ChessChatChessChat pairs you with a real person over live video, and then you play. No download, no plugin, no separate call to set up.
2,834 players14,533 games played125 countries
ChessChat is a free browser app for playing chess with video chat. You are matched with a real opponent in seconds, your webcams and microphones connect automatically, and the two of you agree on bullet, blitz or rapid before the first move. It runs on desktop and mobile, needs no download, and the video is never recorded.
Press play and ChessChat looks for someone else who wants a game right now, close to your rating. Nobody waits in an empty room: if there is a match, it happens in seconds.
Your browser asks once for the camera and microphone. From then on the video comes up with the board, both ways, with no call to start and no link to send.
Say hi, pick bullet, blitz or rapid together, and the clock starts when you both choose the same one. Afterwards you can rematch or go find somebody new.
Online chess removed the person. You get a rating, a clock and a username, and the game is the same game whether the other side is a grandmaster, a stranger in another timezone or a piece of software. Nothing that happens between the moves survives.
Video puts that back. You see the pause before a blunder, the face when the fork lands, the shrug at a lost endgame. People say good game and mean it. It turns a session into something closer to what chess is across a real board, which is a conversation with the pieces in the way.
A browser and a webcam. ChessChat runs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, on desktop and on phones, and the video uses WebRTC through LiveKit, so there is nothing to install and no plugin to allow. If you want it on your home screen it can be installed as an app, but that is a convenience, not a requirement.
The camera is how ChessChat works, so it stays on. If someone walks into the room you can switch it off for a moment and switch it back on, and the microphone has its own toggle you can use freely. What is not allowed is playing on with the camera off, or game after game without it. If you want chess without a face there are other sites for that, and no hard feelings. The point here is that the person is there without being arranged.
Camera and microphone streams are transmitted live to your opponent and are not recorded or stored. There is one deliberate exception, and it exists for safety rather than for us: when a player reports somebody, a single still frame of the reported player's video is captured so a human can act on the report. That is the whole of it, and it is written down in the privacy policy rather than only here.
Who can see you is equally narrow. Your opponent, always. In a lobby or tournament game, the host may be permitted to watch the game they are running. Nobody else can attach to a game they are not a party to, which is enforced by the server on every connection rather than by hiding a button.
The usual answer to playing chess with video is two apps: a chess site in one window and a video call in another, with a link to send, a lobby code to read out and two clocks that do not know about each other. It works, and almost nobody bothers twice.
ChessChat is one app doing both. Pairing, the board, the clock and the call are the same session, so the video is simply on when the game is on. Games from matchmaking are rated with a Glicko-2 rating, so playing face to face costs you nothing in the part of chess that keeps score.
Your browser asks for camera and microphone access once. When you are paired with an opponent, both streams connect automatically alongside the board, using WebRTC through LiveKit. There is no call to dial and no link to exchange: the video is part of the game session.
For a moment, yes. If someone walks in, switch it off and switch it back on when you are ready. What is not allowed is playing with the camera off, or game after game without it. ChessChat is chess face to face, and playing dark is a serious breach of the guidelines that can cost you your account. The microphone is different: mute it whenever you like.
No. Camera and microphone streams are live only and are not recorded or stored. The single exception is a safety one: when a player submits a report, one still frame of the reported player's video is captured so that a human can review the report.
Yes. ChessChat is built for phones as well as desktops and works in mobile Chrome and mobile Safari, front camera included. It can also be installed to your home screen and run like an app.
No. The video is built into the game. Running a chess site in one window and a video call in another is exactly the arrangement ChessChat exists to replace.
Your opponent. In a lobby or tournament game the host running it may be allowed to watch that game. Nobody else can join a game they are not part of: the server checks every connection rather than relying on an unlisted link.