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 !)

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

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.

Publishing, editing and deleting a 'post'

The main content on this blog are 'posts'. These can be text-only, or include links, images, videos and animinations. Each new post appears at the top of the blog with the date and the ID of the person who posted it.

New posts
Once you sign there is a New Post link at the top of the page. This opens a window where you can type text (and a memorable title). Once finished if you press the Save Now button Blogger will save this as a draft in your Edit Posts list. You need to select Publish Post if you want anyone else to be able to read it.

Note that the window that you text type into can be used in Edit Html or Compose mode. For most purposes the Compose view is best as it offers a bigger range of formatting tools. You also have a Preview option - which you may well need as there is no spell checker.

You can write the message elsewhere and copy and paste it into the blog post. This is especially useful if its complex and has code. But note that you cannot copy formatting or images from (say) a word processed document. You will need to format within the post.

Editing or deleting a post

You might want to edit your post immediately (if you notice a mistake), or later if you think of something else that you want to say. When you edit a post it does not change position on the blog, so people who have read it and commented already may not realise that it has changed. You might want to leave a note of explanation - when/why you edited - if it is quite a significant change.

To get to Edit Posts once signed in choose Customise (top right on homepage). Then Posting (a 'top level' tab, then Edit Posts. You will see a list of all the posts that you have made and the option to Delete. or Edit, or View.

GENERAL NOTE: On both the RCC blogs only 'blog members' can post or comment on the blogs. If you are reading this message you already are a member (as the test blog is 'members-only'). You do not need to be a member to read the public RCC blog.

Inserting a link to a webpage

You could simply type in the web address (URL). However you might want to make this 'live' (clickable) or you might want to link from a word rather than a long web address. To do this select the word(s) or address that you want to link from and click on the icon above the text entry box that is tagged as 'Link'. (You can read tags on icons if you hover your mouse over them). It looks something like a green blob with specs (something like the image on right).

That pulls up a dialog box to record the address for the link. Type (or better yet copy and paste) the URL for the site that you want to link to. Note that every post within this blog has its own URL so you can link from one post to an earlier one. For example like this.

If you want to link to an email address then use the pull down menu to select the mailto: option.

Inserting a static image into a message

You can add an image into your blog posts by uploading this to the website.

Just click on the Image icon (the one above that looks like a photo of a landscape and is tagged 'Add Image' when you hover your mouse over it) and experiment with the options offered.

You should make sure than any images that you include in the blog are ones that you have permission to use. Your own photos are generally fine (although if they include photos of children check with parents first and do not identify the children by full name). If it is a copyright image (someone that someone else made) you should not use it without checking with the copyright owner first.

If you wanted a nice photo (we used one on this blog in the header) then you can possibly find something that would suit at Flickr using the Advanced Search and seaching on content which is Creative Commons and allows adaptation and reuse. You will usually need to provide the name of the person who created the image (check to see what the restrictions are). Or you may know of other sources of copyright free materials

Embedding a video (from YouTube etc

When you see an EMBED suggestion like this within a website (e.g. Youtube)

then it is telling you that by simply copying that code into a blog message people reading the blog can access the video/animation without leaving your site.

You need to select and copy the code and then paste this into your post in Edit Html mode. You will then have something that looks like this.

Online tutorials on using web and html

Here are some site which should help to develop web/html skills - or remind you if your knowledge is rusty.

The OU WEB GUIDE is a very basic guide on using the internet you might pick up a few tips and can skim over the parts that you don't need. Most people find out how to use the internet just by diving in and using it, but that can mean that you have missed out on tricks if you don't use it that often.

SAFARI - is an OU online course on finding resources online and evaluating and organising them

If you want to start coding up your own HTML, crop images etc. you may find all you need at the University of Leicester site but there are also lots of sites which offer more in-depth approaches geared to particular skills or applications, e.g. How to resize and crop and alter images in MS Picture Manager (which you will have if you are using MS Office).

Webmonkey is an established site for the more challenging stuff. Its a really nice site. Not academic so less dull than the above. Check out the Tutorials list.

Creating a PGN game for blog/CDCL database

This is a simple(r) single stage process, replacing the two step one previously reported.

PNG = portable games notation. If you have games in PGN (there are loads available online) then you can then 'view' these by clicking through the moves. There are now examples on both the test and real RCC blogs and the Coventry District Chess League would like to capture games played in the League in that form - see for example. Here is a simple guide of how to make a PGN playable game.

1. Go to http://www.caissa.com/chess-tools/pgn-editor.php
2. Select 'Manually Enter Position' button - no need to download anything.
3. This displays 'Step 1: Set up position'. Click NEXT. This will start with peices in standard position.
4. Play through your game by clicking on a peice and dragging it to where you want on the board - i.e. drag and drop. (This section is labelled Step 2: Game moves). When game is complete press NEXT.
5. In the next screen you put in Game info, date, names, etc. (labelled step 3).
6. Then (at Step 4: PGN output) you have a number of options about how to save what you have done. You need to select and copy the EMBED code.
7. Copy this into a blog post making sure that you are in 'Edit html' mode. (Compose will be underlined+blue if you are in Edit Html mode).
8. Add some descriptive text and press Publish Post. Done. Your game is there.
9. The training video here is recommended if this does not work for you or if you want to make puzzles or try other neat stuff.

If you would like the game to appear in the CDCL database then click the View PGN label in your blog post and select and copy the code. Paste this into an email to the CDCL web admin. There is an explanation on their website - see.

Need extra help with this? There is a more detailed blow-by-blow account that may help. Ask Chris for a copy.

An early game for our blog

I played the following game last season against avery strong opponent and for the second time managed to get away with a draw against him.

(show chess board)(hide chess board)