In my time as a chess coach I’ve had many students ask me about different places they can go on the web to improve or enjoy their chess more. I have many answers, but today I thought I would take you through some of the more common and well liked websites that my students have agreed are of use to them. Everybody wants something different from their chess and that’s why there are so many different types of websites out there. Some of them require an e-mail address to create a password and login. Please ask your parents permission before using any website like that and remember that playing chess online means people can chat to you and you can chat to them. Above all be safe in all your web surfing.
Okay, onto the sites:
Chessbase is the official website of the chessbase community. Here you can check out interesting news articles such as interviews with famous chess players and reviews of chess merchandise. You can buy online from the massive chessbase catalogue which includes the famous ‘chessbase’ database and the ‘fritz’ playing engine which is one of the best chess engines in the world and has an extremely strong gui (graphical user interface) to support easy use and learning. I highly recommend fritz for anybody who not only wants a ‘friend’ to play against at home but is also looking to analyze and improve their chess. Through fritz you also get access to playchess.com servers which is a fantastic online community which will give you a chance to see some chess masters in action and play in many online chess tournaments. Possibly most important of all, because it’s free, you can grab a download of chessbase light which is basically a demo version of the chessbase database which comes with fritz 6 built in. This program or one like it is simply a must have if you’re truly enthusiastic about improving your chess.
Chess Games is a continuously growing database of famous chess games. This is the place that you can come to search for all the games Bobby Fischer played or look back on the games Vishy played before he became world champion. With an easy search engine that allows huge amounts of detail in its search fields you should be able to find almost any game you want and even more importantly you can use the save function to save it as a *.pgn and import it into a chess reader such as chessbase light where you can have access to the game everywhere you go and even analyze it with fritz. Looking at famous players games is not only fun but a very good way of improving your own chess.
Free Chess is a great online chess community that uses either java or a user downloaded interface to provide a free chess service to many players who seek an opponent through the magic of the Internet, but it is not the only one Chess.com is als o a large chess community that a lot of my students use. Both provide good client moderation for you parents out there and have a very involved community with some incredibly talented players such as international masters and even grand masters. While not quite up to the standard of the playchess.com servers you couldn’t expect much more for free. The more you play the better you get, but don’t forget to play opponents that are better than you or you won’t improve much at all.
Emrald is home to a chess tactics server. Some famous chess player, Richard Teichmann, once said that chess is 99% tactics well if that’s true then this website is the holy grail of chess. Just one puzzle a day will improve your chess but why stop there. Ten puzzles a day, twenty puzzles a day, a hundred puzzles a day you’ll feel the benefits in no time and with every puzzle becoming more and more tailored to a rating level you’ll never feel out of your depth. Just remember to make an account or you won’t get the benefit of the puzzles changing level with your new tactics skills. Unlike the other websites there is no way of messaging or talking with others here so it’s a great place for anybody who likes to do things for themselves. Oh and don’t forget when you first start they will be hard but they will also get easier.
The week in chess is the place to go for news. All the information you could possibly want to know about current chess tournaments including score updates, games of the day, info on the players and so much more is here for you to see. Updated every day, this is the site that can turn you into a real chess player fanboy (or girl) and not just somebody who enjoys their chess.
Oh and don’t forget about us here at Chess Kids, we have news articles, puzzles, your personal Chess Kids ratings, all your chess products for sale, information about upcoming chess kids events and lots lots more.
These sites certainly aren’t the only ones available to you, don’t underestimate the power of sites like Wikipedia for chess information and with the ease of Google you can find many, many more interesting sites and free chess related programs. Goodluck with your surfing and let us know if you find a site you think is particularly good (please no p2p/torrents). Remember it’s all about having fun while improving your chess.
