Chessgames.com
Encyclopedia
ChessGames.com is a large chess
community on the Internet, with over 156,000 members. The site maintains a large database of historical chess games where every game has a distinct message board for comments and analysis. Basic membership is free and the site is open to players at all levels of ability. ChessGames.com is a non-playing site where members discuss chess and analyze positions without playing chess real-time, except for team contests and consultation challenges. The site's membership have also competed as "The World" against Grandmasters. The site features allow study of openings
, endgames and sacrifices
, including the specific opening repertoire of every Grandmaster in the database.
—Lékó
World Championship 2004
match in Brissago
was broadcast live on the site. This led to a substantial growth in membership and interest, which has steadily increased since then from other live events plus multiple site enhancements.
of 2200 or above) to avoid low quality games and erroneous fabrications. Their ultimate goal is 750,000 games, which should represent the total number of serious chess games ever recorded. The database presently contains more than 580,192 games. Each game page lists a user feedback process to eliminate bad games, help correct errors, and remove any duplicates.
Each game on ChessGames.com is hosted on a separate web page to allow internal and external weblinks to that particular game. Although other online databases contain more games (which are not necessarily screened for quality), they typically do not permit external links to individual games, or else allow for kibitzing on each game.
Prominent ChessGames.com members include former Women's World Champion Susan Polgar
, former World Championship candidate Nigel Short
, prolific authors Raymond Keene
and Eric Schiller
, past USCF
President GM Maxim Dlugy
,IM Lawrence Day
, WGM Natalia Pogonina
and WGM Yelena Dembo
.
defeating The World in 1996 followed by GM Garry Kasparov beating The World
in 1999. Since then other collections of amateurs have represented The World versus one Grandmaster with varying degrees of success. ChessGames.com began team play as The World in 2006 and defeated noted computer expert GM Arno Nickel
. The group duplicated that result by winning as Black against 2007 US Champion GM Yury Shulman
. The latest victory by the ChessGames.com team was over the former Correspondence World Champion Gert Jan Timmerman
. The Chessgames World Team drew the game against WGM Natalia Pogonina, as well as a rematch with GM Nickel in 2008, and a match with the former ICCF World Champion Mikhail Markovich Umansky.
The ChessGames.com database can be searched by player, year, opening, ECO
code and result. Members can create Game Collections to store hundreds of database games by any desired category: opening, endgame, tactic, player, tournament. The site's kibitzing may be searched by keyword for all messages to locate previous posts and find specific information. There are already more than 1.4 million posts.
The Explorer features are limited in the basic membership and are only fully available for an annual fee.
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
community on the Internet, with over 156,000 members. The site maintains a large database of historical chess games where every game has a distinct message board for comments and analysis. Basic membership is free and the site is open to players at all levels of ability. ChessGames.com is a non-playing site where members discuss chess and analyze positions without playing chess real-time, except for team contests and consultation challenges. The site's membership have also competed as "The World" against Grandmasters. The site features allow study of openings
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
, endgames and sacrifices
Sacrifice (chess)
In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....
, including the specific opening repertoire of every Grandmaster in the database.
History
ChessGames.com was founded in 2001 by Daniel Freeman and Alberto Artidiello in association with 20/20 Technologies. They developed software to integrate a chess database with a discussion forum so that each game contains a unique message board. The concept was immediately popular as users can kibitz (post comments) on multiple games and pages throughout the site. The KramnikVladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
—Lékó
Péter Lékó
On the way to winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament in 2005, Lékó defeated Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. The moves were:...
World Championship 2004
Classical World Chess Championship 2004
The Classical World Chess Championship 2004 was held from September 25, 2004 - October 18, 2004 in Brissago, Switzerland. Vladimir Kramnik, the defending champion, played Peter Leko, the challenger, in a fourteen game match....
match in Brissago
Brissago
Brissago is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.-History:An ax and ceramic pieces from the Neolithic era as well as Roman coins and other finds, discovered in 1846 in Brenscino, indicate that the area was prehistorically settled. In 1863, during the...
was broadcast live on the site. This led to a substantial growth in membership and interest, which has steadily increased since then from other live events plus multiple site enhancements.
Database
The site's database of chess games was originally constructed by combining six large databases while weeding out duplicate games. The primary factor for inclusion in the ChessGames.com database is that one of the players should be master strength (an ELO ratingElo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
of 2200 or above) to avoid low quality games and erroneous fabrications. Their ultimate goal is 750,000 games, which should represent the total number of serious chess games ever recorded. The database presently contains more than 580,192 games. Each game page lists a user feedback process to eliminate bad games, help correct errors, and remove any duplicates.
Each game on ChessGames.com is hosted on a separate web page to allow internal and external weblinks to that particular game. Although other online databases contain more games (which are not necessarily screened for quality), they typically do not permit external links to individual games, or else allow for kibitzing on each game.
Membership
There are over 156,000 registered members (of which about 13 percent have visited over the last three months), with 2,500 new members per month. At any time, several hundred people are actively using the site. Group demographics from a 2005 Questionnaire: 98 percent male, 50 percent from North America, average rating 1600-1800 with one third unrated. Members post messages under a Username handle, which may be their real identity or else an anonymous handle.Prominent ChessGames.com members include former Women's World Champion Susan Polgar
Susan Polgar
Susan Polgar is a Hungarian-American chess Grandmaster...
, former World Championship candidate Nigel Short
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
, prolific authors Raymond Keene
Raymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene OBE is an English chess Grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author.p196 He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England to earn a Grandmaster norm, in 1974. In 1976 he became the second...
and Eric Schiller
Eric Schiller
Eric Schiller is an American chess player, trainer, arbiter and one of the most prolific authors of books on chess in the 20th century.-Early life and education:...
, past USCF
United States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...
President GM Maxim Dlugy
Maxim Dlugy
Maxim Dlugy is a Grandmaster of chess. He was born on January 29, 1966 in Moscow, USSR. He arrived with his family in the United States in about 1979. He was a late developer and was only an average player for his age until he shot up in strength in the early 1980s. He was awarded the International...
,IM Lawrence Day
Lawrence Day
Lawrence Day is a Canadian chess International Master, author, and journalist. He has represented Canada at 13 Chess Olympiads.- Early life :...
, WGM Natalia Pogonina
Natalia Pogonina
Natalia Andreevna Pogonina is a Russian chess Woman Grandmaster and member of the Russian Olympic chess team.- Chess career :...
and WGM Yelena Dembo
Yelena Dembo
Yelena Dembo is a Greek International Master of chess. On the May 2010 FIDE rating list for women, she is ranked 31st in the world, with a rating of 2470. She became a Woman Grandmaster when she was seventeen years old, and an International Master at age nineteen...
.
- ChessGames.com: User Profile: Susan Polgar Retrieved on 19 December 2007
- ChessGames.com: User Profile: Nigel Short Retrieved on 19 December 2007
- ChessGames.com: User Profile: Eric Schiller Retrieved on 19 December 2007
- ChessGames.com: User Profile: Maxim Dlugy Retrieved on 19 December 2007
- ChessGames.com: User Profile: Ray Keene Retrieved on 19 December 2007
- ChessGames.com: User Profile: IMlday Retrieved on 19 December 2007
- ChessGames.com: User Profile: Yelena Dembo Retrieved on 19 December 2007
- ChessGames.com: User Profile: Natalia Pogonina Retrieved on 1 December 2009
The World
The Internet Age created the potential for one Grandmaster to play against a large group ("The World") in a consultation game, starting with GM Anatoly KarpovAnatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
defeating The World in 1996 followed by GM Garry Kasparov beating The World
Kasparov versus The World
Kasparov versus the World was a game of chess played in 1999 over the Internet. Conducting the white pieces, Garry Kasparov faced the rest of the world in consultation, with the World Team moves to be decided by plurality vote. Over 50,000 individuals from more than 75 countries participated in the...
in 1999. Since then other collections of amateurs have represented The World versus one Grandmaster with varying degrees of success. ChessGames.com began team play as The World in 2006 and defeated noted computer expert GM Arno Nickel
Arno Nickel
Arno Nickel is a German correspondence chess Grandmaster.Arno Nickel currently lives in Berlin and writes and publishes chess books through his well-known Edition Marco...
. The group duplicated that result by winning as Black against 2007 US Champion GM Yury Shulman
Yury Shulman
Yuri Shulman is a Belarusian American chess grandmaster. He also goes by the alternate spelling of "Yury Shulman."-Chess career:Shulman started formal chess lessons with coach Tamara Golovey when he was six years old. He went on to study under International Master Albert Kapengut at age 12, and...
. The latest victory by the ChessGames.com team was over the former Correspondence World Champion Gert Jan Timmerman
Gert Jan Timmerman
Gert Jan Timmerman is a Dutch chess player, most famous for being the fifteenth ICCF World Champion in correspondence chess between 1996 and 2002....
. The Chessgames World Team drew the game against WGM Natalia Pogonina, as well as a rematch with GM Nickel in 2008, and a match with the former ICCF World Champion Mikhail Markovich Umansky.
Instruction
ChessGames.com's clearly stated goal for members is "to participate and learn from players stronger than yourself, while guiding those who are weaker." The site is designed to be "a worldwide chess community where anybody from anywhere can come to discuss anything they want about chess." Many educational items are updated daily, including the Daily Puzzle, Game of the Day, Player of the Day, Opening of the Day, and Quote of the Day. As a non-playing site, they provide links to several playing sites (real-time and correspondence). In 2005 enhanced software allowed members to embed chess diagrams in their messages, which significantly helps discuss a particular position or potential variation.The ChessGames.com database can be searched by player, year, opening, ECO
Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess. It is presented as a five volume book collection describing chess openings...
code and result. Members can create Game Collections to store hundreds of database games by any desired category: opening, endgame, tactic, player, tournament. The site's kibitzing may be searched by keyword for all messages to locate previous posts and find specific information. There are already more than 1.4 million posts.
Features
ChessGames.com has created several educational tools for users:- The Opening Explorer helps study openings move by move, to select and review games from that particular opening, while also viewing the success rate (percentage of White wins vs. draws vs. Black wins) from games in the database.
- The Endgame Explorer searches for games containing specific piece configurations (King and Pawn, Rook and Pawn, Queen versus Rook, etc.) to review all historical games where that endgame occurred.
- The Sacrifice Explorer finds games based on sacrificed material (any pieces, exchange sacrifice, attacks on a given square, by opening, by player, etc.) to locate instructive games and puzzle examples, while helping to increase tactical skill.
- The Repertoire Explorer follows one player's opening preferences as White and Black, simultaneously displaying their database games and success rate, to pattern one's opening play after a famous player.
- Guess-the-Move is a chess training tool where members play through a database game and try to predict the following move, receiving points for correctly choosing those moves actually played.
The Explorer features are limited in the basic membership and are only fully available for an annual fee.