That Was The Week That Was?

'The Week In Chess' website and weekly online magazine has been an internet fixture for so long that it seemed that it would go on for ever.

A announcement today by editor Mark Crowther (pictured) has changed all that, and it seems that this invaluable resource for chess news and games may soon no longer exist as we now know it.

It is truly the end of an era.  Thank you Mark, for all your work for the chess community for so many years!

.

TWIC ANNOUNCEMENT: The Week in Chess website and weekly on-line magazine and game file collecting together the leading games and results is created and edited by Mark Crowther. The London Chess Centre particularly through Malcolm Pein has sponsored and encouraged its production since 1998. This agreement has now come to an end although both sides will continue to cooperate for some time.

"14 years is a very long time in the life of the internet and chess has seen many positive changes. I have been working incredibly hard on the TWIC website and updating the way that the magazine has been compiled since 2009. Whilst I've very much enjoyed increasing the amount of reporting on chess I've been doing, the additional work has also become unsustainable in the long term. I've managed to keep the weekly TWIC magazine games service free for all these years but in this economic climate I've got to look to make the best living I can. I think perhaps there has been the perception that TWIC was a bigger and better financed website than it actually was. A few thousand subscribers would enable TWIC to continue and become better, I will no doubt soon see if there is an appetite for that. It has been frustrating to see the London Chess Centre and myself get relatively little benefit from the production of the magazine while various commercial services have used it as a starting point for their paid for products.

In the end I decided that I needed to take stock and see what direction my working life should take which could even be away from chess and more towards other types of internet site. It could be that I work on many different smaller projects. TWIC will continue in some form at a new address shortly. I must place on record my gratitude to Malcolm Pein for his support over the years and I think I learned quite a bit from him too."

Mark Crowther 29th August 2012

The Week in Chess Facebook Fan Page has been set up for any comments.

.

Photo: Copyright TWIC.