Introduction
Finding a place to play chess online has never been easier than it is today as there are numerous websites that enable chess players to play chess games online against players of various levels around the world. Each chess gaming site comes with different features such as the ability to watch live chess games, the ability to compete in chess tournaments, the ability to play chess against the computer, the ability to analyse chess games, the ability to participate in training modules and play chess puzzles and much more. If your goal is to improve in chess or simply to play chess as a means of entertainment during your free time then you’ve come to the right place. All of the sites mentioned below have features that can help you to raise your game in chess for free. Simply choose the platform that you enjoy playing on the most, your journey to becoming a chess grandmaster awaits.
1.Chess.com
Chess.com is one of the most popular chess gaming sites that achieved a major milestone in 2022 after reaching 100 million active users. Some of the most influential chess players have an account on chess.com which includes players such as chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So, Leinier Dominguez Perez, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and much more. Chess.com has many features such as multiple time controls, the ability to play against the computer as well as chess players of various levels around the world, chess tournaments, chess puzzles, analysis tools, news channels, training tutorials and the ability to watch live chess games. There’s also free and premium versions of Chess.com that includes a gold, platinum and diamond plan which allows users to remove ads, complete an unlimited amount of chess puzzles, participate in an unlimited amount of chess lessons and more depending on the chosen plan. Regardless of your level of experience in chess you can always find an opponent that can offer you a good game on chess.com which is one of the reasons why it’s among the most popular gaming sites on the web in addition to having an intuitive user friendly interface.
2.Lichess.org
Lichess.org is a free and open source internet chess server that was released in 2010 that’s run by Lichess which is a non-profit organisation. Lichess.org is another popular chess gaming site on the web that has 4 million active users. Users of Lichess.org are able to compete with other rated chess players around the world by registering for a free account and play anonymously without the need to create an account. Lichess.org has become a great alternative site to chess.com which occasionally experiences database overloads due to the large amount of users that regularly use the platform. The main features of Lichess.org includes the ability to play timed controlled chess games such as blitz, rapid, bullet and classical, the ability to create and participate in public and private chess tournaments, the ability to study a variety of subjects including strategy, tactics, opening positions, middle and endgame psychology, forks, skewers, checkmate patterns as well as a range of other subjects all put together by credible chess coaches and titled chess players, the ability to play numerous variants of chess, minimal waiting periods for chess games due to Lichess’ large userbase of chess players of various levels and an intuitive user friendly interface. One of the main benefits of playing on Lichess.org is that it’s completely ad free and does not charge to use any of it’s features unlike many of chess gaming sites.
3.Playchess.com
Playchess.com is a commercial internet chess server that’s managed by ChessBase which enables chess players around the world to play and discuss chess. Playchess.com has a user base of over 31,000 chess players including popular chess Grandmaster such as Hikaru Nakamura, Nigel Short and Michael Adams as well as many other titled chess players that use the platform anonymously. Users of playchess.com are able to play free time controlled chess games such as blitz, bullet, rapid and classical chess, improve your skills by watching training videos, watch live chess games from grandmaster tournaments, develop an opening repertoire by practicing numerous opening positions, study the chess games of other chess players by utilising Playchess.com’s database of 8 million chess games, solve tactical positions based on your current strength, analyse your previous chess games and store them in the cloud for later use. Playchess.com also has a store where users can buy chess programs covering a range of topics which include tactics, strategy, middle and endgame principles, books, magazines, merchandise and additional databases of chess games. Playchess.com has a very intuitive and user friendly interface which makes it a great platform to play and develop as a chess player and also a great alternative to other popular chess gaming sites on the web.
4.ImmortalGame
Immortal.Game is one of the newest chess gaming sites that was built for the web 3.0 ecosystem and was released in 2021. Immortal.Game uses blockchain technology and allows chess players to collect chess pieces in the form of NFT’s (non-fungible tokens) which can be bought, traded and used to play chess games. Immortal.game is free to use, ad free and rewards chess players in the form of cryptocurrencies such as CMT (checkmate token) which is ImmortalGames native cryptocurrency and ETH (Ethereum) for winning chess games, ranking on leaderboards and performing well during chess tournaments. Some of the main features of the Immortal.Game platform includes the ability to play time controlled chess games such as blitz, bullet, rapid and classical, the ability to take part in quest’s, the ability to participate in tournaments, the ability to complete chess puzzles, the ability to analyse chess games, an intuitive user friendly interface and future plans of introducing training sessions with titled chess players. There are currently up to 50,000 registered accounts on Immortal.Game and 5,000 active chess players that use the platform on a weekly basis. Immortal.Game is also supported by 50 chess Grandmasters including Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Harikrishna, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin.
5.Chessworld.net
Chessworld.net is a free online chess platform that enables chess players to compete against other chess players around the world. Chessworld.net has over 300,000 active users that uses the platform regularly to play chess and is popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands and Russia. Some of the main features of chessworld.net includes time controlled chess games such as blitz, bullet, rapid and classical chess, the ability to play multiple games at the same time, in game messaging capabilities, the ability to participate in daily chess tournaments, the ability to play an unlimited amount of free chess games, the ability to study chess via chess courses and online training sessions with chess coaches, the ability to complete chess puzzles and much more. There is also both a free version of chessworld.net as well as a subscription based version with additional features which includes all play all tournaments, the ability to view your opponent’s stats and the ability to create and captain your own chess teams. Chessworld.net has a user friendly user interface and users are able to customise the interface to suit their preference. The Chessworld.net platform has a large community of active chess players that users can connect with and can be used on multiple devices including desktop, mobile and tablet.
6.Internet Chess Club
Internet Chess Club is a commercial internet chess server and was the first internet chess server that was released in 1995 by Daniel Sleator. The Internet Chess Club had over 30,000 active subscribing members in 2005 and currently has over 50,00 active users in 2023. There are dozens of titled chess players on the Internet Chess Club platform that offer coaching services for chess players for prices ranging from 12 dollars to 125 dollars. Some of the main features of the Internet Chess Club platform includes the ability to play time controlled chess games such as blitz, bullet, rapid and classical chess, the ability to take chess courses on a variety of subjects such as tactics, strategy, opening positions, middle and endgame psychology, checkmate patterns and pawn formations, the ability to complete chess puzzles, the ability to learn from the best chess Grandmasters, a store for membership programs, chess software, merchandise and DVD’s as well as the ability to participate in chess tournaments. Internet Chess Club also has free and paid membership programs with additional features which includes access to a library of up to 3,000 instructional videos and access to weekly cash prize tournaments. The Internet Chess Club has an intuitive user friendly interface and is compatible with a variety of operating systems such as Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.
7.Red Hot Pawn
RedHotPawn.com is a free internet chess server that was released in 2001 in order to provide a space for chess players around the world to connect and play chess. RedHotPawn.com is fairly popular among chess players around the world and has up to 200,000 registered users on their platform. The waiting time to play chess on RedHotPawn.com is fairly short as over 100,000 chess players visit the site per month in order to play chess. Some of the main features of the RedHotPawn.com platform includes the ability to play time controlled chess games such as blitz, bullet, rapid and classical, the ability to participate in chess tournaments, the ability to complete chess puzzles, the ability to join chess clubs although only subscribers are able to create chess clubs on the site, the ability to engage in discussions held in the community forum and an intuitive user friendly interface. Subscribing to RedhotPawn.com enables users to remove ads, play up to 1,000 chess games simultaneously, enter highly competitive tournaments, join clans and protect chess games from timing out whilst on vacations. RedHotPawn.com is compatible with a variety of devices such as desktop, mobile including iOS and Android and tablet. RedHotPawn.com also has an app that can be downloaded in the App Store for Apple devices and the Google Play Store for Android devices.
8.ChessArena.com
ChessArena.com also known as FIDE Online Arena is the official chess gaming site of FIDE which is the official governing body of international chess competitions. Over 200,000 chess players visit ChessArena.com and is a popular chess gaming site for professional chess players and chess players with ambitions of earning an official title as FIDE Online Arena ratings are recognised by FIDE. Surpassing a FOA (FIDE Online Arena) rating of 1100 will begin your journey towards achieving a recognised title and surpassing a FOA rating of 1700 whilst playing FOA rated chess games will earn you the title of FIDE Arena International Master as well as a certificate. Some of the main features of the ChessArena.com platform includes the ability to play time controlled chess games such as blitz, bullet, rapid and classical, the ability to participate in chess tournaments, the ability to interact with a thriving community of chess players, the ability to watch live chess tournaments and broadcast your own chess tournaments, the ability to complete chess puzzles, the ability to study chess by watching masterclasses taught by some of the most popular chess Grandmasters and the option to purchase state of the art world championship chess board sets. ChessArena.com has an intuitive user friendly interface as well as an app that can be downloaded in the Google Play store for Android devices and the App store for Apple devices.
9.ItsYourTurn.com
ItsYourTurn.com is a free online gaming site that allows users to play a variety of turn based games such as Checkers, Backgammon, Battleboats, Jamble, Boatzee, Reverzi, Stack4, Go-Moku, Halma, Sabotage, Go, Hex and of course Chess. In addition to the traditional version of these games users can also play many variants of these games. ItsYourTurn.com is one of the most popular gaming sites on the web that has 3 million registered accounts and receives an average of over a million monthly visitors. Some of the main features of ItsYourTurn.com includes the ability to play time controlled chess games such as blitz, bullet, rapid and classical, the ability to play several variants of chess such as Chinese chess, dark chess, anti-chess, crazy screen chess, atomic chess, dark crazy screen chess, knightmare chess, extinction chess, grasshopper chess, Tablut, horde-chess, screen chess, king’s corner chess and king’s fortress chess, the ability to invite and challenge friends to chess games, the ability to review past games and download them in PGN (portable game notation) format, the ability to remove the time limits of chess games so that you can complete them in your own time, the ability to participate in chess tournaments and the ability to message other players during chess games. The ItsYourTurn.com platform has an intuitive user friendly interface and is compatible with a range of devices such as desktop, mobile and tablet.
10.Free Internet Chess Server (FICS)
The Free Internet Chess Server is exactly what it’s name suggests, it is a free internet chess server that was released in 1998 in response to the commercialisation of the Internet Chess Server in 1995. The Free Internet Chess Server is one of the most popular chess servers in the world which has over 650,000 registered accounts, over 50,000 active users and over 23 million chess games have been played on the site. As well as traditional chess users are also able to play many variants of chess. The main features of the Free Internet Chess Server includes the ability to play time controlled chess games such as blitz, bullet, rapid and classical, the ability to compete in chess tournaments, the ability to have your chess games reviewed by stronger chess players, the ability to save and analyse your chess games, the ability to play several popular variants of chess such as Suicide Chess, Loser’s Chess, Atomic Chess, Wild Chess, Bughouse Chess and Crazyhouse Chess and the ability to review many of the major tournaments in the world throughout history. The Free Internet Chess Server does not have a native GUI (graphical user interface) although it does utilise the user interface of other popular software’s such as BabasChess, Jin, XBoard, Thief and Raptor for Windows devices and eBoard, XBoard, PyChess, Jin, JavaBoard, Raptor, JinApplet and QXBoard for Linux and Mac operating systems. The Free Internet Chess Server is also available on Apple and Android mobile devices and utilises the Mobialia user interface for mobile devices.
11.PyChess
PyChess.org is a free online chess site that was released in 2006 for the purpose of providing a space for chess players to play both traditional chess and numerous variations of chess. PyChess.org can be used both on and offline using the server of the Free Internet Chess server. In order to play on PyChess.org users must have an open and unmarked Lichess.org account. PyChess.org is a relatively popular chess gaming site that receives around 50,000 visitors per month which ensures that there is always an opponent to challenge to a game of chess. The main features of Pychess.org includes the ability to play time controlled chess games including blitz, bullet, rapid and classical, the ability to compete in chess tournaments, the ability to complete chess puzzles, the ability to play numerous chess variants such as Makruk, Makpong, Ouk, Chaktrang, Sittuyin, ASEAN Chess, Shogi, Minishogi, Kyoto Shogi, Dobutsu Shogi, Gorogoro Shogi, Xiangqi, Manchu, Janggi, Minixiangqi, Placement, Crazyhouse, Atomic, Duck chess, S-Chess, Capablanca, Gothic, Grand, Shako, Shogun, Mansindam, Orda, Synochess, Hoppel-Poppel, Shinobi, Empire, Orda Mirror, Chak, Chennis, Spartan Chess, S-house(S-Chess and Crazyhouse), Capahouse (Capablanca and Crazyhouse), Grandhouse (Grand and Crazyhouse) and chess 960, the ability to watch live chess games as well as access to a large library of past chess games, access to video tutorials on how to play numerous variants of chess, the ability to interact with chess players on PyChess.org via the PyChess community forum, the ability to analyse chess games and the ability to play against the computer and challenge friends to chess games. PyChess.org has an intuitive user friendly user interface which is based on the Chessgroundx chess board that was developed for the Lichess.org platform.
12.Gameknot
GameKnot.com is a free online chess site that was released in 2000 which enables chess players to challenge other chess players of all levels around the world to chess games. GameKnot.com is among one of the most popular chess gaming sites on the web that receives over 2 million visitors per month. There is currently just under 2 million registered accounts on GameKnot.com, over 38 million chess games have been played and on average there are over 800 chess players that use the site on a daily basis. The main features of GameKnot.com includes the ability to play time controlled chess games such as blitz, bullet, rapid and classical, the ability to complete chess puzzles, the ability to compete in monthly chess tournaments, leagues and ladders, the ability to build chess teams with other chess players, access to a large database of chess games, the ability to play against the computer or challenge friends online, the ability to play multiple chess games simultaneously, the ability to study different chess openings and the ability to learn from annotated chess games played by past and present chess Grandmasters. GameKnot.com also has a user friendly interface that’s easy to navigate and which doesn’t require users to download any additional software.
Conclusion
In this article I’ve highlighted several chess gaming sites, each with their own distinct features so that chess players can choose the site that’s the most beneficial to them depending on their current needs as a chess player. Many of the most popular gaming sites are great for the casual chess player as they tend to have very similar features however in many cases they do not give chess players the ability to play different variants of chess which is possible on sites such as PyChess.org and ItsYourTurn.com or allow chess players to earn official FIDE titles which is possible on sites like ChessArena.com. As a chess player having multiple places to play chess online can be extremely advantageous as it can allow you to interact with new members of the global chess community, allow you to gain exposure to new and exciting ways of playing chess or even make money by simply playing chess games on sites such as Immortal.Game and the Internet Chess Club.
