Play a game of Chess

or just watch others play

Click to play or watch

Have fun playing and always remember ...

"In chess you do not wait for things to happen - you make them happen. If not, things will happen to you"

Irving Chernev & Fred Reinfeld 1948

I usually play chess online at www.playchess.com, using Fritz 8 by ChessBase, but cannot play against any of my friends who do not also own this software. Therefore, I decided to search for a way to allow my friends and I to play online without the need for chess programs or having to join other online public chess servers, which at first, can be somewhat overwhelming and confusing...and besides that, a lot of them charge money to join. After a lot of searching I found this awesome little package. It's called BeholderBoard and it's free to use on your own website. It has very nice graphics and several gameplay options. The only minor downside is that you cannot drag-n-drop your pieces, but must enter your moves using algebraic notation, which is a standard for modern chess and should be familiar to most chess players, but if not, then it is a great thing to learn and the coordinates are shown along the sides of the board to help you do so. Read through some brief instructions below on how to create a game or simply watch one in progress. The games may be played at your own pace, but there is a time limit of 30 days to make a move, otherwise the game may be deleted if no move has been made within that period. At some point, there may be an email notification function to let you know when it is your move, but unfortunately, it's not working right now...I'm still working on it. In the meantime you will have to email your opponent yourself or as an alternative you may use these chat rooms to leave messages for your opponent. The messages in each room will remain visible for at least 30 days. The main chat window will refresh every 5 minutes or after sending your message, but you may also refresh or reload it manually. Note: The channels are not private and the messages will be visible to all who enter, but there are several different rooms to choose from and if you send me an email or leave me a message in the 'General' room requesting a separate room for you and your opponent to use then I will create one for you. You could also just use some other commercial IM interfaces such as AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, mIRC, etc.

Note: This is not a public chess server. You will need to have an opponent in mind before playing or create a game and then invite someone to join. I have set a maximum limit of 100 games that can be in progress at any one time.
Games created after this limit has been reached may be deleted without notice.

(Finished games are not counted in the total number of games)

On the next page you will see a list of games. You will have the option of creating your own game or just observing a game in progress. All games will be listed including in progress and finished ones. You can select any game to observe or analyze or you can create a new game and invite someone to play. Just fill in the information for the game and click Create Game and you should be presented with a message telling you the game was created successfully and its number. Select it to open it.

Note: Your game may not necessarily be put at the bottom of the list. The program will automatically sort the list by Game # and will fill in the empty slots in the list before appending them to the bottom of game list. When the board loads, just enter your move in the Board Options window located below the chessboard and click Update. The board will then update with the new move.

It would be a good idea to enter a password before clicking update because if you do not password protect your moves then anyone observing the game could potentially make a move for you.

If you have been invited to play a game which has been started by someone else then select it from the list of games and when the board loads you should already see their move. You also have the option of reversing the board so the Black pieces are at the bottom of the board. Just enter your move, password protect it if you wish, and click Update. Your move will then be displayed on their screen as well as yours.

The board will auto-refresh every 3 minutes or you can 'Refresh' or 'Reload' the page manually.

Read the Help file for more information or send me an email if you have any further questions.