Best live chess site

[tommygun241]

What is the best real-time chess site to use?

Stans is definetely the best around for turn-based corresponence chess but I can't seem to find a free live chess site that I really like. I mainly use Yahoo Chess but it's just a bit...cack.

Can anyone suggest a good site to have a look at?

Thanks in advance,
TommyGun

[yassen]

Some of the better sites I've played at:

www.chess21.com (recommend it)

www.freechess.org

www.gamecolony.com

There are many-many more out there

[beck15]

www.freechess.org is a nice site if you are looking for bullet games or other variants of chess such as giveaway,suicide,atomic, etc

so far as correspondence chess goes, stan's netchess rulez!!

[Johnny5]

Try www.instantchess.com/

But I'm like beck15, for correspondence chess, Stan's is definately the best

[echecmat]

I've been playing some blitz games on www.gameknot.com. Mostly very friendly people. Unfortunately one cannot pick his opponent, this is done at random.

Echec-mat

[yassen]

echecmat said:

I've been playing some blitz games on www.gameknot.com. Mostly very friendly people. Unfortunately one cannot pick his opponent, this is done at random.

Echec-mat

Not an appropriate post in this site, I guess...Considering the site mentioned is quite established in correspondence chess.

[echecmat]

Sorry,

I know one can play correspondence chess there, but I don't like their setup at all. So for correspondence chess, I'll stay here, that's for sure.

Echec-mat

PS. Stan, if you want to remove the name of the site, please feel free to do so.

[nightmare]

Stans is The Best There is, The Best that will ever be, bar NONE.

[savin]

In my opinion, the best live-chess site is playchess.com. However, its not free [but I trhink they have a free 30-day trial?]. Its owned by chessbase. BUT it does have a very high caliber of chess players including maany IMs and GMs.

What makes them very good is that they do a good job of organizing tournaments and, since all the players must pay, you are much less likely to run into scam artists, whiners, brats, morons, and the like. There is something about live-chess that attracts people looking for instant gratification. The great thing abhout CC chess is that it is less appealing to these types of people and hence we manage to avoid them.

In the CC world its hard to compete with the ICCF, but they charge $29 per tournament (10 games). This means if you are the type of player who palys 100 games a year that it would cost you around $290 per year there (Makes Stan's look like a great deal!!)

[nightmare]

Then you need to go work
for them Savin and
leave
Stans, to someone who Thinks its the best.

[savin]

Nightmare,

I'm not sure if you fully understood my message. Or perhaps I made a very poor attempt at explaining myself

I suspose its worth asking you one question before going any further. Do you know who the ICCF and FIDE are?

I very much doubt that anyone would suggest that any organization in the chess world can compare with these two. Certainly I very much doubt that Stan's sees the ICCF as competition to Stan's NetChess. Nor do we see the FIDE as competition. The FIDE is the offcial world organization that controls the rules of chess. It assigns the official ratings to the players, it sanctions all the major chess tournaments in the world. In short, it is the governing body for chess. The FIDE recognizes the ICCF as the official governing body for the Corresspondence style of Chess. It is the ONLY organization that can assign someone an offical Corresspondence Chess Title. It arranges all of the major CC chess tournaments. It has over 100 of the top IMs and GMs in the world in its tournaments.

However, it does not support the concept of friendly matches. Just like the FIDE, its sole responsibility is arranging worldwide tournaments and establishing the rules of CC chess. We at Stan's abide by the official rules of chess as defined by the FIDE and we also abide by any amendments or additions to those rules made by the ICCF.

in short, we don't see them as competition. They are our official governing bodies for chess.

www.iccf.com

www.fide.com

So, given this, I really have a hard time understanding your suggestion that I leave Stan's and go and work for the ICCF?

I'm not sure quite what the point of your statement was? But perhaps if you rephrase it I can give you a more appropriate reply.

Sorry for any confusion. I have reread my message and don't quite see what I said that resulted in the confusion and your reply??

[Blockhead]

you are much less likely to run into scam artists, whiners, brats, morons, and the like.

Be cool bro!

Perhaps some undiplomatic/sensitive soul thought you referring to them!

[savin]

Blockhead,

ROTFL ;D

I don't you have ever tried something like Yahoo Chess but I was amazed with what I ran into. About 30% of the time the opponents just dissapears if they are losing. About 50% accuse you of using a computer. A bout 1 in 4 ask if they can take a move back if they made a mistake and throw a temper tantrum if you say no. At leaqst 30% of the time if I'm winning the person will say 'do you mind if we abandon the game because an emergency has come up?' but they are just trying to avoid the rating hit.

I think I had 1 good game for every 9 silly ones.

[nightmare]

Savin, since you put it that way. I APOLOGIZE for my statement.

[yassen]

Generally Savin is right about Yahoo, although the figures may be a little less scary, I mean 50% accusing you of using a computer etc... Actually what most annoyed me about Yahoo was the constant advertisements in the chat there about software that plays the games for you and allows you to get a 3000 rating or whatever in no time Where's the chess in that?....

I've recently started playing regularly at freechess.org and from what I've seen it is probably the best site for live chess where you don't have to pay anything. Of course there are better sites, but they are paid.

If there are any Stan's players having an account an freechess, I would love to meet you sometimes. My handle there is, as you might guess, 'yassen'...