We've been doing fine with Yahoo Chess.
It has everything we want. It provides a quick online chess experience without requiring a download. It provides a way to upload an image for a profile, an IM chat box to communicate with our opponent (and others who want to sit in), and an ongoing tally of our chess ranking score as we win and lose games.
Yet other companies are offering new social networking features, hoping to pick up users. First, there's Chess.com, owned by a Stanford MBA grad, and which offering things like profiles, blogs, video sharing and email. It hits you with a request to invite friends during registration. Last week, it introduced a way for people to play chess without being online at the same time -- an email tells you they have moved, and you log on and make your move, etc.
And today, another company, Chesspark, of West Palm Beach, Fl., announced it has raised $1 million in a angel round of funding. Unlike Chess.com, Chesspark doesn't hit you from the outset with a process to engage you in networking activities. We registered and found ourselves playing a game in seconds. However, the company said it will be going through some changes later this year.
Jon Callaghan of True Ventures, Burnt Norton Inc. and Eaglebrook School provided the funding. Co-founder Jack Moffitt said he has more than 100,000 users already enrolled in the company's beta test.
There's not a lot of innovation here, as far as we can see. However, chess is an amazingly popular game, so perhaps these companies can draw a relatively small portion of users and still make money by offering premium features and/or ads.