

Play free online chess and connect to our social community. At ChessCube you can live chess and chess tournaments in both standard and Chess960 variants. We have over 2 million users waiting to play bullet chess, blitz chess and long games with you.

On those days when you are in the mood to tickle your intellectual skills, hit the Puzzles link at for a variety of brain tickling challenges. You can play Robert Langdon and crack the encrypted codes to get the Da Vinci Code feeling. Or try worming out of tough Labyrinths. Or piece together intricate jigsaws.

Howard Staunton (1810-1874) dominated British chess as a player, journalist, author, and organizer in the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1835 Nathaniel Cook designed and named a chess set for Howard Staunton. Staunton’s promotion of the set as the standard led to it being known as the Staunton pattern and is still used as the standard in tournaments today. Inspired by the Great Exhibition held in London 1851, Howard Staunton conceived the original idea of holding a chess tournament at which all the best players in Europe would be assembled.


Arguably the most important piece on the board is the Queen, which can move in any direction, and in any number of positions. This effectively means the Queen has the furthest reach of any piece, and she should be guarded in order to protect her for as long as practically possible.

