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.
chess.com is great!
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.
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.)
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.