Links & Bookmarks

BOARD GAMES

http://www.jocly.com/#/games
Play many boardgames with a wonderful 3D interface. Few example: Chess, and Shako, Metamachy, Rollerball. And you can develop your own game, insert the game in your webpages, and many more...

http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca
The virtual Elliott Avedon Museum and archive of games from University of Waterloo.

http://www.geoludie.com
Wonderful old boardgames from allover the World available on-line.

http://www.morize-sa.fr/
Morize Chavet manufacturer of game material, especially Chess with an interesting selection of Xiangqi, Shogi and other special Chess.

http://www.msoworld.com/
Welcome to MSO Worldwide, a site run by the organizers of the Mind Sports Olympiad. You can find news, games, articles and links about board games, card games and puzzles here.

http://papatilleul.fr/
A very nice blog about abstract games.

http://www.wellouej.com/blog/
L'association Wellouëj qui travaille autour des jeux traditionnels et des jeux du monde. A signaler en particulier leur très riche bibliothèque, avec tous les ouvrages illustrés en ligne.

http://www.boardspace.net
A website to play a very large number of modern boardgames. The place to play Hive on-line!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/
A place full of information and illustration about any board games.

http://boardgameblog.wordpress.com/
An excellent blog, well informed, about board games. Not updated alas.

http://www.jocari.be /
Site francophone de référence sur les jeux et jouets des époques antique, médiévale et renaissante, issu de la recherche scientifique. Très bien réalisé.

http://www.aisling-1198.org/dossiers/jeux-medievaux/
Un excellent site dont la motivation est de "rassembler et transmettre des éléments de culture historique notamment autour de 1198". La partie jeux est particulièrement riche avec une excellente et très utile bibliographie.

http://www.zillions-of-games.com/
Zillions of Games -- an exciting game package that uses an absolutely unique "universal gaming engine" technology, allowing you to play nearly any abstract board game or puzzle in the world.

http://ex.ludicum.org/publicacoes/bgsj/
The pages of Board Games in Academia, an association of historians publishing the very high quality "Board Games Studies". Up to Vol.6

http://bgsj.ludus-opuscula.org
Vol.9 of Board Games Studies is here

https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/bgs
Vol.10 of Board Games Studies is here

http://www.gamecabinet.com/
The Games Cabinet : a games magazine. Plenty of very good articles. However, it does not seem to be updated these times. Not updated alas.

http://jducoeur.org/game-hist/
Dedicated to medieval games. Not updated but to be replaced by this one: https://www.querki.net/u/jducoeur/period-games/#period-games

http://www.abstractgamesmagazine.com/
The site of Abstract Games Magazine, the excellent magazine from Kerry Handscomb. I published a paper on Liubo in Issue 15.

ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF CHESS

http://www.schachquellen.de
Where is now the website for the Initiative Group Königstein (IGK)? It has long been the REFERENCE for Chess origins on the web. Facts, dates and bibliographic informations, it was maintained by Gerhard Josten. Hope to see this resource again.

http://www.banaschak.net/
Peter Banaschak's web site. He got his PhD on the subject of Chess history in China, Korea and Japan. Then, his contribution is of first importance. Also, I would like to acknowledge him here for his appreciated help. Alas, this is a dead link now.

http://www.hands.media/books/?book=on-the-explanation-of-chess-and-backgammon:: By Touraj Daryaee. The book is an edition of the earliest text in Middle Persian on the rules and views of the games of chess and backgammon, reported to be from the time of Khusro Anushirvan in the 6th CE.

http://www.goddesschess.com
"Alternative" chess history and chess miscellany. Archive of research materials. DEAD LINK alas!

http://www.iranchamber.com/sport/chess/chess_iranian_invention.php
The Persian claim, a page which protects all its images ... which are all stolen from me!.

http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/volumeonenumberone/origin.html
A good article linking Chess and the Silk Road

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1509
The greatest Chess puzzle, a review paper about the Chess origin issue.

http://historicgames.com/alphonso/index.html
The pleasure of staring at the rich illustrations of this medieval book on Chess and other board games. Also available the English translation by Sonja Musser and as well as her 1400 pages Ph D thesis.

http://classes.bnf.fr/echecs/index.htm
The site from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France where the Charlemagne set is conserved. Very nice photographs and illustrations. Alas, the history of origins is completely misunderstood.

http://www.charm.ru/
An excellent site about ancient Chinese coins. Few interesting illustrations about Xiangqi pieces.

http://www.kushan.org/
About the Kushan history. They founded an important empire in modern Afghanistan and could have played an important role in the birth of Chess.

http://www.silk-road.com/toc/index.html
The Silk Road foundation.Tons of academic information about this famous trading route. Seems not updated.

http://www.renate-syed.de/
Webpages of Prof. Renate Syed, indologist specialized in Chess early history.

http://www.mark-weeks.com/aboutcom/caa-hist.htm
Nice pages from Mark Weeks. Seems not updated.

http://www.chess-museum.com
The Chess Museum with a very rich collection and a lot of interesting pieces.

http://www.charlottechess.com/BillWall.htm
A very good historical introduction with many dates and facts, from Bill Wall. Alas not updated.

http://medievalbaltimore.net/the-chess-queen/
From Baltimore Museum, an interesting study of the Chess Queen by Hillary Svoboda.

(EUROPEAN) CHESS

http://www.fide.com/
Welcome to World Chess Federation.

http://chesscollectormagazine.sharepoint.com/Pages/default.aspx
Chess Collector International. To see beautiful and unique Chess sets.

http://www.echecs.asso.fr/
Le site de la Fédération Française des Echecs.

http://www.europe-echecs.com/
Le site du magazine "Europe Echecs".

http://federscacchi.it/
Page from the Italian Federation of Chess which is editing a very interesting review: scacchitalia.

http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/wcc-indx.htm
Records of all World Championships. Not updated.

http://www.chessgraphics.net/
An incredible images bank on Chess.

http://iechecs.com
Site généraliste en français, orienté pédagogie, avec un échiquier en ligne. Très agréable. Bien maintenu par François Leysour de Rohello.

http://www.schackportalen.nu
An vast and excellent portal with plenty of links about eveything about Chess, in Swedish, German, Spanish, French and English.
Vaste liste de liens commentés et triés sur tout ce qui concerne les échecs, en suédois, anglais, allemand, espagnol et - maintenant en français.

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000238t/f19.item
Integral scanned copy of a precious old manuscript « Le livre des eschecs moralizé en françois » from Nicolas de Nicolai, 14th century. Wonderful illustrations. Must be seen.
Copie intégrale sur le site Gallica de la BnF du manuscrit du 14e siècle « Le livre des eschecs moralizé en françois » de Nicolas de Nicolai. A voir absolument.

http://www.regencychess.co.uk/
A very nice shop, worth a visit.

CHESS VARIANTS

http://www.chessvariants.org
Everything about Chess variants is there. And if something is missing, send your comment or contribution.

http://ancientchess.com
Chess Throughout History and Around the World, Rare and Unusual Chess Sets for Sale, Chess History and Evolution. You will find here very beautiful reproductions of antique and oriental sets.

http://courierchess.com
A very nice reconstruction of this famous elarged chess variant.

http://abstractstrategygames.blogspot.fr
"La diagonale du fou", Abstract Strategy Games & kites Club - from Khoa Pham in Hoi An city - Vietnam. Wonderful crafted chessmen, many games.

http://www.mayhematics.com/v/v.htm
A Chess Variant page with all Variant Chess Magazines available for download. A precious and valuable ressource

http://www.tradgames.org.uk/
All what should be known about history of these varieties of Chess, Chaturanga, Shatranj, Xiangqi, Shogi, Sittuyin, by James Masters.
Le minimum à connaître sur l'histoire de plusieurs variantes.

http://www.mindsports.net/index-mindsports.html
Find and play the games invented by Christian Freeling.

http://www.superchess.nl/
Chess without opening theory from Henk van Haeringen, author of a Dutch book "Schaak en Superschaak van schaker tot Superschaker" on Chess variants which can be ordered on this site. Also the Exchess sets, sets of wonderful wooden exotic pieces, can be bought there!

http://webspace.webring.com/people/wo/oileanfasach/
Everything that should be known about Jetan, the Martian Chess.

http://www.tasigh.org/takzh/index.html
The Authorized Klin Zha Homepage. The On-Line Source for the Playing, Promotion and Study of the Klingon Board Game of Klin Zha. Maintained by Kevin A. Geiselman.

http://www.omegachess.com/
Website of OMEGA Chess, a modern chess variant.

http://www.quadibloc.com/chess/cheint.htm
John Savard's page with many variants. Some of his own. Also, very nice graphics for Asian variants such as 7-Handed and 3-Handed Xiangqi.

http://www.jsbeasley.co.uk/
The John Beasley's website. Many valuable resources for chess and chess variants, such as the complete collection of Variant Chess, the British Magazine

http://katakas.org/
Designed by Roland Marounek, an interesting website devoted to chessvariants, with a special emphasis on shogi variants.

http://frcec.blogspot.fr/
The Fischer Random Chess email Club, a site about this variant promoted by Bobby Fischer. Seems not updated.

http://www.iocf.org
Website of the International Omega Chess Federation. Founded in 2007. Alas, dead link now.

www.seirawanchess.com
A new way of introducing two old classical non conventional pieces upon the chessboard.

www.musketeerchess.net
A chess variant from Zied Haddad which can bring a lot of fantasy on the chessboard

XIANGQI

http://www.yutopian.com/games/
A high-quality presentation of Xiang-Qi origin and history.

http://www.wxf.org
The World Xiangqi Federation pages

http://www.asianxiangqi.org/
The Asian Xiangqi Federation pages.

http://www.chinaschach.de/
(German) Deutcher Xiangqi Bund / European Xiangqi Federation : Plenty of news about Xiangqi.

http://sites.google.com/site/xiangqifrance/home
Le rendez-vous des joueurs français de Xiangqi.

http://www.worldmindmasters.com
The World Mind Masters pages

http://www.cc-xiexie.com/home.php
Download the best software to play Xiangqi. Free.

http://www.clubxiangqi.com/
The Xiangqi Club to play on-line

http://perso.club-internet.fr/jmchauvet/
(French) Le Bréviaire du Xiangqi. Tout sur les Echecs chinois. (DEAD LINK)

http://web.archive.org/web/20071008233423/http://jmchauvet.club.fr/index.html
Le Bréviaire du Xiangqi sauvé ici!

SHOGI AND SHOGI VARIANTS

http://shogifrance.fr-bb.com/t1323-histoire-du-shogi
Sorry for my friends not speaking French, really. This blog is where you can find the best information concerning Shogi's history. By Erwann Le Pelleter who is passionate, work with a lot of logic and caution and has access to the Japanese sources. Thanks Erwann.

http://www.teu.ac.jp/gamelab/SHOGI/shogipage.html
Reijer Grimbergen's Shogi page. Plenty of information about professional tournaments and players profile. Now dead link alas.

http://www.shogi.net/nexus/index.html
Many informations are avalaible here, although this site is not updated.

http://www.shogi.net/fesa/
The web page of the Federation of European Shogi Associations (FESA)

http://eric.macshogi.com/
The Shogi pages from Eric Cheymol.

http://www.chushogi-renmei.com/
The Japanese Chu Shogi Association. Include photos of very large Shogis.

http://www.chushogi.de
The German Chu Shogi Association.

http://tenjiku-shogi.net/
The 21th century Tenjiku shogi!

http://www.ikechang.com/navi1e.htm
The Tendo Shogi Museum in Japan.

http://www.shogi.net/rjhare/shogi-intro.html
Very rich and complete pages on Shogi and its variants by Roger Hare.

http://shogi.alsace.free.fr
The website of the Association de Shogi d'Alsace, a very informative place with detailed rules. I borrowed few photographs there. Thanks to them.

http://www.shogi.fr
Le site de la communauté française de Shogi et de la Fédération Française de Shogi. Toutes les infos du Shogi, remarquable!

http://www.kolumbus.fi/geodun/shogi.htm
Very, very, very small Shogi variants!

http://www.colina.demon.co.uk/chulib.html
A lively project on Chu Shogi from Colin Adams with games, software, history, ... Also, his book on Tenjiku Shogi can be downloaded. A must...
Alas, DEAD LINK

http://trout.customer.netspace.net.au/
Here you can get Shogi Variants 1.55a, the wonderful freeware playing almost all known forms of Shogi, small and large. From Steve Evans. Alas, DEAD LINK. But some has been saved and the program can be found here: http://hgm.nubati.net/ShogiVar/

OTHER ASIAN CHESS

http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/makruk.htm
Tim Krabbé reports having played Makruk in Cambodia.

http://www.khmerinstitute.org/culture/ok.html
The rules of Ok, or Cambodian Chess, from the Khmer Institute. DEAD LINK alas.
Mirrored here (I was right to save it)

http://www.geocities.com/kisslook/eng/engindex.html
The very interesting pages of Lev Kisliouk in English, Russian and Esperanto, with fascinating information about Shatar, the Mongolian Chess. (DEAD LINK!)
Fortunately, I had mirrored it. Here.

http://unicorn.ncat.edu/~michael/chess/
Homepage of Senterej, Ethiopian Chess. (DEAD LINK)
Mirrored here for sake of safety. (I was right to save it ...)

http://www.econ.pdx.edu/alumni/TVC/chess.htm
The Vuthy Tan's page on Cambodian Chess. The informations given here are precious. Rek, another Cambodian game is described as well.
BROKEN LINK. Fortunately, I had mirrored those pages before ! Look here

OTHER BOARD GAMES

http://perso.orange.fr/bckg/french/accueil.htm
Un très bon site en français sur l'histoire du Backgammon par Fred ML.

http://trictrac.org/
"Le dictionnaire raisonné du jeu du trictrac": a nice website available in English and in French.

http://www.hnefatafl.net/indexe.html
A presentation of the Hnefatafl, the strategic board game of the Vikings.

http://pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/kings_table.html
Another site on Hnefatafl.

http://www.usgo.org/bobhighlibrary/
A very rich ressource on Go, on American Go Association pages.

https://senseis.xmp.net/?PeterShotwell
Gate towards Peter Shotwell's articles about Go.

http://www.shikanda.net/afrocentrism/rethink1.htm
"Diffusionism: geomantic divination and mankala board-games as instances of proto-globalisation", a full web-book from Wim van Binsbergen. DEAD LINK but the paper is here.

http://www.draughtshistory.nl/
History of Draughts and Checkers by a worldwide recognized specialist: Adrie van der Stoep.

http://babelstone.blogspot.com/2009/05/lost-game-of-liubo-part-1-funerary.html
An excellent blog, very well documented about Liubo.