ChessChatAny modern browser, the webcam you already have, and one permission prompt. There is nothing to install and no settings to work through first.
3,479 players18,381 games played126 countries
To play chess with a camera on ChessChat you need a browser and a webcam, and nothing else. Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari all work, on desktop, iPhone and Android, including a phone's front camera. The browser asks for the camera once, and the video connects with the board automatically.
The first time you play, the browser shows its own permission prompt for the camera and microphone. Allow it and the choice sticks for the site, so you are not asked again on every game.
On, or off for a moment when you need it. Whatever you pick is remembered for next time.
There is no call to join. When the game starts, your opponent's picture is already there next to the board, and yours is next to theirs.
Anything a browser can see. A built-in laptop webcam, a USB camera, a phone's front or back camera, and virtual cameras such as OBS all work, because ChessChat asks the browser for a video device rather than talking to hardware itself. If your camera works in a video call, it works here.
On the software side that means Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. Phones are not an afterthought: the layout is built for a portrait screen, the front camera is the default, and the site can be installed to your home screen so it opens without browser furniture around it.
It is sent live to the person you are playing, and to nobody else. Streams are not recorded and not stored, there is no archive of past games' video, and the server does not sit in the middle of the picture: the media goes peer to peer over WebRTC where it can.
The single exception is written into the privacy policy rather than buried here. When one player reports another, one still frame of the reported player's camera is captured so a human being can act on the report. That is the only circumstance in which any frame of your video is kept.
ChessChat is played face to face, so a clear camera is how you get a game, and there is no setting that hides you while you play. If that is not for you, there are plenty of good chess sites where nobody sees anybody.
If the worry is the room rather than the face, an unmade bed or a kitchen, sit with a plain wall behind you. And if somebody walks in, switch the camera off for a moment and turn it back on when you are ready.
Almost always something else has it. Video calls hold a camera exclusively on most systems, so a Zoom or Teams window in the background is the usual culprit, followed by a second tab of ChessChat itself. Close the other user of the camera and reload.
After that, check the browser has permission: every browser keeps a per-site camera setting, and a refusal earlier can be quietly remembered forever. ChessChat tells you which of these it is rather than showing a dark rectangle, because a blank tile that could mean four different things is not an error message.
Whatever your browser can already see. A laptop's built-in webcam, a USB camera or a phone's front camera are all fine. There is no minimum resolution and no recommended hardware: if it works in a video call it works here.
Yes, and the phone layout is built for it rather than adapted. The front camera is used by default, the board sits above your opponent's picture in portrait, and you can install the site to your home screen so it opens like an app.
Because the game is played on camera, and only the browser can grant that. The prompt comes from the browser itself rather than from the page, it is asked once per site, and the microphone is requested at the same time so there is one interruption rather than two.
Usually another program is holding it: a video call in another window, or a second ChessChat tab. Most systems give the camera to one application at a time. Close the other one and reload. If that is not it, check the browser's per-site camera permission, which can remember an old refusal indefinitely.
Yes, and plenty of people do for framing and lighting. Your opponent is shown a small mark noting that the video comes from a virtual camera, which is information rather than an accusation: it is their game too and they should know how the picture is produced.
The camera is how the site works, so it is required. You can switch it off briefly when you need to. Playing on with it off is a breach of the guidelines. The microphone is genuinely optional and can stay muted.