Chess.com

Chess.com is an internet chess server, internet forum and social networking website. The site has a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others for accounts with subscriptions. Live online chess can be played against other users at daily, rapid, blitz or bullet time controls, with a number of chess variants available. Chess versus an AI, computer analysis, chess puzzles and teaching resources are also offered.
The site additionally has news articles and tournament coverage. It has hosted online tournaments including Titled Tuesdays, the PRO Chess League, the Speed Chess Championships, PogChamps, and computer vs computer events.
Tournaments and events.
Death Matches.
Death Matches were introduced in January 2012. They feature titled players taking part in a series of blitz games over a non-stop 3-hour period (5-minute, 3-minute and 1-minute, all with a one-second increment). There have been 38 deathmatches, participants including the grandmasters Hikaru Nakamura, Dmitry Andreikin, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Lê Quang Liêm, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Judit Polgár and Nigel Short.
US Chess League.
The USCL was a nationwide national chess league in the United States between 2005 and 2016. Chess.com hosted the event in 2013.
Titled Tuesdays.
Titled Tuesday is a 11-round Swiss-system 3+1 blitz chess tournament held on every Tuesday. Grandmaster participants include Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Andreikin, Wesley So, and Fabiano Caruana. The first event was held on October 28, 2014, with a prize fund of $500 and was won by Baadur Jobava. The prize fund was eventually upgraded to $1500. GM Hikaru Nakamura has won the most events with a total of ten tournament wins, followed by GM Georg Meier with seven, Magnus Carlsen has won three of the events in which he has partaken.
In June 2018, Chess.com held a special version of the tournament for which the winner would go on to participate in the Isle of Man International which had a prize fund of £144,000. Iranian GM Pouria Darini won the event.
Speed Chess Championships.
Chess.com has held five Speed Chess Championships since 2016, all involve a single-elimination tournament featuring some of the world's best players in matches that continue on in the vein of the Death Match format, with the addition of one chess960 game each time control. Nakamura has won three championships, while Carlsen has won two.
PRO Chess League.
The PRO Chess League was the result of the US Chess League changing its name and format, with faster time controls and a focus on the flexibility of forming and managing teams. Chess.com has hosted the PCL twice starting in 2017, having a regular and a summer series.
Computer chess tournaments.
In November 2017, Chess.com held an open tournament of the ten strongest chess engines with $2,500 in prize money. The top-two engines competed in a "Superfinale" tournament between the two finalists - Stockfish and Houdini. In the 20-game Superfinal, Stockfish won over Houdini with a score 10.5-9.5. Five games were decisive, with 15 ending in a draw. Of the decisive games, three games were won by Stockfish, and two by Houdini.
In August 2018, the site announced the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship (CCCC, later CCC), a non-stop tournament for chess computers.
PogChamps.
Chess.com has hosted PogChamps, an amateur online tournament featuring Twitch streamers, since 2020. The first PogChamps featured notable streamers including xQcOW, moistcr1tikal, Ludwig Ahgren, and forsen. Notable new participants from PogChamps 2 included itsHafu and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson. PogChamps 3, beginning in February 2021, debuted with a wider range of Internet personalities and celebrities, with new competitors including MrBeast, Neekolul, Myth, Pokimane, actor Rainn Wilson, and rapper Logic.
Features.
Chess.com operates a freemium business model: main site features are free, but players have to pay to get additional features.
Visitors to the site can play on a live chess server and correspondence style games, called "daily chess" on the site. Players may also play against chess engines (computer chess), and participate in what the site calls "vote chess", in which players form teams and vote on the best move. Additional features include tactics training, chess forums, articles, videos, lessons, chess news, downloads, opening databases, groups, live broadcasts, daily puzzles, team matches, online coaching and a game database of over 2 million games.
The company publishes a large number of articles on a variety of chess-related topics, including chess strategy, opening theory and history. Regular contributors include Gregory Serper, Bruce Pandolfini, Sam Shankland, Dan Heisman, Jeremy Silman, Simon Williams, Daniel Naroditsky, Natalia Pogonina and Daniel Rensch.
Users can play a number of variants on the live server, including crazyhouse, three-check, four-player, king of the hill, chess960,Racing Kings and bughouse.
Chess.com has a policy against the use of chess engines in all forms of the game, except where "specifically permitted (such as a computer tournament)". It utilizes certain undisclosed techniques to catch players using engines in games and bans many on a daily basis.
Subsidiary companies.
Chesskid.com.
Chess.com also runs the subsidiary site chesskid.com for chess players of all ages. Chesskid focuses on a child-friendly environment aimed towards chess improvement for beginners to club players. It also has a unique guardianship program whereby parents and authorized coaches can overlook the child's progress over time, to see statistics about their progress in tactics or how many videos they watched so that they can give encouragement and tips on how to improve. Chesskid features no advertising.
Chesskid.com has run a yearly online championship called CONIC (the ChessKid Online National Invitational Championship), since 2012 which is recognized by the United States Chess Federation. According to David Petty, the event organizer in 2013,
Chesskid has made agreements and partnerships with many chess associations to bring the educational benefit of chess to children in schools. In 2014, for a trial period, all signups to the ICA (Illinois Chess Association) included a free gold member subscription to Chesskid. They also have a long-term partnership with the NTCA (North Texas Chess Academy) which gives children ready access to online instructors.
Armenia Eagles disqualification.
Chess.com found that Petrosian and his team, the Armenia Eagles, had violated fair play regulations. The team was disqualified and the Saint Louis Arch Bishops were subsequently crowned champions. Chess.com and the PRO Chess League both issued lifetime bans to Petrosian.