Guide Rating is our appreciation of the site which we symbolize by 1 to 5 stars. Our highest rating is 4 stars, which we give to two sites, and our lowest is 2 stars, which we also give to two. That leaves seven sites at 3 stars. (NB: All sites listed here are more than adequate for online chess play.)

What's a 5-star site? We can't give a watertight definition, but it would be a site that does everything as well as or better than every other site.

Players shows the relative popularity of the sites. We recorded the number of players reported by each site at several times of the day. Although the absolute numbers vary throughout the day, the relative numbers remain fairly constant across the sites.

Since we used MSN as a baseline in our first article, we weighted the other sites accordingly in subsequent articles. When you find 1000 players at MSN, you will find around 5.5 * 1000 (5500 players) at Yahoo and around 0.1 * 1000 (100 players) at Chess.net.

Share is calculated from Players. It shows the percentage of players on one site across the number of players on all sites.

Free? shows whether or not a site is free. All sites provide at least a free trial period, which we give if the site is not free indefinitely. Guest? shows whether a site allows anonymous guest access.

1 yr member is the cost of a membership for one year. Currency 'USD' means U.S. Dollars ($); sites priced in Euros are European based. The advantages of membership vary widely from site to site. The cost of a membership should be weighed against the advantages of being a member, which go beyond the scope of this article.

Screens is a link to our original article on the site with snapshots showing how various key functions looked on our PC's screen.

The Java and Windows columns show whether a Java client and/or a Windows client are available for the service. Some services offer one client or the other; some services offer both.

The advantage of a Java client is that you can use it from almost any platform on any computer connected to the Web. The advantage of a Windows client is that it generally offers a much richer set of functions than the associated Java client.

Square size is the size of each square on the playing board. Some Windows clients offer many board options, which we haven't attempted to describe.

Ratings shows how ratings are calculated for a newcomer. 'Provisional' means no initial rating is assumed. The ratings are not comparable from one service to another.

Seek? indicates the type of interface for finding a game. Any player can broadcast a challenge at various time controls. The 'Seek' interface is how other players see open challenges.

Save game? shows if and how the moves of a finished game can be saved for future reference. The main alternatives are (1) save to a file and (2) forward to an email address.

Likes/Dislikes shows what we particularly liked/disliked about the service when we first used it. They are taken from our original article covering that service.

The comments are most meaningful taken together with the sites which were reviewed at the same time. For example, when we say we liked Yahoo's 'Large board', it is because it was larger than Pogo's or MSN's board, two sites which we reviewed at the same time. The remarks are best used as a guide for 'initial things to consider' when choosing a site.

There are many other factors which you might consider important when choosing your main site : possibilities for online instruction, tournaments offered, links to current events. Our initial approach concentrating on online play is only a start point.

Final remarks -- If you ask, 'What do you think about site so-and-so?', this is our current answer. We hope to return regularly to look at the online play sites. Their evolution promises to be exciting!

We've looked at these sites so many times and recorded so much information about them that it's entirely possible we made a mistake. If you think that one of our comments is false or misleading, send an email to chess.guide@about.com. Even better, post your comment to the About Chess Forum by clicking on the Forum link near the top of this page.

UPDATE (February 2004)

USCL changed their pricing in January 2004, rendering our info under 'Commercial characteristics' inaccurate. See their site for their current price structure.

Our note that ICC has no Java client is incorrect. See 'More interfaces' on their home page for a list.