Chess.com is just great. I'll tell you why it is great, especially to me. A little over a year ago, I joined chess.com. I was struggling to stay above the 1200 mark. Now I am safely staying in the 1600's. Hopefully over the next year I can improve even more!

How many of you has chess.com helped and how much? Please post your success here.

I certainly think that becoming a premium member has helped me further in the game. After quitting chess for a long time my rating was back at like, 1300. Then I decided to pick up chess again, and also joined chess.com. After I got back to 1400 after a few weeks, I decided to become a diamond member... my rating is now 1843 (Though that is quite ridiculous, my rating shouldn't be that high).

I think I can safely say I am stuck at 1700 now.

It helped me get back in the swing of things after a 2 year break from chess. It was also a great place to practice tactics. My uscf rating rose from 1584 to 1655 after my first tournament back from my break and will probably climb again in the next tournament I play in. I think chess.com definitely helped me out.

i love to hear this :) thanks!

Just to advertise a little (don't get mad at chess.com for this, I not getting payed by them to say this). I think that a premium membership will make chess.com even better for you. I became significantly better because of all the training tools. The extra features are well worth the money, if you can afford it.

A friend of mine in California started playing on chess.com due to my urging him.  At first, he wanted to play me in a near futile quest to beat me.  After several games I told him he had to play others as it was counterproductive for me to beat him every time.

he did that - and got to liking it, along with some of the other features here - and recently attributed our 'teaching games' where I attempt to introduce a new tactical shot or series of them to him - along with playing regularly here to his recent two OTB USCF rated victories over a couple of local 1850 (more or less) players in his area.  his previous USCF rating?  1134.

I think it is likely about 1% my efforts, and 99%  a combination effect of his own efforts and exposure to the wide variety of things available here to attribute his improved skill to.   (or maybe his opponents had 'off' nights two weeks in a row.)

  Certainly without logging into chess.com, he would not have significantly improved.

Also, when I came in here I used to be a very fast player. I made my move in less than 5 seconds each time. Ever since I started using chess mentor I think for 2-3 minutes each move because it has taught me a whole new perspective to the game, e.g.; "Oh wait, that would allow him to control the center! Have to find another move" or "But that would allow him to get control over the blabla diagonal, I can't allow that" or "But that would weaken my queenside" and all those things. It's fantastic how I look at the game now.

Am I the only one with a rating below 1000?  I don't really care-- I love to play!

i'm still in rating 1200 huhu

these are some great stories. anyone else? don't be shy.

Like you tln621 I joined around a year ago.

Before joining chess.com, my only experience of playing chess was the odd game here and there during my childhood. After I joined I was stuck under the 1000 mark for awhile, during which time I was really just getting destroyed game after game.

Slowly but surely I creeped back to the 1200 mark, joined a few tournaments, won a couple more matches, learnt alot more theory and just generally developed a greater understanding of the game. Now I just hit the 1600 level. Apart from the general improvement, I've found a real passion for chess and thought about trying to find a local OTB club.

Chess.com really is great.

When I started, I think I settled in somewhere in the 1400s.  With all of the great content available on this site, the fantastic quality of opponents availabe and some hard knocks along the way from which I took some valuable lessons, I peaked in the mid 1900s (very clearly overrated) and have since settled abck to a more reasonable 1800ish rating.  I'd say that's a legitimate 400 point gain in just over a year that I can attribute almost entirely to chess.com.

Is this the wooter section?

(Just taking my word for the week, woot-wooter-wooting, out for a needed spin.)

I have improved my chess game a lot i play between 1400 to 1500, mostly thanks to the people I have been playing against and some goos advice on the game.

The tactics trainer is giving me great success in being able to recognize exploitable patterns.  Now if I could just improve my consistency...