What are chess communities?

Communities for chess players at every level, from beginners learning the basics to experienced players competing online. Discord has major hubs for live discussion, lessons, and tournaments, with Reddit communities for openings, game analysis, and chess news.

Where do most chess communities live?

Discord is the most common platform in this report (22% of 27 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

70% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical chess community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 231K members and the median is 16K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.

What do these communities usually include?

Forum is the most common (59%). Others that show up often include live chat, courses, and paid community.

How does Hive Index collect this data?

Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.

Where can I see the full list?

The full directory is on Hive Index's Chess topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Chess Communities Report: Stats, Platforms, Trends &...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 27 chess communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: chess communities are broad and fragmented, with many small groups and a few very large outliers.

Source: Hive Index community database · Updated 2026-06-27

Browse all Chess communities Know a community we're missing? Add it

Communities: 27
Platforms: 7
Avg members: 231K
Median members: 16K

Where Chess Communities Are Hosted

Discord
6(22%)
Skool
6(22%)
Facebook
4(15%)
Independent Platforms
3(11%)
X / Twitter
3(11%)
Reddit
3(11%)
LinkedIn
2(7%)

Format mix

Forum / feed-based
10(37%)
Chat communities
6(22%)
Private membership
6(22%)
Other platforms
5(19%)

Forum / feed-based is most common (37%), but chat communities is also well represented (22%).

Discord leads, but Skool and Facebook also represent meaningful shares.

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
0(0%)
Small
20-100 members
0(0%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
5(19%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
6(22%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
7(26%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
6(22%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
2(7%)

1 community has unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (231K vs 16K), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Chess Differs From Other Categories

Chess is less free-to-join, smaller, and more paid or gated, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Chess	Hive Index average
Free to join	70%	85%
Median members	16K	24K
Average members	231K	652K
Paid or apply-to-join	30%	15%
Live chat	44%	40%
Discord share	22%	16%

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
59%
Live Chat
44%
Courses
37%
Paid Community
30%
Online/Offline Events
26%

Niche Features

Pairing
7%
Newsletter
4%
Requires Application
4%

Forum appears on 59% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 49

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Discord	6	22%	44	90%
Skool	6	22%	3	6%
Reddit	3	11%	2	4%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Discord hosts 22% of listings and 90% of clicks, so supply and interest line up.

Most-clicked formats

Chat communities
44(90%)
Private membership
3(6%)
Forum / feed-based
2(4%)

Most-clicked features

Live Chat
45(92%)
Online/Offline Events
44(90%)
Courses
19(39%)
Paid Community
14(29%)
Forum
9(18%)
Newsletter
7(14%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Huge
29(59%)
Medium
10(20%)
Massive
8(16%)
Gigantic
1(2%)
Large
1(2%)

Top-clicked listings

The Tavern
21(43%)
Chess.com
7(14%)
Indian Chess Organisation
5(10%)

Most clicks go to chat communities and private membership communities.

Trends

Founded year

Not enough founding-year data to chart yet.

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

This report uses communities in the Hive Index database tagged as Chess. We exclude removed or suppressed listings. Member counts, traffic, features, reviews, and ratings may vary by source and are updated periodically.

•This is a smaller slice of Hive Index's database, so read trends as directional.
•Last updated 2026-06-27

FAQ

: Communities for chess players at every level, from beginners learning the basics to experienced players competing online. Discord has major hubs for live discussion, lessons, and tournaments, with Reddit communities for openings, game analysis, and chess news.
: Discord is the most common platform in this report (22% of 27 listings).
: 70% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 231K members and the median is 16K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Forum is the most common (59%). Others that show up often include live chat, courses, and paid community.
: Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.
: The full directory is on Hive Index's Chess topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.