My top 5 free chess resources

• Tactics: The ChessTacticsServer .
                                                                                                           
  
  What I like about CTS is that you don't even have to register to enjoy it!
  You can select the difficulty of the problems you want to solve and you can decide to pause after an incorrect answer, a correct answer or both. The advantages of signing up are that you can keep track of your improvement and of the problems you failed to solve.

• Database: TheWeekInChess .
  
  Here you can download a lot of games every week. This week, the database contains 4185 games from the 23rd to the 29th of August. Their archives go back to the last week of june 2012. You can have a huge database without purchasing Chessbase. 

• Online play: chess.com .
                                                                                                     On this site you can play live chess and turn-based games. There is also a tactics trainer, but the free version only allows you to solve 5 problems a day. You can create a blog, read articles by GMs, participate in the forum,... The only drawback is the ads, but you can solve this problem by installing a plug-in : I recommend AdBlock plus

• News: CBNews .                                                                                                                                                                   The site is updated several times a day. They also promote their new products, but the majority of the news is "real" and of good quality.

• Tips: TheChessWorld articles .
  
  
  There are a lot of articles and a lot of categories (openings, training techniques, general information, problems, ...). They are well written and full of useful information. My favorite articles are : 15 laws of chess training , typical pawn structures in the Caro-Kann and French , and How to beat a problematic opponent.

What are your favorite chess resources? If you know of better sites, please tell me.