If you're like most people, you probably learned chess and started playing with a friend or with a member of your family.
Now you want to play against other opponents.
The advances in technology since the 1970s have been particularly kind to chess.
There are more ways to meet and play other opponents than at any time in the long history of the game.
Here we'll discuss some of the possibilities to meet other opponents.
Watch for more detailed About Chess articles on each of the topics covered here.
Against a computer
If you want to practice on your own schedule, there is no more flexible opponent than your computer.
There are two major categories of computer opponents:-
- Chess computers, and
- Chess software
Chess computers are standalone electronic devices that do nothing but play chess.
See
Product:Equipment
(also listed under Subjects on the left of every About Chess page)
for online retailers who sell these machines.
Chess software runs on general purpose electronic devices like personal computers, cell phones (GSMs), PDAs, and other handheld devices.
See
Product:Software++
(under Subjects again) for a list of the major software products.
Local chess club
Playing against a microprocessor is good practice, but it just doesn't compare to playing against a real live opponent.
Computers have a different playing style than people : they don't make tactical blunders, they are prone to positional errors, and you can't say that they make good friends.
Unless you live in a sparsely populated region of the planet, there's probably a chess club within driving distance of your home.
Many national federations maintain lists of affiliated clubs and the Web can help you find them.
Start with the About Chess
Organizations
link, where we list the chess organizations for the principle English-speaking countries.
If your country is not listed there, see the FIDE link on the same page.
The FIDE Directory (also linked from the box in the upper right corner of this article) lists all FIDE member federations in alphabetical order.
Most entries have the national federation's postal address, phone/fax, email, president, and FIDE delegate, as well as the International Arbiters from that country.
Even more important is the address of the federation's website, the key to finding clubs in that country.
The United States Chess Federation (USCF) website has a prominent link to Clubs on all pages.
The Directory of Affiliate Clubs has 52 entries covering the 50 states, D.C., and Foreign.
Under Connecticut, for example, you'll find '27 records found' with contacts for each club, including email address and, in some cases, a club website.
The Chess Federation of Canada (CFC) also links to Chess Clubs from all pages.
Here there is a single page with contacts for all clubs.
Over-the-Board (OTB) tournaments
In addition to offering casual play, most clubs organize tournaments like ladders and club championships.
If you like club play, you'll also like OTB tournament play.
If you're not an experienced player, you might first want to visit a tournament as a spectator rather than as participant.
OTB tournament competition is intense at all levels and you can try to win a prize even if you are a complete novice.
Whether or not you win a prize, you'll earn a rating that will show how you measure against other players in your area.
Rated tournaments in different countries are also controlled by national federations.
The same websites that we used to locate clubs have announcements for tournaments.
The page for USCF Tournament Announcements is again linked from every other page on the site.
National tournaments are listed first, followed by special listings for Novice Tournaments and Grand Prix Events.
Other tournaments are listed by state.
CFC tournaments are also linked from all pages on the CFC site.
National tournaments get top billing, while local tournaments are listed by province.
If you're interested in playing a tournament while on vacation in an exotic destination, you might want to look at tournament listings with a broader scope.
Links to chess calendars (see the link box again) are maintained under About Chess
News.
These calendars mix open events available to all players and invitational events for the best players.
Online
Clubs and OTB tournaments have been around as long as people have been playing organized chess.
Their disadvantage is that you have to respect their schedules.
Web-based resources let you play online at any time of the day against opponents anywhere in the world.
It is no exaggeration to say that they have revolutionized chess play.
See About Chess
Play online
where you'll find sites which specialize in online chess play.
Registration is required for most online play resources, but some offer limited play without registration.
Also listed are general game sites, like Yahoo, where chess is one of the many games offered.
If chess is only one of the games that you enjoy, you should find your other favorites.
Registration is always required on the general sites.
Postal & email
The Web has also revolutionized correspondence chess, which has been played since the early 19th century.
There are three types of correspondence play.
- Postal play
- Email play
- Email play via server
Postal play is the traditional method of chess by correspondence, where moves are sent on postcards through national postal services.
Most postal chess organizations existed before computer and network technology became widespread.
These organizations have had difficulty moving to the new technologies and some have done no more than adapt their administration to the Web and to email.
Email play is an evolution of postal play which became popular in the 1990s.
Moves are sent and received using regular email, eliminating long delays between moves.
Tournament pairings and other administration are also done via email.
Email play via server is a further evolution of email play.
Here you make your moves using a Web interface, which are then transmitted to your opponents via email.
You also receive notification via email that your opponent has moved
See About Chess
Postal/email chess
for links to different correspondence services.
All play via servers requires registration, since you have to provide at least a valid email address.
