Michael Rohde, a grandmaster who earns his living as a tax lawyer in New York, paints a somewhat less rosy picture of the ICC's value to pros. However, Rohde plays a number of games on the ICC each month just for fun. The possibility of playing against grandmasters like Rohde, as well as lesser-titled players, provides a powerful draw for other ICC members. The site's home page, which alerts arriving visitors to the number of games in progress, also lists the chess stars online at the time. The club has even experimented with creating a little in-house economy with a basic unit of currency, the chekel.
Players can redeem chekels for services such as online lessons from grandmasters.
The Internet's worldwide reach is key because chess has a much higher profile and much greater popularity in other nations, particularly Russia and Europe. In fact, the ICC, which draws its membership from more than 70 nations, has created Spanish and Swedish versions of its home page to further increase its international appeal. But despite the ICC's success, chess games probably won't attract multimillion investments from venture capitalists. As for those no-cost competitors, Sleator seems relatively unworried. Meanwhile, the ICC's staffers are continually working on their site's interface.