How extensive is the chess.com database?
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Absent any documentation to the contrary, your guess seems beyond plausible.
So you are suggesting that the chess.com database is provided by a third party. That also seems reasonable.
I think the database would be more valuable to the chess.com community if we had some transparency about its extent, and its frequency of update. But this thread hasn't garnered much attention, so perhaps most here don't think much about such things.
Mar 9, 2018
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#5
I use the database a lot. But to be honest, I don't really care how upto date it is. Imagine that I find in an opening that Bc4 is a really popular move that leads to a lot of wins .... it's useful to know that this is a decent line. But let's say, over the last five years lots of GMs start playing Bb5 because Bc4 is refuted. It doesn't make much difference to me. I might carry on playing Bc4. Because although I am a decent player (better than the average one on chess.com I guess) I am nowhere near GM level. The refutations to Bc4 might be so subtle they would really have no relevance to my games.
It is an interesting question though.
@corum, I am interested to know not just how recent the chess.com database is, but also how broad the database is. I.e., are all games played by any master level player in any tournament included? Just major tournaments? Etc. I want to understand the nature of the data set.
I did a quick check of a couple of games to see if they were in the database. I chose games by Magnus Carlsen because he is a high profile player. And I chose games from Tata Steel Tournament, since it is such a high profile event. My assumption is that both attributes should increase the probability that the games would be in the chess.com database. I found both games by a simple google search that landed me at chessgames.com
The first game was Carlsen vs Giri (Tata Steel 2017). This game was played 14 months ago. It is in the chess.com database.
The second game was Carlsen vs. Caruana (Tata Steel 2018) This game was played 2 months ago. It is *not* in the chess.com database.
I then chose another game from 2018 Tata Steel, the tie breaker Carlsen. vs Giri, and this game was also not in the database.
I draw the conclusion that the chess.com database lags behind master game tournament play by a minimum of two months.
How extensive is the chess.com database? Opening explorer purportedly gives stats about openings by way of its master games database. But as far as I can see, there is no documentation of how extensive this database is, nor how often it is updated. Does anyone have any information about this?