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Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-12 11:24:03)
FEM, FIM, FSM, FGM

What do you think about all titles not from FIDE / ICCF to be renamed with 'F' letter added. I tried to add 'I' for IECG, but this is really not convenient for the eye... :/ (see the new rating list)

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 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.

Håkon Anda    (2006-04-14 16:52:42)
Some wishes

I think this server works great after so short time online. However I think there are som possible improvements that could be done: 1. Option that can disable e-mail notification of one own moves. 2. It should be possible to take leave. 3. A better list of our own games, like when last move was done, reflection time left and so on. 4. A flag for every player that shows the nationality and other information that could be found in the rating list. Best regards, Håkon Anda

Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-28 01:35:12)
Congratulations FICGS!

Congratulations FICG! The rating list now has over 200 members. 200 members in about 1 month of operation. Outstanding :) The more players we can attract, the quicker tournaments will fill.

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)

Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-24 14:46:20)
New features

Here are some new features :

- Countries directory - http://www.ficgs.com/directory_countries.html
(with players sorted by name)
- Players sorted by rating for each country (click on the flags on the rating list)
- More player statistics (results with white and black, elo average opponents)

Tommie Derz    (2006-06-07 00:05:48)
Go applet, ranking list

I am interested how this chess site could develop into a valid site for playing Go. It obviously started by as a server for Chess enthousiasts, which is ok. I suggest a better separation between Go and Chess on this server, resp. a rating list for Go to. It does not make sense to me to have my 'non'-chess-rating of ELO 1400 entered into a list and being silent of the Go rating of e.g. Florescu, Ion (2600?). The chess applet works well, the Go game replayer not.

Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-07 00:38:57)
Go / Chess

Hello Tommie.

I chose not to implement a Go rating system for several reasons, first and main is: a quite true correspondence Go rating may be very (!) long to achieve, maybe even impossible. It seems to me that the challenge could be elsewhere ie. tournament results, to qualify for the FICGS championship tournament.

About the rating list, so far all new players appear in a unique rating list, soon there will be an established rating list, a provisional rating list and a new player rating list.

About this rating for Ion (2600), where did you see it exactly ?

... at last what happens with the Go applet ? You have to click on 'game description'. If it doesn't work, feel free to tell me what game you try to watch and what happens... Thanks in advance :)

Dorel Oltean    (2006-06-15 13:14:09)
Criteria

In round-robin qualifing criteria is first number of points and then rating? In round-robin tournaments one can choose other criteria, after points, like Soneborn, number of wins, .., related to the performance one made. In rating list there are a lot of "provisional" ratings , which will become much too important.

Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2006-06-16 13:55:54)
Statistics, ELO and performances

Hello Thibault!

"About performance, that's not quite true a 2200 player couldn't perform more than 2050 in stage"

Maybe you are right, if most of the players have an established rating. But you can see at the rating list that more than 50 percent of our ratings are provisional - most of them with 1700. The question is how many of these players are good or very good (like Daniel)?

Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-16 14:13:29)
Statistics, ELO and performances

Time and ratings will answer to that... It takes a few months for ratings to find themselves ! The same in FIDE and wher'ever...

Next rating list will be calculated on july 1st. :-)

Sebastian Ilie    (2006-07-03 23:01:29)
rating list

For Thibault de Vassal : You could find Florescu Ion's rating at http://gemma.ujf.cas.cz/~cieply/GO/gor.html. And i agree with the the separate rating lists for GO and chess.

Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-04 01:25:41)
Go rating list

Hello Sebastian.

So it was a GO rating about Ion... (I did not understand that :/)

Still thinking about a Go rating list... If I implement something would it be better to have only informative ratings (from federations) or rating calculated from the games played here (probably not very relevant) ?

Anyway, players who didn't play a single chess game with a rating <1700 (~not from FIDE / IECG / ICCF) won't appear on the chess rating list in a while.

Dinesh De Silva    (2006-08-02 16:10:49)
Inactive Rating List

Thibault, I see that some players don't seem to be playing in any of the tournaments! though they are listed in the Rating List. Any future plans to list them under an Inactive Rating List perhaps?! Just a suggestion.

Thibault de Vassal    (2006-08-22 14:55:18)
How to know future rating

Hello to all.

A reminder about future rating and personal statistics... You can check it by going into Preferences, click on the picture just after your chess rating, a new window will appear, then click on "elo"... Several pages with different informations will be displayed.

You can check these informations for any player, by clicking on this pic in the rating list.

Graham Wyborn    (2006-10-17 12:24:05)
Top of Rating List

How can Atalik, Suat be top of the rating list, when this player has never played a game on this site? Or have I got these facts wrong!

Thibault de Vassal    (2006-10-17 12:43:42)
GM Suat Atalik

GM Suat Atalik is about OTB #100 ranked player in the world (GM FIDE), and one of the first players who registered at FICGS. Ratings & titles are also displayed in an informative way, some other strong players will probably register when it will be possible to play unrated simultaneous games for money, but they'll keep a provisional rating. I still have to separate the rating lists, but provisional ratings aren't displayed the same way already.

Don Burden    (2006-11-03 14:20:07)
Only 965 ?!

I noticed it too. It was the rating list page. It's back showing over 1000 now, but it definitely was showing under 1000 players for a few days. I think it was the 1st and 2nd of this month.

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 :)

Marius Zubac    (2006-11-20 00:25:05)
The penalty system - a proposal

A player that for a (good) reason is not able to continue his games should have two choices: A) Let some games get lost on time and then he would be treated under the penalty system. B) Ask for a retirement and in this case no penalties should be applied. Once a player asks for retirement the following actions should be taken: 1. His status in the rating list should be flagged to retired; perhaps a retired player should not be able to register a new tournament; 2. A retired player could get re-instated by applying directly to the FICGS adjudication commission; 3. All the retired player’s running games should then be frozen and dealt with on a by tournament basis: 3a) if in a tournament the retired player has finished games that are not lost the remaining games should be adjudicated by FICGS for rating purposes. However all the retired player’s games should not be counted for qualification purposes (if the tournament provides qualification to a next stage); how the games are to be considered for norms is a matter to be discussed. 3b) if in a tournament the retired player has finished games that are all lost the tournament director can act as in 3a) or has the option of canceling all the retired player’s games. This proposal is far from perfect but shows that we are not helpless and some action can be taken. The reason I mentioned IECG is because probably on the server the population is roughly equivalent with the FICGS’s one but in IECG’s case the distributed is more favorable in the upper section. This is the reason why there is enough active population at any given time for new tournaments and severe rules are not needed as much as in FICGS’s case in order to maintain a meaningful activity. My belief is that the centaur mode will prove in time to generate stronger games, stronger chess and FICGS will have chances to become in time the most relevant correspondence chess server. The technical conditions are already met. Marius

Miguel Pires    (2007-01-03 15:26:23)
Elo Question

So, if i correctly understand, in chess is used the TER. After the new rating was calculated i drew this game: http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=2849 My opponent have a higer elo then me, soo whay, if the new rating list was calculated today, i lose elo? Best regard's Miguel Pires

Spiros Lois    (2007-01-21 12:09:13)
rank explanation

what are the SM, FEM, FIM ranks in some players in the rating list? i only know GM = grandmaster IM = international master

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-21 13:59:06)
FICGS titles

Hello Spiros.

FEM, FIM, FSM, FGM are titles awarded by FICGS.

Requirements are not the same as in ICCF but it quite looks like : ICCF titles are EM (Email Master), IM (International Master), SM (Senior Master), GM (Gran Master).

Note : In rating list, a GM player could be a FIDE GM or ICCF GM...

See rules (11.7 - 11.8) :

http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#rating

Best wishes.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-10 03:08:52)
Rybka, Fritz and future...

Computerchess is definitely an exciting challenge... The community is fast-growing, new versions of chess engines appear every day, many dream to be the next Vasik Rajlich and to produce an engine that would beat the well-known Chessbase engines and the famous Rybka.

These days, I had a look at Fruit 2.1, TogaII and Crafty source code that are available to download, and started to implement new search & evaluation functions. It's quite easy to understand why chess programming is so addictive, so much done and so much to do... finally I did not enter this mad race without an ending, probably for the same reasons Anthony Cozzie (the author of Zap! Chess Zanzibar) and many others retired.

However here are my feelings about future of chess engines, and the fight that just started between most probably Chessbase engines (Fritz, Shredder, Junior and Hiarcs) and a new era of chess engines that started with Rybka...

First, it's quite obvious to me that Rybka (now Rybka 2.3) is only another one of a long series of chess engines always stronger than each others ! .. I expect the next ones to reach 50, 100 then 200 points more (and maybe more) on the next chess engines elo rating lists, a scale that definitely can't be compared to human elo rating list ! .. Several reasons to this : (1) Chess engines are human killers at standard time controls, but chess engines are far to play perfect chess yet. (2) The way ratings are calculated.

Rybka taught us several things IMO :

- Algorithms and evaluation functions are no more enough. Now chess engines have to play chess, not only search a tree of chess positions... That's probably what Rybka brought to computerchess. Since Fruit 2.1 & Toga II source code is available, and computerchess community is constantly discussing improvements in algorithms, evaluations of positions and new ideas, to implement a chess engine becomes easier so I have no doubt that new very strong chess engines like Rybka will come.

- To become famous, a chess engine must 'also' beat his rivals. I first thought that Rybka was designed to be an engines killer only (at least before to be an analysis tool) with some tricks exploiting most engines weaknesses. No, Rybka is also a great UCI engine, simply stronger and with many options & features. Like Vasik Rajlich, who is engineer and international chess master, you'll have not only to think like an engineer to create such an engine. However I still don't think it is the best analysis tool for correspondence chess, it doesn't play really better chess and in all cases it is not enough. More, Rybka 3, 4, 5 shouldn't influence correspondence chess (maybe even human vs. machine) much... Computerchess influences computerchess first.

It's written sometimes that the strongest chess engines could reach a IM, even GM level at correspondence chess. I definitely disagree with that, at least for the moment (it will take a long time yet), but as chess engines results tend to approach correspondence chess ones (means more and more draws), I do think chess engines have much to learn from correspondence chess players way of thinking, meaning : A more psychological approach, bonus for traps detection. Evaluate moves, not only positions. A more complex search, not 'only' iterative (brute force is definitely useless). No more anti-human style, speculative moves (=weakness, ie. Deep Junior) for speculative results against strongest chess engines, draws are prefered. To avoid positions not understood by the engine. Longer games, closed games (if supported)... Opening books should look like correspondence chess GMs ones (of course according to the engine's style of play) and no more been made of FIDE GM games. A better time management... Future of computerGo may teach to computerchess about some evaluations.

A chess engine must play good moves AND try to win (which is not always the same). It seems Fruit & Rybka play solid and are waiting to exploit their opponent's weaknesses thanks to a better "chess" algorithm/knowledge. As far as I have seen, Shredder & Fritz still have the best 'eye', they see far but fuzzy. Quite the same about Fruit & Toga developped by a great engineer, Fabien Letouzey : Less chess knowledge but an improved algorithm. As for Rybka, a great chess knowledge and probably a smarter algorithm (not better, smarter !) were probably enough already. The future best chess engines will be made by good chess players...

An interesting point is it could be not so easy, maybe even nonsense, to create the best analysis tool that would also obtain the best results against other chess engines. My first prediction is Rybka won't be the top rated chess engine ever, hundreds of new ideas will appear in all parts of chess programming, slowly breaking Rybka secrets, then speed will be a factor again. Deep Fritz, Junior, Fruit or Hydra are most probably the core of the next generations of chess engines... but there's a lot of work yet :)

My two cents.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-15 14:26:23)
Engine free area

Definitely, there won't be a (C) mark as computer, (F) as Fritz, (B) as books or (D) as databasen, (C+B), (F+D+B) and so on :) .. It makes sense in blitz / bullet chess on Playchess ie., not in correspondence chess, as human makes the real decision.

Definitely, I agree with Marc. I had some experience in the past in organizations that forbid computer assistance, I'm convinced it's no use to separate rating lists. Actually, it would even lose some interest for many players.

Anyway, if you do not take care about top ratings, just play chess without computer assistance (it is allowed too) :)

Dan Rotaru    (2007-02-16 00:32:00)
Rating list

I think it would be nice to have a second rating list for established ratings. I have noticed that there are quite many players in the actual rating list who haven’t played yet a single game on FICGS. This list would also give an accurate picture of how many players are actually playing. Maybe this list can be implemented when the list will be updated at the beginning of March? Thanks, Dan

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-16 01:14:10)
Active player list

Hello Dan.

I don't think it's a good idea to have several rating lists (many reasons to this), but I can easily add in statistics the numbers of active players. Now, after which period of time a player should be considered as inactive at correspondence time controls... 3 months is not enough IMO, some players regularly connect and ie. wait for WCH tournaments to start, 1 year is still more than the age of FICGS.

Dan Rotaru    (2007-02-16 01:44:17)
Established rating list

I didn't suggest to have more than two rating list but just two: 1. First list with all the players registered on FICGS which is the actual Rating List. 2. Established Rating list (after playing at least 9 games). Once a player ends up on this list he can stay there for ever.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-16 02:09:40)
Established rating list

Of course it's a good idea, and it can be discussed. So far, three main reasons for not doing this change :

1) One rating list is much clearer and easier to reach than two.

2) Provisional and established ratings are easy to distinguish already. (grey or not)

3) There could be more strong players in future who will play unrated games -only- at standard time control (2 hours / 40 moves, soon available) and in my opinion, the rating list is first a way to show who is playing there.

Marc Lacrosse    (2007-02-16 10:11:57)
A suggestion

a simple suggestion : add two column to the rating list :

- one with the number of finished games on FICGS
-one with the number of running games

Your opinion ?

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-20 17:44:50)
Rybka 2.2 stronger than Rybka 2.3

Rybka 2.3 weaker than Rybka 2.2 ??

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=340#fp

CEGT computer chess rating lists :

http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/40_4_Ratinglist/40_4_AllVersion/rangliste.html

Waiting for HIARCS 12 :)

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-22 17:34:01)
Zap! Chess Zanzibar

Nice results for Zap!Chess Zanzibar chess engine, that now appears 2nd (Rybka 1st, of course) on all CEGT (Chess Engines Grand Tournament) rating lists.

http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn

Definitely, that's a pity Anthony Cozzie can't give more time to computer chess.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-10 22:51:55)
Anand virtually ranked #1

After Morelia-Linares 2007 tournament, Viswanathan is virtually ranked #1 on the next FIDE rating list (2007, April). Great achievement :)

Quite funny to see the separated results of Morelia & Linares tournament, particularly performances for Alexander Morozevich (!)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3722

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-01 15:21:45)
Anand number one, or not...

Vishwanathan Anand was announced to be ranked #1 on the next FIDE rating list. Finally, Veselin Topalov is still ranked first on the list that was published yesterday. Protestations by the indian federation... The results of Morelia-Linares should be included in the next list to be published very soon. Quite strange mistake !? :)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3768

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-11 01:20:30)
Active players rating list

Hello to all.

For information only at the moment but it will replace the current list as the "main" list, here is the active players rating list (displaying players who connected to the server these last 30 days) for chess :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=rating_list&active=1

It is about 1/3 of the members, so not bad "for a start" in my opinion.. :)

To be continued.

Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2007-04-13 01:20:14)
Active players rating list

Because of the 60-days rule maybe you should display the players who connected to the server during the last 60 days?

Dan Rotaru    (2007-04-13 02:34:33)
Active players rating list

An maybe add one more condition: players who have finished at least one game or have unfinished games. There are players who keep connecting to the server but haven't played a single game yet.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-16 05:44:13)
Active players rating list

Ok, 60 days and 'at least 1 rated game' is probably more logical, it will be updated soon.

Thanks for help.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-23 22:31:50)
Rybka tops SSDF rating list

2007 april 21 - New SSDF computer chess rating list is out !

http://web.telia.com/~u85924109/ssdf/list.htm

Rybka 2.3.1 tops the list with 2962 elo, followed by a surprising Hiarcs 11.1 with 2871 elo. Then, Junior 10.1 and Fruit 2.2.1 followed by Shredder 10. That's a pity Fritz 10 and probably Zap! chess Zanzibar are not rated yet.

The king Rybka will probably have serious opponents soon...

Robert Mueller    (2007-05-20 20:37:14)
Thank you :)

Thank you, that was very helpful. At least the game will be over before the next rating list update.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-01 17:56:58)
Final match

Hello Svante Carl, thanks for sharing your views !

I agree about the round-robin tournament, it could evolve according to the rating list...

About the final match, I have good reasons for not introducing any chancy factor in tournaments (anyway I think it's better this way), I finally agreed with players about the 5-games match but it was hard for me to consider this non symmetrical schedule... Making it different is not a problem IMO, a (2xn)-games final match with equality favourable to former champion - like FICGS chess WCH - was ok for me but 6 games may be too few, giving a too big advantage to the former winner of the tournament.

Anyway, there will be no final match in this 1st championship, it will be probably discussed again & again :)

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-12 19:11:21)
More rating lists ?

What about more rating lists at FICGS ?

- Correspondence chess active & inactive players lists
- Blitz & lightning rating list
- Big chess rating list (class tournaments !?)
- Go rating list

Also there could be casual blitz & lightning chess tournaments with entry fee & prizes, blitz & lightning games with a tiny entry fee (no prize) and more ways to win E-Points...

Feel free if you have any comment or idea...

Wolfgang Utesch    (2007-06-12 21:21:20)
Rating list

I think FICGS needs a rating list for active players with an established rating (more than 15 or 30 rated games) like other organizations.

Dan Rotaru    (2007-06-13 00:50:47)
Rating list

An established rating list would be a very good idea. Therefore maybe people will play more games:-)

Don Groves    (2007-06-13 09:22:01)
Rating lists for established players

I agree with this also. Either that or remove inactive players from the current lists. If a person wants to establish an FICGS rating, let them play some FICGS games!

Wolfgang Utesch    (2007-06-13 09:33:55)
Rating list

Rating of new players is very uncertain before they have finished a limit of rated games. After i.e. 30 games it is stabilized, so you can say more about the real strength. In the WC cycle (k.o. matches) rating has an anormous importance. Now is it often accidentally whether someone is high rated or not.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-16 15:45:46)
FICGS 3.0 , novelties & advanced chess

Dear chessfriends, the new FICGS version is installed :) ... Improvements :

- New random design (see preferences) after each login, great IMO :)

- Correspondence chess established, preliminary & complete rating lists (user mode)

- Big chess rating list
- http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#rating_big_chess
- Rated big chess tournaments (no more unrated)

- Advanced ches rating list
- http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#rating_advanced_chess
- Rated advanced chess tournaments (money blitz & lightning games)

- New advanced chess games category : CHESS MONEY BRONZE (entry fee 0,2 E-Point)

Advanced chess games are chess games played at Lightning (30 minutes + 1 minute / move) or Blitz (2 hours + 2 hours / 40 moves) time control. Computer assistance is encouraged. See rating rules for advanced chess, everyone gets a rating (first estimated from your correspondence chess rating) after you played your first game.

Every member now has 2 free E-Points to play 10 free CHESS MONEY BRONZE (advanced chess) games. Consequently the FICGS advanced chess server is not free of charge after this free trial.

This is a major improvement, so there will be some adjustments during the next days, particularly to reorganize money tournaments.

Feel free if you have any comment or suggestion...

Have good games :)

Dan Rotaru    (2007-06-17 00:21:41)
Rating lists

Hi Thibault, What is the difference between established and preliminary rating lists? Also I think that filtering players who haven't logon in the last two months is a little bit too restrictive. Maybe 6 months or a year would be reasonable? (just a suggestion). If I win the lottery (and really hope so) and I decide to spend three motnhs on an isolated island with no internet access i wouldn't want to loose my established rating.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-17 01:49:16)
Rating lists

Hi Dan, yes it may be not clear enough yet. I'll add this post somewhere in the rules when I'm sure about this.

- Established rating list displays players who finished at least 9 rated games (or who obtained an established rating at ICCF / IECG) and who connected during the last 2 years.

- Preliminary rating list is actually more an active players list, it displays players who finished at least 1 rated game (or who obtained an established rating at ICCF / IECG) and who connected during the last 2 months.

Well, maybe I should set the filter to 2 years also, or rename the list as active players list, but it's not very coherent too... :/

Dan Rotaru    (2007-06-17 03:10:29)
Rating lists

Thank you for clarification, it makes sense now and I believe it is a nice feature to have these lists. Maybe you should rename "preliminary /active players" list?

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-18 05:41:30)
New update !

"Tournaments" page and waiting lists have been completely re-organized by time control ! (more coherent and clear IMO)

Also a new rating list : Active players list.

- Active players list displays players who connected during the last 2 months... Right now almost 700 of 2100 which is quite good IMO :)

- Preliminary rating list now displays players who finished at least 1 rated game, less than 9 rated games and who connected during the last 2 years. (which is much more interesting)

At last, the rating rules for advanced chess (blitz & lightning) have been improved. Now a fair performance bonus for Black, see rules :

http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#rating_advanced_chess

And now, I'm going to sleep... Good night everyone :)

Dirk Ghysens    (2007-06-18 06:11:14)
Top programs

According to the CCRL rating list, the top programs today are: 1 Rybka 2 Zap!Chess 3 Hiarcs 4 Naum 5 Loop 6 Deep Shredder Fritz (7th) and Junior (8th) are so weak, that they cannot play a significant role in a world championship. The latest version of Rybka (2.3.2) can be estimated at more than 200 Elo points above Deep Fritz and Deep Junior. The SSDF rating list is unreliable IMO, as they are using antiquated hardware, and several of the best programs are missing.

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.

Don Groves    (2007-06-18 08:24:45)
New Go rating lists, please

Hi Thibault. The new rating lists are nice! I hope you can find the time to extend them to Go as well as Chess :-)

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-18 16:50:43)
Rybka vs. Chessbase

Hello Alexander.

Rybka tops all computer chess rating lists for 18 months already, and by about 100 points ! ... It is the best playing program, maybe (I'm not sure yet) the best analysis tool for correspondence chess.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-18 16:55:18)
Go rating lists

Hi Don. I couldn't make an established and preliminary rating list for Go, but an active players list is possible.

Don Groves    (2007-06-20 09:42:19)
Go rating lists

An active players list for Go would be excellent, Thibault. There are so many inactive players at some ratings that it takes a few "page downs" to get through them all ;-)

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-20 15:05:27)
Go rating lists

Ok, it will be added in a few hours :)

Wolfgang Utesch    (2007-06-21 11:43:55)
FICGS vs. IGAME.RU

In one week we'll have a new (the actual) rating list and there you will see the order as Thibault has proposed.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-22 20:58:23)
About real names...

Ok, a few words about real names :

While registering, using your real name is really appreciated and helps to build this friendly atmosphere, not using your real name is tolerated if you don't abuse of it...

... but it is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN to use dictators or any other famous people names !

If you feel concerned or notice such a name I wouldn't have noticed in the rating lists, please warn me through the message form in "My account" or by email.

Thanks in advance.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-23 06:54:16)
Nicknames

A few words about real names, asked at registration :

While registering, using your real name is really appreciated and helps to build this friendly atmosphere, not using your real name is tolerated if you don't abuse of it...

... but it is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN to use dictators or any other famous people names !

If you feel concerned or notice such a name I wouldn't have noticed in the rating lists, please warn me through the message form in "My account" or by email.

Thanks in advance.

Wolfgang Utesch    (2007-06-23 14:04:05)
Nicknames

by the way, Thibault de Vassal: What is your real name (?) - I can't find you in rating lists of ICCF and IECG. But you've said already, that your rating here about the same as in other organisations.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-23 16:20:04)
Rating list

If your rating is provisional, see in the complete rating list. It is updated about every 6 hours, so your name should appear soon !

Garvin Gray    (2007-06-25 18:53:46)
next rating list

Robert Mueller (2007-06-25 16:57:08) Ficgs vs Igame.ru With all the discussion about nicknames we seem to be a bit off topic: when does the match start and who is playing?

I believe that the ficgs team will be confirmed once the new rating list is released on July 1st.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-27 06:19:40)
Bullet games & prizes

Hello to all.

A few new changes and one more time control in lightning tournaments category :

- Bullet games (available for chess & Go), 10 minutes + 20 seconds / move.
- Bronze bullet Go games are available... Everyone can test it for free.
- Bullet & lightning Go games are now rated (same rating list).

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-07-14 01:39:07)
SSDF changed its url

You can now find the top chess programs SSDF rating list here :

http://ssdf.bosjo.net

April 2007 :

1 Rybka 2.3.1 Arena 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2962
2 Rybka 1.2 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2909
3 Hiarcs 11.1 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2871
4 Junior 10.1 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2867
5 Junior 10 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2851
6 Hiarcs 10 HypMod 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2845
7 Fruit 2.2.1 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2837
8 Shredder 10 UCI 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2830

Mladen Jankovic    (2007-09-10 00:55:51)
Rating lists problem

The rating lists no longer display all of the players that should be displayed. Even with all filters off it only displays 518 players. Is this intentional?

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-10 01:35:31)
Rating lists problem

No, it isn't... Thanks, I'll arrange that.

Andrew Stephenson    (2007-09-10 23:31:53)
chess engines

Hi Jason As Thibault post indicates Toga is a fruit flavour ie fruit variant. Check CEGT rating list for single version engines (http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/rating.htm) Toga II is at no3 and Fruit 2.3 is at no 5 position. As for our game no engine is ever going to save me! Maybe 28 ..Rc8 would have held but earlier on 14 exd6 Bf6 15 Bxf8 Kxf6 16 Qf3 looks really disgusting for black. I am not going to blame the opening but Fritz and I are back to the Najdorf! Apparently Aagard had a book out on offbeat sicilianl ines in which he could find no way for white to gain an advantage in this Prins line hmm Im sceptical. Thibault - thanks for expanding on your comments. I note your point about calm positions. The game I cited is the sort of wild position where Rybka is not so good later in the game it is convinced that 19 ..Nxf2 is good for black a move which loses and which fritz rejects fairly quickly.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-11 22:12:31)
Chess comp ratings

"when it comes to multi processor versions the gap is less" .. maybe because the Rybka mp version in CEGT rating list uses 2 CPU while Zap! and other engines use 4 !?

Don Groves    (2007-10-02 05:32:52)
Rating lists

It is good to have a rating list now for active players, that list is much shorter. But still, I see a problem. I checked only one person for this but I'm sure there are others -- this person is playing several games of Chess and no games of Go, yet is on the list of active Go players. IMHO, the active players lists should be limited to those currently active in each game.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-02 13:08:20)
Rating lists

Hi Don, that's right ! .. I'll have to make some changes in the database to take account of this.

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-31 18:51:22)
Deep Shredder 11 available

Amsterdam 2007 blitz world champion, Mainz 2006 World Computer Chess960 Champion, Reykjavik 2005 blitz world champion, Tel Aviv 2004 blitz world champion, Graz 2003 computer chess world champion & blitz world champion and so on...

No, that is not Rybka :) .. Deep Shredder 11 is now available and said by Chessbase to have an improved strength of 100 points elo, actually about 80 according to CEGT computer chess 40/20 rating list, which is not bad at all ! .. Evaluation function (passed pawns..) seems to be the main improved part of the engine.

Congrats to Stefan Meyer-Kahlen.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4218

Did someone try the new engine ?

Thibault de Vassal    (2007-12-12 05:36:58)
Fritz 11 near Rybka 2.3.2a

I just discovered the CEGT 40/20 new rating for Fritz 11, it confirms that Rybka will have serious opponents soon !

CEGT 40/20 : Rybka 2.3.2a - 2971, Fritz 11 - 2921 (50 points diff. only)

Waiting for Fritz 11 rating in CEGT 40/120 rating list.

Thibault de Vassal    (2008-03-30 07:25:30)
Freestyle cup : Rules & start

There was a small conflict in the rules, now corrected : The first game will start at 13:00 server time, not 15:00

Current rules :

FICGS advanced chess "freestyle" cup is a 6 rounds swiss tournament with entry fee and prize, played in a single day. Entry fees are E-Points that you can buy in 'My account'. Read carefully terms and conditions, particularly Entry fees & Prize money sections before to play tournaments with entry fees.

All games are played in 30 minutes + 15 seconds / move. Norms are not possible.

The first round will start at the date and hour (13:00 server time) indicated as "deadline". Next rounds will start at 15:00, 17:00, 19:00, 21:00 and 23:00 server time. Please register carefully as it is not possible to retire from the waiting list. It is strongly recommended to display the chat bar to communicate with the tournament director.

If several players obtain the best score and the best Sonnenborn-Berger, they will share the prize. It is possible to forfeit all next games (that will be unrated for the advanced chess rating list) during the tournament.

FIDE GM & IM, FICGS / ICCF GM, SM & IM are invited to enter the waiting list for free.. Please just send a message to webmaster through My account page to register. You may be asked to send a copy of your passport or ID card. The tournament might be cancelled if less than 7 players registered before the deadline, in this case entry fees will be given back to the players.

An extra fee, usually 30% of the entry fee, will be added to the entry fee 2 days before the start of the tournament.

Jason Repa    (2008-05-03 07:23:18)
Rating List

Only players 2400+ are shown now?

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...

Jason Repa    (2008-05-12 10:14:41)
Rating changes

1) There was never a "rule" stating that a player has carte blanche to drop as many rating points as they want and still enter a tournament for which they do not meet the rating criterion.

2) Thibault has already manually removed players from rating lists for this reason. Nobody is being "penalized" except the players who are legitimately qualified to play in that category and who must play with the lower category player. The rating average is being erroneously brought down. The player who's rating was lowered is free to enter the correct waiting list for which his rating qualifies.

3) Your "C" class rating category is hardly comparable to the "M" class category where this has been an issue, so your opinion, even if it did have a shred of merit, which I proved it doesn't, is moot anyway.

Thibault de Vassal    (2008-05-19 21:54:37)
Fritz 12, Shredder 12, Junior 12

While Rybka 2.3.2a w32 1CPU/mp still leads CEGT rating lists, Fritz 11 is now only about 50 elo points behind...

CEGT 40/20 (AMD 4200+)

Rybka 2.3.2a w32 1CPU - 2966
Fritz 11 - 2913
Naum 3.1 w32 1CPU - 2890
Deep Shredder 11 w32 1CPU - 2890
Hiarcs 12 SP 1CPU - 2869
Toga II 1.4.2JD 1CPU - 2864
Fruit 2.4 Beta A w32 1CPU - 2864
Zappa Mexico II w32 1CPU - 2844

Any predictions on the future ratings of Rybka 3 & Chessbase engines : Fritz 12, Shredder 12, Junior 12, Hiarcs 13, Zappa or other free engines ?

I can't find a rating for Junior 11 in CEGT rating lists, does anyone know it ?

Marc Lacrosse    (2008-06-04 23:50:50)
Why so few top players in Wch 5 ?

In the present "active" players rating list there are 38 players with a 2300+ rating.

So far only three of them registered for the soon to begin 5th "world championship".

I just wonder why ...

Marc

Marc Lacrosse    (2008-06-11 23:54:23)
Strange rating ...

Having a look at the rating list I see that Ryszard Kasperek has a 2544 rating and the FICGS FEM title.

I just wonder how he got the FEM title as he did never play a single game on FICGS ?

He has been rated 14 times with the same original 2544 elo without a single game played here

Strange ...

IMHO people who register here with a high foreign rating and do not play a single game in more than one year should be banned.

I cannot even imagine how they could be granted a FICGS title

Marc

Marc Lacrosse    (2008-06-12 00:03:48)
Example

GM Suat Atalik never played a single game here and did not connect once since early 2006.

Keeping him in a rating list is not correct

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