New Paid Subscription Model
Do you like Correspondence Chess?
For some time I have been curious as to whether or not chess or writing about chess could pay the bills. You see in the chess circles online commentators, content creators, streamers along with all of the educational level players in the game. Chessable Authors or Chess Book Authors and I fantasized if that is for me. Truth is it is. I will be a best selling chess book author — someday. I have goals in mind that have to be reached before that happens however I do think about it a lot. You know National Master and all. It will happen. And I decided chess can pay some of the bills right? Perhaps all of them at some point. So I have turned on paid subscriptions.
Paid Subscriptions
What does that mean for you, the reader? Not much honestly. Some posts like my Tactics Tuesday will be a paid subscription for the answers. Free readers will still get the puzzle of course. Most articles and posts will be free for the first two months then paywall with a sample thereafter. Why do I post this? Why do I explain myself? Well for one I thought it was good to be transparent. Eventually some day I want chess to pay the bills — mainly in retirement which is a long time off. Of course I am still thinking about long term and what that looks like. Secondly getting paid for your work is also a benefit. I work hard to provide good material for the reader so why shouldn’t one be paid for their work? This is how I am thinking about it anyways. Thirdly I really do want others to improve and helping offer a way to do that as a chess coach is something I can certainly help with. What better way than helping players improve through Correspondence Chess?
What does a paid subscription bring you? Well for one the previously mention answers to the Tactics Tuesday posts. Which honestly anyone can go look up the answers if they really wanted to of course. More importantly I decided I am going to lean into one of my major passions and share it with all of my readers. Correspondence chess or daily chess for those weird chesscom players. It is CORRESPONDENCE Chess people. Get with the times ok?! Haha The slowest form of chess. Why do I like Correspondence Chess so much? For one it is time. Time is always a factor in chess. Part of the fun for me is exploring and being curious in chess. Looking at positions. Trying out variations. Seeing what works or what epically fails. Plus for us olds time is just used more usefully when we have more of it honestly. In blitz you just gotta move. You cannot sit and think. Its high on intuition. In Correspondence you can get real deep with it. I like this.
With that being said a paid subscription brings the player tokens for a correspondence game with me. One a month (12x tokens for annual or founding members of course) with a Lichess study where I will analyze and annotate our games for your learning and development. Pointers as what the player needs to work on. A sweet deal I think. All the tokens are redeemable by you yourself however and whenever you choose with no expiration. No more than one game a month however. It is possible to conclude a game and start another same day if you so choose. I do have time commitments to adhere to of course and I am only one person after all.
Another wonderful thing you obtain is access to my Discord server of other improvers just like you were we share many tips about how to become better at chess. Mainly for improvers. A pretty sweet deal if I do say so myself.
A majority of my writing here will be mainly free to a point. Super juicy stuff will most likely have a paywall but I think get the gist of it. Free readers are of course all welcomed to stay that way. I understand not everyone is looking to support their favorite chess authors with how many there are out there. I am hoping I am helping provide something different that no one else is doing. A different type of coaching for you all. If you have suggestions and comments please do let me know. I look forward to seeing you across the correspondence board in the future.
Let’s Keep Improving - See You At Master
Nick
