Chess Week - Overview
Hello ARC! Atomic_Rift here and today I want to tell you about the upcoming "Chess Week" as I call it. As an online chess club and as your leader, I feel that it is my duty to provide for you not just Team Matches to play, Vote Chess to discuss in, or even fun forums to comment in, but interactive, group, chess lessons to see YOUR steady improvement as a chess player. Chess Week runs from the 18th to the 25th of February and will consist of plenty to do. Here's the general idea for the upcoming week:
It has been said before that "chess is 99% tactics," and although it's probably a slight over exaggeration, I believe that tactics are still a primary source for improvement. From what I have found, here is the list of every single tactical motif...
Total (0/3800)
Attacking f7-f2 (Points: 0/100)
Fork/Double Attack (Points: 0/100)
Sacrifice (Points: 0/100)
Attacking Castled King (Points: 0/100)
Hanging Piece (Points: 0/100)
Simplification (Points: 0/100)
Back Rank (Points: 0/100)
Interference (Points: 0/100)
Skewer (Points: 0/100)
Basic Checkmates (Points: 0/100)
Mate in One (Points: 0/100)
Mate in Two (Points: 0/100)
Mate in Three+ (Points: 0/100)
Smothered Mate (Points: 0/100)
Clearance Sacrifice (Points: 0/100)
Stalemate (Points: 0/100)
Decoy/Deflection (Points: 0/100)
Support Mate (Points: 0/100)
Defense Mating Net (Points: 0/100)
Trapped Piece (Points: 0/100)
Desperado (Points: 0/100)
Overloading (Points: 0/100)
Underpromotion (Points: 0/100)
Discovered Attack/Check (Points: 0/100)
Pawn Promotion (Points: 0/100)
Vulnerable King (Points: 0/100)
Double Check (Points: 0/100)
Perpetual Check (Points: 0/100)
Windmill (Points: 0/100)
En Passant (Points: 0/100)
Pin (Points: 0/100)
X-Ray Attack (Points: 0/100)
Endgame Tactic (Points: 0/100)
Queen Sacrifice (Points: 0/100)
Zugzwang/Zwischenzug (Points: 0/100)
Exchange Sacrifice (Points: 0/100)
Removal of the Defender (Points: 0/100)
I call this Tactic Rush. You advance points as a group, more importantly, together. Each day for the upcoming week I'll post a lot of tactics for you to solve. You may be thinking,
"Hold on, I'm a newbie, how can I help? Won't it just be easier for the 'good' players to rush through them?"
Nope, not how it works. Everyone, of every rating has equal importance. There's a '<1200 Group', that only players 1200 and below can be a part of, a '<1800 Group' that only players 1800 and below can help with and then there's the final '<2400 Group'. As you can tell, I'm not discouraging anybody from trying something too hard for them, but at the same time keeping advanced players within their skill level. Oh course, there are different amounts of difficulty for each puzzle and the amount of points it will yield the team:
<1200 Group - 1★ and 2★ Puzzles
<1800 Group - 3★ and 4★ Puzzles
<2400 Group - 5★ Puzzles
So, anymore questions?
"Yes, how will you know if I've completed the puzzle or not?"
Simple, each puzzle is a diagram. Please PM (private message) me the answer. I will tell you how many moves you are to supply and which side you're on.
"Okay great but... I don't have a Daily rating..."
That's fine, I'll go by Rapid, Bullet, Blitz, etc. Whichever kind of chess you play most.
"But I don't have any of those..."
Then what are you doing on chess.com?
So I think that wraps up everything except 1 major point:
"How on earth are we going to complete this in just a week!?"
Um... we're not. I'm just making a big deal about the 1st week of this being a thing. That and the fact that Tactic Rush is not the only thing we'll be following during Chess Week. We'll also have an Improvement Contest.
This Saturday (opening day of Chess Week) on the 18th, I'll be taking as many ARC member's tactic ratings as I can and recording them. Over this week of extensive training, I'll see how much you have improved and post the Top 10 who increased their tactic's rating the most on the 25th. Of course, I expect most or all of the winners will be newer players to Tactics Trainer, so I hope those who are masters at TT will be okay with not being able to place in this competition. To guarantee I don't miss your name or current rating on Saturday, I recommend commenting below and I will put you on a VIP list so I don't miss you! 
So... that is it! What do you think? Are you pumped? Or are you thinking, "oh, here goes Atomic_Rift again with his overly complicated ideas again..."
I'd love to know! I hope everyone has a great evening! 
- SA Atomic_Rift
