Players on the interactive map

I cannot post a link but I filed a ticket thinking it may be a bug. A staff member wrote me back to my email address:

"Thank you for your email. Unfortunately that feature will not be returning. We had an overwhelming response from members who did not like this feature."

So if many people fill tickets wanting it back, they will change their mind, won't they?

I am going to fill a ticket!

Honestly, the absence of this feature helps cheaters and spammers to conceal their identity.

For me, the feature was useful as an admin of a regional group (Team Washington) as it enabled me to invite players from my state. The same was true for all other admins of the various US States that participate in the US Team Chess League (http://www.chess.com/groups/home/us-team-chess-league) - not to be confused with the high level US Chess League. It also impacts the US regional groups participating in the World League while any other country can simply search for members by country. Even though you no longer know where they are within the country most folks still indicate which country they are from.

Of course, if any other larger country would attempt to hold an internal competition this will now be much more difficult which is a pity as there are so many fascinating regional/local rivalries.

The compromise could be an Opt-out feature. The members that are worried about their approximate location being displayed can turn it off in their settings, the rest leaves it as it is. Opt-in is worthless.

actually not correct. it showed your location  to your nearest telcom switch. if you were online, it didnt matter if you had Peru, Kenya, international, whatever, in you options listed, it would still show as your nearest internet providers switch. which is usually in your zip code area due to massive number of demarcations in any metro area, most would of course be in your proximity. that is the first in a series of firewalls that stand between you and the rest of the machines.

Corvidae_Corvus is correct. I would be fine if the Opt-out feature would be put in place this way as -kenpo- suggested.

No, I can assure you it was this way at least two years ago. I vividly remember the gal from Pakistan who was quite upset (her location read Marocco in the profile).

Opt out is a non-starter. It requires you to first discover your privacy has been compromised before you know you need to opt out. It also ensures that any new account has it's privacy compromised for some period, however small, when first created before a user opts out. Opt in is the only reasonable way to implement such a feature. Alternatively, chess.com could just show the locations users declare on their profiles instead of IP based locations which are opted into by their nature.