Affiliate disclosure

Last updated 10 August 2026.

This site is free to read and has no adverts. Some links to chess retailers and services earn a small commission if you buy something after clicking one, at no extra cost to you. This page says exactly which ones, and what that does and does not affect.

The rule that matters

No commission has ever changed a number on this site, and none can. Win rates, blunder rates and tier grades are computed from the Lichess open database by fixed, versioned formulas that run without a human in the loop. The formula does not know which openings a partner sells courses for. No partner has been offered, or would be offered, the chance to influence a grade, a ranking, or an ordering. If a partner's product is a bad buy at your rating, we would rather say so and lose the commission, because a site whose entire pitch is trustworthy numbers has nothing left if it sells that.

Not currently earning

We link to these because they are useful, and today they pay us nothing. Their links carry no tracking and are not marked sponsored, because marking an unpaid link sponsored would misinform search engines as surely as hiding a paid one misinforms you. If any of them becomes a paid partnership, it moves to the list above and this date changes.

  • Chess.com
  • Chessable
  • US Chess Sales
  • Amazon

Lichess is never an affiliate link

Lichess is a nonprofit and it is the source of every statistic here. Links to it are plain links and always will be. If you want to support the work this site is built on, support them: lichess.org/patron.

How to tell

Any section containing paid links carries a one-line disclosure inside it, not buried in the footer. You can also hover a link and read the URL: a commission link carries a visible tracking parameter. Nothing is disguised as editorial.

The legal bit

This disclosure is made in accordance with the US Federal Trade Commission's guidance on endorsements and testimonials (16 CFR Part 255) and the equivalent UK and EU rules on identifying commercial content. Where a programme requires specific wording, that wording appears alongside the links in question.

Questions, or think a link is not clearly enough marked? Email hello@theopeningclub.com. See also the privacy policy for what these links do and do not tell us about you.