Monday, April 15, 2002		The world of  dot.com

The game intellectuals play

THE very mention of chess brings image of chess addicts to our minds. A chess addict is the one who becomes scared for one second when the cashier says, "Check?" An anecdote has it that wives of two chess addicts, after deciding that enough is enough, threw away all chess pieces. Undeterred, the addicts continued playing with vegetables and fruits, they could lay hands on. Here are a few sites for the novice and chess addicts alike, provided they are able to take their eyes off the boards to read this column.

The site has been designed with the help of the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. In the playing zone you can match your brain power with opponents from all over the world any time. The contents of this site are available in a variety of languages and events are scheduled accordingly to different time-zones. It helps the children in improving their concentration and discipline. Kids can also contribute their ideas and articles. The chat, message boards and events are provided for the members to compete for the prizes.

This is a non-profit chess Website developed for those who are new to this game. The chess tutorials given here helps in learning the game. To play the game online various links are given. Collection of various chess games and chess playing software is provided. There are various chess problems, quizzes and puzzles available to test your chess knowledge. The profiles of the chess world champions and their best games collection is also given. In discussion forum you can share your views with other players.

For learners, this is a good site to start with. The nature and objectives of the game are described here. The sample lessons for the beginners, intermediate and tournament players are given. This tells about why learn and play chess, the move of the pieces, initial position of the pieces, chess notation, art of attack, online classrooms. You can also download multimedia lessons and can enjoy by reading chess quotes, knowing about various chess records and view good attacking games. List of various training centres and links to various sites related to chess are also given.

The latest updates on news, events and tournaments of chess are available at this site. You can download the games to play, which contains free version and member version. The photographs of the chess.net members can be viewed in the photo gallery. You can also send your photograph. The help section helps in improving your game by providing lessons from the experts. For the members the links to interesting sites and content are provided.

— Laxmi Kant Verma