Daily Chess, also known as turn-based or correspondence-style chess, allows players to make moves over an extended period, much like traditional chess games played via postal mail.
Unlike live chess, where you have a limited amount of time to complete the entire game, Daily Chess gives you a specific number of days to make each move. Games can last days, weeks, or even months. This flexibility often leads players to manage multiple Daily games simultaneously.
Important rules
While Daily games provide ample time for deep analysis, using any chess engine to analyze your position during a game is strictly prohibited.
Check out this article for more information about cheating in Daily Chess: What counts as cheating on Chess.com?
Starting a new Daily game
Hover over 'Play' on the left-hand menu and click 'Play' on the appearing menu.
Alternatively, click on 'New Game' on your homepage - This will take you to the 'Play' menu where you can select your game.
Click on the Time Setting dropdown menu and select the Daily time setting you want to play, ranging from 1 to 14 days per move.
Once you've chosen your time setting, you can click 'Play' to find a match or select 'Custom Game' to further tailor your game settings.
Custom Game Options
Be aware that putting narrow restrictions in the settings may cause long wait times to find an opponent who matches your requirements.
If you want to customize the challenge you're sending out, you can change the options before you click 'Play'
Setting | Details |
Type |
 |
Time (Days per move) | Select the amount of time each player has to make a move:
 |
Opponent | The default is to match with a random player. Click the 'Random' dropdown to select and challenge a friend or type the name of the member you want to play against:  |
Rating Range | Use the drop-down to specify a rating range for your opponent. It’s generally recommended to seek players within 200 points of your own rating.
 |
Rated | Toggle this off if you don’t want the game to affect your rating.
If you decide you want to play an unrated game, you will also have the option to choose what color you want to play and if takebacks are allowed:
|
Move Speed | This will filter players whose average move speed is equal to or slower than your selected option. You can check your own average move speed in your Stats.
|
Minimum Games Played | Use the up and down arrows to set a threshold for the minimum number of games your opponent must have completed. |
Avoid Time-Outs | Enable this option to avoid opponents with a high percentage (over 10%) of time-outs. |
Premium Members Only | This option matches you only with premium members (Gold, Platinum, or Diamond). You must be a premium member to access this feature. |
Takebacks let players undo moves that have been made on the board, often used for teaching purposes. Check out this article to learn about open challenges: What is an open challenge?