British Chess Magazine

British Chess Magazine, commonly abbreviated BCM, was founded by John Watkinson in 1881. It describes itself as the world's oldest chess journal to have appeared continuously. Its strongest focus is British chess, but it also covers international tournaments, players, and debates.

A journal of this kind serves two purposes. It reports chess as contemporaries experience it, and it preserves a record for later historians. Issues contain game analysis, news, interviews, problems, reviews, and research. An annotated game gives the moves while adding explanations of decisions, mistakes, and possible alternatives.

BCM is therefore useful for tracing changes in chess language, theory, and culture. An older article, however, reflects the knowledge and standards of its own period. Current rules should be checked in the relevant regulations, not inferred from a historical magazine. In American chess culture, Chess Life has performed a comparable documentary role.