ChessBase Account: Tutorial

In over-the-board games, some people like to note down how much time they spent on each move to be able to analyse their games better and to improve their thinking processes. If you play online the computer does this for you: it automatically records the time you spent on your moves. You can use this information — or you can delete it.

Playing online is both fun and helps you to improve. ChessBase offers a number of possibilities to do so, including in your web browser. Here's a short and easy introduction to the various ways and possibilities to play online chess with ChessBase for free.

Every club, school or trainer can open a virtual playing room on the ChessBase server. Everything is possible: casual games, tournaments, online training, simultaneous events, etc. Everything on "your" chess server! The best alternative to keep the club evening running, and a good (virtual) meeting point to play chess together. Creating a virtual club room is easy. Have a look!

It is possible to create your personal room on Playchess.com in just a couple of seconds. With your Virtual Room you are able to organise your own chess tournaments, have club events, give teaching courses and play simuls. In a short video we show you how easy it is to create the room.

Some might say chess is at its peak of popularity due to the coronavirus. People who have never played chess before are thinking, “There is no better time than now to learn how to play chess”. And they are right! I myself have been asked by a lot of friends if I could teach them how to play. Thanks to PlayChess.com I can teach more than one student at a time with ease. I quickly explain the steps needed to set up a coaching session in a short video!

Online chess is most fun when you know your opponents: less anonymity means less cheating! In the virtual club room on PlayChess, clubs can meet and play blitz tournaments among themselves. To improve your playing experience we now present the video function! All players can log in with their webcam and you can hear and see each other! Suddenly you experience a blitz chess evening almost like in the old days: trash-talk, noises from the next board, cheering, frustration — it all feels more real because you see and hear each other. And everything starts with 2 mouse clicks. Just try it out: create a virtual room with one mouse click, activate the video function with another mouse click, and off you go! The only requirement: to have a premium account!

It is not clear when we will get to play over-the-board team tournaments again. Online competitions are the only alternative. But where can you play serious team matches using a classical formats? On PlayChess! For example at the DSOL (German Online Chess League), in which 246 teams are participating. You do not need to play at the DSOL to play with your team though — anyone can do it! You can set up a round-robin event with a fixed board order or use the Scheveningen system. As in over-the-board tournaments, the players can concentrate exclusively on their games and do not have to worry about the pairings or how to challenge others. Only the team captains have to put in some more work, just like in “normal” team matches.

Train and analyse with video - almost like in a chess club, but simply via the browser! The new training functions in the PlayChess web browser are already being actively used by Stefan Kindermann and the Munich Chess Academy! You can see, hear, analyse, train and of course play! Anyone can create their own virtual room, invite friends and training groups and get started. Martin Fischer explains step-by-step how it works. Online training has never been so much fun!