No need to fret, chaps! Erik and the site's programmers have called upon the services of a specialist site reliability manager, named KitKat. Fear not, for the site will be purged of any crashes or errors forthwith. Jolly good show, Kitkat! 
And to those of you wondering, Kitkat is, in fact, related to Mittens!
ok. the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again expecting a different outcome.
Given that about every third game is ending in 502 server error. I'm simply quitting playing. After 5 attempts to get my membership cancelled and a refund, I've had no substantive response.
At this point I'm simply walking away, cutting my loss. I thin they have figured out how to fix the traffic problem. Just cause all to quit. In my case it finally worked.
I know that the situation tests everyone's patience. However, they have been making enormous efforts to get new capacity installed and I urge you to be patient a while longer.
I know how addictive chess is but the best thing is to take a break and come back in a couple of weeks.
If you emailed for a refund, there is a backlog in Support but I am sure that they will get to your request soon.
I enjoy playing on Chess.com but due to the current connection problems I prefer to play on "Lichess" and "Chess24".
When the connection problems are resolved by upgrading the servers, I will gladly return to play on Chess.com.
Can someone please fire the leadership at chess.com? In any other business, this repeated problem would result in heads rolling.
The company is privately owned and pretty much no company would weather a doubling of traffic in a couple of weeks without some problems.
That level of change is not something most companies could forsee or be prepared for.
I’m sure some would handle it better than others.
It wasn’t until yesterday that I started to see reports that the site is limiting service to paying subscribers. I don’t know if it’s true or to what extent it’s true, but that option has always been on the table. Instead, it appears that the company decided to favor new business rather than fulfilling obligations for old business. That might have been the best business decision in the long run but it leaves a foul taste in the mouth of existing subscribers.
I’m sure some would handle it better than others.
It wasn’t until yesterday that I started to see reports that the site is limiting service to paying subscribers. I don’t know if it’s true or to what extent it’s true, but that option has always been on the table. Instead, it appears that the company decided to favor new business rather than fulfilling obligations for old business. That might have been the best business decision in the long run but it leaves a foul taste in the mouth of existing subscribers.
The Play cap actually had been in place for a long time, since the Queen's Gambit spike, but hadn't been reached for a while. Staff have been removing it and re-adding during this traffic spike, mainly during peak times, but may be in place more than that at this point.
Staff have been doing a lot of different things to manage the load. There are different decisions that could be made and not everyone is going to agree the decisions being made are the right ones. Ultimately only time will tell if what was done was correct or not.
willowmaker67, You don't know what it is like behind the wall, show me some of your work in the business, why don't you? I have not seen anyone in this thread with the credentials to make assertions about the capabilities of the chess.com staff. If you do, then make your complaint with details and explanations of why or what is causing this issue BEYOND what chess.com has already stated. Lets hear it.
Its only right that chess.com treats its paying members (of which I am not one) better than us freeloaders, to run a business otherwise makes no sense.
I would have no problem paying for chess if I thought it was good value for money - what do the paying customers think?
>> "no company can weather a doubling of traffic".
The comments supporting chess.com here is such b.s.
Backlog in infrastructure... backlog in receiving support... oh yeah must be fun behind the wall. It's more than just demand from the populace (real as well as bots) - no doubts.
The site already had a lot of traffic and as far as I'm aware plans for upgrades and changes to continue growing. Plans for growth are generally based on normal growth, based on what has historically been seen, with some margin for larger than expected growth.
The increase in traffic wasn't like regular growth, but a doubling of the existing traffic. Daily game counts were running around 7-10 million a day. Account sign ups, 100-120,000 a day. Games went to 20 million+ in a couple of weeks and have remained steady. There have been days of 300,000+ account sign ups, outstripping the Queen's Gambit spike.
Facts aren't BS
Just put a queque to join when server are full.... like all games do by YEARS..... ding dong, problem solved....
Thank you Erik. I am positive about the future.
But I understood that we can play puzzle battle for free, in February. I stil can play only one game. Did I understood it wrong?
I'm frustrated with how these growth woes have affected the Fair Play Team. It seems that they are getting backed up.
You shouldn't just look into jt . . .
Get an I T tech to fix it . . .
500. 502 errors all the time . . .
Topic started 2019
"Oh it's because of the recent chess boom guys"
Topic started 2019
"Oh it's because of the recent chess boom guys"
502s can happen for different reasons. Recently it's been due to massively increased traffic.
https://www.chess.com/blog/CHESScom/an-update-regarding-our-server
Yeah, but when paid members can't go a day without being unable to do puzzles, review games, connect, or even get onto a forum, and things been consistently broken for last couple of months, I'm gonna rant about it tbh. The point really is that these prolonged outages aren't new they're just every day now, I decided to renew in November but that's it for me. I can't say I've managed to get a single day of value of out of this service in 2023
Can someone please fire the leadership at chess.com? In any other business, this repeated problem would result in heads rolling.
The company is privately owned and pretty much no company would weather a doubling of traffic in a couple of weeks without some problems.
That level of change is not something most companies could forsee or be prepared for.