Playchess is a commercial

Internet chess server The American Internet Chess Server, commonly known as Internet Chess Server (ICS) was a telnet-based chess server which allowed users to play live chess over the internet. History In the 1970s, one could play correspondence chess in a PLAT ...

managed by

ChessBase ChessBase is a German company that develops and sells chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates an internet chess server for online chess. Founded in 1986, it maintains and sells large-scale databases containing the moves of recor ...

devoted to the play and discussion of

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

and

chess variant A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways. "International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be co ...

s. As of February 2011, Playchess had more than 31,000 players online, including many internationally titled players who remain pseudo-anonymous and other masters whose identities are known, such as

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraNigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, columnist, coach and commentator who has been the FIDE Director for Chess Development since September 2022. Short earned the title of grandmaster at the ...

and Michael Adams.

Software

ChessBase provides the proprietary Playchess software, which is included with popular computer chess software like

Fritz Fritz is a common German language, German male name. The name originated as a German diminutive of Friedrich (given name), Friedrich or Frederick (given name), Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Fred ...

, Junior or Shredder. With the purchase of any of these playing programs, customers get one-year of access to the server. Alternately, users may download the client software, a pared down version of the

GUI. New users may try the server for a short period of time before access requires a serial number. Guests may always log in for free, but have limited access. The software has functions to try to detect players using the assistance of chess programs (mainly by task switching). This is a competitor to other commercial servers, such as

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. It was the first Internet chess server and was the largest p ...

(ICC), World Chess Live (WCL) and the non-commercial

Free Internet Chess Server The Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) is a volunteer-run online chess platform. When the original Internet Chess Server (ICS) was commercialized and rebranded as the Internet Chess Club (ICC) in 1995, a group of users and developers came togethe ...

(FICS). Playchess uses an internal currency called Ducats which can be used to purchase services (chess courses, lectures and interviews). Ducats can be purchased online with a credit card and with

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

. The current rate is 1 Ducat = €0.10 (excluding

VAT A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...

)

References

External links

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Chess Base
Internet chess servers Chess websites {{website-stub

Software

See also

References

External links