Chess Tournaments | Online Chess Tournaments

December 5, 2022

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Chess tournaments are a great way to improve your chess game. It’s a simple rule – the more you play, the better you will get. Chess tournaments can provide you with the competitive platform that you need to improve your level. They offer a variety of ways to play chess, you can play against people of your same level or against someone who is better than you.

Let’s go through the different chess tournaments.

Online Chess Tournaments for Kids

Here is a list of some of the most popular platforms where you can participate in various online chess tournaments and compete with other players.

1. FIDE Online Arena

The FIDE Online Arena is the International Chess Federation’s (FIDE) official exclusive Internet chess server devoted to chess playing and related activities. A test version of the server began on August 8, 2013; the fully operational version was announced in October 2013.

online chess tournaments — FIDE Online Arena

FIDE Online Arena is the only official online chess platform of the World Chess Federation where Online Official games, online chess tournaments and World Championships can be played, with Official International ratings and titles.

In 2019, the Arena was acquired and is now managed by World Chess, the company that organized the World Chess Championship Matches in both World Chess and FIDE from 2014.

For details check here.

For details about regulations click here.

Apart from FIDE Online Arena there are a number of online servers that offer opportunities for players to participate in online chess tournaments. These are:

2. Chess.com

Chess.com is an internet chess server, news website, and social networking website. The site has a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others for accounts with subscriptions. Live online chess can be played against other users at daily, rapid, blitz, or bullet time controls, with a number of chess variants available. Chess versus a chess engine, computer analysis, chess puzzles, and teaching resources are also offered.

One of the largest chess platforms in the world, Chess.com hosts the following online chess tournaments:

A. Titled Tuesdays

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s weekly 11-round Swiss tournament for titled players, occurring twice each Tuesday since February 1, 2022. GM Hikaru Nakamura has won the most Titled Tuesday events since October 20, 2020, with 27 total victories.

The format is as follows:

Format: Swiss
Rounds : 11
Time Control: 3+1 Blitz
Breaks After rounds: 4 & 8
Approx. Duration: 150 minutes (2 hours 30 minutes)

For details check here.

B. The PRO Chess League

Arena Royale is a special, one-week event for the PCL and will have a $100,000 prize fund. Elite chess players from different teams from all over the globe will compete in a series of the blitz and rapid games to determine the PRO Chess League champion.

The format of the plays is that the group competes in an arena with a 3+0 time control that lasts for two hours. The top six scores from each team count towards the team point total.

For details check here.

C. The Speed Chess Championships

In the Speed Chess Championships, the players compete for different titles like:

Bullet Chess Championship
Junior Speed Chess Championship
Grand Prix
Super Swiss

For details check here.

D. PogChamps

The ProgChamps conducts matches at individual and team levels. Based on the FIFA World Cup, the players compete for their share of a prize fund through a group stage and championship playoff.

For details check here.

E. Quick Knockouts

Quick Knockouts are for only those players who play their games quickly (who have a low average. Time per play) Games are controlled for 1 day.

The games have the following format:

Games are a 1 daytime control
All games with each opponent start immediately (10 games per round!)
Players must have already finished 10 games on Chess.com

For details check here.

3. Chess24

chess24.com is an Internet chess server established in 2014 by German Grandmaster Jan Gustafsson and Enrique Guzman. Among people collaborating with chess24 are World Champions, Grandmasters, and International Masters including Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Francisco Vallejo Pons, David Anton Guijarro, Dorsa Derakhshani, Lawrence Trent, Sopiko Guramishvili, and Hou Yifan.

It offers Playzone Tournaments that allow you to test your skills in online chess tournaments with other members of the chess24 community.

For details check here.

4. Chessbase.com

ChessBase GmbH is a German company that makes and sells chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates an internet chess server for online chess. Founded in 1986, it maintains and sells large-scale databases, containing the moves of recorded chess games. The databases organize data from prior games and provide engine analyses of games while endgame tablebases offer optimal play in some endgames.

It offers players to compete with other players around the globe through the Computer Olympiad, where the games are played online. Following are some of the online chess tournaments at chessbase.com.

Amazons

Chinese Chess

EinStein Würfelt Nicht

Hex (11×11)

Mini Shogi

Outer-Open Gomoku

Brazilian Draughts

Chinese Dark Chess

Go (9×9)

Hex (13×13)

Nonogram

Surakarta

Breakthrough

Connect6

Havannah (8×8)

Hex (19×19)

Othello (8×8)

Sylver Coinage

Canadian Draughts

Draughts

Havannah (10×10)

Mahjong

Othello (10×10)

For details check here.

5. Free Internet Chess Server (FICS)

The Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) is a volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organized as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club (ICC) after that site began charging for membership.

It offers a number of online chess tournaments where players can participate and compete with other players such as

Sunday’s 45 5 Din\3

The Nightly 5 0

Lightning Marathon

Thursday’s 1 0 RR

Fischer Random

Monday’s Long Blitz

Challenge Blitz

Sunday’s Losers

NXT Prize Tournament

20 5 SS Tourney

Friday’s Blitz

Cyanide Sandwiches

Friday’s Crazyhouse

Blitz Marathon

U1800 20 0

Nuclear Fallout

Chess Battle

Atomic Championship

U1700 Prize Tournament

For details check here.

6. Internet Chess Club (ICC)

The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. It was the first Internet chess server and was the largest pay-to-play chess server in 2005. The first Internet chess server (ICS), programmed by Michael Moore and Richard Nash, was launched in 1992 when players logged in by telnet, and the board was displayed as ASCII text.

It offers a number of online chess tournaments such as:

Time Director

STtourney

Tomato

STC

Thematic

Chronos

MonthlyStandard

USCF

For details check here.

7. Kasparov Chess

Kasparov Chess is a commercial internet chess server, internet forum, and social networking website. The former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov is affiliated with this online chess club. Kasparov Chess offers chess puzzles, online chess, tutorials, articles, documentaries, podcasts, and a chess master class taught by Kasparov; however, some of these features are only available to members with a paid subscription.

8. Lichess

Lichess is a free and open-source Internet chess server run by a non-profit organization of the same name. Users of the site can play online chess anonymously and optionally register an account to play rated games. Lichess is ad-free and all the features are available for free, as the site is funded by donations from patrons Features include chess puzzles, computer analysis, tournaments, and chess variants.

The players can participate in competitions through the options:

A. Arena Tournaments

Arena’s online chess tournaments have no set number of rounds, but a set amount of time. And you can play as many games as you can in that time. A person will be matched against players similar to their rank in that tournament. The most points win.

For details check here.

B. Swiss Tournaments

In a Swiss tournament, each competitor does not necessarily play all other entrants. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but not the same opponent more than once.

online chess tournament — Swiss Tournament

For details check here.

C. Simultaneous Exhibitions

The concept is taken from real-world events. In real life, this involves the simul host moving from table to table to play a single move. When the simul starts, every player starts a game with the host. The simul ends when all games are complete.

For details check here.

9. Playchess.com

Playchess is a commercial Internet chess server managed by ChessBase devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. Playchess has many players online, including many internationally titled players who remain pseudo-anonymous and other masters whose identities are known, such as Hikaru Nakamura, Nigel Short, and Michael Adams.

It offers a number of options to players to compete with each other online such as:

Variant Explorer
ACL Swiss Tournaments
HCL Swiss Tournaments
League Tournaments
Thematic Tournaments

For details check here.

Chess Tournaments for Kids

The All India Chess Federation (AICF) headquartered in New Delhi, is the central administrative body for the game of chess in India. Founded in 1951, the federation is affiliated with Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the world body for chess.

The AICF has produced Viswanathan Anand, Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, and many other grandmasters. The organization is also in charge of managing women’s chess in India.

It conducts various chess tournaments at district, state, and national levels.

Here is a list of some of the most popular platforms where you can participate in various chess tournaments and compete with other players.