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Hey Everybody, I'm considering starting up a Ladder Challenge for Chess 960. It would be the same rules as the current Ladder Challenge, except it would be for Chess 960, instead of standard chess. I'm putting this out there to you guys to see what the interest would be for something like that. If you haven't played Chess 960, I suggest you try a game or two with the computer to get a feel for it. It's a nice alternative to standard chess. So, please comment on this forum and let me know, and we'll go from there. Thanks!

Hey, fellow gangsters. Is anyone out there blogging about their chess journey? I started doing it about a week ago and was would to follow other people about the same level that are also blogging. If so, send me a friend invite. Bonez.

How does it work in a knock-out game if you both win a game each? Both of you go through to the next round? Neither of you go through?

I recall signing up for a tournament that just started but never got notice as I checked and it wasn't set to auto start. If a tournament is set in such a way, how do you get notice of it beginning. To confuse matters more, I checked the line up and I'm not in the tournament so not sure what happened. Appreciate any input

Your team, The Groovy Gang, has been chosen to play in The World Club Championships. At least 1 player must join, and your team will be added to the list. Good luck, it will start later this year.

Currently, the Owner of The Groovy Gang is BlindBlogger, who has closed the account more than 5 years ago. The Owner of a club is the only one that cannot be removed by other Super Admins. In such a case, where the Founder, the original owner of the club is no longer on chess.com, there is a process by which a new owner can be elected via club members' vote. I propose we vote to have @Voodoooo appointed as the new Owner of the Groovy Gang. This will have him assigned to the position which should now be his.

Choose the download option (circled)

does anyone want to play so I can stay active?

Would any members of The Groovy Gang like a vote chess match? Vote is team chess and we all play one game and discuss the moves in an ordered structured way. In a 3 day game we discuss for 2 days and then the captain who would be one of the admins here calls the consensus move and we vote. It is fun and we learn from each other. If you are interested in playing a vote chess match here. Leave a note so we can judge if there is any interest.

GROOVY GANG - Vote Chess Guide This guide is to demonstrate how we play Vote Chess (VC). Or more accurately,... TEAM chess.I will start by saying how NOT to participate in our Vote Chess games: turn up, look at the board and vote for whatever you want without reading or saying anything. If this is you STOP IT!! We call this kind of voter a DBVer... drive-by voter. It is effectively sabotage! In order to minimise blunders getting voted for (sometimes they look very natural and very playable, but lead to disasters) we employ a controlled system of voting.Firstly, we have designated captains. At the point of writing this, they are: @kookaburrra @19andrew64 @vaderdaniel @lordvoldemort03 However, this list may change. The captain will be the one posting the images and making vote-calls. If you find there isn't one in a game, then say something!! If you want to be a VC Captain, please ask! Ok, so here is how it goes: 1. Before our move, a captain should post up an image like so: This is a reminder to NOT VOTE, but discuss what you would like to play and preferably why. Posting the move only isn't much value, but it is better than nothing. If an image like this isn't posted, then you should still act as if it has. 2. Read what others are saying. Keep an open mind. 3. Analyse the game position and continue discussion. 4. At around the 24 hour mark, a captain will post something like this:23... Bd6Which is giving the all clear to vote. Obviously, we would like you to vote for Bd6 in this situation. However, if you have a strong objection, vote for your chosen move, but you should state your opposition, what move you voted for and why, so that we may all learn from your insight.Lastly 5. Vote!The main aim of our vote chess is to share the knowledge. That can only be done by discussion!We are much stronger as a team.Enjoy your team chess, learn, share, play!

The Groovy Gang and Groovers+ Ladder games does not deal with vacation. The purpose of this topic is to discuss possible rules for participants going on vacation during Ladder games. Please share your thoughts on rules on this matter. Below is an extract from another club's ladder dealing with vacation. VACATION DURING GAME: You should not take vacation during the game. In case of unforseen situation you can take up to 3 days vacation per game. If you take more than 3 days of vacation, your game may be forfeited, If you take vacation more than 6 times, your game may be forfeited. That rule is mainly for premium members, who have set 'automatic vacation'. The decision about forfeiting a game is at discretion of the admin.

The current Groovy Gang Ladder Standings can be found below.The Ladder Standings will be kept updated as often as possible. If a player has an 'X' next to their name, this means they are currently in a game and cannot be challenged. If a player has a 'C' after their name, this means they have a challenge pending and cannot be challenged.I will make the names in the standings active links so that you can simply click on the name to challenge the person from their profile page.

contem comigo

Recently, I was perusing the Groovy Gang forums and came across the Groovy Training Camp thread. I think the training camp is an excellent idea to help us improve our game. With permission from mrklin, I am reviving the training camp (the last post was five months ago). It will work the same as it did before, but with a twist. The new tournament is a thematic opening tournament. For those of you who don't know, a thematic opening tournament starts all games with the same opening moves and play commences from there. Hopefully, this will help us to understand opening principles, reach a playable middle game, and plan moves in advance. I will be choosing two games from each group to analyze and annotate. Also, I will look through everyone's games to analyze their strengths and weaknesses. I welcome participants to take a stab at analyzing their own games as well. Once Round 1 is completed, I will post my analyses and annotations here. The tournament is located here: http://www.chess.com/tournament/groovy-training-camp-ii

Thought it would be nice with a post where we advertise tourneys in our ranges. I'll start with my own as I've been a bit overambitious in it's making. Please help me fill it :) http://www.chess.com/tournament/helping-hand-tourney

I'm just raiding this forum lol :P Anyway, a nice place for us to share some games we like, dislike, want comments on or just want to brag about. I'll start this one off with a game where I'm particularly pleased with my Queen magnet sacrifice

Right boyos, new tourney coming online. What I want to do for this one is to pick out a few games each round, and have you all give your thoughts on the game. It would be really great if all of you could have a crack at analysing the chosen games (without computers) so we get a little look at how one thinks. Even better if the players of the chosen games can post their annotations. Once the tourney is done with round 1 I'll post here my choices for games in the first round for analysis, probably 2 or 3 of them, and I hope you'll all take part. Tourney will be here: http://www.chess.com/tournament/groovy-training-camp---standard-with-analysis-1

I thought I would provide the group with some guidance for our vote chess team for 3 day a move time controls: Those who are playing in a vote chess game please review and follow this guidance. Early in the game (first 2 moves) the team needs to appoint a team captain for the game. The purpose for a team captain is to give the team direction, moderate the discussion, calm things if there becomes a heated discussion, and make a call for voting time so the game doesn't timeout. First - let me say that a vote chess game is a very good way to learn and have fun :). Its important not to vote early (and without discussing the moves) Vote chess at its best has 3 stages when its our turn to move: 1.) Present your move - Plese do not just move! - Think about what your favorite move in the position and then show it. 2.) Discussion - We discuss and analyze the different moves and normally we find a "Team move or 2" to vote for. 3.) Voting - 24 hours before we reach the timelimit - The "Captain" of the game will announce the Team choice(s) and we all vote. You can join a Vote chess game at anytime - not just before starting. If you leave the vote chess game, however, you cannot rejoin that game. All comments are welcome -keep them positive and constructive please. Important - Check "Track new comments" - so you receive a message if there is a new comment in the Voting game! Finally, those who do not present a move or discuss it yet vote (blind voting) are not learning anything from it and are hurting the team. The whole purpose of vote chess teams is to allow discussions and come up with agreed upon 1 or 2 moves. Please vote for one of the discussed moves. On occasion, the team captain will get busy and "forget" to announce vote time. Please go ahead and vote for one of the discussed moves before we timeout. Have fun and lets have a team effort! Thank you!

Hi guys, In my quest for slow improvement I have been watching a lot of chess videos. I was thinking -- since a lot of us are in the same boat here -- that it might be a good idea to either start a thread discussing certain chess-related youtube videos (say, helping each other work out why a certain position is better or simply recommending a new video) or even start a Groovy Gang youtube account so that we can favourite videos / collect them in playlists (this has potential to be a little complicated). If anyone is interested, at the moment I am really enjoying watching Ben Finegold's lectures at the Chess Club and Scholastic Centre of Saint Louis (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVWaFpMwtaGiBxi79IUqnqn67WF5g5PR4)

So, IronHawk has gotten a good start on the ladder, 300 members have joined and 60 of those already passed the 1200 rank mark, matches ongoing and a good bunch of people enjoying chess together. I've pondered what next and feel like it should go towards the development of our members, so I'm looking for ways to do just that. I've already done a little by the groovy training camps, giving us all experiences in exploring different openings. I hope those have been instructive for you, as I myself have found a new favorite black opening from that. Next I'm contemplating something with a bit of community effort. With that in mind I'd like to hear your opinions as well. The idea I'm toying with, is about running a series of mentored games, where the community chimes in on the thought process. The way I thought it was as follows: 2 players start out against eachother and finish an opening of their choosing (say maybe 5 moves in). Then, for each move the players make, they first post in a forum-thread what their thoughts are and suggest a couple of moves (or 1 if they feel it is forced) and what they hope to achieve. The community helps out by dissecting and discussing the plans and thoughts, and the move is only made on the last of the 3 day move cycles. Thats the basic idea I'm working on, but it has its ups and downs: Pros: The players get a check on the way they think, considerations they may have missed, and general feedback on their play from others who play at their level The process more or less forces each move to be thought out, ensuring that both the players and the other participants from the community get to see their best thought out game without hasty choices that are often a bane for players our level. Those outside the game itself get to experience others thoughtprocesses and may learn a few things. Cons: The games will take a very long time The contributors may be coloured by having access to both forum posts and seeing both plans. There is always the chance the players look in on eachothers forums. All "mentoring" will be from players as good/bad as you are, is that benificial enough? Well, thats what I have so far. I'd love to hear any comments, suggestions or other insights the rest of you might have about this?