Guitar War celebrates its third summer by throwing down the gauntlet to every guitarist on the planet with World Guitar Challenge.

The World Guitar Challenge is an open invitation to all guitarists throughout the world to compete in a king-of-the- hill style championship match. Any guitarist who can beat the champion will win a free six-month membership to Guitar War, and will be awarded the World Guitar Challenge crown. This new member will then defend his crown against all subsequent challengers. Whoever is left standing on August 31, 2003, will be proclaimed the winner.

"We expect the World Guitar Challenge will be a lot of fun." said site creator Jon Broderick of Oakland, California. "The initial champion is a rank-and-file Guitar War member named Chuck Geiter from South-Central Pennsylvania. Chuck has a .529 average after 34 wars. He was selected by our members as an exemplary representative of what our site is about, both in terms of playing ability and as part of our on-line community. He is not technically our best, but he will be very hard to beat."

In World Guitar Challenge, each contestant submits an mp3 file and brief notation of their own guitar playing. The best performances will be entered into competition with the current champion. The contest will be scored by the weighted judgment of expert, intermediate and novice Guitar War members. Interested guitarists should visit www.guitarwar.com for complete rules and instructions. World Guitar Challenge is open to non-members only.

"Give us the best guitarist in any country," Broderick said, "and we will teach him or her something new. While our members are of all experience levels, Guitar War has what could be the largest gathering of expert guitarists anywhere in the world. We hone our skills through constant feedback from each other. If there is some nagging defect in your playing, Guitar War will bring it out into the light, and offer suggestions about how to fix it from people who have really been there."

Jon Broderick started Guitar War in February, 2000, with what is now known as Electric Melee War, a simple no-rules single round guitar competition. Since then, Guitar War has evolved into four different types of competition for three different instruments, with championships, custom challenges, grudge matches and melees for guitar, bass and keyboards.