I note that the three chessboards on the home page are now "recent checkmates".
Sadly, I am now less likely to spend any time looking at those boards. I find that the games worth exploring are those between strong players; and those games tend to end in resignation, not checkmate.
I like "recent checkmates" more than I liked "recent games". I've run into some very interesting mating positions by looking at it. It's not the page of the site where you'll stay for long anyway, so it has more of a decorative purpose.
Originally posted by O Artem O also found these 2 links
http://www.timeforchess.com/chess/grandmaster-games/index.php
http://www.timeforchess.com/chess/openings/index.php
Originally posted by John of Reading I note that the three chessboards on the home page are now "recent checkmates".
Sadly, I am now less likely to spend any time looking at those boards. I find that the games worth exploring are those between strong players; and those games tend to end in resignation, not checkmate.
What do you think?
I agree. Every once in a while I'd find interesting games to bookmark. While I do see interesting checkmates now, I won't find any games to bookmark, because (1) the games are already over and (2) as the original poster said, games between stronger players tend not to end in checkmate, and these are usually the more instructive and interesting games. How much interest and instruction can I get from a 900 vs. 1100 game in which one player drops a queen on the 8th move and the other promotes 2 queens for an overwhelming but unnecessary material advantage, then checkmate the loser by accident?
It gets worse: they aren't "Recent checkmates" at all!
I spotted an odd mating position that I thought I'd seen on the home page before, clicked through, and found that that the game ended in January 2009. A few more tries and I find games that ended in November/December 2008. What is the point?
I spend a fair while (waiting for my opponents to move) just
scanning their games looking for what may have been an
interesting game.
I've leaned on this site quite heavily over the past few months for
my column.
http://chessedinburgh.co.uk/chandler.php
This place is a gold mine of games good and bad.
I just wish there was someway you could access them all in one
big DB. You could do a positon search and find out how many players
have fallen for a Scholars type mate