chess.com to improve your chess?

December 2, 2024 11:29 AM

Chess.com has a deal on their 'Diamond' plan. Have you signed up for chess.com and found it helped significantly improve your chess? I know the basics and very rudimentary principles (control the center, forks, etc). Is it worth it?
posted by GernBlandston to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)

I’ve heard that pretty much anything chess.com offers is available for free at lichess
posted by NoneOfTheAbove at 11:58 AM on December 2 [4 favorites]

Depends on your goals and learning preferences. This alternative approach may be useful food for thought.
posted by caek at 12:19 PM on December 2

I paid for the chess.com diamond plan during that part of Covid when everyone became obsessed with chess. I played for over a year, did lessons every day, and enjoyed every bit of it.
My ELO rating at the end was……….. bad. But I didn’t regret spending the money. There is a point in chess where you simply have to memorize some moves and I wasn’t willing to do that.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 3:24 PM on December 2 [1 favorite]

I use lichess, I don't know what you get from paid subscriptions but I mostly used lichess to play games and do their puzzles, which help a lot as a beginner. The puzzles are ranked like games so as you beat harder ones your ELO goes up and you get served even harder ones. This also means that it's pretty approachable for a beginner and won't have you in really tough puzzles until you start to be ready for them
posted by RustyBrooks at 10:05 PM on December 2 [1 favorite]

My son got really, really good largely through the games and puzzles on chess.com and lichess, as well as playing lots of games.
posted by umbú at 6:35 AM on December 3

I've been using the daily puzzles at lichess on my phone. I've really been improving (at puzzles, which mostly seem to be end game things).
This question led me to rediscover that there are lessons on openings and such that I have never tried.
It's worth a shot and free!
posted by Acari at 9:31 AM on December 3

Seconding lichess. IMHO two great resources for people just getting into the game are ChessNetwork's Beginner to Master playlist and Daniel Naroditsky's "Speedrun" series (he has done a few different ones).
posted by starman at 2:22 PM on December 3