Chess Sites

The following are sites to play chess on or sites for chess news. 

Play sites are rated 1 to 5 pawns.  5 being the best.

 

If you have a chess page and wish to be added to this list, please send me an e-mail.

    GameKnot is a great site for correspondence chess.  They don't offer much for real time play, but it is a minor draw back.  You can play on teams and tournaments without having to be a paying member (although you are limited to the amount of games and can only play in one tourney).  The forums seem to be lacking but there are enough places on the net to talk about chess if that's what you are looking for. If you aren't going to pay to play here then make sure you have a pop-up-blocker.

Gaming wise I give it a 4 pawns out of 5  

This is another correspondence site  with much slower  time controls.  You can play with faster time controls but most games seem  to be 10 days per move or more. You can join one tournement every week or two as a non paying member and join a team as well.   I give it 3/5 pawns.

 

More correspondence chess. You can play 5 games at first as a non-paying member, then once you are rated you may play as many as you like. You can also join teams.  This site has a chat room right in the home page so you can keep in touch with all the other players online.  Of course this also means you occasionally get people trying to start drama and talking nonsense.  Luckily there's a  button to ignore any player right next to their name.  Only draw back is the site refreshes every 30 seconds and has a lot of ads.  Ads  go away if you pay to play, and you can set the refresh rate to slower time controls, but the chat room refreshes when the page does so it can be annoying if you are talking.I give it 3.5/5 pawns 

This is the best free correspondence chess site I have found.  You can play 15 games without paying, and then for every 50 moves you make you can play an extra game.  You can play on a team, and once you finish 50 games you can even start your own team.  There are some ads, and you can pay to play to remove them and get extra games without having to make so many moves, but the ads don't seem to be as annoying as on some sites. The forums are also hectic at best.  Many players from numerous countries trying to communicate in different languages.  But you can get the gist of most posts.

4.5/5 pawns 

Yet another correspondence chess site.  This one won't get you much without paying.  You can play a few rated games but to join a clan (team) or play tournaments you'll need to pay.  The forums seem to be less restricted and see a lot of use, so if you are looking to talk about chess and many other topics between moves then this site is worth taking a look at. 

3.5/5 pawns 

Looking for real time chess then here you go.  This is the site to  join if you are looking for online chess.  They have grandmaster simuls, learning aids, lectures on how to improve and you can talk to just about anyone online.  But to get the most  out of this site you are going to have to pay. Sure they have a guest option but to be able to do just about anything on this site you need to have to pay .  I have joined this site when I had a little extra spending money and I'd recommend it to anyone who has  money to spend on games.  The prices aren't  unbearable and you get your money's worth if you are going to be playing online  more than once a month.  If you don't have money to spend  then see the next link below.

if you pay to play 4.5/5pawns

non-paying experience 3/5 pawns 

By far the best place  I have been to to play real time chess online for free.  You can join as a guest  or  play as a registered  member.  The guest option  isn't worthwhile.  Become registered and then you can play rated games, tournaments and even  view lectures on how to improve.   All you need to register is an email address and  you won't need to  pay anything.  Only drawback is you'll need to Download and interface (same with ICC), but once you do that you'll be ready to play.  The site tends to lean towards bullet and  blitz games  with 5 minute  time controls or less, but I have no problems finding opponents for slow games.  There is even a group to join for slow time controls.

Overall this is just a great site and has most of what ICC offers for free.  

5/5 pawns 

All the latest chess news, Databases, and chess programs. Download chess engines. Read chess articles

 

Chess articles, interviews with chess players, chess book reviews.

 

 

Title says it all. Get a membership to play in tournaments and get a rating, subscribe to Chess Life magazine and read Chess Life articles online, and shop .

All things for serious chess players in the U.S.

World Chess Federation. Like the USCF for the rest of the world. Information, articles, forums, all things chess related.

 

 Chess World

A final correspondence site.  Limited games for non-paying members.   Has a great layout, but some features only available to paid members. 

 The team leagues seem unique though.  Worth checking out if you like correspondence chess.  

4/5 pawns