Chess Websites

 Here are the biggest most important chess websites. I will give the cost for a one year full membership where applicable. Most have other purchase options. They are listed in no particular order, and I do not claim that this list are the only sites to be recommended.

Pay To Play:

Chess.com : It's the biggest. To enjoy all the features you will have to pay. Still there is a lot. Matches of just about every kind. Tournaments, news, puzzles, problems, computer play, bots, articles, and lessons. If it has to do with chess they probably have it. Currently $99 for a year of full access.

Chess 24 : Another big site with lots to offer. Again to have full access you will have to buy a membership. 1 year membership at the time of this writing $149.99.

Internet Chess Club : AKA ICC Has been around a long time in internet years. Another big site with a lot of content. USCF holds rated tournaments through this site. 1 year $69.95.

Free Chess Sites:

Play Chess : By Chessbase. This used to be a paid site but now appears to be free to non professionals. Chessbase is the professional chess database software company. Also home to Fritz, and other chess engines. Certainly worth checking out.

FICS Free Internet Chess Server : Before there were chess websites you could download an interface and play over a chess server. Both the ICC above and FICS date back to those days. You can still download a GUI Graphical User Interface and play that way. Also you can play through your browser. It's free. "We do it for the game not for the money". Appears to be their moto.

Lichess : Last but not least is Lichess.org. "lichess.org is a free/libre, open-source chess server powered by volunteers and donations." The name is derived from live/light/libre chess. It is another full featured website with game to play, watch, or analyze, videos, etc. I love the look and feel. The analysis graphics are excellent. It compares well against the paid sites and it's free.

Others: This category I could use some help filling if you know of a site to recommend please leave a note in the comments.

Decode Chess : Using Artificial Intelligence AI to analyze your games and explain why a move is good or bad. If you haven't tried it you really should. I find it interesting.

Chessable : A chess teaching platform. Using advanced teaching methods. You can use many free courses and samples and purchase full blown chess lessons.

Bill Wall's : A huge research and links site. Looking for pgn game collections, and books, this is the first site to look at.

Well that's all for now. Let me know what you think. Leave a comment / suggestion.

Favorite Video Sources

 Chess Videos

These are not in any order. Read the brief description to determine if you want to view the material.

Hanging Pawns on YouTube covers all facets of the game. I find his delivery pleasant and understandable. He gets right to the point. So be ready to pause and review.

Anna Rudolf is very entertaining. She branches into other areas but her chess videos are both instructive and entertaining. 

Krishna Prem for beginners openings. He has other videos but his coverage of openings is what I like. he gives the basic ideas and main moves.

agadmator's Chess Channel a lot of chess here. Coverage of events as well as study material.

Chess.com has instructional videos, news, and game reviews. Plus videos from other producers.

I'm just getting started. I'll be editing this list and adding videos. If you have a favorite please share it in the comments or send me a message.

Here are some that were shared with me on Chess.com by Dr_Risiko. I will have something to say about each one as I have time to check them out. Let me just say that as you look for help with your game or entertainment. Take a quick look at one of their videos. If you don't care for the delivery or can't understand the presenter you are not going to gain much from watching that persons videos. The good news is there are plenty out there so keep looking.

GothamChess IM Levy Rozman's Youtube channel covers a lot of topics. From exposing cheaters, to analyzing top games in the news, to playing various bots. It's entertainment with some learning thrown in.

GM Benjamin Finegold A lot of game analysis and lessons.  

chessbrah's A couple of masters with a variety of content.  

John Bartholomew Chess IM John B. Again a lot of learning here. The main thing is for you to take a look at each of these and see what you want and like.

Rosen Chess IM Eric Rosen. The formula is consistent. Lessons and analysis of top games.

Jonathan Schrantz A chess teacher out of St. Louis Missouri. Lots of lessons here.

I hope you will find two or three here that you enjoy. If you have a channel you want to share leave a comment below.

 

Chessvision.ai A New Way To Read Chess Books!

 Chessvision.ai

So with Chessvision.ai you can upload any pdf and study the diagrams in a live sidebar. As you read you can move the pieces, even analyze with Stockfish 10. Here is a short video showing how it works.

It's free to try. To join is $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year. Give it a try and come back and let me know what you think.  Click  to go  >>Chessvision.ai<<

I tried it. You do have to grant cookie permissions in your browser to get it to work. They provide instructions. Quickly in Chrome it Settings - Security and Privacy - Cookies and other site data - Sites that can always use cookies - add lichess.org.

I think it's a great idea. Let me know your thoughts on it. Oh do you need a pdf book? Try https://www.pdfdrive.com/ it looks like they provide a lot of free pdf chess books. I'd really like some feedback. Do you like what I'm doing with this blog?

Another source is https://u1lib.org/s/chess? thanks Chess Fool for the tip.

Study Chess Books On Your Computer

 Study From An ebook!

I like books I really do. However following variations and getting back to the main line leaves me scratching my head. I like to get the book in pgn and ebook formats. Then use readers to follow and study.

Here is my desk setup.

On my laptop is the Kindle reader. The book in this case is "The Modern Defence move by move".

The big second screen is showing the book in pgn format. Using SCID vs PC I can step through the moves and variations and jump back to the main line along with the flow of the book.

If you look closely you will see the text matches the book. With the advantage of comparing the book with a huge database of games, and analysis by an engine (Stockfish 14.1 in this example). I hope this gives you some ideas that will help you study chess from a book / ebook / pgn file. 

Free ebooks http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/#PGN

Purchase ebooks with pgn files https://everymanchess.com/

The $1000 Game

I was playing the last round of the 2019 Southern Class. If I win it would put me in 1st place Class C. The prize was $1000. We both made multiple mistakes in the last moves of the game.

 

How I Installed Chess.com on Amazon Fire 7 Tablet

First you need to change a setting on the tablet. Goto Settings (swipe down from the top and tap the little gear) - Security & Privacy - and turn on "Apps from Unknown Sources".

Next you need the Android install file called an apk file. To get this you can install the Chrome browser app "APK downloader" in the Chrome webstore.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/apk%20downloader?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon&_category=extensions

It will generate a QR code you can scan into your tablet.

Or you can skip this step and scan the one below.

I used the Kindle app "QR & Barcode Scanner". By Gamma Play.com As soon as it finishes the option to open / run the file will appear for a few seconds. Click and install / open the file. If you miss it you can start over or go find the file on your device and run it from there. In the download folder. When it opens input your user name and password for Chess.com and your setup is complete.

Computer Aided Analysis

  What follows is my thoughts on this subject. I do not claim that this information is in any way perfect. I share them with the hope of being of some help to others. If you have something to share leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you. 

  Computers can out play us. It's a fact. Can they also teach us? Yes and there are a lot of programs and websites that do just that. One that comes to mind is Chessable.com. One area where computers might seem to fall short is in the area of game analysis. You put your game into an analysis engine and it spits out a very machine focused review of the game. The explanations if any make no sense to the human mind. Garry Kasparov has been at the forefront of explaining how computers and Artificial Intelligence in particular should be seen as a tool. A learning tool. Maybe a partner in the quest for knowledge.  

  

  Software designers are working on improving this communication gap. Websites like Decode Chess are making incredible strides in this area. The game report and analysis at Chess.com have undergone a design change toward this goal.  

Still for now at least I think we will have to settle for taking the computers advice and trying to make sense of it ourselves. In this article I'm going to share how I do that. I hope someone might find value in this sharing.

So let's begin. At first I thought I would try to pick one of my better games to write about, Then I realized that was wrong. I try to analyze all my games. The good, the bad, and the ugly. We especially want to analyze our losses. So here it is. My process...

First the game without annotation. I run through the game and get a quick impression of what happened. If you want to follow through my process just play through the moves below and see what thoughts come to mind as you do.

Spoiler alert here are my first thought (memories) of what transpired in this game.

1. My opponent though rated in the 1500's violated multiple opening axioms. Like don't bring out your Queen early, and Knight's on the rim are dim. Yet I lost this game.
2. My opponent developed like a new player. Looking for a "cheapo" Qf7#.
3. I must have blundered in the middle game.
4. I remember only playing on so long on the chance of a stalemate. 

Next I load the game into a database program. Here I'm using SCID vs PC. (See my 3 part article about setting up SCID vs PC) You can use about any chess database program. Chessbase of course. I have a large database of games (over 7 million) that I load in the "Tree" window. Then I start stepping through the moves. When the tree runs out of moves I mark that move as a Novelty. To see the graphics larger right click and select open in new tab. Then open that tab and look it over.

So in this game the Novelty happened at 6. ... Nge7. Is this where I blundered?

  No! A deep look by Stockfish shows that black is about equal or maybe has a very slight advantage.    

Next I start Stockfish running and slowly step through the game. Looking for the first move when the advantage shifts from Black to White. That occurs at 23. ... Nb4. Where bxc4 is better. I'm interested in fixing my game at the earliest error. So I'll return to this later. For now I continue stepping through the moves. At 25. ... Nd3 I find the big blunder. White gains a decisive advantage. No need to look further.

Next I load the game into Decode Chess.com. For my method their decode recommendations come way to late in the game. So I select my two key plays. It becomes clear to me now. The move 23. ... Nb4 allows the White Queen to take c5 and b5! On 26. Qxb5 the Knight and Bishop are attacked.

So 25. ... Nd3 appears to be the big blunder, but the snowball started rolling at 23. ... Nb4.

So I need to be more careful about letting pawns fall, and letting a Queen invade my space. I'd love to hear about your process or your opinion of mine. Soon I hope to publish a article about using a game database to find your strengths and weaknesses. Consider following this blog for future updates. Thank you.