096 - Leland: I will try not to bury you with information.  Before I forget, thank you very much.  Your open mindedness is certainly equal to your graciousness.  I have a great deal of respect for you and I always take pride in the fact that we have met and even spoken to each other a little.  In plain English, (I ain't kissin butt here), I really do respect and admire you and all you have done. ******************************************************* Pete: Thanks for the kind words. And, thank you very much for the beautiful wooden name placard! Good luck with CXR! LF ******************************************************* Now here comes some info about Chess Express Ratings and even some e-mails for you to sift through and decide what you would like to put on your web site.  Most importantly, please let everyone know that CXR is not replacing USCF.  They make a great enhancement to anyones chess experience.  Just a phenominal learning tool.  If you have any questions, or would like a guided tour of their site, please ask me.  Here is the site for Chess Express Ratings (CXR)  www.chess-express.com and their toll free number is 1-866-486-4333.  Russ Mollot is the President and would be happy to talk to you. SAMPLE e-mail: As I mentioned over the telephone, Chess Express Ratings tracks dozens of statistics on the performance of chess players.   We are the only rating authority that does this.  The United States Chess Federation tracks only 2 statistics, but they have been around for more than 50 years, so most players have been using that service.  CXR is relatively new and has only one percent of the "market," about 1,000 players.  Our database, however, is a good sampling of the nation's chess activity, and includes many masters and grandmasters.  In fact the current United States Chess Champion, grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, is one of our clients, and so is the new U.S. Women's Chess Champion, Rusudan Goletiani. Joey Cantrell of Ellenboro, recently signed up the Foothill Knights chess club with our service, and he and Vlad Besirovic helped the Ellenboro Elementary School set up their chess program as another affiliated club, the Ellenboro Tigers. [You can reach Joey at (828) 453-7360 or (828) 429-0772. Other good contacts are: Pete Blanchette, of the Knights Corner Chess Club of Gastonia - (704) 739-9561, and Rob Morse of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Scholastic Chess Association, at (704) 849-2575.] One of the most popular reports which we publish on-line (and is updated nightly) is what we call the "Hot List".  This list highlights those players who have improved the most during the month, as measured by gain in rating points.  One of the great things about this feature that that everybody has an equal chance to make the list.  A child who gains 50 rating points will appear on the Hot List ahead of a Grand Master who gained 49 points, for example.  Anybody who is having a bad month can at least look forward to a brand new "horse race" the following month. In a typical month, the Hot List has players from many different clubs around the country (and Ontario, Canada).  Sometimes we might see 4 or 5 players from the same club, if that club had a major tournament or a lot of activity.  We were astonished by what we saw for March 2005.  Fourteen out of 20 players on the Hot List were from North Carolina -- 13 of those are from Ellenboro! The Elementary School chess program has 22 children registered with us, and the Foothill Knights Chess Club has another 9 players.  They are enthusiastically playing as many or more games than professional, tournament-circuit chess players. We at Chess Express Ratings salute the chess players of Ellenboro, NC, and hope that they gain the respect and recognition that they truly deserve. Scholastic chess is gaining more support, as studies have demonstrated that students (including "poor" and "dysfunctional" students) have shown improvement in test scores and in attitude after participating in chess programs.  Skills such as memory, concentration, planning, patience, and decision-making, all have an obvious connection with the game.  We understand that York Chester Middle School, Bessemer City Middle School, and Hunter Huss High School, have -- or are now planning -- scholastic chess programs. Students from Hunter Huss have played in the state championships, and some will be going to the National Scholastic Championship Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee. Morgan - please have a look at our March *COLOUR COMMENTARY* on the Hot List, which can be seen at: http://www.chess-express.com/hotlistColour.html. The *Hot List* itself, is at: http://www.chess-express.com/hotlist.html, which gets updated nightly.  Beginning April 8th, this will change to the APRIL Hot List. I've also attached one of our flyers, to give you an idea of what we do. Our home page is  www.chess-express.com <http://www.chess-express.com/>. To get an idea of what our members get to see, you can LOGIN from the home page, using the ID:  HOLLY  with password: GOLLY (this is a fictitious player).  Be sure to check out the "FOLIO" and the "VIEW GAMES" features from Holly's Menu. Please feel free to contact me at (866) 486-4333 (toll free). Yours truly, Russell Mollot p.s. - CXR has the following affiliates in NC:         Knights Corner Chess Club of Gastonia         Charlotte Mecklenburg Scholastic Chess Association (Charlotte)         World Chess Academy (Charlotte)         Ellenboro Tigers Chess Club         Foothill Knights Chess Club (Ellenboro)         Academy of Chess Excellence (ACE) with         Ken Baxter in Mooresville. A sampling of some of the statistics that are tracked and you can see its just like "Real Sports". Dear fellow "wood pusher" ...If you agree that chess ratings should move out of the stone age, please consider CXR (Chess eXpress Ratings), which costs $12 per year for adults (only $5 a year for students 19 or under).  That is the _only_ fee.  Games  are rated *overnight*_ _, FREE of charge.  CXR tracks dozens of statistics  for each player, including:         <> overall rating         <> black rating         <> white rating         <> speed rating         <> quick rating         <> uphill rating (versus opponents at least 150 points stronger)         <> downhill rating (versus opponents at least 150 points weaker)         <> regulation rating         <> highest rating achieved         <> overall winning percentage         <> white winning percentage         <> black winning percentage         <> average rating change per game (overall)         <> average rating change per game (white)         <> average rating change per game (black)         <> winning streaks         <> undefeated streaks         <> long term trend         <> intermediate term trend         <> short term trend         <> very short term trend and many other performance metrics. Please take a look at the following URL's: http://www.chess-express.com/hotList.html http://www.chess-express.com/top30.html www.chess-express.com <http://www.chess-express.com/> http://www.chess-express.com/whatOthersSay2003.html http://www.chess-express.com/schools2004.html If you'd spend $12 for a good chess book, consider what a $12 investment in CXR ratings can do for you.  For more information, call us TOLL-FREE at  1-866-486-4333. THANK YOU ! Sincerely, Russell Mollot