There's no review here. I spent my time on this issue preparing a
background page for my main site...

World Chess Championship : 2001-02 Braingames
http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/a1a2bgix.htm

...where I cover the formative chess events of 2001. As with my
previous page covering the events of 2000...

World Chess Championship : 2000 Braingames (and more)
http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/a0a1gkix.htm

...the most interesting material is political. I'm already a few days
late in distributing this article, so I'm just going to mention a few
of the Web references that I used in preparing the new page.

---

FIDE (& FIDE Commerce) operates an excellent site...

FIDE
http://www.fide.com

...The search function is quick, works with phrases, and permits an
overview of FIDE's evolution on any particular topic. A search on the
keyword 'chess' currently returns the message 'Found: 312'. There are
a few old press release versions of the site...

Old FIDE Press Releases (last dated 2001-02-27)
http://www.fide.com/release/

Old FIDE Press Releases (last dated 2001-01-09)
http://www.fide.com/fide/html/
http://www.worldfide.com/fide/html/

...but the current version seems to include all of the older
material, of which the earliest is dated 1999-03-19. FIDE also likes
to create separate domains for its events. Two that I used were...

Welcome to the World Chess Grand Prix Series!
http://www.fidegrandprix.com/

FIDE Handbook
http://handbook.fide.com/

...One reference I didn't use on my new page is...

Welcome to the Official Page of the World Players' Council!
http://w.p.c.tripod.com (which redirects to)
http://ajedrez_democratico.tripod.com/

...apparently maintained by GM Valery Salov. At one time FIDE used
the World Players' Council (WPC) as a mouthpiece for the views of the
best players, but there is no reference to Salov or the WPC on the
FIDE site since '22.08.2001 72nd FIDE Congress. Halkidiki, Greece;
World Players' Council Chairman GM Valery Salov to report'. If you
read the report (which starts 'The World Palyers' [sic] Council had
celebrated several meetings...') on the WPC site, you'll understand
why.

Q:How can you tell when a plane is full of chess grandmasters?
A:When the captain turns off the engines, the whining continues.

Yes, it's an old joke, and it's probably never been applied to GMs
before, but it kept popping into my head as I was reading the WPC
material. Who said chess was a dull game?

---

The Braingames site has disappeared. The domain www.braingames.net
now returns a 'Gateway Timeout : Server unreachable : Please contact
the administrator' message. The site for the Kramnik - Deep Fritz
match...

Brains in Bahrain
http://www.brainsinbahrain.com/

...is still operational. I also discovered a French version of
brainsinbahrain at www.chesslines.com. Braingames' successor...

Welcome to einstein.tv
http://www.einstein.tv/

...hasn't yet incorporated any Braingames material. A search
on 'chess' returns the message. 'Unfortunately your search found no
results please refine your search and try again.' A domain describing
the parent company...

Einstein Group plc
http://www.einstein-group.tv/

...does include a page called 'Intellectual Leisure', which says, 'It
is Einstein Group's intention to raise the profile of chess and other
intellectually stimulating games amongst the widest possible
audiences. They intend to do this via Einstein's on-air coverage
(einstein.tv) and the production of formats and content for other
broadcasters; the organisation of chess events and tournaments and
the development of associated products and services.' Watch this
space.

The rise and fall of Braingames is documented in two articles written
by David Levy which are on the KasparovChess.com site...

Raymond Keene and a Matter of £50,000. The Full Truth Emerges!
http://www.kasparovchess.com/serve/templates/folders/show.asp?
p_docID=17774&p_docLang=EN

"Is Fraud a Brain Game?"
http://www.kasparovchess.com/serve/templates/folders/show.asp?
p_docID=19413&p_docLang=EN

...Levy may not be the most objective observer in this matter, but as
an insider his observations are important for the historical record.

---

Finally, I'd like to mention two pages that I saw for the first
time...

The Scotsman : the John B. Henderson column
http://www.rochadekuppenheim.de/heco/index.html

European Chess Union
http://www.eurochess.org/start/index.php

...both of which contain material relevant to chess history. I'll be
back mid-April with a real review.

Bye for now,
Mark Weeks

---

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...The bookmarks for the sites reviewed in 'Chess History on the Web'
may be found at...

Chess History on the Web : Recommended sites
http://mark_weeks.tripod.com/Chs-hist/chs-hist.htm

...The list archive is at...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chess_History/messages

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