First I developed a list of topics that applies to each of those three stages: Introduction, History, Castling, Theory, and Notes. Then I went through the early chess960 posts on my main blog -- up to the point where this current blog took over -- to see if they fit into the 1-2-3 structure. Finally I created a new page, Chess960 1-2-3, which incorporates all of the above.
A single index page is a long way from an ebook, but it should evolve over time. Because it's a static page, a link will appear at the top of every post on this blog.
First I fixed the tab at the top of this blog which said 'ChessCube Chess (Test)'. It has been there for three years but has never worked properly. I created an external page on my own domain with the same content that was behind the tab. Then I made the tab point to that page and renamed the tab 'ChessCube'. Now it works properly, but lacks additional info the metainfo needed for the search engines.
As for the other ideas to use static pages, they involve creating a structured guide to chess960. All things in time.
The Chess960 Jungle database has increased to over 1700 games. The database is still useful even if it is small. Seeing the games of top players primes people with the confidence to give 960 a go.
It's a good point, so I counted the different names on the database.
The chart on the left shows the 25 players with the highest number of games.
At least half of the top-10 are strong GMs whose names are immediately recognizable.
Third on the list is a surname shared by two players, one of whom (Matthias Kribben) played in both ICCF and Mainz. Sixth on the list isn't Laszlo Szabo, the one time World Championship contender who died in 1998, but again a number of players with the same surname, most of whom played on LSS.
For the link to Chess960 Jungle, see the right sidebar.
A few years ago I assembled a similar database. The next step will be to compare my games with those from Chess960 Jungle and see if I have anything to contribute to the newer collection. There is also the important subject of whether or not such a database is useful for more than its historical overview.
I first collected games in August 2009, but don't seem to have blogged about it. All of those games were from the annual Mainz events, which I blogged about in Chess960 @ Chess Classic Mainz (2001-2008), and CCM9: Nakamura, Grischuk, and Rybka (2009).
Comparing my database with HarryO's, I discovered he was missing one event -- the 2004 Svidler - Aronian match -- and promptly forwarded it to him. The other events in our collections matched very well. I noted a few differences where he chose to exclude certain games. His first rule, 'Human ELO 2000+', excludes engine competitions, of which there were five at Mainz:-
2005; CCM5 - 1. Chess960 Computer WCh; 63 games
2006; CCM6 - 2. Chess960 Computer WCh; 90
2007; CCM7 - Livingston Chess960 Computer WCh; 21
2008; CCM8 - Livingston Chess960 Computer WCh; 34
2009; CCM9 - Livingston Chess960 Computer WCh; 34
His last rule, 'Simultaneous exhibitions where the games last at least 30 moves', limits the number of games from two early simuls:-
2003; CCM3 Chess960 Simul - Leko; 20
2003; CCM3 Chess960 Simul - Svidler; 20
There was another Mainz simul that he might have overlooked, perhaps because it was the only chess960 event organized in the final year of the Mainz series:-
2010; Simul - Kosteniuk; 20
The Mainz events are certainly missed, but there's no need to lament about the past. HarryO is right to include LSS correspondence games, and he might want to consider ICCF games, where the pool of active players is probably stronger than for LSS. I mentioned the site's chess960 activity once in Correspondence Chess Ratings and Chess960. As for other correspondence sites -- Chess.com is a popular example -- I don't know if the percentage of strong players is high enough to merit their inclusion.
Finally, we come to the question of how useful such a database is. With a little over a thousand games in the collection, it can't serve for any sort of opening preparation into one of the 959 non-traditional starting setups. The CCRL, with 100-150 examples per start position (SP) is also not particularly useful, because the positional thinking required in the opening is not the engines' strong point.
For a long time to come, the value of a chess960 database is going to be its de-facto record of chess960 competitions. This alone is enough to justify the effort involved in maintaining it. Imagine how much poorer chess history would be if the traditional chess games played prior to the great 1851 London tournament had never been recorded and saved.
After an important digression for the Moscow tournament first mentioned in
Chess960 Live on the Small Screen,
it's high time I returned to another topic from that same post: HarryO's
Chess960 database - Compilation of games 2001-2014
[chess960jungle.blogspot.com].
I downloaded the PGN file from Chess960 Jungle, loaded the header data into a regular database, and counted 1066 games. The image on the left shows the count of games per year.
The games through 2008 are all from Mainz, while those from 2009 are from Mainz and LSS. After 2009, the games are all from LSS except for the 2011 Kings vs Queens event in St. Louis, and the 2014 Moscow tournament.
A few years ago I assembled a similar database. The next step will be to compare my games with those from Chess960 Jungle and see if I have anything to contribute to the newer collection. There is also the important subject of whether or not such a database is useful for more than its historical overview. I'll have more to say about these topics in a future post.
