Internet Chess Club (ICC)
Also referred to as the ICC, for obvious reasons, the Internet Chess Club has been on the go since 1995, where a small collective of Chess enthusiasts got together to create a website where they and others could, um, play Chess.
ICC Origins
The ICC's origins go further back than 1995 ... The small community were playing Chess during the 1980s and early 90s, when Professor Danny Sleator, of America's Carnegie Mellon University, came across them and saw potential for greater things.
Professor Sleator's vision was to band together a group of talented programmers, who would create a "feature-rich chess service".
From the early days of the ICC's new website, with a community of just a few hundred, 1995 saw membership balloon to over 10,000 regular users.
Today, the ICC boast on their website of having sold over 200,000 memberships and that their online community contains more members and more Chess Grandmasters than any other classical game provider on the Internet.
Internet Chess Club
- Membership Beneits -
While you can sign up for a seven day free trial, full members receive regular benefits, including ...
- Unlimited games you can play against both rated and unrated opponents, whose skill levels run the full range from beginner to Grandmaster.
- Enter chess tournaments, play in team games and group together to take on a single Grandmaster in 'simultaneous exhibitions'.
- Listen to Chess FM shows, which includes coverage of major tournaments, from time-to-time, among other weekday features.
- Like any community website, you're able to take advantage of social networking software to chat, make web-friends and do other chess related mixing.
- World class chess players hold private lessons, which you can join in with and learn.
- 5 million Chess games are held on ICC's database server, for you to explore.
A yearly membership is under $100, although you can pay for either 6 months, or 3 year membership durations.
Internet Chess Club
- Without Membership -
What some people will want to know is whether you can get any benefit without having to slap out for a membership ...
Naturally, with any membership website, they're going to keep the lion's share of their premium content for those who pay the fees.
The best free stuff, that can be accessed without signing up to be a member can be found in the CHESS.FM section and, specifically, the
Video Lectures ...
Here, you can usually find about half-a-dozen quality videos of recent Chess tournament matches, where a Grandmaster player will comment over the game, giving opinions, etc.
Even better, when the video player loads, on the left hand side, you might have to scroll down a bit, but you'll find the "GAMES OF THE DAY" section, with other Rounds of games you can watch - all commented on.
This is all good stuff ... Videos last about 20 minutes on average, featuring game play between top Chess professionals - the big names, such as Carlsen, Kramnik, Anand, Nakamura; I've seen commentary on all, from time-to-time ... and all for free.
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