To become or not to become a premium member...

This is a cost/benefit analysis for me. If I believe the benefits are far outweighing then I might consider. Jury is still out though....

Having spent several years in Africa, I can't help but support the idea. $30 is a huge amount of money over there.

What about it Eric, can it be done? Wouldn't it be nice to help a future world champion from the third world?

Considering what I have just written, I had better step up to the plate myself. I'll pay for a gold membership for a young person from sub-saharan Africa.

start off with lowest premium membership...its worth it just for the increased computer chess analysis of your games....if you decide to increase ;the extra chess mentor is worth it.... But if you already are doing alot of book study, then you could wait on upgrading for chess mentor....if you can devote the time, and can afford it go for top premium membership...its worth it if you really want to get into the game...

for me its worth every penny. No question about it! I bought a gold star, then upgraded to a crown and now im diamond for life. chess.com is a great site the best on the web and when you upgrade your helping to make it even better!

Com on man ! Take a big step , get ya membership on !

If you plan to spend some money in a chess site membership, there is no better place than here!  

I recently upgraded to platinum, and I highly recommend it.

First of all the tactics trainer is nice. The ability to join multiple tournaments is great.

And I really like the lack of ads and faster load times.

But further, I just feel that if you are going to play here long term, on a daily basis, It is just the right thing to do to financially support the place.

Yes I took that into consideration. I already know I am going to be on here a lot and between here and going to the chess club I am now involved with, doing the exercises on this site, playing many games, doing plenty of reading, I think I am going to be eating and sleeping this for a while. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this game.

So I went for the whole thing and upgraded to a premium membership. You do get a lot more than I was expecting from what I have seen so far :P

I agree as well... I had problems signing up with PayPal but the site has excellent customer service so I think I have it sorted. The 27% exchange is a bit of a bite, but I won't complain too loudly given the difference in other currencies. I also support something like the concept of currency on par... I would love to play people from all over the world not just the ones with favourable currencies. Other than the Live Chess issues, I have seen no downside to this site and only pluses to membership so hopefully my paypal payment will go through tomorrow and I will join the ranks as a happy supporter of this site.

Tactics trainer, Chess mentor are useful, but membership depends on how much value they bring to you. Is there something that you "need" to do but can't under the free membership? If not, there is no reason to join. That is unless you want to...

And that’s exactly why I joined. I saw the effort that Erik and the team were putting into the site and I wanted to be part of the sites progression- so I purchased a membership. 

What I hope to get out of my membership is a louder voice on the direction of the site be it features, or content.  Thus far, I feel like I am getting a good deal. When I have to renew in 5-6 months, it will likely come down to what features have been implemented over the year.

If in 6 months there is a new analysis board that integrates with the notes and conditional moves I'll renew. If there is a overhaul of the UI (for game play)- I'll renew. If a strong iphone app is offered I'll renew. If new forum rules are enacted regarding sexist, or hateful speech I'll renew.

If any one of the things that matters to me, like the things mentioned above then chess.com keeps my business for another year. If not, its back to free-riding for me. 

your too picky, thats a silly thing to say. I'm a member simply because its' a great site, and i think it not costing much to be a member, seriously, your like basically saying your not going to renew because Eric hasn't done this that ect, which is outrageous, if you don't like it, then don't renew it, if you do like it then do. none of this well, he has met my X condition for renewal Y condition is still not yet completed, hmmm, and what happened to the Z condition, oh boy I'm off.

If you're going to use the site often, and are commited to improving your game then it's definitely worth it.

I had the free membership for a while and then upgraded to Gold so as to use Tactics Trainer (25 per day) which has really helped me.  I also started a new group (for Long Live Chess Game players who enjoy analysis and the longer game in live chess).

After a month or two I then went the whole hog and got Diamond.  I can now use the videos and the Chess Mentor and there arn't enough hours in the day!  I may go back to Gold after a few months if my spare time doesn't permit me to make full use of these extra features.  However, staff assure me that all your data and stats on Chess mentor etc are saved, so that should you return to Diamond in the future, it's all there waiting for your return.

This site deserves all the support we can give, so if you can afford it, sign up now, you won't go wrong.

The features are incredible...it's REALLY worth it!!!

OG