Favorites

The following chess sites are those I have found to be the best and most useful on the web, though I admit this is a subjective list. Specific-opening and beginner sites are discussed elsewhere, so I have generally focused on quality sites with interesting content. I have listed them in very rough order from best to less than best (IMHO), though all are worth a visit for a variety of reasons.

Chess Cafe
Hanon Russell’s award winning site is so full of content you can just get immersed in it for hours. Taking the form of a monthly chess magazine, this site offers the best chess writing anywhere in print let alone the best available on the web.

Chessville.com
A very good and growing site, with one of the most comprehensive links pages anywhere on the web. I also think their Forum is one of the more active and interesting sites for chess discussion.

Chess Curiosities
Author Tim Krabbe’s immense collection of commentaries and curiosities. Like visiting a chess museum with a brilliant guide.

ChessBase
A great news site with lots of great reference resources. Also a great place to shop for software or books (especially since they teamed up with Chess Digest). Be sure to check out the ChessBase Online Database of games.

JeremySilman.com/chess
A very wide-ranging site with tons of content — some deeply buried but all great.

Chess Variants
A probably complete collection of all variants on the game of chess, with wonderful articles documenting the rules. Includes coverage of bug-house, Fisher Random, Kriegspiel, Shogi, Star Trek 3D Chess, and literally a thousand more you never heard of before. A truly amazing site. Those interested in Chess Variants may enjoy the Chess Variant Club.

Arena 1.1 Chess GUI
A wonderfully user-friendly Graphical User Interface for chessplay and study. The power of free programs is really top notch these days, and you can actually download the program with several pre-installed. I say you better get it while it is still free.

Scheming Mind
A highly intelligent web site featuring fascinating articles on the entire world of chess, from chess variants, to correspondence, to chess history and everything in between. The content here is growing and continues to impress. Also features great web design and excellent user interface. A very smart site all around.

ICC: The Internet Chess Club
A great place to play and home to Chess.fm.

TWIC: The Week in Chess
You want the latest chess news and games? Look no further. Excellent archives of relatively recent games too.

Net Chess News
A fun site featuring news and recent games to play right on the web.

ChessChamps.com
If you have purchased Garry Kasparov’s “Predecessors” books, you may find this site very interesting. Offers a forum for discussion and some follow-up on the books. Also, you should check out this page at ChessBase.

The Washington Post Chess Column by Lubomir Kavalek
The best weekly newspaper column.

Chess Lab
Home of over 2 million games in their Position Search Database, and online chess chess too.

Chess.net
Terry Bohannon’s growing play and study site, with players’ pictures and other interesting features. Most content requires membership.

Grandmaster Chess
An interesting and expanding site featuring articles (including some from the Petersburg Chess Digest Magazine), recent game downloads, and lessons.

About.Chess
I used to hate the About.com chess site with its pop-up ads and commercially-driven content. But it is now much better and likely one of the best sites around for beginners to about 1500-strength rating due to its strong content and frequent updates.

Hechiceros
NOTE: I have had trouble accessing this site with Netscape and older browsers. Use Internet Explorer. A Spanish-language web site with some amazingly good content, Hechiceros proves that in the world of chess, you really don’t need to know the language to poke around and learn something. And if you know any Spanish, you’ll find tons of great stuff here

New in Chess
This site mostly promotes the excellent journal and yearbooks of the same name but also features its own NIC Database.

The Chess Player by Georgi Orlov
An interesting site featuring articles, instruction, and opinion.

Convekta
Previously Chess Assistant. A good variety of material, including downloadable databases, analyzed games, and other instructional material.

FIDE
The official International Chess Federation web site has useful information on Federation-sponsored events, especially the World Championships.

Pakistan Chess Player
Who knew that the people of Pakistan had enough interest in chess to support an amazing chess site? This is one of the best of the web, with great access to current games and news.

Chess Today
Billed as the first daily chess newspaper. By subscription, but you can check out some sample issues and some free content here.

Chess Informant
The site of the Informator series of chess publications, with some online content.

Australian Chess News
A weekly column with game to play on the web.

The Scotsman, by John Henderson
No longer updated, but worth a visit for those who like sifting through archives.

Chess Archaeology
A great place to get serious about chess history, this site features some of the best articles about the royal game’s fascinating past.

Chess Talk Message Board
Perhaps a bit too Canadian-focused, but still worth a visit. A good place to go to chat about chess on the web.

rec.games.chess
Chess chat at the Google.com message board. The searchable archives are of more value than the current chat.

faqs.org/games/chess
There are several newsgroups besides rec.games.chess (which has become the main one due to its accessibility on the web). It is difficult to provide links to them online, though, so I have instead provided links to the wonderful faqs.org site with its digest of useful information that has been posted in these news groups. See also chess/gnu-faq, rec.games.chess.computer, rec.games.chess.misc.

Grandmaster Square
GM Baburin’s site features games, articles, recent pictures of GM events and other things. A bit unfocused, but worth a visit.

MasterMove
Remember Solitaire Chess, where you would guess the next move for points? Here is the web version. Very nicely designed interface.

Hull Chess Club
This is one of the better club sites in the world, with lots of interesting links and materials.

Correspondence Chess
One of those sites where you have to scroll to the bottom of the page and read nearly illegible characters to find the links before you can get to the great content.

Russian Chess
Recent and archived Russian games are one of the best features of this site.

U.S. Chess Online
The home page of the USCF and Chess Life Magazine.

Wholesale Chess Store
A great site for buying teaching, club and tournament supplies.