Do you know what is the best online chess game you can play? Or Have you ever wanted to play chess online with your friends?
We all know it's all possible because of the internet. In addition, I believe I am the only one who has covered the best chess apps available online!
When I started learning chess, it was difficult for me to find someone to play with…But in today's time, we can open up Google and type free chess online, and you can have an opponent instantly. 🙂
Online chess has become so popular nowadays that even improving your chess game can be acquired online anytime you want.
I'm both fans of playing chess online and the traditional chess game…that is why in this article I am going to share my thoughts about the difference and importance of online chess with the traditional chess game.
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Important things you need to know with playing quick chess online with friends
In these modern times, chess has also found a niche online with millions of chess players every minute of the day. One can play with virtually anyone from the planet at any time.
You can play with your friends or with strangers from other countries or even match your wits against a chess computer (whose skill level can be modified according to your skill).
You can also engage other people to analyze your game and find out which moves were mistakes or what blunders you committed.
Gone are the days wherein you needed someone present to play a game or in the worst case, be solitary whenever you want to analyze a game from a book you bought to determine which line is better.
Nowadays, you would be able to get the best help at any time, from anyone in the world at the click of a button.
Recommended Reading: If you want to what's the best free chess platform online, read this article.
Playing Traditional Chess
Chess is traditionally played on a surface divided into sixty-four squares of alternating light and dark colors.
There are two opposing sides, White and Black, and each one starts the game with sixteen pieces. There are eight Pawns, two Towers (or Rooks), two Knights (or Horses), two Bishops, and the King and Queen pieces.
The pawns are arranged in front of the chess pieces, and the major pieces are arranged accordingly.
The objective of the game is to win against your opponent via checkmating the King piece or making your opponent resign due to your superior position advantage.
One can also create a situation wherein a stalemate can be called, and the point can be halved. In tournament play, we can either chalk up a point for wins or a half-point for every draw.
Chess can also be played in different variations: rapid style chess (10 minutes to 60 minutes), blitz style chess (three minutes per side) or lightning style chess (on minute games), and other games have also derived from the gameplay.
Traditional Chess and Online Chess
As we have mentioned earlier, chess has spanned the globe and is accessible at any time anywhere as long as you have a reliable internet connection.
You can play anyone from any part of the world, no matter what time your itch to play chess comes to you.
You can make friends; you can expand your game, you can improve your ranking and be exposed to many cultures all at the same time.
Some sectors still say that face-to-face chess or traditional chess is better than online chess.
We are here not to find out which mode of play is better because, like chess players, we know that as long as we have a board and an opponent, we are at the right place.
We can give some advantages and disadvantages based on what other people have experienced.
For those who support traditional chess play (whether the rapid chess, blitz chess or lightning chess kind, etc.), they say that the feel of the game is better because you get to touch the pieces and overall, they can strategize much better because they can see the whole thing.
For online chess aficionados, they state that they still feel the same way but from a different perspective.
While they do not get to touch the pieces physically, they still get to use their analytical skills in solving the problems that their opponents present them with.
While both sides have a valid point, the best thing that we can take away from this is that playing chess gives us a great feeling.
Also, some sides argue that you can, at times, talk smack while you are playing in a traditional chess game.
While it is not an acceptable thing during tournaments, between friends, you can try to distract your opponent by making some comments while he is strategizing about his next move.
Indirectly, this can also help your opponent to focus much better as he tries to get past your attempts to distract him/her.
This is a social aspect of traditional chess that, at times, can be absent from online chess play. It is not to say that you cannot chat with your opponent, but typing your responses can, at times, be a drag.
You wouldn’t know which one to focus on
Still, as we have said earlier, we aren’t here to debate which gameplay is better as we realize that wherever we can get our chess play cravings satisfied, we are all for it.
However, for those who still haven’t realized that there is a whole new world waiting to be accessed with online chess play, here are five websites that you can visit to satisfy your chess play cravings.
5 Websites To Play Quick Chess Online
Chess.com – If you want to get your feet wet in the online chess community, you will do great if you would access chess.com as it has over 28 million players online at any given time.
You start with a 1000 rating, and you can engage in various playing modalities.
You can get rating points added or removed depending on the results of your games.
You can even toggle your play settings with time per move and overall gameplay.
Do you know what’s good about this site? It identifies what opening you are using and what variation of that particular opening you are following.
Cool, isn’t it? Even cooler is the fact that you can get your moves analyzed for you after your game. You can find out which moves you made were wrong or would constitute a blunder.
You can also have the option to re-play that particular line to familiarize yourself more with the permutations.
Lichess.org – For those of us who want decent competition 24/7, you can access Lichess.org and be treated to an open-source online server.
It is free from any distractions. So far, no pop-ups and ads would distract your gameplay.
There are video streams and other files that you can access to improve your gameplay.
Tournaments are regularly going as well, so your thirst for a competition can be satisfied easily.
Chess24.com – the site is one of the more current chess sites that offer basic and premium membership.
You can get to play as many games as you want for the free membership, but an upgrade to the premium membership would allow you access to a whole lot of e-books and video material for your consumption.
You can watch live streams of tournaments from around the world, and you can even get the chance to play a rated or titled player during such streams.
Gameknot.com – with over a million members, gameknot.com provides you with a different range of players to play with. It also has an enormous database of videos and news as well as tutorials, which can help you to improve your gameplay.
Their interface is simple enough, even for novice players to navigate.
All you have got to do is sign up and explore the tabs to get yourself acquainted with the site.
Internet Chess Club (chessclub.com) – Online since 1995, the Internet Chess Club has, in a way, fallen out of time. It has been overtaken by more new sites but is still hanging on strong.
It offers free and paid memberships and has many offerings that can rival any other chess site available on the web.
Registered members get to play with a range of players from across the globe as well as have access to thousands of interactive videos recorded by the best chess instructors on the planet.
You can also have access to a live stream of elite tournaments from around the globe, and you can even measure up with rated games and other similar offerings.
Chess play online is here to stay
As we have said previously, gone are the days when you would have to solve the chess problems you can find in books manually.
You now have access to millions upon millions of games, all accessible by the click of a button.
Not only that, you have the option to expand your gameplay by watching instructional videos over such sites to keep your strategy fresh and sharp against any opponent anywhere in the world.
For any self-respecting chess player out there, he must be able to realize that he has the world at his fingertips.
Wrapping Up
Getting to play with people from all over the world is a former luxury that has become a norm these days.
You would encounter players of various skill levels that would boost not only your game but also your confidence in your ability to dominate the board.
You would get to interact with ranked and titled players from all over the world, unlike before when getting to talk to them seemed like an impossibility.
Playing chess online is going to help you in more ways than one. You can get to measure yourself against other players and improve on your strategy and decision making.
Playing online chess at a fair number of hours per day is going to help you out tremendously. So, if you want to improve, tap into the web and get yourself going!
Recommended reading: If you want to learn why Chess.com is the best free chess app, read this article.
