Research Database
Overview
After 32 years in the making, my meticulously compiled collection of some 16,158,820 chess games is now available as a download in ChessBase (cbh) format.
- Nearly 4,000,000 additional complete games compared to other collections mean many more successful searches for difficult to find games!
- More than 80% of game headers provide player ratings, including estimated historical ratings of titled players. No other mega database gives so many ratings!
- The collection includes more than 3,000,000 correspondence games; most with official ICCF, IECG and IECC ratings!
- There are no game fragments, analysis lines, very short games with less than 6 moves, or games missing essential header information like year or result. Many other collections inflate their numbers by including many 100s of thousands of broken or incomplete games!
- Normalized game headers mean you need only search for one spelling of "Korchnoi,V" to get more than 5,500 games of the great fighter!
- Many low quality events, for example casual internet server games or regional class events, have been deleted. Sorry, you will not find this kind of garbage here!
- Many other mega databases duplicate upwards of 20% of the included material. Here so-called fuzzy dupes have essentially been eradicated completely. You get full value for all 16,158,820 games!
- Games are carefully sorted by 1) year, 2) event, 3) white player, 4) black player. Access to complete tournaments is easy, because all the relevant games are next to each other in the gamelist!
- Worried about those scary integrity check errors when processing or converting very large numbers of games? Everything in this collection has already passed a meticulous safety check!
- Want more games? Check out the unique electronic update service in the Payment & Ordering section below. Here you can keep up with the latest developments and get another 700-900K games annually!
- Users of other chess database programs, such as NicBase (g30) or ChessAssistant (cdp), can order their copy in the older ChessBase (cbf) format in order to convert to the native format of their own software program.
- The default distribution format is now the latest ChessBase (2cbh) format, compatible with ChessBase 17 & 18. Owners of earlier program versions can of course still get the data in the well established ChessBase (cbh) format.
Latest Revisions
Version 2025 of my Research Database has been further improved with the addition of many difficult to find historical games, hundreds of thousands of recent correspondence games, and even better game headers than last year's version with the conversion of all country codes to the international ISO3Alpha standard.
Much extra effort has also gone into improving the contents of the earliest parts of the database, since it is here that most inconsistencies and errors tend to show up in large game collections. A huge contribution has been made by chess historian Paul Brown, who has done meticulous research and completely overhauled tens of thousands of historical games by correcting game headers and move scores where needed, plus added more than 10,000 pre-1970s games from rare publications that have never appeared elsewhere!
But, what really sets this collection apart, aside from the many extra games and superior editing quality, is the fact that a new and updated version is released almost weekly, which means that your copy - no matter when you order it - always contains the very latest games and events! Often the latest included games are only a few days old!
Illustrative Game
The following slugfest, played at the 2013 Schleinich Memorial in Calgary, on a very cold day in January 2013, proved entertaining enough to earn the Most Interesting Game award of the event, and thus published with analysis by up-and-coming Canadian talent GM Eric Hansen. See below for his insightful commentary...
Database Utilities
Rob Weir has graciously agreed to let me include a set of his excellent ChessBase utilities, which make a superb addition to the toolset of anyone who regularly works with ChessBase (cbf) files.
Reviews
Komputer Korner reviewed a much earlier version of my database for the Computer Chess Club Web Computer Chess Reports, and rated it the Top Mega Database In The World!
Chess Federation Of Canada Partnership
The Chess Federation Of Canada carries my Research Database in their Online Catalogue of chess products, making it possible to submit payment for my database by credit card to the CFC, rather than to me directly as per the instructions below! Please note that, occasionally, their office will be out of stock on this item. As always, the most recent version is readily available by ordering from me directly.
Payment & Ordering Instructions
Your payment can be made securely via wise.com in Canadian (CAD) currency. Please contact info@neven.ca for recipient address and instructions. I will answer questions and always confirm receipt of your payment.
16,158,820
2025-11-12
Subscription Service
Also available to customers is a secure download subscription service (approximately 700-900K games/year) at the following rates and schedules. The number of games you receive in the year of your subscription is the same, but you receive batches more frequently and thus more timely depending on which option you select:
Customer Relations
For more information on this product, general inquiries, or clarification on ordering procedures, please contact info@neven.ca.