The Chess.com/TV Group's 6 month anniversary!!

   You might think it's weird to celebrate an anniversary of a group, especially with so many groups on this site numbering in the thousands, but the Official Chess.com/TV Group is a little bit of a different monster.

   It's not a competitive group, although many members in it are very active on this site, but it is a group that goes hand in hand with the weekly Chess.com/TV broadcasts. All of the Hosts are involved in one way or another in the group, and interaction with them is very easy. Despite their very busy schedules, especially Danny and David, they find time to comment to threads or posts in the group, whether it be show or topic discussions, fan mail, suggestions for upcoming shows, and a lot more.

   The group was born November 11th, 2010 after a string of events all coming together in seemingly perfect harmony, but it took a while to create, build, and get everything working together. There was a lot to do, and we had to make sure it was all perfect before we opened the doors to the public on December 15th, commemorating the Grand Opening with an awesome two and a half hour broadcast on Chess.com/TV. You can see the replay On-Demand. Danny and David tied in with the weekly Pardon our Blunders show, and it was just awesome.

   Public topics were made in the forums, building up the anticipation for the group, and after being open for just a few days, we already had about 70 or so members. My girlfriend Donna (RookedonChess) build the theme, made the logo that you see in this thread plus a few others, and did a lot of the technical/creative stuff and I was e-mailing and messaging the Hosts getting everyone and everything together, like the "Meet the Hosts" interviews in the NEWS section of the group, and we had to do a lot of work to make sure all was 100% ready for the Grand Opening.

   Now, fast forward a few months later, and we began our first Chess.com/TV Group Internal Tournament. With this being run by the TV Group for the TV Group, we had prizes that went along with it that related to the Hosts of the weekly shows. From having a one-hour LIVE Blitz Session with your favorite Host to a guaranteed game analyzed on Your Games Analyzed (thanks to David Pruess for the prize ideas!), the tournament started on February 1st, and is right now just finishing the first round.

   Many great Masters as well have joined this group, like NM Kayden Troff, GM Jon Ludvig Hammer (who is a huge fan of Chess.com/TV), and soon to be GM Sam Shankland, all of whom appeared at the Grand Opening show in December, whether on camera or by playing Danny in LIVE Chess, or both. Many STAFFrs have joined the group as well. Kohai, Patzer24, DeepGreene, David Petty, SonofPearl and of course, the B.M.O.C., Erik, are all part of the group, which makes it even more official. 

   Recently, we just broke 200 members with the joining of one of the newest Hosts for Chess.com/TV: GM Melik Khachiyan. Melik is doing Your Games Analyzed right now and if you haven't seen one of his broadcasts, you're missing out on a real treat. He's one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet and of course, an outstanding chess player, and we welcome him in the group with open arms.  

   There are weekly recaps of TV shows that I personally write, special Premium content that you won't find anywhere else on the site, PGNs of special events that tie in with Hosts of the group, a Suggestion Box for members to leave ideas on how to improve the group and Chess.com/TV in general, updated monthly schedules, a fan-mail thread to leave comments to the Hosts, and whatever shows or special events that are coming our way, are first announced in that group, which I then relay in the public Chess.com Community forum category.

   You don't have to be a premium member to be part of the group. There is one show per week open to everyone and even a few members that have joined the group have upgraded just to see more shows and events like the coverage of last year's Chess Olympiad or recent events like TATA Steel, the European Individual Chess Championships, the Aeroflot Open, and the London Chess Classic. And hopefully we will have more coverage of the 2011 FIDE Candidates Matches now that the Semifinals are starting up on Thursday. If so, it'll be announced in the group first, so don't miss out.

   So I guess that's it. It's been a heck of great 6 months and I'm sure when the 1-year Anniversary comes around this November, I'll have more to tell you then and hopefully we'll have a little on-air party to celebrate it.

   Thanks for reading everyone. And remember, as Danny Rensch said during the Grand Opening show: "If you're not a part of this group then you are not one of the cool kids." 

   Take it easy everyone!

   -Mark