Hmm, well, I don't think the site can really regulate guests, so perhaps it may be better if you try to play on the account you made instead.
This site is horrible for beginners
Sort:
Would suggest playing unrated games on your account, or play vs. the computer options if you're looking to practice. Of course when people only play unrated games their ratings get progressively less accurate, but on the whole the system works OK.
Also, I think it's fair to say that beginners have a hard time of judging how good their opponents are really. There are regular posts in the forums from someone saying how amazing their opponents played even when rated poorly. However, upon analysis, the opponent made loads of mistakes that the poster didn't pick up on. With a guest account, game analysis isn't possible unless you then access the game with your actual account etc. So while I'm not saying people weren't sandbagging/smurfing, consider that in some cases players aren't necessarily as good as you think.
Apr 23, 2023
0
#4
playing against better opponents is good
also, just play on a normal account if your having issues.
also, just play on a normal account if your having issues.
Apr 23, 2023
0
#5
When you have an account and start as a beginner you will be matched with players of similar strength.
Just the way you are new to online chess, there are a lot of strong players that are also new to online chess, just the way you think its okay for you to play as guest, it is also okay for strong players to play as guest if they wish. In addition to this, Chess.com does not regulate who play as guest.
In conclusion, if you will like to play beginners like you, create an account, play a couple of games and after your rating settles, you will be paired with players of similar rating (strength).
Throwawayjane wrote:
So I recently got into chess, my father always loved this game and I wanted to play online so I did the whole guest thing and put it on the easiest matchmaking difficulty so I could start out simple, played about five games and I am pretty damn sure that every single guest I matched against was some sweaty try hard smurf pretending to be a "beginner" is this just a common thing for chess players to have no honor and punch down on newcomers? I deal with this crap enough on video games and in truth I expected better from the chess community, sorry if this is whiney and unproductive but it's really disheartening for a newbie to just get steamrolled everytime because some smurf was too afraid to play ranked within his own elo. Made this account just to post this because it's honestly just ridiculous that this is even a thing.
With this account, you played 1 game, and you were not steamrolled at all. You just played 15 moves and then resigned for no reason.
Of course, I can't see your guest games and I have no idea how guests matchmaking even works.
YOU PLAYED ONE GAME CALM DOWN
Apr 23, 2023
0
#8
Your experience is an unfortunate reality of online games. The percentage of members of online gaming sites who are toxic is probably greater than for society as a whole. It often isn't personal; like road rage, everyone is a target.
Skill issue?
Apr 23, 2023
0
#10
Oh boy. You're getting hit with all the usual answers. Now you know what online chess is like. Chess players hate to lose. The only reason somebody would smurf would be for entering a tournament. In that case, they would lose to you first in rated play to help lower their rating not win against you.
Beginner here- You only have one game in your history which doesn't allow us to give a fair assessment on whether or not you played against beginngers or not. To be frank, the one game we can see doesn't look above the beginner skill level on either side. If we saw the games on your main we might be able to get a better assessment, but as a beginner I don't think this sight is too bad for beginners. Seems like all games below 400 Elo are scholar's mates and counters to scholar's mates.
Throwawayjane wrote:
So I recently got into chess, my father always loved this game and I wanted to play online so I did the whole guest thing and put it on the easiest matchmaking difficulty so I could start out simple, played about five games and I am pretty damn sure that every single guest I matched against was some sweaty try hard smurf pretending to be a "beginner" is this just a common thing for chess players to have no honor and punch down on newcomers? I deal with this crap enough on video games and in truth I expected better from the chess community, sorry if this is whiney and unproductive but it's really disheartening for a newbie to just get steamrolled everytime because some smurf was too afraid to play ranked within his own elo. Made this account just to post this because it's honestly just ridiculous that this is even a thing.
I have a software engineer friend in Burlingame who created a program to estimate ratings, and I have been regularly sending him the PGNs of the games I play as a guest on Beginner level since the start of this year. With a margin of error +/- 50 points the average rating of my opponents is 1645, with a sample size of 315 games played from 3 January to 28 March.
Apr 23, 2023
0
#14
Hello! I have looked at your unique part, it did not bother to know the rules applicable to figurines. You need to know the basics of strategy, some tactical moves, learn the 4 or 5 main openings, both white and black. So first go through the lessons on the site and buy at least one manual å consult in the bus, the tram, as soon as you have a quarter of an hour to lose.
Apr 23, 2023
0
#15
Guests are mostly low rated bots and they make banana paste out of beginners
this site is in fact still horrible for beginners. an awful lot of people are rushing to the defense of the site when establishing a relative elo system that recategorizes players after a few guest games is not an impossible implementation software engineering wise, it's just they choose not to do it. but from my experience the overwhelming majority of the people who play chess are toxic. they spent years studying the game to get 'good' for the sole purpose of calling you stupid, these are the types of people who play this game and it's the sort of players this game attracts from it's sheer design. it's one of those games that you need to 'study' and 'memorize' in order to win, not necessarily use deductive logic and reasoning skills, but you can never tell a chess player with an elo greater than 800 this, they aren't coming up with their own tricks using their own logic, they simply are memorizing the tricks of others. they play to feel better about themselves and to make their opponent feel horrible.
Mar 29, 2026
0
#17
poisonedcheese wrote:
this site is in fact still horrible for beginners. an awful lot of people are rushing to the defense of the site when establishing a relative elo system that recategorizes players after a few guest games is not an impossible implementation software engineering wise, it's just they choose not to do it. but from my experience the overwhelming majority of the people who play chess are toxic. they spent years studying the game to get 'good' for the sole purpose of calling you stupid, these are the types of people who play this game and it's the sort of players this game attracts from it's sheer design. it's one of those games that you need to 'study' and 'memorize' in order to win, not necessarily use deductive logic and reasoning skills, but you can never tell a chess player with an elo greater than 800 this, they aren't coming up with their own tricks using their own logic, they simply are memorizing the tricks of others. they play to feel better about themselves and to make their opponent feel horrible.
Thanks for resurrecting this extremely old post to tell us this. Truly amazing. /sarcasm
edit: I suppose I should elaborate rather than just appearing salty that you would bring back a topic that was dead. We have had very different experiences on this website. When I started, I was under 1000 and never had any of the toxic experiences you mentioned. I never had anyone higher rated calling me stupid. Funny enough, I did experience lower rated players trying to rage bait me in the chat. Those experiences have become less and less the higher rated I've gotten. The majority of people I've encountered here have been polite and I've met a lot of good people.
You saying that people play to make themselves feel better about themselves and make their opponent's feel terrible is by and large not true. As for you saying people aren't coming up with their own logic; they are just memorizing. This has always been true of chess. Look back hundreds of years and this was still true. Chess players have always studied the games of others. It's through this study and practical experience with playing games and analyzing the results that players can see real improvement.
I know I'm jumping around a lot. ADHD brain. Another thing you say is that people spend years studying the game to get good for the sole purpose of calling you stupid. Again, I think this is a generalization. I study the game because I love proving to myself that I can improve at a thing. It's fun and fascinating and inspiring. I know lots of people that do it for the same reason. There's lots of reasons to want to improve at the game beyond being a toxic individual who wants to make others feel bad.
HeckinSprout wrote:
poisonedcheese wrote:
this site is in fact still horrible for beginners. an awful lot of people are rushing to the defense of the site when establishing a relative elo system that recategorizes players after a few guest games is not an impossible implementation software engineering wise, it's just they choose not to do it. but from my experience the overwhelming majority of the people who play chess are toxic. they spent years studying the game to get 'good' for the sole purpose of calling you stupid, these are the types of people who play this game and it's the sort of players this game attracts from it's sheer design. it's one of those games that you need to 'study' and 'memorize' in order to win, not necessarily use deductive logic and reasoning skills, but you can never tell a chess player with an elo greater than 800 this, they aren't coming up with their own tricks using their own logic, they simply are memorizing the tricks of others. they play to feel better about themselves and to make their opponent feel horrible.
Thanks for resurrecting this extremely old post to tell us this. Truly amazing. /sarcasm
edit: I suppose I should elaborate rather than just appearing salty that you would bring back a topic that was dead. We have had very different experiences on this website. When I started, I was under 1000 and never had any of the toxic experiences you mentioned. I never had anyone higher rated calling me stupid. Funny enough, I did experience lower rated players trying to rage bait me in the chat. Those experiences have become less and less the higher rated I've gotten. The majority of people I've encountered here have been polite and I've met a lot of good people.
You saying that people play to make themselves feel better about themselves and make their opponent's feel terrible is by and large not true. As for you saying people aren't coming up with their own logic; they are just memorizing. This has always been true of chess. Look back hundreds of years and this was still true. Chess players have always studied the games of others. It's through this study and practical experience with playing games and analyzing the results that players can see real improvement.
I know I'm jumping around a lot. ADHD brain. Another thing you say is that people spend years studying the game to get good for the sole purpose of calling you stupid. Again, I think this is a generalization. I study the game because I love proving to myself that I can improve at a thing. It's fun and fascinating and inspiring. I know lots of people that do it for the same reason. There's lots of reasons to want to improve at the game beyond being a toxic individual who wants to make others feel bad.
Fair enough, not gonna lie when I posted yaboi was on a losing streak so i was salty. but down here in the 400s-500s in blitz it's very toxic my guy. I'm a casual player, and it's not necessarily toxic in the chat, it's moreso, 'i could mate you in 1, but let me queen all of my pawns first'
Mar 31, 2026
0
#19
That's not true!
This site is bad for players of all ratings, not just beginners
So I recently got into chess, my father always loved this game and I wanted to play online so I did the whole guest thing and put it on the easiest matchmaking difficulty so I could start out simple, played about five games and I am pretty damn sure that every single guest I matched against was some sweaty try hard smurf pretending to be a "beginner" is this just a common thing for chess players to have no honor and punch down on newcomers? I deal with this crap enough on video games and in truth I expected better from the chess community, sorry if this is whiney and unproductive but it's really disheartening for a newbie to just get steamrolled everytime because some smurf was too afraid to play ranked within his own elo. Made this account just to post this because it's honestly just ridiculous that this is even a thing.