Chess Live, formerly called US Chess Live (when it was affiliated with the

United States Chess Federation The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, the World Chess Federation. US Chess administers the official national rating s ...

), was a

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and ...

Internet chess server An Internet chess server (ICS) is an external server that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view the board game of chess over the Internet. The term specifically refers to facilities for connecting players through a variety of graphical c ...

that opened on August 8, 2000, and closed on 29 May 2007 when it was bought by

Internet Chess Club The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC had over 30,000 subscribing members in 2005.John Black, Martin Cochran, Martin Ryan Gardner"Lessons Learned ...

and merged with

World Chess Network The World Chess Network (WCN) was a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess that launched in 1997 and closed ten years later in 2007 when it was bought by Internet Chess Club and merged with Chess Live to form ...

to form

World Chess Live The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC had over 30,000 subscribing members in 2005.John Black, Martin Cochran, Martin Ryan Gardner"Lessons Learned ...

Membership

There were three membership options: Trial, Basic, and Royal; Basic and Royal levels required periodic payments. Higher levels of membership included more features, such as the ability to observe or participate in certain tournaments often held on the server.

Features

In addition to providing Internet users the opportunity to engage in games of chess with others, Chess Live also provided free lectures on skill and tactics to improve one's ability at the game. Chess Live also included

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

features and the ability to chat with other users in

IRC Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...

-like public chat rooms. There were a range of paid and voluntary staff positions to ensure the smooth and effective running of the system.

Connection clients

Registered users used a client to connect to the server. At the end there were two versions of the client available: version 4.2.00, an installed program; and version 2.5.1, implemented in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and that could be run from virtually any Internet-connected computer with a Java-enabled Web browser. Royal members could use non-Chess Live interfaces to connect to the server, such as Thief 1.1, Winboard, or countless other interfaces.

Cheating detection measures

The software had arrangements to try to detect players using the assistance of chess programs. It did this, in part, by detecting task switching activities, based on information being undertaken on the computer that the program was able to detect.

Membership

Features

Connection clients

Cheating detection measures

See also