Hi! I no longer work at this wonderful company, but we'll keep this account as "staff" so that all my old posts still appear official. I'll keep my original "about me" posted below, because I think many of us get a little joy from seeing pictures of monkeys. I hope you're having a wonderful time on this site!

Over fifteen years, I've lead a lot of the technology teams here on Chess.com — first as a lead programmer, then Director of Tech, then CTO — designing and integrating the code that helps us grow and add features. I'm so focused on the tech side, that my account on our test server is older than my account here!

I love to stay in touch with our players, but if you need help you should send your request to our Support Staff at https://support.chess.com/customer/portal/emails/new — I just can't answer much, and I'm not going to be as quick to respond as they are. Take a look: I may be a bit behind on my mail...

Outside of chess, I enjoy writing fiction, long discussions with friends about solving all the world's problems, and wandering through nature where I can forget about all the problems.

This is me searching for gold in California. Based on topographical maps and history books, we selected a river and set out the next day. For 36 hours of work, we found 0.8 grams of gold, about $34 worth. BOW BEFORE MY GOLD-FINDING ABILITIES!

Here's a monkey:

Another monkey:

bcurtis