Play Online Chess For FREE

No pieces to lose, no boards to set up. Play chess online free.

Free means you can actually play

A free account here is not a demonstration - it lets you play real, rated chess against real people, enter the community, and keep your games and history for as long as you like. The site has been funded by optional subscriptions from its members since 2001, which is why it has never needed to wall the game itself off behind a payment.

You get both speeds of chess. Live chess is the quick kind, played in one sitting in your browser. Daily correspondence chess is the deep kind - a day or more per move, games running over weeks, and as many going at once as you can manage. Most of the community came for one and stayed for the other.

A community, not a queue

Big chess sites can feel like an airport: millions passing through, nobody staying. This place works differently. The same opponents reappear across tournaments, ladders, clubs and clan matches; rivalries and friendships here run into their second decade. Every rated game is human versus human, with engine assistance banned and actively policed since the site began.

When you want to sharpen up between games, the study tools are free too - tactics puzzles with their own rating, a coordinate trainer, and analysis tools for every finished game. New to chess? The getting started guide takes you from zero to your first game.