BRITBASE
BRITISH CHESS GAME ARCHIVE
FREE DOWNLOADS OF BRITISH GAMES AVAILABLE HERE IN ZIPPED PGN FORMAT

BRITBASE is a national archive of British chess tournament games, in PGN format. Some files have been marked to indicate their availability on commercial databases, though in many cases the data you find here will be more accurate than from such sources. Material dates back to the 1920s; in due course, we will be gathering earlier material when it becomes available.

I have collected and input other tournaments, especially Hastings and British Championships (BCF-ch). Some of these are available here as downloads; others are marked 'needed', i.e. they are not currently available as a PGN file.

This is where you can help - if you know where to get these games, let me know! The files we most need to fill the gaps can be found via the 'Most Wanted' page.

This archive was started up in 1997. What is being done here is fairly ambitious, and has not been possible without a lot of help from you people out there. I would particularly like to thank the very kind people who have offered encouragement and help so far. Keep it coming!

If anyone can supply bulletins relating to any of the missing tournaments, please contact me on johnsaunders@bcmchess.co.uk. Any bulletins sent will be well-treated and returned.

Links below indicate the tournament games are available here as a 'zipped' file containing PGN files. Some of these have already been made available (by me and others) to the Pittsburgh Archives. Pittsburgh is also a useful place to find conversion software. Another particularly good place to look for conversion software is Eric Bentzen's excellent site - check out his Chess Programs and Utilities. Most proprietary databases now allow you to import PGN format databases. Don't have a Zip program? Try going to http://tucows.mirror.ac.uk/comp95.html which has an excellent choice of software which you can use to 'unzip' files downloaded from this site.

I am pleased to say that many other people worldwide are now collecting and making available chess databases on the web. Lars Balzer has set up an excellent list of chess database sites, which is an admirable attempt to log all the worldwide activity in this new and specialised branch of archivism and is highly recommended. And Britbase now has several overseas 'cousins' - to date, Argentina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine - to which you will find links elsewhere on this page. National based databases have an advantage over worldwide archives in that the archivists are 'closer to the ground' and can provide greater assurance that the data is accurate, names & identities correct, etc. Remember - quality, not quantity!

'Korrection Korner' is an errata for British chess gamescores. Given the plethora of gamescores across the internet, this is an attempt to inject some accuracy into the equation. Contributions awaited from readers and users of Britbase ...

Many thanks to Adam Raoof, Bob Wade, Eduardo Bauzá Mercere, Andy Ansel, John Richards, Jon Speelman, Howard Grist, Richard Furness, Osvaldo Orozco Mendez, Jack Goossens, Shaughan Feakes, Eddie Dearing, Angus Dunnington, Richard Palliser, Richard James, Stewart Reuben, Bob Jones, Bill Frost, Mark Crowther, Jon Gilbert, Paul Dunn, John Weightman, Rod McShane, Tryfon Gavriel, Jack O'Keefe, Steve Giddins, Peter Bevan, Kevin Thurlow, John Henderson, Chris Jones, Lara Barnes, Paul Headon, Tony Cullen, Zdenek Zavodny, Henri Serruys, Eric Bentzen, Vladimir Soos, Byron Jacobs, Richard Reich, Mike Yeo, Peter Large, Chris Bird, Mark Orr, Roland Arbinger, Martyn Goodger, Barrie Oakes, Maurice H. Carter, Rob Appleby, Roger de Coverly, Kevin O'Connell, Robert Bellin, Neil Graham, John Knight, Adolfo Bórmida, David Walker and Noel Griffths for their help in supplying games, making corrections and generally providing support and encouragement.