How to play chess online for free?
We tried to make the user interface clean and playing
the game as intuitive as possible. Below you can see a short
description of user interface, controls and their functions.
Homepage
Homepage is divided into the following parts:
- the chessboard – on the chessboard
you can see randomly chosen live game
- the games offer list – on the right
from the chessboard, there is the list of games which the
players join or to which they can also publish their own game
offer by using the button Create game
- control buttons
- PLAY NOW – after clicking this
button, a game from the games offer list is randomly
chosen. In case there is no game offer available, the
system creates and publishes the game offer for the user.
- Invite a friend – this serves for
inviting friends via e-mail or social networks. It is
possible to choose between standard variant or chess 960
(Fischer random chess), whether the game will be timed and
what the tempo will be, color of the pieces and whether the
game will be rated or not (rated game influences the rating
of the user. Please note, that rated games can be played
only by registered users. After setting the parameters by
clicking the button Create game a menu with unique
link to the game will appear, and the first person to visit
this link will play the game against you.
- Create game – once the game
parameters are chosen (these are the same as in Invite a
friend) the game offer will be published in games offer
list and other users of the page will be able to accept the
challenge by clicking the corresponding game offer.
- Play against computer – in case
you do not want to play against human opponent, you have
the option to play chess against computer. In addition to
the settings described earlier (e.g. piece color, game
clocks etc.) there is one more setting which allows you to
choose from 8 predefined levels of AI strength (1 being the
easiest, 8 the hardest).
- announcement area (or the event
ticker) – above the control buttons, there is a stripe in
which various information (e.g. challenges from other users,
draw offers etc.) is displayed to the user.
The chess game
The page with the chess game itself is divided
similarly:
- the chessboard with the game
- the block with game info (game
clock, captured pieces, chat, scoresheet etc.)
- buttons with in-game commands
- Resign – by clicking this button
you resign your game
- Draw – with this button you can
offer your opponent a draw, accept a draw offer from your
opponent or claim a draw (e.g. on threefold repetition
rule)
- Cancel – the game can be cancelled
if both players did not make their move yet
- Undo – here you can ask your
opponent to take back your move
- More time – adds 10 seconds to
your opponent’s clock
- Hint – when playing against
computer, you can ask for a hint
- announcement area (or the event
ticker) – above the buttons with in-game commands, various
information is displayed to the user (e.g. draw offer etc.).
All important functions are free and do not require
registration. Registration is free and brings advantages such
as the possibility to earn rating points, to save the games in
user’s profile or advanced appearance settings.