Showing posts with label Analytical Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Analytical Series. Show all posts

22 September 2023

CFAA's CMP : Wrapup

For the past month I've been running a series on actions provoked by Google's Adsense. Here are the relevant posts:-

In that last post, I wondered,

What happens if a visitor to my site doesn't grant consent? No ad is shown. Since I routinely use two different devices, I'll grant consent on one and withhold it on the other. That way I'll be able to monitor both sides of Google's consent management.

It turns out that wasn't a useful strategy. I automatically delete cookies when I close a browser. The consent appears to be stored in a cookie, so I routinely lose the consent cookie and have to go through the process each time I access my own site. [NB: Confirm this.] In that same post, I also wondered,

What's next? I need to improve my own privacy policy to answer the questions that Google says I'm answering. To do that, I'll summarize the current series and point to that summary.

The most important question is 'How can I change my choice of consent?'. Since Google is constantly tinkering with its software, I'll describe the procedure as it is today. After going through the consent procedure, the following image attaches to the left side of a page on my site.

That's what it looks like near the bottom of the page. To re-open the consent procedure, click on the blue text. Near the top of the page, the image collapse into the icon displayed in the upper left (a check mark on a shield). Clicking the icon expands to the image shown above. This procedure is sure to change in the future, but I'll try to keep up with it.

As for CMP on my blogs, I'll follow Google directives for them. All of the blogs are managed using Google's services. For the moment, ads aren't being displayed on this current blog or on my two other chess blogs (WCCB, C960; accessible via my Blogger.com profile). The non-chess blog is showing ads. Since ad revenue is near zero on all of the blogs taken together, I really don't care if no ads are displayed.

***

Later: On my page, World Chess Championship : Site map, under the first section, titled 'Privacy statement', I added a link to this blog post. That statement applies equally to another large portion of my domain, the pages accessed via Welcome to 'Chess for All Ages'.

One other non-trivial change is worth mentioning. The old version of the 'Site map' ended with:-

For more information on Internet and Web privacy, see www.truste.org.

That site now returns the message, 'can’t connect to the server at www.truste.org'. What happened to it? A Google search points to TrustArc (wikipedia.org), which starts,

TrustArc Inc. (formerly TRUSTe) is a privacy compliance technology company based in Walnut Creek, California. The company provides software and services to help corporations update their privacy management processes so they comply with government laws and best practices. Their privacy seal or certification of compliance can be used as a marketing tool.

Archive.org stops showing the truste.org domain at the end of 2017. Whatever the reason for the name change, with comply/compliance we're all talking the same language. When a powerful government talks, nobody walks. They run. Even Google runs.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 9/22/2023 05:22:00 PM 0 comments

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15 September 2023

CFAA's Consent Management

For the current Friday series, I closed the previous post, Adsense and CFAA's CMP (September 2023; CMP = Google's Consent Management Platform), in a holding pattern:-

After adding the logo, my GDPR message was accepted. As I was preparing this post for publishing, the message still wasn't showing on my pages, so maybe I did something wrong. I'll come back to it for next Friday's post.

I had indeed done something wrong. I was watching the top level page for my domain which doesn't display an ad. The Adsense code to display an ad is the trigger for the consent message. When I accessed a page with an ad, I saw the following popup message.

The message is the tip of an iceberg. The text reads like this:-

mark-weeks.com asks for your consent to use your personal data to:

* Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development devices [sic; the phrase needs verbs]
* Store and/or access information on a device

Learn more

Your personal data will be processed and information from your device (cookies, unique identifiers, and other device data) may be stored by, accessed by and shared with third party vendors, or used specifically by this site or app.

Some vendors may process your personal data on the basis of legitimate interest, which you can object to by managing your options below. Look for a link at the bottom of this page or in our privacy policy where you can withdraw consent.

[Do not consent] [Consent]

Manage options

I looked at all of the hidden text and discovered a few important points.

  • 'Learn more' expands to a series of four questions. The first question is 'How can I change my choice?'. The answer says, 'View our privacy policy to learn more' and points to my page World Chess Championship : Site map. The first section there is a 'Privacy Statement', but this is the first I learned that this page has to explain 'How can I change my choice?'. I need to address that.

The answers to two other questions discuss 'legitimate interest', which seems to be some sort of legal override of the whole consent process. Back to the popup message:-

  • The mention of 'third party vendors' expands to a single question: 'What third party vendors can access my data?'. The answer is a list of (currently) 203 vendors. By any reckoning, that's a lot of vendors.

The last line of the popup message is the most important.

  • 'Manage options' opens another section of the popup that starts, 'You can choose your data preferences. This site or app wants your permission to do the following: [...]'. The first 16 consents are for 'TCF vendors' (referring to 'the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework') followed by a single consent for the 'Site or app' (that means my site). This is followed by 'Vendor preferences', where each of the 203 vendors presents a cookie policy, a link to its privacy policy, and perhaps a statement of 'legitimate interest'.

What happens if a visitor to my site doesn't grant consent? No ad is shown. Since I routinely use two different devices, I'll grant consent on one and withhold it on the other. That way I'll be able to monitor both sides of Google's consent management.

What's next? I need to improve my own privacy policy to answer the questions that Google says I'm answering. To do that, I'll summarize the current series and point to that summary.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 9/15/2023 05:55:00 PM 0 comments

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08 September 2023

Adsense and CFAA's CMP

Last Friday's post, Adsense and the CMP (September 2023), established a plan:-

Google's permanent page on the subject [...] sets a deadline: 'Beginning January 16, 2024, publishers and developers using Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob will be required to use a Consent Management Platform (CMP) [...]'. The page contains a list of 'Google-certified CMPs' that currently has 50 names with a link for each name. Only one of the 50 names was even vaguely familiar to me, 'Google consent management solutions', so no prize for guessing which one I chose to investigate further. [...] That leads to the next stage of the adventure, which I'll cover in the next Friday post.

That 'next Friday post' is today's post. When I signed into Adsense to continue the adventure, I received a new notification on CMPs, shown below.

Since I had already started to create a GDPR consent message for the previous post, I chose the second option and CONFIRMed. Now I was nagged a second time with the message:-

Notifications: Remember to publish your GDPR message using a Google-certified CMP to continue showing AdSense ads on your site in the EEA and the UK. If you don't publish it by January 16, 2024, we'll publish one for you.

This was the first time I knew that Google would 'publish one' for me. If I had known that earlier, I probably would have gone that route. Instead, I accessed my stored message and published it. I received an error message:-

Your message is almost ready to publish. You need to add a logo to publish your message.

My domain has two main sites (linked near the top of the right sidebar), both with a different logo. The CFAA portion of the site generates the most Adsense revenue, so I used the following logo. It's based on the logo for the CFAA pages, but respecting Google's CMP requirements.

After adding the logo, my GDPR message was accepted. As I was preparing this post for publishing, the message still wasn't showing on my pages, so maybe I did something wrong. I'll come back to it for next Friday's post.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 9/08/2023 05:01:00 PM 0 comments

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01 September 2023

Adsense and the CMP

In last week's Friday post, Adsense and the GDPR (August 2023), I wrote,

Ads are related to cookies. It's been eight years since the last time I looked at the European cookie monster. [...] Since then, the European Union has introduced the GDPR, which stands for General Data Protection Regulation (wikipedia.org). The CMP requirements are a response to the GDPR. What does that entail for small web sites like mine? I'll look at that in the next post.

A few months ago Google introduced a new requirement.

The two phrases in italics link to two more explanatory pages -- from blog.google and iabeurope.eu -- but first let's make sure we understand the acronyms:-

  • EEA : European Economic Area (wikipedia.org)
  • UK : United Kingdom (aka Britain)
  • IAB : Interactive Advertising Bureau

Google's permanent page on the subject is New Google consent management requirements for serving ads in the EEA and UK (for publishers; support.google.com). It sets a deadline:-

Beginning January 16, 2024, publishers and developers using Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob will be required to use a Consent Management Platform (CMP) that has been certified by Google and has integrated with the IAB's Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) when serving ads to users in the EEA or the UK.

The page contains a list of 'Google-certified CMPs' that currently has 50 names with a link for each name. Only one of the 50 names was even vaguely familiar to me, 'Google consent management solutions', so no prize for guessing which one I chose to investigate further. Its link went to a page titled, About Privacy & Messaging (support.google.com). The 'Get started' message instructed,

To access your Privacy & Messaging page, sign in to your AdSense account and click Privacy & Messaging in the AdSense sidebar.

That leads to the next stage of the adventure, which I'll cover in the next Friday post.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 9/01/2023 05:07:00 PM 0 comments

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25 August 2023

Adsense and the GDPR

In last Friday's post, Adsense on CFAA++ (August 2023), I concluded with:-

Adsense is once again increasing the volume of its commanding voice: 'New Consent Management Platform [CMP] requirements for serving ads in the EEA and UK'. • TBD. Watch this space...

My WCC index page, shown below, is a typical example of how I handle ads across the site.


Index : World Chess Championship

The ad ('Download de whitepaper'; that's Dutch, believe it or not) appears between the site 'logo' and the link to Amazon. The small right-pointing triangle on the left side of the ad, leads to a page titled About this ad (adssettings.google.com). The small 'x' beneath the triangle removes the ad.

Ads are related to cookies. It's been eight years since the last time I looked at the European cookie monster. At that time I wrote two posts:-

Since then, the European Union has introduced the GDPR, which stands for General Data Protection Regulation (wikipedia.org). The CMP requirements are a response to the GDPR. What does that entail for small web sites like mine? I'll look at that in the next post.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 8/25/2023 05:17:00 PM 0 comments

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18 August 2023

Adsense on CFAA++

Earlier this year, in TGIF on CFAA (June 2023), I wrote,

Some of my blog posts are basically notes to myself. This is one of them.

This current post is another. To parrot the thought process introduced in the TGIF post,

I took three weeks off at the beginning of July and have been scrambling since then to get my blogs back on track. Although you can't see it easily from the dates on the posts, I wrote 21 posts in 25 days and am now caught up.

In addition to the actions mentioned in the TGIF post, I need to catch up with new actions from Google ('Your wish is my command, master!'). The last time I did this was documented in Party Cookies (October 2022; 'Earlier this year I ran a series of four posts about living with Google's Adsense').

Adsense is once again increasing the volume of its commanding voice: 'New Consent Management Platform requirements for serving ads in the EEA and UK'. • TBD. Watch this space...

Posted by Mark Weeks at 8/18/2023 05:55:00 PM 0 comments

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16 June 2023

TGIF on CFAA

Some of my blog posts are basically notes to myself. This is one of them. I took two weeks off at the beginning of May and have been scrambling since then to get my blogs back on track. Although you can't see it easily from the dates on the posts, I wrote 30 posts in 30 days and am now caught up.

One trick I used was to skip Friday posts. These are usually a series on some theme. The final posts in the most recent Friday series were:-

The Ding Liren series, which is finished, interrupted the previous Chess.com GRT / Cheating series, which were related topics. When I come back to the Friday posts I'll pick up those series where I left off in March.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 6/16/2023 05:23:00 PM 0 comments

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10 March 2023

Cheating for all Ages

For the last few weeks I've been running a weekly series on Chess.com's Game Review Tools (February 2023). I'll continue with Chess.com, but change the focus. That post mentioned,

[Chess.com] has a good reputation for vigorously enforcing its no-engine policy, even if it leads to controversial decisions.

I'll start with a summary of past posts on this blog that dealt with various aspects of cheating. It's a real mixed bag. Posts marked '(*)' featured Chess.com.

Recent months have seen heavy media interest in the so-called Niemann affair. The entire discussion gets a '(*)' because Chess.com played a leading role.

Another recent, recurring topic has been the controversy surrounding the 1997 match Kasparov vs. IBM's Deep Blue (m-w.com). It provided some precedent for the Niemann affair.

The rest of the posts are listed in unfiltered, reverse chronological order.

The list needs a lot more work. I'll fill in some of the blanks as I continue with the Chess.com series.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 3/10/2023 05:13:00 PM 0 comments

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03 March 2023

Chess.com's Game Review Tools Support

In two recent posts I overviewed two important tools available on Chess.com:-

Chess.com has detailed help available under 'Member Support and FAQs' (support.chess.com). The help pages listed here lead to others:-

As I said in the 'Tools PGN' post, there is much to explore here...

Posted by Mark Weeks at 3/03/2023 05:45:00 PM 0 comments

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24 February 2023

Chess.com's Game Review Tools PGN

Last week, in Chess.com's Game Review Tools (February 2023), I developed the chart shown on the left (see that post for a larger version of the chart as well as the codes used to identify the different boxes). Because all names in computerdom eventually reduce to an acronym, let's use GRT to mean 'Game Review Tools'.

Since you're reading this post, you're probably interested in analyzing your games and you're undoubtedly aware that chess games are nearly always recorded in a format called 'Portable Game Notation' (PGN). It follows that the different boxes in the GRT chart offer downloads in PGN format.

Specifically, the boxes coded '02, 03a, 03b, 05a, 05b' all have a download, aka 'Share', option. Are the downloads all the same? No, they aren't, but the differences between them aren't enormous and the rest of this post is to discuss their similarities and the differences.

A Chess.com pop-up window like the one shown below appears when you click a 'Share' option. This particular example is from the GRT window coded '03b' in the previous post.

Along with the link for the URL of the game analysis, the pop-up offers functions for posting it to various social media platforms, plus functions for saving the current game in other formats like 'Image', etc. The lower portion of the pop-up, with the background in White, is specific to the PGN function.

The first PGN box, titled 'FEN' is a character string that describes the essential elements of the current position in text format. It is recognized by most chess software. This particular example is for the chess960 start position 'NRKQRBBN'. Its initial castling option are, of course, all available and are shown by the characters 'EBeb'.

Just below the 'FEN' string, to the right of the 'PGN' title, is a series of icons for tailoring the format of the PGN. They are:-

  • Annotation
  • Computer Analysis

  • Highlights
  • Comments, and
  • PGN Timestamps.

The first two icons are selected by a circle, indicating that they are mutually exclusive. The last three icons, which apply to the 'Annotation' icon, are selected by a square, indicating that they can be combined. I haven't tried all of the icons, but they are related to info/data visible via various GRT windows.

The chart box coded '02' has only the icon for 'PGN Timestamps' (default = 'no'). An example of the PGN output -- only moves, without variations or notes-- was shown near the end of the most recent post on my chess960 blog Chess.com Pinpoints a Tactical Error (February 2023). The other PGN functions are added as the 'Review' (chart box '03a') and 'Analysis' ('03b') tabs are invoked from '02'.

The PGN produced by the two chart boxes coded '05a' and '05b' is similar to '03a' and '03b'. The biggest differences are in the many tags (e.g. '[Event "Let's Play! - Chess960"') that make up the PGN header section. There are smaller differences in the moves themselves, but these aren't worth mentioning for now. Maybe later, maybe not; there is already much to explore here...

Posted by Mark Weeks at 2/24/2023 05:03:00 PM 0 comments

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17 February 2023

Chess.com's Game Review Tools

At the risk of immediately losing some visitors to this post, I'm going to continue a recent post from my chess960 blog, The Fascinating World of Chess960 (January 2023). There I wrote,

[Chess.com] has a good reputation for vigorously enforcing its no-engine policy, even if it leads to controversial decisions. [...] I switched to Chess.com in May 2022, playing one or (maximum) two games of correspondence chess at a time. [...] So far I've played about a dozen games on Chess.com, never once tempted to use an engine. [...] That's the background for a series of posts that I plan to write for my games on Chess.com. There are several aspects to be covered, e.g. Game review tools.

So here we are. The Chess.com game review tools appear to be the same for both traditional chess and chess960. Good thing, too, because the navigation of the tools is so unintuitive that I wouldn't want to learn two different methods.

I spent some time finding my way around the tools and decided to document my understanding in the infographic shown below. I'm sure it will help me in further explorations and it might help others trying to do the same.

The starting point for a game review is the archive, The Best Chess Games of [Me, Myself, and I] (chess.com). In the following examples, 'Me, Myself, and I' means my bemweeks account on Chess.com.

[NB: This seems like the right place to interject a big nota bene. Everything I say in this post describes how I understand the tools *now*. The tools might change tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, and it is nearly certain that a year from now they will be different. On top of that, I might have overlooked something obvious that renders my remarks wrong. If I make a mistake, I'll correct it here. If something changes later, I probably won't document it here.]

The window on the top left of the graphic ('01') shows the archive of my games. Selecting a game from the list opens a new window for that game ('02'). The game window has two large buttons for further analysis. The green button on the left opens a 'Review' tab on an 'Analysis' window ('03a') and the gray button next to it opens an 'Analysis' tab on the same window ('03b'). The two new tabs are part of the same display, allowing an easy switch between the two.


(Expand for more readable view)

The game I'm using for the example is the first chess960 correspondence game I lost on Chess.com last year. I used the game review tools for the first time in an attempt to discover where I had gone wrong. A discussion of that game's ins-and-outs is better left for my chess960 blog.

The 'Analysis' tab ('03b') has a link called Saved Analysis (chess.com). It leads to a 'Saved Analysis' window ('04') where individual games can be selected. Selecting a game opens a 'Review' tab on another 'Analysis' window ('05a'), that looks similar to ('03a'). It also offers an 'Analysis' tab ('05b'), which displays the notes I made as the game was being played -- recall that this was a correspondence game.

The '03' and the '05' windows have competely different URLs. I haven't used them enough to determine if they offer different functionality. That will be the subject of another post, along with a comparison of windows '02', '03a', and '05a'.

Most (all?) of the game windows offer the option of downloading the PGN for the game. Window '02' has two options, 'Share' and 'Download', which appear to be identical. The downloaded PGN has the game score only, without variations.

Window '03a' has only a 'Share' option. The downloaded PGN includes variations incorporating the same notes already mentioned in '05b'.

Window '03b' also has a 'Share' option only. Its behavior is somewhat peculiar. When '03b' is first opened, it displays the moves of the game under review. If it is opened a second time, after switching to '03a' for example, it displays the notes to the game as in '05b'. The PGN behaves similarly. When the tab is first opened, it offers only the game score; when opened a second time, it offers all of the notes.

Confusing? Sorry about that. The functionality described above was probably developed at different times, perhaps by different people, without paying much attention to the interface that already existed. Better too much than too little some people might say.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 2/17/2023 05:46:00 PM 0 comments

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10 February 2023

The Final Years of Insidechess.com

My previous post on early chess web sites was Wayback to Insidechess.com (February 2023). There I made an initial observation about the Wayback record:-

The first entry for a working site is Inside Chess Online (January 1999). It links to the Latest Issue (Volume 12, Issue 2, March 1999), with further links to three (out of a dozen) articles from the issue.

There are at least four layers of the past that apply to Insidechess.com:-

Chess history: e.g. 1998-99 World Chess Council ... and more (m-w.com); my own account of the period covered by the following resources.

Inside Chess (magazine): e.g. Inside Chess Magazine 1999 (Archive.org 1999-11-04) • 'GM Yasser Seirawan, Publisher // Editor in Chief Michael Franett'; 'Vol.12, Issue 1 - February' [...] 'Vol.12, Issue 10 - November'.

Insidechess.com (web site): e.g. 24 January, 1999 Inside Chess Online (Archive.org 1999-01-25), starting with 'Adams - Seirawan match, Game 4' and including 'See the most recent Inside Chess issue'. This links to In this issue of Inside Chess Magazine (Archive.org 1999-02-25) • 'Volume 12, Issue 2 (March 1999) Latest Issue' [...] 'Publisher's Message by GM Yasser Seirawan; We ring in the New Year with a mixed bag of messages for this month's issue. I would like to give an overview of the chess world's affairs and make some brave predictions for the year to come. [...]'. • NB: The history of the web site can be reconstructed only partially, according to specific pages retained (haphazardly?) by the next resource.

Insidechess.com (Archive.org): e.g. https://web.archive.org/web/19980501000000*/http://www.insidechess.com/; Here there is a five year gap -- 2002 through 2006 -- where the site's home page was not saved.

A few months into 1999, we find In this issue of Inside Chess Magazine (Archive.org 1999-05-07); 'Volume 12, Issue 5 (June 1999)', with the following news:-

Publisher's Message by GM Yasser Seirawan [] When we started Inside Chess in 1988, our hope, among other things, was to fill a niche in the chess world for timely and informative news. Now, in our twelfth year of publication, we can look back with satisfaction and feel we have had some measure of success in accomplishing that goal.

Obviously, there have been many changes in and outside of the chess world since 1988. [...] In the year 2000, we've decided to greet the new millennium with an online-only edition. [...] Following this June issue, we will publish seven more print issues, ending with a final January 2000 issue.'

The last Archive.org capture of 2001 is Inside Chess Online (2001-07-22); the page is dated '19 July 2001'. It includes a link to 'Masterpiece Games third quarter financial statements', itself a list of links where the first is Masterpiece Games Inc. : The Company and its Directors. It starts,

Masterpiece Games Incorporated, (MPA) is a Vancouver BC based holding company whose shares are traded on the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX). MPA emerged as its own publicly traded company as the result of a spin-off from Grandmaster Technologies, Inc. (GMT) on August 22, 1997.

MPA has two assets International Chess Enterprises, Inc. (ICE) a Seattle, WA based company that sells chess products, and a substantial ownership position in Master Games Inc., a privately held Austin, Texas based company.

The Archive.org capture for 2007-05-16 informs, 'Coming Soon! This site is under construction.' For 2008-04-27 it says, 'Redirecting to...' Chesscafe.com.

I once featured an early version of that site in Chesscafe.com 2015 (June 2015), so what more can be said? Plenty, it turns out.

***

Plenty there might be, but not now. It's time to close the topic of early chess web sites and move on to something else. Following is a list of posts for the current series.

That brings us to this current post, where we ended with an earlier series.

So much chess history, all of it fading away on transient digital media.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 2/10/2023 05:03:00 PM 0 comments

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03 February 2023

Wayback to Insidechess.com

The most recent post on my World Championship blog, Hooked on 1994-95 Sanghi Nagar (February 2023), mentioned,

[Ravi Sanghi] was responsible for the creation of an attractive Hindu temple perched dramatically on a nearby hill, and his impressive home could be seen on another distant hill. Mimi [Bill Hook's wife] later interviewed Mr. Sanghi, and her article subsequently appeared in Inside Chess.

The reference to Inside Chess fits in well with my current series on early web sites -- last seen in Hurst's 'Chess on the Web' (January 2023) -- because the site was already on my short list for future posts. The first entry in Archive.org for Insidechess.com is dated end-1998 and returns Welcome to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack. That must signal the initial setup of the site.

The first entry for a working site is Inside Chess Online (January 1999). It links to the Latest Issue (Volume 12, Issue 2, March 1999), with further links to three (out of a dozen) articles from the issue. One of those articles starts,

Publisher's Message by GM Yasser Seirawan • We ring in the New Year with a mixed bag of messages for this month's issue. I would like to give an overview of the chess world's affairs and make some brave predictions for the year to come. [...]

The 'Latest Issue' also links to Index Inside Chess Covers 1999, which lists four issues (Volume 12, 1 to 4), none of which are available. The index informs.

Inside Chess Magazine started out as a bi-weekly magazine in January 1988 and became a monthly in January 1998. It has established itself as a premier chess periodical with a worldwide circulation and an international content and appeal. Inside Chess Magazine is published in 12 issues each year.

From this we can infer that the earlier Mimi Hook article on Sanghi Nagar does not exist online. Since I had never seen a copy of Inside Chess, I was happy to find Inside Chess Magazine 19 Issues : Yasser Serawan (archive.org). The description starts,

"Inside Chess" was a bi-weekly American chess magazine started in 1988 by GM Yasser Serawan. It ceased publication in 1990 [sic; 2000]. I have 19 of its old issues which I have scanned and I share here. [...]

The full set of issues is available on disk, e.g. Inside Chess 1988 - 2000 (niggemann.com; Schachversand): 'CD/DVD-box, ChessCafe, 1. edition 2013'. For a review see Inside Chess on DVD: you take the good, you take the bad... (chessbookreviews.wordpress.com).

Posted by Mark Weeks at 2/03/2023 05:50:00 PM 0 comments

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27 January 2023

Hurst's 'Chess on the Web'

In last week's post, Crowther's 'Chess on the Net' (January 2023), I originally intended to write about Mark Crowther's 'Chess on the Web', then realized that I had mixed two different works. The first book in the genre was Sarah Hurst's 'Chess on the Web'. This was followed a few years later by Crowther's 'Chess on the Net', which was followed by Hurst's second edition of 'Chess on the Web'.

The covers of both editions of Hurst's book are shown below. Co-authors listed on the second edition are Richard Palliser and Graham Brown.


Left: 1999 - ISBN 9780713485776 • Right: 2003 - ISBN 9780713486025

The back cover of the 1999 edition said,

A modern meeting ground for people of all ages and from all walks of life. the internet offers an exciting opportunity to play chess worldwide. Chess on the Web is the definitive guide to internet chess resources from game-play to news, software to history.

Sarah Hurst is the editor of the BCF newsletter Chessmoves. and her previous works include A Shrimp Learned to Whistle, Winning Business Strategies on the Internet (Haymarket) plus a wealth of excellent interviews and articles about chess. A fluent Russian speaker she was also the co-translator of the Moscow 1935 International.

Unfortunately, I don't have at hand a copy of either edition, so I can't go much farther. If I decide to continue this series of posts on early chess web sites, I'll have to get a copy. I've already mentioned Sarah Hurst on this blog in Russian to English Translators (May 2009).

Posted by Mark Weeks at 1/27/2023 05:20:00 PM 0 comments

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20 January 2023

Crowther's 'Chess on the Net'

Last week in The Evolution of Chess.net (January 2023), I used Archive.org to outline the evolution of the online play site Chess.net. I assume that most chess sites from the late 1990s and early 2000s can be tracked in the same way. How can we identify those sites?

One excellent resource is Mark Crowther's 'Chess on the Net', published in 2002. The following image shows the front and back covers of the book.

White letters on a yellow background don't allow easy reading, so here's the blurb from the back cover.

• Reviews of the hottest chess sites
• Advice on where to play on the web
• How to use the web to improve your practical play.

Whether it's playing against humans, playing against computers, learning from Grandmasters or simply finding out the latest chess results and gossip, chess on the internet has become a massive business over the past few years. In this revolutionary book, distinguished chess webmaster Mark Crowther explains to the reader how to get the maximum out of the web. Crowther casts his expert eye over the every-increasing number of chess sites available to the surfer.

Mark Crowther shot to fame in the chess world with his groundbreaking online chess magazine The Week in Chess (TWIC), which began as early as 1993 and is still one of the most popular chess news sites on the web. The experience and expertise he has gained from being editor of TWIC makes him an ideal choice as the author of this book, his first for Everyman.

The seven chapters++ are listed below.

Preface
1 - An introduction to the net
2 - Essential knowledge
3 - Playing on the net
4 - News and events
5 - Commercial chess sites
6 - General chess interest
7 - Index of chess sites
Glossary

The seventh chapter, 'Index of chess sites' holds the key to finding early chess sites. I didn't count the number of sites listed on the 21 pages of the chapter, but it must be well over 500. I'll be using the book for future posts in this series.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 1/20/2023 05:31:00 PM 0 comments

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13 January 2023

The Evolution of Chess.net

A few weeks ago, in Wayback to Chess.net (December 2022), I ended with a question about the site Chess.net:-

Does 'chess trainer Roman' have anything to do with the 'ROboMAN' mentioned by Karpov? I'll try to find out in a follow-up post.

The following image shows a series of screen captures that track the evolution of the site from 1996 through 2022. The first six images show the landing page and home page at three points in time. The last six images show only the home page, the landing page having disappeared.

The years associated with those images tell a story.

1996: Top row (two images on left)

Chess.net is a FREE interactive chess server that allows people from around the world to play chess over the Internet. In order to play on chess.net, you can download a free trial offer of our chess.net for Windows 95 software. (coming soon for other platforms) [...]

January 1997 • Sneak peek: new chess.net faculty pages! The chess.net faculty includes some of the world's top Grandmasters. Over the next few weeks we'll be adding feature pages from our faculty, including training tips, stories, photos, puzzles, and more. For a sneak peek of this new feature, see the following:- // Grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili • The February column from Chess.net's headmaster is an article on how to use tournament play to energize your chess training and add focus to your studies. // World Champion Anatoly Karpov • This round-up page for all of chess.net's features on Senior Faculty member Anatoly Karpov has links to his exhibition games, comments on Chess.net, and games from the Las Palmas tournament. [...]

1998: Top row (two images on right)

[Six languages] • Welcome to chess.net - The Leader in Internet Chess Technology. Play, chat, and watch chess games with members from around the world. Shop in our online store. We carry the world's best-selling chess videotapes, from World Champion Anatoly Karpov and International Grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili, as well as chess software and other merchandise.

2001: Second row (two images on left)

[The same screen captures were shown in 'Wayback to Chess.net'.] 'Only the English version is available at the moment...' [i.e. language support has disappeared.]

2004: Second row (third image)

New Site Design • The NEW Chess.net website has been launched! Tell us what you think.

NB: The current incarnation of what we know as Chess.com [*not* the same site as Chess.net] appeared in 2007. It would eventually upset the business models of many online chess play sites.

2009-02-07: Second row (last image)

Top 3 Great Reasons to Join Chess.net Now: [...] • Special offer for Chess.net users returning after 1 year away // after 60 days away

2009-02-28: Bottom row (first image)

Hi, my name is Roman Dzindzichashvili! I am one of the founders of Chess.net. I started Chess.net back in 1993. As a free service it grew with over 500,000 registered users. You were one of them, and I'd like you back! Chess.net values your membership and in order to get you back, we are offering you a full year of membership for a fraction of the cost. [...]

2010 & 2011: Bottom row (second & third images)

[More of the same]

2022: Bottom row (last image)

'2 player; 1 game in play' [Game over?]

The last image shows the site as it looks today.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 1/13/2023 05:44:00 PM 0 comments

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06 January 2023

Wayback to Yourmove.com

A couple of recent posts on this blog have mentioned the 1990s web site Yourmove.com:-

Both citations quoted the same source:-

Statement by Anatoly Karpov: [...] I would also like to mention that I am a frequent guest lecturer at the superb Internet Chess Academy (www.yourmove.com) created by the talented young GM Gabriel Schwartzman.

The site is partially available via Archive.org, shown in the following screen captures.

https://web.archive.org/web/*/yourmove.com [starts 1998]

Top: circa 1998 • Bottom: circa 2000

The top capture misses a photo, but includes another endorsement by GM Karpov. It says,

"GM Gabriel Schwartzman's Internet Chess Academy brings chess instruction into the 21st century. I thoroughly recommend his course." - Anatoly Karpov, FIDE World Chess Champion

The bottom capture includes a photo, but misses the endorsement by Karpov. The September 1997 edition of 'SmartChess Online' carried two more endorsements of GM Schwartzman's site:-

What's on the Web? • We'd all like to improve our chess playing but how many of us can really afford to hire a personal coach? Would you like to be trained by a Grandmaster for a fraction of the cost? Then run, don't walk to Gabriel Schwartzman's Internet Chess Academy. With the help of the Internet and through his own innovation, Gabriel has made available to everyone what was once available only to the most fortunate player. Now in its second year, the Internet Chess Academy reaches hundreds of students at every level in over forty countries worldwide via e-mail. Twice a week, Gabriel sends his students a chess puzzle that he has carefully chosen. The challenge: find the best move in the position and send it back to qualify for monthly prizes (from a prize fund worth more than $1,000). [...]

The second endorsement was structured as an interview.

In Conversation With ... • GM Gabriel Schwartzman is a University of Florida student with a perfect grade point average, a successful businessman, a respected chess journalist and commentator, a licensed chess coach, the 1996 U.S. Open Champion and, as if all that isn't enough, he can checkmate you in six languages! At the age of twenty, Gabriel is a seasoned veteran of chess. He began playing at two years old and at seventeen, he was awarded the title of International Grandmaster. As the founder of the highly popular Internet Chess Academy, Gabriel reaches hundreds of students via e-mail in over forty countries world wide. The training method used at the ICA was developed by his father and is the same method that he has used to achieve his goals.

(Q:) At the age of 2, before most children learn to speak, you began to play chess. Tell us about your unique childhood? What sacrifices did you have to make in your early life to achieve your goals?

(A:) Well, I became good at this quite early - at four I had my first official tournament, and at eight I already started traveling the world, as I was being invited to competitions all over Europe and the United States. I must admit that I liked it a lot, because I got to do something very special, which none of my peers had the opportunity to, especially in a communist country [Romania]. But, there was very much work involved, and yes, a lot of sacrifices. I probably didn't get to play as much as other kids, but as Kasparov once replied to a similar question, "It was definitely worth it!" [...]

We've already seen GM Schwartzman several times on this blog. The most notable mention was December 1971 & 1996 'On the Cover' (December 2021), where he appeared on the cover of Chess Life. What became of the Internet Chess Academy? I'll try to answer that question in another post.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 1/06/2023 05:08:00 PM 0 comments

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30 December 2022

World Championship Columnists

Back in the mid-1990s, both Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov -- bitter rivals at the time -- wrote separate columns for the USCF's Chess Life (CL). I mentioned Karpov's column in last week's post, Wayback to Chess.net (December 2022).

I've never studied these columns, even though they might contain interesting material for my World Chess Championship site (WCC; see link on the right). Following is a table overviewing the content of both columns.

CL p. Title Notes
Kasparov, Fighting Chess, Chess Life
1993-01     6 Opening innovation see also cover
1993-02 13 Local Searchings KK5, g.11
1993-03 10 Natural Suspicions opening refutation
1993-04 14 Battle with the Viewers Spanish TV Channel 1
1993-05 10 Battle with the Viewers (cont.)
1993-06 12 Battle with the Viewers, Part III
1993-07 16 Battle with the Viewers (concluded)
1993-08 40 The Bloodless Revolution PCA; see also 'Interview with Bob Rice'
1993-09 12 Simuls in My Life
1993-10 14 Simuls in My Life (Part II) 1984 London/New York; 1985 Hamburg
1993-11 18 Simuls in My Life (Part III) 1987 Zurich; 1989 Evry
1993-12 14 Simuls in My Life (Part IV) 1992 Baden-Baden
1994-01 6 Simuls in My Life (Part V) 1992 Buenos Aires
1994-03 12 Looking Back 1993 Kasparov – Short; Opening prep; 1.e4; g.3
1994-04 18 Looking Back, Part II (cont.)
1994-05 12 Looking Back, Part III 1.d4; g.9
1994-06 12 Looking Back, Part IV GK Black; 1.e4 c5; g.2,4
Karpov, Grandmaster Musings, Chess Life
1994-10 42 The Caro-Kann
1994-11 14 Dortmund 1994
1994-12 12 Sanghi-Nagar Semi-finals
1995-01 8 Sanghi-Nagar, Part II
1995-02 12 Opening Survey: Tilburg 1994
1995-03 12 Opening Survey: Tilburg 1994, Part II
1995-04 12 Exploring the Sicilian, Part I Buenos Aires Sicilian Thematic, 1994
1995-05 34 Exploring the Sicilian, Part II (ditto)
1995-06 21 Sanghi-Nagar: The Semi-Finals Good intro; aka Finals [leading to title match]
1995-07 34 Sanghi-Nagar, Part II
1995-09 10 Linares, Part I
1995-10 16 Linares, Part II
1995-11 32 Melody Amber 4th
1996-01 36 Melody Amber, Part II
1996-02 24 Melody Amber, Part III
1996-04 20 Dos Hermanas, Part I “Before we discuss my match with Kamsky...”
1996-05 28 Dos Hermanas, Part II; Groningen, Part I
1996-06 32 Groningen, Part II see note on PCA
1996-07 38 Groningen, Part III
1996-08 26 Groningen, Part IV
1996-10 38 Melody Amber I
1996-11 38 Melody Amber II
1997-01 44 Melody Amber III
1997-02 32 Biel, Part I
1997-03 19 Biel Schachfestival, Part II
1997-05 22 Las Palmas 1996
1997-06 24 Vienna Schachfestival
1997-09 36 Dos Hermanas, 1997
1997-10 38 Dos Hermanas, Part II
1997-11 40 Biel Schachfestival, Part I
1997-12 48 Biel, Part II
1998-01 21 Biel, Part III
1998-04 73 Lausanne, 1998 Karpov - Anand; gms. 1, 2, 7, 8
1998-05 42 A Magical Weekend in Parsippany Henley, Karpov, Krush
1998-06 30 The Teams, Part II (ditto)

The table might be more appropriate incorporated into the WCC site itself, but I can always move it later. In the meantime, I'll use it as the basis for a post or two on my WCC blog.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 12/30/2022 05:15:00 PM 0 comments

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23 December 2022

Wayback to Chess.net

In the recent post, The SmartChess Saga (December 2022), I highlighted a SmartChess.com press release:-

An earlier press release, titled 'A Press Release by Anatoly Karpov' and dated 18 December 1996, had stated, "Statement by Anatoly Karpov: In the opening paragraphs of my January 1997 "Grandmasters Musings" column (in Chess Life), I briefly mentioned one of my recent involvements in chess on the Internet in which I appeared as a guest of Chess.net, a company of which I recently became a shareholder. [...] I would also like to mention that I am a frequent guest lecturer at the superb Internet Chess Academy (yourmove.com) created by the talented young GM Gabriel Schwartzman. [...]"

What did former World Champion Karpov say exactly? This:-

Before we begin the discussions of the games for this issue, I would like to let my readers know of a significant new development in my chess activities. I am very excited to have become a new owner of Chess.net, the leading site for interactive Internet chess. Chess.net offers interactive play. the opportunity to train with masters and grandmasters. and one of the world's strongest tournament-proven chess engines -- ROboMAN.

I joined Chess.net because I was impressed with the sophistication of the software and technology and excited by the group's com- mitment to chessplayers. The Internet will propel chess to a much higher level of world- wide participation and interest This is a very significant turning point in the history of chess.

Although I am extremely busy. I will still be able to log onto Chess.net for at least two or three hours a week from anywhere in the world. If you don't see me on one of my impromptu visits. check out the Chess News section of our web site at www.chess.net to see when I will he logged on again. Most likely I will be playing blitz games against the 20 or so grandmasters who regularly play there, but I am sure that every so often I will find the time to play a game with a committed club regular, as these are the individuals who make the club successful for all of us. Naturally, I will be broadcasting all of my events on Chess.net, and I hope to see you there.

Reading between the lines, we surmise that Karpov was guilty of divided loyalty -- SmartChess.com on one side, Chess.net on the other. Once again, the Wayback Machine on archive.org -> chess.net gives us a top-level glimpse of an early web resource, Chess.net (circa 2000).


Top: Chess.net language selection • Bottom: Home page (English)

That second menu link says,

Chess Shop (tm) • Looking for a certain chess book? Chess clock? How about a video tape from world class chess trainer Roman to hone your opening moves?

Does 'chess trainer Roman' have anything to do with the 'ROboMAN' mentioned by Karpov? I'll try to find out in a follow-up post.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 12/23/2022 05:01:00 PM 0 comments

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16 December 2022

Paul Azzurro, Chess Video Producer

In last week's Friday post, Shirov's SmartChess Videos (December 2022), I finished saying,

We also learn from the page [on ichess.net] that the videos were 'Originally Produced by Paul Azzurro'. That might be worth additional investigation but I've run out of time for this post.

Let's pick up this week where I left off last week. First stop:-

  • Paul Azzurro (youtube.com/@Chessdvds; a few other Youtube URLs point to the same page) • 'Chessondvd.com worlds largest producer of chess on dvd over 300 to choose from.'

The YouTube 'About' page says,

Demos on Chessdvds that are offered at our website, that include lessons on openings middle game and endgame, game collection, opening repertoire, chess tactics, chess strategy, chess for absolute beginners, and much more.

A 'Links' section on the page lists only www.chessondvd.com, which returns the message, 'We’re having trouble finding that site.' Removing the 'www' leaves 'chessondvd.com', which redirects to our second stop:-

  • Chessvideo.com (subtitled 'TagLine Here'). • The 'Categories' are similar to those seen in last week's 'SmartChess Videos' post.

Last stops:-

  • Paul Azzurro Archives (ichess.net; 'production-house/paul-azzurro') • 'Showing 195 results'; with various sorts.
  • Paul Azzurro (vimeo.com) • 488 videos
  • Chess Dvds | Shop Chess Videos | Tactics (chessondemand.com) • More amateurish than the other sites I've listed. It looks like something I would do.
  • OnlineChessLessons.net (domain captioned in last week's Shirov video) • Redirects to iChess.net.

I tried to look at a few of the Vimeo clips, but each time I received the message 'Video is not rated. Log in to watch.' The 250 logon IDs (plus password) that I've accumulated through the years doesn't include Vimeo, so I had to say, 'Bye for now'. And that's how I'll close this post. Paul Azzurro was (is?) a major force in the world of chess videos.

Posted by Mark Weeks at 12/16/2022 05:22:00 PM 0 comments

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