database
FICGS - Search results for database
There are 215 results for database in the forum.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-16 16:02:22)
Right again
You'll have both options very soon.
In case of crash, the database is automatically & periodically saved out of the server.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-24 16:18:23)
Time pro move
The date of the last move played is displayed. I prefer not to store time for all moves on the server to minimize the size of the database. But they are stored on my computer. If there's a problem, I can find the time for any move.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-03 04:41:09)
Start positions
It seems to me that changing the start position from classical chess is "sufficient"... The purpose was, according to Fischer, to avoid databases and to favour creativity.. The same positions in the whole tournament allows to compare & analyze a bit deeper, maybe understand better the position. The start position will be different for the next tournament (working on). There are "only" 960 positions, there will be repetitions anyway... And what do you think about the Fischer rules ? Seems strange to me. I wonder if everyone knows how to castle in other start positions (king or rooks at different places)
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
Daniel De Noose (2006-06-15 17:23:38)
It is not the same !
Playing 1st or 2nd Championship is not the same because if you play only the second you can't be the first FICGS champion !
;-)
Secundo, as you explained it at the start of the site, everybody can use databases, computers, ... In that case a 1600 can beat a 2300 if he enters correctly parameters in his chess engine.
Because the tournament is not again started you can correct this. After the beginning it will be harder.
And what's my rating now ? ;-)
Wayne Lowrance (2006-06-22 21:11:43)
interesting question for the Gambit's a
Sir let me explain, the stats are taken from A database of 1600 GM's. the statistic is taken prior to blacks response but assuming pxp. Of course the percentages varies as you go thru the book lines. Where did your statistics come from (e-mail me, dont want to continue with troll)?
Kings gambit with perfect play as you say leads to a draw.
That does not impress me much. I agree the best defence against a gambit is accept, I usually do.
Yes your right the thread is a troll, I apoligize for contributing but I found my self not being able to agree with where the last few topics were heading.
I do not accept this mind games thing excet against a very weak player playing a much stronger player. In this case I agree. I end the troll with this...Wayne
Glen D. Shields (2006-07-22 19:50:51)
Interesting Discussion Topic
Thibault - this is a interesting discussion topic. Of course, no one knows the future with certainty, but we can all offer an opinion :)
I'm nearing my 40th year of correspondence play. Sometime later this year I will complete my 1000th tournament game. All my games were played by postcard until the mid 90's. E-mail dominated my CC schedule from about 1998 until 2002. Now I only play server chess. I've played on the FICGS, IECG, GameKnot, ChessFriend, Schemingmind and ICCF servers.
Contrary to many people who've played as long as I have, I do NOT see chess engines as a threat to the game. I think they've changed the game, but not hurt the game. I believe they've increasd CC's popularity and game quality. The same is true for opening and ending databases.
Some of the changes that will occur in CC the next ten years:
- Servers will improve functionality and ease of use.
- Due to engine use we will grow to accept 2200 as an "average" rating rather than "Master."
- Tournaments will be re-structured to include fewer players per section and shorter tournament durations. This particularly applies to ICCF where 15 player sections and slow time rules to simulate postal chess are used.
- New server functionality will be added to allow players the option to SLOW down the game. It's too easy to get caught in a mindless "server flurry."
- New chess software will be developed to analyze games. This analysis tool will give proability estimates on what engine one's opponent is using. That information will allow one to counter and plan against one's opponent.
- There will be more anti-computer books written and theories developed. We will use these techniques to beat our opponent and and improve our chess planning skills.
Bottomline ... I am excited by the new technology. I see continued advances in the way we manage our gameload, the way we send moves, the way we play, plan and analyze our moves. The way we play in the future will be different and will still be fun for those who embrace new technology. My disappointment is I am an old man and unlikely to enjoy all the advantages the future brings. I hope those who follow me enjoy what I will miss :)
Graham Wyborn (2006-08-13 17:32:35)
(download) in Go games!
Recently started playing Go. Similar problem to (download) in chess. If I hoover over the Go (download) button, the ballon reads, "Download this game in PGN format". If I press it, it tries to download game into my chess database!
Can you help? You solved it last time, can you do it again?
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
Charlie Neil (2006-09-02 21:49:18)
why do you play corr chess
i play corr chess as i don't go to chess clubs as i work shifts and can't devote a single night off the same day in every week. also i pause at the board smoking cigarettes drinking coffee and have music playing in the background, ( most of the time dressed in my pyjamas). the corr chess players you meet can be some nice people who are usually polite and chessfriends. and the rude ones you can ignore.
of course you have the time to study a game a bit longer before making that blunder. i am learning and re-learning chess all the time. at the moment i am playing from memory after finding using books confusing when i got to the end of the line. i feel sorry for those people who use databases/computers for their moves as in the end they are cheating themselves out using their own brain, there is an old saying, "cheats don't prosper" i believe it to be true.
Chess is the best and the most terrible game in the world.
Marc Lacrosse (2006-09-04 10:51:45)
To Charlie on cheaters ...
Hi Charlie
I completely agree with the first sentences of your post, but I cannot accept the second part of it.
I use computers, and books, and databases and lots of prepared personal analyses for my games here.
I do not accept to be called a cheater : this is explicitly allowed by the rules here, and it is even one of the main reasons for which I joined this association.
There are lots of other sites where computer use is forbidden : you can for sure play there and complain when you will guess that your opponent is making use of electronic assistance, but not here.
Moreover for me it is pure shortness of sight if you are not able to imagine that playing with computer help can be both creative and even fascinating.
Take any of your games and do a quick analysis with several chess programs : you will see that for a large majority of positions they completely disagree on which is the best move to play. The human touch is critically decisive when playing with computer help.
And resulting games are far more complicated and interesting in my eyes.
Another point is that for myself I prefer that my opponents do not spoil an interesting game for which I have spent hours and hours of analysis along weeks of play through a stupid human blunder that ends it all suddenly.
I do pretty well understand that you prefer to play on your own. But what is the problem if you have a computer-assisted opponent? Either you will loose and will maybe learn something either you will win and it will be a pretty good achievement. And surely it will be a better game. The only problem I can see is the possible frustration not to be able to win many games.
Then I repeat : go on another site where computer assistance is forbidden. But I have to say that having played on such sites for years you will find _many_ cheaters... Pure human play cannot be enforced ...
But please stop saying that players like myself are cheaters and poor ignorants.
It is sure we play a different game but why should you be entitled to say that mine is worse than yours?
Regards
Marc
Charlie Neil (2006-09-05 09:50:08)
why play corr-chess
Marc, excuse me I didn't make the difference between chess engines/databases and someone playing straight moves straight off their own computer. Yes, use books and databases that's what they are there for. But I feel sorry for the individual who relies solely on their computer to play their games for them. It is a bit like taking a fork lift to a weight lifting competition. The use of computers and servers is still relatively new to me. There are sites that ban the use of computers. but who is to know who is using their computer in an illegal way? There can be no profit for them or enjoyment in the game.
It is good that FICGS has this forum for free discussion. I enjoyed reading "The future for Corr-chess" thread. There has always been points in time when it has been discussed that chess has "burnt-out" and the game will die off. I don't think that will ever happen in light of the passion for this terrible game expressed in all these forums. So, forgive an ignorant "free-range" "organic" chessfriend for not being clear about the differences about databases and computer-slaves who rely on their machines. The game is the thing. ( and maybe just maybe I wasn't drinking just coffee the time I posted the cheats slur...:-/)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-05 12:58:56)
Major update : your feelings ?
Hello to all.
There has been several changes these last days to optimize the access to the database... as it grows quicky :)
A major update just occured to speed up the display of all games. (Google and other search engines may slow down the whole server sometimes) The effects should appear gradually.
Feel free to post here if you observe any problem or change, or on the speed of the server in general (please specify the speed of your computer & internet connection)
Thanks in advance ! :)
Thibault
Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff (2006-09-06 09:04:10)
Time to display all informations
~ 15 seconds now.
I suspect the program uses most of the time to collect the information from the database tables. If I save the page it needs less than 400 kilobytes.
Charlie Neil (2006-09-07 09:02:54)
Krammik vs Topalov
Krammik will play 1.Nf3 with his 1st 5 games with white and as Topalov is dozing off.....POW! It's going to be a tense match. A clash of styles I'd say. But it is all good for chess. We need an undisputed OTB champion again, it can only be good for chess. ( A million dollars for the best of twelve games.....I think I'll go and buy myself a database....:-)
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 (2006-09-14 13:33:14)
Chess engines prohibited
Please note :
"The use of databases and chess engines will be prohibited for this challenge." (games unrated)"
Lots of fun ! .. Join us :)
Miguel Pires (2006-09-14 15:33:01)
whay databases
whay databases are prohibited? in GK we can use them.
Regard's
Miguel Pires
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-15 00:24:12)
Chess databases
Hi Miguel.
Really ? Looks strange to me... So what about 6-pieces tablebases ?
Miguel Pires (2006-09-15 01:05:13)
Chess database
This is the rules of the gk, you can see in this link
http://gameknot.com/pg/pol_community.htm
What is important is this one:
3. You may not use chess engines, chess programs, chess computers to help you decide your next move. You may not consult with anyone nor ask advice about any games in progress. You may analyze games with chess engines after they are finished. You may consult chess books or game/move databases at any time.
Soo i can consult databases. You can fin the tablebases in PGN or other thing, by this rule you can use, any databasese, oppening, games etc. Don't you agree?
Regard's
Miguel Pires
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-15 01:46:29)
Chess databases / tablebases
Ok, I was confused.. Chess database and tablebases / "chess programs"...
Anyway, I suppose we can use any rules if it's clearly specified, that's not a problem. However, for just more fun, I would suggest games without any kind of assistance... Games could be just more human & original :)
What do you think ?
Miguel Pires (2006-09-15 02:50:58)
well
you are the boss, if say soo, for me is ok. But for shure some not going to do that. And now we have a big problem, the OTB Vs CC rating. Cairo from GK have an elo in OTB +2300, mor or less the same at GK an ICCF, but others, the thing's are different. Like me, i'm a +1700 in otb, and + 2000 in this site, and in GK i'm a +1900 (a lot of timeouts put my rating in 1756 now). soo playng in CC without any help (databases like i play in GK) is hard to play at + 2000. And we need players with good OTB rating's to.
Like i say, you are the boss.
what time controls we going to use?
Thomas Gilbreath (2006-09-15 02:53:36)
re: computer help
Greetings:)
Maybe I was misunderstood.......the use of databases is ok - but like Miguel said, we oppose the use of computers to recommend moves.
:) 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...
James Stripes (2006-09-18 15:56:13)
27 years ago
When I first played correspondence chess, books were encouraged and the few chess engines in existence were garbage. Good quality engines and comprehensive databases have changed the nature of correspondence play.
Nearly everyone permits databases (electronic books), although endgame tablebases are less clear. Engines are permitted some places, while banned others. This site is my first foray into CC where engine use is permitted, but I've played at dozens of sites where I can use databases. (I don't believe I've ever reached a position in which tablebases would be useful, except a few elementary positions that any average player could win against Kramnik.)
These inter-site matches, it seems to me, nurture connections across the broad community of correspondence players--a rapidly expanding coterie of chess aficionados thanks to the likes of GameKnot and similar sites.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-18 18:06:50)
FICGS correspondence chess database
Hello to all.
FICGS chess database (games rated + unrated, finished + unfinished) is now a unique static PGN file, that will be updated at least every 2 months. You can find it by clicking 'Search games' or at this link :
http://www.ficgs.com/databases/chess.pgn
Other free chess databases (ie. games played by famous players) will be added at :
http://www.ficgs.com/directory_databases.html
Best wishes.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-19 15:03:13)
Computer use on GameKnot......
I just read GameKnot forum about the FICGS vs. GameKnot match :
http://gameknot.com/fmsg/chess3/3860.shtml
It seems to me this question of computer use on GameKnot is quite out of topic (and on the wrong forum)... I proposed to GameKnot rep (Thomas) to prohibite any computer assistance (engines + databases) for the match or to simply authorize it, as I think more players from FICGS would play, and surely players from GameKnot too... Then everyone is free to play, accepting the rules and the risk of cheating (quite small IMO), but it's up to I & Thomas to deal with that. This debate shouldn't happen here IMHO.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-19 19:13:07)
No cumputer use at all
Thomas & I finally agreed to prohibite chess engines & chess databases for this friendly match ! :-)
Games should be really interesting this way.
Elmer Valderrama (2006-09-19 19:42:56)
FICGS correspondence chess database
That's a great improvement on the former listing of un/finished games (somehow it took ages to load those pages on my PC).
Now why is it that it will be updated 'at least' every 2 months, not daily as the former pages?
(assuming fetching all the PGN scores into a single PGN file is done automatically by a script)
Thanks
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-19 21:25:57)
FICGS correspondence chess database
Hello Elmer.
Former databases were not updated daily, it were generated in real time... It could be updated daily yet, but as it will grow up a lot & quickly, I prefer to make it myself (instead of the robots).
Best regards.
Rodrigo Jaroszewski (2006-09-30 09:41:27)
Re: Legitimacy
Hey, you don't have the chance of asking a GM a question every day! :)
Nigel, since my limited database and research resources here didn't allow me to know if you played a game against Kramnik, much less if you ever had a nice chat with him, I'd like to know if you did and if you really believe that he'd be the kind of guy that would go out and organize a WC Cicle on his own, like Kasparov did (well, tried)?
I take this match as a display he is willing to expose himself in order to get things straight once and for all, but going to the business side of the game is for those that really want to risk a lot to get things done.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-10-03 14:32:52)
SmartGo, Many faces of Go...
Computer Go seems to be very far from computer chess yet... (more than I thought)
Do you think a playing Go program could beat the best player in future ?
(following discussions I had with several players here :))
I've read the strongest programs could play around 8 kyu level (SmartGo, Many faces of Go). Not so bad, but I suppose it's at a blitz level, what about correspondence Go...
I train myself against gnuGO and I've been told about Kombilo, a free Go program (database), but I did not really enter it. SmartGo and Many faces of Go seem to be really good programs to learn the basics of the game.. but then ? .. Should we learn life and death structures, other things or only practice ?
Roger Weber (2006-10-03 15:11:47)
Go
The one thing that makes humans good at Go is our ability to recognize patterns.
Go is all about seeing patterns and making strategical moves.
Chess engines are so good at Chess because there aren't that many possibilites to be played, so a computer can calculate the best one by looking at databases.
However Go has a much larger board and much more possibilites of moves for a game, making it impossible for a computer to calculate the best move.
Also computers do not have an AI yet to enable them the recognition of patterns, or not to a degree that humans do.
So a Go-engine could theoretically beat you on a 9x9 sized board, but it is very improbable that it will do so on a 19x19 board.
At least for the moment ...
Rodrigo Jaroszewski (2006-10-05 11:42:35)
Re:
Basically, I'm playing to force myself to learn. In July, when I began my first game in FICGS, I knew nothing and had nobody to teach me. Since the probabilities of me ever having a tutor are dim, I knew I had to learn alone.
FICS won't cut it, because the guys at my level generally memorize a line and go for it until the bitter end. Having no opening knowledge I would generally end up in a bad spot until the midgame, where I can handle myself better. I rarely got past move 15 there.
OTB won't do for me, because I don't even know if there's a chess club in my city. I had a neighbor that used to play with me, but I quickly got past him on knowledge.
Studying database games is just not my style. I can't get drawn into the game if I'm not playing. If I choose the bad move I have to feel threatened by it, it has to have a consequence to me.
Thus, I'm here at FICGS. Before every move I'm able to analyze it and how the line goes forward, to understand why it is a good move. Plus, I'm able to test the moves that come to my head and check them (generally to find out they are outright suicidal).
In the end, I think my opponent wins something back, which is an entertaining and hopefully instructive game.
P.S.: BTW, just so you know, I play clean on FICS and OTB. I think those are, after some time at FICGS, becoming instructive environments on their own right.
Elmer Valderrama (2006-10-20 21:24:52)
quite a lot!
Thanks for your comment Thibault
Out of curiosity, just searched the Chess Problem Database Server and found a lot (+200!)of chess problems that have been found illegal one way or the other
(not sure yours is listed there but I presume it is)
Scott Prestwood (2006-10-21 03:15:11)
Full Disclosure
Perhaps tournaments should be labled as permiting engines and not permiting engines. Coorespondence chess has tradionally had only the rules of chess and the time control limiting it. And the early masters that used and believed in coorespondence chess as a method to improve ones game did not have access to computers, nice to know I could get killed in the tourney I am in just because I'm playing 6 computers. The initial allowance of databases and books to aid ones choice of moves as well as playing the game through allowed improvement of ones chess abilities. Computers will have a greater tendency to be the one playing the game because they only prescribe one line of action from a position. That line is very strong and likewise tends to be the operators choice of the next move. If the allowance of computers is posted for the games it will allow for the players to chose which type of game they prefer.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-10-21 12:11:22)
Tactics / server chess
You just have to be a bit more creative or to play different openings in your 3 games as White & Black in a tournament... Anyway, with online databases it's quite easy to know any player style & opening book.
There are many psychological tactics with server chess & CC time controls IMO, ie. it may be quite important to manage your unlucky opponent spirit during a tournament :)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-10-30 18:13:36)
Big chess "birthday" tournament !
FICGS now counts more than 1000 members :)
The display of Big Chess games has just been improved : Last move marked, coordinates, speed, bugs fixed... So it may be funny to see more games !!
A special tournament will start soon, if you want to enter it, just post "I'm in." (or something like that :)) in this thread. The first 7 players will be in.
The tournament will be there :
http://www.ficgs.com/tournament_FICGS__BIG_CHESS__THOUSAND_MEMBERS_EVENT.html
Games unrated, time control is 30 days + 1 day / move... 7 players -> 6 games per player (big challenge).
Reminder : To see what Big Chess is, see the Inaugural match game...
http://www.ficgs.com/tournament_FICGS__BIG_CHESS__INAUGURAL_MATCH.html
100% human chess guaranteed, no chess engines & databases :)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-14 13:49:08)
Story Of Life and Chess
Yes, a story of life and chess ! ..
In my ICCF database, the oldest archived correspondence chess games have been played (at first sight, I may be wrong) in 1989, did you kept your first correspondence chess games ? It would be great to see some from this period... In which organizations did you play before ? Thanks for your answers :)
Lionel Vidal (2006-11-20 21:29:31)
You seems in advance :-)
Well, considering the results of last year pro games (almost a perfect 50-50 result, according to my rather large but admittedly incomplete database) I am not sure a komi change from 6.5 will occur soon, at least in the japanese pro scene... And the number of recent games in gobase that ends in 1 or 1/2 points difference is astonishing :-) (not really significant, I know, as pros have the capacity to keep a tiny edge till the end, reducing it to simplify the game... but still :-))
Anyway, for us, simple and humble go mortals, that does not change much :-)
(but even at my low level I tend to be more aggressive in my fuseki while playing with an opponent of my level or stronger when the komi is 7.5 instead of say 5.5... so considering the increase/decrease (black/white) of aggressive attitude, maybe it is important for most of us because the feeling of a game might eventually change)
Elmer Valderrama (2006-12-04 14:18:02)
intuition
I disagree, chess knowledge can't be equated to intuition, here
is my long post about it
(why am I writing about the same things all over and over and at the
same time of year, I dunno ;)
1. Players without any intuition whatsoever but great working
capabilitites (as Botvinnik, Fischer, Kasparov, ..engines..)
-they never relie on intuition (they dont have any at all after all)
so everything must be subject to calculation, they have the
"hardware" (perfect body and mental conditions, rigorous training,
perfect visual/realistic representation of positions and a great
chess knowledge which must be kept fresh in mind -if not, they wouldn't
have reference points to judge/evaluate resulting positions.
When on top form they can beat anybody and I mean ANY body: human,
extraterrestial,
ultragalactic, trans-natural, hyper-divine,etc, and for an overwhelming
score, like 6-0 ;)..well you know what I mean.
The drawback well you already know it, it last a mig, except for
the engines, no-one can keep up with this regime
(GK could for a long time, but resorting
to short breaks (not playing for WC, choosing carefully where to play
etc,) But most important it's impossible to implement for long if the
"hardware" -see above- starts to "leak oil" then it's all over..
This can be brought up to an art, like Kasparov or Fischer, it is more
powerful than understanding chess as a natural tongue (as intuitive
players) because the "top-form" competitive element is always
present and the "hardware" works in pristine conditions.
From the above it follows of course that engines are the ultimate
chess warrior over the board at least (and only there, not in CC)
2. Those who have strategical intuition. (Capablanca, Petrosian, Karpov
maybe Anand..)The general impression is that
they are simply lazy people: not need to work out any thing as they
just "know" where pieces should go and what the point is of their
moves, usually there is no need for deep calculations, just two or three
moves (4 to 6 plies) to corroborate the "feeling" and the game is won.
The "feeling" is hard to express in words, and usually is lost if
expressed in words ;). It goes beyond a simply pattern recognition,
or a full database of chess knowledge, it is about predicting the
future possibilities (not having real positions in mind, just the
"possibilities" or general lines of play in future positions which
may or may not happen to appear for real in the game.
They can play for long long time and win a lot of tournaments
(Karpov I believe have the record of won tournaments)
3. Those who have special understanding in unbalanced positions
(Alekhine, Tal, Korchnoi..) They are dynamic players who love
to calculate but not for the sake of finding the best of the best of
the best of the moves (as those in group 1 would do), they
calculate SOME variations, those who have meaning to them
I see them as players of group 2 with a more or less working
"hardware" i.e they are not going to trust 2 or 3 moves variations
neither they are going to speculate on the future possibilities
without any ground/basic calculation under it. Their "feeling" is
again hard to express in words, but I believe it is something like
calculating a 10-12 plies variation with every position in-between
being subconciously excrutinated for crushing unexpected turning moves
(this is not done by players of group 1, they would calculate
"normal replies" in that 10-12 plies variation and would have to
go deeper (like 20-30 plies to see the point ;)
So that "feeling" is what enable us to compose music, create
art etc but also it is something that enable us to err like fools :(
Whether it can be mimicked by software or not it's an open question
but as I said a calculation 40-50 plies deep it's practically
equal to using intuition...
Obviously the above classification of G Kasparov it's a bit
rough in the sense that there are very few "pure intuitive"
players (of either group 2 or 3) as mentioned by Don in his post
most of the players is a mix of talent I believe, if I had to
choose a pure intuitive player from those groups I would point
Capablanca and Korchnoi, and of course Kasparov of group 1
Marc Lacrosse (2007-01-08 14:53:13)
My new little chess site ...
... is located at http://chessbazaar.mlweb.info
There will be some computer chess related stuff (opening books, collected ICC games, database processing tips, tests results ...) together with a few games, analyses, and maybe some historical data and so on.
Not that much so far, but I wish and hope that the baby will be growing fast :-)
Marc
Sandor Marton-Bardocz (2007-01-16 18:29:21)
Conditional Move
Hi there!
I noticed that there was a topic regarding conditional moves but it is closed. I think that conditional moves, aren't a bad thing after all..it should be implemented..Just think about the first moves of a game....for now, even the weakest players play theory ( fritz database or something)and this implies that the first moves will be played rather fast...Then why spend time clicking around to get to the games on a starting tournament over&over again, just to play the well known moves? U can overcome the "irritation" issue by limitating the use of conditional moves. Let's say every player has the right to use for example ...10 conditional moves in the begining of the game (in the first 15 moves for example). After that in 10 to 10 moves have let's say 2 possibilities to use conditional moves...This way it's erradicated the annoyance of countless use of premoves. Btw. I think that the example of those players who might use Fritz or whatever chessprogram to play, and then premove the lines indicated by the engine isn't really good..Only if the opponnent against whom they use it ...playes using the same lines indicated by ....an engine :-) Otherwise I can't realise how on earth the replied moves can be the same and matching with....or those lines are really forced..and if that is the case then the use of premoves is normal. Thank You.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-01-21 13:48:44)
Go and chess, IGN Goama newsletter
From IGN Goama newsletter by Alexander Dinerchtein - http://www.gogame.info
Go and Chess Two Games, Shared Experiences
Chess and go show are similar in many ways, yet it's always strange to see how the masters of each game try to "invent the wheel", instead of benefiting from the knowledge of their colleagues.
Let's consider sharing experiences!
These ideas can be useful even for strong Asian Go professionals:
1. Currently, only a few pros use Go databases and programs for studying. It is easy to find commentaries, written by 9-dan masters, which state that a move is new and has never been played before. Yet if one checks such moves in Go databases, one can sometimes find up to 100 examples from professional games. How can they cheat the readers who study these commentaries?
Once in Korea, I showed the Bigo Assistant program (similar to GoGod, MoyoGo and SmartGo) to Lee Sedol's brother Lee Sanghun, 5-dan, who is the director of a large children's Go school. He was surprised and said that the program looked very useful, and he added that he had never met this kind of program before. He even suggested deleting all amateur games and games played on Go servers, because of their low quality. I promised to order the programs and to install them on the school's computers if he liked this idea, but he did not follow up. Lee Sanghun, 5-dan was not able to break the traditions of his forefathers …
2. Even such top chess players as Kasparov, Kramnik and Topalov enlist the support of trainers during important tournaments and matches. During the Communist era, almost every Russian grandmaster worked on behalf of world championship candidates. Our government forced them to help, to show them new moves and ideas. Those who refused to help were punished severely: for example, sometimes a player would be prohibited from playing in tournaments abroad and would be refused foreign visas.
We do not see this in Go. Everyone thinks only about his or her own self. Do you know who is currently assisting Lee Changho? I don't know, either!
3. I would like to say a few words about playing technique. Chess players often used to write the move on paper first and then make it on the board. This helps to avoid impulsive moves and to prevent blunders. Go masters record the game afterwards, and so one can often find terrible mistakes, such as overlooking ataris and recapturing ko without playing a ko threat first. As an example you may see Black's move number 271 from this game:
http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/collection/sgfview.php?id=10828
I am sure that if a player looked at their move at least twice before they write it on paper and after they would not make such mistakes.
4. Even top Go tournaments are usually run by the knock-out system so we often see sensational results. Mightn’t it be reasonable to think about increasing the number of games in each round? If rounds were best-of-three (in case of time constraints, it would be possible to use blitz time controls for the third game), it would help to minimize sensations.
How about organising a definitive World Go Championship? Chess players have contested one for more than 100 years, and competitions for this World Championship have revealed the very best players of each generation. In Go it's harder to tell which player is true champion. In 2006, for instance, one international tournament was won by Lee Changho and another one by Lee Sedol, while Cho U won the largest amount of prize money. Whom can we call the World Champion? Who can say which tournament is the most important : LG, Samsung, Fujitsu, Chunlan or another? We don't even have a unified rating system …
If we determined a single World Go Champion, he might earn the same degree of popularity as Garry Kasparov achieved in chess, and this could have a very positive influence on Go popularity around the world!
Thibault de Vassal (2007-01-23 12:27:06)
Famous chess games
Hello to all.
I am testing a new database which will contain famous chess games / games from famous chess players... World championships, Man vs. Machine, Computer games, Correspondence chess, Curiosities etc.. Now 2200+ games in, but it will grow quickly.
Feel free to suggest any link with interesting free chess database, or you may send to me PGN games (particularly looking for non-chess celebrities chess games).
http://www.ficgs.com/informations.html
(see A-Z)
All suggestions & feedback are welcome. Thanks in advance :)
Benjamin Aldag (2007-01-29 16:46:51)
Translation
Ok....i'll do my best :-D
Hattest Du seine mail mit der Datenbank bekommen? Viele Grüße and Nein, ich habe keine Datenbank von ihm.
Did you have his mail with the database got? Many greetings and no, I have no database of him.
yk
Ron Keyston (2007-01-29 17:27:38)
"Major" Deep Fritz 10 Bug
I've confirmed this problem on two different computers with completely different hardware and different operating systems. I've also sent the problem off to Chessbase, but have not yet gotten much of a response. If anyone else has Deep Fritz 10, would you mind giving this a try and reporting back with your results? Also, if anyone has the non-Deep version of Fritz 10, I'd be interested in knowing if it is also affected by this problem.
Input a game into Deep Fritz 10 and get to a point in the game where it is possible for black to castle long. Now save the game into a database, close the game and then open it back up from the database. If you either turn on infinite analysis, or just try to make the move, black is not able to castle long...Fritz assumes that it is an illegal move.
Furthermore, if you castle long BEFORE saving the game into the database, then save it and re-open it, then go to the position after black has castled queenside and turn on infinite analysis, the analysis is "messed up." Either the analysis text is invisible, or it reports impossible lines, or the evaluation score is very obviously wrong. This should be enough info for anyone to give the test a try, but if you want some specific examples, please let me know.
Ron
Ron Keyston (2007-01-29 19:04:14)
Specifics and Examples
OK, one PC is a 3.2GHz P4 w/1GB RAM running XP Pro. 256MB Hashtables with an ~800MB Maximum possible. The other PC is an Athlon X2 4600+ w/2GB RAM running Vista Ultimate (RTM.) It has 1GB Hashtables with ~1.5GB Maximum Possible. I can pretty much guarantee that it is not a hashtable issue though as the problem is with the legality of a move and only arises after saving into a database, closing the game and then re-opening it from the database. Also, if I open the same saved game from the database into Fritz 9, castling long as black is perfectly OK.
As for some examples, I will give the same five games that I sent to Chessbase. Some of these are contrived examples, whereas some are from my games here at FICGS:
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bc4 Bg4 6.O-O Nc6 7.d4
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 gxf6 7.Nf3 b6 8.Bc4 Bb7 9.Qe2 Nd7 10.O-O-O c6 11.Rhe1 Qc7 12.g3
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c4 7.Qg4 g6 8.Nf3 Qa5 9.Bd2 Nh6 10.Qh3 Nf5 11.g4 Nxd4 12.cxd4 Qb6 13.Bg2 Nc6 14.Qh6 Nxd4 15.O-O Bd7 16.Bg5 Ba4 17.Nxd4 Qxd4 18.Qg7 Rf8 19.Be3 Qxg4 20.Bc5
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 a6 6.Be3 Nc6 7.Qd2 Bf5 8.Bd3 Bg4 9.Be2 e6 10.O-O-O
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3
Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c4 7.Qg4 g6 8.Nf3 Qa5 9.Bd2 Nh6 10.Qh3 Nf5 11.g4 Nxd4 12.cxd4 Qb6 13.Bg2 Nc6 14.Qh6 Nxd4 15.O-O Bd7 16.Qg7
In all five examples, it is black to move from the final position. Also, in all five examples, castling long/queen-side is perfectly legal and likely one of the best moves. BEFORE the game(s) is/are saved into the database, Fritz allows black to castle long (and it is at or near the top line in infinite analysis mode.) AFTER saving the game into a database, closing the game window, and re-opening the game from the database, Fritz treats castling long as an illegal move.
Charlie Neil (2007-02-02 11:45:33)
Without Computer
Marcus if you can please read the old forum postings, "Why do you play corr-chess." I made a similar comment about computers being used as the main player. Believe me I was wrong! As much as in correspondence chess you can use notes, books and databases for reference. Here at FICGS, (A great site!) players use their computers as a reference. It does not benefit anyone to just relay their computer moves without understanding them. Those players won't prosper nor will develop a passion we chessplayers have for the game. I believe that now to be the case.
Personally I don't have a Juinor8, Fritz 10 or Deep Joe 90 or whatever to use as a reference point. I do have a pile of books that serve to confuse me in my games. As I continue to seek understanding in this game. People should use computers as long as the computers don't use them! How boring can it be just to imput moves? The computer isn't compulsory. And I am saving a fortune on stamps playing here! It is fun after all. It is only a game. Even if it is a terrible one.
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) :)
Elmer Valderrama (2007-02-17 10:59:30)
like a no-smoking zone?
I believe what Aldag want is a place with a sign "computer-free chess"
just like those pubs, restaurants, trains, etc use a "no-smoking zone" sign.
It will be visible so that it will deter smokers/engine-users to enter that
zone.
To make it less attractive to engine assistance, these games
should be unrated, with player automatically losing their current ELO
(that ELO rating could have been "won" using engines previously anyway)
so just their names will suffice, and there should not be no tournaments
--so that there is no "winners" as this will trigger the use of engines--
The players will only challenge each other and the winner will not be
known to anybody except the players, and the games will not be recorded
in the general database
and they will not be shown live: all this will for certain deter any need to
use an engine i.e. 'winning' means nothing literally and it will look as if it never happened
This way chess without engines will be as if doing something clever
when actually it is a loss of time -can't remember who said this about chess 8-)
Ilmars Cirulis (2007-02-17 15:13:58)
one more
http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html
Thibault de Vassal (2007-04-09 16:16:41)
GM vs. chess engines database
Someone mentioned "Marc Lacrosse´s database" in a Rybka forum's thread, I did not find it with Google, but I found this interesting Man vs. Machine database, 2837 GM vs. engine games on ICC so far, on Marc's website : Chessbazaar (link was on this forum :))
http://users.skynet.be/mlcc/chessbazaar/gmvscompsicc2006.html
Scott Prestwood (2007-04-16 16:19:09)
Consider this
It has been a part of the correspondence chess tradition that you can use your own personal databases. Well, what if this database has a large proportion of computer verses human games? Computer verses computer? What if these databases were being generated by computers? Many chess viewers and database applications provide statistics and information are not reasonably generated by anything other than a computer. It seems that computer chess will be slowly keeping in.
Don Burden (2007-05-17 00:45:25)
Fighting against Tablebases
Needing over a terabyte of disk space, I doubt if anyone actually has the 6 piece tablebase installed on their computer, though a position can be queried at:
http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html
BTW, I've played endgames here where I had to play the game out to checkmate where my opponent had just a king and a few locked pawns, while I had an advantage of a queen, rook, and several extra pawns.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-06-15 17:12:39)
Online chess today
A few links to discussions at TCCMB (The Correspondence Chess Message Board) on chess servers nowadays, future of ICCF, correspondence chess [once more] and so on...
http://ancients.correspondencechess.com/index.php?topic=105.0
http://ancients.correspondencechess.com/index.php?topic=109.0
In the second discussion I tried to answer on the future of correspondence chess & chess engines :
1) Like the 'tour de France', it is impossible to organize a "bicycle race" at chess without doping today IMO. Also there are so many 'products' : Various books, databases, engines, human help.. so it seems to me that it is a non-sense to try to make it like an OTB tournament. Online chess is "motorcycle races" & freestyle, nothing else.
2) The ratio of wins does not decrease much in computer games & advanced chess (blitz), and correspondence chess games will never be all drawn IMO. We just have to follow the horizon line... Engines still have difficulties when there are 32 pieces on the board... Make the position more and more complex & critical, play Benoni structures, East indians and English openings... There will probably be more and more draws but when looking at CC 2500+ games, the ratio is still quite good. The problem at CC is mainly the style of play with humans 'humanly' trying to remain in known positions where they can win and can't lose.
'The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy', 'Opportunities multiply as they are seized' (Sun Tzu)
A solution is to make rules that motivate players to avoid draws, particularly when playing against a higher rated opponent. (ie. the rule for FICGS 8-games matches)
3) We feel that engines play almost perfect chess because of our poor human's level of play (I should say ratings)... But engines & computers have to improve a lot yet - not obvious they can do it in a more or less near future -, the horizon line is not so far, each version of Rybka wins about 30 elo points... We'll see engines at level 3200, 3300 maybe much more... (4000 ?)
4) If too many players have their CC rating between 2750-2800 in future, we can make new rules : Ratings wouldn't be calculated on the basis of each game, but on the basis of ie. 8-games matches... Then strategy would be more important & we would see rating gaps again between the best players...
Finally if I'm completely wrong, play Big Chess ;D
Graham Cridland (2007-06-15 19:29:51)
Incidentally...
Perhaps I just have a tiny database (I do), but I think ...0-0-0 may have been a novelty in that position. Most players, it appears, follow Anand-Lautier, Biel 1997, with possibly some advantage for White.
...0-0-0 looks very natural, and seems to make the best of White's slightly disarranged pieces.
Wolfgang Utesch (2007-06-16 07:52:47)
Dead Man's Defense
Nobody has to install 6-pieces-endings on his own computer today. You can just have a look at internet site:
http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html
Thibault de Vassal (2007-06-18 20:50:23)
Big chess theory : "Queens opening"
The first rated Big Chess tournament started a few days ago... I like this game more and more, no theory, no databases, no chess engines, many strategies & many queens captured already ;)
Every opening seems ok, we still don't know if taking pawns with the queen during the first moves is worth something or not, the value of the pieces is quite unpredictable... Many players now play 1.Nh4 to threaten 2.Qo7 then 3.Qc7 if needed, winning a pawn. What is the best response if you want to keep the same material ? .. Anyway that's very interesting to see a side with 1 or 2 pawns more, giving some rooks activity to the opponent.. Still looks like a draw theorically.
My main line is : 1.Nh4 Nh13 2.Qo7 No14 3.Qc7 Ql13
Any other suggestion ?
See Big Chess waiting list in Chess Special Tournaments.
Hannes Rada (2007-06-18 22:32:37)
Big chess software
Is there any software that can manage big chess games ? (store, load, database )
Thibault de Vassal (2007-06-26 01:35:03)
A guide to Endgames Tablebases
Endgames tablebases fully explained, a great page :
http://horizonchess.com/FAQ/Winboard/egtb.html
* [A.1] What is a endgame tablebase? How do they work? How much stronger will it make my chess program play?
* [A.2] What are the different endgame tablebases formats out there? What are the differences?
* [A.3] Where can I learn more about the endgame table formats?
* [A.4] What are the Chess programs that support endgame tables? Which format do they support?
* [A.5] Where can I get endgame tablebase?
* [A.6] Where can I buy tablebases?
* [A.7] Where can I download tablebases?
* [A.8] How do I generate tablebases on my computer?
* [A.9] How large are the tablebase files? Can I put then all into one directory? Do I have to use a complete set of 5 men tablebases?
* [A.10] Questions about 6 men endgame tablebases. Which are the most useful?
* [A.11] How do I find out which tablebase is corrupted? How do I know the endgame tablebases are working?
* [A.12] What is datacomp.exe? Where can I get it?
* [A.13] How do I get Crafty to work with Endgame tablebases?
* [A.14] How can I get Fritz to use Endgame tablebases?
* [A.15] What is the difference between tablebases download from Dr Hyatt's ftp site and those on the Chessbase endgame turbo CD? Can they be used together?
* [A.16] What are the files ending with .tbs? What about those with nbb and nbw? Do i need both?
* [A.17] Help, the endgame tablebases are not working properly!
* [A.18] Can I use tablebase files in zipped form?
* [A.19] Where can I get a useful graphical browser to view endgame tablebases? What about an online searchable database?
* [A.20] Misc questions
Thibault de Vassal (2007-06-27 14:14:36)
Figlio - Schuster
Hi Wolfgang.
Is it possible for you to post this game here ? (I've lost my ICCF database) .. Thanks !
Andrew Stephenson (2007-07-10 11:11:52)
FICGS Data base of Games
Is there a searchable database of games on FICGS? How can I search for games by a particular player? Compliments to Thibault on an excellent site.
Andrew Stephenson (2007-08-11 23:49:31)
Real names and databases
Do games with fictitious names ever get into databases like Mega Corre etc? I get the feeling that chess sites that use nicknames dont get onto databases so the games are less accesible maybe even lost?
Ivan Pljusnin (2007-08-12 01:41:19)
2 Andrew Stephenson
In fact there is a database of IGAME games in pgn format, about 400000 games. Formally speaking, it is not free: you have to register and buy membership and then you can download it. But somewhere it can be downloaded for free, I remember. If you wish I can give you a link, but I have to find it.
Our administrator does not send our games to MEGA Corre or any other chess databases, I am sure. From this point of view FICGS is much better.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-08-13 17:20:46)
Go Search Engine
From IGN Goama newsletter - http://gogame.info
Go Search Engine, created by Alexander Dinerchtein
There are many sites on the Internet dedicated to Go. The majority are non-profitmaking. They were created by people who enjoy playing Go strictly as amateurs. As a result, they don't invest much money or effort in making their sites popular among search engines, so it's hard to find their sites using Google, Yahoo! or other common tools.
Of course, it's not easy for them to compete with online gaming stores and gambling sites, which spend thousands of US dollars monthly on advertising and optimizing their sites for search engines. The verb "to go" makes the situation even more difficult. If we search for "go magazines" or "go news" on Google, we may find only a few Go-related resources on the first few pages. It's terrible!
The situation with Asian Go masters who have short and common names is also confusing. It's almost impossible to find their games, biographies and photos on the main search engines.
We have decided to solve this problem! We have made a special search engine, based on Google Custom Search, which searches information only on Go-related sites.
Right now there are more than 500 sites in our database (99% of all Go-related resources) and we are trying to increase this number daily. We allow people to suggest new sites to crawl. Each site passes moderation, so you can be sure that each side is relevant to the subject of your search. We exclude non-Go related sites, doorways, sites with hidden text and dishonest competitors.
Dear Go-lovers, we hope that our system will be helpful for you!
You can find it here: http://find.gogame.info
Hannes Rada (2007-09-06 21:28:07)
FICGS Hardware + Software
In my opininon it would be interesting to know on which hardware + software (Opening system, database) our server is running ?
So Thibault, hope that's not a big secret :-)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-09 16:17:20)
Waiting list is open
The rules are : "FICGS chess no engines tournaments are unrated single round-robin tournaments, involving 7 players. The special rule for these tournaments is that chess engines, databases and opening books are strictly forbidden.
All games are played in 40 days + 40 days / 10 moves. Norms are not possible."
Andrew Stephenson (2007-09-12 16:51:49)
Gene
ok Gene let me give you my experience as to why you should use an engine in cc. 1) I have learnt a lot about certain openings and I remember lot more effective systems 2) finding the truth about a position is fun and instructive 3) I have acquired some endgame knowledge I never would have got. 4) Generally I wil try to understand why the engines like certain moves and drill down into the position trying altrentives until I get it. Sometimes in very wild positions its tough. Most of the the time this reinforces principles of develpoment pawn structure piece dynamism and I find it rubs off on my understanding. One proviso - if you take on too many games a lot of this wont work!
Facing a much lower rated player you have to do research and prepare something - trotting down the main line poisened pawn Najdorf may not be the way to go. A lot of top players go for catalan and english openings hoping to utilise their chess knowledge and research.
One thing is for sure always playing the best move of your engine is going to drop 1/2 points and lose some games and that includes Rybka. Finally all this stuff is done by all the top professionals in the otb chess. One example I faced the line that Kramnik got crushed with by Topalov playing b5 and f4. I looked at the game notes and databases and couldnt find a good response 45 minutes with fritz and I cracked it and in the process gained some insight into the opening. In fact its a harmless variation if you know the antidote but over the board one slip and Kram was toasted
Wayne Lowrance (2007-09-19 00:56:11)
Missing game(s)
I seem to think at least one of my games does not appear in "My games" tab. I see no result for game A_000012 5866. I dunno if this is the game or not. But anyhow I am used to seeing one gamer in the 5k series listed when I click "My games" tab. Hope there are not others as I have many games going. In my Ficgs database of games I do not anotate a win or loss.
Help please Thibault......thank you Wayne
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 (2007-10-11 12:43:33)
pinot noir, knowledge & 9x9
I agree with that :)
Don, I mean 9x9 should be compared to checkers, it is "chess" at a size where brute force is enough, so a 'particular case' only. But just like Rybka/Hiarcs playing at master level even thinking a few seconds per move by imitating (knowledge + algorithm) an international master's way of thinking more than calculating trillions of positions, why not a Go engine built the same way, much more complex though. Actually Go engines do not calculate much, they try to 'see' already but sure these programs will be improved significantly soon and it could play about the same level (without joseki databases) on different goban sizes. I feel a Go engine could reach a 1 dan / 2 dan level on our small computers, whatever the size of the goban... But it should be incredibly harder to beat stronger players, which is great for Go :)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-11-03 05:26:32)
Free engines to download
I see that Fruit 2.3.x and Toga II 1.3.x series (and of course Rybka 1.0) are still the best free chess engines to download, quite near Chessbase engines strength.
Shredder 11 seems to be sold with Fritz 10 interface and old 2007 chess games database, a good reason to buy forthcoming Fritz 11 ;) .. I assume that Chessbase will focus on the interface and Chessbase 11 (or.. 10, 12 ?! hard to follow)
Which is the current best free engine to help in correspondence chess games in your opinion ?
Konrad Hornung (2008-01-16 07:11:38)
Games Database
Having a user friendly games database, showing the board and position and listing the options of moves played in that position by users of the database, with the option to filter games below a particular rating e.g. 2000, is my next idea to improve this site.
Wayne Lowrance (2008-01-21 05:06:18)
Making a database of my Ficgs games
can this be done in the fritz format ? if not may I make this a suggestion for next up date
Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-21 05:18:05)
One way
Hi Wayne, one possible way already (at least for finished games) : you may download the full ficgs chess database, then filter games played by you... anyway you're right, it could be a next update ;)
Garvin Gray (2008-01-21 08:02:03)
database
I have a database of my played and ongoing games in fritz.
I just download each game after a few moves and add it to the database and then keep refreshing the game each time a move is made to keep the position and my analysis current.
Wayne Lowrance (2008-01-21 18:18:35)
database
Good thinking Garvin, I wish I had done this from the beginning. Too late for my entire ficgs games. I try what Thibault said, sounds very time consuming tho
Wayne
Wayne Lowrance (2008-01-22 17:12:13)
Database
Yes Mladen, I guess that will work for current games.....I have all current games in a Ficgs database I created. My problem is I do not have the entire database of my games.
I tried Thibault's suggestion and it worked fine.
Thank you Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-31 01:51:01)
Nothing strange
Hi Nicola, that is normal... just trying to replace the first bullet games without any move in the database.
Mark Hailes (2008-03-17 09:56:01)
Engine/database rules
Also I'm uncertain what the Database/Engine/consulting books etc rules are...
Jason Repa (2008-05-06 21:54:09)
Bird Brain loses in 33 Moves!
"Obviously playing the From or the approach adopted by black in these games is not an accurate response!"
That's not obvious at all. What's obvious is that I beat you quite easily when you and I played cc so you're far from being any kind of authority whatsoever!
"1f4 does not lose or lead to a worse gane for white - it just allows black to get equality very quickly and easily"
I just finished trying to explain to you, in the way a young child should be able to understand, that there is more to think about in chess than trying to play what current theory considers to be the best try for an opening advantage. Yet here you are rambling on about the same nonsense you were in your previous posts. Was Fischer's 2.d3 against the French the objectively strongest move? Even against (and perhaps especially against) computers, it can sometimes be better to play sidelines or moves which may serve to confuse an opponent. Is the King's Indian Attack the best try for an opening advantage for White? Probably not. But it was used by Kasparov to defeat Deep Blue. If you still can't understand the concept I've been trying to teach you, after several posts, I don't know what more I can do for you. Just keep mindlessly playing what established theory tells you are the strongest lines,(without having even the incipience of an understanding as to why) and keep mindlessly trusting the evaluations your program gives you, and you'll keep getting CRUSHED by guys like me.
"1 f4 doesnt develop any piece (except the king!) and is a bit committal and slightly weakening of the king side."
After this statement, if I didn't know better, I would have thought you were someone who just learned how to set up the pieces. It might be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard anyone say. Does 1.e4 develop a piece? How about 1.d4? I suppose those moves are "a waste in cc" as well. We should all be playing 1.Nf3 and 1.Nc3 according to you, lol.
1.f4 grabs space. It stakes out influence both in the center and on the kingside. It effectively prevents 1...e5 (lest White goes into a dubious gambit system) as an alternative to other moves which achieve this. There are also other intangibles that are part of the picture, such as the psychological effect the move may have, the lack of preparation an opponent may have against it, etc. If you ever began to understand chess at a level beyond just plugging moves into a program, you might start to appreciate that allowing concessions (such as the slight weakening of the White kingside resulting from 1.f4) is all part of the game. Fischer's famous quote: "you gotta give squares to get squares" is a famous example. If allowing static liabilities were something to be avoided at all cost, you'd never see a Sicilian Scheveningen. It allows all sorts of weaknesses.
As for your so called "analysis". It's a complete joke! For starters, you're "analyzing" a game resulting from the Leningrad Variation of the Bird's Opening. I line I've never played in my life, let alone here on FICGS. Is this how you try to win an argument/debate? By misrepresenting the facts? An intelligent person who genuinely felt that their argument had a leg to stand on, would simply take one of the 4 games I provided to you and do some analysis from there. Showing where Black could have improved. Then finally, after trying to "score points" with examples of the Leningrad Variation of the Bird's Opening, which I have never played, you post a game where White played poorly and lost to a lower rated player. As if that's never happened before in chess, lol. You don't even know enough to post the date of the game. I couldn't find this game on any of my databases(totally over 4,000,000 games), so if you didn't just make it up out of thin air, perhaps you got more wrong, such as the actual moves that were played, in addition to incorrectly stating:
"Look what happened to Evgeny Alexseev as black - a very strong 2600+ GM at the time - he continued 6 ..b6 7 h3 c5 8 Qe1 Bb7 9 g4 and lost to IM Sengupta."
Is it Black that lost here or White?
I took a brief look at the game, and it's hardly representative of proper play by White. 7.h3 was dubious at best. I prefer 7.Ne5. White then misses another opportunity to play the knight to e5 after 7...c5. Then 9.g4? is a gross thematic mistake. The only thing this game proves is that you're completely incapable of discussing chess in an intelligent way. Real chess players look for games that illustrate the critical lines for both sides, and try to arrive at some actual insights.
There is a reason I crushed you when we played cc last year.
Andrew Stephenson (2008-05-13 11:30:35)
French traps
The French defence is one of the best replies to 1 e4 - accidents however are always possible as the following correspondence game shows with black playing into a lost position after just 13 moves:
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Qb6 9.Qd2 Qxb2 10.Rb1 Qa3 11.Bb5 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 Bb4 13.O-O O-O ?? (black had to play 13 ..a6 although he will still be under pressure) 14 Rb3 Qa5 15.Qe3 Nb6 16.Qg3 Nc4 17 f5! and the correspondence game finished Rd8 18.Rf4 Bf8 19.Rg4 Kh8 20.f6 g6 21.Rh4 h6 22.Kh1 Kg8 23.Qh3 Kh7 24.Bc5 Rd6 25.g4 Qd8 26.g5 h5 27.Rxh5+
These things happen OTB but French defence players have known of this since Rechlis (2525) - Zueger (2448) 2001 which went 19 f6 g6 20 Rh4 a6 21 Qh3 h5 22 Rxh5!! gxh5 23 Qxh5 axb5 24 Kf2 and white won. since then 13 0-0 has been avoided.
Of course at cc a player has time to research the databases and access to powerful chess engines at no cost.
Jason Repa (2008-05-13 12:54:06)
Repa vs Stephenson 1-0
My obsessive fan is quoting my game with Bucsa Ioan played last year. Actually you have it backwards Stephenson. I trusted my database, which wasn't up to date. I wasn't even consulting an engine until around move 18, when it's already lost for Black. I thought quite a bit about alternative lines in this game, but found myself agreeing with the Psakhis analysis. That line is recommended by Psakhis in his book "French Defence - Steinitz, Classical, and other Systems". Additionally, 13...0-0 has been played by the likes of GM Dreev, as well as GM Marjanovic, as recently as 2003. But alas, it pays to keep your databases up to date for correspondence chess.
The game was a valuable learning experience for me. I'm very happy that it occurred. My otb opponents will never get me in that position as a result :)
I can't help but feel sorry for you Stephenson. Firstly I'm sorry that you don't have any of your own games worthy of publication, and that you need to vicariously live through me and post my chess games. Secondly, I'm sorry that you don't play otb chess and appreciate the joy of playing chess using your own mind. But then again, in your case, maybe that's a good thing. :)
Andrew Stephenson (2008-05-13 13:22:56)
Provocation
I am sorry I cannot respond to a lot of what you have posted as such a response would breach the rules.
I have not examined all your losses - just the French games - so I do not know how instructive they are I will try to review them later but I can't promise anything.
However I am a great believer in checking lines I play with the database to see whats been learnt and how the top GM's handle the particular lines.
All I learnt from my loss was not to play that particular line and to cut out all dodgy openings. In fact the line you played is not the strongest and I believe black can equalise - unfortunately I found an even stronger line for white which seems to refute the entire variation. There is however a book by an english GM from 2007 which looks at sicilian side lines and claims that there is no refutation.
When I have time I will stick all the analysis up and people can make up their own minds.
On correspondence taking someone's OTB chess to the next level I am a bit sceptical. It definitely has a significant effect on the accuracy of opening play and this can get some valuable wins by itself. But other progress needs separate study and training. Silmans Reassess your chess for example will increase the rating of any one below FIDE 2300 if studied intensively IMO.
Andrew Stephenson (2008-05-13 13:57:40)
Databases and books
Well I dont think a book should ever be trusted for cc no matter who has written it. It should always be critically examined - playing 18 moves from the book without switching on the engine seems very risky.
I think the position is lost after 13..0-0 14 Rb3 Qa5 15 Qd3 and I see no defence here. The only Dreev game I have in this line continued .. Nb6 16 Qg3 Nc4 and a draw was agreed.(Ivanchuk-Dreev 1993) Chess engines were not as good then and 17 f5 wins as was later discovered.
Where are these GM games from 2003?? Its strange that your database does not have Rechlis (2525) - Zueger (2448) 2001 In fact an earlier game Ernst - Grigutavicus (1999)had seen white crash through with 15 Qf2 Nb8 16 f5 - although Nb8 does not look a very good move. Whats the date of this Psakhis book? I hope its not after 2001!
Andrew Stephenson (2008-05-13 14:33:15)
Opening books
I think the truth is that a lot of opening books are not always objective and someimes do not give the best lines or give assessments that are not always accurate. Active GM's someimes keep things back for there own use .. which is understandable I suppose. John watson seems to be an exception to this and produces very high quality opening work. The bottom line is you have to check them all IMO.
Incidentally I am not sure there is much need to keep databases up to date - I suppose that refers to downloading games from TWIC. Most databases are up dated automatically.
Jason Repa (2008-05-13 14:43:09)
Repa vs Stephenson 1-0
No, it looks like my comment was a bit over your head, once again. By keeping databases up to date, I don't mean just mindlessly adding random games, as perhaps a <1500 otb player might do. I was talking about updating the database with current theory and critical lines.
What you're sure or not sure of is of no consequence. This is what chess players do.
Andrew Stephenson (2008-05-13 14:57:54)
Updating databases
The professional chess players I know down load TWIC then filter the stuff they are interested in into sub-databases. But what has this got to do with not having a 2001 game in 2007??. Unless a person has some ancient chess base data base - but then why would they not look online and cross check?? It took me about 3 minutes to find some relevant games including the 2001 game showing 13 ...0-0?? as losing.
Jason Repa (2008-05-13 15:15:32)
Repa vs Stephenson 1-0
You don't know any professional chess players Stephenson. Who are you trying to kid here? You don't even know that the word is "download" not "down load", and "database", not "data base", lol. This is the problem with a mental midget mindlessly trusting machines, as you are doing with the spelling software. It is for this reason it was so easy to beat you in chess. I only had to outplay a machine, not outsmart a human who has the ability to THINK.
If you're such a "whiz" at correspondence chess, as you keep trying to convince me, and have such wonderful databases, why did I beat you? I think saying that I beat you is even a bit of an understatement. It was more like a slaughter!
Andrew Stephenson (2008-05-13 16:00:22)
ELO
Well like I stated elsewhere talking of ELO points I take to refer to FIDE rating not national ratings irrespective of the underlying methodology used to calculate the national rating. I guess we will have to agree to differ on that one. Sorry I cannot respond to the grammer stuff - its against the rules.
On the game we played check out the available database games and that may give you an answer. Like I said in another post the line I believe is the refutation is not what you played - I will put up the analysis when I have more time.
At the risk of repeating myself I still dont understand why you cannot find a 2001 game or what sort of databases you are looking at but I guess we have reached a dead end there too.
Jason Repa (2008-05-14 21:31:38)
corr. & otb
"But cc rating does not implicitly say anything about chess strength."
I disagree. But first be clear that I'm talking about correspondence chess strength. I never said that corr. chess strength has a 1 to 1 relationship with otb chess strength. I know too many guys who are better corr. players than me that I could mop the floor with at any time control in a live chess game.
But having said that, I believe that people have high corr. ratings for a reason. At a minimum they're good at employing interactive chess engine research and have good updated databases. I think overall chess knowledge and judgment are factors as well. Stronger chess moves win more games. Yes, I understand that sometimes an ambitious 1800 can beat a higher rated opponent, on occasion, but it's overall results that are important, not anomalies. The same is true otb. Sometimes experts and national masters beat GMs. That doesn't mean they're a stronger chess player than the GM.
"Do you think the playing cc helps to improve your otb abilities?"
I'm not surprised you're getting differing stories. Like anything else, it depends on how you use the experience and of course on your individual aptitude. Some people will just memorize the opening theory they learn from corr. chess, if that. Others will do much more with those games, such as developing technique, increasing their strategic knowledge, learn more endgame theory, etc. I think it is without question that corr. chess can have great benefits for your otb chess game, if used properly. Just being forced to comb through opening books and game databases alone is useful.
"OTB requires the abilities to calculate deeplines correctly and to maintain concentration for a couple of hours"
I agree that the ability to concentrate well is important for otb chess, but I think you're overvaluing calculation. The reality is that otb is all about COMPETITION. It's a mental fight. I know guys are are great analysts, and with the right hardware/software would probably be great corr. players, but they don't handle the pressures and stresses that go along with competition very well. Judgment and competence, especially while under stress and duress, are of the utmost importance in otb. You can calculate as deeply as you want, but if you're expending energy calculating lines that you should have rejected, or mismanaging your time by thinking too deeply in a spot where it's not necessary, you won't get good results in otb.
I don't have any desire to try to get anywhere near 2700 level in corr. chess. And I agree with your analysis that it would not be fun anymore and become a huge drain of time sitting behind the computer. Perhaps not unlike what a professional chess player has to go through in order to prepare for their tournaments, with the chief exception that the professional chess player gets paid for such a sacrifice.
"...for the purpose of improving the otb abilities it would have been better to study chess books and solving tactical exercises than playing cc."
I don't see why these things have to be mutually exclusive. For me I get more motivated to study my chess books and look through my databases when the positions occur in games. I also think about what I'm doing and analyze the positions using my own mind when I play corr. chess. Maybe that's not the case for everyone, but it is for me. As for tactics, I think blitz/bullet against strong opponents can be very useful for developing that.
Andrew Stephenson (2008-05-15 23:14:37)
Books and databases
This thread is really about how reliance on books and lack of research can get someone into trouble ie a lost position after 13 moves in a main line opening - even with plenty of time and powerful chess engines available. Actually its not even necessary to own an up to date database to avoid this - the resources are freely available to anyone with an internet connection.
The point about ELO is dead I think referring to ELO points is associated with FIDE ratings irrespective of the fact that most national rating systems use ELO's methodology. Mr Repa does not agree - thats it.
"but when I'm dealing with who says down load and data base ..."
I don't read anything into the omission of the word "someone" here nor the numerous spelling mistakes that have cropped up.
Incidentally the book I referred to with analysis of the dodgy siscilain variation is called Experts V the Sicilian with different chapters by various GM's and IM's including a chapter on the pin variation about which one reviewer says:
"we get no less than 12 pages on the “silly” Pin Variation, and in the end Aagaard seems unable to prove a certain advantage!" Whatever the truth about that variation its highly risky and not recommended for cc!
Jason Repa (2008-05-16 00:23:32)
Repa vs Stephenson 1-0
Geez Stephenson, I thought you were done stalking and harassing me and had found something else to amuse your little mind with. Something shiny and metallic perhaps? But here you are continuing your trollish ways.
Actually, what this thread is REALLY about, is a pathetic little character who doesn't handle losing at chess very well. As was stated before, it's pretty sad that you don't have any chess games of your own worthy of publication or discussion, so you post one of mine and continue to rant, and rant, and rant about nonsense. I already BEAT YOU in chess. Quite easily, in fact. Could there be anything more ridiculous than a guy who loses at chess criticizing the play of the victor?
Normally when someone obsesses over me like this it's a female doing the obsessing. But hey, each to their own.
And yeah, it's pretty obvious you're someone with a lot of time on your hands. Nice of you to share that with us. But you only speak for yourself in that regard. Even with all your free time I was still able to beat you easily when we played chess.
Just look at this latest drivel you're posting. You go on and on and on about why I shouldn't have lost a chess game I played a year ago like this is some life and death event for you. It's really not a big deal to me. So why is MY game such a big deal to you? If you're trying to make an argument that I'm such a terrible correspondence chess player based on this game, why did I beat you so easily when you and I played? I'm also higher rated than you as well. If you're going to harass me with one of my losing games, at least have enough intelligence and imagination to vary the game once in awhile. You have 5 more to choose from.
Sorry but I've never met anyone clued out enough to put DOWN LOAD and DATA BASE before. This isn’t a minor spelling mistake or typo. This is a surprising lack of education. What’s next, “COMP -UTER”? A chess player should especially be familiar with the word DATABASE. But as I said earlier, some people mindlessly trust machines, and don't have the capacity to think for themselves. People like that like to brag about their meticulous spelling, because even a chromosome-deficient inebriate can figure out how to use spelling software. Most of us couldn't be bothered, because we realize that spelling is not important when making casual internet forum posts.
And no, Stephenson, the "point" about ELO is not dead. It's your ability to learn and understand simple concepts that appears quite dead here. This has nothing to do with me not "agreeing" with you. This has to do with objective fact. An ELO rating could be talking about GO, Backgammon, or other games, that FIDE has absolutely nothing to do with, in addition to national rating organizations. You were wrong. End of story. Continuing to defend your ignorance of the meaning of ELO is just making it all the more obvious what it is you are to everyone reading this. Again, Stephenson, LOOK IT UP.
Andrew Stephenson (2008-05-16 18:32:40)
ELO ELO
"I was talking about updating the database with current theory and critical lines. "
So what are you doing if not examining the latest games played and what better source is there than TWIC? How do you examine these if not downloading and filtering out the openings you are interested in by high rated players?
Anything else is going to be taking other peoples selections eg New In chess opening surveys or subscribing to a chess opening service. Even then the best way of keeping a database up to date is with TWIC.
Wayne Lowrance (2008-07-02 17:26:08)
my games copied to Fritz database
How can you do this ?
Thanks
Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2008-07-02 23:22:15)
games in PGN
Hi Wayne,
Well, many ways but no way in a single click yet... I'll make an update.
In example :
http://www.ficgs.com/databases/chess.pgn (then filter by name)
http://www.ficgs.com/user_games_print.php (make a PGN file)
Wayne Lowrance (2008-07-03 01:03:17)
my games copied to Fritz database
Sorry Thibault, I cannot make this work, too dense I guess. Thanks for trying to help me.
Maybe you can make a site up date to do this.
Wayne
Wayne Lowrance (2008-07-03 23:48:22)
mygames copied to fritz data base
sounds like it, but I may not understand it. is...."your games in fritz database"
thank you
Wayne
Andrew Stephenson (2008-07-30 11:03:31)
Databases
Thibault I believe FICGS games do not get into any of the databases (mega corr etc) Is there any way to get these games in? I have seen some tremendous novelties in FICGS that I have not found anywhere else. It seems this knowledge is hidden ....
Thibault de Vassal (2008-07-30 13:01:18)
Databases
Benjamin, I think Andrew meant to share FICGS games in known correspondence chess databases (not programs).
That's a good idea but it's probably a question of time only, or I may ask the owners... why not.
Normajean Yates (2008-08-12 02:10:55)
Okay, requestiong annnotation!
Consider this latvian fraser 'book' line:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 3. Nxe5 Nc6 4. Qh5+ g6 5. Nxg6 Nf6 6. Qh3 hxg6 7. Qxh8 Qe7. [yes I know it is in crisis :)]
well, opp played 8. Nc3 [which i couldnt find in any database] and I was already in serious trouble after:
8...fxe4 9. Be2 Nd4 10. O-O.
Cant see any counterplay by black.
[not on this site; and the game is in progress but has moved on a few moves beyond this point - so I am not cheating!]
Anyone care to comment on - ahem, annotate - my [black's] 8th and 9th move?
Thibault de Vassal (2008-09-02 15:09:28)
Rating update
Ciao Wayne !
Ratings and games database have been updated (the rating list will be updated automatically in a few hours)
My best,
Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2008-09-29 17:26:36)
How to make a *.cbh from ficgs
In the worst case, it should be possible to open a PGN file, copy the games and paste it in an opened CBH database, then save it, or to make a CBH database from the PGN file then merge the two CBH databases... Sorry, I don't have the GUI here :/
Josef Riha (2008-09-29 19:32:36)
Hallo Wayne,
it's a little difficult, I believe.
Start Fritz and then change to the Database(the very right icon in the iconbar). Then click New Database. In the dialogue enter the name, e.g.: FICGS.cbh and open it. Remember the directory displayed at top.
Now go to your ficgs site and download your games in that directory.
After this load one game after the other and save them as New Game. That's all.
Wayne Lowrance (2008-09-30 03:13:54)
copy games
Thank you so much Joseph. I followed your instructions. I was able to copy a game, but again when I ried to place it in mydatabase it just didnt happen.
Thank you
Wayne
Josef Riha (2008-09-30 09:01:07)
copy games
No problem :-)
Very dubious! I've done this several times and it works.
After loading the .pgn file into the GUI you must change to your database and in that window click on the 'add game' icon(I don't know how it is written in the English version). A dialogue appears where you can edit some datas. With OK it is saved.
I hope you don't misunderstand my extensive description:-)
An easier way is to create a new game and parallel to FICGS you enter the moves done by you and your opponent.
Greetings, Josef.
Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman (2008-09-30 19:29:45)
Maybe use Chessbase 8-9-10 or light
The problem is Fritz is not designed as database you have more flexibility using Chessbase.
After downloading the game ( it is saved as pgn ) You need to open that game and choose File-Save As- Here you are given the choice to save the game to a database of your choice, for example, lets create My FICGS games, open Chessbase, File-New Database-and create your database in any place you want, generally My documents-Chessbase-etc. So after you have created your database open the downloaded game , again I suggest open it with Chessbase, and choose File-Save As- and put it in the database we created My FICGS games, voila.
In Fritz creating a database takes 2 more clicks. First go to File-Open database or F12 then in that window choose File-New database or Ctrl+X , and the the same procedure as above. Choose your path , name it, then open your downloaded game(s)and Save As, choose the database of your preferences.
Even in chessbase light this is possible, but the number of games in each database is restricted to 50,000 I believe.
Hope this helps
Normajean Yates (2008-10-26 08:03:34)
ive seen those chesville articles before
http://www.chessville.com/instruction/Openings/LatvianGambitRevisited.htm
http://www.chessville.com/instruction/Openings/LatvianGambitRevisited_PartTwo.htm - not bad for a starting uderstanding.. but the lines - dont follow them blindly! doublecheck with latest databases and - with llmars :)
Thibault de Vassal (2008-10-26 22:10:03)
Search wikichess & games in one click
New features in chess games !
It is now possible to search wikichess & games in one click from your running games in the fast moves mode (page move_express), see the S & W options below the chessboard. One more tool to get quick statistics from FICGS database before to play.
Please report any bug. Thanks in advance :)
Thibault de Vassal (2008-11-01 21:55:48)
Chessgames.com
I just noticed that a few games played at FICGS were in chessgames.com, ie. this game Peter Schuster vs. Thibault de Vassal (WCH4 QF4, 1-0)
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1507687
Does anyone know how games are selected in chessgames.com ?
Maybe we'll find games played here in correspondence chess databases in a while :)
Don Groves (2008-11-05 08:02:06)
8 x 8 chess variant
There is another way to foil the computers and re-energize chess: A screen is placed between the two sides of the chess board and each player places their pieces on the board in accordance with two rules: (1) one pawn on each file; (2) no piece past its own third rank. Then the screen is removed and the game begins with White's first move.
Opening books become useless (requiring the computer to begin using its clock from the first move) and the usual endgames will rarely occur (although endgame databases are obviously still useful).
Knowing your opponent's tendencies becomes even more valuable than in the normal game.
Rodolfo d Ettorre (2008-11-08 10:03:24)
Games ...
What I do is to download ALL the games and I use a freeware chess database tool called SCID to get the games with the opening I want.
Normajean Yates (2008-11-09 04:26:24)
Rodolfo, I do *exactly* the same thing!
"What I do is to download ALL the games and I use a freeware chess database tool called SCID to get the games with the opening I want." - I do *exactly* that!
Specially, the newer versions of scid are *very* convenient! [I am using scid 3.6.23 - but 3.6.26 is available I checked.]
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-06 14:04:50)
Hotmail / Gmail / Yahoo... inviter
Hi Hannes, I just added the tool but of course in a few hours / days it will be possible to add anyone by entering his email address.
The point of this hotmail / gmail / yahoo / aol / indiantimes (and so on..) inviter is only to gain time by identifying all your friends in one click -and to spread the message easily- .. (all emails are stored in FICGS database only) this kind of tool is used by major social networks like MySpace, Hi5 and others...
Also it will be possible to gain Epoints by using it.
Gultekin Gumusyazici (2008-12-30 17:18:11)
I am full concerned about it that
Chess is an Statistical game not mathematical. .
As,
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. (Wind stone at Church hill) say.
That is why bot players need statistical image databases.
Bradley Small (2008-12-30 19:40:05)
How to play correspondence chess
I am brand new to corr chess. I wonder what are the specific practical/ethical considerations? Will people be using databases, computer analysis, other people and the like? Should I be using these resources? What is considered expected and what is considered cheating?
-- B
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-30 20:19:18)
Chess engines & databases
Hello Bradley, it's all in the rules :
http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html
Everything's allowed (but in the NO ENGINES category). Using chess engines is recommended if you want to make deep analysis & reach the highest ratings. The only way to cheat (that is strictly forbidden) is to mirror 2 games, as explained in the rules.
Best wishes for the new year,
Thibault
Bradley Small (2008-12-30 21:20:28)
RTFM I guess
Blaming it on the layout is probably a lame excuse, but it is all I can use. I really must have overlooked that page.
As for what is allowed, I will let that be my guide. However, for what is expected, what do most people do as a matter of strategy?
For instance, when it is one's time to move... Do you go to the databases and research each move, or simply play from your own head unless you just don't feel like you see a good move? Or somethign else?...
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-31 00:37:01)
One player, one strategy...
I suppose everyone has a personal idea on this, it all depends on the time you want to spend on each move. The very best players obviously use Rybka 3, recent databases and may search games played by their opponents (you may use the "Search games" option) to avoid the openings they master.
Marc Lacrosse (2009-01-12 21:12:03)
to Tom Smith
"...back to my original concern, that being engines are actually allowed, IE cheating is allowed".
I cannot understand your point.
Cheating is when one infringes the rules in a disguised manner.
Where is there cheating here as computer (and books, and databases, and anything...) help is explicitly allowed and encouraged in the site rules?
OK I do understand that you do not _like_ this kind of play.
But then the answer is simple : go away, go on these many sites where computer use is actually forbidden and where there are a lot of cheaters!
Here is a place without cheaters.
Marc
Thibault de Vassal (2009-03-15 18:17:32)
Anand vs. Computer
I don't remember Anand playing a match against a computer like Deep Blue, Deep Fritz, Junior, Rybka & so on... But it is quite possible to find a few games like Anand vs. Fritz 3, 4 or other old programs in chess databases IMO.
Anyway, it is quite hard for me to answer your question as I still think the world is divided into 2 categories, Garry Kasparov and those who dig :) (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, of course) .. More seriously, Anand is probably one of these 4 or 5 best players of all times, but who may be quite irregular (or just human), unlike Kasparov. Tal was another genius, maybe more a gambler, but none (Topalov, Anand, Kramnik...) ever reached the level of Garry Kasparov in my opinion.
I'm not sure Anand will be interested in losing to a chess computer, particularly as even Fritz is getting stronger & stronger.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-04-29 21:12:36)
Player games search
You may use the right-click "open in a new window" for each game... or download the FICGS database (in Search games - by the way you may use Search games by specifying the name of your opponent) then view the games in Chessbase or.. or.. :)
Normajean Yates (2009-05-02 00:56:55)
I am patient !
- will remind once very 6 months :)
Another suggestion: let's some of us become free members of some online chess-games database site; so that we can post there to suggest including ficgs games - then transposition problem will be solved at least for completed games... just search that database site..
I use chesslab.com among others - I suggest some of us lobby chesslab.com for including ficgs games. After all, these are much higher-than-average quality as these are engine+human (=centaur) games...
Thibault de Vassal (2009-05-29 20:09:04)
EGF rating list
To all european Go players who could be interested, the European Go Federation rating list moved from :
http://gemma.ujf.cas.cz/~cieply/GO/gor.html
... to :
http://www.europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/EGF_rating_system.php
EGF ratings should be updated more frequently.
William Taylor (2010-06-11 15:08:41)
FICGS chess database
Hi Thib,
Would it be possible to make 2 options - a database with only correspondence games, and one including bullet/blitz/lightning/freestyle cup? (Or a database just of those games.) I think it's a good idea to have a database without them, but I for one would like the option of downloading them.
Will
Garvin Gray (2009-10-18 14:56:42)
arrived
I have received fritz 12 a couple of days ago. I have not yet played it against Rybka at all, but I do have one question for those who also have it.
How do I open a current database of games that are located on my computer? Seems like a silly question, but I can not seem to work it out.
Lazaro Munoz (2009-10-28 03:07:17)
Crazyhouse
There is a website of chess variant database at http://wildchess.org/. The interesting thing is that popular openings are very similar to bughouse but that should be no wonder: avoid fianchetto's (weakness in g7,b7) to a drop pawn is deadly and avoiding pawn conflicts since pawns are lot more valuable off the board then on, etc.
Benjamin Block (2009-10-28 08:09:55)
Chessvariant databas
Thanks a lot. I will use that database when i play on schemingmind.com
John Smith (2009-11-13 02:56:53)
Introduction to Centaur Chess
Hi all,
While I have played allot of chess, so far I only used my computer for an occasional analysis and mostly for the database features.
I am assuming it takes to know engines quite well to become good at advanced/centaur chess, so any advice would be really helpful.
1) Which engines are better at what type of positions? Is Deep Junior best at unclear sacrifices?, Rybka best for positional play?, Schredder best for endgames?
2) Which engines understand different pawn structures better, e.g. which is the best engine to study a stonewall-structure game and which is best for a King's Indian Mar de Plata game?
3) How to interpret the engine value for the position? e.g. if I, say as White, sac a pawn and the evaluation is -0.1, that is less that 1 pawn, does this mean I have enough positional compensation for the pawn?
4) Which engines take long-term weaknesses into their evaluations, even if they can't see anything concrete within their horizon?
5) Which free engines are worth consulting? toga? stockfish? Glaurung? thinker? Which of these are good for complex positions, which for quiet ones?
6) Are there any engines which improve their play during time, that is they learn? e.g. if in a position guiding the engine by hand proves that another move than its preferred one is best, will it be able to spot the move again, if the same position is re-entered?
7) Which is the best interface for analysis?
8) Is there a page with statistics of how each engine performs in every opening?
Thanks!
Thibault de Vassal (2009-11-19 13:23:38)
Chessbase & FICGS
I don't think so, but you may download your games (or the complete FICGS chess database) and open it in Chessbase.
Xavier Pichelin (2009-12-10 22:10:00)
119.95$ not 1200$
For the site the Rybka.com
1) Now Rybka Aquarium 2010+ / Deep Rybka Aquarium 2010+ will include Rybka 3/Deep Rybka 3.
2) Super Bonus. Instead of a right for a free upgrade to Rybka 4 / Deep Rybka 4 you will get a free copy of a professional chess database program Chess Assistant 10 along with Aquarium 2010+!
Thibault de Vassal (2009-12-21 20:03:52)
ID
Hello Luc-Olivier,
Well, I cannot force it... who can ? Not FICGS, nor Facebook or other sites who ask for the real names as well, obviously.
Anyway, as far as I can remember it is legal to ask for & store real names in a database if you have an 'obvious' reason to do it. However if you can prove that something is illegal at FICGS, I'll be grateful for that and be sure that I'll make the necessary changes !
Thibault de Vassal (2010-01-05 14:28:50)
Marc Lacrosse on Basman Sale defence
Thanks a lot Rodolfo! I've uploaded it at FICGS here :
http://www.ficgs.com/directory_databases.html
Thibault de Vassal (2010-01-26 10:52:41)
SuperGMs watch Corr?!
It would be funny to find the game Carlsen mentioned on Correspondence Chess databases (or even here?!). What are the previous moves?
Thibault de Vassal (2010-01-27 08:19:11)
Shirov-Carlsen
I do not have a correspondence chess database recent enough, all I can say is that it does not come from FICGS, too bad :)
Thibault de Vassal (2010-03-03 15:01:34)
Conditionnal moves
Hi Hannes (sorry for the delay).
Well players may save time thanks to conditional moves, but not at the same time and nothing guarantees that it will not be at the advantage of one player only during a particular game. Anyway, a conditional field exists in the database so there is some hope to see it one day, but it will be a big & complex work to make it coherent for the different games. Not for these months as there are other priorities, I'm afraid :/
But feel free to mention the other minor improvements, if I can do it within minutes, it will be done.
Benjamin Block (2010-03-12 16:18:21)
Help : Tablebases, Rybka 3
I like table base. But i never install them on my computer because it takes place. If you have the same problem check this link: http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html
Save over 1000 GB space free :D
Benjamin Block (2010-04-25 19:31:09)
Anands follow games
Sure he told that he have a database with over 10 millions games or was it 11?
Thibault de Vassal (2010-06-05 16:20:30)
FICGS chess database
Hello all,
As a reminder the complete FICGS chess database is available here (or see the link in Search Games in the menu) :
http://www.ficgs.com/databases/chess.pgn
Bullet, lightning & blitz games (including freestyle cup games) are no more included in this database to make it more coherent and of a better quality (too many losses on time because of connection problems or without any move played by one player)... This way bullet games are even more just for fun!
Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman (2010-05-13 03:25:06)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results
This was posted in the Hiarcs forum by Harvey Williamson:" Now it is all over it is time to share a little secret. The day before the World Championship final in Sofia started I had a conversation with Vishy's team. For the duration of the match they have had access to my fast 8/16 core machine as well as all my databases and Hiarcs opening books. Also, of course, all the engines on my machine. I Hope this managed to negate slightly the fact that Topalov had access to the latest Rybka on its Cluster for a few months leading up leading up to the final."
Wayne Lowrance (2010-06-04 00:39:43)
Fire 1.31 vs. Rybka 4
! implied that 1.3.1 is stronger than 1.3.0 But maybe not. I have some testing results using Nunn2 database, eng-eng.
R4- Fire: 9-6=15 I terminated match.
R4-Stockfish: 15-11=24
Not making claims for strength just my short results thus far. But I like R4, lots of settings to play with. BTW R4 settings were not default.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-06-11 18:39:47)
FICGS chess database
Why not... On the wish list.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-08-08 01:33:05)
PGN files
Several ways :
- Click the printer icon in My games then copy/paste the games in PGN format. (I still have to add a filter for the chess games)
- Save the complete FICGS database (click 'Search games' in the menu), then filter by your name in eg. Chessbase.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-08-15 00:27:46)
ICCF games database
Hi all,
Does anyone know if it is possible (& where) to download a database of all or quite recent games played at ICCF?
Thanks in advance!
Sebastian Boehme (2010-08-15 17:26:23)
ICCF games database
Hi Thib,
what you refer to is probably better known as ICCF Games archive.
Look here:
http://www.iccf.com/content/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=81
Thibault de Vassal (2010-08-16 15:04:02)
ICCF games database
Thanks Sebi... must be blind, I did not see it before in the menu :)
Wayne Lowrance (2010-09-24 03:54:46)
whole database transfers made simple
This has always been a sore spot for me on FICGS. I want to be able to copy my ficgs database of games to Rybka. I have gotten help from nice folks here, but I am unable to do it. There just does not seem to be the right tools at each step or understanding to do it.
I would be satisfied if a step by step procedure is posted that entails each click of the mouse with out vague procedure statements.
Daniel Parmet (2010-09-24 09:51:02)
whole database transfers madfe simple
Step one.
Click on 'search games'
Step two.
At the top you will see 'all games (pgn)' click on this to download.
Step three.
Use whatever program you have to open this file (chessbase, chess assistant, scid, etc).
Step four.
Filter this file by your name.
Step five.
Copy all the games you have here into a new pgn.
Step 6.
Run Rybka.
Wayne Lowrance (2010-09-24 18:28:56)
whole database transfers made simple
Thank you Daniel. Can we continue with this via PM on ficgs ? There is discussion needed. I will send you a PM.
Thank you
Wayne
Daniel Parmet (2010-09-24 20:19:04)
whole database transfers made simple
sure Wayne, I answered your first pm. Feel free to send anymore. I'll keep walking you through it til we get done what you want. Conversely, if its simpler, I can do the first 5 steps on my end for you then all you have to do is step 6. Though, its probably better for the future if you learn how to do this.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-09-26 14:47:45)
whole database transfers made simple
I just tried to add some explanations on the different ways to do that in the Help section (bottom of page). Please let me know if it can be clearer, but I've still to add a direct link to a PGN file of "My games" in the My games page, of course.
Wayne Lowrance (2010-09-26 20:46:49)
whole database transfers made simple
Is this what your talking about ?
How to import my Chess games in a chess database ?
There are several ways to import your chess games played at FICGS in a chess database like Chessbase or SCID. 1) You may download the complete FICGS correspondence chess database: Click "Search games" in the menu, right click & save "All games (PGN)". Import the file in your database, then you may filter the games by using your name. 2) You may create a PGN file by going to "My games" (please use the chess filter, click the rook icon if you also play Go or Poker, you may also select pending, running or all games) then clicking the printer icon. You just have to copy/paste the content of the new page into a new text file, then importing it in your chess database. 3) You may download the PGN file of a particular game or tournament, right click and save the "download" link at the bottom of
Do you mean "left mouse click" if I right click I get Link copy options, none of which seem to do what I want.
I do not see a way to save "all games pgn" in any case which is what has stopped me for days. Left mouse click copies all database to where i want to open, Ie scid (which I cannot figure out either), notebad, but i see no filtering capability in notepad.
So I do not know how/able to do "Import the file in my database" as your instructions say,
sorry Thib, I am a pain in the butt. can you clear these things up for me ? especially your step 1.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-09-27 01:52:53)
whole database transfers made simple
Sorry Wayne, maybe your operating system is slightly different, how do you usually save the content (web page or whatever) pointed by a hyperlink?
As for databases (notepad is not a chess database), there usually is a function to import a PGN file in a chess database.
Well, I do not use the Rybka GUI, so I may be not able to give the best answer :/
Wayne Lowrance (2010-09-27 02:32:45)
whole database transfers made simple
Gosh, it gets more troubling. I just click on it and it executes the line. I dunno what else to say. I have no know problem with this in the past. What does it say when you right click on it ? My right click brings up several link options ?......I am using Bing ! if that helps. and windows 64 deluxe. Can you just provide a simple transfer link to rybka tablebase ?
wayne
Wayne Lowrance (2010-09-27 02:49:24)
whole database transfers made simple
oooops vista
Wayne Lowrance (2010-09-27 02:57:43)
whole database transfers made simple
Thibault these are my right click options
1 open link in new window
2 openl link in new tab
3 book mark this link
5 save link as
6 send link
7 copy link location
These are my options on right mouse click of all games pgn
Thibault de Vassal (2010-09-27 15:26:25)
whole database transfers made simple
" 5 save link as " is the right choice.
Wayne Lowrance (2010-09-28 00:22:43)
whole database transfers made simple
my thanks to all who have helped me. I am grateful.
Wayne
Daniel Parmet (2010-09-28 01:19:02)
whole database transfers made simple
welcome. Happy to be of service.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-09-30 13:35:58)
Next freestyle tournament
A "freestyle chess tournament" is (according to me) a chess tournament played OTB or on the internet by players using any kind of help (chess engines [Rybka, Fire, Houdini, Fritz, Shredder, whatever...], databases, other players...) with a fast time control (a few hours per game at most).
The "FICGS chess freestyle cup" is a freestyle chess tournament played on the internet...
As "correspondence" implies all freestyle features but the fast time control, freestyle 'must' probably mean played at a fast time control, or the two words would mean the same.
Well, it may be worth to add the final definition in the Help section after all :)
Thibault de Vassal (2010-10-13 17:25:44)
Lightning time control
Hi Garvin, I'm not favourable to this change for the following reasons:
1) This would be the 2nd change for this time control in a few months...
2) Bullet & lightning would not be different enough.
3) The freestyle time control has its reasons IMO : 30 mins. for the opening/database & key moves analysis, 15 sec. inc because longer would be too long, while the lightning time control is designed for better analysis during the whole game. A 30+15 time control would be great also but it would be one too much :/
Rodolfo d Ettorre (2010-10-17 05:38:18)
Serious new Virus
Hi all, the database of my antivirus, is updated sometimes twice per week, so, everyday there are new viruses, trojans and derivatives, and many of them will propagate through emails, so, Thibault's advise standas, "do not open files that you did not ask and so on". If you are too curious, run a cdlive linux and open it from there.
Sebastian Boehme (2010-10-31 20:11:04)
Creating an opening book
Hi Garvin,
Book making ia for example in my case always been a very time-intense and manually tuned process. I never do import any outside games to my book.
Guidelines on how to starting out in creating an opening book you can find (or probably have already found), here:
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=11798
That site got some useful links
General rule of thumb, work on each system one by one. My favourite example: I as white play 1. e4 and Black replies 1....f5, so the Elephant Gambit arises.
Now I want to find good white moves for it, so I enable in my Book allow move adding and check my Correspondence and Playchess Games database for the replies of white. Also I see what major engines think about the moves offered by the database in say 1-2 minute analysis and what these engines themselves gotta offer. This way a reply to the elephant gambit (or maybe more) for move 2 of white can be found.
Also not in any case 1-2 minute analysis will be sufficient. You need to figure this out for yourself.
The less time intensive process: Create a database where you import games filtered by very well chosen criteria (for instance recent games i.e. 2008-2010). Then import the database games into a new empty book.
That's all I know about how it could be done.
Sebi
Thibault de Vassal (2010-11-02 20:48:21)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum
For 6 man tablebases, there is also:
http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/endgame-database.html
Paul Valle (2010-11-12 23:08:30)
Harding's Database
I was very disappointed when recently learned that Harding has discontinued his Corr-Database... just when i planed to buy one....
I was therefore wondering if any one with this database could do a search for me on a unorthodox opening. I need it for an article.
Paul
Thibault Pillon (2010-11-30 19:25:02)
GO: Game 32800
fuseki.info has a fuseki database with win/loss statistics for each move. UNfortunately the database is not very large
Kamesh Nookala (2011-02-05 13:21:55)
Segregation of Games on this Server
Dear all,
In my opinion, it would be really useful to get the games segregated month-wise or two months-wise (as the ratings and database gets updated once in two months). As of today, whenever we try to download games and update the database, we happen to download all the previously downloaded games, as it has a collective bunch, and then delete the already downloaded games by doubles check.
Regards,
Kam
Kamesh Nookala (2011-02-06 04:14:32)
Segregation of Games on this Server
Thib,
I will tell why i face the difficulty with my database. I have one single database, which is a collection of games from everywhere, be it Correspondence or be it games from playchess. Then, whenever i download games, i happen to merge them into my main single database. Everytime, i have to run a doubles check.
There is also a funny thing which i noticed. The game file for these games from FICGS is always chess.pgn. I have to create a new DB with crap name (remember: not identical to any name of the DB from which i earlier merged games to my single DB, reason is though the games are different, based on the import database name, the games will be marked doubles) and then merge them to the single DB. Again filtering applies. So, we can help you a bit with ideas to create a collection of games, as I hope everyone deletes the LINE games, which are still underway :)
Thibault de Vassal (2011-03-31 19:50:04)
Segregation of Games on this Server
Finally, I just made a small update to solve this problem, now you may download chess finished games by 2 months periods, see:
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=search_games#chess_database
Please report bugs if any... Thanks!
Thibault de Vassal (2011-04-05 23:34:02)
Major update : Wikichess / hashtables
Finally....
Wikichess now supports hashtables, with some advantages :
- The program detects & manages transpositions by itself.
- If both players are rated over 2000, their moves will be automatically added in Wikichess if the move before is already in the database and if the line is not a transposition (still some work).
- By clicking "W" in the fast interface, the search is done by hashtable and no more by line, which returns better results.
So in a few months Wikichess should be much more useful than now :)
Please report any bug if you find ones... Thanks!
Jimmy Huggins (2011-04-29 14:45:26)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update
The last round was very exciting! And this round has had some great games as well. To speak of there is just 4 games left. Here is the report of the most important games this round.
Starting at the top boards. We have have...
B1-Loboestepario (Gino Figilo) vs CumnorChessClub (Kevin E.Plant)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21163-
This game followed a Catalan. Gino makes ambitious choice to go with 5.Nbd2! I gave this move a ! Not because of its theoretical standing. But because it will lead to a position were white will give up a whole pawn for rapid development. Never the less, black is equal to the task and managers to hold on to the pawn for most of the game and keep the game balanced. With my human eyes, I thought for sure white had an advantage! After move 20.Be4, It looks like white has 2 racking bishops. While black has one black locked in! But in depth analysis shows, that black can hold on. And shows great defensive technique. Down the stretch. Well played by Gino and Kevin. On of my favorite games to follow.
B3-Mark Eldridge vs David Evans
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21165-
David has gotten tested in both his black games in this tournament. And this game was no different. We had another B90 line in this game. And ...8.h5 was used. This is becoming a common line in this tournament. Mark's treatment on the white side was great! I think his future opponents will think twice before trying this line again. At move 22, the game reaches the sharpest point. After move 22.fxe5! I thought that Mark had a chance vs David. But David founds some good moves to exchanges pieces and hold for a draw. The best of which was the combo of ...33.Rf3 and ...36.Rxg3! This was a nice find by him. Great job to David and Mark! I look forward to seeing both these players again.
B4-Stephanie vs Fulcrum2000
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21166-
I would normally just post FICGS member games here. But this maybe one of the top 2 or 3 most important games of this round. In what turns out to be the most exciting game of the round IMO. White has shown that they are quite good in the opening phase. At move 18 they choose 18.b3 which was suggested as being the novelty move. White gets a very strong game and after a king tour to capture the pawn. It looked like a win for sure!, but it seems a mistake was made at move 38. Instead of 38.Qc1!? the move 38.Qe8! seems to be a near winner. I thoughts on why this move was missed is because, White was in time trouble in both games. I have to believe this was a favor. As we speak Stephanie is close to defeat in the other game that I will talk about shortly. I would watch her for the reminded of the tournament. I think they will learn form this experience and be even stronger going future. Well done by both players.
B5-NATIONAL12 vs Kamesh
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21167
Two of my good friends battling here. This was a B90 battle. The novelty move was the straight forward looking 27.h4, but after some exchanges. White has to settled for equality. A good match to follow, the one other note made was this was a line pioneered by Eros Riccio.
B7-Wayne Lowrance vs tomski1981
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21169-
Wayne plays a good line vs the french vs tomski. In fact by the database expert, it was in a 100% win line!! But after the queens come off the board. It burns out to a quiet draw. Wayne has had good opening results, but has yet to get in the winners column. I have faith that Wayne will win a game very soon. Good game to both in this one.
B8-Uly vs indrajit_sg
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21170-
This was a nice game to follow. A french defense was chosen. The point in which it gets interest is the choice to play 19.bxc3!? Which leads to 21.Nh6+!? I loves this sires of moves! 27.Rh3! was also a good move here. But its seems black has just enough resources to hold the balance. ..54.Bxg6! was a good finally touch. Well played by both players.
B9-Balabachi(William Fuller) vs Sebastian Boehme
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21171
What was talked about as a drawish Ruy position. I found to be quite a game with all the early fireworks. I also liked the material imbalance in this game. Sebi has a rep of being very difficult to beat with the black pieces. This helps when you have the Ruy and the Posion pawn line of the Sicilian. As two of your best weapons. ;)
B10-Schachmatt (Matt O'Brein) vs Weirwindle
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21172-
This was an interesting Richter-Rauzer game. 15.Qf4 was the novelty move, Form there it got crazy. 21.Nb3 seems to invite a pawn race. Which in the end white loses. This was a tough game for white. I think he should have been able to hold it. But it was still a good game to follow.
B11-donkasand vs Ruben Comes
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21173
This was a nice positional game by Mike (Donkasand), This was a 6.h3 Sicilian. And we get the usually good defense here. ..7.h5 White gets great positional pressure for the whole game and even gets a pawn, but Ruben wholes for a draw.
B12-natmaku vs ralunger (Ramil Germanes)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21174
This game was a Petroff with 5.Nc3. This kind of move gives white rapid development. Its seems black equalize pretty quickly. And on move 21 a draw was agreed on.
B13-Scott Nichols vs Omprakash
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21175
This was an interesting King's Gambit game. I think Scott didn't study his opponents rep. :) The King's Gambit is Om's specialty. So this was an easy draw for black.
B14-Keoki010 (George Clement) vs deka
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21176-
In this game black returns to his pet line of the Sicilian with 2.a6(Which he played in the last round) I believe this is called the O'Kelly variation. This time around he goes for ..7.Qb6 which looks a little better than ..7.Bb5!? A draw probably should have been possible, but George was able to grid out a win. Well played by both players.
B15-parmetd (Daniel Parmet)vs SpiderG (Peter Marriott)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21177
This was a King Indian by black. And white does a good job of out playing his opponent in this game. Unfortunately it seems Peter has gotten busy in his life. This game was decide by time.
B16-Banned for Life vs TheHug(Jimmy Huggins)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21178
I face off against Alan who has the white pieces. And is consider to be one of the best players when playing 1.b3. It was a difficult game for me as I decide before hand to play a dangerous line. Needless to say I lose this game after a few small mistakes on my part. I am founding that all the players in the WBCCC are good, I maybe better off being a commentator lol, but no one would have that.
This was the first set of games.
Here is the 2nd game of the 2nd round in the next post.
Costantino Proietti (2012-02-08 22:24:03)
annotated games
I don't see annotated games in Wikichess, but just an opening database with few annotations about early moves.
Niklas Hallqvist (2012-04-19 11:53:19)
XFCC Play
I wish XFCC was considered, it would clearly ease the coupling between my local chess database and analysis environment and FICGS. Today I rely on copy/paste and it's really tedious, esp. when running many games.
Just my $.02
Thibault de Vassal (2012-07-28 00:10:50)
FICGS IS BACK !!!!!!!!!
First of all, I've added 15 days to all players in running games because of the delay and the fact that many of us may have no access to internet during the summer vacation (this time is added to the 46 days, 13 hours and 20 minutes since the crash for players expected to play), this issue was discussed at Rybkaforum, of course it may be unfair to few players in certain games where their opponent had few time but I did not find a better balanced solution, sorry about that :(
Among other consequences, the current championships cycle will last 10 months instead of 8, and july correspondence chess ratings will be updated very soon.
Well, how to start... fortunately such an event is rare but possible, and following the Murphy's law, it happened (first time for me), the server's hard disk crashed and the least I can say is I've not been lucky, even if I obviously did some things wrong.
Of course I had enough data at home to rebuild all games until a few hours before the crash but I thought it was worth it to pause the server during a few days/weeks to recover more moves, and if possible ALL moves. I really hoped that it would work and at the end it did, but not completely... for unknown reasons. I had also other data to recover from the server, including some FICGS data that were not backuped correctly (my bad), because I did not think far enough 6 years ago when I coded the first FICGS scripts... That will be fixed very soon.
So, because the DDrescue process did not work -unlucky- just after the crash, my server provider (OVH in France) had to send me the hard drive and it took sooooo much time already :/
Then I tried to recover some files and the databases by myself and I learnt much on how to save a hard drive but each process was really long, it took several days again...
Finally none process completely succeeded, few sectors of the hard drive remained unreadable and unfortunately the FICGS database is divided into very numerous parts written everywhere on the disk.
At the end, I brought the disk to the very best professionals able to save it... the process was quite long again and it did not completely worked as well, for an unknown reason the current database was still not readable but they did much better than me at the end.
Finally the whole process was worth it, but I did not expect it could take so much time.... 46 days, 13 hours, 20 minutes. And that's a shame :(
Of course, I could have used a RAID 10 server, I was not favourable to this choice because it is not 100% safe as well, I don't know it enough and it's much more expensive. I'll reconsider it though.
But the other things I did wrong are clear anyway, I lacked of experience in such a situation and most important, I'll do now better backups also on another server every hour. Next time (if any), we'll lose at most 1 hour of moves but the server will be able to restart within 1 day.
One thing is sure, internet was really empty for me without FICGS during this long month and a half and I missed our tournaments too much so that happen again! Have no doubt, FICGS would not have stopped in all cases but once again I'm really sorry about that and all consequences... I can only hope that you'll enjoy your games as before.
Thanks for your understanding.
Best regards,
Thibault
Garvin Gray (2012-07-29 03:26:02)
FICGS IS BACK !!!!!!!!!
The 46 days was so long that my ficgs games database was starting to gather dust lol
Thibault de Vassal (2012-08-18 13:16:50)
FICGS backup is now ok!
Well, simple things are quite complicated sometimes (so many limitations on Linux) but finally the backup [site + database] works fine now...
Now the server can bug, crash, explode, whatever... I can completely reinstall FICGS in a few hours from most situations. There should not be more than 59 minutes of moves lost in the process.
- Complete backup every hour on a distant storage space.
- Complete backup every week on another distant storage space.
- Multiple database backup on the server (case of other problems)
- Moves incrementally sent to my email every 12 hours.
So, definitely the recent break shouldn't happen again... I hope so.
Thibault de Vassal (2012-10-26 23:49:22)
How to amend rating?
Hello Roy,
I can do that, but I cannot find this rating in the FIDE database, do you have any direct link to your FIDE card or something?
Thibault de Vassal (2013-07-15 14:16:39)
Interview with new FICGS Go champion
Yen-Wei Huang, winner of the 8th FICGS Go championship, kindly accepted to answer a few questions for this very interesting interview!
_______________________
- Hello Yen-Wei and congratulations for winning the FICGS Go championship! Xiao Tong was obviously a tough opponent, yet you won 5-0, what happened
during this match?
Hi Thib. Thanks again for your kind invitation. Xiao is definitely one
of the strongest Go players on FICGS, and I was really, really lucky
to have won all five games. In fact, I was behind in three of them
until Xiao made some mistakes late in the games: in game 69092, I
forced a tough ko fight which jeopardized my lower group. Xiao made a
mistake at P2 as he missed my T3 could force another ko. Game 69093
was very close towards the end but I think the move at C13 caused him
the game. Game 69096 was even closer that I won by half a point thanks
to the big 7.5 komi. The other two games were not easy either and I am
glad I could have hung on to the lead. Overall I really enjoyed our
match and I would love to have a rematch with Xiao in the future.
- You're from Taiwan, could you tell us a bit more about you? At what age
did you learn Go? Do you have any other ranks (e.g. at other sites)?
I learned Go when I was 5 and I have always enjoyed playing all my
life. I used to play on servers like KGS and Tygem and I was around
6-7 dan on these sites. Recently I don't have that much time to play
so that's why turned to turn-based server like FICGS.
- What do you think about the world of Go these days? Who is the very best
player in the world according to you?
I think the past two years were the "warring period" in the world of
Go. I would say Lee Sedol was the best player two years ago, but he
seems to have lost his dominant position recently. There are many
rising stars that are winning the world champions. I am especially
keeping an eye on Yuta Iyama, who I think is No. 1 in Japan and has
started to threaten the dominance of Chinese and Korean players.
- What about computer Go and its future? How many years do you give to the human before losing to the machine?
As a software engineer I foresee the computer Go beats the world's No.
1 player in two decades. Crazy Stone already beat Yoshio Ishida with
four handicap stones earlier this year, and I believe it wouldn't take
long for computers to beat pros in two handicap stones. The real
challenge will come when computers need to go from handicap games to
even games since they need to advance from defensive mode to attack
mode. I am really excited to see how Artificial Intelligence can
surprise us with its "creative" moves when the time comes.
- Do you use engines or databases? What advice would you give to beginners (and to your future challengers :))?
I know there are many useful Go engines and databases that are being developed these days, unfortunately I don't really know much about
them. I do use http://ps.waltheri.net/ if I need to look something up,
and I go to http://tom.com for commented games (they're in Chinese,
nonetheless). Advice to beginners: just go to any search engine and
you can easily find all the free resources you want. Advice to my
future challengers: just try the new variations since I know none of
them :)
- What new features would you like to see at FICGS?
Firstly I'd like to thank Thib for maintaining such a wonderful site.
I enjoy playing Go and Poker here and maybe I'll start playing Chess
sometime (I really suck so I'm not ready to embarrass myself yet). The
ability to play different games is what makes FICGS unique. As Thib
mentioned earlier, we need much more players, and I think FICGS simply
needs to host much more tournaments, probably some with shorter time
settings. With more games and more player engagement, more people will
stick around. Another feature I'd really like to see is FICGS client for
cellphones/tablets. The main advantage of turn-based servers is that
it allows people to play wherever for whatever period of time: a 1-min
ride in the elevator, a 10-min wait at the bus stop, or a couple of
hours at home. If playing on FICGS is made easier, I know I will be
more addicted to it :)
- Thank you very much and good luck in the next final match...
Thanks! And please go easy on our Poker match...
Philip Roe (2013-10-03 21:01:42)
Tablebases and no-engines tournaments
Bogoljub,
When you enter the tournament by clicking on the waiting list, you are told that "chess engines, databases and opening books are strictly forbidden". I guess the idea is to reproduce OTB conditions as closely as possible.
Bogoljub Teverovski (2013-10-18 12:10:38)
Tablebases and no-engines tournaments
If books and databases are forbidden too, so, these events should be entitled as "zero-knowledge" tournaments instead of no-engines.
Timofey Denisov (2014-03-16 11:41:12)
Standard time control abusers
1) not working. Because vacation days just skipping in count, so clock will gain double speed in 21th day (if player took 1-day vacation).
2) Yes... maybe do more? Maybe decline 50-move rule on 6- or even 7- pieces in "normal chess"? (because exist tablebases for these endgames, and players just do moves from database), and next is do adjudgement in 6- pieces positions? Result can be gained from chessok.com, for sample. Or if 7-pieces position you can gain result from latest version Aquarium (licensed, pirated copy can't access to tablebases).
Thibault de Vassal (2015-07-11 02:18:11)
E. Riccio on his win in the 10th CC WCH
Once again, Eros kindly answered a few questions after his win in the 10th FICGS correspondence chess championship. His answer on tie break rules meets the discussion in this thread:
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=11773
____________________________
- Hello Eros and congrats again for this new win in the FICGS correspondence chess championship! This time, your opponent was Peter W. Anderson and you're playing him once again in the next final match. Actually, all games finished in less than 3 months, which looks like superfast, how did it happen?
Hello once again Thibault! Yes, the match with Anderson was very quick. The reasons are that he moves very fast, and like me, I don't seem to remember that he took any day of leave.
Also, our games were not played until the very end; many draws were agreed with many pieces on the board, as soon as we thought that none of us had winning chances.
- For many players, it is quite impossible to beat you in such a 12 games match (probably because of the tie rule). After all these won matches do you start to think that the advantage is too big?
It's a fact that a very high percentage of correspondence games played at the top level ends up in a draw... (and that percentage is even higher in my case, as my strategy is to avoid taking risks) so yes, talking against my interests, I think that something in the rules should be changed.
- By the way, your opponent suggested an interesting tie rule in the forum ( Chess, Poker & Go forum - Topic 11773 ), in the context of more general new ideas for correspondence chess rules (e.g. article by GM Arno Nickel - Correspondence Chess – the draw problem ) in order to increase the interest of the game. Do you have any opinion on all this?
The idea GM Nickel launched could be interesting, even if before we can say for sure if it can be applied in serious tournaments, it needs to be tested.
If I understood correctly, having a piece more in a draw endgame, after the game is over, a little plus on the score would be given to the player who had the small advantage.
I always thought like: How unfair! That player had King and two Knights against a lone King of his opponent... still he only got a half point anyway! Or even worse, in theory, one player could have this position: King in e1, Bishop in h1 and 6 Pawns from h2 to h7. (Black King in h8) Counting the value of pieces that would be a a +9 advantage, like a Queen more, but still it would be a draw. Another crazy scenario, more common, are those blocked positions were 16 pawns block the center (or more simply any fortress position) and not rarely it happens that a color has a huge material advantage but can't break through in any way. In this last case the player with material disadvantage could have found a genial idea to reach that blocked position, should his opponent with extra pieces still be given an advantage after the game?
Another important consideration is that this rule could discourage attacking players to play gambits or make sacrifices, as if the attack fails, their efforts to try to win would be punished! This last case would even increase the draw rate.
Probably Nickel didn't talk about giving a plus after games finished with advantage but still many pieces on board, anyway those positions (except the 16 Pawns one) could very well be played on until only one piece would be left.
After these examples we can see that there are so many different ways that a position with material advantage can be reached... but it's not always fair that the player with the advantage should be given a plus after the game. As a paradox, an advantage should be given to the opponent if he smartly managed to sacrifice one or more pieces in order to reach a draw endgame which he would have lost if he didn't give away material.
- Of course, the level of chess programs is for much in it. Do you feel that high level correspondence chess and centaur chess evolved much this year, or did it reach a kind of peak?
The level of correspondence chess increases in a parallel way as computers, databases and chess programs improve. Slowly everything keeps improving. Of course, due to the more thinking time, correspondence chess will always have a higher draw percentage than blitz games played by computers.
- Finally, what can you tell us about your correspondence chess path this year, particularly at ICCF where you're currently ranked #13?
On ICCF I am fighting with the Italian Team (I am playing in second board behind the World Champion Finocchiaro) in the 9th European Team Championship.
---> https://www.iccf.com/event?id=44123
Ian Zimmerman (2015-11-18 16:59:23)
Feature request
Something still missing on this site, is the ability to sort games by time of last move. This is very useful for players who keeps their own records of games offline, as almost all experienced correspondence players do. All of the following sites have the feature: ICCF, SchemingMind, ChessWorld.
Alternatively, if you want to be innovative, here is something that would do the same job even more efficiently: have an extra flag (call it ACK) stored with each game, and allow filtering by ACK. Display ACK next to each game as a checkbox. Set ACK automatically in one and exactly one situation: when the *opponent* moves.
This way, when I turn on the filter, I can see at a glance all the games where my opponent *just* moved, and I clear ACK by clicking on the checkbox as I update my offline database for each game.
Paul Valle (2015-12-25 20:32:20)
wrong name in chessbase database
Hi,
all my games here are listed under the wrong name in chessbase database. They should be listed under "Valle, Paul", but are instead listed under "Vale, Paulo Alfonso da Co" and under the Portoguise flag and not the Norwegian flag.
Why is this?
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-11 19:53:28)
Server crash (april 2016)
Hi all, welcome back :)
First of all, my apologies for this new server crash, about 4 years after the previous one...
The Raid 1 technology has its advantages, the 2 hard drives are almost-exact copies from each other, but it also has its difficulties [e.g. the "almost" part] and I just had to learn much about it to try to restore the server as I encountered not 1, not 2 but 3 hardware failures at the same time, added to a 4th hardware failure at home on the FICGS development PC, and of course added my "famous" incredibly bad internet connection. Murphy's law ^^ ... So, both hard drives and a SATA cable have been replaced on the server. Finally, the system had to be reinstalled and I had to upgrade it, which caused many difficulties these last few days. At the end, it was not possible to restore the very last FICGS database, so we lost a few minutes or hours of moves (fortunately it happened early in the morning). But nothing essential was lost at the end.
I'm still not 100% sure (if it's ever possible) that everything will work fine with this upgraded version of PHP & MySQL, obviously there are some problems with accents for players names (will be fixed soon) but let's go for a try. I probably made mistakes during the whole process that finally took 20 days but the good thing is that I should be able to better prevent such failures in the future. Thanks again for your patience!
As I said in the login/messages page, an email has been sent to warn everyone. If you tried to register or to change your password during the last two weeks, it was not taken in account so you'll have to do it again. 20 days (it was not possible to move during this time) have been added to all players expected to move, and 7 more days have been added to all clocks (including players not expected to move, to avoid any surprise in case of real vacation or something).
One more thing: It may be not possible to connect through SSL with https:// anymore in the future, I still don't know how to configure it on this system.
Let's play! :)
Best wishes,
Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-25 21:37:17)
FICGS restarts (2016 May 25)
Hi everyone, nice to see you again, I missed our games :)
First of all, my apologies for this too long delay... I went through hell to try to fix these first major issues (emails & database compatibility) that were the consequence of the forced system update that followed the server crash of last month.
Unfortunately, internet protocols & languages are constantly evolving and FICGS is late on these changes. Added to the fact that databases, databases tables, database interface, database calls, PHP language, PHP files, content display, browsers (and I probably forgot ones) communicate with variable charsets, the result is that it is impossible to make FICGS (which uses both UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 according to the content) compatible with this system change in one shot...
Consequently, it will take a long time to make it right... Feel free to report any bug in the "Bugs after the server crash" discussion in this forum.
Thanks in advance! Have good games ;)
Daniel Parmet (2017-12-24 18:51:20)
Monte Carlo Analysis
I thought the whole idea of IDEA was a human thought merge of computer analysis through MCA?
I had the thought about using MCA with chess engines as the brain nearly 5 years ago at work. My boss loved the idea and tasked me with it. However, I have no coding skills so my ability was limited to what was available which was extremely limited at the time.
The best way to think of MCA is to accept that we don't know what move is best (hence why Alphazero didn't have or want an opening book or games database). From here now, it's like trying to predict what's best and what will come from flipping a coin 5 million times. You know in a coin scenario that it is 50%. But what about the stock market? A lottery ticket? A game of black jack? Or Chess? Each individual decision could yield 50.1% in favor and by MCA you will find it. It will create a tree that shows a RANGE of your worst possibilities to best on a probalistic manner. The most common use is for wealth management investing.
As for how to change off the Fritz engine, I don't know. I could never figure that out (though I only have the Fritz 13 gui). I guess I was hoping this feature would be improved over time. Perhaps now due to Alphazero, it will be.
Thibault de Vassal (2018-01-10 22:29:48)
1st King Supertournament
Dear chessfriends, FICGS Android apps are now bringing a really different playing experience!
All 4 apps are now dedicated to either chess, Go or Poker Holdem (or all games) with specific features that make it easier and compliant with laws in more countries, that's why it is now useful to install them all and use it according to your taste at the moment.
Of course, it is more dedicated to "chess for fun", that's why it's a good time to start the very 1st FICGS chess King Supertournament:
- No engines or databases allowed
- Unrated thematic tournament: King's gambit
- Marathon tournament : unlimited number of players / games
- Flash deadline: The tournament will start on January 17th, 2018
Will you dare to enter this much fun and challenging waiting list? :)
Finally, these apps are very good news for FICGS as new players are coming again... It was really time, particularly after the last server crash! Now I'll make my possible to make FICGS great again, or even greater :)
Christoph Schroeder (2018-01-11 00:29:15)
1st King Supertournament
A King's gambit thematic would be great, but as a no engine version? No.
It is fun to search for truth in ancient openings like the King's Gambit, but that obviously requires the use of books, databases and engines.
Moreover, experience on other servers shows that in the so-called "no-engine tournaments" the majority of the players use engines, anyway.
Thibault de Vassal (2018-01-11 03:13:36)
1st King Supertournament
Hi Christoph,
I agree that engines may be there anyway (I added a permanent warning in the "move_express" page), and also that King's Gambit needs to be analyzed again and again :)
There are several reasons for this choice for this particular tournament...
1. The tournament's format: The number of games may be huge and practically impossible to manage with databases & engines analysis. At least, it could be dissuasive! By the way, there are regularly King's gambit thematic in the Special Chess Tournaments category.
2. The "applications friendly" idea: Unlike most other tournaments, this one will be particulary playable just for fun from anywhere with a phone.
And before everything, this is just an experiment...
Let's try something new :)
Thibault de Vassal (2018-01-16 16:43:40)
Conditional chess moves (again)
Hi all,
Before everything, let's make it clear: Absolute priority (for years actually, but particularly since the launch of the Android apps) right now is to increase the popularity of the server, that slowly went down for more than 5 years. Now it's going better for the first time since, but I'm still working on and have much to do there.
Well, let's say this would be the right thing to do after all (which is another debate, with questions like what if a player does not want his opponent to use this option that by the way he cannot or does not want to use himself because it goes too fast and/or gains time on clock - case that I saw at another server).
Don't misunderstand me: I already used conditional moves at other servers and I liked it too, but I did not find it essential. Also, we all know that all opinions are in nature. And as a reminder, one goal of this server was to offer the simpliest & lightest (HTML or HTML & few javascript) interface.
Kim, one question to think about the work to do in your step 1:
How do you imagine the communication between a Javascript interface & php server? Well, I know how to implement Ajax (which I chose not to use at FICGS), this is not the point here. But it is not enough that moves are verified by javascript - that is a big work if you do it from zero - , it must be validated by the server itself, then confirmed or not to the player, meaning casually one more step. Means more php jobs from the server (which is not a big deal) so new codes that would be compatible between that Javascript UI (that must fit to site's design) & FICGS (that is not obvious if you know the small possible differences in terms of PGN format), a new field in database, the way to handle it after few conditional moves & so on.
Once more, it is feasible, of course. But there are obvious difficulties: it is not possible to add such code without being completely in FICGS codes, that are not object-oriented.
Anyway, if the number of active players grows again, I'm quite sure we'll have a good occasion to discuss it (with some more pressure ^^).
Thibault de Vassal (2018-03-14 23:12:38)
A few questions to Nelson Bernal Varela
Nelson Bernal Varela is an early FICGS correspondence chess player, now rated 2277 but also rated 2359 at ICCF (Correspondence Chess Master - CCM).
Last but not least, and as all poker holdem players here probably noticed, he is also our ranked #1 for years, who just reached an outstanding poker rating of 2382, while number two is now rated "only" 2212. A good occasion to ask him a few questions, that he kindly accepted to answer.
-----------------------
- Hello Nelson! You are the 2nd most active player at FICGS for years now. Everyone here probably noticed your incredible results in poker tournaments. "Correspondence poker holdem" was probably a strange idea as it is very unusual and very different from "Internet poker". What's your opinion on this and on the presence of a card game (played without money) at FICGS?
NBV: There are more important things than money and one of those is HONOR; It is honorable to be a chess master, international master, grandmaster, world chess champion at ICCF and at FICGS and to be number one in the ranking. It is honorable to be a FICGS world champion at Go and to be first in the ranking, it is honorable to be poker world champion at FICGS poker and in my case, it is an honor to be number one at poker here at FICGS during the last years, understanding that our general level of play has improved remarkably. None of these activities produces money, but to achieve any of the mentioned titles, it is necessary to have extraordinary abilities.
When I was about 18 years old, I had the opportunity to meet a person with immense material wealth, we spent whole evenings playing chess and then I told him my perceptions about each movement of the game. He thanked me for my chess explanations and paid me with good money. That wealthy man in his turn told me about life and recommended that I should always be proud of the gifts I had, since he knew, with all the money he had and being able to hire the best grandmasters in the world, that it could hardly come at the level of chess master. That person told me that the intellect can be turned into money whenever you want.
Now, by playing poker without money at FICGS, I understood that it was my extraordinary and wonderful opportunity to study-learn-perfect and test my poker theories without costing me a single dollar. In FICGS there is no money, but thanks to the knowledge I gained playing poker in FICGS, today I can go after the money in online poker rooms and probably in OTB poker tournaments. I am studying the possibility of becoming a professional poker player.
- The understanding of your opponent's behaviour is usually quite important at Poker. Do you manage to establish some profiles while playing so many simultaneous hands & games? Did you build any method?
NBV: Today I am sure that the most important thing to raise, and keep raising my level in poker, has been to build a psychological profile of mine, to get to know Nelson Bernal Varela in depth and above all to understand me, accept me, love me and be work every day eliminating my technical errors, strategic, psychological that make me play badly. I am aware that in poker I can play perfectly and still lose, what I can not forgive me is playing badly, which is why I work hard correcting my wrong decisions.
Of course, there is a space in my brain where I have built a psychological profile of each contender, that profile I have been able to elaborate with all the information that is provided to me in each hand we play. The way each of us plays, gives reliable information about our personality.
About my method I can write the following: A few years ago, I created a table in excel, where I had all the games with each contender, I identified them with the FICGS numeration and each movement in each hand (preflop, flop, turn, river ) it I was writing and studying; I started to add technical-psychological variables that seemed important to me, resulting in 20 variables that I had to qualify in each movement. With the passage of time and my effort, I no longer needed the excel table and I did not use it again (it was exhausting and time consuming) because I was assimilating things faster and with greater depth. Today I can say that I evaluate these 20 variables in a natural way, as if I was breathing and that when I am at a poker table, online or real, after a few minutes I get the psychological profile of the table and each of my opponents. In the pocket of my shirt I keep a small paper with the list of variables, periodically reread it and I wonder if I should modify, remove or add something.
- You won 1007 poker games, and lost only 380, with a ratio usually going from 57% to 80% according to your best opponents. Undoubtly you know the mathematics hidden behind poker but that may not explain everything. How did you learn to play?
NBV: Mathematics is an ingredient in poker, in the same way that my psychological aspects and of my opponents (I recommend reading-studying about four times the book “The Poker mindset” of Ian Taylor and Matthew Hilger), it is vital to understand the Law of Large Numbers. Next I make a list of topics that I consider important to raise the level of poker; compete with EV+ cards, you have to know the small ball theory of Negreanu (but not apply it, hahaha) you have to always look at the texture of the board, you have to evaluate your reality and your future, also that of your opponents (act and power), the position to talk is important, the stack, the personality of the table, know who has the panic button on. All these and other variables must be evaluated in the few seconds they have to make a move and the only important thing is to make the right decision according to the circumstances. There is a good list of poker books to read... it is mandatory to have read about 15 poker books.
- As for me, I may be wrong but I can't imagine that you reached such a rating without special techniques & maybe by optimizing it in some ways... Of course, "rating management" is not a problem, and it is only one thing with a limited impact, but maybe you have some other secrets? What about this "+1" technique that I noticed in many of our games, if this is not a secret? :)
NBV: In these years I have used different techniques that I had to read, study, learn, repeat, modify, invent and sometimes eliminate. Poker is a sport that seems easy, with time one manages to understand that it has an amazing complexity, today I consider poker to be as complex as chess and I study them in a "similar" way. As an example, I have tried to create "openings in poker"; based only on probabilities I invented something that I called mirror theory and another "opening" that I called opposite outs. I am fascinated by mathematics and from the mathematical perspective they are perfect "theories-openings", but I have lost tournaments and a lot of money for applying such theories in mistaken emotional moments. In poker it is important to never lose sight of the Law of Large Numbers and be aware that this LAW likes to make fun of each one of us... I am working on giving an emotional nuance to my theories "mirror" and "opposite outs". There are moments when perfect mathematics becomes an unforgivable psychological error...
For the last few months I have modified my way of playing and my results have improved; Today it must be much more difficult to win a game me, thanks to small and imperceptible adjustments that of course only I know, because I have followed my mistakes-successes-evolution in the game over several years.
- Isn't it too frustrating for you to play heads up only (here at least) ? Of course it is a way to improve this important technical case but we know that many complexities come with 3 to 8 players on the table, which is the most common case in professional poker tournaments.
NBV: Currently I spend little time every day playing heads-up in FICGS, thanks to the fact that I have the profile of each contender. The 4-5 hours that I study poker daily, include practice in micro limits in cash tables of 6 players and tournaments in tables of 8-9 players. I think I'm covering the whole range of possibilities, experiencing game situations between 1 and 8 contenders.
- What do you think about computer analysis in poker? Do you think it could make a difference here just like the way we play advanced chess?
NBV: I think the algorithms are ready to be written in machine language and the question is where are those algorithms? Well, in the brains of the best players in the world and in their games compiled in huge databases. But programming language can be accelerated with artificial intelligence brains, making A.I. studying databases of the best professionals, playing with itself millions of games and building an invincible TACTIC-STRATEGIC SYSTEM, similar to chess software and GO... I think preflop and flop play would be very similar between humans and artificial intelligence, but on the turn and on the river artificial intelligence would take considerable advantage, but in the short time the level of human poker would rise because artificial intelligence would teach us to play poker, this event that would diminish the profits of the professionals. It will always be said in favor of poker that because it is an incomplete game of information, to make computer algorithms are quite complicated, but despite that, I am sure that artificial intelligence will far surpass the best human poker player. It is possible that an artificial intelligence that plays a perfect poker already exists, but unlike GO and chess, poker does produce a lot of money. Due to the money factor, in today's world, it is very difficult that there is a Prometheus willing to steal fire from the gods and give it to mankind...
- How would you describe your relation to games in general?
NBV: I can summarize it in one of the first chess books I had the fortune to read, by the great Danish master Bent Larsen, "I play to win"
- When did you start to play chess & poker? Do you play other games?
NBV: My first contact with chess was at the age of nine, it was love at first sight and until death separates us; I must confess that for some years we have been separated, due to my stupidity and my erroneous decisions. I have always been self-taught in any subject, my method is to buy about 10 to 15 books of the subject that interests me and I read them thoroughly, sometimes 3 or 4 times; already with that information in my head and thanks to the constant practice, I build MY SYSTEM (Nimzowitch) according to my personality, my dreams, my desires, my anguish, my fears... I was youth champion of Bogotá, for 4 years , my OTB level was strong, but I had to abandon chess because I had to work and survive; Being an athlete in Colombia is an absolutely difficult thing, but being a chess player is extremely complicated since there is no support or respect from society and you can not live by chess, because it does not produce money.
I met poker in 2009 in FICGS, at that time I was in a terrible emotional situation, trying to get away from a relationship with a woman that I should never approach and where I wasted valuable time and energy. In that context, looking for my thoughts to be occupied, I ended up playing the FICGS C-24 poker tournament and tied the first place with three more players; I kept playing, without understanding what was happening with the cards and obviously, losing, until in 2010 I won the FICGS D-21 tournament with perfect score, 6 out of 6. I had already bought-read my first beginner book: Poker for Dummies of Harroch and Krieger, but my poker was coarse, wild, street, intuitive, amateur, without dedication or study. In the background of this paragraph, the affection and gratitude that I have for FICGS is condensed, a place where I have been able to build-practice-study-test MY SYSTEM in poker.
I play Backgammon, I do not care that it may sound pretentious-petulant, but I have a very strong level and I have not read my first book yet. Hahaha. Any year I register as a participant in the world championship and I will cause disgust to more than one professional. Hahaha. Unlike chess and poker, backgammon does not cause me stress, on the contrary, I feel a lot of joy and pleasure when I play backgammon. I feel something similar with math, reading and music. It's true and I'm proud, I've always been a NERD.
- We all know how difficult it is to reach a number 1 rank but it is even more difficult to keep it during a long time. What is your motivation? Do you have more goals to achieve (chess & other games included) ?
NBV: My motivation in any activity I undertake in my life is to do it with absolute passion (passion is everything you would do to get a breath of air, in the second before dying by drowning or suffocation).
I have several goals to accomplish before December 2021; In the ICCF correspondence chess I must reach the 2400 elo and get the titles of International Master, SIM and Grand Master, also perform outstanding performances in world championships. In FICGS Chess I must complete my Master and International Master titles and overcome the 2450 elo, also snatch the title from our eternal champion Eros Riccio. You're warned Eros, hahaha. On the LSS site where I also play, www.chess-server.net I want to be a world champion.
In POKER I find myself playing micro limits bets in several online sites; in June 2018 I hope I have built some bankroll. In July of 2018 I must be evaluating my poker to know if my immediate goal is to become a professional poker player, that would completely change my chess goals and I would have to dedicate myself to OTB poker. At the moment I study and practice poker every day, about 4-5 hours a day. At this moment my poker is full of errors that I am eliminating one by one. MY SYSTEM needs to win and raise money in the micro limits, so that it can succeed in professional poker.
In chess OTB I should become a great master, but that topic should be left as a goal for after 2021. I could achieve the record of being the oldest human in getting the title of Grand Master OTB. Hahaha.
In backgammon I would like to play some important tournaments in USA and Europe and maybe to be OTB world champion, but at the moment I do not have clarity on how to do it. I must mature that idea.
I hope they invent immortality before I die and that I have enough money to buy it, because time is what I need to realize all these and other dreams...
- Finally, playing so many games on several websites (obviously with serious ambitions in each game & place) may look quite inhuman and exhausting, does your body or brain say "stop" sometimes? Do you train by melting sports and brain games just like Kasparov did in the past?
NBV: It's true, it takes willpower and a lot of resistance to sustain the pace that I carry. To take care of my body, I am doing daily exercise for 60 to 90 minutes, including routines of strength, elasticity, speed and endurance. I also practice table tennis to preserve the agility of my body. I'm also divorced and I do not have a girlfriend... Hahaha
- By curiosity, do you consider playing Go in the future, even after... 2021? (which would surely be an enormous charge more, but the game is really interesting)
I have a kind of commitment with the best Colombian GO player, exchange of classes, he makes me a competitive player of GO and I turn him into a competitive player of backgammon. But the truth is that I do not have time... it could be after 2021...
- Do you confirm that you are not (entirely or partly) AlphaZero or any kind of A.I. (yet) ? :-)
NBV: Hahaha, of course I would like to be a real centaur, human with machine power, I do not care what physical form I should adopt. I offer myself publicly as a guinea pig in projects of technological singularity. Hahaha
- Many thanks for your detailed and instructive (impressive as well) answers! My best wishes of luck in all your games and future tournaments.
William Taylor (2018-05-01 23:52:16)
1st King Supertournament
One of the reasons I didn't enter this tournament is that it's not clear how to guarantee compliance with the 'no databases' requirement. What happens if I need to prepare for an OTB game against a King's Gambit player? Obviously I will consult my database and theoretical works, and cannot help but have my ongoing 'King Supertournament' games in my mind.
Thibault de Vassal (2018-06-30 01:11:46)
Modern correspondence chess
An interesting article on modern correspondence chess & ICCF SM Wolff Morrow [rated 2514, 19th ICCF United States Correspondence Chess Champion] in Chessbase:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/correspondence-chess-and-correspondence-database-2018
Christoph Schroeder (2018-08-16 03:25:38)
7 pieces tablebases
If the rule is introduced, the no-engine-tournaments obviously should be excluded. For all other tournaments (where engines, databases and tablebases are allowed) I see no reason for any exceptions.
Christoph Schroeder (2018-08-18 01:03:49)
7 pieces tablebases
Regarding the argument that this rule might be unfair for players who don't want to use engines/databases, I would like answer with a comparison:
If I participate in a bicycle race - but as a runner (without a bicycle), this is strange enough, but maybe allowed. Much more strange, however, is the idea that the organizer of the bicycle race could be urged to adjust the bicycle race rules for the needs of the runners.
Paul Larwinski (2018-11-17 19:28:43)
Carlsen Caruana wch match
i meant the exciting chess games between Kasparov and Karpov in wch matches, they have both played other openings and mostly main famous lines.
everyone can see Kasparov-Karpov games in chess database
first game of Carlsen - Caruana wch match was exciting too , winning chances
Herbert Kruse (2019-02-10 12:05:48)
Advice for correspondence chess players
i agree with the "next best" function as very important, but databases are not nessecary today
Thibault de Vassal (2019-02-22 21:18:32)
Best Opening Move?
Still hard to say. In my opinion, only databases & statistics can "answer" this question.
Miroslav Gazi (2019-04-25 13:07:58)
Chess DB
Using COR or OTB chess Databases or both?
Thibault de Vassal (2019-04-26 19:55:38)
Chess DB
As for me, both... but databases are not enough (some lines are even wrong), of course.
Roberto Battaglia (2020-06-04 09:55:29)
chess archives in pgn
A few days ago, in the chat, I put some questions regarding the existence or not of archives of chess games and their organization. The chat doesn't allow many words so I take advantage of the forum for explaining the matter.
For example on the ICCF website I find for each player a file with all his chess games, I also find archives of all the games played year by year. This allows me to create excellent databases, using for example SCID.
I also would like to add the games played on FICS but, perhaps for my limit, I was able to find only one way to access the pgn. that is: I type the name of a player in the search box and press go. If, for example, I write Fric (Fric Lubos is a friend of mine who attends both ICCF and FICGS) I find all his PNGs but there are mixed games of poker and chess and this creates a problem because I have to separate them by looking at them one by one.
I hope I was clear. Obviously it is possible that I have not seen some functions of the site that allow to access to archives where could be stored games divided by year, by player and by type of game. I thank all those who want to answer me and wish everyone good and winning games.
Roberto
Thibault de Vassal (2020-06-04 13:04:11)
chess archives in pgn
Hello Roberto,
Thanks for detailing your question here.
Yes, the "Go" function below the menu is very general and does not help much for what you would like to do.
The "Search games" option in the menu (below "Waiting lists" and "Tournaments") brings more specific ways:
Years ago, I considered that the complete PGN database was enough to build easily specific databases (player or any criteria, combinations of it, etc.) by using a database software.
Then I added a few search options, per player & per game (chess or Go), per opening, per rating (black or white) and per material for endgames... Of course, this will not replace a serious database like Chessbase.
I hope I was clear too... Does this help?
Miroslav Gazi (2020-06-09 12:13:50)
chess archives in pgn
Hello Roberto,
I could provide you e.g. PGN file games for Lubos Fric (or any other ICCF or FICGS player) as FRIC_595Games from our database
on
https://windchess.com/
if you are interested.
Best regards
Miro
https://chesswind.eu/
https://windchess.com/
Daniel Parmet (2020-06-16 20:41:22)
Chess DB
I think the issue is that there isn't a database program available that can handle something so large.
Thibault de Vassal (2021-04-28 00:56:13)
Players ratings
Hello Misha,
"My messages" page specifies : Dear chessfriends, the correspondence chess ratings and FICGS chess database have been updated on March 02, 2021 (next update around May 01, 2021).
Advanced chess ratings, big chess ratings, Go ratings & poker ratings are updated after each game.
Garvin Gray (2021-09-20 02:31:27)
Chess Cup final #4
One issue I am running into.
I am trying to download the pgn file.
Normally I download the 'my game' file to my desktop, then change the name, so it shows .pgn at the end, and then I can copy the games across to my database.
But for this tournament, I do not seem to be able to do this at this stage.
Garvin Gray (2021-09-20 03:09:17)
Chess Cup final #4
Solved the download games issue. I normally download the games from 'download my games' and right click save link as - to my desktop and then change the file name, so it ends with .pgn.
That changes the file to a pgn file. Then I copy the games across to the database.
This time, in the same location, I tried saving, all games, and it saved all games, then I filtered just my games, then I copied my games across to my database.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-01-18 23:59:07)
Chess engines in thematic tournaments
Yes, engines, databases & so on... everything is authorized in thematic tourneys.
Stanislas Gounant (2022-11-30 19:55:08)
I did not win a game since 3 years
In my openning tree of 11 700 000 games with games of big database 2023 + correspondence database 2022 + games play on FICGS in 2022 :
Bishop's Gambit : 6123 Games
Traxler Counterattack : 4293 Games
Zbigniew Szczepanski (2023-12-11 11:50:09)
Referee Adjudication
In ICCF and LSS-Server, when 7 figures are reached, the game ends automatically. Some disadvantaged people are just malicious and continue playing the hopeless game. As a rule, these are people who do not know how to play chess, but only use powerful computers to challenge good chess players. They count on a mistake or the death of their rival. It's a waste of time. 99% of players use engines, databases and tables.
Garvin Gray (2024-09-19 18:46:08)
Rating System.....
Correspondence chess ratings next update on November 1st, 2024. FICGS chess database has been updated on September 16, 2024.
Bahadir Ozen (2025-11-19 08:46:16)
Clarification of Rating Groups
Mr. Ulises Pineda,
Of course, you're valuable. The time you spend, your actions, and your interaction enrich both me, the players, and the site. Thank you for your efforts.
It's clear that each site has its own infrastructure and process. Yes, we play on a different site, and there can be conditional moves there. But FICGS's games also go to the Corr Database, and they're respected. We can say it's a proven platform.
You're right about the ticket issue being annoying. In that case, the paying player has a slightly greater advantage.
I agree with you in the long run, but the person who keeps the site "usable" also puts in the effort. Perhaps a different update on this rule will be forthcoming.
There are 2 results for database in wikichess.
Kieran Child (1600)
Na3 e5 Nb5
The most common move on my database, but I can't see any reason why. The knight will just track back to c3 with white two tempi down.
============
Contributors : Kieran Child
Niklas Hallqvist (1438)
d4 e6 Nf3 c5
Of the common moves in the preceding position, c5 is the one with the best statistics, at 42% (i.e. good for black), according to TWIC's tournament database (110406).
============
Contributors : Niklas Hallqvist
FICGS : database , Wikipedia : database , Dmoz : database , Google : database , Yahoo : database
Bobby Fischer's current state of mind is indeed a tragedy. One of the world's greatest Chess players - the pride and sorrow of American Chess. (Frank Brady)
Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of character can ripen more fully than in life. (Edward Morgan Foster)
Chess is thirty to forty percent psychology. You don't have this when you play a computer. I can't confuse it. (Judith Polgar)
Back to FICGS , Wikichess