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Concept
Online chess
Summary
Online chess is chess that is played over the Internet, allowing players to play against each other in real time. This is done through the use of Internet chess servers, which often include a system to pair up individual players based on their rating using an Elo or similar chess rating system. Online chess has existed since the 1970s, but has seen a rapid growth in popularity amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and rise of chess livestreaming.
Online chess has existed in various forms including PLATO and play-by-email since the dawn of the Internet in the 1970s. The first Internet server designed for online chess was the Internet Chess Club (known at the time as ICS), which started operation in 1992. The first chess website, which allowed playing through a graphical interface, was Caissa.com (known at the time as Caissa's Web) which launched in 1995. Since then, a number of chess websites have been developed. These include Chess.com, Lichess, and chess24, which are the largest chess websites as of 2021.
Online chess saw a spike in growth during the quarantines of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was due to both isolation and the popularity of Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit, which was released in October 2020. Chess app downloads on the App Store and Google Play Store rose by 63% after the show debuted. Chess.com saw more than twice as many account registrations in November as it had in previous months, and the number of games played monthly on Lichess doubled as well. There was also a demographic shift in players, with female registration on Chess.com shifting from 22% of new players to 27% of new players. Grandmaster Maurice Ashley said "A boom is taking place in chess like we have never seen maybe since the Bobby Fischer days," attributing the growth to an increased desire to do something constructive during the pandemic. USCF Women's Program Director Jennifer Shahade stated that chess works well on the Internet, since pieces do not need to be reset and matchmaking is virtually instant.
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