I would not say its better than diamond membership here or platinum, but is cheaper and every week you play blitz vs Masters and simuls. Most of you will never get to master level or play any master at all, so this is great opportunetely to play agains GM/IM'/FMs i mean 1v1 blitz agains a master.. isnt that a dream?
Speaking of blitz against master-level (and above) players, I actually played against a GM in a blitz tourney on the FIDE Online Arena site earlier this week. I was white. I managed to get a draw against him. It is a milestone for me in the sense that it is the first time that I did not lose to a GM in a blitz game (3-minute game).
Very cool. Yeah I have an account there and am about to start playing rated elo games.
That's great, man. Best of luck to you in your games on there.
Thanks. I appreciate that. Let me ask you: How competitive is it? Is it more or less competitive than ICC (if you know)? If you don't have any experience on ICC, how does it fare compared to playing live chess here on Chess.com?
I'd be surprised if it was tougher on average than ICC but ...they are indeed rated FIDE games so I'm curious.
To answer your question, TheSonOfSorrow82, based on my experience playing in both the FIDE Online Arena and ICC, on average, it seems to me that the FIDE Online Arena is just as competitive as ICC.
It is hard to answer that becouse new players are joining and they already have OTB rapid/blitz rating which is transfered to online rating or they dont have any otb rating. And some of those players are playing worst than their rating or better. So sometimes you encouter 1800 rated who is much stronger than previous 1800 rated you have played. Or you are playing 2 000 rated who seems weaker and overrated. Or Veterans are joining with old high rating and now they play badly or you are playing a strong kid with low rating.. Even if shows player is registered 1 year ago and is not new have games, but on specific time control for example only rapid he has 20 games or so 1720 rated, i play him and he outcalculated me badly.. i checked his fide page and the guy is 2000 fide classic.. Other extreme is i am playing a FIDE CM with low rating.. Australian.. from Fiji.. you dont know what to expect.. is he really a Master or got title as kid or in Zonal for free.. have to go to his fide id page and check every player...
Also at 1st every month even if a player have not played for a month their rating is changed if they have played in fide otb tournaments.
But overall compared to chesscom i think is simular. As i said maybe your rating will be 150 elo points lower or higher. But not that much as on other popular chess site where you start with 1500 and you can easy go over 2000 in no time and have fake rating.. i am close to 2200 there but here barely 1900.
Good thing is there is absolutely zero lag at least for me, but other report same. Not sure how but one player have 1950 bullet rating.. 1700 blitz and 1300 rapid.. Which means in rapid he can play really strong or bad and some goes for bullet. So again you have to check their stats and age or fide page to know what kind of player you play -