Our Teams

Cumnor Chess Club fields two teams in the Oxford and District Chess League (ODCL).

Each team consists of six players from the Cumnor Chess Club, and match games are played (home and away) between October and May of each year.

Cumnor 1

Our first team play in division one, playing some of the strongest players in Oxfordshire chess!

Cumnor 1, league history
(Bold indicates promotion):

  • 2022-2023 … (ODCL division first) – in progress
  • 2021-2022 Sixth place (ODCL division first) *
  • 2020-2021 *season cancelled due to Coronavirus*
  • 2019-2020 Fourth place (ODCL division first) *season cancelled due to Coronavirus*
  • 2018-2019 First place (ODCL division two)
  • 2017-2018 Seventh place (ODCL division two)
  • 2016-2017 Fourth place (ODCL division two)
  • 2015-2016 Fifth place (ODCL division two)
  • 2014-2015 Fourth place (ODCL division two)
  • 2013-2014 Fourth place (ODCL division two)
  • 2012-2013 Sixth place (ODCL division two)
  • 2011-2012 First place (ODCL division three)
  • 2010-2011 Eighth place (ODCL division two)
  • 2009-2010 Second place (ODCL division three)
  • 2008-2009 Third place (ODCL division four)
  • 2007-2008 Sixth place (ODCL division three)
  • 2006-2007 First place (ODCL, division four)

Check out Cumnor 1’s current position in division 1 of the ODCL.

Cumnor 2

As the club grew it became clear that we could sustain a second team in the Oxfordshire chess league. Cumnor 2 made its debut in 2009

We often give our junior players a chance to play in match conditions with the Cumnor 2 team.

Cumnor 2, league history:

  • 2022-2023 … (ODCL division three) – in progress
  • 2021-2022 Second place (ODCL division three) *
  • 2020-2021 *season cancelled due to Coronavirus*
  • 2019-2020 Third place (ODCL division four) *season cancelled due to Coronavirus*
  • 2018-2019 Eight place (ODCL division three)
  • 2017-2018 Seventh place (ODCL division three)
  • 2016-2017 Second place (ODCL division four)
  • 2015-2016 Third place (ODCL division four)
  • 2014-2015 Third place (ODCL division four)
  • 2013-2014 Seventh place (ODCL division four)
  • 2012-2013 Sixth place (ODCL division four)
  • 2011-2012 Fourth place (ODCL division four)
  • 2010-2011 Second place (ODCL division four)
  • 2009-2010 Third place (ODCL division four)

Check out Cumnor 2’s current position in division 3 of the ODCL.


* After the Coronavirus pandemic a number of clubs cut down the number of teams, in part due to uncertainty in player numbers and the need for additional players to act as substitutes in case a positive test took someone out for a match or two. Remember this was September 2021. Bicester folded and clubs such as Cowley and City merged and removed teams. Due to this the ODCL division three and four merged and there was some reshuffling of other teams. We kept both of our two teams, Cumnor 1 remained in the First division while Cumnor 2 moved into the Third division.

Frank Woods Shield

The Frank Woods Shield is a handicapped knockout competition for the teams in Oxfordshire, we traditionally enter one team but occasionally enter two.

Bold indicates notable placement:

  • 2021-2022 Quarter-Finalist
  • 2021-2022 Quarter-Finalist (second team)
  • 2020-2021 *season cancelled due to Coronavirus see below*
  • 2019-2020 Round 2
  • 2019-2020 Semi-Finalist (second team)
  • *season cancelled due to Coronavirus – semi-final never played*
  • 2018-2019 Semi-Finalist
  • 2017-2018 Winners
  • 2016-2017 Round 2
  • 2016-2017 Round 1 (second team)
  • 2015-2016 Round 2
  • 2014-2015 Round 2
  • 2013-2014 Round 1
  • 2012-2013 Quarter-Finalist
  • 2011-2012 Semi-Finalist
  • 2011-2012 Round 1 (second team)
  • 2010-2011 Round 1
  • 2010-2011 Round 3 (second team)
  • 2009-2010 Quarter-Finalist
  • 2008-2009 Round 3
  • 2007-2008 Round 3
  • 2006-2007 Round 2

The Coronavirus Pandemic

During the Coronavirus pandemic the club had to find a new way to keep going while we were unable to meet in real life. This meant going online. We held our first online evening on the 19th March 2020 and a “Club Night” was held every Thursday evening until 9th September 2021, when the club opened for the first time in 546 days. Lichess was the platform used for both friendly and competition play.

The rest of this page will follow the team during the pandemic if you want to check out how we played our internal tournaments check out the Our Cups page.

We are fortunate to have many passionate players at Cumnor Chess Club. One of these players Ian Bush also happened to be the Chairman of the Oxfordshire Chess Association.

This led to Cumnor to being the go-to club in Oxfordshire to get everyone online so the 2020-2021 season (or something similar) could be played. A kind of guinea pig, if you will.

Cumnor played a number of friendly matches against others teams during the early summer of 2020 and entered a team in the National Online Club Championships, we finished 5th in the intermediate section and the results can be found here.

The decision was made that the 2020-21 season would be split into two online tournaments – one played before Christmas, and another after – named after a local player Mike Duck. The final standings can be found below with more detail here.

First Mike Duck Online Tournament

    Cumnor 1 – Fourth (out of fourteen)
    Cumnor 2 – Eighth (out of fourteen)

Second Mike Duck Online Tournament

    Cumnor 1 – Fifth (out of twenty-two)
    Cumnor 2 – Sixth (out of twenty-two)
    Cumnor 3 – Ninetieth (out of twenty-two)

Of course we must thank Ian for his hard work over the season. When he became Chairman I doubt Ian thought he would spend every evening during the winter of 2020 checking that dozens of online matches had started on time with the correct time controls!