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Chess at Pogo.com: better than Yahoo

Two days ago I wrote that Yahoo Chess sucks. So looking for a better place to play chess, I discovered Pogo.com.

Pogo.com still has its flaws. Like Yahoo, it uses a slow Java applet client instead of providing the chess player with a windows client to download. And the site is full of annoying advertising (but advertising is to be expected in a free site).

In Pogo's favor, the chess game here lacks the three major flaws I found with Yahoo Chess. At Pogo, you are randomly assigned the white or black pieces. The display of pieces taken is much easier to see. You can tell the difference between a pawn and a bishop. And so far, I didn't discover any obvious bugs in the software.

Even though Pogo offers a much better chess game than Yahoo, there are four times as many people playing chess at Yahoo. Yet another example of how superior marketing trumps a superior product.

Unfortunately, after a single evening of playing chess at Pogo.com, I quickly compiled a losing 1-4 record. I think I need to spend more time playing the computer before I'm ready to play real people.

UPDATE

Read my review of ChessGenius for the PocketPC, the computer chess program that I have been using.

posted Saturday, December 11, 2004

3 Comments:

By Tom ONeil:

Have you tried Shockwave's email chess? Sometimes it is easier to play at your own pace.

http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/emailchess

posted at 12/13/2004 3:11 PM

By Tira:

if you have a Mac, it's part of its accessories...

posted at 12/13/2004 5:57 PM

By Les:

If you want a good friendly chess site try chessword.net. Its email chess but if you have about 80 games going it keeps you busy. Its far better than yahoo take a look

posted at 10/02/2005 4:49 PM