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Game result (chess) S. Ligon, 2321 M. LaDuke, 2326 1/2-1/2 See game 152178 |
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Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-08 13:10:47)
Things to be implemented...
Hello to all... and thank you for your confidence in this very new server (when no game started yet ! maybe today...)
I expected a high average rating, but not so much :)
The last update provoked the first bug -> in this forum. Sorry to all who tried to post here. It should work now.
Here are things to be implemented in the future :
- Vacations (until, time limit by move is 2 months)
- Conditional moves
- A better interface for the forum...
Don't hesitate if you have ideas to improve the website !
Best wishes.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-08 17:02:06)
First tournament started !
A small bug delayed (1 hour) the start of the first FICGS tournament (class A) ! Sorry to the players. It's fixed now.
Have good games :)
Sebastien Marez (2006-04-10 07:52:51)
BUG
On two of my games in progress, one posts illegaux moves. Whereas they are valid. Best Regards Sebastien MAREZ
Sebastien Marez (2006-04-10 08:26:01)
BUG
No the problem, It is necessary to make it possible the site to improve together. Sebastien MAREZ
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-11 18:33:13)
Bug fixed...
Many improvements in the send move process... It should not be possible anymore to make a wrong move. Stalemate detection is implemented. In checkmate case, nothing else should be possible than resigning. Thanks for your feedback.
Per Lea (2006-04-15 00:01:42)
Minor notational bug...
In game 8, I had Rooks on f8 and b8. I played 18...Ra8 on the screen, but when I list the game, the move is recorded as Rba8. The "b" is superfluous, the f8 Rook can't move to a8. In game 13, I had Rooks on d6 and d1 and played 18.Rxd8. This came out as R6xd8. The "6" is superfluous. These are not serious errors, but it is a bit irritating....
Elmer Valderrama (2006-04-22 15:44:16)
bug?
Dear Thibault On-going game 49 has "6.Nb5" although both knights (from c3 and d4) could move to b5 (correct is either 6.Ncb5 or 6.Ndb5)
Anyway, the interface (or the player Ghisi) moved the knight from c3 (more obvious was to move the knight from d4, according to theory at least) and, as a result, the move 7...e5 won a piece..(can't see a post from the concerned players so it could have been played as intended, but the "Nb5" needs correction for sure)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-24 11:21:14)
Bug...
About vacation, an error has occured with the backoffice. Vacation turned back to 30 days for all. Fortunately not heavy consequences, as just one or two players took days already. It won't happen again as the sub-admin backoffice will be installed today.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-24 15:59:32)
Checkmate
I considered that there wasn't so much difference : Generally players resign before being checkmated. Whoever playing until checkmate "quickly" will probably resign quickly... A player who wants to last a game will do it before checkmate... I really think it's only more friendly (and original).
Anyway, if too much players or council think otherwise, I'll change it. Thanks for your feedback.
About checkmate, I just fixed a bug that prevented players to resign if they were checkmated. (hum :)) That's why 2 players called the referee.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-24 18:43:59)
It was precisely one...
... of these two games ! The player wanted to resign but he couldn't "because" he was checkmated. The bug has been fixed today.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-24 21:07:06)
e7-e5
This bug is fixed and shouldn't happen once more.
Michael Hoppenstein (2006-04-25 17:15:18)
Opponent does not resign after checkmate
The bug might be fixed but my opponent won't resign. Do I really have to wait 48 days - I've just checked - till he forfeits on time? How do I make him resign?
Stefano Ghisi (2006-05-01 11:41:45)
Possible bug?
In the game 58 my last move was Rad1. I typed only Rd1 (with no specification of what Rook was to move) and the program has accepted my move as Rfd1. Be aware! Every move typed and no moved on the board must me verifyed...
Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-09 15:59:09)
... old bug
Hello Stefano. The 'wrong move' was caused by the update that fixed the ambiguous moves bug... I corrected your move that was 6.Ncb5
Sorry again.
Phil Cook (2006-05-25 12:20:49)
refreshed page
I think there is a small bug in the system,I only refreshed my page,now I see I've posted three times,same subject.
David Grosdemange (2006-05-26 19:16:37)
transpositions ...
i think manual modifications aren't really efficient to correct the bug of transpositions .... and for instance , in the transposition f4 e5 e4 to e4 e5 f4 , the move 2)e4 can't be annoted , and will receive the annotation of 2)f4 . and another problem , when i search games on a position , for instance on e4 c5 d4 , i can't find my game who begins with d4 c5 e4 ...
Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-01 01:31:52)
Movie...
Thanks for the info (and for having revealed the small bug in the forum with your ******* ;))
It's fixed now.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-01 21:29:04)
Bug...
Hello Michael. Thanks for feedback, this is a new feature and I made a mistake... This will be fixed soon, sorry !
Lionel Vidal (2006-06-01 22:21:52)
Bug?
It seems that the postings are sometimes not in chronological order ? (see the last two posts)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-02 12:24:54)
Weiqi : FICGS rules
Thanks for your explanations Lionel. (forum bug is fixed)
I've changed the rules. I would like some opinions before I announce it :
First, now you can pass, just entering 'pass'... Special rules in FICGS are : Suicide of more than one stone is authorized, and infinite repetition means a win (full point) for White. Both players must play until one resign, both players pass (then call referee) or game is adjudicated. Scoring method is area scoring with chinese counting. Eyes in seki count as territory.
Thanks in advance !
Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-03 13:59:27)
Graphical interface
Hello Kuzma.
Sorry about that, actually it doesn't work while entering the move in plain text (bug, working on) , but it does work with the graphical interface. You should try to move the piece by clicking.
Thanks for feedback.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-04 16:48:10)
Bug fixed...
Hello Pablo.
Bug is fixed now. Sorry about that :/
Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-21 15:54:38)
Yahoo mail : bug...
Indeed, it doesn't work.
Pablo Schmid (2006-07-03 18:37:00)
Problème du temps restant.
Bonjour De Vassal, dans ma partie 583 contre Hanly, je peux lire ça: Clock - 35 days 23:12:38 (9 days 20:48:55) S'agit-il d'un bug? Ai-je 35 jours ou 9 jours restants?
Xavier Pichelin (2006-07-05 20:38:56)
Problème du temps restant.
Bonjour, Je viens de M'apercevoir qu'un de mes adversaire Mr LAINE Jari a plus de temps de reflexion que ses adversaires en jouant aussi vite ou (lentement)! Ref: WCH stage 1 Groupe 13 Est-ce normal ou il y a t-il un bug? Amicalement Xavier.
Pablo Schmid (2006-07-19 22:11:56)
Bug inscription ?
Je vois un certain David ******, 1200 ELO inscrit (ou du moins dans la liste des inscrits) dans de nombreux tounois supérieurs à sa classe ELO, s'agit-il d'un bug? Il serait bien de le désinscrire des tournois hors de sa classe ELO par équité pour les autres joueurs, merci.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-20 05:51:19)
Bug fixed
Eh bien non, ce n'était pas un pirate mais un simple hasard improbable dans un océan de mathématiques... Le bug est corrigé. Merci pour le retour !
Santos Agustin (2006-07-22 10:41:56)
Bug in vacation section
I d'ont understand why a player that has vacation can answer the moves on the board. If you visit for example Iecg then you can see that if you are on vacation then is blocked the option of make moves.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-22 12:03:53)
Vacation rules
This is not a bug, but the rules will change on 2006 august 1st !
See this thread :
http://www.ficgs.com/forum_read_599-Leave.html
Dinesh De Silva (2006-07-23 15:47:26)
YAHOO MAIL PROBLEMS TODAY?
Hello, any Yahoo mail users I can't access my yahoo mail for many hours today. Is there any problems at Yahoo mail today? A bug?
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-24 00:58:09)
Bugs fixed
Thanks for feedback !
Bugs are fixed now and articles are corrected.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-03 20:35:24)
Vacation : Update
Hello to all.
You may observe irregular clocks according to the new vacation rules during a while (some players may still have more time than "possible"), this is not a bug but a consequence of the change on 2006 august 1st) for players who took days leave, particularly in july.
Samy Ould Ahmed (2006-08-10 12:54:08)
Je suis sur...
Qu'il y a eu un bug concernant mes parties, je me connecte plus de 3 fois par jours et juste avant de me mettre en vacances j'avait encore 6 jours dans ma partie perdue au temps et 11 jours dans celle ou il me reste maintenant 1 journée, je me suis mis en vacances differée d'une journée le 6/08. Je joue sur IECG des cadences bien plus serrées (10+1) sans jamais perdre au temps...mais bon ce n'est pas grave.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-10 13:13:58)
Vacances, bug d'aout
Ok, il a pu s'agir effectivement d'un cas extrême. Il y a eu un bug d'affichage après le gros changement du au gel des pendules. Celle ci sont restées exactes, en tout cas non inférieures à la réalité après les jours ajoutés par l'ancienne formule, mais cela a pu mettre certains joueurs ayant pris des vacances (cas présent) en confusion sur la gestion du temps à un mauvais moment. Pour ce cas exceptionnel je rends une journée à la pendule.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-13 18:05:40)
(download) in Go games!
Indeed, that's a bug... It will be fixed in a minute. Thanks ;)
Note : Go games files are .SGF , you can read it with any Go interface..
(qGo, Jago ...)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-22 17:52:30)
Future Rating
You were right, there was a small bug in the last update... That's fixed.
Thanks !
Elmer Valderrama (2006-08-25 13:08:31)
bug: en-passant captures
In the ongoing games of players Herr, Jeff v Sarihan, Sefa FICGS_CHESS_RAPID_C_000004 and FIGCS_CHESS_CLASS_G_000003 there is an "en-passant" capture (move 10.dxc6) which is not allowed by the chess rules (as I know them, maybe FIDE Congress has already changed them ;) The pawn c was first moved to c6 (3...c6) and then to c5 (9...c5) Somehow, the player Herr managed to capture the pawn by playing 10.dxc6 after 9...c5, which was accepted by both the player Sarihan and the interface ..(!?!) And the same happened in the game Ducreux, Regis v Sarihan, Sefa FIGCS_CHESS_CLASS_F_000007, this time pawn c was moved twice again (2...c6 and 10...c5) and captured ("of course") by 11. dxc6.. 8()
Dinesh De Silva (2006-08-25 13:33:40)
Re: bug: en-passant captures.......
Weird. Somebody better squash that bug soon.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-25 13:38:16)
Re: bug: en-passant captures
Fixing...
Thanks Elmer !
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-26 01:08:25)
bug fixed: en-passant captures
The "en-passant" bug is now fixed.
According to the rules, the games have been adjudicated...
Sorry to the players :/
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-28 13:25:31)
bug: en-passant captures
Hello Jay.
That's right, I obviously lost my brain somewhere :/
I can't deal with this problem today, but it will probably be fixed wednesday (clocks will be corrected). Sorry about that..
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-31 03:07:33)
bug: en-passant captures
Hello Jay and Benjamin.
Problem is solved.
No link with the previous bug, just forgot to correct the chess 960 case.
David Da Silva (2006-09-04 16:30:13)
Clock running while on holliday
Hello, I may have missed something but in one of my games, maybe more but this one I'm sure because I had few days left, my clock runned enventhought the hollidays I declared. When I came back, I had 6 hours to play 9 moves wich I couldn't do(damn sleep ;))... Is this a bug or a rule subtility ? Thanks for the answer and congrats for this great site ! David
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-04 16:42:15)
Re: Clock running while on holidays
Hello David.
There shouldn't be other problems since the clock display bug at the beginning of august... I send you an email to check this.
Best regards. Thibault
Ron Keyston (2006-09-07 18:41:14)
Wikichess Bug
Hi Thibault, I just put the Lasker Trap of the Albin Countergambit into Wikichess and every move after fxg1=N+ now starts with fxg1=...not sure what the problem is. Thanks, Ron Keyston
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-07 18:52:06)
Wikichess Bug
Hi Ron.
I just forgot this way to write promotion.. fxg1N+ or fxg1=N+
I corrected the moves, the bug will be fixed soon.
Thanks for feedback !
Halil Kiren (2006-09-27 19:24:38)
My vacation (BUG)
I am currently using my vacation time..so I can't make any move..But the thing is my clock is still working and I'm losing my games ..I want the administrators to find a solution to this.I have lost a game because of this so far and I'm about to lose one more...i lost game 2036 ..and.. game 2006.. my clock = 1 day 02:12:02..what will i do??
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-27 20:17:26)
Vacation & time limit per move
Hello Halil.
Unfortunately, this is not a bug :/
Here is the message you may have read just before you confirmed your days leave :
"Make sure you have no pending moves for more than 30 days before taking days leave, as the time per move clock is still running during vacation." (time per move clock is the one between brackets)
Rules 11.4 : "Any move in any game shall be played in a maximum period of 60 days, otherwise the game will be adjudicated on time."
You did not play any move in game 2036 for more than 60 days. Actually, you did not play any move for about 40 days when you took your ~20 days leave. The aim of this rule is to avoid too long delays for a single move. Usually, 30 days is enough...
Anyway, I send you an email about this problem.
Best wishes. Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2006-10-11 23:22:42)
Designs : Bug fixed
A bug for some green designs (that became plain white) has just been corrected...
Thibault de Vassal (2006-10-14 18:33:37)
Chess and Go diagrams / Forum update
A major update for FICGS forums (& blogs) !
Now you can insert Chess & Go diagrams in messages...
(useful to submit chess problems, analysis and so on...)
See the FAQ in help section - http://www.ficgs.com/help.html - for details, in example here is the position of the last game in the FIDE world chess championship between Veselin Topalov & Vladimir Kramnik, just before Topalov blunder 44. ...Rxc5 ??
ChessPosition (see diagram)
Diagrams format is quite simple (see Help), please note only one diagram / position will be displayed per message.
Also minor bugs (links, search functions) corrected...
Thibault de Vassal (2006-10-30 18:13:36)
Big chess "birthday" tournament !
FICGS now counts more than 1000 members :)
The display of Big Chess games has just been improved : Last move marked, coordinates, speed, bugs fixed... So it may be funny to see more games !!
A special tournament will start soon, if you want to enter it, just post "I'm in." (or something like that :)) in this thread. The first 7 players will be in.
The tournament will be there :
http://www.ficgs.com/tournament_FICGS__BIG_CHESS__THOUSAND_MEMBERS_EVENT.html
Games unrated, time control is 30 days + 1 day / move... 7 players -> 6 games per player (big challenge).
Reminder : To see what Big Chess is, see the Inaugural match game...
http://www.ficgs.com/tournament_FICGS__BIG_CHESS__INAUGURAL_MATCH.html
100% human chess guaranteed, no chess engines & databases :)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-03 14:55:07)
Only 965 ?!
About the chess rating list, I updated the code a few days ago. It is now "semi-static" (automatically updated every 6 hours at most)
6 hours, that was theory... I just found the small bug, thanks :)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-06 22:11:06)
Board diagram not the same as pgn
I provoked a very improbable bug in our game... It shouldn't happen again.
Thanks for feedback.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-15 14:23:14)
Go scorer (improvement)
Hello to all Go players.
A small improvement in the Go scorer : Komi (7.5 points) is now added to White score and the program says who 'probably' wins !
Also a small bug corrected in the count algorithm, about a few unknown points...
In example, you can score this exciting game Vorobev -Steveson :
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=score&game=3102
Just remove these groups : n8 m9 g18 r18 g17
Score is 183 to 178 (+ 7.5) -> White wins by 2.5 points. (verified with a viewer)
See the game here :
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=3102
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-26 12:51:03)
Game 1
Vladimir Kramnik - Deep Fritz
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dxc4 5.Qa4+ Nbd7 6.Qxc4 a6 7.Qd3 c5 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.Nf3 0-0 10.0-0 Qe7 11.Nc3 b6 12.Ne4 Nxe4 13.Qxe4 Nf6 14.Qh4 Bb7 15.Bg5 Rfd8 16.Bxf6 Qxf6 17.Qxf6 gxf6 18.Rfd1 Kf8 19.Ne1 Bxg2 20.Kxg2 f5 21.Rxd8+ Rxd8 22.Nd3 Bd4 23.Rc1 e5 24.Rc2 Rd5 25.Nb4 Rb5 26.Nxa6 Rxb2 27.Rxb2 Bxb2 28.Nb4 Kg7 29.Nd5 Bd4 30.a4 Bc5 31.h3 f6 32.f3 Kg6 33.e4 h5 34.g4 hxg4 35.hxg4 fxe4 36.fxe4 Kg5 37.Kf3 Kg6 38.Ke2 Kg5 39.Kd3 Bg1 40.Kc4 Bf2 41.Kb5 Kxg4 42.Nxf6+ Kf3 43.Kc6 Bh4 44.Nd7 Kxe4 45.Kxb6 Bf2+ 46.Kc6 Be1 47.Nxe5 ½-½
Does Kramnik really hope to win the match in a struggle, just wait for a bug or only manage a draw more... Waiting for the 2nd game.
Marius Zubac (2006-12-16 02:51:34)
Vacation clock frozen, with 1 exception
Hello Thibault. Before I requested my vacation I have captured all the situation of my running games including the number of days. The clock is frozen for all games except my game 2932 from FICGS_CHESS_CLASS_SM_000002 against Mr. de Silva. Initially it was 51 days. Today I looked again and is 49. Maybe there is a bug somewhere. Please look into it. Thank you. Best whishes for the Holliday season, Marius
Thibault de Vassal (2006-12-16 03:09:51)
Vacation clock frozen, no exception !
Hello Marius.
There is no bug ! ... Your clock is : White clock - 54 days 17:50:44 (49 days 13:26:08)
So clock displayed in ie. My games is your 'time per move' clock !
Rules 11.4 : Please note the time limit per move clock still runs during vacation. Take your days carefully, as it's not possible to take back or displace your leave dates. However you can add days leave.
This rule avoids someone to take more than 60 days for only one move...
Best wishes for your holidays :)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-01-07 21:55:13)
chat (bug)
... was a small bug created when I added this option to remove permanently the chat bar (in preferences). Only new players were affected since that moment :/ .. Thanks !
I had to reinitialize this option for everyone, so feel free to remove the chat bar again if needed. Sorry about that.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-01-27 00:46:40)
chat
:)
Bugs took a few days leave.. I hope...
Ron Keyston (2007-01-29 17:27:38)
"Major" Deep Fritz 10 Bug
I've confirmed this problem on two different computers with completely different hardware and different operating systems. I've also sent the problem off to Chessbase, but have not yet gotten much of a response. If anyone else has Deep Fritz 10, would you mind giving this a try and reporting back with your results? Also, if anyone has the non-Deep version of Fritz 10, I'd be interested in knowing if it is also affected by this problem.
Input a game into Deep Fritz 10 and get to a point in the game where it is possible for black to castle long. Now save the game into a database, close the game and then open it back up from the database. If you either turn on infinite analysis, or just try to make the move, black is not able to castle long...Fritz assumes that it is an illegal move.
Furthermore, if you castle long BEFORE saving the game into the database, then save it and re-open it, then go to the position after black has castled queenside and turn on infinite analysis, the analysis is "messed up." Either the analysis text is invisible, or it reports impossible lines, or the evaluation score is very obviously wrong. This should be enough info for anyone to give the test a try, but if you want some specific examples, please let me know.
Ron
Thibault de Vassal (2007-02-07 00:52:58)
Rybka 2.3
An interesting thread about Rybka 2.3 (should be available on february 12) and his new features, described by Vasik Rajlich. In a few words : stronger, new chess knowledge, better search algorithm, better positional play, bug fixes and an interesting feature called "randomizer" :
Quote : "You can put Rybka into a mode where she will play against herself over and over from the same position without repeating variations - she will systematically explore the space of possibilities in the variation, branching from the previous games at later and later points. It's an effective way to get a Monte-Carlo-based evaluation of a position."
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=180
Thibault de Vassal (2007-03-12 15:31:09)
Major update : SSL encryption forms
Hello to all.
This is the last major update before money tournaments can start...
Now you can login through SSL encryption forms, meaning the best security to prevent hacking.
You should use SSL encryption forms only to browse the whole site with HTTPS, particularly if you wish to enter money tournaments later... It is also strongly recommended to change your password regularly (at least 8 characters, numbers & letters is best).
Thus you should always see HTTPS:// before the url after you login.
Feel free to follow this link for more advices about security & phishing :
http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#security
FICGS now uses SSL data encryption, hash functions and a bunch of other security features...
4 login forms is a lot but thus anyone can connect, even with browsers that doesn't support HTTPS and Javascript.
Also a few minor bug fixes and improvements, komi updated in .SGF files, reinforced hash functions, last connection date displayed in profile and so on...
All feedbacks are welcome :)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-04-05 05:17:31)
Happy birthday FICGS :-)
FICGS started on 2006, April 5... Exactly one year ago !
How much work... I'm really happy how the server evolved, there's still a lot of work (actually there's always something to improve) but the main things are done, it is now really stable (no more major bugs) and it works "almost" by itself :)
Almost 10,000 games started this year, I predict much more for the next year ;)
Thanks to you all for enjoying it !
Thibault de Vassal (2007-05-15 18:37:06)
Tablebases 5-pieces
Well, quite strange.. Shredderchess.com tablebases don't give a result anymore for the current 7-pieces position !? .. Was it a bug or...
Indeed it is mate in about 37 moves, but my engine with 5-pieces tablebases can't see it. If the game is not finished in a while (before the next rating calculation), you can call referee for adjudication.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-06-18 06:26:11)
WCCC
Computerchess rating lists are very different from human's ones. Fritz & Junior are not so weak (ok, maybe Junior is :)) .. At least they can beat Loop and Naum. Anyway I meant that more strong programs should play at the WCCC, the results can't be significant this year because too few interesting games will be played (and there was a bug in some Rybka game). At last I agree about CCRL, it is more trustable than SSDF rating list.
Wayne Lowrance (2007-07-14 18:37:07)
It is a clone 2.
The following is just one of many close observations. There are so many documentations I would not try to sum them up. :)
The main problem is identical or almost identical analysis both in evaluation and search.
Studying rybka's output in order to improve your evaluation(assuming rybka has better evaluation) make sense but even in that case I do not expect a program to have identical evaluation to rybka even in situations when it does not make sense to have evaluation that is different than 0 as King against king.
Rybka tries to hide her evaluation but not writing output at small depth and this is the reason that I am basically interested in analysis of fortress positions because in fortress positions the evaluation is partially exposed.
It is logical to learn from this experience of analysing fortress position and get evaluation that is more similiar to rybka but having evaluation that is totally identical in more than one case does not make sense and it cannot be an accident and the problem is not only identical evaluation but also identical search in many positions as evidence proved and even if the evaluation is different I can find the same patterns in the score changes.
This can happen only with copying code and it cannot happen without cloning.
The programmer of strelka did not understand rybka's code otherwise he could avoid the same bugs.
Same pattern of drop in the evaluation score when you have a queen. This pattern is also in old strelka.
Why does it happen?
Note that no other program that I know shows drop in evaluation for white by more than 3 pawns.
Strelka's score drops from +- (12.53) in depth 6 to 8.50 in depth 7
Rybka's score drops from 12.34 pawns in depth 4 to 8.37 pawns at depth 5
I find this compelling, if you understand it
Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-01 15:29:04)
offer
I just saw the logs, unfortunately this time nothing can prove it wasn't a server bug (or the contrary). I'll make an update about it.
As Ilmars offered to you to cancel the result, I can do it. (Ilmars, can you send me an email about this ? .. Thanks)
Mladen Jankovic (2007-09-08 00:46:47)
software
Are you using MySQL?
And, did you script all of the site yourself (other than some obvious external plugins)?
What distribution of Linux are you running if I might ask?
I have to commend it to you, the site certainly seems to have a good uptime, I have never encountered a problem accessing it, and only a single bug, promptly fixed.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-08 03:57:29)
Linux / MySQL
Hello Mladen.
Yes, MySQL. About the Linux distribution, Debian.. (if I remember well :))
And yes again, I did script all the site, already more than 500 php files (!) .. I was far to imagine this server when I started it ! .. Still much work to improve it for fast games... Finally, as it became quite huge, there are still (always) minor bugs that I correct as soon as I see them.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-09 15:28:33)
FICGS update & wish list
Hello to all.
You probably noticed a new extension to the chat bar, it delivers some random messages and news (forum, problems, public comments, entries, login). It also automatically warns a player if he started an advanced tournament [bullet, lightning or blitz games], which is more convenient... As it refreshes every minute, you shouldn't log out automatically anymore until you close the chat bar.
Other changes :
- Serbia & Montenegro (SCG) has become Serbia (SRB) and Montenegro (MNE).
- New players will start with a 1800 chess rating.
- Lightning tournaments become Advanced tournaments (blitz, lightning, bullet)
- New quotes added from the forum :)
- Some Google optimizations...
- Waiting list for unrated no-engines tournaments is open !
- Minor bugs corrected.
I did not implement the private messages facility yet... I feel it could create some problems (not technically), I still have to think about it.
This is probably a good moment to open a wish list and discuss all changes you'd like to see on the site...
Best wishes, Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-13 06:37:19)
Bug
Andrew, please do not reload pages. It's better to use the links for that (ie. forum), duplicate posts should be avoided by the program but there's a small bug with some symbols.
Thanks :)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-18 15:55:07)
Major update : New interface !
Hello to all.
You may have noticed that the way to send moves has changed, at least the way by default (you still can choose to play through the old - HTML only - interface by clicking "slow moves" in My games).
Please note that there are no more confirmation pages when using the new Javascript interface, meaning your moves will be sent as soon as you press the Send button. Also Javascript should be activated in your browser, that is generally the case.
Other changes :
- My games display only games where it's your turn, you can change it by clicking 'display all games'.
- It is now possible to download all chess games (PGN format) in a particular tournament, see the bottom of the page.
- To avoid massive forfeits, the number of running games is now limited to 60.
... and hundreds of other small improvements :)
Feel free to report possible bugs or if you have any suggestions. Thanks in advance !
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-19 18:33:20)
Not empty
Hello Josef, this is a bug provoked by the new interface, it should be fixed in a few hours. Now correcting the game...
Rodolfo d Ettorre (2007-09-24 10:19:26)
Log out
I think if the keybord or mouse are not touched for maybe 15 - 20 minutes the server logs you out, it is not a bug, but a security feature I think.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-10-22 15:07:45)
Update : Interface
The interface for fast moves has been updated, now it shows the move number. The (Flip) (Skip) duet disppeared, replaced by symbols and a shortcut to public comments.. I hope everyone see it correctly.
Also a few minor bugs corrected & improvements...
The titles page has been updated - http://www.ficgs.com/titles.html
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-15 05:13:17)
"No games to display"
Did anyone notice a strange bug, ie. "Sorry, there's no game to display" (when actually that's wrong) in My games, while other pages, ie. the forum, work correctly.. this bug looks like to happen after a long time without loading a new page.. (so only the message box automatically refreshes regularly)
I'm not sure where's the problem yet... Thanks for feedback.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-16 04:01:21)
Solved
Ok, it was the "special Thibault" bug :) .. it must have happened to me only.. now solved anyway.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-02-04 14:28:15)
mystery
Ok, I'm done... Don's right, actually each week I add some new rotating bugs so that players don't use FICGS excessively :o)
(next one: disconnection just before to post a long message in the forum - called the "Don's bug" :))
Don Groves (2008-02-04 23:18:00)
don's bug
Ha! I've already learned that lesson. Now I save long posts frequently ;-)
Garvin Gray (2008-03-30 01:38:20)
Chess 960 possible problem continued
Hello Thibault,
Have just noticed recently that the 'bug' of the server not recognising castling rights in 960 games still exists.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-05-03 09:09:01)
Rating list
Hi Jason, this is a temporary bug that should be corrected in a few hours...
Paul-Iosif Guralivu (2008-05-10 21:24:00)
Patches
My own laws of murphy about patches(being a programmer) - from my own experience:
1. A patch will allways replace a bug with more.
2. A patch will make your program taking more space on hdd, and more memory while running.
Effects: Higher probability of operating system to crash, because of lake of resources Therefore the probability of program to crash is direct proportional with the number and the size of patches.
Hannes Rada (2008-05-20 22:37:01)
3 fold repetition - working correctly ?
Does the server recognise a 3 fold repetition correctly ? If I am not too much confused, I think that my game against Balabaev - game 17830 - has been terminated after 2- fold repetition. Can you please take a look into that. Not really important because this game is definitely a draw, but it looks for me like a bug.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-05-20 23:58:25)
3 fold repetition
Hmm.. The server most probably replaced the last move played by Farit (which actually provoked the threefold repetition) by the final result, sorry about that, I'll correct this bug soon - and the game.
Normajean Yates (2008-08-21 05:16:52)
O-O is output standard for pgn, but..
o-o is allowed as input. [again it depends on which version of the pgn standard we are talking about.] Also re Arena: it is just like: most C++ compilers for PCs do not implement the full C++ [or implement it wrong - Arena is a program; compilers are programs; programs have bugs aka features ;)] .
Thibault de Vassal (2008-08-21 22:01:05)
PGN and castling
Bug fixed, here are the corrected games :
id -> 500
id -> 539
id -> 545
id -> 685
id -> 3133
id -> 3143
id -> 4599
id -> 4460
id -> 5789
id -> 5798
id -> 5803
id -> 9162
id -> 12521
id -> 13473
id -> 13474
id -> 13511
id -> 13523
id -> 13525
id -> 13526
id -> 13527
id -> 23287
id -> 20065
id -> 23291
id -> 23217
id -> 23146
id -> 23222
id -> 23149
id -> 23134
id -> 23084
id -> 23135
id -> 23081
id -> 22959
id -> 22966
id -> 23071
id -> 23144
id -> 23011
id -> 23015
id -> 23085
id -> 23072
id -> 23281
id -> 23051
id -> 23056
id -> 23060
id -> 23065
id -> 23139
id -> 23087
id -> 23148
id -> 23227
id -> 23228
id -> 23224
id -> 23225
id -> 23226
id -> 23216
id -> 23304
id -> 23292
id -> 23263
id -> 23271
id -> 23277
id -> 23278
id -> 23279
id -> 23329
id -> 23330
id -> 23331
id -> 23332
id -> 23333
id -> 23338
id -> 23339
id -> 23340
id -> 23680
Marius Zubac (2008-08-21 22:32:59)
Attention Thibault! Bug related to WCH2
Hi Thibault There is a bug related to entering my 11th move 11Bd2 in both games 22676 and 22678 from our match played in FICGS__CHESS__WCH_QUARTER_FINAL_2__000005. In slow move selection after I enter the move I get the message "Incorrect move : 7.0-0 , from player white". If I try to send the move I get the message that the move is not sent. Can you please look into this matter? Thanks Marius
Thibault de Vassal (2008-08-21 22:53:36)
Castling bug
Hi Marius, this follows the update for the PGN format castling bug. Are you sure you entered O-O (with "Ooh" letter, not zero or o-o, which is incorrect) ?
Thibault de Vassal (2008-08-22 04:20:35)
Castling bug corrected
Hello again Marius.
The problem was not your last move, it should work fine now.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-08-22 04:22:51)
Castling bug fixed
More than 600 games using 0-0 with zero instead of "O" letter have been corrected, everything should work fine now (please report any bug if there's one anyway, thanks in advance)
Thibault de Vassal (2008-09-15 20:54:47)
Wikichess : Update !
Now you can see strong improvements in Wikichess articles :
- Opening ECO code
- Name of the opening
- Moves played at FICGS
- Find games played at FICGS
- Statistics (White wins, Black wins, Draws)...
Thanks to report any bug.
Ilmars Cirulis (2008-09-16 10:57:07)
bug?
http://ficgs.com/wikichess_685.html
Nc3 : 2 games, White ELO av : 1526, Black ELO av : 1816
1-0 : 0% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 50%
Thibault de Vassal (2008-09-16 12:34:05)
bug
Hi Ilmars... Thanks, will be corrected in a few days :)
Other improvements to follow also.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-10-26 11:57:39)
SSL / https problem
Hello all,
If you use the site in HTTPS mode with Firefox 3 or a more recent version (the latest is 3.0.3), you may have intermittently encountered this error : SSL received an unexpected Change Cipher Spec record. (Error code: ssl_error_rx_unexpected_change_cipher)
This is a bug from OpenSSL that occurs with Firefox 3+ , I just added something to correct it so please just report any bug of that kind here if you have it yet. Thanks in advance.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-10-26 22:10:03)
Search wikichess & games in one click
New features in chess games !
It is now possible to search wikichess & games in one click from your running games in the fast moves mode (page move_express), see the S & W options below the chessboard. One more tool to get quick statistics from FICGS database before to play.
Please report any bug. Thanks in advance :)
Thibault de Vassal (2008-10-30 12:32:47)
:)
Hi Garvin, yes this is a small "display" bug that will disappear by itself, not a clock problem.
To Don, Normajean and Rodolfo: don't worry I already thought about that (well, about FICGS at least) :-)
Normajean Yates (2008-11-03 05:43:35)
vacation bug?
I have gone on vacation, but in Game 21702 it is opponent's move - and opponent's clock is still moving!:
Normajean Yates ... is in vacation until 2008 November 7
White clock - 98 days 01:11:33
Black clock - 94 days 15:34:05 (59 days 23:22:32)
and now:
Normajean Yates ... is in vacation until 2008 November 7
White clock - 98 days 01:11:33
Black clock - 94 days 15:32:46 (59 days 23:21:13)
So opponent's clock has decreased from 94 days 15:34:05 to 94 days 15:32:46 !
Normajean Yates (2008-11-03 07:15:32)
It is *really* a bug. Not a feature.
[see my previous post in this topic] Suppose opponent and I both have only 10 day left, it is opponent's move -- and I go on 11 days vacation. Now what is happening is that opponent's clock is running! [example - see my previous i.e. starting post for this topic] but as the game is *frozen* opponent cannot move! So opponent will lose on time!
So, it IS a bug [unless opponent can now move if I am on vacation. But then, this rule change has not been mentioned in the help, faq etc. --
from 'terms and conditions - 11.4 (time rules)':
"Vacation : It is possible to take a maximum of 30 days leave per year, called vacation. During this time, your clocks are frozen and it is no more possible to play, in order to reduce the effects on time controls. "
Volker Koslowski (2008-11-03 11:05:33)
Bug?
I don't think that there is a vacation bug. It ist still possible for your opponent to make his next move (if it is his turn) even if you are in vacation.
As far as I can see Rule 11.4 does not say that you and your opponent could not make any move when you are in vacation. It only says that all your clocks in all of your running games will be frozen and it is not possible for you to play further until your vacation is over. In order it is not possible for you to cancle your vacation, or take only a vacation in one special tournament you play.
Maybe Thibault could say more about this...
Thibault de Vassal (2008-11-03 13:08:12)
Volker said it all
Well, actually the game is not frozen (indeed it would be a bug in this case), only your clocks in all your games, so everything's ok !?
Thibault de Vassal (2008-11-07 10:22:14)
Bug fixed
Thanks Normajean, all 0-0 & o-o have been replaced by the correct O-O. There may be a few positions with two identic moves (O-O) yet, please just let me know & I'll delete one.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-11-19 00:51:01)
Poker Holdem at FICGS !!!
Finally, one of the biggest update this year !
Poker Holdem (or Poker Texas Hold'em) is available at FICGS !
This should be a start for long discussions... It was quite complicated to implement so I hope there will be no bug (please report if necessary). Please do not forget to read the complete rules here :
http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#poker_holdem
If you estimate you're an experienced player, please just let me know (through the form in My account) and I'll update your "poker holdem ELO" to 1800.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-11-22 22:55:35)
Bug : Poker games 26171 to 26300
A small bug happened in a few Poker games from game 26171 to 26300.
FICGS uses a virtual board to save processor time and avoid to re-calculate all moves to display the current hand, but there was an 'invisible' bug until now : The virtual board may be different from the re-calculated current board in rare cases. Consequently, when you'll look at previous moves in some games, your hand may not be the one you actually played. This bug has no consequences on the result of the game, it shouldn't happen again.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-11-27 19:33:00)
Showdown
Ok, the bug (a few others as well) has been fixed.
It is now also possible to fold when you can also check.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-11-29 01:07:30)
Poker : bug fixed, a few games restarted
A few games restarted (or a few moves were deleted), Game 26234 and a few games played by Xavier Pichelin who highlighted a bug : It is no more possible to enter ie. "Fold" (only "fold" is correct), "call", "raise", or "check" when only "fold" is possible and so on...
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Xavier Pichelin (2008-11-29 10:05:59)
Thank you !
Ok is bug fixed, no problème for restard! Best regards, Xavier.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-01 13:26:56)
Not exactly a bug
Hi Don, well actually the game ended after the last hand, that's why you can't see it anymore in "My games". You probably received the result by email, but the only way to see your last opponent's hand is to view the game :
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=26306
Three of a kind wins against two pair :)
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-01 15:58:40)
Fixed
Thanks Don !
The bug is fixed and the game has been corrected... Hopefully it only happened in this game, I hope this will be the very last bug for Poker holdem :)
Don Groves (2008-12-01 21:56:14)
Reference
I don't remember who said it but:
A necessary condition for a program to have no bugs, is that the program is trivial ;-)
Garvin Gray (2008-12-01 23:13:35)
as soon as someone says this ;)
I hope this will be the very last bug for Poker holdem :)
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-02 20:07:17)
Update : challenges & move send
Hello all,
It is now possible to challenge a player for a chess, Go or Poker holdem game ! You can choose the game by clicking the pictures near "Challenge a player" in My games, you can also change the 'challenges' option in Preferences. This is an important improvement as advanced poker & Go games are a faster way to improve ratings ie. in order to qualify for the FICGS poker holdem & Go championships. (advanced chess has its own rating, different from the correpondence chess rating)
Also a new improvement in the 'move send' process, it should be much faster now, please report any bug if you notice one.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-04 17:53:58)
Fixed !
Thanks Ilmars ;)
If you see this bug within 15 days in other articles, this is normal.. all articles will have been corrected automatically after this period.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-06 20:07:17)
Hotmail bug fixed
Now it is possible to add friends from Hotmail (hotmail.com only), the bug has been fixed.
If you have more than 100 contacts, you may win 10 Epoints in seconds to play money games :)
Thibault de Vassal (2009-01-04 14:14:38)
Rybka 4
Vasik Rajlich wrote a few comments on what can be expected from the Rybka engine/team in 2009 :
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=9199
Three engine releases are planned in 2009:
* Rybka 3+ - Rybka 3 playing strength, with bugfixes and cosmetic improvements, for Rybka 3 customers
* Pocket Rybka 3 - published by Convekta/ChessOK, packaged with their Pocket Champion interface, conforms to S. Tsukrov's Pocket-UCI protocol
* Rybka 4 - better search, better eval, new analysis features
"Our tournament goal for 2009 is to win a top freestyle event in 100% automated mode. (...)"
Very interesting, a new challenge for Eros :)
Wayne Lowrance (2009-01-06 00:56:30)
Norms
I have no norms credidted to me, why ? Tournament M000015 finished with 5.5/6, a Norm, no/yes ?I understand that one must finish all of his/her games to get the credit , or is the tournament needed to be ended by all players, gad I hope not that ? What about the case where a norm is guaranteed, but a players games within a Tournament are not complete. I have always had confusion on this topic. Bah humbug Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2009-01-15 13:40:41)
Poker question : All in at the river
Hi all,
I'm just not sure about this : When a player calls by all-in at the river, is he supposed to show his cards (just like in a pre-flop all-in) even if -in that case- he pays to see or is it a particular case ?!
In example :
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=26199&move=232
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=26199&move=233
In other words, is there a bug in the example above ?
Thanks in advance.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-01-18 15:29:29)
Garvin
Strange bug... what browser do you use ?! there may be a special setting for sessions management.
About the example above, you may also follow these links :
http://www.ficgs.com/index.php?page=viewer&game=26199&move=232
http://www.ficgs.com/index.php?page=viewer&game=26199&move=233
Normajean Yates (2009-02-05 04:19:20)
Don & I - same pt fr diff directions:)
Don - no use if hardware doesnt 'fit' software [engineer's way of putting it ;)]
me - no use if software doesnt 'fit' hardware [programmer's way of putting it ;)]
(prefix 'retired' to 'engineeer' & 'programmer' )
We are saying the same thing!
Another point: debugging parallel programs is much more tricky than debugging - uh - non-'parallel' programs
I have no engineering experience [1] but I'd venture to guess that a 'parallel' electronic machine of any kind [not necessarily a computer] which has to synchronise signals from various sources, and do it fast, would be much more of a design challenge than a non-'parallel' one...
[1] (well I did assemble my first personal-computer - a BBC[2] acorn - by cannibalising parts from discarded damaged BBC acorns and some borrowed parts - with a scope and a soldering iron - does that count? But that was back in 1983-84... and I had help....)
[2] yes, BBC = beeb (British Broadcasting Corporation) - they *used* to do meaningful things - but that was long ago....
Thibault de Vassal (2009-02-05 14:03:39)
Poker bug today : Cards repeating...
Hello all... There was a quite strange problem with a PHP file for a few hours (or a bug but I can't see it yet - particularly as I did not change anything to the code), cards may have been always the same in some games while going backwards in the game looked strange too. I may have solved the problem with a backup but now the cards may have changed (actually corrected) in these games.
I check... if everything's ok now. Sorry for the inconvenience :/
Thibault de Vassal (2009-02-05 16:53:23)
The "invisible" bug
Well, after 4 hours of work I found what was finally a human error, mine of course... One of the hardest situation I've had to understand :/
The story for coders, kind of butterfly effect : Weeks, maybe months ago, for some reason I suppose I've deleted an essential line in a file that created an invisible "bug" (no consequences) in all games but also a real bug for poker, but worst, for some reason I did not update the bugged file ! So the site worked well until yesterday when I finally updated the file for a minor change (nothing about the actual problem), so I had no clue about what happened...
Everything should be ok now, but some cards may have changed in a few games.
Bad day... Sorry about that.
Don Groves (2009-02-06 04:28:26)
Most bugs are caused...
... by making changes to working code. Another for the quote file ;-)
Thibault de Vassal (2009-02-25 14:51:08)
Corrected
The server's clock has just been corrected, it shouldn't cause any bug (I hope :))
Samy Ould Ahmed (2009-03-18 22:04:47)
Bug
There is maybe a bug : I validated an sms with a successful message but no more Epoints in my account.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-03-19 00:28:50)
Disconnected ?
Hi Samy, I just added the Epoints, did you logout before to enter the code ? Looks like the problem came from this. No solution yet in this case, but if you warn me immediately, that's ok.
Thanks for the bug report.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-03-28 00:25:29)
Email notification
A bug has just been corrected (finally..). Now you should receive an email when every poker game ends with ratings changes.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-04-07 13:37:25)
Number of games limit
Hello Ranganathan, indeed there may have a small bug for a few days that displays the number of running poker games only, but you actually have more than 50 chess & Go running games now. I'll correct it soon, thanks !
Thibault de Vassal (2009-04-07 15:42:29)
Update
The bug has been fixed, also now you can enter a new chess or Go tournament if you exceed the number of poker games limit (50), and vice versa.
Wayne Lowrance (2009-04-08 17:47:11)
My lil parrot :)
Nope, I have a large comp monitor, hehehehehe, I saw the lil bugger yesterday, surprise, surprise. Wayne
Ranganathan Raman (2009-04-08 23:53:11)
today it show i can not join any game?
You have too many running games (54/50) any bug in the site
Wayne Lowrance (2009-07-23 17:29:16)
Rybka tablebase work qround bug
Thanks to Kullberg of Rybka forum fame. This long known bug has a work around that works. Just set max cpu to N-1, then exit and go back to engine paramaters and reset it to N where of course N is equal to max cpu's of your computer. then exit. That is all there is too it. It works, no one knows why, save Vas who said "it is now clear".
Wayne
Don Groves (2009-08-31 06:56:03)
Poker bug?
Game 34598, move 20: I won the hand on a showdown but was not able to see my opponent's hidden cards. The display only showed my hidden cards and the common cards. Why?
Thibault de Vassal (2009-08-31 14:05:20)
No bug?
Hi Don, I don't see the point here... Your opponent (Player 1) pays by checking so you show your cards, he does not have to show his cards in this case if he hasn't a better hand (no player is all in).
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=34598&move=40
Don Groves (2009-09-01 00:53:16)
No bug?
According to the showdown rules I've seen on the Internet, if no one takes aggressive action (bet or raise) on the round of betting preceding the showdown, then the showing of hands begins to the left of the dealer, no matter who has the better hand.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-10-26 02:13:10)
Crazyhouse
I used to play bughouse at blitz time control, I'm not sure about crazyhouse but would it be funny as well at correspondence time controls!? I'm not sure, what do you think?
Anyway, the question is always the same, should FICGS introduce more games just for fun or focus on competition for a few games only...
William Taylor (2009-10-26 13:58:56)
Crazyhouse
Lazaro: 1. I think you are confusing crazyhouse and bughouse. Crazyhouse is a 1-player game and so wouldn't have the problem you described.
2. Shogi - I might play shogi if it was introduced here, but I would certainly want proper shogi pieces, not chess pieces.
3. The original question - I enjoy crazyhouse, but wouldn't play it here at the moment as I'm too busy to start more time-consuming correspondence games. I'm also not sure if I'd enjoy it as much at correspondence time controls.
Lazaro Munoz (2009-10-28 03:07:17)
Crazyhouse
There is a website of chess variant database at http://wildchess.org/. The interesting thing is that popular openings are very similar to bughouse but that should be no wonder: avoid fianchetto's (weakness in g7,b7) to a drop pawn is deadly and avoiding pawn conflicts since pawns are lot more valuable off the board then on, etc.
Wayne Lowrance (2009-11-20 21:52:39)
E-mail notifications
Thibault what in the world did I do to get FICS emails daily. I did not used to get any. now it"s bugging me
Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2009-12-01 15:02:11)
Fixed poker bug (rare case)
There may have been a bug in a few poker games, provoking the loss of the game without any "obvious" reason.
As a reminder for myself it happened here :
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=32014&move=1338
This is where PHP is magic, sometimes '1' == '1-0' , sometimes not (the operator === is useful then), according to the way the variables are calculated. I fell into the trap... Now it should be ok. I verified several thousand games without this problem but do not hesitate to warn me if you noticed something strange in one of your games.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-12-02 17:50:27)
Major update : Go openings (joseki)
A major update just occured, finished FICGS Go games (chess & poker as well) are now analyzed by the server that gives the name of each known joseki [the first 2 moves at the moment] played in each corner, sometimes it also gives the way it should be played...
See an example at the bottom of this page :
http://www.ficgs.com/game_2481.html
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=2481
Finished games are not analyzed in real time, but this update opens new perspectives to see one day a function to search games by joseki.
Please do not hesitate to comment this update or to report any bug you may see.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-12-02 18:28:19)
Major update : Chess openings & endgames
A major update just occured, finished FICGS chess games (Go & poker as well) are now analyzed by the server that gives the name of each known opening & classifies the games by endgames, castlings & promotions !
Best, now you can find games by material on the board (like Chessbase) for endgames with less than 10 pieces. Just click "Search games" in the menu, eg. enter KRPP vs. KRP (whatever the order of the letters & colors), and you'll find among others this game (see the description of the game at the bottom of the page) :
http://www.ficgs.com/game_3724.html
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=3724
Note : Finished games are not analyzed in real time, but this update clearly opens new perspectives :)
Please do not hesitate to comment this update or to report any bug you may see.
Hannes Rada (2009-12-23 22:37:34)
Christmas Thread Bug ?
This topic is closed, as no response has been made for more than 365 days.
I mean the Merry Christmas thread ??!!
Thibault de Vassal (2009-12-23 23:01:13)
Bug fixed
Sorry, a bad update :) Now fixed.
Don Groves (2009-12-25 00:16:16)
Season's Greetings
Merry Christmas - Happy Hanukkah - Allahu Akbar - Happy Kwanzaa - Happy Solstice - Bah Humbug. However you celebrate the season, I hope it's a happy one!
Thibault de Vassal (2010-01-04 19:08:52)
New feature implemented
This is it... Now everyone can discuss any finished game ! Players & participants of the discussion will be notified by email if they checked the "email notification" option for forums in Preferences.
Feel free to report any bug. Any feedback welcome ! :)
Wayne Lowrance (2010-01-07 18:45:05)
Fed Up
Thib you missed my point. It is the forbidden, hush hush, "dont you dare mention that name here" that bugs me the most. I have always been a strong supporter of the Vas "lil girl", followed her tournaments etc etc.
Oh well it is not worth my concern anyhow. As I said I owe no loyality to Vas any more, If his continued Rybka programing yields the best engine, I will buy it. Results is what matters.
Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2010-02-09 15:54:45)
Problem with auto-refresh in My games ?
Finally... I may have found where the problem comes from, this bug should have happened in some rare cases. This is fixed now, thanks for your feedback !
Don Groves (2010-02-10 06:15:21)
Problem with auto-refresh in My games ?
Isn't debugging fun?
Lazaro Munoz (2010-03-10 12:34:40)
Tournament Leaders
I am confused. In my section FICGS_CHESS_CLASS_C_000127 I have a full point lead and have had this lead for several weeks, yet I am listed as co-leader with another player (Panov) [I am not complaining, just confused]. I know that I have completed a game more than Panov. Is this 'leadership' based on total points? If so it has a bug; if it is based on points gained vs points loss then we are tied (just like every player would be at the beginning of the tournament). Btw, my game against Panov was a draw, I don't if that goes into the calculation and we both have a game in progress against the same opponent.
Don Groves (2010-03-31 06:45:47)
Bug in game 41452
White did not play b15, yet it shows on the goban.
Don Groves (2010-03-31 06:46:38)
Bug in game 41452
Now it is gone! Mysterious...
Thibault de Vassal (2010-03-31 09:10:44)
Bug in game 41452
You use the slow moves interface, right? Do you use several windows with several boards in your navigator? If so, it may happen (specified somewhere in the conditions or the Help section).
Don Groves (2010-03-31 09:12:54)
Bug in game 41452
No, I use the fast moves for Go.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-03-31 10:03:10)
Bug in game 41452
Ahh... strange then!
Please report (before to play) if you see something like this again. Thanks a lot.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-03-31 17:06:17)
Touch move option !
Here it is, now you can choose if your moves should be sent as soon as played (without having to push the "Send" button), this works for chess, chess 960 & Go !
This should be a much more convenient option for freestyle/advanced games... at last :)
See your Preferences to change the option.
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=data
As usual, please report any bug... Any suggestion is welcome ! Thanks.
Don Groves (2010-04-01 02:07:12)
Bug in game 41452
OK.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-04-17 16:35:57)
The 42106 case, strange poker bug
For my personal records (if it happens again), a one time bug happened in game 42106 for a completely unknown reason...
The moves : 1.fold 1 2.check - 3.check 1 4.1 - 5.check 1 6.1 - 7.check 20 8.fold - 9.fold 1 10.check - 11.check 1 12.1 - 13.check - 14.*
Actually player White played more than 4 moves in a row after 13.check, which is impossible in theory.
Even more strange, when I corrected the game & replayed the 13.check, it was Black's turn so everything ok.
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=42106
Garvin Gray (2010-04-22 17:01:33)
Wider rating range tournaments
An all in rated category would not work.
I understand that the World Champs is meant to be the focal point and the main tournament, I am certainly not trying to take away from that.
Just that I am seeing an issue that has to be bugging people more than just me and trying to find a solution to this.
If you need help with setting up the groups and making pairings, I am willing to help with that to get the idea of the ground.
As for workload for the players, well I guess that is for each player to decide. If they think it is too much, then they will not play and the tournament goes no further than one trial.
Benjamin Block (2010-04-25 18:02:19)
Ads gone?
Before there where ads everywhere. No i can´t found any... I hope this are not a tecnical bugg or something. Because i know having a site cost money. And the there are a lots of free e-points wining in tournaments. I guess the money need to come from somewhere. Keep up the good work.
Ryan Cross (2010-05-02 22:20:58)
Speeding up Poker games
Well, some other random ideas: Decrease the amount of time available to take any single move, currently 60 days, to something like 10 days, 14 days, whatever.
Or, play to one point instead of three. Or simply best out of three.
Somewhat off topic, I notice that when one player scores a point, one player starts with 101 chips (100 in hand and one in pot) and the other with 99 chips (97 in hand, 2 in pot). Seems like a bug to me.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-05-03 01:15:13)
Speeding up Poker games
Bullet poker games should go faster with the recent changes...
(including touch move).
On Ryan suggestions :
> Decrease the amount of time available to take any single move, currently 60 days, to something like 10 days, 14 days, whatever.
I think that this time limit per move is fine... too much pressure is not good. And it would not solve the whole problem.
> Or, play to one point instead of three. Or simply best out of three.
The way blinds increase and the number of points is the best scheme so far for the balance "chancy factor vs. game duration" IMO.
> Somewhat off topic, I notice that when one player scores a point, one player starts with 101 chips (100 in hand and one in pot) and the other with 99 chips (97 in hand, 2 in pot). Seems like a bug to me.
Huwow... would be a real bug! could you tell me what game & what move you saw that?? (you can see the previous moves of a game in the game viewer page)
Thanks for the suggestions anyway!
Wayne Lowrance (2010-05-16 21:42:34)
Quick review Chess Engines
Howdy, Rybka 4 Beta 5 is out for beta testing. It is much too early to draw conclusions regarding elo strength. So far it is not looking great.
Many of the bugs from R3 are at present in R5 beta. For example the tablebase bug, bishop under promotion still not fixed, 5.04/5.12 bug tree search is reportedly still there.
In addition It is said to have severe time problem.
This is a summary of what I have been reading. But, these reports are beta remember. So R4 may still be top program after release.
In the mean time Stockfish and fire are 2 programs that are right there with rybka3 and maybe a little stronger. On my computer testing R3 is still tops.
Now, there is a new program, Houdini is available. I downloaded it this morning and have been running eng-eng matches with R3, 2 threads. So far Houdini is holding it's own. You can download the program here.
http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm
I think CC players now have many equally strong engines available to help with their Centaur abilities and should be interesting to see the progressions Wayne
Wayne Lowrance (2010-06-02 01:57:19)
Rybka 4!
I am not trying to discourage anyone from buying R4, not at all, I purchased it.
I am just going by my quick blush testing, and I am not very impressed. I ran a 50 game match with fire 3.1.1 and the results were about equal.
You know guys, I would rate at R3+ as it has some of the annoying bugs fixed. BTH. I have not yet able to get"large Pages to work" should add up to 10 elo, but not on my comp which will be somewhat less. I will be happy to put the engine up for bronze games for evaluation, Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2011-03-31 19:50:04)
Segregation of Games on this Server
Finally, I just made a small update to solve this problem, now you may download chess finished games by 2 months periods, see:
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=search_games#chess_database
Please report bugs if any... Thanks!
Thibault de Vassal (2011-04-05 23:34:02)
Major update : Wikichess / hashtables
Finally....
Wikichess now supports hashtables, with some advantages :
- The program detects & manages transpositions by itself.
- If both players are rated over 2000, their moves will be automatically added in Wikichess if the move before is already in the database and if the line is not a transposition (still some work).
- By clicking "W" in the fast interface, the search is done by hashtable and no more by line, which returns better results.
So in a few months Wikichess should be much more useful than now :)
Please report any bug if you find ones... Thanks!
Thibault de Vassal (2012-04-15 13:53:20)
About Pinformant
Dear chessfriends,
Please receive my apologies for a stupid bug that happened yesterday (my entire fault). Some of you may have received an invitation twice for a new social network (pinformant.com) that is dedicated to help to promote FICGS on the internet [technically Pinformant is actually a part of FICGS]. That will not happen again!
A few words on this new website: Pinformant is a kind of "social browser" where it is possible to share and discuss full web pages (soon applications and games) displayed into a single page. It quite looks like a basic social network, but the display is quite new as far as I know - It is also a way to boost shared websites traffic instead of simply "stealing" their content.
Why this new website: I needed a website able to gather more people to have the means (thanks to advertisement) to make a better promotion for FICGS. So your help & participation is warmly welcomed anyway.
Any feedback is welcome as well! Thanks in advance.
Thibault de Vassal (2012-08-18 13:16:50)
FICGS backup is now ok!
Well, simple things are quite complicated sometimes (so many limitations on Linux) but finally the backup [site + database] works fine now...
Now the server can bug, crash, explode, whatever... I can completely reinstall FICGS in a few hours from most situations. There should not be more than 59 minutes of moves lost in the process.
- Complete backup every hour on a distant storage space.
- Complete backup every week on another distant storage space.
- Multiple database backup on the server (case of other problems)
- Moves incrementally sent to my email every 12 hours.
So, definitely the recent break shouldn't happen again... I hope so.
Garvin Gray (2012-10-07 19:13:36)
WCH Final match
>A lost position may be continued to avoid the first loss.
I had carefully considered this possibility. I will take an example from transfer/bughouse. When one player is about to be mated, they will stop playing that game, allowing their time to run out, in the hope that their partner will be able to mate the opposition before their own time runs out.
If both games in transfer reach a mate in one position, the side with less time on their clock with their turn to move loses as they will run out of time first.
How does this apply to the WCH?
Well, yes a player could stall on a game they think is lost, but then they would also be required to win another game to make up for it.
This could be a bit silly, but better than other options.
At least there is a sufficient reward for trying to win a game, which is the main objective of all this, to try and get the players to try and win as many games as possible.
>Maybe the tiebreak games must be played in faster time controls, and so on, like tiebreaks in OTB chess.
Not realistic on here. The faster the game , the more it becomes like freestyle/advanced chess and less like correspondence. Also, as is shown in otb, some players would prefer to try and win in rapids, so the solution of having rapid games could in fact increase the short draw odds because the players think, I would rather play a few rapid games, rather than a years worth of long correspondence games.
Thibault de Vassal (2013-01-23 19:30:49)
Show opponents time
Hi Garvin & George... feel free to tell me what you think of the current display.
Please report any bug if you notice ones :)
Garvin Gray (2013-01-24 15:42:35)
Show opponents time
Thank you for this feature. It is certainly beneficial.
No bugs so far.
Also nice that a forum suggestion has been implemented :)
Joerg Moormann (2014-01-22 15:08:06)
Bug? Mate but game not finished
Hi
I played 29.... Re3# at 18. Jan. 2014.
http://www.ficgs.com/game_77611.html
It's checkmate, but the server did not finish the game. What went wrong?
Thibault de Vassal (2014-01-24 19:41:31)
Bug? Mate but game not finished
The game has now ended! Thanks...
Gintautas Stulgis (2014-03-17 15:40:09)
Bug? Mate but game not finished
movies 30 K:c3 !! no checkmate
Thibault de Vassal (2014-03-18 22:32:05)
Bug? Mate but game not finished
What game please?
Scott Nichols (2015-08-04 18:39:05)
Improving netiquette rules
People who abuse etiquette rules, for example one that bugs me is when a player who is going to lose, just lets his clock run out. This NEEDS to be punished in public or private. Such as a one month suspension for EACH occurance
And IMO suspensions should be handed out here. But do it in stages, like one month, then 3 months and then permanent. It's up to Thib to decide if an infraction has occured.
Thibault de Vassal (2015-11-28 21:23:37)
repetition wrong in ficgs
Finally... the bug seems fixed! The game just restarted at the last position.
My sincere apologies for the inconvenience.
David Fierry Fraillon (2016-05-11 21:15:29)
Server crash (april 2016)
Can we put here some possible bugs ?
I had some save of my games times and the today version looks strange
Just tell it
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-11 21:24:01)
Bugs after the server crash
This is a discussion to report bugs after the server crash (april 2016)...
There are known minor bugs due to the system upgrade, it will be fixed soon but it's always good to know if there are others. Thanks in advance.
David Fierry Fraillon (2016-05-11 21:35:58)
Bugs after the server crash
New games times look strange to me :
I guess Thib has put a time increment to avoid the time lost during the server crash.
What i find strange (on my games only of course) :
- a player who it was not the turn to play also get the time increment
- on the tournament FICGS_CLASSE_A_000166 :
the increment seems to be 6-7 days more than it should be
A player who was on vacation get a 7+19 days increment. I think the solution in that case is to increase the number of vacation days instead.
I will check my other tournament and i'll be back
David Fierry Fraillon (2016-05-11 21:46:12)
Bugs after the server crash
Tournament FICGS_CLASSE_A_000170
- i 'm also finding that strange 7 days increment ina ally my games, for both player
The good news :
-that over day increment seems to be a constant
-no moves lost
-As you said the more than 100 days bug does not exist after playing one move
i played one move : it looks to be a good move :-)
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-11 21:46:55)
Bugs after the server crash
Yes, that is normal: I added 7 more days to everyone, this way if someone left or has no internet access during a while at the time FICGS reappeared, he shoud not lose any game on time.
I do this after any server crash.
David Fierry Fraillon (2016-05-11 21:47:31)
Bugs after the server crash
i think we can wait for the elo evaluation and the tournament winning e-points ...
just kidding ...
David Fierry Fraillon (2016-05-11 21:49:05)
Bugs after the server crash
ok that looks good then !!!
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-12 01:45:16)
Bugs after the server crash
Yes, unfortunately the emails issue must be solved before :( It could take some time. I'll let you know.
FICGS is now paused again, it is not possible to login for now.
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-25 21:37:17)
FICGS restarts (2016 May 25)
Hi everyone, nice to see you again, I missed our games :)
First of all, my apologies for this too long delay... I went through hell to try to fix these first major issues (emails & database compatibility) that were the consequence of the forced system update that followed the server crash of last month.
Unfortunately, internet protocols & languages are constantly evolving and FICGS is late on these changes. Added to the fact that databases, databases tables, database interface, database calls, PHP language, PHP files, content display, browsers (and I probably forgot ones) communicate with variable charsets, the result is that it is impossible to make FICGS (which uses both UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 according to the content) compatible with this system change in one shot...
Consequently, it will take a long time to make it right... Feel free to report any bug in the "Bugs after the server crash" discussion in this forum.
Thanks in advance! Have good games ;)
Sebastian Boehme (2016-05-26 01:01:09)
Bugs after the server crash
Maybe just a beauty bug, but in the My Games section where I can see the player names the so called special signs such as Umlaut ä,ö,ü or the accent aigu etc. are displayed as question marks.
I guess it's just a unicode thing to fix that, but I'll report it anyways I thought.
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-26 01:19:13)
Bugs after the server crash
Hi Sebastian! :)
Ah.... that's... interesting.
Could you copy-paste here a piece of the page and tell me (here or by email) what brower / system you use?
Thanks!
Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff (2016-05-26 16:46:13)
Bugs after the server crash
FRA S�gur, Laurine 8k
Found in the go and other waiting lists
Best, Heinz-Georg
Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff (2016-05-26 16:49:15)
Bugs after the server crash
... and in the rating lists:
Caire, Fran�ois
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-26 21:50:37)
Bugs after the server crash
Okay, Sebastian's & Heinz-Georg's bugs (if I can say it this way) are expected ones, it will be fixed within minutes.
Francois Caire (2016-05-27 00:13:25)
Bugs after the server crash
My opponent Sergey Zemlyanov has 6 days on his clock. Didn't everybody get 10 extra days?
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-28 00:16:29)
Bugs after the server crash
No, everyone got 7 extra days and players expected to move got 4 more days... so this is possible if you played your move yesterday.
Scott Nichols (2016-05-30 18:44:47)
Bugs after the server crash
I had no chess games going, maybe a good thing, but not really as I plan to get some going. But the poker seems to be working just fine, :)
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-31 19:52:16)
Bugs after the server crash
Glad to read that. Unfortunately, some bugs are much harder to solve in the shadow (the admin interface :)), that's why I can't update some things yet, like the "My messages" page.
Server administration is easy when it works fine already, otherwise... ^^
Ilmars Cirulis (2016-06-07 21:34:42)
Bugs after the server crash
Chess javascript viewer seems broken (visually).
Thibault de Vassal (2016-06-08 00:32:04)
Bugs after the server crash
Ah... can you test it with another browser? Which game did you test? (seems ok here)
Ilmars Cirulis (2016-06-08 04:50:34)
Bugs after the server crash
Can't reproduce the problem from this computer. It was fallen off lower row of chess board and some more problem with h1 square.
Today at the evening or tomorrow I will return to the computer where that happened and try to get some screenshot and more information.
Everywhere else it works okay. Yay for FICGS, nay for exploring this strange thing/bug. :)
Roger Llull (2016-07-01 23:05:21)
Bugs after the server crash
Seeing these ugly question marks since the crash on both Firefox and Chrome. Internet Explorer 11 shows ugly squares instead.
http://imgur.com/a/2rlJB
Francois Caire (2016-11-12 16:48:17)
Stockfish fixes memory leak in Syzygy
I tested it and after a 24 hour analysis in an endgame position, stockfish was using only 2.6 Gb of ram with 2Gb hash size.
http://abrok.eu/stockfish/
Author: Marco Costalba
Date: Sat Nov 5 07:55:08 2016 +0100
Timestamp: 1478328908
Rewrite syzygy in C++
Rewrite the code in SF style, simplify and
document it.
Code is now much clear and bug free (no mem-leaks and
other small issues) and is also smaller (more than
600 lines of code removed).
All the code has been rewritten but root_probe() and
root_probe_wdl() that are completely misplaced and should
be retired altogheter. For now just leave them in the
original version.
Code is fully and deeply tested for equivalency both in
functionality and in speed with hundreds of games and
test positions and is guaranteed to be 100% equivalent
to the original.
Tested with tb_dbg branch for functional equivalency on
more than 12M positions.
stockfish.exe bench 128 1 16 syzygy.epd
Position: 2016/2016
Total 12121156 Hits 0 hit rate (%) 0
Total time (ms) : 4417851
Nodes searched : 1100151204
Nodes/second : 249024
Tested with 5,000 games match against master, 1 Thread,
128 MB Hash each, tc 40+0.4, which is almost equivalent
to LTC in Fishtest on this machine. 3-, 4- and 5-men syzygy
bases on SSD, 12-moves opening book to emphasize mid- and endgame.
Score of SF-SyzygyC++ vs SF-Master: 633 - 617 - 3750 [0.502] 5000
ELO difference: 1
No functional change.
Thibault de Vassal (2018-01-25 01:53:48)
Conditional chess moves (again)
As you may have noticed, chess.js & chessboard.js are now integrated as an option in the viewer page...
But strangely, it seems there are some bugs in the PGN processing, or at least this 24.R2e1 in WCH game 98780 (Kruse-Riccio) should be ok with the "sloppy" option.
You can see the new feature here:
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=98780&auto=1
Thibault de Vassal (2018-02-13 20:07:32)
New FICGS app: beta test
After hundreds of bug fixes & improvements, it looks like a v1.0 now, compatible with most devices... Will be on the Play Store soon.
Any feedback welcome :)
Thibault de Vassal (2018-02-25 22:46:22)
New FICGS app: beta test
9 days after, it looks like that the hundreds (!) of known bugs & compatibility issues are now fixed !
Now, the Chess Trainer is also on Facebook... if anyone want to test it:
https://apps.facebook.com/chess_trainer/
Thibault de Vassal (2018-02-27 20:06:27)
New FICGS app: beta test
After a few bug fixes again, all 4 apps are now available on Facebook... See also:
https://apps.facebook.com/blindfold_chess/
https://apps.facebook.com/fischer_random/
https://apps.facebook.com/random_chess/
Chess 960 & Random Chess are really tough ^^
Thibault de Vassal (2018-04-07 20:01:26)
unable to play my move!
Hello Aniruddha, well that's the first time I see that strange bug. I don't understand yet how it happened but you probably entered it (meaning Ng4 I guess) in the text field rather than clicking the pieces.
I'll investigate to avoid this in the future. Meanwhile & unfortunately, according to the rules, this game must be declared as a win for your opponent. Very sorry about that.
Ilmars Cirulis (2018-04-07 20:29:08)
unable to play my move!
Maybe refunding rating points?
Like "you lost to software bug, so there's your compensation".
Aniruddha Duttagupta (2018-04-07 20:53:38)
unable to play my move!
Dear Mr Thibault,
First time this thing happened to me.I will be careful but kindly see non occurance of this type of software bug further.I lost some rating points unnecesarily in a game which was equal.Definitely it hurts!
Thibault de Vassal (2018-04-14 01:14:32)
unable to play my move!
Finally, after some investigation & tests I was able to reproduce the situation & find what most probably happened...
I think that the move you entered was e1-g1 (instead of e8-g8), this is the only one that was able to produce Ng1.
The bug is now fixed, it will not happen again but unfortunately, the rules prevail in this situation as the move was illegal.
My apologies anyway for this unexpected bug.
My best wishes,
Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2018-11-25 20:40:52)
cannot enter this tournament
(sorry for the forum bug, had to modify the topic name)
Yes, I fully understand your point here but this rule showed its efficiency over the years according to me.
Well, as you entered Big Chess A & B waiting lists already, I propose to delete your name from the B waiting list & add it to the M waiting list (so that the rule is not broken at the end). Is it ok for you?
Thibault de Vassal (2019-01-28 19:56:45)
I cannot make move in my Go games
Yes, sorry about that. I tried to fix a bug but created another one.
Is it ok now?
Thibault de Vassal (2020-07-25 20:17:38)
What is the longest game of Big Chess?
Thanks for reporting this bug. Just fixed the game, I'll take care about it.
Thibault de Vassal (2021-07-18 12:19:46)
3 times repetition not recognized ??
There is, but still buggy sometimes... it should detect the next occurrence anyway. Strange to see players declining such draw offers.
Thibault de Vassal (2021-09-27 23:39:15)
How to Accept a Draw in Chess
Hello Juri, thanks for reporting this, it looks like a bug... what game was it?
Juri Eintalu (2021-09-28 04:26:24)
How to Accept a Draw in Chess
Eintalu - Osipov
https://ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=132155
I really do not know whether it was a bug. I found from the Forum some old remarks that make a move to accept a draw. Also, I had programs working in my computer.
Thibault de Vassal (2021-10-21 00:29:15)
How to Accept a Draw in Chess
A first explanation to your problem with draw offers is that you use the "slow moves" process... not many players still use it. I think that this bug is not appearing in the "fast moves" process.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-01-04 02:00:57)
How to Accept a Draw in Chess
Well, obviously I re-created this bug a few weeks ago when making the update to allow players to block repeated draw offers... It seems to be fixed now.
Thibault de Vassal (2023-11-17 19:27:42)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
First of all, Russell Tribunal in Palestine was criticized:
"Judge Richard Goldstone, writing in The New York Times in October 2011, said of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine that "It is not a 'tribunal.' The 'evidence' is going to be one-sided and the members of the 'jury' are critics whose harsh views of Israel are well known. In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute."[34]
South African journalist and human rights activist Benjamin Pogrund, now living in Israel, described the Cape Town Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine as "It's theatre: the actors know their parts and the result is known before they start. Israel is to be dragged into the mud."[35]
After the Cape Town session, Israeli MK Otniel Schneller filed a complaint with the Knesset's Ethics Committee against MK Hanin Zoabi, who testified at the Tribunal that "Israel is an apartheid state".[36]
A group of Jewish South Africans protested against the court, and the organiser of the protest called it a "Kangaroo Court."[37]
Daniele Archibugi and Alice Pease have argued that it is a rather common practice that those accused of international crimes challenge the impartiality of their accusers. And it may be the case that the organisers of opinion tribunals, as of any other tribunal, might be biased or produce insufficient evidence. But to further develop the rule of law, those which are unsatisfied about the outcomes of these tribunals should be able to produce further evidence and legal arguments rather than unsubstantiated criticism. Legal discourse, they argue, is necessarily based on the opposition of contrasting views.[38] "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tribunal
A. T. S. Broekhuizen (2024-11-15 09:37:54)
stage 2 WCH 000028
I made some earlier post about this WCH. Now I was wondering when stage 2 of WCH 000028 would start (and if I would be in it ;)). I looked up the first stage tournaments of this WCH and I noticed that there seems to be a bug. For my group it says that there's only a leader and no definitive winner. Only by now all games have been completed. So it seems this is a bug, which potentially is the cause of the hold-up.
Stanislas Gounant (2025-05-17 22:45:27)
Changing in Poker game.
I play a poker Game and now when I watch the game, I only see the countdown of the clock I can't the the name of the player and is rating. Is it a good update or a bug
A. T. S. Broekhuizen (2026-01-21 10:17:50)
Ghost player
I have an opponent in a wch cycle who last connected to the server on Januari 18. But somehow his profile shows that his last move was on Januari 20. ,yesterday. I noticed this once before already against another player. Unless this is a bug, it's really shady.
Thibault de Vassal (2026-03-13 23:17:02)
Post-tickets FICGS
The long answer:
FICGS story is a quite simple & classic one, the reasons why it's declining are quite obvious, and unfortunately the solutions aren't. A bit of story:
1. Luckily, FICGS.com was created when there were a demand, just after IECG stopped... It grew very quickly, and I was in a rush to code it (FICGS was the very first dynamic website I ran from A to Z), there were ideas from everywhere. FICGS.com was the shortest domain name available, but not a so good one. Quite hard to remember, hard to tell, not clear for search engines (unlike chess.com which is a perfect one). Maybe it was a mistake to choose it, I can't tell. Either it meant "Free Internet Chess Games Server" or "Free Internet Correspondence Games Server", so I added another game, Go (Weiqi), to FICGS, which is a quite heavy decision: After that, FICGS is not only a chess server anymore.
2. A few years after, there are several thousands players (a few hundreds active). The number of new players slowly decreases month after month but a few sponsors come. Obviously, the way I coded FICGS made it more and more difficult to fully update from a PHP version to another one, or to change it in deep. Even now, I'm not sure to regret it though cause I couldn't have done it differently, so it is what it is. At this time, chess.com was less interesting than FICGS (my taste), but success is already here thanks to a perfect marketing formula: best domain name & pay for options. On the contrary, I chose to keep FICGS completely free.
3. Chess engines explode, correspondence chess continues its evolution (human's thinking decreases in moves decision), finally I add another game that is in a hype: poker texas holdem. New sponsors come, I still play correspondence chess myself but now I play another game even more: Google. FICGS also extends this way and it works in some ways. At its peak, FICGS is about the 32,000th most visited website worldwide. But the number of players continues to decrease, Android & phones started to change the landscape already. Chess.com released its app and added probably its best feature: a quick Stockfish analysis with evaluation & explanation for each move (which is excellent for blitz games but quite a non-sense for a correspondence chess website).
4. The number of players suddenly declines very quickly, I react by creating FICGS apps for Android, a dozen apps... On some apps, you can play against the machine, virtual opponents, chess 960, blindfold & so on. But the way to maintain it is not easy at all for many reasons, but the main one is that Google (Playstore) constantly change technical things & rules. After a few years, I even have to completely remake it, losing what was acquired. And some apps still fail to re-appear at Playstore, that's why I just made the APK files available to direct download. But these applications confirm something clear: blitz is more fun and attracts much more players. Changing rating ranges for correspondence chess tournaments or championships formats won't be a solution for this.
5. FICGS is now 20 years old! Internet completely changed over the years but it survived longer than Messenger, Skype & many other great services. If you look at many websites, new versions of their modern interfaces are often worst (bugs or options) than previous ones. FICGS was never perfect, maybe even clear, but at least it remained coherent. Now Google (just like all major services) is mainly governed by AI, sponsors left - that does not change anything, FICGS will continue to run. I created other websites, but none so far successfully helped in a way or another to solve the problem we encounter here: how to increase the number of correspondence chess, Go or poker players again? If FICGS becomes a pure correspondence chess site again with a brand new interface, I'm quite sure that wouldn't change anything or almost. I might be wrong of course, but according to me, this is a deep problem, connected to society evolutions, computers, phones, our attention, time, even health & so on... In my personal case, I wish to play correspondence chess again, but still cannot find the time to do it. Finally I have no idea what internet will look like within 5 years, but FICGS will be there. Maybe an AI will find a solution soon ^^ Meanwhile, I received many ideas to improve FICGS and I have to thank you very much for this. Few ideas were released for reasons I explained here (but new ones are always wecome), I hope you'll better understand it by reading this.
Have good games & take care!
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