I
can't give a description of Mark Crowther's Chess
on the Net sufficient
to encompass its dense and varied contents, so
let me give as broad a summary as possible. First,
the author is my favorite webmaster, whose site
won the "Greatest Chess Website of 2000"
award. His book is essentially a combination of
a teaching text and a reference book.
To lead off the book, Internet
novices are instructed about what the Internet
and Web are and how to access them. They are told
how to use email, attachments, Internet pages,
links, newsgroups and more, all with examples.
Next comes chess, of course, beginning with a
lengthy section on both free and commercial databases,
some of which I didn't know existed. Then Crowther
discusses some chessplaying engines (programs),
which are also divided into free and commercial
products.
The next chapter is about playing
on the Web, with a detailed and extremely practical
description of how to move around on ICC (the
Internet Chess Club) and similar sites. I think
that this chapter will appeal to the growing number
of players who are discovering the online world.
The "News and Events"
chapter understandably features TWIC, with a very
interesting description of how games are compiled
and standardized, and much more. This chapter
also lists other news and game sites, and even
tells how to transmit moves for live chess events.
Moving ahead (and skipping a lot),
we come to a chapter called "Commercial Web
Sites" that discusses, e.g., Chesspublishing.com
and ChessToday.com, two sites that I am particularly
enthusiastic about. It also includes sites with
book and equipment sales. Finally, as an afterthought,
Crowther buries some of the most important people
on the Web (and perhaps in the world) at the end:
chess book reviewers. Why these self-sacrificing
souls are listed in the "Commercial Sites"
chapter is not for me to say--any sane person
would give us a separate chapter. But Crowther
does throw me a personal bone or two with some
flattering compliments, in the desperate hope
that I won't trash his book (it worked, of course).
In a sort of catch-all final
chapter, Crowther discusses a number of important
sites that don't fit other categories, including
a long list of player sites (i.e., sites featuring
an individual player, who may be showing games,
discussing his life, or offering to teach for
a fee). He also lists some online newspaper columns,
chess problems sites, correspondence chess sites,
etc. Finally, Chess
on the Web ends with
perhaps the most important section of all: a huge
list of chess sites, organized by category. I
suspect that almost everyone will discover sites
of interest that they were previously unaware
of.
In spite of his cruel slighting
of chess book reviewers, I have to say that this
is an impressive work that people of every strength
and interest will find very useful.
YOU
CAN FIND THIS BOOK AT
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