Chess On The Net

Everyman Chess. Soft cover, 127pp. List $15.95

One of the truisms of the net economy is that the first to market will usually be the most successful. We see the resulting emphasis on "branding" in action when we think of Yahoo, Amazon, and America Online. Does this concept apply to chess as well? Most certainly it does. Mark Crowther's The Week in Chess is the ultimate source for chess news, games, and reportage on a global scale. Though Club Kasparov has a flashier web site with more content, it somehow fails to capture our attention the way TWIC does.

With the release of Chess On The Net, his first book, Crowther offers a glimpse into a successful web endeavor, as well as provides the first manual to cover all aspects of Chess In The Digital Age: email, search engines, playing programs, databases, zip files, etc. Indeed, although similar books have been published, none cover as much ground as does Crowther.

The title is a bit misleading as not all of the book is about chess on the net. Crowther covers many different aspects of chess in the 'wired' age, from getting set up on a net-enabled PC, to what sites to visit, where to shop, where to play online, how to use online clients, chess databases, different chess file type and where to get your chess news. Chess On The Net does a good job of covering a lot of ground in an organized and well-written fashion.

I quite enjoyed Crowther's reviews of the different chess related web sites, which is nice since they comprise more than half of the book! Crowther rates sites with respect to their presentation, content, user friendliness (critical for me as a web master!) and overall impression. There is so much to surf these days, one would hate to miss some of the gems that are unearthed here! I found that I agreed with almost all of Crowther's recommendations.

Still, Chess On The Net is not a perfect book. For one thing, it would offer greater value if this print edition were tied into a web site or service to keep the links current. The Web is so dynamic that books about it can be outdated by the time they're published. An electronic source for up-to-date 'bookmarks' would also make surfing a lot easier, eliminating the need to type unwieldy URLs. Another thing, whenever the Internet is utilized for transactions there should be some mention made of security. Every cyber-chessplayer ought to have an anti-virus tool on his PC. Always ensure that the vendor you're about to send your credit card number is really in business. And don't trust people you don't know, even if they claim to be a GM from Russia. (Ask me about it sometime!) One other observation: this book focuses mostly on Windows machines, and indeed the majority of chess software is developed for that platform. If you're a Mac or Unix user there won't be much technical stuff for you here, though you will still find the web reference sections useful.

Bottom line? This is a great book to give to folks who are not so comfortable with their PC or for getting set up for chess on the Net. I wish I had this book three years ago when it seemed that every chess-playing friend was jumping online and needed my help!

- Roger Mahach