ECU Playing zone  With the new ECU Online Playing zone you CAN: play online at any time; use our new Android OS client to play wherever you want;Android OS client participate in prize tournaments; play with customizable time controls, including freestyle; follow online broadcasts of super tournaments and best matches.  Registering a basic account in ECU Online Playing Zone is free, and an inexpensive membership provides more features.  Our interface supports English, German, Russian and Spanish.

Playing Room Mode  This mode features: player list; chat rooms; lists of games being played; links to ongoing game broadcasts with Houdini comments;  You can challenge specific players directly or search for opponents according to time controls and/or rating.

Game window The Game window features: chessboard with the game being played; the viewing of other games; board colors, piece styles and window layout are easily customizable; computer game analysis and statistics window for spectators, a separate chat room for spectator discussions.

Tournaments Mode This mode is used for tournaments (both individual and team ones) and cup events. Available schedules include round-robin, Swiss and knockout systems; Cross-tables for all tournaments are updated in real-time; During team tournaments both team and individual player results can be viewed, including all games played by each player; Arbiter interface allows arbiters to watch ongoing games and have the same control over them as arbiters in real tournaments have; A unique computer cheat recognition system that detects cheaters even if they use several machines (for blitz games only).

ECU Playing zone In comparison with Playchess and ICC, the playing modes for both team and individual-and-team competitions are well developed. All in all there are already 755 active teams in this playing zone, some of them having as much as 630 players. Team captains have a simple interface for inviting new players and assigning boards to the members of the team with the option to make replacements. Team members can communicate with each other using team chat.

L ectures and tests system Using this mode, a chess coach can conduct closed individual and group lectures for his/her students; The coach can show teaching material to the students on a shared chessboard. The positions, variants, text remarks and markers entered by the coach are displayed on the screens of all students in the group; The coach receives students’ questions in the chat room and answers them either in the same chat or by entering variant moves and text remarks on the shared board to be seen by all students; He/she can ask questions, set chess problems, test students. Students answer by making variant moves, adding visual markers on the board or entering text remarks.

Mail service The playing zone has a special mail mode that players can use to send letters to each other. The mail service allows you to insert positions and game fragments into the body of a letter. The addressee can to play the game fragment directly from in the letter. The playing zone also supports forums accessible directly from the client program.

Correspondence Mode In this mode both individual and team correspondence games and tournaments are played, time limits ranging from 5 to 100 days for a game.

The following events are held daily: - commented tournaments broadcasts; - hundreds of tournaments, including those with prizes.

ECU Playing zone The playing zone can be accessed with: Basic downloadable interface for Windows OS; Light version run in browser; Pocket PC version; Android OS version; iPhone/iPad version (will be released in 2012).

Playing zone membership At present, the following types of membership at the playing zone are available: Guest access - free of charge; Registered user (access to all modes except the Tournament Mode, which is only available on Wednesdays) – also free; Membership – no limits on tournaments access; one year membership cost is 14 euro; VIP membership (with additional rights to create your own tournaments and conduct lectures) – one year VIP membership is 31 euro.

New Internet tournaments Online European Individual Championship; Online European Amateur Championship; Online European School Championship; Online European Financial World Championship (Bank or Insurance Company Championships, corporative tournaments etc.).

ECU Playing zone - Great potentials Playing zones Playchess and ICC offer paid membership only, whereas the ECU Online Playing Zone offers free access for registered users or an inexpensive membership. This will be a considerable advantage for Eastern European users and also for school children and students; Team and individual-and-team tournament modes make it possible to organize events in the new formats (competitions between schools, universities, corporations etc.), thus providing stable income; Increasing popularity of portable gadgets on the base of Android and iPhone/iPad is likely to cause re-division of the market and considerable change in the users’ preferences. WE CARE ABOUT CHESS