My fourth anniversary on chess.com has come and gone. I still can't believe how quickly this site has changed. Last year, chess.com had a "mere" 2.5 million members. Today, it has over 4 million! It's simply astonishing. In additon, we've seen the release of so many new features. Live chess tournaments are soon coming; a year ago, the staff insisted that they would never arrive. This shows just how the future is limitless for chess.com. The site has grown more and more in popularity. I expect to see more vote chess against grandmasters and more attention throughout the Internet.
As for me, unfortunately, I haven't had that much time to play chess lately. It's my junior year of high school, and the workload is enormous. In addition, I have some sad news- I used to attend a chess club at a local Borders every Thursday. It closed last month, due to Borders going out of business. No word on whether or not it'll be resurrected. I have a feeling that it will, sometime in the next few months. In the meantime, my school's chess club will have to do.
Anyway, I wish erik (btw, congrats on exercise.com!), Patzer24, and the rest of the staff the best of luck in the future. I plan to stick around on this site as long as I can. I hope that many great things will happen in the following year, and that I will be there to see them happen!