Chessgames.com is a database of historical chess games combined with discussion forums. You are encouraged to participate and learn from players stronger than yourself, while guiding those who are weaker.

To search our chess database, fill out one or more fields on the form above, and click Find Chess Games!

Register now. It's quick, free, and anonymous. This will allow you to "kibitz" in our discussion forums.

Please take a few minutes to read the Help Page.

What's New

· The Chessbookie Game is now starting the Winter Leg. It's loads of fun, free for everybody to play, and you can win free memberships and valuable chess prizes.

· The Chessgames Holiday Present Hunt (sponsored by The House of Staunton, New in Chess, Impala Press) is now over. You can see all of the clues and their soutions at the Clues Page. The grand prize--the Reykjavik II Series Chess Set by the House of Staunton--was won by member Hesam7. Congratulations to Hesam and all the other winners!

· Chessgames is sponsored in part by New in Chess, the world renowned publisher of chess magazines and books.

· The first Fischerandom (Chess960) Internet Team Game has started! The randomly chosen starting position is surprisingly similar to traditional chess. Sign-up now and venture into unexplored territory.

· The Fall Leg to the ChessBookie Game has begun! It's free for everybody, and the winners get prizes like chess books and premium memberships. Good luck!

· World Correspondence Chess Champion Gert Jan Timmerman has accepted the Chessgames Challenge, and the game is underway! If you haven't signed up yet, visit the registration page now and meet your team mates; this should prove to be the toughest challenge of all!

· FIDE recently released the July rating list. Database records have been updated accordingly.

· The Chessgames "World Team" has defeated grandmaster Yury Shulman at the Chessgames Challenge. Well done!

· Please give a warm welcome to the latest international chess superstar to grace our pages, Grandmaster Maxim Dlugy.

· Chessgames is proud to introduce a revolutionary new chess training tool, Guess-the-Move. It's almost like playing a grandmaster! Non-premium members can try our free sample game.

· Congratulations to chessgames member iron maiden for winning the first annual ChessBookie contest. He has been awarded two free years of Chessgames.com membership, plus any book of his choice from the excellent publishing house, Hardinge Simpole. See the ChessBookie Introduction for more info.

· Please give a warm welcome to the latest grandmaster member of Chessgames.com, British chess superstar Nigel Short.

· The chessgames members have defeated Correspondence Grandmaster Arno Nickel. See the Chessgames Challenge and enjoy the dancing rook!

· Give the gift of Chess! Chessgames Activation Codes make it easy and fun.

· Play team correspondence chess! The new Team Game lets you pit your skills against other chessgames.com members.

· We have a new system for displaying famous historical matches. See Zukertort vs Steinitz 1886 for a sample. Over time, we plan on having all world championships, and more!

· The Opening Explorer now allows you to flip the board, to study openings from Black's perspective.

· All members must now supply a valid email address in order to kibitz. Please see our Account Activation Page if you haven't done so already.

· Game lists now have an area at the bottom called Refine Search. This lets you narrow the results into wins, losses, and draws.

· Our new Game Collections Page allows you to search for game collections by keyword.

· Chessgames chessforums allow users to conduct chess discussion on their personal user profile pages. You can see recent chessforum activity here.

· Each day, you can sample the powerful Repertoire Explorer for free! Just click on the Player of the Day, and follow the links by the magnifying glass to fully explore his or her openings. For more information on premium membership, please see our Premium Membership Page.

· You can now embed inline chess diagrams into your messages. For instructions, see our FEN Help Page.

· The Opening Explorer 2.0 is now released! You now can start a library of personal notes for various opening positions, and also explore the repertoires of famous players. See the Opening Explorer FAQ for more information.

Example Searches

Games annotated by Ray Keene

Kibitzing over Scotch

Ruslan Ponomariov, FIDE World Champion

Gioachino Greco

Korchnoi vs Karpov, 1978

"The Menchik Club" (Men who lost to Vera)

Tarrasch plays the Tarrasch Defense

Kasparov's quickest victories (20 moves and less)

Great Match-Ups: Reti vs Spielmann

Great Match-Ups: Alekhine vs Bogolubov

Bronstein plays the Bronstein-Larsen variation of the Caro-Kann

Sokolsky plays 1.b4

Extremely long games (150+ moves)

Rare victories by that perennial amateur, "NN"

Game Collection: 19th Century Classics

Game Collection: Be Treated Like a King!

"World's Greatest Chess Games" by Nunn, Emms, Burgess

"Simple Chess" by Michael Stean

"100 Best Games of 20th Century" by Andrew Soltis

"Bobby Fischer Rediscovered" by Andrew Soltis