Thursday 31 December 2009

Nallin is our leader

Happy Christmas and new year everyone lets hope that we all continue enjoying the season in the new year and see some match reports from bob, although i think bob is a bit wary about putting anything up now after he has finally recognized that the almighty powerful Nalin is our leader! Happy new year everyone

Thursday 17 December 2009

K O Cup Round 1- Rugby C- At Home 15/12/09

Board 1 James - Lost - An Unusual Result
Board 2 Roy - Lost - Oh! that Bishop
Board 3 Chris - Lost - A Brave Fight
Board 4 joe - lost - Will he ever learn

John's strange game with no name ...

Wednesday 16 December 2009

another good night for the 1st team

Friday 11 December 2009

Rugby "C " Results

Results of Tuesday 08/12/09 match - at home


Board 1 James - Win
Board 2 Roy - Draw
Board 3 Chris - Oh Dear
Board 4 Joe - As Usual

Game - 8/12/09

Another uninspiring title but 'Amazing Game' is a bit of a stretch. My opponent as White lost the initiative early on. Afterward, he said he'd played 1.d4 as players at our level are less comfortable with it. This viewpoint is fine, but a plan after 1.d4 would have helped. I wasn't just going to resign. I don't think 2.f4 counts as a sound plan.

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Cox vs Cramp, 8th Dec 2009

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Chris plays Board 3 (and loses quite rapidly)

Not a good start as I arrived late for the game, to find that I had been 'promoted' by Captain Joe to Board 3. (Not sure that I am ready to leave the security of board 4 yet).

I was pleased with myself up to move 7, but missed a couple of opportunities and made life hard for myself from 14 on by moving my queen into a spot where she could do me no good. I also neglected to anticipate the threat of the two rooks lining up. So lessons learned here. Jon Cox went through it afterwards and pointed out some ways to improve but happy to receive advice from others also.

Saturday 5 December 2009

Putting tables into the blog - we now know how!

This is part of the occasional 'how to' instructions series. So ignore it if you are only here for the chess.

Put simply ... Blogger (the blog software) automatically puts space before any table that you post into it. Lots of space. See this blog for a demonstration..

The same blog suggests a solution (avert eyes at this point if not teccie). This is that you insert a small piece of CSS code at the top of the post:

<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none }</style>

and use the div tag to reference it, so

<div class="nobrtable">

Post your table here -------------------

</div>


Problem sorted. This means in plainspeak that we could post tables of results if we wanted to. It does however require some trickery ...

Friday 4 December 2009

We won the team lightning !

Another pretty decent night for the club on Tuesday - we won the team lightning!
Rugby 30 points
Cov A 25.5 points
Uni 19 points (approx)
Cov B 8 points (approx)
The team was John Naylor, Bob Wildig, Martin Wilson, Jonathan Cox, Nalin Kadodwala, ANO, John Kennedy (loaned to us by Cov) - 7 players.
Everyone played well at the horribly quick 10 seconds per move but in particlar Nalin had a clean sweep and probably John Kennedy as well.

So first trophy of the season for us - will there be any others ????

Saturday 28 November 2009

Nalin's back with his usual sacrifices!

Thank you to all who were concerned about me being ill but I'm almost 100% better now so thank you. Also, I would like to add that anyone would be lucky to spend an hour with me so keep plugging away at John's puzzle lol! I found it amusing when we met up with bob and people in the merchant and bob was asking seriously if I was ok about the amount of comments being made against myself. Of course I had to reply that I was losing sleep over it and that I had been psycologically damaged!!!

On all 3 games the names are the wrong way round. To repeat, I was Black in all games.

Anyway, 3 games to go through including the sacrificial double piece win and a rather cunning queen trap. All 3 games are Dutch Defences where I am black. Enjoy...



The position at this point is very equal. Black's play is probably easier to play but that's about it. On to the exciting games now...



That was the queen trap and to finish is the ridiculously stupid double piece sac which shouldn't work, BUT DOES!!!!



Even if I lost this game, it was without doubt the most enjoyable high intensity match that I've played with a lot of people watching the game.

Feel free to post comments on any of the games and tell me how good I am LOL!!

And now its over to Nigel ...

From Nigel Malka here is a game from Rugby B. Nice to see something from them up here. From Nigel's comment elsewhere:

Rugby B Chess team on the 24 Nov were away to Nuneaton C and from previous years we knew it was going to be a difficult game for us to get a result. With 5 regular member John was rested. The first game to finish was Malcolm Harding on board 4, he only seemed to have sat down when he gave me a thumbs up and we were one up. Both Jim MDonald on board 3 and then Simon Turner on board 2 lost so with a very even game I felt we had lost the match. However with time against him a poor move allowed Nigel Malka to push home an advantage and our borad one got the win so it ended with a good draw for the team.

Note: Anyone who is interested in knowing how to do this - or even more advanced stuff - and who has some free time on the 30th Nov evening should check out Bob's recent email. Sue has set us up with four computers to try some things out and Sue and I will be on hand to answer all your blogging queries. Sorry for that interruption, back to the chess ...

Thursday 26 November 2009

Similar sort of start to James game

I don't seem to be able to get the players right here. Anyway O Cosham is White and R Wildig is Black !

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Game from 24th Nov

An interesting enough opening but a blunder cut short the rest of the game. I think John spotted a way for me to improve in the first few moves though. (Just realised I put the names the wrong way round, I'm playing Black.)

Nuneaton B (McConnell) v Rugby A (Cox), 24th November 2009

How did I miss my chance to checkmate? I need new glasses!

Monday 23 November 2009

Hi everyone I am hoping to do a weekly puzzle for our club - the winner gets to have an hour with our celebrity Nalin!

Thursday 19 November 2009

Interesting Chess Video ....

John spotted this on the coventry league site and it is a quite fascinating video about the way chess players think.

SOMEONE KEEP NALIN QUIET!!

Good night for us this week

The first team played well on Tuesday. Martin Wilson took advantage of some indifferent play by Dave Filer and won fairly quickly. I'm not sure Dave was exactly with it - early on after we started he came and sat down to continue playing against me at about move 10 !!!! Both I and my real opponent were a bit startled by this. I looked at Dave and said "Why are you sitting there?!" He got up in confusion. Oh well. I had a good start against Mark Page who has outplayed me a couple of times recently, so was pleased to have the edge. I would put the game on here but it contains an opening novelty which I want to use again and I don't want potential opponents seeing it. Anyway I offered a draw when I was still slightly better seeing that both Nalin and John Naylor were doing well. Nalin drew with Ed Goodwin - a good result against an experienced opponent and then John proceeded to outplay Dave Ireland - should see that tonight when we get to the Merchants!

So the C team drew - well done - I think Joe just missed out on a win, but I don't know what happened with the B team ???????

Wednesday 18 November 2009

London Chess Classic 2009, London Olympia, 8-15 December

Taken from The London Chess Classic 2009 website 'this will be the highest level tournament in London for 25 years and will be the first in a series of events designed to increase enthusiasm for chess in the UK and promote the game and its undoubted educational benefits in schools and communities. It is also our objective to bring the world championship to London in the Olympic year 2012.'

English grandmasters; Nigel Short, Michael Adams, Luke McShane and David Howell will be pitched against a world class field that includes a former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and 18 year old Magnus Carlsen ranked world number one (since 15 Nov). One of China's finest players; Ni Hua and the US Champion Hikaru Nakamura, complete the field. For more info read their profiles.

There will be live commentary from Grandmasters and spectators will be able to play tournament or informal games all day. For more information visit the site.

Sounds impressive doesn't it?

Game from 17 Nov 09

A few mistakes by both players in this game. The highlight for me was near the end when my opponent started to get rattled by the level of noise in the pavilion. He decided to launch a piece of tissue at his teammate who was sitting in the corner, going over his game with John Naylor. Of course, Sod's law meant the tissue landed straight on John's head! Like a gentleman, John chose to ignore it, as I tried not to burst out laughing.







Saturday 14 November 2009

First team Tues 10 Nov

The first team didn't quite get the win it wanted on Tuesday, drawing 2-2 against Nuneaton A.
Things looked good when Nalin trapped Mark Proberts Queen to win Q+P for R+N and he made no mistake bringing home the win. John Naylor went a pawn ahead in his game with Maurice Staples and I found some good early pressure against Colin Green. Jonathoan Cox was level against v d Westhuizen. However I spent too long trying to get through in my game and I suddenly realised that Black was counterattacking and one slip and the game would be gone so I allowed a 3 fold repetition for a draw. John also couldn't quite get any further in his game drawing so we were 2-1 up. Jonathan ended up in a K+P endgame which should probably have been drawn but an unpleasant little tactic meant that his king had to to look after 2 well separated passed pawns while his opponents K had only to look after one, so he sadly lost.
No second team on Tuesday and I'm not sure how the thirds got on although I know Sue lost narrowly being the exchange down in the endgame. Thats the sort of game to learn from, Sue!

Thursday 12 November 2009

Latest news and Individual Competition info on CDCL site

Liam, the webmaster for the CDCL site has been busy and posted an October update telling you which team is in the lead in the league (not Rugby I'm afraid) and the Divisional Cup (Rugby A, wow!!!!) also giving links to local websites which include analysis of games. This blog (well done folks) gets special mention, as does a site by Coventry player Mike Donnelly which I was not previously aware of and have added to our side links.

If you are thinking of taking part in the CDCL individual competitions it might be worth checking out the recent changes to the Individual Competitions page too. Notably the shift of the Barry Ades Trophy grade range from 100 to 120 and below. The Barnacle (U-18s) may run this year, but there is some discussion on-going about who can enter - whether you have to be playing in the league or not. Deadline for entries is 24th November, so quite soon.

I can't say anything about the games this week because I wasn't there. But I understand Nalin had a good game. I look forward to seeing that one and others some time. Especially now that our site has been singled out for its analysis (hint).

Monday 9 November 2009

Game from 27 Oct match

Jonathon Cox also played Jim Dixon on 27 October and won quite quickly then by a similar K side attack to last weeks game.

Friday 6 November 2009

More games from 3rd November

Herewith a clinical display from John Naylor as he seizes on an unintentional early lapse by his opponent.



And a good win from Jonathan who beat the same opponent a week earlier.

Malcolm's game from 3rd Nov (Div 2)

Malcolm won on Tuesday (as Bob mentioned in his post), so check it out here (full details now included).

Thursday 5 November 2009

Matches Cov Chess 3 Nov

The first team did well with John Naylor winning convincingly, my game is given below - also a win and Jonathan had another quick win which we will try and get on the blog asap. Sadly Martin resigned when he lost a rook admitting that he had forgotten that Knights can move backwards !






The B team did well too, winning 2.5 1.5 also against Cov Chess. I saw Nigel and Malcolm won their games - not sure about where the half came from.

C team lost but it was good that James Mendes returned to his winning ways. Chris Pegler took her game down to an ending where she was the exchange down. This is the normal 'grind' of chess, Chris, so hope you didn't find it too difficult!

Sunday 1 November 2009

First team 27th Oct

Back after a few days hol and the first team clearly did better without me !
The results were
Coventry B Rugby

C Pickering 0 1 J Naylor
R Holmes 1/2 1/2 M A Wilson
J Dixon 0 1 J Cox
D Filer 0 1 N Kadodwala

1/2 3 1/2

We looked at the games the other night and they were all fairly straightforward apart from the second half of Nalins game! (Nalin - you don't have to surrender a couple of Bishops just because you've won a pawn - it doesn't work like that! Glad I wasn't aspectator !)
Oddly enough we are playing the same opponents at the same venue this week ...

Oddl

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Team Three at Massey F (27th Oct)

The third team (Roy, James, Joe and Chris) played in the second round of the Divisional Cup at Massey Ferguson Social Club. Our worthy opponents were Coventry Chess, including nine year old Rajan who made Chris really work for her win. You can see this below - with apologies for losing the way in the notation at the end. (Click through to move 16 and see whether you can guess what happened next move.)



Sad to say this was our only win of the evening. James concluded his winning streak with his first loss this season - on time after a tough game. Thanks to Joe for organising us all and for transport. We will be back at the same location next Tuesday and hoping to do better.

Friday 23 October 2009

second team 20 Oct v Uni 'C'

Even with the first board defaulted to Rugby we knew it would be difficult to gain a good result from the game, Simon Turner, John Hall and Jim McDonald all played well giving their opponents something to think about but positions and the lack of minor errors gave the Uni team the edge making the final resul 1-3.

Hail the heroes at Blogger (and heroines too!)

This is off the subject of chess for a moment so if you really can't stand computers of the internet look away ... (but then you probably would not be reading this message either :-)).

This morning the blog was not working. In fact all sorts of blogger blogs were not working for something like 30 minutes. It will happen from time to time. If it happens to you do not panic. The best thing to do is go away for a while and come back later when its fixed. The good thing about blogger is that it has a lot of people using it. So if you get a message that says its not working and giving you a code then putting this into a Google search will probably bring you to a solution or - as happened this morning - a whole mass of people with the same problem. Which at least tells you its not just you with problems. Check out this discussion if you want to see just how busy Blogger is when things go wrong - talk about work pressure ...

The problem was fixed within an hour. Bearing in mind that this is a free service and I suspect that the someones fixing it were working in the middle of the night that is impressive. So this service (these blogs) are hosted on a free service, but its an impressive one with some excellent customer care. Better by far than some of the other services I pay for.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Sue's first game: where did it all go wrong?

This game ended after two hours with my king trapped on h1 by a queen on h8 and a rook on f2 but my brain was scrambled by then so I'm not sure how it happened :-(

Oct 20 First team

No glory for us last night losing 0.5 - 3.5 to Uni A !

Nalin should have won, Jonathan was slightly on top but fell away at the end, and Bob fell into the following rather clever trap. Only Martin came away with anything - a draw. Oh well wait till the away match!

Although this is a loss - its a neat game with a nice combination by White.

Advice please ...

I played a charming student last night who comprehensively slaughtered me. But it did have some interesting moments. I've put up here the position going into black's move 11. (This is something you can do in the PGN editor if you choose manual set up and clear the board and then set out the peices).

I played d6, a wasted move disregarding the threat of Ne5. Could I have done something more promising with this? Its the sort of position that I always seem to play badly ...

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Leamington match 19/10/9

A lesson in chess for the whole Rugby team from our home match with the Daventry team.
1, Nigel Malka, 2, Simon Turner and 3, John Hall all lost

Nigel moved too quickly and didn't see the the danger till too late and this time it was position that he lost and 20 moves later he suffered for it.
Simon again made a move and didn'y see the danger to his queen,
John had the most even game and it was all down to a pawn ending, looked like a draw but a race offen doesn't end in a draw.

Friday 16 October 2009

A good win according to Bob

This was played a week after a horrible loss, albeit against a very very strong player, so I felt like I needed confidence and most importantly a win. In this game black comes up with a lot of tactics but his general plan was not great. I apologise for the unusual opening but you will be surprised at what bad moves and plans decent players will come up with when faced with unexpected moves! Onto the game...

Thursday 15 October 2009

Tuesday 13th matches

A team, A good win from Nalin (but you just have to get these wins higher up the board order now!), I played poorly and lost , Martin Wilson looked to have a pretty good game early on, was a pawn up, but his opponent found som king side counterplay and the game was drawn.
Jonathon drew his match - I saw it as I left - cliff hanging stuff - and they agreed a draw due to mutual panic. They measured the amount of time left and Jonathon had 8 seconds left and his opponent 7 seconds.
great time handling guys !
Anyway - match result Rugby A 2 Uni B 2

B team ????
C team, I think we lost 1-3 but congratultions to James Mendes on keeping his 100% score !

Wednesday 14 October 2009

New Coventry Chess Club site

New websites for local chess clubs are springing up all over. The CDCL flags up that Coventry Chess Club now has a new site.



The web address (URL) is http://coventrychessclub.yolasite.com/ if you want to check it out. They have a 'Trainng' section (links to chess quizzes). Perhaps something we could look into? Its possible to make some using the PGN editor (see Instructions link in RHS colum of this webspage).

You will see I am not mentioning my game last night ... which was unmentionable. :-(

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Leamington League Team in Chipping Camden (8th Oct results)

Sorry I originally put this message in the comments section of a previous post.....


Leamington League Div3
Away vs Chipping Camden
08 Oct 09.

Rugby team: Jim MacDonald Roy Talbot and Joe Oswell

Rugby lost 2-1.

Thanks to Roy & Joe for turning-out as CCamden takes an hour+ to get there!!

Leamngton League (12th Oct)

Leamington League Div 3
Home to Kenilworth C
12 October

Rugby won 2.5 to 0.5. Simon Turner & Jim MacDonald won; John Hall drew. Simon's game finished at 22:30!

A steady start to the season, with 2 wins & 2 losses.

Wednesday 7 October 2009

The third team

Still not sure of the result as I haven't been able to contact Joe.
But anyway it was at least a draw because although Raj was defaulted, James Mendes won on top and - absolutely brilliantly - in her first game in the league the provider of our new blog - Chris Pegler - won. Even though as she says it was against someone else relatively new, it's still a great achievement! So (although she is a bit shy over it) I thought we ought to put the game in our blog. After all Chris they won't come every week !

Second team games

The first week (Sept 29th) the B team did brilliantly against Newdigate winning 3.5 - 0.5
Nigel drew, Simon Turner, John Hall and Jim McDonald all won !

Obviously they they don't want to scare the opposition too much at the moment so last night they eased up by losing 1-3.
I'm not sure if this is double bluff or not because it was against Newdigate again !!!!!

Nigel drew, John Hall lost, Jim McDonald drew, and Pradip Shah (after starting well) lost.

First matches of the season

As you all know we had our first matches of the season last night (Well not quite - Nigels team couldn't wait and had to start last week !).
I don't yet know the results for the B and C teams but the A team managed a draw - Jonathon and Martin both drawing and (sadly) Nalin losing. Anyway to keep things level I managed to squeeze out a win in the following game.

Tuesday 8 September 2009

2009/10 Fixtures (Coventry League)

The Coventry Chess site has now added in fixture lists at:

Division 1

Division 2

Division 3

Divisional Cup fixtures and results link

Also info on Individual competitions and gradings - so you can see how well you did last year and how well the people you are about to play did.

Worth revisiting the Coventry League website from time to time as lots is being added.

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Putting names to faces

The picture at the top of the page shows members of Rugby Chess Club 99 years ago. You can't read the names on this so here they are - copied from the original by Bob.

Back row (L to R)
SW Gibson PC Littlejohn B Spruce OG Delany WA Wales H Somerford PB Clarke RE Ballard

Front row
GH Adcock C Snewing E Turner AJ Goode AL Coleman A White T Drake RP Swain

It might be interesting to know more about some of these past RCC players as we approach the 100th anniversary of this photo (dated 1910).

Saturday 15 August 2009

Other chess sites for inspiration - and just being nosy!

We are not the only club around here with a website. Some are much more elaborate and extensive than ours. If you are curious look at ...

Daventry Chess Club

Kenilworth Chess Club

Leamington Chess Club

Nuneaton Chess Club

Olton Chess Club

Shirley and Lucas Chess Club did have its own domain 'Shirleychess.co.uk' which looks like it has now lapsed so all I can find is a page on the club at Wythall Community Centre where it meets.

Solihull chess club - which seems to bring up an ad for Laser Eye Surgery as well as the website.

Stratford Chess Club

University of Warwick Chess Club

Not local (or pretty) but pretty extensive is the Exeter Chess Club site - note the use of RSS feeds. (A bit beyond me at the moment but I hope to get there eventually).

If this looks useful info for the real RCC site - or you know other links to add to it - add links/comments below.

Ta.

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Lots to see and do at CDCL site

The Coventry and District Chess League website has a whole load of changes (treats) in store. Not only does the Rugby blog get a mention, but there is also a new style PGN web editor for recording games, records of games from the 1st and 2nd Coventry International, CDCL games and the recent British Chess Championship, a try out of an analysis tool and a link through to the ECF grading database. There is a link to a webform for result reporting that looks easy to use.

The instructions for submitting PGN games to CDCL in this blog will still work (after I have edited them a bit), but you might wish to try out the new editor as well (or instead). Liam Whelan who has worked on this tells me that one of the main reasons for changing PGN editors is to allow the use of Nimzowitch's recommendation of two board analysis. This editor simplifies the way annotations and variations are added to the PGN which also can be used for chess puzzles. (Not sure what all that means but sounds serious and impressive).

Hint: If you put a game into the CDCL database and then want to refer to it here please give the game number as well as the weblink - e.g. 'Game 265 http://www.coventrychess.co.uk/0049.htm - which happens to be from the British Chess Championships. The link is a link to all the games within that set in number order (not searchable).

Wednesday 29 July 2009

I remember when the club went to the Soviet Union...

Thats all for now - but we also have a load of stuff from when we visited the Soviet Union in 1983.

You didn't know we went there ....... You didn't know ..... Unbelievable

Oh well, we will put together all the stuff to do with that trip and publish it but that will take a little while !

Memorabilia - 3


The box and the salver in one picture

Memorabilia - 2


The club championship salver - which has been intermittently in use since about 1907

Club memorabilia - 1


The club box - dating from 1877

(ok - its only a box, but its a very fine box !)

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Postcodes of clubs we visit

This has been updated following changes over the past year or so!
From the Leamington League site I quote:

"Chipping Campden have reverted to the Little Glebe and their club night is Monday,
Kenilworth are now at the Clarendon Arms (see above) and their club night is also Monday,
Daventry are at the 101 Inn, 101 Warwick Street, Daventry and their club night is still Wednesday,
and Nuneaton are now at the Coton Liberal Club, 52 Henry Street, Nuneaton, and their club night is Monday."

On closer investigation some of these are not real changes. The Kenilworth and Nuneaton changes look real enough though.

Fuller information at

Leamington Chess League Club details


Banbury OX16 5NA
The Old Reindeer Inn, Parson's Street, Banbury, 01295 264031

Chipping Campden GL55
Little Glebe, Cidermill Lane, 01386 840676

Daventry NN11 4AJ
101 Inn, 101 Warwick Street, 01327 703741

Kenilworth CV8 2GF
The Clarendon Arms, 44, Castle Hill, Kenilworth CV8 1NB

Leamington CV32 5HE
The Home Guard Club, 4 Portland Street, 01926 425912

Nuneaton (Leamington league only)CV11 5SQ
Coton Liberal Club, 52 Henry Street, Nuneaton

Olton B11 2EX
Tyseley Working Men's Club, Warwick Road, 0121 7060377

Shirley and Lucas B47 6LZ
Wythall Community Association & Club, Wythal House, Silver Street, 01564 823281

Solihull B91 3JY
The Blossomfield Club Ltd, The Wardens, Widney Lane, 0121 705 3254

Solihull Checkmates CV35 8AU
Sandbarn Farm, Snitterfield Rd, Hampton Lucy, 01789 470975

Stratford CV37 6DT
The Royal British Legion Club 29 Bull Street 01789 297619

COVENTRY LEAGUE
Coventry Chess CV5 7NL
Broad La Coventry, West Midlands, 024 76421199

Nuneaton CV11 5LR (Cov league only)
Bentley Road Sports and Social Club, 23 Bentley Road, 024 7638 6747

Newdigate CV12 0JP
Newdigate Sports and Social Club, Smorrall Lane Bedworth, 024 76366004

University of Warwick CV4 7AL
Humanities building O43 and O44 (as last year)
2 Gibbet Hill Rd 024 76523523

Sunday 12 July 2009

About the Rugby Chess Club blogs

A blog (weblog) is a type of webpage that is particularly easy to set up and use. They present posts (i.e. entries) in reverse chronological order (latest at the top). This makes them a good choice for a website that is offering news, as the most recent content is always the first that you see. Blogs also automatically archive what has been posted, and allow searching within the blog - so going back and finding something is also easy.

The official RCC blog have been set up so that it can be viewed by anyone. The address (or URL) is rugbychessclub.blogspot.com. You can go there any time that you want to check information (we will add links and hints as we get going) and to see what the latest news is. Some emails from the club may in future include links to parts of the blog. Just click to go there. If you want to add content yourself (e.g. match reports), or comment on anyone else's content this is easy to do - directions are given in the blog (see INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE). But will need to sign in and that means becoming a member of the blog. Email Bob Wildig or Chris Pegler to be added to the membershp list.

We have set up two blogs, each with a different address. Think of these as the 'real' blog, or official site - Rugby Chess Club blog and the test blog (RailwayChess)where we can play around and try things out without other people reading over our shoulder. You will be invited to join both blogs (if you ask to become a member) and there are links from one to the other. But they are separate blogs so you will receive two invitations to join a blog (please respond to both even though they look like they are the same). The blogs themselves look slightly different so you should not get confused between them - the test blog will always look a bit messier than the real one.

Blogs like these (hosted by Blogger) are simple to use. That is their great strength. The down side is that they do not do all things equally well, especially when they are free-of-charge (as Blogger is). This need not be a problem. Much of the time as we can ‘embed’ or link to content made elsewhere. There is a lot of chess content to choose from as you will see. If you spot anything that would be good to share on the blog then become a member, post about it and/or link to it. Having lots of us adding a little will build a great blog.

Commenting in the blog

There are two easy ways to add content to a blog - 'commenting' and 'posting'. The 'posts' are the date-ordered entries that make up the main content of the blog. The comments are shown below the posting, these are (ideally) about that particular post.

So if you want to extend the conversation around a post - add some extra information (e.g. a link), or offer some feedback, then commenting is a good way to do this. That way the comment stays with the post that it refers to, rather than getting added at the top of the blog as a new post.

Beneath each post there is a link to access the comments (e.g. '2 comments'). Click on this link to view the comments or to add your own comment. You can add a comment to this or other advice messages to let me know if this advice helps, or not.

GENERAL NOTE: Both the RCC blogs have been set up so that only 'blog members' can post or comment on the blogs. You have to sign in to post or comment.