From Bugs To Bullet: The Long Evolution Of Online Chess
Happy late new year, dear readers!
Welcome to my first blog post of 2026! I'm sorry for the delay in writing (not that many of you will probably care), but now, I'm here and ready to deliver my newest work.
As of today, online chess plays a huge role in the popularisation of the game, allowing people from all over the world to interact and enjoy the game with each other. But, I ask you, did online chess websites just pop out of nowhere one day, so conveniently?
Of course not! In fact, online chess has a very long history, and that is exactly the topic I have chosen for today's blog post.
But how will I do it this time? Well, dear readers, I have once again decided to use the concept of "mini-sections", which I tried out for the first time in my previous blog on OTB rules. A special mention to @PokeGirl93 in her article A Chess Saga In The Land Of Soccer, which is where this idea originated, as far as I'm aware.
I hope you will join me in this dive in to history. From the first online game ever to websites with millions of players enjoying its features, this sure is a legendary tale that spurred chess to new heights!
Let's start!
1 - THE BEGINNING
1.1 - Background
1.2 - First Online Game
1.3 - Correspondence Chess
1.4 - PLATO Computer System
1.5 - Internet Chess Server
1.6 - Caissa.com
2 - THE 21st CENTURY
2.1 - Chess.com
2.2 - Lichess
2.3 - Covid-19
2.4 - The Queen's Gambit
2.5 - Social Media
2.6 - New Features
3 - MODERN DAY
3.1 - The GOAT
3.2 - His Online Legacy
3.3 - Bullet Chess
3.4 - Premoving
3.5 - DGT Smart Boards
3.6 - Web-Based Tournaments
3.7 - Cheating
4 - THE FUTURE
4.1 - New Players
4.2 - What Is Next?
1 - THE BEGINNING
Let's begin our journey back in the second half of the 20th century. At the time, people were searching for more convenient ways to do everything, and this was exactly the same for chess. Being able to play online meant that people didn't need to own a chessboard, or find someone to play with - all this was just there.
But it was never easy, especially when the internet itself had only been officially invented in 1983. However, that didn't mean that people weren't already trying to get chess online. It would be a while until online chess became like it is today, but they were working!
Even though I said that I would start at the end of the 20th century, I have to make an exception here, and that's actually for the first "online chess game", played through the then six-months-old U.S. telegraph line on the 26th of November, 1844 - just over 181 years ago!
This game was played between the Washington Chess Club and the Baltimore Chess Club over a distance of 60 kilometres (!!), beginning with a challenge from the former on 18 November, using some form of notation I am not familiar with.
After the first game, multiple more were played over the next few days, once again using the electrical telegraph. You can learn more in this article. Even though this game wasn't truly online in a modern sense, it is considered the ancestor of chess on the internet by many.
The first forms of chess were far from what they are today. In fact, the first online chess games, as early as the 1970-80s, were played through email, which yes is online, using Algebraic Chess Notation.
One player would say their move, for example "e4" and the other would reply with their move, for example "c5". This wasn't really visual, but as long as you could imagine or own a board, you could play! As we all know, this doesn't really count as real online chess, but rather sending messages. This is called correspondence chess, and is still used today!
Was correspondence chess the only way that chess could be played at that moment in time? If you thought so, say hello to the PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) Computer System, a machine invented in 1960. Developed by Donald Bitzer from the University of Illinois, it was used to help teach students at the school.
PLATO utilised modern concepts such as forums, message boards, online testing, email, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer video games. And one of these video games was ... you guessed it, chess!
It is not known how chess was played on PLATO, but I predict that it was probably its own separate game, like the others, where you could play against a computer or a human at a different terminal. Much like the typical Chess Game on an airplane flight.
So, in conclusion, PLATO was one of the first systems where you could actually play chess on a virtual board, something that would not be rivalled by anything else for a good few years. Quite the piece of technology!
Now we have come to a great moment in online chess history. The moment the first real online chess website was launched, available to the world. On the 15th of January, 1992, the Internet Chess Server, developed by Michael Moore and Richard Nash, was released to the public.
However, the board was still not visual; instead, displayed using ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text, a form of character encoding standard, as the internet was still not strong like it is today.
Today, the Internet Chess Server is still in existence, under the new name Internet Chess Club, which was the rename given by Daniel Sleator, who fixed bugs on the website, later in 1992.
At first, the Internet Chess Server had many bugs, such as allowing illegal moves. In due time, though, it was fixed, and you can still play on the origin of online chess here!
Even though the Internet Chess Server was the first chess-playing website, it was soon followed by the famous Caissa.com, then known as Caissa's Web. Released in 1995, it was the first ever chess website to have a real, virtual board: Internet Chess Server only upgraded to that afterward.
Today, Caissa.com is still active, allowing you to play and watch other people play chess. Although its popularity has waned, it is still a notable website that helped online chess escalate hugely.
2 - THE 21st CENTURY
Have you ever wondered where Chess.com, the most popular chess website today, came from? well, you're in luck! Launched in May 2007 by friends Erik Allebest and and Jay Severson, it quickly became popular, reaching its millionth member in 2010.
Today, Chess.com remains the most popular chess website, with over 200 million members! It's really done a great job getting everyone together, and retains its role as one of the most influential websites in chess and online chess history!
Just three years after the launch of Chess.com, arguably its biggest rival emerged. Launched in 2010 by French programmer Thibault Duplessis, designed to be a 100% free site, compared to Chess.com's premium extensive features.
No ads, no membership, none of that... Lichess is a completely free site and has been so since its launch. It might not be the most popular website, but it still is a good one!
I think everyone reading this will have experienced Covid, but I will provide a short explanation just in case. Covid-19, originated in 2019 (hence the name), is a very deadly virus that has dominated since 2020, and is still active today.
But why would I be talking about this? Don't worry, dear readers, you haven't clicked on the wrong blog. That is because, however unlikely that may seem, Covid actually affected online chess in a way.
You see, the virus was so powerful that people were forced into lockdowns, which meant staying home and working and learning there; travel and gathering restrictions; and more. Basically, stay home and stay away from everyone else.
But this actually helped online chess! Unable to leave their home at all or play OTB chess, people were getting bored. And one solution to that boredom was to play online chess! Physical chess was impossible because of the pandemic, but sites like those we have already mentioned helped the game of kings stay alive online, and see a huge boost in popularity.
| Cause | Effect |
| People are forced to stay home. | Online chess gets a huge popularity boom. |
| Lack of traditional sports and OTB tournaments. | People turn to online chess as an answer. |
| Online chess tournaments of the world's best. | More people flock over with nothing else to do. |
Perhaps the most famous chess TV show is coming up, and what hype it's brought to the chess world! Released on the 23rd of October, 2020, at the same time in Covid, this brought a lot of people into chess. And I mean, a LOT!
According to the CNN (Cable News Network), the sales of chess sets spiked up by 87% and the orders of chess books went up to 603%!! This has to go down as one of the most influential moments in the modern history of the game.
But then, how did the Queen's Gambit affect online chess? Well, if you remember, this was still during Covid-19! And that meant lockdowns and staying home. So, where did all the hype of chess go?
Online, of course! Evidence shows that online chess websites saw a huge boom during this time, with Chess.com even noting in 2023 that their servers were struggling to keep up with the vast amounts of players. The Queen's Gambit sure had a big effect.
Social media might just be one of the most famous things in the 21st century, and it sure affected chess too. You see, social media meant that chess could be presented, online, on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and more.
In this way, the internet was used to the advantage of chess, where people can post YouTube videos, Twitch stories, Facebook posts, about chess! Basically, anything about chess!
With the rise of online chess websites also came new features, many of which would be quite frankly impossible, or far too inconvenient, with a real chessboard. These include a vast variety, such as puzzles, lessons, articles, openings, and analysis, to name just a fraction of them.
These features are designed to make it so that chess isn't so boring. Imagine a site where you can only play a game of chess, but not practise or analyse! In modern day, that would be a complete joke.
3 - MODERN DAY
With the rise of online chess, also comes its champion! But who is it? Let's find out!
Hikaru Nakamura, widely regarded as the best online chess player ever, was born on the 9th of December, 1987, in Hirakata, Japan. However, his family moved to the US when he was just two years old, and that is where he grew up.
Hikaru was good at chess from a young age, becoming the youngest American to ever defeat an International Master at just age 10. His adult life did not disappoint his childhood calibre, making it to three Candidates Tournaments, though he never won.
Today, he stands his ground as the 2nd highest rated player in the world, with an impressive 2810 (!!) elo.
So what about Hikaru's online side, which I said he was best at? Read on to find out!
In online chess, Hikaru has achieved unmatched skill. His highest blitz rating was 3443 and his peak bullet rating was an impressive 3570! Even though online ratings are around 100-300 points higher than in OTB, that still brings Nakamura to more than 3000, which is more than any OTB rating in history. Just imagine if bullet games were formal!
Modern-day chess has its unique spots, and the Bullet time control is one of them, and usually ranges from just below three minutes to as little as 10 seconds! Games played this fast in the real world would be much harder than online, because of physical factors such as the time taken to move a piece and press the clock.
Because of the physical limitations of playing bullet, it is somewhat limited to online play, and usually results in very chaotic positions. Nevertheless, bullet chess is still a very popular time control that has given online platforms their own unique touch. Well done!
What if I told you that bullet chess isn't the only thing unique to online chess games? Well, that's entirely correct! Premoving is the act of making a move on your opponent's turn, which will only execute when it is your turn. No matter what your opponent plays, you must play that move, unless it is illegal, in which case it will be cancelled.
Premoving is risky, but plays a big role in keeping you from timing out, because the pre-made move will play automatically and instantly play on your turn, taking off 0.1 seconds on Chess.com and exactly zilch on Lichess. Without it, fast time controls like bullet would be basically impossible.
Luckily, technology has caught up with online chess, and has created quite a few interesting things to enhance the experience of players. One of these is the DGT Smart Board, a very technological way to play chess.
Basically, you can link your smart board to a chess website like Chess.com or Lichess, and when you make a move on the board, it automatically goes through to the website.
How impossible does that sound? Well, DGT smart boards are real and have been so for quite a few years now! I won't go into much detail as I don't really know how it works myself, but I think that each piece has an ID chip that connects to the device using a USB or something.
To conclude, DGT smart boards sure are a cool way to play online chess while actually moving the pieces at the same time, enhancing your OTB experience. Seems pretty cool to me!
As proven in the previous section, online chess doesn't necessarily have to be fully online. And DGT Smart Boards aren't the only ones. In fact, people really wanted to create serious over-the-board tournaments for quick time controls like bullet and blitz.
Chess played online had become so popular that that was exactly what they did with the Speed Chess Championship and Esports World Cup. These two events were chess tournaments played in the real world, but on devices, meaning that premoving and moving your mouse like Flash was possible.
So yeah, online chess wormed its way further towards maximum popularity using speed, the thing it had that OTB didn't. Now it is enjoyed and watched by even more people! Some might say that online tournaments aren't as popular as OTB ones, but they sure have created quite the hype!
Online games also have their own unique traits, such as mouse slips and disallowance of illegal moves.
The rise of online chess has led to the game's increased popularity, pairings with anyone in the world, analysis tools that help players improve... and chess cheating.
Yes, you read that correctly. However convenient playing online is, it also makes the act of cheating far more possible. You can't actually see your opponent, so they might have another device right next to them, where they have an engine recording every move and feeding them the best possible way to absolutely crush you.
It might seem unfair, but it's just the truth! Proven by the image below.
Still less than 1% of players cheat on Chess.com, according to the website itself, but this just goes a long way to show that though the evolution of online chess may have many benefits, they come not without a downside.
Now, let's look to the future!
4 - THE FUTURE
The future may have not yet been written, but we can try to predict it. Originally, players learned chess from their families. At work. At school. They played it with the people close to them. But now, that may change forever.
You see, new players might even hear of chess on X or Facebook. And they might only play chess online. Of course, this changes many things: a smaller percentage of players actually play OTB chess, while a larger amount plays online. New players in the future may know chess only as something online.
Well, what is the future of online chess? As I mentioned in the previous section, it will probably become really popular for its convenience, and as technology advances, it'll surely become really cool.
We might see automatic DGT boards that move the pawn just when you say "e4"; or engines that literally solve the game; or whatever else you can think of. It's endless! The only thing we know is that online chess sure has a bright future!
Well, we've made it to the end! Thank you for reading, and I hope you thoroughly enjoyed my latest post!
As of January 2026, this has been one of my most heavily researched posts, especially in the first section, where a lot of facts had to be dug up with effort. The history of online chess sure is an interesting one, from a game played through telegraph to Artificial Intelligence, Chess.com, premoving and more.
Finally, I'd like to address the fact that this is my very first blog of 2026, and that, unlike I had hoped, I was unable to post a final one at the end of last year, to wrap everything up. I will try to do better with my time management this year! 😅
That'll be it for today! If you liked this blog or just want to say something, feel free to leave a comment, and I'll hopefully see you next time!Back to ToC
