Why I left chess.com for Lichess

BTW, here was my first attempt before I contacted Erik, I tried NM Sam Copeland, their content director, but got no response, zip, nada, so I reached out to CEO Erik Allebest.

TheoGantos2
Hi Sam,

I do not know whom to contact about this to get a human response so I am writing to get your assistance with a disturbing phenomenon that emerged on the Chessbrah Twitch stream Saturday 15 August. A chess.com member with username VeryBadChess2007, claiming to be from Australia, played several games and deliberately lost multiple games to low-rated Bots to sandbag his rating. He subsequently was matched based on this rating with several players and beat them all on the live Twitch stream before losing to a ~1500 rated player. He then lost to more bots to further lower his blitz rating to 895, notably in one game he marched out his King in "bong-cloud" fashion and was checkmated in 7 moves.
See https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/5304154410

Fortunately this Chessbrah stream was NOT simulcast on Chess TV, as many are but thousands viewed live and many more will watch the videos. Please send a definitive message that this behavior is not tolerated on Chess.com. I believe that Chess.com's stated policy is that deliberately losing games to reduce your rating or boost others is a serious fair play violation.

I also agree with several titled players that have commented in Chess.com forums on the recent change in policy to have a single "boilerplate" low-informational response for any and all abuse reports. I grasp the economic impact of “looking the other way” or not naming serious violators under the guise of “protecting their privacy.” The old policy of responding in more detail that member xxxxxxxxx was disciplined for a (potential or actual) fair-play violation and including the rating adjustment was much more appropriate and gave some incentive to submit these reports. Spamming/verbal abuse (minor infractions) versus more serious issues like sexual harassment, threats or fair play violations are fundamentally different and deserve prompt, serious, relevant, meaningful and appropriate responses. I appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.

Best Regards,

Theodore E. Gantos, II
Chessbrah Subscriber
Chess.com Diamond Member
USCF Member

@difford makes the right point. Eric behaved well, I don't see the need for outrage or leaving.

I spent years over there as a paying member, but I didn't leave because of Eric or management, etc. I left (and I mean LEFT, never been back) because:

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Commercial Ad culture
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That site used to crash my computer on a regular basis
Upgrade your account advertisements
Etc etc on Ads

Chess.com has No FREE:
Unlimited Computer analysis
Unlimited Free puzzles
Unlimited Free Excellent Awesome Practice Chapters
Unlimited availability to features like "Learn From Your Mistakes" (So many others I can't remember them - I'm Fin Old)

The ability to say F'in without getting censored
The AMAZING simplicity of design. This site drives like a high end performance machine
The fact that you can type lichess.org in your browser, hit enter, and you are ONE CLICK from playing chess. Every day. Everytime.
The fact that lichess took a stand on BLM. Whether you agree with it or not you have to take off your hat to people who stand up for what they believe.

LIchess has STUDIES !!!
Free Analysis boards.
Easy way to watch chess, either TV or via your "friends"

I only hit the obvious. I know there are lichess members who can recount this better than I.

Chess.com is commercial, noisy, loud, cluttered.

These are good reasons to leave. I did and I'm so damn happy.

Viva la lichess! (Sorry French speakers, I mean well)

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Oh! And I would have forgotten to mention the absolutely cool Chess Captchas if I hadn't gotten this really cool double check example. Look at this:

Oh and one more thing -

Lichess has NEVER asked me for money. Never. As a matter of fact when I started donating it was some effort to figure out how to do it. Since then they have made it a little bit more visible but you still have to want to do it to find it. That's Class. What an awesome mindset that drives this site.

As others have said, at chess.com each piece weights 3 pounds. In other words, the javascript is not performant. When in time trouble the pieces start to feel sticky. That is why i prefer Lichess. The virtual dom library used here is lightweight and performs very well.

On the other hand i wish we had some kind of markdown in the lichess forums.

@tictactactic what's a markdown?

Stop racism

I don't know. It all seems pretty ridiculous to me. The guy is the head of the company, right? Yet he acts like it's out of his hands and can't be managed. Blah blah blah.

Instead of dithering on and on like you do, Erik, why not get a handle on your product as though you're in charge of the bloody thing? And give the people full value for the money that you are after all charging for your (somehow mysteriously out of control) services.

The remarkable (and longstanding) thin-skinnedness of c.c is another telling point. Those unwilling (or unable) to brook criticism will not likely improve...and that doesn't just apply to one's chess play. ;)

I use chess.com to advertise Lichess

@killF7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#Example

Ah, thank you. I now understand what you said.