Chess.com's Requirements And Tips For Thumbnails And Images
The thumbnail is arguably the most important part of your blog. The thumbnail, title, and (sometimes) the first couple of sentences are the only parts of your blog that users see on Chess.com and social media before they decide whether to read on or keep scrolling.
The thumbnail is the largest and most visually engaging thing the reader sees. It is the most likely to draw the user's eye, and it is essentially the user's first impression of your blog.
In this post, we'll do our best to help you find and create great thumbnails that will engage your readers and grow your audience!
Requirements
All content on the homepage of Chess.com must have a thumbnail meeting these criteria:
- The image must have a resolution greater than 800x450. Preferable is a higher resolution, ideally 1600x900.
- The image must have an aspect ratio of 16:9.
- The author must have the right to use the image.
- The thumbnail content must be suitable for use on the front page of Chess.com, a family-friendly site.
- Thumbnails cannot use chess boards or imagery from competing sites (more here).
- The thumbnail must be suitably professional.
Blogs with thumbnails that don't meet these criteria will be taken out of the homepage rotation.
We know that may seem harsh, but Top Bloggers have creative freedom and the ability to publish content to the front page of the world's largest chess website without prior review 
. It's a privilege we are happy to be able to provide, but we also need to set standards for such content.
Copyright
All images used in content on Chess.com must have appropriate rights. That means that the author must own the image, the image must be in the public domain, or the image must be published under a license that permits the image to be used. If you aren't certain that an image may be used, don't use it! There are always other images you can use.
It is useful to clear up some common confusion about "Fair Use." Fair use is a defense against copyright infringement. Those who claim "Fair Use" are already acknowledging that they violated copyright. It is much more limited than most people realize; it absolutely does not cover most uses of copyrighted work in a blog. For example, one cannot use a photographer's photo without permission to enhance their blog about an event.
Fair Use does allow you to post a work for the purposes of "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." For example, one could post the World Chess logo created for the World Chess Championship to discuss and comment on the logo.
Citation
Wherever possible, citations should be included for photos. Properly citing a photo doesn't grant you any additional rights, though. It's not OK to use a photographer's image without permission and then say, "But I cited the author." You still don't have rights to this photo.
Resources
Although most photos are copyrighted, there are many sources of excellent photos that may be used.
- Wikimedia: Tons of great photos (especially player and historical photos) that can be used. Always follow the citation instructions on Wikimedia.
- Google Image Search: Google Images does have a filter in the advanced settings for photos with rights permitting use.
- Pixabay: A great collection of royalty-free images for use. Lots of stock photos of chess.
- Free PNG: Illustrative images that you can add to your blog to visually support your writing.
- Pexels: Another excellent collection of stock photography. These were submitted by the photographers for use on the site.
- Pxhere: Another great free photography site. Thanks to @EOGuel for the recommendation.
- Morguefile: Morguefile combines searching for many stock photo collections and makes it easy to search for free photos.
- Dutch National Archive: An amazing source of photos of elite chess players competing in the latter half of the 20th century.
- Tournament Photos: Some tournaments do include a "media" page on their websites and provide photos for use by those covering the event (other use is almost always prohibited). In these cases, you can use these photos to blog about the event (but not for other purposes) if you follow all the rules the tournament organizers set forth.
Tools
Most photo editors have the basic functions you need to create a suitable thumbnail for your blog. It is rare that you need to do anything more than "crop" the photo to make sure it is 16x9. If you are interested in doing more photo editing or just need a place to start, here are some excellent software.
- GIMP: A free program with tons of features. If you are willing to invest time in learning to edit photos cheaply, this is a great tool.
- Photoshop: The gold (but expensive) industry standard. It has everything you can possibly need, but it is challenging for novices.
- Fotor and Aviary: Relatively easy to use, these websites will let you freely and easily perform most photo edits.
