Salt.
Note: We now have many past editions of Open File archived in this section, with several from the early years of the RAF Chess Association in pdf form.
4-7th April 2025 UKAFCC at RAF Cranwell
12-13 April 4NCL Peterborough
3-5 May 4NCL Coventry
4NCL Online Dates (Spring 2025 Edition)
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4 March
18 March
1 April
15 April
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This years Inter-Services Championships, 'The Perrott Trophy’, will be held online on LiChess in June/July.
The competition is open to everyone, the bigger the teams the better. You do not need to have any previous experience competing and players of any ability can take part. If you have retired from RN/Army/RAF/MOD then you can still play for the service you served in. If you represented more than one service (the RN/MOD for example), you can pick who you play for based on where you feel your loyalty lies.
There will be 4 team captains:
RN: Liam Cooper
Army: Francis Pearce
RAF: Steve O’Neill
MOD: Zamira Lucas-DIvers
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Default match times will be Tuedsday nights on LiChess (free to create an account if you don’t already have one) commencing at 1930 using the 4NCL time control of 45 mins plus 15 secs. Individual matches can be re-arranged if players have other commitments on match nights.
Captains will agree the number of boards before the games. If you want to represent your service, just contact your Team Captain. You don’t have to play each round just tell your Captain which rounds you want to play and we will aim to give as many players as possible a game.
Round 1 will be 18th June: Army vs MOD, RN vs RAF
Round 2 will be 26th June: Army vs RAF, RN vs MOD
Round 3 will be 02nd July: Army vs RN, MOD vs RAF
UKAFCA Fair Play Code of Conduct for Online Chess Events