Bulgarian organizers take Chessbase to court

The Bulgarian organizers of the Anand-Topalov World Championship match take Chessbase to court for “violating copyright rules”. Chessbase transmitted the moves of the match live on their Playchess server, against the will of the Bulgarians. Read more

England-Holland still equal after four rounds Staunton Memorial

After four rounds of play over five boards, the two teams at this year’s Staunton Memorial are still equal to each other: England vs Holland 10-10. Both won a match twice with a 3-2 score and with very fightful chess, which unfortunately cannot be followed online for free. Read more

Copyright on chess moves – shadows on the wall?

Last week, ChessBase was apparently ‘forced to cease Internet broadcasting of the Topalov-Kamsky match’. As we noted in our report on the first match game, live broadcasting of the chess moves in this match without permission was prohibited by the Bulgarian Chess Federation (although they didn’t seem to have a problem with Chessdom’s, Crestbook’s, ICC’s and TWIC’s live coverage). This has led to heated discussions on this site. The key question here is: can you copyright a chess move at all? Read more

[lang_nl]Fischers My 61 Memorable Games[/lang_nl][lang_en]Fischer’s My 61 Memorable Games[/lang_en]

[lang_nl]Deze week verscheen een opvallend verhaal over Bobby Fischer op internet: op eBay zou een nieuwe editie geplaatst zijn van de beroemde partijenverzameling van de Amerikaanse schaaklegende: My 61 Memorable Games. Het zou gaan om een herziene editie van My 60 Memorable Games, met ‘verbeterde analyses en commentaar’ en een voorwoord van twaalf pagina’s van de Man zelf (en de eerste partij van de match Fischer-Spassky uit 1992 als 61ste partij).[/lang_nl][lang_en]This week a remarkable story on Bobby Fischer appeared on the net: a new edition of the American chess legend’s famous games collection was published, and put on eBay: My 61 Memorable Games. It was said to be a revised edition of My 60 Memorable Games, with “improved analysis and commentary” and a 12-page foreword by the Man himself (the 61st game being the first match game from the Fischer-Spassky 1992 match).[/lang_en] Read more

[lang_nl]Copyright op schaakpartijen?[/lang_nl][lang_en]Copyright on chess games?[/lang_en]

[lang_nl]Zo nu en dan laait de discussie weer op. Kan op schaakpartijen copyright van toepassing zijn? Zijn de zetten van een partij een specifiek eigendom van de spelers, of misschien wel van het toernooi, en kunnen zij anderen verbieden om de partijen te publiceren? De discussie is weer helemaal actueel vanwege het apparaatje van het bedrijf Monroi dat op steeds meer schaaktoernooien gebruikt wordt (zoals Gibraltar, het Amerikaans Kampioenschap en het Europees Kampioenschap dat nu gespeeld wordt). Hiermee noteren spelers hun zetten digitaal, waarmee de partij automatisch live op internet getoond wordt. Maar wat blijkt? Monroi’s kleine lettertjes geven aan dat er sprake is van copyright op de partijzetten![/lang_nl][lang_en]Every now and then the discussion flares up again. Can copyright be applied to a chess game? Is the game score a specific property of the players, or perhaps of the tournament, and can they prevent others from publishing them? The discussion is topical again because of the little gadget of the company Monroi which is being used more and more at chess tournaments (like Gibraltar, the US Championship and the current European Championships). Players ‘write down’ their moves digitally and the games are broadcast live on the internet automatically. But what is the case? Monroi’s small print says that by registering to their website, you have agreed to recognize Monroi’s copyright on game scores![/lang_en] Read more