I think you're going to have trouble finding a site that meets your exacting
specifications. In my opinion, http://letsplaychess.com) is the best email
chess site on the planet. Maybe you should go ahead and pay the membership
fee. You may be pleasantly surprised.

"a little bird" wrote in message
ups.com...
Due to a lack of suitable opponents in real life, I've found online
correspondence chess to be a great way to practise and improve. You can
play many games simultaneously and you don't have to worry about time.

I've played at the "big three" correspondence chess sites (GameKnot,
Red Hot Pawn and LetsPlayChess), but I no longer play at any of them,
for the following reasons:

GameKnot (http://gameknot.com) - They offer a great featureset for
free, and after three months, I managed to pay for a years'
subscription. They have serious problems with rules, though. Sharing of
computers will get your account banned. My subscription was
unexpectedly terminated by them after a few months.
Red Hot Pawn (http://redhotpawn.com) - Although this site is widely
touted for its community, the community is exactly why I left. The
people there seem unfriendly and belligerent, and I got flamed there
several times, mostly because I was playing as a free member.
Letsplaychess (http://letsplaychess.com) - Apparently their member
package is the best. However, there seems to be something wrong with
their rating system. Free players have basically no rights at all. They
can't even play rated games or access forums.

I'm currently looking for another good free correspondence chess site
to play on.

When looking for good sites for a particular purpose (e.g. webmail), I
will usually try a few sites, and then pick one I like best. I will try
using a throwaway username, and I will only use my "main" username for
websites I have decided to stick to. I'm the type who can become very
loyal to a site and constantly promote it to friends. For example, I'm
a huge fan of Gmail, and keep sending Gmail invites to friends, telling
them to switch. I hope to find a correspondence chess site I can be
loyal to.

Here's the very least I can expect from a free correspondence chess
site:
-Unlimited rated play for free (no "trials" - give me time to get loyal
to a site, and I might consider paying)
-At least 6 simultaneous games (the point of correspondence chess -
many games at once)
-Forums where free players can post (forums are to get support/help and
familiarity with the community)

Some features which I'd enjoy, and which would make me loyal to a site:
-At least 10-20 simultaneous free games (the more, the better)
-Several types of tournaments (competitions are more fun, teams are a
huge bonus)
-Archives of my games, and a database (and other features to help
improve my chess)
-Conditional moves (very useful to speed up games)
-Community features, such as a profile, friends and ignore list
(Playing chess is more fun if you're a part of the community)
-Postponement days (when you need to go on holiday, postpone your games
so you won't timeout).

I am looking for websites with 10,000-100,000 members. If the number of
members are too low, the forums will not be active enough, and I'll
have to wait ages for someone to join my game. If it's too large, it'll
be difficult to become an established member of the community. That
being said, I have nothing against large sites, but I don't know any
besides GK, RHP and LPC - if there are others, please let me know about
them.

Please recommend to me websites that meet my criteria.

I am currently testing 4 sites - please feel free to give feedback on
them:
Queen Alice (http://queenalice.com) - I like the name of the site. I
checked the forum, and I like it - the webmaster is actively posting
there and responding to suggestions. It offers several types of
tournaments. Its Alexa ranking is 400,000, and unfortunately it does
not post its member count.
ChessHere (http://chessmaniac.com) - I have heard a lot of good things
about this site. It allows me to play in tournaments and teams, and
apparently boasts several other good features. Its only drawback is
that it seems to have only about 16000 members - a little low, but its
high Alexa ranking of 60,000 suggests the members are active.
ChessManiac (http://chessmaniac.com) - The front page suggests the site
is good. It offers tournaments and teams, annotations and archives,
buddy lists and forums. It has a solid Alexa ranking of 120,000 and has
33,000 members, according to the front page.
SlowChess (http://slowchess.com) - I have a feeling I might be
disappointed by this site, which has an Alexa ranking of 2,600,000. It
is apparently a completely free site, but I'm not so sure about the
features. The website has 32,000 members. Still, I'll give it a try and
I might be surprised.

Hopefully I'll find a great site I love and can be loyal to. If I
really love the site, I may even pay for a subscription!