Summer Puzzle Contest!

Summertime is for water parks, popsicles, and more chess! Oh, and you may get a chance to play FunMasterMike!

For the first time ever, ChessKid will host a summertime contest. "King of Puzzles" will take place in August, not in the traditional fall months. If you solve puzzles in August, you may get to play FunMasterMike, AND we'll turn your game into a video with live commentary!

Is your head still on? Great—Read on very carefully for all of the details.

It's the Fourth-Annual ChessKid.com King of Puzzles Contest! (We just couldn't wait until the fall this year!)

So what's the deal? We want to see which ChessKids have become the best puzzle solvers on the site. And we want to give kids a chance to play FunMasterMike, who is usually too busy to accept challenges.

Here's how it will work: Every kid that solves at least 100 puzzles correctly in the month of August will be entered into a drawing. (Kids without gold accounts can still qualify since you are able to attempt five puzzles per day.)

Three winners will be chosen at random to play FunMasterMike in a game in our Fast Chess server (at a time that is convenient to both). FunMasterMike will analyze the game after it ends and will record everything for a video. Those three kids will be famous forever on ChessKid.com, although their real names will still be secret for their protection.

This is the real FunMasterMike, age 6, after he played in his first national championship!

Please read the rules carefully and remember to compete in the spirit of good sportsmanship, which is the foundation of chess.

The contest will run from midnight (12 a.m.) Pacific time on August 2, 2017 until 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on August 31, 2017. Note that August 1 is just for training!
ChessKids wanting to compete will need to join the ChessKid Official Club so that their puzzles can be tracked using the leaderboard. You can join the club now!
Note that we no longer have the "Contest Clubs" from last year. If you want to check to see if you're in the correct club, click on "clubs" to the left to see if the ChessKid Official Club appears. If it does, you're already in the club!
There will be three contest winners. They will be drawn at random using the website random.org. In order to be in the drawing, you must have solved 100 puzzles correctly in August.
Both gold members and free members are eligible to participate. Note that free members can only attempt five puzzles per day, so they must be sure to log in nearly every day to have a good chance to get 100 correct.
There is no advantage for being the ChessKid to have solved the most puzzles, but you will get a lot smarter by solving more than 100!
ChessKids may only compete using one account. You should only have one in the first place :-) Adults are not eligible.
Everyone that gets 100 correct will have his/her username printed in the winner's article on ChessKid.com!

You'll be able to follow your progress to 100 using the club leaderboard feature. If you are already in the club, here's a direct link!

Again, ChessKid staff would like to stress that proper sportsmanship is expected for the contest. Resetting of puzzle ratings is not allowed, nor is any other method designed to give a ChessKid an unfair advantage.

The best way to prepare is to do all of our lessons on tactics, which are mostly in the queen levels. You can find them here!

ChessKid may conduct advanced and thorough cheat detection on any account. Anything not covered in the rules is at the sole discretion of ChessKid.com.

Don't forget to join the ChessKid Official Club or we won't know you are competing!

PRIZES!

FunMasterMike would love to be able to play all of the kids that ask for a game, but he's simply too busy. This is your big chance to play him! Three kids will get to do so, and he will make you famous by recording the game with commentary to be released later in our videos section.

All kids solving at least 100 correct will be announced in the final article!

There are no other prizes this time. If you are one of the lucky three to be selected and do not wish to have a video made, you may still get a game with FunMasterMike. Good luck!