I stumbled across pogo chess about 6 years ago, and yahoo chess only about 2 years ago. I have stayed faithful to pogo all these years and never really touched yahoo after the first encounter with it. Anyone who played both variants will notice the great varsity between the two.
First, pogo's chess pieces are actually different from each other at one glance. Yahoo, on the other hand, has similar pics to represent the pieces. You can hardly tell a pawn from a bishop with a look. Secondly, pogo's interface is simple and straightforward, you can set the time, the time added after each move, rated or unrated, limits etc. Yahoo's interface has the same features, but everything is draped with a dry-grey-lightgrey-darkgrey look that simply turns me off. Admittedly, I'm not a fanatic of colors and design, but not putting effort into a web-game enjoyed by thousands is not my taste. If you are wondering, yes the chess board is a light grey, and the pieces are a grey. Maybe it has changed over the years. Third point, in pogo, tables are set in an organised manner. You can actually see the games. In my opinion, this gives a more user-friendly outlook. Yahoo, on the other hand, with its grey manner, is just rows and rows of games. I dotn even bother to choose.
Both systems have its flaw. And that lies in using a slow java applet system that consistently screws up. For example, one minute games. Sometimes the user gets excited and moves the piece too fast before the system actually catches it. This boots the user out and a loss is accorded automatically. This is unfair.
Finally to sum it up, pogo chess is definitely better. However, there are 5 times more people in yahoo chess than in pogo. This is a clear demonstration of superior marketing as compared to a fairly unknown pogo.com . If google.com comes up with a chess and advertised it, it will be equal to yahoo in terms of popularity, at least.
respective websites: www.pogo.com ; games.yahoo.com
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