Monday 20 December 2010

Merry Christmas everyone


Weather and health permitting hoping to see some of you this evening at the Workers Club. Meanwhile here is a chess-related Christmas Card that I made using Taxedo incorporating the lyrics from Wizzard's 'I wish it could be Christmas every day'. Couldn't resist that chess piece template. :-)

Thursday 16 December 2010

At last!

Thanks John. Here's the game for anyone who's interested.



The move I took the longest over was 17)Bxg7. It was reminiscent of Michael Corleone in the restaurant scene from "The Godfather". I knew once I'd made that move, there was no going back!

Rugby C v Coventry C

Simon Turner 1- 0 Dave Filer
Darius Draskinis 0- 1 H Jones
John Hall 0.5- 0.5 Simon Weaver
Andrew Turk 1- 0 Trevor Beesley

So we won the Match 2.5 - 1.5
Darius had a won position, his opponent was ready to resign, played on, could have had a draw through repitition, played on and lost.....

Andrew won his first long play game and it was a cracker too; well done Andrew, this should fill you with confidence now!

Tuesday 14 December 2010

The English defeated

This is the first (and only) time I tried using the English Opening. I felt I lost it from 4 ... D5 , which is a depressingly early time to be losing a game, because from then on I seemed to be on the defensive all the time. Obviously the English Opening is a tried and trusted beginning so I must assume operator error. Any help would therefore be greatly appreciated.

Sunday 12 December 2010

Cov League tables at the half way point


An improvement for the A team after 0% in the first 3 matches !


Nice to see both teams doing well in Div 2.


Good luck D team for an upturn in your fortunes !

Friday 10 December 2010

Classical Dutch but on the wrong side of the board?

Here is yet another Dutch defence with a twist as I was on the receiving side of it for once. It is also the game in which contains one of my best combinations spanning the entire board. From the Bh6 to the Ra8.

I have also tried to include a lot of comments so that hopefully players of any range can benefit.



If your wondering how the knight gets trapped then the analysis should help. It isn't hard but the key aspect is to keep taking squares away from the knight and drive it towards the edge of the board.

So after 32...Nc1 33. Bc3 with the threat of b4 winning a piece. A bishop move loses for example 33...Bd6 34.b4 Nb3 35.Bc2 trapping the knight. So black has to play 33...Nb3 34.Bc2 Nc1 35.Bd2 winning the knight so black has 2 possible knight moves which both lose.

The 1st is 35...Na1 (not a good place for a knight anyway) 36. Bd1 (or Ba4) followed by 37.b4 winning the knight.

The 2nd is 35...Nc1 36.Bd2 Na2 37. Bb1 (or Bb3) again winning the knight.

I hope everyone enjoyed the game in which I demonstrated, mainly to myself, that I can play main line openings and still get a good position. Please leave comments good or bad, unless your name is John Naylor lol.

Monday 6 December 2010

Ed Goodwin v Bob Wildig

Our final First division game of the first half of the season ended in a good win for the A team and the following happened in the game between Bob Wildig and Ed Goodwin.
(Get it ?? Goodwin, Good win ...... Oh well...)

Friday 3 December 2010

I look forward to Nalin playing better games in chess competition

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Congratulations to Jamie Kearney

Now that Jamie is the joint under 12 Warwickshire Closed Champion there is even more reason to challenge him on the Rugby Junior Chess Club ladder, then after Christmas we should do well as a club when we enter the UK Chess Challenge.

Monday 29 November 2010

I look forward to playing better games in chess competition

Sunday 21 November 2010

Lightning competition

This sounds like something Harry Potter might be interested in. Can anyone tell me more about this? Do I need to bring my wand?

Saturday 20 November 2010

It's week-end

What a lovely week-end!!

Friday 19 November 2010

Statistics and Blog Analytics

John Naylor was pointing out a while ago that the number in the counter on the bottom page of this site is getting bigger and bigger. Its now over 7500. First of all this does NOT mean that we have 7500 users (unique users to use the jargon). Its counting page views, which may be repeat visits by the same people, and count several page views in one visit.

Last August I added some script to start collecting stats on site visits in a Google Analytics account. This is more detailed and accurate. Since then we have apparently had 242 'absolute unique visitors'. Which is many more than we have in our club. GA also shows where the 'traffic' comes from, and one of the spikes was caused by a reference from ecforum (English Chess Forum) where they were talking about setting up chess blogs and trading links (see here). WE GOT A MENTION ALONGSIDE SUSAN POLGAR'S BLOG. Thank you Michael Jones.

Want to know what he said about us? 'Rugby: http://rugbychessclub.blogspot.com/ Works pretty well, with several players making regular contributions.'

So ... besides being dead chuffed, I would like to see some contributions chaps. C'mon, I know that you can do it. If you are rusty meet me at the next social chess (6 December) and I will show you/remind you what you need to do.

And now a win !

Yes - the first team beat University A.
John Naylor won, Bob Wildig drew and Jonathan Cox won. Late replacement Paul Hardstaff fell victim to a fairly vicious attack but the fact he was deputising for Nalin was a help to the rest of us! Thanks Paul.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

HOORAY - the first team got a point

All right then - hooray.

At last after a succession of losses the first team managed to get a point v Cov B in this weeks match. Nalin and Bob both drew and it was left to Jonathan to get a win against Mike Johnson which happened when a tricky attack finally undermined Mike's defences.

Wednesday 27 October 2010

D Team does well ...

The D Team did well, with no losses. Jim won as Board 1, Chris won by default in Board 2 from a no show (she did some homework instead), Joe had a good draw on Board 3 and Rhys won his first ever match as Board 4.

I've noted this below. It was his longest ever match he says and although he was chewing his pen a time or two I think he did better than I would have. To prove it I played Gordon immediately afterwards and he thrashed me convincingly. A good win by the D team against a strong side.

Saturday 16 October 2010

Cov League results

In the C team match Nigel Malka drew, Paul Hardstaff won and Malcolm Harding won ! Default on bottom due to late withdrawal.

So the C team won 2.5 - 1.5

In the A team match we lost to University B 1.5 - 2.5

Bob Wildig won, Jonathan Cox lost (trying too hard Jonathan !) Simon Turner drew, Olushola Borisade lost.

Friday 15 October 2010

Div 3 Leamington League result.

The Rugby team made the long trip down to Chipping Camden on Monday (11th Oct). We lost the match despite strong games on all 3 boards. However the venue was quaint - a cottage belonging to the local church. The hosts were also hospitable; pouring us a cup of tea at the start of play. I like that!

A. Grimes 0.5 vs Roy Talbot 0.5
W. Langley 1 vs Jim MacDonald 0
W. Nash 1 vs Joe Oswell 0

Chipping Camden won 2.5 to 0.5

Thursday 7 October 2010

Div 2 result

The result between our 2 division 2 sides was as below :

Board 1. Jonathan Cox 0.5 - Nalin Kadodwala 0.5
Board 2. Simon Turner 1 Nigel Malka 0
Board 3. John Hall 1 Darius 0
Board 4. Josh Stehr 1 Andrew Turk 0

So the B team beat the C team 2.5 - 1.5

Tuesday 5 October 2010

First CDCL outing for Rugby Team D ...

A triumph for new player Olushola Borusade (who won as Board 2), and a good night for Roy Talbot who drew (on Board 1). Not so pretty for Joe and Chris who both lost. Chris's loss is shown below. Advice on where she went wrong and how to avoid in future would be appreciated. It started so well ...

Monday 4 October 2010

You can order pics from Rugby Advertiser ...

... including the group pics and various others that they did not use in spread.




group pic that they used on the inside page


group picture which they stuck on the back (Nalin suffers from an optical illusion here. He looks much taller in the other shots :-)).


How to find the others? Try this link (which takes you to the Search, put in 'chess Sep23' - without the quotes, to view our set). Worth doing as there are others there which show some chess in action and some nice individual shots.

If you _really_ like any you can order T-shirts and mugs for Christmas. For those who did not make it to the official photo shoot, the opportunity for online immortality is not lost. I plan on doing some player profiles for the new season, starting with some of those not pictured here. You have been warned ...

Friday 1 October 2010

Div3 Leamington League match result

Rugby hosted the match vs Leamington C on Monday night (27 Sep):

Simon Turner 0.5 vs Jason Madden 0.5
Jon Hall 1 vs Guy Greenland 0
Joe Oswell 0 vs Peter Leggit 1

Match drawn: 1.5 to 1.5. A solid start to the season with a win & a draw in the first 2 ties - well done!

Thursday 30 September 2010

Well Done Chris

Well done Chris for the fantastic coverage of Rugby Chess Club in the Rugby Advertiser today. We may need to change venue to the Benn Hall soon :-)

Monday 27 September 2010

Watch out for RCC pics in the Rugby Advertiser

Thanks to those of you who came along last week to be photographed for a peice about the Club in the Rugby Advertiser. Not everyone could make it, but we managed to field 16 players (past season and this season's hopefuls). Look out for the Rugby Advertiser on 30th Sept and you may well see someone you recognise :-)

Div3 Leamington League result

The first match of the season, on Sep 13th, produced a win for the travelling Rugby team. The home team were Kenilworth D:

Tony Pickering vs Nigel Malka 0-1
Chris Aldridge vs Simon Turner 0-1
Mike Whatson vs Jim MacDonald 1-0

Rugby won 2-1.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

London Chess Classic - anyone going?

The 2nd London Chess Classic will be the strongest chess tournament ever to be held in Britain, with eight of the world’s best players playing from 8-15 December 2010 at the Olympia Conference Centre. Junior attendance is free, adults are £10 for weekdays and £15 for weekend) - see http://www.londonchessclassic.com for schedule and info.

I went with Rhys last year and in addition to being SO CLOSE to the world champion players there were all sorts of demonstrations, commentaries and an open contest. Quite an experience and you got a neat lanyard thrown in :-)

John Hall is intending to attend this year and would be interested in knowing of others who intend to go along. Email him at johnhall@carricktravel.com.

Saturday 4 September 2010

Monday Social chess nights at the Rugby Workers Club

Because we have had difficulty with space at the LMRCA on Monday nights (we haven't been able to use the main hall anymore) the junior chess club is moving to the Rugby Workers Club in Oliver Street.

As you know the social chess nights we have had on Mondays at the LMRCA have fitted in very nicely with this. But it would be a shame not to continue linking the social chess nights with the junior chess night.

So I am suggesting to club members that for the benefit of us all we start using the Rugby Workers Club for our social chess in future starting from Monday 6 Sept. The start time is 7pm which is earlier than we could get at the LMRCA. (I am not masking any bookings for social chess at the LMRCA from hereon).

Please note that Cov League matches and Leamington League matches are all still at the LMRCA as before.

Here is a map which has already been set up elsewhere for the Rugby Workers club:

Map for the Rugby Workers club

(Beware : there is a slight error on their map - the club is on the other side of the road to that shown, on Oliver Street between Parnell Close and Bridget Street)

Essential information:
- The street is called Oliver Street and the postcode is CV21 2ET
- There is good parking all round the venue on its own ground.
- The door entry system is just like the LMRCA so you will need to press the bell and wait. (We are sorting out individual cards with the club staff at the moment)
if they wish.
- Nominal times are from 7.00 pm until 8.30 pm but the idea is for you to come and go at whatever time suits you.

And thats about it!
Looking forward to seeing you on Monday

Bob Wildig

Friday 3 September 2010

Updates to clubs we visit information

There have been some minor changes to venues we go to (as away teams). I think these are just Kenilworth and Nuneaton (in the Leamington League)but have a look through the Leamington league website details provided on their website which is linked in.

Clubs we visit

Sunday 15 August 2010

Calendar now added - feedback please

I have now added a new function - the Calendar (see right hand colum). This is a Google public calendar and will allow any editor (captains, Bob, Sue and me for now) to add an event. I've added the first two of the ones from the Leamington League. I propose that we put all of the Rugby games up here and any tournaments or competitions that affects RCC. For now it includes RCC junior socials although Sue might like her own calendar on their blog.

If you use Google calendars for day to day scheduling this means that you can amalgamate these events into yours. Feedback and requests to become editors are welcome.

Leamington Chess League 2010/2011 Season

From Jim, here are the 2010/2011
Division 3: Rugby team fixtures:

Mon Sep 13 - Kenilworth D v Rugby
Mon Sep 27 - Rugby v Leamington C
Thu Oct 21 - Chipping Campden B v Rugby
Mon Oct 25 - Rugby v Solihull C
Mon Nov 08 - Rugby v Kenilworth C
Mon Nov 22 - Nuneaton v Rugby
Thu Dec 02 - Stratford B v Rugby
Mon Dec 06 - Rugby v Banbury C
Mon Jan 10 - Rugby v Nuneaton
Mon Jan 31 - Rugby v Stratford B
Mon Feb 07 - Rugby v Kenilworth D
Wed Mar 02 - Solihull C v Rugby
Mon Mar 21 - Kenilworth C v Rugby
Mon Mar 28 - Rugby v Chipping Campden B
Tue Apr 05 - Leamington C v Rugby
Tue Apr 12 - Banbury C v Rugby

Sorry its not a table, but when I have a mo I will look at doing a calendar for the site so we can show all things together.

Chris

Thursday 29 July 2010

Rugby makes the grade :-)

The gradings for Coventry and District Chess League are in. Check them out here.

And for a more complete view (Leamington and District and others too) check out the English Chess Federation site at http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/ to search on individuals at our club or others. You can see all current Rugby Club ratings there using this link.

Updating my personal congrats on the basis of this:

Most promising newcomer, James Mendes - entering the CDL chart at #8 with 128 (0r 134 on the ECF site).

Most improved ratings (ECF site): Jon Cox (+13 pts), Malcolm Harding (+11 pts) and Roy Talbot (+10 pts).

Most improved (CDCL site): Simon Turner CDCL #7 (+50 pts), Jon Cox #3 and Nigel Malka #5 (+38 pts each) and Jo Oswell (+32 pts)

Apologies if I got any of this wrong, but looking like good news all round. Well done guys.

Chris

Thursday 29 April 2010

We won the cup too !

Its too much - the night before last we won the Cov League Cup - a magnificent game by John against Dave Ireland - you really have to post it John on here - it was quality chess. Nalin had a good game with Ed Goodwin which ended in a draw and I think Jonathan had the upper hand most of the way against Mike Johnson and took a draw to secure us the win on board count. I am not sure what to say about my game with Mark Page - I lost is the safe thing to say. (If I think its the right thing to do I might post it - its full of difficult awkward chess but I don't feel that it is a great game).

Thursday 22 April 2010

The Good, the Bad and the Unfortunate

Rugby A won there match 3-1 against Newdigate. Bob, Jonny and myself all won but unfortunately Martin had a winning position and then blundered. So Rugby A are through to the finals of the KO Cup against Coventry A who also got through I hear beating Rugby B. Not good news for us as we were looking forward to an all Rugby final.

I don't really know how Rugby C got on in the plate match so I will leave that post to someone else.

I'm going to do something different in my analysis in my game. Instead of giving lots of boring variations, I'm going to say what I was thinking in my head psychologically. I'm trying this new approach to see if people like it and also to demonstrate what went on in my head to make the game that bit more enjoyable. I will only know what you thought if you post comments so please do so.

Before I start with the game I know players never really know what to play or how to play against weak or weaker players than themselves. My advice is just to keep playing your moves because even if you know that they have made bad moves they don't need punishing straight away usually. Anyway I hope you enjoy the game.

If you flip the game twice then it will put the players on the right colours that they were playing.



As he resigned he said 'I think that's enough' which really shows the psychological stress he was under during the game.

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Good luck (gulp) tonight ...


Adding my good luck wishes to Bob's and a little four leafed (virtual) token to help.

See the C team later.

Chris

(Pic from Flick, by cygnus921)

Monday 19 April 2010

Good luck tomorrow

Good luck to A and B teams in the cup and to the C team in the plate

Thursday 8 April 2010

For those who look at the games and see gobbldegook ...

Well there could be two reasons ...

a) You don't know the first thing about chess, or (more likely at the moment)

b) You've hit a cross scripting modification error - effectively a barrier has been put in place to prevent a security risk. I can - it seems - re-post games to overcome this if I use a less recent IE browser on a different computer. But while I search for a more sustainable solution (and a way to get James' Lost Win to show properly) here is how to play through games that look like random code and won't play.

1. Click the VIEW PGN button - this displays the code, which is still there and still correct.
2. Select/copy the code.
3. Open the PGN viewer on the Cassia site
4. Click IMPORT PGN.
5. Paste the code into the window that appears and then IMPORT.

This works for everything _but_ that games of James' (which I am working on). I hope that this will sort itself out as this 'security fix' will cause grief for all sorts of sites. It will either get better or worse over the next few weeks and I will look for a different way of showing games when I have time. But Cassia has served us well, so hoping any new solution will be at least as good as that one.

Wednesday 7 April 2010

Postal game Bradney v Wildig

Hi everyone - This is nothing to do with rugby Chess Club. There is a problem over a postal game I'm playing and this is to help show it to my opponent. I will delete as soon as I can.
Bob

Monday 29 March 2010

How to Unintentionally Sacrifice the Exchange and Win

Having previously thrown away a win against this opponent, it was satisfying to get revenge.

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Two teams in the KO semis

The A team won convincingly enough against Cov D last night (12 moves by John Naylor!) apart from the player on board 2 who had a nightmare...but just escaped with a bit of dignity !
And the B team got through as well ....

Saturday 20 March 2010

Rugby "C" Results

Results of Tuesday 16/03/10 League Match - Nuneaton "D"

Board 1 James - Lost
Board 2 Roy - Win
Board 3 - Chris - Draw
Board 4 - Joe - Win

Wednesday 17 March 2010

!!!!!!!!! We did it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing but true - Rugby won the Div 1 title last night for the first time in about 12/13 years. All the team played well. John - who may have had a win against Maurice Staples but agrred a draw, Jonathon Cox showed how strong he ahs become by beating Colin Green. And Nalin having played very well,slipped up but drew dispite being a Q for R down. My game is given below - I hope we get the other games on here lads, Bob

Tuesday 16 March 2010

Chris takes a draw after a short but interesting game ,,,

Never been offered a draw before. Perhaps I could have played through and done better, but then again perhaps I could have played through and done worse. An unusually thoughtful game for me ...

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Rugby "C" Results

Results of Tuesday 2/03/10 League Match - away to Cov.E
Board 1 James - Win
Board 2 Roy - Half
Board 3 Joe - Lost
Board 4 Sue - Win

Thursday 25 February 2010

Rugby " C" Results

Results of Tuesday 23/02/10 League Match - Away to Cov E
Board 1 - James - Lost
Board 2 - Roy - Win
Board 3 - Chris - Lost
board 4 - Joe - Draw

Fighting for the league title !

A good night for the first team on Tuesday!
There are/were 3 teams fighting for the Div 1 title Cov A, Nuneaton A and us. By beating Cov A 2.5 - 1.5 we put them out of the running and now we have a title decider against Nuneaton on March 16 at Nuneaton.

With 11 games played the points are
Nuneaton A 16
Rugby A 15
Cov A 14

So goal difference is irrelevant - we have to win, anything else and Nuneaton A win.

Well done on Tuesday to John - win v Dave Ireland, Jonathan win v Ed Goodwin, Nalin draw (after being on the back foot) v Bob Holmes. I lost again to Mark Page who is definitely my current nemesis, but I have to say he played well.

In the Div Cup Uni B are claiming the default but it doesn't make too much difference because again if we beat Uni A next week we win the Div cup award again.

Monday 22 February 2010

Bob and a slightly younger version

Following one of the half term activities Bob took time out (well Chris forced him) to stand next to one of the exhibits in the Rugby Art Gallery and Museum. The exhibition is there until 14 March and features some of the old chess clocks and sets from the club (and one from Nigel Malka), the silver salver, the original of the photo at the top of this blog, some photos and other memorabilia from the Russian trip and other items. Not just Bob but Martin also appear in slightly younger form.

Sunday 21 February 2010

Rugby " C" Results

Results of Tuesday 16/02/10 League Match - Nuneaton E

Board 1 James - Win
Board 2 Roy - Win
Board 3 Chris - Win
Board 4 Sue - Lost

Friday 19 February 2010

Thank you

Many thanks to all the Rugby Chess Club players who have helped with the junior chess events this week. We kicked off on Monday with our very own champion of Warwickshire becoming a radio star (for which I will be eternally grateful that I did not have to do it on my own) thank you John. Then in the evening we had quite a few junior players at our Monday social night at the Railway club. Thanks for all your support with Bob away in London. The aim now is to get junior players along on a regular basis so please come along on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of every month 7:30-8:30pm to pass on your knowledge to the next generation. On Wednesday morning we attracted about 20 children with their adults in Rugby Museum. Then on Thursday we had the fun day in Rugby Library with about 34 children and almost as many adults playing chess throughout the day. Thanks to Chris for organising all of this and we hope you boys are ready for lots of new players to join Rugby Chess Club! Best wishes. Sue

Wednesday 17 February 2010

First team February.

The first team seems to be doing exactly the same in he second half of the season as it did in the first half.
Lost to Uni A (thats why we kept quiet)
Struggled to a draw with Uni B
Beat Coventry B 2.5 - 1.5
Beat Nuneaton B 3 - 1 last night. Good wins for Nalin and Jonathan. Dominoes noise put off John (and probably most of us to be truthful) so he drew and I drew after blundering.
All these results mirror what we did in the first half so we hope that we can compete for the League title by winning our last 2 games .... fingers crossed

Tuesday 16 February 2010

At last a win on Board 3 for Chris

A very nice opponent and a slow moving (for me) game but a really interesting one. We got so absorbed around move 32 that I failed to spot that we both had ignored a discovered check on my King. Although the audience was holding its breath at that stage. It was an unusually reflective game for me. Perhaps I should take more time on my games and the results might improve. Very happy to have had my first win for the C team in Board 3 position. Now you guys can tell me how I (or he) could have played better.

Monday 15 February 2010

Rugby Chess Players on Local radio

Sue Sanders and John Naylor are interviewed on local radio - listen again on iPlayer. Available til 5:02pm Monday 22nd February 2010.

Nice listening (its in the second half of the programme if you are in a hurry). I know that Sue was nervous but she has a very nice radio voice. :-)

Sunday 14 February 2010

Rugby does well at Warwickshire Championships 2010

Congratulations to John Naylor (Rugby A) who won the Warwickshire Open Chess Congress this weekend (played over 13-14 Feb at Knowle), and James Mendes (Rugby C) who took third place in the U125 section. Nalin and Jon Cox (also Rugby A) took part but did not take prizes this year. It would be interesting to see some of these games on here (hint).

Well done Rugby! Do we now have to call John 'The Champ'?

Monday 8 February 2010

Rugby "C" Results

Results of Tuesday 2/02/10 League Match-Home to Cov.G

Board 1 James - Draw
Board 2 Roy - Win
Board 3 Joe - Lost
Board 4 Sue - Lost

Friday 5 February 2010

A Lost Win

I was happy to get this draw, until Fritz mentioned I'd missed a win. I might have preferred blissful ignorance...



Tuesday 2 February 2010

Rugby"C" Results

Results of Tuesday 26/01/10 Match - Away to Cov. E

Board 1 James - Win
Board 2 Roy - Win
Board 3 Chris - Lost
Board 4 Joe -Lost

Friday 29 January 2010

A scary game

After the first teams bad result against University A the previous week we fared only marginally better this week. However scraped a draw courtesy of this not very well played game (by both players)

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Pegler - Sweatman revisited (and same result as previously)

I was playing Paul Sweatman, who I last played in my second game of the season (13th October). The same result, but a much better game from me. Until I got to move 27. I may be improving in my openings and middle game, but my endgame still requires a lot of attention.



Hope to do better next time but really quite pleased with how I did here. This is of course the cue for John and Nalin and Jon to pile in and tell me all about glaring errors and missed opportunities. But whatever they say it was an enjoyable game and a nice bloke.

Saturday 23 January 2010

Valentine Chess

Well if you have nothing else to do on Valentine's Day you could consider a spot of competitive chess. The Warwickshire Open Chess Congress is taking place at Knowle.

There are U125, U150, U175 and Open sections, adults and juniors. I hear that Nalin won the U125 last year so RCC has a reputation to uphold!

Still time to enter. The website link above links to downloadable application forms.

Rugby "C" Results

Results of Tuesday 19/01/10 Match-away to Uni E

Board 1 James - Win
Board 2 Roy - Win
Board 3 Joe - Lost
Board 4 Sue - Lost

Friday 22 January 2010

Two Games for the Price of One

Last week's game that I didn't put up.



This week's game that I hesitated to put up.


Wednesday 20 January 2010

Where did it all go wrong again???

Sunday 17 January 2010

Chess events in Rugby Feb/March 2010

In addition to all the matches and serious chess playing we are now in the build up to the annual Rugby Schools Chess Championship. The 34th! This will take place on 7th March and links to further information about this (posters and entry forms to download) are available on the Rugby Junior Chess blog. Please pass on this information if you know junior players who might like to register for the event.

As part of the build up to the event we planned to put on something in Rugby Central Library. This has rather grown from the original plan. There will be an exhibition in the Museum during most of February/March. (Tuesday, 2nd Feb to Sunday 14th March - NOTE, not open on Mondays!).

In addition there will be art and crafts events in the Art Gallery during half term week (15-19 Feb) and a hunt for chess peices hidden within exhibits across the Rugby Art Gallery and Museum during that week. The organiser will be interested in anyone coming along and playing with the chess set which will be left out on display for that purpose. So you could even be a living exhibit.

Downstairs in the Library there will be various events on the 18th Feb (again during half term week). Bring this one to the attention of any junior players that you know as we will be setting up a playing area from 11-6.30pm so that players who want to try their hand at the tournament can get some practice against other junior players. Again see on the Rugby Junior Chess blog for posters/programme and information on how to win a chocolate chess set in a competition organised by Sue Sanders.

If you have any free time over half-term week and would like to take part in these events then please contact Chris. Or come say hello to Bob, Sue, Jon and Chris as they act as junior chess marshalls on the 18th. (There will be one of those big chess sets to tempt you to get hands on!)

Bring child/children if you have them, or come on your own just to marvel at it all.

Thursday 14 January 2010

Finally, a game worthy of publishing

Sunday 10 January 2010

A rare game for Rugby by Nigel Stanley

Saturday 9 January 2010

Rugby Avertiser has a Chess Column!

Well its a sort of one-off this week as Zoe, their sports editor kindly placed an article about the photo of 1910 with the names of those photographed. It includes the date of the 34th junior tournament, mentions the website - so eyes are on you, behave sensibly please! - it does not mention that we are currently heading Div 1 with the A-team, but we are so that's a good start to 2010.

Those who know me will be mildly amused to see that I have a formal title in this article 'Rugby Chess Club Publicity Officer' (probably better than the informal one of web mistress?) and I am Mr C Peglar. For those who have not met me the Chris is short for Christine and I am one of the two female members of the Club. The other being Sue Sanders. Yes, the 2010 club photo would look a little different :-)

After sending the info to the Advertiser someone pointed out that there was a 1911 census site online. I could locate some people on that who might be those in the photo. So back row looks like Stanley Watts GIBSON, (1876), Patrick Charles LITTLEJOHN (1895) - so c.15 when this was taken!, Barnabas SPRUCE (1896), DELANY (not found), William Avron WALES (b. 1891 so c.19 years), SOMERFORD - no record, Percival Bailey CLARKE (1871), BALLARD - no record.

Front row: George Hill ADCOCK (1871), Charles SNEWING (1853), TURNER, GOODE COLEMAN and WRIGHT relatively common names in Rugby so several options, no male DRAKE found and no record of SWAIN. So this suggests an age range of 15-57 at that time.

This photo and others from the RCC Russia trip in the 1980s, ones of Bob (and others) looking very young, a selection of chess sets and clocks from RCC and members' personal collections with the silver salver and photo will be on display in the Art Gallery and Museum from early Feb to around mid-March (exact dates to be confirmed).

NOTE: Non-RCC members cannot comment or post to this blog. So if you are not one of our members but have some information for us (you know some of the history of this photo or the club) then please could you email me or the Club Secretary, Bob Wildig. We will try to include this information in the exhibition if we have time/space.

Friday 8 January 2010

Snowed off

The A and B team cup matches were snowed off this week. In fact it was all sorted out by the B team when - while cancelling their own match - generously cancelled the A team match as well as we were playing in the same place! (Seriously thats fine! and saved us contacting our opponents)

Saturday 2 January 2010

Feeling competitive?

The Coventry and District Chess League have been underwhelmed (seriously underwhelmed) by the entries to the Individual contests this year. So in a goodwill gesture they have extended the deadline for entries. This is now 12th January 2010. So still time to put your name forward.

The information is at the Coventry site - link. There are tropies for 1600+ (no upper limit) and 160 and below, 140 and below, 120 and below, and U18 (on 30th Sept 2009). Free to enter

E-Mail Individual Competitions Secretary for more information or tel. 01926 855467

It can't go ahead if there are insufficent entries.

Friday 1 January 2010

Walnuts and Turkey cassarol to all

Hi All and Happy New Year to you - as Chris said hope you all enjoyed yourselves over the season. Hopefully the lousy weather will go by the time we have to start playing again - which of course is only days away... There seems to be a revolution going on which is poing to propel Nalin to the top - all I can say to that is 'Have some of our left over Brussels Sprouts !'