Current version:
Databases: 2025-02-04 (includes the following incremental update)
Incremental update: 2025-02
Opening Books: 2025-02-06 (Recreated, due to error in script, resulting in only using White’s winning games.)
How can you support me?
I love coffee! You are welcome to buy me a coffee!
The initial creation of the database, the cleansing, research for sources etc. was quite time-consuming. However, this has now been completed, so further maintenance is no longer a major problem.
But of course I also pay for this website – so if anyone likes the database and wants to help keep this site going, please feel free to support me on Buy Me A Coffee.
But now let’s get to the important things ;)
About the database
This database was created with and for Scid vs. PC/MAC and Scid 5.0 and currently contains a collection of approx. 15 million chess games.
The download is possible in PGN as well as in the respective database format of Scid vs. PC/MAC and Scid 5.0.
The data comes from various sources, including several existing databases and PGN files. In order to be able to trace the origin of the individual games, all entries were provided with a SOURCE tag. These tags make it possible to filter and search the database with Scid vs. PC/MAC or Scid 5.0 according to specific sources.
| Tag | Description |
|---|---|
| Britbase | For all games from the British Chess Game Archive |
| ChessNostalgia (*) | Nothing more to be found on this page. |
| ChessOK (*) | chessok.com still offers PGN’s free of charge. (Until the end of 2020) |
| Chessopolis (*) | PGNs may still be offered, but then behind a paywall. |
| Convekta (*) | Possibly a publisher who offered chess literature. Only dealers with Convekta products to be found |
| Danbase | Database of the danish chess federation https://danbase.skak.dk/ Thanks @Hans Jørgen Lassen |
| LichessBroadcast | For the lots that are drawn through the Lichess transmission system |
| LichessEliteDatabase | All (standard) games of lichess to keep only games of players with a rating of 2400+ against players with a rating of 2200+, excluding bullet games. Source: https://database.nikonoel.fr/ All classical, rapid as well as blitz games in which both players are over 2550 Liches ELO, are added. |
| LumbrasGigaBase | All games from existing databases, where the origin cannot be clarified, have been given this tag. |
| PGNMentor | Extensive archive with individual files for players, openings, opening variations and various tournaments. |
| TWIC | For all games from the TWIC download. |
You can search for the SOURCE tag in Scid. Menu Search –> General –> Extra tags:
The data preparation process
After merging the databases, a number of measures were taken to compress the database an eliminate duplicates:
- All games with less than 10 half-moves have been deleted.
- All player names, tournament locations, rounds etc. were corrected using Scid’s maintenance function, as far as Scid was able to do so.
- All games in which both players have an ELO rating lower than 1800 ELO have been deleted.
- ECO codes have been added to all games.
- All remaining games were checked for duplicates. The following parameters had to match in order to declare the game a double:
- Matching first 4 letter of the player names
- The same player colors.
- The same moves.
- The same result.
- The files were processed with the program pgn-extract. Unnecessary tags were removed and some were renamed to have the information available in standard tags (primarily date)
Content of the database
An example of the players contained in the database can be found here.
- More than 15.000.000 Games
- More than 700.000 Player (OTB and online)
A copyright on chess games without any annotations cannot be agreed under German law, but the annotation itself can. Therefore, the entire database was cleared of all annaotations and variations. The German Chess Federation clarified this question in a short article in 2006. The expert opinion mentioned in the article is available online and can be downloaded:
DSB expert opinion on the question “Is there a copyright on chess games” (PDF in german language)
Future updates
The database is usually updated on the first Tuesday of each month. The database files in si4 and si5 format as well as an update file in PGN format, which contains the new games since the last update, are made available. If you have already downloaded a database version, it is usually sufficient to import the new games in PGN format into the database. This saves you having to download the complete chess database again.
14 responses to “Free chess game database for Scid”
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Best database ever. It would be really nice to release a lite version with only the important games above 2200 elo.
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Many thanks for the praise. Feel free to email me with some suggestions of what you’d like to see in the lite version. I can’t promise that I’ll make the effort to implement this, as it’s just a “side project” of mine!
Regards, Michael
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I’m a EnCroissant (http://www.encroissant.org) contributor and just discovered your amazing work. I could regularly convert the updated database to EC format to be available to download.
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Hi William,
You are welcome to convert the database, but please also refer to my website, as described in the license ;)
Regards, Michael
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Most of the games were already in the database. However, I was able to add almost 30.000 games.
Regards, Michael
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Hi, do you have a strategy to clear up the “Events” field? Problem: Scid does have a limit on # of events, but in the Lichess database, every match is a unique event (the games URL). So, import of the really big pgns of the Lichess database is not possible even in SCID5.
Solution: Regex search/replace. But how? I tried many tools, but it all fails. E.g., last I tried was fnr – it succeeds until Lichess 2014 files, but then fails on my machine, memory out of range exception, something like this. Not easy!
Do you have an idea? It’s Windows here.
What I do is create polyglot books with weak players.
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Thank you so much for all your hard work. I have been using SCID for many years, but now have a great database to go with it. I’m going to share this with all my students. Now, to work out how to buy you a coffee :-)
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If this page is an chess move. It will be a brilliant move.
As my favorite Gm would say.
Sanx for ze games. – Daniil Dubov -
This is a fantastic resource! Thank you so much for making this collection.
I’m in the process of writing a book on romantic style chess openings, and your database has been very helpful in finding games from some of the old masters.-
Thank you very much for the praise. I am pleased that the database has helped you with your project.
Regards, Michael
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