Databases and Online Chess

Today marks another first for me in my chess development, the use of online chess and game databases and opening books.

I am a regular player on two different chess websites (chess.com and gameknot.com). On both of these sites I tend to play only the correspondence type games where one is granted a few days for each move. Up until now I have used these sites more like a regular game play with me moving after just a few minutes of consideration. Today marks the day where I have changed this view, well, to some extent that is.

A new game was started today with me having the White pieces and I began with 1. e4. My opponent played 1. .. d5, the Center Counter or Scandinavian. I don't play this opening very well even though I know the first few opening moves, however under the suggestion of an expert who I is helping me out a bit, I decided to research this game as I'm making the moves. Look at game databases and open theory is not against the rules of correspondence chess as long as you are the one doing the analysis not a computer or some other person.

So, I pulled out my copy of MCO v15 (Modern Chess Openings, version 15) to review the opening lines it has. There are very few for this opening, with all starting with 2. exd5. So, I made that move. The next move, however was not one that is listed in this book. 2. ... c6. Now, in a game I played two weeks ago, I got into a bad situation after grabbing up some offered pawns so I wanted to really find out what taking this pawn would do because it looked okay for me. So, I pulled up my Chess Master program and went to the game database that it has. It found 16 games with these moves.

So, I glanced through them. I didn't do the in depth analysis I probably should have of these games and how they traversed, but after looking at them, I decided that taking this pawn wasn't bad for me.

So, at this point, I'm up a pawn and we will see how things go, but the important thing is that I'm branching out. Using my chess resources to help advance my knowledge of the game and how to play things. I sometimes wonder if the people whose games I look at ever thought that they would be used as a stepping stone for my learning process.

All that said, I should say that Chess Master, or the version I have, doesn't have the largest game database but for me it will work for now.