BRITBASE |
BCM Online |
BRITBASE is a national archive of British chess tournament games, in PGN format. Some files have been marked to indicate their availability on commercial databases, though in many cases the data you find here will be more accurate than from such sources. Material dates back to the 1920s; in due course, we will be gathering earlier material when it becomes available. I have collected and input other tournaments, especially Hastings and British Championships (BCF-ch). Some of these are available here as downloads; others are marked 'needed', i.e. they are not currently available as a PGN file. This is where you can help - if you know where to get these games, let me know! The files we most need to fill the gaps can be found via the 'Most Wanted' page. This archive was started up in 1997. What is being done here is fairly ambitious, and has not been possible without a lot of help from you people out there. I would particularly like to thank the very kind people who have offered encouragement and help so far. Keep it coming! If anyone can supply bulletins relating to any of the missing tournaments, please contact me on johnsaunders@bcmchess.co.uk. Any bulletins sent will be well-treated and returned. Links below indicate the tournament games are available here as a 'zipped' file containing PGN files. Some of these have already been made available (by me and others) to the Pittsburgh Archives. Pittsburgh is also a useful place to find conversion software. Another particularly good place to look for conversion software is Eric Bentzen's excellent site - check out his Chess Programs and Utilities. Most proprietary databases now allow you to import PGN format databases. Don't have a Zip program? Try going to http://tucows.mirror.ac.uk/comp95.html which has an excellent choice of software which you can use to 'unzip' files downloaded from this site. I am pleased to say that many other people worldwide are now collecting and making available chess databases on the web. Lars Balzer has set up an excellent list of chess database sites, which is an admirable attempt to log all the worldwide activity in this new and specialised branch of archivism and is highly recommended. And Britbase now has several overseas 'cousins' - to date, Argentina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine - to which you will find links elsewhere on this page. National based databases have an advantage over worldwide archives in that the archivists are 'closer to the ground' and can provide greater assurance that the data is accurate, names & identities correct, etc. Remember - quality, not quantity! 'Korrection Korner' is an errata for British chess gamescores. Given the plethora of gamescores across the internet, this is an attempt to inject some accuracy into the equation. Contributions awaited from readers and users of Britbase ... Many thanks to Adam Raoof, Bob Wade, Eduardo Bauzá Mercere, Andy Ansel, John Richards, Jon Speelman, Howard Grist, Richard Furness, Osvaldo Orozco Mendez, Jack Goossens, Shaughan Feakes, Eddie Dearing, Angus Dunnington, Richard Palliser, Richard James, Stewart Reuben, Bob Jones, Bill Frost, Mark Crowther, Jon Gilbert, Paul Dunn, John Weightman, Rod McShane, Tryfon Gavriel, Jack O'Keefe, Steve Giddins, Peter Bevan, Kevin Thurlow, John Henderson, Chris Jones, Lara Barnes, Paul Headon, Tony Cullen, Zdenek Zavodny, Henri Serruys, Eric Bentzen, Vladimir Soos, Byron Jacobs, Richard Reich, Mike Yeo, Peter Large, Chris Bird, Mark Orr, Roland Arbinger, Martyn Goodger, Barrie Oakes, Maurice H. Carter, Rob Appleby, Roger de Coverly, Kevin O'Connell, Robert Bellin, Neil Graham, John Knight, Adolfo Bórmida, David Walker and Noel Griffths for their help in supplying games, making corrections and generally providing support and encouragement. |
Posted | Tournament Title & Year | Winner | Contributor, Notes |
24/10/00 | Monarch Assurance Isle of Man 2000 | 1st M Hebden | All 199 games, kindly supplied by Richard Furness |
24/10/00 | Golombek Memorial, Paignton 2000 | 1st= Nunn, Bischoff | All 45 games, kindly supplied by Bob Jones & Bill Frost |
24/10/00 | MSO Ron Banwell Mem 2000 | 1st D Gormally | All 272 games, entered by me and Stewart Reuben |
24/10/00 | British Championship 2000, Millfield | 1st J Hodgson | All 375 games, kindly supplied by Richard O'Brien etc. |
24/10/00 | Terence Chapman Match, Chandler vs N.Pert 2000 | Drawn 3-3 | All 6 games, kindly supplied by Stewart Reuben |
24/10/00 | Smith & Williamson FIDE Rated 2000 | 1st A Moen | All 201 games, kindly supplied by Richard Palliser |
24/10/00 | Glorney Cup 2000, Dublin | All 100 games | |
24/10/00 | Faber Cup 2000, Dublin | All 60 games | |
24/10/00 | England v Germany Girls U12/14 2000 | All 32 games input by me, with help from Stewart Reuben | |
03/09/00 | Civil Service Championship 2000 | 1st M Walker | All 50 games, supplied by Kevin Thurlow |
02/08/00 | 5th South Wales Masters 2000 | 1st C Crouch | All 45 games, kindly supplied by Jon Gilbert |
24/07/00 | Scottish Championship 2000 | 1st= J Shaw, A Norris | All 63 games plus 17 from subsidiary events, courtesy of the SCA Web Site |
23/07/00 | Smith & Williamson Young Masters 2000 | 1st= Bates, Webster | All 99 games, courtesy of Richard Palliser |
18/07/00 | Staffordshire Millennium Congress 2000 | 1st Summerscale | All 134 games from the GM, IM and Open tournaments |
18/07/00 | GB vs Australia Radio Match 1947 | GB 7, Australia 3 | All 10 games from BCM, and with help of Paul Dunn of 'OzBase' |
08.07.00 | Karpov vs England U17s, Lloyds Bank Simul 1977 | Karpov 9½-½ England | All ten games, with Karpov's summaries, from the original bulletin. |
04.07.00 | 4NCL, Division 2, 1999/2000 | 1st South Wales Dragons | All 792 games, input by Malcolm Armstrong, Arthur Brameld and John Saunders |
22.06.00 | Welsh Championship 1980 | 1st AH Williams | 28 games (of which 4 have no moves) - thanks to Noel Griffiths |
07.06.00 | Welsh Championship 1992 | 1st John G Cooper | All 144 games - thanks to Noel Griffiths |
11.05.00 | 4NCL, Division 1, 1999/2000 | 1st Slough | All 528 games, with correct names, input by me. |
10.05.00 | Welsh Championship 2000 | 1st Leighton Williams | All 64 games - thanks to Jon Gilbert |
10.05.00 | Southend Open 2000 | 1st M Ferguson | All 289 games - thanks to Howard Grist |
23.04.00 | Britbase Archive - 1920s (Part 1) | The Britbase Archive moves back ten years further into the past... some interesting photographic material culled from 1920s BCMs... | |
23.04.00 | Britbase Archive - 1930s (Part 2) | More archive material from the 1930s with photographs and biographical detail. |
Lars Balzer Home Page | German enthusiast Lars Balzer is the 'King of the Links' when it comes to finding places to download chess games. He has compiled a list of places worldwide where you can do this and he keeps it up-to-date. This is an extremely good and valuable resource - highly recommended. |
ChessLab | Chesslab is a 2,000,000 game database available online with built-in search facilities. Very much state of the art. |
Ajedrez Colombiano ** | A collection of national and international tournaments played in Colombia, made by Britbase contributor Osvaldo Orozco Mendez, from Barraquilla, Colombia. In Spanish. |
Argenbase | By Adolfo Bórmida and Julio Alberto González, this is an Argentinian cousin to 'Britbase'. Games are in zipped new Chessbase (CBH) format for which the reader will need Chessbase 6 or 7, or alternatively Chessbase Light (freely available from http://www.chessbase.com). |
BrasilBase | Adaucto Wanderley da Nobrega has set up a Brazilian National Database. |
Canada (Montreal) Database ** | By Hugh Brodie: mainly Montreal but also many Canadian games available. |
Czechbase | By Britbase contributor and chessfriend Zdenek Zavodny; it's in Czech. |
Danbase | The admirable Eric Bentzen has set up the Danish cousin of 'Britbase'. It is part of the Danish Chess Federation pages. It's in Danish at the moment, but an English version is planned. |
Detta's Downloadable ChessGames (GER) ** | Effectively a 'GerBase': thousands of German games for download, by Detlef Doell |
Dutchbase | Jack Goossens, a very helpful and generous contributor to Britbase, is in charge of the Dutch equivalent. This is an extremely important repository for chess information, given the tremendous contribution that the Netherlands has made to our game. Note (31 July 00): Dutchbase has moved to the 'Max Euwe Centre'. |
ESP-Base ** | Spanish National Database, by Arturo González Pruneda and Julio Alberto González. |
Finnish National Chess Database | In Finnish, by Jarmo Sorvari. I confess I find the Finnish language impenetrable but there looks to be much excellent material available here. |
Italbase | Francesco Gibellato has set up a national chess database for Italy. Particularly useful for the famous Reggio Emilia tournaments. |
Ozbase ** | Ozbase is the Australian Chess Federation's games archive, which started in March 2000. |
Polbase | The Polish national database, managed by Adam Umiastowski. |
PortBase | The Portuguese National Database, by Luis Miguel Costa, with games from 1996-1999. |
Rusbase | In English. Russian cousin to Britbase. Mainly widely-available games from major events.. |
Slovenian Database ** | Slovenian games collection. |
Swebase | Now published in English, another Scandinavian cousin to Britbase. Very well presented. |
UkrBase | Games of Ukrainian chess events - another Britbase cousin. Games by Ruslan Ponomariov. |
YuBase | Yugoslavia Chess Games Database - another cousin for Britbase, by Mirsad Crnic. |
Bristol & District Chess League Archive | Games connected with the Bristol area, 1819 to the present. Also, some very interesting historical information about Bristol Chess Club. |
Scottish Chess Association | Scottish Games Downloads and other news of chess in Scotland. |
Irish Chess Archive | Well-presented java-based games and some fascinating personal details and photos of Irish chess players, past and present. A great favourite of mine & highly recommended. |
Historical Games E-Mail List | Click on this link to send an e-mail to rudolf@stad.dsl.nl - the mail address of Michel Langeveld, who is putting together some very good archive material in Chessbase CBV format, and distributing it to subscribers to his list. |
La Régence | Now in an English version. Chess game database classified by opening codes, based on Pittsburgh, Britbase and others. All games are in zipped PGN. A superb resource, updated by Pascal "Notzai" Villalba. |
John Knudsen's Correspondence Chess Archive | John Knudsen's mammoth collection of cc games - at the last count there were about 184,678 cc games in this archive. He is currently in the process of converting from PGN to Chessbase 6/7 archive (CBV) format to save space. |