Chess.com is a business.
If you hate to see ads that much, why are you on the internet?
One reason I pay for Gold is to NOT see ads, if I was fine with ads, I would not pay $$$ for the Gold. Being constantly hit with Diamond upgrade ads is NOT what I expect from a Gold Membership.
Chess.com indeed is a business and should pay attention to customer's concerns, especially paying customers. It is all too easy to go elsewhere with your money in the Chess World...
I am a gold member and I don't like the new game review AT ALL! I will not be renewing my membership unless the previous analysis is returned.
There is no substitute for doing your own analysis, then analyzing with a stronger player, then checking the analysis with an engine.
Doing the process backwards, however, is quicker. That’s what the website serves. Doesn’t matter which website.
When users crave superficial machine analysis, the market answers with product.
It's heavy-handed, but the deal is fair. Assuming they keep developing it. I'm planning on upgrading.
If their strongest suit is their educational stuff, they're doing the right thing by leaning into it. They can afford to do a lot of hiring.
There is no substitute for doing your own analysis, then analyzing with a stronger player, then checking the analysis with an engine.
Doing the process backwards, however, is quicker. That’s what the website serves. Doesn’t matter which website.
When users crave superficial machine analysis, the market answers with product.
It makes no sense to begrudge Chess[.]com and Lichess the new upgrades to their analysis pages. Some of us get a lot of use out of it, especially as alternatives are not necessarily available or feasible.
I learned CSS from a very simple tutorial written by one of the people who'd written the standard. After that I had enough knowledge to get started. Education is partly about providing means of access to the information in as many different ways as required.
Not a single person has argued that chesscom shouldn't charge extra for additional analysis tools. That's a complete red herring. We are arguing that the way they try to get you to upgrade is obnoxious. I won't upgrade because I think analysis tools are overrated, and even though I get the free simple analysis with Gold, I just use self-analysis.
What I absolutely do not want to see is that simpering cartoon guy telling me to upgrade on every move and telling me how much better my life would be with it. It's obnoxious.
Chess.com is a business. It's not a philanthropic project of some multi-billionaire who is interested in making chess more easily available to everyone worldwide. Hence, anytime a situation arises where the computer thinks you might want more or better information on some particular topic it alerts you to the possibility that more is available, for a price. I have a gold membership, am satisfied with that, and so when I see "upgrade to diamond for more" I just shrug and continue with what I was doing. If you hate to see ads that much, why are you on the internet?
I don't hate to see ads, what I dislike is seeing ads if I specifically paid to NOT see them. "No ads" is listed as one of the benefits of gold membership, which for me, and others who mentioned it here, was a big reason to pay for the membership.
And what are you saying that because they are a business, they should be free to do what they want?
Not a single person has argued that chesscom shouldn't charge extra for additional analysis tools. That's a complete red herring. We are arguing that the way they try to get you to upgrade is obnoxious. I won't upgrade because I think analysis tools are overrated, and even though I get the free simple analysis with Gold, I just use self-analysis.
What I absolutely do not want to see is that simpering cartoon guy telling me to upgrade on every move and telling me how much better my life would be with it. It's obnoxious.
That cartoon face is the cherry on the cake😂
There is no substitute for doing your own analysis, then analyzing with a stronger player, then checking the analysis with an engine.
Doing the process backwards, however, is quicker. That’s what the website serves. Doesn’t matter which website.
When users crave superficial machine analysis, the market answers with product.
It makes no sense to begrudge Chess[.]com and Lichess the new upgrades to their analysis pages. Some of us get a lot of use out of it, especially as alternatives are not necessarily available or feasible.
I learned CSS from a very simple tutorial written by one of the people who'd written the standard. After that I had enough knowledge to get started. Education is partly about providing means of access to the information in as many different ways as required.
I don’t begrudge these sites for upgrading these features. I use the feature daily. It saves time on games that don’t merit closer analysis, which is most of them.
I understand why some people, including the site’s developers, put a lot of stock in the product. I was quite excited about Fritz autoanalysis a bit over fifteen years ago. Then, I reached the point where I deleted all of these annotations from one of the databases of my games. Finding two or three critical positions is more useful. The best aspect of the new coaching feature is the effort to do that. So far, however, I think is misses the mark about half the time. I presented an example above via screenshot.
It's heavy-handed, but the deal is fair. Assuming they keep developing it. I'm planning on upgrading.
If their strongest suit is their educational stuff, they're doing the right thing by leaning into it. They can afford to do a lot of hiring.
Voice over lessons a are nice and all, but imo practice exercises and puzzles are the best. I mean its basically what capablanca's book was before there were computers. The other site seems to have a whole lot more practice exercises in a concise and similar way. I find they have way more diversity in their puzzles as well. For me not only is it obnoxious its also the fact it doesn't seem like any real upgrade, just lipstick. Should of just made the whole change Diamond only lol.
I read Chess Fundamentals on my computer in February. Capablanca’s books remain where most players should look to acquire the basic knowledge that serves as a foundation for improvement. He also was ine of the first to express clearly the process of starting at the ending and working backwards towards the opening.
It's heavy-handed, but the deal is fair. Assuming they keep developing it. I'm planning on upgrading.
If their strongest suit is their educational stuff, they're doing the right thing by leaning into it. They can afford to do a lot of hiring.
Voice over lessons a are nice and all, but imo practice exercises and puzzles are the best. I mean its basically what capablanca's book was before there were computers. The other site seems to have a whole lot more practice exercises in a concise and similar way. I find they have way more diversity in their puzzles as well. For me not only is it obnoxious its also the fact it doesn't seem like any real upgrade, just lipstick. Should of just made the whole change Diamond only lol.
I read Chess Fundamentals on my computer in February. Capablanca’s books remain where most players should look to acquire the basic knowledge that serves as a foundation for improvement. He also was ine of the first to express clearly the process of starting at the ending and working backwards towards the opening.
ya its not bad. but if you go to the practice exercises on the other site and go in order Its basically what they are doing there, probably inspired by him. I mean he is constantly saying in the book you have to practice those things yourself on a board. Paying for lessons is nice and all. But I get more out of repeating exercises over and over. With my gold membership i get 3 lessons a week and extremely short exercise. its pretty meaningless. I basically bought it for the analysis, but because of this new diamond nagging I can't even look at analysis now without getting angry. Just another thing that makes me regret my subscription to this site.
It's true that you only get 3 a week and it can suck if you just want to do 3 short ones for sure... but at the lower levels you get to do all beginner lessons. To me, if someone gets plat and can do the beginner and intermediate lessons unlimited, for that price it's extremely good to get it for a month.
The lessons and features are really high quality. I probably won't do another year of diamond but I feel like it benefited my Chess a lot to do the lessons, even the basic ones.
I am a diamond member and I don't like the new game review AT ALL! I will not be renewing my membership unless the previous analysis is returned.
Yeah... I prefer the previous Report function. It takes less time to process.
Yeah... I don't know how I feel about this new feature. The "advice" is extremely general and not really helpful. It might be good for newer players I am not sure though...
For anyone that is experienced "You had an advantage, but now the game is equal" or whatever... doesn't really do anything. We still like always have to figure out why certain moves are better and then evaluate the lines.
Agreed
Just as a general observation, it seems that Chess.com had been gearing itself towards new players anyway. The game review is rather simple and even getting rid of live chess in favor of the more simplistic "Play" feature seems to be playing into that particular demographic
It's heavy-handed, but the deal is fair. Assuming they keep developing it. I'm planning on upgrading.
If their strongest suit is their educational stuff, they're doing the right thing by leaning into it. They can afford to do a lot of hiring.
Voice over lessons a are nice and all, but imo practice exercises and puzzles are the best. I mean its basically what capablanca's book was before there were computers. The other site seems to have a whole lot more practice exercises in a concise and similar way. I find they have way more diversity in their puzzles as well. For me not only is it obnoxious its also the fact it doesn't seem like any real upgrade, just lipstick. Should of just made the whole change Diamond only lol.
I read Chess Fundamentals on my computer in February. Capablanca’s books remain where most players should look to acquire the basic knowledge that serves as a foundation for improvement. He also was ine of the first to express clearly the process of starting at the ending and working backwards towards the opening.
ya its not bad. but if you go to the practice exercises on the other site and go in order Its basically what they are doing there, probably inspired by him. I mean he is constantly saying in the book you have to practice those things yourself on a board. Paying for lessons is nice and all. But I get more out of repeating exercises over and over. With my gold membership i get 3 lessons a week and extremely short exercise. its pretty meaningless. I basically bought it for the analysis, but because of this new diamond nagging I can't even look at analysis now without getting angry. Just another thing that makes me regret my subscription to this site.
With 400 chess books, ChessBase software, an Informant subscription, and paid memberships here, ChessTempo, and Lichess (free, but I’m a patron), I don’t lack for training opportunities. What I lack is the time to access my abundant resources. Also, I’m no spring chicken. My “training” is oriented more towards my teaching and enjoyment than any notion I’m gonna rise above the peaks I hit a few years ago.
When I was a little girl, there was a paperclip with googly-eyes helping me on our PC. My dad hated it but I thought it was the cutest thing ever. I was 7.
Cartoon guys helping us with our analyses belong on Chesskid. End of story.
I just don't like seeing the review commentary. In the opening it only says very obvious things "attacks a piece, threatens to win material" or whatever.
In analyses when you blundered it says "you were winning, now the game is even" or whatever. Really? I had +3 and now +0 or something... this is obvious.
^This is also not "advice". It's like a kid that learned what the engine score means.
Saying some moves are good when they are objectively just plain bad. Some of these are debatable.
I'd rather just have the old report function back 
It's not all bad though, I can see it helping new players and maybe it gets better. 
^This is good.
I like it, especially the Show Line feature. It is tempting me to go Diamond (up from Platinum). I'm sure there are many users more proficient than me who won't find it useful.
I assume that it's put in our faces temporarily because it's a new feature that they want us to know about. Once it's established, no doubt it will be less obtrusive/persistent.
It's heavy-handed, but the deal is fair. Assuming they keep developing it. I'm planning on upgrading.
If their strongest suit is their educational stuff, they're doing the right thing by leaning into it. They can afford to do a lot of hiring.
Voice over lessons a are nice and all, but imo practice exercises and puzzles are the best. I mean its basically what capablanca's book was before there were computers. The other site seems to have a whole lot more practice exercises in a concise and similar way. I find they have way more diversity in their puzzles as well. For me not only is it obnoxious its also the fact it doesn't seem like any real upgrade, just lipstick. Should of just made the whole change Diamond only lol.
I read Chess Fundamentals on my computer in February. Capablanca’s books remain where most players should look to acquire the basic knowledge that serves as a foundation for improvement. He also was ine of the first to express clearly the process of starting at the ending and working backwards towards the opening.
ya its not bad. but if you go to the practice exercises on the other site and go in order Its basically what they are doing there, probably inspired by him. I mean he is constantly saying in the book you have to practice those things yourself on a board. Paying for lessons is nice and all. But I get more out of repeating exercises over and over. With my gold membership i get 3 lessons a week and extremely short exercise. its pretty meaningless. I basically bought it for the analysis, but because of this new diamond nagging I can't even look at analysis now without getting angry. Just another thing that makes me regret my subscription to this site.
It's true that you only get 3 a week and it can suck if you just want to do 3 short ones for sure... but at the lower levels you get to do all beginner lessons. To me, if someone gets plat and can do the beginner and intermediate lessons unlimited, for that price it's extremely good to get it for a month.
The lessons and features are really high quality. I probably won't do another year of diamond but I feel like it benefited my Chess a lot to do the lessons, even the basic ones.
I find the practice exercises and puzzles on the other site more productive. The only thing worth the subscription on chess.com for me was the analysis. and Now i don't even want to look at it it makes me so angry.
Both Chess.com and lichess has a lot of exercises and drills, it's only a matter of personal preference. Puzzles-Drills and Puzzles-Endgames are IMO excellent. I too bought the membership partly for the analysis and the simplicity of Report Tab was a great bonus. Now I only glance at the Game review tab statistics, and head over to the Analysis Tab, it's still the same good old thing.
This is how you do it. You give us one "advanced analysis" a week and you put a button there. When you click it a second time, you get something that says "you've reached your limit for the week," just like with puzzles or lessons. Simple. Not obnoxious. Not in-your-face.