How to play chess online for free?

We tried to make the user interface clean and playing the game as intuitive as possible. Below you can see a short description of user interface, controls and their functions.

Homepage

Homepage is divided into the following parts:

1. the chessboard – on the chessboard you can see randomly chosen live game
2. the games offer list – on the right from the chessboard, there is the list of games which the players join or to which they can also publish their own game offer by using the button Create game
3. control buttons
   • PLAY NOW – after clicking this button, a game from the games offer list is randomly chosen. In case there is no game offer available, the system creates and publishes the game offer for the user.
   • Invite a friend – this serves for inviting friends via e-mail or social networks. It is possible to choose between standard variant or chess 960 (Fischer random chess), whether the game will be timed and what the tempo will be, color of the pieces and whether the game will be rated or not (rated game influences the rating of the user. Please note, that rated games can be played only by registered users. After setting the parameters by clicking the button Create game a menu with unique link to the game will appear, and the first person to visit this link will play the game against you.
   • Create game – once the game parameters are chosen (these are the same as in Invite a friend) the game offer will be published in games offer list and other users of the page will be able to accept the challenge by clicking the corresponding game offer.
   • Play against computer – in case you do not want to play against human opponent, you have the option to play chess against computer. In addition to the settings described earlier (e.g. piece color, game clocks etc.) there is one more setting which allows you to choose from 8 predefined levels of AI strength (1 being the easiest, 8 the hardest).
4. announcement area (or the event ticker) – above the control buttons, there is a stripe in which various information (e.g. challenges from other users, draw offers etc.) is displayed to the user.

The chess game

The page with the chess game itself is divided similarly:

1. the chessboard with the game
2. the block with game info (game clock, captured pieces, chat, scoresheet etc.)
3. buttons with in-game commands
   • Resign – by clicking this button you resign your game
   • Draw – with this button you can offer your opponent a draw, accept a draw offer from your opponent or claim a draw (e.g. on threefold repetition rule)
   • Cancel – the game can be cancelled if both players did not make their move yet
   • Undo – here you can ask your opponent to take back your move
   • More time – adds 10 seconds to your opponent’s clock
   • Hint – when playing against computer, you can ask for a hint
4. announcement area (or the event ticker) – above the buttons with in-game commands, various information is displayed to the user (e.g. draw offer etc.).

All important functions are free and do not require registration. Registration is free and brings advantages such as the possibility to earn rating points, to save the games in user’s profile or advanced appearance settings.