Below is the recent statement by Mark Crowther of TWIC. This is a site that virtually ALL professional players count on. I love this site and I hope that Mark can find a way to keep TWIC alive.
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 www.theweekinchess.com 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
LCC should continue to support him.
Perhaps every good thing should come to an end..but Mr Crowther was a pioneer and is probably deeply loved by the chess community. I can’t believe that some funds can’t come forward to save this unique chess institution..but that being said..it seems that TWIC has been eclipsed by other more aggresive and well funded entities who can and should thank Mr Crowther for their existence. He made chess reporting “COOL!” I hope we hear from him again.
Mark has updated the communication you posted with this from his new TWIC Facebook page on Sunday:
Just to clarify my announcement about TWIC. I envisage continuing for some time. I am in the process of moving the website. It’s going to take a bit longer than I’d hoped. I owe 4 TWIC magazines to ChessBase download until the end of September. I will continue after that, most of all to find out how many people use the service. I’m also going to take at least a little time to talk to people. I’m
ready and available for work too both in chess and outside. All that has ended is the chess centre sponsorship. The point about the magazine download is this. I spend at least 24 hours a week producing it often a lot more. At the moment I can only see it being supported by subscription, or continuing with just the leading tournaments. There may be other ideas. I want to keep TWIC going as a voice in chess at the very least for a long time even if it turns out to be a hobby. I think it will all become clearer once I reach the new website and do a little redesign. What I realised is that I’m extremely capable at all sorts of skills and have experience in every aspect of website construction, databases, CMS systems, maintenance, writing, design (btw for those who complain about the design and appearance I’ve not had the chance to spend real time doing it) and believe that could be extremely valuable to someone. But have found that trying to do all these things at the same time alone is next to impossible.