Online chess is

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

that is played over the Internet, allowing players to play against each other in real time. This is done through the use of

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 ...

s, which often include a system to pair up individual players based on their rating using an Elo or similar

chess rating system A chess rating system is a system used in chess to estimate the strength of a player, based on their performance versus other players. They are used by organizations such as FIDE, the US Chess Federation (USCF or US Chess), International Correspo ...

. Online chess has existed since the 1970s, but has seen a rapid growth in popularity amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and rise of chess livestreaming.

History

Origins

Online chess has existed in various forms including

PLATO Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

and play-by-email since the dawn of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

in the 1970s. The first Internet server designed for online chess was the

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 ...

(known at the time as ICS), which started operation in 1992. The first chess website, which allowed playing through a graphical interface, was Caissa.com (known at the time as Caissa's Web) which launched in 1995. Since then, a number of chess websites have been developed. These include

Chess.com Chess.com is an internet chess server, news website and social networking website. The site has a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available for accounts with subscriptions. Live online chess can be pla ...

Lichess Lichess (; ) is a free and open-source Internet chess server run by a non-profit organization of the same name. Users of the site can play online chess anonymously and optionally register an account to play rated games. Lichess is ad-free and al ...

, and chess24, which are the largest chess websites as of 2021.

Growth

Online chess saw a spike in growth during the

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

s of the

. This was due to both isolation and the popularity of

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

miniseries '' The Queen's Gambit'', which was released in October 2020. Chess app downloads on the

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

and

Google Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating syst ...

rose by 63% after the show debuted.

saw more than twice as many account registrations in November as it had in previous months, and the number of games played monthly on Lichess doubled as well. There was also a demographic shift in players, with female registration on Chess.com shifting from 22% of new players to 27% of new players. Grandmaster

Maurice Ashley Maurice Ashley (born March 6, 1966) is a Jamaican-American chess player, author, and commentator. In 1999, he earned the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM), making him the first black person to do so. Ashley is well known as a commentator for hi ...

said "A boom is taking place in chess like we have never seen maybe since the

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...

days," attributing the growth to an increased desire to do something constructive during the pandemic. USCF Women's Program Director

Jennifer Shahade Jennifer Shahade (born December 31, 1980) is an American chess player, poker player, commentator and writer. She is a two-time United States Women's Champion and has the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster. Shahade is the author of the books ''Chess ...

stated that chess works well on the Internet, since pieces do not need to be reset and

matchmaking Matchmaking is the process of matching two or more people together, usually for the purpose of marriage, in which case the matchmaker is also known as a marriage broker. The word is also used in the context of sporting events such as boxing, in ...

is virtually instant.

Streaming

Online chess livestreaming also saw a surge amidst the pandemic. Players like

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraDaniel Naroditsky Daniel Naroditsky (born ), also known as Danya, is an American chess grandmaster, author, and commentator. He published his first chess book at age 14. Chess career Born in San Mateo, California, Naroditsky learned chess at age six from ...

, and

Levy Rozman Levy Rozman (born December 5, 1995), known online as GothamChess, is an American chess International Master and commentator. He produces content on the online platforms Twitch and YouTube. Early life Rozman was born in Brooklyn, New York, on D ...

along with many others streamed chess via

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

, with more than 41 million hours of chess being watched total on the platform from March to August 2020. Chess.com teamed up with high-level chess streamers to organize

PogChamps PogChamps is a series of online amateur chess tournaments hosted by Chess.com. Players in the tournament are internet personalities, primarily Twitch streamers. PogChamps takes place over the course of two weeks. The first and second PogChamps ...

, an amateur tournament contested between popular Internet personalities that was streamed on Twitch and at one point became the top-viewed stream on the platform.

Operation

Rating system

Chess websites pair players based on a

; after a game ends, ratings are updated immediately and players may search for a new game using their updated ratings. The

and

Chess24.com chess24.com is an Internet chess server in English and nine other languages, established in 2014 by German grandmaster Jan Gustafsson and Enrique Guzman. Among people collaborating with chess24 are World Champions, Grandmasters and International ...

use the

Elo rating system The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...

, while

and

use the

Glicko rating system The Glicko rating system and Glicko-2 rating system are methods of assessing a player's strength in games of skill, such as chess and Go. The Glicko rating system was invented by Mark Glickman in 1995 as an improvement on the Elo rating system, a ...

, which is a modern and more complex version of Elo.

Speed

Over-the-board (OTB) chess is traditionally played with a slow

time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock, ...

, meaning players are allowed more time to consider moves. Online chess is often played faster, with 93.8% of live chess games on Chess.com being played with a time control of 10 minutes per side or faster.

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

Anna Rudolf Anna Rudolf (born 12 November 1987) is a Hungarian chess player, chess commentator, Twitch live streamer, and YouTuber who holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a three-time Hungarian women's natio ...

said that "online chess' shift to speed chess has brought excitement to the game."

Premove

A premove is an instruction given by a player to a chess program to make a certain move on a following turn if possible. Premoving is a feature exclusive to online chess. It is offered by many chess websites, including the

, the

Free Internet Chess Server The Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) is a volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organised as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club (ICC), after that site began charging for membership. History The first Internet chess server, ...

, and

. Chess.com allows players to make multiple premoves at once. The Internet Chess Club allows one to block players who use premoves. There is some amount of strategy involved when premoving. Generally, premoves should only be used when the chosen move would be a good move in any subsequent position where it would be valid, such as if it is a response to a potential capture by one's opponent. Premoves may also be useful in extreme

time trouble In chess played with a time control, time trouble, time pressure, or its German translation ''Zeitnot'', is the situation where a player has little time to complete the required moves. When forced to play quickly, the probability of making blunder ...

to avoid running out of time.

Cheating

Online

cheating Cheating generally describes various actions designed to subvert rules in order to obtain unfair advantages. This includes acts of bribery, cronyism and nepotism in any situation where individuals are given preference using inappropriate crit ...

is an issue that has had a large effect on all levels of play. This is usually achieved by using a

chess engine In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest. A chess engine is usually a back end with a command-line interface wit ...

to get the best moves in a given position, though it can take other forms including sandbagging and

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

manipulation. Chess.com stated in August 2020 that they were closing roughly 500 accounts each day due to cheating, some of whom were Grandmasters and titled players. High-level

chess tournaments A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition amo ...

were largely forced online during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

Online Nations Cup and the

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

Chess Tour. These were played on websites like Chess.com and chess24, but enforced additional rules on

webcam A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in videotelephony, livestreaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware or peripheral d ...

usage and screen sharing in order to prevent cheating. Some tournaments also disallowed leaving the computer for breaks or to walk around, which would usually be allowed in an in-person tournament.

References

{{reflist Chess Online games