"Chess on the Web" by Sarah Hurst, 1999 Batsford, Figurine
Algebraic Notation, Softcover, 144pp., $11.95

It should be no great surprise to most chess enthusiasts that there
are approximately 1500-2000 websites devoted to chess. They are
as individual as the people who create and maintain them. The
problem for most of us is trying to figure out which ones might be
of interest. One of the most comprehensive listing of links of these
websites can be found at the New In Chess site. Despite the good
organization and relative easy of use, it can still be a daunting
exercise to pick and choose which ones to visit and which to skip.

A recent effort by British journalist Sarah Hurst and published by
Batsford seeks to change all that. Well, if not to change it, at least
to help you out a bit. "Chess on the Web is the definitive guide to
internet chess resources from game-play to news, software to
history" proclaims the back-cover blurb.

A brief introduction by Hurst is followed by nine chapters: (1)
News; (2) Clubs and Events; (3) Where to Play; (4) History; (5)
Archives; (6) Analysis; (7) Products and Services; (8)
Miscellaneous; and (9) Secrets of Chess Webmastery. Sites are
rated using a five-star system, five stars being the best, one the
worst.

From the hundreds (thousands?) of sites the author must have
visited, she has selected approximately 120 to review and rate.
Although the task must have been terribly tedious, she conveys the
results of her search in very readable style, bestowing praise where
deserved, leveling criticism where required. The last chapter is not
by Hurst, but by John Saunders and is a very basic explanation of
what it takes to create and operate a website. Many people will find
this overly simplistic, but for those without any experience in this
area, it should be helpful.

We found the most interesting aspect of this book the interviews
she conducted with webmasters of the top sites. Included are
interviews with Mark Crowther (The Week in Chess), Tryfon
Costas Gavriel (Barnet Chess Club and British Chess Forum) Dan
Sleator (Internet Chess Club), Mark Orr (The Irish Chess Archive),
John C. Knudsen (The Correspondence Chess Place) and even
yours truly.

Each review gives the official name, rating and URL along with
the headers that appeared on the home page the day that the author
visited the site. Typical is the review with its three-star rating of
the site hosted by the British Postal Chess Federation:

British Postal Chess Federation
***
www.wavendon.demon.co.uk/index2.html

Headers: About..., BPCF Ratings, Information Circular, BPCF
Open Championship, British Championship, British Ladies, BPCF
Club Championship, Veterans Championship, ICCF Events,
Elsewhere.

Pricecheck: Join the BPCF as Vice-President œ9.00 (UK), œ11.00
(elsewhere), ICCF tournament entry œ8.00 for 15-player group,
œ6.00 for 7-player group, thematic tournament œ6.00.

Not the most eyecatching of sites but useful for the cerebral type
who likes games to last for several years and opponents to keep
their distance. Here you can enter postal or e-mail tournaments and
inspect the best games of BPCF members. Subscription to BPCF
includes regular copies of Information Circular, the organisation's
newsletter. The biggest fault of this site is that newcomers to postal
chess will not find the environment very welcoming. Information
and rules are presented as blandly as possible, with none of the
enthusiasm of The Correspondence Chess Place.

The book's core of quality material is offset by a fair number
excerpts from sites that are lengthy and seem out of place. So, for
example, Kasparov's 1997 lecture at Oxford is re-printed as is an
article featuring two of the games from the 1896 Lasker-Steinitz
title match. These two items are interesting, but why reproduce
them here? A mention of them with a URL reference would have
been more than sufficient. The 8-10 pages thus saved, just for these
excerpts alone, could have been used to review more sites.

As many readers may have already surmised, the real shortcoming
of a book like this is that it may be out of date before it even hits
the streets. We did not attempt to log onto the more than 120 sites
covered in the book, but a random sampling did reveal that a
reasonably large percentage of the sites could be found.

In our opinion, the author has a good idea here. It seems to us,
however, that this concept would be even more effective and useful
if it could be implemented online, as either an independent website
or as part of an existing website. If maintained and kept current, it
could easily  become a valuable resource. Be that as it may, this
book should be useful to any net-minded chessplayer who is not
inclined to plow through hundreds of links trying to find the few
sites that are of interest.