Your favorite chess server

[BrendanJNorman]

LiChess, and for books and study Forward Chess works for me these days..

Followed. Let's play some time.

- CoachBrendan

Done! Now we just need to setup time and tech (Webcams, Etc)

We definitely need to do this! Due to being a coach, I have a premium Zoom account we can use.

Let's get it organized via DMs on liChess.

[Uri]

Playchess sucks because many of the people there are unfriendly.

No one wants to play with me on Playchess therefore I think the people there are unfriendly.

No offence to anyone here but that's why I hate playing against strangers on the Internet and therefore always prefer to play against the computer who is always ready to play with me and is always friendly to me, even if he loses all the games.

[Ovyron]

Lichess. I found out chess is all about playing fast and avoiding blunders, that's it. That's why I only play 5 +0, and when I play 10 +0 I cut my time in half because I don't need the extra 5 minutes. Have been really close to breaking 1900 rating, but alas, when I'm at the top of a tourney they throw the strongest guy against me and I just crumble.

[Dariusz]

Playchess sucks because many of the people there are unfriendly.

No one wants to play with me on Playchess therefore I think the people there are unfriendly.

No offence to anyone here but that's why I hate playing against strangers on the Internet and therefore always prefer to play against the computer who is always ready to play with me and is always friendly to me, even if he loses all the games.

It's unfortunate that you have such an experience with PlayChess, but I have the complete opposite.

I play on PlayChess for many years and I am, very but very satisfied.

I have many friends there, with whom I regularly play, talk and have fun in a friendly atmosphere.
It is on PlayChess that I can play freely with friendly people. Especially you can see and feel this atmosphere at tournaments, where people deserve praise - tournament directors (not bots as on most other chess servers), who are always helpful, and friendly.

It is on PlayChess is the least so called random players in comparison to other servers. I really like the dedicated software to play on this server, because it has very good protection against cheaters. Many of my friends have and had problems on other servers because of false positive detection of their games, which classified them as people supporting chess engines. Especially lichess stands out in minus in this matter.

I warmly invite you to play online on the PlayChess server. I assure you that you will meet many interesting and nice players there.

ps.
On PlayChess I play under the nickname: chessengeria or sedarpl.

[reflectionofpower]

I voted other because I subscribe to both Lichess & Chess.com and usually stick to 3 0. They are light years ahead of the text based chess servers which were dominant many years ago.

[Ovyron]

tournament directors (not bots as on most other chess servers)

This is where Lichess dropped the ball. They allow human tournament directors but they used to advertise their tournaments on the main page. Now they're not advertised anywhere so people can't join.

It's as if people were supposed to play on their bot tournaments and human tournaments were stealing their players or something..

[towforce]

I use Chess.com, and I've never used Lichess. Why is Lichess better? I'm guessing that it was first, not better - am I right?

[Dariusz]

tournament directors (not bots as on most other chess servers)

This is where Lichess dropped the ball. They allow human tournament directors but they used to advertise their tournaments on the main page. Now they're not advertised anywhere so people can't join.

It's as if people were supposed to play on their bot tournaments and human tournaments were stealing their players or something..

Yeah, it's weird.

When I want to play chess online, I like it when I can chat with a player or many players I know. And sometimes I can chat with the tournament referee, exchange opinions, ask about something - just chat in a human way.

On servers such as lichess, where it's hard to have a normal tournament (according to my understanding) there are arenas - I can't do it.
Mass of random players, often unpleasant (because they think that you will not meet again), bot instead of a man dealing with the tournament. No. Well no.

If I already devote my time to play online, I want it to be just ok, cool and friendly.
That's why I've been playing in one and the same place for years. I know many cool people who play there regularly. It is ok. And I hope it will be like this for as long as possible.

[Dariusz]

I’m with Frank on this one, I’m too old and my brain doesn’t compute fast enough for online chess ….


Al.

I don't like fast chess either. I play mostly 15+10 rapid, with some 5+3 for less serious games. Never without increment.

After getting bored with chess programming, I finally discovered the fun of actually playing chess. First on chess.com, until I discovered Lichess.org, and never went back to chess.com.

The fact that almost all chess YouTube channels, and titled players, use exclusively chess.com, and are forbids to speak the name Lichess, speaks volumes by itself. If it was not 10x better than chess.com, why would chess.com have to resort to bribery and blackmail to silence the competition ?

What's with these ratings though? Must be American. On Lichess I can play 2400+ on PLaychess I get killed against those ratings.

Lichess overestimates ranking.
Playing on Lichess I was making over 2400 with no problem, although I am far from grandmaster and realistically I play with the strength of 2000 - 2100 maximum.

On PlayChess if someone regularly reaches 2400 he really plays with the strength of the grandmaster or a very strong master - and this is a real reflection of his playing strength.

[Ovyron]

When I want to play chess online, I like it when I can chat with a player or many players I know. And sometimes I can chat with the tournament referee, exchange opinions, ask about something - just chat in a human way.

On servers such as lichess, where it's hard to have a normal tournament (according to my understanding) there are arenas - I can't do it.

Oh, I then recommend joining a lichess team and playing on team tournaments, hopefully you'll join a talkative team where members support each other, and you can chat with members of the opposing teams.