Hello fellow group members.  In order to help promote a stronger group community, as well as to encourage understanding and growth in chess, we are happy to announce a project that will help individual members as well as Chess.com!  This project will come up with various ways to help members from time to time.  Our desire is to encourage friendship and participation in the group as well as the site itself. 

     One of the ways to do this is to offer access to the many learning tools that a membership has to offer.  Then, if members later contemplate supporting the site with a monthly membership they will have first hand knowledge as to what Chess.com can do for them!

     The first member we are looking to build a stronger community with is Mr. Hanson ( Yoopy ).  Yoopy has been awarded a one month Diamond membership, in order to look deeply into some of the wonderful tools that the site has to offer (and in the process, help with understanding and enjoyment of the game).  I will be contacting him by message today.

     On behalf of the staff and members of the United States Chess League group, we congratulate Yoopy, and sincerely hope that our small gift gives a large return in the form of learning, friendship, and fun! 

   WOW Sweet deal William! Congrats Yoopy! There is a lot this site has to offer and believe me, with that Diamond membership, there is no limit on what you can learn about chess on this site. The only limit you have is what you put on yourself. Nice job William!  Our talk that we had definitely inspired me as well. 

   -Mark

http://www.carlsencards.com/free-ecard-11-congratulations-african-drummer-ants.htm

What a wonderful idea, William! Yea, Yoopy! Yea!

   They are the reasons why we are here...lending a helping hand, friendship, and chess. This certainly does help all three  

   -Mark

Wow thanks guys. William you're amazing. I can't wait to start to using it. I am just so excited. Thanks so much. Damn I feel like it's Christmas morning.

     Hello fellow group members, and welcome to the next installment of "Building a stronger community..."

     Our second project involves two members.  ChessMarkstheSpot and RookedOnChess are being recognized for their hard work and the time that they have spent here recently on Chess.com.  Both have been busy working with staff on creating the CHESS.com TV group, which will be opening soon.

     In recognition of this, Mark has had tuition paid for the upcoming one day seminar on basic practical rook endgames.  Since Donna is Mark's girlfriend, we figured she might be able to sit in with Mark. 

     On behalf of the staff and members of the United States Chess League group, we congratulate ChessMarkstheSpot and RookedOnChess, and sincerely hope that our small gift gives a large return in the form of learning, friendship, and fun! 

Wow, William! I was shocked when I saw this, and I KNOW that when Mark sees it, he'll be ecstatic! It's always so gratifying to be appreciated! It's so ironic that, only a few minutes ago I was reading David's post on the upcoming contest for that class and thought Mark might want to try to win it somehow! lol

Thanks again, and we're hoping all the hard work everyone's putting in will all pay off by bringing more members in to watch all the great stuff on Chess.com/TV. They really don't know what they're missing, but maybe the group will help them become aware!

   HOLY *bleep*!!!  I'm not still sleeping am I?? You're serious?!? William, thank you SO much for this. Your generosity knows no bounds. You literally have me shaking with excitement here it's hard to write this post. I'm speechless. And that is almost impossible for me to get. I have this dumb look on my face right now like what in the heck just happened!!  I can't begin to thank you enough William!! I really appreciate it my friend. Thank you so much. 

   -Mark

Congrats to Mark and ROC. This is so awsome. I'm really proud to be a part of this group. I wish I was more able to spend time with yall. I'll definately work on that. I've got to get my netbook fix first. Congrats you guys and thanks to the group for all that yall do to help make chess more enjoyable and understandable.

It would be great to be able to spend more time with chess, I think. I agree, Yoopy, and I am really enjoying playing you! It's making me actually THINK and not have time pressure. I like it so much better when the clock's not ticking :)

No problem everyone, we are glad to do these things!  Just remember, dust off your keyboards and get ready to blog! 

I'll see what I can do about the blogging thing. I don't even keep my regular blog up to date like I should. ROC I'm so enjoying you kicking my butt all over the board. I can say I'm learning quite a bit but unfortunatley as soon as I think I've got something going I totally forget what I'm doing. I think I've got ADD. I feel like that California cow that is winning the race and then notices the flowers. lol

Yoopy, I know you may not think it, but I have brain problems: severe neurotoxicity--so when I play I can only grasp a couple of moves ahead, and typically don't see the whole board! Sometimes things just happen by accident, too! lol One time I used the "analysis" feature that I wasn't aware of until Mark showed me. You might want to do that 'cause it "records" your moves as you work through them, so even though YOU forget the moves---they can be saved there if you paste them into your notes!

And William, I'm looking forward to seeing the blogs of whomever writes them! It's SUCH a great idea! :)