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Number of hits

This page documents the number of hits this site received from its beginning to about 2004.
First, a table of hits up to 1999:

Month

Year

Number
of Hits

January

1995

155

February

1995

116

March

1995

1,035

April

1995

2,132

May

1995

2,695

June

1995

2,603

July

1995

2,698

August

1995

2,891

September

1995

4,715

October

1995

7,092

November

1995

15,702

December

1995

18,341

January

1996

17,748

February

1996

33,437

March

1996

23,455

April

1996

22,347

May

1996

22,938

June

1996

27,698

July

1996

35,733

August

1996

44,144

September

1996

50,282

October

1996

66,202

November

1996

84,910

December

1996

92,249

January

1997

101,268

February

1997

93,395

March

1997

108,821

April

1997

125,139

May

1997

159,783

June

1997

150,431

July

1997

158,320

August

1997

155,441

September

1997

147,110

October

1997

153,973

November

1997

134,039

December

1997

176,937

January

1998

215,860

February

1998

209,455

March

1998

215,977

April

1998

206,725

May

1998

237,501

June

1998

199,924

July

1998

230,328

August

1998

237,227

September

1998

248,650

October1998

239,133

November1998

265,238

December1998

300,584

January1999

329,179

February1999

327,269

March1999

3701,63

April1999

436,576

May1999

422,701

June1999

392,297

July1999

392,297

Total number of hits up to June 1999: over 7 million!

Up to July 1999, the website was stored on the server of the Department of Computer Science, Utrecht University. In August 1999, the files were transferred to our new location at www.chessvariants.com.

This totals the number of files downloaded: HTML-, GIF-, JPG-, program- and font-files. Actually, the numbers are a little imprecise: they include some (but not all) of the hits to my other WWW pages, e.g., those on origami or on my scientific research, but exclude a few of the hits to the chess variant pages (before September 1998). Overall, the numbers come close to being accurate.

There are a few notable moments where the number of hits increased, some having a clear explanation: the increase in the fall of 1995 was partly due to a heavier use of graphics, thus the downloading of a text on a variant gave multiple hits instead of one. In February 1996, the page was mentioned on the list of links on the site of the first Kasparov - Deep Blue match: this explains the larger number of hits in that month. In the fall of 1996, the page was mentioned on a number of places, which may explain the increase then. The increase in November 1996 is partly due to my mentioning of the pages on the font and the rules of chess on Yahoo. May 1997 was the time of the second Kasparov - Deep Blue match, and I guess more surfers were out for chess related files than in other months. In June 1997, the hits stabilized at a 5000 per day. November 1997 shows a smaller number of hits due to a server crash. In January 1998, it seems that the hits went up to around 7000 per day, with a further increase in the end of 1998 and beginning of 1999 till about 12000 per day.

Beginning August 1999, we moved to chessvariants.com.

Month Year Hits chessvariants.com Hits `old site' Total hits Pageviews chessvariants.com
August1999

253,940

239,480

493,420

57,754

September1999

295,109

175,466

470,575

68,503

October1999

357,187

165,148

522,335

77,239

November1999

332,842

115777

448,619

75,088

December1999

354,974

104,018

448,619

82,405

Above, you see the number of hits to the chessvariants.com location, to the old location, the sum of these two numbers, and the number of page-views (amount of webpages that were looked at). The hits to the old site include hits to my other webpages, and pages that were viewed but automatically forwarded the reader to the chessvariants.com website. Starting January 2000, we only count hits to chessvariants.com, as hits to the old site are mainly either hits to different webpages or redirections to the new site now.

Month Year Hits chessvariants.com Pageviews chessvariants.com
January2000

383,868

91,194

February2000

358,238

81,322

March2000

405,542

90,034

April2000

399,141

98,904

May2000

494,938

111,875

June2000

411,964

80,821

July2000

528,460

109,564

August2000

554,058

110,336

September2000

583,144

116,718

October2000

563,565

146,658

November2000

737,425

176,061

December2000

738,295

144,035

January2001

756,423

145,221

February2001

648,853

140,192

March2001

732,021

141,481

April2001

699,322

145,764

May2001

698,744

143,630

June2001

716,227

147,650

July2001

834,053

187,796

August2001

880,076

210,479

September2001

892,962

180,227

October2001

1,171,323

243,116

November2001

1,177,720

174,893

December2001

1,150,829

177,358

In October 2000, due to the fact that the site moved to a different server, a day or five are missing from the statistics, so the real numbers for October 2000 are a little higher. Some of the increase in fall 2002 may be due to a more intensive indexing of the website by some search engines.

Month Year Hits chessvariants.com Pageviews chessvariants.com Visits chessvariants.com
January2002

1,677,349

358,435

53125

February2002

1,411,889

225,532

52793

March2002

1,790,346

227,858

59567

April2002

1,748,271

188,715

61994

May2002

1,936,906

201,298

70779

June2002

1,292,466

135,927

47142

July2002

1,603,039

171,983

56223

August2002

1,425,618

138,300

41694

September2002

1,953,484

212,731

65175

October2002

2,021,241

225,400

66165

November2002

2,116,677

212,906

70798

December2002

2,460,571

262,961

83128

January2003

2,643,151

274,092

88596

February2003

2,823,655

761,554

73904

March2003

144,146

34,513

4218

April2003

2,991,522

827,303

84357

May2003

2,404,395

230,814

90691

June2003

2,439,990

233,002

81458

July2003

2,556,436

225,097

80848

August2003

2,413,806

211,416

76667

September2003

2,748,229

229,038

87856

October2003

3,723,409

255,106

93751

November2003

3,490,815

266,836

99916

December2003

3,249,238

266,763

99546

January2004

273,847

21,079

9162

February2004

3,376,162

243,760

90675

March2004

3,702,370

266,135

99644

April2004

3,950,052

267,988

96240

May2004

3,304,152

236,876

89872

In January 2002, about 300,000 hits were caused by one search engine that downloaded much of the site. June 2002 had fewer hits, which partially is due to server problems, which also appeared July 2002. August 2002 had 8 days of statistics missing; March 2003 29 days, January 2004 28 days. It is not clear what the large numbers in pageviews in February and April 2003 mean: it might be a different way of counting things by the system. Many hits in October 2003 were due to a visit of a search engine.

The total of all hits up to end May 2004 is over 94 million, the number of visits (counted starting January 2001) up to May 2004 is over 2.5 million, and the number of pageviews up to end of May 2004 is over 11 million.


Written and maintained by Hans Bodlaender.
WWW page created: 1996 or 1997.