Introducing: International Master David Pruess

One of chess.com's big plans for the year 2009 is to bring top players into our community, to further improve the quality of our learning materials, and to provide inspiration to all of us pursuing excellence (within the royal game and without). To that end, I am pleased to announce the addition of myself, IM David Pruess, to our staff as Director of Professional Content and Relations.

In the last few years, as a professional chess player, I have gained some understanding of the professional chess player's life, while also making quite a few friends among their ranks. I will leverage these connections and Erik and Jay's money to try to bring you lessons, articles, videos, and special exciting events with FIDE titled players.

I also have a dozen years of experience teaching chess-- an activity, which I have always found extremely rewarding. I am looking forward to adapting that experience to the various teaching tools on chess.com, as well as helping others get good at using them.

I am also happy to share some stories from my own professional career with you. The highs, lows, and day-to-day. I have played in the U.S. u20 Invitational Championship, three U.S. Championships, and travelled to a variety of international events from 2007-2008 thanks to the sponsorship of the Samford Fellowship.

At my worst, I play games that make my friends cringe (sorry, guys), and wonder whether I've played chess before. At my best, however, I have managed some very nice games, thanks to creativity and a perfectionist approach to the game. Here are two of my better games from the last year, to substantiate that claim (actually to entertain you; note that both of these players have beaten me).

Finally, I'd like to say: "Greetings to everyone! I like the friendly and chess-loving community here, and I will do my best to try to contribute to it! Please feel free to drop me messages letting me know what content and events you'd like to see."