The Cheekiest Chess.com Update Of 2023
It's the final month—and the final Chess.com monthly update—of 2023, and we've saved the best for last! Read about amazing events, enter competitions, and get the chance to rematch Mittens.
Here's what this monthly update covers:
New (and old) bots, plenty of puzzles, and a better way to review all of your brilliant moves.
- Mittens is back, and everyone's favorite
diabolicalcute and harmless kitten has assembled a squad of 2023's best and brightest bots. Can you beat them all? - Tennis prodigy Carlos Alcaraz also joined the Chess.com bot line-up last month. This young Wimbledon winner has been making some big moves in the tennis world as well as on the chess board.
- Speaking of moves... We've made a massive upgrade to the way that your moves are shown in game reviews and analysis, making your reading experience a lot more intuitive.
- Our Puzzles library grew by 17,843, landing at a total of 805,417 by the end of November.
If you are in tech and would like to join our team, we're hiring!
Events
The year is almost over, but there's still plenty of action to go before we hit 2024.
- The biggest names in chess are about to face each other in one of the year's most prestigious events: the 2023 Champions Chess Tour Finals. GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Denis Lazavik battle for chess supremacy in Toronto, Canada starting on December 9.
- Saint Louis University (SLU) has won its second straight Collegiate Chess League title, defeating UT Dallas in a convincing 11.5-4.5 victory.
- GM Hou Yifan became the first player to win two WSCC titles after defeating GM Harika Dronavalli in the Julius Baer Women's Speed Chess Championship 2023 Final.
Community
End the year on a high note by winning the 2023 CCT Finals Prediction Contest.
- You still have time to submit your CCT predictions and be in to win prizes, including Chessable courses and memberships as well as three-month Chess.com Diamond memberships.
- The new Variants Community Series has started, and this time it's all about 3-Check Chess! Get all the info on the latest VCS cycle here.
- The Chess.com merch store has been revamped, and there are plenty of ways for you to show the world your love of chess. Don't miss out on your Mittens plushie.
Content
Here are some of our favorite content highlights from the last month.
- Ever wonder what Hikaru's house is like or what some of his most treasured possessions are? Luckily Danny just happened to be in the neighborhood...
- They've been rivals over the board for years, but do Hikaru and Magnus know each other's birthdays? Find out and see how well you know Magnus Carlsen!
- Chess.com has a brand-new collab with Lofi Girl, the internet's most treasured study/work/relaxation companion. Next time you're getting in the right mindset to play some games or do some puzzles, put on the Lofi Girl x Chess.com playlist.
- This cheeky tweet, forever commemorating the Chess.com x Duolingo partnership:
does green make our butts look big? 🤔 https://twitter.com/chesscom/status/1727763997917597996
— Chess.com (@chesscom) November 23, 2023
Chessable
Two of the chess world's most popular and useful courses have been adapted to the Chessable platform over the last month. Check them out below.
- IM Danny Rensch's iconic 'Everything You Need To Know' series is now on Chessable, with new and improved tips and instructions to provide you with interactive learning. If you're a beginner to chess and your New Year's resolution is to improve, this is the perfect starting point. Best of all? It's totally free.
- Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master also joins the Chessable collection. This adaptation of the renowned book by the late great IM Jeremy Silman features a video component presented by IM Alex Banzea, who also provides some of his own tips and tricks for remembering important endgames. Try the course for free using the link above.
ChessKid
The future of chess is on ChessKid. Catch up on the latest achievements by CK prodigies!
- Two of ChessKid's brightest stars, FM Tani Adewumi and IM Alice Lee, defeated Harvard Chess Club co-presidents WGM Jennifer Yu and IM Chris Shen in a true battle of the ages.
- Tani and Alice aren't the only ChessKid ambassadors taking on some tough opposition: CM Fausti Oro is playing IM Levy Rozman (GothamChess) on December 18.
- ChessKid is celebrating the festive season with 20% off memberships in the Holiday Sale, a special fireside reading from FM Mike Klein (FunMasterMike) on December 20, and more.
Fair Play
The Fair Play team, as always, kept Chess.com a safe and fair place to play last month.
Fair Play stats for November:
- 54,949 Fair Play closures (including 3 titled players)
- 80.3K mute actions
- 71K accounts muted
- 109.8K abuse closures
Support
November was another super-productive month for the Support team, who handled over 89,000 requests.
- Average Time to First Response: 1 day, 5 hours
- Total Requests Received: 89,097
- Average Quality by Member Rating: 95%
- Total Ratings: 6,647
Thank you for being part of our amazing community, and we hope that 2024 brings you plenty of chess-based fun, learning, and happiness. See you next year!
