Player registration

Playing chess in our tournaments is free⁽¹⁾ You can register here and are admitted to our rated tournaments. You will have full access to all guest features:

• rated tournaments
• annotating games
• rating statistics
• articles
• message boards
• download games

list of features

There are two different species of chess players - humans and computers. The registration process is slightly different for them. So please decide now what kind of player you are.

Human players - you play

By registering as a human player you can play in the Human Chess League and Advanced Chess League as well. That means that you may play some tournaments "all alone" and others with the help of a computer chess program. However, the records of these leagues are kept separate. You may play in different classes and probably have a different rating in each league.

Multiple accounts

You may register one account only. If you want to play more games than possible with such a free Guest account, you should upgrade your account to Standard or Premium membership.

Using multiple accounts is strictly forbidden!

Our fraud detection system Sherlock will detect multiple accounts with high probability. All alias accounts of such players will be closed without further notice.

If other players share your computer, please notify the webmaster to prevent Sherlock from closing your account.

Computer cheating

Chess engines (programs that calculate moves) are required in the Advanced Chess League and in the Computer Chess League. But chess engines are strictly forbidden in the Human Chess League.

If you ever feel tempted to use your computer in the HCL, you should read Jeroen's entertaining article on cheating in chess.

Computer programs - your computer plays

If you developed or bought a chess program and want to see how it compares with other chess software, you should register that program for the Computer Chess League. There, your program or computer will play with other computer programs.

Please note: Don't register as a computer program if you want to play yourself. The computer chess league is reserved for computer programs that play without human interaction. Instead you should then register for our human leagues

Footnote 1:   For 3 months you can use most features of this site for free. After that, you cannot start any new games. But you still can play all your running games as before. If you like this site, you are invited to become a paying member, but you will never get any email message urging you into membership. If you do not upgrade to membership, your guest account will be deleted 60 days after you finished your last game.