Chess.com

It is a irritative site, after all. All those in-between popups are annoying. The interface looks good but not as good as lichess. Lichess is always free, and doesn't bother if you abort the game, no hazzles, no ads, just Super

My experience with Chess.com has been appalling. My account was terminated after two years without any evidence or explanation, despite my adherence to fair play. This opaque and arbitrary action shows a blatant disregard for transparency and user trust.

Shockingly, Chess.com offered to transfer my subscription to a new account, which I refused. Instead, I requested a refund as I could not remain part of a company that handles business in such a manner. They issued a refund, despite their policy of not refunding accounts closed for fair play violations. Additionally, they miscalculated the refund amount. This glaring inconsistency reveals the grossly incompetent and unjust nature of their operations.

Terminating accounts based on unsubstantiated accusations is disgraceful. I urge others to avoid Chess.com and its affiliates. Use your money on more reputable chess platforms that value fairness and transparency.

I had just recently gotten the app, about two weeks ago. I played throughout my childhood and early teen years. After over ten years I wanted to brush off my chess skills and just have fun. Took some wins and loses first few days. Spent some time playing outside the app with some friends who are really good. Helped me with getting better. Unfortunately, coming back into the app after the first couple of winning games I was banned without any explanation other than suspicions. I don't pay for the app, and reviewing others who had the same issues I can thoroughly say I am dissapointed. The owners should be ashamed of the fact that they are willing to throw people out without explanation or reason. Other than what I assume is they were improving outside our app and not paying to show their improvements. Way to take the joy and human connection out of a classic age old game.

Sure chess.com is free, but only if you are stupid will you try to use the site. The ads that it uses to extort its members freezes games. You can't even do tactics cause it freezes the screen. In todays world its hard to be ad free in anything, but for chess.com the ads are poorly run or maybe they do it on purpose so that you can't get a decent playing experience without paying to remove the ads. Its crazy that a company pays chess.com to run there ads then they turn around and charge its members money to remove them. Ethically Chess.com should be shut down and sued.

Ultimately the problem with this site isn't the game, but the people playing it. I turned my chat off almost immediately due to s*x harassment issues, and there is ZERO sportsmanship with this app. People will play at a lower level than they are actually ranked, just to boost their scores. People resign if they make a bad move or lose their Queen. They take FOREVER to make a move sometimes. (Like it's an app on your phone, not rocket science, it's not that deep.) They abandon games if they make a bad move, or intentionally try to stalemate you out if they know they're going to lose. The abandonment thing is a big problem, because even though the app has an "auto-resign" feature, it takes at least 5 minutes to kick in, and then when it does kick in it's another 3 minutes on top of that. The game is great, and the app is okay... But they need to regulate this stuff more because people get on this site and act like a**h*les. 🙄

I average 1800 to 2100 but on this scam site there are 1500 players/bots that play you all the time and have min ratings of 1900 but show low values to keep your score low when you lose to them. If you play on this crap site keep in mind they try to keep your score low until you register and pay for classes. Then all of a sudden you become a much better player not because you learned anything but because they block the bots and low rated scams.

App is full of problems and far inferior to Lichess.

Some issues below:

Huge lag which impacts on your ability to win shorter games (3 minutes and under)

You can't select a rating range on 30 second games. As a result, you can win 14 games and lose 1 game yet still lose points. Dumb and stupid and kills the game

Customer service parrots on the Android app repeating the same things all over again

You can be matched with people you have previously blocked. I'm surprised this has not been addressed as it could lead to prolonged abuse or harrassment

Constant up sells

Chess.com has ruined many a day for me but I continued because it's where my stats are. I say go with Lichess and avoid the bother.

I loved using this app, learning how to play chess, and playing against people online. It was quite literally all fun and games until I took a long break from it. I got somewhat better at the game offline, came back quite literally today, played two rounds before eating dinner, came back to check my email and my mf account was closed for "suspicious activity." Is getting good without your stupid app a violation of their terms, well then I'll do it $#*!ing again $#*!s!

They took $99 and closed my account 10 days later. No response from support. They claim violation of fair play, I don't play for money or tournaments or ratings. I went there to learn, so I could teach my son. Ridiculous tactics. Fine if you want to close an account; it's your site. But give me a refund for an entire year I've paid, if you won't let me use what I paid for.

I'm a novice player and signed up to diamond membership a couple of weeks ago.
Tried to log on only to find that although my membership is still active, my account was deleted! No reason given. All I've really been doing are puzzles and lessons so have no idea why this has happened.
Then I deleted and re-installed, creating a new account with new diamond membership but I still can't access unlimited puzzles. What's going on!?!?!

Good luck if you like speed chess! Pieces drag...hard to move and sometimes end up on the wrong square. System overloads due to too many new players also occur. Time cheaters everywhere. But you can watch Magnus Carlsen! Owned by people who are very political too. ( chess chat is for a "free Palestine!")

Took my money and froze my account without reason. After many emails there is no one to speak with and just an app that just keeps mouthing the same nonsense.

I absolutely love this site! I can see the problems with it but nothing bad like that has happened for me, in my personal experience everything went right. Don't buy the premium though its wasteful. Just buy an actual chess set or use the free one, the premium can have a lot of things go wrong with it.

First of all, it is a great app for different kinds of players from beginners to the pro ones.

I've downloaded their app a few weeks ago.

Points:
*Lag- it is minimal throughout the app but this obvious to the lessons part
*Limit to free users- it could have been increased to at least 2 lessons per day or 3 lessons. I find the one lesson per day kinda unnecessary.
* There is a variety of options to do in the app from lessons to types of game you want to play.

Most players in 1600-1900 range are blatantly cheating, they catch like 10% of cheaters or less after many weeks, this is only a scheme to bait paid subscribers and to do the bare minimum to keep the money coming in rather than to actually make a good playing environment for legitimate players. They actively delete forum discussions who criticize them. They should not be allowed to own the domain. My real rating is 2050 but can barely reach 1700 here because of all the cheaters. Avoid at all cost and never pay money. I would give it 0 stars if I could. Good review scores are given by site administrators or paid.

Chess.com operates an apparent scam to get players to sign-up (pay) for its diamond service etc. It plays you against bots disguised as people. I know because I tried holding two different accounts - my ratings were significantly different! How is that explained?

Besides exerting their communist control of what you message each other, during bullet play several opponents cheated adding second s on as they moved. I thought it was me, so I would PRE MOVE my pieces while my opponent moved... nope nothing added for me. The app sucks in too many ways to name. Do NOT give them a penny

Once I got charged now game a analysis won't load. Lessons are ok but a little over my ability right now. Would be nice to see more openings and defense rather than 2 world class players battling it out

The site's user interface is really well done, one of the best (even better then Lichess) however that is basically where it ends.
1. No support at all from their help desk
2. Too many abandoned games
3. Way too much cheating
4. Getting locked into a color (i.e. 10 games in a row as black -- really?)

Unless your a Grand Master, chess.com is unpredictable with the level of play a player possess. No matter their rating, the player can be considerably advanced. Lichess is better when seeking a comparable opponent. Chess.com expects you to play as black even when you've already played as black. Win or lose it should alternate especially if you protest by aborting a game or two. Rather chess.com will INSIST you play black and view you as abusing for insisting to play white, which you won't get. Lichess will alternate your color if you protest playing a color you just finished playing. Today is my white practice, but 80% of my games are my being black. Hacks, cheats and abusers are more frequent at chess.com. Overall chess.com the is most popular, and the most difficult opponents.

Team, I am a big fan of chess.com. I am not sure whats happening but the last three games I played were bugged.

The player on my right looses a turn, and my clock starts counting. Now am I able to make a move - No. This happened for the last two games and I lost points for no fault of mine.

I got snapshots if it helps.

For the past several months, it's infuriating to try and play short time controls at chess.com. Their servers are beyond terrible. I have lost countless games on time, because moves I play in less than half a second take over 4 to travel to the distant realm of chess.com's server. Even pre-moves often take over two seconds, instead of the standard 0.1. I don't know what sort of problem that is, if it's local, and I'm sure it doesn't happen to GMs in the site's much advertised death matches and live streams. I know it's not me, because it happens regardless whether I am playing from home or elsewhere, and more importantly, because it has never happened on chess24, where I occasionally play.

Chess.com is the largest chess playing site. Ensuring an at least decent user experience should be their first priority, but this huge problem has persisted for so long now that it seems they either do not care, or can't fix it. Neither option is appealing.

A couple years of one on one games was good, no problems there. Then I discovered the multiplayer games with four players per game. Bully central. Every game had verbal abuse of some kind. The site should have an age restriction.

I reported two incidents of bullying and harsh language, but heard nothing about their response. After the second reporting, all my chat functions were shut down. I could no longer see what players were typing. That was their solution I guess: silence the ones who report abuse.

About as good as any other place. Just don't let your kids near it.