Web Publishing

It’s remarkable how many organizations, chess clubs, and amateur chess fans have put together web pages. Whether you already have a chess web site or you just want to know where to get started learning about web publishing, this page should give you some of the guidance you need. Down the road, I hope to expand this section to include tutorials.

The Essential Sites

En Passant
Offers lots of free help and programs to create a chess web site using the excellent Palamede program (free). I especially recommend that you look at the Demo Pages (which show you a wide range of layouts and designs) and that you download the Palmate program (which makes creating playable Java games from PGN files a snap). A fantastic free resource that every chess webmaster needs to know about.ChessBase
The people who bring us Fritz and ChessBase programs, which can be used to generate Javascript chess pages. If you want a freebie from them, download ChessBase Light.

Inside Output: Publishing with Fritz and Friends by Mig Greengard (ChessBase Cafe)
An excellent article on using Fritz (and other ChessBase software) to create HTML pages.

1001 Knights Help Pages
Some useful HTML and links to help you put up a basic chess website.

Publishing Chess Problems and Articles on the Web
A good series of articles with screenshots that takes you through the basic steps.

PGN to JS
This looks like a great utility for generating Javascript pages in HTML from PGN.

Chess on the Net
Graham Brown offers excellent advice both to web browsers and web masters. See especially his article on Making Money on the Net.

Build Your Chess Homepage Series (no longer available at that location but accessible through the Web Archive at My Homepage, About the Zukertort Homepage, Zukertort Article 1, etc.)
Tim Harding had published a series of articles on web publishing using Palmede’s technology as a starting point and offering the example of his Zukertort Web Site as a model. This was a wonderful series of articles for anyone thinking about building their own web site, but it appears no longer to be available.

Blogging
See also the Blogs pages on this site. Setting up a web log is the cheap and easy way of creating a chess website.

Blogger
The classic place to set up a web log.

Give a Site Blog Appeal by Arin Hailey (also here).
A useful introduction to linking a blog to your current website.

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Using LT-PGN Viewer by Edward Gaillard
A useful explanation of how to use an I-frame to embed Java-viewable boards into your blog.

Public Domain Images and Graphics

Chess Graphics
One of the best collections of pictures and graphics.

Foto-search
An excellent source for finding royalty-free stock photos.

Chess Graphics
Some interesting graphics from the Huntsville Chess Club.

Chess Variant Graphics
A great collection of images to use in playing variations on chess.

Enigma Gallery
Images from the early days of chess.

Chess Graphics
A small selection plus downloads.

Instruction and Other Issues

Chess Games Belong to the World by Tim Harding
An interesting discussion of why game scores must never be copyrighted.

A Little Tutorial on PGN
A very useful discussion of Portable Game Notation.

Hosting Options
Below are some links I have found useful in looking for a host. I recommend that before you commit to a service you surf the web and online forums looking for anyone complaining about them (or praising them). Do some basic consumer investigating before you purchase.

Web Hosting Reviews
A good place to hear what people think.

LunarPages
A very well-reviewed web host.

Powweb
A good place to start out.

Brinkster
A reliable host with lots of support and good prices. And I can recommend them from personal experience. Especially good for beginners.

Yahoo Web Hosting
Offers a variety of options and the “yahoo” name.

Free Web-Hosts
Well, you get what you pay for….

Other Potentially Useful Utilities

Tim Mann’s Chess Pages
Mann has some of the best free software around.

Chess Area
Promises free server space for chess-related sites.

Computer Chess Programming
Everything you ever wanted to know about computer chess programming.

Putting chess games on the web with xbdtohtml
I have not used this program and there are some disclaimers, but it seems to convert game scores into HTML and can be used for live webcasts.

ChessWare
Provides the best free software for playing chess by computer.

Javascript Chess Simulator
A useful tutorial for chess-lovers who want to learn Javascript. This could be a useful feature at your website.

PGN Chess Utilities
A collection of programs for managing game files.

Chess Pages – Free Chess
Programs and instructions.

Tutorials

GetIT
A useful collection of tutorials from the Rutgers Writing Program.

Webmonkey
A great collection of technical and design turotials to improve your website.

Planet Photoshop
The best collection of free tutorials devoted to Adobe Photoshop. Also check out GoodTutorials and Photoshop Cafe.

Design Tutorials and Advice

Web Style Guide
The classic resource on web design.

Useit.com
Jakob Nielsen’s great site devoted to improving web usability.

Dmitry’s Design Lab
A great set of useful design tutorials by Dmitry Kirsanov.

Good Web Editors and Other Programs

Macromedia’s Dreamweaver MX
If you can afford it (or if you can get a good student discount or something), Macromedia’s Dreamweaver MX is by far the best web editing program around. It can take a little while to learn, but once you understand the basics you will be able to manage quite a large and complex site. Try their 30-day Free Trial.

Adobe Photoshop
The best image editing program going.

Adobe Acrobat
Allows you to put any sort of document onto the web in PDF format.