The Best Websites to Play Online Chess in 2021
Finding the right platform is important for your overall experience and growth as a chess player. I review some of the more popular options available today so you can make an informed decision on where to get started.
Introduction
With the influx of new chess players arriving into the community for the first time (and ultimately chess websites), I thought it might be a good idea to review some of the more popular options. My goal here is not to give my opinion on what the “best” overall chess website is. Instead, I want to focus this review towards which of the platforms best serve the absolute beginner. That means that considering features like; access to and coverage of world level tournaments, will not really be a consideration. Finally, the review is only based on the free features available on each site using their web platform (and not mobile).
Criteria
Just to clarify what I mean by “absolute beginner”, I mean anyone within the range of never having played the game before to knowing where the pieces move (i.e. they have played, but do not have a deep understanding of strategy and tactics). That being said, some of the criteria will still be relevant for any level of player, so they review should still hold some value for everyone.
- User Interface (UI) and Overall User Experience (UX): Is the site clean, responsive, and easy to navigate?
- Learning Features: Does the site provide features and content tailored towards beginner?
- Community: Are there user groups (clubs), friends, tournaments, and community related content that will keep users interested and involved?
- Unique Features: Just any notable features that set the site apart from its competition.
Each criterion will be given a weight of 5 for a best possible score of 20/20.
Lichess.org
Overall Score: 17.5/20
Description
Lichess is an open source chess website managed and run by only two or three developers. It has one of the largest player bases, and at the time of writing this article I see roughly 80,000 users currently online. The site has been around since 2014, but from what I can recall, it only really gained major popularity within the past three years or so. In my opinion, Lichess is best known for its simplicity, sleek UI design, and regular tournaments which are very popular with the chess community. Also, it is 100% free.
UI and Overall User Experience
Score: 5/5
Lichess has the best UI and UX by a significant margin. The platform is simple and streamlined so that you can find a game or other content as fast as possible. Pages load quickly and the board feels responsive. Also, the site is not bogged down by (any) annoying adds which are constantly reloading while you are trying to play.
Learning Features
Score: 5/5
Lichess keeps it simple but effective in terms of its learning features and content. It uses interactive modules that will keep a new user interested and involved. Most importantly, Lichess has a free tactics trainer that is as comprehensive as any out there. Note that this is usually a premium (paid) feature on other sites. Finally, you get a complete analysis board with Stockfish running at full depth.
Community
Score: 3.5/5
Lichess has pretty standard community features. Basically, you can join teams which can host their own tournaments and have their own forums. There is also a global forum for the entire site. In terms of chat, your options are really only the in-game chat and the global chat lobby.
Unique Features
Score: 4/5
Lichess has some very popular tournament setups that really set it apart from the competition. In particular, its arena tournaments include a feature where you can half your time at the start of the game for the opportunity to double your points on the scoreboard. The team at Lichess also puts together “24 hour marathon” tournaments which draw in a lot of players. Besides the tournaments, you also have the option to play many different chess variants like Crazyhouse, chess960, and King of the Hill which are worth exploring.
Conclusion
Lichess has my vote for the best chess website for beginners. It sticks to the basics and has the most important features you would expect a chess website to have (and implements them very well). Like I mentioned before, it is also free. While I respect the fact that many premium subscriptions are well worth the money for an active chess player, it is unlikely that a new player will be willing to put up the money right away.
Chess.com
Score: 16/20
Description
Chess.com is the largest chess platform, and the most popular destination for online chess. At the time of writing this article, I see 315,000 players currently online. It also has the largest number of titled players compared to any other site. Chess.com has been around in one form or another since the late 90’s. While chess.com has always been popular destination for new players (likely due to a great domain name) I remember having some major issues with their platform and preferred the desktop client’s of ICC (Internet Chess Club) and Playchess (reviewed later). This was in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s when I played the most. Around 2016 they overhauled their slow UI and attracted a lot of titled players like (Hikaru Nakamura). Most recently, they have been actively involved in the streaming community at twitch.tv and have experienced huge amounts of growth as a result.
UI and Overall User Experience
Score: 4/5
The chess.com UI is decent looking, responsive, and fairly quick to load. In terms of the UX for new players, I think the platform is a bit too busy. The live chess component is good, but overall I would say that the site almost suffers from too many features (on the sidebar). It would be interesting to see how many of these are actually used by its player base on a regular basis. My feeling here is that all these options could be a bit overwhelming or unnecessary for new players.
Learning Features
Score: 3/5
Chess.com offers a lot of great learning material, but most of it is behind the a user membership. This includes the tactics trainer (which I think is the most important tool for new players). They do give you a free trial of sorts on this, but it is limited to three puzzles per day. The video content is great, but again, is behind a membership. Probably the most notable free learning materials are the drills (e.g. endgames, checkmates, etc.). I would say it is comparable to the Lichess modules I discussed before.
Community
Score: 5/5
The community is one of the strong points of chess.com. You get full and customizable user profiles, clubs, forums, and blogs. They also support the community by getting involved with live streams, content, and tournaments. A significant amount of this content is beginner focused.
Unique Features
Score: 4/5
Chess.com offers daily chess, which is basically correspondence chess (played over a number of days or months). If this interests you, I think that chess.com is the only site out of the four that offers this. The site also offers even more chess variants than Lichess. Again, most of the the interesting features that set chess.com apart are behind a paywall.
Conclusion
I am of the general opinion that Chess.com has the best chess platform going right now. They have the most players, the biggest community and chess personalities, and the most titled player. But, putting myself in the beginner chess players shoes, I have to give Lichess the edge for its accessibility. If you are involved with chess enough that you want to start paying for more content, I think moving over to chess.com at some point is the natural transition.
Chess24.com
Score: 11.5/20
Description
Chess24 was established in 2014 and is supported by a number of well known and top grand masters such as world champion Magnus Carlsen and ex world champion Viswanathan Anand. At the time of writing this article, there are roughly 3000 users currently online. I honestly haven’t played too much on Chess24 in the past, but I spent a few days there playing games and exploring their platform in preparation for this review. From what I understand, they are best known for their tournament coverage and expert content and videos. They also feature Magnus Carlsen and other top grand masters in their “Banter Blitz” video series.
UI and Overall User Experience
Score: 3/5
I’m really not too big of a fan of Chess24’s UI. It does seem a bit sluggish and dated. Another issue I had was the board size. I am using a 15 inch monitor and the default size is basically unplayable. You can toggle to a larger size, which makes it playable (but still small). Off course, you can use the zoom function on your browser, but still, that shouldn’t be necessary. Other than that, I think the site is fairly intuitive to navigate and find what you are looking for.
Learning Features
Score: 3/5
Chess24 has a good set of modules (broken up into “The Rules of Chess”, “The Pieces”, and “Checkmate”). Overall, I would say it is the most in-depth free tutorial on any site, but I feel like most beginners would prefer the 100% interaction the Lichess modules provide. Chess24 combines readings, video, and some interaction for each module. If this is more your cup of tea, then it might be worth checking out. Other than that, Chess24 doesn’t seem to offer many more features. The tactics trainer is capped at five puzzles per day for free accounts. Even if you do want to pay for content, there are very few instructional videos for players less than 1200 elo.
Community
Score: 2.5/5
The Chess24 community basically consists of a simple forum and standard chat functionalities. One important point to note is that there is no clubs or teams. When I was checking out the site, there were very few people playing in tournaments, roughly 5–10 if there were enough to start it in the first place.
Unique Features
Score: 2/5
On the free side of things, Chess24 doesn’t appear to offer anything unique or special.
Conclusion
In my opinion, chess.com and Lichess offer everything that Chess24 does but better. That being said, I don’t think that Chess24 is bad by any means, they are just more tailored to a different audience. If you enjoy following international tournaments and are willing to pay for top quality content, I think that Chess24 is a solid option.
Playchess — Chessbase
Score: 10/20
Description
Playchess is a chess server run by ChessBase, which is probably one of the oldest (still standing) chess multimedia companies. I think they are best know for there chess engine Fritz, and their ChessBase (database) of games which is one of the largest. Just a warning, their browser version of Playchess is usable but pretty terrible. It took me a bit to find but they still have their desktop client available (only for Windows though), so I will be using that to review instead. This is kind of cheating, since I say “websites” in the title, but as far as I know, they do have the best free desktop client, so I think its worth bringing it to peoples attention. At the time of writing this article, Playchess had about 1000 users online.
UI and Overall User Experience
Score: 4/5
The UI is nicely laid out and it is clear and easy to access all the features with intuitive icons. The UI itself probably hasn’t changed for the past 10 years, but it does not feel too dated.
Learning Features
Score: 2.5/5
There’s really not too many learning features on Playchess. You get free tactics on through their online application, but its as basic as it gets in terms of functionality. As far as I could tell, it does not keep your rating and the puzzles seem random. There are some interesting game types (like one where you are allowed a finite number of different types of hints during the game — kind of like Jeopardy), but I don’t think that alone is enough to justify using Playchess. Like most other site, instructional videos and I believe the (full) tactics trainer are behind a subscription.
Community
Score: 1/5
The one nice attribute of the Playchess is that you get different chat channels. Unfortunately, there are not too many people to chat with. Clubs exist, but they are mostly German since that’s where Chessbase is from. Tournaments do occur at specified times, but they do not run on a regular basis. Finally, it does not appear that any sort of forum exists for their platform.
Unique Features
Score: 2.5/5
I will just say that their desktop client allows them to implement some features in ways that you would not really be able to do on a web browser. That differentiates Playchess a bit. Other than that, everything is pretty standard.
Conclusion
The Playchess user base seems to have taken a pretty big hit due to sites like Chess.com and Lichess. Again, I think the platform is worth mentioning, but as beginner, I don’t think their free content will be very useful for your development.
Overall
- Lichess.org: 17.5/20
- Chess.com: 16/20
- Chess24: 11.5
- Playchess: 10
Final Thoughts
It might seem a bit excessive to write a review like this, since, after all, chess is chess. Still, new players are much more likely to stick around if they find a solid community of players around their level. It is good to lay out all the options, so that people can get an overview of the landscape and make an informed decision. Hopefully, at the very least, this article saves you some time. Also, let me know your opinions on any one of these sites and if I have left out any important details.
