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Chess.com

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Overview

Chess.com has a rating of 1.3 stars from 208 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Chess.com most frequently mention customer service, fair play, and new account problems. Chess.com ranks 1060th among Games sites.

  • Service
    63
  • Value
    63
  • Shipping
    31
  • Returns
    38
  • Quality
    60

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Positive reviews (last 12 months): 0%
Positive
0
Neutral
0
Negative
11
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How would you rate Chess.com?
Top Positive Review

“Pretty dang good, like it.”

heyaa guy. h.
10/11/23

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.

Top Critical Review

“DON"T PLAY ON CHESSk.COM - IS A SCREWED UP SITE - WiLL CHEAT YOU!”

Tam L.
10/21/24

I have played on this site since 2021 and has recently been playing for hours almost everynight and has gone down from 600 to 200 or less now due to the SITE's MESSED UP IT not taking care of their end and blames the players computer and it has been already checked on by a technician. I sent numerous of Reporting players and yet Chess does not even respond back nor check any cheated play on their end but to mess players up so they can be frustrated and not be done fairly to enjoy the game. Chess.com needs to be BANNED from the website if this is how they HATE people to play on it as long as they get THEIR MONEY from people that's all they care about! Look how FAST I keep losing because their system is so SCREWED up. THEY DON"T LIKE YOU if you keep complaining about their site even though you get cheated said I violated them! I heard this system is happening from overseas and Eric A. (Pres) of Chess doesn't do anything about it. This site won't take my shot screen to show how screwed up Chess.com is. Again, I've gone down on 1 min play from 600 to almost less than 200 that quick in time due to Chess.com's site that is lagging on my end to purposely have me lose everytime when I played since 2021.

Reviews (208)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

account (20) premium membership (5) user experience (3) phone number (3) game (46)
Thumbnail of user josephh873
Wisconsin
2 reviews
2 helpful votes
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November 23rd, 2020

I all ways have fun on chess.com. I did check out a few different chess websites at one point but I always return to chess.com.

Thumbnail of user davidk345
Nich B. – Chess.com Rep

Thanks Joseph, we really appreciate the support! :)

Thumbnail of user souravb19
India
1 review
3 helpful votes
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January 27th, 2023

Hey want nothing but money if you are premium member and you use bad language chess.com will not block you

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Thumbnail of user mathewg25
Illinois
1 review
12 helpful votes
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February 5th, 2019

Its good for everything except playing chess. Lags so badly. Pairing takes a lot of time. Players are disrespectful. A lot of cheaters.

Thumbnail of user davidk345
Nich B. – Chess.com Rep

Hi!

I am sorry to hear that there is a connection issue that causes lag. Please contact us at support@chess.com with your username and we will work with you to improve your experience. We do NOT want players to have a difficult time because of connection issues.

If you could send the username of opponents you suspect of using computers to win, we will submit a report on these players and our cheat detection team will analyze their games for potential use of outside assistance from computer engines. Chess.com invests a lot of staff, time, and resources into making sure that people cannot cheat and use outside help during games. We also encourage players to report opponents who they suspect of cheating, and we thoroughly investigate these individuals to make sure that they are playing according to the rules.

You can report players for potential cheating directly. Please go to their profile page and click the exclamation point icon below and to the far right of their profile picture. Then you can submit a report on this player. You can learn more about our cheat detection efforts here: https://tinyurl.com/y5fcxb6w.

You can also report your opponents for inappropriate behavior. We work to make sure that Chess.com is a safe, appropriate environment for all players. If players are found to be in violation of the community policies (https://www.chess.com/community), they may face penalties like being muted or even a potential account closure.

If you are ever again concerned about possible cheating or abusive players, please let us know here or at support@chess.com. Please also feel free to send us any questions or suggestions that you may have.

Thank you!
-The Chess.com Team

Thumbnail of user maxs267
Ireland
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 26th, 2021

Best Chess website and Discord Ever! Best Staff and Mods and Management. Really impressed overall and very happy to be a part of the community.

Thumbnail of user christophera965
New York
2 reviews
1 helpful vote
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April 22nd, 2023

I find Chess.com to be a good overall value. They give you everything you need, to have in a chess website.

Tip for consumers:
No.

Products used:
i use the whole site.

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Thumbnail of user joej896
New Zealand
1 review
1 helpful vote
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March 13th, 2022

Very good but some times is automatically makes the opponent win in the middle of the match and now my Elo is very low

Thumbnail of user hhlklk
New Jersey
1 review
13 helpful votes
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January 13th, 2015

Absolutely pathetic website. Designed by fascist and ran by chess extremist pretending of caring for the fairness of the game

Thumbnail of user jamesj1895
Massachusetts
1 review
6 helpful votes
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February 22nd, 2021

Chess.com is fraud. They closed out my account and did not even refund my money.
They did not even provide any reason for closure!

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Thumbnail of user josephh1069
Tennessee
1 review
1 helpful vote
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March 30th, 2021

I love this chess website. It always has great staff members to help and they are always there to answer your questions. Great fun.

R2GM owner

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Thumbnail of user robertp896
Virginia
1 review
7 helpful votes
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March 12th, 2019

Chess.com is frustrating to play. Slow, lags, inconsistent performance and gameplay even in the same game.

Lichess has a much better interface.

Thumbnail of user davidk345
Nich B. – Chess.com Rep

Hi!

I am sorry to hear that there is a connection issue that causes lag and slow, inconsistent performance. Please contact us at support@chess.com with your username and we will work with you to improve your experience. We do NOT want players to have a difficult time because of connection issues.

We would really like your feedback on the interface so that we can better your experience. Please let us know at support@chess.com if you have ideas about how we can make Chess.com more to your liking.

Thank you!
-The Chess.com Team

Thumbnail of user eimantask
Lithuania
1 review
4 helpful votes
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October 19th, 2022

Subscription isn't worth it at all, very bad customer service, there is better sites. They ban you for talking with your opponent.

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Thumbnail of user anthonyd273
Australia
1 review
2 helpful votes
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July 3rd, 2019
• Updated review

The problem of consistently inappropriate advertising for children appears to have been fixed. Thank you.

Thumbnail of user davidk345
Nich B. – Chess.com Rep

Hi!

I am happy to hear that the issue with inappropriate advertisements for children has been fixed. Chess.com makes sure to respond to all reports of inappropriate advertising as quickly as possible and definitely does NOT wand children exposed to mature content.

Advertisements that are inappropriate can be reported here so that they can be removed: http://goo.gl/forms/VSaMa0UkSS. Information about these advertisements can also be provided to support@chess.com where one of the support team members can submit the report.

Thank you for letting us know that we have resolved this issue, and if you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know here or at support@chess.com.

Thank you!

-The Chess.com Team

Consistently inappropriate advertising for children
March 29th, 2019
• Previous review

Good chess program, but be aware that you are constantly exposed to penis enlargment advertising and Japanese soft porn cartoons.

Thumbnail of user markb4727
Canada
1 review
4 helpful votes
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February 12th, 2023

Website is slow as hell, and playing on any device besides a PC on your home network is impossible. The mobile app is clunky and impossible to use, you often lose seconds of time due to the app lagging on a perfectly fine network, which in Bullet pretty much secures the victory for your opponent who is often playing on a PC anyways. Yes, playing on mobile does not prevent you from going against PC players who are able to premove many more moves ahead, have far greater agility with their large monitors and mice, etc.

My criticisms of this website do not end here, besides Chess.com's atrocious website and app networking, any feature beyond playing chess on it is blocked behind a paywall. Want to analyze your game? You can do so once a day without paying at least $5 a month, a plan that would still only grant you a limited number of features. Want to select the "Lessons" they keep shoving down your throat through various popups on their website? Same story. Want to get rid of ads? Again, pay or simply use an Adblock at least something Chess.com can't lock behind a paywall. Anything that legitimately sets Chess.com apart from your typical "Free Chess" app on the AppStore is locked behind a monthly paywall. Pay us or stay bad at chess due to distracting ads, an inability to analyze your games and terrible servers. Typical.

However, if you think you will actually be able to play using Chess.com's horrendous servers, you are also gravely mistaken. Just recently, they claimed to have "very high demand" and claim to be working on scaling their services. For an indefinite time, unless you pay for their "Diamond" membership which comes out to a whopping $12.50 if you pay per month for a full year, or otherwise *$20.99* per month, you will randomly be unable to play chess. Wonderful.

As an 1800 rated bullet player, and a 1600 rapid player, the lack of features offered for free, terrible service and overall atrocious website and app build quality makes for an abysmal experience. If you don't already depend on Chess.com, do not use it. Lichess is thousands of times better and all its features are offered for free.

Tip for consumers:
Don't use it, plain and simple.

Products used:
Their Website

Service
Value
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Thumbnail of user jamesb290
Arizona
7 reviews
23 helpful votes
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November 30th, 2015

Don't waste money on premium membership. Customer service is non-existant. I suspect cheating is going on, but cannot prove it.

Thumbnail of user jerryy86
Mississippi
1 review
0 helpful votes
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February 28th, 2022

Email recieved offering renewal discount. Link proved untrue. Multiple attempts for reason went unanswered.

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Thumbnail of user johnc3423
Washington
1 review
7 helpful votes
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November 21st, 2019

I don't think that many people are cheating because there's no point in points. The site uses the Glicko Rating System. FIDE/USCF uses the Elo Rating System which isn't even remotely the same. My main issue was you're given a starting rating on signup based on how experienced you say you are. In less than a month I had to block almost 100 people for abandoning the game, intentionally letting the clock run out, stalling when their stats show them to be quite skilled.

I'm new and play like it yet I was consistently matched with people rated 400 to 1000. Frustrating and boring for both sides. Customer service is a complete joke. "My name is so and so and chess is my life! We see you've cancelled your membership. I'm here to help..." After I respond, I get a different rep. Ask a technical question? They refer you to outside sources. The CS reps clearly aren't chess players.

Your rating can go up or down simply because of bad net connections or people just walking away from a game. How is that fair or reasonable? I was rated over 300 but can't even beat the computer on the easiest possible setting! Really don't think people were cheating at least not in blitz because there's no reward for winning and you just get paired with more or less experienced players and other cheaters.

They fail to rate or match people according to true skill. I do believe people initially cheat when signing up by saying they're new when they aren't. From there they obliterate people and get a very high score with many wins. It only takes them so far though. Some reviews state their rating went down after not playing for awhile. The site says they do that because they cant evaluate you unless you play all the time. Seriously?

Thumbnail of user davidk345
Nich B. – Chess.com Rep

Hello John,
Thank you for your feedback. I'd just like to address a few of your points.
Ratings: We use the Glicko Rating System which is very similar to the Elo system with some small differences. The main difference is the Rating Deviation or RD which is an indicator of how well a rating corresponds to true playing strength. If you're interested, here's a great article about these two rating systems: https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-ratings---how-they-work
The starting rating when you sign up might not be accurate, since your rating approaches your true playing strength as you play more games. If you think you started out with the rating a little too high or too low, we can help you adjust it so that you get paired with players of similar playing strength.
Abandoning games: We've implemented new technology as well as hired additional staff to combat the issues of abusive players and sportsmanship concerns, such as stalling and abandoning games. We take our members' reports of this very seriously and act accordingly so that everyone has a better experience on the site.
Your final point about people mis-representing their playing strength is referring to as "sandbagging" and we frequently remove these types of players from the site.
Please write to us at support@chess.com and we'd be happy to work with you more on these concerns so that you have the best experience possible on Chess.com
Thanks!

Thumbnail of user jamesb250
Florida
1 review
1 helpful vote
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August 31st, 2015

It offers a lot for casual and serious competitive chess players. I highly recommend it!

Thumbnail of user brianr472
Utah
5 reviews
39 helpful votes
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July 22nd, 2019

Neither Lichess nor Chess – Play and Learn, aka Chess.com, provide anything close to the service their public relations spin claims they provide. I have screenshots of vicious verbal abuse threatening violence from members of both chess app developers, sent well over 10 screenshots documenting all manner of cheating, game abandoning, delay tactics, and verbal abuse to Google (the attached screenshots are from Lichess, but similar experience comes through Chess.com). I also quoted Google's own policies for software app developers back to Google, documenting point by point the daily violations both companies were engaged in. Google did absolutely nothing but give me the run around for nearly a year. Conclusion? Big tech does exactly what it wants if it means profit, and ignores abuses of many kinds outright, then lies directly to the public with public relations statements that have no relation to their actual practices. Update: I now have solid evidence of Lichess deliberately hacking their own software to force blunders in your game immediately following your flagging an opponent for cheating. Predictable, over and over like clockwork, your move following detection of and accusation of cheating will be "misplaced" by you where plainly the worst consequences calculable will result, time after time. THEY HACK THEIR OWN SOFTWARE to punish you, an explicit direct violation of Google Play policy for developers. Report this to Google with video evidence. Google does absolutely nothing.
Lichess lies like a dog about " detecting" sandbagging cheaters. Their PUBLISHED DATA a priori identifies sandbaggers as such, yet near half of my opponents' profile show a long history of playing way way over their elo, 800,900 points above their published elo, thus openly cheating and confessing explicitly to cheating in chat. Lichess could purge them all with couple of commands. In 3 years they never have. Several reasons - more eyeballs to watch their ads means more $, their sole goal, public relations notwithstanding.
Both Lichess and Chess.com maintain segragated groups they don't admit to. They cook the books in their reports of policy enforcement. You can be silently segregated into groups that receive no policy enforcement, no customer service, where they ignore your every email, where open cheating and gross misbehavior approach 33% or more of all opponents, none of which is included in their published claims to the contrary. They serve a SELECT group well, and move you around silently and unannounced into hellish abusive groups that they deny even exist. Your opponents play soft then supposedly see mate in 6? Nope. Open, unchecked, shameless nonstop cheating and both Lichess & Chess.com won't even reply to emails for support, which is another explicit line item violation of Google Play policy for developers. Developers don't care because Google Play does absolutely nothing about it. Why? $$$$$$

Tip for consumers:
Parents, absolutely do not let your kids use these applications without immediate supervision, and be prepared for your kids to be savagely verbally abused and have big tech, the chess software and Google Play equally, make every excuse possible, deny, delay, ignore the problem. Google Play's denial that they ever received my screenshots came by way of REPLY TO MY SCREENSHOTS, thus ATTACHED TO THE VERY SCREENSHOTS THEY DENIED EVER RECEIVING. .

Thumbnail of user davidk345
Nich B. – Chess.com Rep

Hello Brian,
I'm very sorry for this poor experience. When members artificially lower their rating, this is referred to as "Sandbagging" and is not tolerated on Chess.com. We frequently remove players who misrepresent their playing strength in this way. On the subject of cheating, we at Chess.com have gone to great lengths to detect cheating and to remove cheaters from the site. In fact, we're confident that there are fewer people cheating on Chess.com than any other chess site available. In the month of October, we reviewed more than three millions members' accounts and closed more than 5000 for Fair Play violations. Cheating simply has no place on Chess.com and we do our utmost to prevent it.
If you'd like to review games or discuss a situation where cheating may have occurred, please write to us at support@chess.com.
Thanks!

Thumbnail of user erikc
Washington
2 reviews
6 helpful votes
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March 2nd, 2011

Best online chess set ever. They have millions of members, and tons of features!

Thumbnail of user bobu41
Tennessee
1 review
13 helpful votes
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January 23rd, 2020

They play bots against you so your ratting goes down. They want you to pay them! Beware. Stay away.

Thumbnail of user mjc43
Virginia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 20th, 2021

It is extremely difficult to connect with a friend to play; it takes too long to get a connection!

Tip for consumers:
Na

Products used:
Chess.com

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Thumbnail of user kylem574
Switzerland
1 review
3 helpful votes
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September 24th, 2021

Worst site ever! Worst site ever worst site ever worst site ever

Thumbnail of user santost4
Canada
1 review
6 helpful votes
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April 26th, 2019

Este sitio es una mierda como son los Rusos. Jugare unos juegos mas y lo dejare para siempre es fustrante en vez de gustando el chess lo terminas odiando.

Thumbnail of user davidk345
Nich B. – Chess.com Rep

¡Hola!

Realmente nos gustaría recibir sus comentarios en Chess.com para que podamos mejorar su experiencia.

Háganos saber en support@chess.com si tiene ideas sobre cómo podemos hacer que el sitio web sea más de su agrado.

¡Gracias!
-El equipo de chess.com

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Play chess on Chess.com - the #1 chess community with +20 million members around the world. Play online with friends, challenge the computer, join a club, solve puzzles, analyze your games, and learn from hundreds of video lessons. You can also watch t...

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Nich B.
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