June issue of Chess + Check e-zine

Official website http://www.chesscheckezine.com/

It’s excellent and it’s free! You can subscribe by visiting the website above. Here is one article in this month’s issue:

BILL WALL’S CHESS WEBSITE’S REVIEW
Visit Bill’s own great site — http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/chess.htm

There are thousands of chess websites. Some are very good and others not so good or not updated very much. Here is a review of some of my favorite web sites.

For chess news, I always go the ChessBase at http://www.chessbase.com/ . From the U.S. Championship coverage to super grandmaster tournaments, ChessBase covers it all and includes lots of pictures. Games are usually included in the tournament reports in pgn format. ChessBase lite is available for free to play over the games.

For other chess news, I like The Week in Chess (TWIC) at http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html . This site sums up the major events of the week and makes available hundreds of chess games weekly from the major events around the world. There are lots of crosstables in the latest news section and a list up major upcoming events.

Another site with the latest in chess is Chessdom at http://www.chessdom.com/ . It carries the latest news in chess with pictures and there are links to interviews of top chess players around the world.

For chess history or trivia, I like Chess Notes by Edward Winter at http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/ . Winter has written several chess books based on his chess notes as he tries to uncover historical chess facts or points out errors and mistakes in chess writings. His articles are usually accompanied by historical chess photos. Winter is probably the best chess historian of our time.

Another chess historical site is Goddess Chess at http://www.goddesschess.com/ .There is a lot of information on the history of chess, chess art and artifacts.

For general information, some chess articles, or a place to purchase chess books and equipment, I like Chess Café at http://www.chesscafe.com/ . There are plenty of book reviews and chess columns. In December, Chess Café holds its annual chess quiz. You really have to be a chess buff to do well in this contest.

Another good site is Chessville at http://www.chessville.com/ . It is full of chess articles, reviews, news, and chess problems. It also has a good chess store.

For online chess database of master chess games, chessgames.com at http://www.chessgames.com/ is very good. It has almost all the games of top players, with discussion groups, an Opening Explorer database with millions of games, a player’s dictionary, and game of the day.

For me, the best place to play chess online is chess.com at http://www.chess.com/ . You can play online chess or live chess with thousands of players, including dozens of grandmasters and international masters. The site has a players’ forum to discuss topics, a chess blog site, a chess wikipedia, hundreds of chess articles, lots of history and trivia, and a lot more. It is also home to Chess Mentor and Tactics Trainer.

For chess humor and some good chess articles, I like Chandler Cornered or Chess Edinburgh at http://chessedinburgh.co.uk/chandler.php . The website is by Geoff Chandler of Scotland and he writes in a humorous style and includes chess pictures and illustrations. He includes lots of local games and annotates them well, with lots of diagrams.

Tim Krabbe’s Chess Curiosities at http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/chess.html keeps a list of records in chess (longest, shortest, latest, mostest, etc) along with his chess diary. He includes lots of chess problems and chess stories.

My favorite chess blog is Susan Polgar’s chess blog at http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/ . She usually keeps up to date on the latest chess events and includes lots of pictures. She also has a section called the current state of the USCF, which is usually not good.

Another good blog site is by Jim West at http://jimwestonchess.blogspot.com/ . This New York master has written dozens of articles and annotated many of his games to fill up his blog site.

Another good one is Mig Greengard’s Chessninja Daily Dirt chess blog at http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/ . His coverage of the U.S. championship and other events is great.

The Closet Grandmaster at http://closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com/ is another good blog site from an Australian chess blogger.

If you are interested in chess problems, one of the best sites is http://www.chessproblems.com/ . Chess problems can be selected from easy to hard, with about 4,000 games in its database.

One of my favorite chess home pages is A.J. Chess Home Page at http://www.geocities.com/lifemasteraj/ . It is full of annotated chess games, reviews, chess news, and chess trivia of all interests. He has put a lot of work in his annotated games.

If you play correspondence chess, a good site is http://www.correspondencechess.com/ . There are a lot links to other correspondence chess sites, including the Campbell Report at http://www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/ . Campbell keeps up to date on correspondence chess around the world.

More from Bill next month!