Unlock Premium Features on Chess.com for Free – Insider Tips and Tricks
Are you an avid chess player looking to take your game to the next level? Chess.com offers a wide range of features to help you improve your skills and connect with other players.
One of the most sought-after features of Chess.com is its Premium Membership, which unlocks a host of benefits for users.
In this article, we will explore various ways to obtain Premium Membership for free, as well as alternative methods if free access is not an option for you.
Let’s dive in and see if Premium Membership in Chess.com is worth it for you!
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What Is Chess.com?
Chess.com is an online chess platform that lets users play against other chess players around the world. The platform offers a free version of its services, but also has special features that incur costs.
These include an ad-free experience, additional video library items for training, premium lessons and puzzles, and analysis. To gain these features, a membership subscription is needed. The platform also features club and tournament organization, a chess mentor and trainer matching service, and additional resources to support an advanced chess player’s training regimen.
What Are the Features of Chess.com?
The features of Chess.com consist of both basic and premium benefits. The basic features of Chess.com include the ability to play as much as one wants, solve puzzles, watch educational video content, create and participate in club competitions, and use the training resources. Chess.com also includes features such as live and online playing, where a player can play other chess players in real-time, as well as the ability to have longer real-time games through using the Live Chess feature. For free users, the Live Chess feature is limited to a total of up to three rapid games at a single time.
With the premium member account, which is labeled a PRO membership, unlimited rapid games are allowed for free. Chess.com allows their members to track their statistics and progress over time and offers performance ratings for players who play in 5+ rated games. Access to performance rating is available for 1+ rated games and requires a subscription to the pro membership in order to view performance rating stats for games with ratings below 5.
What Is Premium Membership in Chess.com?
Premium Membership in Chess.com gives members access to more features for improving chess results. Premium Membership gives all the benefits of Basic Membership and adds premium analysis, video lessons, computer analysis, tournaments, puzzles, and drills. Membership can be obtained for a month, three months, six months, or twelve months. Longer memberships have a lower monthly rate. Below is a user chart showing the main differences between Basic and Premium.
- Basic (Free)
- Unlimited learning and practice games
- Game servers (play live)
- Game analysis viewing (No Stockfish analysis)
- Daily and Titled Tournaments
- Chess mentor and tactics trainer
- Progress tracker
- Analysis board
- Computers
- Chess articles and news
- Download PGN databases
- Premium additionally offers:
- Full storage and sharing control on all games
- Video Lessons
- Computer Analysis (all Stockfish analysis) and Trainers
- Game Analysis of Unlimited Games
What Are the Benefits of Premium Membership?
The benefits of Premium membership to help with upgrading include Unlimited Tactics, saved games and unlimited analysis, video lessons, and no ads. The biggest privileges lost when your Premium membership expires are the number of games you can play concurrently (max of 8 if your membership lapses) and having access to video lessons.
How Can You Get Premium Membership for Free?
You can get a Chess.com premium membership for free by winning a Chess.com Titled Tuesday event. There are 24 Titled Tuesday events in a year with a prize pool of $1500, which includes not just cash for the winners, but also premium memberships. Additionally, random prizes are given several times every event. Premium membership prizes are announced every week and sent to be used by the recipient’s account on the first of the next month. If you are not a titled player, you can pick up a Chess.com Diamond membership for free, as participation is open to any Chess.com member once they have reached the gold member tier. You earn the right to become a Gold member with an application to a diamond event by accumulating CheSS Points through diamond member activities.
Purchase a multi-year Premium Membership and save a decent amount of money by purchasing memberships which are good for a year or longer. Here is a basic idea of the savings that can be had from Chess.com annual membership prices and associated discounts for longer terms. After this first year, you will be automatically renewed to start a new membership for that same term, unless you explicitly cancel any time prior to the end of the first period. These are the available discounts as of early 2022.
Use Referral Links
If you are seriously looking to get premium in Chess.com for free, you might want to use referral links. Unfortunately, these refer-a-friend links provided to premium users do not allow for a free upgrade – advanced premium benefits are not included in the referral system. However, those who sign up and remain as Free members can earn 2 points per completed game worth 25k points when they refer friends. With most referrals, users can access Premium for a few months entirely for free too as long as they cancel their subscription as mentioned in the Referral World article about Referral Programs for Software.
Participate in Tournaments
Chess.com offers a wide range of free, as well as premium and pay-to-play tournaments allowing freemium players to gain access to premium features based on the results of the tournament. Free tournaments are listed on the www.chess.com/tournaments page. Type in the search bar premium to filter by tournaments, including daily, strong, live, and computer tournaments that offer upgrade options for tournament winners and top performers.
Premium tournaments (such as the USCF Online National Championships and the exclusive weekly Titled Tuesday events) provide the option to earn funds or diamonds. However, these are higher-stakes tournaments that include entry fees and are intended for more experienced and skilled players than freemium players seeking a free path to premium.
Complete Daily Quests
In the chess.com interface, click the chest icon at the top right, then click “Missions”.. These are daily player-specific tasks that can earn you Playful Progress points to be used as discounts on chess.com premium, money for diamond memberships, or completely free diamond memberships if you are persistent every day for 120 days. Part of the mission always includes playing some rapid or blitz games.
Refer Friends
Referring chess friends is one of the best ways to get a Premium membership in Chess.com. If they pay for a membership then you get a bonus depending on their membership tier.
This bonus increases to up to 30% of their membership fee if you have more than 15 referrals, 5 seconds per move, and 15 daily games. If you have a free membership, then to enjoy this benefit you will need to upgrade to a Gold membership (paid), which starts from $3 per month, and you can save 15% of the membership if you pay monthly. With a Platinum membership (paid), you can save almost 40%, $5 per month, by paying monthly while enjoying all premium facilities.
Referring new friends is easy. Users would simply have to enter your referral code or username when they are creating a new account and stick around for a premium membership for you to get the bonus.
Follow Chess.com on Social Media
According to some user reports, Chess.com has occasionally posted messages on their Discord server that contained promotional coupons for free membership in the past. Be sure to check their Discord server and other social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to see if a future promotion will bring this benefit. Adding @chesscom to your feed updates will keep you informed of their latest promotions and deals.
Take Advantage of Promotions
When they launched the Indian-made series Queen’s Gambit on Netflix in 2020, Chess.com ran a promotion giving away a number of free annual Diamond memberships to users who referred the most friends to sign up. They have no such deal with Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit series from 1983. Members should keep up with announcements, promotions, and social media. They blindside you with membership offers almost as much as they show party aboard the HMS Pinafore.
What Are the Alternatives to Getting Premium Membership for Free?
Some alternatives to getting premium membership for free on chess.com are to play on other offices. Anzekchess, LiChess, Playchess, Free Internet Chess Server, Limitless Chess Club, Caïssa’s Web, Gadget Och Fikon, Red Hot Pawn, FIDE Online Arena, or Instant Chess. These platforms do not require fees for high-level membership, but since they have less financial resources they do not have as many advanced training and mentoring tools as Chess.com does.
Another way is to simply pay for chess.com membership. According to the June 2021 version of the Chess.com Membership Price Guide:
- Premium Memberships starts at $7.99 per month, with a two-year membership for $44.99, giving a 45.5% savings.
- That gives the advanced analytics for players who want to take the game more seriously, as well as the ability to make serious challenges to others if needed.
With the money tournament games versus Grandmasters are becoming increasingly common and many of the world’s top players – including Robert James Fischer (yes, a long time ago now as one of the earlier generations) – and, more recently, Hikaru Nakamura (the world’s leading streamer of chess play) have recognized the value of premium membership‘s superior training with experienced teachers and mentors.
Use Trial Periods
As of early 2022, Chess.com offers users a 1-month trial to Premium memberships. Due to their rapid growth and need to address server capacity, it is likely that the trial period will vary, usually between 14-30 days.
For users who have upgraded before, the trial period does not apply. But you can switch to any paid membership level that you have never tried before and still get the free trial – including even the cheapest one at $3. To see if you are eligible for the free trial period, visit Chess.com and in the upper right corner if you are not currently logged in, press the Sign-up button. If the free month trial is available web visitors will see mentions of it when they select the upgrade now option.
Purchase Premium Membership
Here are the prices for either a one- or two-year Premium membership to remove ads in Chess.com:
- Premium costs $35/year.
- Buying a two-year subscription costs $59/year.
There are additional options such as a four-year membership for a total of $99 and a seven-day free trial. With Premium membership a portion of the membership fee is reinvested in the site as part of Chess.com’s commitment to growing chess.
Use Third-Party Websites
You cannot directly get a premium subscription for Chess.com from third-party websites. However, you can get free premium Chess.com features and highlights by going to third-party websites that work together with it. If you want to be a chess premium free download or the equivalent in features, check out these services with free trials or free features that work with Chess.com. A good choice is Lucas Chess. It is an open-source freeware software that gives you the same functionalities as chess.com premium like drills, analysis, and online multiplayer chess. It also allows you to play against the computer with custom artificial intelligence editor configuration. It’s free and much loved among chess enthusiasts.
Is It Worth Getting Premium Membership in Chess.com?
Yes, Chess.com worth getting Premium membership because it maximizes one’s ability to learn as it provides access to hundreds of hours of educational content by titled players including grandmasters.
Premium members receive access to a variety of tools that help them improve their gameplay, ranging from unlimited tactical exercises to multipoint game reviews to a cloud engine analysis that allows them to check the accuracy of their moves in real time.
Depends on Your Usage
Users can start by seeing the King membership premium features as well as the benefits of entitled trials. That way they can make an informed decision for their specific use case. Use case #1: If you play classical games or use live chess viewing for less than 18% of your total usage time then King is not the best choice.
According to DaVinci Resolve 17 pricing, those who use entitled video editing tools are entitled to a premiere license with their purchase. Use case #2: Activation is only useful for cash and / or prize Tournament Entry discounts; as well as correspond with friends via private messenger more than 650 messages. King membership is the best choice but not nearly as useful. Simply start a trial, confirm based on your use, and then turn off any recurring charges if you are not wanting to pay. You have already rewarded chess.com with the information used to provide further recommendations and notifications.
Consider the Benefits
Premium benefits for Chess.com users include unique Chess.com features, training content from titled professionals, increased performance analytics and tracking, the ability to challenge titled players, video coaching, and many more. If you are unsure if Premium is right for you, consider signing up for a 30-day free trial. This will allow you to see all the benefits first-hand. If you wish to sign up for the Premium trial, go to your Account Settings. The trial allows you to cancel without charge during the trial period.
Evaluate the Alternatives
Another strategy for obtaining Premium in Chess.com for free is to evaluate the alternatives. Chess requires complex software design and regular maintenance. Players need to be realistic about the costs associated with this, and try and find a solution that matches the quality they need with the budget they have.
If the cost of Chess.com Premium is too high, consider the different types of memberships or free options. Chess.com’s system of creating limited and free versions of the software that are essential for beginner and intermediate players is helping to grow the game and allows for investment into the more sophisticated features that are only available to those willing to pay. Premium members who pay for and therefore subsidize the free versions represent the engine driving investment to make the game better for everyone in the future.
Back in 2019. chess player Reg is advocating for paid memberships on Reddit. Chess.com’s model implements this well, and players who can afford it would do well to pay for and enjoy Premium memberships as a result. The current annual price is $100 following a raise from $75 in October 2021.
