What's New at Chess.com?

What’s new? Good question! The answer is “plenty!”…

The (Current) Website

Since most of our development efforts are focussed on Version 3 (aka “V3” - see below), there’s not a lot to report about the current website — except for a couple of changes to Live Chess:

• Regardless of time control, White’s clock now starts automatically 2–3 seconds after the game is created. This method seemed the most consistent and fair, assuming that players are ready to play when they issue a seek. Black’s clock will start immediately after White’s move, provided Black's client has successfully subscribed to the new game. (If not, Black's clock will "wait" until the game is loaded.)
  
• We also added some other features to host exciting USCF rated events every Wednesday and Friday! Learn more »

V3: The ((Near) Future) Website

For the last 2 years we have been working on a completely new version of Chess.com (dubbed “V3”). As some of you may have noticed, it hasn’t come as quickly as we predicted. . On the bright side, V3 is turning out to be even more gorgeous and more fun to use than we ever imagined at the time. It looks and feels fantastic, and is getting better every day.

For those of you who haven’t heard about it yet, “V3” is an entirely new, rebuilt-from-scratch Chess.com website — a faster, more modern, better looking foundation on which to build new, cool features and make Chess.com better and better!

We hope to invite you all to check out the new site in July, so stay tuned!

Mobile Apps

Android - When it comes to Chess.com mobile apps, Android continues to be the trail-blazer… When we want to try something new, Android users are usually the first to know! Right now, we’re working on a couple of big hush-hush new features that Erik doesn’t want me to reveal, but I can’t help myself, so let me tell you about [ Redacted —Erik ] Android is already running on “V3”, so you can get a glimps of some of the upcoming changes to the website.

iOS - Earlier this year, the V3 version of iOS finally hit the Store, and wow, it is a huge improvement! The most recent version adds support for Messages and improvements for iPhone 6/6+ users. When we designed the app, we built exclusively for iOS 8, thinking that adoption would be quicker, but it’s clear that many people aren’t there yet, so our next update will support users of iOS 7 as well. Huzzah!

There is LOTS more good stuff coming soon for our mobile apps.

ChessKid

Over the last few months, ChessKid has been reborn! If you haven’t checked it out lately, you owe it to yourself to pay it a visit. If you don’t have kids, this may be your best reason to go ahead and start a family. (Kidding of course!!)

The website, Android app, and iOS app are all completely new and better than ever, and we’re working with parents and coaches across the country to make ChessKid the premier destination for chess education and chess fun online.

Ok, that’s it for today! Let us know what you think in the Comments, and if you don’t want to miss the news, don’t forget to follow this blog!