Although I think playchess.com is an excellent site, I can't install the standalone program or even create a new account (it gives me a "too many accounts" message). I've spent enough time and effort trying to sort these problems out and now I'm ready to try alternatives - so, can anyone recommend a good place to play real time chess online? I want to create an account for my eight year old son so some sort of control on the comments / messages is essential!
Have you tried contacting their technical support ?
I have 4 playchess accounts, when I purchased Fritz 8 I got 3 accounts with 40 years licenses, 1 got removed because I called myself Clint Eastwood as joke, bastards. Anyway each time I buy fritz I get another year with playchess, just seen fritz 10 on amazon for £18 so might be cheaper buying that over just a subcription.
I think you might get the error with too many accounts due to the serial number already entered into playchess, so it thinks your trying to make another account using that serial. I'm sure if you speak to Holger on playchess or just contact their technical support at chessbase, I'm sure they'll get something sorted for you.
*edit*
For the last part, you can unclick all the channels of the text interface so your son wouldn't see any chat from anyone else, only if someone spoke to them. I'm pretty sure they have a censor list and I'd just stick to the beginner or cafe area, I've played 1000's of games on PC and you get very few people giving you abuse, if they do you can just ignore them.
Hi Audacious.
Thanks for the reply but I've had enough of playchess.com for now. I may revisit them if I can't find a suitable alternative.
I may try setting up a account on the ICS again. I used to play on it, years and years ago, but it was a bit clunky to use and I was hoping for something easy enough for my son to use on his own. However, that was a long time ago and the interface may have improved since then.
Originally posted by Fat LadyFICS with BabasChess as the interface is not (very) clunky. It however has no (or few) controls on what is said.
Hi Audacious.
Thanks for the reply but I've had enough of playchess.com for now. I may revisit them if I can't find a suitable alternative.
I may try setting up a account on the ICS again. I used to play on it, years and years ago, but it was a bit clunky to use and I was hoping for something easy enough for my son to use on his own. However, that was a long time ago and the interface may have improved since then.
Originally posted by Fat LadyICC blocks the most common profanities, but of course any such filtering is easily circumvented with creative writing (and bad spelling). there's more jerks than on FICS though, but by blocking all chat messages during games you get rid of almost all of it. it costs a bit more than playchess.
Although I think playchess.com is an excellent site, I can't install the standalone program or even create a new account (it gives me a "too many accounts" message). I've spent enough time and effort trying to sort these problems out and now I'm ready to try alternatives - so, can anyone recommend a good place to play real time chess online? I want to creat ...[text shortened]... for my eight year old son so some sort of control on the comments / messages is essential!
I've recently joined Internet Chess Club (mainly because I'm usually on a Mac - so I can't get onto playchess)
ICC has some good features such as being able to play in simul's against IM & GM's and have a crack at slaying some superfast engines in bullet chess plus a wide range of players and time controls. There was also a very good lecture. However, when my now 11 yr old was an 8yr old he wasn't inspired by playing online...just wasn't interested once the novelty of being connected to someone somewhere else on the globe had worn off.
(NB Of the chess programs available I found chessmaster had the most kid friendly features.)
Originally posted by Fat LadyThe "too many accounts" is as a likely consequence of creating consecutive 30 day trials. If you have any ChessBase product like Fritz 8/9/10 or ChessBase 8/9 you can also use that to get on PlayChess. A one year serial number can be bought for about €30 or if you bought a ChessBase product it comes with an integrated 1 year membership.
Although I think playchess.com is an excellent site, I can't install the standalone program or even create a new account (it gives me a "too many accounts" message). I've spent enough time and effort trying to sort these problems out and now I'm ready to try alternatives - so, can anyone recommend a good place to play real time chess online? I want to creat ...[text shortened]... for my eight year old son so some sort of control on the comments / messages is essential!
I don't understand how you cannot install the PlayChess client on your own computer (you have the necessary permission) so its just click the unistaller and install again.
here's some good chess websites you might be interested in checking out:
most of these sites will require a program like java. Some of them might get blocked by your computer's pop-up blocker if you have one, so you may need to turn it off or allow the pop-ups to access the game windows.
yahoo.com ---- free chess server located in the games section. watch the profanity on this one, but I think there's a filter for it.
pogo.com ---- some of the games on this website might not be what you want to expose your child to (poker type games), but it has a great chess program, and a profanity filter as well. (also free, but memberships on this website may unlock more features)
ICC ---- go to internetchessclub.com (it will require a download, and after the free trial it costs roughly $60.00 a year, but I'd say it's well worth it)
chess-live.com ---- again, it will require a download. There's a thing called a royal membership which will unlock more features and is about $30.00 a year (I think), but in my opinion this website is also worth the money.
Well, I'd say try those ones out and see how you/your child likes them. They're all pretty popular as far as chess goes, and if you want to learn more about them the websites should give you more info.
>Bear in mind though that every interactive website with unidentified users holds potential safety risks, no matter how safe they proclaim to be, so be careful to check the website's content before-hand and warn your child not to give out personal information without your consent.
A good place where to play, if you want to play chess online is www.kurnik.org. It's for free, while it has a very nice interface. It's a Polish site, so most of the people do not understand english, bet the page can be displayed in English. You can get some pretty strong players there to play against.
Originally posted by z00tI can't install the standalone program because the installer crashes. I spent some time investigating but couldn't solve it. It wasn't a permissions problem.
I don't understand how you cannot install the PlayChess client on your own computer (you have the necessary permission) so its just click the unistaller and install again.