The Week in Chess

The Week in Chess
Title	The Week in Chess
Editor	Mark Crowther
Founded	1994
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Frequency	Weekly

The Week in Chess is an online chess news service and archive founded in 1994 that aggregates tournament reports, game scores, and chess journalism. It serves players, journalists, and historians by providing up-to-date coverage of events such as the World Chess Championship, Candidates Tournament, Chess Olympiad, Czech Republic Open, and Tata Steel Chess Tournament while preserving game collections and reportage from Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Bobby Fischer, and José Raúl Capablanca.

Overview

The site provides weekly updates covering major events including the European Team Chess Championship, Sinquefield Cup, London Chess Classic, FIDE World Cup, US Championship, and Women’s World Chess Championship alongside rapid and blitz events like the World Rapid Chess Championship, World Blitz Championship, PRO Chess League, Grand Chess Tour, Candidates Tournament 2020, and FIDE Grand Swiss. Its audience spans amateurs, coaches, and professionals associated with clubs such as Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, federations like Fédération Internationale des Échecs, national bodies including the English Chess Federation and the All India Chess Federation, and media outlets such as BBC Sport, The New York Times, and The Guardian.

History and Development

Founded by Mark Crowther in the wake of increased internet adoption exemplified by projects like Usenet, RSS, and early HTML archives, the project synthesized reporting practices from print predecessors like British Chess Magazine and New In Chess while drawing on databases such as Mega Database and ChessBase. Early coverage included tournaments featuring Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi, Mikhail Tal, Vassily Smyslov, and events in cities like London, Wijk aan Zee, Reykjavík, and Biel. Over time technological shifts involving PGN (Portable Game Notation), FEN, and software from ChessBase GmbH influenced delivery, while partnerships and citations appeared in outlets ranging from ICCF reports to national championship bulletins such as Russian Chess Federation releases.

Content and Features

Regular content includes annotated game collections, round-by-round reports, crosstables, and instant results from tournaments such as Candidates Tournament 2022, FIDE Candidates Tournament, World Rapid Championship 2019, and junior events like the World Junior Chess Championship. Features often reference players including Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Anish Giri, and Ding Liren, plus historical games by Mikhail Botvinnik, Alexander Alekhine, Emanuel Lasker, Paul Morphy, and Wilhelm Steinitz. The archive preserves repertoires, opening novelties in lines like the Sicilian Defence, Ruy Lopez, French Defence, Queen’s Gambit, and King’s Indian Defence, and documents theoretical debates highlighted in events such as the Candidates Tournament 2018 and World Chess Championship 2018.

Website and Publication Format

The publication distributes weekly issues comprising PGN files, HTML reports, and plain-text round summaries accessible to users on desktops and mobile devices, employing standards popularized by Portable Game Notation, HTML5, Unicode, and community tools like SCID and Arena (chess) for replay. Issues mirror print conventions used by Chess Informant and New In Chess while integrating instant reporting models used by Chess.com, Lichess, and live broadcast partners such as Chess24 and Twitch (service). The archive organizes material by event, date, and player, facilitating research for institutions like the British Library, National Library of Scotland, and university chess programs.

Impact and Reception

The service is widely cited by journalists and scholars covering matches involving Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and by federations reporting results from European Individual Chess Championship and national leagues such as the Bundesliga (chess). Analysts and coaches reference its game collections when preparing for events including the Candidates Tournament, World Cup (chess), and elite invitational tournaments like the Shamkir Chess. Its role in democratizing access to scores has been acknowledged in media discussions alongside platforms like ChessBase, Chess.com, and streaming services linked to personalities such as GothamChess and Daniel Naroditsky.

Notable Contributions and Archives

The archive preserves thousands of master games, historic match scores from world championship cycles involving José Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Botvinnik, and modern contests featuring Magnus Carlsen, and curates event collections from Reykjavík Open, Corus Chess Tournament, Tromsø Olympiad, and Biel International Chess Festival. It has documented openings and novelties later discussed in publications like Modern Chess Openings and My Great Predecessors, and its datasets have been used in statistical studies by researchers affiliated with institutions such as Oxford University, MIT, and University of Cambridge. The archive continues to serve as a primary resource for historians, journalists, and players studying competitions across eras and regions including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Category:Chess websites