From: sje@xylos.ma30.bull.com (Steven J. Edwards)
Subject: MGR progress and the valkyries ftp site
Reply-To: sje@xylos.ma30.bull.com
Organization: Bull HN, Worldwide Information Systems, Billerica, Mass., USA
Distribution: rec
Date: 11 Dec 92 16:16:54

Greetings to all of the valkyries /pub/chess ftp site administrators
and users.

I am making some progress on the MGR (Master Games Repository) project
as a component of the SANKit development effort.  I currently have
ASCII game data in PGN (Portable Game Notation) format for some of the
games of Fischer, Smyslov, and Tal.  For each player, there are two
files: a short file containing release notes (named "README") and a
long file containing unannotated ASCII game data (named "game_set").
For each player, these two files and their containing directory are
presented in an appropriately titled compressed tar archive as
follows:

	Fischer.tar.Z --> Fischer Fischer/README Fischer/game_set
	Smyslov.tar.Z --> Smyslov Smyslov/README Smyslov/game_set
	Tal.tar.Z     --> Tal Tal/README Tal/game_set

Note that the directory names are included because the same data file
names (README, game_set) are used for more than one player.

I will try to upload these to the /pub/chess/misc/uploads directory at
valkyries over the coming week.  The site administrator is asked to
take a look at these files as they become available.  Perhaps the
administrator could create a directory named "/pub/chess/MGR" and
place the above files there for downloading by others.

There is no claim that the game sets are either accurate or complete.
The use of such data is strictly on an "as is" basis with no warranty
of any kind; use at your own risk.

I have tried to present all of the games for a given player in rough
chronological order.  These files represent just a start for the MGR
project and will be revised as time permits and as network contributed
corrections and additions become available.  Some of the PGN games do
not yet have full identification information regarding the playing
site or the playing round.  In some, only the last names of one or
both the players are given.  Still, the game data may be useful for
researchers and others.

I do claim that all of the game scores are composed of only legal
moves using correct, unambiguous SAN (Standard Algebraic Notation) and
that these are presented using the PGN format in a consistent manner.

As time and resources permit, I am continuing the revision of the
SANKit with particular emphasis on getting the PGN prototype source
code to be available to users.  For the present, users will have to
access these files with an ASCII editor or with their own programs.

A request for help: I would be interested hearing via e-mail from
potential volunteers to assist with the posting and revision of the
MGR project game sets.  This would help speed up the process so many
could benefit from not having to rely upon the random availability of
my weekend hours.

For those with an interest in annotated games or other value added
features, the recommendation is to contact some of the several
commercial chess data suppliers.  Most of these are conveniently
listed in the rec.games.chess newsgroup FAQ and also in major chess
periodicals.  The data in the MGR is not meant to compete with data
vendors; in fact, I hope that the greater accessibility of such
information will stimulate the commercial market for annotation
services and innovative chess software.  Furthermore, to encourage
data vendors to continue to provide game data, there is a
gentlepersons' agreement in effect that game set data abstracted from
commercial sources will not be included in the MGR until at least a
period of one year has passed since the games were played.  The
consensus from net correspondents suggests that this is a fair
approach to keep both producers and consumers reasonably happy.

Because of the noncommercial and public nature of the Internet, only
freely redistributable data is contained in the MGR.  However, chess
data vendors are invited to use freely distributable PGN game sets in
their products and to develop code to read and write game data using
PGN.  Again, the SANKit code may be useful as part of chess software
development effort.

Games played by strong master level chessplaying programs are also
welcome in the MGR.  Perhaps program authors will make the collected
works of their offspring available and we'll see files like "DT.tar.Z"
and "HiTech.tar.Z" in the repository.  Maybe we could have a special
MGR section that would include files from commercially available
chessplaying programs.

My thanks to the net folk that have responded to the various surveys
and especially to those who've contributed the unannotated raw game
data.

 [The above opinions expressed are my own; not necessarily held by others.]
      == Steven J. Edwards           Bull HN Information Systems Inc. ==
      == (508) 294-3484              300 Concord Road         MS 820A ==
      == sje@xylos.ma30.bull.com     Billerica, MA 01821          USA ==
"That Government which Governs the Least, Governs Best." -- Thomas Jefferson