Learn How to Easily Delete Your Chess.com Account

Are you a Chess.com user looking to delete your account but unsure of how to go about it?

We will guide you through the steps of deleting your account on Chess.com. From logging in to confirming your decision and permanently deleting your data, we will cover it all.

We will also discuss what happens after you delete your account, if reactivation is possible, and alternative options to consider.

If you’re ready to say goodbye to Chess.com, keep reading to learn how to delete your account.

What Is Chess.com?

Chess.com is a widely used online platform that offers users from around the globe the ability to play chess, watch tournaments, analyze games, and read chess news. Started in 2005, the company has expanded into various other games. It has a diverse and high-quality offering with a customer base of over 60 million users.

Why Would Someone Want to Delete Their Account on Chess.com?

The three main reasons why someone would want to delete their account on Chess.com are as follows:

1. Lost interest: The user may have developed an inability to find motivation or pleasure from using the service.
2. Active military duty: The user may be invited onto active military duty, either short-term or long-term, and may not have access to a phone/computer with an internet connection. For privacy and fear of account data being accessed by others while military duty, deleting the account is a viable option.
3. Too much daily email: The user may not be able to keep up with daily emails associated with their account.

How to Delete Your Account on Chess.com?

To disable your account on Chess.com, click on Account Settings on the drop-down menu at the top of the main page. Select the option to disable your account from the left-hand panel. This will create a redirect to the ‘delete account’ page where you can provide feedback on why you chose this option.

Though the site doesn’t recommend it, in order to delete your account you can follow the same steps until you see the ‘Request to Delete your Chess.com Account’ prompt. At that point, following the Deactivate Account prompt, you will later be prompted to check your email to accept membership cancellation, which will delete as well as deactivate your Chess.com account.

So what will removing and deleting your Chess.com account actually achieve?

• It will permanently remove your account from the website as opposed to temporarily close it as deactivation does. Logging in after deactivation will restore your account with all of its stats intact.
• Deletion cannot be reversed and all history associated with your account, such as game history, articles or lessons viewed, and any analysis archived, will be lost.

Step 1: Log in to Your Chess.com Account

Access the Chess.com home page and enter your login information, this will directly take you to your personal Chess.com profile.

Step 2: Go to Account Settings

After account deactivation, the only thing users must do is go to privacy settings and mark their accounts as hidden. This requires turning off the visibility of the username and other activity. For this they must go to the User Profile settings and purge any publicly identifiable records from the site. This can be done by altering the name, changing passwords, and opening a new email address unique to their Chess.com account, which wipes out all old searchable record.

Step 3: Click on ‘Delete Account’ Option

After clicking on the ‘Settings’ option, the third action to take to delete an account on Chess.com is to click on the ‘Delete Account’ option. Ahead of entering the page for account deletion and final logout, a warning screen pops up to discourage users from closing their account, informing that by their conduct on-site Chess.com is happy with them and would like them to stay. After seeing this screen when a user decides to proceed with account deletion, they are told by info on the screen that there is no turning back after completing the process so they should consider all future options, websites, and mobile applications which they may have needed the account for and be sure before finalizing deletion.

The option to ‘delete account’ is hidden strategically to discourage users but below are a few clicks away which will take the user to the deletion screen:

1. Drag the cursor in lower-left to see the Social and Preferences section in red.
2. Select the upper-right General beneath Menu.
3. Select the second-hand option.
4. Drag to see Feeling Social.
5. Select Delete Account.

Step 4: Confirm Your Decision

To delete your account on the site, you must inform the site by email. They will provide Customer Care Direct Message links on the Contact page. You might not get a reply for some time, but if it is decided that the account is to be deleted Customer Care will confirm the deletion. If for any technical reason the account is not visible at that time, they cannot confirm the account deletion, but believe it has occurred.

Step 5: Enter Your Password

Enter your password. This is to verify that you are the owner of the account and that someone else is not deleting it on your behalf. Account deletions are permanent, and if a user tries to delete your account, your password is an added layer of protection if requested. Passwords are a tool for multi-factor authentication, which makes deleting accounts more secure.

Step 6: Click on ‘Delete Account’ Button

After selecting a ‘Delete Account’ reason, a blue ‘Delete Account’ button appears at the bottom right of the chess.com delete account pop-up window. Before deleting the account, those who enter the comments box may prefer to give feedback to the site, because according to chess.com it is read by a number of different teams for reasons of quality control.

What Happens After You Delete Your Account on Chess.com?

After you delete your account on Chess.com, the following account data is deleted from Chess.com’s servers:

1. One actual game you played to give the system some data to keep your opponents entertained
2. Your personal information
3. Any statistics associated with your old account

Chess.com adds that the majority of personal data related to the account will be removed from their account, but some select data may be kept for record-keeping and analytics purposes.

Your Account Will Be Deactivated

You do not have to delete your account in Chess.com. Your account will automatically deactivate and your public stats hidden, if you do not log in for 6 months. You will still have a player ID that can be used to reactivate whenever you choose. If you re-enable it, your public stats will be redrawn. Should a player choose to delete their account rather than letting it deactivate, reactivation is more difficult.

The deletion process can take 30 days. During that time, the account is set to delete, but the user can contact Help & Support if they wish to return despite their decision to delete. Deletion can only be retracted during the thirty days between deletion selection and process completion. Otherwise, deleting your account is a way of cleaning out the database because if they kept deleted accounts then the number of deleted accounts would be equal to the number of deleted accounts making things tougher to manage.

Your Data Will Be Permanently Deleted

Your data will be permanently deleted, but account information may be kept in an anonymized form. According to the Right to be Forgotten guidelines of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Chess.com claims that your data will be permanently deleted after you delete your account. However, according to Wikipedia (gotta trust wikipedia), the text never actually provides Chess.com’s status as of August 2021.

In their Privacy Policy, they say that Chess.com users who repeatedly submit a deletion request to Chess.com may be asked to close and delete their existing account and create a new account. These new accounts count as requiring deletion of previous accounts and all personal information associated with them. Users would then be forced to delete this new account, which suggests that deletion is never truly permanent as the personal information associated with the new account was linked to non-deleted accounts.

Your data is no longer visible in your account. Chess.com claims they strive to resolve deletion requests as quickly as possible. They say they strive for 1–3 business days. However, journals don’t have business hours so if your company needs to have a journal entry deleted, whatever information you are trying to delete will no longer be visible or recoverable via your account login as soon as your request is processed.

Users from selected countries that require explicit consent for the use of cookies must return to the website to respond to the prove you aren’t a bot? Are you sure you want to delete your account? survey. Currently, this doesn’t apply to the US and Chess.com automatically completes the countdown and deletes the account after 30 days.

You Will No Longer Have Access to Your Chess.com Account

Once you have completed all the steps outlined above, you will no longer have access to your Chess.com account. Chess.com will automatically log you out once you have finished deactivating your account meaning you will have to re-login if you wish to continue using the service. According to Chess.com’s Privacy Policy, account information will not be deleted immediately after the request is made but actual deletion takes place periodically, so you can logout and return to the account closure page regularly to verify if the deletion has taken place.

Can You Reactivate Your Deleted Chess.com Account?

Yes, you can. Yes, once you delete your account on Chess.com, it can only be reactivated in the first 30 days. To do so, simply log in to your email address, click on the reactivation link in the email you received upon deletion, and follow the directions. After the 30 day period, the account is permanently deleted and cannot be restored under any circumstances. So be very sure if you want to come back to Chess.com after leaving because there is no way to undo it after a month.

What Are the Alternatives to Deleting Your Chess.com Account?

Alternatives to deleting your Chess.com account include deactivating your account, signing out of your account then removing all personal data, such as bio, name, username, email, and notifications, unsubscribing from accounts via the notifications center, and playing anonymously. A less radical–though still account-reducing-option is downgrading an account from a paid membership to a regularly limited free account where users can keep their account active without data. These are ways to leave Chess.com without truly leaving the platform.

Deactivating Your Account

This will put your Chess.com account on hold for some time and all data will be preserved in case you want it back after deactivating. Follow these steps to deactivate your account on Chess.com:

1. Go to Your settings via the Play or Profile menu
2. Click the Deactivate your account button. Make sure you read all the options carefully as Chess.com provides you with many solutions before a total deactivation.
3. Be sure to provide feedback while deactivating your account so Chess.com can know why it is losing you.

Changing Your Username

You cannot change your username in Chess.com. When you register for a Free Basic Membership, your username is set permanently. The policy to never change it was established to prevent grandmasters from changing their names to create artificial changes in honor ratings.

In reality, changing established usernames is standard practice in many popular platforms. They allow users to change their usernames once or twice a year or even more frequently. If you need to to change your username on a regular basis, Chess.com may not be the best platform for you.

On the flip side, a fixed username has resulted in some established players who couldn’t get the username they wanted at first, creating a new account to get the desired name if it reflects their playing style, gaming habits, team associations, etc.

Unsubscribing from Emails

Unsubscribing from emails in order to delete an account in Chess.com is done while in the Account Settings section. To reach the Account Setting section after logging in, click on your avatar in the lower-right corner and select Settings. After clicking Settings, Account Settings is near the top of the menu. The email address is located near the top of the Account Settings page. Once you delete it from here, you will no longer receive emails to this account. Your account will not be deleted in any other sense, and you can later change it back to your desired email address if you wish.

You can use the check boxes to unsubscribe from various types of emails. Click Not me on the bottom bar if the option to unsubscribe from emails while deleting an account in Chess.com is not there as it differs per user. Users should remember that unsubscribing from emails before acctually deleating the account will help them get fewer update emails in the future about their deleted Chess account.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Delete Account in Chess.com?

1. How can I permanently delete my Chess.com account?

To permanently delete your Chess.com account, go to your account settings and click on the “Delete Account” option. Follow the prompts to confirm the deletion and your account will be permanently removed from Chess.com.

2. I can’t find the “Delete Account” option in my settings. What should I do?

If you can’t find the “Delete Account” option in your settings, it is possible that you are using the Chess.com app. Please log in to the desktop version of the site to access this feature.

3. Will all my data and history be deleted when I delete my Chess.com account?

Yes, deleting your Chess.com account will permanently remove all your data, including game history, stats, and saved settings. Please make sure to download any important data before deleting your account.

4. I changed my mind and want to restore my deleted Chess.com account. Is it possible?

Unfortunately, once a Chess.com account is deleted, it cannot be restored. You will need to create a new account if you wish to continue using Chess.com.

5. Can I temporarily deactivate my Chess.com account instead of deleting it?

Yes, Chess.com offers the option to temporarily deactivate your account instead of permanently deleting it. This allows you to take a break from the site without losing your data.

6. Will deleting my Chess.com account also cancel my paid membership?

Yes, deleting your Chess.com account will also cancel any paid membership you have. Please make sure to cancel your membership first if you do not wish to be charged for the next billing cycle.