Chess.com
reviews and complaints

As someone who loves playing chess, I have had mixed experiences on Chess.com. While the platform offers a great opportunity to play with people from around the world, there are some concerning aspects. The issue of fair play and rating manipulation has been raised by several users, which can be frustrating for those looking for genuine competition. On the positive side, the platform provides a variety of features like puzzles, lessons, and online play, which can be beneficial for improving one's chess skills. However, the presence of cheaters and the lack of prompt customer support have been highlighted as significant drawbacks. Overall, Chess.com has its strengths and weaknesses, so it's essential to approach it with caution and be aware of the potential challenges you may encounter.

With or without membership they offer a very professional website offering the game of chess and expert advice, training materials, and an opportunity to play live or play a move a day game.

Genuinely cool site!

I love the interface, very smooth and generally quick and has it by far the strongest players of any free chess site.

There seem to be a lot of troll reviews on this...

Great Chess website, for the most part free. You can play people from all around the world, play standard blitz or correspondance chess. I have no idea what website the complainers are talking about

I am loving chess.com. There is great lessons and the interface is easy to use. I sent a query and they responded quickly and were very understanding, managing to solve the issue. I highly recommend Chess.com

Great place to play and it's free. If you want to run your own tourneys, look at stats, you have to pay for that. But there's three membership offers which are all cheap. Great site and for me the best in the world for online chess.

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.

I play many many games on chess.com and have had an excellent user experience. I have upgraded to diamond membership and love the videos, lessons, tactics and training. I have recommended it to all my chess friends.

My son and I also love the TV content, including the excellent coverage of the Isle of Man tournament in October 2019.

I have used the free version and have paid for the full version also. I can only say that I have come back to it almost two years later and the site has improved once again. So many features. Most bad reviews are ridiculous. "I kept losing". "My rating went down". "Time was rigged". Ridiculous defaming of a wonderful company doing so much to further chess. Keep up the good work.

I am a subscribed user of www.chess.com and through this site I met TeeSpring, and I acquired some products, all good, only that I had a problem with my size of the products, and I felt obfuscated, but I communicated my problem and if I could help in some way. The truth that they solved everything to me without some additional cost for me. I recommend them for their seriousness and integrity and be coached in the client.

Chess.com has the first step of a tournament! A great source in my family.To be honest, I do have one con. The chat could be rude. I have got called a "loser". And somebody said "Bad Move". No problem with that just go in to settings and turn off chat. If you agree with this review and download the app 95% turn off chat. I do like that you can play some one and choose up to 30 min. A big question is "Are they bots?" No they are not. My proof is that I coordinated with a friend and searched the account and guess what, It worked.If you don't know how to play. Play a lesson. If you want to use your skills play a tactic. BTW you only have to pay $5 for more tactics everyday. Please show chess.com support by making an account or as many as you can. I hope my review convinsed you to get Chess.com.

Trial Membership is difficult to cancel and they charge you for a year up front, so even if you cancel, they still get your money.

I go on chess.com every day, and would give it five stars - but they are not investing enough into writing and implementing programs that would detect cheating. I think that approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of every game I play - and I usually play quick ones, as its a bit less easy for opponents to cheat - involves cheating. Most of this is via computer programs - including those they provide onsite! Theres not even clear expectations posted in each tournament pointing out what cheating is! Frequently people rated under *** win or are placed in tournaments. Its a serious problem for games within a country and between countries, which they host, with a day or more per move. Cheating has become the norm - theres no advice or warning not to cheat at the start of tournaments - probably because theres almost no consequences for doing so. Occasionally I get a message from chess.com, saying theyve given my rating an extra point or so as one or more of my opponents have been detected cheating. Id rather hear that their account had been suspended for a time or erased because of cheating, and no new accounts could be created from the *** address for a length of time. For a time they allowed you to report cheating, but theyve removed this as a possible response to each game - too much hard work and/or money to collate and supervise? You should also be able to block cheating accounts so you dont have to play them again. This would be an excellent site if they put real effort into this. They are too proud of getting numbers of users up, to worry about the quality of service where it really counts. You could use all the services they offer to improve your chess - but not realise youve improved, because of the cheating. The few IMs I know advise me to play on other sites. When you he site crashed because of a flood of new free users, there was no voiced concern that paying subscribers were locked out. This site could be fantastic!

The first review I see is right on. The concept is GREAT. The issue is their software SUCKS and they refuse to address it. With the sophisticated software they have invested OUR MEMBERS MONEY in, every day I am playing on the site I have the same problem everyone is complaining about. It is all the time for months. With no rhyme or reason We get " frozen " or " locked out." You go to move a piece and nothing happens, nothing can movew regardless of ehat piece I click. ALL THE Time. I am on my cell and I have to go to my PC and nothing. Once in a blue moon that will work as the time keeps ticking and you opponent is getting pissed too. Then all of a sudden after hitting every piece trying to move it will all of a sudden connect for a second and a piece you have no want to move will click and mess with you as it works one minute and then does not. GOOD SPORTS huh? Then to really piss you off both computer and cell freeze up, you can"t move a piece, and they stick salt on your wound with the insulting ridiculous childish " How to be a good sport " email Crap everyone has seen. Of course their Customer Service Dept hides in their virtual world behind the Internet because of course they offer no phone number because they know how many PISSED OFF PEOPLE would be calling. I have sent Many emails back and forth with AMANDA. Try it. See the fluff. Corrective action talks and BS walks. All you get is that it is a " CONNECTIVITY ISSUE, Are you kidding me? I have been in business for over 30 years and wonder how a Company can stay in business with a review rating of 2? Con Artist evil intended People running a company would do nothing to and not care about such horrible reviews and PISSED OFF PEOPLE, do nothing to correct
Such a wide spread problem and just fix the " GLITCH " If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck, guess what? Fix the problem CHESS.COM and I will be the first to thank you and spread the word. Actions speak louder than words. Your actions CHESS.COM are a direct reflection of your disgusting reviews. So far your actions are FRAUDULENT, NEGLIGENT, IMMORAL, UNACCEPTABLE. People that read my review can fall for your SCAM if they chose. Hopefully this will either catch CHESS.COM 's attention and they will fix the glitch or help millions of people worldwide see this Co. For what it is. As a Licensed Maryland Home Improvement Contractor I would be put in JAIL if I take money and do not produce what I promise because it is considered Criminal, Felonious, and called FRAUD and EMBEZZLEMENT. The only difference here is that it is FEDERAL and INTERNATIONAL. Bernie Madoff thought he was too big and Powerful to be touched. Well, we all know what finally happened to him. He is on a long " ALL EXPENSE PAID VACATION. That is exactly where the Principles of CHESS.COM will will " Vacation " when enough people get fed up and complain to the Attorney Generals. Am I crazy or is it not stupid to allow so many complaints, so many bad reviews, and do nothing to address such a simple issue to correct as " CONNECTIVITY "? Does anyone checking them out not agree? They took Bernie down, They took Silverstein down, and that is exactly what should happen to the PRINCIPLES of CHESS.COM if they continue to think they are above the Law and untouchable. I have learned many lessons in my journey through business and life many things. With the Principles and Officers of CHESS.COM I think the most appropriate is " THE BIGGER THEY ARE, THE HARDER THE FALL ". Anyone world wide that sees my post? Let's force CHESS.COM to fix their " GLITCH " or help me " take them out ".

To get rated as a chess player, you have to pay to join a tournament. You also might have to pay to travel and stay in a different city. You have to play a lot each day. All this trouble just to get a real FIDE ratings, but then you have a better alternative; you play online for free and get rated without spending a dime and you play at your own convenience too. Sounds great, right? So you do this, and instead you get so disappointed; players seem to be full of cheaters, ratings systems seem so iffy, and the moderators are eager to close players' accounts. You get so discouraged by the whole experience and you end it by writing a negative review and close the door behind you, but you never even knew what you were really dealing with.

Every time you went to an online chess club and offered a game, you quickly got a response from some other visitor eager to play a game, right? Wrong again! Online chess clubs such as Chess.com and Lichess.org and others are not there for the love of chess or chess players; they are there to make some money as you know. But the administrators of these websites have some serious problems running them. Visitors to the chess websites want to set games their way not someone else's way; they want to play when it is convenient for them, also visitors to these websites don't arrive at the same time in order to play. Programmers/ administrators are not chess players and cannot spend their time waiting for visitors or playing them, so they created a solution: use a group of chess addicts as ready players and moderators for the visitors.

So actually, you never even played any other visitor to these websites. You only played their so called moderators each and every time! The moderators only get to pick games offered by the visitors, but they have powers given to them by the website administrators. A moderator always get more clock time than you do as a visitor. He can cheat you by opening with a chess engine without suffering any consequences. But most importantly, a moderator can close your account. Now, if you are a talented chess player, you will get excellent rating from playing FIDE tournaments and maybe make some money too; something to feel proud of. But if you played so well on online websites against the moderators, you will only get your account shut down in a heart beat. See, moderators are losers. They play chess a lot since they are failures at life achievements. But they even suck at chess too, and when someone keeps beating them at the only vent that makes them feel intelligent, they retaliate by closing threatening accounts.

The rating system that these websites use is not the real Elo rating system used by FIDE that rate grand masters. It is the Glicko system that is riddled with problems, and as a player you must have experienced this junk system when you realized that you cannot rely on it to tell you the real strength of your opponents. But the worst part is the fact that talented chess players are quickly stopped in their track by the moderators who remain as the only permanent rated players. This is why the best online rated players by such websites do poorly when they try their luck playing real FIDE tournaments.

Now you must be wondering, tens of thousands of players logged to these websites cannot be wrong. After all, Chess.com claim that they have over a 100,000 players logged to their website at a time and Lichess have similar claims, yet you have the eerie feeling that you are playing the same people over and over. Actually, you are right this time! These numbers are totally fudged. In reality, these websites only get few visitors at a time wanting to play chess, and their games get picked up by the few website moderators who are the same cheaters you kept running into again and again. Bots are used to create the illusion of many games offered by visitors. But in the end, we get what we pay for; free online chess rating that is not worth the free bad feelings we get from it!

I was billed for a full year subscription, they say they have 30 day money back guarantee if we want to cancel. I want to get my money back I was billed for a full year's membership. I write to get a refund and have not heard back for a week. I signed up for a week's free trial of chess.com's premium membership. I didn't get a notification that i was going to get billed then i get an email confirming i got billed, Chess.com has a 30day money back guarantee if you change you mind but i don't seem to be getting through with any emails and i also messaged the guy who deals with billing situation on his chess account. I got an email confirming they received my email 3 times and that they'd get back to me and still nothing. I am in need of this money, i am a student and it is a very expensive amount for a whole year. I still have not heard back a whole week later. My username on chess.com is *** and have been a user since 2020. I like chess.com i do, i would continue to use it if this is resolved and i am given my money back with the diamond membership revoked. i know it isn't the recent chess boom that makes them slow with replies cause ive researched this has been a problem for years.

6 years boy spent *** to gift a Diamond membership to unknown person (as "its cool to click the shiny diamond icon"), *** doesn't refund it. We actually registered a one year Gold membership to support *** since my 6 years son started to play chess earlier. So *** stocked our credit card info and (we realized this later) there is no way to delete the credit card info or add any purchase protection (like what applestore does). My son is quite active and he likes to click this and that in electrical devices. So not long after we registered the gold membership, it's updated to Platinum membership *** extra). I found it quite late from monthly credit card report but I didn't complain at that time. Again last week, my son spent another *** to gift a Diamond membership to some random player, as "it's interesting to click the shining diamond icon on the page". I immediately tried to contact with *** by sending email/leaving notes for quite a few times, and also made a call to a number I could only find via credit-card company. No response at all after almost 10 days, and calling the phone number always connected to a voicemail directly. I understand we need to pay for service so I am ok with the Platinum membership which we actually doesn't need, but is that right chess.com doesn't respond our inquiry for refunding the *** gift to a nobody. My son just starts grade 1 and honestly he could not read very well, he insisted that he only "click a few shining buttons and don't know what's going on). My user name is *** or *** (recently changed).

I am horrified by the customer service of chess.com . As a chess coach of 20 years, chess enthusiast and player, I have never been so dissatisfied. Upon opening an account and purchasing diamond membership I gladly participated in chess.com forums, created a club, began streaming and enjoying chess on the domain that was purchased by the founder *** and his partner. Little by little the toxic environment which is chess.com sets in. I posted a forum topic visible to others to announce my offerings as a chess coach. I have been a coach for 20 years. My account was muted for this. I contacted support and was reinstated. No questions asked. I advertised again and the same happened. A second time reinstated. The third time, not knowing what was wrong, I was contacted by the support director ***. With his message and upon reading the terms and conditions I came to realize that there is no advertising allowed. Ok, makes sense. Should not have taken three blind tries but ok. Paying for a service and treading water to be part of the community that is toxic to begin with, support included. To gain some completely pointless points (profile chat points for participating in discussions) I joined a topic "last post wins a diamond membership" where an off topic (not concerning chess) discussion was taking place. I would post an emoji after each post from another member to try to be the last post and win the diamond membership. My account was muted with some comments from *** that my account is now heavily notated and possible to be permanently muted. If you are seeking to pay for a service that will harass you and make your online chess experience more than uncomfortable, use chess.com . Possibly discriminatory practices all hidden behind a terms and conditions wall that you agree to upfront. The hodgepodge team of "support" who are contractors trying to reply to heaps of emails daily need your dollar to continue this terrible service. Simple, they are only worth the free portion of their service. If that.

My 11 year old son just had his Platinum tier Chess.com account closed without any warning. Their terse email said "unusual activity" was detected in his account and they are "confident" their Fair Play rules have been breached.

This could not be father from the truth. My homeschooled son lives and breathes chess and is FIDE rated in all forms of the game. He also receives formal coaching from an NM and I know for a fact he would not dream of cheating. Just that he has made rapid progress in points due to the time he devotes to mastering the game. Expectedly, he is now inconsolable.

The cavalier attitude of just closing a paid account without so much as a warning or demand for justification smacks of extreme arrogance, the confident knowledge they can get away with anything. Their account closure email does not even contain a link to their appeals process which you have to separately look up. It is likely they have some grossly inefficient algorithm and equally incompetent "fair play" staff. The one star here for customer service is sufficient testament to that.

I have been unable to access my account for months now. They usually say that somebody will get back to me and that they are fixing some problems that they have with their server. Up to now, NOTHING! I either want to acces my account and be able to play or I want my money back.

There are no receipts, I just paid through my phone to be able to play chess on my phone. There is no one to talk to. What else can I do?

Hello,

I see live chess has been removed. I usually use live chess for playing bughouse with my friends but the way that is on variants shows a glitchy view of your partner's board. Knowing what your partners board looks like is crucial to have when playing bughouse. The glitch is so bad that I have little idea what is going on with my partners board.

I have paid for one year subscription and now I am unable to login to your application. Have contacted you at [protected]@chess.com. I have tried everything. Delete and re download your app. Relain many times. There are no issues with my internet connection. I work from home full time and no issues with any other devices using my internet connection including my work laptop.They keep giving me solutions and none of them are working

I would like to have my yearly subscription refunded

My login is [protected]@gmail.com and you can contact me on the same email id

Regards,

Rajesh Desai

Chess.com not giving awards (premium membership) to the winners of area winners ex-***saturday marathon arena…[protected] players wasting their time, sleep on this 24 hr arena… but those top 3 also not getting anything… it's ridiculous… how evil u r chess.com! so Please No one play this type of tournaments…they r frame to attract u to play for membership…but u will get nothing

chess.com cheats from there players when ever they want too by moving chess pieses around as they see fit to help a player win or hake into your computer too creat pop ups that can interfer with the game or have your tool bar stay up in an attempt too interefer with the game . its all couse a person wont pay for a membership and chouses to play for free, i have read reviews from other players that chess.com takes on autherized with draws from dibit and credit acounts its hard too say how much money is stolen from players each year they say that chess.com has the best system around . its no wonder with the money they get away with

rod kalman

Chess.com has a lot of cheating going on for the first time I actually saw it happening as it was being don in a game I was playing and it went like this I took a bishop with a knite and that play was reversed by puting back the bishope and putting the knite back were it was by doing this he is stealing a turn I already made and by puting back the bishup back he was able to execute a checkmate, this is at least one of the ways they can cheat in any given game no matter what the rating this person can do this evan if the chess ratting is one they can do this chess.com has a deal now when they decide that cheating has ocured they will give you points back that you, ve lost due to cheating I guess this is there way of saying they know about the cheating and apparentlly dont care so any one that wants to play chess.com that is fine but think about what your doing if you ever decide to buy into a membership they can still do this to you member or not
Rod kalman

playing chess.com. man called boompoppow

just stays onvacation forever .

How does a queen in high heels move more spaces than a dude with a horse?! Furthermore, why do pawns attack diagonally and not move backwards, surely if it figures out how to attack diagonally it can figure out how to do the two other things.

Love,
Aiden Thompson

GleamingHold is avoiding losing By remaining On Vacation

An unauthorised payment of £24.99 was taken from my bank account. Authorisation code 739291. I assume this is for an annual subscription. My bank advises me that this payment is "pending" and you can use this code to cancel the transaction.

I actually intend to upgrade my membership to Diamond but i need this refund first or I will be paying twice.

Thanks in advance for your co-operation.

Please e-mail me at [protected]@hotmail.co.uk if you have any queries.

My 17 year old son decided to take out a trial with this company. He forgot to cancel before the 7 days was up and only realised when the annual membership was take from his account. The company says that they will still refund the amount up to 30 days after. However, despite emails to them, there is no response. My son is at school and cannot afford this. He is now incurring charges on his bank account because he did not have the money to do this. We are having no response from the company at all.

His unique user name is UniqueName3900

I was playing a game with a lesser skilled opponent. They opened their rook, and I took it with my queen. They moved their queen out too early and left it exposed. Meanwhile after he threatened with his bishop, he also left that open and I took it. So then since his queen was in the open, I moved my rook to threaten his queen, and *poof* chess.com kicked me out for cheating. Probably have some engine detecting perfect play. But what am I to do, not take an obvious piece? I didn't even have to do a "trade" they were not backed-up (could not counter when I attacked).

Hi, I was charged $99.00 to my debit card on 11/15/19 from Chess.com. I recall recently visiting this site for a few minutes but I did not purchase anything including a membership. I do see on ITunes that a paid subscription to this App is $1.99; which, I did not purchase. The last four digits of the card that charged me $99.00 is 4786. I need this to please be reversed immediately. My e-mail is [protected]@gmail.com and phone number is [protected]. When I went to your website to try to log in so I could look for your phone number and I clicked "forgot password", I was asked for my e-mail and when I entered it the e-mail was not recognized; this further confirms that I did not register for a subscription and was charged in error. I am not sure how this happened or how Chess.com obtained my debit card information. Please correct this and contact me if you need anything from me in order to do this immediately. Thank you. Jeff Smith [protected].

Hello, while I was playing a game of chess, the time started flickering and the game crashed on me. Then it said I lost on time even though I was most certainly winning befeore that. I want my ELO points back! This happened to me the other day as well and it is really annoying. I thought this was the WIFI but my WIFI is perfect. I would really like it if you gave me something for my troubles as this game I lost was very difficult and I was eventually winning until the game crashed.