Support Us

Every opening, tactic, strategy, and endgame page on ChessShelf is free to read, and stays that way regardless of whether you ever use this page. Writing genuinely original, plain-language explanations for over a hundred openings and their variations — rather than reusing the same boilerplate paragraph with the names swapped — takes real research and writing time, and a direct contribution is how that work gets funded without leaning on the kind of engagement-driven advertising that makes so much chess content online feel like it's optimized for clicks rather than understanding.

Where a contribution goes

Contributions go directly toward the time spent researching and writing new entries, maintaining accuracy on existing ones as opening theory shifts, and building tools like the step-through board that make the explanations concrete rather than abstract. There's no subscription tier, no paywalled content, and no plan to lock existing free pages behind a login later — a contribution supports the site's continued growth, not access to something otherwise withheld.

How to contribute

Contributions start at $5 and are processed securely through Stripe — no account or subscription required, just a one-time payment. Choose an amount below.

Why not just run more advertising instead

Advertising revenue scales with pageviews and clicks, which quietly rewards shorter, more clickable content over genuinely useful reference material — exactly the incentive that produced the thin opening summaries this site was built to be an alternative to. Keeping advertising light and offering a direct way to contribute instead is a deliberate attempt to keep those incentives pointed at writing something worth reading, rather than something optimized to be skimmed and clicked past. A contribution is a vote for that trade-off, not a purchase of anything specific, and it's genuinely appreciated either way.