The Open Amateur

Chess Community Free

Many chess sites proclaim themselves as free and encourage users to join a chess community. Few foster a true community spirit, they simply offer a platform for players to play bullet and blitz chess and boast about their ratings.

Even chess sites which offer basic access with subscriptions to a premier or enhanced membership simply act as turnstiles for collecting revenue and do little to develop the sharing of chess knowledge and interaction between chess players. Yes they have a token forum and chess theory areas and countless gimmicks but no community in sight.

Even subscription free sites don't escape this neglect. They have a service which is free and nobody has a stake, why would they? They contribute nothing, they receive nothing and nobody really cares.

When a chess website, server or service that puts the community at the centre and builds everything around it that will be the chess site I would truely like to join. One million active users on your site? do they care about you? probably not. I'd rather have 10 users who are friendly, chat and share with each other any day, a place where everyone knows your name...or nickname even.

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