Platinum is definitely worth it for 50/year.
Diamond adds videos and chess mentor, which are good, but you could improve a lot with only the tractics trainer, computer analysis, and game explorer that come with Platinum.
My suggestion, if you want to improve at chess and $50/year isn't much to you, it's definitely worth getting platinum membership. Then, try diamond for a month, check out the videos and chess mentor to see if you like them enough to make it worth an additional $50/year.
If you are serious about study, the fee is minimal.
How do you "try" diamond for a month? If it is 50/year, you can get about 46 back?
1. Get 1 month of platinum, try it out for a few weeks
2. Get diamond for a month, platinum credit will be applied to the diamond membership. Try it out for a week or two.
3. Get either platinum or diamond for a year. The remaining credit will be applied toward the yearly price.
I think that's how it works, someone correct me if I'm wrong.
I have made noticable improvement using a lot of the diamond features. The feature I use the most is tactics trainer. Chess Mentor is great when you want to improve a certain area of your game. For tactics it is good to go back and forth between tactics lessons in Mentor and using tactics trainer. Going through the endgame lessons there is very valuable as well and there are a lot of them. There are opening lessons too but I think they do better as suppliment to other study. The videos range from okay to great. If you have the time and want to improve, I recommend getting the diamond membership and focus on tactics and also the endgame courses in Mentor. Play 30 minute games as you can find oppenents there and it gives you enough time to apply what you learn.
I am pretty sure I mentioned chess mentor and videos somewhere in that post. Yes, diamond is worth it if you have 100 for recreation. Chess mentor is worth $50 of chess books, you get videos too, and the other 50 is for the tactics trainer
If you are not going to study for a while then it is not worth it at all. It would be like buying a chess book and only reading the first chapter.
It depends entirely on how serious you are about studying and how much time you have available. I find the CM so much more efficient than my books that most are gathering dust. Just like a good textbook however the CM requires periodic review to make sure the material sticks. Why not try it for 30 days and see if you are going to use it enough to justify the cost? One trap to beware of is the whole adaptive/sequential nonsense. Just pick out courses that interest you and try them. Some of the earlier courses didn't entirely take advantage of the format but the latest ones usually do a great job. What I mean is some of the earlier courses just tell you your answer is wrong and to try again. Not real helpful. The better courses, usually the newer ones, go to great lengths to explain why your answer is wrong. That's great stuff. As good as a personal coach in some ways. Anyway good luck with whatever decision you make.
^with that temper I can understand your fear of being banned. Maybe you have a point that is right for you.
god you are really avoiding my question are ya, why would you say "what if you would get banned in a month tinme ?"
Tactics trainer just throws puzzles, but there is analysis and discussion to help if you need more. Chess mentor teaches. There are a few things about it I do not like, but they are minor. Chess mentor is like a interactive chess book that allows you to jump to any topic you like and get great interactive instruction. While diamond also comes with videos which are nice for when you want to study but are a little tired or lazy, the meat of the upgrade to diamond is chess mentor. If I did not want to pay $100 every year to chess.com, I would probably buy chess mentor. It avoids the fee every year, but on the site you get the upgrades. Tough to say it is worth it when you compare it that way, but the difference is trivial now.
You can still buy the Chess Mentor software. It's $200 for the core module which includes over half of what Chess.com offers. Two problems. The first is that the interface is a little clunkier, useable certainly, but not as clean as chess.com. The second is that the earlier courses didn't always take advantage of the format by telling you why your answer was wrong. The newer courses generally do a great job of explaining what you overlooked.
Just google chess mentor. The prices I just saw are lower than I remember. Yes, you can buy it.
It is trivial in the sense that that evaluation already assumes you are willing to buy it, but only how you will buy it. I get extras on chess.com for being diamond even though it will cost more if I keep buying diamond memberships. If you know you are going to study for years and don't care about the videos, you could just buy chess mentor and get a lower grade membership here.
Seems like it's worth to try a month. Now my question, if i want to improve my skills with a limited time spending (2hours a day, play for 1 hour and another one take lesson) which course i must focus on ? coach ? tactic train ? opening ?
If you devote much time on chesscom,maybe it is worth.
Most recomendations I see are tactics trainer every day...some say 10 minutes and most say about half an hour. I would play one game at a game in 30 time control (usually much less than an hour) and take some chess mentor lessons. I would focus on endgame and tactics lessons first. There are some great videos on tactics too both beginner and advanced.
If you need help, please contact our Help and Support team.
I am thinking about becoming a paying member in order to get access to more of the learning tools. I wanted to know from other people who use these if they feel they are worth the price, and if they actually helped you to improve your game.