Is subscription worth it?

Is subscription actually worth it?

I mean come on, it's a bit of a rip-off don't you think? It works out at about £60 per year for full membership where I come from. Would one not benefit more from £60 worth of pre-owned chess books and lurking what's on the internet for FREE.

The reason why I've bought this up is because I'm continously bombarded by emails asking me to subsribe here and I'm sorry but it's an absolute rip-off for the price you're asking. If it was a one shot payment and you never have to pay again then I would probably consider it, but a subscription payment per year, seriously?

The amount of books and even a computer analysis engine you could buy with that money defeats its insane annual price they're asking for here.

Now dont go messing with capitalism!!

It's true. I'm not even a subscriber and when I play against members who get wasted with full membership, I'm like; "Yeah, because that was money well spent."

Depends how much you use it. I think it's worth it, maybe you should take a look at all the benefits again and reconsider.

Seriously, do you realise how many pre-owned chess books/DVDs you could buy with what they charge you here for a single year of membership. It's an absolute rip-off. Compared to what's out there money wise, you're a mug if you're paying these prices. The only thing that slightly interests me is the 3D online chess board.

I must agree.
In this day and age, where GMs and NMs are giving lessons for free on YouTube (same level and mostly even better), completely free sites with unlimited puzzles where you don't even need to create an account, and a hundred ways to get books for cents, it really does not worth it.
Top that with the always unstable live chess.

On top of that, I don't think one actually benefits from the theory of chess until you've got some form of experience in actually playing the game.

I've only just got into the theory aspects of chess and I'm only benefiting from reading theory because I'm able to reflect on how I've been playing. A couple of pages will keep me thinking for days.

Links would earn you my eternal gratefulness

It depends on how much money you have. I had membership for a year and it was worth it to me. 60 pounds for a year is worth it if you're going to use chess.com a lot. A lot of the videos are pretty good and there's well over a thousand of them. There's also study plans, computer analysis, a chess database and the fact that you're supporting a place that puts everything together in one place for you. There's always a way to do things for free, but it's a little more of a hassle. There are other sites for free tactics training, videos, chess databases, and you could spend that money elsewhere on books if you like, but you could also get those books for however cheap they are, use them, and have a chess.com membership for its features also. If you're really into improving your chess and will be for the next year to come, I'd recommend getting a year's membership. Don't get it if you need that money for food/rent or more important things.

Chesstempo.
You can create an account if you want to get a rating, puzzles at the rating you have or endgame problems, but tactics puzzles are completely free without an account, and they go on endlessly without once repeating.

Thanks a lot! It seems nice to have an account, so you can see if your rating goes in the right direction (up).

I do not like chesstempo. The puzzles might be good but i do not really improve, because i did not yet find out how to repeat my wrong puzzles (probably for that feature i would need a paid account, they also offer that). That way i can just continue to make the same mistakes and get the same puzzles right and the same puzzles wrong. I am currently also considering buying the membership, the thing that i am really curious about are the stats i get from my openings. If you go to opening books you can check the openings and compare how many percent of the registered games where won by white and vice versa, but only for GM, IM and FM games. With a premium membership you can check that for your own games. 

Totally worth it.  Time is much more valuable than money and this is like $2/week which is one coffee per week.  Not that I'm giving up coffee either.  Maybe someday I'll have to retire a week later than I otherwise would, but I doubt it.

No, I don't think you'd be better off buying $100 of books even if there was nothing else to consider.  But there is something else to consider.  I like the fact that chess.com exists.  It needs money to continue.   I am willing to spend some money to have things I like in the world--what else is money for anyway?

And, if other people get to use chess.com for free because I pay, that's cool by me too.  Maybe they are young or just don't have money...I'm happy to help.

Also, the video lessons are fun and instructive.

So, yes.  Worth it.  For sure.

No, advertisement is what keeps chess.com free but now that you mention it works out at a paid coffee per week I suppose your'e right considering all the crap I spend my money on through out the week.

I don't get the naysayers either.  I'm on a fixed income and still consider the $100 I spend here the best $100 I spend all year.  I'd spend the money just to get Danny Rensch's Live Session videos for that matter.  And search the web forever, free or paid, there's nothing else quite like the Chess Mentor anywhere.  Of course if all you want to do is play, you might have a point.

Worth it just for the videos from titled players imo.