♘ WCC Web Site Notes ♞
March 2nd 2015 is 51st Anniversary of the Fischer Simul at WCC ♘
If you haven't been here lately, you haven't been here!
Well I was hoping to release a new updated version of this web site on March 2nd to commemorate the 51st anniversary of Bobby Fischer's visit during his 1964 simul tour, but events intervened in many ways such that that may not be possible. For starters, I don't know if anyone else noticed, but we've had way too much snow this season. Snow in itself doesn't make that much difference, but between the added time shoveling & just getting around plus the few days when going anywhere was next to impossible, there was far less time available for the project than I'd expected. Then we have that little detail otherwise known as Carissa Yip, who decided to become a USCF rated master just this weekend when the Billerica February Swiss tournamnet report was published on the USCF web site. Communications & postings related to that story pretty much consumed most of my remaining time Saturday night. The good news is I've been able to get a lot of the tricky programming done anyway & it looks like it all works though I'd like to tidy up a few things & do some more testing. There's still time to switch over to what I call "version 2.0" of the WCC web site later today, so it may yet happen. If not, it'll be very soon.
Some recent updates to this web site that I have already implemented include:
♛ Links to Crosstables, of all the club tournaments that I can find. These are grouped by USCF affiliate & sorted by date for easy browsing. More crosstables, particularly of the tournaments prior to 1991, will be posted as soon as I have access to them.
♛ An extra headline story about Carissa, complete with highlighted crosstable for emphasis. The format directives for posting crosstables are included in the main style sheet, so while I may be tweaking the layout & color scheme a bit, they should all look the same from now on.
♕ More information & better presentation of the recently added Women In Chess Section.
♖ A major breakthrough in the "More games needed to make this section come to life!" section. I couldn't wait 'til the end of the month, so here it is, a simple online tool for entering chess games. I even broke down the instructions into a step by step procedure. Submitting games has never been easier.
♟ Note: This web site may appear differently depending on which browser you're using. I developed most of the code using Mozilla Firefox, so if you're viewing it with Internet Explorer or another browser, some things may not look quite right. Fear not! I'll be improving the cross browser compatibility little by little, but in the meantime, if you want to see what I'm seeing, you can download Mozilla Firefox for free directly from the Mozilla Firefox web site at: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/.
Happy Groundhog Day from the WCC Webmaster: February 2015 ♘
Despite being battered & buried by another now all too typical New England winter complete with concomitant cancellations, chess still continues in Fitchburg & the surrounding communities.
Recent updates & additions to the Wachusett Chess Club web site include:
- Addition of separate page for FATV Chess Chat Episode listing with links to each video & PGN/text game
- Chess Chat games now available in PGN format or for online playing in "Games" section
- Live action pictures (thnks, Dave C.) with puzzle position diagrams from tournament in progress
- Gradually expanding "Games" section with pictures & some brief background info
- Gradually expanding "Biographies" section as time permits & info becomes available
- Addition of the crosstable from the 1072 WCC Championship, thanks to Dave Couture for unearthing this one
- "Fitchburg State University students FREE!" now in prominent place on each page (except the ones I haven't gotten to yet)
- Other miscelaneous tidbits & corrections such as more details in the "Rules" section
Random notes from the WCC Webmaster: January 2015 ♔
The big news in international chess this month is the Australian Chess Championship Open Tournament, where despite his deep preparation for his recent winning game against Hikaru Nakamura in the The Petrosian system of the King's Indian Defense, it appears that former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (pictured in the link to the left) still hasn't read the manual on his new DGT Official FIDE Game Timer! (Here's a hint, Volodya, it's posted RIGHT HERE in easy to read .PDF form in English, German, French, Russian, Spanish & Dutch on the WCC Web Site!).
By the way, Vladimir Kramnik's Official Web Site claims:
"Currently rated over 2800, Kramnik is still a serious contender to the WCC title."
However, I doubt Kramnik will succeed Carissa Yip in 2015, because he hasn't played a single game at the WCC yet, & there's only 15 left to go, which means he won't be able to play the 20 games needed to qualify. Of course neither has Carissa, so she won't be defending her title this season. The 2014-News Archive shows how that race is going up to January 6th 2015. Starting with this year's Reggie Boone Memorial, which begins on Jan. 7, 2015, things could change.
Save the Boston Globe Chess Column! ♖
"Recently, the Boston Globe became the latest publication to join the unfortunate trend of chess column cancellation, announcing that its weekly's long and historic (over 60 years) run would soon be coming to a close, and depriving us of Boylston stalwarts Harold Dondis and Chris Chase's regular writings."Read the full story & find out what you can do to save the Boston Globe Chess Column on the BCC blog http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/
Work is progressing steadily on the new version of the Wachusett Chess Club web site. The changes & improvements implemented in just the past week or ten days are already too numerous to mention, but with a little snooping, you'll find that some of the recent highlights include:
- Moderately slick navigation menu on each page (except for the pages where it's not there yet)
- Full year's schedule for 2015 now posted & linked in the box on the top left on the main page
- Links in the section on "Other Organizations" (with club logos) now mostly working
- Additional biographical information gradually getting filled in
- Lots of typos & misspellings corrected
- This page now linked on the main page in the News & Announcements section
Greeting message from the new Webmaster of the WCC ♞
Hello everyone,
For the past decade or more, Dave Couture has been performing all web site related tasks for the WCC. Due to a combination of other demands on his time & my recent availability for such activities, I will be assuming the role of Webmaster for this site starting now. The Wachusett Chess Club has an unusually long and rich history both in terms of creation & support of significant events in the chess world, and interesting characters who over the years have produced amazingly brilliant chess mixed in with an abundance of memorable improbable situations. I hope to honor that tradition by making it a little more accessible to both members & non-members alike, while generally raising the level of chess consciousness for all. While I fully expect the continued assistance & support of people such as: Ken Gurge, Larry Gladding, Arthur Barlas, George Mirijanian as well as Dave Couture & others, I also intend to provide:
- Additional content, particularly games played at the WCC with & without annotations.
- Consistent functional & visual layout to material now on the site as well as new additions.
- General background educational material such as relevant or interesting excerpts from the latest USCF Rules.
- Easy to access documentation on as many electronic digital chess clocks as possible.
- Some guidance in the areas of chess software including databases, playing engines, game capture systems & online play sites.
- More efficient access to all web content.
- Improved integrated presence in the greater chess community.
- Expanded historical perspective based on additional details of people & events.
- Most likely a whole lot of other stuff I'm considering or haven't even thought of yet.
Yours in continued chess success,
Paul G.[Last name intentionally left blank.]
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Note that while Paul appears somewhat surprised & dismayed,
Dave is quite happy with the transition.
However don't be fooled by initial impressions or outward appearances, there's lots of great things to come. ♔
For example, click here to see if this server is running PHP.
Read what people online may already be saying: ♟
"Feel free to go crazy." -Dave Couture
"It's a half decent chess club, it ought to have a half decent web site." -PG
"Every chess player should visit the Wachusett Chess Club at least once in their life, but probably not all at the same time." -Statistician Prof Hans Rosling
"The WCC Web Site is so fast & easy to use that I now have more time for studying chess, or even just sleeping." -Dieter E. Orata
"I didn't play chess then & I don't play chess now, but with this new web site, I'm enjoying it much more & I am unanimous in that." -Mrs. Betty Slocombe
"The WCC is actually on the brink of becoming a trending hashtag, whatever that is." -E. Mailer