Peter Stuart Database

The Peter Stuart NZ Games Database

The NZ Games Database that was created and maintained by the late Peter Stuart has been under NZCF stewardship since April 2018. See the historical database here.

Latest Release: 2025-10-16

The 2025 version of the Peter Stuart database is available here: PGN (zipped) | Chessbase

Updates to the NZ Championship crosstables Peter would always include are available here: ODT | PDF

The database now includes 71210 games (2024: 60556, 2023: 57506)

Of the 10654 games added since last year, 3929 (more or less) are new games and 6725 are new and old games from the Wellington chess club database which has been folded into the Peter Stuart database.

To the greatest possible extent, all player names in the new combined database have been reworked for greater consistency and traceability by linking them to player FIDE ids. This approach has been strongly advocated by Mark Crowther of TWIC. Player names are now consistent with player names in the FIDE database. This should resolve the main technical problem with maintaining chess databases, and lead to smoother and easier updates in the future.

Lichess broadcasts are now the main source of new games. The games are presented in the database in traditional, editable form rather than Lichess form with clock times. But the clock times are safely archived with the PGN file using a new  custom compressed format. This approach allows both maximum usability and safe harbour storage of this extra valuable information.

All enquiries, error reports and extra games should be sent to the database  maintainer, Bill Forster billforsternz@gmail.com.

Past Updates

Here is the latest update (4th July 2024), by CM Bill Forster) to the database in Chessbase (CBV) format and zipped PGN format.

There are 60556 total games vs 57506 games last year, so 3050 extra games.

Here is a breakdown of games in the database played since the last update;

  • 2023-04-25 Vezerkepzo IM2 April 2023, Budapest HUN (9 games)
  • 2023-06-02 45th Trusts Open, A Grade, Henderson, Auckland (90 games)
  • 2023-06-10 NSW Open 2023, Sydney AUS (4 games)
  • 2023-06-14 National Open 2023, Las Vegas USA (1 game)
  • 2023-07-05 Gold Coast Open 2023, Gold Coast AUS (14 games)
  • 2023-07-12 Peter Stuart Memorial and 2023 North Island Ch’p, Auckland Chess Centre (40 games)
  • 2023-07-30 FIDE World Cup Women 2023, Baku AZE (2 games)
  • 2023-08-24 NZ Senior Championship, Ascot Park Hotel, Invercargill (35 games)
  • 2023-08-28 18th Malaysian Open 2023, Kuala Lumpur MAS (1 game)
  • 2023-09-21 60th World Juniors 2023, Mexico City MEX (1 game)
  • 2023-09-23 Isola del Sole Open 2023, Grado ITA (8 games)
  • 2023-09-27 74th South Island Ch’p, Oamaru (203 games)
  • 2023-09-28 Wellington Club Championship – A Grade, Wellington Chess Club (45 games)
  • 2023-09-30 2023 South Island Rapid Ch’p, Oamaru (65 games)
  • 2023-10-07 45th Arco Open 2023, Arco ITA (9 games)
  • 2023-10-20 Merv Morrison Memorial, Auckland Chess Centre (33 games)
  • 2023-10-25 31st World Senior 50+, Citta del Mare ITA (3 games)
  • 2023-10-27 31st World Senior 65+, Citta del Mare ITA (3 games)
  • 2023-10-27 31st World Senior Women, Citta del Mare ITA (1 game)
  • 2023-10-30 TCh-Euro Small Nations, St Helier JCI (7 games)
  • 2023-11-11 12th Brno Open 2023, Brno CZE (5 games)
  • 2023-11-13 World Youth Girls U16, Montesilvano ITA (5 games)
  • 2023-11-14 World Youth Girls U14, Montesilvano ITA (7 games)
  • 2023-11-14 World Youth Open U14 2023, Montesilvano ITA (5 games)
  • 2023-11-23 Heusenstamm Schloss Open, Heusenstamm GER (7 games)
  • 2023-11-25 Estonian Rapid, Wellington Chess Club (23 games)
  • 2023-11-28 Titled Tuesday, chess.com INT (95 games)
  • 2023-12-02 36th Papatoetoe Rapid Open, Papatoetoe Hunters Corner Bowling Club (23 games)
  • 2023-12-04 5th Rome City Masters, Rome ITA (4 games)
  • 2023-12-14 Piraeus IM Dec 2023, Piraeus GRE (9 games)
  • 2023-12-26 World Rapid 2023, Samarkand UZB (13 games)
  • 2023-12-29 World Blitz 2023, Samarkand UZB (21 games)
  • 2024-01-02 2024 New Zealand Major Open, Palmerston North (250 games)
  • 2024-01-02 2024 New Zealand Open Ch’p, Palmerston North (220 games)
  • 2024-01-03 2024 New Zealand Junior Ch’p, Palmerston North (96 games)
  • 2024-01-05 22nd Prague Open 2024, Prague CZE (9 games)
  • 2024-01-11 2024 New Zealand Rapid Ch’p, Palmerston North (90 games)
  • 2024-01-15 Paracin Prestige Open, Paracin SRB (6 games)
  • 2024-01-26 Auckland Anniversary Weekender, Auckland Chess Centre (30 games)
  • 2024-02-02 Auckland Waitangi Weekender, Auckland Chess Centre (30 games)
  • 2024-02-03 FSIM February 2024, Budapest HUN (9 games)
  • 2024-02-21 Commonwealth Championship, Melaka, Malaysia (4 games)
  • 2024-03-15 Reykjavik Open 2024, Reykjavik ISL (8 games)
  • 2024-03-24 Fagernes GM Open 2024, Fagernes NOR (8 games)
  • 2024-03-28 2024 North Island Ch’p, Wellington College (195 games)
  • 2024-03-28 O2C Doeberl Cup 2024, Canberra AUS (2 games)
  • 2024-04-03 Melbourne Int Open 2024, Melbourne AUS (9 games)
  • 2024-04-09 3rd Sunway Formentera Op, Sant Ferran de ses Roques ESP (4 games)
  • 2024-04-13 Auckland Blitz Rapid (ABR), April, Rapid, Auckland Chess Centre (45 games)
  • 2024-04-15 21st BCC Open 2024, Hua Hin THA (2 games)
  • 2024-04-24 Auckland Anzac Weekender, Auckland Chess Centre (30 games)
  • 2024-05-04 Bodensee Open 2024, Bregenz AUT (8 games)
  • 2024-05-11 Auckland Blitz Rapid (ABR), May, Rapid, Auckland Chess Centre (45 games)
  • 2024-05-18 Arie Nijman Memorial, Crockfords Bridge Club, Christchurch (25 games)
  • 2024-05-25 24th Dubai Open A 2024, Dubai UAE (8 games)
  • 2024-05-31 46th Trusts Open, A Grade, Henderson, Auckland (60 games)
  • 2024-06-02 61st World Juniors 2024, Gandhinagar IND (10 games)
  • 2024-06-08 Kapiti Rapid, Raumati Beach (36 games)
  • 2024-06-22 Upper Hutt Rapid, HIBS (48 games)
  • 2024-06-28 Peter Stuart Memorial, Auckland Chess Centre (30 games)

Attentive readers will recognise that this year many international games played by New Zealand players are included. This aspect has been neglected since Peter’s death in 2017, this year an attempt was made to address that and to catch up. So there are many other international games since 2017 now in the database, and even a few that Peter missed from earlier years.

In no particular order some special thanks are due to;

  • Mark Crowther of TWIC for providing a source to search for international games
  • Ewen Green, Joshua Langford, Weiyang Yu and Scott Wastney for ensuring all Congress games were collected
  • Richie Christie for collecting all South Island Championship games
  • Those arbiters that do battle with DGT boards to enable at least the top games from so many tournaments to now be available (Keong Ang, Ying Wang, Helen Milligan, Timothy Ha, Craig Hall, Gordon Lyall no doubt others)
  • I’m sure there are people who have made substantial efforts in the background that I have forgotten, apologies to them

– Bill Forster, NZ Games database maintainer.

Here is the accompanying NZ Championship Crosstable history in PDF format and editable Open Document format updated through 2024.

Historical Database

For reference purposes, here is the final edition of the database published by Peter himself in 2017, in Chessbase (CBV) format and zipped PGN format.

Here are two ancillary files Peter included, a README and the NZ Championship Crosstable history updated through 2017.

Peter’s family graciously gave permission to NZCF to make this huge contribution to chess scholarship in New Zealand freely available to all. We are committed to keeping the project alive and aspire to the same meticulous attention to detail that characterised Peter’s work for so long.

Thanks to Michael Whaley and Michael Freeman for working with Peter’s family, and Helen Milligan for providing the most recent published version.