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Search There are 0 results for El in the games. There are 2837 results for El in the forum. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-04 03:54:36) FICGS forum is open ! The forum is open to all discussions. Feel free to suggest and debate all kinds of improvements for the website. Please speak english only. Have good games... :-) 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. Hannes Rada    (2006-04-08 13:20:52) Thank you ! Thank you Thibault for this great job of creating a chessfriend clone. Chessfriend had definitely the best and most convenient user-interface for server play. I Hope many chessfriend-players will migrate to this server. Once again thank you for your work and support of the correspondence chess community ! Furthermore -There is an overlap in the class tournaments concerning the minimun elo requirement. Can you clarify this ? - No holiday entitlement is mentioned in the terms and conditions hannes Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-08 13:37:17) Class tournaments overlap Hello Hannes. Thank you for support :) The overlap offers the possibility for players to register to several class tournaments, at least to choose. I think it won't be used a lot, but it could be something more for the stronger players who will choose to register to "under-class" tournament as well as other players who may play sometimes with stronger players. Feel free to tell me what you think. Thibault Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-08 13:45:15) Inaugural match : Big chess Hello to all. The inaugural Big chess game (on the 16x16 board) restarts. As it was a bit hard to organize such a game between 2 GM, the two players finally are myself and... you :) This is is 'priority game', just for fun. If you want to play a move just connect with the guest/guest account, if it is 'guest' turn, you can play... http://www.ficgs.com/game_1.html Have a good big chess game :) Hannes Rada    (2006-04-08 13:58:53) Elo Overlap Thibaut, I think this "feature" is okay. I just was a little bit confused about it and could not decide which tournament to choose. 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 :) Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-08 17:51:15) Drag & drop... ... isn't implemented yet ! The interface to play is a click & click one. Go to "My messages", choose a game (click Game # or the rook)... the board appears.. click on the piece to move, wait the page loading, click the destination square, then submit. Feel free to give me your impressions about the interface. Thank you in advance. Thibault Hannes Rada    (2006-04-08 19:32:44) vacations 40 days is fine for me. I've 31 days leave in a year and I ususaly use them all for travelling and visiting foreign countries. I had no experience with rapid tournaments on the cfc - server. However they also allowed 40 days in a year. Maybe otherwise many player would not participate. I for one had to go several times on business trips for a few days and in this case it would risk losing games in a rapid tournament if there is no possibility for taking leave. Per Lea    (2006-04-08 23:03:27) Vacations In this modern world, not even travelling abroad will stop you from being able to play: you will probably find an internet cafe near by. Or you may have internet access in your hotel room, or if you visit business colleagues, they will probably give you access to a PC. Too bad if you're TOO dependent on Fritz, of course, but.... Per Lea    (2006-04-08 23:09:40) Titles A provocative question: Do we really need titles at all? Isn't rating more informative than a title that maybe has been won when the player was at the top of his playing strength, many years ago? I admit the rating system isn't perfect, but I still claim it tells me more than a title. Being a Norwegian I am possibly less obsessed with titles (within all walks of life) than people from other countries? 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    (2006-04-08 23:23:25) My messages/My games I found it extremely confusing that when I wanted to make a move, my games are found under "My messages". To me, the logical place to look is under "My games"... It took me nearly 10 frustrating minutes before I managed to make my first move! Of course, once I know where to look, there's no problem. But it may be a problem for new players! Hannes Rada    (2006-04-09 00:43:50) Travel destinations >In this modern world, not even > travelling abroad will stop you from > being able to play: you will > probably find an internet cafe near > Or you may have internet access in > your hotel room, or if you visit > business colleagues, they will > probably give you access to a PC. > Too bad if you're TOO dependent on > Fritz, of course, but.... Normally I spend my holiday far away from the so called civiliations. Destinations like Papua New Guinea, Micronesia or Ethiopia are my favorite places. So there is no chance for communications and also no interest for playing chess. In 2 weeks I am heading to Vanuatu ..... Marc Lacrosse    (2006-04-09 09:01:47) delay before moves publishing? Hi Thibault If I do understand all moves of all games are visible as soon as they have been played. Isn't it better to delay public publishing a little bit (by 3 moves or so). Most other servers have such a policy so as to avoid game duplication tricks. congrats for the already very good work ! Marc Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-09 10:16:50) Duplication Hello Marc ! I thought players (I first) precisely would appreciate something different and this totally "live" concept. I don't think many correspondence chess players will try to cheat this way... Furthermore, I already did implement processes to DETECT 'double' games.. and rules clearly forbid these methods. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-09 10:27:28) TITLES ! I think the rating system tell a lot, titles just tell something more. What I think is to let appear "official" titles EM, IM, SIM, GM (note that I consider IECG titles as official ones)... Titles obtained on FICGS will appear differently (ie. FEM, FIM, FSM, FGM, and in another color..) I think it may fit to everyone, what do you think about ? Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-09 11:12:49) FICGS council / staff Hello to all. As I just said on TCCMB about the server, I clearly don't want to reproduce the Chessfriend waste... For obvious reasons, I won't administer alone the whole server forever. That's why I want to create a council-staff and to turn FICGS at least partly towards a IECG-like structure... Feel free to tell me if you're interested to take part of the adventure ! Best wishes. Per Lea    (2006-04-09 11:37:05) Titles In my opinion, there are only 2 official sets of titles in the chess world, belonging to the only officialy accepted world-wide chess organisations: ICCF and FIDE. 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    (2006-04-09 23:27:03) Success This server is now 4 days old and there are already 115 members :-) Many of them well known players from chessfriend. So this is really satisfying :-) Per Lea    (2006-04-10 01:32:41) Games overview Thibault: Thanks for quick and positive response. Hannes: thanks for the support (I've also had support from Håkon Anda, in a personal mail)! I hope others agree as well. Per Lea    (2006-04-10 09:52:36) Games appearing in short list Thanx for obeying my wish - now the "My games" list is much easier to read. But why can't I just click on one of the games in this list when I want to make a move? If you prefer, you could put a symbol (such as the white or black rook) next to the games where it is my move, to make it easier to see where it is my move. Then there is really no need to list the games (where it is my move) under "My messages" as well. Henri Muller    (2006-04-10 10:56:31) success Bravo et félicitations à Thibault ! Un TRES grand et mérité succès pour ce nouveau site. Bien pensé, bien ordonné, et....facile ( quand on s'y est fait !! ) Il y a qqs jours quand je me suis inscrit, j'étais le 39ème. Il y a déjà plus de 120 membres....et cela continue ! J'espère que Thibault sera en mesure d'assumer ce ghrand succès, car le travail ne manquera pas ! COURAGE - BONNE CHANCE ert....FELICITATIONS !! hm Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-10 12:53:29) FICGS and internet Hello to all & thanks again for support. I announced FICGS starting into main chess forums (FIDE, TCCMB, Talkchess, France-Echecs...), now working on search engines. Feel free to talk about it in other forums (in your country or chessclub) and to your chessfriends... Website success is here, and the more players, the more players :) Thank you in advance. Have good games ! Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-10 21:51:58) Exclamation mark Hello Patrice, is the exclamation mark "!" okay for you ? 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 ! Hannes Rada    (2006-04-11 10:25:04) Software ? Unfortunately there is no download possibility. Which software are you using ? In case of Chessbase the following trick should work: Mark all moves of the game - rightclick and "say" "copy". In ChessBase "say" "paste" and the game should appear at your virtual board. hannes 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 13:28:13) Download Hello Karlheinz & Hannes. I'll arrange that. But indeed that's the way I developed the "Search games" page. Copy/Paste PGN games should work. (but it may become too big later to display all games in one page) Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-11 14:44:22) Not exactly... ... but it's true that there are many things to translate yet. Players already helped me with German, I'll continue to translate as soon as possible. (feel free to send to me German & Spanish translations, French is ok for me) Thank you in advance. 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    (2006-04-11 18:30:35) Henri... Of course it is :) Thanks for your help. 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. Jose Carrillo    (2006-04-11 23:26:39) Fischer Random Chess / Chess960 Hello all! I'm the moderator of the Fischer Random Chess email Club (FRCEC) and I'm always looking for sites in the net that support Chess960, to promote them in my club, and to use to coordinate Chess960 events. To visit FRCEC got to: http://frcec.chess960.info/ Jose Carrillo Daniel De Noose    (2006-04-11 23:46:29) FICGS council/staff I'm interested too. I don't have always lot of time but I have lot of holidays ! ;-) You can see my description on echecsemail.com (login : danideno) Carlos Guzman    (2006-04-12 06:30:26) CARLOS GUZMAN HOLA: Jose Solo queria saber de donde eres ?, Yo soy de Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico 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 ? Marc Lacrosse    (2006-04-12 09:57:10) Tournament formulas : not too many . Personally I do prefer playing a small number of games simultaneously at a relatively rapid pace instead of a larger number at slower pace. But I can understand that some prefer the opposite. So why not. One caveat : I think you should wait a little bit before multiplying categories. As long as we are not a larger number of active players there is a risk that there will be a small number of players waiting for long before a sufficient number of players will join for starting a tournament in a given category. Marc 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... Paul-Iosif Guralivu    (2006-04-13 15:19:03) New Titles! To make FICGS more atractive and original I propose to make new titles for every category of players: Candidate for Master(FCM) - 2000-2200 First category (FI) - 1800-2000 Secound category (FII) - 1200-1800 Third category (FIII) - 800-1200 Every of this category could be obtain if a player plays more than 12 games in tournaments with tha same ELO. What do you think about it ? P.S.:Don't be mad on me...It's just a proposition. 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    (2006-04-13 16:05:35) I agree... ... that would be unfair. About players that will never achieve a title, I think most important is to stimulate motivation, and titles (I think) are awarded in this way. Don't you think categories FI, FII, FIII are in a way the rating itself ? Michal Holes    (2006-04-13 20:56:38) ich kann nicht spielen Warum ich kann nicht spielen..? Ich spiele Turnier ´´C´´ , aber ich kann nicht dem Zug machen.... Warum? Ich bin schwarz. Er hat e4 gespielt, und ich e5- und es geht nicht. Ich bin schon trostlos. Danke für die Antwort Michal Holes    (2006-04-13 21:01:05) schon kann ich spielen Schon kann ich spielen, danke.. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-14 17:08:26) Answers... Hello Håkon. Some answers : 1. Maybe try : Preferences -> Notification checkbox 2. Right, other players already asked for this. Now you have 2 months to play a single move, so few chances to be late. The council will discuss about vacation option before to be implemented. 3. Some players asked these informations not to appear in the list to reduce it in size, so you can check this just by clicking on the games. ("when last move was done" : right !) 4. For website design reasons, I can't display many informations on the same page. I don't think flags are essential, but it will probably be implemented anyway ! Hannes Rada    (2006-04-14 19:34:41) Vacation I agree with Hakon's proposal. In my opinion the possibiliy to take leave is absolutely essential. Happy Easter ! Walter Rattay    (2006-04-14 22:01:49) Last moves and coordinates on board When opening our games, the game boards do not show the last moves. We have to scroll down to learn our opponent's move, then scroll back to view the board. Also, because there are no coordinates on the board, we are more likely to make a mistake, especially when playing black. Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-15 19:01:14) Extend Timeout I agree great server. The board definiely would be better with coordinates. Is there a way to extend the timeout time? Or an option to save one's login information so you don't have to input name and password after being tossed? Thanks! Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-16 09:25:33) Implemented & vacation Hello to all. Cookies, last move & board coordinates have been implemented. Thanks ! Still thinking about vacation, but it doesn't seem obvious to me that it is essential. There's objectively no difference between "vacation" & time for move... Rules on other servers are often a bit hard and to manage vacations is something more to do (and not so easy when you have few time). I would prefer not to hurry players and allow a 2 months time limit per move (= 1 month + 1 month leave by default) Quite more flexible. (!?) Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-16 09:26:47) Woody Of course not, Woodpusher is the "well known" beginner :) Hannes Rada    (2006-04-16 09:52:16) time and vacation >There's objectively no difference >between "vacation" & time for move... >Rules on other servers There is a difference. If the player does not have the time on the clock, because he is involved in many tournaments .... I think we should start a poll about this issue. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-16 11:58:58) IECG & ICCF webserver Hello to all. Congratulations to Ortwin Paetzold who just started with success (src. IECG forum) the new IECG webserver. Feel free to compare IECG, ICCF & FICGS servers (if you already played on) in this thread, it may help me to feel future improvements, as I have no more time to play on the other ones :( Thank you for feedback. Håkon Anda    (2006-04-16 12:14:19) Re: Some wishes Hello Thibault. You wrote: "1. Maybe try : Preferences -> Notification checkbox". The problem is that when uncheck this box, one loose also opponents moves with e-mail notification. I wish to get e-mail notification with oppononets moves, but not my own moves. Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-16 12:15:33) A Couple More Suggestions! Thank you Thibault for your prompt response to my suggestions. Here's another one that you may not be able to do easily. Can you add an option to make the board a little bit larger? And maybe eventually give us chess piece choices or board color choice? My eyesight plays tricks on me as I get older and bt experimenting with the colors, sizes and piece choices it sometimes helps. Just a suggestion! None are big ones. Thanks! Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-16 12:33:44) Comparisons Hello Thibault - first thanks for creating this server. I'm happy to see so many members joined up so quickly. I just started on Ortwin's server (IECG) yesterday. Too early to compare, though one initial item I like better on Ortwin's server is that I can easily change board colors and chess pieces there. Would like the board a little larger (or maybe be adjustable) on both sites. Easier for old eyes! Two items I like much better here than at ICCF are the time rules (ICCF's are much too long) and the tournament sign-up procedure. I can not sign up for an ICCF tournament on-line. I have to do so by printing a form and mailing a check to my NF. A old process for a modern method of play! Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-16 12:37:05) Thanks Thibault Thank you Thibault. Please don't rush to make changes. You can only do so much. Just offering suggestions because you genuinely want to listen to the players. We all appreciate that. Thank you :) Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2006-04-16 15:54:24) No need to receive his own moves? Dear Thibault, sorry but I would like to receive my move as mail, especially if I add a message to my move. And in the case of a server-crash it could be helpful to have the total protocol of my games on my computer. Don't you think so? Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-16 17:12:22) Email notification Feel free to uncheck the "own moves" checkbox in Preferences if you don't want to receive notification for the moves you just played. Thank you for feedback. Henri Muller    (2006-04-16 18:11:51) tournament formules personnellement je préfère de loin 10 coups/40 jours. Ne changez rien, c'est parfait....sinon certaines parties (perdues ) "trainent" lamentablement !! Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-16 18:57:19) 60/10 Too Slow for Me I'm in the group that thinks 60/10 is too slow. Like Mr. LaCrosse, I like fewer games at a faster pace. Only way 60/10 might work is to set a REASONABLE limit on days per move. ICCF's 40 days is too long and some TD's are much too lenient about extending it. I hope this doesn't hijack your thread Thibault, but The opposite question I'd like to ask is how many server players find the opening game too fast and like a blur? I make a move and there's a reply waiting 5 minutes later. It won't be long before someone writes a script and connects it to ChessBase to cut the time down to seconds :) Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-17 19:01:10) Thanks for the Comments Guys Dinesh - since computer use is allowed I have no problem if someone uses a "script" to automate moves. I don't think that would be fradulent. Actually I think it would be clever :) The point I was trying to ask is anyone concerned (besides me) that we created a chess medium (server chess) where it's so easy to make moves that the games move too fast? I dread the start of a new section, particularly large sections with 10+ players. It's impossible to keep one's inbox empty for even a minute. I know I should show more discipline and walk away, but it's almost like an illness "just one more move then I'll stop" and I don't! One practice I've been using lately is to make a move in a notebook and sit on the move for a day or two before sending it. That helps slow things down. I wonder if a delay send option on the server would make any sense? One could make a move and then click a delay send button for 24 or 48 hours. One would be charged time during the delay, but it would automate the slow down and make tournament startups a little less hectic. Maybe I'm the only one who sees this as an issue> If so, then label this just one crazy man's thoughts :) Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-17 19:25:06) New features... Coordinates & last move have been implemented... Now the "live games" concept of the site extends to the home page :) Also, player informations are 5 successive pages (informations, elo history, title norms, tournaments, games), reachable just by clicking on "ELO" (to improve yet) after clicking the magnifying glass. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-18 13:25:56) Time limit per move If a player has 60 days and more on his clock, the deadline for one move is 60 days ! This is a provisional (quite good, I think) solution before question of vacation be answered. Many players can't play every day and correspondence chess games usually last several months, often more than 1 year. It seems server games go much faster than email games, but rules 40 days + 40 days / 10 moves are the same. Time limit per move in IECG is 30 days. Here, a 60 days limit (a rating period) don't seem too much to me. Players won't feel oppressed (Glen, turn email notification off :)) and I think they won't use it often. RAPID TOURNAMENTS are an alternative solution. Thibault Daniel Cincã    (2006-04-18 16:12:59) Help (email ficgs) Dear chessfriends, Can you help me somebody with e-mail address of Mr de Vassal, Thibault?Thank you !Daniel Cinca Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-18 16:16:18) my email Hello Daniel. My email is : info (at) ficgs.com [just replace ' (at) ' by '@'] Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-18 21:39:57) A Suggestion Thibault my e-mail notification will be turned off :) I'd encourage you to re-consider your 60 day ruling. I can foresee individuals getting late in a game and accumulating hundreds of reflection days. Not many, but a few players could go 59 days per move 2 or 3 times in a row just to irritate their opponent. Not everyone is a "good sport" unfortunately :( IECG does it right by limiting time to 30 days max per move. You violate the limit once, game is over no questions asked. ICCF does it half right and half wrong. They set the limit at 40 days, but then make the person waiting beg the TD to do something. If the TD refuses to enforce the rule, the violating player can stall as long as he wants :( This is your chance to pick and chose from the best things done in other organizations. Either set a limit on the number of accumulated days so it doesn't go into the hundreds or set a reasonable limit on the number of days per move. Just don't let both become large. Also don't be wishy washy on the limit. Set a limit and enforce it, no questions asked. No hard reasonable limit and too many accumulated days is an infrequent, but irritating problem in the making. There won't be many, but sadly there will be those few "bad losers" who think it's "cute" to string their opponents along. Don't let that happen at FICGS! Just my two cents :) Elmer Valderrama    (2006-04-18 23:15:46) 30 d max I agree with Glen, 'resign' is the hardest word, and some prefer the server (or the time control rules) _gradually_ pronounce it.. 30 days max, with time doubled at move 10th + optional leave of 30 days would be more than reasonable to me. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-18 23:26:06) Live games Hello to all. I don't know (I hope) if the "live" concept is somewhat a reason for this, but I'm quite surprised to see already Alekhine defence played 6 times (and King's gambit the same). I wait for more accurate statistics, but no : everyone don't play Sicilian and that's great :) Spectacular & original games are welcome, I'm to install a "best game" poll script. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-19 19:13:56) Vacation implemented Dear chessfriends, a major update on FICGS : Vacation has been implemented. You now have 30 days leave per year (for all games !) Be careful using it, as days can't be took back (or vacation stopped before the end date) by playing a move for example. But you can add days to your vacation simply taking days more. You can play while you're in vacation, the days leave you take are simply added to your clock for all your running games. A message tells your opponent you're in vacation in the viewer page. Also please note this new rule : Time accumulated is now limited to 100 days ! (taking effect at your next move) The 60 days limit per move is kept for the player's convenience. Have good games ! Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-20 11:59:21) Cheating / Forfeiting Hello to all. The website detected 2 'probable' cheaters registered (one playing), with a 1400 rating. Of course, FICGS will face problems encountered by all correspondence chess sites but I think it will be minimal here, as I'm enforcing detection rules so that aliases couldn't register anymore. Important : Games forfeited without a valid explanation won't be rated, and the account for the player closed. A player who may forfeit should send an email with explanation to : ficgs (at) ficgs.com Thanks. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-19 21:09:11) After the tournament name... Hello Graham. When you are on the tournament page, please try to click the magnifying glass just after the tournament name. A window (popup) will appear with the crosstable. Best wishes. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-20 01:09:44) Updated... You're right, Hannes. A delay (of at most 10 days) has been implemented. Thanks ! Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-20 01:47:29) Congratulations! Thibault - I don't know if FICGS is the first server to do so, but it's the first server I play on that has made the intelligent decision to limit accumulated time. Hopefully you will set a trend that other servers will follow :) 60 days max for one move may be too much, but with a 100 day limit, abuse will be minimal. Good job :) Elmer Valderrama    (2006-04-20 14:52:47) search by ECO code Wonderful feature to have all on-going games available just one click away (an old request to Reimund @chessfriend). Even more interesting to be able to search games by player name. Now would it be too much to ask for a search by ECO? --similar games would be identified in a second, a good thing; and information for choosing different variations would be available.. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-20 15:12:34) FICGS__CHESS__RAPID_B__000002 All games played against Daniel Grecu (forfeit) won't be rated in this tournament. Sorry about that. Elmer Valderrama    (2006-04-20 15:38:29) o.k. OK, thank you! Graham Cridland    (2006-04-21 16:50:29) Game 156 Looks sort fo interesting but it's odd that it has best game votes - isn't it barely out of theory? Graham Cridland    (2006-04-21 16:55:55) Waiting lists An option to remove oneself from the waiting list for a tournament might be useful. No immediate need on my part at present, but people's schedules change, etc. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-22 05:39:05) Not sure... Might be useful, right... But what to do if people's schedules change once the games started ? I made this way to reduce forfeits, players shouldn't enter waiting list if they are not sure to play the games until the end... Feel free to tell me what you think about that. Marc Lacrosse    (2006-04-22 15:39:05) Conditional moves ? I cannot figure how to propose conditional moves. Is this feature implemented yet? Maybe I did not read the rules accurately... Marc 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    (2006-04-23 06:01:44) explanation Hello Elmer. It's possible the player entered an ambiguous move in plain text format. The program may have interpreted this move as the first one possible. Anyway he probably did not verify his move before confirmed (inquiring), I can't correct that. I'll fix that as soon as the next update of the site is done. Thank you. Karlheinz Weber    (2006-04-23 11:13:11) Download of games I still think the possibility to download my own tournament, or at least my own games in pgn files would be very, very helpfull. For example many chessplayers handle their games with ChessBase. Ciao! Karlheinz Elmer Valderrama    (2006-04-23 11:56:55) not PGN Maybe bringing the text-entry move facility closer to the board might be a quick fix (for the player checking the validity of intended move). Regarding the format of the on-going games, it appears the player's move is copied "as is" directly to the game score (I have just entered "e7-e5", accepted by the interface as "e5", but it was copied as "1...e7-e5" into the PGN score of the on-going game), regards Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-23 13:48:27) French websites Quelques liens de sites français tout d'abord : http://www.france-echecs.com (le forum français bien connu) http://echecsmag.over-blog.com (un nouveau magazine sans lange de bois) http://www.asso-ecam.com (les échecs par correspondance sans assistance informatique) Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-23 17:03:16) Spanish / Deutsch (help...) Hello to all. As you can see, the home page is now "translated" (thanks babelfish :)) in 4 languages... It would be helpful if players speaking well spanish and deutsch can tell me about the faults... Please email me : info (at) ficgs.com Thanks in advance :) Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-23 17:17:17) Famous quotes Another thing, if you know famous (or unknown) quotes relative to chess, correspondence chess and "go". I have found many ones in english and french, but it's harder in deutsch and spanish. Or if you know rare & strange quotes, not from famous chess players... maybe from you ?! :) Thanks again :) Michael Höppenstein    (2006-04-24 06:42:14) Michael Höppenstein What will happen, if my opponent won't resign after a checkmate? 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. Michael Höppenstein    (2006-04-24 15:45:19) Referee - Checkmate That's not quite all right, I think. In case a game is won by checkmate, the game should be over - that is: without referee and without me waiting for my opponent losing on time. Would you consider changing this? Just a suggestions. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-24 16:11:48) Italian... (and other languages) Of course ! (...would you help me ? :)) Michael Höppenstein    (2006-04-24 18:13:20) Checkmate I think I was one of those payers. I won the game a few days ago but my opponent has not as yet resigned the game. Michael Höppenstein    (2006-04-24 18:14:40) Game 332 I'm refering to game 332. 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. Michael Aigner    (2006-04-24 20:20:09) Spanish / Deutsch (help....) Hello Thibault! I had a look for the german parts of the website and I have unfortunately to say the babelfish german is horrible. You can (if you like) send me all the english text you like to have in german and I will translate it for you. michael10013@lycos.com Give me please an mail adress where I schould send the translation to. Have a nice day Michael Trent Parker    (2006-04-25 14:05:50) Australian site Hey Thibault! Thanks for this excellent chess server! Below is an Australian site which welcomes all. And is where Thibault advertised this chess server that caused me to be interested in FICGS. It is a Forum/ Bulletin Board www.chesschat.org BTW I am a moderator at chesschat.org I am username "TCN" Graham Cridland    (2006-04-25 16:31:57) ? You can't do anything with conditional moves you can't do just making the moves yourself. It isn't like it makes imitation harder to spot. It just saves time. Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-25 16:48:28) Another Opinion I have mixed feelings on 'conditional" moves. I agree they save time, but they also can be irritating. Depends how they're sent and who sends them. We all have those opponents who play whatever Fritz plays. When one gets in a rather simple series of moves, those opponents like to run out a string of 3 or 4 conditionals in a row. Opponents like that are like leeches. You can't get them off your skin without yanking them off and eradicating them :) Time saving versus irritation. Considering the options, I vote for time saving. The faster I can get rid of Fritz opponents, the happier I am. Just another opinion :) Michael Höppenstein    (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? Graham Cridland    (2006-04-25 17:22:16) Hmm. Well, I see your point (I have an opponent like that) but what you're really objecting to is their failure to use their time, not conditional moves (or even fritz). And I can't imagine that forcing people to use their time will be popular. Just have to NOT send the move back right away, sit down at the board, and figure out where Fritz goes wrong. Our German friend isn't all knowing (especially at the 14-16 ply people only give him much of the time). So you should generally win those games. Graham Wyborn    (2006-04-25 17:42:52) Please join:- I joined this site recently and still have not started a game! Forgive the advert 4 the following games. We need one more player! FICGS__CHESS__CLASS_C__000002 (type : rated round-robin, time : 40 days, increment : 40 days / 10 moves) 7 players, 6 game (1 game against each opponent) elo : 1600-2000 Cridland, Graham (USA) 1700 Grady, Richard (USA) 1654 Höppenstein, Michael (DEU) 1700 Fillion, Nicolas (CAN) 1640 Wyborn, Graham (GBR) 1700 Muller, Henri-Louis (BEL) 1923 Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-25 20:39:39) Hmmm ... yup Graham - I think you summed it perfectly. I have no objection to conditionals nor do I care how much time folks use. What I find "irritating" (the word used in this thread) are those situations where you move and ten minutes later you're back on the clock again. Overused conditionals contribute to the "irritation," but hardly are the root cause. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-25 23:23:09) Forums Here are some forums where I announced FICGS. Most of them are well known & good places : http://pub11.bravenet.com/forum/924995304 TCCMB http://www.quebecechecs.com Quebec Echecs http://www.talkchess.com Talk Chess http://www.chessninja.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi Chess Ninja http://chessexchange.com/ Chess Exchange Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-25 23:47:35) Waiting lists / Delay Usually, the delay before a tournament start is at least one week in other big organizations... Be patient, tournaments will start more often as time passes and players join us. (the next month could be "surprising") Anyway this is correspondence chess after all :) 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...) Daniel De Noose    (2006-04-26 15:57:55) How to join ? How can I join the chess 960 tournament ? I don't see it ! Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-26 16:07:15) Special tournaments Hello Daniel. Chess 960 & Thematic tournaments (actual is king's gambit) are in category : Ficgs__Chess__Special__Tournaments Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-26 19:42:16) Russian, Italian, Chinese, Dutch.... The Babelfish versions of the FICGS home page in other languages are at the bottom of the home page... Quite funny :) If players from these countries have time to help to translate, feel free to send me an email to info (at) ficgs.com ! Thanks. 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. Jose Carrillo    (2006-05-01 01:34:24) Other Chess960 opening positions Thibault, When will other Chess960 openings be available? In FRCEC, we prefer to run tournaments where every game in the tournament begins with a different opening position. It avoids repetition. Let see how this tournament develops. Cheers, Jose David Angeli    (2006-05-01 18:42:19) Tournament class Hi thibault About the "tounaments" topic (je sais pas comment on dit rubrique en anglois ! ;o) ) One thing not very clear for a newcomer like me is the difference between the different classes of tournaments : A, M, etc...it is certainly explained somewhere but i'm a bit lazy and it would be easier if it was explained on the same page . Thanks to your site i'm back to correspondence chess :) Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-01 19:01:58) Class tournaments Salut David ! About standard & rapid "class" tournaments, they are open to players with ELO rating included into a range, specified just below the tournament name. (ie. CLASS M : 2200 to 2600 , CLASS A : 2000 to 2400 , CLASS B : 1800 to 2200 etc...) J'espère que tu nous feras profiter de ton gambit favori ;) Bonnes parties ! Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-02 17:43:05) Who beats Garry Kasparov ? Funny :) http://www.ibeatgarry.com/ A "Kasparov number" of 3 for Patrice Verdier, great ;) Other winners : Janos Helmer, Christian Koch, Farit Balabaev, Marc Lacrosse, David Angeli... Finally everyone beats Garry :)) Nicolas Fillion    (2006-05-02 20:06:09) Printable game list Hi, I'd like to know if there's an option to have a printable list of the moves of the games we're playing. I don't see any option... If not, I'd like to suggest to add such an option to the webmaster! The site is undoubtly great, but this kind of option would surely make it even greater! Thanks Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-04 01:03:58) Update - Chess 960 The start position for Chess 960 tournaments will change each time a tournament starts ! The start position for the next tournament is the Chess 960 board in the Help section. Have good games... Jose Carrillo    (2006-05-05 00:34:33) Re: Update - Chess 960 Excellent news! How do I set up a one game match against somebody? Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-05 15:19:03) FICGS world championship Hello to all. Please post here all your questions / suggestions about the FICGS world championship rules. There are many answers to bring yet : about the building of groups, who exactly will play which stage, etc... It seems that many players like this scheme : knockout / round-robin tournament, that is more fair and much more interesting than a pure round-robin cycle. The final match rules are particularly hard (24 games, 30 days + 1 day / move), but I think it's a good way to make it different and give value to the title. Rules are not far from the old classical world championship, the champion will only play the next final match against the challenger... FICGS WCH Rules : http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#tournament Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-05 16:35:18) Question... ... from a player : Who (how many players from each tournament) will play the next stages of the wch ? Indeed, rules are not clear enough yet, I'll bring changes soon. About "how many players", from ie. a 11 players round-robin tournament : It's stated only one, the player with the highest rating in case of equality. Maybe that's not fair enough, I have to simulate other possibilities. As June is very near already (too short delay), if there are no players enough at this time, we could pass the first stage but I think it would be better to wait, postponing (one month or two) could be considered... Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-05 15:36:17) 2 players matches Hello Jose ! That is not possible yet. There's no players enough to create other tournament categories.. The delay before tournament start could increase significantly. Jose Carrillo    (2006-05-05 18:51:43) Tournament reccomendation Try a round robin + Page system playoffs. Round 1: Round Robin (as many players as you want) Final Round: Page System Playoffs: Top 4 players in the Round Robin qualify for the quaterfinals: 1st place vs 2nd place 3rd place vs 4th place Winner of 1st-2nd gets bye in semi-finals, and moves on to the finals. Loser of 1st-2nd plays in semi-final round Winner of 3rd-4th playes in semi-final Loser of 3rd-4th gets eliminated. Winner of semi-final plays in the final. Glen D. Shields    (2006-05-06 11:51:16) Two Others Two other sites are ICCF (http://www.iccf-webchess.com/) and IECG (http://lss.chess-server.net/). They're similar to FICGS in that both require one to play with their real name. Neither site promotes computer use, yet neither site discourages it. ICCF is a fee-based. IECG is free. Glen D. Shields    (2006-05-06 11:52:49) FYI ... Thibault Schemingmind forbids computer use. Trent Parker    (2006-05-06 17:15:28) Best games I personally think that only finished games should be considered for best games. Or a panel of high rated players should vote for best games. Also i think players should not be able to vote for their own games. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-06 18:32:03) All is possible... Maybe players shouldn't be able to vote for their own games... But in most cases, interesting games are first known by the players themselves. We could miss something. Anyway, I think only really interesting or spectacular games will obtain many votes. We'll see... I also think about mini-sites / kind of blog, or shared wiki-like pages for players who want to discuss & analyze games in depth together. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-07 21:14:00) "Help" Hello Henrik. Sorry if this is not clear enough. Maybe try first to read help section, then take a look at the waiting lists : choose a tournament category, ie. "class tournaments", then click on a tournament name and follow the instructions. (you enter a waiting list after 4 clicks) Have good games... Konstantin Konuhov    (2006-05-07 21:25:15) Mate Game 255. Help. Game is check and mate, but it is no end. What to do with it? Trent Parker    (2006-05-08 01:19:43) re: Mate Hello Konstantin! your opponent has to resign. Hey Thibault. Could i suggest that you send a message to everyone in regards to this issue? I suspect that quite a lot of people do not read these forums regularly. Just a thought. Cheers, Trent Parker Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-08 04:38:51) F.A.Q. Hello Konstantin. As Trent said, your opponent has to resign. Please take a look at this thread : http://www.ficgs.com/forum_read_185.html I'll make a F.A.Q. very soon. 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. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-09 16:08:33) Cup / Wch Bonjour Sébastien. J'avoue que j'ai du mal à trouver de quoi justifier l'existence d'un tournoi "cup" utilisant la même formule ou presque que le championnat du monde, à part diviser l'intérêt et la fréquentation de l'un et de l'autre... Il est bien dommage que le système suisse ne puisse pas s'appliquer aux tournois de jeux par correspondance... Peut-être, pourquoi pas, proposer une coupe (façon championnat) d'échecs 960, ou réservée aux joueurs classés au dessus d'une barre ELO à déterminer... Jose Carrillo    (2006-05-11 00:09:47) Re: Qualifying The top 4 players in the round robin qualify for the quarterfinals. The beauty of this system is that the #1 and #2 players in the round robin have a 50% chance of going to the final (they deserve it too! as they finished top 2 in the round robin). The loser of the 1st-2nd match still has a chance to go to the finals if he wins the semi-finals. This system prevents lower ranked 3rd and 4th players in the round robin to knock out in one round the top players of the round robin. If you play the round robin to win (and finish 1st or 2nd) you are rewarded for the finals. There is still the possibility of the 1st and 2nd place in the round robin to play in the final match. If you just play to finish 3rd or 4th, you have to fight your way to the final. There will never be a 3rd vs 4th final match, something very well possible in a knock out tournament. Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-11 09:34:03) Wikichess !