I think chess.com is a great site and I play here regularly (a few games every week). The only reason why I don't become a premium member is the low number of active players. Only around 7K players are online on weekdays and about 10K on weekends. These numbers are way too low. On weekdays there should be around 100K players online and around 200K players online on Saturdays and Sundays. The problem with so few players is that sometimes I get matched up against opponents that are way below my skill level (and I'm rated a measly 1225 as of today on standard lol). So once I played someone who was rated ~700 while I was rated ~1100 and I won in 6 moves. This is undesirable. I specifically stated +-200 in my search for standard 30 min games. 700 is 400 rating points below 1100 so my search criteria could not be satisfied, I assume this is because there aren't enough players online.
Premium Memberships-Yes or No?
I think chess.com is a great site and I play here regularly (a few games every week). The only reason why I don't become a premium member is the low number of active players. Only around 7K players are online on weekdays and about 10K on weekends. These numbers are way too low. On weekdays there should be around 100K players online and around 200K players online on Saturdays and Sundays. The problem with so few players is that sometimes I get matched up against opponents that are way below my skill level (and I'm rated a measly 1225 as of today on standard lol). So once I played someone who was rated ~700 while I was rated ~1100 and I won in 6 moves. This is undesirable. I specifically stated +-200 in my search for standard 30 min games. 700 is 400 rating points below 1100 so my search criteria could not be satisfied, I assume this is because there aren't enough players online.
First of all, a few games a week isn't frequent.
And its hard to believe that there is NOBODY seeking a game between 900 and 1300 at any given time
My point stands, there should be 100K players online, not 7K. The player base is too low. And as far as a few games a week not being frequent, I work long hours so for me it is frequent.
Fianchetto, it's obvious if you go to http://www.chess.com/membership?c=navbar
Yes and no. The access to all of the extra features is great, but the constantly being stopped in the street to give autographs gets tiresome.
BTW, fianchetto, when I had a paid membership, I was lucky enough to get Grobe's autograph. I still cherish it. It's in my autogragh album right next to Mr. T and Scott Baio.
So, watch out for the paparazzi if you pay.
I'm planning on getting a diamond membership by the end of the year. To me its either all or nothing, get almost all my chess needs at one place or go through various sites to get my needs for free. I like the idea of supporting a great chess site and being able to do my internet chess playing and most chess studies in one place. The Chess Mentor program they have and the video's when I was on the diamond trial besides the Tactics trainer seemed great too.
If you can't get a trial for ten days then I'd consider buying a month at diamond membership and see what you think.
Yes! You get some tutorials and have 'vacation time'.
In my opinion the best and easiest is a yearly membership paying with paypal DIRECTLY to chess.com email, and telling staff you don't want automatic renewal.
I did it that way so it was easier 'cause I could pay directly in my own currency, EURO, and didn't need to adapt into US DOLLAR. You should contact chess.com staff telling you want to pay that way, wait for an anwer and go ahead.
I like the training materials, but especially, 'HOLIDAY TIME' so I can sometimes stop matches for more than a month when I'm busy.
I didn't know there was this payment method with paypal, 'Paying to another paypal user's email'!
Is a premium membership worth it? Are some memberships worth it and others aren't? I'd like to hear from some members with each of the three memberships about the benefits and disadvantages of that particular membership etc...I'm trying to decide which to buy if any