Chess is a game where you have to practice a lot, be it with an opponent physically, or with the help of technology. For that, it is not possible to get an opponent all the time whenever you want to practice.
So to solve this problem of all the chess enthusiasts, who want to excel a lot in chess through practicing, technology has gifted us with lots of websites and places.
If you are one of those enthusiasts who keep on searching for somebody to play with, then this is a place where you will get to know about some amazing places where you can practice and improve your game. Keep reading!
Table of Contents
#1. Chessworld.net
Chessworld.net is an online site, which provides the players with a super friendly environment. They have tried to keep the environment as real as possible, as they provide chats in between the games like in real-life board games.
It also allows handshakes before and after the game. (In case you are interested, I recommend you to check out this article where I explain why chess players shake hands.)
This is a free platform where you will have no time limits and move limits to play. Here you will have regular tournaments with over 50 thousand active members at a time per hour.
If you want to learn from this site, they will provide you with annotated guidance, puzzles, teachings about the openings, and a video library. They provide you with a customizable area with no downloads needed, that too for free.
#2. ItsYourTurn.com
ItsYourTurn.com site is a totally unique online place where you can play chess and various other games like Checkers, Battle boats, Backgammon, Boatzee, Reversi, Jamble, Stack4, Xiangqi, Battleship, and many more.
They offer you a free environment and paid membership too, whichever you want. You can play with anyone you want to. They provide human opponents only.
To be precise, it is a basic choice for the players. This is a more suitable site for basic players and casual players mainly.
#3. Red hot pawn
Red hot pawn is a correspondence chess site. Correspondence chess site is where you may not get a reply of your move for hours or days.
When your opponent moves, you will receive a notification via your email.
Red hot pawn doesn’t force you to play one game at a time, which means you don’t need to finish one game in one sitting but can play multiple games at a time as there are no limitations for the next movement.
This site has a lot of tournaments and ladders and other modes of playing too. You can play basic games for free. But if you need to enjoy more features, you need to subscribe.
Are looking for chess apps from which you can learn chess? Then I highly recommend you check out my article on the best apps to learn chess.
#4. Playchess.com
Playchess.com, this place of playing chess is handled by the best and the most popular chess software makers, the ChessBase. Do not hesitate to play here as you can find your best opponent here that is suitable for you.
If you want to pause your game in between to check the game of any live tournament, then definitely you can do it with just a single click.
#5. Gameknot
Gameknot is a website, where players can train themselves for free. Talk about the outlook of the heading, it is very beautiful and one will know about what the website is.
This site offers its players a database and leaderboard of individual players. During any playing game, annotations are also shown so that they can help the players to learn and identify the positions better. In addition to the games, Gameknot also helps its members with tactics training too.
#6. Free internet chess service (FICS)
Free internet chess service (FICS): the free internet chess server is popularly known as FICS, with a tagline of ‘ we do it for the game, not for the money, is one of those ancient playing sites, which offers quality games and the environment with no money charging.
This is actually the unpaid site of the internet chess service (ICC). They have a totally original setup without any charges. Although this is not an official site. To play here you need to download the interface on your iOS, Windows, or Androids.
If you are looking to play chess with zero cost and a server environment, this site is for you to play online.
#7. Internet chess club (ICC)
Internet chess club (ICC): the internet chess service or popularly called the ICC, was one of the in-demand sites, until very recent years.
Sites like chess base, Lichess, and Chessable have overpowered this website because it does not provide free membership to the players.
If you want to play you need to give details of payment and then you will receive 30 days of free trial matches. This site pairs your games with grandmasters and a high level of players, which is excellent in one way, that is to improve your game tremendously. This is a premium chess playing site, only if you want to play against an international master.
#8. Chess24
Chess24 is one of the topmost favorite places for chess enthusiasts to play chess. The hype is not only because of its looks but about what it has to offer to the players.
Apart from playing, people can learn from the games that they are playing and with whom they are playing, in a very simple and sorted way.
It offers you to play with different levels of players. As an add-on, chess 24 has a user-friendly zone as it helps you learn through its live coverage of the tournaments.
#9. Chess.com
Chess.com is the biggest platform for the players to learn and practice chess online, maybe because of the domain name now or since it is one of the oldest sites. While checking the graph, almost three lakh people are online altogether at once with a total of seven million players signed in.
This site, being a very old and major place for all the players, has attracted a lot of titled players to play. It offers you a lot of time variations, like 1 hour, 1-minute bullets, etc.
At the same time, it allows you to play at your own level, that is it helps you to search for a player of your preferred level, beginner, intermediate, or master.
So do not worry about the fact that you will have a game against masters only, as they keep playing training games on this site. This site can be opened on all using platforms like iOS, androids, etc.
#10. Lichess
Lichess: according to how Lichess looks and its simplicity, it is ranked as one of the best chess-playing sites for all levels of players.
Although this site is handled by only 3 group developers, yet over one lakh chess enthusiasts are online at a time, who are either playing or waiting to play. This app is mostly highly rated due to its simple layout and it also arranges regular tournaments for its players.
To talk about the unique features, Lichess is very simple, yet very updated. It offers you to play a variety of chess games like Chess960, the King of Hill and Crayhouse.
Also, it arranges a tournament called the 24 hours marathon. According to the studies and experiences, Lichess has the best UI and UX, as you will never find it buffering or showing the reload screen.
#11. Sparkchess
Sparkchess: this comes in the topmost desired and used chess sites. It was developed by Armand Niculescu and was published by the media division SRL. this place can be accessed on Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS.
This is a super easy chess-playing site, regardless of age. But the kids who are interested in learning chess are recommended Sparkchess mostly, as it is fun and easy for learning and implementing the moves.
It has a simple and intuitive structure which helps players of all age groups enjoy it. Sparkchess offers its players the choice of whom to play with, which means either human opponents or non-human opponents.
Each game one player will play against a non-human opponent will be different. This site also offers its players to play on a realistic 3D board. That means you can rotate and zoom your board. There is a leaderboard showing which tells about the player’s stats and online notifications etc.
#12. Daily chess
This is yet another site where two players play on a turn basis in correspondence style. One player can take up to 3 days for one move. It also has a clock system, but that is very different.
By the way, if you are looking for chess clock apps then I also suggest you check out my article on the best chess clock apps here.
A normal chess clock is set for 3 hours but here it is set as 3 days. If you want to log out of the site, you can/ but apparently, your game will still be there when you come back. You can choose your random human opponents.
This is mostly as a Red hot pawn, you can log in for free but then if you want to enjoy special features, then you need to subscribe.
#13. Chessbase
This is one elite site where you can play and analyze and target the training game. You will find players of all levels, like grandmasters or amateur players. This game is available in five different languages like German, English, Italian, French, and Spanish.
To have access to it, you need to download it on your Windows 7 or higher-level window system.
If you are a player from India, ChessBase has a distributor of ChessBase in India along with seven other adjoining countries, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia). This is a free playing site where you can read for free as well.
#14. Squareoff now
Squareoff now is the first-ever telerobotics chessboard. In short, you can play against robots.
If you want to play against any player, this site will provide you with an electronic chessboard that will give you the vibe of a magnetic chess set. Squareoff is entitled with the world’s smartest chessboard.
This is not free, you need to make a subscription if you want to enjoy this supreme technically developed board.
Conclusion
If you want to achieve the best result of your potential or improve it to shine more, then you need to practice and play regularly, with an eligible and better opponent to know more about your weaknesses and mistakes.
Growing in a particular field is a long process of learning from your experiences, analyzing your own mistakes and games, determining the opening and end game, and making your mind stable about what you want. In terms of chess, this is similar, a player needs to be focused and be able to calculate which move to play to have the best result.
Chess.com, Lichess, Chess24, ChessBase, are preferable due to some of their qualities. Find your choice, and start practicing the chess games now!
