Subject: Chess History on the Web (2001 no.10) Date: 15 May 2001 10:49:14 -0000 From: "World Chess Championship" Site review - Chess History Center As we all know, Web domain names are usually related to the content of the related site. The domain at... http://www.chesshistory.com/ ...leaves no doubt that the site is about chess history. Since we also know that chess history is a surprisingly large topic, we naturally inquire about the focus of the site. In fact, the full name of the site is the 'Chess History Center', and it is 'intended as a navigation center for everybody with a serious interest in chess history'. The copyright notice on each page tells us that the proprietor of the site is Richard Forster. Regular visitors to the award winning Chess Cafe at www.chesscafe.com know that Forster is one of the monthly columnists. He writes the 'Late Knight' column, which can be found at address... http://www.chesscafe.com/Forster/forster.htm ...The current column is 'Conclusion of the Staunton Trilogy', 'to gain new insights purely on Howard Staunton's merits as a chess-player.' As with all other columns, previous articles are available from the Chess Cafe's archives at... http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archives.htm ...from which I downloaded the current Late Knight archive file. While most of Forster's columns are on the topic of chess history, there is a good mix of contemporary topics -- reviews of recent books, examination of endgames, and a detailed look at Forster's game from a 1999 clock simul where Kramnik played a strong team of six young Swiss masters. As with all other Chess Cafe columnists, Forster's contributions are excellent. If you haven't read them, I encourage you to take the time to do so. You won't be disappointed. For some reason, the archive file ended with 'Staunton, the Chess Player' (January 2001), which means that the second file in the Staunton trilogy, 'Staunton, a Master of Opening Preparation' (March 2001) is missing. Some time last year the Chess Cafe started to save files in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format rather than in text (TXT) format. Although far more presentable, the archived files are now 3-4 times larger than the older text files. I hope that this is not creating a problem to add the new columns to the archive. While I'm whining, I might mention that I sometimes wonder why Chess Cafe articles are not distributed with the PGN game scores. This would make the annotated games so much easier to follow. I decided to look for other Forster material on the Web. The first three entries from a Google search at www.google.com on 'Richard Forster chess' were for pages from:- - www.chesscafe.com - www.chessstore.ch - www.chesshistory.com The chessstore.ch domain has a few book reviews by Forster in German. Other interesting pages returned by Google were... http://www.chesscenter.com/kingpin/Kingpin/CensoredCurrentIssue.htm ...where we learn that Forster is also a columnist for Kingpin. Biographical information from ChessBase at... http://www.chessbase-online.com/scripts/server.dll?getplayer?Forster&Richard ...tells us that Forster is 26 years old and an IM. A highly complimentary page at... http://www.notzai.com/notzai/suisse/geneve26.shtml ...titled 'Le goût du risque' ('The taste of risk') tells us, 'Forster, who has already achieved two GM-norms, distinguishes himself from the elite of Swiss players (with the exception of Korchnoi) by his uncompromising style'. The page presents an annotated game won in attacking style by Forster as Black against GM Arthur Yussupov. Finally, the WhoIs page for chesshistory.com tells us that the domain name was created 2000-08-22, and that the contact is an email address at the University of Zurich. From the www.unizh.ch site we learn that a Richard Forster is attached to the Computer Science department and plays goalkeeper on the football (soccer) team. Although it is not certain that this is IM Forster, a Computer Science background is consistent with and useful in managing a Web site. Is Forster the only Chess Cafe columnist who runs a Web site on the side? --- Let's take a closer look at the Chess History Center, which is a small, uncomplicated site with a useful double frame structure. A navigation frame offers a dozen links; several pages ('Home', 'Research Center', & 'Clearing House') duplicate these same links. The Research Center explains that the site is designed to 'help coordinate research into chess history'. The Clearing House offers links to the three pages ('General Research Requests', 'Specific Source Requests', & 'Puzzles and Mysteries') which appear to be the heart of the site. General Research Requests are 'for support and rare information on certain players, tournaments and similar'. Specific Source Requests are for 'a certain newspaper, book, library, etc.' Puzzles and Mysteries are for 'specific positions, games, quotes, etc.' The emphasis is on 'rare' and 'non-trivial'. General Research Requests (last update: 30.03.01) list 15 requests in alphabetical order by subject. One example, 'Steinitz v Chigorin, Havana 1889 - a title match?', continues, 'All modern sources about Steinitz or the World Championship matches claim that the second World Championship match was the one played between Steinitz and Chigorin, in Havana 1889. [...] I doubt that this is formally correct for several reasons -- the most important of which is that Steinitz had already given the title away to the organizers of the 6th American Chess Congress (New York, 1889) and so it was no longer his to put up for contest. [...] Now I'm trying to locate the earliest mention of the Havana match being a World championship title match. I would be glad for any information related to the question.' Specific Source Requests (last update: 29.04.01 ) list 9 requests, all of which are for English or German language sources, and two of which are marked 'resolved'. The first request asks, 'Who can get access to the Berliner Zeitung am Mittag for 1900-1914 and 1919-25?' Puzzles and Mysteries (last update: 19.04.01 ) list 13 requests. All links point to the same page. The requests are primarily of the type 'is this position genuine?' -or- 'who can resolve the discrepancies in this game score?' The site also has support material. 'Researchers Corner' (last update: 12.11.00) has four links, three to the Chess Archaeology site (www.chessarch.com) and one to the Royal Library in The Hague. 'Chess Data' (last update: 26.10.00) has a single link to the Schach-Datenbank by Wilfried Günther, which I plan to review next month. The World Wide Chess Archive (last update: 14.04.01) has more than 100 links on 48 chess personalities. Most of the links are to pages from the Chess Cafe and Chess Archaeology, but there are a few links to other sources like Inside Chess (www.insidechess.com), Vistula Chess Monthly (www.astercity.net/~vistula/), and Correspondence Chess News (ccn.correspondencechess.com/). The archive also has links ('Further material') to a few sites specializing in particular aspects of chess history. Finally, there is a page on Amos Burn (1848-1925), which appears to be Forster's own pet project. --- Unfortunately, the tone of the site is often somewhat smug -- 'for everybody with a serious interest in chess history', 'only *non-trivial* material is accepted', 'this site presents links to *valuable* material', 'only material which is of possible interest to a serious researcher'; in other words, hobbyists and other dabblers need not apply. Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. I saw at least two questions which are on my own list of trivia and which offered nothing new. A list of what Forster considers to be trivial and uninteresting topics might serve as a silver cross to ward off the profane. The two comments which appear on the site characterize (caricaturize?) who the intended audience isn't/is. The first comment, from a seeker of data that all chess historians know by heart, says, 'trying to find a simple list of the World Champions can't be done on your site. Way to pay attention to detail', to which Forster has replied, 'Exactly'. The second, from a professional chess historian, says, 'Dear colleagues, I must say that it is more than amazing... Really, it is dream of chess researches', to which Forster has not replied, so he obviously agrees. Having spent some of my professional career in the design and operation of computer systems which support the coordination of geographically dispersed communities, I have certain reservations about the viability of Forster's model. Are serious historians really willing to share details about their current research projects? Are they willing to expose areas of their knowledge in which they are weak? Perhaps most importantly, are they willing to do unselfish, time-consuming research for their colleagues? In the commercial world, the answer to all of these questions is, 'You've got to be kidding!' I can only suppose that the world of chess historians is more academic than commercial, and I sincerely hope the idea works. Whatever the truth turns out to be, I am sure that you will join me to wish Forster the greatest success in achieving the GM norm, in completing his book on Amos Burn, and in coordinating future chess history research. I am also sure that we will be hearing a lot more from this young man. Bye for now, Mark Weeks