. . . fram'd a tablet of celestial mold
Inlay'd with squares of silver and gold;
Then of two metals form'd the warlike band,
That here compact in show of battle stand;
He taught the rules that guide the pensive game,
And call'd it Caissa from the dryad's name.
Whence Albion's sons, who most its praise confess,
Approved the play and named it thoughtful Chess.

About Caissa's Web

Way back in the dark ages of computer networking, when AOL was still a garage operation and the Internet was the domain of eccentric university researchers and military strategists, there was a small dial-up service called the Leisure Linc. Using your 286 computer, a 2400bps modem and some nifty client software, you could log on to the Linc and play people all across America in a real-time game of chess on a cool graphical board. All was well in the world of online chess. Then the big bad USA Today bought the Linc and turned it into the USA Today Sports Link and online chess was shoved aside to make room for Fantasy Football Challenge and Vegas Poker Fun. Online chess had seen better days. In its stead, along with the rise of the Internet, came a slew of Telnet chess servers which allowed for real-time chess games but conceded a few style and ease-of-use points due to the relatively arcane nature of the Telnet connection. Things were looking up for the world of online chess. Then came the World Wide Web. In the beginning, there were a few university-based chess sites on the Web which allowed you to play a computer program using a graphical board, but in general there were no truly Web-based chess sites where the chess lover could log on and play others using the Web's intuitive, graphical interface. Then came Caissa's Web. The world of online chess would never be the same.

Caissa's Web was created by chess lovers for chess lovers. It is emphatically an "open platform" chess server that is intended to allow anyone with any type of web connection or browser to learn about and play chess. There is no special or proprietary software to download. Every aspect of the site is designed for ease-of-use. An atmosphere of friendliness and congeniality is actively encouraged. The Caissa community is all-inclusive, welcoming members of all skill levels, ages, nationalities, beliefs and backgrounds.

We have two main purposes. First, to design a state-of-the-art website that pushes the interactive capability of the graphics-oriented Web to its ultimate limit. Given the passive nature of the Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol this has indeed turned into a real challenge, but with new technologies such as the Java programming language and "AJAX" becoming more mainstream, Web interactivity is poised to enter a whole new dimension. Be assured that Caissa's Web will lead the charge into that new dimension.

Our second and most important purpose is to encourage individuals from all over the world to meet and interact with one another through the timeless game of chess. No game is more internationally beloved than chess, and no network is more internationally accessible than the World Wide Web. As far as Caissa is concerned, it's the perfect "match."