Tried-and-true online chess playing software: Best bet for online chess play against others?

I'm an intermediate-level chess player new to the online gaming world. I want to be able to play chess online against other human beings. I *also* want to be able to play chess against my own computer. What software package(s) do you most highly recommend for being the "gold standard" for this sort of use? I'm looking for freeware as well as shareware. Thanks in advance!Tried-and-true online chess playing software: Best bet for online chess play against others?
There are different options. I'll put them on here in order of my preference.



Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) using BabasChess interface.

http://www.freechess.org/

http://www.babaschess.net/

FICS is a free server to play chess. It has free lectures, chat rooms, and tournaments.

BabasChess is a great interface for FICS and allows analysis of your games with the free chess engine Crafty.



Internet Chess Club (ICC) with ICC Dasher software

http://www.chessclub.com

ICC is a subscription online chess club, similar to FICS but with better production quality. It has a free trial in order for people to try it out. As well as what you can get in FICS, you get web chess shows recorded just for ICC. You can play chess against the Dasher software.



Yahoo! Chess using web browser

http://games.yahoo.com/ch

I put this in here because it's easier to get untimed games with beginners. The other servers have mainly higher rated players. The web interface has bugs, you can email your games to yourself, but it'll be in notation like this e2-e4 e7-e5.



Chess.com using web browser

http://www.chess.com

Originally this site was for correspondence-style chess, but now you can play live chess. If you pay a monthly fee, you can use Chess Mentor, a tactics trainer and more. Some of these things you can get elsewhere, like buying Chess Mentor as a software, or a free tactics trainer website, so I'm always confused as to whether it's worth the monthly fee. It does has a friendly chess forum.Tried-and-true online chess playing software: Best bet for online chess play against others?
1. They have playing and chatting with humans on Yahoo.

2.ChessMaster-Grandmaster Edition. I think. Thats a disk where you can play against the computer.