Chess.com Welcomes ChessPark Members

On Dec 21, 2009, Chesspark.com became part of Chess.com. Chesspark members have access to Chess.com using their same login info, but must first login here: http://www.chess.com/chesspark.html to transfer their account to Chess.com.

Chess.com did not acquire the technology, servers, or team behind Chesspark - just the name. We at Chess.com are trying our best to accommodate all Chesspark members with a smooth transition to Chess.com. We recognize, however, that some people may be disappointed by the change. Why did this happen? Well, the Chesspark.com founders had already left in 2008 to work on a new real-time search company. Eventually Chesspark ran out of funds and was faced with shutting down the service. They reached out to Chess.com to see if we could provide a home for all of the Chesspark members and we agreed on a way to make that happen. Unfortunately this happened really quickly and it wasn't possible to do everything perfectly (for example, we were unable to transfer users' game archives). Also, Chesspark was not able to give advanced notice to their members. They were facing some hosting issues and this whole transaction happened in a very, very short time.

Even though Chess.com is the biggest site, we certainly know that "chess" is a really tough business. Jean Hoffman, the former GM of Chesspark.com & Founder of 9Queens.org said in a joint press release: “Online chess is a very competitive market, and we are happy to team up with the leading Internet chess destination." There are lots of costs associated with building and maintaining a website, and it's not always easy to pay for those costs, let alone pay the people working on the site. I’m not sure how the other chess sites are doing, but I know it isn’t easy for any of us in chess. That said, Chess.com is the biggest site and we’re always open to bringing more users and features to Chess.com, so maybe we'll see more mergers in the future.

We're happy to welcome all new Chesspark members! To all the Chess.com members I would ask you to welcome the many new members we'll be getting over the next few weeks and I encourage you to help them learn their way around!

Again, we're all doing the best we can with the situation that presented itself to us. Thanks for understanding!

FAQs:

Q: I am a former Chesspark member and am new to Chess.com, what should I do?

A: First off, welcome! Secondly, make sure that you first login to Chess.com at this link: http://www.chess.com/chesspark.html . Once you login there then your Chesspark account (username, password, name, info, rating, avatar, membership level) should all be transferred over to Chess.com. After that you can login to Chess.com normally from any page.

Q: I was a Chesspark member but was already a Chess.com member - what will happen?

A: If you're already a member of Chess.com, you won't need to bring your Chesspark membership to Chess.com - you're already set!

Q: I was a PRO member on Chesspark, will I be a premium member on Chess.com?

A: Yes, you will have a premium membership on Chess.com that lasts as long as your Chesspark premium membership was set to last. After that you will need to signup again here: http://www.chess.com/membership.html

Q: Why didn't my games archive transfer over?

A: We're very sorry about that. It was difficult enough to make the transition with all of the info we were able to use. Chess.com/Chesspark used different databases and storage methods and they were totally incompatible. We brought over as much as we could. All of that data was going to be lost anyway when Chesspark shut down its service (which was imminent).

For more info or for help with your Chesspark account, please contact Chess.com: http://support.chess.com