essentials & fundamentals

Global chess websites which concern chess matters of general importance:
http://2700chess.com live rating list of all players with current Elo 2700+ (and female players above Elo 2500+) which follows their rating day by day like stock exchange rates
www.365chess.com chess games database online with excellent search function, event tables and more than 3,500,000 (grandmaster) games to replay plus chess puzzles and opening explorer
www.chess24.com live broadcasts, computer analysis and video commentary, fully browser and app based with interactive chess courses (in english, spanish, and german)
www.chessbase.com chess software and games database, leading chess newsletter with in-depth chess reports, pictorial stories and event coverage, daily updated homepage with Online Chess,
in Spanish (Noticias de Ajedrez): http://es.chessbase.com/
in Indian: http://chessbase.in/ (India Hindi: http://chessbase.in/hindinews), and
in German: www.chessbase.de gegründet durch Wissenschaftsjournalist Frederic Friedel und Physiker Matthias Wüllenweber in Hamburg 1985/1986
www.chessbomb.com/ chess tournaments online with realtime computer analysis of the games
https://chesscafe.com repository of articles about chess and its history on a weekly basis, especially well-known for book reviews and chess columns, amongst its previous and present contributors are notables as Mark DvoretskyKarsten Muller, Tim Krabbé, and Yasser Seirawan
www.chessdom.com chess newsletter, event coverage with games, result and tournament ticker, daily updated homepage with Online Chess
www.chesseolo.com general description and explanation of the Elo rating system in chess, mainly about FIDE Elo rating system, named after Dr. Arpad Elo, who improved the original chess rating system already developed by Kenneth Harkness. It has been in use by the USCF (United States Chess Federation) since 1960 and was taken on by FIDE in 1970, see also www.chessmetrics.com by Jeff Sonas and www.edochess.ca by Rod Edwards, introduced further down
www.chessfocus.com overview with index of present and approx. past 30 years major closed chess tournament results in a very easy way to browse and possibility to track a specific player (individual invitation tournaments, occasionally open, matches, national and team events as well), this database is growing rapidly and becoming more and more useful in search and select
www.chessgames.com online chess database and highly respected Internet chess community with over 200,000 members, you can kibitz and post comments on multiple games and pages throughout the site, founded 2001 by Daniel Freeman and Alberto Artidiello. If you are on an desert Island, and you are allowed just one Internet access, I would probably choose this Website
www.chesshistory.com/winter unique periodical since 1982 with a regular background column and novelties on chess history: CHESS NOTES, by Edward Winter, the english historian who also published "Chess facts and fables", is both author and authority. CHESS NOTES offers rare and unknown material, going beyond what's already online
http://chesshive.com/ community for chess news, games, players, views and reviews
http://chessimprover.com independent and non-aligned site founded by Nigel Davies, about chess improvement rather than news, amongst its regular contributors is also profilic english chess journalist Steve Giddins
www.chessmaniac.com  free online chess playing community with a wide range of articles archived, amongst its regular contibutors is well-known american chess journalist Bill Wall, his massive piece of work has been copied and reproduced online so many time - sometimes giving credit, sometimes not - they've been most frequently used as a solid base of many people's chess knowledge. Bill Wall is the embodiment of what has been always good about the Internet
http://www.chessmastery.co.uk/ games, strategy, tactics, and entertainment
www.chessmetrics.com highly accurate system for rating chess players as an improvement on calculating ratings devised by computational scientist, mathematician and statistician Jeff Sonas, inventor of the retrospective ranking, so-called historical ELO, chessmetrics offers colorful graphs showing the rating progression of top players throughout time, and also age-aligned graphs. Jeff Sonas is also a regular advisor and consultant to chessbase and other chess sites as well as FIDE, you can say, the legitime successor of Arpad Elo
www.chessnc.com Chess Network Company - CNC intended as a partner of FIDE to help broaden media interest for chess worldwide, the project was released in 2009 - but later stopped suddenly (that's why the homepage looks odd with headline news from the year 2012). Nevertheless, it still offered a substantial glossary with biography of player and chess personalities plus important tournament series. Unfortunately this site is no longer available (2016)
https://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com Chess Programming Wiki is an essentiell repository in recognition about programming computers to play chess and a reference for every aspect of chess-programming with information about programmers, researcher and engines from Kaissa, Belle, Fidelity, Mephisto, Hiarcs, Shredder, Junior and Fritz to Deep Thought, Deep Blue, Houdini, Stockfish, Komodo, Hydra, or the Rybka controversy. Mark Weeks covers a complete survey of the World Computer Chess Championships and World Microcomputer Chess Championships
http://chesstempo.com chess training (tactics and endgame) website created 2007, with database updated regularly
http://www.chesstoday.net the first e-mail distributed daily chess newsletter, containing games, results, interviews, book reviews, puzzles and instructional material. GM Alexander Baburin is the founder and proprietor of Chess Today  as well as Grandmaster Square
www.chessvibes.com Peter Doggers is founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com which is now part of Chess.com (see further down), where esteemed Pete is Director of content
http://chess-calendar.eu the world's biggest chess tournament calendar with geographical tournament map (if you want limite the radius), available in several languages
http://chess-db.com biggest chess database with ranklists and play styles
www.chess-international.de (SCHACH-TICKER) detailed german national and international chess news, comments and debates with live-coverage of important events, editor-in-chief is Franz Jittenmeier, legendary Berlin chess journalist Raymund Stolze is a regular author
www.chess-news.ru/en daily up-dated chess information portal in both russian and english language, highly accurate, comprehensive and very fast. News, reports, analytics. A popular and profoundly quality online chess site specializing in up to date chess news. Founder and editor-in-chief is Evgeny Surov, russian journalist born in 1979, one of the younger personalities with rénommé in the community of chess coverage
http://chess.about.com hundreds of articles on About.com by Edward Scimia, a private chess instructor and USCF tournament director. He was the editor of the USCF's first online newsletter, Chess Review Online. Scimia is excited to promote the world's greatest board game in various topics, somehow listed arbitrary but easy and nice to read, with decent explanations and good introductions, especially for beginners and readers not yet familiar with the competitive chess
www.chess.com online free chess games and social media chess forum, Peter Doggers from the staff and IM Jeremy Silman belong to the professional contributors, among the amateur (nicknamed) writers, highly recommended are the articles on the secrets of chess by Batgirl www.chess.com/members/view/batgirl and you dip into Batgirl's inspiring history archive: https://www.chess.com/blog/batgirl/the-fleahouse-blues
http://www.crestbook.com/ Russian chess portal, it bears the nickname "Crest" of its chief editor Sergey Shipov, the man behind this popular chess website in russian language, he provides online commentary to current chess events, conferences and videos. Crestbook grew out of the original and still existing www.kasparovchess.com
www.edochess.ca mathematical estimation of the historical ratings of players from 1809 to 1914, a deep coverage of the 19th century and early 20th century, highly accurate and with regular additions and comments by Prof. Rod Edwards, Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Victoria (Canada), he is also giving precise data and description of the FIDE ELO inflation since the mid-1980s: http://members.shaw.ca/redwards1
http://en.playchess.com online chess playing platform - from beginners to Grandmaster - and broadcasting service with free tournament transmission and membership features. Europe’s largest chess server, as well as being the official server of the German Chess Federation, in spanish: http://es.playchess.com, in german: www.schach.de Europas größter Schachserver
www.endgame.nl chess analysis by Dutch Jan van Reek, offering a synopsis of international tournament series, with commented games, big pictorial reports and inside stories of famous historic chess events. Jan van Reek, born in July 1945, died in August 2015. Unfortunately his site is no longer available (R.I.P: http://www.lisb.nl/latest/item/1283-jan-van-reek-overleden)
www.europe-echecs.com Europe Échecs, founded by Raoul Bertolo (1928-1991) in 1959, who was at the time president of the French chess federation, is the oldest chess magazine in France still running, and now edited by Grandmaster Bachar Kouatly. It offers in french language large video reports, popularised by GM Robert Fontaine, from major chess tournaments with interviews and presentations of players, tactical exercises, studies about strategy, and announcements of future events. Régulièrement, Georges Bertola nous communique des nouvelles des échecs en Suisse et du monde avec des parties commentées
http://graeme.50webs.com/chesschamps/index.htm good digest of the (national) US and USSR Chess Championships by Graeme Cree, his page also offers a substantial survey of the World Championship history (for that subject, compare Mark Weeks further down)http://www.glicko.net/glicko.html Prof. Mark Glickman, Department of Statistics at the Harvard University, provides sustainable background in the theory and practice of rating competitors in games and sports. Glickman is the chairman of the US Chess ratings committee. Besides helping to maintain the integrity of the US Chess rating system, much of his research is devoted to ratings-related issues. He has invented two rating systems: The Glicko rating system, which is in the public domain , and the Glicko-2 rating system
https://www.ichess.net/about/ founded in January 2011 by FIDE Master William Stewart and technical entrepreneur Freddy Lansky, and later joined by Argentine GM Damian Lemos. In 2012 iChess.NET shifted its focus from private tutoring to selling premium chess videos, first in digital form and then in physical form (Empire Chess DVD collection) as well
www.keeneonchess.com Ray Keene is one of the most controversial, influential and busiest figures in the chess universe
www.kingpinchess.net/ The Satirical Chess Magazine, founded in 1985 as chess magazine published intermittently in the Uinted Kingdom. Editor is Jonathan Manley. Kingpin has a reputation for irreverence, disrespect of authority, sardonic wit and general excess
http://www.logicalchess.com/ Glossary and Trivia by David Hayes, use the << Find >> function
www.mark-weeks.com/chess/wcc-indx.htm World Chess Championship history, Candidate's, Interzonals and a unique feature of all Zonals, an always highly reliable and thourough source sharing original documents and tables, with elaboration from Mark Weeks, American project manager and software developer who lives in Brussels. He is known as respected author and blogger on chess and computer science
www.newinchess.com  New In Chess (NIC), founded in 1968 as Schaakbulletin, since september 1984 under the current namepublished in Alkmaar, is a chess magazine in english language that appears eight times a year, it namely contains notes by top grandmasters on their own games. Dirk Jan Ten Geuzendam and Jan Timman are the chief editors, Garri Kasparov, Nigel Short and Hans Ree amongst the regular contributors
www.olimpbase.org online encyclopaedia of international of team chess events, by far the most complete online coverage of international chess team events and games, established in 2003 by Wojciech Bartelski from Poland, absolutely brilliant work and easy to navigate through the games, stats & facts, non-rivalled page in its domain of chess team competitions
www.thechessmind.net chesslectures by Dennis Monokroussos, adjunct professor of philosophy and chess teacher, who worked for New York’s Chess In The Schools program, giving lessons to adults and kids both in person and on the internet: www.chesslecture.com
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/series/leonard-barden-chess profilic weekly chess column by Leonard Barden in The Guardian
www.theweekinchess.com TWIC - THE WEEK IN CHESS, leading digest of game scores and tournament results in a popular newsletter, edited since its inception by Mark Crowther from England, encouraged by the London Chess Centre through Malcolm Pein. The very first issue of the magazine was published on 17th September 1994, all editions since then are available for free download, celebrating its 1'000th issue and 20th year for TWIC with over 1.5 million games. Happy birthday to Mark, you are the father of the mother of all chess newspages! A very relevant site. Laudatio: http://www.chessvibes.com/?q=the-week-in-chess-twic-reaches-1000th-issue
http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/chess.html CHESS CURIOSITIES by Dutch author and chess player Tim Krabbé, the master of all chess curiosities in his excellent diary about the beauty of chess over the board and beyond the fight in the competitive arena http://universalrating.com/ratings.php A performance rating across all time cotnrols. The most striking difference compared to the FIDE Elo rating system is that the URS system calculates only one rating for each player, informed by their results at all rates of play, from Classical to Blitz
www.wtharvey.com/index.html 10,000 chess puzzles to solve, created and collected by W.T. Harvey, he's extraordinarily tenacious in his work, a wonderful site, you can click on a Grandmaster's name: www.wtharvey.com/korc.html
http://worldchess.com/ Official Web site of the World Chess Championships: news, ratings and events with expert analysis, video features, interactive graphics on top players, articles about chess in popular culture or the sociological aspects of the game, plus further reports from all over the world. Owned by Agon, the official organizer of the World Championship (as partner of FIDE)

Organisations & Institutions

International bodies:
http://amateurchess.com Amateur Chess Oragnization (AOC) for amateur chess players up to 2400 rating points. 99% of all chess players do not earn a living from chess. The ACO has been founded for this biggest group of chess players, the amateurs
www.chessprofessionals.org Association of Chess Professionals (ACP), non-profit organisation which aims to protect the rights of top professional chess players, founded 2003. President is Israeli (born in Baku) GM Emil Sutovsky
www.europechess.org European Chess Union (ECU), association for the interests of European Chess, founded in Graz 1985. Today it has its seat in Switzerland, Hünenberg See ZG. President is GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili from Georgia
www.fide.com Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the World Chess Federation connects the various national chess federations and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. Founded in Paris 1924.  Motto: Gens una sumus, Latin for We are one people. Today its headquarters are based in Athens. President since 1995 is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov from Russia, Former President of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation. Since 1999, FIDE is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) www.olympic.org/ioc
https://www.iccf.com/ International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF), founded in 1951 as a new appearance of the ICCA (International Correspondence Chess Association), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the IFSB (Internationaler Fernschachbund), founded in 1928. Current president is Éric Ruch from France
http://ipca.sweb.cz/ International Physically Disabled Chess Association (PCA), affiliated to FIDE, president is Zbigniew Pilimon from Poland

http://www.infinitychess.com/ Freestyle Chess is a competition between humans, who however are allowed to make use of any technical or human support for selecting their moves. From the idea, Freestyle Chess is very similar to Advanced Chess, introduced by Garry Kasparov, in which use of computer is strongly limited and human help excluded. Arno Nickel, Germany, prominent grandmaster in correspondence chess, is leading designer of Infinity Chess events. Since 1984 he is also editing the German "Schach-Kalender" (Edition Marco), a pocket-calendar with about 1200 biographical player entries and a lot of anecdotes, statistics, pictures each year

National bodies - A survey of links to all member federations of FIDE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_chess

National boards, Switzerland (selection):
www.sgzurich.ch Schachgesellschaft Zürich (SGZ), founded in 1809, the oldest existing chess club of the world and since the early 1990s Viktor Korchnoi's club. President is Christian Issler, amongst its members is IM Richard Forster, highly reputed chess historian who published the marvellous 200 years jubilee book and the breakthrough biography of Amos Burn, one of the strongest chess masters of his day
www.swisschess.ch Schweizerischer Schachbund (SSB), founded 1995 as a merge of the initial SSV (since 1889) and SASB (since 1923). The Swiss Chess Association was originally created in 1889; in 1960 it was renamed the Swiss Chess Federation. In 1995, the Federation merged with the Swiss Federation of Workers created in 1923. A member and co-founder of FIDE in 1924, the country hosted the FIDE HQ for many years in Zurich, Luzern and more recently, in Lausanne. President of the Swiss Chess Federation is Peter A. Wyss
> Swiss regional chess clubs: http://www.swisschess.ch/schachklubs.html
> Swiss chess schools (selection): http://chess4kids.ch/, http://schachschule-regez.ch/, http://www.dieschulschachprofis.ch, http://www.ecole-echecs-geneve.ch/, http://www.echecs-payerne.com/ (click subpage: <École d'Échecs de la Broye>),  http://www.schachschule.ch/, http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/news/story/24831301
> Swiss CHess Tour (Open Festivals in Switzerland): http://www.swisschesstour.com/

Chess culture societies (selection):
www.lasker-gesellschaft.de The Emanuel Lasker Gesellschaft, constituted in 2001 at the Congress Homo ludens, Homo politicus in Potsdam, is preserving the spiritual and cultural heritage of Emanuel Lasker, second World Chess Champion. President of the foundation is literary scholar and chess player Paul Werner Wagner, among its members and honorary members are Petra and Viktor Korchnoi, Wolfgang Uhlmann, Wolfgang Unzicker (deceased), Lothar Schmid (deceased), Rainer KnaakRaj Tischbierek, Helmut Pfleger, Boris Spassky, Yuri Averbakh, Andor Lilienthal (deceased), Isaak Linder, doyen of the chess historians, and Gerhard Köhler, ORWO Net, entrepreneur, chess player and chess maecenas

www.maxeuwe.nl/index.php/english The Netherlands plays an important part in international chess circuit since World Chess Champion, Prof. Dr. Max Euwe. When, in 1935, world champion Aljechin lost his title to Euwe, the former Russian citizen spoke these memorable words: "Es lebe Schachweltmeister Euwe". The Dutch were delirious: in the streets celebrations went on deep into the night. Euwe did much to promote chess, as chess player, excellent teacher and author, and as president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) he advanced chess immensely, also in third-world countries. Euwe died in 1981, eighty years old. In November 1986, the Max Euwe-Centrum opened its doors. Initially the centre directed its energies towards maintaining a small museum and a library which contained part of Euwe's chess inheritance and his books. MEC's current aims and objectives are ample interest in the cultural, social as well as academic aspects of chess. This somewhat less well-known side is illuminated in lectures, seminars, exhibitions and conferences. 

http://saintlouischessclub.org/ In 2007, Rex Sinquefield opened the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Missouri as a non-profit and educational organization, its mission is to "maintain a formal program of instruction to teach the game of chess and and to support its educational program through community outreach, local and national partnerships to increase the awareness of the educational value of chess". In August 2010, Rex Sinquefield provided seed funding to relocate the World Chess Hall of Fame from Florida to Saint Louis, Missouri. Since 2014, the Sinquefield Cup, as an annually recurring international invitation series is held at same venue. It is a one of the rare and most prestigious supertournament on global chess circuit.

For further chess cultural and historical guide, see also under the section 
museum and library - www.chessdiagonals.ch
, with many specific links on:

Famous Public Chess Museums and Libraries
Famous Chess Clubs for all player levels
Computer Chess

Chess Blogs

Leading chess blogs:
http://www.chessblog.com and http://chessqueen.com Blog of Alexandra Kosteniuk
https://www.chess.com/blog/batgirl Early blog articles by Sarah Beth (aka Batgirl)
https://twitter.com/davidllada?lang=de Twitter Blog of David Llada, leading chess photographer
http://scrkuppenheim.de/meko/index.html Columns of Hartmut Metz (in german language)
http://entwicklungsvorsprung.de/ Blog of Georgios Souleidis (in german language)
http://blog.zeit.de/schach Blog of Ilia Schneider and other authors (in german language)
http://johannes-fischer.net/blog Blog of Johannes Fischer (in german language)
https://twitter.com/kingpined?lang=de Twitter Blog of Jonathan Manley, Kingpin editor
http://kevinspraggettonchess.wordpress.com Blog of Kevin Spraggett
http://larsgrahn.blogspot.ch Blog of Lars Grahn (in swedish language) and
https://twitter.com/larsgrahn Twitter Blog in english of Lars Grahn, Malmö
https://twitter.com/leontxogarcia Twitter Blog of Leontxo García, El País commentator
http://chessforallages.blogspot.ch Chess for all ages, Blog of Mark Weeks, Brussels
http://www.pogonina.com/ Blog of Natalia Pogonina
https://twitter.com/OlimpiuUrcan Twitter Blog of Olimpiu G. Urcan,
significant chess historian, author and journalist, born in Romania, Singapore-based

http://www.sagarteacheschess.blogspot.de
 Blog of Sagar Shah, Mumbai
http://susanpolgar.blogspot.ch Blog of Susan Polgar, Global Chess Daily News and Information
http://blogs.faz.net/schachblog/ Blog of
Stefan Löffler and other authors (in german language)
http://www.schacksnack.se/ Blog of IM Thomas Engqvist (in swedish language)
http://www.tabladeflandes.com/ajedrezgalicia.php  – Caballeros del Ajedrez
Blog of Antonio Busto, Frank Mayer, and others, incl. analysis by Zénon Franco Ocampos
https://zanchess.wordpress.com/ Chess topics of one kind or another, Blog of Zanzibar

See also above and below mentioned sites, some could be considered as a blog, eg:
www.ajedrezdeataque.com
,
www.ajedrez365.com, www.universodelajedrez.com/,
http://chessaccount.com, https://chesscafe.com, www.chesshistory.com (Chess Notes),
www.chessmaniac.com, www.chess.com, www.endgame.nl, www.kingpinchess.net/,
www.soloscacchi.net, http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/chess.html, amongst others

Chess links, the ultimate collection:
http://www.chessgameslinks.lars-balzer.info the definitive guide to hundreds of chess games links: collection of chess games links (current chess activity as well as historical chess) by Lars Balzer, scientific teacher and Head of Evaluation Unit at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, offering a worldwide listing with links to games from all over the world and a national listing with links to games from specific countries. Both lists are categorized again, sorted by topic or by region/country in alphabetical order

Databases & Archives

National Chess Databases of games, players, teams, results, matches, and tournaments:
www.belgianchesshistory.be BELGIANBASE - Belgian Chess Game Archive and History, games and results from tournaments and matches in Belgium, compiled by Nikolaas Verhulst
www.brasilbase.pro.br BRASILBASE - Brasilian Chess Game Archive and History, excellent entrance to South American national and international tournaments and player, including many "forgotten" events, a vast archive with a colossal amount of information, maintained by Adaucto Wanderley da Nóbrega, FIDE master and Brazilian sub-champion in 1970
www.saund.co.uk/britbase BRITBASE - The national archive of British chess tournament games, compiled by John Saunders, chess player, historian, writer and editor of note. Saunders also authored instructive guides on chess covering a broad range of expertise
http://canbase.fqechecs.qc.ca/canbaseii.htm CANBASE - Canadian Chess Game Archive and History by Hugh Brodie
http://smzsnzz.wz.cz/ CZECHBASE - Czech Chess Game Archive (scroll down the page) in czech language by Zdenek Zavodny; compare also http://praguechess.cz/ with current and historical reports in czech and english language
http://dsu9604.dsu.dk/partier/danbuk.htm DANBASE - Danish Chess Game Archive and History by Eric Bentzen
www.maxeuwe.nl/dutchbase DUTCHBASE - Dutch Chess Game Archive and History, founded by Jack Goossens as Dutchbase, then moved to the Max Euwe Centrum
http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr FRANCEBASE - Héritage des Échecs Français in french language, created by Dominique Thimognier
www.teleschach.de GERMANBASE - TeleSchach in german language, launched in May 1996 by Gerhard Hund, chess player and chess historian, mathematician, computer pioneer and scientist
http://www.ajedrecito2.galeon.com/ IBRO-AMERICAN BASE - RETROAJEDREZ in spanish language by Rafael Santana B., including the sites http://www.ajedrecito3.galeon.com/ (Iberoamericano I) and http://www.ajedrecito4.galeon.com/ (Iberamericano II), and http://www.ajedrecito5.galeon.com/ (Iberamericano III), plus a specific page on the histrory of chess in Venezuela http://www.ajedrecito.galeon.com/, all with coverage of tournament series in Spain, Portugal and Latin American countries
http://indonesiabase.com INDONESIABASE - Indonesian Chess Game Archive and History
http://www.icu.ie/games IRISHBASE - The Irish Chess Union has a downloadable collection of games from Irish players since the early 19th century to the present; and
http://www.irlchess.com/ IRISHBASE - Irish history, with a player dictionary from Ireland
http://storiascacchi.altervista.org/storiascacchi/index.htm ITALIANBASE - Italian Chess Game Archive and History by FIDE master Claudio Sericano in Italian language, with a splendid historical international part (la grande storia degli scacchi); and
http://www.federscacchi.it/str_archpart.php ITALIANBASE - Italian Chess Archive (database scacchistico italiano) offers data and games of chess competitions played in Italy, originally generated by Francesco Gibellato); and
http://www.torneionline.com/loto_albi.php ITALIANBASE - another well-documented archive of international (and national) Italian tournaments and career records of Italian players
http://norbase.sjakk.biz NORBASE - Norwegian Chess Archive and History by Odd Gunnar Malin
www.auschess.org.au/archives/archives.htm OZBASE - Australian Chess Game Archive and History by Paul Dunn
http://polbase.w.interia.pl POLBASE - Polish Chess Game Archive and History, including the major tournament achievements of legendary Grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein as well as year-by-year crosstables of the Rubinstein Memorial series lasting since 1962, pursued by Adam Umiastivsky
http://al20102007.narod.ru RUSBASE - Russian Chess Game Archive and History, a project to record all important chess matches and tournaments held in Russia, excellent source, edited by Alexej Popovsky
http://www.chessscotland.com/gamedownload/games.htm SCOTLANDBASE - compare also http://www.chessscotland.com/history/latest_additions.htm by Alan McGowan who curates this immaculate page about Scottish history within the Chess Scotland website
www.ajedrezdeataque.com SPAINBASE - Spanish and international chess tournament series in a huge overview, with a special focus on famous women winning a major tournament and the palmarès of selected players, an outstanding presentation by Javier Cordero Fernández, even if you don't speak spanish, an exciting chess page
www.thechesslibrary.com THE CHESS LIBRARY - Tournament crosstables, from the 1800s to the 1980s, particularly chess from the time immediately following WWII, through about the 1980s, the active professional period of bulgarian born IM and noted U.S. author Nikolay Minev (1931-2017)

and as mentioned also above in "essentials & fundamentals":
www.chessfocus.com overview with index of present and approx. past 30 years major closed chess tournament results in a very easy way to browse and possibility to track a specific player (individual invitation tournaments, occasionally open, matches, national and team events as well), this database is growing rapidly and becoming more and more useful in search and select
www.chessgames.com online chess database and highly respected Internet chess community with over 200,000 members, you can kibitz and post comments on multiple games and pages throughout the site, founded 2001 by Daniel Freeman and Alberto Artidiello. If you are on an desert Island, and you are allowed just one Internet access, I would probably choose this homepage
www.mark-weeks.com/chess/wcc-indx.htm World Chess Championship history, Candidate's, Interzonals and a unique feature of all Zonals, an always highly reliable and thourough source sharing original documents and tables, with elaboration from Mark Weeks, American project manager and software developer who lives in Brussels. He is known as respected author and blogger on chess and computer science
www.olimpbase.org TEAMBASE - online encyclopaedia of international of team chess events, by far the most complete online coverage of international chess team events, results and games, established in 2003 by Wojciech Bartelski, absolutely brilliant work and easy to navigate through the games, stats & facts, as pointed out above, a non-rivalled page in its domain of chess team competitions
www.theweekinchess.com TWIC - THE WEEK IN CHESS, leading digest of game scores and tournament results in a popular newsletter, edited since its inception by Mark Crowther from England, encouraged by the London Chess Centre through Malcolm Pein. The very first issue of the magazine was published on 17th September 1994, all editions since then are available for free download, celebrating its 1'000th issue and 20th year for TWIC with over 1.5 million games. Happy birthday to Mark, you are the father of the mother of all chess newspages! A very relevant site. Laudatio: http://www.chessvibes.com/?q=the-week-in-chess-twic-reaches-1000th-issue

Electronic archives and websites on a specific player:
www.chessdiagonals.ch Tribute to Grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, a comprehensive biography of his life and chess achievements, including year-by-year 1st Prize chronology & World ranking survey with bonus background chapter of the most traditional, still recurring annually played international classical chess tournaments Hastings, Wijk aan Zee, Sarajevo (Bosna), Havana (Capablanca Mem), and Biel Chess Festival

www.rci.rutgers.edu/~goeller/marshall MARSHALL ELECTRONIC ARCHIVE - it features a near complete career, tournament, match and game record of Frank James Marshall (1877-1944), famous American professional chess player, who did a great deal to help build institutions to support chess players. A considerable amount of material about Frank Marshall can be found on the this collection by Michael Goeller

http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/index.html This is the story of the birth of modern chess - when the possibilities of chess as an art, a science and a sport all converged. The point of convergence was a young boy from Louisiana named Paul Morphy (1837-1884).

He was one of the most famous celebrities of his time and within the hallowed halls of the chess playing community, Morphy is considered by some as the greatest chess player of all time. Elaboration by Batgirl, Platform of Rod Edwards

http://skaksogufelagid.is/ ICELANDIC CHESS HERITAGE SOCIETY - excellent and extensive website in honor of Fridrik Olafsson, Iceland's Iconic first Chess Grandmaster, about his career and worthy opponents, with description and database of all his games and results, a complete listing of tournament, match and team events with pictorial reports. Fantastic archival footage. Watch out!

http://www.howardstaunton.com/home.shtml STAUNTON SOCIETY - formed in 1993, the society, secretary is Barry Martin, exists to promote awareness of Howard Staunton and to argue the case that he should be recognized as a full world champion. In Staunton’s day the world champion title was not officially recognised, but Staunton had established himself as the strongest player of his day during the 1840s.

Staunton was a towering figure, a polymath who edited an entire edition of Shakespeare’s plays, commenced a history of the public school system in Britain, wrote numerous books on chess, organised the first international chess tournament at London in 1851 and lent his name to the Staunton patent pieces which are now the standard in international play. He was an archetypal symbol of the heights of Victorian imperial grandeur and optimism.

Cp. under chess culture: www.maxeuwe.nl/index.php/english, and www.lasker-gesellschaft.de

Cp. official websites of chess players (selection):

Carlsen: http://magnuscarlsen.com/
Kasparov: http://www.kasparov.com/
Kramnik: http://www.kramnik.com/

Caruana: http://www.caruanachess.com/
Nakamura: http://hikarunakamura.com/
So: http://wesleyso.com/
Karjakin: http://www.skarjakin.com/
Vachier-Lagrave: http://www.mvlchess.com/
Giri: http://anishgiri.nl/
Adams: http://www.michaeladamschess.co.uk/
Judit Polgar: http://www.juditpolgar.com/

(quite a few top players do not maintain an official website, but some are widely present on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)

Photographs & Historiography

www.ajedrez365.com pictorial notes and informations about the game and culture of chess, edited by José Luis Pérez and Joaquim Travesset i Barba (in spanish language)
http://www.bestofchess.com/en/ conglomeration of chess things, including large pictures and player portraits, but b
e aware, the page has no up-dates any longer
http://chessaccount.com chess records not usually available, especially focused on the Philippines chess heroes. Author is Joeyj, an engineer, researcher, lecturer, teacher, preacher, and chess enthusiast from Bacoor, a component city in the province of Cavite, The Philippines
http://www.chessgraphics.net/ devoted to all aspects of chess graphics (photographs, cartoons, paintings, drawings, etc.), sometimes rather arbitrarily presented, since 2002 no longer actively maintained but still available and a treasure trove for historical portrayal
ChessVista by Frits Agterdenbos, chess photographer and in 1984 the author of the Dutch book "64 Schaakportretten" ("64 Chess Portraits"), founder of ChessVista website (no longer existing)
www.clubedexadrez.com.br/portal/xadrezematibaia/fotos_historicas.htm collection of historical photographs from 1851 to 1948
http://enpasant.tumblr.com/archive wide range of chess photographs from different eras
https://www.flickr.com/people/karpidis/ by Andreas Kontokanis (karpidis) from Piraeus, Greece
http://www.gerhard-hund.de/ by Gerhard Hund from Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, chess player, mathematician and computer pioneer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Hund
http://history.chess.free.fr/ fascinating website, which resumes almost the complete history and  historiography of chess down to the latest spats - also many links and information on chess variants in the ancient world, the site is maintained in english and french by Jean-Louis Cazaux, once post-doc student in Ann Arbor, University of Michigan (USA). Living and working for a satellite space company in Toulouse, France. Board game enthusiast, author of several books about chess and other board games
https://hunonchess.com/ Hungarian Chess Panoptikum
http://larsgrahn.blogspot.ch/ INTE BARA SCHACK - pictorial notes on the game and culture of chess by Lars Grahn. Renowned chess journalist, photographer and a close follower of the royal game since the Candidates semifinal between Spassky and Larsen at Malmö in 1968. Photo Viktor Korchnoi demonstrating at London 'Let my son join me', Photo of Igor Korchnoi in black & white
http://maskeret.com/mecca/index.shtml La Meccca, website by Maurizio Mascheroni (maskaret) from the early years of the world wide web in the 1990s, but now no longer up-dated; informations and images about chess players and events, plus an instructive synopsis of ECO opening codes
http://www.messaggeroscacchi.it/ principal page by IM Roberto Messa (in italian language), including Torre & Cavallo – Scacco!  (https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_%26_Cavallo_-_Scacco!)
http://www.scacchierando.it/ Dal 2005 lo scopo del sito è diffondere il "nobil giuoco" attraverso l'informazione sull'attualità scacchistica nazionale e internazionale, i reportages dai tornei di tutto il mondo, le dirette dei principali avvenimenti, le partite commentate, le foto, le interviste, i concorsi e molto altro (in italian language)
http://schach.chess.com/forum/view/general/greatest-chess-photos a five years lasting series to spotting a mix of well-known and unknown pictures
http://www.soloscacchi.net/ huge sample of old and new chess photos, amusing anecdotes, collected by IM Roberto Messa, FIDE master Claudio Sericano (in italian language) and crew
www.universodelajedrez.com/ pictorial notes about the game and culture of chess, edited by Manuel Lopez López Michelone (in spanish language)
http://web.archive.org/web/20070218114143/ (archives), collection of historical photographs from 1858 to 1948, by Roger Paige

National Archief (NA) - the national archive of the Netherlands, located in The Hague:
http://en.nationaalarchief.nl, http://www.gahetna.nl/
, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anefo

Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org collaboratively worldwide edited multilingual, non-profit and free Internet encyclopedia, launched on January 15, 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger

Literature & Encyclopedia

DIE SCHACHWOCHE - Schweizer Wochenzeitschrift, Agentur Caissa, Sarmenstorf
(from 1978 to no. 21 / 30th May in 2003), founder Yves Kraushaar, head editor
Werner Widmer

Di Felice, Gino: CHESS RESULTS, 1747-1900, 1901-1920, 1921-1930, 1931-1935, 1936-1940, 1941-1946, 1947-1950, 1951-1955, 1951-1955, 1956-1960, 1961-1963, 1964-1967, 1968-1970, 1971-1974, 1975-1977, 1978-1980 (A Comprehensive Record with Tournamant Crosstables and Match Scores, it is indexed by events and players), McFarland, different years of publication
Gaige, Jeremy: CHESS PERSONALIA: A bibliography. Compiled and edited by Jeremy Gaige. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 1987 Jefferson, North Carolina, and London. In a single volume you find about 14'000 entries of the great and near-great in the world of chess (last name, first name, middle name, date and place of birth (and death) plus title, an immense research up to the date of publication, always with origin sources, but no further comment on the players)
Iclicki, Willy: FIDE GOLDEN BOOK 1924-2016, Thinkers Publishing, Gent, Belgium (1st edition: Euroadria, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2002). He served as a longtime FIDE Treasurer and Editor. He is the author of the FIDE Golden Book, a landmark encyclopedia of chess facts & figures. His experience and enthusiasm makes him one of the most knowledgeable people about the World of Chess and founder of an eminent web chess encyclopedia: http://www.thechesspedia.com/
Kasparov, Garry: ON MY GREAT PREDESSORS, Part V, Everyman Chess, 2006 London
Korchnoi, Viktor: CHESS IS MY LIFE - Autobiography and Games, translated by Ken Neat, Batsford, London, first published 1977; auf deutsch: Ein Leben für das Schach, Rau-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1978
Korchnoi, ViktorMY BEST GAMES, Vol 1: Games with White, Vol 2: Games with Black, Vol 3: Biography. Edition Olms 2001, 2001 and 2004; auf deutsch: Meine besten Kämpfe: Band 1, Partien mit Weiss; Band 2, Partien mit Schwarz; Mein Leben für das Schach: Band 3, Biographie, mit CD. Edition Olms, Hombrechtikon / Zürich 2001, 2001 und 2004 
Lakdawala, Cyrus: MOVE BY MOVE - Korchnoi, Everyman Chess, London 2014. Cyrus Lakdawala was born in India in 1960, grew up in Montreal, and came to San Diego in 1978. International Master, a former National Open and American Open Champion, and a six-time State Champion, teaching chess for 30 years. His "Move by Move" series is written by continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions, his style with great passion for the portrait player
Lovas, Daniel: THE CHESS GREATS OF THE WORLD - Korchnoi, Caissa Chess Books, Kecskemét, Hungary 2007. This booklet contains 50 crucial chess diagrams of Viktor Korchnoi, the "grand old man" of today's chess, each showing a critical position in which a very strong move follows. You can take part in the chess fights by trying to find the decisive move(s) in question
Marin, Mihail: LEARN FROM THE LEGENDS - Chess Champions at their Best, Chapter about Viktor Korchnoi, the fierce rebel, Quality Chess, Chess, Gothenburg, Sweden 2004
Sosonko, Gennadi: RUSSIAN SILHOUTTES // THE RELIABLE PAST, New in Chess, Alkmaar, The Netherlands 2001 and 2003

Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org collaboratively worldwide edited multilingual, non-profit and free Internet encyclopedia, launched on January 15, 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger

 

Chess Informant

http://www.chessinformant.org/ Chess Informant, the bible of openings (official online book store), Aleksandar Matanović and collaborators founded the company from Belgrade (Serbia, former Yugoslavia) in 1966 for the purpose of offering the rest of the world a sort of access to chess information enjoyed by Soviet players

The Chess Informant system of codes for the classification of chess openings, and its system of symbols in annotating chess games, have set the international standard for communicating and organizing information across language barriers. A similar endings section has also become a model feature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_Informant.

Antiquaries, books and more (selection)

Schachparadies Stephan Bonauer, Switzerland
http://schachparadies6.webnode.com/

Wernis Schachladen, Werner Kaufmann, Switzerland
http://www.wernerkaufmann.ch/

The Schiendorfer family (Esther, Alexander, Emanuel, Florian), Switzerland
https://www.chesspoint.ch/

Other Shops, Switzerland: http://www.schach-shop.ch/, http://www.chessbase.ch/

Euroschach Dresden by Matthias Graul and his team offers chess books, games, gifts, software, as well as a specific Junior Chess Training, very reliable and helpful source
https://www.euroschach.de/

Chess coins, stamps, prints and other memorabilia by Matthias Fruth, Germany  http://www.schachundmuenzen.de/

Auctioneer and antique bookdealer for old and rare prints. Specialties: Military, Early Science, Natural History, Childrens Literature, Chess. Klittich-Pfankuch, Germany, founded in 1919
http://www.klittich-pfankuch.de/

Further noted Shops, Germany:
http://www.schachhaus-maedler.de (Schachhaus Manfred Mädler)
htthttp://www.schachversand.de/ (Schachversand Niggeman)
https://www.topschach.de/ and http://schach.center/ (Topschach)

Chess books, games and consulting by Mag. Michael Ehn, Austrian chess historian
http://www.schachundspiele.at/ 

Chessbookshop established by Karel Mokry, GM from former Czechoslovakia and professional chess player, since 1991 a chess Antiquarian, bookseller and collector, very reliable and helpful http://www.chessbookshop.com/index.asp

Books & Bulletins of Historical tournaments and chess players with Worldwide Mail Order Service from Tony Peterson, established in 1993
http://www.chessbooks.co.uk/

Lund Chess Academy (Lunds ASK: http://www.lask.se/) with Chess Auctions and Book Store
http://www.chesslund.com/

A survey of Chess Antiquaries (german language):
http://www.schachmuseum.com/antiquare.html

A survey of Chess Bookstores and Chess Trade (in german language):
http://www.schachmuseum.com/schachhandel.html

Achilles and Ajax playing a board game