internet
FICGS - Search results for internet
There are 177 results for internet in the forum.
Per Lea (2006-04-08 23:03:27)
Vacations
In this modern world, not even travelling abroad will stop you from being able to play: you will probably find an internet cafe near by. Or you may have internet access in your hotel room, or if you visit business colleagues, they will probably give you access to a PC. Too bad if you're TOO dependent on Fritz, of course, but....
Hannes Rada (2006-04-09 00:43:50)
Travel destinations
>In this modern world, not even
> travelling abroad will stop you from > being able to play: you will
> probably find an internet cafe near
> Or you may have internet access in
> your hotel room, or if you visit
> business colleagues, they will
> probably give you access to a PC.
> Too bad if you're TOO dependent on
> Fritz, of course, but....
Normally I spend my holiday far away from the so called civiliations.
Destinations like Papua New Guinea, Micronesia or Ethiopia are my favorite places.
So there is no chance for communications and also no interest for playing chess.
In 2 weeks I am heading to Vanuatu .....
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-10 12:53:29)
FICGS and internet
Hello to all & thanks again for support.
I announced FICGS starting into main chess forums (FIDE, TCCMB, Talkchess, France-Echecs...), now working on search engines.
Feel free to talk about it in other forums (in your country or chessclub) and to your chessfriends... Website success is here, and the more players, the more players :)
Thank you in advance. Have good games !
Gino Figlio (2006-07-04 21:19:14)
statistics
Dear Thibault,
I don't have the answer, I suspect there is no solution for this problem. If you apply statistics to extreme situations, there will always be some outliers that will prove your prediction wrong. One good example is ICC(internet chess club) and their self-proclaimed perfect method to detect online cheaters. I can tell you some OTB 2100-2300 players can perform sometimes close to 2600 strength, and sometimes more than 95% of their moves coincide with one of the chess engines...statistically you can call this a cheater, but reality is not respectful of normal distributions
Dinesh De Silva (2006-07-20 06:06:51)
Re: page rank.......
Thibault,
Is Google the most well known search engine on the internet?!
Is the page ranking of a website on it decided purely on the number of visitors clicking on any particular website?!
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
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-05 17:07:17)
Time to display all informations
Hmm.. That's a real problem :/
Could you tell me more about your processor / browser / internet speed ?
(by email if you prefer)
Thanks !
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-05 18:08:35)
Time to display all informations
....... don't laugh :)
More than 60 seconds. I have a timeout, so I can't even load the whole page !
Reason is first a ~33kbps connection (no adsl where I live), then a slow computer, for internet only.. :))
This is prehistory here ;)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-05 19:27:54)
Time to display all informations
Of course not. I have other computers... But slow connections have advantages : Finally I just can't loose too much time on the internet this way, watching 'youtube' videos or hunting divx & mp3 on edonkey, bit torrent...
So, convinced ? .. do we exchange ? :)
Roger Weber (2006-10-03 15:06:37)
50% ?!
Are you serious?
I mean, it is just bad to use chess engines.
1) You don't improve your own skill level
2) If I want to play against a chessengine I can just install one instead of trying to play people over the internet
Roger Weber (2006-10-04 13:21:29)
Computers
@Marius
If I may ask the question, why would you even want to play a match with chess engines?
I don't see the point, except if you're a chess engine addict and can't play without.
I am totally against the usage of chess engines on internet servers, as its just not sportsmanlike and a match where both players agree using engines is IMHO not worth playing it.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-10-26 18:33:58)
Reveal your software
Actually I wouldn't say that any engine vs. engine games are played here.
(or at ICCF, IECG ...)
This kind of statistics may be relevant on Playchess server or FICS [Free Internet Chess Server] at fast time controls where human can't help much, not in correspondence chess. That's obvious anyway that most players above 2000-2200 elo use chess engines, but games are not 100% engines, or any particular engine for sure...
I'm convinced Fritz or Shredder 'alone' wouldn't reach 2200.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-01 17:25:33)
Browser problem
Definitely not. Same method... I do not understand. It works fine on Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. What's your browser ?
Thanks for feedback.
Arthur Alfred Macarsindale (2006-11-14 13:22:07)
Story Of Life and Chess
Often closer linked than people may think! Ask me anything you feel you want to please.Chess or otherwise.I can only answer or not answer!
I was taught chess by a relative who was a rather fine player when I was aged 9 in 1921. He died when I was 12 years old and so I lost a playing partner. I was married in 1932 and, seeing the ghastly goings-on in Germany in 1930s knowing that the whole show was starting again as it had in 1914 ,I vowed to ensure that a group of thugs and criminals would not be taking a foot on the shores and shires of Great Britain and bringing along some new age of butchery and lunacy . And so the RAF was my home for the next 15 years from 1938. I revisited chess principally in 1940 and that was hot summer's days outside playing cards,chess and other games waiting for the phone to ring and 'scramble'. Unfortunately two of my chaps who I played often with were shot down and killed over Kent in August 1940. I miss them both to this day.
Then I did not play for years until the advent of correspondence chess in the 1960s and 1970s through the postal mail. And since 1998 the Internet.
There you have it!
Arthur Alfred Macarsindale (2006-11-14 14:07:49)
Answer
I do not have them.I am sorry. I think it was 1996 when i first played on the Internet.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-14 15:59:48)
First chess servers
1996... the very beginning of internet. Was there another way to play chess online than FICS (not FICGS :)) through Winboard on Unix system ?!
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-15 02:35:07)
FICGS update : Security improved
Hello to all.
You may (sure :)) have noticed the new login page with two forms.
This is most probably temporary.
Of course, passwords are stored 'hashed' on the server so that noone can retrieve it, even me... Now, if you login with the first form, your password won't be even sent through the internet, it is hashed by your browser before. Second, passwords won't be stored anymore in cookies with the secure form. At last, a new barrier against hacking... The old form is still available because it might be possible for certain players to be disconnected early because of their changing ip address (according to the internet provider).
Please just tell me if you encounter any problem. Thanks in advance :)
Marc Lacrosse (2006-11-15 12:08:49)
Early web chess
Hi Thibault
In 1989 I affiliated to Compuserve.
This was an international online system with chats, forums ...
... and an active community of chess players playing slow-timing chess!
You had to connect to a national server through dialup modem connection and then they relayed all-over-the world. Early interfaces were character-based under DOS ...
A few years later Compuserve began to interact with the "real" internet and so I was among the 100 earlier private persons to have internet access in Belgium...
So you see that server-chess is not that new!
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-15 21:30:40)
New chessboards
Ok, some new chessboards (default big & giant) are really awful :)
I've just added two sets : "Graphics" is nice and quite big, "Phantom" is... big only !
If you know places on internet where one can download nice free pictures (gif format) for each chess pieces, please send me your links...
Thanks in advance.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-16 13:27:51)
Please link to FICGS
Dear friends, you may know how it is important for a website to be linked from other places on the internet since Google created his famous ranking system Pagerank...
FICGS has got about 1,000 links so far (not too bad after 7 months) for a Pagerank 5, but the more links, the more players !
Feel free to link to FICGS from your website, blog, in forums and so on...
You may contact me - info (at) ficgs.com - if you have a chess or Go related website, so that I add it in the file that displays random links at the bottom of each game page, ie. http://www.ficgs.com/game_342.html
A link written one of these ways would be very appreciated :
<a href="http://www.ficgs.com " title="Correspondence Chess Server">FICGS</a>
<a href="http://www.ficgs.com " title="Chess Server">FICGS chess server</a>
<a href="http://www.ficgs.com " title="Go Server">FICGS Go server</a>
<a href="http://www.ficgs.com/forum.html " title="Chess forum">FICGS chess forum</a>
<a href="http://www.ficgs.com/wikichess.html " title="Wikichess">Wikichess</a>
Thanks in advance !
Glen D. Shields (2006-11-17 06:39:51)
Changing World
It's interesting to read players correspondence chess expectations as technology evolves.
What we see on servers like FICGS is the integration of players with various chess backgrounds and expectations. Players who grew up with the internet, and whose first chess experiences were real time chess servers expect games to move quickly. Players who grew up playing correspondence chess by postcard expect games to move much more slowly.
Personally I'm as equalled annoyed by players who stall (like the one described by Mr. Aabid) as I am by those who think move-a-minute correspondence chess is cute. It's going to take time and creativity by the server owners to balance players needs/interests. My ideal is when both players move at a steady 2-3 days per move pace (with the obvious exception for holidays, work, illness, etc). Those games stay interesting from start to finish and always seem to end with a pleasant thank you and congratulations.
Charlie Neil (2006-11-19 17:05:27)
Retire and come back.
I'm sorry to read that you feel you have to leave because of the behaviour of some other people. I think that is just one of the drawbacks of having a free site on the internet. Anyone can join our "club" and conduct themselves in an unsporting manner. I think it is just one of those things. I have been the victim of similar unsportsman like behaviour in over the board games, by post and on similar sites here on the net. I just think you get that tiny minotiry (and that is all they are) who mess around. I do like playing on ficgs and , (so far) have been paired with well-mannered opponents who play fair. I have had a number of silent withdrawals but that is to be expected. I am just sad to think if any well meaning players would leave because of someone messing around. But life's like that, that's the way it is.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-19 17:56:13)
Retire and come back.
Hello Dorel.
I'm very sorry about that, but actually Charlie just said everything.
"It is just one of the drawbacks of having a free site on the internet."
This was only an obvious example, but the problem is quite more complex... What about a player who just looses a game on time and continue his other games. Farther, why a player should draw to another one and win to a third. Any result in any round-robin tournament is partly 'aleatory' and depends on many other factors than chess, particularly rules.
It also happens in over the board tournaments to get prizes, it can happen everywhere and at ICCF too... That's why I prefer knockout system. Of course, I'd like to solve all problems, but no rules are perfect. (by the way all suggestions are welcome)
The original post was in 'temps de réflexion' thread :
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=1453
Best wishes.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-21 21:24:02)
Poker, chess & chance
As many of you, I regularly read Chessbase news and I was quite surprised to read this article "A chess master's poker tour" by Almira Skripchenko about World Poker Championship, french celebrities and so on... (a way to popularize chess ? or is it only Almira ? :))
I used to play stud poker and I was just looking informations about the part of chance in games. I only found this article written in french (sorry) :
http://jeuxstrategie.free.fr/page_le_jeu_de_strategie_cest_quoi.php
If you know something about that or an article on the internet, I'm quite interested in.
Here is a personal estimation - at first sight - of the part of chance (opposed to a perfect play) in some games :
Chess, Go (& all determined games) : 0 %
Scrabble, Trivial pursuit : 20 %
Poker : 30 %
Monopoly : 70 %
Roulette, Loto (& all chancy games) : 100 %
Thibault de Vassal (2006-12-17 01:38:17)
SEO forums
Hello to all.
You may have noticed new FICGS forums, linked from the Home Page (article follows) and from the bottom links...
http://www.ficgs.com/forums.html
The article : "The most famous game nowadays isn't chess or Go anymore, the game most played for several years is called SEO : Search Engines Optimization. The board is internet, rules are dicted by Google and players are the webmasters. Actually anyone who creates his homepage or a blog is interested at one time on how to get more visitors on his website. The stakes ? Glory or whatever, but first of all : Money, of course... FICGS now has his own SEO forums. Feel free to discuss anything about Google, his famous PageRank, Yahoo! search, MSN live, affiliate programs, AdSense, AdWords and so on... Have good-Google games !"
The idea is not to make this site a portal about everything or anything, of course :) .. But there are many good reasons to add such content to this site, even if it's completely separated.
SEO forums start today... first dedicated to webmasters, feel free to discuss anything about your website and search engines optimization. I'll try to give some advices :)
Best wishes.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-12-29 14:48:31)
To be continued
It has been discussed already, my conclusion was vacation had to be hard to use enough, in order to reduce influence on time controls, ie. a player shouldn't be able to take days to think more time when having difficulties in some games and cancel his 'holidays' after finding a solution... So it has to be discussed. Anyway, I'll add a message specifying vacation can't be canceled when taking days leave.
Reminder :
http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#playing
11. 4. Time rules
Any move in any game shall be played in a maximum period of 60 days, otherwise the game will be adjudicated on time. Time accumulated in a game can't exceed 100 days. Please don't call referee since you see your opponent's clock 'Out of time', you just have to wait a few hours a robot automatically adjuges the game.
Please be aware that it's possible sometimes your internet provider or a point between the server and you may block the connection between the server and you. Even it's a rare thing, it's strongly recommended to always have several days left at your clock. No result will be reconsidered or time added due to such a technical problem. No time will be added due to any problem during a period less than 1 day long.
It is possible to take a maximum of 30 days leave per year, called vacation. During this time, clocks are frozen and it is no more possible to play, in order to reduce the effects on time controls.
Please note the time limit per move clock still runs during vacation. Take your days carefully, as it's not possible to take back or displace your leave dates. However you can add days leave.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-01-06 14:42:01)
Funny internet games
http://www.dailyhaha.com/_flash/jeu_chiant.swf
So, how much ?
Any other stup.. funny games welcome ! :)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-01-19 09:31:40)
+1 ;)
FICGS, Wayne... FICS is Free Internet Chess Server @ www.freechess.org
Thibault de Vassal (2007-01-19 09:38:38)
Chess Ring
Hello Barry, thanks for your email & post about this new chess ring. If I remember well there are 2 'well known' other chess rings on the internet. As for FICGS, I prefer to link directly to chess sites. Soon, there will be a top of best referers on the home page too.
Best wishes.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-02-17 12:26:13)
Les échecs en France
Here is the agreement just signed by the ministry of education and the french chess federation - fédération française des échecs (F.F.E.)
This should help to promote chess in France.
CONVENTION-CADRE
Établie entre les soussignés :
L'État - Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche
représenté par Monsieur Gilles de Robien, ministre,
ci-dessous dénommé " le Ministère "
et
La Fédération française des échecs
représenté par Monsieur Jean-Claude Moingt, président,
ci-dessous dénommé " la Fédération "
Rappelant
Que le jeu d'échecs, activité à la fois ludique et sportive, constitue aussi et surtout une activité intellectuelle qui permet de développer des compétences diverses chez ceux qui le pratiquent, et notamment chez les jeunes auprès de qui il constitue un réel vecteur de formation ;
Que la pratique des échecs encourage notamment le développement des capacités intellectuelles telles que la mémoire, le raisonnement logique, la capacité d'abstraction, l'analyse de problème et la mise en oeuvre de stratégies de résolution ;
Que la pratique des échecs contribue également à la construction de la personnalité en encourageant l'attention, l'imagination, l'anticipation, le jugement et la confiance en soi ;
Que le jeu d'échecs, école de concentration et de maîtrise de la pensée, est enfin une école de maîtrise de soi qui favorise l'apprentissage des règles et le respect d'autrui, et à ce titre participe de l'apprentissage de la citoyenneté ;
Considérant
Que, pour toutes ces raisons, le jeu d'échecs constitue un complément légitime et pertinent des activités éducatives proposées par l'Ecole ;
Que de nombreuses expériences menées en académies ont permis de mettre en oeuvre des projets de qualité associant des établissements scolaires et des clubs d'échecs dans un cadre réfléchi et concerté entre les parties concernées ;
Que ces initiatives ont permis de développer des pratiques et des outils permettant une exploitation du jeu d'échecs dans un cadre scolaire et/ou périscolaire ;
Il a été convenu ce qui suit :
Article 1 - Objectifs
Par la présente convention le Ministère et la Fédération affirment leur volonté commune de favoriser le développement de la pratique du jeu d'échecs dans les écoles, les collèges et les lycées. Ils se donnent comme objectifs la mise en oeuvre de deux axes de travail privilégiés :
- le jeu d'échecs au service de l'égalité des chances, l'expérience montrant que la pratique des échecs peut constituer pour des élèves en difficulté scolaire une occasion privilégiée de se remotiver et de se remettre sur la voie de la réussite scolaire ;
- la dimension éducative du jeu d'échecs auprès du plus grand nombre, en favorisant la transférabilité des acquis entre les pratiques ludiques et les situations d'apprentissage.
Article 2 - Egalité des chances
Le Ministère et la Fédération conviennent de développer l'accès de la pratique des échecs auprès des publics scolaires qui en sont les plus éloignés pour des raisons sociales ou géographiques. Le partenariat portera en particulier sur des actions impliquant :
- les collèges " ambition réussite ", qui visent à offrir un cadre d'excellence à des publics scolaires confrontés aux plus grandes difficultés socio-économiques. La contribution de la Fédération consistera notamment en mise à disposition de matériel (ludique et/ou pédagogique), en actions de sensibilisation ou de formation organisées dans le cadre des établissements concernés, en appariements des collèges avec des clubs de proximité ou encore en parrainage de certains collèges par des joueurs de haut niveau recommandés par la Fédération.
- l'opération " Ecole ouverte ", qui accueille les jeunes dans les EPLE pendant les vacances scolaires pour leur proposer des activités de loisirs à visée éducative. Parce qu'il conjugue les dimensions ludique et formatrice, le jeu d'échecs correspond bien à l'esprit de ce dispositif qui contribue à modifier l'image de l'école auprès des jeunes.
- les dispositifs relais (classes et ateliers), qui accueillent temporairement des élèves en voie de décrochage ou de désocialisation. La pratique des échecs peut permettre à ces jeunes de reprendre goût à l'activité intellectuelle, tout en leur inculquant le respect des règles et de l'autre.
Article 3 - Action éducative
De façon plus générale, le Ministère et la Fédération conviennent d'encourager la connaissance et la pratique des échecs auprès du plus grand nombre. A ce titre, ils pourront notamment :
- développer la pratique des échecs dans le cadre des activités péri-scolaires au sein des internats scolaires, des clubs et des foyers socio-éducatifs, en partenariat avec les clubs locaux.
- mettre en place des actions de sensibilisation et/ou de formation dans les écoles et les établissements volontaires, en rapprochant les équipes éducatives et les clubs selon des modalités à préciser entre les partenaires concernés : enseignement et pratique dans le temps scolaire ou périscolaire, projets thématiques fédérateurs s'appuyant sur les dispositifs transversaux, opérations d'information et d'animation, tournois scolaires à l'échelle d'une ville ou d'un bassin, etc.
- développer des ressources en co-édition, en lien avec le réseau des CRDP et des CDDP (sites Internet de jeu pour les écoles, dépliants de présentation, outils pédagogiques, etc.).
Article 4 - Contribution des partenaires
La Fédération française des échecs s'engage à apporter aux écoles, collèges et lycées qui en font la demande une aide en matériel ou en ressources diverses (publications, outils pédagogiques etc.). Dans le cas d'actions spécifiques conduites au sein des établissements dans les temps scolaire ou périscolaire, les cadres qualifiés de la Fédération ou de ses organes déconcentrés devront avoir reçu un accord préalable du Ministère et/ou de ses services déconcentrés ; ils pourront apporter des aides techniques ponctuelles auprès des enseignants qui en feront la demande après avoir pris l'avis des corps d'inspection.
De son côté, le Ministère s'engage à diffuser, par le biais de son réseau de communication et de diffusion ainsi que par l'intermédiaire de ses services déconcentrés, l'information nécessaire à la mise en oeuvre de ce partenariat.
Article 5 - Communication
L'application du présent accord-cadre peut donner lieu à des déclarations et communications aux médias par chacun des partenaires, lesquels conviennent de se concerter préalablement.
Article 6 - Mise en oeuvre et suivi
Les partenaires conviennent de se réunir au moins une fois par an pour examiner les conditions de mise en œuvre de l'accord-cadre et dresser un état des lieux des actions entreprises sur la période de l'année écoulée.
Article 7 - Durée
La présente convention est signée pour une durée de trois ans à compter de la date de la signature. A l'issue de ces trois années un bilan global permettra de faire le point sur l'évolution des pratiques à l'école, au collège et au lycée et d'étudier sur cette base les termes du renouvellement de la convention. Elle peut être résiliée par l'une ou l'autre des parties, à l'expiration d'un délai de trois mois suivant l'envoi d'une lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception valant mise en demeure.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-03-04 12:34:09)
Playchess Freestyle Tournaments
A hard one for sure... It looks like Advanced Chess more. As for me, I can't play it because of my internet connection :(
Anyway that's interesting, feel free to tell us about the results and your impressions !
Thibault de Vassal (2007-03-05 10:19:11)
Playchess Freestyle Tournament
Thanks for info, Samy...
What a crosstable, no less than 17 players finishing with 5,5 / 8
Petr, I understand your frustration, anyway that's why I play correspondence chess only over the internet. Losing a game thanks to a connection lost or strange rules is not interesting much :/
Several remarks while looking at the final crosstable :
The winner uses Rybka 2.3 mp, the others too :) .. Rybka's author (Rajlich) scores 5 out of 8 (pos. 18)
With Rybka getting stronger and stronger at fast time controls, Advanced Chess will probably become Computer Chess and finally Rybka Chess very soon. 1 hour + 15 sec is no more interesting.
I recognize some famous 'names' used on the defunct KasparovChess.com, King Crusher (5 / 8), Deep Thunder (3,5 / 8)... Correspondence Chess GM Mikhail Umansky scores 2,5 / 8... and last but not least, french forums superstar Olivier Evan scores 2,5 / 7 :)
Gavin Wilson (2007-03-10 00:24:36)
Kingston Defence
Thanks for correcting the Wikipedia link, Thibault.
I wouldn't claim that the Defence is 'fully' described yet on Wikichess. I am gradually documenting my Internet games with the Defence as I complete them.
The most critical line for Black is definitely 1.e4 e6 2.d4 f5 3.ef ef 4.Bd3 and it will need considerable exploration before I'm happy with Black's resulting positions.
Sadly I have mislaid my only copy of my own 1989 monograph, so I'm rebuilding the Defence partly from memory and partly from scratch.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-03-21 12:13:29)
Web
I don't know much about books, but here are some good internet places to start IMO :
http://www.godiscussions.com
http://www.jeudego.org (french)
Google search :
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.godiscussions.com%20books%20beginners
Thibault de Vassal (2007-04-01 19:00:23)
Internet Go vs. Masters
From Goama newsletter - http://gogame.info
How strong are Tygem ( http://tygem.com/ ) stars?
Korean Tygem Go server announced a tournament between top 3 Tygem players and Korean Dream team: Cho Hunnyun, Lee Changho and Yoo Changhyuk.
The results are:
First game: Cho Hunhyun, 9-dan lost by resignation to "spiderman1"
Second game: Lee Changho, 9-dan lost his game by resignation to "GoldHammer"
Third game: Yoo Changhyuk, 9-dan lost by 6.5 points to "gurenarukl"
It's hard to believe it, but they played without any handicap! Each game gathered more than 5000 observers.
It seems, that Tygem has lot of other good players, considering that these 3 masters are not undefeatable. Their scores:
Spiderman1 , 9-dan on Tygem, W113-L51
GoldHammer, 9-dan on Tygem, W275-L60
gurenarukl, 9-dan on Tygem, W893-L360
Maybe the online Go is far from the offline Go, or do we need a special experience for playing Go on servers?
How strong are Tygem star players? Do we know them in real life? There are so many questions.
Chess players will also ask about the possibilities of computer help.
Unfortunately they don't have English client available.
Don Groves (2007-04-01 23:39:29)
Internet Go vs. Masters
I did not know that April 1st jokes were so popular around the world ;-)
Mikhail Ruzin (2007-04-09 19:17:12)
Internet Go vs. Masters
Answer from Goama newsletter - http://gogame.info
Edwon Dimariel (France) wrote:
Hello,
Many French players on KGS have been wondering if the Tygem story is right.
Are you used to make "April Fishes" on April the 1st ? It's very common here, and these
results are hard to believe.
How much time did they have to play the games ?
Answer from Alexander Dinerchtein, the main editor:
It was not a joke. I attached some photos in pdf and the game record of Cho Hunhyun's defeat
with few comments.
Marc Lacrosse (2007-04-22 11:59:10)
win against Anand :-)
Yesterday world number one Vishy Anand played a 90-minute simul against 19 opponents on ICC to raise funds for his favorite charity in India.
I had bought a seat and intended to play an unorthodox opening if possible.
I happened to be lucky enough to get the opportunity to play my favorite Basman-Sale sicilian defence...
... and I won !
In the very next days I will publish the game with a few comments on my site at chessbazaar.mlweb.info
This is the most beautiful day of my chess life :-)
Marc
the game :
[Event "ICC 90 5 u"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.04.21"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Anand"]
[Black "Bluesette"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ICCResult "White resigns"]
[WhiteElo "2786"]
[BlackElo "2155"]
[Opening "Sicilian defense"]
[ECO "B41"]
[NIC "SI.41"]
[Time "12:04:06"]
[TimeControl "5400+5"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nb3 Bb6 6. Nc3 Ne7 7. Bf4 d5 8.
exd5 Nxd5 9. Nxd5 exd5 10. Bb5+ Nc6 11. O-O O-O 12. c3 Bf5 13. Qd2 a6 14.
Bxc6 bxc6 15. Be3 Bc7 16. Bf4 Bb6 17. Rfe1 Qf6 18. Be5 Qg6 19. Qf4 Be4 20.
Qg3 Rfe8 21. Bd4 Bc7 22. Qxg6 Bxg6 23. Nc5 a5 24. b3 Bf5 25. f3 h5 26. g3 f6
27. Kf2 Kf7 28. Na4 g5 29. Rxe8 Rxe8 30. Bb6 Bxb6+ 31. Nxb6 Rb8 32. Na4 Rb5
33. Rd1 Be6 34. Ke3 c5 35. Kd2 c4 36. bxc4 dxc4 37. Kc1 Rf5 38. Rf1 Re5 39.
Rf2 Re3 40. f4 gxf4 41. Rxf4 Re1+ 42. Kb2 Re2+ 43. Ka3 Rxh2 44. Nc5 Bg4 45.
Ne4 f5 46. Rf2 Rxf2 47. Nxf2 Kf6 48. Ka4 Kg5 49. Kxa5 f4 50. gxf4+ Kxf4
{White resigns}
0-1
Thibault de Vassal (2007-05-12 15:44:08)
Money chess and Go tournaments
FICGS money chess & Go tournaments will be open today !
At last, after the next update (in a few hours) including legal informations (home page / rules) and the 'My account' page, the money chess & Go games can start.
Players interested are invited to read rules (updated) in its entirety, particularly 04. Entry fees, 05. Prize money, 06. Warranties, 07. Money transfer ...
http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html
Feel free to discuss rules for entry fees and prizes in this thread, some points may have to be clarified yet. It's a long time I think about these rules to make them most interesting at the same time for the players and the server, according to french taxes & laws.
Of course, all free tournaments will remain free. As FICGS becomes a commercial server, the more players will enter money tournaments, the more ads on the internet so the more players :)
Time controls for money chess games & tournaments are 30 minutes + 1 minute / move (lightning), 2 hours + 2 hours / 40 moves (blitz), 30 days + 1 day / move (rapid), 40 days + 40 days / 10 moves (standard). Thematic chess money games will be played at blitz time control.
Time controls for money Go games & tournaments are 30 minutes + 1 minute / move (lightning) and 30 days + 1 day / move (standard).
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
Dan Rotaru (2007-06-17 00:21:41)
Rating lists
Hi Thibault,
What is the difference between established and preliminary rating lists? Also I think that filtering players who haven't logon in the last two months is a little bit too restrictive. Maybe 6 months or a year would be reasonable? (just a suggestion). If I win the lottery (and really hope so) and I decide to spend three motnhs on an isolated island with no internet access i wouldn't want to loose my established rating.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-06-20 22:54:33)
Internet chess
Well, the discussion with Tryfon Gavriel continues at TCCMB. As I had to explain the way I make FICGS, I copy my responses here :
http://ancients.correspondencechess.com/index.php?topic=109.15
Hello again Tryfon !
That's a very interesting discussion...
Actually I have to explain FICGS in its whole to respond :) .. To be continued for sure..
While registering a new member wrote to me a few months ago "Thanks for creating this ultimate chess challenge" or so... That's exactly what I try to do, mostly with the FICGS championship knockout & round-robin rules... Players just want challenge, that's the only assumption I start with, so I try to create interesting challenges. About the intellectual part, you're right but I'm quite sure that top level correspondence chess players still consider their game as an intellectual challenge, much more than a brute force or computer skills one. That's not the case for Advanced chess with fast time controls.
Let's take a look at the bicycle races again... The "Tour de France" is dying IMO.. because everyone understood we "don't know" if the champion is ok.. If doping was allowed (it would be a scandal for health of course), I'm sure the interest would raise again ! I think it is the same for chess & for everything else... The "Tour de France" syndrom happened in Elista with the match Kramnik vs. Topalov... It will have consequences. We need champions and we want true champions, every means are ok for this ! .. So the "engines allowed" rule is the only one possible or reasonable in my opinion.
Of course, chess & correspondence chess are changing, because these "walls" are nearer & nearer... maybe chess will die, maybe not.. The main problem is that in 1997, a super computer became World Champion... this year a "simple" computer Deep Fritz became world champion, soon Rybka on a cellular phone... :) Who is really interested to be a champion in "human category" ? FIDE world chess championship will continue to progressively lose its interest IMO...
Correspondence chess is just starting to grow in popularity and is told to be dying already. Surely correspondence chess will ask more & more time at a high level to win a few points, but it is possible to create more challenge by ie. changing the rating rules (the "design" of Elo rating system will become a problem).. Then, if it is not enough, we'll look for other challenges... It's told for years that Go (Weiqi) will replace chess in western countries... why not Big chess as the "brain only" game if there can't be doping in it.. just trying, as there's no other solution :)
A word about Poker of course, as it's probably the fastest growing game in popularity : IMO this game is at a stade like chess in year 1900, but the same problem will happen, even quicker. At a high level the game will be just more and more boring (if you wish to win real money) or chancy (in a wch tournament), or you'll have to always find weak players (well, not very challenging).
About the simultaneous exhibition against Alekhine or Capablanca, I'm not sure at all they would crush everyone at our chess servers, they are undoubtly more talented than all of us, but I feel it wouldn't be enough in all cases to win against correspondence chess style of play & knowledge accumulated for 50 years... A few players rated OTB 2000-2200 could draw against them IMO...
At last, yes I'm a fan of Sun Tzu's "The art of war" :) .. I strongly believe that correspondence chess will not die in the next few years because players will follow its principles more and more, as the only way to win ! .. Big chess follows the same principles... and Go is the most challenging game because of it too !
Tryfon, I'm not sure that we're opposite in our vision of chess ! .. Our servers have obviousy different goals, nothing more.. I do enjoy playing mad blitz games without chess engines... I just believe that the future of internet chess is "serious (engines allowed, rated) correspondence chess" on one hand and "human chess for fun (no engines, unrated)" on the other hand... The other ways look like nonsense to me.
I hope it responds.
Best wishes, Thibault
Wolfgang Utesch (2007-06-23 17:18:23)
confusion game
I know, nicknames are very usual in internet age - but why. There is no information from me what I have to cover up. But for others it may be different?!
Thibault de Vassal (2007-06-25 15:25:58)
Ficgs vs Igame.ru
Undoubtly the most replied in this forum :)
I think that's not so important matter. A few IGAME.RU players registered with other names and were honest by admitting it. Of course a few players here used nicknames before that, that's not a big deal and that's internet chess. The only way to be sure (actually that's wrong, I saw some cases a long time ago in team championships) of your opponent's identity is to play over the board.
Finally, if some players in IGAME.RU team use nicknames, let's say that's a small advantage we give to them :) .. On the other hand, we play at home !
Not a big deal... really.
Amici sumus !
Dinesh De Silva (2007-06-26 09:33:10)
Re:
I think there should be at least an option of an extra 10 days to the current 30 days per year. The point is that there are such things as computers breaking down, computers hit with viruses, business travel commitments, planning a holiday etc. I think the majority are not glued to the internet all the time. These factors far outweigh other things. So to relieve the situation, an extra 10 days might be a good idea.
Mladen Jankovic (2007-06-26 15:08:05)
re: nicknames
Now, I might not be a high rated player here, but here's my take on the situation.
What some here don't seem to realise is that one can stand by his results or whatever with his nickname.
On this site I use my real name, but that is only becouse of the atmosphere here. However, on the rest of the Internet i tend to use nicknames, and when I say or do something under a such nickname I stand by my actions with the reputation of that nickname.
This goes to a point where my most commonly used nickname is used almost interchangebly with my real name IRL. BTW, I have friends who can say the same.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-06-28 04:07:04)
IGAME team
I don't think IGAME team has to provide more information... The match started, once more that's internet chess, we have to accept this part of uncertainty. You may search ratings for players mentioned above (using their real name), but anyway IMO at least 1 player (not me :)) in FICGS team does not use his real name too, moreover a few players in our team still have a provisional or under-estimated rating... Any player can start with a 1600 rating here if he does not mention his FIDE rating, so the same for IGAME players. This is part of the challenge, so let's just play :)
Dinesh De Silva (2007-07-13 04:48:27)
A certain email chess website.....
Dear chess friends,
I want to bring to your attention that there's a certain chess website (which plays only by email) of a certain South American country where the main Arbitor who owns the website cheats and favours certain players in a world championship final. Playing there is at your own risk.
1.He protects certain players by saving them when they even have stepped the time limit twice. (He cunningly sends the game into adjudication etc., instead of dealing with the proof).
2.When requesting that an opponent should provide email proof in certain critical situations, he protects them by refusing that at all times.
3.He blames the persons who make a claim by saying "Don't Be Rude!", instead of taking action against those who clearly break rules.
4.The website keeps popping in and out on the internet, and the website says its under construction most of the time!
5.He does not send monthly reports to players.
6.He does not show finished games.
7.He stays silent for months and says he has lost files due to a virus.
8.He does not include some finished games in some reports.
9.At least 3 other players have already withdrawn from the tourney.
10.He has extended the tourney twice already! obviously trying to favour his favourite playes who are very slow players to climb up in the list.
Pathetic!
Jason Repa (2007-07-15 19:45:58)
Rybka vs. Human
"I am low graded. I don't have a degree. I am a little character, pretending to be educated. i can't spell. I need my hand holding. i have no attention span. i make sill comments."
All of those statements are true, and in fact most of them can be proven by the information contained in this thread. The one exception, the low grade, can be confirmed by a simple google search showing all the under 100 bcf (under 1700 uscf).
I wasn't the one trying to prop myself up with alot of psuedo-intellectual psychobabble burrows....you were. I never said a word about myself here so don't start telling lies again. We were discussing Fischer. Unlike you, I don't need to drop pop psych. terms in internet forums to try to impress people. I know what my level of intelligence and education is.
Jason Repa (2007-07-15 21:02:01)
IQ is intelligence. Skills are Skills.
You can believe whatever you care to believe. If you want to believe the earth is flat and the stars are stationary in the sky, you are free to, but that doesn't make it true.
As I said, I think 52 professional psychologists might be a bit more qualified than some random internet blogger.
Jason Repa (2007-07-15 21:04:02)
facts vs fiction
burrows, I backed up my posts with references and sources that are qualified to make such claims. You're just copying and pasting the first internet blog contents that suit your fancy.
I'm beginning to understand why you're an under 100 bcf grade.
Jason Repa (2007-07-15 21:15:12)
IQ is intelligence. Skills are Skills
Actually, you're not trying to discuss any content at all. You seem to be content to copy and paste random internet blog content with the sole intention of arguing for the sake of arguing. It's really quite pathetic!
Mladen Jankovic (2007-08-03 18:01:53)
IE, yeah right
It requires the use of Internet Explorer. No way I'm going to play there.
Artur Saigakov (2007-08-10 07:54:07)
Re
Eto i est polnaia 4uw. Dokazatelstv nikakix - krome virezok iz foruma i po4ti.
--- [moderator : name deleted] slu4aino natknulsa (possorilsa) na gruppu ludei v internete, kotorie svoe delo znaiut:
1/ Oni umelo podtasovivaiut fakti
2/ Zadevaiut 4eloveka za zgivoe
3/ S celiu vigodi na4inaiut luboi konflict
4/ Megdu soboi obwaiutsa na otdelnom skritom forume
5/ Vsia4eskii podrivaiut reputaciy IGAME iz za togo 4to im ne nravitsa administracia igame i mnogie igroki igame.
6/ Oni zanimaiutsa priamim vreditelstvom na igame. Zabivaiut pustimi soobweniami forum. Zavodiat mnogo nikov i tormaziat turtiri. Zavodiat temi na forume 4to-bi posorit ludei. Izdevaiutsa nad slabimi waxmatistami i MNOGOE drugoe.
7/ Sami oni narkomani i alkogoliki i NE imeiut waxmatnix zvanii FIDE - igraiut tolko v advancechess.
No nesmotria na etu malo4islennuiu gruppu zlonravnix ludei - IGAME.RU zame4atelnii sait s UIMOI zame4atelnix ludei. Za plusami igame mogno zaprosto ne zametit minusov, a negativnaia reklama - toge REKLAMA.
Artur Saigakov (2007-08-10 07:58:10)
Re
Eto i est polnaia 4uw. Dokazatelstv nikakix - krome virezok iz foruma i po4ti.
--- [moderator : name deleted] slu4aino natknulsa (possorilsa) na gruppu ludei v internete, kotorie svoe delo znaiut:
1/ Oni umelo podtasovivaiut fakti
2/ Zadevaiut 4eloveka za zgivoe
3/ S celiu vigodi na4inaiut luboi konflict
4/ Megdu soboi obwaiutsa na otdelnom skritom forume
5/ Vsia4eskii podrivaiut reputaciy IGAME iz za togo 4to im ne nravitsa administracia igame i mnogie igroki igame.
6/ Oni zanimaiutsa priamim vreditelstvom na igame. Zabivaiut pustimi soobweniami forum. Zavodiat mnogo nikov i tormaziat turtiri. Zavodiat temi na forume 4to-bi posorit ludei. Izdevaiutsa nad slabimi waxmatistami i MNOGOE drugoe.
7/ Sami oni narkomani i alkogoliki i NE imeiut waxmatnix zvanii FIDE - igraiut tolko v advancechess.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-08-10 19:32:03)
Lots of fun...
Hello to all.
It seems this thread is still quite active.. but as everyone understood, there is no need to add to the provocation ;) .. If IM --- [moderator : name deleted] wants some accusations to be deleted, he can just ask me...
Reminder : Don't forget that the law also applies on the internet.
Reminder : Please speak english only on this forum.
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
Ilmars Cirulis (2007-08-13 20:07:40)
My try.
Life is like Internet - nothing interesting, but noone want to leave it. <NN>
Thibault de Vassal (2007-08-27 21:02:56)
New Icon?
It works fine here with Internet Explorer 7 but as far as I can remember, something like that happened to me too.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-02 14:21:35)
China, chess and Go champion ?
The match between chinese and russian chess teams just ended in Nizhniy Novgorod. Both russian men and women teams lost to chinese by, respectively, a 24.5-25.5 and 23-27 score. Finally, China beat Russia by 52.5-47.5 points.
More details - http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4084
Chess seems to be much less played than Xiangqi in China, the chinese are probably able to take the crown in every board game, soon a chinese world champion for chess ? Practice, practice and practice... Their only secret ? :)
... or was the russian team simply not strong enough ?
Still waiting for more chinese friends here at FICGS, but internet seems to have its own limits too :/
Jason Repa (2007-09-05 15:11:44)
HAL9000: "I think you missed it Dave"
The fact of the matter is that you'll never be able to tell for certain if someone is consulting a program or not in corr. chess, so why fret about it?
You have several options:
1) There is otb chess. Unless your opponent is pulling out his palm computer with pocket fritz in the washroom, you can be reasonably certain it's a mano e mano game.
2)There is also fast internet chess on a secure server such as playchess.com. I'm not sure how secure ICC is these days. If the games are 3 min or shorter you can be pretty certain it's human chess at least 99.9% of the time.
If you want to play corr. chess, fine, but why play a game called "let's worry about whether or not my opponent is making good on his promise to not look at the rybka engine suggestions". Just use it for what modern corr. chess really is...which is an excellent form of group study to prepare for REAL chess, ie, OTB chess.
Mladen Jankovic (2007-09-10 01:54:09)
Confessions of a Magic 8 Ball ;)
Well, first off I started with the provisional rating of 1200, then I signed up for a bunch of tournaments and started playing 60+ games. Next, add irregular Internet access with no conditions to perform any reasonable analysis of games in progress and the pressing requirement to answer 40 moves in one go, only to go trough the same at the next soonest opportunity.
I "solved" the problem by not playing and forgetting about the server for about a month (needed that). For that reason I lost more than 250 points (254 to be exact).
Needless to say, the recovery of my rating to any decent level is slow, as, in the meantime I have gone trough periods when I played little chess here, or even none, with games in progress.
Your speculated reasons for my supposed intrusion here (it might be argued that your first post here is the real intrusion) are just plain wrong.
I also don't find ELO ratings to be a valid measure of a man. The real reason I "intrude" in the matter is that I like the general atmosphere here. I am also quiet aware that I am probably the lowest rated poster here, but, before few minutes ago, I was not aware of your rating (good job, while we're on the subject) or Garvin's, for that matter.
Sergei Ivanov (2007-09-13 09:49:38)
!!!
On Russian Internet it is a lot of information - [moderator : name deleted]
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-15 12:59:08)
IECG WC 2006 final
As the IECG WC 2006 final just started, this is a good time to end the game. Quite surprising but finally, after 2 or 3 discussions about it, noone solved it and found me (some really looked for though) ;)
Clues were : Playing this year in a world championship final, birthdate (1973-04-13), first FICGS rating (2407, IECG rating), movies (a few players at IECG and FICGS knew about it, the trailer of 'A Clockwork Orange' where the other name is mentioned...
Here is the message I sent to my opponents :
"Dear chessfriends,
That's a real pleasure and honor to play my first IECG WC final with you all. Dinesh, Carlos, Farit, Massimiliano and John, nice to play again :)
I'm 34, single, living in the center of France... I play correspondence chess since 2002, IECG is the place I started with.
I made a few strange movies and videos a few years ago (soon available on the internet) :)
http://www.ficgs.com/psi/download/psi_divx411_vost_720x360.avi
http://www.ficgs.com/psi/download/A_clockwork_orange_2005__teaser.avi
http://www.ficgs.com/psi/download/Aphex_Twin_-_Inkeys_video_clip.avi
I wanted to play correspondence chess under my director's name but I'm now more known in our small CC world as Thibault de Vassal... I'm the webmaster of FICGS - http://www.ficgs.com , another Correspondence Chess Server, where I knew some of you :) .. Sorry about the confusion. I don't know how IECG rules will apply, I hope I can play this tournament anyway.
Best of luck to all !
David Gordh."
TS: Gordon Evans
+---------------------------------+---+----+----+---+---+----+----+------+-----+
|IECG WC-2006-F-00001 1 1 1 1 1 1 | | |
|WC 2006 Tournament # 00001 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 | Tot | Plc |
+---------------------------------+---+----+----+---+---+----+----+------|-----|
| 18149 Robson, Nigel ENG 2646 | # | 0,0 | |
| 16702 Sirota, Anatoli AUS 2553 | # | 0,0 | |
| 19142 Pappier, Carlos ARG 2518 | # | 0,0 | |
| 18096 Chovanec, Milan SVK 2508 | # | 0,0 | |
| 15446 Makovsky, Petr CZE 2500 | # | 0,0 | |
| 11273 Blanco, Cesar GUA 2451 | # | 0,0 | |
| 13336 Gordh, David FRA 2443 | # | 0,0 | |
| 17738 De Silva, Dines SRI 2425 | # | 0,0 | |
| 10969 Rocca, Horacio ARG 2422 | # | 0,0 | |
| 17342 Perez, Brigilia PHI 2410 | # | 0,0 | |
| 16273 Fiala, Jaroslav CZE 2406 | # | 0,0 | |
| 13552 Claridge, John WLS 2403 | # | 0,0 | |
| 21524 Balabaev, Farit KAZ 2398 | # | 0,0 | |
| 15174 Massimini Gerbi ITA 2363 | # | 0,0 | |
| 18311 Bendig, Frank GER 2341 | # | 0,0 | |
+---------------------------------+-------------------------------+------+-----+
Rating Average = 2452 Category = 9 Start date: 12.09.2007
I didn't know that I would create FICGS when I registered at IECG and I prefered to use my director's name. I hope you don't mind. Sorry to Igor Khokhlov, Harry Ingersol and Farit Balabaev (I played them under both names).
Best wishes, Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2007-10-30 01:11:13)
Clocks correction
An additional day (24 hours) has been added to all (running or not running) clocks, it should be enough for all internet providers to update DNS (Domain Name Server).
Thibault de Vassal (2007-11-02 20:55:37)
Videogames & the future of Board Games
Quite funny to see the same discussion on GoDiscussions.com and ChessDiscussion.com forums :
http://www.chessdiscussion.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=457
http://www.godiscussions.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4644
<<
Apparently, two years ago there was a major exhibition sponsored by the Asia Society in American museums called "Asian Games: The Art of Contest." I have been fortunate enough to get a copy of the exhibition book. I found a quote there that I would like you to comment on:
“We hope that this exhibition, in addition to persuading visitors of the historical importance of games, will also stimulate an interest in playing board games. As computer gamers sit in solitary oblivion frantically pressing buttons to manipulate images on screens, it is worth considering how such games could have succeeded, to a large extent, in eclipsing real board games. The answer may be that they have appropriated much of the best of traditional board games. But it is also worth pointing out that the appeal of most electronic games is ephemeral. Ask a teenager if he still plays the same game he played two years ago, and the answer will inevitably be no. We can predict with confidence that twenty years from now, of the electronic games currently in fashion, it is only those versions of classic board games—chess, weiqi/go and perhaps backgammon—that will still enjoy widespread popularity.
Does the future of chess, weiqi and backgammon, then, lie solely in electronic media? We hope not. However convenient it may be to play chess or weiqi on the internet, nothing can replace the face-to-face social interaction of real games playing—and indeed the attraction of such games as spectacle. It is no coincidence that there is a trend now among jaded electronic games players to return to board games. This renewed interest undoubtedly reflects the need to compete with a real (as opposed to real-time) person. But there may be another reason for this development. The physical satisfaction of holding a well-crafted gaming piece or die, or of hearing the sonorous click of the pieces as they are placed on the board, does not exist in an electronic universe. No culture better understood the aesthetics of games than the Japanese, whose go, sugoroku, and shogi boards were not only objects of exquisite beauty, but were also designed to enhance the sound of piece struck against board. If, in addition to stimulating more research on Asian games, this exhibition prompts some of its visitors to take up chess, xiangqi, or weiqi—or even better, to work out the rules of liubo—then we will be entirely satisfied.”
Colin Mackenzie and Irving Finkel, “Preface”, Asian Games: The Art of Contest (Asia Society), p. 17
>>
Interesting !
Dan Rotaru (2008-01-25 21:54:21)
Logged out
It happened to me few times because my Internet connection was down for few seconds. When I tried to access other link on the website I was told to try again. Maybe the server resets the connection if the Internet is down?
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-25 23:14:05)
Logget out
It may happen if your internet address has changed. Or after a while, if your session has finished (because the message box was not refreshed)
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-30 19:25:07)
Chinese Chess
Maybe this game will have a second life on the internet soon.. We need more players from China :)
What about kurnik.org ? .. or did you try www.clubxiangqi.com also ?
Thibault de Vassal (2008-02-03 22:36:45)
Xiangqi
Only 15 Xiangqi & Shogi players in Kurnik ?! .. so is there a big internet club for these games ?
Julien Coll (2008-02-04 08:11:23)
hello :)
I mean: 15 people maxi for each game, each time I connected -that's not enormous anyway... :) some months ago some members of the the ASA (the french shôgi association) used to meet all monday evenings in Kurnik -I don't know if they continue doing it again.
If you're able to understand chinese, korean, japanese, etc... perhaps you'll find plenty of very good internet clubs devoted to these games :o)
There is a shogi club called ISC, but I don't know if it is active.
about shogi and servers: a good server for OTB play is Shogidojo... but the level is quite hard for beginners.
there are other sites for differed play (ex. in Brainking you can play to the two games).
Thibault de Vassal (2008-02-15 00:56:58)
draw claims
Thanks for pointing out this rule, Garvin. The server detects threefold repetition, and the game IS automatically adjudicated as a draw when it happens. I think it is reasonable for internet chess, but it is not specified in the FICGS rules yet, so I may have to change this.
Dale Leisenring (2008-05-01 10:00:26)
What ever happened to the "FREE"
Internet chess server"? FICS?
Now Ican't play online for free after playing on FICS for over 11 years!!
What a RIP OFF!! - Jedi Dale
Jason Repa (2008-05-07 06:46:43)
Bird Brain loses in 33 moves!
I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the behavior of this lowlife. After all, I beat him in chess and beat him in debate. I also caught him RED-HANDED telling lies and exposed him for what he is. What else is a sniveling coward to do but dig up old flame wars on the internet from four years ago, that have not an iota of relevance to any of the topics being discussed here. I bet his parents are real proud of him, LOL!
"Black's ...f5 stakes a serious claim to the e4 square and looks towards an attack on White's kingside in the middlegame. However, it weakens Black's own kingside somewhat, and does nothing to contribute to Black's development" My point exactly about 1 f4"
Another typical tactic from a chronic liar....to change the very premise of what was being argued. I'll refresh your memory since you don't have the mental capability of remembering your own words. The statement you made was: "1 f4 at cc seems a waste of white". That is what I contested. I never disputed that there is some weakening of the kingside involved here. But some weakening of the kingside doesn't mean it's a poor opening choice. You're trying to win an argument with lies and misrepresentation. Try being honest and sticking to the facts for once in your life.
My otb tournament rating is currently 2010, but my active rating is not anywhere near what you're suggesting. I'm actually much stronger in both 30 minute active and blitz chess. I won more blitz tournaments in 2007 AND 2008 than anyone else in my region, ahead of 2 FM's. And my performance in active events is in the mid 2100's based on all the otb active events I've played in over the last 5 years.
In the region I play in we don't have many active events. So I've only played in 2 that were rated, and that was over a decade ago. The provisional ratings used were far below what everyone was worth (not just me). We had a strong FM who was competing at 1800 and change, while both his FIDE and national rating were in the neighborhood of 2300. Stranger things have happened in small clubs.
Did anyone notice how the coward won't discuss what HIS national otb rating is? We don't hear a word from him about that. Very telling indeed!
Then the little weasel reposts a game that he already posted in this thread earlier. Could it be that the poor loser whom I CRUSHED in chess, has run out of ammunition with which to compensate for the fact that he lost to me? I've lost 6 games, drew 59 and won 117 on FICGS, including the beating I gave to you. I beat you EASILY and I'm HIGHER RATED than you. Keep crying about that. Its entertaining.
Again, crybaby, if 1.f4 is a waste at cc, why did I gain rating points here playing 1.f4. And why did I beat you so easily at chess? I think I proved on the chess board, that you don't know what you're talking about. All you have is lies, slander, and random usenet group flame wars from 4 years ago. I have FACTS:
I BEAT YOU IN CHESS AND I'M HIGHER RATED THAN YOU ARE.
""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." Alexseev lost and the criticisms of IM Sengupta's moves by Mr Repa are quite funny "
You're copying and pasting the same nonsense you posted earlier. Did you even read the words you typed? You're saying "look what happened to Evgeny Alexseev as Black", as if he's the one who lost. Then You switch it around and suggest that Evgeny Alexseev was White and say that he played 9.g4. Are you pretending to be this stupid or is this really how you are? As I said earlier, you're probably making the whole game up, or at least changing moves around, etc, because it doesn't appear anywhere that I could find, and you're still not bright enough to figure out how to post the whole game as you were asked to do earlier. It's a pretty sad state of affairs of that's the ONLY game you can think of to try to smear a legitimate and recognized opening such as Bird's Opening. Whoever played White played very poorly. I spelled out for you the moves that White played that were very poor. Did I use any words too complex for you to understand?
" 1 f4 has been championed by GM Jakubiec who is the only GM who has played it regularly"
This is also pure nonsense. There are MANY strong GM's (and super GM's)who haved played 1.f4 in serious games. GM Henrik Danielsen used it as a MAIN MOVE for many years also.
Keep posting lies, slander, and irrelevant 4 year old flame wars from the internet little man. I defeated you in chess and in debate. I proved that what you said is pure nonsense. All you have is hot air!
Jason Repa (2008-05-07 06:57:07)
Bird Brain loses in 33 moves!
I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the behavior of this lowlife. After all, I beat him in chess and beat him in debate. I also caught him RED-HANDED telling lies and exposed him for what he is. What else is a sniveling coward to do but dig up old flame wars on the internet from four years ago, that have not an iota of relevance to any of the topics being discussed here. I bet his parents are real proud of him, LOL!
"Black's ...f5 stakes a serious claim to the e4 square and looks towards an attack on White's kingside in the middlegame. However, it weakens Black's own kingside somewhat, and does nothing to contribute to Black's development" My point exactly about 1 f4"
Another typical tactic from a chronic liar....to change the very premise of what was being argued. I'll refresh your memory since you don't have the mental capability of remembering your own words. The statement you made was: "1 f4 at cc seems a waste of white". That is what I contested. I never disputed that there is some weakening of the kingside involved here. But some weakening of the kingside doesn't mean it's a poor opening choice. You're trying to win an argument with lies and misrepresentation. Try being honest and sticking to the facts for once in your life.
My otb tournament rating is currently 2010, but my active rating is not anywhere near what you're suggesting. I'm actually much stronger in both 30 minute active and blitz chess. I won more blitz tournaments in 2007 AND 2008 than anyone else in my region, ahead of 2 FM's. And my performance in active events is in the mid 2100's based on all the otb active events I've played in over the last 5 years.
In the region I play in we don't have many active events. So I've only played in 2 that were rated, and that was over a decade ago. The provisional ratings used were far below what everyone was worth (not just me). We had a strong FM who was competing at 1800 and change, while both his FIDE and national rating were in the neighborhood of 2300. Stranger things have happened in small clubs.
Did anyone notice how the coward won't discuss what HIS national otb rating is? We don't hear a word from him about that. Very telling indeed!
Then the little weasel reposts a game that he already posted in this thread earlier. Could it be that the poor loser whom I CRUSHED in chess, has run out of ammunition with which to compensate for the fact that he lost to me? I've lost 6 games, drew 59 and won 117 on FICGS, including the beating I gave to you. I beat you EASILY and I'm HIGHER RATED than you. Keep crying about that. Its entertaining.
Again, crybaby, if 1.f4 is a waste at cc, why did I gain rating points here playing 1.f4. And why did I beat you so easily at chess? I think I proved on the chess board, that you don't know what you're talking about. All you have is lies, slander, and random usenet group flame wars from 4 years ago. I have FACTS:
I BEAT YOU IN CHESS AND I'M HIGHER RATED THAN YOU ARE.
""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." Alexseev lost and the criticisms of IM Sengupta's moves by Mr Repa are quite funny "
You're copying and pasting the same nonsense you posted earlier. Did you even read the words you typed? You're saying "look what happened to Evgeny Alexseev as Black", as if he's the one who lost. Then You switch it around and suggest that Evgeny Alexseev was White and say that he played 9.g4. Are you pretending to be this stupid or is this really how you are? As I said earlier, you're probably making the whole game up, or at least changing moves around, etc, because it doesn't appear anywhere that I could find, and you're still not bright enough to figure out how to post the whole game as you were asked to do earlier. It's a pretty sad state of affairs of that's the ONLY game you can think of to try to smear a legitimate and recognized opening such as Bird's Opening. Whoever played White played very poorly. I spelled out for you the moves that White played that were very poor. Did I use any words too complex for you to understand?
" 1 f4 has been championed by GM Jakubiec who is the only GM who has played it regularly"
This is also pure nonsense. There are MANY strong GM's (and super GM's)who haved played 1.f4 in serious games. GM Henrik Danielsen used it as a MAIN MOVE for many years also.
Keep posting lies, slander, and irrelevant 4 year old flame wars from the internet little man. I defeated you in chess and in debate. I proved that what you said is pure nonsense. All you have is hot air!
Jason Repa (2008-05-07 12:45:03)
Pablo BACKS DOWN!
Your OTB rating is NOT stronger than mine, liar. If it were you'd step up to the plate and play me, instead of backing down as you're doing. You're probably a 1500-1700 elo OTB player. Considering your rather beginnerish question about the Lasker From, I might be giving you too much credit at that. You know as well as I do that you'd be lucky to get a single draw in ten games against me. I'd probably just win all ten.
Do you always run around challenging people to a chess match on the internet, then retreat like a frightened animal, with your tail between your legs, when they accept your challenge? How pathetic is that? I was looking forward to playing some human mind vs human mind chess with you, but the idea of actually having to THINK and use your own mind to come up with the moves was too much for you to deal with, so you BACKED DOWN like a little girl!
Jason Repa (2008-05-13 00:43:41)
How to Win against the Pin!
This was an interesting game I played last year. My opponent blamed his tardiness for the loss, but the position seems quite resignable for Black as far as I'm concerned.
http://members.shaw.ca/winnipeg_chess/beating_internet_trolls_at_chess.htm
Jason Repa (2008-05-12 23:25:56)
Rating changes
It's amusing to witness the hypocrisy of someone who is perpetually provoking, ridiculing, and abusing to speak of there being no place for such offenses. And anyone who resorts to posting links to random, off-topic internet conversations from half a decade ago that have no relevance to the thread they are posting in, in order to try to get revenge for losing a chess game to the thread starter, is the lowest form of troll.
I don't doubt that Thibault is aware of the intent of such an element, or the numerous and sundry ways they continue to try to provoke.
In the end, we have to look at the results on the chess board. The fair medium for settling disputes. After all, that's why we're here in the first place (no offense GO players)....to play chess. In this arena, I have soundly defeated my opposition.
Jason Repa (2008-05-13 14:17:46)
Repa vs Stephenson 1-0
I really couldn't care less what an internet troll with a <1500 otb chess rating, whom I've already crushed in correspondence chess, thinks about anything. Send emails to GM Dreev and GM Marjanovic, who have also played 13...0-0 and see if they feel differently.
Re-read my post a few times until you're able to understand what I said. Everything I stated is correct. I'm not going to hold your hand and spoon-feed everything to you.
As I said before Stephenson, it's sad 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. I've never met anyone this obsessed with me. I don't think it's very healthy for you. In more ways than one.
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.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-06-03 02:59:46)
Internet poker
Hi Jason, that's an interesting view and I agree with that, particularly on internet poker. That's why I'm thinking about a typical "FICGS" way to play it, ie. tables with 2 players only, with a ELO rating system (without money, does this exist elsewhere ?), a championship, eventually E-Points (without entry fees) and so on... What do you think ?
Jason Repa (2008-06-04 20:22:20)
Poker
No, your ability to understand simple concepts is what is weak here groves. You keep whining that your paltry 1600 chess rating shouldn't matter because you haven't played chess in a couple of years, but what difference does that make? Are elo points easier to obtain now? And what about Go? You play that game regularly, yet you have a pathetic 1300 rating at that as well. You better open a window before you think up another lame excuse....I wouldn't want you to die from smoke inhalation.
I don't know how many times I need to keep repeating myself in order for the point to penetrate your skull, but your comment about "mastering the mechanics" of the game is pure nonsense. You speak as if the entirety of poker theory can be equated to memorizing basic strategy in blackjack. You seem to think the discussion of calculating EV is based purely on figuring out pot-odds and how that relates to the number of outs, etc, but if you had the incipience of a clue about the game you'd realize that there is much MORE involved than that. Poker is an information game and all the information you have at your disposal, such as the temperament and mood of your opponent(s), your perceived table image (or at least your interpretation of it), the history of the action that has occurred so far, the tells that you pick up and the false tells that you may be sending to your opponents, etc, goes into the calculation of the EV on any given play. The better a player is able to conduct these evaluations and convert them into value, at least intuitively....the better a poker player they are. Even online poker has some tell/false-tell action as the response time can be varied.
Re-read my previous post where I mentioned that mistakes can take various forms. I clearly state, and in simple terms such that even you should be able to grasp, that there is more to the game than straightforward arithmetic calculations.
And I realize that you don't work, but geez, can you not find something better to do with your time than try to provoke people on the internet? Why don't you use all that free time you have on your hands to learn how to play Chess or Go beyond the level of a rank beginner?
Jason Repa (2008-06-04 21:22:00)
Poker
Here we go again eh groves? You're a bored old man with no purpose in life other than to harass and annoy people on the internet.
Ah, I get it, you couldn’t cut it in chess, so you ran to Go, lol. But you can’t play that game either, so what’s it going to be next....tic tac toe? Unlike you, groves, I don’t have all day to sit around and play games. My gaming time is limited to chess and poker.
Perhaps it’s true what has been said about how people of a very advanced age start to become like children again. It’s especially sad when you’re dealing with someone who was less than impressive, even at their peak.
Wayne Lowrance (2008-06-10 16:44:32)
Rapid chess entry rating
I am pleased that Thiabalt has/is taking steps to put a stop to this bickering and name calling here at the chess site.
For my part I would like to apoligize to all for opening this "Rapid chess entry rating" topic in the first place. It is my bad ! And I will not repeat this mistake again.
It was never my intension to creat such chaos. I thought it was a harmless topic and was giving an opinion.
I feel bad that one individual has such a dislike for me. I have been playing c hess on internet for perhaps 20 years, and in all of that time I have never had anyone dislike me, I confess it does bother me.
Wayne
Philip Roe (2008-08-11 16:25:09)
Pie in the Sky
Getting free annotations from a strong player seems a bit much to expect.
If you belong to the Internet Chess Club, and type help Services, you get a list of people willing to teach lessons or annotate games. They all charge by the hour, depending on their strength and economic situation. An IM from a third world country charges about $20 per hour. I doubt that you can do better.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-08-14 17:08:15)
FICGS
What's the original name ? Your choice...
a) Free Internet Chess and Go Server
b) Free Internet Correspondence Games Server
c) Free Internet Correspondence Go Server
d) Free Internet Chess Games Server
Don Groves (2008-08-16 22:12:59)
One change?
You could say Intergalactic instead of Internet. This would definitely cover all future games, at least in this Universe ;-)
Normajean Yates (2008-08-21 11:15:31)
that is quite convincing!
Marc Lacrosse - thanks for quoting that ... though a good algorithm shouldnt have trouble but with heavily nested variations, many of then terminating 0-1 .. it would complicate algorithms. Programmers' time is expensive ...
I am convinced now that allowing O-O and O-O-O is a good decision - then yacc and lex can do most of the parsing etc.
[btw it should be simple to write a program to convert simple algebaraic (by simple I mean nested variations are treated as comments and left untouched) to simple descriptive and vice versa, in the formal case without redundancy in descriptive output. [again lex-yacc (or whatever latest tools have superceded them) can do most of the work]. So it is surprising I couldn't find any such free open-source utility on the internet -- (and I am too lazy now to write simplest code any more - written more than enough for a lifetime ;) )
Ilmars Cirulis (2008-08-24 19:22:58)
Internet censorship in China
What do you think?
Denis Ivanchenkov (2008-09-29 23:53:53)
By the way ...
Just look for the folowing document in the internret (I hope that unlike spellchecker you DO HAVE Internet):
Regional an minority languages and cultures in France are outlaws
addressed to :
The committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights CESCR
Normajean Yates (2008-10-26 00:13:03)
Aigner, the book is *here*!
Book for latvian? it seems they get outdated nowadays before they get published.. there is Kosten's book, ECO, ..., etc. Good to have them at hand, but it looks like all the lines have got outdated! Best is to search internet - and look at posts specially llmars's posts - here..
Interesting, your draw -- so the only way to draw with black against llmars in the latvian gambit is - no preparation! :)
Normajean Yates (2008-10-30 21:22:29)
1 min / game IS 'correspondence'..
internet 1 min/game is correspondence isnt it. I mean it is not OTB!
You people want what - quick slow-chess, slow quick-chess, whatever...
Well, one person's meat is another person's poison, and all that...
Normajean Yates (2008-11-01 23:43:03)
Benjamin Block - I agree
It seems there is some HP product that offers 5x5 chess of various kinds including the one I describled - it is called 'Gardner minichess' now. English-wikipedia 'minichess' entry has a link to that - and in a discussion forum on that HP thing I found - "recent play suggests that Gardner minichess is a draw".
So the first decent engine for it would finish it, it seems, as thibault said earlier in this thread...
Someone modify crafty for 5x5 and check - yawn - I am toooo lazy --- plus crafty [and all later closed source engines I suppose] are too strongly low-level optimised for 8x8 chess --- writing an engine from scratch? Well I know the seven steps [they are/were on an internet in a nice article] --- but I have retired from writing code --- written enough for three lifetimes; no more programming for me.
*Proving* that Gardner-minichess is a draw would be more difficult -- 20-piece tablebases! (okay, in a much smaller space) - that's for the universities --- they have to do something to give out M.S.'s and Ph.D.s - so let them do it :)
[they did it with draughts <called checkers in the USA> - it is solved ie proven to be a draw -- let them try Gardner-minichess now :)]
3x3 - as I said there are complate tablebases now including for positions with pawns on first rank -- so it is very-strongly solved [i.e. given *any* position, the result and the best play for that result are known - in fact online accessible -- instant results of course... you'll find the link on eng-wikipedia -- I have accessed it [3x3 chess site] before but yesteday it seemed to be down - the old link was http://kd.lab.nig.ac.jp/3x3-chess/ but it is broken now...
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-10 18:39:52)
FICGS for mobile phone !
FICGS is now available with a slight interface for mobile phone (that can connect to internet, ie. Iphone, Google Phone, Blackberry, Samsung player...)
You may try it there :
http://www.ficgs.com/mobile.html
Feel free to make any suggestion to improve it.
Thanks to Hervé for his help :)
Wayne Lowrance (2009-01-07 00:48:40)
Site Core
Tribault, I think you will not find very many who complain about your adds,the nature of them and their position, etc. We are all very much interested in your income prospects here, I know I am. I can appreciate it maybe a little more than others, as I have mentioned both of my sons are programmers and their sole income come from internet and they are doing quite well.. Wayne
Garvin Gray (2009-01-18 17:26:53)
rules question
Ok, what I was suspecting was the situation is in fact the case.
To clarify in different speak and to guarantee we are talking about the same situation.
Game 232- The river is Ad and Player 1 has gone all in for 55 chips.
You are now asking if player 2 calls, will player 2 have to show cards, is that correct?
Do I have all this correct?
Went for an internet search to see if there were any sites at least claiming official poker rules status and there were none from my searching.
In my opinion, Player 2 has called Player 1, so both players must show their cards.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-01-29 12:33:51)
FICGS
Hi Francisco, these important points need to be discussed for sure.
1) As it has been said here on another point, I shouldn't try to protect players from themselves, but I've to protect players from other players (speaking of the quality of the games, general forfeits & so on - or the posts of Garvin & Josef in this thread). You can play poker all over the internet, it's up to you only. I'm not sure I should feel responsible of players addictions, the whole world (commercial issues) is about addictions that exist anyway. In my experience, I was not really addicted to poker as a gambling game, I never played it in casinos but I like competition and that's the way I introduced poker here, quite different from the casino games (by the way a few "pro" poker players here do not even understand it).
2) "Play poker heads-up one to one, is bored, the winner is not always the best", so chess, so Go... of course. I may be wrong on the poker games format (3 winning rounds / 100 chips), we'll see it in a few months as the rating list will evolve.
3) "Poker insults chess", I don't agree with this but I understand & respect this opinion (that could probably be "Poker insults" in some cases). Only 1 player cancelled his membership because of this at the moment. I'm sorry about this, I can't satisfy everyone when making updates but be sure I'm working for FICGS firstly as a chess place and thanks to poker (even with no money), we welcome more players & the prizes (for chess tournaments) will increase a lot in the next months. That's quite good for the site in my opinion. Anyway if I realize I'm wrong, no doubt I'll change it.
Anyway, that's an interesting & important discussion and I'll listen to all your points.
Normajean Yates (2009-02-01 09:55:59)
poker is NOT interfering with chess..
Players that are *choosing* poker over chess (as posted by some as reason for delay on moving, delay in tournaments starting...) are either not *that* interested in chess anyway, OR it is a transient phenomenon - they are trying out poker as a novelty.
We are humans, not dedicated chess-playing machines.
If someone takes longer to move because of poker or anything else (whether the 'anything else' is related to this site or not, whether it is related to the internet or not); it gives me either more time to analyse, or effectively more vacation time, so I see no reason to complain.
If poker generates revenue for ficgs, it will help ficgs survive and so it will help ficgs chess (and go) survive.
The point is, whatever choices we make have to be made taking into account that we are embedded in a capitalist economy. We are not living in some anarchist utopia.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-02-28 03:35:14)
Svante Carl wins FICGS Go WCH (again)
Congratulations to Svante Carl von Erichsen who keeps the FICGS Go champion title by beating Ke Lu 5d on an impressive 5-0 score, also reaching a rating of 2653 !
A rematch just started between our two top Go players, as Ke Lu convincingly won the 3rd FICGS Go WCH preliminary tournament by 7/7
You can follow the games here :
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__GO__WORLD_CHAMPIONSHIP__000003
Svante Carl kindly accepted to answer a few questions on his match :
FICGS - Hello Svante Carl, first of all congratulations for your win in the FICGS
correspondence Go championship final. Your opponent was Ke Lu 5 dan, you
won 4 games out of 5 already (the last game is not finished yet), how do
you explain such a result?
Svante Carl -
Hello! Thank you very much! It is certainly astonishing for me that I
was able to hold my own in these games. I believe that the main factor
that helped me in getting on even terms with such a strong player was
that I could spend much more time analyzing each move than in a
face-to-face or online direct playing situation.
FICGS - Did you have a particular preparation or plan before to start the games?
Svante Carl - The only things I planned beforehand was to really give my best, and to
make the games as distinct as possible.
FICGS - The site will now try to attract more correspondence Go players from Asia
(with a few chinese, japanese or korean words on the home page already),
what do you think about the games format played at FICGS
(30 days + 1 day / move, chinese rules komi 7.5 points) and the championship rules?
Svante Carl - I like the format. I am also interested in the rules of Go as well as
the rules that surround Go, like tournament rules and time settings.
My current conviction is that the "real, pure" Go rules are area rules
with superko, and territory rules should be seen as a shortcut which
should give the same result. I have come to think that the "Taiwan
rule", i.e. White gets a point of compensation if Black got the last
play (before the first pass), is a sensible part of the rules. FICGS
has taken a very easy route by declaring the rule set and leaving
negotiation of the result to the players. While in the end, it is only
important who won, I think that showing a result as e.g. "White+3",
"Black+Resign" adds a lot of flavour.
As a time system, I think that bonus time (a.k.a. Fischer time), like on
FICGS, is a very general and sensible approach to timing a game like Go.
I think that many "real-world" tournaments and internet servers will
switch to that in the future, for all, blitz, speed, normal, slow, and
correspondence games.
The championship format is quite nice. I like the title
holder/challenger way of tournament series. The only thing I would like
to see is some sort of nigiri to determine the colours in the odd game.
Attracting players from Asia is really a worthwhile goal. I look
forward to playing players from all over the world.
FICGS - Does correspondence Go bring you something more than real time Go?
What is more addictive according to you?
Svante Carl - Since I think that analyzing is a forte of mine, I might be a bit
stronger at correspondence Go than at "real time" Go. I don't think
that one is more addictive than the other.
FICGS - Do you often play real time Go online? What servers do you prefer?
Svante Carl - I usually play on KGS, but not too much, perhaps one or two games per
week on average, often in "bursts". KGS is quite nice, but not perfect.
Sometimes I play at CyberOro, but there is much less communication; I
like to watch pro games there.
FICGS - Do you use softwares that assist you in your games (FICGS rules allow
this)? What do you think about computer Go in general nowadays?
Svante Carl - I only use a board or a simple SGF file viewer for analyzing. There are
no playing programs that could help me. The programs have advanced
quite much recently, but I think that it will still be a long time
before they can beat me in an even game. Currently, most tests of these
programs are against professional players with high handicaps, and I
think that this is a good situation for the bots, since they get
exponentially weaker the further the game is from the end -- high
handicap practically eliminates the opening, their weakest spot. I
would like to see more tests against amateur players at the bots' own level.
FICGS - Do you play other games (board games, video games...), what is your
favourite one?
Svante Carl - Go is certainly my absolute favourite. I also know chess, although I am
really weak at that. I also like "german board games", there are some
really nice pearls there. In video games, well, there are also some
pearls, but they get drowned by a mass of ... not so good games..., I
don't waste time looking at that scene any more. I also played some
online poker, but it wasn't able to keep me interested.
FICGS - Will you defend your title again against Ke Lu who also won
the 3rd wch tournament?
Svante Carl - Of course, I am looking forward to that!
FICGS - Could you give us your impressions on the games, how it
went from the beginning to the end, do you think that
time pressure were a non-negligible factor in the result
(the clocks of Ke Lu were quickly near 1 or 2 days left)?
Svante Carl - I was a bit surprised that he let his time drop to such a low level
right at the beginning, perhaps he was not familiar yet with the vacancy
feature at FICGS. I can't see his reasons for this, or how much time he
actually could spend on his games. I was ahead in each game when it
timed out, though.
I think that game 2 was quite even from the start. The skirmish in the
lower left resulted in me capturing a little group, but he got a nice
framework on the lower side. My prospects of reducing this were a bit
hampered by the fact that my right side group was not completely
settled. I found a way to sacrifice some stones to settle my group
while fixing the framework's extent and keeping sente to secure my top
side, at which time, the game was still almost even, but I think that I
was a few points ahead then. Later, I could seal the top side with some
extra points through some rather blunt forcing moves.
In game 3, my opponent made an approach with White 24 that is usually
regarded as bad in this situation, because the pincer Black 25 works out
very well in conjunction with the stone on the left side. He tried to
settle with White 26, but I refused to make things so easy, even though
the result from the usual joseki would not have been bad. He resisted
Black 27, but I think that White 28 is an overplay. The resulting fight
left me with nice profit in that corner and sente, while he made some
centre thickness. I then tried to carefully neutralize this thickness,
but I may have played some slack moves in the course. Later, I was able
to keep a little moyo in the lower right centre, and then I poked into
his right-side territory where he had left a serious weakness earlier.
Game 1 started out with an interesting fight in the upper right. After
White 42, both the three captured black and the two almost captured
white stones retain some serious aji, which I came back to fix on my
side a few moves later. When I could set up a splitting attack with
Black 77, he was able to connect his two weak groups, but in bad shape.
I continued to keep this dragon separated from the top, planning to
invade the top side afterwards. However, with White 110, instead of
connecting by playing B6, he saved some centre stones, and I proceeded
to separate and kill the dragon. He may have overlooked that my upper
left side group was still able to live after 110 and 111.
In game 4, after White 22, Black's stones on the left side have a
strange relation. The three stones in the corner are a bit far from
C10, but putting another move here is way too slow. He tried to remedy
this situation with the following moves. After Black 27, there are
weaknesses left in both sides' shape. When I entered with White 32, I
thought that his weakness at F13 would let me settle easily, but he
attacked very hard. After White 60, there are some weaknesses in my
shape, but he also has a weakish group in the centre. Playing at K10
with White 76 before taking the two stones with H2 felt very important
to me. At move 94, I couldn't find a good move to complete my moyo at
the top, but I thought that I had found a good point to invade. This
was much harder than I thought, since after Black 95, the 3-3 point
fails to live. With 96 and 98, I thought that I would get a ko, but he
played a line that I had excluded earlier on account of too many cuts in
Black's outside shape. However, with Black 107, he made things very
difficult for me, since cutting at P16 doesn't work out too well -- my
inside group doesn't have enough liberties. I cut at Q14 instead with
the hope to at least get some outside forcing opportunities that might
have been able to keep me in the game. I think that Black 115 should
have been at R12, because after White 116, R12 and N16 have become miai.
Black 117 just doesn't work at all. I really got lucky in the end here.
These impressions are naturally one-sided, and I would be really
interested what stronger players might say about these games.
FICGS - Thank you very much and have good games !
Svante Carl - Thank you!
Francisco Gramajo (2009-03-30 02:40:35)
I played in a lot of places...
fulltiltpoker, pokerstars are just fine, but long way from pdcpoker.
Remember: I will pay you $5 just for download the software, create your account and start playing real money (tables starting from $0.01/.02 blinds).
If you make your first deposit you going to receive full refund up to $600.
With more than 20 years of playing video poker and now like 8 years playing thru the internet, gives me the authority to tell you.
http://Pokarito.friends.pdcpoker.com
Is the best!
Don Groves (2009-04-19 08:21:09)
Ending abandoned games
This requires more programming for our already overworked director, but how about having the system send an email to anyone who has not played a move in a certain (to be determined) time period asking if that player intends to continue the game and requesting that s/he resign if the answer is no?
The message could also request an RSVP and, if no response is forthcoming, the game is ended. This handles a common situation in Internet games where a player enters some games, then after a short time never returns to the site.
This seems like a reasonable thing to do and it doesn't change any existing rules or time controls.
Normajean Yates (2009-04-29 01:11:05)
I was horrible, pl. forgive if possible
I can't believe I wrote all those horrible things... I'd rather be a kind idiot than an intelligent but arrogant rude person. I dont know what came over me..
I'll make no excuses... I'll try to be a better person...
Until then, I don't deserve anyone's friendship.
I will confess that I am considered *sometimes* rude and arrogant by old friends - they say I have improved but have I? Behind the anonymity of the internet am I still the same?
I'll assume that I am, and I will really improve. You people will see the change; it would be too presumptuous of me at present to promise anything; after what I did..
PS: I, too, am not religious but I am spiritual - in fact I have more than once used that exact phrasing to describe myself, though not here before..
Daniel Parmet (2009-05-11 22:38:50)
lol
Poker is about 90% luck 9% statistics and 1% skill that only occurs otb not internet scenario.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-05-26 17:30:46)
Thanks :)
There's no problem with to-do lists.. actually it is just absolutely necessary.. I can't think about everything. I still have many things to improve, this year I developped much more the "other side" of the site and this was very exciting, I learnt a lot while doing this.. that will be useful for future improvements and it brings more and more visitors [the current statistics are about +10% every week for a few months (that's good :))] on the server (I try to redirect as many as potential players as possible here).
Speaking of the server, I'm not afraid of crisis or whatever, the statistics are just better and better now, that helps the site to distribute Epoints (potential money) prizes. Almost nobody claims for real money prizes but that's the finality (to distribute money prizes in free tournaments).. There are plenty of "successful" sites on the internet that offer money prizes (or costly services) for free but all of them are built on unrealistic views IMO, so they implode or cheat in a way as soon as they encounter success. Most of us know about the Facebook case that still lose money. FICGS grew very slowly during 2 or 3 years but IMO it was based on realistic views so don't worry, the site will survive after both of us, I'll take care of that :)
Thibault de Vassal (2009-07-24 11:57:47)
Spam
This is one of the most common spam on the internet nowadays... Obviously, concurrence is hard for them :)
Thibault de Vassal (2009-07-27 15:48:45)
Game won on time
Hello Caetano,
Yes, there was a small problem (a bad update) with the robot during the last two or three days and I was not able to connect to internet during this time. It is fixed now.
Thanks :)
Don Groves (2009-09-01 00:53:16)
No bug?
According to the showdown rules I've seen on the Internet, if no one takes aggressive action (bet or raise) on the round of betting preceding the showdown, then the showing of hands begins to the left of the dealer, no matter who has the better hand.
Don Groves (2009-10-17 05:43:18)
I'll second that!
In my opinion, this is the best Internet game site.
John Smith (2009-11-17 13:38:01)
regarding Naum
Regarding Naum retiring, I didn't find an official word on this, but
1) Naum's site http://www.geocities.com/naum_chess/
appears to be down
2) according to wikipedia " Naum tied for first with Rybka in the 2008 Internet Computer Chess Tournament [3], but has not yet competed in other public tournaments."
Thibault de Vassal (2009-12-07 21:44:24)
Chessbazaar.blogspot
Looks like there are several Chessbazaars on the internet :) .. I just re-discovered this one thanks to a referral:
http://chessbazaar.blogspot.com
Wayne Lowrance (2009-12-12 20:07:17)
Rent Rybka
Can you imagine renting Rybka for CC ?, I sure cannot. And even if it is on fast hardware, it will be slowed down by all the activity I would guess. For blitz chess it makes no sense either because of the internet delays. Bah, Vas has flipped his lid.
I would get along just fine here on FICGS without Rybka anyhow. More inportant here is the opening and the skill of the Centaur.
Josef Riha (2009-12-21 10:47:56)
Sorry to all my opponents...
... for the long delay. I was moving and it needs much more time as expected.
Unfortunately takes the internet-connection also much more time until it works again.
Sorry for inconvenience.
With greetings, Josef.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-12-21 20:54:51)
IP
On IP (internet addresses), noone but the webmaster can know the IP of visitors. Every server stores IP. FICGS also uses IP to verify if someone uses several accounts to try to cheat.
[edit: sorry Patrick :)]
Thibault de Vassal (2009-12-24 14:28:18)
USCF / FIDE & other ratings
Hi all,
As you know FIDE / ICCF / IECG ratings can be accepted as provisional or established (in the case of ICCF & IECG) ratings at FICGS. I cannot even remember why USCF ratings weren't accepted so far, it should be the case soon. As far as I can remember, the only point is that USCF_rating ~ FIDE_rating + 100 or the other way.
Do you know other official rating lists (that are not included in FIDE & USCF) available on the internet that should be considered ?
Same question for Go, it seems to me that only AGA & EGF ratings are available on the internet. Do you know if chinese, japanese & korean ratings are available as well ?
Wayne Lowrance (2009-12-29 00:56:03)
Rybka demise
Howdy all. I feel like voicing my opinion of Vas and Rybka. I honestly feel his hold on the chess community has weakened to the point of breaking. He has his problems. His source code apparently has been compromized. This has led him to not releasing a Rybka3+ as promised. The release of Rybka4 is very cloudy. Then there is this cloud Rybka internet rentel thing that is supported by no one it seems, me for sure.
Anyways this is just back drop for recent developments in free software engines that are very strong and are pushing R3 in ratings. I am thinking about the following engines, that I have downloaded and find very interesting AND strong :
Stockfish 1.6
Brite 0.4A
Spark 0.3
I have minimal experience with these engines. I just want all my friend here on FICGS to be aware of them and if interested they can download them and be on equal footing. My wish is for better chess and I have no ambition to have secret progams.
The important thing I feel is that the loss of Rybka engine does not put much of dent in play quality. It was gonna happen sooner or later, and now it seems sooner.
My honest evaluation today is that Rybka3 still provides the best insite to best mid game play.
I want to put in a word for Zappa. I fairly often use Zappa as my CC engine partner because of better end game analysis. Rybka has no peer in mid game analysis. Well I share these thought with you all for what it may be worth. Best 2010
Cheers.
Wayne
Nigel Colter (2010-02-09 19:27:42)
Clock not running
Hi Thibault
They are now working for me also!
This must have been a temporary glitch for my computer/internet connection.
Regards
Nigel
Pablo Schmid (2010-03-03 14:43:42)
Conditionnal moves
Hello Thibault, I think this feature might be useful for everybody: a chess board for the analysis where we can just play moves and why not put comments with the positions. I say that to be able to find ideas when I just have an internet page outside. What do you think?
Thibault de Vassal (2010-03-07 20:35:54)
Great day for FICGS (and for me :)) !
Hello all...
As you may know, I built the major part of FICGS with a 33 kbps (actually more looking like a 5 to 8 kbps) broadband which is very very slow, even slower than the prehistorical modems... Internet is definitely not a priority in the french campaign (by the way, looks like nothing is not a priority anymore in the french campaign)
Since today, I've got 2 Mbps anyway (thanks to WiMax and Powerline technologies), which means several things :
- Regular freestyle cups (finally !)
- New improvements more regularly.
- I can play advanced chess :)
After a few days of vacation, I should be more active on the server, definitely :)
Dan Rotaru (2010-03-07 21:34:48)
Great day for FICGS (and for me :)) !
Hi Thibault:
This is great news indeed. I can imagine being on the slow side of an Internet connection for such a long time :-(.
Cheers
Garvin Gray (2010-03-22 14:42:00)
Blitz time controls
The Classical time controls now being used are
1) 40 moves in 2 hours, 20 moves in 1 hour followed by 15 mins + 30 seconds.
Also used sometimes is 2)
40 moves in 100 mins, 20 moves in 50 mins fb 15 mins, all with a 30 second increment from move one.
I think the second time control would be better here as it guarantees that each player has some time to make their move, considering slow internet connections and technical issues.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-03-30 14:48:36)
Affiliate link
Sure, players coming from these links are identified thanks to their internet address that are stored in a file then compared with their internet address when they register. There could be easier ways but that's the best way I found in matter of SEO (& to avoid duplicate pages).
Thibault de Vassal (2010-04-03 21:33:36)
Weird technical problem
Hi Michel, yes we were a few ones (Mauro, you & I) to play with fire with less than 5 seconds (sometimes 1 second only) on the clock... the real problem is that everything can happen anytime with internet, by the way I lost my last game on time with William because my connection was broken after only 2 moves :( .. And Mauro was playing with a GSM because of his internet provider also.
So I have no clear answer on what happened to your move if you had remaining time, but it is sure that the server received it too late. The email only says that you "tried" to move to h7 (actually this is a way to verify that you didn't resign accidentaly) but as the email does not say that you resigned, it means that you lost on time.
Sorry about this and thanks for your fair play!
Thibault de Vassal (2010-04-03 22:13:23)
Round 4 - Pairings
Hi all, the freestyle tournament will continue on April 10... A very interesting tournament but I hope we'll have less problems with our *$@#&% internet providers this time.
Here are the pairings for round 4, I'm BYE this time.
Table 1 : Boehme - Taylor
Table 2 : Evans - Pichelin
Table 3 : Moreira - Petrolo
Table 4 : van der Kemp - Nichols
Thibault de Vassal (2010-04-10 14:20:52)
Freestyle vs. Access providers
It looks like that access providers are a real problem during freestyle tournaments... In 4 rounds, 2 players (at least) lost a game on time because of them and 1 other had to play with his mobile phone card because his access provider was not able to see ficgs.com during a few hours.
It is possible that week-ends are a quite bad choice to play as most internet providers encounter most problems from friday evening to monday (and take much more time to solve it).
I do not see a clear rule that could solve all this, maybe more rounds would attenuate the problem... If you have any idea, let's discuss it!
Thanks.
David Evans (2010-04-11 11:38:59)
Freestyle vs. Access providers
Nothing u can do Thib even if u played in the week which has it own problems as it it easyer to play on weekends.
losses due to internet happens
David Evans (2010-04-12 11:51:37)
Freestyle Cup: April 2010
Hello as winner of the tour i feel apart from some internet problems the tour was a success.
It needed some more advertising to get more numbers but 30+15 was enough for me to play to a high standard.
Anyone who knows freestyle chess i play under the nick of Ultra-d a freestyle chess player who has made chessbase freestyle tour finals.
I thank u for the games and hope to see u guys in the next one.
D.evans (Ultra-d)
Thibault de Vassal (2010-04-12 21:08:23)
NEW # 1
New number 1 or not, the gap decreases... All this was predictable (and it was predicted) even if Rybka was untouchable for the most when the gap was over 100 elo points... but after that Chessbase intelligently scheduled the improvements of Fritz, Shredder, Junior, Hiarcs & finally Rybka, came Naum, Stockfish, Ippolit & its clones RobboLito, Ivanhoe & Firebird.
Clones or not clones, anyway now it seems obvious for everyone that it will be harder and harder to make money with chess engines, just like with everything else on the internet... The beginning of the decadence (according to its meaning) ?
Kamesh Nookala (2010-04-18 05:53:45)
Match Against Rybka Forum
I will play anywhere on this planet via internet Thib :p
Thibault de Vassal (2010-05-09 23:24:12)
How many games at once?
Of course it is laughable, I took the extreme opposites but while everything goes faster & faster on the internet and everyone MUST become more & more addicted so that the world runs fine (just meaning more money), my choice is definitely not to follow that way, also because this system will not work so long IMO. People will slowly quit Facebook after a time or at least will not use it the same way, and many already started to stop to play all these thousands stupid applications. Maybe it cannot be really a good comparison but the idea is there.
Correspondence chess was much slower before email chess & server chess, and it is now fast enough IMO. I don't know how other players feel it, some ones have time for sure, as for me I have some time to play but a 14 days limit per move would be really stressful to me though... I cannot imagine how many games more I would have lost with such a rule.
I know that a few players would like faster moves, however I feel that most players are fine with the current rules and I really want everyone to be cool here. We've lost a bunch of good players because of the previous rules such as unlimited number of games.
Now we should debate it game after game as most players who would like faster moves at chess still play in class tournaments (while rapid category was designed for them). Go is a game of patience definitely, but I have some work to do to accelerate some games (something towards automatic adjudication), and the major problem will be for poker games.
So, what are we talking about? :)
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 :)
Wayne Lowrance (2010-10-15 23:37:53)
Serious new Virus
Subj: Confirmed by SNOPES: Important - read immediately
VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THIS - These e-mails are floating around currently in HP
Anyone-using Internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived this morning, Direct from both Microsoft and Norton Please send it to everybody you know who has Access to the Internet. You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail titled "Here you have it" If you open either file, a message will appear on your screen saying: 'It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful....'
Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC, And the person who originated it will gain access to your Name, e-mail and password. This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon.
AOL has already confirmed the severity, and the anti virus softwares are not capable of destroying it.
The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself 'life owner'.
PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, And ask them to PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY!
THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY SNOPES.
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/hereyouhave.asp
Thibault de Vassal (2010-10-20 21:32:25)
Freestyle Fun
You said it all Scott, thanks for this very nice presentation :) Let's hope that a few of our italian freestylers will try to shake the tournament! The prize increased to 150 Epoints + Entry fees this time, not so much yet but always trying to offer more & more Epoints in all tournaments...
A small word about the connection, I noticed that when http://www.ficgs.com is not available, the internet access providers often let you reach https://ficgs.com , think about it if you encounter such a problem (whenever by the way), just like it happened to Mauro who courageously played half the tournament on a smartphone during the last event, the trick may have helped him :/
Jimmy Huggins (2011-04-30 22:50:51)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update
One thing I hate about typing on the internet. :) Its always hard to express yourself. Of course I love to do these kind of reports. I hope to get some expert reports soon. :)
Sebastian Boehme (2011-06-17 20:06:01)
Unable to login for several days?
I tried to log in from work via Internet Explorer, first site does not load, but it says run diagnosis tool for connection check so I clicked on that....and la voilà everything fine.
At home the site loads fine under Firefox for example.
Could it sometimes be a just browser-related issue?
Thibault de Vassal (2012-01-03 13:40:13)
Unable to stay connected to FICGS
Ah... Ok! Indeed, when you're running a chess engine while surfing the internet EVERYTHING can happen :)
I saw that also... Browser not responding, not loading a page (so disconnecting after a while) and so on... This is a computer issue, as Microsoft Windows is not able to do several things at once as Unix can do.
Thibault de Vassal (2012-04-15 13:53:20)
About Pinformant
Dear chessfriends,
Please receive my apologies for a stupid bug that happened yesterday (my entire fault). Some of you may have received an invitation twice for a new social network (pinformant.com) that is dedicated to help to promote FICGS on the internet [technically Pinformant is actually a part of FICGS]. That will not happen again!
A few words on this new website: Pinformant is a kind of "social browser" where it is possible to share and discuss full web pages (soon applications and games) displayed into a single page. It quite looks like a basic social network, but the display is quite new as far as I know - It is also a way to boost shared websites traffic instead of simply "stealing" their content.
Why this new website: I needed a website able to gather more people to have the means (thanks to advertisement) to make a better promotion for FICGS. So your help & participation is warmly welcomed anyway.
Any feedback is welcome as well! Thanks in advance.
Thibault de Vassal (2012-07-28 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
Scott Nichols (2012-08-10 22:53:49)
Premium site?
I usually agree with most everything, but I have to say... On the internet there are many, many free chess sites to go to, some better than others. Then there are the paid sites for people who are willing to spend a little to getting a better site and service.
This site is free to look around and very adequate for that. But some of us pay to play the premium features. The amount of down time is becoming a major issue. The first one, hard drive fried, who's hasn't, but since then, 2 more outages that I know of. For a premium site, this is disheartening.
David Ward (2012-09-12 17:33:33)
Faster Refresh Time
I get the following report after clicking "No refresh" on the "My games" page, but I continue to get messages that Internet Explorer blocked a popup from www.ficgs.com.
"This page will refresh itself when you have a new move to play, then you'll see a (!) at the beginning of the page title.
If you do not see the clock below, your browser could not support Frames & Javascript or it could be turned off. In this case you will have to refresh the page manually.
This option is currently off.
Possible refresh delays for this session: no refresh, 5 sec, 10 sec, 30 sec. "
Thibault de Vassal (2012-09-12 23:37:00)
Faster Refresh Time
Hi David, unfortunately Garvin's answer is the best possible one, IE is really the worst navigator these days (and for a long time).
I encourage you to try Firefox or Google Chrome as obviously I'll never be able to solve all problems related to Internet Explorer :/ Sorry about that.
Nick Burrows (2012-11-27 20:09:09)
How do I stop the pop-up message boxes?
Thanks guys, yes I use Internet Explorer. So would you reccomend Firefox?
Thibault de Vassal (2012-11-27 20:27:30)
How do I stop the pop-up message boxes?
I just wonder how you survived on the internet until now with IE :)
Yes, Firefox is best... Chrome is much better than IE as well.
Nick Burrows (2012-11-27 20:45:15)
How do I stop the pop-up message boxes?
I was actually off the internet completely for 3 years and living in a yurt until recently!
Thibault de Vassal (2012-12-05 15:16:00)
Server change on dec. 9, 2012
Hello all,
As I just mentioned it in the newsletter, there will be a server change within 7 days, most probably on december 9, 2012.
I'll have to add 7 days to all clocks to avoid losses on time due to a possible slow DNS update by internet providers.
Thibault de Vassal (2012-12-05 21:52:44)
Server change on dec. 9, 2012
I could specify it but it would be useless, the only way to connect is through the real domain name, otherwise you have an error message. Sorry :/
If an internet provider is really too slow to update DNS, you still have the possibility to use Opendns.
Thibault de Vassal (2012-12-28 01:17:14)
Go position in American Horror Story
Hi Don,
I have no link but the episode is on the internet for sure...
Horatiu Adrian Petrescu (2013-01-16 01:34:58)
FICGS admin scam me
petrescu horatiuadrian :
is the reality,are you forgot who talking?
(2013-01-16 01:33:16)
devassal thibault :
Okay, just do it... :)
(2013-01-16 01:32:52)
petrescu horatiuadrian :
defaimation,ahahahah ,are you child? is not defaimation this
(2013-01-16 01:32:31)
devassal thibault :
I will not hesitate to use it if necessary...
(2013-01-16 01:30:56)
petrescu horatiuadrian :
boehme this site is scam as long as not pays its members
(2013-01-16 01:30:15)
devassal thibault :
But we have a law in France on "defamation"...
(2013-01-16 01:29:54)
devassal thibault :
I allow you to say what you want here on this story...
(2013-01-16 01:28:55)
...continuation
petrescu horatiuadrian :
and I will post on others forums on internet ,and on WOT too
(2013-01-16 01:26:40)
boehme sebastian :
You seem to forget what this site contributes to chess!
Don Groves (2013-06-11 06:09:20)
Playing activity top 20 players
To whom is may concern:
There is no one set of rules that will be acceptable to everyone. There are many game sites on the Internet, so pick one that comes closest to your desired set of rules and be satisfied. That is as close as you will ever get.
Either that or form your own site and discover what Thibault knows far too well - that you will get more complaints than compliments.
David Ward (2013-07-25 00:15:35)
FICS is down
The Free Internet Chess Server is down. Someone hacked an admin account and the admins shut it down.
Thibault de Vassal (2013-10-08 11:17:13)
My tournament activity
Health before everything (and particularly chess), Wayne!
Say hi to wise Dorothy for me and take care, anyway you'll always be one of the strongest players having played here :)
See you, wherever on the internet...
Cheers,
Thib
Garvin Gray (2014-03-02 04:03:47)
Standard time control abusers
I see the idea of a vote as ridiculous and a waste of time. What it could lead to is people voting to keep the class A, M and SM tournaments open because they do not want to deprive the opportunity of someone to play in them, but the status quo remains that no one is joining them.
And what happens if you only get a couple of responses, which is exactly what could happen because of general site apathy?
If you want knowledge of how people feel about these matters, but do not want to publicly speak about the matter because they are afraid to offend the site administrator because they are afraid.
I have given you the absolute 'rounds of the kitchen' repeatedly and often on this issue and have not let up over a number of weeks.
It is natural on the internet that when someone is pushing that hard against the efforts of a volunteer site admin that there will be blowback and the 'pusher (me)' will cop criticism in return.
So far there has been little to none. In fact some of the regulars have been stating that there is an issue as well.
Instead of calling for votes that could just leave all of us in the same ridiculous situation, take the feedback I have provided, and also the inactivity of the groups as the votes that really count ie the marketplace has decided that they do not want those groups, and close the class SM, class M and class A groups immediately.
Thibault de Vassal (2015-07-05 14:11:09)
A couple of questions
Hello Nathan,
1) On the waiting list page, these rules are combined to the playing rules that you can find here:
http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#general
2) Yes, I'm late for the other tournaments 'cause my internet provider decided it :) I'll make my possible if it works well today. Sorry about that.
Thibault de Vassal (2015-07-11 01:43:15)
Wch Match Tie Break Rules
I hope the "test" tournament will occur at ICCF, it should be more pertinent than any opinion after all.
@ Scott: I agree, this should probably be the best option, particularly over the board... but I always feared that a match be decided on a computer or internet issue, like it regularly happened during freestyle tourneys.
Thibault de Vassal (2015-10-08 18:11:38)
Wch Match Tie Break Rules
Your idea is attractive Garvin! But, it is a question of time also, and organisation of championships cycles... I don't see a satisfying solution with this one.
Scott's idea looks like the original FICGS cup's idea... and ICCF WCH. Just one more correspondence chess RR championship.
Alvin's idea is exactly what a correspondence chess champ. should avoid (IMHO), I mean server or internet provider problems... It would be a shame that it decides a winner (like it may have happened in freestyle tournaments). Also, this is just not correspondence chess anymore.
Thibault de Vassal (2015-10-16 01:12:10)
FICGS chess cup : proposal
Hi all,
The recent discussions on FICGS chess wch tie break rules just gave me an idea...
Obviously, there are no satisfying solution (for everyone I mean) for a change in the wch rules. In my opinion, wch rules are great already, even if there are too many draws in matches.
The idea of a cup tournament is here for years but I didn't see any way to include it, in a several rounds version at least, in our calendar because of the wch cycle, the slowly decreasing number of active players, and so on...
But what do you think about this cup format:
An enormous round robin tournament with the 33 (1 player for each piece on the board, it's a symbol but the number is to be discussed) highest rated players who entered the waiting list. It is 32 games per player for 1 round only, duration of games could be the standard one (because there is one round only), longer but maybe fits more the number of games and additional games in other tournaments.
Looks like a great challenge and a real alternative, with very few risks of draw odds, cheating or whatever... It may be the biggest correspondence chess round robin tournament on the internet.
Any opinion? Would you play such tournament?
Steve Vollmer (2015-11-15 13:18:59)
New quotes?
'You just can't trust quotes on the internet' Abraham Lincoln.
Thibault de Vassal (2016-01-21 02:34:59)
Emails from FICGS
Okay, here it is:
2 players do not receive emails from FICGS for about 1 week... these 2 players have the same email provider, so obviously and for any reason (?) this provider banned emails either from ficgs.com or (more probably, as it happened already before) from the whole OVH system, which is maybe half the french internet...
I can see only two solutions for these players:
- You may contact your email provider and ask to solve this problem...
- You may use another email provider at least to receive emails from FICGS.
Very sorry, but I can't do anything here.
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 (2016-05-11 21:46:55)
Bugs after the server crash
Yes, that is normal: I added 7 more days to everyone, this way if someone left or has no internet access during a while at the time FICGS reappeared, he shoud not lose any game on time.
I do this after any server crash.
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 ;)
Roger Llull (2016-07-01 23:05:21)
Bugs after the server crash
Seeing these ugly question marks since the crash on both Firefox and Chrome. Internet Explorer 11 shows ugly squares instead.
http://imgur.com/a/2rlJB
Peter Brodie (2016-09-19 22:38:00)
Missing chat
I figured some time ago you were one of those pathetic internet princesses who likes starting meaningless arguments for their own sake as it gives you a hard-on..I'd suggest you get a life but I suppose that isn't possible..As for abuse, you gave as good as you got you little shit so don't start accusing and playing the little hurt dove..how sad..How obvious....lol...
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.
Steven DuCharme (2018-03-29 21:47:52)
Daily Chess World Champ.
I have sent my request via PM. This is self organized. One entrant per site. One total entrant thus far. No prize other than mention across my sites and forums. Original intent was top player of each site would battle for internet supremacy but I'll take whoever I can get :)
Thibault de Vassal (2018-06-09 19:39:18)
FICGS chess cup : proposal
This 1st chess cup just ended, time to comment :)
First of all, congratulations to Herbert Kruse for this nice win! The opposition was strong and the final result not so easy to guess until a few weeks ago, obviously...
Second of all, to end the cheating suspicion topic, I can only say this: correspondence chess is not soccer, round-robin tournaments are not knockouts, when participating in such a championship on the internet, we have to accept the risk that a few players may (for any rare and obscure reason here IMO) intentionally lose to another one. BUT there is definitely no way to be sure about that, no way to adjudicate games 100% fairly on such suspicions, whatever happening in any game. Of course, it would always be very easy to cheat discreetly enough. And once again, I designed the FICGS WCH to avoid as much as possible what happened during this tournament, it is players choice to accept this and to choose the tournaments they will play in the future.
Now let's see what the second edition will propose :)
Thibault de Vassal (2018-09-24 00:15:43)
Some questions to H. Kruse, WCH finalist
After that the last FICGS chess WCH final match finished, the choice was made again to ask a few questions to Eros Riccio's challenger: Herbert Kruse, for the 2nd time. He kindly accepted to answer it so let's learn a bit more on our top-ranked correspondence chess player.
______________________________
Hello Herbert, you're not really a player to introduce as you're very active here and at several chess websites for years, with outstanding ratings in each one (as far as I know), you're the 1st FICGS CUP winner & several times FICGS WCH challenger, each time facing "the wall" Eros Riccio, what could you tell us about yourself particularly as a chess & correspondence chess player?
- i began late with 16 to play my first tournament game, but with 18 i already was kicked out of a night club in company with tony miles ;) (dresscode) had vlastimil hort as trainer for a short time and played in teams with gutman, michalchisin, klovans, gipslis and some other GMs. corr chess i began, because i love to find the truth and because of freestyle, where i began to build very strong computers
What kind of computers do you build? Is it all dedicated to chess?
- i have several dual xeon e5 computers with 64gb ddr3 and 16 to 20 real cores and they all play chess ;)
Once again, GM Eros Riccio managed to draw the 12 games of the match. What are your feelings on these games? How did you estimate your chances to destabilize your opponent in the openings and to create complications enough with White (or Black)?
- this time my feelings were neutral. 1% chances to win, but i hoped he would lose his concentration if i began more games with him (we played 6 other games at the same time)
Doesn't "1% chances to win (the match)" mean about 0.17% to win only one game with White, even when losing one with Black? Isn't it a bit pessimistic after all, or is it the new so called Riccio-effect? :)
- if the strongest players face each other there is no win possible, except some has a mouse slep or forgot something during human interfacing
When did you start playing correspondence chess and what changed since that time? What attracted you most in the game?
- 2004 and evaluation of the position is the key point of improvement since then. attractive was to be better than actual world class players :)
Could you tell us anything on the way you work chess and play your correspondence games? Any tip or secret? (nothing to lose to ask :))
- with black i play for fastest way to 0.00 and with white i try every promising way to make a game for a longer time complicated
Do you use several ones at the same time when analyzing a game? (still grabbing some tips)
- i only use the newest stockfish versions of brainfish and corchess because the other engines are not so good. because i have many games i decide which one gets the most cores and time and let them run in infinity mode until i am happy that can be after 1 week or more sometimes.
You're not far to rank 2nd as a poker player at FICGS, you obviously started to take on Big Chess as well. What other games do you play? Did you consider to play Go already?
- i played go against the german champion and lost so i quit :)) played backgammon money game and internet (in fibs with kit woolsey i played over 100 matches) in bridge i was best bidder in germany 1994 to 1995, but dont play much nowadays
Do you have specific goals to achieve as a player?
- 2 goals, since a long time: be ficgs world champion and win one german bridge championship
How do you imagine correspondence chess evolution within a decade? What kind of engines/computers do you expect to use and what will look like centaur chess according to you? (in other words, what part will remain to the human player in the decision?)
- i think the engines today are already unbeatable, so in 20 years the would still not lose and chess is dead since about 4 years
What did you think about Google Deepmind's Alpha Zero performance vs. Stockfish?
- it was a joke because they let a bad version of stockfish play. i would not have lost one game against az0 and maybe won 2 til 5 out of 100
Conditions of this AlphaZero vs. Stockfish match were very specific (opening books, unbalanced hardware...) What weaknesses did you detect in AlphaZero play?
- it was the lack of precision, what would let it lose against stockfish in its tuned newest version but i look from a view of a player who is used to play with deep 60 :)
It seems that computers did not completely take on Bridge yet, what do you expect within a decade?
- i have not seen bridge programms, but the game is so easy that it must be already mastered by computers
Garvin Gray (2019-02-12 03:31:52)
Advice for correspondence chess players
I may already know it by another name and some quite internet researching could not provide a definition.
What is 'next best' function?
Garvin Gray (2019-02-12 03:34:38)
James Romig
I have looked through the internet and done quite a bit of google searching for James Romig and I can not find any evidence that a James Romig that would fit a description of a person who would be likely to be playing correspondence chess from USA in 2018/2019 has died recently.
The closest I was able to get was an obituary notice from 2015 for a person much older than anyone we are referencing now.
Garvin Gray (2019-02-12 03:37:36)
James Romig
Unfortunately, I have experience in this area of attempting to find out what had had happened to a regular correspondence chess player who suddenly stopped playing mid event.
After a lot of internet searching and looking up country records, I was able to find some family information and contacted them in Spain.
They wrote back about two weeks later to confirm that the player in question had passed away about two months previously at aged 36.
Steven DuCharme (2019-04-01 22:13:30)
April fool jokes at FICGS
sensible points on the internet?
save that **** for the offline world
John Hadden (2019-06-22 21:12:53)
Android App not working
Hi, Not sure if this is your problem - or samsung's but I noticed just recently after the samsung internet browser on my phone updated the ficgs app stopped working. When I open it it comes up with a blank screen and 'fatal error'.
Vadrya Pokshtya (2022-02-17 08:52:23)
Grand Dice Chess
Hello,
I am the author and inventor of chess variants. My chess variants are published on chessvariants.com and some of them can be played on Game Courier.
I would like to present to you a variant of chess with dice that I invented relatively recently and which can already be played on two sites on the Internet.
Grand Dice Chess
The Rules
The game uses a 12x12 board.
Each player has:
4 Kings
24 Pawns
8 Knights
8 Bishops
8 Rooks
4 Queens
White and black occupy the 1st-6th and 7th-12th ranks, respectively, as shown in the diagram.
Unfortunately I can't post an image here, but you can always find it here:
https://granddicechess.blogspot.com/2022/01/grand-dice-chess.html
https://www.chess.com/blog/Pokshtya/grand-dice-chess-battle
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-variants/grand-dice-chess
White starts the game first.
The game uses four dice.
Opponents make moves alternately, throwing 4 dice. The piece to move is determined by a die:
1 = pawn, 2 = knight, 3 = bishop, 4 = rook, 5 = queen and 6 = king.
The player makes four moves at the same time based on the indications of the dice and has the right to refuse (pass) any move that does not suit him, unless it is a pawn move. Unlike in regular dice chess it's allowable to pass moves. And this rule was already applied about a thousand years ago in old variant of Shatranj (Shatranj al-Mustatîla or Oblong Chess), the Arabic pre-decessor of modern chess. However it's not allowed to pass on pawn-moves, except when they are blocked.
Chess pieces move across the board as they do in ordinary chess - according to the standard rules of move and capture.
The only minor exception is for a pawn that is not allowed to move forward two squares from its starting position.
Upon reaching the last rank, the pawn can be promoted to any piece except the king and itself.
There is no castling, check and checkmate in the game.
The goal of the game is to capture four enemy kings.
The first test tournament was held on the site http://abstractgames.ru/index.php
The tournament is attended by 10 people and I received the most positive feedback from them.
The game has proven itself so well that regular tournaments have already been launched.
Yesterday the game was added to Dagaz server https://games.dtco.ru/map
And it's a great place to test the game in person, as registering on the site is very easy and doesn't require any personal information.
The game turned out to be extremely interesting and exciting, replete with puzzling combinations. Surprisingly, with this size of the board and the number of pieces, the average game lasts no more than 30 turns.
Vadrya Pokshtya (2023-11-03 07:37:46)
Battle of Kings
As the inventor of many chess variants that can be played on the Internet, I want to share with you a mind-blowing chess variant.
I’m sure you’ve never seen anything like this before, and I’ll say without undue modesty that this is perhaps my best creation.
https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/battle-of-kings-
or more detailed here:
https://www.chess.com/blog/Pokshtya/battle-of-the-kings-is-a-chess-variant-that-drives-you-crazy
Give it a try against a bot (no registration required): https://dagazproject.github.io/checkmate/botk.htm
Feel free to implement it here if you see fit.
Regards,
Vadrya Pokshtya
George Jempty (2025-10-05 21:02:56)
Cheating / Forfeiting
The only explanation I can think of is that they are all friends/family and can only access the internet every so often, and do so at the same time. But that seems pretty far-fetched
Thibault de Vassal (2025-10-21 17:27:39)
DNS failure last week
Hello everyone...
Finally FICGS is back!
Noone should have lost any game on time, I added about 7 days to all players expected to move, and 2 days to their opponents (time for new DNS to spread all over the internet)
I still have no idea why previous DNS ns.ficgs.com didn't work anymore, but well, I had to change it after having solved another (bigger) issue with the server provider.
Sorry all for the inconvenience...
Thibault de Vassal (2026-03-13 23:17:02)
Post-tickets FICGS
The long answer:
FICGS story is a quite simple & classic one, the reasons why it's declining are quite obvious, and unfortunately the solutions aren't. A bit of story:
1. Luckily, FICGS.com was created when there were a demand, just after IECG stopped... It grew very quickly, and I was in a rush to code it (FICGS was the very first dynamic website I ran from A to Z), there were ideas from everywhere. FICGS.com was the shortest domain name available, but not a so good one. Quite hard to remember, hard to tell, not clear for search engines (unlike chess.com which is a perfect one). Maybe it was a mistake to choose it, I can't tell. Either it meant "Free Internet Chess Games Server" or "Free Internet Correspondence Games Server", so I added another game, Go (Weiqi), to FICGS, which is a quite heavy decision: After that, FICGS is not only a chess server anymore.
2. A few years after, there are several thousands players (a few hundreds active). The number of new players slowly decreases month after month but a few sponsors come. Obviously, the way I coded FICGS made it more and more difficult to fully update from a PHP version to another one, or to change it in deep. Even now, I'm not sure to regret it though cause I couldn't have done it differently, so it is what it is. At this time, chess.com was less interesting than FICGS (my taste), but success is already here thanks to a perfect marketing formula: best domain name & pay for options. On the contrary, I chose to keep FICGS completely free.
3. Chess engines explode, correspondence chess continues its evolution (human's thinking decreases in moves decision), finally I add another game that is in a hype: poker texas holdem. New sponsors come, I still play correspondence chess myself but now I play another game even more: Google. FICGS also extends this way and it works in some ways. At its peak, FICGS is about the 32,000th most visited website worldwide. But the number of players continues to decrease, Android & phones started to change the landscape already. Chess.com released its app and added probably its best feature: a quick Stockfish analysis with evaluation & explanation for each move (which is excellent for blitz games but quite a non-sense for a correspondence chess website).
4. The number of players suddenly declines very quickly, I react by creating FICGS apps for Android, a dozen apps... On some apps, you can play against the machine, virtual opponents, chess 960, blindfold & so on. But the way to maintain it is not easy at all for many reasons, but the main one is that Google (Playstore) constantly change technical things & rules. After a few years, I even have to completely remake it, losing what was acquired. And some apps still fail to re-appear at Playstore, that's why I just made the APK files available to direct download. But these applications confirm something clear: blitz is more fun and attracts much more players. Changing rating ranges for correspondence chess tournaments or championships formats won't be a solution for this.
5. FICGS is now 20 years old! Internet completely changed over the years but it survived longer than Messenger, Skype & many other great services. If you look at many websites, new versions of their modern interfaces are often worst (bugs or options) than previous ones. FICGS was never perfect, maybe even clear, but at least it remained coherent. Now Google (just like all major services) is mainly governed by AI, sponsors left - that does not change anything, FICGS will continue to run. I created other websites, but none so far successfully helped in a way or another to solve the problem we encounter here: how to increase the number of correspondence chess, Go or poker players again? If FICGS becomes a pure correspondence chess site again with a brand new interface, I'm quite sure that wouldn't change anything or almost. I might be wrong of course, but according to me, this is a deep problem, connected to society evolutions, computers, phones, our attention, time, even health & so on... In my personal case, I wish to play correspondence chess again, but still cannot find the time to do it. Finally I have no idea what internet will look like within 5 years, but FICGS will be there. Maybe an AI will find a solution soon ^^ Meanwhile, I received many ideas to improve FICGS and I have to thank you very much for this. Few ideas were released for reasons I explained here (but new ones are always wecome), I hope you'll better understand it by reading this.
Have good games & take care!
There are 3 results for internet in wikichess.
Gavin Wilson (1400)
e4 e6 d4 f5 e5 Ne7 g4 fxg4 Qxg4 c5 Be3 cxd4 Bxd4 Nbc6 Bc3 Nd5
Enables the dark-squared bishop to develop. If Qh5+, then the natural ..g6 is best, resulting in a position valued by Fritz at -1.03.
Sadly, in the Internet game on which this analysis is based (March 2007), Black played ..Ng6 instead of ..Nd5, and should have been punished by a natural Nf3.
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Contributors : Gavin Wilson
Gavin Wilson (1400)
e4 e6 d4 f5 exf5 exf5 Nc3 d5 Qh5+ g6 Qe2+ Be7 Bg5 Kf7 Qe5 Nf6 Bxf6 Bxf6 Qxd5+ Kg7 O-O-O c6 Qf3 Be6
Fritz rates this as +0.75 for White, so Black still has work to do from this position. However in an Internet game (March 2007), Black actually played ...Bxd4, and after White's Qf4 (+1.06), Black quickly collapsed after a string of inaccurate moves.
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Contributors : Gavin Wilson
Gavin Wilson (1400)
e4 e6 d4 f5 e5 Ne7 Nf3 c5 c3 Nbc6 Bd3 Ng6 Be3 cxd4 cxd4 Bb4+ Nc3 O-O O-O a6 a3 Bxc3 bxc3 b5 Ng5 h6 Nh3 Qh4 Qf3 Bb7 Qe2 Rac8 a4 Nce7 axb5 axb5 Bxb5 f4 Bxd7
Frtiz rates this as +0.75. In an Internet game (March 2007), White incomprehensibly played f3 instead.
============
Contributors : Gavin Wilson
FICGS : internet , Wikipedia : internet , Dmoz : internet , Google : internet , Yahoo : internet
Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine. (Mikhail Tal)
The older I grow, the more I value Pawns. (Keres)
Suddenly it was obvious to me in my analysis I had missed what Fischer had found with the greatest of ease at the board. (Mikhail Botvinnik)
Back to FICGS , Wikichess