Is chess an online game now?

It seems now that with the rise and convenience of technology, chess has become much more of an online game. Even FIDE has recently announced it's Online Arena to tackle this share of the market.

Is chess bound to become like the game of poker, that is the next generations of genious players will be found online and won invitations to compete in OTB tournaments?

What do you think?

Chess is also an online game now.

I actually think it's the other way around, that chess players transition to poker instead. Not sure atm but I sure enjoy chess more than after have been playing online poker for a while! It would be fun to play otb tournaments in the future, but for now I want to focus on getting better.

If not for online chess I would never have anyone to play. No inclination to drive into the city for the local chess club (6 guys) on Friday night. Sit down, log on, play people from around the world 15-20 minutes, do something else. I love Internet chess and I think the next generation will play mostly on the net.

I also play poker online alot but like playing live more.

You missed my point TheGrobe.

It seems to me that chess will become like Poker, where tournaments are played online for money, ranking and titles and in which talented players win invitations to the best real-life tournaments to compete with the pros. Who will be the first Chris Moneymaker of chess?

That doesn't change the fact that Poker was first played in 1829 and is a table, gambling game but the online world has become a entrance door to it's highest level.

Chess, is going that way slowly but surely. The proof: FIDE is working on an online platform and will grant online ratings and allows players to enter online tournaments. That might lead one day to something similar to pokerstar but in the chess world.

Well there are a few significant differences between chess and poker in this regard, probably most critically:

• Chess is entirely unwatchable as a spectator activity for the uninitiated and no amount of good commentary is likely to make up this gap.
• Online poker is easy to regulate with respect to cheating.  Chess is not.  For this reason alone I don't really see "online" tournaments for any kind of official stakes ever becoming a reality.
• One of the interested draws of poker is the ability for an underdog to go on a good run and put in a really good showing, this is in part because of the element luck has on the game (a factor not present in chess), but also because there are some really skilled sleeper candidates out there who are relatively unknown.  I don't believe this to be the case at all at the top level of chess.  As Capablanca once famously said in response to an opponent suggesting he might be abel to beat Capablanca: "Sir, if you could beat me, I would know you."

You have good arguments, I admit.

1. However, Poker is not that much watchable for the uninitiated! If you do not know anything of the game, chances are it will have no appeal.. The Carlsen/Anand world championship did draw lots of attentions and media coverage especially in Chess countries like India, I think as much as any poker tournaments ever had.

2. I've heard that the the new Fide Online Arena has a strong anti-cheater detector. I think that with new technologies in years to come this problem could be lessened and regulated efficiently.

3. True but poker requires a lot of practice and some skills and certainly not everyone will become a good player. I take the exemple of Chris Moneymaker who revolutionized poker as he qualified to the world championship in 2003 by playing online and won! He played a lot online and learn theories, techniques and became good. I see that it could be a possiblity for chess as well. You can buy a membership and have full acess to trainings, to developp your chess skills online these days. Engines such as Houdini, Fritz ect are vey useful. GMs such as Nakamura spend a lot of their practice time on the computers..

I totally understand as I don't have any partner to play chess and no club to join in town. My passion online is therefore satysfied online.

As a keen fan of both poker and chess, I find chess considerably more enjoyable to play online.

The variety and depth in chess is unparralled.

Eventually, if you play poker enough, it becomes robotic and almost soulless.  Never had that with chess.

Yes I agree.

Isn't a good part of poker being able to read people?  How do you do that online?  You can only read their play.