Beat the Price Increase!

I want to bring to your attention an upcoming price increase and give you an opportunity to take advantage of the current rates before the clock runs out. On August 24th the Internet Chess Club one-year membership will rise to $69.95 and you have until then to join or renew at the current rates.

ICC has always been a bargain compared to many other chess activities and online games, and will remain so. We've worked hard to keep it as affordable as possible, especially in these tough economic times, but rising costs have made it increasingly difficult to maintain and continue to improve the quality of service our members have always expected.

In the three years since our last price increase, ICC has:

* Dramatically upgraded and expanded our Chess.FM service, with top-notch shows every night; live audio coverage of more major events; relays of numerous other tournaments; top-rated Game-of-the-Day wrap-ups; professional video stories; interviews with star players; and great prize offers.

* Partnered with major OTB tournaments to bring you online qualifiers for entry into such well-known events as Mainz Chess 960, the Gibraltar Open, Sants, the U.S. Championship, and even the most prestigious chess tournament in the world, Corus! You've also had opportunities to win free trips to such events as the 2007 FIDE World Championship in Mexico, or to simply win big prizes in online tournaments including our most famous long-running event, Dos Hermanas.

* Added a new simplified "Dasher" interface for those who prefer a more graphical view of ICC as well as the ability to analyze games as you watch them with top tier chess engines like Junior, while releasing several more updates to our advanced "BlitzIn" interface with enhancements and support for popular new server features, such as anonymous login and pstat.

I sincerely hope you have enjoyed being a part of our exclusive chess community and that we will exceed your expectations in the future. Take this opportunity to extend your membership at the current prices for as long as you wish, whether at $59.95 for one more year or perhaps three more years for only $49.98 each -- just 14 cents a day!

Check out all of the payment options now at www.chessclub.com/pay, but be sure to make your move before August 24th!

Regards,
Joel Berez
President
Internet Chess Club (frobozz on ICC)

NH Chess Tournament: Rising Stars vs. Experience

The 2009 edition of the unique Rising Stars vs. Experience NH Tournament, in collaboration with the Monaco-based Association Max Euwe and NH Hotels, will take place 20th-31st August in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam.

The 'Experience' team has been strengthened this year to include Peter Svidler (Russia), Peter Heine Nielsen (Denmark), Alexander Beliavsky (Slovenia), Loek van Wely (The Netherlands) and Ljubomir Ljubojevic (Serbia). The 'Rising Stars' this year has Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Fabiano Caruana (Italy), Jan Smeets (The Netherlands), Daniel Stellwagen (The Netherlands) and Hou Yifan (China).

This 'Scheveningen' team tournament also has the added attraction of the highest-scorer in the Rising Stars team receiving an automatic invite to the 2010 elite Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in Nice, France.

Play gets underway each day at 7:30am EDT (last round 6:00am), and Chess.FM will have daily commentary with Mig and the GM team of Joel Benjamin, Larry Christiansen, Nick de Firmian and Gregory Kaidanov. We'll also have the New In Chess and House of Staunton trivia contests'', where each day ICC members can win major prizes.

Also in the press room in Amsterdam will be Macauley Peterson, who along with Peter Doggers of Chessvibes will be providing exclusive video coverage of the tournament. Check in at the official site at www.nhchess.com.

Free GOTD from NH Tournament

One of the great benefits of ICC (apart from all the top-notch online play and tournaments) in recent years has been the upgrade in our Chess.FM service - many members agree that this alone is worthy of their membership fee. To allow non-members to judge for themselves, ICC is offering all of Game of the Day wrap-up videos from the ongoing NH Tournament to be viewed for free - and even if you are not an ICC member, YOU can also play and win the $75 daily GOTD trivia sponsored by House of Staunton.

You can view each round the GOTD videos at www.chessclub.com.

Round	Commentator	Players	WATCH
1	MrHat(GM)	GM Nakamura vs. GM Ljubojevic
2	LarryC(GM)	GM Yifan vs. GM Ljubojevic

'New in Chess' TRIVIA!

ICC and New in Chess present The XI 'New in Chess' Trivia Contest, where each day an ICC member will win a 1 year subscription to NIC!

The Game of the Day Email Trivia Contest!

Game of the Day Trivia!

ICC and The House of Staunton present the Game of the Day e-mail trivia, where each day you can win a $75 gift certificate.