Answers.Body: <p>If you would like to play a lot of quick games, I would recommend FICS, or the Free Internet Chess Server.  Using a good interface like BabasChess or Winboard, it's response time is a lot crisper.  It has a long history with a lot of "culture", off-topic chat channels, 'bots', and a lot more master level players that some of the other sites.  </p>
  
  <p>Chess.com is also a good option.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-02T02:20:45.940Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2012-05-02T02:20:45.940Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Rex Butler
Answers.Body: <h1>ChessCube</h1>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.chesscube.com">ChessCube</a> has one of the nicest user interfaces, although it cannot be used with iPhone or iPads since it uses flash.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-05-12T16:36:17.210Z
Answers.Text: ChessCube feels like playing in a very different world. Liked it, but doesn't give a classical feel.
Answers.UserDisplayName: m4n0
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-01T21:38:27.693Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2012-05-02T07:12:16.750Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2012-05-02T07:12:16.750Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Bryan
Answers.Body: <p><a href="http://www.chess.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Chess.com</a> is very popular and free. It also has a Facebook app that you can use to play. You can also play with a time limit of days/weeks and this is very useful if you rarely can find the time to sit down and have a serious game straight.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-06-10T01:13:32.563Z
Answers.Text: @Sean This answer is 7 minutes *older* than Bort's answer.  +1
Answers.UserDisplayName: Daniel
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-01T21:23:50.520Z
Answers.Text: And it has both a iOS and Android app.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hugo Sereno Ferreira
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-02T07:13:00.760Z
Answers.Text: Answer is fine, except appears to be a duplicate.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Bryan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-02T13:01:08.000Z
Answers.Text: @Sean Before downvoting for duplicate answer you should order the answers by the "oldest" and see how they have been posted chronologically. This site orders the answers by voting and that could be misleading. There was only James Tomasino answer when I typed mine. Also, it's very common that two or more people start typing similar answers concurrently and they post them basically at the same time
Answers.UserDisplayName: Marsellus Wallace
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-02T13:02:21.413Z
Answers.Text: @Bryan See comment above.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Marsellus Wallace
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-01T21:17:57.173Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-12-20T08:39:24.517Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2016-12-20T08:39:24.517Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Marsellus Wallace
Answers.Body: <p><a href="http://www.redhotpawn.com">Red Hot Pawn</a> has a great chess community and is available for free, or with a paid subscription.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-01T21:07:10.100Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2012-05-01T21:07:10.100Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: James Tomasino
Answers.Body: <p><a href="http://www.chess.com" title="Chess.com">Chess.com</a> has become a hot spot, with live and correspondence chess, along with tactical problems, articles, etc.  The live chess is OK, but not the best. </p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.chessclub.com" title="ICC">ICC</a> or <a href="http://www.playchess.com" title="playchess">playchess</a> are the best for live chess, <a href="http://www.freechess.org" title="FICS">FICS</a> if you want free, but it doesn't have as many titled players or features.  Those sites will also have video's, live commentary of top level tournaments, and much more.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-05-12T16:35:12.470Z
Answers.Text: Agree with the live chess part on chess.com, it needs to be improved even now.
Answers.UserDisplayName: m4n0
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-06-07T23:04:07.067Z
Answers.Text: Recently a new hotspot for live chess has arisen at lichess.org, and most chess streamers on Twitch (e.g. penguingim, KingsCrusher) usually use that site now.
Answers.UserDisplayName: TMM
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-01T22:15:40.690Z
Answers.Text: I've used all these options, and I've found chess.com to have the friendliest community, and FICS by far the worst.
Answers.UserDisplayName: JaredDef
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-02T02:16:09.660Z
Answers.Text: I've been a member of FICS, on and off, since 1996.  I've found both to be friendly with a few extreme exceptions.  As for community, FICS can't be beat with it's chat channels on everything from math, movies, etc...
Answers.UserDisplayName: Rex Butler
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-04T13:17:24.440Z
Answers.Text: @Sean: I have AdBlock.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Daniel
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2012-05-01T21:24:51.610Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2012-05-01T21:24:51.610Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Bort
Body: <p>What are some of the best sites for online chess?</p>
  
  <p>Free sites with friendly communities are better.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-11-12T06:22:31.377Z
Comments.Text: I like Chessfriends.com. Free to use (with some limits), nice UI, and great Android/iOS apps!
Comments.UserDisplayName: Dennis Golomazov
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2012-05-02T15:57:31.837Z
Comments.Text: Stack Exchange doesn't generally work well for questions that are just polling the community. The guidance is **"real questions have answers, not items or ideas or opinions."** That always sounds crazy to a new community, but trust me, avoiding these recommendation questions (especially early in the best) has proven itself time and time again as the core community starts to see where it all goes wrong. I urge you to read this short blog post: **[Real Questions Have Answers](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/01/real-questions-have-answers/)** because I am running out of room here. Thanks.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Robert Cartaino
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2012-05-05T15:07:04.353Z
Comments.Text: Agreed .but why not converting this to community wikik instead of closing?
Comments.UserDisplayName: Tachyons
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2012-05-07T21:36:28.263Z
Comments.Text: Because community wiki does not make this question any more of a "list your favorite chess site" poll. See http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/08/the-future-of-community-wiki/
Comments.UserDisplayName: Robert Cartaino
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2015-04-01T14:21:10.373Z
Comments.Text: I was using chesscube they were the best in matching skills, but they went commercial and website is in flash , I google and found chess24.com to be have very nice UI and that they have actual grandmasters playing over there. I will give it a try for a while and see how it goes
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ismail Marmoush
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-16T20:39:34.263Z
Comments.Text: This is an old thread, but wanted to leave a link to [lichess.org](http://lichess.org) which is totally free, with no adverts and has extraordinary features for learning and analyzing games. It has great mobile apps, and works great in the browser too.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Billy Moon
Tags: <online-chess><websites>
Title: What are some of the best sites to play chess?
ThreadText: # What are some of the best sites to play chess?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2012-05-01)
  
  What are some of the best sites for online chess?
  
  Free sites with friendly communities are better.
  
  **Tags:** online-chess, websites
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: Stack Exchange doesn't generally work well for questions that are just polling the community. The guidance is **"real questions have answers, not items or ideas or opinions."** That always sounds crazy to a new community, but trust me, avoiding these recommendation questions (especially early in the best) has proven itself time and time again as the core community starts to see where it all goes wrong. I urge you to read this short blog post: **[Real Questions Have Answers](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/01/real-questions-have-answers/)** because I am running out of room here. Thanks.  
  > **username_3**: Agreed .but why not converting this to community wikik instead of closing?  
  > **username_2**: Because community wiki does not make this question any more of a "list your favorite chess site" poll. See http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/08/the-future-of-community-wiki/  
  > **username_1**: I like Chessfriends.com. Free to use (with some limits), nice UI, and great Android/iOS apps!  
  > **username_4**: I was using chesscube they were the best in matching skills, but they went commercial and website is in flash , I google and found chess24.com to be have very nice UI and that they have actual grandmasters playing over there. I will give it a try for a while and see how it goes  
  > **username_5**: This is an old thread, but wanted to leave a link to [lichess.org](http://lichess.org) which is totally free, with no adverts and has extraordinary features for learning and analyzing games. It has great mobile apps, and works great in the browser too.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 5 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_13 on 2012-05-01. Score: 25 | Accepted answer
  
  [Chess.com](http://www.chess.com "Chess.com") has become a hot spot, with live and correspondence chess, along with tactical problems, articles, etc. The live chess is OK, but not the best.
  
  [ICC](http://www.chessclub.com "ICC") or [playchess](http://www.playchess.com "playchess") are the best for live chess, [FICS](http://www.freechess.org "FICS") if you want free, but it doesn't have as many titled players or features. Those sites will also have video's, live commentary of top level tournaments, and much more.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_15**: I've used all these options, and I've found chess.com to have the friendliest community, and FICS by far the worst.  
  > **username_6**: I've been a member of FICS, on and off, since 1996.  I've found both to be friendly with a few extreme exceptions.  As for community, FICS can't be beat with it's chat channels on everything from math, movies, etc...  
  > **username_10**: @Sean: I have AdBlock.  
  > **username_8**: Agree with the live chess part on chess.com, it needs to be improved even now.  
  > **username_14**: Recently a new hotspot for live chess has arisen at lichess.org, and most chess streamers on Twitch (e.g. penguingim, KingsCrusher) usually use that site now.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2012-05-02. Score: 11
  
  If you would like to play a lot of quick games, I would recommend FICS, or the Free Internet Chess Server. Using a good interface like BabasChess or Winboard, it's response time is a lot crisper. It has a long history with a lot of "culture", off-topic chat channels, 'bots', and a lot more master level players that some of the other sites.
  
  Chess.com is also a good option.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2012-05-01. Score: 10
  
  # ChessCube
  
  [ChessCube](http://www.chesscube.com) has one of the nicest user interfaces, although it cannot be used with iPhone or iPads since it uses flash.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_8**: ChessCube feels like playing in a very different world. Liked it, but doesn't give a classical feel.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_9 on 2012-05-01. Score: 9
  
  [Chess.com](http://www.chess.com/) is very popular and free. It also has a Facebook app that you can use to play. You can also play with a time limit of days/weeks and this is very useful if you rarely can find the time to sit down and have a serious game straight.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_11**: And it has both a iOS and Android app.  
  > **username_7**: Answer is fine, except appears to be a duplicate.  
  > **username_9**: @Sean Before downvoting for duplicate answer you should order the answers by the "oldest" and see how they have been posted chronologically. This site orders the answers by voting and that could be misleading. There was only username_12 answer when I typed mine. Also, it's very common that two or more people start typing similar answers concurrently and they post them basically at the same time  
  > **username_9**: @username_7 See comment above.  
  > **username_10**: @Sean This answer is 7 minutes *older* than username_13's answer.  +1  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_12 on 2012-05-01. Score: 6
  
  [Red Hot Pawn](http://www.redhotpawn.com) has a great chess community and is available for free, or with a paid subscription.
  
  
  ---
  
  