How to Start Chess Online

Playing chess online is a new experience. We can play real chess even without an opponent physically present in front us. But there is an opponent facing us—on screen, that is. It could be chess software or a real person located miles away or even on the other side of the planet.

We can choose to play against a virtual opponent, if we want to just try the online game the first time or against a human opponent for a real challenge. We can also choose to play against a player of our skill level or those more advanced skills than ours. After playing chess long enough online, we may choose to join online tournaments.

The first thing to do is to go online and choose a chess site. There are many online. As a beginner, we may choose free online chess. All we have to do is register, choose a username and password, and we're ready to enjoy chess online right away.

Just look for the "play now" button (or something similar), click on it, and a fresh setup chess board online will appear right before us on the screen with a virtual opponent who's kind, polite, and ready to go easy on us.

We don't have to setup the board ourselves as we do with land-based chess games. The software does that for us. All we need to do is choose options, like "play now," "new game," or "quit." If we want to resign or discontinue the game, we simply click on "resign" or other similar options. Everything is done by a mere click of our mouse.

We can also opt for a paid membership in the site if we want to advance in level. For instance, we're bored of virtual opponents (because we always win against them without a sweat) and we'd like to try out live players more skilled than we are. We step up to the next level by following online instructions displayed on the screen.

When playing chess online for free the site will keep reminding us if we want to advance in level. It will pop up a small box asking the question, with a "yes" or "no" selection. We simply click on "yes." Then instructions follow.

Playing chess online is simple. If we found land-based chess simple and enjoyable, the more we'll find online chess a double pleasure. Everything is served us on a silver platter and all we have to do is click on our options.