Why is Chess.com growing so quickly?

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Avatar of PlayByDay
The_Krieg skrev:

That's what's wrong with chess right now... everyone is playing participation trophy chess  none of these types are any good at chess

Even with an entire day to make a single move, they will be 1200 level.  can chess.com be honest to these types and explain that maybe they need to try something different?

You already showed that you don't listen to anybody else who actually have evidence backing up their claims, unlike you. You also showed complete lack of understanding business and economics given you answer to @calbitt5750, who made a very good point. 

And now you also show complete lack of understanding about how to grow a community. There are more <=1200 players than >=2000 players. There are more <= 1200 players who pay for subscription than there are >=2000 players paying for it. It is much, much better to put in the effort to double amount of <=1200 players than >=2000 players. 

But this is all far above your head so be free to argue about registration date and elo score. Until someone who have <900 elo blitz and registered in late december agrees with you, strangely that does not disqualify their opinion as long as they agree.

EDIT 7/3: And guess who didn't have any arguments and instead blocked me?! Maybe it is time for OP to stop playing chess and go back to school. Don't know how chess.com will handle the loss of this paying customer...oh right, he isn't one.

Avatar of The_Krieg
thekoolaidjammers wrote:
The_Krieg wrote:
JoPlays212 wrote:
So you made this whole thread just to disagree with yourself that Chess.com’s userbase is growing due to an increase in interest in chess?

 

 

again...  has interest in chess really risen as of late?  show us...

 

what exactly is increasing interest in chess at this very moment...  where is the worldwide appeal of chess?????  nowhere.  nothing.  not a damn thing is happening.  no one is talking about it except us here or even narrower... me.  I look at the topics on this forum and the traffic is paltry

 

there is no increase in user discussions or activity in the forums.  could be because the mods are so draconian in censoring the topics and locking what they find objectionable from a arbitrary perspective...  but really, look at these forums.  hardly any activity.

 

with such a supposed increase in chess user daily numbers, wouldn't you think there would be these huge discussions online?  nothing.  look at the boring topics.  My thread is very recent but look at how it out paces the other topics because no one else is talking about this.  

 

everything else is mindless junk on the forums.  oh... how to i stay above 1100... who cares.  1100 sucks.  oh what openings are best?  really?  thats worthless.  who cares about openings if you have no skill throughout.  oh magnus is playing so and so... who cares. Magnus is an example of quitting chess... that's not the type of champion we want.  and many of the past champions we weirdos and had psychological problems so not exactly stellar examples for us.  in fact, I retract my previous statement about Magnus... he is more normal than a lot of past champions, but dropping out of a tournament because he suspects that his opponent was...  yeah...  can't prove it, but let's just accuse someone of it and chess.com comes out and says yeah.. Hans this and Hans that... but really???

 

 

If you want something quantitative, just look at Google Trends. Ever since January, searches for "chess" have doubled. So clearly something is causing an increased interest in the game. You could debate all you want about what's causing it, but I think the fact that it is, in some way, growing is inarguable. Using the same site, you can see that search terms like "chess cheating scandal", "ludwig chess boxing", and "tata steel chess 2023." have all contributed to a growing interest in Chess. 

 Asking others to prove to you the factors which are contributing to the growth of Chess is falacious. The burden of proof lies with the accuser. Also, you're arguing from ignorance. Just because something isn't proven to be true, doesn't mean it's false, and vice versa. 

I'm not sure why it's seemingly a bad thing to you that new people are getting into Chess. THe more people who enjoy the game, the better for us all. 

 

 

 

not just humans are counted for searches in the trends...  FYI

Avatar of The_Krieg
thekoolaidjammers wrote:
The_Krieg wrote:
JoPlays212 wrote:
So you made this whole thread just to disagree with yourself that Chess.com’s userbase is growing due to an increase in interest in chess?

 

 

again...  has interest in chess really risen as of late?  show us...

 

what exactly is increasing interest in chess at this very moment...  where is the worldwide appeal of chess?????  nowhere.  nothing.  not a damn thing is happening.  no one is talking about it except us here or even narrower... me.  I look at the topics on this forum and the traffic is paltry

 

there is no increase in user discussions or activity in the forums.  could be because the mods are so draconian in censoring the topics and locking what they find objectionable from a arbitrary perspective...  but really, look at these forums.  hardly any activity.

 

with such a supposed increase in chess user daily numbers, wouldn't you think there would be these huge discussions online?  nothing.  look at the boring topics.  My thread is very recent but look at how it out paces the other topics because no one else is talking about this.  

 

everything else is mindless junk on the forums.  oh... how to i stay above 1100... who cares.  1100 sucks.  oh what openings are best?  really?  thats worthless.  who cares about openings if you have no skill throughout.  oh magnus is playing so and so... who cares. Magnus is an example of quitting chess... that's not the type of champion we want.  and many of the past champions we weirdos and had psychological problems so not exactly stellar examples for us.  in fact, I retract my previous statement about Magnus... he is more normal than a lot of past champions, but dropping out of a tournament because he suspects that his opponent was...  yeah...  can't prove it, but let's just accuse someone of it and chess.com comes out and says yeah.. Hans this and Hans that... but really???

 

 

If you want something quantitative, just look at Google Trends. Ever since January, searches for "chess" have doubled. So clearly something is causing an increased interest in the game. You could debate all you want about what's causing it, but I think the fact that it is, in some way, growing is inarguable. Using the same site, you can see that search terms like "chess cheating scandal", "ludwig chess boxing", and "tata steel chess 2023." have all contributed to a growing interest in Chess. 

 Asking others to prove to you the factors which are contributing to the growth of Chess is falacious. The burden of proof lies with the accuser. Also, you're arguing from ignorance. Just because something isn't proven to be true, doesn't mean it's false, and vice versa. 

I'm not sure why it's seemingly a bad thing to you that new people are getting into Chess. THe more people who enjoy the game, the better for us all. 

 

 

 

 

It is a known fact to computer scientists as well as marketing professionals worldwide that mere "trends" as they are quantified calculate both human and non-human searches online.  The distinction between the two forms of searches are relevant to both marketing and non marketing aspects of the internet

 

computer generated searches can trigger search trend anomalies or spikes in searches for particular categories.  in fact some more unscrupulous types have been known to seek out unverfiable or non human methods of increasing traffic or search trends to make it seem like particular categories online are being searched by people on a daily basis.  

 

Unfortunately, current systems do no distinguish between human and non human searches..  therefore the current trend lines include both human and non human trends.  

 

if however, such searches were parsed to distinguish between human searches and non human searches then closer to true search trends would emerge.  however as i reiterate, current trends online that are accessible to ordinary users online cannot be relied upon for accuracy or depended on for arguments regarding interest by actual humans.  

 

That is the reason why it is relevant and indeed necessary to rely upon what you see in our daily experiences to help shape our determination of interest level in a particular area. 

Avatar of The_Krieg
Joseph_Mack wrote:

Thanks everyone for sharing your idea. I really enjoyed this thread and discussions by the people.

 

What is it about the thread topic that you enjoyed reading, and what is your perspective on the topic?

Avatar of The_Krieg
PlayByDay wrote:
The_Krieg skrev:

That's what's wrong with chess right now... everyone is playing participation trophy chess  none of these types are any good at chess

Even with an entire day to make a single move, they will be 1200 level.  can chess.com be honest to these types and explain that maybe they need to try something different?

You already showed that you don't listen to anybody else who actually have evidence backing up their claims, unlike you. You also showed complete lack of understanding business and economics given you answer to @calbitt5750, who made a very good point. 

And now you also show complete lack of understanding about how to grow a community. There are more <=1200 players than >=2000 players. There are more <= 1200 players who pay for subscription than there are >=2000 players paying for it. It is much, much better to put in the effort to double amount of <=1200 players than >=2000 players. 

But this is all far above your head so be free to argue about registration date and elo score. Until someone who have <900 elo blitz and registered in late december agrees with you, strangely that does not disqualify their opinion as long as they agree.

EDIT 7/3: And guess who didn't have any arguments and instead blocked me?! Maybe it is time for OP to stop playing chess and go back to school. Don't know how chess.com will handle the loss of this paying customer...oh right, he isn't one.

 

 

Unfortunately, there has not been any real evidence provided to support the theory that there is an actual increase in interest in chess worldwide.

Avatar of The_Krieg
calbitt5750 wrote:
This has gotten completely pointless. The company couldn’t exaggerate membership revenue if it wanted to, and that’s the basis of valuation any investor would use if it intended to continue it as a sales of service business. A huge number of nonpaying members have no value, and increase the cost of service.
They would be of interest to an investor intending to sell advertising, but it would have to factor loss of good will. I, for example, am very satisfied to pay $119/year, but would not endure ads.
Anyhow, simmer down. It ain’t a war.

 

Membership revenue is irrelevant at this point because it is undisclosed so we would not know whether it is increasing or decreasing.  They could say its increasing but that tells us little because an increase could be $100 & that would not be a lie.  Information without the data to support the assertions are meaningless and they know it.

 

that is the reason why no real reason has been cited for the rapid and dramatic increase in daily use numbers on chess.com.  Unfortunately, advertisers and businesses will ask for the reasons for the increase in numbers and just saying that it is "something" that is causing the increase is not enough.  no one buys that line without proof of what that "something" is.  as we have seen with twitter, youtube, and other social media platforms, not all subscribers or followers are real people.  in fact many are dubious so those numbers are suspect and unreliable.  

 

For example discerning minds should demand that Levy show proof that his subscriber numbers are real.  it is fine to tout the numbers but prove that those are real users.  prove that its real humans behind those numbers.  if not then those numbers are worthless from a business perspective and they know it.  

Avatar of The_Krieg
NerdMiner wrote:

bc chess is good

 

 

why is chess good?  in your opinion?  

Avatar of Oguz_Tuna

I think the big reason for this is the photo taken by Messi and Ronaldo before the 2022 Qatar world cup

Avatar of Chessroshi
The_Krieg wrote:
calbitt5750 wrote:
This has gotten completely pointless. The company couldn’t exaggerate membership revenue if it wanted to, and that’s the basis of valuation any investor would use if it intended to continue it as a sales of service business. A huge number of nonpaying members have no value, and increase the cost of service.
They would be of interest to an investor intending to sell advertising, but it would have to factor loss of good will. I, for example, am very satisfied to pay $119/year, but would not endure ads.
Anyhow, simmer down. It ain’t a war.

 

 

300 level blitz chess player... since 2021

I wish you ...  uh...  yeah.

Why do you start in with these attacks on people constantly in this thread? What is even the point of this thread? It doesn't seem like a discussion so much as you wanted to proclaim that chess.com has a ton of bots, which is evident in various forms on this site. All I've seen you do is complain about bots and tell people who see evidence that interest in chess is growing that they are wrong and then you make fun of their rating as some sort of elitist way to prove your correctness somehow since you have a high online rating. No, in my everyday face to face interactions with people, I haven't seen an uptick in chess interest, but to be scientific about it, I've not seen an uptick in interest in anything in particular. There are so many areas of interest and billions of people, so it is perfectly reasonable that life is happening outside of your little sphere of experience. If you're just angry about bots wasting your time in games, make a post about that instead. 

 

Avatar of The_Krieg
Oguz_Tuna wrote:

I think the big reason for this is the photo taken by Messi and Ronaldo before the 2022 Qatar world cup

 

 

That was nearly 5 months ago & neither of them are good chess players.  In addition, neither have said anything about chess since...  therefore I doubt that it can be cited as the reason for the most recent exponential rise in daily user activity numbers on chess.com

Avatar of The_Krieg
thekoolaidjammers wrote:
The_Krieg wrote:
thekoolaidjammers wrote:
The_Krieg wrote:
JoPlays212 wrote:
So you made this whole thread just to disagree with yourself that Chess.com’s userbase is growing due to an increase in interest in chess?

 

 

again...  has interest in chess really risen as of late?  show us...

 

what exactly is increasing interest in chess at this very moment...  where is the worldwide appeal of chess?????  nowhere.  nothing.  not a damn thing is happening.  no one is talking about it except us here or even narrower... me.  I look at the topics on this forum and the traffic is paltry

 

there is no increase in user discussions or activity in the forums.  could be because the mods are so draconian in censoring the topics and locking what they find objectionable from a arbitrary perspective...  but really, look at these forums.  hardly any activity.

 

with such a supposed increase in chess user daily numbers, wouldn't you think there would be these huge discussions online?  nothing.  look at the boring topics.  My thread is very recent but look at how it out paces the other topics because no one else is talking about this.  

 

everything else is mindless junk on the forums.  oh... how to i stay above 1100... who cares.  1100 sucks.  oh what openings are best?  really?  thats worthless.  who cares about openings if you have no skill throughout.  oh magnus is playing so and so... who cares. Magnus is an example of quitting chess... that's not the type of champion we want.  and many of the past champions we weirdos and had psychological problems so not exactly stellar examples for us.  in fact, I retract my previous statement about Magnus... he is more normal than a lot of past champions, but dropping out of a tournament because he suspects that his opponent was...  yeah...  can't prove it, but let's just accuse someone of it and chess.com comes out and says yeah.. Hans this and Hans that... but really???

 

 

If you want something quantitative, just look at Google Trends. Ever since January, searches for "chess" have doubled. So clearly something is causing an increased interest in the game. You could debate all you want about what's causing it, but I think the fact that it is, in some way, growing is inarguable. Using the same site, you can see that search terms like "chess cheating scandal", "ludwig chess boxing", and "tata steel chess 2023." have all contributed to a growing interest in Chess. 

 Asking others to prove to you the factors which are contributing to the growth of Chess is fallacious. The burden of proof lies with the accuser. Also, you're arguing from ignorance. Just because something isn't proven to be true, doesn't mean it's false, and vice versa. 

I'm not sure why it's seemingly a bad thing to you that new people are getting into Chess. THe more people who enjoy the game, the better for us all. 

 

 

 

 

It is a known fact to computer scientists as well as marketing professionals worldwide that mere "trends" as they are quantified calculate both human and non-human searches online.  The distinction between the two forms of searches are relevant to both marketing and non marketing aspects of the internet

 

computer generated searches can trigger search trend anomalies or spikes in searches for particular categories.  in fact some more unscrupulous types have been known to seek out unverfiable or non human methods of increasing traffic or search trends to make it seem like particular categories online are being searched by people on a daily basis.  

 

Unfortunately, current systems do no distinguish between human and non human searches..  therefore the current trend lines include both human and non human trends.  

 

if however, such searches were parsed to distinguish between human searches and non human searches then closer to true search trends would emerge.  however as i reiterate, current trends online that are accessible to ordinary users online cannot be relied upon for accuracy or depended on for arguments regarding interest by actual humans.  

 

That is the reason why it is relevant and indeed necessary to rely upon what you see in our daily experiences to help shape our determination of interest level in a particular area. 

I'm not going to pretend like I have extensive knowledge of computer sciences or analyzing data, but I can tell you that throwing out search trends simply because there is a chance they may have been influenced by bots isn't a smart way of approaching it. I can also provide some anecdotal evidence; in my personal life, I have noticed an increase in the popularity of Chess. More of my friends are playing, talking about, and watching content centered around Chess. 

Also, I ask, if you want to throw out things like Google Trends analytics, how do you propose interest be measured? I mean, seriously, if you're unwilling to accept search engine trends as a piece evidence towards something's growth in popularity, what else should we use? I'm not sure why you are so adamant to deny that Chess is growing. Even the website itself has said they've seen a boom in growth; and what better a source than the people who run the site. Sure, some of the growth could be accounted for by bots. But it's probably a slim margin. Even then, what's the point? I feel like the entire discussion is kind of pedantic. Interest in something like this is able to be quantified in some ways, but mostly it remains arbitrary. It keeps going around and around because you're so skeptical of every facet of proof or shred of evidence presented.

At the end of the day, I feel like this whole thing is less about your concern or curiosity about the growth of Chess, and more so an outlet for you to rant about bots and "less skilled" players.  

 

 

Let me show everyone something...

 

You posted a comment with anecdotal evidence related to your personal experiences.

 

How many friends do you have?  Now based on that number is the statement that you see more of your friends playing or taking an interest in chess numerically significant?  within your local region?  within your state?  within your country of origin?  I doubt that it is.   Hence, you can't really project from that onto the macro stage or upon the relevant worldwide interest in chess.  

 

A website can say whatever it wants to with regard to growth.  It is not explaining that growth or explaining in particular how those sudden exponential growth in daily user activity is occurring.  It is not even making the effort to filter out particular activities.  It is simply taking the gross number and broadcasting it as a numerical attention grabber.  However, delving deep into the meaning of that number reveals that the rapid exponential growth is actually a serious issue and a potential threat to the site itself.  

 

Not knowing what is causing such growth and being unable to explain why or how the growth is occurring is an existential threat to the site when there are daily crashes and system failures because of it.  

Avatar of PlayByDay
The_Krieg skrev:

Unfortunately, there has not been any real evidence provided to support the theory that there is an actual increase in interest in chess worldwide.

Oh, so I am unblocked now? How nice. Well, this whole discussion is going in circles with following core:

  • You want to see a clear explanation for worldwide interest growth in chess
  • But you ignore any local observation of physical world as just anecdotal even if those could lead to a cumulative effect
    • even when we had already a couple of kids talking about how they played here because their school blocked other games
  • And you ignore any observation about online as either just bots or too old
    • even if some trends are just month old and take time to give any results
    • as well as obvious trend in topic about bots and AI now that we had movie M3gan (and a bot with same name here), funny kittie bots and the whole ChatGPT debate which rocked the whole world. 

Here is the thing: club chess, which is the most "real world" chess you will find, is mostly a kids game. It could differ from other countries but here in Sweden the official chess federation approximate that 2.7 million people can play chess of which 250 000 follow chess news of which 40 000 are members of any club. And of those 40 000 people, 36 000 are kids and adults 25 or younger. From my own observations from years ago, it is mostly pre-teen and younger teens together with retired adults or those close to retirement. 

Many clubs lacks any newbie group for teens and adults, so if you want to come back to the game it will be mostly through games with either newbie kids (and we know how self-concious teens love playing with younger kids) or adults who played their whole life. In that case, at least adults, would prefer to learn and play by themselves. Like the difference between organized sports with specific time and grops and local gym where you can be on any level and train anytime you want as well as stop anytime you want.

Lastly, the whole idea of playing physical chess on a board in some café is nice but why would I? Instead of carrying chess board around for some impromptu chess game, I carry my phone and can play anytime and anywhere. 

EDIT: Oh, and here a google trend for both chatgpt and chess.com. While it is hard to notice, the popularity of chess.com increased during covid but skyrocketed at the same time as chatgpt became relevant.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=chatgpt,%2Fm%2F063_lsm

 

Avatar of Hoomanfingerbiter
Mittens is what made me really wanna do chess
Avatar of Hoomanfingerbiter
But he is gone now :(
Avatar of sigmaxi1

This site is over run with Chess Cheating Bots.You can make denials all you want,but I know for a fact its true.It is just a matter of time before this site collapses into a draw death like

ICCF correspondence chess and at this time nothing is or can be done about it.This is well known by many people.

Avatar of The_Krieg
Hoomanfingerbiter wrote:
Mittens is what made me really wanna do chess

 

 

That is illogical...  

 

By extension, how would you know about Mittens & take an interest in Mittens without first knowing chess.  

Avatar of The_Krieg
Hoomanfingerbiter wrote:
But he is gone now :(

 

 

Mittens is not gone...  she still exists.