ChessWorld Welcome Pack

To get the maximum enjoyment from your ChessWorld experience please take a little time to read your Welcome Pack.

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Welcome!

As a Guest Member
- you can play up to five individual games at any time; games played in our Guest Tournaments do not count against that limit. If you choose to join one of the popular 4-player All-play-All Guest Tournaments, where the time limit is three days per move, you will have a total of 6 games, three with each colour. We offer you further advice in the sections Using ChessWorld and Playing in your first Tournament, below.

You can access many of our features but, as you would expect, there are some areas that are only open to Full Members. If you would like to find out what is available to you check our Site Features page.

As a Full Member
- you can play unlimited games, join more and varied Tournaments and Teams as well as having full access to all of our many features. You can find information about our current subscription rates and methods of payment by visiting My Stuff ... My Subscription.

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What can ChessWorld offer you?

ChessWorld encourages thoughtful and relaxed play with Opponents from around the World. Whether you are a Beginner or a Grandmaster there will be an Opponent who is exactly right for you.

You can play individual games or in multi-player Tournaments.

You can choose time limits ranging from 1 to 15 days per move. You can make your moves at any time that suits your own arrangements, and come back at any time to check your Opponents and plan your next move.

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My Welcomer.

As a new Member you will be assigned to a ChessWorld Welcomer who will not only challenge you to one of your first games but will also be able to help and guide you as you explore the many distinctive features that make ChessWorld the leading online Chess site. Feel free to ask them as many questions as you like.

If you are unsure how to identify your Welcomer, just go to your Homepage where you will find a link, Referrer/Welcomer, followed by the name of your Welcomer. If you click on their name you will be taken to their homepage; you can then, if you wish, send them a message, simply by clicking on the  Leave a Message  link on the left hand side of their Homepage.

If, for some reason, you feel dissatisfied with your Welcomer, go to your Welcome page and click on the  Suggest a Welcomer  link.

You should be aware that if and when you decide to become a Full Member, your Welcomer receives, at no cost to you, a two month extension to their own subscription. If you feel that another player has been more helpful and has encouraged you to become a Full Member, please let us know, by posting their details to the HelpDesk, before you take out a subscription so that we can ensure that their bonus months can be properly credited to their account.

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Using ChessWorld.

ChessWorld is easy to navigate. Roll your mouse over the menubar and click on the header that you wish to explore. You will see a list of possible options - click on any one of these to gain more information. The ChessWorld logo that appears on every one of our hundreds of pages will take you direct to the playing area at any time. Please see Using the ChessWorld menubar, below, for further information.

ChessWorld hosts a wide range of Forums. Three Forums in particular are always popular: Site Newbies, Site Advanced Help and Site Improvements. This latter Forum is particularly important as it allows Members to offer their own suggestions and to comment on other ideas and developments.

Naturally, ChessWorld also hosts Forums covering a wide range of Chess related topics, ranging from general game discussions to book reviews, from Openings to Puzzles and of course, our exclusive and instructional Chess Videos.

If you need to know the answer to a problem you have several choices -

   - Ask your Welcomer at any time, either during your game or by sending them a message direct to their home page.

   - Visit the ChessWorld FAQ pages where you will find answers to almost all problems that can arise. You can also find on those pages detailed explanations of many of our features. Roll your mouse over  Help   and then click on  FAQ 

   - If you cannot find the exact answer simply message our confidential HelpDesk, where our team of experienced and friendly Admins will respond to your question as quickly as possible - normally within 12 hours and often by return.

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Playing in your first Tournament.

As a newcomer, enrolling in your first Tournament may seem to be a major step. But, like everything else on ChessWorld it is easy! There are several ways to enrol, depending upon your current activity.

If you are already playing a game with your Welcomer, you will be familiar with the tabbed boxes to the right of the playing area. Because the Chat tab is always open by default you will see a row of small icons displayed. The number of different icons will vary as you make more use of ChessWorld but you should see a small 'trophy' icon towards the right hand end of the row. When you roll your mouse over this icon you will see the tooltip    Four Player Guest Tournament   . Click on the icon and you will be taken to our ChessWorld Mini-Tournaments page. This will tell you if you are currently eligible, (although, as a newcomer you certainly will be eligible!), and provide you with some information about the Tournament. If you are happy with that, simply click on the    YES!   I would like to join a free Tournament!    link and you will automatically be enrolled. As soon as the Tournament is fully enrolled you will get an email to inform you and you can make your first move.

Remember that you will have three boards playing White and three playing Black - you must make the first move with White.

If you are not sure how to find your boards use our menubar: roll your mouse over  Play  and click on  Current games . You will see a list of all games that are waiting for you to move. Click on the game number to see the board and make your move. When you are happy with your move, (and not before!), just click on the    Confirm    button and your Opponent will receive an email to notify them that you have just made your move. As these games have a three day time limit it may be a while before they reply so keep a check on your emails or, if you prefer, just login and check the Play ... My Current Games link to see if there are any other games awaiting your attention.

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Using the ChessWorld menubar.

The menubar will help you to find anything and everything on ChessWorld. Although the main menu headings are self-explanatory we provide you with some more detail here so that you can easily understand how ChessWorld can be explored. We highlight some of the most popular choices but you will find many more available too. Please take the opportunity to explore the menus. You cannot get lost - and you cannot do anything wrong!

After a few times, of course, everything will become clear and easy!

   Play   
   Use this option to start playing or to check on your current or completed games or check Teams and Tournaments. You may also wish to check one of the Latest ... options.

    Join Games    
   Use this option to find an Opponent or carry out various searches to locate Members using a variety of different criteria. Depending upon your level of Membership you can also join Tournaments and Teams.

    My Stuff   
   This menu option is your personal control panel. From here you can change various settings and preferences, you can add detail to your homepage, book holiday time or check your current ChessWorld statistics. Some configuration choices are only available to Full Members.

   Community   
   Use this option to check on current events on ChessWorld or to find more information on game activity and annotated games. You can also use this menu to find out about the various categories of Top 100 ... You can also use this option to check the latest checkmate and opening statistics.

   Forums   
   The Forums menu option gives you quick access to all of our most important and popular Forums. Popular choices for newcomers include Advanced Help, Newbies and Suggestions.

   Videos   
   Use this option to access our Chess videos covering a wide range from learning resources to definitive commentaries on Master Games. You may be particularly interested in checking our range of videos that have been created especially for newcomers. Click on the    Welcome Videos     link and you will find a full page of suggested videos and topics, all of which should help you to enjoy, not only the game of Chess, but also ChessWorld itself.

   Improve   
   Use this option to gain access to the unique ChessWorld collection of high quality Master Games, many of which have been annotated or commented upon. These games can be searched by a number of different criteria, from Tournament names to Player names, from dates to Openings. This option also gives you access to the invaluable ChessWorld Glossary - a vital resource for many Beginner and inexperienced players.

   Help   
   Use this option whenever you need help of any sort. ChessWorld maintains a high quality support service; our Admins are based across the World so that help is never more than a few hours away. To ask for help click on the    Contact the HelpDesk    link and to check on any replies click on the    My HelpDesk Posts    link. These links are exclusive to you; whatever you post and whatever reply you receive is totally confidential between you and the Admin team.

   Logout   
   This is an option that we hope that you will not use too often! Whenever you have finished your ChessWorld session we recommend that you logout, as this means that there is no indication of your presence on the site. If you happen to be using ChessWorld on a mobile device there is an equivalent    Logout    option at the bottom of the    Play    menu.

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Using the Play page message boxes.

On every play page we provide two message boxes. On the right hand side of the board there is a small message box and below the board there is a larger message box which includes a 'Preview' option. A selection of 'smilies' is provided for both boxes: simply click on the 'smiley' icon and a selection box, showing all available choices, will appear. Click on the one of your choice to include it in the message.

You may find the lower box useful if you wish to include some simple HTML formatting. This can be previewed before you send it by using the    Prev    button. Be aware that only a limited subset of the full HTML command syntax is available in this feature.

You may use the game based message system to send messages to your Opponent, perhaps to ask for advice about ChessWorld or perhaps to have a friendly social chat.

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Sending messages to another Member.

You can send messages direct to any other Member by visiting their Homepage and then clicking on the    Leave a Message    link. The message box will open with the addressee's name inserted - all you need to do is provide a suitable subject line and then compose your message.

As soon as you send the message it will be delivered to the addressee's Inbox and a copy will be visible in your own Outbox. Please do not remove your copy until you are sure that it has been read - once you delete it neither party will be able to retrieve it! If it disappears after a time that is an indication that it has been read and that the recipient has deleted it from their Inbox. If you feel that the message was sufficiently important to keep it for future reference we suggest that you make a copy, (using the 'copy and paste' technique), and store it in your own personal Notepad. Anything that you store in this area remains under your control and cannot be seen by any other Member. You can find your notepad by visiting My Stuff ... My Notepad .

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Making sure that you get all of our Emails.

As you already know, we use the email address that you provided when you first registered with ChessWorld for all of our communications. This is the only way in which we can contact you or provide you with information about Tournament or Game invitations, or, during every game, send you a notification every time your Opponent makes a move.

To ensure that you receive all of our emails, especially those that are game related, please add us to your Safe Senders list.

If you need guidance for this procedure, or you have any other Email problems, we suggest that you check the Email section of our General FAQ's

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Do you have your own website?

If you do have a website, you could become a Full Member, or extend your current Full Membership, simply by linking your website to ChessWorld.     Whenever someone follows the link to ChessWorld from your website, and later pays to become a Full Member, two free months Full Membership subscription will be credited to your account.

Find out how easy it is to link your website to ChessWorld.

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Finally, some useful links to help you explore ChessWorld.

FAQ's - if you have any queries, or you need any help, this is the first stop for you.
User Guide - more detailed information about choosing an Opponent and the many styles of play on ChessWorld.

Site Features - check what we offer to ChessWorld Members.
Welcome Page - The first page you saw after Registering with ChessWorld.

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