I find this site the best by a country mile..or is it just me?

No, you're right - a lot of chess sites don't have the features or might have a lot of foul-mouthed members!

agreed :D

I dunno -- this guy seems like a plant.

I was thinking more along these lines:

I see pigs on the wing.  o_0

Erik Plant ??

Very diplomatic!! Regards

It's easily the best I've found thus far.  Although the chess mentor isn't all I thought it would be, the videos and quality of opponents are worth it by themselves. 

I still can't believe how Chess.com lets me speak in their forums! Baffling!

Yeah, its like the old Groucho Marx joke, "I don't want to join any club that would have me as a member." 

 Is a country mile the same in all countries?

Explain exactly why you think so. I've never been to most of the others.

Because Chess.com features woodshover. Duh!

I played extensively at both gameknot.com and plasticbishop.com, and I can tell you why chess.com is better.

Gameknot is very visually unpleasing, and has no forums, no community of any kind. No tactics trainer, no nothing really. No live chess either.

Plasticbishop had a better interface, and had a pretty good community. It was just very small, and very small budget.

I came here, and thought the concept of a chess site mixed with a social networking concept was a good one. Chess.com has consistently impressed me with its efforts to make itself better by constantly improving its existing features and adding new ones. I have been impressed by how responsive the staff is, and how nice the community is. There is a minimum of garbage flame wars in the forums, and you can pretty easily find someone to discuss whatever chess subject you want.

In short, I think chess.com is the best of the sites I've seen, and am confident that Erik will continue to keep it that way. Even if the added features were not worth the money, which they are, I would continue to be a premium member just to support this great site.

...and what about the paralysing curiosity of woodshover! Don't forget that!

This is not just the best chess site -- this is one of the best run sites I've ever frequented -- period.

Everyone should be a Pink Floyd fan.