March 14, 2010/nytimes.com
Chess
Wherever You Are, a Game Is Just a Point and Click Away
By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
 
 
Though chess is one of the world’s oldest games, it is perfectly suited for the Internet age. Boards and pieces are easily displayed on computer screens, and the game is played all over the world. It is not surprising, then, that online chess has boomed.
 
The granddaddy of all sites is the Internet Chess Club (chessclub.com), which was started in 1992. Many top competitors regularly play there, and the site says that it is not uncommon for more than 3,000 people to be logged on at any one time.
 
In addition to providing a forum for informal games (more than 100,000 a day, according to the site), the club often transmits live games from top tournaments, and it hosts its own events. On Friday, the club’s 11th Dos Hermanas blitz tournament began, with a prize fund worth more than $10,000.
 
Chessclub.com is a pay site, as is Playchess.com, which is run by Chessbase, a German company that makes software, including the Fritz program. There are usually more than 1,000 players on its site.
 
The Free Internet Chess Server (freechess.org) says that it has more than 300,000 users. Chess.com also offers free play and basic instruction for beginners; on Wednesday night, more than 3,000 people were logged on to the site. There is also RedHotPawn.com, another free site, which says it has more than 100,000 members.
 
For players who prefer correspondence chess, in which competitors have days to make each move, there is the International Correspondence Chess Federation, the governing body of slow chess. It hosts tournaments on its Web site (iccf.com), including the World Correspondence Chess Championships.
 
Other correspondence sites include Chessworld.net, which says it has over 589,000 members, and Gameknot.com, which has more than 31,000 active players.