Both, the site does not run for free.
REMOVE THESE ADDS!!

So if you don't want to see the ads, then pony up some cash and you won't see 'em. This site is not a non profit, it has to get cash from somewhere. At least Eric gives us a choice whether to see them or not.

hey, stop whining. All chess sites need to run on something. go to any other chess site and i bet you will at least see one ad somewhere. We pay to play well, and remove ads from our screens. chess.com not only makes money from subscribers, but from the companies that pay for the ads, too.

I have no problem with chess.com making adds. Its part and parcel of this world. At least now is better than several months ago where it was damn slow. Luckily chess.com fixed it. BTW you only get more subscribers if they are impressed by you. The 1st impression is very important. If the 1st impression is bad, then why would someone fork out his money? Would you? That's how life is. I have no complaints. Just happy of what this site provides. :)

These new adds are annoying as hell. Why come popup in front of the screen to make me click you away!?? Don't you think I can see you blinking there in the corner as you are??
It's just moronic!
And morover: I CANT SCROLL THE PAGE ANYMORE since these adds where installed. If I refresh the page about 10 times, and i start scrolling before the add loads [-> the scrollbar IS there in the beginning], then sometimes it stays there.
SO, fix it !!! What is this? A chess-site or a marketplace?!
Do chess sites grow on trees where you are from? Do they get nationalized and distributed equally to all citizens? Well.... welcome to earth where they get created by individual humans who have a right to what they create. The creator of this site has a family to feed just like other people. Either create your own site, pay for this one, or stop whining!
I think chess.com should run adds, it's free money.
I think they should even run them for paying members, because I like supporting the site, and I don't think that's unreasonable.
But the flashing or pop-up or my personal favorite "congratulations! You won!" audio spam... get rid of them. They're intrusive and distasteful.

Get a decent browser. I have Adblock plus, so I don't see any ads, but even when i deactivated it, Mozilla still blocked the pop-up window.
I agree with both sides of this discussion - sure chess.com needs cash, but the ad mechanisms they use are terrible - popup windows... seriously!? (Like early 2000s stuff). I don't think annoying your users into upgrading is a good marketing approach :)
Moreover, just advertise chess.com itself more - i.e. the benefits of being premium - then at least you make money directly (and not through some referral) and you know the ad isn't going to be either hideously implemented (page blocking, popup etc) or have questionable content.
I don't even look at the ads, so now the popup windows are only an annoyance.
These new adds are annoying as hell. Why come popup in front of the screen to make me click you away!?? Don't you think I can see you blinking there in the corner as you are??
It's just moronic!
And morover: I CANT SCROLL THE PAGE ANYMORE since these adds where installed. If I refresh the page about 10 times, and i start scrolling before the add loads [-> the scrollbar IS there in the beginning], then sometimes it stays there.
SO, fix it !!! What is this? A chess-site or a marketplace?!