I am here for the team at Chess.com so whatever ya'll want to do for matches is cool by me...Let's give them hell!! I do however perfer "Standard Chess"....timed naturally.
So, what does this group want most?
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Hey there my fellow Assassins and Snipers, I for one am all for every style of chess play there is, but what I am most concerned about as far as this team goes is team unity and fellowship in activity. I know we all have our personal lives to live, but everyone in this group has accepted the invites from not only myself, but from Mike, and/or all other members who may have sent out invites to other members of this site. I am not seeing enough activity from all members. I know we are a young team as this team is roughly going on the six-nine month era of its existence. I am implementing the credo of the Marine Corps to this team, which is no one left behind. If you are motivated, and willing to put in the time to help make this team one of the best on our quest to being one of the most outstanding teams on chess.com, then I encourage you to do so with excellence and passion. Lets make this year a stellar year with an eye single to the goal of steadily improving not only our collective ranking as a team, but also individual rankings as well. I thank you for your time in reading this post. Play well and play strong.
Erik
I'd like to see team matches against teams of similar strength. Also, discussion of how to improve.
You fall right into the range of the 1300-1500 team match against Blake's7, Kenny - see you in there?
I am going to post that game I was talking about earlier, but its going to first be a static diagram posing the question of what my winning move was to gain the checkmate.
I've got a decent idea of it, but I'll let others get their ideas out...
Mike, I see what you're doing, however, it might not promote the activity that needs to be happening in this team. Motivate through example as I have posted this game, because this game is in my opinion a very good example of what can happen if one plays with a "silent patience" long enough to get that head shot kill right between the eyes so to speak. I played this opponent in our first game and he was playing with the white pieces and was on a constant steady attack as the game only lasted like maybe a week or something and it lasted 63 moves before I decided it was best to go ahead move on by resigning. In this second game I got my revenge and got it big time. It was played over a period of like two or three weeks or so and was finished yesterday after i noticed that the quick checkmate was within my sights when I made my 15th move. The question posed to the team is what was my 15th move?
I'm going to guess Rg4. That gangs up the rook, bishop, and the queen on the g6 pawn. The most immediate threat is then a sacrifice of Rxg6. The reply of ...fxg6 would be followed with the crushing blow of Qxg6+. ...Kh8 would be forced, and Qxh7# follows.
Black could try g5 to defend against the rook sac, but that allows an immediate Qxf7 mate.
A move of bishop or knight by black to g5 could then be met by Ne4, forcing the unfortunate black piece to face the wrath of the rook and both black knights.
hey Mike, don't ya mean rook and both white knights? 
D'oh! Of course.
Seriously, it was one of my best games to date.
@wishtoresign, this was an "Online" game of 1 move per 3 days. In the first game, it lasted like a week, because the majority of the moves were played really fast and it went for 63 moves before I decided that it was best to count it as a loss and so I resigned. This second game though, I went about it with a different strategy and I played the first fourteen moves over a period of like three weeks or so and then when I made my move 15, I saw where I could be able to rip open the defense of his king by sacrificing my king's rook and the being able to land mate with my queen on h7 with the aid of my king's bishop along the c1-h7 diagonal. Needless to say, the second game lasted only 18 moves on my part and 17 on his. And by the way, I am doing my damndest to break 900 in live bullet. I have this goal where I set my goal of a certain amount of checkmate wins in a day Monday through Friday. I decided that I want to compete professionally and so I am training myself in my own way right now until I am able to afford to have a coach who is flexible with their pricing for hourly lessons and such.
Heres is a game I played in a 15|10 tournament Open rated tournament. It was my last round game and so I figured that I knew I didn't have a chance of placing first, second or third at that point, but because of the winning position I had in this game, I offered a draw to my opponent and after waiting for a few minutes, my opponent agreed to the draw. But the turning point in the game for me was when I captured my opponent's bishop sacrificing my queen to the pinned pawn on white's h1 rook which would have led to a capture of that rook and winning the queen back if my queen was captured. Needless to say, my opponent did not take my queen. I hope you all enjoy this one.
Heres another one from the same tournament, but this was my fourth round game. I offered this opponent a draw as well and I guess they seemed to think I was trying to insult them or thought thought there was a win, but they ended up resigning after losing their last rook to my knight. This was even more of a sweeter win, not because I won, but I offered a way out and my opponent chose to decline it. Even promoted a pawn to a queen and lost that one too. I hope you all enjoy this one too as well.
This game was played just recently during a one minute time control tournament in which I placed 3rd after five rounds. This particular game was also the fourth round game against someone rated way higher than I am for bullet chess as well. I am thinking that my opponent was off their game and instantly got frustrated after I was able to capture the queen after the fork double attack. Well, the rest is history.
Hey group,
I'm delighted to have the opportunity to serve Assassins and Snipers in an Admin capacity. What I need to know most is - what do y'all want to be doing? Vote chess? Standard chess? Want to practice a favorite opening in a challenge? How about Chess960? What can I be doing to make this a valuable community for you to be part of?
Mike
Admin - Assassins and Snipers