What Is the MESON Chess Problem Database and How Do You Use It?
MESON is a free, online database of chess problems and endgame studies hosted on the BDS Website (bstephen.me.uk), run by Brian Stephenson. According to the site, it has been free and online since 2006 and currently contains more than 256,000 items. It is the right resource if you want to look up composed problems, search for a specific composer's work, or study endgame studies — rather than browse casual tactics puzzles.
What MESON actually contains
MESON is a chess problem database, not a game database. That distinction matters:
- Chess problems are composed positions with a stipulated task (for example, "mate in 2" or "mate in 3"), usually with a unique solution the composer designed.
- Endgame studies are composed endgame positions where the task is normally to win or draw, again with a constructed, often surprising solution.
The site describes MESON as containing "more than 256,000 items," covering this kind of composed material. It does not claim to be a record of played games, so don't expect opening statistics or tournament results here.
How to access it
Access is through the BDS Website's navigation menu:
- Go to the BDS Website (bstephen.me.uk).
- Select the MESON menu item.
- You land in the database itself, where you can search and browse.
The site states MESON has been free and online since 2006. No pricing, account, or login requirement is mentioned in the available site information, so treat access as open browsing unless the site itself tells you otherwise when you arrive.
How to search for problems and studies
The site's own description does not spell out the search fields, so the practical approach is to work from what a problem database of this kind is built to answer. Typical ways to use it:
- By composer — if you already know whose problems you want (for example, work by a specific problemist), a composer search is the fastest route.
- By problem type or stipulation — mate-in-2, mate-in-3, helpmate, selfmate, study, and similar categories let you narrow to the genre you care about.
- By position — entering the pieces or a diagram position lets you find whether a given setting already exists, which is useful if you are checking a composition or studying a theme.
Because the exact field names and menu labels are not documented in the source material, verify them on the MESON search page itself rather than assuming a fixed layout. The database is implemented with MySQL and Perl (with CGI::Simple, HTML::Template and XML::LibXML) and a jQuery/Bootstrap/DataTables front end, which is consistent with a searchable, table-driven interface.
What else is on the BDS Website
MESON is one part of a larger site, and the surrounding sections are useful if you want context or related material:
| Section | What it offers |
|---|---|
| Chess Problems | Brian Stephenson's own compositions, published since 1977 and being added gradually |
| Endgame Studies | His articles on endgame studies, written in Chess since 2006 and, with Roland Ott, in Schweizerische Schachzeitung since 2014 |
| MESON | The main problem database (256,000+ items) |
| BDS Ladder | A former problem-solving competition, now closed, but the problems used are still available to try |
| IT | Notes on the software and tools used to build the site |
| Blog, Audio Drama, Photos | Non-chess personal content |
If your interest is specifically endgame studies, the Endgame Studies menu and MESON together cover both the articles and the underlying positions.
Practical tips
- Start narrow. With 256,000+ items, searching by composer or stipulation first will get you to relevant material faster than browsing.
- Use the Ladder problems for practice. The BDS Ladder is closed as a competition, but the site keeps its problems available if you want solving practice.
- Check the composer's own page for context. Stephenson has composed and published problems since 1977, and his Chess Problems section is a small, curated complement to the much larger MESON collection.
- Contact route. The site points to the BCPS Website contact page, where Stephenson is listed as magazine curator, if you need to reach him.
MESON is best understood as a specialist reference for composed chess problems and studies: free, long-running, and large enough that targeted searching beats casual browsing.