Chess on the Web - Installment One

Bill Gates once said [at least I think he did] the ultimate goal of technology would be to have all the world's "information at your fingertips." We seem to be getting there at an alarming pace, especially as concerns information on the Internet. The exponential growth of this information is mind boggling.

Which brings me to the topic of chess resources on the web. Where do I begin? There are so many great resources it is impossible even to list them all. What's worse is that nearly every site leads you on to another and another and another… so I will show some much needed restraint here and limit myself to mentioning (every so often) several fantastic Internet chess destinations you definitely must visit.

Today I would like to mention three "chess blogs":

• Getting into Chess "A beginner's Journey into the complex world of chess."
  
  This blog was one of the first to catch my eye - since the writer of this blog is on a journey very similar to that of yours truly, Rook Van Winkle. If you too have decided it's time to give chess a try I think you'll find a lot of interesting reading here and lots of links to good information.
  
  
• Chessola - "The David Moody Chess LiveJournal."
  
  I just recently discovered this site by a fellow Michigander. It appears to have an incredible list of very interesting games of all types and at all levels of play. David provides a lot of entertaining commentary on each of the games. In fact, he is on a mission to preserve thousands of chess games "from average players" played in Michigan tournaments over the last 20 or 30 years. Amazingly he has built up a database of 27,000 of these games! I wonder if he has any score sheets from "The 2nd Annual Pontiac Open - Unrated Section" held in Rochester, Michigan in December of 1979? As you can read in an earlier post, that's was the only chess tournament I had ever played in until just this past July. I am fortunate to have score sheets from the first and last of my games, but not the second and third.
  
  
• Susan Polgar's Chess Blog "The Official Chess Blog of Susan Polger - The #1 female player in the US and #2 rated in the world."
  
  This is one incredibly good chess blog. Susan has it constantly updated with recent chess news, recent events and games, chess problems and puzzles. She also includes a lot of inspirational articles about young players and has published a number of student written essays. It is worth checking every day because there is always something new. In fact, she is so up-to-date she seems to have the scoop on all the latest events in the chess world before any other of the "chess news" sites get around to publishing them. She is also one of our greatest American "chess ambassadors" promoting the game as a very worthwhile activity, not only for women and girls, but for young and old alike.

There are dozens of other very interesting chess blogs you should check out. Thanks to the incredible work of Mark Weeks at http://www.about.chess.com/ I can simply refer you to his list Chess Blogs - First Posts. And while you are there, be sure to check out the rest of his site for great advice, articles, chess resources, and hundreds of chess related links….