Working with Free Online Chess Databases

Imagine you want to see what happened in one of your pet lines, but you do not have the most updated database, or maybe you do not have a database at all, and prefer to work online before you buy one, if you buy one. If one of these cases applies to you then here is a short guide on working with the three most recommended free online chess databases:

The three databases I recommend working with are:

Chessbase –  www.chesslive.de

Chesslab –  www.chesslab.com/PositionSearch.html 

Chessgames – www.chessgames.com

The great advantage of the last one is that every game is like a forum where people give their remarks and analysis so you can get more information than just the game moves. The advantage of the first two is that you can find all the games they have for a certain position (this service also exists in Chessgames but they ask you to pay for it. Their rate is pretty reasonable but it will fall outside our discussion of free online databases.)

* chessbug@chessbug.com

As I said, both Chesslab and Chessbase let you search for games according to position. Still I would recommend checking both of them for every position, because the games on these two databases do not always overlap. Let us assume, for example, that you want to play the following opening moves as Black: 1 e4 g6 2 d4 c5!? 3 dxc5 Bg7 4 Nc3 Bxc3+ 5 bxc3. First you go to Chessbase and see what you can find. I suggest that you choose only games where the opponent (in this case White) has a rating of at least 2300. This will ensure that you see how to play against strong opposition. Here is what I got when I went to Chessbase

Note that I demanded that the White player will have an ELO of at least 2300, otherwise I would get a larger number of games (in this case 67 games) but many of these games will not be of high quality.

The second step, before going over the games is to do the same thing in Chesslab. Unfortunately, in Chesslab you cannot ask to see only games where “White has more than 2300” but you have to settle down for games where “At least one of the players is above 2300”. After I searched Chesslab, here are the results:

In Chesslab I got 20 games, but only in 15 of these games White has an ELO of 2300 or more. 

Important Tip: In Chesslab, before you start searching you want to choose “Advanced Options” (to the right of the ELO scrollbar) and ask Chesslab to show you 50 games per page. Navigation through the games does not work perfectly in Chesslab and you would have to make “New Search” every time you want to see the games that came up on an earlier page. For this reason I suggest that you choose the largest number of games per page - 50. 

To sum up what we got so far: Chessbase found 6 games, Chesslab found 15 games (as I said earlier there is no rule here, for some positions Chesslab has more games and for some positions Chessbase has more games, I recommend to check both of them). Two of the games appear both in the Chessbase results and in the Chesslab results so we now have a list of 19 games played by players who are at least at master level, with the variation we want to study.

You can stop at this point and just study the games or you can go on for the third phase, which is searching for the games in Chessgames.com.

Important Tip: In Chessgames, they have a pretty detailed interface for searching games but the fastest way to search for a game is by cutting and pasting the names of the players from the Chesslab results or manually copying them from Chessbase to the Chessgames “Search” Window.

What you are looking for in Chessgames is games where you have the bubble () Kibitzing icon or better the pencil () analysis icon. In the variation that we chose here we are lucky enough to find a game annotated and Kibitzed by the International Master who played Black – IM Lawrence Day (you will find it in the game Howell-Day 2005, under the username IMlday). These annotations, when made by a strong player can save you many hours of trial and error analysis.

Warning: Not all annotators and kibitzers on Chessgames are master level players. The opposite is true, as many of them are just your every day patzers. So take many of these analyses with a grain of salt, at least until you recognize the kibitzers worth listening to. Take it from somebody who still carries the scar of accepting a hasty “analysis” on Chessgames, as the undoubted truth.

To reiterate the process:

1. Look for games in Chessbase where the “other side” has at least 2300 ELO points.

2. Look for games in Chesslab where either side has more than 2300 ELO points, and pay attention to the games where the opponent has the required 2300 points. (Do not forget to ask for a maximum of 50 games per page).

3. Make a list of the games you have to study

4. Try to find games on your list for which there is quality analysis in Chessgames (Beware of Patzer analysis!)

All that you have to do after you got the information, is to read the material you gathered, draw the conclusions, and become the king of your own variation. Enjoy!

Written by Dragonfly.