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Hello, all. I searched the forums looking for things related to ratings and improvement but yielded no results. I'm still working my way through the lessons on this website as well as trying to study various YouTube channels in order to improve my gameplay and ultimately my rating. I'm struggling to understand the way these YouTubers think when it comes to pattern recognition and calculating moves in advance. I feel like my rating has plateaued at about 400 which is a bit disappointing and even discouraging at times. Could any of you get me oriented in the right direction? 

Good evening, all. I remember reading some folks discussing having a discord chat for the club but I was unable to find it again. Was there ever a chat made for the club?

I apologize for blundering away a game in our team match vs. Team USA Southeast. I was a clear passed pawn ahead and figured to consolidate after exchanging a pair of Rooks. But I forgot to play RxR first, and lost my Rook for nothing instead. 😥

Here is a position from Hennings-Pavlov, Bucharest 1971, which is a good puzzle to teach you that material balance is only one factor is chess. I found it very instructive. White to move.

Here is another endgame from one of my games today where there was only one move to win. I drew as black. It is black to move. Would you have gotten it? Click on the analysis button on the bottom left of the board. Then flip the board to orient it as black and click on the bullseye in the bottom right of the screen to practice against a computer.

I certainly do not consider myself one to be in a position to teach anyone chess, but the following position came up in a game and I assumed it was a draw. Turns out one move wins and the other draws. Of the two candidate moves in the position Ke3 and Kg3. The one that moves the king away from the h4 pawn wins. If the king moves to g3 the black king infiltrates to e4 threating to take the c3 pawn and promote the pawn. White must sac the f4 pawn by pushing it to f5. The black king must then take it or lose the race and the white king can enter opposition and a drawn position. However, if the white plays Ke3 and black plays Kg4. The white king can move to e4 threating to lead the f4 pawn to promotion. Black best try is to take the pawn on h4. The white king then goes back to f3 and the black king is trapped. The f pawn goes onto promote. Please feel free to share any positions that you found educational.

I would like to know what the members of this club would like to see us participate in. Currently we have a vote chess match and a daily match with Columbia chess club. Would anyone be interested live tournaments, internal club matches, online USCF rated tournaments, etc. Is there a specific club you would like us to challenge? Please just comment your vote below and if you like someone else's suggestion then upvote it.

I am calling for a vote for a new super Admin to replace our current inactive one. Please respond to this post with your vote for whom you would like the new admin to be. Once all members have voted. I will contact support and have them change this over. Also if you are interested in becoming an admin, but not a super admin, then feel free to mention that in this forum as well or reach out to the new super admin once established. Please see below for more information. Thank you, Lew What if the super admin is inactive or has left Chess.com? Sometimes the situation arises where the only super admin in a club is no longer active, and thus is not around to create new super admins. In this case, club members can vote to replace the super admin. From the club homepage, on the right sidebar, click on the ‘forum’ option Create a new topic, and have all club members vote in the forum on whether to replace the inactive super admin, and who they should be replaced with. Once a decision is reached in the forum, contact support and provide a link to the forum, and a support member will replace the inactive super admin.

I believe our super Admin is inactive. In order to have a completely functioning club we need a super admin. Chess.com allow for a means of replacing inactive admins. Please see below. I will be calling for ALL club members to vote for a new super admin/admins soon. If you are interested or would like to nominate someone, please contact me. I will be posting the voting forum within a week or so. Thank you, Lew What if the super admin is inactive or has left Chess.com? Sometimes the situation arises where the only super admin in a club is no longer active, and thus is not around to create new super admins. In this case, club members can vote to replace the super admin. From the club homepage, on the right sidebar, click on the ‘forum’ option Create a new topic, and have all club members vote in the forum on whether to replace the inactive super admin, and who they should be replaced with. Once a decision is reached in the forum, contact support and provide a link to the forum, and a support member will replace the inactive super admin.