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Megacorr 3

by Tim Harding

Introduction

Tim Harding has now released the third version of his MegaCorr CC database on CD, and it's been available to subscribers from mid-May. The previous versions were released in 1999 and 2001.

MegaCorr3 Contents

The database section of the CD contains 521,000+ games, representing an increase of about 45% by volume over MegaCorr2 (357,000) and it also claims to be 30% bigger than the 2002 ChessBase correspondence CD (400,000).

Some 20,000+ games are annotated (4%), and a further 6,000 game fragments are included amongst the analysis. The games database is provided in two formats, ChessBase and PGN, and is thus compatible with all the main chess software products on the market. The PGN database is handily sectioned to support ChessBase Light.

There is an extensive "extras" section on the CD, which contains the following archive material:

• 58 back issues of Chess Mail (1996-2002) in Acrobat PDF format;
• 79 editions of Tim's Kibitzer column, originally published on the Chess Cafe website, and supplied in browser format;
• A Player Gallery containing profiles of all CC world champions, profiles of some GMs, obits of some notables, pictures of numerous players, plus some buttons for future additions;
• Cross-tables of World Championships (1-15), Olympiads (1-12), European Championships (1-62), IFSB Individual and Team Championships (1928-39), a selection of Invitational events; plus a button to link to the forthcoming USSR Championships CD;
• A miscellaneous collection of articles, a bibliography, web links, order forms and other index information.

The CD has been created for Windows computers, but the files can be ported on to Apple, Unix and Linux machines.

As previously, the CD is retailed only as a data disk - it will not fire into life and auto-run when you load it, you won't have to install any programs, and you won't need access to the internet (though some links are supplied).

To get started, you need to point ChessBase or your PGN reader at one of the database files, or double click on the click_me.htm file of the root directory to launch your browser and inspect the extras section.

MegaCorr3 Highlights

The major plus in the database section is the inclusion of all the postal games of current world champion Gert Jan Timmerman. This represents something of a coup, and apparently they were specially provided by the man himself - around 250 games in total, with about 25% of them annotated (albeit lightly in many cases, and not always by Timmerman).

Tim has also managed to pepper the collection with CC games which are not easy to find in conventional internet searches or boxed collections. Some 4,500 games included here were played prior to 1950, and a further 25,000 or so date from 1950-1974. More recent, but otherwise unpublished material is also included.

The established centres of organised CC are well represented on the CD (including ICCF, WCCF, IECC, UECC, zonal and national associations and invitational tournaments), and generally these sources provide the necessary ballast of good quality games. Where annotations have been provided, they are generally very informative, and feature a wide selection of titled players. Here's a brief example from a recently titled player:

Livie, G W G - Lüers, J C [B78]
Reg Gillman Memorial E corr BFCC, 1999
[Scottish CC #71 p19]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Ne5 11.Bb3 Rc8 12.h4 h5 13.Bg5 Rc5 14.Kb1 b5 15.g4 a5 16.gxh5 Nxh5 17.Nd5 Re8 18.a3 Nc4 19.Qg2 a4 [19...Be6 20.Ne3!? Kir. Georgiev (20.c3 Bxd5 21.exd5 Qc8 22.Nc6 Nxa3+! N.Short-Kir.Georgiev, Novi Sad 1990)] 20.Ba2 Kf8 21.Nf5 Bxf5 22.exf5 Nxb2 23.fxg6 fxg6 24.Bh6! Bxh6 25.Qxg6 Bg7 26.Qf5+ Nf6 27.Nf4 e6 28.Bxe6 Bh8 29.Qg6 1-0

I thought that the extras section represented great value, particularly if you are not already a Chess Mail subscriber. There's a huge amount of well-organised reference information in here, and a lot of valuable archive and index material for the CC community to pore over.

Clearly Tim has it in mind to expand this section in subsequent releases, and the web-based medium he has chosen is well suited to maintaining an index of hyperlinks operated by simple click-on buttons. Expect to see a number of Chess Mail offerings cross-indexed by this means in future.

MegaCorr3 Lowlights

Since 1975, there has been an explosion in published chess games, with databases and e-books now necessary to handle the volume of material and the dynamic changes in opening novelties.

On this CD, around 339,000 games are dated 1975-99, and a further 148,000 from 2000-present. The most recent sources include the upcoming web server sites like itsyourturn, chessfriends and playchess.

If you haven't yet tried web server, it's basically chess played via the internet, and it will no doubt eventually form a good part of the future for CC.

However, it looks very much to me as though the web servers contribute more volume than virtue at this stage of their development. There are some strong players active on these sites (often using pseudonyms), but there are too many games included played by unrated or low-rated players, and their coffee-house style is knockabout OTB rather than the more studied chess which CC players tend to prefer.

Running through the games list, I found examples of 3-move (and 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11-move) epics, characterised by novice blunders, withdrawals and single or double forfeits - hardly study material. Here's a 12-move example unlikely to christen a new opening variation:

Stolin-Mathioudakis, 2000
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 Bb4 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.Qd4 c5 9.Qe5 Bb7 10.Bd3 0-0 11.0-0 d6 12.Bxf6 dxe5 0-1.

I think Tim has an editing issue to resolve here, and my suggestion would be to concentrate on the quality rather than bump up the quantity for marketing reasons.

MegaCorr3 Conclusions

Overall, this is a good, dedicated CC production and worth buying, but first check your reasons for doing so!

On the database side, if you're not an internet user, or just can't be bothered visiting all the CC websites to download games, then this is convenience shopping with added value. If you already have most of the recognised downloads, then your decision might be more marginal and perhaps decided by your valuation of the uncommon games, the annotations, or the Timmerman set.

The CD is worth buying for the extra material alone - unless of course, you have already paid for some of it through a subscription! If not, then I think the extras represent excellent value, and are likely to form the basis of a CC reference library in future.

MegaCorr3 sells at £29.50, including VAT, or £23.00 if upgrading from MegaCorr2. You can find out more at the Chess Mail website or write to Chess Mail at 26 Coolamber Park, Dublin 16, Ireland.

Copyright of Chess Games

While delving into the contents of the MegaCorr3 CD, I thought I'd do a little research for general interest into the copyright laws that apply to chess games and collections of games. My sources were internet news groups rather than qualified lawyers!

The first point of interest is that the uncommented moves of a chess game are not considered to be under copyright because they are considered to fall into the category of 'facts' and not 'creation'. This may seem odd to the players, whose creative imagination may have led to a unique combination of moves, but neither is entitled to claim copyright, and their game is freely available in the public domain.

If however, the game is then annotated by either player or a third party, then that game score cannot be published without the consent of the annotator, whose comments fall under copyright law since they are deemed to be a product of creative imagination (notwithstanding that the creativity involved may have been rather less than that required to play the game!).

For games collections, copyright applies where some form of creativity has been applied to the selection process. As I understand it, an unannotated collection of games by a single player or from a single event would not fall under copyright, as no creative effort is involved in selection.

However, if some selection criteria are utilised, for example, 'best games of ...', particular themes, modes of play, obscure sources, etc, then copyright can apply. Again, the creative effort involved need not be particularly high as long as it is demonstrable.

A copyright on a collection does not imply copyright on an individual game within that collection, any more than copyright on a story implies copyright on the individual words making up the story. This means that anyone is able to select individual, unannotated games from that collection and distribute them without interference. Of course, they are unable to distribute the entire collection as a single entity, and piracy legislation will apply if commercial interests are threatened.

Assuming that all this distilled wisdom holds good under international law, then there's absolutely no doubt that MegaCorr3 is a perfectly legitimate games collection, and worthy of copyright for the effort involved in selecting, editing and annotating the games (as well as all the original work done by Tim in assembling the extras section).

Amusingly, Tim (correctly) claims copyright for his own annotations, then happily uses (and acknowledges) others' notes without their express consent, something Bernard picked up when reviewing MegaCorr2. As far as I can see, no other publisher of games collections acts any differently, doubtless due to the impracticalities of contacting a host of players, but, ah, the vagaries of commerce ....!