New Chess Server

      The Amateur Chess Organization, headquartered in Prievidza , Slovakia, is an organization for amateur chess players up to 2400 ELO. This organization, with no ties to FIDE, claims to exclusively represent the interests of amateur chess players. They sponsor the World Amateur Championship where all players below 2400 rating are allowed to participate.
      Actually the organization began in 2011, but their server is now in Beta. On the server they offer Live Chess where the time control ranges between one minute and 3 hours and Online Chess (correspondence chess) with time controls ranging between 1 to 14 days per move. The Glicko-Rating-System is used.
      They also sponsor OTB events and offer an interesting concept called “Couch Surfing.” Players offer their home to players all over the world. The idea is if you would like to take part in a tournament in another country, but you don’t have enough money for accommodations, you can stay in somebody’s home. These days I’m not so sure that would be a good idea on the part of either party, but you never know.
      Currently the site does not appear to show a lot of activity. i.e. the forums are mostly empty and because I did not want to register on yet another chess site, I can’t tell you how much activity there is in the games section, but for anyone that’s interested, you can sign up HERE.