Chess Tournaments

Great! This site is what you are looking for.

What can I do?

Here at PlayChess you may play rated Chess tournaments with slow time controls (meaning something in the order of one move per day). You have enough time to find the best move. This helps you to improve your over-the-board skills as well.

But I have never played in a chess tournament!

Don't worry! All you need to know are the rules of chess.
We offer tournaments with 5, 7 or 9 players.
Simply "enroll" in a small tournament; you would then play four games in parallel.

When do the tournaments start?

There are always open tournaments. Just register, enroll in a tournament and play your first tournament games within minutes.

How does it work?

When you are registered, your player homepage is created. This is your "command center". From here you may participate in tournaments, see your current games, make your moves, study your rating statistics - in short, do nearly everything you need to do.

You enter your moves on an online chess board. This is a web page showing your current position, the moves played so far and the clocks of both players. After your move, the board is updated and the clock of your opponent starts running. Your opponent is notified by email of your move.

After the end of a game, the tournament table is updated and your rating is calculated. If you win a tournament, you will be promoted to a higher class.

How long does a game last?

This is not easy to tell, since tournament rules limit only the average time per move. A slow player might make a move every 2 days, a fast player might make his moves within hours.

While most games are finished within few weeks, you must be prepared to play some games for more than two months.

How can I participate?

Just follow the following steps:

1. Register (now!)
2. Receive your secret password by email
3. Visit your personal player homepage.
4. Enroll in a tournament of your choice
5. Play your first games

Hey, that's somewhat too fast!

Did you say that?
Okay. Please visit our tutorial to see all the details.
All others should now fill in our registration form .

Still hesitating?

That's clever! Read the article Why you shouldn't play chess at PlayChess and find some good arguments. But be careful: resistance to humour is futile…

So if you are especially careful - or just curious - why not visit our game pages and see some real tournaments and games?