I Researched Every Chess Affiliate Program — Here Is What Actually Pays

If you have a chess audience — students, followers, subscribers — you are leaving money on the table if you are not running affiliate links. I spent hours verifying every chess affiliate program I could find. Most of them are legit. A few surprised me. Here is the full breakdown. ## Why Affiliates Matter for Chess Creators Coaching income is great but it is directly tied to your time. Affiliate commissions are not. You recommend a product once — in a video, a blog post, a pinned tweet — and it keeps paying. The best programs pay recurring commissions, meaning a single referral generates revenue for months or years. The chess space has more affiliate programs than most creators realize. I found 10 active ones. Here is what each one actually pays. ## The High Earners **Remote Chess Academy — Up to 50% Commission** This one shocked me. Remote Chess Academy (chess-teacher.com) pays up to 50% on course sales. Their cookie lasts 180 days, which is absurdly generous. They claim to have paid out over ,000 to 800+ affiliates. The catch: individual products vary. "My Thinking System" pays 90%. Others pay 30%. The headline rate is 50% but read the fine print for each product. [Sign up here](https://chess-teacher.com/partnership/) **ChessMood — Flat or 20% Recurring** ChessMood gives you a choice. Take a flat per referred subscriber, or go with 20% recurring on their subscription price. If you are recommending ChessMood anyway — and a lot of improvement-focused creators do — the recurring option compounds fast. [Apply here](https://chessmood.com/refer-a-friend) **TheChessWorld — 30% Commission** Solid program. 30% per sale, monthly PayPal payouts, minimum threshold. TheChessWorld sells chess courses and training material. Easy to get approved. [Sign up here](https://thechessworld.com/chess-affiliate-program/) ## The Recurring Revenue Play **Chess.com — 15% Recurring Forever** This is the most interesting one from a long-term perspective. Chess.com pays 15% on every upgrade and every renewal — and it recurs indefinitely. One referral to the Friends & Family Plan (.99/year) earns you roughly . Multiply that by even a modest audience and it adds up. Requirements: your Chess.com account must be 60+ days old, you need to be 18+, and in good standing. Application required. [Apply here](https://www.chess.com/article/view/affiliate-program-for-partners-of-chesscom) ## The Hardware and Book Programs **ChessNut Tech — 5% Commission** ChessNut makes electronic chess boards (the Air, Pro, Evo). Their affiliate runs through Uppromote. 5% is modest but electronic boards are expensive — a single ChessNut Evo sale at earns you about . If you review chess hardware, this is a natural fit. [Sign up here](https://af.uppromote.com/chessnutech/register) **Wholesale Chess — 10% Commission** The biggest chess equipment retailer in the US. 10% on every qualifying sale, 30-day cookie, minimum payout. If your audience buys boards, sets, clocks, or tournament gear, this program converts well. [Sign up here](https://www.wholesalechess.com/affiliates) **Forward Chess — 15% Per Sale** Forward Chess is a digital chess book platform with hundreds of titles from major publishers. They run through ShareASale (now Awin). 15% per sale with a 30-day cookie. If you recommend chess books in your content, this is the right fit. [Apply here](https://forwardchess.com/affiliate) **ChessSet.com (Chess Gorilla Store) — 5% Commission** A Rochester-based chess equipment retailer since 1989. Their ambassador program runs through Shopify Collabs — 5% on all qualifying sales plus perks like free products and early access. [Apply here](https://www.chessset.com/pages/collab) ## The Niche One **Circle Chess — Community Partner Program** This is less of a traditional affiliate and more of a community ambassador role. Circle Chess runs a partner program focused on their Caissa School of Chess with 10% revenue share on registrations plus content creation bonuses. Currently focused on the Indian chess community with rewards in INR. Application required. [Learn more](https://circlechess.com/circlechess-community-partner-program/) ## My Ranking If I had to pick three to start with today: 1. **Chess.com** — recurring forever on the biggest platform in chess. No-brainer. 2. **Remote Chess Academy** — 50% is insane for digital products. The 180-day cookie means even slow conversions count. 3. **ChessMood** — the 20% recurring option compounds nicely if your audience overlaps with their improvement-focused brand. For hardware creators, add **ChessNut** and **Wholesale Chess**. For book reviewers, add **Forward Chess**. ## How to Actually Display These Most chess creators dump affiliate links in YouTube descriptions or a Linktree. That works but it is not great. If you have your own website, you can display affiliate links as branded buttons that match your site design. Full disclosure — I built [ChessWeb.site](https://chessweb.site) partly because I wanted a better way to handle this. Every ChessWeb profile has a built-in affiliate links tab where you add your links, pick icons, and display them as clean buttons on your public page. Premium users can go further with the block editor and create fully custom affiliate showcases with images, descriptions, and product links (like your Chessable courses). But even without ChessWeb, the point stands: if you have a chess audience and you are recommending products anyway, you should be earning from it. These programs are free to join. The commissions are real. The math works. Start with one. Add it to your next video description. See what happens.