Master the Art of Chess.com Friends: A Step-by-Step Guide

Chess.com is not just a platform for playing chess, it is also a community where players can connect with each other, learn from one another, and compete in tournaments.

In this article, we will explore the features of Chess.com, how to create an account, find friends, and play with them. We will also discuss the benefits of having friends on Chess.com, such as improving your skills and participating in tournaments.

We will cover the etiquettes of making friends on Chess.com and how to avoid cheating. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned player, making friends on Chess.com can enhance your chess experience in more ways than one.

What is Chess.com?

Chess.com is a non-commercial website offering a range of free and paid chess-related tools and services. It was started by a group of players in 2005 who sought a simple, functional spot for playing chess. It now enables this plus tournament playing, learning, articles on recent events, and some chess news. It is the most popular website for playing chess, and the 10th most-visited game site. Their aim is to bring everyone around the world to play and enjoy its free games and resources to make every chess player smarter, faster, stronger, and more advanced for the modern digital and technologically advanced competition.

Chess.com offers a range of software tools including its online platform (in several languages),, video lessons and exercises that adapt to player levels and goals, APIs for third-party developers, and its Fair Play detection system. Over 150 million members worldwide have signed-up. It is headquartered in the United States (California) and the owner is its co-founder, President, and CEO Erik Allebest. Chess.com offers both free and paid memberships for individuals and organizations of all sizes. One major advantage to a paid membership, for example Chess.com Premium, is that they reportedly invest their net profits into chess scholarships, gift memberships for schools, returning member discounts, and member rewards (such as donating to charity when members reach certain poin targets),and bringing the best and most innovative products to the chess market. The latest example in November 2021 is the new End game Explorer in the analysis feature.

What are the Features of Chess.com?

Some of the features of Chess.com include chess Organize Daily and Hybrid Tournaments, Play in the Arena, Play Daily Chess, and Join Clubs. They cover all forms of the game be they slow or fast, learning or competitive, for small cash prizes or just for the social aspects.

Many of the features of Chess.com including unlimited games and tactics training are free to users. However, they make money via a paid subscription model that allows users to access premium written content and training videos, as well as a number of additional ways to interact with other users and use the app to improve their chess.

How to Create an Account on Chess.com?

You can install the official Chess.com mobile app from Google Play or the Apple App Store, or you can use their website at www.chess.com. Friends are already a part of your network (an interconnected system or group) before you add them. When you sign up for Chess.com, friends show up in their Chess.com timeline, and new members can invite non-Chess.com members to become friends via email, Facebook, or Twitter once any are added.

This is the general process for creating an account on Chess.com:

1. Delete the app and reinstall it.
2. Move the app to the SD card.”
3. Update your Android or iOS software.
4. Make sure the app has access to the latest Google Play and App Store versions.

How to search for friends you’ve added on Chess.com unexpectedly?

1. Whenever you log in, do a search.
2. Type in the name of a friend who is on the platform.
3. Go to your contacts, tap their name, and start a game.
4. For instant suggestions, type in their name.

How to accidentally search for friends on Chess.com?

1. Upon login, choose “Play” from the menu.
2. Choose to play as black or white.
3. It will display a list of friends you can challenge online straight from there if you’ve added any previously.
4. Click the button that says “New Game”.
5. Your friends will get a pop-up message letting them know you wish to play chess. If you don’t have friends yet, the previous two steps can help you.

How to Find Friends on Chess.com?

You can find friends on Chess.com by sending a friend request and waiting for the recipient to accept. The request can be made via by visiting user profiles or while playing with an opponent via the ‘Rematch’ and ‘Offer Draw’ buttons, or by going to the game of another user in Live Chess to click on their profile with the ‘Watch’ button. From there you can click ‘Add as Friend’. Once a user is added as a friend you can then play in Play ‘Live Chess from Home’ without being randomly paired against an unknown opponent.

How to Search for Friends on Chess.com?

You search for friends on Chess.com by going to the Find Friend feature in the Find tab on your account on the chess website. You can add a friend by email address by clicking on the Add via Email search button, typing a friend’s email address, and their name in the Name field, and then clicking the Search button. If that email address is registered on Chess.com, their User name in the website will be shown and you can send them a friend request. You can see all your pending friend requests on the You Requested tab.

How to Add Friends on Chess.com?

Friendship on Chess.com allows users to contact each other and interact within the site by joining clubs together, messaging, or using the chat feature on the live chess boards. Users can also see which friends are currently online playing on Chess.com.

To add friends on Chess.com, find the Quick Links section in the row of pale blue boxes that appears below the search bar. Click on the Find Users tab in this section. Type the user’s username or email into the search box. After pressing Search, you will see similar usernames. Click on See all users if necessary. Click on the username of the person you wish to friend. Click on the box labeled Add Friend.

Friending functions on Chess.com are only available to players if their account is registered under a username rather than an email. If it is registered under an email and they want to add friends, they need to add a unique username on their account and use that instead to access friending actions.

How to Accept Friend Requests on Chess.com?

To accept friend requests on Chess.com, navigate to the time-limited Friends tab in your Dashboard feed, and click the `Confirm` button beneath the user’s avatar. Your incoming friend requests are essentially maintained in this notification center area until answered.

Note that this feature changes regularly and Chess.com updates its site often, so it is always good to check the current version yourself. The `Add Friend` feature is mostly used by club and school leaders to quickly add multiple club or classroom members.

How to Play with Friends on Chess.com?

To play with friends on Chess.com, you must first add them to your list of friends by searching for their name and selecting Add Friend. Once the recipient accepts your friend request, there are two main ways to play with them. The first is to click the Play button on the home screen to play a Live or Daily game with them. You can then find your friend in the contacts tab by entering their name and sending them a game challenge.

The other way is to invite your friend to a Live or Daily forum game. This is done by clicking on the Home button, then finding the messaging button on the home screens tool carousel at the bottom of the app. Here you can create a new forum that only you and your desired friend can see. In this private forum, you can create and play a Live or Daily game.

How to Challenge Friends to a Game on Chess.com?

To challenge friends to a game on Chess.com, open the Friends page, find the friend you want to challenge in your list of friends, click on their name to open a chat box with them, type the /game command into the chat box, and then follow the instructions in the pop-up interface that appears. The /game command is essential for direct challenges on Chess.com.

Chess.com used to be able to challenge friends to a game through the friend when they were chatting, on their profile, or on their games archive page, but this option was removed as part of their system simplification measures in 2021. The steps to challenge someone to a direct game on Chess.com follow from the steps to befriend the individual first. If you are not friends on Chess.com, you will need to first send or receive a friend request from the user before you can challenge them. Requesting or receiving friend requests is as simple as visiting a potential friend’s profile, clicking the ‘Add Friend’ button, and receiving and accepting or rejecting friend requests.

How to Set Up a Game with Friends on Chess.com?

To set up a game with friends on Chess.com, click on Friends at the top of the home page. Select Add Friend at the top of the list of friends and enter the username or email address of the player you wish to add. Once that player accepts the connection, click on Friends at the top then Challenge. A new screen will appear showing the available players you can challenge, who are your friends.

How to Invite Friends to a Game on Chess.com?

To invite friends to a game on Chess.com, take the following steps:

1. Open Chess.com and log in.
2. In the top navbar, click on Play.
3. Click on the Friends tab.
4. Click on the Invite a friend button. A window will open up listing all your friends who are currently online. If you do not have any friends, you can invite people through the Share The Love button.
5. Click on the Chatbox to send a friend an invite to a specific game.

A more indirect method of inviting friends is to challenge friends through email. Fill out the form at www.chess.com/register. This is the first step to creating a Chess.com account. Look on the right side of the browser screen for the Sign in with Google or Sign in with Apple icon. You will be directed to verify your login on Google or Apple. The app will ask for your email address and that you follow the Chess.com username soon after.

Once you secure the email of the friend you’d like to challenge, send a challenge where none exists. Your friend will receive an email titled Play [Your Name] on Chess.com!. The email will let them know they have an opportunity to challenge you to a chess game. After they create their own Chess.com account, they will be able to play against you in a game.

What are the Benefits of Having Friends on Chess.com?

The benefits of having chess.com friends are the ability to chat or play their friends easily. One can also track the progress and interests of particular friends. Friends may also assist with problem-solving, given that one can ask friends for advice or assistance with particular issues within the platform via chatting. One can also learn by matching with friends because one knows more about the person they are playing with than with a random match.

How to Improve Your Skills by Playing with Friends on Chess.com?

You improve your skills by playing with friends on Chess.com by practicing openings and defenses, solving problems, following pros and coaches, and analyzing your games and Computer Chess Pro’s post-game analytics.

US Chess Federation Coach Ryan Velez emphasizes the role problem solving plays in improving skills, while FIDE Master Louise Head and National Master Sonas Ganelius recommend studying specific areas beyond tactics including general endgame theory and theoretical games and notable players’ past games to develop strategic thinking.

For instructions on opening early access for Chess.com, visit https://www.chess.com/get-opening-access.

How to Participate in Tournaments with Friends on Chess.com?

Chess.com features multiple tournament options. You can enter daily knockout tournaments, daily swiss system tournaments, slow daily swiss system tournaments, daily arena tournaments and daily classic tournaments – all solo or with friends. Chess.com states the following options for running tournaments with friends on their platform.

Option 1: Organize a Daily tournament. These can have up to 256 players, and you choose the start time and chess time controls. Find the My Daily Tournaments option in the Clubs section, and then select to Create New Tournament. The organizer will have to invite at least one player (adminstour will not work).

Option 2: Create a Clubhouse. Upon creating a new club, the organizing of tournaments with friends in chess.com is automatically built in. Chess.com Daily Tournament Tip: The more time controls you enable for daily tournaments (for example 5+5 and 20+30, etc.) the more players you will have. Adding increments (extra time for each move) will allow those games to last longer.

How to Share and Analyze Games with Friends on Chess.com?

Sharing and analyzing games with friends on Chess.com is done by following these steps: Open the game you want to share and analyze with your friend. Click the Analyze Game or Share button depending on whether you want to do both or only one of these tasks. Enter your friend’s Chess.com username or email. Click the sharing settings gear icon to customize who can view and edit the game.

What are the Etiquettes of Making Friends on Chess.com?

The etiquette of making friends on Chess.com includes introducing yourself, being polite, respecting their time and skill, not making dishonest requests, not being too aggressive or confident, not spamming, and giving praise in moderation. However, this is mostly done through the way that you chat and play chess rather than by sending a friendship request.

How to Be a Good Sport on Chess.com?

Being a good sport on Chess.com means following the rules of the game and guidelines, treating your fellow players with respect, encouraging others, and never cheating. Do not leave the game without properly resigning if you plan on leaving. Remember it is poor sportsmanship to lie or create false stories. If you must leave, you can abort the game so you do not run out of time for the move, but this will still affect your rating.

If your opponent offered you a draw and you are losing, among the sportsmanly things to do is to reject the offer, but if your opponent is losing and offers you a draw, accepting the offer shows bad sportsmanship. Chess.com will normally warn the players if they are showing poor sportsmanship with one of the following messages:

• You have less than 30% of your time left in the game.
• Are you there?
• Your move, or I’m heading off for the night…please finish the game.

Good sportsmanship also means receiving poor news well. Upon being resigned or checkmated, being gracious in defeat and congratulating the winner shows good sportsmanship.

How to Avoid Cheating on Chess.com?

There are no easy ways to avoid cheating on Chess.com. The Atlantic reported that online cheating has gone from the most remote corners of the chess-playing world to our smartphones, with industry leaders estimating up to 2500 cheaters on chess.com alone. These are some tips given by the community to avoid inadvertently detecting cheating on Chess.com. Set your profile settings for determining your speed between rating accuracy and automatic pairing. Immediate leave if you suspect cheating. Trust the system to detect it on a bigger level.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I friend someone in Chess.com?

To friend someone in Chess.com, go to their profile page and click on the “Add Friend” button. You can also send a friend request through the messaging system by selecting the “Add Friend” option from the dropdown menu next to their username.

Can I friend someone during a game in Chess.com?

Yes, you can send a friend request to your opponent during a game by clicking on their username and selecting the “Add Friend” option. However, please keep in mind that your opponent may not accept the request until after the game is finished.

What happens when I friend someone in Chess.com?

When you friend someone in Chess.com, they will receive a notification and can choose to accept or decline your request. If they accept, you will be added to each other’s friends list and can communicate and play games with each other more easily.

How many friends can I have in Chess.com?

There is no limit to the number of friends you can have in Chess.com. You can add as many friends as you like and easily manage your friends list through the “Friends” tab on your profile page.

Can I unfriend someone in Chess.com?

Yes, you can remove someone from your friends list by going to their profile page and clicking on the “Unfriend” button. You can also manage your friends list through the “Friends” tab on your profile page.

What should I do if someone sends me a friend request that I don’t know?

If you receive a friend request from someone you don’t know or don’t want to be friends with, you can simply decline the request. The user will not be notified of your decision. You can also block the user if you do not want them to be able to send you any further friend requests.