user47: I am building a chess website (www.uscfstats.com) and would like to get input from the chess community and raise awareness.  I've been out of the loop for a few years, ever since I stopped playing seriously, and don't really know what the most popular chess websites are anymore.  ChessNinja seems to have fallen off completely, while chess.com has gotten much more serious and chesstempo is more well known than that emrald site that everybody used to use.
What are the most popular chess community websites?

user3158: FICS (http://www.freechess.org/) - The best free chess server. Here the highlight is, everytime there is a major (or even minor) event games going on, there is a feature for observers to "kibitz" when the game is in progress. Its really an awesome feature. Also there is a guess the next move bot, which records guesses by observers and makes it all the more interesting. There are at least 10 other features that NONE of the modern chess sites (like chess.com, lichess.org etc.,) have.

user2915: ChessBase nailed it. 
It offers:

Playchess - Everyday, playchess.com welcomes 20,000 chess players from all around the world from beginner to grandmaster. You can even play without registration.
Live Database - Updated weekly, their definitive database has all the latest games.
My Games Cloud - You can store your games and access them everywhere.
Video - Private Masterclasses
Training - Solving Tactical positions.
Fritz Online - Play, analyze and train against fritz.
Openings - Build and maintain your repertoire.
CB News - Daily Reports on all top tournaments.

But if you want to watch live top tournaments, I usually go to Chessdom because its not heavy and easy to use.
Chess24 is also good but for me its too heavy to use.
When I play online I use chess.com.
There are also upcoming chess community and looks like they are interesting. I'm watching ChessFam and Chess Family.

user606: Obviously Chessbase News is another fairly active chess news site.
Chess Cafe has been around forever, though I haven't really checked it out recently.
The Week in Chess is another good one.

user1737: 
Lichess.org is building a decent following of users with a very appealing interface, albeit a web one.  It has drawn a number of IMs, FMs, NMs and one or two GMs.  Oh yeah, it's free too.
TWIC, of course, as mentioned above, especially for it's live PGN files.


user46: In no order of priority:

http://chess.com is relatively new to the scene, but they have Pogolina on
board who will definitely pull in the traffic
Chessbase News is really a chess product site masquerading as a news
site, but they cannot be disregarded. They have relay services on their playing server (similar to ICC and FICS), but here we will limit discussion to the onsite features only
Chess in Translation is an initiative by mishanp to offer
translation of Russian content (particularly juicy commentary by
Shipov of chess.ru)
WhyChess is known for its live relays (probably the most
feature-complete at time of writing, and have been used at several
official events) but they have expanded into news and blogs as well.
ChessBomb is a relay and playing site getting constant plugs from Susan Polgar.
Chess Games Database and Community (and frogbert) probably needs no explanation.
ChessOK is a product and relay site, probably the first to integrate full Rybka (now Houdini) evaluations into its relays. The interface is not as fanciful as WhyChess but is clean and good.


47: <p>I am building a chess website (www.uscfstats.com) and would like to get input from the chess community and raise awareness.  I've been out of the loop for a few years, ever since I stopped playing seriously, and don't really know what the most popular chess websites are anymore.  ChessNinja seems to have fallen off completely, while chess.com has gotten much more serious and chesstempo is more well known than that emrald site that everybody used to use.</p>

<p>What are the most popular chess community websites?</p>
 3158: <p>FICS (<a href="http://www.freechess.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.freechess.org/</a>) - The best free chess server. Here the highlight is, everytime there is a major (or even minor) event games going on, there is a feature for observers to "kibitz" when the game is in progress. Its really an awesome feature. Also there is a guess the next move bot, which records guesses by observers and makes it all the more interesting. There are at least 10 other features that NONE of the modern chess sites (like chess.com, lichess.org etc.,) have.</p>
 2915: <p><a href="http://chessbase.com" rel="nofollow">ChessBase</a> nailed it. </p>

<p>It offers:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/apps/playchess" rel="nofollow">Playchess</a> - Everyday, playchess.com welcomes 20,000 chess players from all around the world from beginner to grandmaster. You can even play without registration.</li>
<li><a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/apps/livedb" rel="nofollow">Live Database</a> - Updated weekly, their definitive database has all the latest games.</li>
<li><a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/apps/cloud" rel="nofollow">My Games Cloud</a> - You can store your games and access them everywhere.</li>
<li><a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/apps/video" rel="nofollow">Video</a> - Private Masterclasses</li>
<li><a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/apps/training" rel="nofollow">Training</a> - Solving Tactical positions.</li>
<li><a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/apps/fritz" rel="nofollow">Fritz Online</a> - Play, analyze and train against fritz.</li>
<li><a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/apps/openings" rel="nofollow">Openings</a> - Build and maintain your repertoire.</li>
<li><a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/apps/news" rel="nofollow">CB News</a> - Daily Reports on all top tournaments.</li>
</ul>

<p>But if you want to watch live top tournaments, I usually go to <a href="http://chessdome.com" rel="nofollow">Chessdom</a> because its not heavy and easy to use.</p>

<p><a href="http://chess24.com" rel="nofollow">Chess24</a> is also good but for me its too heavy to use.</p>

<p>When I play online I use <a href="http://www.chess.com" rel="nofollow">chess.com</a>.</p>

<p>There are also upcoming chess community and looks like they are interesting. I'm watching <a href="http://www.chessfam.com" rel="nofollow">ChessFam</a> and <a href="http://www.chessfamily.net" rel="nofollow">Chess Family</a>.</p>
 606: <p>Obviously <a href="http://www.chessbase.com" rel="nofollow">Chessbase News</a> is another fairly active chess news site.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.chesscafe.com/" rel="nofollow">Chess Cafe</a> has been around forever, though I haven't really checked it out recently.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/" rel="nofollow">The Week in Chess</a> is another good one.</p>
 1737: <ul>
<li><a href="http://en.lichess.org/" rel="noreferrer">Lichess.org</a> is building a decent following of users with a very appealing interface, albeit a web one.  It has drawn a number of IMs, FMs, NMs and one or two GMs.  Oh yeah, it's free too.</li>
<li>TWIC, of course, as mentioned above, especially for it's live PGN files.</li>
</ul>
 46: <p>In no order of priority:</p>

<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://chess.com" rel="nofollow">http://chess.com</a> is relatively new to the scene, but they have Pogolina on
board who will definitely pull in the traffic</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://chessbase.com" rel="nofollow">Chessbase News</a> is really a chess product site masquerading as a news
site, but they cannot be disregarded. They have relay services on their playing server (similar to ICC and FICS), but here we will limit discussion to the onsite features only</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://chessintranslation.com" rel="nofollow">Chess in Translation</a> is an initiative by mishanp to offer
translation of Russian content (particularly juicy commentary by
Shipov of chess.ru)</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://whychess.com" rel="nofollow">WhyChess</a> is known for its live relays (probably the most
feature-complete at time of writing, and have been used at several
official events) but they have expanded into news and blogs as well.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://chessbomb.com" rel="nofollow">ChessBomb</a> is a relay and playing site getting constant plugs from Susan Polgar.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://chessgames.com" rel="nofollow">Chess Games Database and Community</a> (and frogbert) probably needs no explanation.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://chessok.com" rel="nofollow">ChessOK</a> is a product and relay site, probably the first to integrate full Rybka (now Houdini) evaluations into its relays. The interface is not as fanciful as WhyChess but is clean and good.</p></li>
</ul>
