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Back to forum 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 14:49:23) FICGS titles As you may have read on TCCMB forum, ICCF officials reacted when they learnt about FICGS titles. My idea was it first to be informative (titles from ICCF/IECG/FIDE), because I think players like to know who they play against, particularly if their opponents are titled. It seems obvious to me that FICGS titles are FICGS ones, not "official", not ICCF or FIDE.. even if words are quite the same (titles are FICGS IM, not IM). I would like to know what you think about that. Do you think FICGS titles should be renamed (ie. FEM, FIM, FSM, FGM), or do you think there's no possible confusion between FIDE/ICCF/IECG/FICGS titles ? This is an interesting debate I invite you to follow : http://pub11.bravenet.com/forum/924995304/fetch/552912/ Thank you for your advices. Per Lea (2006-04-08 23:15:01) Elo overlap I think the overlap is a great idea. The ratings may come from a lot of different sources and are therefore not necessarily compatible. My ICCF rating is 2136 (why I was given 5 extra points on FICGS, I cannot explain...), but my Norwegian OTB rating is 1631 or thereabouts. That number is probably more realistic.... Per Lea (2006-04-09 11:50:32) Vacations OK, Hannes, you're right. When you leave "The modern world" my comments no longer apply... And, by the way: I fully support the idea of some sort of "vacation". After all, not everyone is obsessed with chess 24 hours/day. There are other valuable things in life as well! Often, it can be fun just to relax, and forget all about difficult middle-games, irritating colleagues at work and the disappointments of your local football team and just go away - to Vanuatu (wherever that mey be) Per Lea (2006-04-09 21:51:02) Suggested improvement When clicking on "My games", only a list with one line representing each game should appear (as on ICCF, Chessfriend and I think all other servers I have encountered - and there are quite a few!) With many games running, a short overview is sufficient. Now I have to scroll down to a particular game, even though I only have 6 games running. I definitely think you should look to ICCF and Chessfriend to get some good ideas in this respect. Hannes Rada (2006-04-10 21:57:30) Job specification Generally speaking I am interested. But what about a job specification :-) To be honest, I've no idea about go ..:-) But I've experience in administrating a phpbb - Forum. Hannes Patrice Verdier (2006-04-10 22:19:36) Possibility Job I have been club chess president. I can organize tournaments, proceed rating calculator, write rules, doing relation with others organisation (ICCF, IECG,...). I have some ideas also for tournament with fee and prizes Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-11 05:18:57) FICGS council / staff About job specification, as I said, I would like FICGS to be a place that fits to the most, and not under a dictatorship (even mine :)), so the idea to create a council with all members who want to be part of it, voting all decisions relating server rules, tournaments, wch cycles, titles... (or simply opinion poll on the website ? or both...) The FICGS staff should be able to manage the server (registering new members, moderating the forum, referees...) Nothing difficult, just needs motivation. Most important is that it could completely work without me. Of course, if developers want to help, making a drag & drop interface ie. or improving whatelse..) About "go", we'll see later, Hannes :) (it's a fine game, you should learn !) Anyway I'll send an email to all players responding in this thread soon. We will discuss about that. Best wishes & thank you ! Marc Lacrosse (2006-04-11 10:36:45) Computer accounts ? Just an idea : as computer use is explicitly allowed on FICGS, it could be nice to offer chess program authors the possibility to have a "semi-official" account for their latest beta babies on FICGS. Some of them would surely like the idea of having quite a tough test against good correspondence players ... Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-11 13:23:44) CC players vs. Computers Hello Marc, the idea is good for sure, but I doubt developers would want to see their "beta babies" to achieve a 2000 ELO rating with pain :) If matches like CC GM - Engines are quite balanced, so would be a CC 1800 - Engines one... Anyway, if you know developers interested, we could envisage something in this way... Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-11 14:54:36) FICGS titles Hello to all. I would like to have players opinion ! As you may have noticed, I already changed FICGS titles to FEM, FIM, FSM, FGM. (not titles obtained elsewhere) Do you agree with titles appearing this way ? I thought several other ways : EFM, IFM, SFM, GFM, or only to mention norms obtained ! (not titles) At last, of course, we can suppress definitely titles from FICGS, a bad idea in my opinion. What do you think about that ? Thank you in advance for your responses. Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-12 09:14:24) Tournament formulas Hello to all. What do you think about the idea to create a SLOW tournament category ? Clocks could be 60 days + 10 days / move or 100 days + 100 days / 10 moves (very slow) ? Any idea or opinion ? Dinesh De Silva (2006-04-12 12:27:56) FEM,FIM,FSM,FGM I saw the rating list, with the title changes....Interesting idea......But what will the titles be called when some of us eventually gain FICGS titles? Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-12 12:46:22) FEM, FIM, FSM, FGM About titles obtained on FICGS, it would be the same ones. We have choice : We could add a special letter, from the organization the title comes from (very confusing I think : IIM.. IECG / ICCF) .. or consider EM, IM, SM, GM are "official" titles, and FEM, FIM, FSM, FGM are the other ones, including FICGS ones... Probably not perfect. Any idea ? Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-12 14:02:49) Solution... One solution could be to display titles from organizations in separated columns named FICGS, ICCF, FIDE, IECG etc... (as Chessfriend do) It's quite heavy for the rating list page :/ So the idea was to display the player's highest title only, and player is free to mention his titles in his own informations page. That's not a completely satisfying solution, I agree... Hannes Rada (2006-04-12 19:15:19) Titles >> One solution could be to display titles from organizations in separated columns named FICGS, ICCF, FIDE, IECG etc... (as Chessfriend do) It's quite heavy for the rating list page :/ So the idea was to display the player's highest title only, and player is free to mention his titles in his own informations page. I think that's the best idea. Maybe you can use smaller fonts, so that all information can be displayed on that page. Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-13 15:46:55) New Titles Hello Paul-Iosif. Interesting new idea. In my opinion, there are too many titles & titled players already from official & "non-official" organizations. I think this is a mistake from FIDE / ICCF they couldn't remedy anymore. Titles from other organizations and particularly IECG are not really a problem "more", cause they are hard to achieve (rare), but I don't think this could be so attractive for players. To get a title is a reward itself. Maybe even EM title shouldn't exist. But I think that ie. a KM title (over GM) could be an interesting idea ! Anyway, I'm ok with the commission idea, we'll vote that too. Another interesting & controversial idea is (as IECG do) titles not to be awarded for life ! If player's rating decrease, he could lost his title... but I don't think this is very fair. Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-14 04:54:25) Proposal from a visitor (anonymous) " >>> Hi Thibault Congratulations for the launch of your new CC server! I fully support your initiative and hope I will join very soon. Meanwhile I would like to share some ideas about the Ficgs Titles, which I also fully and unconditionally support. My proposal is to adopt/or "recognize" any title awarded by FIDE/ICCF/IECG as a FGM, FSIM, FIM, FEM titles. (e.g. not just IECG IM = FIM, but all others too). That is, a ICCF GM should be named FGM much as a FIDE GM, or IECG GM (or SIM, IM or EM for CC). There shouldn't be special treatment to those players with a title from FIDE/ICCF Then, to differentiate them, there could be a color scheme or a footnote explaining the procedence of the title: FGM (ICCF) ...FSIM (IECG) and simply FSIM for the truly SIM title obtained at FICGS. In adition, those players who do not have a title, but have norms either at FIDE/ICCF/IECG (my case ;) either will have them "homologated" (as the titles are) or better, when/if the title has been awarded later, his Ficgs title will be "updated" to the newly awarded title (by FIDE/ICCF/IECG), which must be the highest of them all (as in IECG SIM > ICCF IM > FEM ..etc) This way FICGS will be the first organization to homologate norms and titles in CC world ;) <<< " Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-16 18:33:01) Adjudication Déjà ? :) So, about games "obviously lost" (somewhat subjective), the council may decide special rules so that referees can grant games that drag out. What do you think is best ? That's a recurrent problem in correspondence chess, and an original policy could make the rating more accurate, as some players may finish "good games" very faster than others... Quite subjective indeed, and not obvious. Where's the limit ? Maybe correspondence chess players should first accept this idea that their "won" games may finish much later... Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-26 01:33:22) Finally... Less than 2 hours later, the second Class C tournament started :) I hope the first CHESS 960 tournament will begin soon. (Special tournaments category) See the Help section to see the start position. More about Chess 960 / Fischer Random on Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess Quad tournaments and other categories will appear later, but feel free if you have any idea for special events (teams from countries, other clubs or websites etc...) Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-01 14:27:08) "Repetition" Thinking about it... I like the idea where all start positions are the same in the whole tournament. Jose Carrillo (2006-05-05 00:25:09) Start positions In FRECC santioned events, we rather have each board be different within the same tournament. It favours even more creativity when each board is different, and no one can look at another board for ideas. Look at a sample FRCEC tournament: http://frcec.chess960.info/FischerCup.htm Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-12 07:49:43) Building groups I suppose the following method is quite reasonable... (if you have a better idea...) So, building WCH round-robin tournaments groups : Grading all players by elo. Starting from the middle of the list. The first 2 players, one above the middle, one below, play in the first group, the next 2 players in the second group, the next 2 in the third group etc.. Finally, elo average for each group shouldn't be far from each other. What do you think ? Dinesh De Silva (2006-05-14 07:43:13) An alternative to Cup Championship In my opinion, instead of a Cup Championship, perhaps a Knock Out Rapid Championship maybe more interesting!? This is simply an idea. (Otherwise, FICGS might begin to look too similar to other correspondence chess sites, don't you think?!) Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-14 16:07:16) "Blitz" cup... Thank you Heinz Georg, for the files you sent to me. Now I understand better the work and ideas of Reimund Lutzenberger in Chessfriend.com, a great experimentation field for sure... I first concluded some things not to do in FICGS WCH. In example, a player rated 2500 (even provisional rating from fide) shouldn't have to play in the first stage against a low-rated player in a world championship [but that could be possible in a cup tournament cycle]. So I'll add special rules for high rated players (who are not qualified for the WCH knockout tournament) to begin directly in a 2nd stage tournament... I agree with Dinesh, the aim is not to use the same formulas, even good ones. Anyway I think we can find new interesting (better :)) ones. But as the WCH is already a rapid tournament cycle, the CUP could be an unrated "blitz" (30 days per game with no increment, or even 10 days + 1 hour / move) knockout (2 games / match + playoffs) !! Something quite "brutal" and unfair between correspondence chess & classical rythms. What do you think ? Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-15 08:33:32) Team Championship In brief : The idea of a team championship is very good, but of course it's too early... Such a championship could be a 2 stages round-robin tournament with teams of 6 or 7 players. Bonjour Sébastien. Pourquoi discorde ? :) Au contraire... Pour le moment j'envisageais des matchs par équipe occasionnels (FICGS vs. fédération ou autre serveur de jeu). Le problème d'un championnat est qu'il soit représentatif, il serait donc souhaitable (dans le cas par pays) de pouvoir monter des équipes complètes (6 ou 7 joueurs) et que les plus forts joueurs trouvent un "intérêt" à défendre leurs couleurs (dépend de la popularité du serveur). L'idée est de toutes manières des plus intéressantes, mais le serveur doit gagner en confiance et en expérience sur la durée, il est encore tôt. Par contre je me demande comment se déroulerait un tel championnat... Un tournoi toutes ronde (round-robin) entre 5 à 9 pays, divisés par groupes, puis une phase finale ?! Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-15 11:05:57) Blitz cup Yes, time is the main problem. Correspondence chess don't give a large choice, it's difficult to vary rhythms. 10 days + 1 day per 4 moves (6 extra hours / move) could be more fair and we can avoid playoffs with the sudden death (similar to WCH knockout tournament). I like the idea of a violent, rapid and quite unfair (unrated) tournament. It could be quite popular. An advantage in a knockout (with 2 rounds) is that a few games will have to be played : 7 rounds means at most 14 games... If the number of players doesn't fit, the highest rated players could enter at stage 2. The winner could be qualified for the third stage of the WCH round-robin cycle. But there are potential problems. I don't find a good & fair algorithm to distribute players in a big knockout (chance is not a good idea, I think), and it could be a big work to organize such a tournament (& start games regularly) with 256 players or more... Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-15 13:48:57) Building groups / Qualifying Update for the method building round-robin tournaments groups : 1) Grading players by rating 2) Filling the groups. If there are 4 groups, #1 -> group 1, #2 -> group 2, #3 -> group 3, #4 -> group 4, #5 -> group 4, #6 -> group 3, #7 -> group 2, #8 -> group 1, #9 -> group 2 and so on... A clearest way. Finally, I came back to my first idea, in round-robin tournaments only one player should qualify for next stage (in case of equality, the highest rated). Not sure it's less fair, it's more logical and it rewards the rating obtained before... After all, even ICCF WCH final tournament designate a unique winner. Wch page has been updated. Dinesh De Silva (2006-05-15 13:49:57) Team Championship I like Sebastien Marez's idea, for a team championship somewhere in the near future. It could perhaps be termed FICGS Team World Championship. It's a good way of building camaraderie between chess players too! Dinesh De Silva (2006-05-15 13:53:13) Blitz Cup I think you're quite correct, Thibault! It seems conducting such a tourney has some practical problems. Nevertheless, it was good discussing ideas. Wayne Lowrance (2006-05-17 08:41:06) overall evaluation of this new site This mate problem on this site is a big problem. Only chess site I play on where you have won and it is not won until the player resigns. Secondly I am in a game where mate is in 2. but my opponent has stopped playing. Many others are reporting the same thing. The idea is nice, it assumes that all players are good sports. Over all I would say many players here are not considerate of their opponents, and it is a reflection of their charachter. I dont think to much of the moderaters or those who are responsible and have taken a no action stance despite many complaints. Moderator or responsible authority take care of this ridiculous policy Regards Wayne Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-19 02:15:13) Amici sumus Hello Wayne. I agree, of course, your game was won. Here the problem is not the checkmate rule, it is about the adjudication of a forced win or draw ! Clearly, there's no perfect solution. There will be some abuses, more or less important ! One can't prevent this... Rules (particularly time rules) mean abuses. But don't forget that if a player abuses, it doesn't mean all players do the same intentionally in such a situation. I don't know if your opponent really stopped to play... (what for ? .. you'll get the point anyway) Maybe he just had other things to do these days... Who knows ? Even if this is not the case, it could have been ! It is the same problem (in the forced mate case) everywhere, there's simply nothing else to do than wait, then call referee when a time limit is reached. There's no other reasonable rule ! (and it would be too much work for referees) Understand me, I don't say it was not an abuse, I just say there's no solution. If I change the rule, there will be abuses in another way ! There will be abuses anyway... Nevertheless, if you have an idea, I'll read it with interest. Respectfully. Trent Parker (2006-05-19 08:04:48) My Overall evaluation of this new site I really like this site. I like the format of the tournaments, I like the fact that the number of games one can play are not limited. I like the idea of the best game function, however i do not think it is properly utilised (I have aired my ideas on this elsewhere....) I personally think the resign for checkmate rule is ok, although none of my games have gotten that far yet. After all a) this does not limit the amount of games that you can play on this site and b) your opponent will run out of time anyhow. So what is the difference? You are going to get the point anyhow. I have the following criticisms: I am on Dial up. This site is very slow to play on, very time consuming with the amount of games that i am up to. would it be possible to... I dunno... make it like a javascript or something, just to speed it up a bit. Or perhaps even make the submit button further up the page a bit? Often i have gone out of a game thinking that i have made the move when i have forgotten to click the submit button. (By the way this site would be excellent if i had broadband but i don't.) I may have some more comments later on but at the moment i've said enough. Thanks for this site Thibault! Trent Parker Pablo Schmid (2006-05-22 22:49:47) Wiki The Wiki is a very good idea, but I think it would have more success and it would be great if there was not a problem with transpositions. Is it possible to fix that soon? Ryaad Aabid (2006-05-23 22:48:14) why I have right to vote for my game ?! I think it is better for the player hasn't vote for a game where he was an opponent in that game ! Why I don't let others to vote for one of my games as best ? I have myself done this mistake , but thenafter the mentioned idea has come to my attention :-) Per Lea (2006-05-24 10:14:43) Elo list no longer searchable by country The idea to have flags in the rating list looked like a nice feature at first, but the disadvantage is that it is no longer possible to do a quick serach for players from a specific country. For example, it is interesting to find out if there are any new memebers from your own country. So, instead of letting the computer search for "NOR", I now have to manually read through the complete list. A good alternative would be to let the members sort the rating list by country and name (as on Chessfriend.com) Ryaad Aabid (2006-05-26 22:46:10) Go Tournament (forfeit) I have applied to this tournament without reading its rule,that I unfortunately have no idea.I am an old player :-) Therefor I should say SORRY to all players in this tournament - not my interest ! I thought it is some chess tournament with different system ! Please remove my name if it is possible , otherwise I should resign all my games in this tournament. Kind regards Ryaad Aabid Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-29 23:07:25) Value of the pieces... That's exactly what I was thinking about before allowing you to exchange your bishop against two pawns... Actually, I've no idea about it :) Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-31 11:36:44) Hall of fame Hello Wayne. That's true... I was thinking about that but no quite good idea yet. We could list all tournament winners at the bottom of 'Hall of fame' page. It would be difficult to apply a 'ticket' system so that tournament winners can entry a higher class tournament. (and there's no obligation to copy other organizations rules...) Anyway, finished tournaments will be announced regularly. If you have another idea... Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-01 06:17:28) FICGS go rules + quick link Hello Tom. You have 30 days + 1 day / move ! About the 'quick link', that's a good idea, I'll think about that. Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-01 21:25:04) Discrepancies It is very clear Lionel. In another hand, each tournament rules and generally each situation influence the strategy at chess (so other games). And FICGS chess wch rules are special ones in the knockout tournament that should avoid draws. Actually, only a "one game match" can have no influence on 'the game'. (not perfectly true, as the player's strength is another factor) Rules are flexible, particularly for the game of Go, so I think we can use even uncommom ones, if it is balanced enough (= there's still a challenge). Do you have an idea about this rule avoiding repetition, how many stones or komi it could be worth ? Another question : Are there situations that look like zugzwang in Go (where the best move could be 'passing') ? Dinesh De Silva (2006-06-06 05:11:01) Trent, Here's An Interesting Question! Trent, IF future teams are named after countries, under what country would I fall?!??? (As I'm from Sri Lanka, and as far as I know I'm the only player actively playing on FICGS, ICCF, IECG etc). Then the only option would be for me to play under another country's banner, eh?! Quite an interesting idea, I might say! Dinesh De Silva (2006-06-06 11:17:47) Good Suggestion! Paul, That's a very good idea too! Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-06 16:40:04) Team championship Many good ideas... :) I'll post a news soon, inviting players who want to lead their country team to give me an email where they can be contacted by players. So far, the rules : - The leader of each team should be from the country he's playing for. - If several players ask to lead the same team, the current chess rating will decide. - Leaders will choose candidate players for his team and the "board" (1, 2, 3 or 4) they will play. - Players from any country can play with another country team. (all players can play for only one team) Marc Lacrosse (2006-06-06 23:16:56) No national teams here ! I left my own national federation and the whole ICCF system partly because I find those national teams championships at most boring and uninteresting and at worst reminiscent of some of the worst 20th century nationalistic concepts. Why should we have national teams here ??? ... to confirm that France is larger than Feroe islands and smaller than China ? This is pretty ridiculous IMHO. I can't see anything interesting in this idea. Dinesh De Silva (2006-06-07 06:59:09) Interesting Debate! Hi, everyone It's quite an interesting debate......regarding whether to name teams after countries or not. Marc, for players like you and I, perhaps we could find some sorta compromise if the team rules allow it. As Thibault says, the problem is that even though our (small)countries hardly have any players interested in correspondence chess to form national teams, playing under another national/country banner is kinda a unique situation (IF allowed). It all depends on whether future FICGS team championship rules might allow it or not. Any creative ideas/suggestions left to make?! Marc Lacrosse (2006-06-09 09:21:54) I cannot understand ... To Trent Parker : you say : "I think the teams should be geographical at least" This is really something that I cannot even understand. In which way is my way of playing correspondence chess related to the place where I live or where I am born??? Is my kind of play "belgian" ? Or is it "brown-haired", or "butter-cooked", or ... Why shouldn't I be allowed to find a few friends from all over the world that play the same kind of unusual openings than myself to build a team ? IMHO this kind of team could well have a better signification than a one made of chess players of the same country or of the same geographical region. Anyway the idea itself of "correspondence chess teams" is completely strange for me. Does it mean that collaboration between members for the choice of the moves is allowed ? This is at the exact opposite of what I feel to be the minimum requirement for a meaningful correspondence chess competition to survive : anything allowed (books, computers, databases) except human advice, and at least one single human name alone identified as the single "author" of the moves ... So, why teams at all... Marc Dinesh De Silva (2006-06-09 17:55:32) Good debate regarding team championships Thibault, it was good discussing these ideas. I too think that postponing team championship might be a good idea, until some of the issues have been sorted out and some sorta common concensus is reached. Thibault de Vassal (2006-06-13 18:28:54) FICGS chess world championship 1 & 2 Hello to all. FICGS chess world championship deadline (2006 june 15) is 2 days far from now ! Here is the scheme, allowing all players who registered to start playing at the same time, without loosing the opportunity for new players to register at a later date : As 2300+ players will enter the cycle at stage 2, the idea is to start 1st (from stage 2) and 2nd (from stage 1) world championship at the same time. Thus, all tournaments will begin at the fixed date for all players who already registered, then a new deadline will be fixed (probably in august/september), and all players registering late for chess wch would begin a tournament each time there's enough new players in the waiting list, with the condition that the ELO average of these new tournaments be equal or superior (as few as possible) to the tournaments that began on June 15. And good luck to all... :) Gino Figlio (2006-07-04 01:07:56) Symmetrical games The format used(8-game match with simultaneous games, 4 white and 4 black) brings up the issue of avoiding symmetrical games. I don't see a perfect way of doing this other than being conscious of the problem, and trying to deviate early on. If I see an opening chosen by my opponent that I am also planning to use, I have waited to respond in one(or more) of the games, until the position reached a point where I would normal deviate, and choose an alternate move with the opposite colour. Anyone else with better ideas about how to avoid this problem? Gino Figlio (2006-07-04 19:08:38) 8-game matches Just to clarify my position about this format, I think it's just fine if the players are alert and avoid playing symmetrical lines/games. I actually think it's a good idea to play a simultaneous 8-game match to see who's better. It's just a bit different than your normal round-robin tournament, perhaps that makes your site unique! Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-04 20:15:35) 8-game matches John... ??? :) Vladimir Kramnik - Peter Leko (match for WCH classical title) Vladimir Kramnik - Deep Fritz... Of course it is desired... Who will remember the names of the players in the last ICCF final tournament ? Even if ICCF doesn't use this format, and (as you say) serious CC players didn't have the opportunity to play such tournament, knockout format is still desired. My first idea was a pure enormous knockout tournament, but it's obviously not possible (too much rounds, a time problem), that's why I thought about this combined system. Now look at the chess world : Many players don't understand why FIDE progressively reduces the number of games and time controls in WCH matches. It is the main reason why FIDE world champion title looses value. Not hard / accurate, not spectacular enough !! .. What many players (me, at least :)) expect is a classical world championship with a big final match. You may have noticed that FICGS champion will have the opportunity to defend his title in a... 24 games match against his challenger... (!!) That's real fight, that's real challenge and that's what I expect to see from a championship, a big opposition between 2 players, and not a round-robin more or less aleatory, with too much names, not understandable for the most. Now, as we said on TCCMB : FICGS is not "official" matter, chess is for fun here, but chess must be a show and I'm convinced it is relevant in correspondence chess too. We'll see that ;) John Knudsen (2006-07-06 06:41:08) Leave/Reflection Time Hi Thibault: I understand this now - thanks. And I like the limitation on accumulated reflection time - this is a great idea. Still, the stated reflection time was given as 30 days +1 per move, and when you are on leave, you are not moving. To award an extra day reflection time on days that you do not more (i.e., vacation) is not logical at all. Your reflection time should remain unchanged from the day that you last moved. Any smart guy that has not used leave, and is running out of time on his games will just take his 30 days leave, and presto - he has 30 days more reflection time. This possibility, by itself, makes the reflection time a joke, in my opinion. John Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-10 01:24:28) Limit for one move Hello Alarich. The rule is the same for all time controls : Limit is 60 days for one move, appearing between brackets if this time is inferior to total time for the game. The idea was first not to constraint players. (so there's practically no limit but the total time in WCH time control : 30 days + 1 day per move) Josh Knapp (2006-07-10 06:03:03) yes Thibault, That is exactly what I mean. I find them very useful. Espically when you are trying to develop a complicated plan. It is nice to write/type it down so that if you can't end up coming back to the game for a week, you can have some idea of what you were trying to do. Henri Muller (2006-07-10 14:02:17) Football W.Ch.2006 Rideau !! Italie Championne du Monde !! TRES bien !! Mais quelle belle "sortie" de MONSIEUR Z.Zidane. Sans aucune excuse. Inadmissible ! à ce niveau, à ce stade et comme professionnel!! Quel bel exemple aussi pour les jeunes !! Heureusement que l'Italie a gagné finalement. Gino Figlio (2006-07-11 03:59:17) Leave Hi Thibault, Everyone has their own opinion about this. Do what you think it's best. My opinion: If you want to mimic the ICCF method, don't allow play during leave and change to programming to freeze the clock when a player takes leave, therefore not adding the leave time to the reflection time. If you want to continue with your original idea of adding the leave to the reflection time, then add only 50% of the time, since the clock stops for the player on leave when the opponent is on move anyway. You may suggest players to take leave after they make a move, in order to take maximun benefit. Other ideas related to preventing players from dragging out lost games/positions would be to establish a lower limit for leave time say of 7 days; preventing players from going on/off leave multiple times; to prevent exceeding the reflection time. Another approach would be to try to regulate more the higher limit of time per move, by allowing players to take 30 days per move only once, 20 days per move 3 times, 10 days per move 9 times..etc. you can change the numbers to fit your desire but you get the idea. Best, Gino Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-12 23:12:46) Delay before tournament start Hello Rodrigo. I think your idea looks like very much the system used in email chess. I just wanted to make it easier to understand. Quite strange to make moves and have no days added to the clock. "Official" and "non-official" start for a tournament is a thing we can avoid. That's the main reason of this time control 30 days + 1 day/move. Don Groves (2006-07-14 02:59:50) Time limit per move I feel there should be a firm limit (I would like to see 10 days) and a penalty for exceeding it: (1) Subtract one day from offending player's clock for each day over the limit. (2) If limit is exceeded more than double, game is forfeited. If player cannot abide by these time constraints, they should take leave (or perhaps play in fewer games ;-) Also, I agree with the idea of no moves at all during leave. Leave is leave from FICGS, not just from one game or tournament. Regards to all, Don Wayne Lowrance (2006-07-14 23:08:11) Private notes a nice idea....Wayne Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-15 13:21:58) Time limit per move The idea is interesting, however it could be difficult to display the remaining days (confusing)... About the 60 days limit, I think there are clear advantages, and the bad effects are not so important if you consider there's no real way to prevent a player to last a game and the rating period of 2 months. The point that makes it difficult to compare to other organizations is some FICGS rules are harder : All lost games are rated, forfeits or not... I think this rules takes off some pressure. And many players can't assume regular play. Players who think 60 days per move is too long may play only rapid tournaments... Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-19 02:54:06) Search : commented games I've added a link in the 'Search games' page to find all games commented by players... First comment made by David is very eloquent ;) Feel free to tell me if you have ideas of criterias to search games. Also added in the 'Search games' page : search by opening. Now 3 ways, this new one, Wikichess, and the form below the menu (improved). Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-23 19:54:58) Chess thematic tournaments Hello to all. The 7th chess thematic tournament (waiting list is open) may be a very interesting challenge... The opening : 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 Ng8 3.e4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Ng8 Is it a lost position or not, you can try to respond ! (it is at least very hypermodern style, but is there a name for such a manoeuvre ? :)) There are many other ideas of openings, but you can make suggestions for future thematic tournaments. Previous ones : FICGS__CHESS__THEMATIC_TOURNAMENT__000001 King's gambit (winner : Josef riha) FICGS__CHESS__THEMATIC_TOURNAMENT__000002 Wing's gambit FICGS__CHESS__THEMATIC_TOURNAMENT__000003 Benko gambit FICGS__CHESS__THEMATIC_TOURNAMENT__000004 Orang-utan FICGS__CHESS__THEMATIC_TOURNAMENT__000005 Danish gambit FICGS__CHESS__THEMATIC_TOURNAMENT__000006 Scotch gambit Benjamin Aldag (2006-07-23 22:52:39) New Ideas Here my Wishlist: 1. Dzindzi Indian (1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 f5) 2. Helloween Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5) Benjamin Aldag Don Burden (2006-07-25 01:25:39) Handicap moves? The idea may be a new way to offer a handicap to lower rated players. Maybe for each rating difference of 200 points, the higher rated player must play two moves moving the g8 knight to f6 & back (g1 knight to f3 & back if playing white). To be fair, the lower rated player should not be allowed to capture or give check during each two move sequence of the knight. Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-25 01:51:34) Handicap moves That's an idea... Actually I don't think many players (benefiting of the handicap moves) with a 200 points lower rating would be interested, cause it's quite "risky" to play with an advantage. If you win, that's just normal, if you loose (even draw): that's a big defeat. Such matches may be interesting for both masters (2400+) and amateurs (1600-), maybe even in a simultaneous context, so that draws could satisfy everyone. Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-26 20:46:02) New profile feature : Photos :) Just added this new feature in 'Preferences'. You can now upload a photo... (JPG format, 100 ko max) Thanks to Dinesh for the idea (indirectly). By the way, for live video chat you can use other services... :) (we are still there to play chess ;)) Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-02 23:07:36) Adjudication, forced mate & rules Hello Marc. According to the rules, the game has been adjudicated. I think this is a good moment to discuss this adjudication rule.. (see 11.5 - http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html) Surely it can be improved, but how.. I'd like to have players opinion on what cases (position + time) should be adjudicated or not, so that we find a better & fair compromise. Any ideas ? Thibault Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-08 12:09:40) Suggestion (sponsors) Hi Dinesh. I'm looking at everything of course, it would be great to get sponsors and prizes for free tournaments ie. WCH... The more success, the more chances, so still working. It will take time anyway... In a near future : Tournaments with entry fees & money prizes should start in October, I have many new ideas to make it attractive for the most, titled players as beginners, and it should bring something to the whole site. Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-13 20:39:42) List unfinished games I was just thinking about a link to see all boards of the tournament on one page (quite heavy)... It could be interesting combined with your idea. Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-14 19:39:28) Activities on the FICGS server I'll think about that. I have to make a "static" statistic page anyway... Inactive players Active chess players Active Go players Any other ideas ? Benjamin Aldag (2006-08-22 17:48:09) I prefer the following Gambit Ok, here my idea, for one of the following thematic tourneys. The Goering Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.c3 dxc3 5.Nxc3 This Gambit is full of great tactical play. Benny Pablo Schmid (2006-08-22 19:47:43) another ideas The latvian gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5), The elephant gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5) The Cochrane gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7) The Frankenstein-Dracula variation of the Vienna defense :) Etc. Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-22 19:52:28) Thematic tournaments & King's gambit Danish gambit and scotch gambit have been played already. (not far) FICGS__CHESS__THEMATIC_TOURNAMENT__000005 FICGS__CHESS__THEMATIC_TOURNAMENT__000006 I'll keep the idea... Where did you see that king's gambit is not playable ??? Disproved doesn't mean anything IMO... (& this is probably the most known chess 'troll' :)) Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-23 14:28:39) Private messages Hi Don. A way is to leave a public comment... I'm thinking about a funny and efficient way to "connect" players (who want to be). Not so easy... All ideas welcome :) Benjamin Aldag (2006-08-24 13:00:07) Premove ? Hi, a premove-feature would be very nice, were i can klick on my opponents figures and tell the interface > If my opponent play THIS, then i play THIS. Good idea or bad idea ? Benny Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-24 13:31:19) Premove (conditional moves) Hi Benjamin. Conditional moves was one of the first features expected and discussed here... I'm still not sure it is a good idea. Of course it may save time in forced sequences, but there are some controversial issues (see previous discussions with Glen about chess servers) about time and holidays. Anyway, the truth is it's a major change, and I've too many things to do right now :/ Benjamin Aldag (2006-08-26 01:37:37) "NEW" Opening Idea ! Hello, i would be very happy, to see the following line in a thematic opening tourney: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 Nxe4 8.0-0 0-0! ok folks, i am searching for this line in my database and found just a handfull games, played by low rated players. I am searching in many books for this line, but i found nothing ! I've analysed this line and i believe, this line is good for BLACK ! What do you think about this line ??? Do you see more than me ? Do you have any GM-Commentary about this line ? Maybe in an ebook or something else ? Please help me to find the answer, why this line is never played by some very good players. It would be helpful, to start a thematic-tourney'bout this nice line. Benny Don Burden (2006-08-26 18:51:54) Opening Idea I'd say it is a fairly big advantage to black. He's a solid pawn up and threatens to win another. Found two games in my database with higher rated players: [Event "ICCF MN/12 corr"] [Site "ICCF corr"] [Date "1995.06.30"] [Round "?"] [White "Majewski, Jan"] [Black "Chorvat, Marian"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C54"] [WhiteElo "2335"] [BlackElo "2305"] [PlyCount "122"] [EventDate "1995.??.??"] [Source "www.chesslib.no"] [SourceDate "2006.04.01"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nxe4 8. O-O O-O 9. d5 Bxc3 10. bxc3 Ne7 11. Re1 Nf6 12. d6 Nf5 13. Ba3 Nxd6 14. Bxd6 cxd6 15. Qxd6 Ne8 16. Qd5 Nf6 17. Qd6 Ne8 18. Qd2 d6 19. Ng5 Nf6 20. Rad1 d5 21. Bb3 h6 22. Ne4 Bg4 23. Nxf6+ Qxf6 24. f3 Qb6+ 25. Qd4 Be6 26. Bxd5 Bxd5 27. Qxb6 axb6 28. Rxd5 Rxa2 29. f4 Rc8 30. Rd3 Rc2 31. Ree3 Ra8 32. h4 Raa2 33. Rg3 Rd2 34. Rde3 Kf8 35. Re4 b5 36. Re5 Rab2 37. Rc5 b4 38. Rc8+ Ke7 39. cxb4 Rxb4 40. Rxg7 Rxf4 41. Rh7 Rf6 42. Kh2 Ke6 43. h5 Rd5 44. g4 Rd4 45. Kg3 Rd3+ 46. Kg2 Rd6 47. Re8+ Kd7 48. Rf8 Ke7 49. Rhh8 Ke6 50. Re8+ Kd5 51. Re7 b6 52. Rf8 Rf4 53. Kg3 Rdf6 54. Rc8 Rf3+ 55. Kg2 Rf2+ 56. Kg1 R2f4 57. Rg8 b5 58. Re3 b4 59. Kg2 Kd4 60. Rb3 Rb6 61. Kg3 Rf1 0-1 [Event "ICCF MN/12 corr"] [Site "ICCF corr"] [Date "1995.06.30"] [Round "?"] [White "Mathias, Manfred"] [Black "Chorvat, Marian"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C54"] [WhiteElo "2370"] [BlackElo "2305"] [PlyCount "110"] [EventDate "1995.??.??"] [Source "www.chesslib.no"] [SourceDate "2006.04.01"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nxe4 8. O-O O-O 9. d5 Bxc3 10. bxc3 Ne7 11. Re1 Nf6 12. d6 Nf5 13. dxc7 Qxc7 14. Qb3 d5 15. Bd3 Be6 16. Rb1 b6 17. Qc2 g6 18. Bb2 Ne8 19. Re2 Neg7 20. Rbe1 Rfe8 21. Qd2 Nd6 22. c4 dxc4 23. Qc3 f6 24. Bxg6 hxg6 25. Qxf6 Qf7 26. Rxe6 Qxf6 27. Rxf6 Rxe1+ 28. Nxe1 Re8 29. Nf3 Re2 30. Be5 Nf7 31. Bd4 Re6 32. Kf1 Rxf6 33. Bxf6 b5 34. Bc3 Ne6 35. h4 Nf4 36. a3 Nd5 37. Bb4 a6 38. g3 Kg7 39. Ke2 Kf6 40. Ba5 Nd6 41. g4 Nb7 42. Bd2 a5 43. Bg5+ Kg7 44. Ne5 c3 45. Kd3 b4 46. Kc4 Nb6+ 47. Kd4 Nc5 48. axb4 axb4 49. f3 Nd5 50. Nc4 Ne6+ 51. Kd3 Nxg5 52. hxg5 b3 53. Na3 Kf7 54. f4 c2 55. Nxc2 Nxf4+ 0-1 Elmer Valderrama (2006-08-27 11:17:48) opening idea ..aparently everyone was/is impressed by the game Spielmann-Cohn, Carslbad 1907... --> White get such a big advantage in development that it's hard to think Black will get away with anything best than a draw here.. Mikhail Ruzin (2006-08-30 18:14:32) Opening Idea What about 15. Bd5 in the first game (Majewski-Chorvat)? Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-06 17:08:56) Other games on FICGS ? Hello to all. Just wondering... after Chess, Chess 960, Go and Big Chess (soon available, as the graphical interface works better now) what other games you'd like to see here in the future ? FICGS is firstly a correspondence chess server, without any doubt, but that's great to see chess players discovering Go game this way. I have been told about Chinese Chess (Xiangqi), Shogi, Blokus.. Maybe not Draughts, as it is a solved game now. Any ideas ? Dinesh De Silva (2006-09-07 13:12:14) Re: Best game...... Thibault, I think that's a good idea! ( There are hundreds & hundreds of chess players at IECG, but only a handful seem to be voting! ) Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-10 14:13:09) Re: Best game prize Hi Dinesh ! Of course, there are many things like this to envisage.. ie. Wch prizes. It will all depend on money tournaments (working on) & eventual sponsors. However, I'm not so favourable to such suggestive results... We'll see. If the idea is plebiscited in the future, I just say why not... Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-10 14:31:47) Sudden death games ! Hello to all. Does someone have any idea about chess openings that would give White 50% chances to win & Black 50% chances to win OR draw, or reverse ? (in absolute, not ie. blitz statistics) Thinking about 1.e4 Nf6 2.d4 Ng8 or 1.Nf3 d5 2.Ng1, in examples... but it's hard to know. Databases can't help much as very few games with obvious errors have been played. So mad gambits could be real challenges to play & analyze, with no draws at the outcome... Your feelings ? Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-11 00:26:57) 1.b4 Hello Ulrich. 1.b4 is not bad enough :) The idea is to organize ie. money matches (with only 1 game) & tournaments where draws can't happen. So it's important to have about 50% chances at a high level. Just an idea. Maybe normal start positions with a pawn less could work... Dinesh De Silva (2006-09-11 05:32:27) Re: Well, maybe a better idea might be to not allow d4 opening or e4 opening or Nf3 opening, and to allow other openings. Then there maybe a better chance for a result. Gino Figlio (2006-09-11 13:45:43) OTB idea Why not for a 1-game match, use the OTB tie-breaking idea of black winning with the draw but starting with less time on the clock, 20% less in a fast time control match? Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-11 13:49:05) OTB idea Hi Gino. I thought about that, but it seems really unfair.. It depends too much on player's availability, so chances wouldn't be equal for sure. Dinesh De Silva (2006-09-11 14:23:17) Re: Only board games are considered?!? What about some other stuff..... like Bridge (cards) or solving tough riddles (riddles championship)?! Just an idea, of course. Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-12 03:42:57) Match FICGS vs. GameKnot Dear chessfriends, a match FICGS vs. GameKnot may start in a few weeks ! The idea is to oppose players in different rating categories (1200 to 2400+ elo), playing one game with Black on FICGS, one game with White on GameKnot.com ... Please send an email to info (at) ficgs.com (specifying your name) if you're interested. More info in a few days & weeks... It seems that many players from GameKnot want to play this match, we need a large team ! :) Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-12 12:55:06) Scoring function for Go Hello to all. I'll add in a few days a scoring function for Go games. Players could retire dead groups, then the program just covers the board (line after line & column after column to compare) and adds empty spaces points to the stones that surround it. The aim is to give an evaluation of the position only, not to decide the result automatically. Just tell me if you have an idea about a better algorithm, as I realize the difficulty of programming Go. Thanks in advance ! ;) Elmer Valderrama (2006-09-15 19:59:46) two moves from the start Interesting idea, Thibault, for having a winner in just one-game match. (I mean of course giving clear advantage to White from the start in a must-win game (any other result would be failure). In this same line of thought, I would suggest to give White two consecutive starting moves (no captures allowed), W player chooses which are those two moves ( 0.e4 1.d4 or 0.e4 1.Nf3 or 0.e4 1.Bc4 or why not 0.e4 1.Qh5!? or whatever ) However, in all cases where White is giving a significant advantage at start, I believe, White has a 2/3 (66%) chance to win, and 1/3 (34%) to draw, so that in a match a strong player with White should go the next round. (assuming he has played the best two consecutive moves and then mantained the advantage all the way --although with the current wonderful defending capabilities of the engines it could add some serendipity to the game ;) Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-15 20:17:44) two moves from the start "White has a 2/3 (66%) chance to win, and 1/3 (34%) to draw" ?? ... you mean "to draw or loose" ? Great idea, this move 0. Statistically, this is quite the same for : 1.Nf3 d5 2.Ng1 ... but 66% wins for Black seems a lot !? .. I would say about 40 to 50%, maybe less. So, what chances for 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 Ng8 .. ? And what about 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 Ng8 3.e4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Ng8 .. ? :) Thomas Gilbreath (2006-09-18 01:03:29) Thibault If possible, could you post the names and ratings of those players from FICGS who are interested in playing against GameKnot? I would like to go ahead and get some idea of the pairing possibilities. Thanks:) Thomas Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-18 14:00:30) FICGS vs. GameKnot Thomas : I agree with you, the match is for fun only, I like the idea whatever the result, even 100-0 :) .. If players use engines, their problem.. we can't avoid the risk totally... I think it's more logical to prohibite databases too or to allow both databases and chess engines, playing "real correspondence chess", and we could have a larger team for sure... Still discussing. Miguel : I prefer to avoid to "mail" everyone about the match.. It's clearly announced in the news, so I think most players here are "more CC ones" and don't trust the no use of engines... Marc Lacrosse (2006-09-19 11:45:18) A tool for knowing each others' chess In the "classement" page (the one that lists all current members), it could be nice to have two additional columns : Finished games Running games giving the number of games the player is involved with And (ideally?) clicking on one of the numbers could lead to a listing of the corresponding games in PGN? :-) It could be a nice tool for knowing who is who, who plays what, who is active or not. Your opinion ? Marc Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-20 02:07:42) Traxler thematic tournament The waiting list is filled already for this 14th thematic tournament ! .. The last player who entered is Benjamin Aldag :) (Benny, this is not reasonable ;)) This opening was definitely a good idea :) Thanks, Ron. Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-25 00:08:52) How about two matches? Hello Marius. That's a good idea... but it seems that players at GameKnot are really against computer use in such a match. Anyway, that's probably better like that.. Teams will be quite low-rated, more friendly, more fun :) Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-29 03:40:57) Re: A small Go help Hi Don. That's a very good idea but I have to think about that. The program avoids to read all moves in order to display the goban. First priority is to save time processing... This change would add some work. But that's right, it would be better. To be continued. Benjamin Aldag (2006-09-30 15:57:58) e4-Line ! The e4-Line is the only line, which gives white the possibilit |