On-line live analysis board?

Question

Here is the situation. I have a friend with whom I very much like to discuss chess (our games, other games etc.). We are not living in the same country, so we discuss chess on-line. During our on-line discussions, we often, of course, need a chessboard. Usually, we use our wooden chessboards (which we see through our computer cameras), but this is inconvenient, as it causes synchronization difficulties.

My question is: Is there a site or a chess program with a chessboard which both my distant friend and me could see and alter, in such a way that every change in position is simultaneously shown to him and to me. In other words, something like a "live analysis board". If we were at the same place, we would have a chessboard on which we would analyze a game. He could alter the position, and I would see it, and vice versa. Now, I need the same thing, just on-line. Does anybody use something similar and/or has a suggestion?

I hope my description above is enough to understand what I mean. Obviously, my English is far from perfect, but I hope it will do.

Finally, I would like to stress that I am NOT asking for a suggestion for a site for PLAYING chess, but for ANALYZING games and discussing different positions.

Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Chess.com has an analysis board meant for doing analysis with other people. But its available only for premium members. Also I am unsure if it has voice support in built when doing the analysis.

For the free alternative, its worth to look at FICS- It has a very cool feature for analysis called "examine", that combined with "mexamine" will give you exactly what you are looking for. Along with this, you could just setup a skype or gtalk (replace your fav free voip program here) for chatting with voice when you are examining the game. You could use Babaschess the free and best FICS client available.

Answer 2

You can use software for remotely accessing your friend's computer. He could run a program displaying a chessboard on the screen and you could use your own mouse to move the mouse pointer on his screen. You will both be seeing his screen and both able to affect the board with the mouse.

Answer 3

After trying out several options, I have to say that I find the study tool on lichess by far and away the best.

It is intuitive, very easy to use, and the features are fantastic. For me, the most important features are the trivial way of importing previously annotated games (unlike with FICS, for example), the fact that all the analysis (variations, comments, arrows and highlighted squares) are saved and can be re-examined later, and all the comments from other users are also saved (which is very convenient). On top of all that, it's free (you only need to register).

You can learn more about the study tool here. I highly recommend trying it out (as well as lichess in general).

Answer 4

You can do this on chess.com: see this tutorial.

You can also analyze together on ICC, but ICC costs money.

Most sites that let you play games will have some feature like this, if only because they would like to encourage coaches to give lessons online using their service.

Edit: according to Keshav's answer, apparently the chess.com analysis functionality is only available with a paid account.