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/Tournament Info | General Sites & Directories | Chess Media: Video/Radio | Databases & Downloads | Player Sites, Blogs, & User Forums | History & Quotes | Rules & Governing Bodies |  Other Clubs | Player Rankings & Rating Calculators | Miscellaneous

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


News

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

! The Week in Chess - www.chesscenter.com

Chessdom.com  - www.chessdom.com

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

Chess Today, the first Internet-based daily chess newspaper (paid subscription required) - 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. - www.yourchess.net

Women in chess, news - www.goddesschess.com

Correspondence Chess News - http://ccn.correspondencechess.com 



Puzzles

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: www.snufflenose.com

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

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

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

! ChessKid.com tactics trainer - www.chesskid.com/tactics

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

Braille Chess's Puzzle Collection - www.braillechess.net

Chess Training: Tactics - www.chesstactics.org

WT Harvey's tactics site - www.wtharvey.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

 


Training & Improvement

Training & Improvement

!! Chessbase's Steve Lopez writes "How to improve at chess" part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (Here is the shorter version of the above - http://chessbaseusa.sectorlink.org)

!! Chess training (for kids) - www.chesskids.com/kidzone (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: www.chesskids.com. Be sure to also take a look at ChessKid.com.

Want to hire an instructor? You can try here: http://www.chessclub.com/activities/teachers.html or here: http://www.chess.com/coaches.

Basic Chess Tips - www.princeton.edu/~jedwards/cif

Chess Corner's Chess Tutorial (more good info) - www.chesscorner.com

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

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

Coaching Links - www.exeterchessclub.org.uk

How to get to 1900 Elo - www.entertainmentjourney.com

! Study 62 of "The most instructive games of chess ever played" - www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection

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

Pay for online training at - www.chessmasterschool.com  

Games showcasing the "Greek Gift" (a bishop sacrifice on f7 or f2) - www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection

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

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

 

 Help with Chess Annotation

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

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

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

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

 


Openings & Endgames

Openings

! Your four opening choices - www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/Openings

A quick survey of the openings - www.chesscorner.com/tutorial/openings

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

! ChessOK's Opening Database - http://chessok.com

! ChessGames.com's Openings Explorer - www.chessgames.com

! New In Chess Opening Reference - www.newinchess.com/NICBase

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

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

Chess opening training software: www.chesspositiontrainer.com

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

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

 

Endgames (& Endgame Tablebases)

Common Chess Endings - www.chess-time.com

Basic endgame strategy - www.chessville.com/instruction

! ChessOK's Endgame Tablebase - http://chessok.com

! Shredder Chess' Endgame Tablebase - www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases

! All of the currently published Nalimov Tablebases can be queried online (incl. 6-men databases) for free through this one site - www.k4it.de/index.php

! Nalimov Tablebase Server - www.lokasoft.nl

!? 7-piece tablebase wins (and other very long wins) - www.gothicchess.com

 


Book Reviews & Book Search

Book Reviews

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

Chess Cafe's Book Reviews - www.chesscafe.com/archives

! John Watson's Book Reviews - www.chesscenter.com

Chess.co.uk's Book Review List: http://chess.about.com

British Chess Magazine's Book Reviews - http://chess.about.com

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

 

Find Chess Books

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

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

 


Play Chess

Play at Another Chess Club

Kansas City Chess Club - www.kansascitychessclub.com

Heart of America Chess Association - www.chessmasterbob.com

Blue Valley Library Chess Club - www.freewebs.com/bvchessclub

Midwest Chess Academy (scholastic) - www.midwestchess.com

KC Scholastic Chess Association - www.kcchess.org

Collector's Cache, 13354 College Blvd, Lenexa, KS 66210. (NE intersection of College Blvd and Pflumm) Wednesdays 4-7pm. Call 913/338-2273

KC Public Library - Main branch at 45th and Main. Sundays 1-5pm.

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/

Missouri Chess Association - www.mochess.org

Kansas Chess Association - www.kansaschess.org

 

Play at Chess Tournaments

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

Tournaments in the Kansas City Area - Westport Chess ClubThe Chess Club in the NorthlandScholastics in the NorthlandScholastics in IndependenceTournaments locally and in the Midwest 

Tournaments in Missouri - www.mochess.org/Tournaments.htm 

USCF tournaments in Missouri - www.mochess.org/Calendar.htm

Tournaments in Kansas - www.kansaschess.org/htdocs/UpcomingTournaments.htm

Tournament tools: Register for tournaments, watch/compare your rating to other club members, class mates, etc. - www.mychessrating.com 


Play Chess Against Other People Online

!! Internet Chess Club (a.k.a. ICC) - www.chessclub.com - It costs about $40/year, but if you're serious about your chess, this is the place to be.

! Play live chess (bullet, blitz, regular, or long games) for free at - www.chess.com or gameknot.com

Play blitz chess for free at - www.uchess.com

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

Play live chess at PlayChess.com for free (requires their client software) - www.playchess.com

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

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

 

Play Chess Online Against a Computer

Play against Rybka - http://chessok.com

Play against Shredder - www.shredderchess.com/play-chess-online.html

Play against the computer at Chess.com - www.chess.com/play/computer.html

ChessGames.com's computer - 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) - www.iccfus.com

International Correspondence Chess Federation - www.iccf.com

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

Correspondence Chess League of America - www.chessbymail.com 

CorrespondenceChess.com - www.correspondencechess.com

The Campbell Report - www.correspondencechess.com/campbell

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

American Postal Chess Tournaments - www.correspondencechess.com/apct

The Campbell Report's list of correspondence chess sites - www.correspondencechess.com

 

Email Chess

International Email Chess Club - www.chess-iecc.org

International Email Chess Group - www.iecg.org

Play email chess at PostcardChess.com - www.postcardchess.com

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

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

 

Chess Variants

Play other versions of chess - www.chessvariants.com

About Fischer Random Chess (a.k.a. Chess960) - www.chessvariants.com

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

Variant chess seems to be popular at www.schemingmind.com and www.caissa.com

 


General Chess Sites and Chess Directories

General Chess Sites (w/lots of info)

Chessville.com - www.chessville.com

Chess-Poster.com - www.chess-poster.com

Exeter Chess Club - www.exeterchessclub.org.uk

Professor Chess - www.professorchess.com

Chess Boss - www.chessboss.com

 

More Chess Links

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

! Lots of links - www.worldchesslinks.net --NEW

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

! Just Chess' list of chess links - www.justchess.biz

Chess Theory's list of (many) chess links - www.chess-theory.com

Links to other link sites - www.academicchess.com/contact/linkspages

 

Useful Links for (e-)Mail Correspondence Players

Keep track of your correspondence games for free at: www.theandrew.com

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 - www.professorchess.com/downloads

 


Chess Media

Chess Radio, Video, etc.

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

Chess videos - www.chessvideos.tv

Chess videos - www.videochess.net 

 


Databases & Downloads

Game Collections & On-line Databases

! On-line Database of Positions - www.chesslive.de

! Chess Database of 2,000,000 Games (1485 - present) - www.chesslab.com

! New In Chess - www.newinchess.com/NICBase

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

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

Chess Database and Position Annotator - www.chess-database.com

! Classic Games Online - www.chessgames.com

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

ChessZone.org chess databases - www.chesszone.org/bases

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

Lessons in endgame strategy by Jan van Reek - www.endgame.nl

 

Download PGN / SCID files

GAMES

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

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

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

Pitt.edu - www.pitt.edu

! Chessville - www.chessville.com

G. Ossimitz's Chess Page - www.uni-klu.ac.at

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" - www.chessopeningspgn.com/chess

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 -  www.supreme-chess.com

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

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

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

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

Annotated chess databases by Jan van Reek - 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 - www.icofy.com/dl.php?

 

TABLEBASES

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

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

 

PUZZLES

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

 

ECO/MCO

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

 

Other Chess Downloads

ChessBase Light 2009 - www.chessbase.com/download/cblight

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

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

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 - www.chessville.com/downloads

Many chess programs - www.schackportalen.nu/English

More chess programs - www.chess.com/downloads

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

Chesspad PGN Viewer - www.pgn.freeservers.com or here

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

 

Free Chess Engines

See how all engines do vs. each other: www.computerchess.org.uk

What's the best move? Use this free online engine/position analyzer -  www.chesslab.com

 


Players' Websites, Blogs, and User Forums

Players' Websites/Blogs

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

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

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

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

Chess Central's Blog - http://chesscentral.wordpress.com

 

Forums & Discussion Boards

! Chess Exchange's chess forums - www.chessexchange.com/forum

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

RedHotPawn.com chess forum - www.redhotpawn.com/board

Talk Chess' computer chess forum - http://talkchess.com/forum

St. Louis Chess forum - www.stlchess.com

A web gateway to chess newsgroups - www.chessbanter.com

 


Chess Quotes & History

Chess Quotes

www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/quotes

www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/quotes

www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts

www.chesscorner.com/quotes/chess_quotes

www.chessville.com/misc/Quotes

 

Chess History & Classic Games

Chess history - www.chesshistory.com

An illustrated history of chess - http://ancientchess.com

! Historical chess photographs - www.rogerpaige.me.uk

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

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

 


Rules, Governing Bodies, & Organizations

Rules & Glossary of Terms

FIDE's Official Rules of Chess - www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp

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

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

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

"Chessopedia" - www.chess.com/chessopedia

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

 

Governing Bodies of Chess

FIDE (World Chess Federation) - www.fide.com

USCF (US Chess Federation) - www.uschess.org


Other Chess Clubs/Organizations

Kansas City / Midwest Chess Organizations

Kansas City Chess Club - www.kansascitychessclub.com

Heart of America Chess Association - www.chessmasterbob.com

Midwest Chess Academy - www.midwestchess.com

KC Scholastic Chess Association - www.kcchess.org

Blue Valley Library Chess Club - www.freewebs.com/bvchessclub

Collector's Cache, 13354 College Blvd, Lenexa, KS 66210. (NE intersection of College Blvd and Pflumm) Wednesdays 4-7pm. Call 913/338-2273

KC Public Library - Main branch at 45th and Main. Sundays 1-5pm.

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

University of Missouri Chess Club - http://students.missouri.edu/~muchess

St. Louis Chess Club - www.saintlouischessclub.org

Missouri Chess Association - www.mochess.org

Kansas Chess Association - www.kansaschess.org

Iowa State Chess Association - www.iowachess.org

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

Oklahoma Chess Association - www.ochess.org 

Illinois Chess Association - www.illinoischess.org

Arkansas Chess Association - www.arkansaschess.org

 


Player Rankings & Rating Calculators

Player Rankings

FIDE's current list of best players - www.fide.com/ratings

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

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

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

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

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

 

Rating Calculators

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

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

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

 


Miscellaneous Items

Miscellaneous

The benefits of playing chess - www.deanofchess.com/benefits.htm & www.successchess.com

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

Cheating & Chess - www.geocities.com/Area51/Realm/8655/ENGLISH

Learn about chess variants - www.chessvariants.org


!! = Extraordinary site
! = Great site
!? = Interesting site

(opinion of the web admin, and not necessarily the club)