Chess.comReviews 214

I paid for a Chess.com subscription and then they cancelled my account without giving a clear reason.
They told me I'd get it back after one year, but it's now been one year and two months, and I still haven't received my account or my money back.

I've been waiting over two months for a proper response from support, but they just keep sending automated replies. No real help, no solution, and no accountability.

Chess.com has become an arrogant and careless platform, banning honest players without proof and mistreating those who actually paid and supported them.

I invested time, money and trust in a community that no longer listens to its players.

Soon a fairer and more human platform will appear – and everyone will move there.

Chess.com should remember that without its players, it is nothing.

Cheating is rampant, they lie to you, and the system is designed to make you pay for everything. If you aren't at least 2000 FIDE, then Chess. Com is trash and a waste of money because everyone cheats. There are free services that offer as much or more. The engine reviews offer limited insights and are basically reciting the engine moves. They make you pay for the analysis and every game might as well be against bots. The people on chess. Com who talk to you, are extremely disrespectful and you have to report every person almost. So really it is nothing but cheaters and trash talkers who are also often times racist. That and the fact that none of the sites automatic systems really work like they should. It requires reporting frequently and then the banned accounts just get remade so nothing changes and it seems to get worse. Cheating is worse, disrespectful trash talking is worse. It makes playing online a toxic experience. Even if cheating was far less frequent, it makes it impossible to play with any good vibe in mind. It feels like you are always going to play against a cheater. To make matters worse, any for of conversation about it is strictly prohibited on the site, and they actively either employee shills or use bots on social media sites such as reddit. So that when anyone has an opinion about the bots, cheats, and disrespect... they actually have people who are on those platforms "dealing with it all," meaning they are prepared to ban players with photos of hate speech, and also negate plus lie to anyone who questions the cheating. That means they are willing to limit free speech and lie about their cheat detection capabilities. Instead of actually do anything, because they can't. They make it seem like if you pay for their services in same small way they give you game matchmaking with more vetted players who are less likely cheaters. They make you pay for their cheat detection, plus game analysis... which do nothing because nothing ever can change and it does not work. Unless someone is playing at a grandmaster level, the cheat detection does almost nothing... I know because I have experimented on multiple accounts to the extent of realizing when and how an account can be banned, and just how much cheating an account can actually get away with. Which is a lot... a lot. I did not get banned for at least 25 games using straight stockfish moves. Besides that I played for hundreds of games without being banned, by merely using weaker and random engines.

One of the things that concerns me the most with chess. Com is whether or not I am playing actual people or engines all the time or even some of the time. I have a USCF rating of 2390 (I do not have a norm) and am one of the lowest rated players in my group. We all have two accounts and we find it odd that in one of them, we cannot seem to get past 1500 losing to players that are 1300; however, in the account more reflective of our true rating, we have been able to maintain and even win some games. Why is that? I have reached out before, but chess. Com seems more interested in defending themselves and offering excuses than providing a more acceptable answer: at least "We will take a look at that," or something. I have been accused in the past of belonging to the company that is putting up a new chess platform expected to compete with chess. Com in 2026, but that is far from the truth. I am a casual player and an attorney who is too busy to get involved with a business and from what I understand, that organization is from China. I am from New York City. Can anyone offer an explanation as to why this happens? Oh and in case people are wondering, we created the second accounts for the purpose of ascertaining whether we were playing real people or not, we did not create a second account to sandbag anyone - not that it matters because apparently not me nor my 2400 rated friends can beat 1300's anyway.

I've had to play daily on chess.com for almost 4 years and the last year of it, I've been messed over playing the one minute game and it would be a slag where timer will mess me or the opponent up and drastically lower our ratings. For the last few months, I've been at it for hours assuming I"m getting better than when I get on it, my ratings drop so drastically from 100-200 so quickly after playing for hours to get it raised, This site is very SCREWY and no one does anything about it as I"m playing on it FREE.

EVERY opponent is a computer. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Zero effort to try and cover it up. If you aren't a subscriber, you're clock is 3 times faster.

It is a irritative site, after all. All those in-between popups are annoying. The interface looks good but not as good as lichess. Lichess is always free, and doesn't bother if you abort the game, no hazzles, no ads, just Super

My experience with Chess.com has been appalling. My account was terminated after two years without any evidence or explanation, despite my adherence to fair play. This opaque and arbitrary action shows a blatant disregard for transparency and user trust.

Shockingly, Chess.com offered to transfer my subscription to a new account, which I refused. Instead, I requested a refund as I could not remain part of a company that handles business in such a manner. They issued a refund, despite their policy of not refunding accounts closed for fair play violations. Additionally, they miscalculated the refund amount. This glaring inconsistency reveals the grossly incompetent and unjust nature of their operations.

Terminating accounts based on unsubstantiated accusations is disgraceful. I urge others to avoid Chess.com and its affiliates. Use your money on more reputable chess platforms that value fairness and transparency.

I had just recently gotten the app, about two weeks ago. I played throughout my childhood and early teen years. After over ten years I wanted to brush off my chess skills and just have fun. Took some wins and loses first few days. Spent some time playing outside the app with some friends who are really good. Helped me with getting better. Unfortunately, coming back into the app after the first couple of winning games I was banned without any explanation other than suspicions. I don't pay for the app, and reviewing others who had the same issues I can thoroughly say I am dissapointed. The owners should be ashamed of the fact that they are willing to throw people out without explanation or reason. Other than what I assume is they were improving outside our app and not paying to show their improvements. Way to take the joy and human connection out of a classic age old game.

Site advertises they match ppl skill. UNTRUE. I was matched with 225+ plyers over my pts. UNFAIR play

Sure chess.com is free, but only if you are stupid will you try to use the site. The ads that it uses to extort its members freezes games. You can't even do tactics cause it freezes the screen. In todays world its hard to be ad free in anything, but for chess.com the ads are poorly run or maybe they do it on purpose so that you can't get a decent playing experience without paying to remove the ads. Its crazy that a company pays chess.com to run there ads then they turn around and charge its members money to remove them. Ethically Chess.com should be shut down and sued.

Ultimately the problem with this site isn't the game, but the people playing it. I turned my chat off almost immediately due to s*x harassment issues, and there is ZERO sportsmanship with this app. People will play at a lower level than they are actually ranked, just to boost their scores. People resign if they make a bad move or lose their Queen. They take FOREVER to make a move sometimes. (Like it's an app on your phone, not rocket science, it's not that deep.) They abandon games if they make a bad move, or intentionally try to stalemate you out if they know they're going to lose. The abandonment thing is a big problem, because even though the app has an "auto-resign" feature, it takes at least 5 minutes to kick in, and then when it does kick in it's another 3 minutes on top of that. The game is great, and the app is okay... But they need to regulate this stuff more because people get on this site and act like a**h*les. 🙄

Took my money and froze my account without reason. After many emails there is no one to speak with and just an app that just keeps mouthing the same nonsense.

I average 1800 to 2100 but on this scam site there are 1500 players/bots that play you all the time and have min ratings of 1900 but show low values to keep your score low when you lose to them. If you play on this crap site keep in mind they try to keep your score low until you register and pay for classes. Then all of a sudden you become a much better player not because you learned anything but because they block the bots and low rated scams.

Good luck if you like speed chess! Pieces drag...hard to move and sometimes end up on the wrong square. System overloads due to too many new players also occur. Time cheaters everywhere. But you can watch Magnus Carlsen! Owned by people who are very political too. ( chess chat is for a "free Palestine!")

Just.com struggles with its IT. It always forgets my profile. Even when I turn off the app and open it back up, it still has forgotten my profile. I have gone so far as to delete the app, then reinstall the app only for to ask me to create a new profile not remembering my old one only after months go by or weeks go by will it reconfigure and remember who I am total waste of time

I absolutely love this site! I can see the problems with it but nothing bad like that has happened for me, in my personal experience everything went right. Don't buy the premium though its wasteful. Just buy an actual chess set or use the free one, the premium can have a lot of things go wrong with it.

Getting randomly banned, support will not answer and it feels like a scammer site. I got banned for no reason after paying for diamond membership. Contacted support and have not heard a single word for weeks now.I filled a form for refund and no answer there either. Stay away from this site!

Chess.com tries to say the reason why there's cheating going on cuz they're using engine chess.com is the one that moves your pieces when you don't even touch them because they want you to pay to have the benefits of the other players where their time can keep getting extended or once again you didn't touch your pieces but they got moved. They try to say they get rid of people for cheating that's bull I've been cursing them out for the past month now cuz I know it's them