Standards on other chess sites

Just wondered how standards at other sites ie. Gameknot.com compare to those at Rhp.

I stopped playing at gameknot (even though i was a paying member) because i wrote something "off-topic" on the forums. Apparently, "off topic" is a catchall used to curb any expression not to the moderators liking. Actually, i said something innocent about cats, as Iremember, but a bunch of other guys were ranting and raving, so I guess I also had to be included in the "off topic" category to make everything "equal." Anyway, I was supposed to send him a message after a month to get forum rights back. I didn't feel comfortable with the whole issue so I deleted the icon from my computer. Other than that, from a technical aspect, it's run quite well. One thing I did like about it was it didn't have all these silly warnings and count-down graphs we have here on RHP.

Originally posted by buddy2
I stopped playing at gameknot (even though i was a paying member) because i wrote something "off-topic" on the forums. Apparently, "off topic" is a catchall used to curb any expression not to the moderators liking. Actually, i said something innocent about cats, as Iremember, but a bunch of other guys were ranting and raving, so I guess I also had to be ...[text shortened]... about it was it didn't have all these silly warnings and count-down graphs we have here on RHP.

easily as good, maybe better. Like RHP they have all levels up to master class. Another site you might look into is Chess21, if you're interested in blitz. Based in Europe, it doesn't require you to pay as a member. You get some extra stuff as a member, but nothing significant. The site has excellent graphics. After you sign up, you download the playing software AND a database called Sherlock which saves your games and analyzes moves if you want. Quite a lot for not paying anything. I don't feel guilty by sharing this info because i play on several sites. RHP is my only one for correspondence, but for blitz I use ICC or Playchess.com (Fritz) or Chess21. Each of the three has its strengths.

Originally posted by obliteration
Are the players as good?

Originally posted by tejo
players are better than here. There are a lot of very strong players on Gameknot. Another big difference is automatic timeouts in all games and the possibility to postpone all of your games.
But forums are very lame there. No social chat is allowed.

It's difficult to compare playing strengths of Gameknot and RHP. There are plenty of good (and bad) players on both and in-between. As I said, if you want to spend the money and don't care about forums, gameknot is perfectly acceptable.

I played exactly one game on GK before giving it up because I simply couldn't make sense of the very confusing (hard to distinguish, no instinctive pattern recognition) piece graphics the board used.

I played a fair number of games at IYT before giving up due to the clunky nature of the board moves. I did like the fact that castling was properly represented before you comitted the move, and really wish RHP would adopt the "must move in X hours" column on the game display page. On the flip side, the fact my opponents were constantly changing their name grew old. I remember games based partly on board and partly by opponent name, so when they rename it throws me. Also against IYT was the fact opponents could hide their game history and the site made no attempts to track user rating.

For CC, I think I'm quite happy here. For real-time I play at FICS (freechess.org).

I used ot play on gamknot but i found that this site is alot better than gameknot.com.

Ive played at Pogo, Yahoo, uchess, instantchess, chesslive, playchess.com.....RHP is the one that i like the best. MHO.

SM

Another good site for blitz is www.gamecolony.com. It is free and the interface is quite good. Tends to be a little buggy when getting to the game room while logged in though. Just a case of logging out and back in again. Sometimes the rooms can be full but that is a case of refreshing and trying again.

Maybe I am not being a very good advertisement for the site, but once you do manage to play, it is very good and there are a lot of very strong players.

Lau

Just checked out chess21 and noticed that there was a message saying that there were grandmasters and masters on the site. Is this true? Is there some kind of authentication system to prove that they are either masters or grandmasters?

Originally posted by lausey

Just checked out chess21 and noticed that there was a message saying that there were grandmasters and masters on the site. Is this true? Is there some kind of authentication system to prove that they are either masters or grandmasters?

I've got a few games going on gameknot, and so far i'm pretty happy. No major problems, but like someone said above, the forums are nothing to write home about.

Players there are of good strength. You can always find a good challenge when you want one.

I also play at ChessManiac.com. The format is similar to here, but there are a few interesting differences. There are no paid subscribers so anyone can join teams and participate in tournaments. There are a few things I don't like though. There is no timebank. The default is 14 days per move and you are automatically timed out after that. You can change the default but not for tournaments. I often have opponents who, when they are losing, begin slowing down to less than a move per week. My biggest beef with the site is that the screen automatically refreshes about once per minute. With my dial-up connection it can take about 10 seconds. You are forever having your screen go blank just as you are about to do something.
There are certainly some strong players- Henrique Mecking plays there ("Mr. M&quot😉. I believe he's #3 behind a WGM and some guy I've never heard of. Ratings seem to be high there compared to what the same player might have at another site. The forums are decent there, but I like it better here.