Dam!

Not one, but two items involving beavers and chess:

• "CBS Cancels Plans for Series on Chess Playing Beaver"
  
  
• Our friends from Rozerem, makers of a highly publicized prescription sleep medication, have put together a website where you can play chess against their spokesbeaver. During the game, the beaver will harangue you for moving too slowly and offer you congratulations when you make good moves. I particularly like it when you win material and the beaver says, "oh, didn't see that coming." Unfortunately, even in advanced mode, the beaver is a fish; so while it might be fun to crush him a few times while practicing your new tactical skills, the experience is ultimately rather boring. Then again, maybe that's the idea -- to help put you to sleep. (Hat Tip: Chess Corner)
  

Chess Now - episode 4

BDK wrote: "The lady in episode 4 is cute."

OK, maybe, but is it enough to sit through 28 minutes of technically deficient, excruciatingly bad chess video? You decide.

Related Post: Why sponsors aren't lining up for Chess on TV

Why sponsors aren't lining up for Chess on TV

So incredibly bad, it's humorous!

Casting Call

Who will be playing Severine Wamala in the made-for-TV movie?

Searching for BCC Weblog

Sorry, but this post does not star Ben Kingsley as Bruce Pandolfini....

November 13th marked the two year anniversary of this blog. As a result, I now have access to quite a bit of data on visitors, referrers, and search terms. Today, I thought I might share the search related information.

As the blog's content has continued to grow and its page rank increased, more and more visitors have arrived through search engine queries. During the first year or so search engines accounted for less than 15% of visitors; more recently, the number is definitely above 25%. For the full two years, searches account for 23.3% of visitors with known referrals.

The top 5 or so search terms that lead surfers to BCC Weblog bring few surprises, but as you continue down the list interesting insights emerge as to what attracts visitors here. Here are the top 25 search terms for this blog over the past two years:

1. chess (19.0%) - I bet this came as a shock!


2. club (3.5%) - No surprise.


3. boylston (3.0%) - ditto


4. blog (2.7%) - ditto


5. and (2.5%)


6. the (2.3%)


7. beauty (1.3%) - Finally things get more interesting. Beauty and the Geek first made these pages when the show's production company called the club looking for "chess geeks" to try out for the show. Then, as you may recall, one of the show's contestants -- Joe Block -- was introduced as a chess champion and chess was included in several episodes. Well it turns out that a mediocre FOX reality series has much broader appeal than chess to the point where it can become a major driver of visitors to a chess blog.


8. geek (1.3%) - See "beauty"


9. bcc (1.0%) - Surprised this wasn't higher?


10. erikson (0.9%) - I have one post which includes a picture of a statue of Leif Erikson. I never realized he was so popular.


11. tricks (0.8%) - The blog gets a lot of searches for "chess tricks." They must be disappointed when they click on the link in this post.


12. pastrami (0.8%) - Maybe Philadelphia should have renamed their team the Pastrami. Masterminds is nowhere to be found in the list.


13. wamala (0.7%) - Given that this story broke only a couple of months ago, it is amazing how quickly it has shot up the list.


14. leif (0.7%) - See "erikson"


15. boston (0.7%) - People searching for "chess club boston" often find their way here.


16. severine (0.6%) - See "wamala"


17. blogs (0.6%) - Not much to say here.


18. rules (0.6%) - Many people search for "rules and regulations of chess." I'm sure they are not particularly happy when they get this.


19. weblog (0.5%) - Just goes to prove that "blog" is more popular than "weblog."


20. knights (0.4%) - Mostly "Knights Errant", but the chess piece itself generates some traffic.


21. regulations (0.4%) - See "rules"


22. krasik (0.4%) - Either he's the most popular member of the Boston Blitz or this is how he usually linked to the blog during the 2005 season. You decide.


23. dedijer (0.4%) - Everyone likes to look at a pretty face.


24. lief (0.4%) - A lot of people have trouble spelling the Viking explorer's first name.


25. sanja (0.4%) - See "dedijer"