11/23/2017 – Readers may have noticed a recent, and significant, change in Playchess, notably the playing room: the new ratings. It is designed to get you a quick game with no delay against a random opponent with a similar rating. These "pools" include ratings calculated on games played at the same time control, as compared to the previous system which lumped multiple game times together as "blitz" up to 5 minutes with 4 seconds of increment. We now have 1-minute bullet, and 3-minute and 5-minute blitz, with no added time. The ratings for previous modes, and individual challenges, are now called "Classic" but continue to be maintained independently. Read on for a more detailed explanation.

12/1/2015 – Flying in from all over the world, the top female online blitz players came to Rome, Italy to fight for the final prize: the title of the First FIDE World Online Women Blitz Championship (Gesundheit!). At stake was also a top prize of US$3000, with names such as Harika Dronavalli, who took gold, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina and more. Illustrated report by Alina L'Ami.