Westport Chess Club of Kansas City Missouri where a good time is King white knight chess piece

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Chess Links

News | Puzzles, Training, & Improvement | Openings & Endgames | Book Reviews & Book Finder | Play Chess | General Sites & Directories | Chess Media: Video/Radio | Databases & Downloads | Player Sites, Blogs, & User Forums | History & Quotes | Rules & Governing Bodies | Player Rankings & Rating Calculators | Miscellaneous

Got a good link? Find a broken one? Email me.

News

! What's New in Chess Today - http://www.chessbase.com/

! The Week in Chess - http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html

Chessdom.com  - http://www.chessdom.com/

Chess Ninja's Daily Dirt - http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/

Chess Today, the first Internet-based daily chess newspaper (paid subscription required) - http://www.chesstoday.net/

A chess portal. User-submitted information arrive in the form of RSS feeds, podcasts, embedded objects, flash video, or any scripts/apps that return content. - http://www.yourchess.net/

 

Puzzles, Training & Improvement

Puzzles

!! 23,800+ Free Tactics Puzzles on the Chess Tactics Server - http://chess.emrald.net/

!! The Adaptive Tactics Server (ATS) learns where your weaknesses are and gives you problems to help you in those areas: http://www.snufflenose.com/ats/index.php

! Five levels of tactics puzzles from the Rybka folks, "Chess Tasks" - http://chessok.com/?page_id=359 

! 11,000+ Free Tactics Puzzles at Chess Tempo: http://chesstempo.com/

! Chess.com tactics trainer - http://www.chess.com/tactics 

Chess Flashcards, usable on iPhones even - http://www.ichessflashcards.com/

Braille Chess's Puzzle Collection - http://www.braillechess.net/epd.pl?

Chess Training: Tactics - http://www.chesstactics.org/

WT Harvey's tactics site - http://www.wtharvey.com/index.html

Exeter Chess Club's Tactics Tests - http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/Tactics/tactidx.html

Chess Lodge: Puzzles on particular themes every week: http://www.chesslodge.com/ 

A site with links to more tactics puzzles - http://reluctant-messenger.com/chess-advanced.htm

Mating and endgame practice problems - http://www.chess-poster.com/chess_problems/chess_problems.htm

Solve these problems "blindfolded" at this site - http://chesseye.alexander-fleischer.de/o/

Tactics software (Convekta's Chess Tactics Art 3.0) - http://products.convekta.com/193/2/

 

Training & Improvement

! Tips for improvement for the average player from Steve Lopez of Chessbase - http://chessbaseusa.sectorlink.org/TNote.aspx?TNoteUrl=tn/Issues_Current/2003_0330.htm

!! Chess training (for kids) - http://www.chesskids.com/kidzone/index1.shtml (This link is for kids to use themselves, so they may learn. It's all FREE and *very* thorough.)

! If you're an instructor--or just a parent--looking for material on how to teach chess to kids, use the following link: http://www.chesskids.com/ (Again, it's all FREE.)

Basic Chess Tips - http://www.princeton.edu/~jedwards/cif/intro.html

Chess Corner's Chess Tutorial (more good info) - http://www.chesscorner.com/tutorial/learn.htm

Dan Heisman's site (great for beginners) - http://www.danheisman.com/ or http://mywebpages.comcast.net/danheisman/Main_Chess/chess.htm

Exeter Chess Club: Chess learning materials and links - http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/

Coaching Links - http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/links.html

How to get to 1900 Elo - http://www.entertainmentjourney.com/index1.htm

! Study 62 of "The most instructive games of chess ever played" - http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1000119

Get chess visualization training and increase your calculation ability by playing blindfold chess. Solve these problems "blindfolded" at this site - http://chesseye.alexander-fleischer.de/o/

Pay for online training at - http://www.chessmasterschool.com/  

Games showcasing the "Greek Gift" (a bishop sacrifice on f7 or f2) - http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1001821 

! Time Management Tips - http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman40.pdf (backup copy here) & http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archives.htm#Novice%20Nook

! Have a computer analyze your game. Find out where you went wrong - http://www.chess.com/home/computer_analysis_demo.html

 

 

Help with Chess Annotation

Learn Algebraic Notation: http://www.chesshouse.com/howto/How-to-Read-and-Write-Chess-Notation.asp

You can also learn algebraic notation here: http://www.uschess.org/beginners/read/

Don't completely understand algebraic notation? Us the automatic annotator here: http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/annotate.html#auto  

How to improve your chess annotation - http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/annotate.html

 

Openings & Endgames

Openings

! Your four opening choices - http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/Openings/4choices.html

A quick survey of the openings - http://www.chesscorner.com/tutorial/openings/opening_survey.htm

! Shredder Chess' Opening Database (great resource for correspondence chess) - http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/opening-database.html

! ChessOK's Opening Database - http://chessok.com/?page_id=352

! ChessGames.com's Openings Explorer - http://www.chessgames.com/perl/explorer

! New In Chess Opening Reference - http://www.newinchess.com/NICBase/Default.aspx

List of Openings by Position and Name - http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/moves.htm

Get the general gist of openings at chess-poster.com - http://www.chess-poster.com/openings/openings.htm

Chess opening training software: http://www.chesspositiontrainer.com/

"Chess opening secrets revealed" - http://chesscoach1950.blogspot.com/ 

! "The premier opening theory site" (yearly subscription) - http://www.chesspublishing.com/ 

 

Endgames (& Endgame Tablebases)

Common Chess Endings - http://www.chess-time.com/common_chess_game_endings.html

Basic endgame strategy - http://www.chessville.com/instruction/instr_begin_basic_end_intro.htm

! ChessOK's Endgame Tablebase - http://chessok.com/?page_id=361

! Shredder Chess' Endgame Tablebase - http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html 

! All of the currently published Nalimov Tablebases can be queried online (incl. 6-men databases) for free through this one site - http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=egtb&lang=en

! Nalimov Tablebase Server - http://www.lokasoft.nl/tbweb.htm

!? 7-piece tablebase wins (and other very long wins) - http://www.gothicchess.com/javascript_8x8_chess_endings.html

 

Book Reviews & Book Search

Book Reviews

! Jeremy Silman's Book Reviews - http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews/book_reviews.html

Chess Cafe's Book Reviews - http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/reviews.htm

! John Watson's Book Reviews - http://www.chesscenter.com/bookreview.html 

Chess.co.uk's Book Review List: http://chess.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?...bookreviewindex.html

British Chess Magazine's Book Reviews - http://chess.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?...Freviews 

Seagaard Chess Reviews - http://seagaard.dk/review/eng/content/index.asp

 

Find Books

Looking for an out of print chess book? Try this guy in NY - http://www.fredwilsonchess.com/ 

Second-hand, rare, out-of-print chess books - http://www.chessbooks.co.uk/ 

 

Play Chess
 (online/vs. computers/correspondence/at tournaments/chess variants)

Play Chess Online Against Other People

! Play live chess (blitz or longer games) for free at - http://www.chess.com/play/live.html or http://gameknot.com/

Play blitz chess for free at - http://www.uchess.com/

Play real-time chess at FICS--completely free - http://www.freechess.org/ (If this interface isn't for you, then you can connect to FICS through http://www.babaschess.net .)

Play real-time chess at PlayChess.com for free (requires their client software) - http://www.playchess.com/

! Internet Chess Club (pay to play) - http://www.chessclub.com/ 

? If you want, you can also play real-time chess at - http://zone.msn.com/en/chess/default.htm or http://games.yahoo.com/board-games

Play correspondence chess online - http://www.chess.com/ or http://www.redhotpawn.com/ or http://www.chessworld.net/ or http://www.schemingmind.com/ or http://www.iccf.com/ or http://www.iccfus.com/ or http://www.queenalice.com/ or  http://www.chessontheweb.com/ or http://www.ficgs.com/ or http://www.chesscorner.net/ or http://www.chess-knights.com/ or http://www.chessatwork.com/

 

Play Chess Online Against a Computer

ChessGames.com's computer - http://www.chessgames.com/perl/engine

Jester Chess - A very strong opponent, or a weak one: you choose the level to play against. Can play many different versions of chess, too, including an option for playing Shuffle Chess (similar to Fischerandom) called "Throne of Chaos."

Thinking Machine 4 - This program, although a weak player, is equipped with a beautiful graphic display that provides a window into the computer's thinking process.

WebChess - Play against the GNU Chess engine on the web.

Java Chess - Another java-based chess engine.

FreeArcade Chess - If you find the other chess games difficult, try this one. Its playing strength is estimated to be that of a turnip.

 

Correspondence Chess through the Mail

International Correspondence Chess Federation (US) - http://www.iccfus.com/

International Correspondence Chess Federation - http://www.iccf.com/

US Chess Federation's Correspondence site - http://www.uschess.org/cc/

Correspondence Chess League of America - http://www.chessbymail.com/ 

CorrespondenceChess.com - http://www.correspondencechess.com/

The Campbell Report - http://www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/

Ralph Marconi's Correspondence Site - http://www.correspondencechess.com/marconi/

American Postal Chess Tournaments - http://www.correspondencechess.com/apct/index.htm

The Campbell Report's list of correspondence chess sites - http://www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/clinks.htm#ccsites

 

Email Chess

International Email Chess Club - http://www.chess-iecc.org/

International Email Chess Group - http://www.iecg.org/

Party Games - this website has links to various chess-related websites.

E4EC Chess Club - Server based correspondence chess games and tournaments via email.

SIR-scacchi in rete (English & Italian E-mail chess site)

SoundKeepers.com - SoundKeepers.com is an e-mail chess site. It has printable chess boards, score book, and 4000 games. It also has a Chess Clock that people can download for their PC.

THORG (Thematics Organization) - An e-mail chess club devoted entirely to thematic games.

FRCEC Fischer Random Chess email Club

 

Tournaments

Search for over-the-board chess tournaments in your area (USA) - http://www.uschess.org/tla

 

Chess Variants

Play other versions of chess - http://www.chessvariants.com

About Fischer Random Chess (a.k.a. Chess960) - http://www.chessvariants.com/diffsetup.dir/fischer.html 

Fischer Random Chess position generator - http://www.chessgames.com/perl/fischerandom

Variants seem to be popular at http://www.schemingmind.com and http://www.caissa.com/

 

General Chess Sites and Chess Directories

General Chess Sites (w/lots of info)

Chessville.com - http://www.chessville.com/

Chess-Poster.com - http://www.chess-poster.com/

Exeter Chess Club - http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/

Professor Chess - http://www.professorchess.com/

 

More Chess Links

! Chessopolis (probably the largest chess links site on the 'Net) http://www.chessopolis.com/new.htm

! Lots of links - http://www.worldchesslinks.net/ --NEW

Links, sorted by category, at ChessGuide.com - http://www.chessguide.com/ 

! Just Chess' list of chess links - http://www.justchess.biz/ --NEW

Links to other link sites - http://www.academicchess.com/contact/linkspages/chess-links-pages.htm  

 

Useful Links for (e-)Mail Correspondence Players

Keep track of your correspondence games for free at: http://www.theandrew.com/projects/programming/cc/

A freeware program for keeping track of your games: http://webs.ono.com/a.valverde/ectool.htm

Forms for Correspondence Chess players in Adobe PDF - http://www.professorchess.com/downloads/pdf_free/correspondence_forms.pdf 

 

Chess Media

Chess Radio, Video, etc.

! Chess FM, which uses audio and video to report on chess - http://www.chess.fm/

Chess videos - http://www.chessvideos.tv/

Chess videos - http://www.videochess.net/ 

 

Databases & Downloads

Game Collections & On-line Databases

! On-line Database of Positions - http://www.chesslive.de/

! Chess Database of 2,000,000 Games (1485 - present) - http://www.chesslab.com/PositionSearch.html

! New In Chess - http://www.newinchess.com/NICBase/Default.aspx

! Over 3.5 million games at 365Chess.com - http://www.365chess.com/

Over 800,000 games; updated regularly - http://www.gensunasumus.com/searchajax/

Chess Database and Position Annotator - http://www.chess-database.com/index.html

! Classic Games Online - http://www.chessgames.com/

Chess-Ref.org (games are sorted by player or opening) - http://chess-ref.org/

ChessZone.org chess databases - http://www.chesszone.org/bases/bases.html

Free on-line database and openings explorer - http://www.wildchess.org/

Lessons in endgame strategy by Jan van Reek - http://www.endgame.nl/strategy.htm

 

Download PGN / SCID files

GAMES

Lars Balzer's Site - http://www.chessgameslinks.lars-balzer.info/

! Chess Assistant (Convekta) - http://www.convekta.com/databases.asp

! PGN Mentor - http://www.pgnmentor.com/files.html

Pitt.edu - http://www.pitt.edu/~schach/Archives/ftpstat.html

! Chessville - http://www.chessville.com/downloads/misc_downloads.htm

G. Ossimitz's Chess Page - http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/~gossimit/c/chess.htm

BritBase - http://bcmchess.co.uk/britbase/

International Correspondence Chess games archive - http://gamesarchive.iccf.com/

1.74 million games - http://top-5000.nl/pgn.htm

A database (one big PGN file) of ~1.4 Million games - ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/book/enormous.zip

"Encyclopedia of chess openings" - http://www.chessopeningspgn.com/chess/Openings.html

Openings - A http://cap.connx.com/a-openings/, B http://cap.connx.com/b-openings/ C http://cap.connx.com/c-openings/, D http://cap.connx.com/d-openings/, E http://cap.connx.com/e-openings/

Supreme Chess's game collection sorted by ECO codes -  http://www.supreme-chess.com/chess-game-collection-a.html

FICS Correspondence Chess database - http://www.ficgs.com/databases/chess.pgn

LatestChess.com archive chess games - http://www.latestchess.com/archiveGames.php

! Weekly posts with games from tournaments around the world - http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twicp.html 

! Weekly downloads of new games - http://chessok.com/?page_id=694

Annotated chess databases by Jan van Reek - http://www.endgame.nl/downloads.html

! ScidBase, over 1,000,000 high quality games (Just give a small donation for this awesome database.) - http://scid.sourceforge.net/scidbase.html

! A database of  ~5.6 million games - http://www.icofy.com/dl.php?

 

TABLEBASES

Crafty's Endgame Tablebases - ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/TB/

! Many endgame tablebases for download here--great resource - http://kirill-kryukov.com/chess/tablebases-online/

 

PUZZLES

1,001 Tactical Exercises (in PGN format) - http://www.chessville.com/downloads/downloads_tactical_exercises.htm

 

ECO/MCO

ECO downloads - ftp://ftp.cs.kent.ac.uk/pub/djb/Extract/eco.pgn

 

Other Chess Downloads

Winboard - http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/winboard/

SCID - a free chess database application - http://scid.sourceforge.net/download.html

ChessDB - Another free chess database application based on SCID. It has a few more additions to SCID - http://chessdb.sourceforge.net/

Miscellaneous downloads at Chessville - http://www.chessville.com/downloads/misc_downloads.htm

Many chess programs - http://www.schackportalen.nu/English/emjukvara.htm

More chess programs - http://www.chess.com/downloads

Even more chess programs - http://www.enpassant.dk/chess/softeng.htm

Chesspad PGN Viewer - http://www.pgn.freeservers.com/chesspad.html or here

Lots of chess help at ProfessorChess.com - http://www.professorchess.com/downloads/

 

Free Chess Engines

See how all engines do vs. each other: http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/

What's the best move in a certain position? Use this free online position analyzer -  http://www.chesslab.com/PositionSearch.html

 

Players' Websites, Blogs, and User Forums

Players' Websites/Blogs

Pictures of Chess Greats - http://www.chess-poster.com/great_players/great_players.htm

World Champions - http://www.chess-poster.com/english/world_champions.htm

! Susan Polgar's blog - http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/ 

Magnus Carlsen - http://blog.magnuschess.com/

 

Forums & Discussion Boards

Chess.com chess forums - http://www.chess.com/forum/

RedHotPawn.com chess forum - http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/threadlist.php?subject=Only_Chess&forumid=9

A web gateway to chess newsgroups - http://www.chessbanter.com/

 

Chess Quotes & History

Chess Quotes

http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/quotes.html 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/quotes.htm 

http://www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/chess_quotes.htm

http://www.chesscorner.com/quotes/chess_quotes.htm

http://www.chessville.com/misc/Quotes/misc_trivia_quotes_chess_is.htm  

 

Chess History & Classic Games

Chess history - http://www.chesshistory.com/

! The "Immortal Game" Anderssen vs. Kieseritzky 1851 - http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-immortal-game

The "Game of the (20th) Century" Byrne vs. Fischer, 1956 - http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3434; the following link has a lot of commentary on that game: http://www.geocities.com/lifemasteraj/byrne-fisch_1.html

 

Rules, Governing Bodies, & Organizations

Rules & Glossary of Terms

FIDE's Official Rules of Chess - http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=EE101

Rules, sorted and categorized - http://www.chessclub.com/resources/rules/

Glossary of Chess Terms - http://www.chess-poster.com/english/glossary.htm

ChessWorld's Hitchhiker's Guide to Chess (a glossary) - http://www.letsplaychess.com/chessclubs/learn_glossary.asp

"Chessopedia" - http://www.chess.com/chessopedia/

How to pronounce those strange chess words - http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/pronounc.htm

 

Governing Bodies of Chess

FIDE (World Chess Federation) - http://www.fide.com/default.asp

USCF (US Chess Federation) - http://www.uschess.org/

 

Kansas City / Midwest Chess Organizations

The Chess Club (by Ken Fee) - http://www.powerpawn.net/

Midwest Chess Academy (by Tim Steiner) - http://www.midwestchess.com/

KC Scholastic Chess Association - http://www.kcchess.org/

Missouri Chess Association - http://www.mochess.org/

Kansas Chess Association - http://www.kansaschess.org/

Use Meetup.com to find other people in KC who want to meet for a game of chess -  http://chess.meetup.com/cities/us/mo/kansas_city/?

Iowa State Chess Association - http://www.iowachess.org/

Nebraska State Chess Association - http://nsca.nechess.com/

Oklahoma Chess Association - http://www.ochess.org/ 

 

Player Rankings & Rating Calculators

Player Rankings

FIDE's current list of best players - http://www.fide.com/ratings/top.phtml?

USCF's current list of best players - http://www.uschess.org/ratings/top/index.php

Live, current--unofficial--ratings for players > 2700 - http://chess.liverating.org/ 

!? Top chess player rankings through history - http://www.chessmetrics.com/

FIDE historical ratings - http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/ratings/

Fischl's Chess Statistics - http://members.aon.at/sfischl/stat.html

 

Rating Calculators

Elo Rating and Performance Calculator - http://chess.cern.ch/ratings/elocalc.en.shtml

Rating Calculator - http://www.chess-poster.com/english/elo_calc/elo_calculator.htm

What is your Elo rating vs. winning probability? Find out here.

 

Miscellaneous Items

Miscellaneous

The benefits of playing chess - http://www.deanofchess.com/benefits.htm & http://www.successchess.com/SCSKnights/NY2.html

I.Q. and Chess, by Bill Wall - http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/iq.htm

Cheating & Chess - http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Realm/8655/ENGLISH/Main_ENG.htm

!! = Extraordinary site
! = Great site
!? = Interesting site
? = Dubious site
(opinion of the web admin, and not necessarily the club)