Hi all,

I am in college studying Business Management. For our first assignment, we are asked to interview an organization in the ways they provide value to customers. I am choosing chess.com as my organization to explore.

I would like to talk to a chess.com representative (a brief 15 minute interview would probably do) about how they continue to provide such a great service and how they remain competive with other companies.

Who should I contact to possibly set up an interview? I have a week to complete the assignment.

Thanks in advance.

have u thought about CIA ? i sure do hv a influence over them

That probably isn't enough time. I imagine that if you want to do one of these interviews, you have to contact chess.com at least a couple of weeks in advance.

You'd have to go through support at support.chess.com.  They probably won't see this forum.

There is a video Erik did last month on chess.com TV where he explains how he got started, where chess.com is headed, etc. , basically all the things you'd ask in an interview.  Who's to know? 

Just do the interview as a thread here and ask your questions. I'm sure that chess.com will give you the answers and we can all support you in your effort.

I would say check and see if they have a business contact as that is direction all others will point for starters also.....good replies all!

Thanks for your responses guys :). I went ahead and emailed support a couple days ago and they said they would send my request to their staff.

Given that I only have a few days left, I think I will go ahead and take Lou-for-you's suggestions and start a thread with my questions. Actually, I'll just post them here, maybe you guys can help me  get some answers. Also, don't hesitate to jump in with suggestions/comments :)

Okay so this is what I got so far:

1)      Can you tell me a little about the background of your company? When did it start? Who’s idea was it to create such a wonderful worldwide chess server?

2)      Without a doubt, chess.com provides the best place for chess fanatics around the world to play and learn chess, as well as to keep up with current events in the game. This seems like a pricy operation .Where do you get revenue from? Is that mostly from premium memberships/advertising?

3)      One of the most attractive features of chess.com is the super user-friendly software and the ability to play a chess game any time of the day. How do you maintain the technology to support the almost 8 million members on your site?

4)      How do you recruit your staff?

5)      I assume you guys offer free premium memberships for titled players in order to bring in more fan base (genius idea I must say); …is this correct? What does it mean to have some of the best players in the world use your site (Even Anand, the world champion ,participated in a simul here on chess.com not too long ago)

6)      Does chess.com provide members/employees with opportunities to grow? Maybe ways to increase expand network? (For instance, I noticed see some bloggers who are also allowed to advertise their coaching)

7)      What are you doing differently when it comes to advertising? Chess.com appear first on a Google search…Facebook…

8)      What challenges does chess.com face in the future? What are your long term goals for the site?

9)      Can you talk to me a little about chesskid.com and “deathmatches”( broadcasted free!)….what is the goal of these special events?  

erik show

Shake, the questions you pose seem like you want people do the research and report back to this thread.....one thing I have found from the community here....they are hardcore in most aspects of life and they will manifest that in terse concise replies.....almost always! Likle #8 seems like What is your business strategy for the future?....they might not want to reveal too much in that area who, just thinking...don't forget this a public web site...#3 What is system architecture? sure a lot of companies want that, I was a seamless mobility architect at a major corporation and your competitive advantage there is paramount. The remainder of the questions seem safe. agree with baddogno, the erik show will help. Maybe the real specific questions might have some hesitation there...but no one can fault you asking. Good luck with paper, got to love your approach path.

Dadnavy71,

Thanks for your response, I am in no way looking for a handout and asking people to do my project for me. Those are just the questions I have formulated in case I get to speak with a representative, I was only looking to get some feedback/suggestions.

I undestand that there might be hesitation in being specific with the answers, like you say, who wants to reveal their business plan on a public site. To be honest, I am just looking for some general information which I can report on my paper.

I'd love to watch the show, but I cannot access it since I am not a diamond/platinum member....unless it's provided to all members somwhere?

To expand on your #3, maybe I should ask a couple general questions about their support activities e.g. managmenet hiearchy, planning, legal, etc.

I'd love to watch the show, but I cannot access it since I am not a diamond/platinum member....unless it's provided to all members somwhere?

Actually, I have an idea. Can some of you guys describe (briefly) how chess.com provides value for you? What makes you keep coming back to the site?

The thing that I personally enjoy the most is the freedom to play the game I love anyday, anytime I desire. A couple clickshere and there,  and you are instantaniously paired up and able to compete with someone else. Even though I only started playing chess a couple years ago, I feel like my game has improved quite quickly. All thanks to the convenience of being able to test my skills against others whenever I want.

Shake, no problem, wow...I have not watched the show did not realize the restriction...let me watch it right now back in a few

My mistake! I found the show! :)

http://www.livestream.com/chesscomlive/video?clipId=pla_6b6d7f60-771c-41e5-a255-32931b392179

I guess I overlooked at the bottom where it said "more videos", plus I got discouraged when I saw only diamond/platinum members had access to the chesstv features. Thanks to baddogno for pointing it out!

Posters here I got back to to ProteinShake1 via a message, did not watch entire "show" yet but will. I too like zealandzen chose this site because for the game enjoyment (cannot go wrong with 1500 years of history by world) The free service seemed to offer more than other sites paid services. The sense of world community made me join.

Perhaps you'd like to contact my manager at kohai@chess.com :)

I thought I was your manager?? 

 Oh, zip it, Kansha!! ....Rogers Hornsby was MY manager, and he called me a talking pile of pigsh#@. And that was when my parents drove all the way down from Michigan to see me play the game. And did I cry? Did I?? NO. NO!!!

do not interview kohai, she is a woman iirc

So I wasn't able to get an interview in time, but I got 90% of what I needed from the "state of the union" that Erik did a little while ago.  Still waiting on the grade, but it came out pretty good. Thanks to everyone for your help!