Chess Archaeology Website... Gone?

[John Saunders]

I just tried to visit the Chess Archaeology website, which among other things has links to online copies of various old chess magazines, and was distraught to find it had disappeared. (At least it has for me - can someone check the link below to confirm?)

The link used to be https://www.chessarch.com but this now becomes https://www.chessarch.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi which might be a hint that it is only a matter of an unpaid account.

But if that is the end of the line for Chess Archaeology, it is a great shame. It's not the end of the world, as pages might be still accessible via the Wayback Machine. The library page within the site was perhaps the most useful, with links to where magazines could be found on Google, but the good news is that those underlying Google pages are still around; just that you have to search for them individually, and of course know what you are searching for in the first place.

On BritBase's main Varsity match page (towards the bottom of a long page) I took the precaution some time ago of listing many links to the relevant volumes of BCM and other Victorian chess annuals that can be downloaded from Google to any part of the world. Other volumes of old mags are restricted to US users, though this restriction can be got round by using VPN software enabling UK users to download a larger range of old library material from Google. (The cheek of these damn Yankees! The very idea of denying access to the Brits who published this stuff in the first place! Harrumph!)

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

As you suspected, much of it is still available from the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240418212 ... sarch.com/

[Richard James]

There's a discussion about this on Facebook.

Apparently the domain had expired but Nick Pope is hoping to get it up again soon.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/4540583 ... 0741440570

[John Saunders]

Thanks, Jon & Richard. It seems likely that the site will be back up and running before long, which is very good news.

[Richard James]

It's back up now.

https://www.chessarch.com/