Looking for new real world data to explore?

Maybe you're one of the 62 million households across the globe that watched the Netflix hit The Queen’s Gambit?

Whether you've seen it or not, we have just what you need; another chance to win a free all-access membership to Maven!

We just added another fun data set to the Data Playground, with data for over 20,000 online chess games played on Lichess.

There is a ton you can do with this data set. Whether your go-to tool is Excel, SQL, Power BI or Tableau, there are plenty of stories you’ll be able to tell.

To go along with this release, we’re launching The Queen’s Gambit Challenge and giving away a free all-access membership to the winner.

We’ll share more about the challenge details below, but first let’s talk about the data…

About the dataset

• We’re looking at over 20,000 online chess games played on Lichess

• Each record represents one game

• Records contain details about the winner, player ratings, moves, and more!

Working with chess data

Before you jump in, there may be few things you need to know about chess to read the “moves” field in the dataset...

Chess is played on an 8x8 board between two players, white and black, where white always has the first move.

Chess moves are recorded using algebraic chess notation, which specifies which piece moves to which square on the board.

The numbering and lettering of the chess board is oriented to the white player’s position and looks like this:

Like each square for the chessboard, each chess piece also has a specific notation:

• King: K

• Queen: Q

• Bishop: B

• Knight: N (K is already taken)

• Rook: R

• Pawn: No notation (if a move indicates only a square, it's a pawn)

Below you can see the first 4 moves of the Ruy Lopez opening (e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6):

First, white moves a pawn to e4, followed by black to e5. For the second set of moves, white moves a knight to f3, black moves theirs to c6, and so on and so forth...

If you want to learn more about chess notation, this guide is great.

How to to play The Queen's Gambit Challenge

To participate in this challenge, all you need to do is share a single-page visual or dashboard with any insights you can extract from the chess data.

Feeling like a grandmaster? Here’s a BONUS question to answer with your entry:

Suppose YOU are playing black against Elizabeth Harmon, and she opened with the Queen’s Gambit (d4 d5 c4). What's your next move, and why?

She may be the best there is, but you have an ace up your sleeve; a rich dataset of online chess games to help prepare...

How to submit your entry:

• Follow Maven Analytics on LinkedIn

• Share a LinkedIn post that contains both a direct @ mention to @Maven Analytics, and the hashtag #queensgambitchallenge (it’s OK if you already follow Maven)

• In your post, share your insights with an image of your visualization or dashboard (remember, it must be a single image)

• Tag, mention, and invite 5 connections to view your post or play along

See my example post below:

It’s that easy :)

PRO TIP: Tag people who you think would be interested in this challenge, I’m sure they'll appreciate it.

How to win

We’re doing things a bit differently in 2021. Instead of randomly selecting a winner from all of the contestants’ entries, the winner will be decided by a two round process:

After the submission deadline, the Maven Analytics account will share all entries in a summary post on LinkedIn.

Then the audience will vote for their favorites! To cast a vote, you can @mention your favorite visualization(s) in the comments. The top 5 entrants with the most mentions in the comments will be selected as finalists.

Finally, Maven instructors will evaluate the finalists’ entries and select a winner based on the quality of their visualizations, insights, and capacity to tell a clear story with data.

What you can win

As part of The Queen’s Gambit Challenge, we'll be giving away a three month all-access Maven membership completely free of charge. The winner will get access to all of our Excel, Power BI, Tableau, SQL courses, as well as part 1 of our ongoing Machine Learning series, all with direct support and coaching from our expert instructors.

No purchase is necessary to participate. As always, this challenge is open to both current Maven subscribers and new students who have no relationship with Maven.

Check out the official rules below...

Official Terms (The Queen’s Gambit Challenge)

• Maven Analytics will give away 1 three month subscription for an Individual account. After the three month period, the subscription will expire.

• No purchase is necessary to enter.

• The challenge will close to new entries on Friday, January 29th, 2021, at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time. All entries must be submitted prior.

• Maven Analytics will share a “call to vote” post on LinkedIn with all the entries on Monday February 1st, 2021, at 10:00am Easter Standard Time. To vote for an entry, direct @ mention the entrant in the comments. Voting ends on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021, at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time. All votes must be cast prior. The top 5 entrants with the most votes will be selected as finalists.

• Maven Analytics will select 1 winner from the finalists, and will announce the winner on Monday, February 8th, 2020 at 10:00am Eastern Standard Time. The official announcement will be posted on LinkedIn from the Maven Analytics LinkedIn account.

Don't want to participate in The Queen’s Gambit Challenge? No problem. You can still analyze the data on your own. All of the Data Playground datasets are completely free and are available for everyone to learn with. Feel free to dig in anytime.

Check out the Online Chess Games data set, and many more, at the Data Playground.

Happy analyzing!

-Enrique