Hi,

im new to chess.com and was looking into the memberships and i just noticed that you are offering a "Free 10 day trial membership" however when i try to claim it it wants credit card details, I have a couple of problems here

1. Why would i pay for a "free" trial of the membership?

2. I do not even have a credit card and am not planning on getting one anytime soon. I was intending to pay via Paypal as that option was there previously.

I feel like i will be missing out on the free trial because there is only a couple of days to claim it. if i was to purchase a membership in the future then this would have helped me in deciding which membership option would suit me. Is there any way that i can claim the 10 days without giving credit card details?

If they offered a free trial without a credit card, Greenmonkey - what do you think would happen?

Do you think that anyone might figure out that they can create a new account every 10 days thereby gaining unlimited access to tactics trainer and chess mentor?

I see your point so i guess i will have to live without a membership at least until i can fugure out which one i want

Remember - they let you purchase it for a month too - and honestly, trust me, it's worth it - I had one for a year and I need to get one again (likely next paycheck) - but the benefits from tactis trainer and chess mentor alone are worth it - perks like access to your whole game history, chess videos, all of that together... oh, and being able to go many moves into the Game Explorer can also be a real boon.

If you compare that price to what you might pay a chess coach for even a few hours of their time... the value is enormous.

I'd suggest trying 1 month of Diamond and seeing how you feel. Chess.com really does offer everything you need at one site.

Take the plunge, you won't regret it.

Good luck on your games Greenmonkey!

Also: that's a cool/eerie avatar you have!

Thanks Rael,

i think the mentor would be the main thing that i would use on the site, and the diamond membership is the only one that offers that, so i might use the 1 month membership as my trial at some stage after paypal reappears on the payment options.

Im really just a beginner player at the moment so it will be interesting to see how much it dumbs stuff down for people like me

Greenmonkey,

  with diamond membership, you get all the videos  (recommend FM Rensch's series on rook endings for starting point), and a lot of other benefits including unlimited tactics trainer, and computer workout (all available under LEARN on the green bar).

additionally, see this forum for recommendations by others on 'the best available' but keep in mind, other folks are always adding more chess topics, so this may not be complete -....  this one forum might lead you to enough to satisfy you for a year or so - without having to pay anything.   (although I think the videos are sufficient value added alone to make diamond worthwhile).

 http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/most-instructive-chesscom-threads-blogs-or-articles?lc=1#page_top

regards, Ret

(above is my personal opinion, not a management motivated solicitation for more paid members.)

it's a free trial because we don't actually charge your card. if you cancel within the trial period you are billed nothing. and even if you are not happy with the membership after that, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. :)

ok thanks eric...maybe you should have an option for us paypal-ers, i think that 10 days free wouldn't work but maybe if i got a 1 month trial then you could give a bonus 10 days or somthing?

Almost nothing's free

think about this: The people who made this want to earn money when making chess.com they're hoping to earm that money when people buy memberships

Why dont you get a diamond membership? You get unlimited everything almost and automatic time-out protection for 90 days you can go to antartica and come back and not run out of time those are cool

just get a 1 month membership and see if you like it. you can use paypal for that.

well as for me I dont think I will ever get membership, for one I have no creditcards(and I dought I ever will) and it costs too much for me too.

I don't think the diamond membership is a good deal. It's only 2 extra features for twice as much as a platinum membership (per year). More than twice as much per month. So I'm not planning to get a diamond membership anytime soon.

The Diamond membership does include two very important extra features which are Chess Mentor and instructional videos from Master level players. This is like getting lessons from a Master level player. And if you have ever looked into coaching you know that some coaches can charge 30$ per hour or more!

thats what i was hoping to find out with the 10 free days, i would be able to look into how much i would use those features, and if i decided that they were worth the extra $ then i would look into purchasing it ... otherwise i would decide whether to purchase one of the other options here or just to use the site as my online gaming site and search the internet for other assorted free stuff.

luckily it isn't much of an investment to find out - it's about the price of a meal :)

Skip lunch and play chess like a king for a month! :D