Wednesday 17 December 2008

Chesscube

Amongst the many interesting people I met at the Dresden Olympiad, Mark Levitt from South Africa was one of the most interesting. Mark is the driving force behind Chesscube which is taking a different approach to the increasingly crowded chess server/website market. One of the things that chesscube emphasises is the importance of how chess content is provided, and to this end, chesscube has one of the more elegant interfaces that I've seen. They have also released Chesscube Cinema, which combines automated replay of games and openings with a video explanation, usually from a strong player (eg IM Andrew Martin or IM Malcom Pein). As I have recently upgraded my network connection to something approaching late 20th century speeds, I have been able to download the large number of free titles available at the site.
Chesscube also has a research tool (recently added) which allows you to do your usual database searches on players, openings and positions, which I guess would come in handy for players who haven't shelled out megabucks on the latest chess database software. I was even able to dig up this rather chaotic draw from my first Olympiad back in 2000.

Press,S v Schepel,K
Istanbul Olympiad 2000

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O d6 5.c3 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.d3 Qd7 8.Be3 Be7 9.Nbd2 a6 10.Ba4 b5 11.Bc2 h6 12.Re1 g5 13.Nf1 Rg8 14.Ng3 Bg6 15.d4 g4 (D)
16.dxe5 Nxe4 17.Nxe4 gxf3 18.Qxf3 d5 19.Nc5 Nxe5 20.Qg3 Qd6 21.Bd4 Nc6 22.Qxd6 cxd6 1/2-1/2

(Disclaimer: I have no financial connection with Chesscube, although they did give me a free t-shirt)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Did the T-Shirt have a slogan?

Anonymous said...

Chess players Mate in obscure positions!