Just curiuos as to how many of our readers (that is, people that read this forum), play online chess, and what’s your favorite/prefered chess server.
I like FICS (Free Internet Chess Server) myself.
I wish I could have a more formal poll, but I don’t think this forum supports that, or has never been enabled anyway.
I play mostly on ICC and Chess.com. It’s been years since I’ve played on the Yahoo Games servers.
I like FICS, however I am currently playing the most on ICC. I got a membership to take lessons from Dan Heisman and he got me hooked on the slow time control stuff.
My favorite now is the standard or slower time control. I am playing in the Team 45 45 League where it is Game 45 with a 45 second increment. This plays about identical to Game 80 with a 5 second delay.
I got a DGT board from an auction ridiculously cheap and bought the pieces, wires, etc to make it workable. I use this to play these slow games with and it is identical to an OTB tournament playing experience.
I know FICS has slow time controls as well, but this league is great and I am now getting 2 games a week this way.
I don’t play online. Although I’m perfectly happy to play other games online, including go, for some reason I enjoy chess only when it’s face-to-face.
I use Gameknot and play pretty fast.
The 45 45 league exists on FICS, as well.
I play on FICS mostly for “real time” games and chess.com for correspondence style games (one move every X days).
I play on ICC. Usually 3 0, 5 0, 15 0, or 45-45 (in that league).
I play a little online at WCL.
I am an ICC administrator (2000-current) and former FICS administrator (1997-1999). Sometimes I also play on Chess.com and PlayChess. My favorite site is ICC (yes, I am biased), but my impression is that Chess.com seems to be moving up the ladder rapidly.
If all you want is a place to play some games off and on, then FICS is fine. Certainly FICS beats any of the Java-based sites in the vast amount of features available. The popular pay sites all cater to very active players, strong players and those interested in listening to multimedia instructional videos.
Michael Aigner
I do not play on line.
Russell Miller Camas WA
Once in a blue moon I’ll play as a guest on Instant Chess.
Its a really quick way to get a game, although your limited to random opponents @ game/15. (As a guest anyway).
I have never played online. I’ve heard too many stories about cheaters who use computers to play their moves.
Even though I’ve never played online, my only experience with ICC was a bad one. A few years ago, I got a congratulations phone call from a Nassau Chess Club member for joining ICC. I hadn’t joined. I learned that this member of my local chess club had played someone pretending to be me. This impostor signed up for a guest account using my name and included my email address in the finger notes.
I was able to get the contact email address of one the founders of ICC and contacted him. One thing that became clear very quickly was that he had his priorities backwards. Even though ICC could have taken less than 5 minutes to verify that the identity thief wasn’t me by sending a verification email to the email address given when he/she registered, they didn’t. He implied that, as my email address was easy to obtain on the Internet, that I was somehow responsible for my own victimization. When I tried to find out who it was that had impersonated me, he refused to divulge the name of the perpetrator unless I got a subpoena. Did ICC do anything to the identity thief? ICC never told me.
Why would anyone want to belong to an organization that protects the perpetrator at the expense of the victim?
I had liked to play on chess.com but I hadn’t wanted to pay to be a member and they kept down-grading free membership benefits. Also, it had a lot of pop-ups that I was concerned about so I stopped going there. Now I primarily play on yahoo chess when I play online. It works well to satisfy my need for games if I’m not playing enough chess and it’s been quite a while since I’ve run into a cheater and I play in a decently high rated section (1700-1900).
FICS!!!
I’ve gravitated to chess.com for slow play. I’m playing a tournament now with 14 days per move. I find ICC to be absurdly expensive. Playchess is OK and it’s a perk with Fritz 12. They seem to offer a Fritz upgrade every year that makes it easy to stay on playchess.
Chess Assistant Club is excellent as well. Most of the players are Russian or Eastern European. It’s also free.
FICAS is good as well, but it seems there is not much activity there at times.
Over the board is best–every town should have a club open every day–sort of like a chicken in every pot.
FICS. It has been quite a while since I played rated games under my login name, but I play as a guest four or more times a week.
Every once in awhile I go onto FICS, but I agree with anjiaoshi’s sentiment. I much prefer face to face play. I think the flat board is what makes it hard for me. I play hearts online and enjoy it.
I knew I had seen your screen name somewhere before… 
I played a little on ICC over a decade ago. (Always seemed to chat more than play.)
Currently I have accounts on both FICS and Playchess.com (thanks to Fritz 12.) But I don’t play on either, really. I’ve started doing correspondence again via IECC.
Otherwise, like anjiaoshi, I prefer OTB.
I obtained a DGT board very inexpensively from an auction, free from my brother-in-law. I then bought the wiring and adapter, pieces for the set, and a clock and bag to complete the setup.
I use this on ICC and FICS to play slow time control chess. Both providers have interfaces that recognize the DGT setup.
When I make the move on the DGT setup, it immediately transmits my moves through the internet to the server and effectively “hits” my clock. I do need to make my opponent’s move on the board, but at the slower time control it is not a problem at all.
I actually have this all set up to really duplicate an OTB experience. I even use my eNotate system to keep score as I do when I play a USCF rated game/tournament.
On ICC the league time control is 45 minutes with a 45 second increment. This plays about the same as a G/80 with a 5 second delay in OTB.
I am just signing up for the FICS slow time control league.
So, my internet experience is really like playing an OTB game, except for my opponent to see and actually talk with.
That’s nice set up. If I had something like that, I might actually consider playing online more. However I play enough OTB chess I don’t really need slow internet games. Though it would be a good way to work on new opening without risking real rating points.