Does Chess.com pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Chess.com employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.4 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Chess.com. This rating has decreased by 7% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Chess.com?

74% of Chess.com employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Chess.com 4.6 out of 5 for work life balance, 4.0 for culture and values and 3.2 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Chess.com?

Senior Software Engineer (9) , Software Engineer (9) , Member Support Specialist (8) , Fair Play Proctor (5) , Chess Coach (3) , Customer Support Specialist (3) , Graphic Designer (3) , Social Media Manager (3) , Analyst (2) , Backend Developer (2) , Community Manager (2) , Customer Support (2) , Director (2) , Frontend Developer (2) , Head Chess Coach (2)

What are the pros of working at Chess.com according to real employee reviews?

"Some great people in the company." ((in 14 reviews)); "Awesome team." ((in 11 reviews)); "Flexible hours shift." ((in 8 reviews)); "Collaborative environment, approachable management, learning" ((in 6 reviews)); "Amazing colleagues who are indeed enthusiastic about chess and building a global company" ((in 5 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Chess.com according to real employee reviews?

"low pay and hard to communicate" ((in 4 reviews)); "The stack is antiquated and filled with a significant amount of technical debt, with no leadership or vision to move the product to a manageable state." ((in 3 reviews)); "Poor communication, a confusing culture, and a toxic environment of backstabbing." ((in 3 reviews)); "level managers have no actual power that they're willing to use." ((in 2 reviews))

What are employees saying about Chess.com layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about Chess.com layoffs and their outlook for job security at Chess.com in 2026.

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Chess.com

Chess.com reviews

4.1

74% would recommend to a friend

(92 total reviews)

Erik Allebest

84% approve of CEO

62% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

4.6

Work/Life balance

4.3

Diversity & inclusion

4.0

Culture & values

3.5

Senior management

3.4

Compensation and benefits

3.2

Career opportunities

Chess.com has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 92 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Chess.com employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

92 reviews

1.0

Feb 14, 2025

Corrupted Engineering from weak CTO leadership

Engineering

Recommend

Business Outlook

Pros

You can play chess while at work...

Cons

Although the leadership was reluctant to admit it, Chess.com was preparing for a public IPO. The company struggled to meet IPO requirements, leading to intense micromanagement of the entire engineering department. The situation was dire—made worse by the fact that power was concentrated in the hands of a single individual: the Chess.com CTO, who exercised control over the entire company. Poor communication, a confusing culture, and a toxic environment of backstabbing. There were a dozen of YES man always trying to make the CTO happy. To me, the company was more about ChessCTO.com.

5.0

Sep 9, 2021

Checkmate.

Frontend developer

Recommend

Business Outlook

Pros

Want to work with people who love chess, good code, and discussion? Like corporate meetups, eliminating one of the biggest cons of remote work? Like flexible hours? I sure do, and the kind of people Chess.com attracts are unerringly passionate, interesting, and ready to build something great.

Cons

Time zone differences can be rough, on occasion.

5.0

Dec 4, 2018

Amazing company

Anonymous employee

Recommend

Business Outlook

Pros

- Remote work - Cool project for those who loves chess - 25M+ users - yearly meetups in nice places

Cons

Development is not very fast, but it's ok for such difficult project and fully remote team

Viewing 7 - 9 of 92 Reviews

Jobs at Chess.com

SysOps

Remote

View job

Data Analyst, Growth & Monetization - ChessKid

Remote

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Senior Product Manager

Social Media Manager - Italian

Estados Unidos

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