Thursday, July 7, 2011

Illinois Database project

Tom Sprandel recently posted the first version of the Illinois database on the ICA website.  It's got just over 10,000 games.

The current version of the database (not yet live on the ICA website) is almost 20,000 games: it begins with an 1858 Louis Paulsen simul in Chicago and ends with games from the 2011 Chicago Open.  The collection draws heavily from ChessBase, CICL, and the ICA archives.  We'd like to include as many annotated games as possible, but we don't want to infringe on any copyrights.  

What games belong in the database?  I'd like to err on the side on inclusiveness without being silly.  Any game by an Illinois master (no matter where in the world it was played), any master game played in Illinois, any interesting amateur game (you probably have hundreds of your own games!), and games played by "honorary Chicagoans" (Bill Martz, Emory Tate, Bill Colias).  The database also includes games of immigrants to Illinois from "the old country."  Simul games and postal games are most welcome.  (Maybe even endgame studies? The Lasker-Reichheim position was first published in the Chicago Tribune.) And please don't be bashful: send wins, losses, and draws!

Bobby Fischer was born at Billings Hospital Michael Reese (not the first time I've published this misinformation) and Sammy Reshevsky went to the University of Chicago, but one has to draw the line somewhere: I've only included Reshevsky's games from his Midwest years (roughly 1924-34) and essentially excluded Fischer unless he was playing someone from Illinois.

If you have a collection of games that you'd like to contribute to the project (clean PGN or CBV files strongly preferred: ask me about data formatting), please drop me a line!  Perhaps we can swap files....

No comments: