Upgrading to Diamond Member?

Is upgrading to a diamond worth it?  Beginner here.

Thanks

That depends on you.

If you are a beginner,  why go for diamond, try The gold membership first level one you and upgrade if you are pleased! 

Yes, it's worth it for at least four reasons:

1. Unlimited GM (and FM and IM) video lessons, each are only 20 minutes long. Compare to $50-$60 an hour for a private lesson. Highly consumable stuff.

2. Unlimited Tactics Trainer (compare to spending $30 for a stand-alone tactics program or buying a number of cheaper tactics texts).

3. Chess.com/tv which includes live analysis of games by masters and general entertainment.

4. Unlimited Computer Analysis of your games (compare to buying Fritz 12 for $60)

I agree with this, I really want to improve and figure this is a great and convenient tool.  I've also been compiling a notepad file of other things like:

 MASTERS TO STUDY

WEBSITES

CHESS BOOKS

VIDEO

 Let's not forget, an ad free setting. 

But seriously, I think you pretty much need to be fully retired (or a pre-schooler), to find the time to take advantage of most of the offerings on this site.

If you're under 6 or over 65, Diamond Premium's good value for you imo.

sftac (Trial Diamond member)

ps.  Don't forget, if you're feeling kindly enter 'sftac' as the referrer when you purchase your premium membership here.

Go for it.  The study plans (found in the "articles" section under chess.com help) at least give a suggested path to follow so you don't get completely overwhelmed by the mountain of information available.  I think Danny Rensch's videos alone are worth the money, but obviously you get much much more than that.  ChessMentor is so much easier to use than laboriously working through a book to give just one example.  Just one old patzer's opinion....

 Well, sure.  And using pretty much any washing machine is so much easier than going down to the crick and bashing your laundry with stones. 

Computers are marvellous for many things, compared to books.

Flawed as it is, investing $10 on software like ChessMaster 10th Edition ("Teacher, Mentor, Ultimate Opponent"), takes you out of the book arena into an interactive and very comprehensive tutoring capability (you don't even need to be online to use it and of course should not have it 'on' while playing on a chess site). 

Diamond membership @ $98/yr adds up ($980.00/decade, $4,900.00 / active playing lifetime of 50 years).

sftac

If you can easily afford it without thinking, then I'd just do it and have fun.  If you don't use it much in a year, then downgrade.  If the money is a challenge for you, then I'd try just doing it for a month at a time for awhile and see if you find the time to do it.  

I have the iphone and one thing I love to do is go through the tactics.  I'm doing tactics in the dentist office, at my lunch break at work, and at the playground when my kids play.  I enjoy tactics.  The videos are also on the phone as well.  So if you have a smart phone, then that might make the diamond easier to use and justify.  

"afford"?  "thinking" (as a shopper seeking value)?  I think those attributes of thrift are sometimes a bit scarce amongst patrons haunting chess sites.  Anyway,

if you try it for say, a month or two and decide to 'downgrade', the site (as I understand it), will swap the unexpired duration of a Diamond membership for twice as long a period of Platinum membership.  

For some strange reason, the site is adverse to giving refunds beyond their one-time only 30-day moneyback policy -- go figure.

sftac

Is it not a violation of site policy to post links and URLs to competing chess website?

sftac

Yes, if your using just a little time on the site, diamond is a must. Its very cheap, compared to what you get.

 That site's teaming up with this one, so no.

Darn!  I was looking forward to seeing someone get flogged.

sftac

The ToS mentions spamming or advertising competitive websites. I understand one would be in violation of the rule if he just pasted his url into every thread, but linking a site once or twice with the sole intent of helping the poster would be OK in my opinion. When "resources" are solicted, I don't see why they shouldn't be linked.

I'd like to hear a staff interpretation, as I wouldn't want to violate the ToS.

If you have highspeed internet good enough to stream movies or webcasts; yes. If you have dial-up, then no.

For god's sake man! I just said the site is teamed up with chess.com. 

Kindly cite your references to support that earthshaking statement.

sftac