Red Hot Pawn Online Chess
I love online chess. I typically play anywhere from 10-15 games at any given time. Red Hot Pawn has a default move timeout of once every 3 days, so games can sometimes last over a month. What I hate about online chess is not knowing if its your turn without loging in or signing up to receive a bunch of email notifications.
Red Hot Pawn has been created by the authors of Rival Chess which can be downloaded from the links on this page. Rival Chess is a standalone program and is not required to use the online chess features of RedHotPawn. Play free online chess. Play chess online using a simple yet powerful browser based interface on your computer, tablet or phone. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Red Hot Pawn is an online chess service platforms on the web, and more recently, mobile devices. Red Hot Pawn’s headquarters are in 72-73 Bartholomew St.
My solution was to write a Windows Sidebar Gadget that periodically checks for pending games. When you login to your RHP account using Microsoft Internet Explorer the Gadget then uses AJAX to get the number of games where its your move. This allows me to do whatever I want on my desktop and know exactly when I can switch back to the browser and play some chess 🙂
Many of the settings are configurable in the widgets flyout panel. Basic stuff like the check interval, a count down timer, and the name size are adjustable. Oh, and during December the Red Pawn wears a Santa hat!
The code is HTML/JavaScript and can be forked on GitHub here. As a warning, this tool was very much a rapid prototype and I cared more about getting it to work fast then optimization and readability. If you want to download it and use it you can do so here.
Clubs & Info
Altmax Chess Race – Can you be the first player to reach a rating of 2000? Interesting concept.Brainsturgeon – Provides a framework and message boards for three different “chess pyramids” (similar to a ladder system). Fight your way to the top. Games are played on the Yahoo! games site.
Cheating On Internet Chess Servers – No, not how to do it, but how to stop it.
Chess Kamikazes – Home page of a club of gambit-players on the Yahoo! chess site.
Red Hot Pawn Play Chess
Ed’s Ever-Growing Chess Page – Ed Collins’ page has lots of good info on internet chess, including comparisons of different servers and a page devoted to Winboard.
STC Bunch – Club of online players (ICC & FICS) dedicated to Slow Time Controls. Join them if you have a hard time finding a game longer than 5 minutes on the chess servers.
Yahoo! Chess Clubs – Whole bunch of chess clubs on the Yahoo! Games site. Most of them are a joke (the above Chess Kamikazes are an exception).
Places To Play (Real-time)
Note: In general, you will find stronger, more numerous, and more polite players on the chess-only based sites than you will on the sites offering multiple games.
One-on-One Computer Opponents
Amyan – A java chess engine to be your opponent.
BrowserChess – Play beginner-level chess against a remote computer.
GNU Webchess – Play against GNU Chess via the web.
Java Chess – Another java-based engine.
tkChess – Play this one using HTML or java interface.
The Turk – Experimental chess engine. Play using web interface.
Chess Only Servers
Caissa’s Web – Java-based server offers a 30 day trial; after which they offer a couple of different membership options.
ChessAnyTime – Chess-only server with java client.
ChessNet – Free chess server; a bit more blitz-obsessed than the others. They provide a graphical interface for download, or you can use a java interface from their web site.
Chess Rally – Online play is one of the features of this piece of software. Also includes the ability to play against an engine or over a peer-to-peer network. To get all the online features requires purchase of the full version.
FICS – Free Internet Chess Server. An excellent place! Although nearly identical to ICC, it is somewhat less popular. Totally free! Graphical interfaceneeded.
InterChess – A place to play online brought to you by GM Yuri Averbakh. You must download their proprietary software.
Internet Chess Club (ICC) – The most popular place to play for serious chess enthusiasts, and you can usually find at least one GM hanging around. Has a subscription fee (well worth it), although you can observe games and play unrated for free. Graphical interface needed.
InstantChess – Type in a handle, and you’ll be playing in seconds against a random opponent. Also has a subscription for a fee if you want to maintain a rating.
Kung-Fu Chess – Chess is now an action game! An amusing, if not nerve-racking diversion. Play online instantly.
U.S. Chess Live – Chess server provided by the U.S. Chess Federation. Previously open only to USCF members, it is now available to everybody.
World Chess Network – Free site offers live play (you must download their interface), along with some good extras GM lectures, news, etc.
Multiple Game Sites (with Chess being one of those games)
Blip! – Multi-game Shockwave (plug-in) site, trying desperately to be hip.
GameColony – Java game site from the Chesslab.com people.
GamesPark – Multi-game site requiring the Shockwave plug-in.
GameSite 2000 – Requires download of their software, but offers a pretty decent chess interface.
Internet Gaming Zone – Microsoft’s big multi-player site, offering oodles of games.
Playlink – Multi-game site. You must download their software.
Playsite – This java-based site offers rated play and tournaments, and has been around longer than most of the others.
Pogo – Yet another site featuring multiple games. They also provide the games for Excite, Netscape, etc.
Vog – Multi-game server from Russia. Decent interface.
Yahoo! Games – Yahoo!’s game site is very similar to the other java-based sites, offering a variety of games.
Places To Play
(turn-based / correspondence)
Note: Info on correspondence and e-mail chess is on the correspondence page, including sites which organize e-mail matches and tournaments.
A1-H8 Club – Basic interface and tournaments.
Atlantic Chess – Offering basic web-based correspondence style play.
Chessfriend — Commercial site organizes CC tournaments with cash prizes.
ChessWorld.net – Probably the best site for turn-based play. Offers tournaments, leagues for different skill levels, and team play.
GameKnot – Turn-based chess server.
GMTA Chess – Basic interface and tournaments.
GoldToken – Chess & other classic board games. Turn-based.
ItsYourTurn.Com – Very nice site. Also offers checkers, reversi, go-moku, etc.
Net-Chess – Good correspondence site automatically locating opponents for you and providing a web interface.
Red Hot Pawn – Email chess, web interface.
Stan’s NetChess – Stan runs a darn nice site with an attractive interface and an easy way to find opponents.
Graphical Interfaces
Note: If you are going to play on the Internet Chess Club, Chess Net, or FICS, you’re probably going to want one of these:
Java
CoffeeHouse – Java interface (no download) works within your web browser to connect to the server. Workable. [ICC only]
Chess.Net Java – Play on ChessNet in your browser. [ChessNet only]
Jin – Cross-platform chess client written in Java.
Windows
Blitzin – Not my favorite, but a very popular interface for ICC (this is their “official” interface). Note: Blitzin reportably now has the capability to “spy” on your computer to see if you are running other chess software. [ICC only]
Chessbd / Slics – This shareware interface with lots of features has been around a long time. Very powerful, everything is customizable, but some people find it too complicated. Also works great as an PGN viewer.
Chess Client – Freeware program with decent features (including excellent bughouse support). No longer being developed.
WinBoard – This wonderful piece of freeware is probably the most popular of all the chess clients. It’s a triple threat: can be used as a PGN reader, as a front-end for many popular chess engines (including Crafty), and of course as a online interface. A must have!
Mac
Fixation – Popular interface for the Mac. You can find extra piece sets here.
IC Macintosh – Fancy interface for the Mac for ICC only. [ICC only]
Unix
Redhotpawn Sign In
Xboard – The Unix version of Winboard.
Red Hot Pawn Online Chess Websites
DOS
Aol
ZIICS – Old DOS program can only be used with a shell internet account, no PPP/SLIP connections.