Playchess vs ICC: why ICC is losing

[Javier]

Some time ago, the Internet Chess Club decided that it was giving guest users too many priviledges, so they basically decided that guests would no longer able to play chess on-line against other users.

Of course, this was a way to encourage them to register and pay the fee. However, I'm not sure how they thought too much about this "move". Many of the people who played chess anonymously on ICC are now doing it at playchess.

Take a look at this picture that I took a couple of days ago:

 

 

I remember a couple of years ago the number of people playing on the "Cafe" was ALWAYS lower than the number of people playing on the main hall (you need to be registered in order to be able to play on the main Hall). As the image shows (and I've taken a few at several times) this is CHANGING.

Playchess also lets guests view live games from tournaments played world wide.

Has ICC lost the thread? in my opinion, YES, particularly if we are to judge by the current trend of the internet: most services are free, and they get their income from publicity and other means, and chessbase does have a lot of products they can advertise on their server...

Now, maybe you're thinking that the people who play at the cafe are pretty weak. Well, THINK AGAIN. I often played there and I come accross some VERY STRONG opposition. I should kow, I've lost a few games...

Finding an opponent on ICC is pretty hard... they'd better do something about it soon, or I predict a slow but certain death...

[Javier]

Of course, if you don't want to waste time installing some crappy software, you can always choose chesspupil's own sever.

 

CLICK HERE to try it now!