Free Chess Database

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if there was a free chess database which contains all the games played so far (by amateurs and GM's)

I know that TWIC offers you a downloadable version of the games played in that week, but my question is now if there is a complete database with all the games?

You are asking for a link to an illegal pirate site?  

This is not the place to do that.

There is nothing illegal about downloading collections of chess games.  They cannot be copyrighted.  I offer a download on my website of TWIC PGNs #1-926 in SCID format, if you would like to grab that:

http://gorgonian.weebly.com/pgn.html

This is what I asked for!

Maybe someone can share a whole database, otherwise I will add all the other uploads by TWIC.

Thanks Pawpatrol!

Chess.com, 365Chess.com, Chess Tempo.com, even Chessgames.com has a free database ranging from 600,000-3.5 Million. All are free too. No downloads required! That's great isn't it?!

I know, but I need it to open it in Fritz, as I want to have it always with me, even without internet.

Further, a download of the games is quite more useful as you search faster through the games. Beside this, I can add variations to the game and save them.

Thank you for your help!

Oh... 

Ok...

Try this then. Open Fritz/Play Fritz there should be several tiny icons that take you to different places. Look for a searching tool with a Board next to it. 

For what?

This probably depends on where you live. In the US, for something to be copyrighted it has to be creative. This has been the rule since 1991, when the Supreme Court ruled in the case Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991). This case concerned a company copying the white page listings of a phone book. The Court said that it was a Constitutional requirement that a work have a certain level of creativity, and making a phone book by selecting all people with phones in a region and listing them in alphabetical order was not creative enough in either the selection process ("everyone with a phone") or the ordering ("alphabetical order").

A chess database with a simple, broad selection criteria (all games, all GM games, all games played in 1997, and so on), arranged in some obvious way (by date, by player name, by player rating, and so on) would likely be not copyrightable for the same reason the white pages in Feist were not copyrightable.

However, it is possible that a collection with a more targeted selection, such as games illustrating how to play against an isolated pawn, arranged in an order designed to lead the reader to an understanding of those positions, could be copyrighted.

In Europe, there is Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliment on the legal protection of databases. It provides copyright protection for databases, with an exception for database that aim to be complete. So, a comprehensive game database would probably not be copyrightable in the EU, but a smaller database might be. I'm not quite sure how this compares with the US situation after Feist, but the impression I get is that the Database Directive leans more toward copyright than does Feist.

There are over 5 million games in the free database downloadable here: http://icofy-blog.de/icofy-base/

There are 2.2 million here, mostly from TWIC: http://www.top-5000.nl/pgn.htm

 Oops, thought you needed to find a Database in your Fritz Program.   Never mind. I don't think I can help you now.

You're welcome.  I plan to update the download with the rest of the pgns sometime soon, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

There are a few problems with these types of databases.

1) at least two of those require a paid subscription to access fully (chess.com and chesstempo.com)

2) you are limited in how you can manipulate the data in the databases by the function of the GUI they are linked to (which is nowhere near as robust as SCIDvsPC)

3) you are at the mercy of others for maintaining/updating/refining the databases

4) a local database is much more reliable/available/efficient

It is a much superior option to keep a local database over these other options if you are willing to put forth the effort.

Exactly!

I still need a complete database with all the games played so far...

Is someone willing to share it?

Someone?

Alright, I updated my link to include all 1,026 TWIC files.  Go to http://gorgonian.weebly.com, click downloads and then pgn/other.

pawpatrol, this twic database .. has been modified or it is a pure merge down of single issues ? tnx

I ran a duplicate removal on the first 926 files.  Didn't do that on the last 100 yet so there may be a few dupes in it.  Other than that, it's pure 1-1026.  Had to look hard for the first couple hundred PGNs back when I first made this, but I finally tracked them down.  The rest are pretty easily available.

Can you change the file type in PGN or CBV so I can open it up in Chessbase?

Thanks in advance and for you input !!

The PGN version is now up on the website.