CHESS TOOLBOX: 30+ Online Chess Resources

Credit:

One of the best ways to kill time when you've got nothing else to do online is still a game of good old chess. The choice, however, between the dozens of available live games and other resources is not an easy one. We've assembled a list of 30 chess-related resources for easy reference.

Live Games

Credit:

64squar.es - Simple AJAX chess with a great looking interface.

Chess.net - Play with anyone - from a beginner to champion Anatoly Karpov for $30/year (or just play for free on Fridays).

Chess Any Time - Gaming zone with hundreds of players, powered by Java.

ChessHere.com - Rated games with time limits.

Chesspark - Beautiful online client with a monthly fee. True Ventures agrees, since they just funded them with $1,000,000.

Free Internet Chess Server - With over 300,000 users and a powerful Java interface, it's no wonder FICS is one of the most popular sites in the world.

Instant Chess - Play against players from anywhere in the world. No registration required.

Internet Chess Club - Play in tournaments, take chess lessons, and much more from one of the most popular chess clubs on the 'Net.

Morfik Chess - Single or multiplayer AJAX style chess.

MSN Chess - If you don't mind using IE 6 or higher, you can play real-time chess with anyone with a Windows Live ID.

Yahoo Chess - You'll have to bypass an annoying ad and open a ton of windows, but Yahoo Chess is one of the biggest chess servers on the web for beginners, intermediates, or masters.

Correspondence

Credit:

Ajaxplay - Email notification, ratings, and more are built into this powerful AJAX app.

Chess.com - Huge site with a social network, email, coaches, videos, forums, and much more(see coverage here).

ChessHere.com - Forums, tournaments, championships, teams, and much more are available with this powerful game server.

Chess on the Web - Powerful correspondence server.

Chessworld.net - Extremely popular chess site with many customizable features.

Free Internet Correspondence Games Server - Win tournaments, rated games, and even play games for money with FICGS.

GE Chess - Ever played chess in Google Earth? Me neither, until I found GE Chess. You can even play online without Google Earth, if you choose to do so.

Instant Chess - Play chess, Fischer chess, or checkers via email.

International Correspondence Chess Federation - Play hundreds of rated international users on the ICCF.

Playchess.de - With tournaments, PGN format support, and much more, Playchess.de is a must-have for any chess user.

Queen Alice - Community of international players with ratings, tournaments, and much more.

Red Hot Pawn - With over 100,000 users, clans, notebooks, messaging, and more, Red Hot Pawn is a winner in any chess book.

SchemingMind.com - Popular correspondence site with multiple varieties of chess.

Credit:

Morfik Chess - Single or multiplayer AJAX style chess.

Thinking Machine - Java engine that graphically displays what it's thinking about.

TkChess - Java or text engine from Yale.

WebChess - GNU Chess engine online.

News

Credit:

Chessbase - Daily news, opinion, chess history, and much more.

Chess Life Magazine - The official magazine of the US Chess Federation.

This Week In Chess - Leo Laporte would probably want these guys to change their name. It's still a great chess news site for chess afficionados.