new



FICGS - Search results for new





There are 1500 results for new in the forum.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-08 13:10:47)
Things to be implemented...

Hello to all... and thank you for your confidence in this very new server (when no game started yet ! maybe today...)

I expected a high average rating, but not so much :)

The last update provoked the first bug -> in this forum. Sorry to all who tried to post here. It should work now.

Here are things to be implemented in the future :

- Vacations (until, time limit by move is 2 months)
- Conditional moves
- A better interface for the forum...

Don't hesitate if you have ideas to improve the website !


Best wishes.


Per Lea    (2006-04-08 23:23:25)
My messages/My games

I found it extremely confusing that when I wanted to make a move, my games are found under "My messages". To me, the logical place to look is under "My games"... It took me nearly 10 frustrating minutes before I managed to make my first move! Of course, once I know where to look, there's no problem. But it may be a problem for new players!


Hannes Rada    (2006-04-09 00:43:50)
Travel destinations

>In this modern world, not even > travelling abroad will stop you from > being able to play: you will > probably find an internet cafe near > Or you may have internet access in > your hotel room, or if you visit > business colleagues, they will > probably give you access to a PC. > Too bad if you're TOO dependent on > Fritz, of course, but.... Normally I spend my holiday far away from the so called civiliations. Destinations like Papua New Guinea, Micronesia or Ethiopia are my favorite places. So there is no chance for communications and also no interest for playing chess. In 2 weeks I am heading to Vanuatu .....


Patrice Verdier    (2006-04-10 11:59:55)
FICGS council / staff

I am very pleasant to takepart in this new adventure Best wishes, Patrice


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-11 05:18:57)
FICGS council / staff

About job specification, as I said, I would like FICGS to be a place that fits to the most, and not under a dictatorship (even mine :)), so the idea to create a council with all members who want to be part of it, voting all decisions relating server rules, tournaments, wch cycles, titles... (or simply opinion poll on the website ? or both...)

The FICGS staff should be able to manage the server (registering new members, moderating the forum, referees...) Nothing difficult, just needs motivation. Most important is that it could completely work without me. Of course, if developers want to help, making a drag & drop interface ie. or improving whatelse..) About "go", we'll see later, Hannes :) (it's a fine game, you should learn !)

Anyway I'll send an email to all players responding in this thread soon. We will discuss about that.

Best wishes & thank you !


Jose Carrillo    (2006-04-11 23:28:13)
Chess960 Challenge

I'm new to the site, and learning how to use it. Anyone interested can challenge me to a Chess960 game. Thanks.


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

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


Hannes Rada    (2006-04-12 19:16:51)
Titles

Sorry I opened erroneously a new thread ...


Paul-Iosif Guralivu    (2006-04-13 15:19:03)
New Titles!

To make FICGS more atractive and original I propose to make new titles for every category of players: Candidate for Master(FCM) - 2000-2200 First category (FI) - 1800-2000 Secound category (FII) - 1200-1800 Third category (FIII) - 800-1200 Every of this category could be obtain if a player plays more than 12 games in tournaments with tha same ELO. What do you think about it ? P.S.:Don't be mad on me...It's just a proposition.


Paul-Iosif Guralivu    (2006-04-13 15:22:36)
A new comision for this!

I also propose to make a new comision for giving this titles.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-13 15:46:55)
New Titles

Hello Paul-Iosif.

Interesting new idea. In my opinion, there are too many titles & titled players already from official & "non-official" organizations. I think this is a mistake from FIDE / ICCF they couldn't remedy anymore. Titles from other organizations and particularly IECG are not really a problem "more", cause they are hard to achieve (rare), but I don't think this could be so attractive for players. To get a title is a reward itself. Maybe even EM title shouldn't exist.

But I think that ie. a KM title (over GM) could be an interesting idea !

Anyway, I'm ok with the commission idea, we'll vote that too.

Another interesting & controversial idea is (as IECG do) titles not to be awarded for life ! If player's rating decrease, he could lost his title... but I don't think this is very fair.


Paul-Iosif Guralivu    (2006-04-13 15:52:18)
New Titles

I agree it's a bit confusion, but there are a lot of players wich never achieves a title..so that will be atractive. About the fact that the title to be removed it's a bit unfair, because it's hard to be achieved... ----- My humble opinion


Paul-Iosif Guralivu    (2006-04-13 16:25:01)
New Titles

I agree that the rating in a way. I was proposing that because it like in my country where chess players start with a the third category and continue with II and I and cadidate master after which it's coming the Master title. So that will simulate more the country system...


Paul-Iosif Guralivu    (2006-04-13 16:30:20)
New Titles

Again, Their is no problem if you don't create such titles... I was only proposing... and I will submit to the decitions of the FICGS council... God bless FICGS!


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-14 04:54:25)
Proposal from a visitor (anonymous)

" >>> Hi Thibault

Congratulations for the launch of your new CC server! I fully support your initiative and hope I will join very soon.

Meanwhile I would like to share some ideas about the Ficgs Titles, which I also fully and unconditionally support.

My proposal is to adopt/or "recognize" any title awarded by FIDE/ICCF/IECG as a FGM, FSIM, FIM, FEM titles. (e.g. not just IECG IM = FIM, but all others too).

That is, a ICCF GM should be named FGM much as a FIDE GM, or IECG GM (or SIM, IM or EM for CC). There shouldn't be special treatment to those players with a title from FIDE/ICCF

Then, to differentiate them, there could be a color scheme or a footnote explaining the procedence of the title: FGM (ICCF) ...FSIM (IECG) and simply FSIM for the truly SIM title obtained at FICGS.

In adition, those players who do not have a title, but have norms either at FIDE/ICCF/IECG (my case ;) either will have them "homologated" (as the titles are) or better, when/if the title has been awarded later, his Ficgs title will be "updated" to the newly awarded title (by FIDE/ICCF/IECG), which must be the highest of them all (as in IECG SIM > ICCF IM > FEM ..etc)

This way FICGS will be the first organization to homologate norms and titles in CC world ;) <<< "


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-16 11:58:58)
IECG & ICCF webserver

Hello to all.

Congratulations to Ortwin Paetzold who just started with success (src. IECG forum) the new IECG webserver.

Feel free to compare IECG, ICCF & FICGS servers (if you already played on) in this thread, it may help me to feel future improvements, as I have no more time to play on the other ones :(

Thank you for feedback.


Glen D. Shields    (2006-04-17 19:01:10)
Thanks for the Comments Guys

Dinesh - since computer use is allowed I have no problem if someone uses a "script" to automate moves. I don't think that would be fradulent. Actually I think it would be clever :) The point I was trying to ask is anyone concerned (besides me) that we created a chess medium (server chess) where it's so easy to make moves that the games move too fast? I dread the start of a new section, particularly large sections with 10+ players. It's impossible to keep one's inbox empty for even a minute. I know I should show more discipline and walk away, but it's almost like an illness "just one more move then I'll stop" and I don't! One practice I've been using lately is to make a move in a notebook and sit on the move for a day or two before sending it. That helps slow things down. I wonder if a delay send option on the server would make any sense? One could make a move and then click a delay send button for 24 or 48 hours. One would be charged time during the delay, but it would automate the slow down and make tournament startups a little less hectic. Maybe I'm the only one who sees this as an issue> If so, then label this just one crazy man's thoughts :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-17 19:25:06)
New features...

Coordinates & last move have been implemented... Now the "live games" concept of the site extends to the home page :)

Also, player informations are 5 successive pages (informations, elo history, title norms, tournaments, games), reachable just by clicking on "ELO" (to improve yet) after clicking the magnifying glass.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-04-19 19:13:56)
Vacation implemented

Dear chessfriends, a major update on FICGS : Vacation has been implemented. You now have 30 days leave per year (for all games !)

Be careful using it, as days can't be took back (or vacation stopped before the end date) by playing a move for example. But you can add days to your vacation simply taking days more. You can play while you're in vacation, the days leave you take are simply added to your clock for all your running games. A message tells your opponent you're in vacation in the viewer page.

Also please note this new rule : Time accumulated is now limited to 100 days ! (taking effect at your next move) The 60 days limit per move is kept for the player's convenience.

Have good games !


David Angeli    (2006-05-01 18:42:19)
Tournament class

Hi thibault About the "tounaments" topic (je sais pas comment on dit rubrique en anglois ! ;o) ) One thing not very clear for a newcomer like me is the difference between the different classes of tournaments : A, M, etc...it is certainly explained somewhere but i'm a bit lazy and it would be easier if it was explained on the same page . Thanks to your site i'm back to correspondence chess :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-04 17:25:27)
FICGS statistics

2006 may 4

Dear chessfriends, the first FICGS statistics (1 month after server start) are displayed on the informations page : http://www.ficgs.com/informations.html

Google just reacted (today), so I hope for new players coming from search engines soon...


Jose Carrillo    (2006-05-05 00:34:33)
Re: Update - Chess 960

Excellent news! How do I set up a one game match against somebody?


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-13 07:14:14)
Contributors names

It seems you succeeded in removing your name by yourself... Actually, you just have to delete it. Then your name will only appear as the last contributor who modified the article, you just have to wait a new modification and it won't appear anymore...


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2006-05-14 00:47:20)
Swiss

Hello Thibault these are the "rules" (see at http://www.chessfriend.com/ and then Tournaments-CFC World-Championship-CFC Championship 2003)
Modus: 3 rounds Swiss ŕ 10 games each. ... Every player is allowed to participate in all 3 rounds. Pairings of the 1st round are based on rating. We will build equal groups where possible. In the second round we will do the pairings so that be build at first 3 groups depending on score and rating. Among this three groups we will build new tournaments which should be of about equal rating.. Third round will be paired in the same way with the exception that the first group will be the strongest (score and rating). Normally two players should play during a championship cycle only one game. If it will be necessary in a following round that two players play a second game, this game should be played with revised colours.
I will send you more information.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-14 16:07:16)
"Blitz" cup...

Thank you Heinz Georg, for the files you sent to me.

Now I understand better the work and ideas of Reimund Lutzenberger in Chessfriend.com, a great experimentation field for sure...

I first concluded some things not to do in FICGS WCH. In example, a player rated 2500 (even provisional rating from fide) shouldn't have to play in the first stage against a low-rated player in a world championship [but that could be possible in a cup tournament cycle]. So I'll add special rules for high rated players (who are not qualified for the WCH knockout tournament) to begin directly in a 2nd stage tournament...

I agree with Dinesh, the aim is not to use the same formulas, even good ones. Anyway I think we can find new interesting (better :)) ones. But as the WCH is already a rapid tournament cycle, the CUP could be an unrated "blitz" (30 days per game with no increment, or even 10 days + 1 hour / move) knockout (2 games / match + playoffs) !! Something quite "brutal" and unfair between correspondence chess & classical rythms. What do you think ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-16 19:28:57)
New feature : Comments

Hello to all.

I was thinking about a new feature, that could be quite interesting but maybe controversial. It would allow members to write public comments on any game played, appearing on the viewer page... So it could be used also to share analysis... There are several alternatives : Comments could be displayed or authorized only after the game finished, and / or written only by players who actually played the game, etc...

What do you think ?


Wayne Lowrance    (2006-05-17 08:41:06)
overall evaluation of this new site

This mate problem on this site is a big problem. Only chess site I play on where you have won and it is not won until the player resigns. Secondly I am in a game where mate is in 2. but my opponent has stopped playing. Many others are reporting the same thing. The idea is nice, it assumes that all players are good sports. Over all I would say many players here are not considerate of their opponents, and it is a reflection of their charachter. I dont think to much of the moderaters or those who are responsible and have taken a no action stance despite many complaints. Moderator or responsible authority take care of this ridiculous policy Regards Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-17 20:44:05)
Delay before adjudication request

About the game you request for adjudication, Wayne... I see you played your last move 2 days ago. It's a bit early... Please wait about a ten days before calling referee, even if your opponent takes 5 days for each move... This is correspondence chess... and we have time :) In email games (with the same time) such situations may take much more time... Be patient ! It doesn't prevent you to enter a new tournament, and next rating calculation won't occur before july.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-18 20:10:13)
ECO code

Search by ECO code (actually by opening) is now implemented. You need to disconnect (or open a new window) to use it.

http://www.ficgs.com/directory_openings.html

Find your opening, then click on the ECO code (not on the magnifying glass, that is linked to wikichess) and you'll have results in a second...


Trent Parker    (2006-05-19 08:04:48)
My Overall evaluation of this new site

I really like this site. I like the format of the tournaments, I like the fact that the number of games one can play are not limited.

I like the idea of the best game function, however i do not think it is properly utilised (I have aired my ideas on this elsewhere....)

I personally think the resign for checkmate rule is ok, although none of my games have gotten that far yet. After all a) this does not limit the amount of games that you can play on this site and b) your opponent will run out of time anyhow. So what is the difference? You are going to get the point anyhow.
I have the following criticisms:
I am on Dial up. This site is very slow to play on, very time consuming with the amount of games that i am up to. would it be possible to... I dunno... make it like a javascript or something, just to speed it up a bit. Or perhaps even make the submit button further up the page a bit? Often i have gone out of a game thinking that i have made the move when i have forgotten to click the submit button. (By the way this site would be excellent if i had broadband but i don't.)

I may have some more comments later on but at the moment i've said enough.

Thanks for this site Thibault!

Trent Parker


Elmer Valderrama    (2006-05-19 19:34:10)
!!!

!That's wonderful news! Kind regards Elmer


Per Lea    (2006-05-24 10:14:43)
Elo list no longer searchable by country

The idea to have flags in the rating list looked like a nice feature at first, but the disadvantage is that it is no longer possible to do a quick serach for players from a specific country. For example, it is interesting to find out if there are any new memebers from your own country. So, instead of letting the computer search for "NOR", I now have to manually read through the complete list. A good alternative would be to let the members sort the rating list by country and name (as on Chessfriend.com)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-24 10:18:34)
Players / Country

Hello Per. I'm just working on (and other new stuff) ;)


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

Here are some new features :

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


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-28 01:06:10)
Other quotes by famous chess players

"I really believe that Go is destined to take the place of Chess as the leading intellectual game of the Occident, just as it has reigned supreme in the Orient for some four thousand years."
- Edward Lasker, Go and Go-Moku, c. 1934

"While the Baroque rules of chess could only have been created by humans, the rules of go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play go."
- Edward Lasker, international chess master

"You don't have to be really good anymore to get good results. What's happening with Chess is that it's gradually losing its place as the par excellence of intellectual activity. Smart people in search of a challenging board game might try a game called Go."
- Hans Berliner, The New York Times, Feb 6, 2003


"... {it is} something unearthly ... If there are sentient beings on other planets, then they play Go."
- Emanuel Lasker, chess world champion


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-30 13:23:44)
1st SM chess tournament, elo 2443

The first FICGS CHESS SM tournament just started !

http://www.ficgs.com/tournament_FICGS__CHESS__CLASS_SM__000001.html

3 ICCF titled players, 1 FIDE GM, 1 IECG titled player, and 2 'newbies'.. :)

FEM norm : 3 points, FIM norm : 3.5 points, FSM norm : 4 points, FGM norm : 4.5 points...

Have good games !


Lionel Vidal    (2006-05-31 19:35:58)
Go komi

Oops! sorry. I meant 'brand new user'
Best wishes, Lionel


Lionel Vidal    (2006-06-01 12:46:14)
Go rules

Hello,

Even if a well chosen komi rules out scoring draws, you still have the problem of infinite repetition.
Traditionally, a game in which a triple ko or other infinitely repeating position arises is annulled, or treated as draw or replayed.
Some rules (New Zealnd, USA, SST) deal with these positions by stating that a player cannot make exactly the same position on the whole board twice. (Note that it is then not always easy without computer assistance to determine the legality of a move).
The chinese rule (at least the 1988 official one) also forbids reappearance of the same board position, but in some situation this is not enough to prevent a draw: in some cases neither player want to start a sequence and keep passing to avoid solving a situation at their disadvantage. (and to forbid passes triggers others worse problems...).

As you see, the situation is quite complex, and while rules of Go seem simple, their precise definition is not easy. In practice, you eventually have to rely on the sportmanship of the players or on a referee decision.

Personally I have played till now only under the japanese rule, and in case of problems (very rare as this rule is quite detailled, but then rather complex in its exceptions handling), a senior player says the truth, and, at least in Japan, this truth is undisputed and becomes the laws :-)... quite simple!

Lionel


Ryaad Aabid    (2006-06-01 15:30:25)
Go Tournament # 1

Hello all players - GO tournaments I have applied to this new started tournament by mistake , I will be thankful if any player can replace me to reply here or e-mail to FICGS. *I never done moves yet. Kind regards Ryaad/Norway


Lionel Vidal    (2006-06-01 15:56:41)
Replacement

I will be glad to play in that tournament: first time I will not play go face to face... I forsee an nice new experience!

Best wishes.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-01 21:29:04)
Bug...

Hello Michael. Thanks for feedback, this is a new feature and I made a mistake... This will be fixed soon, sorry !


Lionel Vidal    (2006-06-01 22:17:30)
Go rules

I don't quite understand what kind of problems with draws remains with FICGS (sic!) rules: as passing is not allowed, if you add the non repetition of the same whole board position and a non integer komi, I do not see how a draw is still possible.

BUT... this solution does actually not solve anything as I don't think you can forbid passing (as a matter of fact, I checked the official japanese, chinese, new-zealand, AGA (USA) and SST rules: pass is allowed and needed)
The main reason is, IMO, that you need a legal way to end the game (double pass). And yes there are situations where the best move for BOTH players is NOT to move at all in the area: the simplest case I can think of is thousand-year kos, which in the case of japanese rule usually end in seki.
Note that a single pass (that is the game goes on after it) can change the difference in scores in area mode: the AGA rule introduces the concept of pass stone to compensate and insists on white making the last move (if necessary with an additional pass and pass stone) to ensure that the total number of stones played by the two players are equal!
(BTW this is one of the reasons, admitedly far behind familiarity, why I prefer the japanese rule in face to face go)

To sum things up (!!), while I agree that FICGS could develop its own set of rules, I feel that the subject is too complex and error-prone, and has been long, and still is, disputed by highly competent authorities : why not use the result of their work?
I would add that the point of all this is rather moot if you consider that situation like triple ko and alii are indeed rather rare: why not stricly stick to, say, the official chinese rule, and replay the game by referee decision in the rare cases where neither playing side will yield?

oh, but I could also check what they do in the kiseido server ?!?
oh, and do take what I say with great caution: I don't feel and I am certainly not competent enough on the subject! Any other advice over there? :-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-02 17:48:34)
Go rules

Hello Lionel. I just read the 1988 version of the official rules of the Chinese Weiqi Association.

The point here is to play with the most interesting & fair rules, not 'official' ones or others if it could be improved...

Note that FICGS chess rules have a peculiarity : 50 moves rules isn't applied if the mate can be forced. FICGS chess world championship rules are not (of course) the rules used by FIDE. I spent much time thinking about rules which are IMO the best thing in this server and I think most players will appreciate these points.

I think avoiding draws in Go is interesting because energy consuming could be too different in some games and lead to unfair situations in tournaments.

Hash keys don't solve all problems, 'superko' situations could remain as draw, furthermore these special rules could avoid any ambiguity. It is clear, it brokes 'symmetry' and I feel it is fair enough.

Then, rules exist to be enforced ! :) .. More seriously, I'm not convinced these new rules don't make sense, even if it needs adjustments. Still inquiring, but unless I find (or you convince me :)) a solid argument in another way, I think I'll apply them.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-02 20:39:25)
FICGS : Chinese rules !

You convinced me :)

(sorry, I didn't understand well some concepts before)

Good news : I have implemented the non-repetition rules with hash keys...

Now the rules are exactly CHINESE RULES with a 6.5 komi, which is the value which tends to be used in tournaments.

Thank you Lionel :-)


Lionel Vidal    (2006-06-03 09:50:52)
Chinese rules

After reading the new rules (nice :-)), I have two suggestions:
- maybe you should cleary state that repetition of position leads to a loss (or does it? it is the way I understand the wording, but either way is possible), which is not the case in chinese rules (AFAIK at least in some versions, you just loose your turn).
- maybe you should announce somewhere (not in the rules of course) whether the already running games have to follow the new rules. Knowing the applied komi is important, even in fuseki.

Now let's try them :-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-03 14:05:02)
Repetition of position

Repetition of position doesn't lead to a loss, as it's now impossible to make a move that provokes such a situation. (message would be 'Incorrect move'). So the pure Chinese rules apply.

The change of rules have been announced in the news (page 'My messages'). Everyone is supposed to read it, as it's the first page appearing when you log in.

Cheers.


Alexander Dinerchtein    (2006-06-06 07:52:52)
Go Game Newsletter

"Goama" International Weekly Go Newsletter. http://gogame.info/ Go news, stories, interviews, commented games and new patterns, go books, etc. You can subcribe our newsletter free of charge.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-06 15:37:03)
Go Game Newsletter

Hello Alexander & thanks for the info :)

I just subscribed... Much to learn from this wonderful game.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-06 16:40:04)
Team championship

Many good ideas... :)

I'll post a news soon, inviting players who want to lead their country team to give me an email where they can be contacted by players.

So far, the rules :

- The leader of each team should be from the country he's playing for.
- If several players ask to lead the same team, the current chess rating will decide.
- Leaders will choose candidate players for his team and the "board" (1, 2, 3 or 4) they will play.
- Players from any country can play with another country team. (all players can play for only one team)


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

Hello Tommie.

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

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

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

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


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-13 18:28:54)
FICGS chess world championship 1 & 2

Hello to all.

FICGS chess world championship deadline (2006 june 15) is 2 days far from now ! Here is the scheme, allowing all players who registered to start playing at the same time, without loosing the opportunity for new players to register at a later date :

As 2300+ players will enter the cycle at stage 2, the idea is to start 1st (from stage 2) and 2nd (from stage 1) world championship at the same time. Thus, all tournaments will begin at the fixed date for all players who already registered, then a new deadline will be fixed (probably in august/september), and all players registering late for chess wch would begin a tournament each time there's enough new players in the waiting list, with the condition that the ELO average of these new tournaments be equal or superior (as few as possible) to the tournaments that began on June 15.

And good luck to all... :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-13 21:43:17)
Consecutive world championships

These are 2 consecutive championships, nothing more... and a new one will begin after the end of each first stage (probably each year), so ie. in about 8 months (at the end of this stage) : players involved in the 2nd stage of the 1st wch will play the 3rd stage... and they can register to play the 2nd stage of the 2nd wch too. At last, in about a year the first stage of the 3rd wch will begin...


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2006-06-14 15:32:51)
Rating formula

Hello Thibault!

Where can I found the exact rating rules of FICGS? I have found only these lines in the Memberships - Terms and Conditions:

"11. 7. Rating rules

The FICGS rating scheme is a numerical scheme, in which percentage results can be exchanged into rating differences, and rating differences into percentage performance probabilities. It is mainly based on the principles of rating calculations of prof. Arpad Elo.

The rating formula : New Elo = ((16 x Elo) + (Games x Perf)) / (16 + Games) ..."

What means "mainly based"?

You write in another topic

"1. The rating system do not take account of wins when the ELO difference is superior to 350 points "

Is this valid only for wins or for all games with a rating difference of more than 350 points?


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-17 19:56:11)
FICGS encyclopedia

Hello to all.

The FICGS Chess and Go encyclopedia just started ! (version beta)

This is a wikipedia-like encyclopedia, where you can write about everything related to Chess and Go in 184 languages...

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=encyclopedia

It will be improved soon with new features. Feel free to tell me what you think...


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-18 23:20:14)
Deadline / Start date

Hello Tim.

FICGS 1st wch will start on 2006 july 1st. A new deadline will be fixed, so that players can begin other tournaments lately, but all players who entered the waiting list already will begin their games on july 1st.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-19 16:15:01)
Follow the lines :-)

Hello Amir.

You just have to follow the lines clicking on the moves... If you want to create a new line, enter the new move (submit) then enter a text for that move (submit) : The article is created.


Amir Bagheri    (2006-06-23 12:25:36)
Blindfolded Chess

THE chess-world (for there is a "world" in chess as in other matters) has lately been startled by a very extraordinary performance at one of the "divans" of the metropolis. A young American has played ten games at once, against an equal number of players, without, on his part, obtaining a single glimpse at any one of the chess-boards. The feat is not new; but never before was it performed so triumphantly as in the present day. The writers who have ferreted out the early history of this beautiful game have found the name of one Tchelebi, who, nearly nine centuries ago, was able to play at chess without seeing the board. Many persons in the East acquired the art of playing by feeling instead of seeing pieces; but that is a very different affair, since in such a case the sense of touch comes in aid of the memory. In 1266, a Saragen, named Buzecca, came to Florence and at the Palazzo del Popolo played three games at once, looking at one board, but not at the other two. He won two of the games, and made a drawn or abandoned game of the other. As all his competitors were skilful players, his achievement caused irrepressible astonishment. At various times, in later centuries, this mode of play was exhibited by different persons--Ruy Lopez, the author of one of the earliest treatises on chess; Mangiolini of Florence, Zerone, Medrano, Leonardo da Cutri, Paolo Boi, Salvio, and others, many of whom were Spaniards. Boi is reputed to have played three games at once without seeing the board. Damiano, an Italian, who wrote a treatise on chess more than three centuries and a half ago, gave what he called the "Rules" for learning to play without seeing the board; but his rules are worth very little, amounting chiefly to a recommendation to cultivate the memory. Keysler, in his Account of Turin (1749), says: "The late Father Sacchieri, Lecturer on Mathematics at Pavia, was a remarkable instance of the strength of the human understanding, particularly that faculty of the soul we term memory. He could play at chess with three different persons at the same time, even without seeing any one of the three chess-boards. He required no more than that his substitute should tell him what piece his antagonist had moved, and Sacchieri could direct what step was to be taken on his side, holding, at the same time, conversation with the company present. If any dispute arose about the place where any piece should be, he could tell every move that had been made, not only by himself, but by his antagonist, from the beginning of the game, and in this manner incontestably decided the proper place of the piece. This uncommon dexterity at the game of chess appears to me almost the greatest instance that can be produced of a surprising memory." The most celebrated player of the last century, however, in this peculiar achievement, was the Frenchman Andre Danican, who then, and afterwards, was generally known by the name of Philidor. In 1743, when Philidor was about eighteen years old, M. de Legalle asked him whether he had ever tried to play from memory, without seeing the board. The youth replied, that as had calculated moves, and even whole games, at night in bed, he thought he could do it. He immediately played a game with the Abbe Chenard, which he won without seeing the board. After that, a little practice enabled him to play nearly as well in this as in the ordinary fashion--sometimes two games at once. The French Cyclopedie told of a particular game in which a false move was purposely made by his antagonist; Philidor discovered it after many moves, and replaced the pieces in their proper position. Forty years afterwards, he was residing in England, where he astonished English players by his blindfold achievements at a chess-club in St. James' Street. He played three games at once, with Count Bruhl, Mr. Bowdler, and Mr. Maseres, the first two of whom were reputed the best players at that time in England. Philidor won two of the games, and drew the third, all within two hours. On another occasion, in the same year (1788), he played three games at once, blindfold as before, and giving the odds of pawn and move to one of his antagonists; again did he win two of the games, and draw the third. His demeanor during these labors surprised his visitors as much as his skill, for he kept up a lively conversation during his games. Many eminent chess-players, including M'Donnell, La Bourdonnaye, Staunton, etc., have achieved these blindfold wonders, in greater or less degree, since the days of Philidor. M'Donnell, a famous player about thirty years ago, played his moves even more rapidly without than with the board; he did not object to any amount of conversation in the room during his play, but disliked whispers. La Bourdonnaye could play within a shade of his full strength without seeing the board; he won against good players, on some occasions two at a time; but when trying the threefold labor, his brain nearly gave way, and he wisely abandoned all such modes of playing his favorite game. Mr. Staunton, the leading English player at present (but who has almost ceased to play since he undertook the editing of an edition of Shakespeare), some years ago played many blindfold games with Harrwitz and Kieseritzky, foreign players of note.


Amir Bagheri    (2006-06-23 12:26:28)
Blinfolded chess ( part II )

Very recently, however, all the honors of Europe, in this department of indoor games, have been run away with by two young Americans, Morphy and Paulsen. Paul Morphy, a native of New Orleans, seemed to be born with chess in his blood; he played almost from childhood; and at thirteen years of age he proved a formidable antagonist to Herr Lowenthal, a noted Hungarian. In 1857, when just twenty years of age, Morphy encountered Paulsen, a native of Iowa, only a little older than himself, at a chess congress in New Orleans (Editor: It was New York!). All the gray-beards struck their flag to Paulsen, and then he struck to Morphy. Of Morphy's subsequent achievements in regular play, which stamp him as perhaps the first living chess-player (we say this with fear and trembling; however, for the knights of the game are a sensitive race), we will not speak here, for our purpose is only to notice the blindfold performances. At the chess congress above mentioned, he finely played a blindfold game with a leading German player. Early in 1858, he struck the New Orleanists with amazement by playing six games simultaneously, without seeing any other the boards; winning five of them, and exhibiting beautiful play throughout. He then came to Europe, not only to "lick the Britishers," but "all creation;" and it must be admitted that he made great progress towards that achievement. At a meeting of the Chess Association at Birmingham, in August 1858, he played eight games simultaneously, without sight of the boards. His opponents were Lord Lyttelton, and seven other persons, mostly presidents or secretaries of provincial chess clubs. Against such players, and under such tremendous conditions, he won no less than six games out of the eight, drawing a seventh, and losing the eighth. In the following month, he went over and astonished the Parisians in a similar way; he contended blindfold against eight practised players at once, at the Cafe de la Regence, a famous resort of chess-players; and out of these did not lose even one; he was the victor in six, and drew the other two. In the spring of 1859, Morphy contended against eight of the most experienced members of the London Chess Club, including Mr. Mongredien and Mr. Walker, two distinguished players. He won two games, and drew the other six--all the players except himself being wearied out by a very protracted sitting. A few days afterwards, he played with eight members of the St. George's Chess Club, including Lord Cremorne, Lord Arthur Hay, and Captain Kennedy; he won five, and the rest were drawn through want of time to finish them. Nevertheless, inconceivable as these mental labors are, Morphy yields to Paulsen in blindfold play. There are whispers of twelve or fifteen games having been tried simultaneously by the latter; but the number ten has been most certainly reached, under conditions of the utmost publicity. On the 7th of October in the present year, at a Divan in the Strand, ten players accepted Mr. Paulsen's challenge to grapple with them all simultaneously, the boards being placed out of his sight. One of the players was M. Sabouroff, secretary to the Russian Embassy in London; the other nine comprised many names well known among chess-players. Ten chess-boards were placed on ten tables in the room. An arm-chair, turned away towards a window, was mounted on a dais. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Paulsen, a quiet, courteous young man, with not a trace of "brag" in him, took his seat in this arm-chair. For twelve mortal hours he never rose, never ate, never smoked, and drank nothing but a little lemonade. What were his mental labors during that time, we shall see. His ten antagonists took their seats at the ten tables; and each table speedily became the centre of a group of spectators, whose comments were not always so silent as in fairness they ought to have been. Paulsen could not see any of the chess-boards. Herr Kling, a noted player and teacher of chess, acted as general manager. He called the boards by numbers--No. 1 to No. 10. Paulsen audibly announced his first move for board No. 1; Kling made that move; the antagonist replied to it; Kling audibly announced the reply; Paulsen considered what should be his second move, and when he had audibly announced his decision, Kling made the proper move on the board. Here No. 1 rested for awhile. No. 2 now made his move, leading to the same course of proceeding as before. Then No. 3 in the same way; then No. 4; and so on to No. 10; after which No. 1 began a new cycle, by playing a second move; and thus they proceeded over and over again. Now let us see what all this implies and involves. Chess is not one of the most frolicsome of games; indeed, ladies generally declare it to be very dull, seeing that a chess-player is apt to be "grumpy" if spoken to on other matters while playing. The truth is, there is a demand for much mental work in managing a game well; the combinations and subtleties, the attacks and counter-attacks, are so numerous and varied, as to keep the mind pretty fully occupied. Nevertheless, a fine game between two fine players is mere child's play compared with this wonderful achievement of Paulsen. He was obliged to form ten mental pictures; and every picture changed with every move, like the colored bits in a kaleidoscope. Most persons, even though knowing nothing of the game, are aware that it begins with thirty-two pieces of different colors and forms, and that these move about over a board of sixty-four squares. After every change of position in any one of the pieces, Paulsen must have changed his mental picture of the board, the field of battle, and then made that a fixture until the next move was made. This is hard enough in even one game, against an antagonist who has his eyes to help him in planning attacks and defences; but how hard must it be against ten! It is difficult to conceive what is the condition of the mental machinery under such circumstances; and yet, there he sat, the calmest man in the room. When told of his antagonist's doings, one by one, he looked quietly out of window, and rubbed his chin, as a man often does when thinking, and then announced his move--never mistaking No. 1 for No. 7, No. 9 for No. 3--never failing to recover the proper mental picture, and making the proper change in it; never embarrassed; never making an unlawful move, or likely to lose sight (mental sight) of any unlawful move made by his antagonists. Nor did he obtain the least pause for mental rest. Without one minute's interval, as soon as he had announced a move for one board, he was required to attend to the move of another antagonist at another board. Hour after hour did this continue--all the afternoon, all the evening, midnight, until two in the morning. He made two hundred and seventy moves in the twelve hours, twenty-seven per game average; this gave two minutes and a quarter for the consideration of each move. As all his moves were met by corresponding moves on the part of his antagonists, he was called upon to form five hundred and forty complete mental pictures in twelve consecutive hours, each picture representing the exact mode in which all of the sixty-four squares of a chess-board were occupied. Paulsen won two games, lost three, and drew five.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-24 14:31:15)
Chess Samizdat

I just read many Chess Samizdat articles (some from chess players around here)... Really funny and interesting. I particularly liked this quote from CJS Purdy : "The only valid excuse for withdrawal from a chess tournament is death, and then only with a death certificate" :)

From the new chess dictionary by John C. Knudsen.

http://www.correspondencechess.com/syndication/articles/0003.htm


Roger Weber    (2006-06-25 16:19:35)
Gambits

Although I am a quite new and inexperienced, I dare say that Gambits are a way of forcing a player to do mistakes. If the other player doesn't know a certain gambit, he will get beaten fast and hard by making mistakes. Players tend to do less mistakes in common openings like the Ruy Lopez, as they have seen so many variations of it and played it so much. But, when confronted with something new, the human brain can't analyze every possible moves, which leaves an advantage to be exploited by the player that knows the gambit and obviously wants to play it. Just my opinion. Feel free to correct me.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-06-27 16:58:03)
FICGS world chess championship

A minor update in the rules that fixes many problems for future wch cycles... Nothing has changed in the rules for the 1st cycle that begins in 4 days, changes only concern next cycles, with the extension of the one-time rule mentioned above.

The equation was :

- No confusion with the cycles when entering the waiting list (2300+ players qualified for 2nd stage of the previous cycle is too confusing).

- Avoiding tournaments with too big rating gaps (and encourage high rated players to participate)

- The formula combining knockout tournament, round-robin cycle (so that everyone can play wch, with no more than 5 stages), and the final 2 players matches in the last stages.

- Making it as understable as possible...


It is now mentioned in the rules that 2300+ players will play 1st stage in high rated groups (ratings superior or equal to 2300). Winners of such groups (same criterias) will be qualified for the 3rd stage round-robin tournament, the others will play 2nd stage.

As all games are played with rapid time controls, a new cycle will probably begin every 6 months !


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-01 17:20:35)
1st FICGS chess championship started !

Hello to all.

As you may have noticed, 23 new tournaments just started :

http://www.ficgs.com/category__ficgs__chess__wch.html


4 matchs (quarter final) started in the knockout tournament

QF 1 : John Anderson (SM) - Farit Balabaev (GM)
QF 2 : Daniel Cinca - Peter Schuster (SM)
QF 3 : Gilles Hervet (SM) - Gino Figlio (IM)
QF 4 : Petr Makovsky (SM) - John Knudsen (SM)


19 tournaments (groups) started in the round-robin cycle, 17 tournaments with an elo average between 1672 and 1732 (16 tournaments of 17 are in a 32 points range), and 2 "group M" with an elo average about 2390.

All round-robin tournaments are groups of 7 players as it was the best way to make it fair.

I wish you all good games and have fun :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-02 19:26:07)
qualification for 2nd round

Bonjour David !

Maybe it wasn't clear enough yet. The winner and only the winner of each tournament will be qualified for the next stage. As there can't be several, only 1 player per group will be qualified.

"Round-robin tournaments are groups of 7, 9, 11 or 13 players. The winner of each group is qualified for the next stage. In case of equality, the player with the strongest tournament entry rating (TER) is qualified for the next stage."

Consequently, there will be at least 17 players from the groups ("at least" : if new groups are created) + players rated >2300 from the high rated groups (but winners).

I expect about 40 to 50 players in stage 2 round-robin tournaments. If the numbers don't fit, there will be an invitation to players 2300+ until it solve the problem.


John Knudsen    (2006-07-06 18:33:27)
Leave/Reflection Time

Hi Thibault: Of course you can take leave in any cc organization. FICGS, however, is the only one that I am aware of that, not only do you get annual leave, but also 1 day extra reflection time per day of leave! :) The concept is simply ridiculous in a 30 +1 time control format. Look, I hope you don't think I just complain about stuff - there is a lot that I like here, too. I also do have a bit of experience playing serious correspondence chess (since 1978). New cc players, or OTB players, are the last people who know anything about the ins and outs of correspondence chess, IMHO. John


Josh Knapp    (2006-07-09 06:54:48)
Private notes

I'm new to the site, so far I like it. But I am curious, are there any plans to make a private notes feature? I have played on several other sites and make notes all the time. I know I could make them on my computer, but the problem with that is that I often switch back and forth between two different machines.


Dinesh De Silva    (2006-07-12 14:50:41)
Re: " What Materazzi said "

World renowned lip-reading experts are in agreement as to what Materazzi has said to Zidane, which provoked Zidane's headbutt. This was in the news the last few days. What Materazzi has said is horrible! FIFA has opened an investigation into this.


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2006-07-12 20:12:40)
Tournament entry rating

Hello Thibault!

Am I right that my TER (tournament entry rating) is not essential for the calculation of my new FIGCS - ELO - rating. If I'm not right, in which variable can I find it? I thought the difference of my opponents and my own rating at the beginning of the tournament would be of importance.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-16 03:45:58)
New feature : Private notes

Hello to all.

Personal notes feature has been added in 'My account'.

Feel free to tell me what you think.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-18 04:14:50)
New feature : Private notes

Hello to all.

Personal notes and public comments are now available for all of your games (at the bottom of the viewer page or move page step 1).

Public comments may be used to share analysis and feelings about the games... It will be displayed in viewer pages for everyone, as well as in 'Best game' page and homepage.

Please note that you have to submit separately these optional forms and your move.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-19 02:54:06)
Search : commented games

I've added a link in the 'Search games' page to find all games commented by players... First comment made by David is very eloquent ;)

Feel free to tell me if you have ideas of criterias to search games. Also added in the 'Search games' page : search by opening. Now 3 ways, this new one, Wikichess, and the form below the menu (improved).


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-19 18:05:41)
FICGS championship : new groups

A new group just started in the 1st FICGS wch :

FICGS__CHESS__WCH_STAGE_1_GROUP_18__000001

Waiting for another player with a ~1700 rating and a new one will start.

As the rating average of new players significantly decreases, I can't guarantee all players (most with a 1200 rating and below) who entered the waiting list after the start of the tournaments will play this first WCH (late groups rating average should be equal or superior to other groups).


Glen D. Shields    (2006-07-22 19:50:51)
Interesting Discussion Topic

Thibault - this is a interesting discussion topic. Of course, no one knows the future with certainty, but we can all offer an opinion :)

I'm nearing my 40th year of correspondence play. Sometime later this year I will complete my 1000th tournament game. All my games were played by postcard until the mid 90's. E-mail dominated my CC schedule from about 1998 until 2002. Now I only play server chess. I've played on the FICGS, IECG, GameKnot, ChessFriend, Schemingmind and ICCF servers.

Contrary to many people who've played as long as I have, I do NOT see chess engines as a threat to the game. I think they've changed the game, but not hurt the game. I believe they've increasd CC's popularity and game quality. The same is true for opening and ending databases.

Some of the changes that will occur in CC the next ten years:

- Servers will improve functionality and ease of use.

- Due to engine use we will grow to accept 2200 as an "average" rating rather than "Master."

- Tournaments will be re-structured to include fewer players per section and shorter tournament durations. This particularly applies to ICCF where 15 player sections and slow time rules to simulate postal chess are used.

- New server functionality will be added to allow players the option to SLOW down the game. It's too easy to get caught in a mindless "server flurry."

- New chess software will be developed to analyze games. This analysis tool will give proability estimates on what engine one's opponent is using. That information will allow one to counter and plan against one's opponent.

- There will be more anti-computer books written and theories developed. We will use these techniques to beat our opponent and and improve our chess planning skills.

Bottomline ... I am excited by the new technology. I see continued advances in the way we manage our gameload, the way we send moves, the way we play, plan and analyze our moves. The way we play in the future will be different and will still be fun for those who embrace new technology. My disappointment is I am an old man and unlikely to enjoy all the advantages the future brings. I hope those who follow me enjoy what I will miss :)


Benjamin Aldag    (2006-07-23 22:52:39)
New Ideas

Here my Wishlist: 1. Dzindzi Indian (1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 f5) 2. Helloween Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5) Benjamin Aldag


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-24 19:23:24)
Copyright issues

Like everywhere else, Dirk Jan... at your own risks ;)

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


06. Warranties and limitations of liability

(...) FICGS shall not be liable for what members will do if they don't respect these "Terms and Conditions" or for what members will publish in the forum, news, comments or messages to other members.


Don Burden    (2006-07-25 01:25:39)
Handicap moves?

The idea may be a new way to offer a handicap to lower rated players. Maybe for each rating difference of 200 points, the higher rated player must play two moves moving the g8 knight to f6 & back (g1 knight to f3 & back if playing white). To be fair, the lower rated player should not be allowed to capture or give check during each two move sequence of the knight.


Glen D. Shields    (2006-07-26 03:52:31)
Thanks Wayne, but ...

Wayne - you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to feel guilty about. You're playing by todays rules. One of life's great pleasures is to embrace change and enjoy the fun and diversity that comes from it :)

I look forward to even more change. I'd love to see new analysis tools, new ways to analyze endings, openings, and counter-attack the engines. So much to be accomplished. So many great things still be developed :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-26 20:46:02)
New profile feature : Photos :)

Just added this new feature in 'Preferences'. You can now upload a photo... (JPG format, 100 ko max)

Thanks to Dinesh for the idea (indirectly). By the way, for live video chat you can use other services... :) (we are still there to play chess ;))


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-28 02:31:50)
Blogs !

Everyday a new feature, I keep in the rhythm ;)

You may have noticed this link ('see the players blog') at the top of the forum page. A new interface that simply looks like the forum, but built like a blogs website.

You may want to relate your Chess life or Go philosophy, your games or whatever.. you can do it there.

Like in the forum, links are automatically parsed. The html < br > tag to begin a new line. Comments by everyone are also available.


Jose Antonio Marin Millan    (2006-08-02 20:18:18)
New groups of the 1st WCH

Of whichever players they will be the new groups of the WCH? The inscriptions were made according to playing not more than 12 games.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-08-02 20:36:00)
Chess WCH waiting list

Hello José Antonio.

Players who had not entered chess wch waiting list before July 1st (start of the 1st wch) can do it before August 15, in order to start more tournaments (july was a bit early to start). Most players who entered it lately already play in new groups or have replaced players who didn't make a single move in their games (and lost on time). If this is the point you're talking about, it's difficult to consider a game without a move has been really played. Replacements (particularly players rated 1200: beginners) allow to low rated players to enter this 1st WCH tournaments cycle, otherwise new groups wouldn't have the necessary rating average.

Finally, everyone play a 6-games tournament in this first round. So, why 12 games ? Maybe I did not understand well... :/


Jose Antonio Marin Millan    (2006-08-02 22:44:12)
Thanks for the answer

Thanks for the answer. He thought that all the players when following including in the waiting list were going to be including in a new group. I understand that single a group of 7 players in this First WHC gambles warm Greetings


Marc Lacrosse    (2006-08-02 23:52:15)
Adjudication

Thanks Thibault.

I was not aware of the 11.5 rule which is very good IMHO and I am very glad that you agreed to apply it in my game.
I think this is a good rule "as is" and it does not need to be changed.

To Graham : Sure you are right.

But it's the same in OTB play : almost nobody waits until the final mate move.
However when one disgracefully requires you go until mate has effectively been done, you just have to wait for less than a few hours at most.
In my case the win was evident for more than two months and my opponent still meticulously waited until he only had a few hours left...
Did he wish to wait for a new rating,did he wish to have won other games to take the lead in the tournament : I really don't know (and I truly cannot fully understand)...
In any case the rules were respected...
Maybe this could be an additional argument for limiting the maximum amount of accumulated thinking time ?

Marc


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-08-03 20:35:24)
Vacation : Update

Hello to all.

You may observe irregular clocks according to the new vacation rules during a while (some players may still have more time than "possible"), this is not a bug but a consequence of the change on 2006 august 1st) for players who took days leave, particularly in july.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-08-04 17:47:56)
WCH tournaments

Hello Marc.

The new group you're playing in (probably the last built before august 15) has a bigger gap ("écart-type") than others.. It was not possible to build it in another way.

The advantage is given by the rating to the 'best' player in all stages (knockout or round-robin), but that's the challenge, and the way of these WCH rules.. (see previous threads about WCH)

However, it's not obvious that top players win all other games... A single draw should decide.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-08-08 12:09:40)
Suggestion (sponsors)

Hi Dinesh.

I'm looking at everything of course, it would be great to get sponsors and prizes for free tournaments ie. WCH... The more success, the more chances, so still working. It will take time anyway...

In a near future : Tournaments with entry fees & money prizes should start in October, I have many new ideas to make it attractive for the most, titled players as beginners, and it should bring something to the whole site.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-08-13 15:09:54)
WCH waiting list closed

Hello to all.

It won't be possible to start new WCH tournaments for this first stage.

Total : 21 groups, 2 groups M, 4 knockout quarter final, 169 players playing, about 190 entered the waiting list (replacements, forfeits...)

The waiting list will be closed during a few months.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-08-19 00:06:35)
Tournaments with money prices

Hello Benjamin...

Many new tournament categories will be created when entry fees and prices will be available. Some will be designed for granmasters, others for special challenges. We'll have the opportunity to discuss about it in a few months.


Benjamin Aldag    (2006-08-22 04:29:15)
TWIC Loader

Hi friends,

you know the Chesspaper TWIC ? A really great Chesspaper with many new Chessgames every week. From now on, its really easy to get it. Just use my TWIC Loader. It's for free and easy to use.
You can download it at:

http://www.twic-loader.de.vu/

Next week i will present you the FICGS-Loader. With this loader, you can download every week all new finished FICGS-chessgames.

Benny


Benjamin Aldag    (2006-08-22 04:29:57)
TWIC Loader

Hi friends,

you know the Chesspaper TWIC ? A really great Chesspaper with many new Chessgames every week. From now on, its really easy to get it. Just use my TWIC Loader. It's for free and easy to use.
You can download it at:

http://www.twic-loader.de.vu/

Next week i will present you the FICGS-Loader. With this loader, you can download every week all new finished FICGS-chessgames.

Benny


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

Hello to all.

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

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


Benjamin Aldag    (2006-08-22 19:18:37)
New Thematic - Tourney Trompowsky !

Hi,

since 3 days i have the Chessbase DVD "The Trompowsky - The easy way" (http://www.chessbase.com/shop/product.asp?pid=249&user=&coin=). Thank you for starting a thematic tornament with the Trompowsky-Opening. The right time, to test my knowledge about the DVD.

Benny


Benjamin Aldag    (2006-08-26 01:37:37)
"NEW" Opening Idea !

Hello,

i would be very happy, to see the following line in a thematic opening tourney:

1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Bc4 Bc5
4.c3 Nf6
5.d4 exd4
6.cxd4 Bb4+
7.Nc3 Nxe4
8.0-0 0-0!

ok folks, i am searching for this line in my database and found just a handfull games, played by low rated players. I am searching in many books for this line, but i found nothing ! I've analysed this line and i believe, this line is good for BLACK ! What do you think about this line ??? Do you see more than me ? Do you have any GM-Commentary about this line ? Maybe in an ebook or something else ? Please help me to find the answer, why this line is never played by some very good players. It would be helpful, to start a thematic-tourney'bout this nice line.

Benny


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-08-31 03:16:24)
New best game...

Finally, we have a new "best game", after about 2 months of clear domination by chess game 342...

Game 2198, from the scotch gambit chess thematic tournament, is a funny King's hunt :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-01 17:11:46)
Go / Weiqi tournaments : New categories

Hello to all.

New Go tournament categories have been created.

PRO category, for players ranked 1 dan and above (Go elo > 2099)
DAN category, for players ranked 10 kyu and above (Go elo > 1099).
KYU category, for all Go players, whatever their rating...

Rules have been updated for the rating calculation and Go championship (a win in a KYU tournament = 1 point, a win in a DAN tournament = 2 points, a win in a PRO tournament = 3 points).

Feel free to post here any suggestion to improve this site for Go game...

(& don't forget this is not a chess variant ;))

Kind regards.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-03 16:45:33)
Re: First mover loses

Hello Joachim.

"why nobody seems to enter these tournaments" : first because they are not open yet :)

As I said, this is only an example. New categories will be created, with formulas as simple and fair as possible, and other ones that could allow to low-rated players to meet strong titled players...

Anyway, all suggestions are welcome.


Charlie Neil    (2006-09-05 09:50:08)
why play corr-chess

Marc, excuse me I didn't make the difference between chess engines/databases and someone playing straight moves straight off their own computer. Yes, use books and databases that's what they are there for. But I feel sorry for the individual who relies solely on their computer to play their games for them. It is a bit like taking a fork lift to a weight lifting competition. The use of computers and servers is still relatively new to me. There are sites that ban the use of computers. but who is to know who is using their computer in an illegal way? There can be no profit for them or enjoyment in the game. It is good that FICGS has this forum for free discussion. I enjoyed reading "The future for Corr-chess" thread. There has always been points in time when it has been discussed that chess has "burnt-out" and the game will die off. I don't think that will ever happen in light of the passion for this terrible game expressed in all these forums. So, forgive an ignorant "free-range" "organic" chessfriend for not being clear about the differences about databases and computer-slaves who rely on their machines. The game is the thing. ( and maybe just maybe I wasn't drinking just coffee the time I posted the cheats slur...:-/)


Charlie Neil    (2006-09-05 09:55:54)
why do you play corr chess?

Hello benny oh yes and I am learning and re-learning all the time. Chess and computers is a whole new world to me.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-05 16:27:10)
All tournament boards on a single page

A new update (test)... All boards for each tournament are displayed on a single page, when you're connected only. Click on a tournament, then click the "photo" icon at the right of the name of the tournament : All boards, moves and public comments are displayed on the same page.

I'm interested to know how much time it takes to your browser to display it.

Thanks.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-06 15:43:12)
FIDE WCH : Kramnik vs. Topalov

Do you believe it ? .. now it's most probably almost sure :-)

We'll have a new FIDE-Classical world champion in a few weeks !

A reminder : This will be a 12-games match, taking place from September 21 to October 13 in the capital of Kalmykia (whose president is FIDE president : Kirsan Ilyumzhinov himself), Elista. In case of equality, four rapid games will be played, if equality again two blitz games will be played and finally a sudden death blitz game. The prize fund of one million US dollars will be equally divided between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, whatever the result. The looser won't play the next world championship tournament (quite strange).

Anyway, that's a great thing for chess, even if I'm not very optimistic for the next FIDE world championship cycles, particularly if the world champion has to play a knockout tournament, instead of a classical 12 or 24 games match...

My favourite in this match is still Kramnik because of his style, but Topalov is really getting stronger IMO... It will be a hard match !

Any predictions about the result & games ? .. Will Vladimir Kramnik play his Berlin defense in the Ruy Lopez again...


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-07 14:31:00)
C. Léotard, new ICCF world champion !

GM Christope Léotard (France) just won the ICCF final 19.

He obtained 8.5 points (+5 =7) in a category XV event, which started on April 20, 2004.

He is the XIXth ICCF World Champion !

Many congratulations to him !


http://www.iccf.com


Rodrigo Jaroszewski    (2006-09-12 13:19:57)
Math... *sigh*

LOL Thibault, I guess it was.

I'm no mathematician (far from it), but I don't think that this theory will turn out to be true anytime in the near future, even in a "predictable" game like chess. Even chess engines depend on the skill of their programmers to find new ways to make their search algorithms become reliable and faster, and tablebase development is still petabytes away from being complete.

Anyway, I guess the future generations will have to tell us if it worked or not. Only God knows what can get in the way of this "gaming nirvana" as they call, and after I heard that it was proven possible that a computer user can subconciously influenciate the way an idle machine performs, I don't feel like trying to impersonate Baba Vanga on this subject! ;)


Thomas Gilbreath    (2006-09-14 05:19:28)
Greetings from GameKnot :)

Hello friends, my name is Thomas, and I am the representative from GameKnot. We look forward to playing a match against you! GameKnot has played two matches vs. other sites in the past, and we have enjoyed the competition very much. It is my sincere hope that we can pull this thing off! As FICGS is a newer site with a smaller community than ours, we hope that you guys can field a team of approximately 12-20 players of ALL ratings ranges. We intend to put up at least 2 players in each of 7 ratings classes (U2400, U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400, and U1200). The rules of the match are currently being negotiated between Thibault and myself, and we would like to commence as soon as possible. I highly encourage the members of FICGS to participate, as these matches are a lot of fun! You guys will get a chance to visit our site, and we yours. Please contact Thibault and sign on! We look forward to seeing you OTB :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-18 14:00:30)
FICGS vs. GameKnot

Thomas :

I agree with you, the match is for fun only, I like the idea whatever the result, even 100-0 :) .. If players use engines, their problem.. we can't avoid the risk totally... I think it's more logical to prohibite databases too or to allow both databases and chess engines, playing "real correspondence chess", and we could have a larger team for sure... Still discussing.


Miguel :

I prefer to avoid to "mail" everyone about the match.. It's clearly announced in the news, so I think most players here are "more CC ones" and don't trust the no use of engines...


Ilmars Cirulis    (2006-09-19 17:36:22)
Really!

New moves for white are waiting your reply! (: Nothing is known yet. Cirulis


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-19 18:36:06)
Suggestion : Red boards

Just added new designs (psychedelic boards)... I'll try to make ones dedicated to chess champions and so on :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-20 01:55:46)
First blitz game (draw)... 1.d4 f5

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3351

Topalov plays dutch defense... ? :)


Ilmars Cirulis    (2006-09-20 03:35:19)
I understand.

But i still believe that white wins!!! :D I made new move in Kxf2 variation, and some moves instead of exd5. And I believe that it is possible to analyze all lines. Of course, not in one day. May be in 10, 30, 100, 1000 days. :D :D :D


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-20 05:05:54)
Chess world champions

New designs !

With photos of chess world champions : Topalov, Kramnik, Kasparov, Fischer, Tal, Alekhine, Steinitz, Capablanca, Botvinnik, Spassky, Karpov & Lasker.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-26 15:29:42)
Thematic : Beefeater defense

The new waiting list for next - 16th - thematic tournament is open...

Beefeater defense : 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 f5

Lines with 6.e4 are particularly interesting...


Dinesh De Silva    (2006-09-29 13:03:02)
Psycho(logical) games by Topalov's team?

[moderator : please don't copy exact content (news, articles..) from other websites]

Common toilet for both players.

29.09.2006 The Appeals Committee of FIDE has taken a decision on protest by the Bulgarian delegation who, after viewing the video tapes, stated that Kramnik would visit the toilet too often. A common toilet will be opened for both players.

The Appeals Committee : FIDE Deputy President IM Georgios Makropoulos, Continental President for Americas FM Jorge Vega, FIDE Vice President Zurab Azmaiparashvili.

More - http://www.chessbase.com


Dinesh De Silva    (2006-09-29 13:09:10)
Psycho(logical) games?...........

Silvio Danailov., Manager of the Bulgarian team says:

To all mass media

Ladies and Gentlemen,

After we got acquainted with the ruling of the Appeals Committee of the Topalov vs. Kramnik world championship match we deem it necessary to point out the following:

The ruling in its present form is not satisfactory to us since it practically does not result in any change. Mr. Kramnik will be able to visit the new bathroom an unlimited number of times without being subject to further control.

We would accept the current relaxation rooms to continue to be used provided that the presence of controllers in both rooms is ensured.

When the two players need to go to the bathroom, they should be accompanied by an assistant arbiter.

The checks carried out in the relaxation rooms were made only by experts of the Organizing Committee, whereas our experts were present as observers and only after the second game.

We find it difficult to understand why is it that the accredited journalists are denied access to the video tapes from the relaxation rooms.

The World Champion Veselin Topalov is outraged by the suspicious behavior of his opponent Mr. Vladimir Kramnik who in actual fact takes his most significant decisions in the bathroom.

Despite the above, in the name of the chess game and out of respect to FIDE, to Kalmikia and the millions of chess lovers, Veselin Topalov is willing to continue his participation in the match provided that measures to guarantee fair play are taken.

If the match were to continue, the World Champion would refrain from shaking hands with Mr. Kramnik before the games and would not take part in joint press conferences with him. Veselin Topalov will make statements for the media separately.

We look forward to receiving your response by 14.30 h hoping that it will give concrete answers to the questions that we pose.

28.09.2006
Elista Sincerely:
Silvio Danailov
Manager of the Bulgarian team


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-29 15:57:14)
Fischer vs. Spassky ?

Vladimir Kramnik did not play game 5 !

All this reminds me the first match Fischer vs. Spassky... In a documentary, Boris Spassky said he lost the match when he accepted Fischer's new conditions (ie. playing in another room) in order to continue to play...

Seems to be quite the same situation here...

Now who made the mistake : Kramnik, Topalov or FIDE... I hope game 5 will be replayed.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-09-30 03:31:40)
Topalov vs. FIDE vs. Kramnik

I agree with you, Nigel.

Obviously Topalov's team 'manipulates' FIDE against Kramnik. Worked quite well... But now the situation seems to be best for both Topalov and Kramnik... If the match does not continue Kramnik will stay clear classical World Chess Champion (3-1) with a new legitimacy, Topalov will stay clear FIDE World Chess Champion (playing the best chess) and FIDE will remain... the organizer of chess championships in Kalmykia... :/

Finally, only FIDE made a clear mistake during the event, but is it so important... Kramnik wins, Topalov wins, Ilyumzhinov always wins...

I hope the match will continue but I'm not very optimistic.


Ilmars Cirulis    (2006-09-30 23:06:46)
Suggestion...

Hi, Thibault. What about new feature - theoretical matches. Example. One [A] think - in the line white wins, another [B] - it's drawish. [A] plays 6 games with white pieces against [B]. I'm OK to wait a year or two. :D For example, I think - 6.e4 is drawish. :D :D Yes, I know. I am thinking too much. :D Cirulis


Dinesh De Silva    (2006-10-01 07:34:31)
Re:

Hello! What's the latest news?!....... Is the Kramnik vs Topalov match going ahead?


Dinesh De Silva    (2006-10-03 01:01:03)
Re:

Thibault, you have made a good observation there. But there's some news that Kirsan might hand over FIDE professional match organization part to Besel Kok, who ran against him at FIDE elections. Kok might decide to have a candidates style of qualifying, instead of knockout.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-10-03 14:52:20)
Kasparov on the match

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3396

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009029


James Stripes    (2006-10-03 16:13:13)
curious

I have approximately 64 chess engines, including the beta version of Rybka 1 (the free version). In engine tournaments on my box, it has prevailed against my strongest commercial engines. However, the centaur play that is the norm here presents Rybka with an entirely different sort of playing environment than those in which it has demonstrated its superiority. As I am new to this type of play, I don't yet know how Rybka measures up to the likes of Junior, Shredder, and Hiarcs.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-10-03 23:01:05)
not dead

I just added some lines.. Forget about this, Ilmars :) .. there are too many lines to analyze, and there's no way to prove anything !

If you want to bet on this, you'll loose money for sure... ;)

To begin a new line in messages, just type "< br >" (without the spaces)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-10-04 12:35:23)
Yasser Seirawan

... on the crisis. (interesting)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3398


Yannick Maret    (2006-10-06 10:56:18)
I am new here

but I would think that for non-master it makes sense to use chess engine only to check that the chosen move doesn't give a tactical opportunity to the opponent... Anyway, I play without the help of chess-engine since I think chess-engine would take away fun from chess. But still, as Rodrigo said they could be an interesting learning tools!


Don Groves    (2006-10-05 08:05:37)
Why not manage the pace yourself?

If you only have time to make two moves per day then do that. You will then only receive two new moves per day maximum. If you don't want the emails in your inbox, create a box for unanswered moves, keep them there, and answer them at your own pace. Just my 2 pence.


Rodrigo Jaroszewski    (2006-10-05 11:42:35)
Re:

Basically, I'm playing to force myself to learn. In July, when I began my first game in FICGS, I knew nothing and had nobody to teach me. Since the probabilities of me ever having a tutor are dim, I knew I had to learn alone.

FICS won't cut it, because the guys at my level generally memorize a line and go for it until the bitter end. Having no opening knowledge I would generally end up in a bad spot until the midgame, where I can handle myself better. I rarely got past move 15 there.

OTB won't do for me, because I don't even know if there's a chess club in my city. I had a neighbor that used to play with me, but I quickly got past him on knowledge.

Studying database games is just not my style. I can't get drawn into the game if I'm not playing. If I choose the bad move I have to feel threatened by it, it has to have a consequence to me.

Thus, I'm here at FICGS. Before every move I'm able to analyze it and how the line goes forward, to understand why it is a good move. Plus, I'm able to test the moves that come to my head and check them (generally to find out they are outright suicidal).

In the end, I think my opponent wins something back, which is an entertaining and hopefully instructive game.

P.S.: BTW, just so you know, I play clean on FICS and OTB. I think those are, after some time at FICGS, becoming instructive environments on their own right.


Yannick Maret    (2006-10-10 11:37:56)
Hmm

Thanks for the links... I will have a look!

Actually, I'm looking for a program on which I can set the actual position of a game. Ideally, I would then propose a move and the program would tell me if the move is sound or not (without giving its reasons). Then I can figure out by myself why the move is unsound and choose a new one... without being overly influenced by the engine.

Hmm, I guess I want too much... and should implement an interface for doing just that :(


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-10-10 16:16:37)
To be continued...

Open Letter

To
FIDE President
H.E. Kirsan Illyumzhinov

To
Head of the 2006 Executive Committee
Mr. Valery Bovaev

Dear Mr President, Gentlemen,

Having received innumerable published and unpublished inquiries I would like to clarify, in the name of Vladimir Kramnik and his team, our position in the decision taken by FIDE regarding the fifth game of the current World Championship match.

As you know Vladimir Kramnik is playing the current match under protest. Nothing has changed in our attitude, which is documented by Kramnik’s actions around the fifth game and our statements, protests and letters:

29.09.2006:
http://www.kramnik.com/eng/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=104
02.10.2006:
http://www.kramnik.com/eng/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=106
04.10.2006:
http://www.kramnik.com/eng/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=107

Consistent with this standpoint Vladimir Kramnik will be playing this match, including a possible tiebreak, up to the last move under protest.

Should the decision of FIDE regarding the fifth game have any influence on the awarding of the World Championship title, with Mr Topalov receiving the title after being granted a free point for the unplayed game, Mr Kramnik declares unequivocally: “I will not recognize Mr Topalov as World Champion under these conditions, and I will take legal action against FIDE at the end of the World Championship.”

The damage done to Mr Kramnik in public opinion (e.g. the slander campaign) after the illegal release of private video images by the then FIDE Appeals Committee or the WCC 2006 Executive Committee to the Topalov team, and the subsequent release of these video images and private information of Mr Kramnik in his restroom to the mass media, as well as the interruption of the match, which broke Mr Kramnik’s concentration and playing rhythm, will all be part of the legal action which will be initiated.

As a sign of good will Mr Kramnik once again requests FIDE to arrange for game five to be played out on the board immediately after game 12. This in our opinion is the only way to alleviate the personal, sporting, judicial and ethical injuries that have been incurred by Mr Kramnik.


Elista, October 10, 2006
On behalf of Vladimir Kramnik
Yours sincerely
Carsten Hensel
(Manager to Vladimir Kramnik, Classical World Chess Champion)


Wolfgang Utesch    (2006-10-13 19:26:48)
Game of time ?!?!

The point is that only one player seems to be in zeitnot, but NO - it is just his tactic (in all games) - strange attitude - he loves it to do his last move before new time count (after move 10, 20 etc) always in the last minute.


Dinesh De Silva    (2006-10-14 06:45:39)
Re:

Hi, Utesch, Rada & Thibault, I guess this thread is about me?! Let me clarify...... I am in over 80 games at this time in FICGS, ICCF, LIAPE, and IECG. Quite a few of the games are world championship final matches, world candidate matches & world champioship matches. So I have to naturally concentrate on those critical middle games & end games matches mainly. I'm only human. I have a severe case of catarrh due to break of rest. So in ccertain games I get into time trouble, but as you can see I try to be very creative/original in my games & try to find new variations even in openings.


Dinesh De Silva    (2006-10-14 07:16:49)
Re:

Hi, chess friend Utesch! I have no leave time left, as FICGS only allows 30 days leave, and I had to use it up in the early part of this year. So, there's not a single day of leave for this year. (If you check with Thibault, you'll see that I haven't entered for any new tournaments since more than two months).


Scott Prestwood    (2006-10-21 02:42:17)
Moderation in everything

I find it easy to take on too many correspondence games my self. I prefer to have time to analyze as this is the tradition of coorespondence chess. I often feel busy (zeitnot as you call it) with just 15 games with long time controls. Some principals I use in moderating my challenge rate are; 1) I dont start new games if I have a game under 15 moves in progress, opening require less analysis, and the mid game is where most of the work is done. 2) whatever the estimated days per moves is I limit myself to 1/4th of that as my limit of games. i.e. if the average days per moves is 12 days I will try to keep around 3 games going if possible. These limits work well and I'm on several coorespondence sites.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-10-24 13:06:31)
Anatoly Karpov, world champion...

... signing 1951 copies of the book (written by David Llada) "Karpov, el camino de una voluntad" - record of most books autographed by a celebrity.. previous holder was Bill Cullen, who signed 1848 copies of his book "Golden Apples" in april 2005.

Quite funny & great performance :) .. this chess festival in Mexico city obviously was a nice event : Simultaneous exhibition with 14,000 participants (world record), rapid chess tournament with Korchnoi, Kosteniuk, Karjakin & Hernandez...


http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3446


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-10-25 11:47:22)
Once upon a time in Kalmykia

An interesting interview of FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov about future of chess, reunification match and other things...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3448


I can't resist this quote :


Misha Savinov : Bearing in mind successful unification, do you see a chance of Kasparov returning to chess?

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov : In my opinion, Garry will not return. His age will not permit him returning, chess advanced too far. But, of course, we would all be happy if he returns. Actually, I would be happy if not only Kasparov, but also Spassky and Fischer come back. If they do, I am ready to organize a supermatch of FIDE champions. A good idea, by the way! We’ll invite Vassily Vassilyevich Smyslov, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Khalifman, Kasimdzhanov, Topalov, Anand, Ponomariov… It is going to be a good supertournament!

Misha Savinov : In Elista?

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov : In Elista. And, probably, it will be 25-minute games, double round-robin. I wonder if Fischer accepts the invitation, what do you think? We will announce the winner a superabsolute champion (laughs)!

Misha Savinov : One can call it an open championship of Kalmykia…

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov : Are you suggesting inviting the Kalmyk champion of 1978? I think I could play 25-minute games…


.....


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-10-28 15:59:37)
Chess quizz :-)

I see the interview (1) was also published on Chessbase news..
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3454


Some other questions...


3/ Will Kasparov return at competitive chess ?

4/ Will Kramnik defend his new FIDE title ?

5/ How many years Kirsan Iljumzhinov will still remain FIDE president ?

6/ Will Fritz 10 beat Kramnik ??

7/ Will chess be solved by a super computer in the next 200 years ?

8/ Who will win the 1st FICGS world championship ? :)



... my answers :


2/ Boris Spassky

3/ Yes !

4/ No

5/ 8 years

6/ No

7/ No

8/ Joker :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-10-30 20:20:03)
2nd FICGS chess WCH waiting list is open

Hello to all.

The waiting list for the 2nd FICGS chess world championship is open !

The 2nd stage of the first cycle may begin before the end of 2006. Thus, a new WCH cycle should begin every 6 months !


A small update in the rules : "A player can't be involved in two consecutive knockout tournaments." (of course, the 8 players involved in the quarter finals during the last cycle can enter the round-robin tournaments cycle)

Several logical reasons to this change : More fun & more chances for more high-rated players, decreasing the risk of rating peaks & to see a world champion involved in several knockout tournaments & candidates finals... to play the final match against himself :)

[edit : this rule is no more effective, simulations show the results wouldn't be interesting enough, and as it will be hard to start a new WCH cycle every 6 months, it's simply better to see the highest rated players in the knockout tournament, whatever the consequences]

Good luck & best wishes to all...


Saksham Wal    (2006-10-31 22:53:03)
Help For New Members


I tried to check all existing post, but could not find what i Needed. Can someone Please Help me out in Few Things

1. How do i Start a Single Game Here ? Or playing Tournaments is the only way?

How do i find out which Tournaments are Open to join and which ones are already closed?

2. Are all moves played by e-mail(if yes, how?) or is there on site-java based Interface or something of the sort (eg: like features on GameKnot )

I understand that my Questions Might happen to be silly but well... i-need-to-know...

Hope this topic does not annoy anyone.

Regards



Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-01 01:18:04)
Help For New Members

Too late, you & Roger were faster than me :)

I'll try to improve the F.A.Q. in Help...

Best wishes.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-02 13:38:33)
Danailov

A disciple of Schopenhauer ? Anyway, he will be right, always... Great job.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3464


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-04 14:01:17)
re: the timeout

Hi Thomas.

I have no news from Benjamin, sorry about that. It's 2 points more for GameKnot.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-05 12:45:06)
Fischer : "Now chess is completely dead"

A new interview from the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3468

No surprise : Fischer’s problems with the Union Bank of Switzerland, United states founded and being run by extremists, Capablanca brillancy, but also : "I don’t like chess any more" (what about chess 960 ?), "Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorisation and prearrangement. It’s a terrible game now. Very uncreative"...

I just wonder.. How can we find so much pleasure in correspondence chess ? .. Was his pleasure only to destroy weak players or in real challenges against strong[er] players (ie. Karpov).. I can understand why a grandmaster stop to play competitive chess because it's too hard & it takes too much time, but I can't explain myself such a champion finding "limits" to chess & getting no more pleasure...

"Play Go !" :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-11 05:47:37)
All tournament boards on a single page

A new update...

Reminder : When browsing a tournament page, if you click the "photo" icon at the right of the name of the tournament, all boards, moves and public comments will be displayed on the same page.

It may take more than 30 seconds the very first time (these days, because of the update), but then it should be much.. much faster...


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-12 02:26:10)
New chessboards (design)

Hello to all.

You can now choose (see in 'Preferences') new sizes & sets of chessboards. It's still quite basical, but I'll try to find other sets of boards in a while... My suggestion : Default (big)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-12 15:41:35)
Chess problem

In wikichess you "just" have to follow the opening, then enter all new moves of your game until the position or complete game (but you would give the solution)... You may 'sign' the game at the end with this comment :

End of game : W. Utesch - Opponent : 1-0 (ICCF)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-12 17:46:57)
Black to move!

Ok, that's quite funny I didn't consider the most natural move because it's a chess problem :) .. g5 is also chosen by most engines quite quickly.

Anyway, the win is still to prove. I'll try some lines in wikichess.

Note : A new feed (RSS) will be available for wikichess very soon.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-13 18:10:25)
New forum section : Problems

Hello to all.

You may have noticed a new line in the menu : Problems (above forum)... This is a new forum dedicated to Chess & Go problems !

Feel free to submit any interesting & challenging position :)

Feedbacks are welcome.


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!


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-14 16:47:18)
Kramnik vs. Deep Fritz, 2006

In less than 2 weeks from now, classical & FIDE world champion Vladimir Kramnik will play the best (at least most famous) chess program Deep Fritz 10 !

From november 25 to december 5, 2006 at the Federal Art Hall in Bonn. One million US dollars for Kramnik if he defeats Deep Fritz, half this amount otherwise...

We did not forget the previous match in Bahrain (2002), that ended with a 3-3 score.

Do you feel Fritz improved enough to beat a player like Kramnik, who most probably improved his play too... Will Kramnik play rather different openings than in his match against Topalov ? .. Anyway it should be an interesting match to follow.


A few links :

http://www.kramnik.com/eng/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=95
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2947



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    (2006-11-15 23:49:04)
Classical

A new chessboard has just been added : Classical (quite big)

Also a new background : Flying


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-16 13:02:24)
Suggestion

The idea to jump the first time control (not to add 40 days at move 10) would have been interesting if we knew 'where' ends the opening, but that's quite impossible... The real problem is some players can't connect so often, or play so quickly !

It may be frustrating in some cases but that's correspondence chess... I connect about 20 times a day but I have many games and I feel in zeitnot in some of them. As for me it depends more on the game than on the time control...


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-17 18:59:02)
Tournaments with money prizes

Hello to all.

Finally, Chess & Go tournaments with money prizes will begin in 2007 january !

"Money chess" is an all times controversy, many players play for fun only (even at the highest levels), others like much more this way of play. I think it's simply the most challenging, finally it quite looks like classical tournaments.

About Go, things are quite different, as software & particularly engines are a negligible factor in the play. The best players will probably always win, but weak players may be interested in a lesson.


You may have noticed some changes in the waiting list categories for money tournaments :

Two formats for 2-players matches will be available, 8 games matches (time control 30 days + 1 day / move) and 2 games duels (time control 40 days + 40 days / 10 moves) renewed in case of a draw.

Simultaneous games will be also organized with international masters for both games, with prizes shared if some players could beat the masters.

Of course, it won't change anything to the free tournaments & championships, it will be optional only. I hope it will help to provide prizes for the FICGS chess & Go world championships (sponsors are welcome :)) ...

The membership page - Terms and Conditions - has also been updated.

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

Some major changes (as in money tournaments pages) might happen until 2007 january.


Feel free to post here if you have any comment or suggestion.

Best wishes.


Marc Lacrosse    (2006-11-19 13:33:40)
Where else do/did you play corr. chess ?

I just wondered where else did some of us play before coming on FICGS (and do some of us still play elsewhere ?).

Thibault I could not find you on AJEC or ICCF listings although I see you are a regular poster on ICCF's forum (TCCMB): where did you play before ?

For what regards myself I played in ICCF tournaments in 2000-2003 than switched to playchess.de and then here. And now I just began with ICCF play at new : I had one half master norm there and thought it could be nice try to get the other half :-)

Marc


Dorel Oltean    (2006-11-19 15:51:50)
retire, come back. What's next ?

Is allowed to retire from FICGS tournaments (loosing around 10 games on time) and then come back to resume unfinished games and start new ones? The answer is YES , it happened and , after more then a week from my previous message, it seems it can happen again. The soft reaction of the administrator of the site and the totally (surprising for me) lack of reaction from any FICGS member showed it’s only me who has a problem. (Maybe, by changing the subject, my message was hidden behind the discussions about ‘the 60 days rule’). I cannot accept that ! For me chess is a serious thing. I consider chess a sport where the equality of chances and the respect for the competition must be the first rules. So I decided to retire from all FICGS tournaments . In M02 group I didn’t finished any game so my retiring will not affect the final standing. In WCH M01 I have only one unfinished game and my opponent will finish second last anyway. So my withdraw will only permit someone else to finish first and qualify instead of me. In my last group, A02 I wish to finish my remaining game (if I am allowed) than I will leave, with real sorrow, FICGS for good. Whishing you nice games Dorel Oltean


Daniel Khayman    (2006-11-19 18:20:37)
Messages

Hello everyone, I'm new here and have joined after recommendation from Mr. Wayne Lowrence, my good web friend and chess master (watch out for him:-). I've been trying to communicate within the site via text message but that seems to be impossible unless the receiver is your direct opponent; can anybody help me out? Is there a way of sending texts to whoever one likes? Thank you for dropping by, Daniel


Marius Zubac    (2006-11-19 19:21:59)
A penalty system is needed

Hello Thibault. I think that time has come for you to add new rules to FICGS and a penalty system (using penalty points) to discourage players from retire-comeback behavior. Loosing some games on time unless provoked by some unforeseen event should be also penalized although less severe. Upon reaching a certain number of penalty points the player should be prevented to register for new FICGS tournaments (let's say a half a year) and on resuming the penalized player should be only allowed to play a limited number of games until the lesson is learned. If you would compare FICGS list with the server-based IECG list you should notice that FICGS is less populated in the strong players section (2200+) than IECG and this has an impact on the quality of high-end tournaments, norms and titles and of course ratings. If we want to improve FICGS some action in this regard must be taken. I sympathize with Mr. Oltean and wish he reconsiders his decision. Marius


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-20 00:10:19)
WCH qualifications

Hi Miguel.

I'm afraid not :( ... I understand this is quite disappointing but I'm sure these rules that favorise ratings combined to the WCH rhythm (a new cycle every 6 months) give chances to everyone. The idea is statistical, your rating will increase so you will have more chances during the next cycle, and your opponent has more chances to win 2nd stage.


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

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


Lawrence Nesko    (2006-11-20 00:52:58)
Perhaps a silly question, but...

Hello, all. I'm new to the world of correspondence chess. So if my question is naive, or has been answered at some point in the past, I apologize. It seems that there are no single-elimination tournaments available on FICGS. Why is this? Please don't take this question as a form of comlaint. I'm merely curious. Have I overlooked something? Or is it simply not the norm in the chess world, correspondence or otherwise?


Daniel Khayman    (2006-11-20 08:23:52)
Wikichess

Still me and still new. It's not quite clear to me how this Wikichess function works and what its purpose is. It looks like some sort of communal board where anyone can make a move and comment on it but, can one go back and replay previous moves in a different way? and what else can one do? Thanks, Daniel


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-20 16:20:17)
Wikichess

Wikichess is a chess tree, you can go forward or back just by following the links - moves or 'back', then enter new moves...

When you browse Wikichess in contributor mode (when logged in), your name is automatically added but it will be recorded only if you submit the commentary. It's all explained on the wikichess page ;)


Lionel Vidal    (2006-11-20 16:40:27)
7.5 or 6.5 ?

In most recent pro games (eg. last meijin match) the komi was 6.5 if I remember well.
Oh, but that was japanese rule ?!? Is that where the difference comes from? hum, I am sure I *knew* that... :-(


Lionel Vidal    (2006-11-20 21:57:03)
Go handicap and rating

Is handicap Go really nonsensical in rated tournaments?
While it seems so in a world championship, where the aim is to determine the stronger player in an absolute sense, why should it be so in a tournament, where the aim is to determine the best player in a relative sense... hum, not a very clean or clear sentence, but I hope you got the idea :-)

In face to face Go, in most amateur tournaments, it is not a problem, and you can win or loose a tournament, win or loose points, playing with an handicap (some tournaments set a limit lower than 9 in the number of handicap stones). I do not know the formulae used to compute the knew ratings, but in practice it works well. (and the same thing works also in Shogi tournaments)

Before WWII, even pros played with handicap (one or two stones at most, more commonly with a fixed color and no komi) and that *for money*!! Nowadays this is not the case anymore: maybe the increase of pro-tournament prizes change the noble way to be the best of two players fighting *their best* at their *respective* level!

Anyway, I think such an idea may be interresting to motivate players: when weaker, I will fight my best because I have a chance to win, and when stronger, I *have* to fight well :-)

We could think of a rating system where you play your first, say, 20 games without handicap to get a starting rating, and then to receive or give handicaps automatically in tournaments. We could then consider a rating as fixed after a bunch of 20 more games...
Or any other system that will always generate tense and dangerous games! That will be, at least for me, a great motivation to play more :-)
(but then I do not care much for my rating :-))


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 %


Graham Wyborn    (2006-11-22 09:00:54)
Go Software

Which is the stronger program. Many Faces of Go version 11 or the new SmartGo 2.3


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-24 01:16:50)
dreams are not reality...

Elmer, let me dream a few days more, please :)

If the match is not 'arranged', everything can happen. I'm sure Kramnik can win 1 game or 2, and draw the other ones...

Chess engines have nothing more to prove, a win for Kramnik would give new interest for the match Kramnik vs. Fritz 12, a draw would be a non-event and a loss for Kramnik would be interpreted as "Chess is completely dead"... Not so good for Chessbase... Choose.

But finally, if Bobby was right ? :) .. (sure not)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-27 18:13:06)
Game 1 : Kramnik misses a win

GM Yasser Seirawan posted an article on Chessbase, explaining how Vladimir Kramnik missed the win against Deep Fritz in game 1 :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3508


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-28 13:38:30)
FICGS chat !

Hello to all.

You probably noticed this new window on the right... :)

This is a chat window, here you can write to everyone in the international chat, and to people from your country only (in your own language !). You can moderate the messages by clicking on the arrow just before each message (please use it with moderation)...

Question is : Should it be permanent or not ??

Two ways :

1. It could appear only from time to time...
2. There should be a way to close the window during the session.

Feel free to tell me if you encounter any problem... Thanks for feedback !


Jason Repa    (2006-11-28 20:32:05)
new chat bar

The "chat" bar you have added to the right of the screen is extremely annoying and makes it difficult to concentrate on the chess position. I am requesting that you remove it. You can put a link to the chat in the left "links" pane. It's not necessary to have to view this annoying chat bar constantly. If you're not willing to remove it, at the very least make it the same color as the rest of the page so it doesn't stick out visually as it does. Thank you!


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-28 23:06:59)
new chat bar

Hello Jason.

Sorry about that. I'll think about a new option in preferences to automatically disable the chat bar. However you can close it already during your session by clicking the arrow just before 'International chat'.

Thanks for feedback.


Don Groves    (2006-11-29 08:18:21)
"Next" request

The new next function still can be irritating when the game with the newest move is the one you want to skip until the end. Next takes me back to that game each time. Is it not possible to cycle through the list of games presented when one logs on? As new games become available, they can be added to the end of this list, not the beginning. In fact, a "Next Game" button beneath the board would be a nice feature, making it easy to skip over games needing more thought.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-11-29 14:59:14)
new chat bar

Hello again...

It's now possible to disable the chat bar permanently. Check the 'display chat bar' option in preferences.

Best wishes.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-01 15:26:55)
Blunders

Some nice blunders collected by Johannes Fischer (chess historian).

See at the bottom of this Chessbase article :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3514


Elmer Valderrama    (2006-12-01 22:13:19)
good news and bad news

Some good news and bad news for "deep" Fritz 10 (& CB..)

The good news is that game 4 was drawn with the computer playing a respectable good ending as White which forced Kramnik to display all his arsenal of strategic knowledge in endgames and his World class mastery to calmly withhold a difficult position...

The bad news is that "shallow" Toga would have played the same good moves made by Kramnik :-}


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-01 22:22:23)
good news and bad news

:))))))

One more and I create a heading "joke of the day" :)


Lionel Vidal    (2006-12-02 09:54:32)
A lone engine in CC :-)

Suppose I make the following test (it has certainily be proposed before, but let's do it again, for the fun of the argument):
- I buy a recent engine (say the new Fritz10)
- I play in some CC tournaments (I do not want to pay fees, so let's say, here at FICGS of course :-), and at iecg)
- I choose the first moves of all my games based on some statistics made on a CC base (just to avoid some openings statistically bad in CC)
- starting from a few moves before the engine goes out of its opening book (to be defined, maybe 4 moves) I let my average computer run 10 hours by move (around one night per move... I know, I sleep too much :-)
- I *always* play the very move the engine finds as best
- I play as many tournaments as I can, considering the time constraint that limits the number of games (just to get a meaningful rating as fast as possible)

Now, what rating do you think I can reach at most, strictly following these guidelines?
(note that if I know some basic maths to do the stats, I do not even have to know chess rules... although a basic knowledge is assumed to ease the play in practice)
Are you ready to bet on your guess ? :-)

In pratice, the test does not work, because the tester dies from boredom long before he gets any rating :-))


Elmer Valderrama    (2006-12-02 13:56:38)
Deep Joke

You have to agree that it's hard to be serious when a new program is more like a joke, a Deep Joke that is :p

OTOH I expect CB to get serious and release a really strong version of the program.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-02 21:31:26)
Enormous and Blindfold

Two new chessboards have just been added !

Enormous is really great and big enough... and Blindfold is for those who think chess is not hard enough :))


Charlie Neil    (2006-12-03 15:03:09)
New chessboards

Enormous is big enough! Sometimes size does matter. Thanks Thibault for another improvement to an improving site.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-09 19:17:43)
GNUchess

Lionel, are you sure about GNUchess ? .. seems quite weak to me, did you have a try with Fruit, Rybka 1.0 or Toga ?

About Scrabble, what do you think of my idea (several posts above) to eliminate chance completely ? I'm thinking about a new board (and name for the game) with these rules - letters 'out of bag' and ordered already - may look like a chess-scrabble ?!


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-10 16:20:16)
FIDE's world championship format

Quite good news...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3530

Ok, we'll have a final match between a challenger and the world champion, this is great !
(the worst is avoided)


In future, the challenger should be designated after a multi-stages round-robin tournaments cycle, then a candidates match (original :))

Will it be enough to attract sponsors... In my opinion the candidates match should be played in 6 games at least, and the knockout tournament should be at least 2 or 3 rounds long. Several round-robin tournaments, this looks like correspondence chess format and this is useful when you have many players and few time. I'm not sure it's a good choice for OTB world chess championship... :/

What do you think ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-14 00:09:56)
Rybka clearly the best engine vs. engine

I fully agree with both of you... We must be careful, even if all these results are really impressive, most chess engines have been designed to play against humans and to be useful analysis tools. As I said in another thread, there are still many things to improve to make it the best engine vs. engine fighter.

Nowadays, the best chess engines try to 'think' like humans and actually have inherited human weaknesses from them, so IMO a Hydra or Deep Blue would crush ie. Shredder or Junior which try to make it harder for human brain while Fritz is clearly better balanced.

Maybe this new engines generation started with Fruit which plays very solid. So Rybka, which is clearly designed to beat his rivals but I'm not convinced at all it is a better tool to play correspondence chess.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-16 03:55:35)
Topalov vs. Kramnik v2, is it worth ?

I don't know how many times Kramnik will have to defend his title if challengers provide the money, but I'm quite disappointed with this news of a match scheduled only 6 months after the previous one.

I suggest they organize a match Topalov vs. Deep Fritz 10 (reigning world champion) first...

What do you think ? :)


Lennart Oberg    (2006-12-16 11:35:56)
Change, please!!!!!

I´m new here, playing my first tour. and 2 guys make a few moves and then let the clocks run. Solution, every move within ( 3, 7, 10 days ) or you forfeit. That´s life in live chess! Regards, Lennart Oberg


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.


Jason Repa    (2006-12-18 07:56:00)
new chat bar

Thanks for allowing players to remove the chat bar in their preferences. It was getting annoying having to manually remove it every time upon logging in.


Wayne Lowrance    (2006-12-18 19:34:15)
Having said that

My personal Feeling is that Rybka has not proved itself in coorespondance chess and especially against top Gm's. It makes a lot of silly computer moves as do all engines That a Gm will exploit. So I guess I agree, more or less with Thibault that chess fritz10 probobly is #1. I have purchased all of the fritz engines except for fritz 9 and the new fritz10, which explains why I jumped on the chance to get fritz 9 for free here this site. Forget about that free stuff, but that is another subject that I wish not go into. P.S. Maybe Santa will deliver F10 to me :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-19 19:04:38)
Revenge

It seems the match already started :)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3553


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-24 17:25:20)
Karpov, Kasparov, Fischer play Go !

Just read this in IGN "Goama" newsletter (by Alexander Dinerchtein)

http://gogame.info/


"3. Both Karpov and Kasparov, former World Chess Champions plays Go on 10-kyu level."

"4. Somebody noticed, that Robert Fisher, the former Chess champion played Go a lot during his stay in Japan and reached the amateur 3-dan level."


Quite impressive. (particularly Fischer)


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-26 15:43:07)
Topalov disqualified for three years ?

Carsten Hensel (Vladimir Kramnik's manager) has submitted a complaint to FIDE, Veselin Topalov would have broken the ethical code of FIDE in a ABC interview.

More in Chessbase news :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3562


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-28 10:47:52)
Cheating : Future is now

An indian player (rated 1900, suddenly 2484) gets ten year ban from FIDE for cheating... Using a bluetooth device stitched into his cap to receive external computer assistance.

Source - http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3573


A new danger for OTB chess... Could suspicion (like Topalov-Kramnik match) kill the game ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-12-28 14:35:56)
Re:

I agree... But suspicion will increase anyway :/

I hope new technologies couldn't create undetectable tools in a near future.


Pablo Schmid    (2007-01-01 00:25:19)
Vacation 07

Happy new year Thibault and everyone. Could you put the new vacation for this new year today please? :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-01 05:18:51)
Vacation 2007

Done ;)

Happy new year !


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-01 08:43:24)
Web directory

Hello to all.

A new extension (one more) to FICGS...

If you have a website, feel free to submit the url in the web directory to get more links :

http://www.ficgs.com/directory.html

Based on FICGS forums script, you can post your website, review other sites... You just have to create a free account that gives access to SEO (Search Engines Optimization) forums and Web directory.

Note : To create a hypertext link in the directory, just type ie. [url=www.yourdomain.com/page.html]Your site[/url] without http, see help.


Miguel Pires    (2007-01-01 13:26:59)
Wayne Lowrance

Thank's, I'm going to do my best. lol Happy new year


Miguel Pires    (2007-01-02 15:32:11)
Interesting

One of the most interesting games i've played in the Portuguese oppening: http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=2851 The Novelty i intruduce is in move 15. I really don't now if is a good one but... Best regard's and an happy new year


Miguel Pires    (2007-01-02 17:22:41)
Re:

I'm going to try to translact this correctly: Queria aclararle solamente que yo no había recibido el mail que esta reenviando. "I wana elucidate you that i've not received the mail that you are recending" Por favor, asegurese que su servidor este funcionando bien. "Please, make sure that your mail server is working properlly." A partir de este momento, de no recibir alguno de vuestros mails, si despues hay un reclamo de parte de alguno de ustedes, deberé tomar como que el mensaje no se envió, cargando el tiempo perdido al jugador en falta. "After this moment, if i don't received some of your mails, and some of you make a complain, i assume that the message was not send, and the time lost is charged to the player that i've not received the message." Esta medida la tomaré de ahora en mas a fin de evitar inconvenientes y que la partida finalice de la mejor manera posible. "I make this to try to avoid any incovinients and to the game finish in the best whay possible" Pasando en limpio, en caso de no tener copias de vuestros envios, deberé decidir a favor del reclamante sin más tramite. "(I think is this the first word's) Making a resume, in any case of i don't have copies of your envoices (mails), i'm going to decide in favor of the player how complain, without any discussion (i think is this) Saludos cordiales y Feliz Ańo Nuevo. "Best regard's and Happy new year" I hoppe i help you Miguel Pires PS: Sorry the bad english :)


Elmer Valderrama    (2007-01-02 18:19:12)
my try

Miguel was quicker, here is my shot at it anyway (I thought it was a requirement for a referee in international CC to have a good command of English..]

====

I only wanted to clarify [to you] that I did not receive the mail that [you] are re-sending. Please, make sure that your [email] server is working well. As of this moment, if I do not receive any of your mails, [and then] there is a claim from anyone of you, I will assume that the message was not sent, charging the time spent to the player who default [didn't send a copy]. I will adopt this measure from now on in order to avoid missunderstandings and that the game finishes the best way. In summary, in case of not having copies of your mails, I will have to decide in favour of the claiming party immediately. Warm greetings and Happy New Year

=====


Elmer Valderrama    (2007-01-02 20:43:37)
Blitz correspondence chess

Programming problems you mean?

In a 1-game match I would gladly play Black all the time :) -provided that if draw Black "wins" of course-

It's tricky to make a fair 1-game match; the old proposal of giving odds to White (first two consecutive moves in a MUST WIN -other result loses- situation) would give White -I reckon- 60-to-70% chance to win, which is about the same odds as playing Black for a draw. But it's something new, which could be tested. Here I could play Black just to try to prove me wrong, lol.




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

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


Charlie Neil    (2007-01-03 23:04:06)
Blitz Chess on Ficgs

Hello Thibault and New Year greetings to you and your team. Blitz on ficgs. I've beeen thinking, would it be possible to have "real time" games? The human element is the difficult one there. As for the tournament set-up, how about a six round swiss system? Speaking as one down in the ratings basement, single pairings with a rapid time limit in the swiss pairing set-up would be fun. Setting games between opponents on a real time basis I imagine will be very difficult so, what about a really rapid time limit tourney 10 days plus a day a move. I'm sure there lots of options available. Well it's just a thought. No one likes drawing in a Swiss tourney, you have to play for the win!


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-03 23:57:33)
Blitz Chess

Hello Charlie, happy new year :)

What do you mean 'real time' games ? What about a time control like 10 moves / 1 hour or 40 moves / 2 hours ?

I'm not sure to understand the point... Swiss system means 6 rounds not played at the same time with complex pairings. Not usual in correspondence chess. Anyway, quite hard to win a round-robin with draws, isn't it :)


Barry Bell    (2007-01-07 18:50:34)
Association Website

Well, the second phase of development has started and you can visit the Anyone 4 Chess association webpage at http://www.association.anyone4chess.com this is not a online playing site and their are no logins required. It is dedicated to providing information and tool to webmasters and people who may want to become a webmaster of a online chess system. The site is young but we that over the next several months to have enough content to be of value to the new and old webmaster. Thanks


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-07 21:55:13)
chat (bug)

... was a small bug created when I added this option to remove permanently the chat bar (in preferences). Only new players were affected since that moment :/ .. Thanks !

I had to reinitialize this option for everyone, so feel free to remove the chat bar again if needed. Sorry about that.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-07 22:02:04)
Anyone4chess

Thanks for info, Barry.

Best wishes for the new year.


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-01-08 14:53:13)
My new little chess site ...

... is located at http://chessbazaar.mlweb.info

There will be some computer chess related stuff (opening books, collected ICC games, database processing tips, tests results ...) together with a few games, analyses, and maybe some historical data and so on.

Not that much so far, but I wish and hope that the baby will be growing fast :-)

Marc


Charlie Neil    (2007-01-08 17:18:31)
My little new chess site

Loved the pictures on chessbazaar. We have a cat in this house who knows that evolved monkeys are his servants. Good luck with the site.


Jaimie Wilson    (2007-01-08 18:00:37)
ECF ratings

There seem to be two formulae for converting between ECF (formerly the BCF) and FIDE ratings. The old one which still seems to be in use is ECF x 8 + 600 = FIDE ELO. A Newer formula I have seen is ECF x 5 + 1250 = FIDE ELO. This newer formula rates ECF players higher on the FIDE scale than the old one did. I don't know which is more accurate although I certainly like to believe that the old formula underestimates us a little bit. It's as clear as mud.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-08 18:14:32)
Chessbazaar

Good luck with this new chess site, Marc :)

What pictures are you talking about, Charlie ?? .. I may have problems to see it on this computer, I'll look at it on another one tomorrow...


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-10 20:11:09)
Fritz 10, Hiarcs 11 UCI

Did someone try Hiarcs 11 UCI already ? What do you think about this new engine ??

http://www.hiarcs.com

By the way, comments about Fritz 10, Junior 10, Shredder 10 are welcome, are they really better than previous versions ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-15 12:18:28)
Go : Korean awards

Korean awards 2006

Best player of the year: Lee Sedol, 9-dan
Fighting spirit prize: Seo Bongsu, 9-dan
Best junior master: Paek Hongsuk, 5-dan
Top female prize: Rui Naiwei, 9-dan
Best Korean amateur: U Dongha, 7-dan
Most popular male and female players: Lee Changho, 9-dan and Park Chiun, 6-dan


Korean records 2006

The highest number of wins: Lee Sedol, 9-dan, 78-28
The highest winning percentage: Paek Hongsuk, 5-dan, 77%
The longest winning streak: Lee Sedol, 9-dan, 14 games straight (2.13.2006 -3.21.2006)


From IGN "Goama" newsletter - http://gogame.info


Barry Bell    (2007-01-19 03:13:05)
Chess Ring

Hello I have already announced the new chess association located at http://www.association.anyone4chess.com however, I also wanted to mention the new chess ring located at http://www.chessring.anyone4chess.com even though the ring is only available to webmasters that run online chess systems, there is an optional link section that is available to any chess player that would like to advertise (place a link) to their chess website. Thanks


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    (2007-01-19 11:41:07)
FICGS login & registration problems

Hello to all.

It seems there are some login, password recovery & registration problems for a few players. I'm looking for an explanation...

Some can't register without getting message "please enter the correct number" while they did enter it, so it may be a format problem for numbers. (in this case please write to the email at the bottom of the page)

If you failed to obtain a new password that works with password recovery, just try once more and it will 'most probably' work.

Really strange... I'm inquiring.

An example : "Although I got a new password I was not able to use my account from my PC!-So I decided to log in from my colleague´s one and it worked - I don´t know why."

So some computers could send a format for numbers that the program does not recognize yet. (?!)


Benjamin Aldag    (2007-01-19 15:48:39)
new videos

...i will update my page http://www.dzindzi.de.vu tomorrow with new videos ;-)

benny


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-01-19 17:19:28)
Other forums that I visit daily

A few other computer-chess-related ones :

Winboard forum :
http://wbforum.vpittlik.org/

WBEC Ridderkerk forum (associated with one of the most reknowned engines evaluation site):
http://f27.parsimony.net/forum67828/index.htm

CSS-forum (german):
http://www.computerschach.de/forum/

Le Fou numérique (french):
http://f50.parsimony.net/forum200321/

And a very nice yahoo group devoted to unorthodox openings :

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/UnorthodoxChessOpenings


In another category I like the two following blogs where there are very lively daily discussions on every chess-related news :

Susan Polgar's one :
http://www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com/

Mig Greengard' daily dirt :
http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/

Marc


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-21 13:48:44)
Go and chess, IGN Goama newsletter

From IGN Goama newsletter by Alexander Dinerchtein - http://www.gogame.info


Go and Chess ­ Two Games, Shared Experiences

Chess and go show are similar in many ways, yet it's always strange to see how the masters of each game try to "invent the wheel", instead of benefiting from the knowledge of their colleagues.

Let's consider sharing experiences!

These ideas can be useful even for strong Asian Go professionals:

1. Currently, only a few pros use Go databases and programs for studying. It is easy to find commentaries, written by 9-dan masters, which state that a move is new and has never been played before. Yet if one checks such moves in Go databases, one can sometimes find up to 100 examples from professional games. How can they cheat the readers who study these commentaries?

Once in Korea, I showed the Bigo Assistant program (similar to GoGod, MoyoGo and SmartGo) to Lee Sedol's brother Lee Sanghun, 5-dan, who is the director of a large children's Go school. He was surprised and said that the program looked very useful, and he added that he had never met this kind of program before. He even suggested deleting all amateur games and games played on Go servers, because of their low quality. I promised to order the programs and to install them on the school's computers if he liked this idea, but he did not follow up. Lee Sanghun, 5-dan was not able to break the traditions of his forefathers …

2. Even such top chess players as Kasparov, Kramnik and Topalov enlist the support of trainers during important tournaments and matches. During the Communist era, almost every Russian grandmaster worked on behalf of world championship candidates. Our government forced them to help, to show them new moves and ideas. Those who refused to help were punished severely: for example, sometimes a player would be prohibited from playing in tournaments abroad and would be refused foreign visas.

We do not see this in Go. Everyone thinks only about his or her own self. Do you know who is currently assisting Lee Changho? I don't know, either!

3. I would like to say a few words about playing technique. Chess players often used to write the move on paper first and then make it on the board. This helps to avoid impulsive moves and to prevent blunders. Go masters record the game afterwards, and so one can often find terrible mistakes, such as overlooking ataris and recapturing ko without playing a ko threat first. As an example you may see Black's move number 271 from this game: http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/collection/sgfview.php?id=10828 I am sure that if a player looked at their move at least twice ­ before they write it on paper and after ­ they would not make such mistakes.

4. Even top Go tournaments are usually run by the knock-out system so we often see sensational results. Mightn’t it be reasonable to think about increasing the number of games in each round? If rounds were best-of-three (in case of time constraints, it would be possible to use blitz time controls for the third game), it would help to minimize sensations.

How about organising a definitive World Go Championship? Chess players have contested one for more than 100 years, and competitions for this World Championship have revealed the very best players of each generation. In Go it's harder to tell which player is true champion. In 2006, for instance, one international tournament was won by Lee Changho and another one by Lee Sedol, while Cho U won the largest amount of prize money. Whom can we call the World Champion? Who can say which tournament is the most important : LG, Samsung, Fujitsu, Chunlan or another? We don't even have a unified rating system …

If we determined a single World Go Champion, he might earn the same degree of popularity as Garry Kasparov achieved in chess, and this could have a very positive influence on Go popularity around the world!


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-21 14:31:00)
Chess ratings

Hello to all.

I have been submitted this case :

"Rating system: Look at this situation: Current rating ot the player: 2200, 10 games, all players with TER 2200, result 9=, 1+ Case 1: Finished games: 01.01-28.02: 9= --> New rating 01.03: 2200 01.03., no other finished games in this period: --> New rating 01.05: 2228 Case 2: Finished games 01.01-28.02: 9=, 1+ --> New rating 01.03: 2200 --> New rating 01.03. 2214 In case 1 the value of the won game was 28, in case two it was 14. IMO the value of a result should not depend from the number of games you finish in a period. The value of a result only should depend on the rating of both players that they have at the start (preferable) or at the finish date of the game and the result. And the rating formula should be like NewRating = LastRating + SumOfAllValuesOfFinishedGamesInThisPeriod. That's the way (idea) IECG is computing the ratings."


This result looks quite normal to me as a player's level may increase as time passes. Rating calculations are done after periods long enough to avoid big differences... I don't know if you're right about IECG rating calculation, FICGS ratings seem to evolve quicker and I think it's best. By the way this system is used by several chess federations.

Best wishes.


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2007-01-21 15:16:26)
Chess ratings

I have formatted my message (and partly corrected) to be able to read the text better.

Rating system:
Look at this situation: Current rating ot the player: 2200,
10 games, all players with TER 2200, result 9=, 1+

Case 1: Finished games:
01.01-28.02: 9= New rating 01.03: 2200
01.03. 1+, no other finished games in this period: --> New rating 01.05: 2228

Case 2:
Finished games 01.01-28.02: 9=, 1+ --> New rating 01.03: 2214

In case 1 the value of the won game was 28, in case two it was 14.

IMO the value of a result should not depend from the number of games you have finished in a period. The value of a result only should depend on the rating of both players that they have at the start (preferable) or at the finish date of the game and the result. And the rating formula should be like
NewRating = LastRating + SumOfAllValuesOfFinishedGamesInThisPeriod.

That's the way (idea) IECG is computing the ratings.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-23 12:27:06)
Famous chess games

Hello to all.

I am testing a new database which will contain famous chess games / games from famous chess players... World championships, Man vs. Machine, Computer games, Correspondence chess, Curiosities etc.. Now 2200+ games in, but it will grow quickly.

Feel free to suggest any link with interesting free chess database, or you may send to me PGN games (particularly looking for non-chess celebrities chess games).

http://www.ficgs.com/informations.html

(see A-Z)


All suggestions & feedback are welcome. Thanks in advance :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-25 11:32:27)
paragraph

Oops... You mean to begin a new line in the forum ? .. See above the response form "(please use < br > html tag to begin a new line)", without spaces in BR tag..

Maybe I'll change that in a while.


Michael Finkelstein    (2007-01-26 05:23:20)
playback

Dear Thibault, Thank you for your response. I do indeed ask how can I start a new line in a forum post. You advise that I do the following: please use < br > html tag to begin a new line)", without spaces in BR tag.. I do not know what that is. Mike


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-26 09:08:24)
new line

See above the response form ;)


Miguel Pires    (2007-01-26 21:36:21)
Scandinavian defense

Hi, I wana sugest a new thematical tournament: 1. e4 d5; 2. exd5 Nf6 I think is called the Portuguese atack in the scandinavian defense. What you think?


Miguel Pires    (2007-01-27 11:09:59)
Thibault de Vassal

I can't say if the portuguese attack start's with Nf6 or after d4 Bg4, because i never study this. Like you say i find a new line that was "invented" by portugueses: 1.d4 d6; 2. c4 e5; 3. dxe5 Nc6!? IS called (in Portugal) The Gambit of Barreiro. when you wana you can start a new thematicall tournament


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-01-28 14:01:35)
IGN Goama

Lionel, your answer has been published in 41st IGN Goama newsletter... :)

Another answer :


"Also we got a letter from Benjamin Schooley:

Dear Alex, I have been having these very same thoughts. I think after awhile I started to accept the way things were done in the East and tried to see the positive side of it. Maybe three world champions are better than one. And really isn't it better that people don't have endless helpers and seconds, then it almost becomes a matter of who has the most help and the most money to hire that help and not the most skill on an individual basis. But I do get the sense there is more of a community in Go. Go players are more apt to share their ideas and puzzles with each other and not prepare secret variations in some unscrupulous plot. I would be more curious if the Korean paper at least acknowledges your thoughts, I highly doubt they will try to change anything though.

Still I do lament the absence of a broader tournament format. Not all are knockout but they all tend to have the knockout "flavor." I think some players who are really talented get overlooked (Hane Naoki) because their playing style doesn't mesh as well with a knockout tournament. On the other hand people who have novel playing styles like Cho U and Takao Shinji do pretty well in the KO format. They benefit from a smaller sample size, harder to get a read on their strengths and weaknesses."


Wladyslaw Krol    (2007-02-02 17:01:05)
Bryntse opening ?!

Marc, thank you for publish very interesting article. It is new for me. Wladyslaw


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-02-03 18:09:12)
To Richard & Benjamin

There are dozens of web-server-chess sites where computer use is forbidden.
If you cannot see any interest in computer-assisted play why do you play here ?
Nothing requested you to play here ...
I won't argue on the interest of computer-assisted chess. It's a question of taste and I do completely understand that you do not like it.
Every month there is a new thread in the forum complaining against computer-assisted cheaters or defending the gimmick of the poor computer-assisted idiot unable to play on its own.
This I cannot accept : go away to these numerous sites where computer is forbidden (and real cheaters abound) and let us play according to the rules of this site !
By the way if you wish do choose any engine of your liking and do let it play alone without human intervention a pair of games against any of the 100 best rated players here. I am ready to bet that the computer alone is probably going to lose both games or at most to get one draw.
Then you will maybe understand why the human touch is decisive in these games.
And as I already said on numerous occasions, when I am going to spend dozens of hours analysing a foregoing game all along months of play I prefer that my opponent won't spoil it due to a pure magnificent and so-human blunder.
Winning against blundering self-comfident purely human opponents has no taste at all IMHO

I prefer fighting hard against one who has all kind of book and computer help assisting him.

Marc


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-07 00:52:58)
Rybka 2.3

An interesting thread about Rybka 2.3 (should be available on february 12) and his new features, described by Vasik Rajlich. In a few words : stronger, new chess knowledge, better search algorithm, better positional play, bug fixes and an interesting feature called "randomizer" :

Quote : "You can put Rybka into a mode where she will play against herself over and over from the same position without repeating variations - she will systematically explore the space of possibilities in the variation, branching from the previous games at later and later points. It's an effective way to get a Monte-Carlo-based evaluation of a position."

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=180


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-07 18:26:15)
Illya Nyzhnyk

Younger and younger...

The new chess phenomenon seems to be this young boy, Illya Nyzhnyk (birthdate 27.09.1996). He just won Moscow open B (8,5/9 - perf 2633 !)

Impresssive, what do you think ?


http://www.dril-chess.com/

Simultaneous video
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DbGwDRgVOhZs

Article from Scacchierando
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=890


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-08 11:33:25)
Why I play here

I don't know if playing here is similar to being at an OTB club (well I forgot what it is :)), but I do appreciate to have time to discuss with my opponents.

About complaining, it looks like things are going really better for a few months, the site may be not very clear everywhere yet and I'm still late with new features to come, but that's encouraging :) .. Also I'd like to thank all people responding to newcomers in the forum & chat before I can see it. And last but not least, thanks everyone for the friendly peace that reigns here :)


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

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

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

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


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

Rybka taught us several things IMO :

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

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


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

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

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

My two cents.


Benjamin Aldag    (2007-02-10 18:01:06)
New free chessvideo !!!

Hi,

a new free chess-videolecture is only since yesterday. Its about the 'Dzindzi Indian Defense'.

@ http://www.dzindzi.de.vu

yk


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-12 09:08:13)
Chessbase news

The Elista battle continues...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3664


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-12 09:47:18)
Rybka 2.3

The new version of the engine seems to be late, and it seems not only authors of chess engines are addicted to computerchess :)

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=204#fp


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-13 11:14:43)
Funny video

Have a look at this video posted on Chessbase news !

"The truly universal simultaneous master"

Really funny :)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3665


Benjamin Aldag    (2007-02-15 12:30:33)
YOU FLAME !

@ Marc Lacrosse

The discussion is not about to change something. It is about to build a new feature here. It would be kewl to see a little (c) in the profiles of computerusers.

Please dont flame here about 'what is allowed and whats not allowed' !!!

IT IS ALLOWED TO USE A COMPUTER-ASSISTENCE !!!! AND THIS IS OK FOR ME !!!! AND IT IS ALlOWED TO PLAY WITHOUT COMPUTER-ASSISTENCE !!!! IS THIS LOUD ENOUGH ???

I play here at FICGS and why should i play at playchess.de ??? I want to play CC-Chess HERE ! So please dont tell me, where i can play without computer-assistence. I can play without computer-assistence here TOO !

yk


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-02-15 22:55:30)
Why such a shouting ?

@Benjamin Aldag

"The discussion is not about to change something. It is about to build a new feature here"

You are completely illogical.

Evidently you may play without computer as you wish here.

You may also try to find other members who prefer to play this way and register together with them in a tournament.

So what you wish to do is already possible. But what you request is not that.

You request to play here against opponents for whom computer use will be forbidden.

This is simply not the rule here. It's even one of the fundamental originalities of this site.

The rules of the site are that everything is allowed

If you and friends of yours manage to play without computers this is up to you

But asking for special rules supposes that you intend to request that Thibault or someone will check that YOUR rule is enforced.

IMHO this is purely not working. You won't find any organisation that wil be able to ensure that no player cheats regarding this kind of rule.

So let me repeat (and it is MY RIGHT not to agree with your opinions) : if you find opponents with which you have an agreement for playing without comps here this is perfectly fine for everybody and it's up to you to see wether you are happy with the way your partners do or do not respect the agreement.

If you wish to change radically the rules so as to have tournaments where something like a police dept will check that no comp is used than GO AWAY and simply do register in one of the numerous sites where these rules do exist and where almost everybody cheats.

By the way : no need for shouting to tell what you wish.

Shouting will not make your opinions more valuable in any way.

Marc


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-16 00:00:43)
A solution?

Hi Pablo.

The real point is here (quote from Benjamin) : "The discussion is not about to change something. It is about to build a new feature here"

Such a new feature is not only something more, it would completely change the challenge's nature offered here. I don't think it's a good idea. A special tournament would have no sense here IMO. If you want to play without computer assistance and be sure your opponents do the same, the only solution is... play big chess :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-16 02:11:07)
Rybka 2.3

More info about Rybka 2.3

www.rybkachess.com/index.php?auswahl=Rybka+2.3+readme

The new engine should be a bit stronger than the previous version, Vasik Rajlich ran a blitz match (1' + 1") between Rybka 2.3 and Rybka 2.2n2 and got a result of: +245 =607 -193 (52.5%, +17 Elo).


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-17 18:07:31)
Gameknot vs. FICGS, other challenges

It seems GameKnot leads 5-4 in the games played here... Not bad :)

Any news about the games played at GameKnot ?

It could be interesting to discuss about other team challenges... A team tournament, matches against other servers or forums (which ones ?), maybe at different time controls or playing chess variants (chess 960) or other games (could be fun to play chess & Go, poker or anything against the same players).. with or without computer assistance and so on... It should be easier to build teams now thanks to the chat bar.

It seems there was no problem of cheating with chess engines during the match against GameKnot, that's encouraging to organize other ones.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-02-21 18:52:58)
Unrelated suggestion

Thanks Marcus. As I said before, it may be quite hard to make it automatic, as rules may differ according to the tournaments. And it will be more true with the new tournaments to come...


Kim Peters    (2007-03-02 01:21:37)
greatest chess players

here is a great article i found on chessbase. everyone is free to draw their own conclusions but the authors make a strong argument. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3455


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-03 13:32:43)
FIDE world championship, Mexico

Here is the decision of the FIDE President (Kirsan Ilyumzhinov) in respect of the World Chess Championship cycle :

http://www.fide.com/news.asp?id=1277


Now if Kramnik wins in Mexico, Topalov will play his match against him... But if Kramnik loses his title, he (Kramnik) will play a match against the winner.

Conclusion : Topalov will support Kramnik in Mexico :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-06 14:27:21)
RSS feeds

Hello Nicola.

Do you have a RSS reader / News aggregator installed on your computer ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_aggregator

Each game has its own RSS feed, you can find the link by clicking on the XML icon at the bottom of a game page, ie. http://www.ficgs.com/game_1.html

I hope it helps :)


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

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

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

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


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-12 12:37:20)
A new computer Go era ?

It seems a new computer Go era just started...

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL2053348420070221?pageNumber=1


Quote : "The 19 by 19 board which top players use is still hard for a machine, but the new method is promising because it makes better use of the growing power of computers than earlier Go software."


Quite strange to read about the growing power of computers regarding Go... I suppose programs have much to learn first.. We will see :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-13 00:37:20)
FIDE about time controls

This topic, very discussed in Correspondence Chess forums (see TCCMB), is also debated in FIDE. We may play games with 1 hour + 10 seconds time control in future open tournaments...

http://www.fide.com/news.asp?id=1288


Any opinion ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-14 17:00:55)
Elections in France :-)

A small thread about politics (could be interesting), just curious about what people from the whole world see and hear about elections in France, that will start in about 40 days from now.....

The news that Jacques Chirac will not try to be re-elected has been relayed everywhere, but what about the election itself ?

One more time opinion polls could influence the way people will vote and create a surprise at the end of the first "round"...

So just curious, who did you hear about among them : Nicolas Sarkozy, Ségolčne Royal, François Bayrou, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marie-George Buffet, Dominique Voynet, Olivier Besancenot, Arlette Laguiller, José Bové, Philippe de Villiers, Nicolas Dupont-Aignant, Frédéric Nihous ?

And last but not least, any predictions ? :-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-15 13:59:35)
Lightning chess games

Hello to all.

A new update, you may have seen a new category in money tournaments :

Lightning (correspondence) chess games, time control 30 minutes + 1 minute / move


I think it's a quite interesting time control for chess, it should attract more advanced chess players (or simply strong computers).. Really faster than "blitz correspondence chess".

I updated the server so that it is really easier to play fastly in these games. When you send your move, a new option will appear next to (Flip) and (Next). The link (Wait) will redirect you to the viewer page that will be auto-refreshed every 10 seconds. When your opponent play his move, you'll be automatically redirected to the "move" page to play your move and a pop-up window will appear to warn you (if Javascript is activated)...

Read more about in Time rules - http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#time


Money tournaments will start on April, 2


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-18 02:00:14)
FIDE time controls

I agree, actually this is "1h ko" with no loss on time... (less stress and more Fischer clocks, indeed)

That's a pity, I very like 2 hours / 40 moves. Maybe it's useless in some open tournaments, but in others the quality of the games will be affected undoubtly. I hope it will attract more new chess players, I suppose it is the main goal...


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-23 17:56:02)
Chessbase & Correspondence Chess

Chessbase just published an article (to be continued) about Correspondence Chess, quite interesting & debating the question 'should computer analysis be allowed' in correspondence chess...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3749


James McKenna    (2007-03-24 13:00:07)
A new era

will a computer ever beat the worlds top players as in chess?


Don Groves    (2007-03-25 03:10:20)
A new computer Go era?

Eventually computers will be able to play Go on a 19x19 board as well as they can now play on a 9x9 board. It's just a matter of spending the time and money to build a powerful enough computer. But, there's no reason why the Go board cannot grow larger. A larger board, say 23x23, wouldn't change the game much for humans but would astronomically increase the time required for expert computer play. But again, if someone wants to spend the time and money, computers will eventually have the power to be the best Go players, just as in Chess.


Lionel Vidal    (2007-03-25 11:24:50)
Computer Go

While I agree that programming Go is much more a problem of algorithm than a hardware one, I think you underestimate the theorical difficulties.

First, a word on the alluded new approach (BTW the french edition of 'Pour la Science' has an article on this algorithm this month, but not very involved): it seems promising only because that program regularly beats other program using what we can call a traditional approach: tree exploration combined with pattern recognition and some clever splitted evaluation function. That is fine, but does not mean much for human, considering the poor level of all these programs.
AFAIY the very best program is said to be at low pro-dan level on a 9x9 (without any concrete real test match, that is with money at stakes... but let's suppose it is true). The problem to play on 19x19 is that the nature of the game dramatically changes: in short the tactics is more complicated and the once very basic strategy of 9x9 becomes overwhelming! There is still no known algorithm to tackle that problem. Such algorithm could exist of course, but don't hold your breath :-)
Now I am quite eager to read the tests and pubications on these researches :-)

The neural network approach is interresting but is more or less stalling (again AFAIY) in recent programs mainly because of a fundamental flaw: the tuning of the gap functions. In Backgammon, where this approach works very well, these functions are tuned by simulation: basically, the program plays many, many games against himself and in a way learns (that is tunes its network) depending on the results. As you may guess, this can not work in Go because of the complexity of the branch tree. So the problem is how to tune the network (and 'by hand' cannot be a soution, believe me, considering the number of nodes and the type of the functions being commonly used!)

Of course I simplified a lot and the maths behind these kind of algorithm are involved enough (and very interresting :-)) that someone may find new ideas that will revive one path or another. But my feeling is that the pros of go have nothing to fear for a long time...
You have to consider that the very best programs are not beaten, but crushed, by multi-dans amateurs, you know, the kind of player a top pro will beat at 5 stones while blitzing and at 9 stones if some money is at stakes :-)

Now I may be wrong, and I remember in the 80s many people saying the same thing for chess, and betting on the fact that a program could never beat a good player in at least 50 years :-)... but at that time, I did not agree :-)) mainly because the algorithms were more or less basically known already... the 80s hardware was a problem, but a technical and not theorical one...

Sorry for that too long reply... I can't believe I typed so much... that must be my new keyboard, and the fond memories of some past jobs ... :-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-27 14:02:24)
Correspondence Chess

Chessbase published the second article...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3750


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-28 04:21:32)
100 games per player

With the last update, a new "limitation" appeared on the server : It is not possible anymore to enter a waiting list (but money tournament) if you have more than 100 running games...

Of course, a hundred games is enormous already, actually the aim is not to reduce the number of running games on the server but only to prevent some cases of massive forfeits. Also a few players asked to prevent them to enter too many tournaments at the same time... This site may be too addictive :)


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-03-28 15:16:58)
Droppers kill the fun !

... And this tournament (M 007)is now finished with two additional aborted games through dropping out...

I congratulate the well-deserved winner of the tournament (Karsten Fyhn)

I am sure he must be a little frustrated like I am : both his final game and mine were very interesting ones for which we both got the full point through dropping-out of our opponents ...

This is not funny at all !
I hate analysing a game for months and seeing it aborted because my opponent withdraws without resigning and lets his clock runs for months without a single word of explanation

I suppose i cannot ask for banning such impolite persons ...

But one thing is clear for me : I don't wish to enroll any more in tournaments with droppers.

So for what regards myself either Thibault creates a new kind of tournaments into which former droppers are not allowed to suscribe or I stop playing here

A very disappointed player ...


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-28 15:46:28)
Droppers

I feel that for at least 3 players in this tournament the problem is they had too many games at the same time ! (FICGS + IECG + ICCF ;))

What is strange is they all came back a few months later and registered for new tournaments. This is a real problem... The best answer to this in my opinion is rating that can decrease quite quickly, some will have to fight hard to enter a class M tournament again. In some cases of course there are personal reasons, it is hard to know and that's a pity to ban such players... :/

So it wasn't a good tournament, sorry about that. Still thinking about a new rule.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-29 05:28:00)
Droppers : New rule

Hello to all.

I'm to add a new rule to minimize the effects of silent withdrawals & forfeits without an explanation. The aim is first to guarantee to players they will not play again with droppers before a while... Rule is : "Any player who forfeits (by resignation or silent withdrawal) his games without giving an explanation to referee in a rated chess tournament will get an instant rating penalty of 200 points."

Thus, players go at least one category down. Of course it could be easier to ban players for a while, but just trying to avoid this.

All comments and suggestions are welcome.


Don Groves    (2007-03-29 05:55:31)
Droppers: New rule

This rule penalizes resignations the same as quitting (silent withdrawal) and it seems to me that quitting is much worse. With a resignation at least the other player knows what is happening and can forget about the game. Not so with quitters.


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-03-29 06:26:52)
good new rule !

I agree with Don on the fact that silent withdrawal is much more worrying.
Maybe the rule could be split in two parts:
one rule against any silent withdrawal
one rule against general forfeit in a tournament



Elmer Valderrama    (2007-03-29 13:09:49)
Droppers: New rule

Unjustified resignations are equally disturbing (but not that common) so they deserve equal treatment in my opinion.

Silent withdrawers could be punished faster (quicker than 60 days) if time is doubled after 10, 20,..etc days.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-29 19:51:24)
Double round-robin tournaments

Single round-robin tournaments with 7 players remains the very best option in my opinion. Shorter waiting time, more opponents... Playing White or Black against a particular opponent have consequences particularly in WCH tournaments, that is a choice but as there's no perfect system, the idea was to organize more cycles (about one every 6 months) for more chances. This way I'm convinced the best player will reach the final quite quickly :)

Double round robin tournaments with five players will be organized for special events (by the way this formula will not decrease the waiting time before a tournament starts... the more games in a tournament, the longer waiting time to begin another one, it doesn't depend on the number of players only)

Finally I think the idea of double round-robin tournaments with 5 players could be a good one for a new category, with a different time control (maybe longer ?!) .. What do you think ?


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-03-29 23:44:48)
Fast double RR at five players

"Finally I think the idea of double round-robin tournaments with 5 players could be a good one for a new category, with a different time control (maybe longer ?!) .. What do you think ?"

Or why not testing it with faster time controls (5 days initial + 1 day per move, maximum accumulated time 20 days) for example.

Sure I would immediately enroll for a 2200+ tournament on this basis.

:-)

Strongly limiting maximum accumulated time is also a project I would support wholeheartedly !

Anyone for a test ?


Wayne Lowrance    (2007-03-30 02:15:30)
Droppers: New Rule

I am wrestling with this new rule a little bit. Cannot make up my mind if I like it or not. I do not like to see games foreited or silent withdrawals in general. But Tribault goes on to amplify "any player who forfeits his games without giving an explanation...." The term (plural) games is one thing. But should I wish to forfeit "a" game based on my evaluation should not be challenged. I would not think I would have to explain why I am doing so. A certain amount of trust is required here on this site as Tribault has preached over and over again...Oh well, either way, fire away. Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-30 04:48:24)
Droppers: New Rule

Rules must stay as simple as possible.. not so easy. There will be a council, referees and moderators, but as far as I can easily referee all games played here, it means rules are quite good IMO... This new rule doesn't look so fuzzy to me : "Without an explanation", so if a game is obviously lost or if there's an advantage, that is an explanation and the game can't be considered as a forfeit. Anyway I just added ".. in an equal or winning position". By the way, there must be several games in the same cases, it should be quite easy to make the difference. Actually, there's only one player here I couldn't say if he's a dropper or not (even if he's conscious of that or not) :-)


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-03-30 07:29:57)
why isn't it correspondence ?

"This is no more correspondence chess IMO"

Why so ?

I prefer few games where moves come quickly : I can keep them all in mind and I analyse them almost everyday

That's already the way I actually play : see the state of my clock at the end of my games :-)

At the opposite for what regards myself I feel terribly uncomfortable if I have more than 10-12 games running simultaneously and slowly: when I get a move it's like being in a new game because I cannot remind my former analyses (well they are written down but this is not the same)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-30 17:08:38)
Xfcc

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3751


Xfcc - XML web services for correspondence chess - http://www.xfcc.org

Now reading the technical specification ;)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-03-31 16:14:34)
Grand prix attack sac. against Caro Kann

I always look with interest the games played by Wladyslav Krol :)

We discussed last month this explosive variant with 3.Nf3!? in Grand Prix attack, now Wladyslav used the same opening against Caro Kann !

1.e4 c6 2.f4 d5 3.Nf3 ...


I found 3 results on Google about this opening, 2 come from FICGS :

http://www.ficgs.com/game_6886.html
http://www.ficgs.com/game_8263.html

http://www.chesspublishing.com/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1160671893;start=all


It would be interesting to have comments from the players for this interesting opening, out of the books at move 3... Could be a new thematic tournament very soon :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-01 00:35:38)
WCH prize fund - EUR 30,000

Hello to all.

A great news ! .. This is now confirmed just before the start of money tournaments, a german bank joined FICGS to guarantee a prize fund that just increased from EUR 2,000 to EUR 30.000 for the winner of the 2nd FICGS chess world championship !

Ads for both current sponsors will be displayed permanently in a few days on the site, thanks again to them, it will give a new dimension to this chess competition for sure ! .. Still looking for a second sponsor for the FICGS world Go championship, at the moment a japanese firm offers a prize fund of $1,500

Best wishes and have good WCH games !


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

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

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


Elmer Valderrama    (2007-04-01 17:37:59)
Chessbase 10 with Xfcc is released!!



http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3749


PS...and I am GM Elmar Magerramov..


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.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-02 21:52:55)
Anand number 1 !

Here is the FIDE elo, 2007 april list.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3771

1 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2786
2 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2772
3 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2772
4 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2762
5 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2759
6 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2757
7 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2747
8 Leko, Peter g HUN 2738
9 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2736
10 Adams, Michael g ENG 2734
11 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2733
12 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2729
13 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2727
14 Navara, David g CZE 2720
15 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2717
16 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2717
17 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2709
18 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2708
19 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2705
20 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2699
21 Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2698
22 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2693
23 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter g ROM 2693
24 Short, Nigel D g ENG 2691
25 Sasikiran, Krishnan g IND 2690


Nice to see a player like Morozevich at this level...


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-06 04:50:07)
Rating calculation (algorithm update)

A small (but necessary) improvement in rating calculation algorithm for chess & Go : "In case of a loss or draw against a player rated more than 350 points less, the opponent's rating considered in calculation is : Current Rating - 350"

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

In example, if a player rated 2000 loses to a player - most probably a new player helped by a strong engine - rated 1400, the rating considered in calculation will be 1650. It should help to keep ratings more coherent.

All chess results since March 1st will be affected by this change. Next rating calculation will occur on May 1st.

You can see your future chess rating (calculated on the basis of your results since last rating calculation) by clicking on the magnifying glass in "Preferences", then "ELO".


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-07 05:00:31)
Live games (demo)

Hello to all.

I need two chess players who would accept to play a demo game using the "blitz" time control : 2 hours + 2 hours / 40 moves.

The game would start today, 2007 April 7 at 16:00 (server clock), thanks to respond to this post if you're interested. Thus everyone will see the last server improvements that will appear with money games.. (that should start next week, a new delay :/)

Among the new features :

- Real time clocks
- Auto refresh for all & auto redirecting for the players
- Pop up windows to warn the players "it's your turn"
- Links for live games in comments on each page.

Thanks for your help !


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-07 06:11:03)
Double RR tournaments

The point is there shouldn't have stronger (I mean really) players in class tournaments... Anyway, several players already asked not to change current formula & single round-robin tournaments.

But I'll organize more special events and / or I'll create a new category using double round-robin.


Jason Repa    (2007-04-07 06:44:52)
demo

I'm willing to try out the new "blitz" time control. Out of curiousity, are these games rated? And if so, are you going to have more than one tier of rating, or do all time controls count towards the same rating?


Mikhail Ruzin    (2007-04-09 15:40:07)
Go movie

"The Go Masters" (Mikan no taikyoku) 1982. Prize of the Ecumenical Jury on Canadian Film Festival (1983) "The Go Master" (2006) The member of 44th New York Film Festival. The subject of the film is the legendary Go player Go Seigen.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-09 18:20:26)
Chess & Go movies

Luzhin defense is a nice film, but more about love than chess... :)

I heard about "The Go Master" about the life of Go Seigen... Waiting for seeing it !

About french movies, I'll also mention "Qui perd gagne" with Thierry Lhermitte, producted by a good chess player and friend, Daniel Wuhrman, I knew at Fontainebleau chess club :)


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.


Mikhail Ruzin    (2007-04-09 19:24:34)
Go : Pro vs Amateur on Japanese Agon Cup

Mace Li on go4go wrote: "A contributor sent me quite a few game records from Japanese Agon Cup, the only tournament that reserve some seats for amateur players. The amaturs are doing extremely well!" ... The game records: http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=217&forum=6&post_id=864#forumpost864


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-10 21:24:09)
Rating calculation (algorithm update)

:) ... the same about FICS / FICGS, obviously ;)

It was a minor change that affects a few unlikely results and actually everyone will benefit (if you meet ie. a new player with a low provisional rating) from that change. The aim is to make the ratings most coherent only.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-11 02:17:57)
Viswanathan Anand

... is in the Chessbase news again :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3784


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-16 05:32:18)
Chess fever

Thanks for info :) .. looks interesting !

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3559

http://www.jeremysilman.com/movies_tv_js/chess_fever.html


Graham Wyborn    (2007-04-18 06:51:36)
Skip Feature - thank U

Could the (download) button be duplicated next to the new "skip" button. This would save the constant need to scroll / wheel down the page.

Also having pressed "send", why the need to press the "next" button.

Either go straight to the next game or make it part of the prefences so the choice is ours. Some sites do the later. I am the web master on two sites (not related to games or chess), so I imagine the above could be done.

Keep up the good work Thibault, many thanks for a great site!


Achim Mueller    (2007-04-21 09:39:24)
WCH Stage 1 rules

Hi all,

a few words regarding the rules for WCH Stage 1. As far as I know now one player (out of 7) qualifies for the 2nd stage. In case of having 2 or more players with the same points at the top the player with the highest rating will qualify.

This is already difficult enough for newbies (with lower raing) because their opponents will have an advantage of 0.5 points in these 6 games. It's getting nearly impossible if you play in a group, where three players lost all their games on time within 10 moves (so they didn't play a single game seriously).

You can't afford a single draw in the remaining three games then, because in reality you play a tournament with only four players, where at least one player has a nominell advantage of nearly 20%!

I for myself now decided not to play future tournaments having this exceptionell ruling. Sorry to say so, but I don't see a realistic chance of winning all three games in correspondence chess nowadays, but what is needed to have a chance.

Ciao acepoint


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-21 10:08:48)
WCH Stage 1 rules

Hello Achim.

I understand, it may look really difficult at first sight, the ideas behind this are first to make cycles not too long in order to organize a new one every 6 months (so you have more chances), second to have best chances to find the very best players in the final stages - this is the aim of a championship IMO.

Anyway, that's right the fight is often between the 3 top-rated players in these groups. So the easiest way : To get a good rating first (at least you can win some points in these groups).

It could be great to organize another event (like a cup) with different rules. Waiting for more players :)


Jason Repa    (2007-04-23 10:04:00)
Cheating Accusations

My advice is to take the accusations with a grain of salt. I'm a very good blitz/bullet player and years ago before I found out about ICC and Playchess.com I used to play at the crappy free sites such as yahoo and pogo. I would often be the strongest and highest rated player in the room and would get constantly accused of being a "prog". I would say take it as a compliment but these people are too stupid to understand what a good move or good technique is. They make the accusation based on successful results only.
As for your game with Anand. I think it's ridiculous to accuse you of program assistance. For starters, the game isn't very important. It's just an unrated simul game with no prize whatsoever. It seems to me you should have received some sort of award, not necessarily cash, but something chess related and of value. I understand it's for charity, but I can't see who in their right mind would pay money to play in a simul when there is no incentive to win. You might as well just write a check to send directly to the handicapped children of India.
When Chapters bookstore hired me to do a chess simul it was a fundraiser for our chess club. I didn't lose any games, but the sole person to merely draw me (28-0-1) in the 29 games I played received a free tournament entry ($30 value) to one of our local monthly events. I thought this was a great idea and had the benefit of bringing a new player into our club.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-23 21:34:41)
Deep Fritz vs. Deep Junior

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3802

FIDE will organize a computer-computer 6-games match during the final days of the candidates match in june in Elista.

The "players" : Reigning computer chess world champion Deep Junior and 'reigning world champion' Deep Fritz. Time control : 75 min + 5 sec / move, the winner will get $60,000, the loser $40,000

This match brings a few questions : No particular comment on the choice of the engines, Rybka will wait for a win in a computer chess world championship... However I can't see a real interest for FIDE and for chess in such a match. I mean 6 games of rapid computer chess.. $100,000 !? Of course it will attract a few new players - to beat computers is an attractive challenge. But at least I hope Chessbase is the main sponsor :) .. does it mean a new Deep FRitz and Deep Junior version in june ? .. I hope that the games analyzed by Rybka 2.3 won't reveal the engines too poor.. :/ .. Finally what 'title' for the winner ?! ;)


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

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

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

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

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


Phil Cook    (2007-04-25 06:03:35)
Virus

Bad news this end,got a little gremlin in my system,,I'll be outta action till Sunday 30 April 2007 All players I'm playing,Sorry unavoidable,I've enough time to carry me for that period,so wont take vacation.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-26 17:45:48)
Art and Science...

Sometimes, while filling the registration form, new players just say Hi!, recently one of them wrote : "I like correspondence chess because it is both art and science while chess is art only."

Quite true... I like this new quote, what do you think about it ? :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-29 23:48:55)
Google searches

Statistics are always instructive, often funny :)

Recently, a few new "magic" keywords appeared to attract Googlers on FICGS website... After 'Yahoo mail problems' and a bunch of other funny ones, it seems a new chess star is born on Google :) .. "Marc Lacrosse" or "Marc Lacrosse Anand ICC" appear many times a day... Another funny one "Rybka 2.3.1 free download" or "Rybka download free" : Dear friends, Rybka is not free for download here, I'm sorry ;)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-30 14:05:46)
The meaning of Go for modern Russia

An interesting (as usual) article from IGN "Goama" newsletter - http://gogame.info


Alexander Rodin, the member of Go Federation
"The meaning of Go for modern Russia"

I'll try to state my thoughts about the meaning of the Go for modern Russia.

To begin with I suggested that we extrapolate Go models on the political and economical maps. These maps are very important as the spheres of social life, because the questions that are discussed at political and economical levels touch upon our lives, the lives of ordinary Russian citizens. In these spheres they continue the fierce struggle for life and death; in these spheres rivalry is especially keen and the made decisions define the vectors of our country development.

Let's imagine a situation if somebody inadequate came to power and set the totalitarian regime! Then all social "dissident" institution would start dying and so would do the Go Federation as a phenomenon which unifies people with independent thinking. Then it would be inevitable to start "hiding in basements" to keep the organization and set the secret addresses. Under conditions of modern Russia such kind of reasoning seems to be mostly fantastic than real. But if we look behind into our history we’ll remember that we have already had this phase of social development and know everything about it.

I am for that only "adequate" people, patriots, must hold power (I mean all its levels: federal, regional, local and busyness elite as well). These people must think independently and it would be just perfect if they were the people who both understand the very notion of strategy and use in their activity all the arsenal of strategic instruments and among them principles, stratagems and Go philosophy.

Someone can argue: "What are the patriots who set Japan draughts?" the heart of the problem is not in the fact that somebody sets draughts and even the Japan ones. The matter of fact is that there is a "pacific" model the centre of which is the idea of balance and peaceful division of the territory and influence. If someone of us can offer something better, so let him rule. In my opinion, it's the same as to rewrite the Bible or "The Treatise of Military Art" Soun Tsi.

The Go essence manifests in the state scale in the following aspects:

The first one is historical and cultural. The game has a great history and longstanding traditions. Go is no less than a civil game with the development of which hand by hand goes statehood making in many countries. Besides, it's followed by strengthening of spirituality and moral principles of society.

The second aspect is social. Go unifies people, sets friendly relationships between them. Through Go a man manifests quickly, through it s/he can see his/her reflection. Owing to "open spiritual fight" your adversary is likely to become your best friend without saying a word during a game.

The third aspect is pedagogical. Through Go they bring up the grown generations and form their active civil position. Like chess, Go forms and consolidates dynamical stereotypes showing in following behavioral models of people. Penetrating and consolidation happen imperceptibly when sleeping, during the junction of conscious and unconscious.

The fourth aspect is economical. Why are business people interested in Go? Because through the game model a man learns how to manage material and non-material resources. Via the game s/he realizes economical and management notions: market (territory), economical integration, SWOT-analysis (the analysis of weak and strong aspects) etc. Managers start realizing the importance of interconnection and interaction of structural subdivisions ensuring. These subdivisions shouldn't be isolated from each other. They should work time in time like a well-tuned tuning fork.

The fifth aspect is political. The idea of community in politics is as relevant as the idea of group of stones. When a group is weak there is always a possibility of dividing it and this is a sign for the whole group. When our country, being a federal union of equitable subjects, was going through its stage of making a number of subjects had a wish to use the weakness of this chain. So, in 1992 ­ 1994 for the first time after the collapsing of the USSR there appeared first separatist tendencies. E.Rossel, the governor of Sverdlovskaya region, A. Philipenko, the governor of HMAO, claimed about the possibility of Ural republic creation. The emissary of Chechen separatists Gokhar Dudaev proclaimed the independence of Chechen-Ingush republic. The detachment didn't happen but the country paid with blood for it. Nowadays we can see demonstration of political integration and isolation on the modern political world map. Take a strong unity of the European Union and states-outsiders: Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran.

In terms of remaining of the USA's striving for establishment of world hegemony (from V.V.Putin's speech at the recent Munich conference), Russia needs the processes of integration and consolidation with other countries aimed at its strengthening. The unified countries have a lot of dame. Now we can observe the stronger split in the CIS as a consequence of energetic and territorial policy of Russia that uses economical instruments of pressure upon "unfriendly and opposing" countries. Is it good or not? It's more likely that it‘s bad. But there are some positive tendencies: the role of the EurAsEC as a community which's built not on the basis of "strange brotherhood" and the role of Russia in it are increasing. Go is an ideological and spiritual base making us related to the countries of Asia-Pacific region. Go teaches how to see and distinguish creative and destroying processes.

The sixth aspect is psychological. The game develops thinking, in particular such processes as analysis and synthesis. It develops the ability of seeing the whole board and its details, the ability of seeing processes proceeding at global and local levels.

The seventh aspect is verbal and lexical or even philosophical. Through studying of the game theory we realize such categories as life and death, territory and influence, reliability, stability, the whole and the parts etc.

So, what is the Go meaning on the country scale? I assume that Go, as philosophy (an ideological and spiritual base), is a very important instrument of upbringing of strategic leaders, those who make decisions at high economical and political levels that influence the country's fate. Because in Go the idea of peaceful co-existence shows the way to harmony. The most pleasant is the fact the "Go way" doesn't have an end and there sky's the limit.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-30 22:34:37)
WCH rules

Thanks Sandor & Wolfgang for sharing your views.

As you said, there's no perfect rule for everyone, particularly in a correspondence chess championship, where time is a predominant factor. As for me, I like much FICGS rules so far because of these major points :

1) The best players have the best chances.
2) A new cycle can start every 6 months.
3) There's no external influence in a knockout tournament.

I think the lowest rated player has to prove he's stronger than the highest rated player or champion, so it's coherent in round-robin and knockout tournaments. I particularly like the special rule in the knockout tournament (stage 1, 2 & 3). I'm now playing an exciting quarter final against Wolfgang, that I'm to lose because of this rule - the winner is the player with the strongest TER is all games are draw, the player with the lowest TER if not all games are draw - even if it finishes with a 4-4 score. Simply because I'll lose most probably at least one game. I think it's fair ! .. I knew the rule (of course, I made it :)), I knew I had to draw all games or to win by one point at least. Rules are the game ! .. It's not more unfair than to draw a game with one or two pawns more ;)

However I agree that WCH round-robin tournaments should be 9, 11 or 13 players groups to give more place to chess. I'll take care of this in the next cycle.

Finally, not only rules are to be taken in consideration... To attract players, there must be a real challenge ! .. To take the title to the champion will be really hard for sure :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-05-01 04:15:25)
Chinese thoughts championship :)

Always looking for new funny quotes, Don just told me this nice one : "Man with more than one clock never know what time it is" :>

Do you have your own chinese thoughts ? .. or do you know websites like this one :

http://www.chine-informations.com/mods/dossiers/index.php?lg=en&action=fiche&id=253


Dan Rotaru    (2007-05-03 00:32:46)
sb tie breaks

I believe that Garvin’s idea regarding the tie break makes sense. The higher rated player in a group is not always the best player, especially in correspondence chess where it takes time to achieve one’s real rating or players can get an established equal rating from ICCF or IECG. I also believe that games will be spectacular and exciting even with new rules. I played to win in both my games against the highest rated players in my group and wouldn’t have played different no matter the rules. In the end the rules are rules and equal for everybody so we must obey. However from the number of replies it seems that the topic is hot and maybe it is worth debating for the next WCH. I don’t want to play in the ICCF & IECG world championship tournaments because I enjoy FICGS too much :-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-05-03 01:17:03)
sb tie breaks

"The higher rated player in a group is not always the best player"... I agree of course, no rule can say surely who is the best player at a particular moment or period (in this case I meant during a quite long period), it's a question of probability only !

Ok... In my opinion these WCH rules are great, different and shouldn't be changed. However there should be a Cup multi-stage tournament with different rules to give equal chances to everyone, also a new section for double round-robin tournaments. I must 'finish to' launch money tournaments, attract more players after that, then it could be done...


Ida Jonsson    (2007-05-07 11:12:35)
Hello...

how do I start a new game ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-05-08 23:03:28)
Herrstroem gambit, 1.Nf3 g5

What do you think about this gambit (new thematic tournament) ? .. Very critical. Is it lost for Black already ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-05-13 16:24:06)
M-Tel Masters in Sofia

Another hard start for Veselin Topalov, this time in M-Tel Masters, Sofia (Bulgaria)... After three rounds, the standings are :

1. Mamedyarov 2,5 / 3
2. Adams 2 / 3
3. Sasikiran 2 / 3
4. Nisipeanu 1,5 / 3
5. Topalov 0,5 / 3
6. Kamsky 0,5 / 3

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3854


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-05-14 18:48:52)
:-)

That's a fine argument ;) .. Indeed, the first player in the waiting list will play White against the second, then colors are alternated. But I can't believe many players take a look at the order before to enter the waiting lists. Anyway, no players enough yet to create a new section for DRR tournaments. Patience !


Albert H. Alberts    (2007-05-26 01:33:41)
Deep Fritz vs. Deep Junior

Thibault: Maybe the reason is that ICGA Ilyumzhinov=FIDE=ICGA=Chessbase=Fritz stage an advertisement campaign with Fritz-10 the New Ruling WC? In that case the 100 000 comes back triple. Who knows. Computer chessmen/women know that Rybka is unbeatable at the moment.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-05-27 19:13:09)
Candidates Matches 2007

I just read the Chessbase news :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3886

I was first surprised to learn that Etienne Bacrot (after Grischuk) turned to poker also...

Levon Aronian (ARM) - Magnus Carlsen (NOR)
Alexei Shirov (ESP) - Michael Adams (GBR)
Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) - Sergei Rublevsky (RUS)
Alexander Grischuk (RUS) - Vladimir Malakhov (RUS)
Peter Leko (HUN) - Mikhail Gurevich (TUR)
Judith Polgar (HUN) - Evgeny Bareev (RUS)
Boris Gelfand (ISR) - Rustam Kasimjanov (UZB)
Etienne Bacrot (FRA) - Gata Kamsky (USA)


In this round my favourites are : Carlsen, Shirov, Ponomariov, Grischuk, Leko, Polgar, Kasimjanov, Kamsky.

Hard to say who will win this knockout tournament...


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-05-29 15:28:44)
Chess news RSS / XML

Hello to all,

Feel free to use the FICGS RSS feed for chess news (and Go news) to display it on your own website, like Centurion Chess Club does :

http://www.centurionchessclub.co.za


The RSS feed for chess news - http://www.ficgs.com/news_chess.rss
The RSS feed for Go news - http://www.ficgs.com/news_go.rss


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-01 18:05:21)
Vladimir Kramnik interview

An interesting interview with Vladimir Kramnik on the current world of chess in Chessbase news, speaking of the chess world championship in Mexico, the current format, the place of Topalov in it, also his illness and married life... Very clear, looks like his chess :)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3894
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3899


Garvin Gray    (2007-06-02 06:42:49)
Wch 3 rules


Time for a new thread since start of a new tournament.

I would like to see each round robin group have more people in each group. This way there is less chance of two or more people tying for first and having to be tie-breaked by TER.

Also it means more games, which I assume is a good thing :)



Marc Lacrosse    (2007-06-02 11:17:26)
Wch older qualification

I once qualified in WCH preliminary by winning tournament FICGS__CHESS__WCH_STAGE_1_GROUP_20__000001 .
I then could not enroll for stage 2 due to personal reasons.
May I go directly to stage 2 of a subsequent cycle or do I have to go through qualifications at new ?

Thanks.

Marc


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-04 17:15:54)
Candidates Finals

Only 4 of my favourites qualified : Kamsky, Leko, Bareev, Grischuk, Shirov, Gelfang, Rublevsky & Aronian won their matches...

New pairings for the Candidates Finals are :

Aronian - Shirov
Leko - Bareev
Rublevsky - Grischuk
Gelfand - Kamsky

Any ideas for the next round ? :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-06 05:51:55)
E-Points + 25% , affiliate links

Hello to all, now trying to promote tournaments with entry fees & money prizes :)

You may have seen in rules that there are 2 'rakes' for money tournaments, a one-time 25% and a 'rake' per tournament which is very low... From now and until september 31, you'll be given 25% E-Points more when buying E-Points through Moneybookers or Paypal (see "My account" page), which nearly cancels the main rake !

Also it is now possible to win E-Points by becoming an affiliate & helping to promote FICGS... All details in "My account" page : For each new member refered by your link on the web, you'll be given E-Points (now 0,5 per member)... Of course urls and new members are verified, but anyway it is quite easy to reach the 10 E-Points silver ticket !

There could be E-Points prizes for free tournaments (class SM & class M) soon...


It is also possible to post your websites in FICGS directory :

http://www.ficgs.com/directory.html


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-07 18:52:46)
Kramnik on cheating

Vladimir Kramnik on cheating accusations in Elista, the next part of his interview by Chessbase :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3911


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-09 04:48:24)
Nodes per second

Well, game 2 was a draw, game 3 was a win for Deep Junior...

"Deep Fritz is running on an eight-core machine and searching 13-14 million nodes per second, reaching a search depth of 20-21 ply. Deep Junior is employing the latest Intel Server technology with 16 cores. The program is running at 24 million nodes per second and consistantly reaching search depths of 24 ply."

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3916

Not bad in such a time control : 75 min + 10 sec per move... but does it mean anything to run two engines on two different computers !??


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-11 17:54:15)
Pirc defense by Nigel Davies

A new DVD on Pirc Defense by GM Nigel Davies :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3913


Is Pirc a good weapon at correspondence chess ?! .. Any fans ?


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

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


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-13 14:55:34)
The battle of Elista

The last part of the interview, Vladimir Kramnik on game 5 in his match against Veselin Topalov, when he didn't appear at the board :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3912


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-14 18:14:03)
Rybka 2.3.2

Just after President's cup "Ultimate computer challenge" finished, Vasik Rajlich threw a new Rybka 2.3.2 in the chess engines arena... (partly explains the $100,000 challenge to Ilyumzhinov a few weeks ago)

Once more, Rybka 2.3.2 seems stronger than her predecessors with indcredible results (blitz time control) against Hiarcs 11.1, Zap chess Zanzibar, Shredder and so on... Maybe +35 elo points compared to Rybka 2.3.1 !

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=1264#fp

http://www.rybkachess.com


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-15 14:32:49)
Strelka 1.0

Some interesting readings in Talkchess & Rybka forums about this new engine : Strelka 1.0 x32

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?pid=9297

http://216.25.93.108/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117821


http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/

http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/40_40%20Rating%20List/40_40%20BestVersion/rangliste.html


Is Strelka only a joke about Rybka (and a clone of an earlier version) or the 'little arrow' (Strelka in russian) that will catch Rybka in future...

I don't know much about this one but its first ratings are "not bad" ! .. Any informations more ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-15 17:12:39)
Online chess today

A few links to discussions at TCCMB (The Correspondence Chess Message Board) on chess servers nowadays, future of ICCF, correspondence chess [once more] and so on...

http://ancients.correspondencechess.com/index.php?topic=105.0

http://ancients.correspondencechess.com/index.php?topic=109.0


In the second discussion I tried to answer on the future of correspondence chess & chess engines :

1) Like the 'tour de France', it is impossible to organize a "bicycle race" at chess without doping today IMO. Also there are so many 'products' : Various books, databases, engines, human help.. so it seems to me that it is a non-sense to try to make it like an OTB tournament. Online chess is "motorcycle races" & freestyle, nothing else.

2) The ratio of wins does not decrease much in computer games & advanced chess (blitz), and correspondence chess games will never be all drawn IMO. We just have to follow the horizon line... Engines still have difficulties when there are 32 pieces on the board... Make the position more and more complex & critical, play Benoni structures, East indians and English openings... There will probably be more and more draws but when looking at CC 2500+ games, the ratio is still quite good. The problem at CC is mainly the style of play with humans 'humanly' trying to remain in known positions where they can win and can't lose.

'The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy', 'Opportunities multiply as they are seized' (Sun Tzu)

A solution is to make rules that motivate players to avoid draws, particularly when playing against a higher rated opponent. (ie. the rule for FICGS 8-games matches)

3) We feel that engines play almost perfect chess because of our poor human's level of play (I should say ratings)... But engines & computers have to improve a lot yet - not obvious they can do it in a more or less near future -, the horizon line is not so far, each version of Rybka wins about 30 elo points... We'll see engines at level 3200, 3300 maybe much more... (4000 ?)

4) If too many players have their CC rating between 2750-2800 in future, we can make new rules : Ratings wouldn't be calculated on the basis of each game, but on the basis of ie. 8-games matches... Then strategy would be more important & we would see rating gaps again between the best players...

Finally if I'm completely wrong, play Big Chess ;D


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-16 14:05:02)
WCH rules

Hello Hannes.

You're right, undoubtly ! .. Also, a new cycle every 6 months is a lot. But I can't see any interest to make one more round-robin cycle championship. This format is interesting & very challenging IMO, maybe it can be improved yet but let's see in a few years :) .. 'Think different'


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


Have good games :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-16 22:00:18)
FICGS vs. IGAME.RU

Hello to all.

I'm glad to announce a new match between chess servers, that should start in about 10 days to 2 weeks. The previous match was FICGS vs. GAMEKNOT (we lost :))

The opponent is the russian server - http://www.igame.ru , an opportunity to meet new chessfriends from eastern countries :)

Here is the agreement :


1. Teams should consist of 25 players maximum (an exact number should be agreed later);
2. Number of games on each board equals 2 (one for White and one for Black);
3. Time control is 30 days + 3 days/move;
4. Leaves are provided, 30 days/year;
5. The match is played on www.ficgs.com;
6. Start date of the match should be agreed by both sides after squads are completed;
7. ICCF rules of play are applied.


In this match chess engines are allowed, it goes without saying we need a strong correspondence chess team, but anyone who wish to play may email me (or use the 'message to webmaster' form in "My account"), or just respond to this post.

Best wishes.


Alexander Nent    (2007-06-17 11:00:10)
Thibault de Vassal

I would be very happy if I could play. My rating is lagging behind (ask Nick Burrows :-) ), because I'm new at FICGS.


Dan Rotaru    (2007-06-17 13:47:10)
New tournaments

Hi Thibault, What about organizing some Swiss tournaments? I think that a Swiss for Money tournaments would generate a lot of interest because the more players participate the bigger the prize fund would be. I would also enjoy playing a Correspondence chess Swiss tournament let's say: “FICGS Annual Open Tournament”. Therefore players from different rating brackets can play against each other, apart from the WCH. Right now in the class tournaments I keep playing against few players again and again.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-18 02:05:59)
World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC)

Is this World Computer Chess Championship still worth something without programs such as Hiarcs, Junior & Fritz ?

This way, only 3 or 4 games are decisive and undoubtly - or I should say randomly - Rybka will win ahead of Zappa and Shredder. At least Rybka will obtain the "last major" title to pretend to be the very best chess engine.

WCCC 2007 - http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/icga/news.php


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

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


Also a new rating list : Active players list.

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

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


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

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


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


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

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


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-18 15:23:11)
Rybka is world champion !

Rybka is the new World Computer Chess Champion, with the score of 10 out of 11. Congratulations to Vasik Rajlich and Rybka team !

http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/icga/news_item.php?id=25


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-20 03:38:27)
Chessbase

Chessbase made a full report on the 15th ICGA WCCC and Rybka's victory, despite half their leading programs did not even participate.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3936

Congratulations to them, that's fair play :)


Alexander Shalamanov    (2007-06-20 16:34:00)
Hello Thibault and all!

First of all, thanx for letting me defend the colours of FICGS Team. Oh, no, no spies on the parts the Russian players in our team. We will play fair and at our strongest. And I want to warn you that the IGAME team is really pretty strong and made of tough titled Russian players: GM, IM or GM, although they didn't feel like exposing their correct data or rating. You know, they feel they can win that match, on the one hand, and want to obtain some advantage in case we underestimate their chess strength, on the other hand. After all, honesty is not their best feature, alas. So be on guard, folks! The foe is at our gateway! Lol! Anyways, I want this match to be a fair play one and run with the ICCF motto: Amici sumus! (We are friends!). Good luck to anyone and interesting and exciting games to you! Remember, this match is a good point to win new friends over the globe behind the game of correspondence chess! Play at your strongest but bear in mind your match opponents are likely your partners in chess masterpieces than bitterest enemies. Be happy and have a fine day!


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


Garvin Gray    (2007-06-21 01:24:53)
FICGS vs. IGAME.RU


I meant to add to previous post (damn- no edit feature, so now have to make new post).

We should play in rating order, no juggling around. That way it doesn't look like we have tried to be 'smart' and grab a few 'cheap' victories.



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

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


Denis Stork    (2007-06-21 22:11:39)
from Russia with love

Greetings to all! So here we are, fresh new Russian players, to participate in FICGS vs. IGAME match. I'd like to give a short explanation of our "disguising identities". The thing is that mostly our names really won't say anything to you. iGame is just an amateurs' site and with the upcoming match we have a good chance to find out which material we really made of. :) So show us maser-class. And let the strongest win! :) Good night and good luck ! :)


Dan Rotaru    (2007-06-22 00:41:00)
Lightning and Blitz Time Controls

I am proposing the following idea to solve the problem of Lightning and Blitz Time Controls: the first person who signs up should be able to choose a date and time when the game should start (use server time to avoid confusion). The player who accepts the challenge should accept that he has to logon and play the game at the established date and time. Of course any of them can cancel the game or ask for a new date and time if for any reason they cannot play.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-23 06:06:29)
Chess Engine Strength

Hello Glen !

I see your point, that's quite true and a consequence is what I called at TCCMB "the extensive nature of elo rating", however rating rules are more dynamic at FICGS.. So, let's say Rybka playing the FICGS championship against players of all kinds of ratings in the round-robin cycle... Anyway 2200 is only my feeling.

I understand your views about "rybka" [correspondence] chess nowadays, even if I don't agree with it completely. I saw some of your CC games played at IECG, and it looks much more like 'good old' chess with some unusual and beautiful tactical openings than typical 'correspondence computer chess' nowadays. I do believe there will be a place in the next CC years for more weird openings like bird, king's gambit, english... Also take a look at Peter Schuster and Wladyslav Krol games here !? .. Nothing boring with them, chess engine or not :)

Also advanced chess games with fast time controls could be quite interesting to watch in future as a way to see granmaster games with chess engines avoiding blunders 'only' (ok a bit more). We don't know exactly the human part in it, but draws won't be the rule for sure.

What is "boring" at correspondence chess (not new) is that achieving a top rating take a long... very long time ! .. But this is a great challenge yet IMO.

At last, thanks for you kind words :)


Best, Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-23 18:12:34)
FICGS freestyle cup

Hello to all.

You may have noticed new changes in the waiting lists & tournaments pages. Trying to create more interesting tournaments with entry fee & prize, with different time controls.

The FICGS chess freestyle cup (I did not find a better name yet :)) will be a 6 rounds swiss tournament played from time to time (every month would be great) at a very fast time control : 10 minutes + 20 seconds / move, see the rules in the tournament page in waiting lists. All rounds will be played the same day, about 1 round per hour.

Blitz tournaments have been gathered with lightning ones under the category advanced chess lightning tournaments.

Feel free if you have any idea or suggestion !


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-23 18:35:15)
Rating rules update

Hello to all.

As I said in another thread, experience shows that rating rules were still too hard IMO : A player winning or drawing against another one rated 350 points more most often means the lower rated player should be rated higher, not the contrary... A few games only are concerned, but with provisional ratings such results are still not fair, and many players rated 2100 to 2300 fear to lose points in the chess WCH, even if they win their groups. The new rule should allow strong players not to fear (too much :)) to play against anyone in rated tournaments without rating restrictions, like wch, blitz & lightning ones.

Consequently, the rule "In case of a loss or draw against a player rated more than 350 points less, the opponent's rating considered in calculation is : Elo - 350" has been changed to "In case of a loss or draw against a player rated more than 200 points less, the opponent's rating considered in calculation is : Elo - 200"

All correspondence chess results of these last 2 months & in the future will be affected, as well as future advanced chess & big chess results.


Sergey Pligin    (2007-06-23 19:18:53)
FICGS vs. IGAME.RU

Dear chessfriends! My name is Sergey Pligin and I am the co-organizer of this match, representing igame.ru. Originally this match was planned as a friendly rivalry of 2 servers which are igame and FIGCS. The 1st one is Russian, the 2nd one is western. The main idea was to make new foreign friends. This match caused a big avalanche of interest at our server. Unfortunately, not each player can play this match for the teams consist of 25 players only. Some players of igame who are not in have decided to play for your team. I don’t know their motives, but it is their right to play for any team they are willing to play for. Their honest play is the main item to be discussed. On the other hand, several permanent players of the FIGCS have lost an opportunity to participate in this match, as, for instance, was pointed out by Mr. Garvin Gray. I sincerely wish to organize this friendly match with no misunderstanding and beg you to pay attention to Russian players whom you’d like to be in your team.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-24 19:29:09)
FIDE world championship cycle

An interesting article about the new FIDE world championship cycle in Chessbase news :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3948


Albert H. Alberts    (2007-06-25 14:36:49)
World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC)

All: JUNIOR has won over Fritz in Elista.RYBKA wins Olympiade Amsterdam. It got me thinking: instead of being an 'engine-to-engine contest can it be that the whole thing is a book-to-book contest? The program that has the best opening book with novelties will come out on top, invariant from the engine. Is that why RYBKA is so good? IM V.Rajlich? The future WC will be the program with the best book. The future WC tournament chess will be the one who knows this book. Maybe they will be one and the same person? Great news for the sport I think. Greetings Albert H. Alberts,Amsterdam www.howtofoolfritz.com


Albert H. Alberts    (2007-06-25 14:48:57)
Deep Fritz vs. Deep Junior

FICGS: Junior won over Fritz Elista 2007. Very sharp but correct remark by M.Aigner: people that bought Fritz will now want to have Junior too the FIDE-approved champ by K. Ilyumzinov= ICGA=FIDE=CHESSBASE=FRITZ(=Junior?). However: he future champ will be the program with the best BOOK with sharp novelties. The future world tournament champ will be the one who knows/WROTE this book. It is like in cycling: you can have a great "bike" (chess engine) but to win the Tour the France you still have to peddle. That champ/novelty finder/writer/head player can be one and the same person. Great news for the sport I think.The new "Fischer" will come. Albert H.Alberts, www.howtofoolfritz.com


Wolfgang Utesch    (2007-06-25 17:48:40)
FICGS vs. IGAME.RU

Let me explain – I don’t want to have any exception rules for me! It’s a principle thing: about 35 years ago I played some few correspondence chess tournaments by postcard (naturally with my real name). After a long period of abstinence (since 1999) I played correspondence chess by Email (IECG/Playchess-Server and ICCF/ICCF-Webserver) – new transport medium but with old real name. So everybody can see my chess history: I’m standing (with my real name) to all my many bad or neutral games as same as to my some very good chess performances. I’ve always used tools (first just books and later also engines), but I’ve always played my games alone (without help by any other person). I think there are many other players with FICGS (i.e. Peter Schuster, Hannes Rada, Harry Ingersol or others more) who have done it similar like me. In contrast, if DONALD DUCK wins and has played a very good game, he likes it to say his real name, if he loses or has played poorly, he is just staying DONALD DUCK. He wouldn’t have to fear to disgrace himself, but there is a real chance for him to gleam! Sorry, but this is not my idea from a friendly match between two serious teams.


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


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

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



Miguel Pires    (2007-06-26 18:23:36)
Vacation

Hi, I ask to Thibault to discuss this in the forum because, like Dinesh De Silva have sayed, you can have a some sort of (i don't have a better word) problems that make you postpone your games. In ICCF at any tournament you have 30 days/vacation for ich tournament. My problem is not with the tournaments with 10/40 Days are in the 30+1. In this first 6 months i've a lot of issues to solve (professional and personal thing's) that i've to postpone a lot. Now thing's are more or less calm, but if we have more time or the rules are equal to ICCF my new tournaments can have 30 days, and if i need to postpone now i can't postpone the oldest and the new tournaments because i've not more days. I now that is the rules but i think more time (Like Gamknot) or the same rule like ICCF can help a lot. Another idia is do like (i think) IECG or IECC, that if you need a special live they can give you that (i think if you have someone in the hospital, important biseness to a long period can feet in the "special leave"). Is only my opinion. Best Regard's Miguel Pires


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-26 22:04:29)
Rapid tournaments

I agree that rapid tournaments (30 days + 1 day / move) may be quite hard for some players, but as Heinz-Georg and Wolfgang said, it's up to you to choose the tournaments that fit to your available time.

WCH tournaments are quite hard to play the same way, but that's a condition to start a new cycle every 6 months and adding days of vacation may last important games and force some adjudications. That's why I'm not favourable to this change.

But I agree, that's quite hard not to enter certain waiting lists too... (it's a fight of every day) :))


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

Hello to all.

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


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


Miguel Pires    (2007-06-27 13:24:11)
Glen D. Shields

"rather than inconvenince everyone else"? Is it for me? If is, i'm going to try to explain to you whay i ask to dicusse the vacation time. Is not because i've to many games (if i've 2 or 3 i syaed the same thing) is because i fell that 30 days is short. In Gameknot i've 120 days, in ICCF i've 30 days per tournament, soo if i enter in a new tournament and i need to postpone i can chose what tournament to postpone. In my opinion is a short time but if the comunity don't whant to change, men ask don't cost anithing, correct? If this is "inconvenince" for you men sorry but for me is not. Regard's Miguel Pires


Amir Bagheri    (2007-06-30 14:02:02)
Newsletter and Blog Recruitment

I am trying to set up a Newsletter. This would be an excellent way to spread news amongst ourselves. This newsletter targets primarily The Chess corner Members however I would like to create a column dedicated to the FICGS Members a bit like a gossip page or anything that you would like to share. This Newsletter will be distributed to all my members and to FICGS Member that wishes to receive it To do so I require help from you all we are actively looking for 1) writters 2) editors 3) researchers 4) Designers To express your interest, please go to www.chesscorner.com and fill up the application form. For those of you wiling to help us please bare in mind that I will create a forum where you could share ideas and opinion it is therefore essential that you register on The Chess Corner. All authors will be acknowleged and credit will be given. If you want to help but reckon that a Newsletter maybe a bit out of your league, we are looking for some enthusiasts to look after the Blog. The Blog Regards Amir Bagheri (GM) PS I welcome all comments http://www.thechesscorner.com http://thechesscorner.blogspot.com/


Mircea Hrubaru    (2007-06-30 14:11:16)
Interesting news

Hello Amir, We all hope your project will get good contributors. I wish your project will become reality soon! Reagrds, Mircea


Amir Bagheri    (2007-06-30 14:29:54)
hi

Yes I have been rather buzy... i hope that FICGS members will relish the possibility to have a column in my Newsletter


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2007-07-01 15:48:37)
Re

These are times of glory, old lines will be refuted, new systems will be invented and the games will be used as examples in the opening books to come, and we will have the right to say " We were there!!!"


Svante Carl von Erichsen    (2007-07-11 16:14:00)
Norms

Perhaps you could also explain what a "norm" is, for chess newbies.


Sergey Pligin    (2007-07-08 19:16:04)
Link

Dear chess friends!
You may view all games of the match (scrolling is available) at:
http://igame-ficgs.styleindustry.ru/
All the games are renewed every 5 minutes.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-07-14 02:57:01)
Rybka vs. Ehlvest (2nd)

A new 6-games match occured during july 2007 between the latest version of Rybka and GM Ehlvest with some "advantages" given to the human. One more time, Rybka convincingly won the match : 4,5-1,5

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=1614


Well, not so bad after Kramnik's 4-2 loss vs. Deep Fritz... Help, we need help :)


Jason Repa    (2007-07-15 21:12:20)
My Opinion

I certainly do have an opinion. My opinion is that you have a very low IQ burrows, and don't have a clue how to do research. You like to make things up as you go along and change the subject when you're cornered and proven wrong. Very poor form!

It seems I have to talk to you as I would a very young child. It should go without saying that the opinion of 52 professionals in a given area should have some value when they're commenting in the area they have expertise in. If 52 mechanics told you that your car needs a new alternator would you argue and tell people to have their own opinion on the matter? This is what you're doing here.


Garvin Gray    (2007-07-17 09:52:11)
Game sorting


Currently on the game page, the order of the games is shown from oldest created game to newest created game.

I would like the ability to show the games in terms of least amount of days till time out, where the game with the shortest number of days till time out is at the top of the list.

It would be even better if there was a way to show only the games where it is your turn to move.



Mladen Jankovic    (2007-07-20 18:58:15)
You beat me to it

I just saw that here: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1932391520070719?feedType=RSS


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-07-25 14:22:17)
Too early

Hi Garvin. Yes, an easier way to buy E-points should be available already (Moneybookers will remain the cheapest one anyway) but there's a new delay... Also I did not have time enough to promote this tournament, so I'll have to change the date :/ .. E-Points will be given back.


Garvin Gray    (2007-07-28 03:58:25)
Rapid tournament games


I would like to propose a change to the rapid tournament time control.

Currently it is 30 days plus 1 day per move.

From the games I have been playing on here under this time control, I have noticed that as soon as you get to about 20 days left, it seems very difficult to get any higher than 20 days or so.

When you have a few games with this amount of time, it feels like not much time left at all.

I would like to propose that a new time control be made of 20 days plus 3 days per move. This still guarantees that a player will have 3 days to think of a move regardless of how many initial days they have used up.



Garvin Gray    (2007-07-28 04:47:26)
a new time control perhaps


Well it could be for a new set of general tournaments with different rating bands than the current ones.

Perhaps a wider rating band to provide opportunities for more opportunities to play different people.

We shall see what Thibault says.



Thibault de Vassal    (2007-07-31 00:06:28)
September 9

The new date is september 9... I hope I'll have more time to prepare that tournament.

Sorry for the delay.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-08-10 21:29:49)
Hiarcs forum

After the successful Rybka forum - http://rybkaforum.net (about 20,000 posts in a few months), I just discovered the HIARCS forum... Let's hope that Hiarcs chess engine will improve the same way thanks to these new forums - http://www.hiarcs.net/forums


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-08-12 16:17:18)
Contest : Your best quotes !

Once more it would be funny to add new quotes from FICGS players to the site... Feel free to create your own quotes and submit it in this thread ! .. The best ones (best play on words, most funny and so on...) will be displayed [with names] with the famous ones !

Have good quotes :)


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-08-13 11:53:27)
(Unfair) partial withdrawal


A few weeks ago IM Andrey Vovk had a discussion in the forum with Thibault regarding the fact that he did not wish to play in the new WCH although he had formerly enrolled on the waiting list.

As Thibault confirmed that he had to play in tournament FICGS__CHESS__WCH_STAGE_1_GROUP_M_01__000003, IM Vovk announced that he would forfeit all his games in this tournament.

That's what he seemed to do for more or less 30 days as he let his clock run and so lost five games on time.
Then he seemed to change his mind and began to play in his three remaining games where his flag had not yet fallen.

Although I admit that anybody may decide to play or to resign whenever he wishes, this seems a bit problematic in a qualification tournament : five players got a full point whereas three have to fight one more opponent (and presumably a very strong one)...

For what regards myself I am very happy to play a game against IM Volk but I feel that three of us have not the same chances anymore as the five other ones for qualification ...

I think this situation calls for establishing new rules for qualification tournaments : if a player clearly forfeits a given number of games, then all his games in this tournament should be withdrawn.


Your opinion ?

Marc



Thibault de Vassal    (2007-08-13 15:05:19)
New rule ?

"If a player clearly forfeits a given number of games, then all his games in this tournament should be withdrawn."


I was to write a new rule to clarify this point but it will be always possible to turn around, and there may have some circumstances. All is in "clearly" but that's no more server decision but human one.. that we try to avoid as far as possible.

We have to make a choice or keep current rules... Any suggestions ?


Garvin Gray    (2007-08-13 15:27:50)
new rule wording?


I will admit I didnt reply with the intention of wording a new rule. Was just showing what I thought of the claimed actions.

Current server policy is that any games under 10 moves are not rated. So that seems like a good place to start.

If a player fails to make ten moves in 50 per cent or more of their games in a tournament, they will be withdrawn from that tournament.

The tournament will continue as though the withdrawn player was never part of that tournament.



Thibault de Vassal    (2007-08-13 15:37:07)
New rule

50 or x % is not a solution IMO. So it will happen (with cheating intentions or not) with 40 %, for the same result.


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


Mladen Jankovic    (2007-08-14 14:06:49)
I've done worse in the past

I've made some stupid moves that I knew that were stupid, but forgot why. And the worst thing I did was resigning during an opening that was actually to my advantage.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-08-14 19:45:25)
Chessboard serial killer of Moscow

Source Chessbase - http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4047


Guardian Unlimited: Along the leafy lanes of Moscow's Bitsevsky Park, Alexander Pichushkin was a familiar figure. The 33-year-old supermarket worker played chess under the trees and even invited his opponents for a drink afterwards. But yesterday Mr Pichushkin was in court accused of murdering 49 people and attempting to kill three more, a tally which would make him one of Russia's most deadly killers. According to the prosecution, Mr Pichushkin lured his victims, who were mostly elderly men, to a quiet part of the park. He then attacked them from behind with a hammer. Mr Pichushkin boasted that he had killed 63 people. He said he drew a cross on his chessboard after each murder. His plan to fill all 64 squares came unstuck in June 2006 when he went for a walk in the park with Marina Moskalyova, 36, a supermarket colleague.

Times Online: The prosecution claims that [Pichushkin] wanted to kill more people than Andrei Chikatilo, Russia’s worst known serial killer, who murdered 53 people. “He dreamt of surpassing Chikatilo and going down in history,” said Yuri Syomin, the Moscow prosecutor. The Russian press suggested last week that he would enter Guinness World Records by being charged with 62 murders. But in the event he was charged with only 52 killings over a five-year period. That compared with the 53 murders of women and children in the Rostov area of southern Russia for which Chikatilo was executed in 1994.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2252021.ece


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-08-15 03:03:12)
Quotes added

New quotes have been added to the file :)


Alexander Minkin    (2007-08-17 18:15:02)
One

As an engineer I like this one - If we knew what we were doing, we would not call it research. - Albert Einstein


Philip Roe    (2007-08-21 00:19:50)
Best game voting

It is a nice new feature to be able to see all the board positions in a tournament. This inspired me to look through the "20 best games". On average a mediocre bunch! Perhaps the problem is the link "vote for best game" You look at this and wonder "What happens if I click on this?" and then discover that you have voted for the game you happened to be examining. I suggest a less ambiguous wording "Endorse this game as a best game candidate"


Graham Wyborn    (2007-08-26 09:44:13)
New Icon?

I notice that the "FICGS" icon has changed from a black crown to a red letter "T" underscored with a broad blue line. What does this new icon stand stand for and mean?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-08-27 00:50:54)
New Icon?

Hello Graham... Not here, you sure ?

Did anyone else encounter this problem ?!


Graham Wyborn    (2007-08-27 10:48:04)
New icon mystery!

In IE7 it has now returned to the original black crown.

But in my shortcuts on the taskbar it is still as previously described. Maybe my system has picked up an icon from somewhere! Not sure how!

Any help or advice!


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    (2007-08-29 14:15:49)
Correspondence Chess without computers ?

Hi Christophe !

I still don't believe anymore in this human-only correspondence chess, maybe that's why we play Big Chess ;)

But we could create a new unrated category in Chess Special Tournaments : FICGS__CHESS__NO_ENGINES_TOURNAMENT__000001

I'm not sure... Anyone interested ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-08-30 16:05:11)
Without chess engines

It has been discussed here in the past, including this thread :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=2094


Letsplaychess.com, Itsyourturn.com, Gameknot.com and other chess servers & organizations offer correspondence chess games without chess engines, simply by 'forbidding' it...

We'll see, I will create a new unrated category (probably next week).

Best wishes, Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-08-31 09:45:23)
FIDE, Topalov, Danailov & Short

FIDE Ethics Commission rules on Topalov/Danailov and Short

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4083


Much to read... Any opinion ?


Christophe Czekaj    (2007-09-01 12:43:09)
Free of chess engine

Thanks Thibault for reconducing me to this past forum. Very interesting. The part about "real" elo and correspondance elo is edifying. I know correspondence players could have a huge better elo than their real life one (if they have any) : more time to think, no stress, no pressure (or less) but I believe players who play without engines have a coorespondence rating approximately equal to their over the board one. Personnaly, I play coorespondence chess to try new opening, to train generally since I cannot play over the board so often since 2 years. I often play from the office, wtih sometimes a couple of minutes on a move, or sometimes I go home with the moves to think about my response in over the board conditions (30 minutes maximum on one move). My correspondence elo is around 2000 (with a good start with a peak to 2098, but declining since ;-D) and my over the board rating is now 1990 (with a peak to 2040 last year, and a rapid elo around 2100). So I sometimes feel a bit fed up with playing against chess engines, notably, but perhaps I'm wrong I have remarked that since I got an advantage, often opponents defend very very well, like computers in fact. Ok it's part of the game, and I know t could be a good training, fight hard to win a game, display a good technique, etc. but it could be disappointing to have the impression of play with a human opponent and have to finish with an another, i.e. the computer. Perhaps could we compare over the board elo, with correspondence elo to know if there is computer help or not ? Anyway, a special category of tournament will be great, and I'm eager to play with other ficgs "OTB-correspondence" players.


Don Groves    (2007-09-02 00:08:08)
Another one about practice

Rodolfo wrote he saw this on t-shirt: "Practice, practice and practice, I will always beat you." In New York City, a tourist once asked someone how to get to Carnegie Hall (New York's most famous concert hall). The answer: "Practice, practice, practice!"


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-02 12:07:21)
Freestyle cup...

End of holidays, I'll make my possible in the next few days to promote this new tournament. Patience :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-02 13:26:25)
Ratings

Christophe, do you use no chess engines here ?

About ratings, probably most 2000+ correspondence chess players use chess engines whereas 1800- don't, so OTB players shouldn't play rated games with centaurs so often. Maybe new players should start with a 1800 rating (like ICCF) instead of 1600 so that most OTB players can't meet centaurs, what do you think ?

"ICC at least claims to have software that detects cheating" : You mean 'obvious' cheating... :)


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 :/


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-03 23:52:20)
CC without engines

Philip, that's a good point, I'll create the new category tomorrow anyway.

I hope we will see beautiful and imaginative games there :)


Garvin Gray    (2007-09-05 07:28:39)
paragraphing


Hello Rodolfo,

From the top of this thread.

(please use
html tag to begin a new line)



Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-05 12:42:02)
Adjudication

Hello again Andrew, thanks for discussing this interesting point that is a part of the discussion about the Dead Man's Defence. See this thread :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=2828


There is no way to avoid a player to last a game IMO... New rules first mean new ways to get round it and too many rules should be avoided. I still think there are some 'tricky' moves in tablebases, at least beautiful moves so it should be up to the winner to call the referee or not and it should be up to the referee to adjudicate it or not.

Maybe time will make me change my mind, but not today I think :)

Best, Thibault


Garvin Gray    (2007-09-05 16:07:52)
hmmm


I think this adjudication argument takes on a whole new perspective now that some players have said that they dont use computer engines.

I was all for adjudication when I thought almost all players on here used engines (and hence tablebases), now I am not so sure cause some players are not using engines.



Philip Roe    (2007-09-05 23:13:44)
CC without engines

Well, you learn something new every day.

About paragraphing anyway!

Garvin, dont give it a second thought. Christophe and myself have both said that we accept your use of engines: we signed up for it.

Jason, I'm sure I speak for Christophe in saying that neither of wants to change anything for you happy centaurs. All we said was that IF enough other people felt the same way, THEN maybe Thibault might add that feature to his excellent site.

The parallel thread on tablebases is interesting. I find myself taking the opposite view. I dont see them as being very different from looking up KBNk in a textbook. They dont take fun out of the game because most of those rare positions are so impenetrable that they are not much fun anyway.

So I am not very consistent in my views. Who was it said that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds?


Glen D. Shields    (2007-09-06 04:20:15)
Engine Use - My Take

The switch from postcard to server chess has been a wonderfully positive experience.

The transition from human chess to silicon chess on the otherhand has left me bored and wondering if there's still a purpose to the game.

Every tournament is the same. The tournament starts with 6 to 10 players. The moves transition out of the opening at lightning speed, then "Fritz and Rybka time" begins. Turn on your favorite engine and there's a >95% probablitity that your opponents' moves mimic the top engines. There are no surprises, nothing interesting, just boring repetition.

Only a few percent of the chess world can outplay the top engines on fast hardware. Human intervention is like adding a drop of water to a bucket of water and thinking you've made a difference. Most matches are one computer versus another computer and the results are predictable: 1-2 wins, 1-2 losses, most of the games drawn.

I don't oppose engine use. There's no way to enforce it, so there's hardly a reason to forbid it. I do question, however, its purpose. It's just as easy and entertaining for me to play against my computer as it is to play your computer ... and I can do it on my timeline not yours.

I played a friendly young man earlier this year in the ICCF. He was vocal and proud of his high rating and good reults. He'd been playing for less than a year. He eventually admitted through our friendly chat that he hardly knew the moves and rules. He had no idea what "en passant" was or the basic theory of the openings. It took everything I had to save my position and earn a draw from him. That game was "my epithany." I made up my mind to take a break and reconsider what CC is all about. Engine use has been a great technical accomplishment, but has it made CC more enjoyable? Not for me. I hope most of you feel differently.

Good luck and good chess to all :-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-06 12:29:10)
Glen D. Shields

Hello Glen !

We had this discussion before, indeed chess engines killed imagination and a part of the fun. The game has changed a lot, more since Rybka appeared. Correspondence chess is now how to beat Rybka, that's a fact... and a new challenge.

Did you try another game, like Big Chess or Go (I really enjoy playing these games), where engines are completely useless and now both rated at FICGS ? My two cents ;)


Garvin Gray    (2007-09-06 17:35:00)
Playchess freestyle tournament

Am curious, how many of our members are playing in the playchess freestyle tournament, starting in about 24 hours: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4093


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-06 21:00:47)
Rugby World Cup 2007

The Rugby World Cup 2007 starts these days in France... Who will be able to win this great tournament according to you ? .. All Blacks of New-Zealand, England, France, Australia... ?

France has a good chance IMO :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-06 23:29:46)
Rybka

In my opinion, the whole correspondence chess level has improved with Rybka. So it is probably a new step towards the 100% draws also (at the highest level)... Fortunately the last step will never happen ;)

Anyway that's why some strong players are bored with correspondence chess.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-07 02:08:01)
Hardware and software

Oops, sorry I forgot to answer about the hardware but anyway the site should move soon on a new server.

Linux, Sql, Php, FICGS, that's all software, only "those parts of the system that you can hit with a hammer (not advised) is called hardware"...


Jason Repa    (2007-09-14 01:20:55)
[moderator : partly deleted]

(...) You might have noticed my M.O. of starting a new topical chess thread or trying to revive communication in an existing thread that is about chess when mayhem was going on before. This time I decided to just avoid the forums for awhile but apparently that's not good enough. I'm asking you to remove his post.


Jason Repa    (2007-09-08 12:26:56)
"No engines" Tournaments

I suspect you'll get a whole new breed of forum posts where accusations will be disguised as compliments such as: "Johnny So and So really played an excellent game! He was accurate like a machine against me", etc.
You'll also hear allot of twisted soapbox rants about how "morally superior" the allegedly non engine consulting players are.
This is what the forums on second rate sits such as RedHotPawn, ChessHere, etc are filled with, in addition to absurd claims of so-called "engine detection technology", which is obviously impossible. On RHP in particular, the site admin are software developers with extremely modest uscf ratings in the C-class range, yet somehow they deem themselves qualified to make such difficult judgment calls, which are at best a probability guess, even for a strong chess player.

I thought it was precisely this kind of nonsense you were trying to avoid when you decided to make it an up front policy of "freestyle" chess at will at FICGS.


Johann Piek    (2007-09-08 18:29:53)
???????

Who would have believed France was going to lose against Argentina? Good game for Argentina though. The teams I'm scared of the most must be New Zealand and Australia


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-09 15:28:33)
FICGS update & wish list

Hello to all.

You probably noticed a new extension to the chat bar, it delivers some random messages and news (forum, problems, public comments, entries, login). It also automatically warns a player if he started an advanced tournament [bullet, lightning or blitz games], which is more convenient... As it refreshes every minute, you shouldn't log out automatically anymore until you close the chat bar.


Other changes :

- Serbia & Montenegro (SCG) has become Serbia (SRB) and Montenegro (MNE).
- New players will start with a 1800 chess rating.
- Lightning tournaments become Advanced tournaments (blitz, lightning, bullet)
- New quotes added from the forum :)
- Some Google optimizations...
- Waiting list for unrated no-engines tournaments is open !
- Minor bugs corrected.


I did not implement the private messages facility yet... I feel it could create some problems (not technically), I still have to think about it.


This is probably a good moment to open a wish list and discuss all changes you'd like to see on the site...

Best wishes, Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-10 02:59:54)
New rule

Mladen and Jason, there's no need to add or respond to the provocation. Feel free to discuss the (IQ / chess rating) formula anywhere else.

I'm to add a new 'rule' in the terms & conditions : "Responding to a provocative message is strictly forbidden and will lead to get a limited access to the server during one month a first time, two months the second one and so on. In this case, please just warn the moderator in private."

Of course, provocation is strictly forbidden also, at the moderator's discretion.

In example, in this thread : Mladen, Garvin and Jason would get a limited access this time.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-10 03:29:34)
New rule takes effect now...

Jason, whatever the content, right or not, this kind of post now will lead to get a limited access to the server. Please just warn me if you read a provocative post and I'll do the necessary.

Thanks in advance.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-10 03:42:07)
New rule

One more response in this discussion (Garvin, Mladen or Jason) and the rule will apply, of course.


Jason Repa    (2007-09-10 03:43:00)
New Rule

I just wanted to let you know that I composed my last post before you posted about the new rule. I now have read and acknowledge it.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-10 03:48:53)
New rule

I know that :) .. No problem.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-10 14:43:59)
Discussing the new rule

About this rule : "Responding to a provocative message is strictly forbidden and will lead to get a limited access to the server during one month a first time, two months the second one and so on. In this case, please just warn the moderator or webmaster in private."

As a player pointed out that this rule was really hard and suggested to me to punish verbal attacks only, here's my answer (to be discussed, of course) :

I did not ban provocation, I just try to limit the "discussions" that follow... Provocation calls provocation and progressively more and more, I don't think that any argument is useful when the aim is not to convince but only to provoke... So, how to limit that with clear rules ? What's exactly a verbal attack, where is the limit ? Quite hard to say... How to avoid such discussions to burn quickly ?

If you have any idea of a better rule, feel free to suggest... What most players like in this site is the friendly atmosphere... Such discussions are boring for most of them IMO.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-11 17:18:40)
Best game

There could be also one for Big Chess :/ .. That's a problem, indeed. Also it would be great to find a way to "promote" really good games... I added a message "Don't forget to vote for the best game !" in the new message box already. Any idea ?


Edwin Dabbaghyan    (2007-09-15 03:09:57)
how can I enter (or qualify for) ?

Hello :) I am new here and I am going to start my first games.... I wonder how I can enter the world championship cycle? where should I start from? and...how can I enter the freestyle money tournament? do I have to qualify or just paying is enough? how much should I pay? I appreciate any help :) by the way, I live in sweden, stockholm... I have played all of playchess freestyle tournaments but the first one and am playing in the current one too...( 2,5 of 5 so far ) ...anyone from sweden, stockholm here in Ficgs? we can drink a beer together in Medborgarplatsen och snacka lite om schack :) I appreciate any help :) regards Edwin


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    (2007-09-15 14:12:19)
FICGS chess & Go WCH cycles

Hello Edwin,

FICGS chess & Go WCH cycles start every january 1st and july 1st each year... Waiting lists will be open about 2 months before this date.

To enter the FICGS chess freestyle tournament (I still have to promote it after finishing the new interface, new date is october 14 :/) & money tournaments, you have to add E-Points to your account, see 'My account' to know how to buy it. Hope it helps :)

Best wishes, Thibault


Garvin Gray    (2007-09-15 16:40:21)
freestyle tourney


Thibault- To enter the FICGS chess freestyle tournament (I still have to promote it after finishing the new interface, new date is october 14 :/)

Is that 2007 or 2008 :P :) lol



Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-16 19:05:35)
:o)

Hi Glen, my new 'old' friend :) .. Yes, our games were very interesting, particularly since you played a funny & tactical but quite unknown Sveshnikov's variation, that is theorically a draw anyway, but great to play over the board :)

So you're Brad Pitt's double ? .. You can see Leonardo Di Caprio's double in PSI trailer (true ! quite funny), maybe we'll work together ;)

Best, Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-18 15:55:07)
Major update : New interface !

Hello to all.

You may have noticed that the way to send moves has changed, at least the way by default (you still can choose to play through the old - HTML only - interface by clicking "slow moves" in My games).

Please note that there are no more confirmation pages when using the new Javascript interface, meaning your moves will be sent as soon as you press the Send button. Also Javascript should be activated in your browser, that is generally the case.

Other changes :

- My games display only games where it's your turn, you can change it by clicking 'display all games'.

- It is now possible to download all chess games (PGN format) in a particular tournament, see the bottom of the page.

- To avoid massive forfeits, the number of running games is now limited to 60.


... and hundreds of other small improvements :)

Feel free to report possible bugs or if you have any suggestions. Thanks in advance !


Gino Figlio    (2007-09-18 06:53:43)
Tie breaks

Rodrigo, I agree there must be better ways of doing this.

As far as the current match, the rules cannot be changed and I guess I will not have to withdraw since I will lose with the tie. I can see the challenge for the tournament organizer but we have to also realize that FICGS is relatively new and its ratings do not necessarily reflect player strength.

How can we decide a match based on something less than representative even if we don't have anything better?. I believe for the future ties must be broken playing chess even if it's "blitz" cc.

I also would like to stop making comments on this unfinished match, I don't want to get distracted nor distract Peter from our competition.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-19 01:20:50)
Missing game(s)

Hi Wayne, that's normal ! .. The last update avoids many scrolls, with the new interface to send moves, also in My games page. You can click "(display all games)" at the top of the page to see your games displayed like before.


Charlie Neil    (2007-09-19 10:39:55)
Mighty Fine

Love the new interface! No drag and drop yet but, you can't have everything. Faster movement on the board gives me more excuses for finger-slip blunders. And all for the same price!.......B-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-19 13:45:30)
October 21

This should be the final date for the 1st FICGS freestyle tournament. As I had to finish the new interface, I'll only start to promote it today in forums and other websites...

About the time control, I agree that ie. 1h+20s would be less "Rybka mode" and more centaur, but it requires a lot of energy and time for a 6 rounds tournament. So let's give a try to 10m+20s, thus the tournament should last about 6 or 7 hours...

Until october 31, you'll be given 20% E-Points more when buying tickets :)


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2007-09-19 18:02:57)
New options in Preferences

Hello Thibault!

Nice update, but ...

Is it possible to set in the preferences how to start a FICGS session? I would like to have "display all games" and "slow moves" as default ...


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-19 18:33:20)
Not empty

Hello Josef, this is a bug provoked by the new interface, it should be fixed in a few hours. Now correcting the game...


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-19 18:34:09)
New options in Preferences

I was to implement it ;)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-19 22:29:19)
New update

Now you can choose in Preferences if you want to use the fast interface (Javascript) or the slow one (HTML) by default, also if you want to display all running games or pending games only in My games.

Two sizes for gobans are now available in Preferences, the smaller one may be better to see the form without scrolling with the fast interface.


Don Groves    (2007-09-20 07:58:42)
New interface!

Excellent changes, Thibault! Much smoother now. One request I have: please show the remaining clock next to each game on the page after we submit a move. This will help greatly in deciding which game to visit next. -- Don


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-20 20:42:06)
Forfeits

Many different reasons (often quite bad news), ie. health problems... :/

That's correspondence chess.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-21 00:09:15)
Knockout

Surely knockout format (FICGS rules or not) is not perfect, like round-robin. In this case ratings are important and a new cycle starts every 6 months. Let's agree to differ :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-21 01:17:34)
(Skip) or (Flip board) ?

Question : Would you prefer the (Skip) option to go to the next game, instead of (Flip board) in the new interface ? .. I can't let both of them, but maybe noone use the flip board one !?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-21 14:52:53)
60 minutes + 15 seconds

Ok Garvin, you convinced me :) .. Finally it will be play on 2 consecutive days (october 20 & 21 - 14 pm, 17 pm, 20 pm)

This format is longer but definitely more interesting.

I'll start (at last) to promote it today, feel free to announce it in forums & websites :) .. Now FICGS account at Paypal is available to send & receive money.

I'll start a new topic about Freestyle cup... Too many out-of-date informations in this one.

Thanks for your help !


Andrew Stephenson    (2007-09-21 20:34:37)
Tie Breaks

Thansk for the reply Thibault. on the delay front I think it would be less than 6 months maybe 1 or 2 months. First the effect of this delay would impact on only very few top players in completing the final stages. Overall the quantity of chess games and opportunities would be unaffected as new championships start every 6 months so the amount of playing is the same. Second "If tournament entry ratings are equal, ratings when the next stage begins will be taken in account." Ok this will be rare but you cannot really be saying that a match would be decided perhaps 1 or 2 months after completion when the next rating is done? Third "The special rule, at least, force one player to avoid it." yes but it didn't did it? You took the 4 draws in 15 moves because you had too many games and your opponent was a strong player! My point is not about the unfairness of the rule Thibault its the effect of it - in this case 4 identical 15 move draws is not a good advert for the site, the World Championship FICGS or the players.


Dan Rotaru    (2007-09-22 01:16:27)
Games download

Excellent update and new interface, thank you very much Thibault. I really like the new feature which allows to download all games in a particular tournament. On this note it really would be nice to be able to download all one's games in progress. If playing few tournaments in the same time it is not practical to download all of them. Also what about being able to download all the games finished on FICGS from the beginning to date?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-24 02:13:51)
1st FICGS freestyle cup

Dear chessfriends,

The 1st FICGS freestyle cup waiting list is open ! .. This advanced chess or more commonly said "freestyle" (computers, teams, everything allowed) swiss tournament will happen on 2007 October 20 & 21 (14 pm, 17 pm, 20 pm server time), time control : 1 hour + 15 seconds / move. Entry fee is 10 E-Points (10 Euros), prize is 100% of E-Points (see rules/membership).

Thanks to players who broadcasted the news on the web already !


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-25 21:53:58)
Extra rule

A new rule to motivate more players before the start of the tournament :)

"An extra fee, usually 30% of the entry fee, will be added to the entry fee 7 days before the start of the tournament."


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-26 18:45:47)
Chess, love... ego

In a discussion where Susan Polgar (in her new forum, see link below) encourages members to ask questions to strong OTB GM & IM, I suggested to ask them :

"...how the venue of Rybka and other engines crushing them OTB (ie. Hydra-Adams) in classical games affected their love of the game ! .. More than learning us & them humility, obviously noone can feel the same than Bobby Fischer in front of the chessboard anymore (and probably before him also). How can a human player love the game like he did, nowadays ? .. What is the place of the ego in this strange relationship ? Finally... do they play other games more and more as time passes ?"

An interesting point, undoubtly to be discussed, is the place of ego in the love of the game IMO. Go players may have an interesting point in this discussion ;)


http://www.chessdiscussion.com

http://www.chessdiscussion.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=196


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-27 21:57:34)
New update (2007-09-27)

A new update :

- Private messages facility (see bottom of My messages) has been implemented, you can send a message that will be sent by email to your opponent. You can disallow other members to send messages to you in Preferences

- Now you'll be redirected to the next game by default after sending your move. You can change this option in Preferences.

- Go scorer, now much more convenient, you just have to click on the groups to remove before to score the game.


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2007-09-28 00:36:03)
Comment

This remark was made by past freestyle winner Equidistance in the rybka forum: "This FICGS site is very unclear, impossible to find anything. No clear summary about what these e-points are all about, very long terms and conditions, really I doubt anybody will spend so much time to even find the page about Freestyle Cup, which is hidden under one of many menus." Maybe navigation could be made easier for new players interested in the tournament.


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2007-09-28 03:16:26)
Private Message

That new feature works, I have just sent a private message to myself ...


Don Groves    (2007-09-28 05:48:24)
New interface

Just as I was getting used to seeing My Games after submitting a move, now I'm taken to a game! I'd rather see My Games so I can choose which game to see next.


Garvin Gray    (2007-09-30 11:31:11)
new entrant


A third entrant to the freestyle cup
:)
Was starting to think it was
going to be a six game match between Thibault and myself :P
Welcome to the tournament Michael

Will Ilmars be entering?



Thibault de Vassal    (2007-09-30 12:06:30)
new entrants

Hi Garvin :) .. Don't worry, we're 3 weeks from the start of the tournament yet, the extra-fee rule (1 week before the start) and the invitation to titled players should help... 2 players more just bought E-Points, so it's on the way for an interesting tourney ;)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-01 05:20:50)
Tablebases : Mate in 517+

While I was checking some positions in 6-pieces tablebases, I was wondering what was the longest win found in tablebases so far...

I found the answer here (new record established in May 2006) :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endgame_tablebase#Endgame_theory

"For some years, this position held the record for the longest computer-generated forced mate. (Otto Blathy had composed a mate in 292 moves problem already in 1889.) However, in May 2006, Bourzutschky and Konoval discovered a KQNKRBN position with an astonishing DTC of 517 moves. This was more than twice as long as Stiller's maximum, and almost 200 moves beyond the previous record of DTC = 330 for a position of KQBNKQB_1001."

What I just can't understand is how is it possible not to know the DTM (Distance To Mate) while knowing the DTC (Distance To Conversion) ?!

Anyway, amazing ! .. Any taker ? :)


Peter Schuster    (2007-10-01 10:07:37)
New Interface castling

Hello, I'm not able to castling in the new interface. When I move the king from e1 to g1 then the rook stays on h1. Only when I write O-O in the text field, the castling is O.K. Best wishes Peter


Hannes Rada    (2007-10-01 12:04:08)
Castling

Hi Peter, You can castle with the new interface. After pushing the send button the king and the rook are on the correct position :-) (even if it does not look so ...)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-02 03:45:44)
Update : Crosstables and Big Chess

A new update, now tournament crosstables link to games (in a new window), which is a more convenient way to find a particular game in a tournament. Click the magnifying glass next to the tournament's name, then on a symbol (1, 0, =, *) in the crosstable and a new window will appear with the game.

Also a new category in special tournaments : Big Chess masters (2000+), waiting for a complete category for Big Chess. Reminder : Your first Big Chess rating is your current Correspondence Chess rating - 300 (see your ratings in Preferences), so a player CC rated 2300+ without a Big Chess rating can enter the Big Chess masters waiting list.


Don Groves    (2007-10-10 00:59:50)
Cracking Go?

As I've pointed out before, unlike Chess, the Go board can be made larger without seriously affecting the game for human players. Making the goban 23 by 23 (Big Go?) would multiply the number of possible games by 3.74e+50 and render brute force algorithms ineffective once again. This would also stimulate Go research as new fuseki and joseki would need to be discovered. Sadly, the day will come when the computer will dominate Go -- and every other human endeavor, except maybe for sex ;-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-13 19:17:27)
Freestyle tournament

A new player may enter the Freestyle Cup waiting list soon... So we'll be at least 8 players, anyway only 6 rounds will be played, I can't change the rules now.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-20 05:17:30)
Rybka 3, Fritz 11, Shredder 11...

Rybka 3, Fritz 11, Shredder 11, also Chessmaster 11... new versions of many engines are announced or coming (Fritz 11 - end of november).

It is said in computer chess forums that one secret of Rybka may be "table of exchanges", in other words knowledge, added to a 'simple' & very fast engine typically like Fruit. Many now think that other engines may catch Rybka in a while, but we might have to wait for the thirteen series at least IMO :)

Anyway, the battle continues... Also waiting for Hiarcs 12 !


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-21 01:36:54)
Kasparov on Bill Maher

After Kasparov's win on Colbert, Bill Maher was checkmated also :)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4194
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4191


Don Groves    (2007-10-21 04:46:54)
Garry Kasparov

One the video guests on Friday night's US television program, Real Time with Bill Maher, was Garry Kasparov who had been in New York (his family is still there for a while longer). Maher is a political comedian and most of his show revolves around anti-Bush humor. Everyone (including myself) was amazed at the knowledge (particularly of Middle East politics) and political maturity shown by Kasparov! In addition, he easily outdid Bill when it came to comedy, saying at one point that he was aiming quite a bit higher than simply being better than Bush. I wish we had him running for our president!


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-23 02:59:46)
Time zones

I'm to add the waiting list, Go "freestyle" cup will be a 6 rounds swiss tournament... Chess & Go freestyle tournaments will occur at the same time. Rounds will start at 15:00, 18:00, 21:00 server time on 2 consecutive days.

Time zones are a problem for players from ie. New Zealand, but it should be ok for players from Moscow to New-York.

Time control will be 1 hour + 10 seconds per move.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-24 14:05:27)
Wolf Blitzer on CNN's Late Edition

Kasparov : "In Russia we are not fighting win elections, we are fighting to have elections."

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4198


Fighting from the opposite side of the earth, quite good strategy :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-29 23:22:49)
FICGS new server is running !

Welcome on the new server !!

Finally, 22 hours (only) were necessary to install FICGS on the new server... Running clocks have been corrected (22 hours) with a 22 hours bonus.

Thanks for your patience :)

Best wishes, Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-30 04:16:49)
Go tournaments : New categories

I'm to add new categories for Go tournaments and to change rating ranges for PRO, DAN & KYU tournaments, it should help players to get a more accurate rating.

FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_PRO : 2600+
FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_DAN : 2100+

FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_KYU_III : 1600-2600
FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_KYU_II : 1100-2100
FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_KYU_I : 0600-1600
FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_KYU : 0000-1100


Feel free if you have any suggestion...


Don Groves    (2007-10-30 04:22:43)
New Go categories

Excellent!


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-10-30 20:30:55)
New Go categories

It has been updated... Now we need more players :)


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

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

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

Congrats to Stefan Meyer-Kahlen.

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

Did someone try the new engine ?


Marc Lacrosse    (2007-11-01 22:56:53)
??

"if this is not ok for you, I can remove you from the list."

I never enrolled for this tournament and I am not on the list ...

I just had a look as I was searching for a possible new tournament with higher ratings ...

Marc


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 !


Michael Mueller-Toepler    (2007-11-04 13:03:40)
New tournament

Dear Chessfriends, I have an idea for a new tournament. Swiss System: 20 players, 12 rounds 2 games at saturday, 2 games at sunday over three weeks. What is your opinion to my proposal? Greetings from Munich Michael


Andrew Stephenson    (2007-11-07 15:03:22)
New category (chess rapid 2000-2200)

Thibault I think there may be a case for rapid tournament category 2000 - 2200 as there may be enough players in that category at the moment who might not feel very motivated to enter the 1800 - 2200 but would go for a 2000 - 2200 event. In the available tournament 1800 - 2200 for example no player above 2000 has entered. Just a thought.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-11-07 15:37:51)
New category (chess rapid 2000-2200)

Hello Andrew. True, but I don't think it is good to develop rapid tournaments too much, simply because it is quite hard to play, the risk is to see more forfeits on time & to concurrence the chess world championship as it is really hard to play 2 or 3 rapid tournaments at the same time. Also the more categories & players in rapid tournaments, the less in standard ones. Rapid tournaments are designed for players rated 1400-2200 who want to establish their rating quickly or to try the chess wch time control.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-11-08 15:51:12)
The Bilbao rule

Two interesting articles published by Chessbase about the Bilbao rule effects in chess and football (Win : 3 points, Draw : 1 point, Loss : 0 point)

This issue will probably be discussed again and again, as FIDE world chess championship rules... or FICGS chess wch tie break rule :)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4232
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4237


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-11-11 05:08:02)
Number of games limitation

Hello all.

The current number of running games limitation before the program blocks the access to new standard or rapid tournaments is 60 (which doesn't mean the number of running games is limited to 60)

After having experienced myself the "too many games" effects (more than 80 games, quite stressful and time consuming), and after a few general forfeits by players who probably reached the overdose, I decided to change some parameters to prevent such consequences. In a previous discussion, it had been concluded that it was up to each player to manage this and eventually to take the risk, but definitely too many correspondence games is not the same than playing chess all day.

The number of running games limitation before the program blocks the access to new standard or rapid tournaments (but world championships cycles) will be 30, once more it doesn't mean the number of running games will be limited to 30... Of course faster tournaments will remain unlimited. It should accelerate running games, prevent general forfeits, and help us not to become chess machines, at least "correspondence chess machines" :)

Best wishes, Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-11-11 15:46:30)
30, 40, 50... ?

One player (only) said to me that the 30 running games limitation before the program prevents to enter new standard or rapid tournaments [but wch cycles] was probably not enough. I think 60 is definitely too much...

Poll : What do you think about a reasonable number ?


William Taylor    (2007-11-11 16:59:49)
Total games or type?

Does the limit refer to total games or games of each type? For example, if you have 20 chess games and 20 go games running, will you be blocked from entering both new chess tournaments and new go tournaments, or will you be blocked from neither?


Andrew Stephenson    (2007-11-14 12:54:32)
new rapid category

Thibault please reconsider your decision and set up a 2000 - 2200 rapid tournament which I think will fill up quickly. there are about 60 active players rated 2000 - 2200 and of these about 5 have more than 10 games going. 2 of these (Jason and Sandor) probably wont enter a 2000-2200 rapid as they are qualified and down for higher level tournaments.If the rapids are for players up to 2200 why have you got higher rated rapid tournaments? Lets get more chess played isnt that what its all about? Incidentally the standard ratings of 2000-2400 and 2200-2600 seems a mistake as no one above 2200 will enter the 2200-2400 tournament. Has anyone else got any views on having a 2000-2200 rapid category?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-11-14 16:13:39)
new rapid categories

Poll : Do you think that rating ranges for Rapid chess tournaments should be 200 instead of 400 points, like in Standard tournaments (I mean the rating range that separate tournament categories)

Thanks for opinions.


Andrew Stephenson    (2007-11-14 20:32:07)
New Category

I agree with Garvins point completely. I think there are crossover probs. I like Thibaults suggestion for the display of Rapid tournaments - people can then choose there category - great idea. There is plenty of scope for sub 2000 to progress under this format and I dont see any downside.


Andrew Stephenson    (2007-11-14 20:38:49)
New category

Sorry I should have said I like the 200 band ranges options 2 and 4 - preferably option 2 as under option 4 I doubt you would see any 2200+ players entering. Wayne why do not want the bands to be reduced to 200 point differentials? dont you think there are a lot of players 2000 - 2200 who would like to play rapid?


Wayne Lowrance    (2007-11-15 17:30:30)
new category

Hello Andrew. I have changed my thinking on this. 2000-2200> I would think 200 throughout would work. Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-11-24 18:53:44)
Kasparov arrested in Moscow

A few days after his visit in France and once more, Garry Kasparov has been arrested, like other critics of President Putin, at a rally in Moscow organised by Kasparov's Other Russia coalition.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4277


Graham McGrew    (2007-11-26 22:33:50)
Wilkes-Barre Furor

Thanks for this wealth of responses, all. Thanks too for the tip on Ilmars' analysis. I will check it out. Thibault, what is the next thematic tournament for which you need five more players? Ilmars, I would love to play a game with you as white, me as black. Being new to FICGS, I'm not exactly sure how to start a game with you . . . ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-11-27 22:37:57)
Baduk and chance : 1dan in LG cup final

A Go player ranked 1 dan is about 800 elo points below a 9 dan player (whatever the ranking system ?!), meaning about no chance to win a game against such an opponent, right ?! .. How is it possible to see a 1 dan player at this level in one of the main Go tournaments in the world ?

Of course everything can happen in a Go game, but I suppose it is not the case during a whole tournament...


From IGN Goama newsletter - http://gogame.info

"An interview with Han Sanghoon, 1-dan, the first 1-dan in Go history, who entered the final match of the World Go Championship (LG cup)

- Congratulations! What was the most difficult game in this tournament?
- The last one with On Sojin, 4-dan. It was really close finally and I think, that I was slightly behind until the endgame stage
- You became a professional about 1 year ago. Did you think that you can reach the final match of the World Go Championship so quickly?
- I remember that it was very hard to become a professional. I was almost 18 and it was my last chance to win the qualification among inseis. Of course, I did not think, that I can show good results quickly. I was surprised, that professional tournaments are not much harder than the insei league :)
- What are your weakest and strongest parts in Go?
- I am weak at the opening, but I feel myself confident in middlegame fights. Usually I try to defend my groups solidly, before fighting
- Who is the hardest opponent for you?
- Yun Junsang, 6-dan. I lost him twice and feel that he is much stronger than me. Also his Go style is very impressive
- What do you think about your final match with Lee Sedol, 9-dan. How big are your chances?
- I never played him before, but I saw lot of his game records and I know that Lee Sedol, 9-dan is much stronger than me. Any way, I will try to win the match! Usually I am not afraid of the star opponents at all!"


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-12-01 17:26:49)
Quote fest, revenge :)

What about a new quote contest ? ;)

Pio opened the festivities : "I always say that, next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained. (The Duke of Wellington, War and Peace)

Any taker ? (quotes by yourself are welcome for the FICGS quotes files ;))


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-12-09 08:08:28)
Back button

Hmm, if you use the games links from the tournament crosstable, it should open a new window, so you just have to select the previous window to go back to the tournament ?! Is it right ?


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

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

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

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


Garvin Gray    (2007-12-12 16:40:02)
5 over 7 as a trial :)


7 players is best for fair ratings IMO.

I do not disagree one bit. The more games and more players in a touranment, the better rating outcomes and fairer tournament all round.

That being said, I think this does need to be balanced against both how long it takes to get a tournament started (which can be quite a while in some cases) and keeping new players on the site by being able to get them some starting games sooner. This has to also be good for accurate ratings as it increases the pool of potential players.



Thibault de Vassal    (2007-12-14 15:40:44)
Tablebases on R+B vs. N+N

Good to know this endgame (Rook + Bishop wins against 2 Knights in 150 to 220 moves in the longest cases - tablebases 6 pieces), as there's no draw granted after 50 moves without any capture according to FICGS rules.

Karjakin, Sergey (2694) - Shirov, Alexei (2739)
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (6.3), 11.12.2007

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4322


Garvin Gray    (2007-12-15 17:28:26)
wild cards


I think a wild card would be a good idea for the higher rated tournaments if there was a rating limit to the wild card.

For instance, after a certain amount of time for entries, entry is allowed for one person rated less than 100 points below the lower rating cutoff.

This wild card player will not be outclassed and if a new player might even be quite under rated and competitive in the tournment.

The point is that after a certain time given for normal entries, I think most players already registered in the tournament would rather the tournament to start than to keep waiting around.



Thibault de Vassal    (2007-12-16 16:22:18)
Conditional Moves

Indeed, it has :) .. Conditional moves still brings many questions but I'm still opposed to the idea.

Anyway a new wish list is a good idea ! .. The main issue I'm working on these days is money prizes for WCH & freestyle tournaments, but ideas for improvements are always welcome.


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-12-16 16:31:33)
Make your chess variant :)

"Too many draws, chess is dead", one read such things quite often for a few years. True or not, what about to imagine a new variant like Chess-Vodka (one move or capture, one mouthful.. funny games :))

Ok, I can't implement Zubrowka on this server :) , but we could imagine a funny rule that would let the game rules very near classical chess but with more mad games, less drawish & giving equal chances to both players (main point being FUN)?!

Any ideas ?


Glen D. Shields    (2007-12-18 06:24:08)
Thanks Gino

Thanks Gino for the clarification. The ICCF prize tournaments are a new offering and I've not updated myself on the tournament details. I need to do that!

May you and yours have a wonderful holiday season :-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-12-19 18:08:38)
High level performance

Right, many congratulations to Marius, at least for beating Marc (who made a good tournament too) with the Black pieces !

And congrats to Dinesh for "submitting" new great quotes with an interesting Nietszche-like written style to FICGS files :)) (if you agree, of course)


Samy Ould Ahmed    (2007-12-20 12:11:06)
www.brainking.com

In this site you can see 33 variants of chess...it can help you to find a new one :-)


Garvin Gray    (2007-12-20 20:28:01)
needs new glasses :)


But I can't see yet how it adds some work to a tournament director (Garvin ?!)...

I have not played on a server with conditional moves, but I would imagine that there are times when the two players disagree over what conditional moves were proposed and so the td has to sort it out and maybe 'offend' someone with a ruling against.



Yugi Inving    (2007-12-21 01:35:19)
3 vs 3

I had just had this idea. this varient of chess have an hexagonal board whit three players playing all for themselves, (no alliance is permitted ). is also have at least six new piece and some new rules or power accorded to some piece. i will decribe it clearly an other time.


Don Groves    (2007-12-23 23:09:57)
Happy Holidays...

... to all and best wishes for the new year! -- Don


Mladen Jankovic    (2007-12-24 23:58:00)
Merry Xmas

And a lot of good chess in the New Year! ;)


Andrew Stephenson    (2007-12-29 13:31:04)
New Category

ok Thibault look forward to the changes perhaps in a few months time we can revisit the matter ......


Garvin Gray    (2008-01-03 04:29:22)
Steve Lopez latest article on chessbase


My only comment is that I would have liked Steve to also have compared the chessbase engines to Rybka, Zappa et al

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4357


[moderator : please just leave a link to articles from other websites]


Garvin Gray    (2008-01-04 17:37:57)
new engine


Considering buying one of the single processor engines.

Already have Rybka 2.3.2a and fritz 8 plus a few freebie engines.

Recommendations? I have looked at the cegt tables and cant see Shredder 11 there. I see Deep Shredder 11 there alot, but not just Shredder 11.

Have I read the tables incorrectly or is Shredder 11 just poorly rated in the cegt tables?



Thibault de Vassal    (2008-01-08 00:50:55)
Incomes of top Go players

One more interesting article from the IGN "Goama" newsletter - http://gogame.info


Incomes of Top Korean Professionals in 2007:

1. Lee Sedol - $600.000
2. Lee Changho - $400.000
3. Park Yeonghun - $360.000
4. Cho Hanseung – $180.000
5. Kang Dongyun - $150.000
6. Mok Jinseok -$148.000
7. Lee Yeongku -$122.000
8. Won Sungjin -$116.000
9. Yun Junsang - $113.000
10. Kim Jiseok – $113.000

Japanese players, even who is not famous on international arena, makes more money, but it's still hard to compare their tournament incomes with top football or hockey players.

Maybe better to compare chess and Go players: "As sports go, chess is not lucrative for the average professional. The well known top players who have been able to achieve millionaire status (Karpov and Kasparov) are the exceptions. Aside from them, there are only about 20 players world wide who do well financially from chess ($100,000+ per year income), and another 100 or so that make a comfortable living ($50,000+). The next 1,000 players, on average, come out about even -- earning in prizes what they incur in entry fees and expenses. Then come perhaps 10,000 players who invest several thousand dollars more per year than they earn." -- from "GM RAM: Essential Grandmaster Knowledge" by Rashid Ziatdi and Peter Dyson, PROChess LLC, New York, 1998


Glen D. Shields    (2008-01-08 04:10:25)
Other Expenses

Happy New Year Thibault!

Besides time, fees, travel there is also taxes and depending on where the player lives there may also be a need to pay towards retirement pensions, healthcare, etc.

My point ... $600,000 sounds like a lot, but when one factors in the whole enchillada, it's really not much money at all to be the very best in the world at your profession!


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-01-14 16:19:56)
challenges

Hi Andrew, yes players are ordered by login time (then roll so looks like random) while they most probably should be ordered by rating. Maybe soon... If a player challenges you, a line with an "accept" option appears below the box. If you challenge a player, a line that you can remove by clicking the double arrows appears below the box and your opponent is warned. But I have to make new improvements to increase the interest of these bullet/blitz bronze games - maybe it should be free after all :) .. Now, the empty games (without any moves) will be deleted by new ones...


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-01-14 16:21:31)
analyze board

It could be quite easy to do now, but I have to find some place to add a new option A... To be continued, thanks :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-01-15 05:13:17)
"No games to display"

Did anyone notice a strange bug, ie. "Sorry, there's no game to display" (when actually that's wrong) in My games, while other pages, ie. the forum, work correctly.. this bug looks like to happen after a long time without loading a new page.. (so only the message box automatically refreshes regularly)

I'm not sure where's the problem yet... Thanks for feedback.


Ilmars Cirulis    (2008-01-15 20:47:51)
Re

But I have to make new improvements to increase the interest of these
> bullet/blitz bronze games <
- maybe it should be free after all


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-01-16 04:06:24)
My games

Feel free to tell what you think about the new My games page. In the next update (in a few minutes), games will be better separated by tournament.


Garvin Gray    (2008-01-16 17:54:18)
thumbs up

Thumbs up for the new my games page :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-01-16 19:32:31)
FICGS rules

Hello Peter, I understand your point of view. Correspondence chess is not OTB (over the board) chess and rules may not go the same way.

FICGS WCH rules can be found here :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=entry_tournament&tournament=ficgs_chess_wch
http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#chess_wch

... so you should have seen it before to enter the waiting list.

The idea in this correspondence chess championship is to find the best player, of course. In correspondence chess, rating is much more important than in OTB chess to know the "current" level of a player, and should be taken in account, just like performance. This rule is quite hard but this way we can organize a new cycle every 6 months, so more chances to reach the final stages. Anyway this issue will be discussed again and again.. and rules are just rules.

Best wishes, Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-01-21 04:29:10)
Bobby Fischer in the news

Quite impressive to hear so much about Fischer's death in the medias taking his past into consideration... Fischer was a living legend whatever his thoughts & life after the century match in Reykjavik 1972 against Boris Spassky (actually the whole world already).

FICGS statistics from search engines and particularly Google exploded these last days.. "Robert James Fischer", "Fischer Spasski", "Fischer champion du monde", "La partita del secolo", "Fischer random chess", "Fischer Palma de Majorque" ... and so on... sometimes stranger (even quite frightening) keywords associated to him.

Anyway, Bobby continues to promote the chess game all over the world !


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-01 15:49:49)
Bobby Fischer Goes to War

Kevin Macdonald will direct "Bobby Fischer Goes to War", a movie that should focus only on the match against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik 1972. Fischer to become the new american heroe ?! .. could be funny (or not)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4424


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-03 22:22:25)
Rating change

Ok, it seems that Viktor will forfeit his games. Before to find a new rule that could decrease the effects of such a general forfeit, I think it is reasonable to change Viktor's TER & rating to 2507 (current FIDE rating) instead of 2667 (provisional ICCF rating). I think it is fair in this rare case.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-04 14:28:15)
mystery

Ok, I'm done... Don's right, actually each week I add some new rotating bugs so that players don't use FICGS excessively :o)

(next one: disconnection just before to post a long message in the forum - called the "Don's bug" :))


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-14 15:02:47)
provisional ratings

Hi Andrew, yes new players usually start with a 1800 rating, but if the player specify a rating below (or an official rating). I did not notice Zack's provisional rating, quite strange, but anyway it should increase very fast.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-15 00:49:14)
Since when?

Hi Mladen, threefold repetition was not recognized when using the new interface until a few months ago.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-15 14:16:15)
re:

...in a command-line browser ?? oh yes I ask :) why the new interface couldn't work the same way ?!


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-15 14:36:07)
Kamsky vs. Topalov 2008

FIDE has announced its decision to accept the US $150,000 bid made by the Bulgarian Chess Federation, unless a country comes up with a US $250,000 bid by April 11th. The Kamsky vs. Topalov match is scheduled for the end of year 2008, after the Anand vs. Kramnik match.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4448


Now, a small test : Who is the current chess world champion ?

(you could also ask to 5 people who don't necessarily play chess around you and leave the results here.. could be interesting :))


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-15 22:47:18)
FICGS other forums

Hello to all.

You may have noticed new banners on the right of the chat bar before to login, so this other part of FICGS website. Well, looks like a small portal now, these new forums (seo forums, buzz blog, web directory, country & city forums and chat..) should help the games server, even if there's a lot of work to make it coherent and to improve it yet. Feel free to use it anyway :)

Lots of improvements to come on the chess server next month. Have a nice week !

Best wishes, Thibault


Mladen Jankovic    (2008-02-16 15:00:33)
re:

The new interface seems to be mainly graphical, and I doubt that Links has JavaScript implemented. I prefer to input moves using notation manually, regardless.

The command line browsers I used so far were various variants of Links. I use those if I'm stuck with just the terminal for one reason or another. Or if I'm playing certain openings and don't bother switching to graphical interface.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-24 01:00:57)
re:

Hi Mladen. It is still possible to enter moves in the textfield through the new graphical interface.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-02-27 12:55:45)
Morozevich on FIDE Grand Prix

An interesting interview of Alexander Morozevich in Sport-Express (russian) translated in Chessbase.com

http://www.sport-express.ru/art.shtml?154431
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4477

Morozevich shares his views about the new FIDE WCH cycle, its length (that can be compared to a correspondence chess championship) & the lack of informations around it. Anand, Kramnik & Topalov wouldn't play FIDE Grand Prix also. One more call to get back to the original chess world championship format...


Alexander Minkin    (2008-03-05 15:46:14)
Apology

I apologize to all my opponents. I've recently gotten very sick and can not keep up with game analysis. As such, I will resign all my ongoing games and return anew once my health is back to normal. Alex


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-03-15 12:43:07)
Unfought draws & rating calculation

An interesting article at Chessbase.com on unfought draws (mathematical, logical and practical considerations), also called "grandmaster draw" in the article, and ways to avoid it, by mathematician and logician Kung-Ming Tiong, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4513

I notice that the main solution proposed just looks like FICGS rules for advanced chess (Performance +/- delta according to the color) :-D .. Anyway I still have to take some time to make this part of the server more attractive.

This thread may be a good place to ask for a feedback about FICGS current rating rules (for both chess & Go), what do you think ? :)


Mark Hailes    (2008-03-17 13:17:00)
Garvin & Admins

Thanks Garvin. That is very useful information and I now see why there is no withdraw option. However, I wonder if an exception could be made in this case - maybe a confused newbie might be allowed to screw up once? If not I'll try to manage all 8 games. M


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-03-18 08:00:21)
Rapid categories

Well thibault we had a long discussion about this with a lot of input and agreement you stated that you would implement the following: "Rapid M (2100+), Rapid A (1900-2100), Rapid B (1700-1900) ... ~200" you have completely gone back on this and your new range is hopeless - you will get 1900 and maybe some 2000 players thats it nowhere for 2000 +_ - 2300 players to go Please check the archives reconsider and implement the range agreed to


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-03-18 19:43:35)
Quote festival, part 4

Now everyone (but newcomers) know the principle :)

Feel free to let your madness go and share your own quotes about chess, life and whatever.. The best ones will enter the FICGS quotes files :)

... just like in this previous thread :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=3448


- Hello Thibault, if I have had a plan (and I had one, I hope), I have forgotten it during the last week... - Hello Heinz-Georg. What do you mean a plan ? :)

(Anonymous players during a Big Chess game)


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-03-19 04:13:57)
Rapid categories

Here we are ! New chess rapid tournaments categories have been created (SM, D, E).


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-03-24 01:37:15)
voting

Votes are removed after 50 new votes, voting for running games allow to follow interesting games before and whatever the end... Well, I suppose players don't make the error twice about votes but you are probably right about this confirmation dialog, I may change it soon.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-03-28 00:35:14)
Brainfart

Well, a new word for me.. :) means ?


Don Burden    (2008-04-01 23:21:35)
April Fools!

Here is a link to one of the better April Fools jokes I've seen - from the Chessbase site:

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp

The author hasn't admitted that this is a joke yet, but it obviously must be.


Don Burden    (2008-04-02 12:05:34)
April Fools!

That was the wrong link. Here's the right one. Thought I checked that when I posted.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4543


Gino Figlio    (2008-04-22 04:39:58)
3rd Webchess Open

Multiple entries allowed means that you may register in more than one group, but for new players only one section is free.


Volker Koslowski    (2008-04-28 10:10:33)
Too much...

Hi Thibault!

The idea is nice but seeing the full conversation history at every move is a little bit to much I think. For me it would be enough to see the last message from my opponent and the message I've sent to him the move before. Maybe it is possible to introduce a new option at the preferences where we can set the number of messages that will be shown at the game?

Regards!
Volker


Volker Koslowski    (2008-04-28 11:01:53)
Conversations

Hi Thibault!

That's a reason why I didn't find the delete option. I still use the old plain HTML interface which I prefer more than the javascript interface. So I will wait for your new trick and in the meantime I will switch to the other interface from time to time to delete messages when thy are to much for my taste :)

Thank you and greetings
Volker


Dale Leisenring    (2008-05-01 10:04:10)
What EXACTLY are the Time Controls?

Would someone PLEASE tell me EXACTLY where is the server, why do I need a new password everytime I log on, what are the time controls? Thank You Very Much!!


Marc Lacrosse    (2008-05-01 18:03:17)
to Andrew

"I don't se much benefit to letting the computer think for hours frankly wants it gets to 20 + ply. There all sorts of horizons in positions that letting the computer run for a year wont sort out."

There are other ways to use engines than letting simply one of them run for hours.
You may interactively walk along the various branches of the tree going from current position with one or several engines running.
You may also have engines playing some kind of test matches against each other from the current position or from any critical position that you identify along the possible continuations.
You can use Rybka randomizer against itself or against other engines for more exhaustive evaluation through test games
And so on ...

"Marc why are you playing this c3 stuff against the sicilian with such great kit? You play the same openings all the time and I thought it was because you had not much time!!!"

1. I never played this disreputed c3 stuff against the 2..d6 sicilian (with or without the 4.Be2 pawn offer) before january 2008 in my 140+ former serious correspondence games
Indeed I did choose it because I erroneously enrolled in three new tournaments simultaneously and I feared to miss time for serious analysis due to heavy workload at that time.
Results are a bit disappointing with it : five draws so far and two unfinished games that I should win (one win is sure and the other one is probable).
This should lead to a 64% result and a 2333 elo performance. Not shining but not that bad insn't it ?

2. I like playing unorthodox openings in correspondence play.
I do not see any interest in beginning my games with 30 moves of overanalysed theory.
Most often I decide for a side variation and I do play it in as many games as possible simultaneously : I do the analysis job once for all while being fully "in the mood" of a similar set of positions.
Then I change for something else
I won't probably ever play any more game with the line I played against you.

3. An exception is the Basman-Sale Sicilian (2..e6 4..Bc5).
I like it a lot and even have a web site devoted to it (http://chessbazaar.mlweb.info/basmansale/index.html)
I am in a running series of more than twenty corr. games without a single loss with it and decided not to stop using it until defeat happens
I probably analysed it more than anybody : I have several thousands of analysed lines in my files.
I am just busy to consider switching to something more agressive for cases where I need to play for a win as Black.

Regards

Marc


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-05-07 05:15:58)
f4 or not f4

1.0 Pablo here is a link you should read: http://www.avlerchess.com/chess-analysis/A_BRAND_NEW_Chessbase_9_for_sale_on_eBay_92649.html 2.0 Mr Repa here is a comment about the Dutch defense: "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 3.0 Mr Repa's chess federation of canada rating is listed as 2010 with an active rating of 1737. If he reaches am expected rating here of, by his account, 2370+ then everyone will be impressed particularly as Mr Repa says "I think I'm a bit out gunned here.I'm running BATTLE CHESS on a Commodore 64. I believe its running at 1.023 MHz." 4.0 It might be battle chess that accounted for the following cc (!) game as black he played against Torsten Opas 1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.exd5 exd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Bb5 Be7 7.Ne5 Bd7 8.O-O O-O 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bh4 a6 11.Bxc6 Bxc6 12.Re1 Re8 13.Qf3 Qd6 14.Re3 Qb4 15.Rae1 Bd8 16.Qf5 Qxd4 (oops)17.Bxf6 Bxf6 and the game is already lost 5.0 Together with his loss with 1f4 that he forgot about here is another example of the correct treatment of f4 by black against Mr Repa 1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 g6 4.b3 Bg7 5.Bb2 O-O 6.Be2 b6 7.O-O Bb7 8.d3 c5 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.d4 e6 11.Nd2 Nc6 12.Nxc6 Bxc6 completely dead for white no prospects and duly drawn. Like I said 1 f4 is a waste at cc. I doubt we shall see Mr Repa use it again against a good opponent on this site. 6.0 All the games I referred to were white victories OTB with 1. f4 "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 - thats the whole point. At cc Sengupta's play would not be impressive but otb it was effective. Incidentally the game was played in 2004 in India 8.0 1 g4 is like 1 b4? Well that is clearly wrong. There have been no GM - GM encounters with 1 g4 there have been several with 1 b4 including Topalov v Malakhatsov. Over 50 IM's and a dozen GM's have played 1 b4 very few have ever played g4. 1 f4 has been championed by GM Jakubiec who is the only GM who has played it regularly. 9.0 "What is weird is that the conversation began with quite civil exchanges before tiny criticisms quickly escalated to nuclear mode despite my genuine and exhaustive efforts at diffusion and removal of misinterpretation" Can anyone guess who is being written about here on another chess site?


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-05-10 20:10:02)
Quote

Don't worry about life we're just passing through anyway - New York Taxi Driver


Jason Repa    (2008-05-13 12:32:23)
Repa vs Stephenson 1-0

What's clear, Stephenson, is that you're a very sad and pathetic individual. You obviously have no life whatsoever. You've been harassing me and trying to provoke me nonstop. First you start this troll behavior in the other thread....now you're doing it here as well. Is this what you do to everyone who outsmarts you and beats you in chess, as I have done?

It's one thing to follow me around from thread to thread and harass me, but the brown-nosing and whining to the admin you've been doing has made me lose all respect for you entirely. Not that I had much to begin with.

You even go so far as to obsessively comb through all of my games, just to try to find one that you think will someone embarrass or offend me. You even start a thread featuring one of my games. Obviously none of your own games are worthy of mentioning, so you focus on me and my chess games, lol. Well I have news for you Stephenson, I'm not embarrassed at all about my correspondence chess game losses (or any losses in chess for that matter). I've learned a lot more from my losses than my wins. My 6 losses on FICGS have taught me more than my 118 wins here, including the easy win against you and your chess program.

Perhaps others can benefit from my 6 losses as well. Do the FICGS community a favor and post my other five losses, not just the French Defense I played against Bucsa Ioan, that you felt warranted starting a thread to discuss.

Unlike you, I'm a real chess player. I enjoy learning and wish to take my OTB game to the next level and I believe that correspondence chess is helping me to do just that.

What is YOUR OTB chess rating? Interestingly you didn't respond to that question when it was asked of you more than once previously, lol. Big surprise!


Hannes Rada    (2008-05-14 20:10:41)
Jason's query

Jason, I gave up OTB chess some 20 years ago. So I have no OTB rating (anymore) Playing in my chessclub was not and ist not compatible with my working hours. CC is perfect for me. Analyzing and making move later in the evening when I am returning from work, or whenever I can find time. It's wise to play the strongest possible opponents. But cc rating does not implicitly say anything about chess strength. Too many variables may influence the players chess abilities. (Too many games at the same time, lack of motivation, ....) On the other side an ambitious 1800 Elo newcomer can sometimes more dangerous than an "old" CC-GM. FICGS is quite a nice community. Here you have the chance to raise your rating and play against the higher rated players pretty soon compared with ICCF. But your "strong opponent experience" will end here around 2500 - 2550. Raising your rating in ICCF takes much more time (because tournaments are slower) but when you've established yourselve at a certain level than you have the chance to play the > 2700 guys like van Osteroom & Co :-) But at this level correspondence chess is no fun anymore. I've talked to GM Peter Hertel from Germany several years ago and he told me that he had to analyze and work on his cc - chess positions around 10 hours per day to compete at this level .... if you are retired or jobless and a billionaire (van Osteroom) than you have the best chances of winning an ICCF championship final .... :-) Do you think the playing cc helps to improve your otb abilities ? I've talked to several players regarding this issue and I received different answers. From: Yes I benefit from my cc-opening experience To: No, these are absolutely different stories. OTB requires the abilites to calculate deeplines correctly and to maintain concentration for a couple of hours. All things which are absolutely not necessary for cc. My experience for the short time frame when I played both otb + cc is that for the purpose of improving the otb abilities it would have been better to study chess books and solving tactical exercises than playing cc.


Wayne Lowrance    (2008-05-15 19:45:42)
Rating calculation

Hello all. I have been reading the discussions here and did not intend to add my t hought. But I guess I am anyhow. Chess is about having fun, making new friends, competing with your peers, last but not least improving your skill. I am playing in several M tournaments, a couple have players whose ratings have dropped below 2200. This not a problem for me. I think they should be allowed to play. With respect Wayne


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-05-16 18:32:40)
ELO ELO

"I was talking about updating the database with current theory and critical lines. " So what are you doing if not examining the latest games played and what better source is there than TWIC? How do you examine these if not downloading and filtering out the openings you are interested in by high rated players? Anything else is going to be taking other peoples selections eg New In chess opening surveys or subscribing to a chess opening service. Even then the best way of keeping a database up to date is with TWIC.


Jason Repa    (2008-05-16 21:46:50)
Erm...

The easiest way is to just get in the habit of saving all your text in the windows clipboard every new paragraph or so. (Ctrl+a then Ctrl+c).


Benjamin Block    (2008-05-18 16:33:33)
New idea!

Hi, I often use the search game button to learing from better player. But i often found a lot games that i don´t want games with lower rating then me. So what about more functioning. examlpe filter game under 2000. and filter game with draw and white in and so on....


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-05-19 06:35:14)
Major update (may 2008)

Hello to all, a new update including :

- Regular tournaments with prizes (see thread "Free tournaments with prizes")

- Norms, titles and prizes are now announced by email.

- Players with Epoints are shown in the connected players list (My messages).

- Affiliate links : For each new player referred by your link (see My account) posted on the world wide web, 1 Epoint will be added to your account.

- Search games function improved : You can now search games by opening and by rating (White & Black)


All feedback welcome :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-05-19 06:49:44)
Free tournaments with prizes

Hello to all.

You may have noticed that some free tournaments now have prizes :

FICGS__CHESS__CLASS__SM : 15 Epoints
FICGS__CHESS__CLASS__M : 5 Epoints
FICGS__CHESS__CLASS__A : 1 Epoints

FICGS__CHESS__RAPID__SM : 7 Epoints
FICGS__CHESS__RAPID__M : 2 Epoints
FICGS__CHESS__RAPID__A : 1 Epoints

FICGS__BIG_CHESS__TOURNAMENT__M : 15 Epoints

FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_PRO : 45 Epoints
FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_DAN : 15 Epoints
FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_KYU_III : 5 Epoints
FICGS__GO__TOURNAMENT_KYU_II : 1 Epoints

Membership and Help sections have been updated, see :

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

"When a player wins a free tournament with a prize in E-Points, the current prize displayed for that tournament when the winners list is updated is added to his FICGS account. Prizes may change (most probably increase) during free events at the tournament director's discretion."

Previous chess class SM winners and a few others have received these prizes already.

It is also possible to win free Epoints by posting your affiliate link (see My account) on the web. For each new player referred by this link, 1 Epoint will be added to your account.

Thanks to all, I hope prizes can grow in the near future, also for the WCH cycles :)

Best wishes, Thibault


Richard Blank    (2008-05-19 16:24:57)
Chess player in Costa Rica.

After reading a few threads, I wanted to introduce myself to this community. I look forward to sharing ideas with other forum members on how to improve my game. I am new and have played very little. Yet, I find the game stimulating and very competitive. Hats off to those that are masters. Quite a gift. Best regards, Richard http://www.costaricascallcenter.com


Benjamin Block    (2008-05-20 17:23:43)
New chess eninges champion

when come the next eninges that beat current eninges champion?


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-05-20 17:40:27)
New chess eninges champion

Maybe the surprising Naum, but I wouldn't be so surprised if Fritz 12 (let's say Fritz 13) finally catches the king Rybka.


Arnab Sengupta    (2008-05-21 21:45:45)
new

how about 28...Bf5?


Benjamin Block    (2008-05-24 16:22:36)
New idea

In tournamens if i understand right the player with the best points win but if some have the same the highest ELO win. Why not use the Sonneborn-Bergers (you add oppenents whole points and the half points if it is a draw.) If the Sonneborn-Bergers points is the same you can take the moste wins in the tourney and if they are the same you can use the highest elo win.


Benjamin Block    (2008-05-25 15:38:13)
New idea

Hi, Thibault It is very nice with the filter game search. Is it possible to filter the game in "download all games". I want this because i download the games and put it in my openingsbook but i get bad games too. :( Have a nice week end! Benjamin


Benjamin Block    (2008-05-26 17:12:58)
Why can new player choose elo?

Some players just choose ELO? Some players just take a very low rating even if they have a real high. Why not let the people choose a ELO only if they already have a ICCF rating or fide?


Michael Aigner    (2008-05-27 18:35:33)
Sorry but white is going to win

I think black has a maximum 10 % drawing chances in this position. e.g. [Event "Blitz:120'"] [Site "PC"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "New game"] [Black "Naum 3.1"] [Result "*"] [PlyCount "65"] [TimeControl "7200"] {256MB, Hiarcs10.ctg, HOME-PC} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 c6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5 9. Be2 Bb7 10. O-O Nbd7 11. Ne5 Bg7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bd6 a6 14. a4 e5 15. Bg4 exd4 16. e5 c5 17. Re1 Nxe5 18. Bxe5 O-O 19. Bxg7 Kxg7 20. Ne2 f5 21. Bh5 f4 22. b4 cxb3 23. Qxb3 Qd5 24. Qh3 Bc8 25. Nc3 dxc3 26. Qxc3+ Qd4 27. Qf3 Ra7 28. axb5 Rf6 29. h3 Qd6 (29... Re6 30. Qa3 Rxe1+ (30... Qd6 31. Rxe6 Bxe6 32. Rd1 Qe5 33. b6 Re7 34. Rc1 g4 35. hxg4 Rd7 36. Qa5 Qd6 37. Qxa6 and White wins) 31. Rxe1 Bf5 32. b6 and White wins) 30. Re8 Be6 31. h4 g4 32. Bxg4 Bf7 33. Rc8 and White is clearly better Regards Michael


Don Groves    (2008-05-31 09:53:29)
Scientology virus

This new virus is also called HIV, Rodolfo. Instead of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, it is the Human Intellideficiency Virus ;-)


Ilmars Cirulis    (2008-06-02 17:04:24)
May be you will find it useful.

http://www.xenu.net

http://forums.enturbulation.org (http://forums.enturbulation.org/15-breaking-news/announcements/how-can-you-help-current-ops-5-24-08-update/)


Ulrich Imbeck    (2008-06-03 00:32:35)
Hubbard had satanic Contacts

Hubbard had satanic Contacts like Alistair Crowley. http://lermanet.com/scientologynews/nypost-satanic-link03162003.htm


Wayne Lowrance    (2008-06-03 03:56:21)
Entry Rating

Okey Dokey Gavin, your right of course. I just feel like fewer players are inflicted with this misery at 2200-2400. I guess I am biased tho. I forsee that for me reaching 2300 will be almost impossible with the new bracket...I am in several tournaments at the previous bracket rating system, my hope is I can make it in this way, just dunno Thank you Wayne


Don Groves    (2008-06-09 09:01:24)
Brackets - Chess and Go

Thanks for your reasoned response, Jason. I'll answer your points in order: (1) Having one lower rated player in a group of seven does not seem to me to be much of a dilution. Also, remember that this player is at or very near the top of the next lower rated group, and again, this doesn't seem like a large enough disparity to be of concern. (2) The other players in the group will have five other opponents rated within the group's normal limits and thus will have plenty of opportunity for their own advancement by winning a majority of those games. Remember also that Thibault instituted a rule that losing to a lower rated player only counts as a loss to someone a maximum of 150 ELO below. So, losing a game to this one player will not constitute a disaster to anyone's rating. (3) The new rule could easily specify that no more than one lower rated player may enter any given tournament. (4) Your point here is simply not true in general. In my own case, I'm the highest rated player in a current Go tournament. Even if I win every game, my rating will improve at most from 8 kyu to 7 kyu. The next cutoff point is 5 kyu and there's no way I can reach that level without playing against higher rated players.


Jason Repa    (2008-06-09 11:05:13)
Brackets - Chess and Go

"Thanks for your reasoned response"

Somehow I don't think you know the meaning of the word "reason", groves.

"(1) Having one lower rated player in a group of seven does not seem to me to be much of a dilution"

It is very much a dilution. As I just finished explaining to you, it will not only make it more difficult for the other players in the tournament who legitimately qualify to be there by rating, to acquire the rating points necessary to get to the next level, but it will lower the overall rating average and effect the awarding of norms.

"Also, remember that this player is at or very near the top of the next lower rated group"

Total rubbish. You just finished saying, in your previous post, that you propose to allow the winner of a tournament to qualify for the next higher classification REGARDLESS of his/her rating. There is no certainty that the winner of the tournament will be near the top of the next lower rated group. They could very well be at the bottom of the next lower rated group, as I often was, as were many others, when I won tournaments.

"and again, this doesn't seem like a large enough disparity to be of concern."

And AGAIN, As I just finished explaining to you, it will not only make it more difficult for the other players in the tournament who legitimately qualify to be there by rating, to acquire the rating points necessary to get to the next level, but it will lower the overall rating average and effect the awarding of norms.

"Thibault instituted a rule that losing to a lower rated player only counts as a loss to someone a maximum of 150 ELO below"

Where did you get the 150 ELO figure from? I was under the impression it was a 200 ELO ceiling. Not that this has any relevance in terms of supporting your position anyway.

"The new rule could easily specify that no more than one lower rated player may enter any given tournament."

I just finished explaining to you that there is no guarantee that the "M" class tournaments will end at the same time as the "A" class tournaments. Not only do "M" class players tend to take the game more seriously and move slower, but there are more "A" class players than "M" so it takes longer to fill an "M" class list, hence less "M" class tournaments are played. If you propose to have only one "A" class player sent to an "M" class tournament at a time, then you'll quickly accumulate a waiting list backlog of "A" class players waiting to be seeded into a tournament they don't legitimately qualify for, stretching for decades. The other reasons I mentioned are MORE than enough reason to ditch this suggestion. This is just gravy.

Additionally, and once again, as I just finished explaining to you, if someone is winning tournaments, they're gaining rating points and will soon be able to qualify for the new rating category through legitimate means. So there is no reason at all to provide such "handouts".

I hope I don't have to repeat myself a third time here. It seems quite silly that you don't yet understand the simple and logical truth of what has been explained to you.


Jason Repa    (2008-06-10 04:52:22)
Senility is a terrible thing

"Ah, here they come -- the insults so typical of you"

Sorry groves, but I was simply stating facts. It's difficult to find anything to say about you that you won't construe as an "insult". Everything that has spewed out of your keyboard thus far is evidence of your complete lack of reasoning ability, and very modest IQ.

"I thought I remembered 150. If that's not correct you have my sincere apology"

You "think" a lot of nonsense that isn't true, groves. This is nothing new.

"-- add the condition that, in order to qualify for the exception, the player must be within 25 ELO of the next higher classification"

I realize that with your condition you can scarcely recall your own words from moments ago, but it was YOUR idea that the player in question be seeded into the higher rating classification event REGARDLESS of their rating. So now the little light bulb went on in that melon head of yours and you now realize what I was telling you earlier....about there being no guarantee that the tournament winner is rated near the top of his classification? If you're going to change what you proposed earlier, and only allow players who are within 25 elo of the higher classification, what's the point of it? You might as well let him get the remaining 25 elo on his own and enter the higher classification event normally.

I'm so sorry I made you repeat yourself.

You're doing an awful lot of apologizing, groves. Your very existence seems to be one big apology. I'm sure quite a few people in your life have to repeat themselves, ad nauseum, for your benefit.

"You can have the last word now"

The last word should have been my previous post. As usual, you've contributed nothing of value here. Just more pathetic whining and blabbering, as per usual.


Pablo Schmid    (2008-06-10 21:33:16)
Always the same guy

It's always the same guy, I don't even want to write his name, he would be happy. In each topic where he speaks there is a new victim, he is sure to be the most intelligent and take everything personnally, and insult anybody who don't think like him. I don't know why Ilmars's comment have been deleted, I didn't read them but the King of insults seems to have impunity. If you put his name on google you will see how much trouble he makes everywhere. That behavior should really not be accepted here. I never saw a chess player so rude in my life.


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-05 20:08:47)
doing both would be an excellent idea

thibault extends closure time to 6 months. Posters would create a new heading saying re:<old topic> and start by giving link to old topic. That should be fine, I think. (in fact this was/is a problem with usenet [newsgroups] - so it is an old problem in a new place :) )


Don Groves    (2008-07-06 09:49:32)
I second this

It is easy to begin a new thread and quote material from a previous thread. I see no reason to change anything and I know Thibault likes to avoid changes ;-)


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-11 01:20:57)
the answer is in Carla Bruni's new album

Well maybe so and maybe not - but rather like the album. (Comme si de rien n'était) - I liked the first two albums too :)

You can hear the enitire album at the official site www.calabruni.com


Benjamin Block    (2008-07-16 14:32:33)
New idea

i have think about this a long time but now i think it is time to write it down.
What do you think about make you´re own money price tournament. First you choose e-points fee 10 or 100. Then you choose how many games you want. Of course the site need to have limit so nobody take 100 games. And you choose the highest and lowest rating you want here the site need to take a limit. And the last thing you choose the time control. Here it will be fun if we can take more time control example 30/10 days,50/10 days and 60/10 days.

What do you think?


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-07-17 06:34:33)
Mirroring moves

Hi Wolfgang,

Your example is ok but you do not take account of the date of each move... Even in Sveshnikov (let's say until move 16) there's a difference between playing the same opening and mirroring moves !

BTW, do you live in New-Zealand too ? :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-07-17 14:14:25)
New idea

BTW it may be possible in the future to choose exactly how many E-Points to play but (thinking like a lawyer, Normajean ;)) french laws are still quite hard and fuzzy. There's a difference between entering a tournament with an entry fee & money prize and betting money on a game.

To choose how many games before to decide the result may be possible but there's some work yet... About the lowest and highest rating, I may add this option in a few weeks. Finally about time control, I may add it but is it a good and necessary thing ? I'm not sure.

Thanks for discussing new ideas anyway :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-07-18 14:24:09)
Chessbase Deep Rybka 3

Chessbase, who distributes the best chess engines (Fritz, Shredder, Junior, Hiarcs, Zappa...) now also distributes the little fish : Rybka 3 and Deep Rybka 3 are available.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4772

Rybka 3 (by Vasik Rajlich) is the reigning computer world champion and should be at least 80 points stronger than the previous version Rybka 2.3.2

Did anyone test it already ? What about the improvements (particularly Monte Carlo Analysis in endgames) ?

Rybka 3 book with 3,387,966 positions (260 MB) is also available.


Wayne Lowrance    (2008-07-19 05:32:16)
ChssBase Deep Rybka 3

I think 80 points is conservative. Big disapointment is you must buy the New Rybka 3.ctg book separetly, Wayne


Wayne Lowrance    (2008-07-20 02:38:48)
Rybka Opening Book

In fact I will share an opinion that I have become to trust. That is, even the best books offered have a very short life expectancy. Certainly less than six months with active chess players such that play on "play chess" and even here. Book lines soon become refuted by these centaurs and a new private book of theirs emerges. I will admit that such is the case with me here on Ficgs. I have/use recognized good books that are available, but have my own small book that I consult. Just an opinion and hope this shared info is taken in the helpful way I intended. So this would indicate that R3.ctg probobly is a great book, but against active centaurs will soon reduce its effectivity. Thanks Wayne


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-26 03:04:48)
then .. {white resigns } 0-1 :)

"white's game in its last throes" so white to save time resigns :)

Although Reti 'quotes' Breyer as above in 'new ideas in chess' - i have a copy (english tr. of 3rd ed. )- but it looks like Reti made it up - Breyer never said or wrote it! [of course he woudnt have written 1. e4? because i think algebraic notation was not popular then :)


Don Groves    (2008-07-27 05:33:34)
.. and another

Black new about ponnukis but nothing else. White had fun eating ponnukis but got full and called the arbitrator.
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=9939


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-07-27 19:03:50)
:)

Surely you can track down who said these quotes Normajean? I will give you a clue she is an american professor: "Today, the ideal male is the gay man,and the ideal female is the worker female, the woman who can work in a coal mine just like all the other men." Such is the brave new world of the politically correct!


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-07-29 04:22:11)
Rybka 3 "Human"

ChessBase just published a new article about new features in Rybka 3 that seems particularly dedicated to analysis with Rybka "Human". Among features : Shared analysis, Handicap book, Multiple variations, Monte Carlo Analysis and so on...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4793


Now what can be reasonably expected in Rybka 4 ? :)


Normajean Yates    (2008-08-12 15:32:37)
last thoughts on the latvian fraser ..

Unfortunately I dont have access to 'the Latvian Gambit Newsletter' - that journal might be a sure way to decide if 8. Nc3 is a novelty. [I checked some french and spanish sources also, but in vain...]


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-08-16 22:10:38)
Burden of games!

" and if I am not wrong I am not far from winning WCH-03-stage2-group02 (possibly ex aequo with you)..." I think I might have some good news for you Marc :)


Benjamin Block    (2008-08-18 08:52:18)
Try to translate!

I think it is something like that?
Hello Xavier and first congratulations on your victory in the match which t'opposait the MI (ICCF) Gino Figlio [Peru] in the final candidates. You should avoid at all costs void in all parties, finally brought blacks t'ont chance, how do you explain this result? X
avier: Hello, thank you for the congratulations. It is true that in case of zero for all parties, the regulation states Figlio winner in the event of a tie with victory (s) and defeat (s) I won the match. So I had to take risks in attacking and it is with blacks that I did it because I thought Gino, in these parts, expected without taking risks to ensure the void.
-- Can you tell us about how you approached this match against Gino and his conduct as different phases of the game?
X: It's pretty simple, in this match I was not at all favorite because with more than 200 ELO points FICGS to my disadvantage, and Gino titled Master International, with more than 2480 ELO ICCF point, I thought I n ' not resist going on 8 simultaneous games as a part everything is possible but on 8 parts ... it was for me a great challenge! In the course of the game I played diversity in my beginnings with white 4 parts 4 different strokes: 1.e4 1.d4 1.c4 1.Cf3. Gino did the same: 1.e4 1.d4 1.Cf3 1.Cc3. What made me doubt also because 1.Cc3 surprised me, I thought he had planned an early tonitruand and this is where I said that I should take risks with blacks. As the different phases of the game I assured the zero positions balanced for me concacrer deal has two parts, one with blanks and one with the black for at least make a difference in part to ensure victory. And ultimately it 3 victories me back, which seemed impossible given the quality of the game Gino played on this site to reach the final of the championship candidates.
-- You have made during a championship course without fault, no losses to report, you also posters statistics stratospheric to 78% against an average elo to about 2200, what's your secret?
X: My secret? I have no secret. If I had a secret I do not dévoilerais if I do win more! I think I got a little lucky because he is required by little I am not qualified to stage 3 (round-robin final) because there were 3 players equally and I had l 'advantage classifying the departure of this tournament as indicated by the regulation. As for my statistics, it is also thanks to the errors of my opponents who allowed me to win parts in balance.
-- What do you think the system mid-ko, semi-all-round championship FICGS and its new départages in matches in 8 parties? What changes would it be?
X: Very good question! The system mid-ko for me is a little too fast since a coup by day is overtime analyses to operate a complicated position, which is difficult when several parties in progress. Especially when you work. It is perhaps also through this pace that my opponents lack of time, made some uncertainty regarding postions or exploited my mistakes. But the pace has an advantage over the cadences ICCF which is 5 days a coup is that the parties had to 5 times less time! The départage new games to 8 parts is excellent, forcing the favorite to ensure all matches to nil win this duel and otherwise obtain an additional victory against the challenger is a very well thought out. The amendment that I could make is perhaps time management which is fast for a game system per server. Perhaps increase the clock starting 15 days, starting with 45 against 30 days at this time. And also the possibility of taking a vacation only on the tournament underway to manage other parts of the site. For example, take 7 days vacation on a chess tournament championship and be able to play a tournament Big Chess, Go or another chess tournament during the holidays. Being able to choose a start date of holidays in advance would also be appreciated.
-- Why t'ętre invested in correspondence chess? T'apportent there are other rewards compared to traditional chess and blitz?
X: I prefer chess match over time. For the classical chess is often play the weekend at a specific time and often on the move to make a tournament. The advantage for me, correspondence chess is that I can connect at any time to play my shots, which allows me, for example, making family meals on weekends and late at night to play a coup, which is not possible chess classics.
-- You knew not to succumb to the temptation and you only play a very reasonable number of parties on the site throughout the championship, do you think nevertheless that the correspondence chess are addictive and at what point? Did they affect your everyday life?
X: Yes! Limiting my number of games in progress is essential for me to try to have parts of quality rather than quantity. Have a lot of parts simultaneously is still something very difficult to manage! This is perhaps the key to my victory against Figlio, I watched its games in progress, it had nearly 90 on the site of the ICCF, it has been felt on his time devoted to analysis our parties on FICGS 8. On the everyday life impacts are family because it is true that I spend more time to analyze the parts and less time with my family, which is quite difficult for me. But when the results are there I do not regret!
-- What do you think about the current position of engines for analysis (Rybka, Shredder, Fritz and others) in correspondence chess? What are the qualities you complementary core player by correspondence, now centaur with the machine for legs?
X: The engines of analyses in chess matches are used by 95% of players ... Now we must adapt and learn to use these machines to calculate. Car simply play the best shot of Rybka 3, Fritz 12 or Hiarcs 12 mentally without thinking leads to zero if the opponent does the same or possibly lose if the opponent gives himself the trouble to consider using them as well. Knowing that when you're in the middle part of these programs give you often 4 to 5 strokes assessed similarly, and that is that we must choose the right time when it is not even necessarily cited by the analysis engine ...
-- You get the Big Chess now on the site, curiosity or interest? What do you think of this strange version of chess?
X: For curiosity and fun and I think Rybka 3 is not yet the Big Chess! This version is almost unprecedented I did not know this form of chess before therefore the one who invented this game was very well done! About I'm the one who asks you a question on the Big chess ... Is there possibility of castle with this game if so, how? (Editor's note: No, it is impossible to castle the Big Chess)
-- And finally the question that everyone arises, especially Francis and Wolfgang disputing that the second final candidates, think you can defend your title next year? :)
X: of course! I will defend the title! I would like if possible to know the timing and pace of the match. And I wish Francis and Wolfgang a beautiful final! I must honor in this competition which is well organized!
-- The match should be able to start during the first week of January 2009, the pace will again 30 days and 1 additional day by coup. Thank you for your answers, and even congratulations for this excellent performance!
X: Thank you! And see you! Bonne continuation to all and good parties!


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-08-18 16:06:16)
translation

I will have a go off the top of my head at giving a sense of the interview in english (I dont know the phrase tonitruand but I am guessing it means dynamic!)?: Hi Xavier and first of all congratulations on your success in the candidates final match against IM (ICCF) Gino Figlio [Peru] You had to avoid drawing all the games and finally you succeded with the black pieces. How did that happen? Xavier: Hi thank you. Its true that if all the games had been drawn then under the rules Figlio would have won whereas if the match was drawn but with a win and loss I would win. Because of this I had to take risks and attack. It was with Black that I did this because I thought that Gino would play safely to be sure of a draw. - Tell us how you approched the match and how the different phases of the game went x: Its quite simple, I was not the favorite I have 200 ELO less on FICGS and Gino is an IM on ICCF with a 2480 rating. I did not think I could survive 8 games at once - in a single game anything is possible but 8 games .... it was a big challenge for me! In the openings I chose 4 different moves 1 e4 1 d4 1 c4 1 Nf3 Gino chose 1 e4 1 d4 1 c4 1 Nc3 I was surpised by 1 Nc3 because I was expecting dynamic openings and it was then that I decided I must take some risks with black. I kept most of the games balanced with a draw in hand and concentrated on 2 games 1 white and 1 black to get a result. In the end I got 3 wins which seemed an impossibility given the quality of the games Gino had played on this site to reach the final. - you have not lost any games in the championship and you have fantastic statistics 78% against an average elo of about 2200. What is your secret? x: My secret? I havent any secret and if I did I would not say because I would not win anymore! I think I have been a bit lucky because in the the Round Robin final there were 3 of us on the same score and I went through under the rules because of my rating. As for my statistics I was helped by mistakes by opponents who allowed me to win some drawn games. - What do you think of the system for the FICGS championship (round robin and knock out matches)and what changes would you make? x: Very good question. The matches are a bit too fast for me - 1 day per move when there are hours of analysis needed to exploit a complicated position its difficult when you have several games running Particularly if you are working. Perhaps that is why my opponents have made errors or failed to exploit my mistakes. But this time limit has an advantage over ICCF where it is 5 days per move the games here are 5 times quicker! Having 8 game matches is an excellent idea and obliging the favorite to draw all the games and the challenger to get a at least 1 victory is very well thought out. The change that I would suggest is to have 15 days extra starting time that is 45 days at the start instead of 30 and also the possibilty to take holidays for tournaments for example take 7 days for championship games and to be able to play big chess go or another chess tournament during the holiday. To be able to choose the start of a holiday in advance would also be good. - Why do you like cc and how does it compare to blitz and normal chess? x: I prefer cc because of the time factor. Classical chess is often played at the week end at a fixed time and you have to travel to the tournament. The advantage for me at cc is that I can connect at any time to play a move which allows me for example to have meals with the family at the weekend. Late night moves for example are not possible at classical chess. - You limited the number of your games on the site to a reasonable amount throughout the championship. Do you think nonetheless that cc is addictive? Does it affect your daily life? x: Yes! Limiting the number of my games is essential to try to have games of quality not quantity. Having a lot of games going at the same time is something very difficult to handle. It is perhaps the key to my victory against Figlio - I looked at his games - he had not less than 80 games going on at ICCF this must have affected the amount of time he could spend analysing his 8 games at FICGS. The effects on daily life are felt by the family because the reality is if I spend more time analysing the games I spend less time with the family. Thats difficult for me. But when the results come I dont regret it! - What do you think of the role of chess engines (Rybka Fritz etc)in cc. What are for you the important skills of a cc player - to supplement the machine? x: Chess engines are used in cc by 95% of players. You have to adapt yourself and know how to use the engines. To play just the best move of Rybka 3 Fritz 12 or Hiracs 12 without thinking leads to a draw if your opponent does the same or to a loss if your opponent is thinking. You have to choose bewteen 4 or 5 moves with a similer evaluation from the engine during a game and sometimes the best move is not among these. - You play Big chess. Interest or curiosity? What do you think of this strange version of chess? X : Curiosity and amusement and I think Rrybka 3 cannot yet play Big Chess! This version is new and I did not know it and the inventor has done a good job! By the way I would like to ask is it possible to castle at Big Chess? [No its not possible] - Finally the question that everyone is asking particularly Francois and Wolfgang who are contesting the 2nd candidates final. Do think you will be able to defend your title next year? :) x: Definitely I will defend the title I would like to know if possible the date and time limits for the match. I wish Francois and Wolfgang a great match! I would also like to express my appreciation for this tournament which has been well organised! - the match should start in the first week in January next year the time limit will be 30 days plus 1 day per move. Thank you for your answers and once again congratulations on a great performance. x: Thank you. Cheers. Best wishes to everyone and good games!


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-08-19 05:44:37)
Game 18078

Hi Andrew, I must say I did not analyzed the game at all yet, I just looked at the position and trusted your previous post to Marc in the forum ('good news for you, Marc'). I'll take some time to do it soon.


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-08-19 07:33:54)
my own fault!

Ok Thibault! My good news for Mark meant I was winning so I was reducing the burden of his games - he wouldnt qualify so he has less games !! :)hence the title on my post. I think I should have been a bit more specific!


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-08-22 17:51:06)
Latvian teams

That's a very good idea ! .. So it would be created handly as a special tournament, let's try to build teams in this new thread - http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=5566


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-08-23 09:07:33)
Wasted time

I understand the point about 5 players being a small group but I used up my holidays trying to beat Janos what would have happened if the game was a draw who would have been invited?? Janos twice offered a draw and frankly the only reason I did not accept was because I followed the rules and believed I needed to win to qualify for the final. How were you going to determine who to invite?? You knew that this situation was going to arise from the moment stage 2 started as there were only 4 groups and 1 M group there could only be 5 winners. Not only that but when I raised the issue of Marcs earlier partcipiation in round robin final I actually stated that this time as we will have 5 winners then the sitaution would not arise the group is complete so no invitations arise and in your reply you agreed I do not see why it is too late please comply with the rules as you have no right to invite other players in the rules do not allow it. Saying the administrators decision is final is saying you can suddenly change any rule at any time for any reason. I now face 6 opponents instead of 4 without any vacation time.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-08-23 11:43:19)
Rules change

All members are invited to comment on these points :

1) "Should all groups in WCH tournaments consist in 7 players at least, several players being invited if necessary at the tournament director's discretion" ? I'll change the rules this way if a majority agrees. In all cases the 3rd round-robin final must continue this way IMO but I may add a new rule :

2) "Referees are not error free and are not supposed to change the rules anytime they estimate it is a better choice, players accept the view that a tournament should be modified or any error corrected in all cases." (this is not irony, I'm not sure such a rule wouldn't bring some problems but we may try it if a majority agrees with that).


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-08-23 17:59:14)
still a mystery

I know understand that you had decided (I dont know when??) that you would not allow 5 person round robin finals. So you were going to "invite" two players to make up the numbers in WCC 3 final. Nobody knew this only you. Second you are reserving the right to invite anyone according to make up the numbers according to your own preferences . It may be some all of those who tied for 1st place or you may choose to invite some other highly rated players who did not enter the tournament. Nobody knows! Firstly lets reduce the "invitations" as follows: 1) WCC tournaments will be made of at least 7 players. 2) Any shortfall will be made up of the best losers from the previous stage 3)Best losers will be selected from those who tied for place in a group in the previous stage ranked by tournament entry rating and /or from those who came 2nd ranked by tournament entry rating. Under these rules everone knows where they stand and its transparent fair and consistent with existing rules.


Don Groves    (2008-08-26 06:18:01)
That's a step...

... in the right direction, thanks. I'd really like to download just the games from a new tournament, I already have the others. I suppose I could delete the ones I already have though...


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-08-26 21:24:02)
To be continued

Hi Don, I'll make an update soon.. a new button at the bottom of the page of each tournament.


Ruslan Kopytov    (2008-09-16 11:41:51)
igame.ru

Imho igame.ru was very nice place 2 play corr. chess. Alot of strong players, interesting personalities, really popular and actual threads in forum. It is very bad news if this site is down 4ever. Played there 2002-2008. Nick Ruslan73.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-09-20 03:29:51)
MoGo - Rematch

According to the AGA E-Journal : "Myungwan Kim 8P will take on Mogo in a rematch set for this weekend's Cotsen Tournament in Los Angeles."

Good news :)


Michael Aigner    (2008-09-23 14:38:05)
Oh my god!

Oh my god, is this opening bad! I knew the lavtian gambit ist not really a sound opening joice but I never realized how bad it is. Good luck to the Blacks - we will need it ;-) Michael


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2008-09-28 16:45:05)
Big Chess Championship

To drive this theme I propose a champions-league-type tournament with a new round every 18 month. At the beginning the groups can be built according to our rating list.

Other ideas?

Best,
Heinz-Georg


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2008-09-28 15:34:26)
Languages ...

This is very interesting, in the olimpic games in Barcelona, the King of Spain spoke a few sentences in Catalan, someone told me it was the first time in History that a King of Spain spoke publicly in Catalan, instead of Spanish, also in Italy, in Bolzano, the streets names are in both Italian and German and the region I think have the status on bilingual.

In my opinion a second language is always a wonderful thing, been able to speak another language always enriches a person.

There was a SF writer in one of his stories he said that langiage gave shape to thoughts, not the opposite, and in the novel 1984 of George Orwell there was the concept of eliminating dissident movements by creating a new language without words that could be used for thoughts against the government.


Denis Ivanchenkov    (2008-09-29 17:51:37)
Iouri Basiliev

"Russian and ukrainian are my native languages" So you must know the simple fact that more than 70% of Crimea people consider Russian as their native language. For East and South of Ukraine we also can see that majority of people speak Russian. So saying about "artEficial introduction" of Russian in Ukraine, about "talking about country, not the region" - you demonstrate your own (one-eye blind) vision or it was adopted during your life in "not the raSist countries" or (what I believe is the most probable case) maybe both? as to you professorship - in Ukraine we already saw one "professor of Columbian University" of enormously great merits and honors but ... without a diploma - Roman Zvarych. http://www.pravda.com.ua/en/news/2005/7/23/543.htm his named turned into nickname for those from outside who being dressed up with different "titles & honors" like a Christmas trees teaches us Ukrainians how to live.


Josef Riha    (2008-09-29 19:32:36)
Hallo Wayne,

it's a little difficult, I believe.
Start Fritz and then change to the Database(the very right icon in the iconbar). Then click New Database. In the dialogue enter the name, e.g.: FICGS.cbh and open it. Remember the directory displayed at top.
Now go to your ficgs site and download your games in that directory.
After this load one game after the other and save them as New Game. That's all.


Josef Riha    (2008-09-30 09:01:07)
copy games

No problem :-)
Very dubious! I've done this several times and it works.
After loading the .pgn file into the GUI you must change to your database and in that window click on the 'add game' icon(I don't know how it is written in the English version). A dialogue appears where you can edit some datas. With OK it is saved.
I hope you don't misunderstand my extensive description:-)
An easier way is to create a new game and parallel to FICGS you enter the moves done by you and your opponent.
Greetings, Josef.


Iouri Basiliev    (2008-09-30 09:36:24)
Denis Ivanchenkov

It is interesting and very exciting to know something new about yourself. I'm waiting of your explanations. But, please, take away russian TV's propaganda anti-orange rhetoric. Just your deep reasoning.


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2008-09-30 19:29:45)
Maybe use Chessbase 8-9-10 or light

The problem is Fritz is not designed as database you have more flexibility using Chessbase. After downloading the game ( it is saved as pgn ) You need to open that game and choose File-Save As- Here you are given the choice to save the game to a database of your choice, for example, lets create My FICGS games, open Chessbase, File-New Database-and create your database in any place you want, generally My documents-Chessbase-etc. So after you have created your database open the downloaded game , again I suggest open it with Chessbase, and choose File-Save As- and put it in the database we created My FICGS games, voila. In Fritz creating a database takes 2 more clicks. First go to File-Open database or F12 then in that window choose File-New database or Ctrl+X , and the the same procedure as above. Choose your path , name it, then open your downloaded game(s)and Save As, choose the database of your preferences. Even in chessbase light this is possible, but the number of games in each database is restricted to 50,000 I believe. Hope this helps


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-10-02 11:50:49)
Game 16370, towards a new rule ?

What do you think about this case :

http://www.ficgs.com/game_16370.html


Last move : Qe4+ 2008 September 30 19:57:40

White clock - 94 days 18:34:55 (58 days 08:20:25)
Black clock - 0 day 01:19:54

[Event "FICGS__CHESS__CLASS_A__000032"]
[Site "FICGS"]
[Date "2007.11.30"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Koch,Christian"]
[Black "Stephenson,Andrew"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "2140"]
[BlackElo "2104"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.h3 Be7 9.Qf3 O-O 10.O-O-O b5 11.g4 b4 12.Nd5 Nxd5 13.exd5 Bc8 14.Kb1 Nd7 15.Qe2 Bb7 16.f4 Qc7 17.fxe5 Nxe5 18.Qf2 Bd8 19.Bg2 a5 20.Nd4 a4 21.Rhe1 a3 22.b3 Ra5 23.Nf5 g6 24.Nh6+ Kg7 25.Qf4 Bxd5 26.Bxd5 Rxd5 27.Qxb4 Qc6 28.Rxd5 Qxd5 29.Qf4 f6 30.Bc1 Qc5 31.Rd1 Ba5 32.Qe4 Rc8 33.c4 Bb4 34.h4 Qc6 35.Rd5 Re8 36.Qf4 Bc5 37.Bd2 Qb7 38.Bc3 Bb4 39.g5 f5 40.Qd2 Bxc3 41.Qxc3 Kf8 42.Kc1 Qb6 43.c5 Qc6 44.Rxd6 Qh1+ 45.Kc2 Qe4+ 46.Kc1 Qh1+ 47.Kc2 Qe4+ 48.*


So here player Black has good chances to lose the game on time, even if the best thing player White can do is to draw the game. In my opinion, "in general" player Black should play his next move, unless an analysis prove that the game is a forced draw - according to the rules, http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#adjudications - and eventually the result will be corrected after the game, but I'd like to know what other players think about this situation in general...

Thanks for helping to build strong rules.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-10-02 20:15:08)
Game 22676, towards a new rule ?

Once again, an unusual case that may lead to an enforcement of FICGS rules. In our match, Marius lost 3 games on time and continues to play the other ones : FICGS__CHESS__WCH_QUARTER_FINAL_2__000005

Games 22676, 22678 and 22679 have been lost in an equal position.

Currently, the rules specify : 11.6 "Games are not rated for the winner if less than 10 moves have been played by his opponent (most probably forfeit, silent withdrawal or obvious cheating) or in global forfeit cases against the same opponent, ie. 8-games matches, but games where an advantage is obvious."

Of course, it is up to the referee to estimate an 'advantage' which is quite hard to define accurately, but the real problem is there's no real silent withdrawal in this case, as Marius had about 1 day only to play his last move. It is fair to cancel my wins in these games IMO but the question is how to make the rules fair enough in all cases.

My suggestion : "...or in global forfeit cases, including losses on time whatever the context, in at least 2 games in a 2 players tournament, ie. chess championship's 8-games matches, but games where an advantage is obvious."

What do you think ? Also does anyone see another unusual case that this rule wouldn't envisage ?

Thanks in advance.


Lars Klassen    (2008-10-04 00:29:25)
(deleted)

oh..sorry...i just want to make a new thread!


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-10-04 19:35:26)
re : In response to Don

You wouldn't be penalized in that case. All this is about 8 games match, as Andrew said "The idea is that it is too distorting to have a rating that shows a 6-0 win over a similer high level opponent". The whole problem is just to know where to put the limit.

Well, as it is possible to win elo points this way (loss on time in equal or winning position) in round-robin tournaments, it should be possible in 8 games matches too, but 8 wins this way shouldn't be taken in consideration.

Consequently, I propose a new rule, quite reasonable, that could satisfy everyone (finally even my rating :)), here is :

"11.6 "Games are not rated for the winner if less than 10 moves have been played by his opponent (most probably forfeit, silent withdrawal or obvious cheating) or in global forfeit cases, including losses on time whatever the context in a 2 players tournament, ie. chess championship's 8-games matches, except games where an advantage is obvious, in this case at most 2 of these games will be rated."


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-10-05 20:30:11)
Go ratings, rule update

In order to limit the inflation of Go ratings, I've updated the rules for ratings superior or equal to 2000. The idea of the original rule was to help players to find their rating range more quickly only.

"Go ratings are first estimated from Go ranks (n kyu give a 2100 - 100 * n rating, n dan give a 2000 + 100 * n rating, n dan pro give a 2630 + 30 * n rating), then adjusted in real time after each result :

Performance = Opponent Current Rating + 350 if the game is won, -350 if the game is lost.

Case of a win (rating > 1999) : New Rating = ((9 x Current Rating) + (1 x Performance)) / 10
Case of a win (rating < 2000) : New Rating = ((8 x Current Rating) + (2 x Performance)) / 10

Case of a loss : New Rating = ((9 x Current Rating) + (1 x Performance)) / 10

The rating calculation does not take account of wins obtained by a stronger player when the Elo difference is superior to 350 points, the same with losses by a weaker player.

In case of a loss against a player rated more than 350 points less, the opponent's rating considered in calculation is : Current Rating - 350."


Scott Nichols    (2008-10-11 00:04:22)
promotion

Thanks Louri, the pop-up window was what I was waiting for, and when it didn't show I knew I was sunk, :(. And it had to happen in the WCH tourney also.


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-10-14 22:01:56)
exchange slav

Difficult to know what Kramnik was up to in this game. 8 Qb3 has been regarded as pretty harmless and is not much played at GM level - he must have had some new idea - apparently 15 Qxb7 is new but black was always going to get the pawn back. After 6 months preperation and 3 full time seconds a bit strange! I am sure Anand will go full power for the point tomorrow - I still cannot quite believe that Kramnik will play the Petroff he avoided it against Kasparov and I am sure he will avoid it in this match also.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-10-23 22:35:49)
Server changes (october 23, 2008)

Hello everyone,

FICGS will have a new (much faster) server tomorrow !

It won't be possible to connect to the old server during a few hours, then it will depend to your access provider to update more or less quickly the domain names server, it generally takes from a few hours to one week.

As a consequence, I'll add 7 days to all clocks tomorrow (friday, at most saturday).

See you soon on the new FICGS server ! ;)


Garvin Gray    (2008-10-23 23:22:31)
change as good as a holiday

Are you able to provide the new link now, so we can change our information and then just wait for the site to come up?


Normajean Yates    (2008-10-24 00:46:29)
maybe put in the IP of new server?

maybe thibault can post the IP of the new server [those 4 numbers] so that one can bypass DNS - or is it one of those new kinds of indirections I dont understand? Nowadays on some addresses I 'ping' to get the IP but trying to reach the site via the IP doesnt not work [only for very few adresses.. generally on free-webhosting sites..]


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-10-24 00:53:32)
www.ficgs.com

The website address won't change : www.ficgs.com , no need to change anything to your favorites, but I'm not completely sure of what can happen if someone connects through the ip address so it won't be possible to connect this way, sorry :/

Please just check the login page (that will display a message tomorrow) regularly, when it's normal again, it means that you reach the new server.


Normajean Yates    (2008-10-24 15:28:48)
in a while is right...

The new theory that has come up has to be looked at seriously first... only one draw so far, rest all are white wins!

I wonder if black managed to win or has chances in any game in the iccf latvian tourney that llmars is playing in...


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-10-26 22:10:03)
Search wikichess & games in one click

New features in chess games !

It is now possible to search wikichess & games in one click from your running games in the fast moves mode (page move_express), see the S & W options below the chessboard. One more tool to get quick statistics from FICGS database before to play.

Please report any bug. Thanks in advance :)


Normajean Yates    (2008-10-27 07:50:45)
whether directly or javascript popup..

whether I see a game directly or in javascript popup, I cannot see any new option [text or icon] ..


Scott Nichols    (2008-10-30 10:06:18)
Quick chess?

I would like to see a new time format of game in 10 days with a 4 hour increment per move. A lot of players like to play fast but need more than one day, but do not need 30 or more days. Would anybody else be interested? Any thoughts?


Normajean Yates    (2008-10-31 03:38:44)
similarly,smallest natural *extension*-

similarly, what is the *smallest* natural *extension* of chess? [Again I am reposting this idea - i did it a few months ago]

Think about it this way, as far as way of moving is concerned, [keeping aside pawns for the moment] you have R, B, N moving in essentially different ways. Q = R + B as far as movement is concerned - i.e. a queen can move like a rook or like a bishop, as the player chooses. The movement of the Q is nothing more and nothing less.

So, to extend chess minimally and naturally [therefore extending the symmetry also] IMO the natural choice of new pice would be a piece which I call the superqueen, lets call it U [because S is knight in chess problems and in many non-english roman-script languages..]. The superqueen U moves like a R, a B, or a N, according to mover's choice. In other words, it moves like a Q or a N.

movewise, U = R + B + N = Q + N.

Now keeping symmetry and minimality in mind we get 10x10 chess with the following starting position:

rnbqukqbnr/pppppppppp/10/10/10/10/10/10/PPPPPPPPPP/RNBQUKQBNR.

In 10x10 castling O-O and O-O-O, it may be more natural for the king to move *three* squares [and the R crosses the king and goes adjacent to the new position of the king, just like in 8x8 chess.]

Actually long ago (1981-82) we tried this 10x10 a few times with some friends - we used to call *this* 10x10 thing 'big chess' :(

[we used a one-pound coin heads-up and tails-up for white and black superqueen resp.]

But the name bigchess is taken [and bigchess is nice :) ] , so I am just calling it 10x10 chess now..


Philip Roe    (2008-10-31 13:24:41)
Chess extensions

There seem to be many ways to extend chess. Most proposals, like yours Normajean, combine the powers of existing pieces. There may be other ways.

I saw it pointed out somewhere that if you put a piece somewhere near the middle of the board, at the center of a 5x5 patch of squares ,the N can go to any square in the patch not covered by a R or B. It was suggested that this might have been the reasoning of the original inventor. This makes even more sense if you consider that under medieval rules the K+Q covered a 3x3 patch.

Along these lines, consider a 7x7 patch and let the new piece go to any square not covered by an existing piece. Such a piece might be interesting. It would cover up to 16 pieces and be a formidable long-range weapon, but perhaps rather helpless at close quarters.

In designing an initial position, I would want to take into account the possibility of early interactions. In regular chess the placing makes such possibilities as the pinning of Nc3 by Bb4 possible. Proponents of FischerRandom call this kind of thing hackneyed, but I find most FR positions sterile because the game has no initial shape.


Normajean Yates    (2008-11-04 03:43:33)
Rodolfo, this is not n queens prob!

1. 5 queens prob [none attacking any other] on 5x5 board has ZERO solutions, as is easy to see.
2. n queens problem - fast solution, all solutions, all solutions excluding symmetry etc. is routine exercise after teaching back tracking in a programming course. Also, writing recursive program in lisp, tail recursive program, program with function being called with itself as a parameter [in untyped languages - otherwise you get 'infinite type' error], lazy-eval-function-program [typically for Haskell] - are routine exercises for leaerning a new fundamentally different language for experienced programmers.


BUT I DO NOT SEE THE RELEVANCE OF THE N QUEENS PROBLEM HERE! WE ARE DISCUSSION 5X5 COMPETITIVE CHESS WITH START-POS rnbqk/ppppp/8/PPPPP/RNBQK w Qq !

nxn queens is 2 minutes programming exercise! Writing a good engine for above is a big project!

Continuing the topic of engines for above (nowadays called Gardner minichess) - we also need some endgame tablebases. That should not be difficult: modifying source code of nalimov tablebase generators. [download tbgen.c - or is it cc (c++)? I have the source - it is GPL anyway...

We are not talking about future ficgs things - we are discussing a point of some academic interest, that is all.


Ben Milton    (2008-11-05 15:45:54)
new book

Thank you for the helpful reply, however your method adds new games to an already existing book (e.g. rybka 3.ctg). What i was looking for is to make a new opening book completely based on these games. Is that possible?


Benjamin Block    (2008-11-05 16:40:58)
I think i see.

What you want is a new openingsbook with nothing!
1.Press File->New->Openingsbook... (skift+ctrl+alt+F11)
2.Choose a good name.
3.Start on 3 in the other message.
4.Please answer my question where i can download the games.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-11-07 14:59:07)
Kamsky vs. Topalov

"Kamsky vs. Topalov" to sell...

Roustam Kamsky, father of world championship candidates Gata Kamsky had hard words against FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov : "I do not have any faith in FIDE and Mr. Ilyumzhinov who in front of the whole world breached his word, which is not the first time. Also, I do not have much faith in Mr. Makropoulos, a personal friend of Mr. Danailov."

More surprising, he said a few words about the former match Anand vs. Kasparov : "I would like to use this opportunity to congratulate Vishy Anand on his true victory. This is his third victory at the world championship. I think he could have achieved even more success if during his match against Kasparov he did not have as his trusted seconds grandmasters from the former Soviet Union. I was very impressed by the organization of Anand’s match in Bonn, Germany, except that the match should have been played between Kamsky and Anand. It was unjust to allow Russian GM Kramnik to play three world championship matches, in 2006, 2007, 2008, without a proper selection, just so Russia can maintain the world championship title."

The whole open letter is intersting to read...


Chessbase news :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5002
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5000


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-11-09 00:08:30)
Fire on board...

Open letter by Gata Kamsky :

"Dear President, gentelmen, Susan,

When I first saw Bill's letter I was happy, because finally USCF has been showing strong support for their representative. Whether there could be a better solution or a more diplomatic one is a good question, but the reality is that there is no time to negotiate and given FIDE's strong-arm history of negotiating, it is not likely to succeed.

When I spoke with FIDE Vice President Mr. Makropoulos in Greece, it was decided that both my team and Mr. Topalov's team would meet during the rest day at the Olympiad in Dresden to negotiate and discuss everything, including technical details. With their last public statement, Mr. Illumjinov not only attempted to revoke his personal guarantee of the match, but he also imposed the time limit of one week for the players to acceed to his demands and at the same time re-awarded the bid to the Bulgarian Federation, which was the original FIDE's intention in the first place. You all are aware of the clause in the FIDE regulation for this "special" match that gave the Bulgarian Chess Federation a privilege of matching any bid that is coming from my side, which effectively ruined any attempt to find and submit a bid from the United States.

Throughout the negotiations with my managers, FIDE did nothing to find a sponsor on their own, despite the fact that it was solely FIDE's decision to create this match, and thus to allow Mr. Topalov a backdoor into the final steps of the qualification proceedings for the world championship title, quite unfairly, I might add.

FIDE's entire purpose, for chess players, for fairness, has been changed into a special interest group organization and I personally believe that any negotiations with FIDE rulers or tsars, or whatever you like to call them, will be unsuccessful.

The time for the negotiation is over and the only way to fight FIDE is to expose their mistakes, and perhaps fight them in a court of law if and when FIDE broke the law. Therefore, I would respectfully request all USCF Board members to unite and find ways to make sure that justice and fairness will prevail.

Sincerely,
Gata Kamsky

Saturday, November 8, 2008"


More informations on Chessbase news :
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5004


Normajean Yates    (2008-11-09 04:26:24)
Rodolfo, I do *exactly* the same thing!

"What I do is to download ALL the games and I use a freeware chess database tool called SCID to get the games with the opening I want." - I do *exactly* that!

Specially, the newer versions of scid are *very* convenient! [I am using scid 3.6.23 - but 3.6.26 is available I checked.]


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-11-11 18:14:29)
God or not God...

Just like in a previous discussion on a similar topic, my point of view is that we have absolutely no idea of what (who, in the very best case) God could be, so IMO he/she/it/they has/have not even a reason to take part of any discussion about the proof of its/their(..) existence [of course, all theories are good to hear]. By the way, is/are it/he/she/they necessary to anywhat ? If not, it should be enough to say it/he/she/they has/have few chances to exist.

Maybe we should open a new topic :)


Denis Ivanchenkov    (2008-11-12 06:16:44)
God or not God...

> By the way, is/are it/he/she/they necessary to anywhat ? necessary to pray to during financial crisis.
> Maybe we should open a new topic :) good idea! and then ficgs.com will look even more like igame.ru - there also were endless flames of one notorious user - I think his nick is translated as AllPeopleAreTheOne. Hope he doesn't speak English
Rodolfo d Ettorre > In IGAME.RU there was a player whose nick was "Sexy God", and he definitively existed :))


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-11-12 11:45:46)
New topic or not new topic

Hi Denis,

You're right, I shouldn't encourage this kind of discussions here... by the way there will be dedicated forums (everything but chess) in another part of the server soon.


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2008-11-13 13:47:13)
Bergmans and Bergmans

Something not related, a frienf I have called Ingrid, got married with a man whose name was Igmar, funny thing, she did not know who Igmar Bergman was, she knew about Ingrid because of Casablanca. Anyway, they got two children and after five years they separated.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-11-16 21:09:54)
Kamsky vs. FIDE

The match continues... Only the board changed, and the "prize" may increase whatever the way.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5015


Normajean Yates    (2008-11-18 15:37:20)
rare files and torrent...

Well it is like looking for some particular rare thing in 2nd hand shops / fleamarket.. -- you keep trying every 2-3 months, you get some 'quite' rare files over time if you are lucky...

The frustrating thing is when you find a torrent but it is inactive - no one is seeding --- then you can post requests in newsgroups for someone to seed, and hope for the best..

For example, I have 25% of audio of a Chomsky-Foucault debate [I have the transcript - it is very interesting!] - 12 other people have the same 25% and waiting for someone to seed! [for the last 2 years]


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-11-20 12:47:15)
"Are all chess players machos ?"

An interesting interview of Levon Aronian in Chessbase news !

His answer : "As a chess player one has to be able to control one’s feelings, one has to be as cold as a machine. We men do not let ourselves be, let us say, seduced by our emotions and feelings. But there is a paradox in chess. - Which is? - The paradox is that the best chess players are the most emotional ones."

"A gentleman at the board can suddenly turn into a barbarian. Like Anand."

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5025


Sebastian Boehme    (2008-11-20 13:35:08)
Some poker entertainment

Hi, I just thought since poker has become the new topic of the day here I'd share some video I consider a very interesting poker example and still entertaining. It's the highest pot that was ever battled out in High Stakes Poker, maybe some of you already know it. Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyAj0ZygG80


Michel van der Kemp    (2008-11-24 12:57:14)
Another request

Since you are obviously not busy at all, Thibault: would it be possible to show the betting history just for a specific hand? I understand it can be seen from the 'moves', but it's not in a human-friendly format. It's difficult to see where an old hand ended and a new hand starts, for example, or just the numbers is hard to decipher what was going on. It would be great if we could get a history something like this, perhaps on the right of the board?: Player 1: raises with 3 (Pot: 4) Player 2: checks (Pot:6) Dealer: deals flop (Pot: 6) Player 1: checks (Pot: 6) Player 2: raises with 4 (Pot: 10) etc. This way it's easy to see the history of the hand.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-11-25 13:45:48)
FIDE Grand Prix

No more FIDE Grand Prix in Doha (Qatar), so why not Elista... The FIDE world championship still in question, John Nunn's views and so on :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5033


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-02 15:30:12)
Chess and doping

"According to the Russian totally non-free chess journalist Yuri Vasiliev (fortunately not the most reliable one whom we know for bringing up the ghost of Alexander Chernenko) Ilyumzhinov has already stated that Vasily Ivanchuk might get severely sanctioned for the doping test refusal after his game against Gata Kamsky." (Alexei Shirov, Riga)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5047

A direct attack from Shirov to FIDE & Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on chess laws and -of course- the World Championship system.

Any opinion ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-02 20:07:17)
Update : challenges & move send

Hello all,

It is now possible to challenge a player for a chess, Go or Poker holdem game ! You can choose the game by clicking the pictures near "Challenge a player" in My games, you can also change the 'challenges' option in Preferences. This is an important improvement as advanced poker & Go games are a faster way to improve ratings ie. in order to qualify for the FICGS poker holdem & Go championships. (advanced chess has its own rating, different from the correpondence chess rating)

Also a new improvement in the 'move send' process, it should be much faster now, please report any bug if you notice one.


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2008-12-03 00:22:53)
More Doping

Lasker use to smoke cigars during a chess game and karpov used Yogurt, which contains the bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus. New studies seem to indicate that that bacteria may enhance concentration.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-03 11:30:29)
Chess olympiads, Tkatchiev "forfeits"

After the case of Ivanchuk on doping, a new unexplained and undercovered (actually completely missed by the official websites - FIDE, federations, olympiads site...) case at the Olympiads !

France just lost 1,5-2,5 to Azerbaijan, Vladislav Tkatchiev just did not arrive to the board !! .. while the France team has 5 players for 4 boards... One full point lost. No explanation, nothing, maybe a conflict in the team. I hope there will be more information about it. To be continued.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-05 14:28:28)
Invite your friends - tool

A new tool that may help to find many new players :)

You may now add your contacts as friends and invite them to join us at FICGS in a single click. See at the bottom of "My messages" page, above the connected players list.

Many features will be added soon to this tool !


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-12-06 21:51:23)
Reaching a peak

My gut feeling is that rating improvements will tail off and we will not see any program crack 3400. I dont know the sales figures but looking for example at New In chess analysis by Carlsen he seems to use only Rybka and perhaps this program is becoming completely dominant among GM's. Perhaps the biggest impact will be hardware improvements allowing faster deeper analysis. This will mean fewer points missed and quicker conclusions as the time needed for the program to dig into the position shortens. You can still see examples of theoretical analysis in recent New in Chess Year books where misjudgements have been made because they needed to keep the program running a bit longer to see the evaluation flip but I think this will decrease ........


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-08 19:33:05)
Levon Aronian's open letter

Now Levon Aronian comments the latest FIDE's decisions in an open letter :

"(...) With the GA's recent actions, it seems that there is a democratic deficit within FIDE. The GA did not consult the players currently taking part in the Grand Prix in their decision processes. Please keep in mind a very important point – these players, including myself, have a legally binding agreement with FIDE regarding the World Championship cycle and the Grand Prix. Therefore it is FIDE's duty to consult the other party of the contract – the participants.

Does this mean that the chess players have lesser rights than others? The GA appears to act with no concern for the players. The decision to suddenly change the World Championship cycle has damaging effects on the career plans of leading chess players. It is also reasonable to ask: why should we go through several tournaments over several years and fight for a place in a tournament that another player gets by losing a match? The GA's decisions remove the motivation for players like myself to take part in the World Championship cycle."

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5059


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-10 19:39:04)
Rune Vik-Hansen's article on Chessbase

Chessbase just published a long article by the Norwegian philosopher Rune Vik-Hansen (graduated from the University of Tromsř in 1999 with a thesis on Heidegger's concept of Dasein) on consciousness and development of chess skills.

"Conscious memory", "Pattern recognition", "Pattern vs. Structure", "Exformation", "Chess Improvement", "Conceptual problems"...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5055

What do you think about it ?


Philip Roe    (2008-12-11 15:32:43)
Interesting for sure..

Impressive, not so much.

He seems to make a big distinction between conscious and unconscious thought with no real justification. The fact that electrical activity can be detected prior to awareness does not tell us much. Daniel Dennett's "Consciousness Explained" is the most satisfactory account that I have read, and his "multiple drafts" theory is not unlike Runes, except that it allows for a more sophisticated interaction. Roughly, the conscious mind sets goals "I want to attack on the k-side" and the subconscious suggests means "How about Qh5" which the conscious rejects or selects for further review by setting a new goal " Lets see if Qh5 works". By ignoring this interplay Rune creates difficulties from which he cannot extricate himself. And Dennett also asks himself much tougher questions like "why is there consciousness at all? What evolutionary purpose could it serve?"

Interestingly, the subconscious seldom suggests really silly ideas, like Qh5 if there is a pawn on g6 and nothing else going on. Indeed, the filtering out of "non-candidates" can be quite impressive. I recall a moment from the BBC TV series The Master Game. Bill Hartston, an IM and a psychologist, was momentarily taken aback by an unexpected move made by his (weaker) opponent. "Why didn't I see that?" A few seconds later "Oh, that's why I didn't see it!" (the move involved an unsound combination) Hartston was about to coauthor a book on chess psychology with John Wason, and his remark was not entirely in jest.

Hartston was suggesting, by his remarks, that he could usually trust his unconscious not to show him anything irrelevant. That, to my mind, is one of the things that characterizes a strong player. The irrelevant moves just don't occur to them.

So then what about blunders? Well, the system is very fallible. It IS just made of meat, and the real surprise is that blunders do not occur more often. But the blunders made by strong players seem different from the blunders made by rabbits. They are usually relevant to something, but they have a hole in them. I dont see anything at all about Runes proposals that would eliminate blunders, except through the indirect route of making you a stronger player.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-12 11:04:23)
Quote festival, part 5

Time for a new quotes festival ?

Don't hesitate to share your own quotes, the FICGS quotes file like it :)

BTW, I just read this one on a car this morning : "You think that education is too expensive ? Try ignorance."


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-15 14:46:04)
slower time control

Adding a new category with slower time controls has been discussed already and I'm quite favourable to this. I may add it in a while, but we still need more players in a few categories before that moment ("working on", as Dr. Frankenstein building new players ;))


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-15 19:17:56)
so Deep Blue...

Just my 2 cents, I'm far to be prof. of anything ! :)

Anyway, I think it is admitted now that we have reached the point where brute force can't fight anymore against knowledge, actually the processor speed is probably becoming less and less important. (but the respect of your new quad proc, Don ;))


Scott Nichols    (2008-12-15 23:08:08)
Don a new Quad?!

I'm glad that little bit of info became public, thanks Thib.


Don Groves    (2008-12-15 23:56:35)
A new Quad

Oh dear, I've let the quad out of the bag ;-) It's not running yet, though...


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-16 11:22:56)
Ilyumzhinov on FIDE WCH

The latest news...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5087

To be continued, of course :)


Normajean Yates    (2008-12-16 15:42:19)
btw the 16 Qs pos and the 18 Qs pos:

I posted the proof games in the newsgroup rec.games.chess.* [I forgot what * is, just do a google group seach with rec.games.chess.* ] - early this year I think: with due credit to that person.


Bradley Small    (2008-12-30 19:40:05)
How to play correspondence chess

I am brand new to corr chess. I wonder what are the specific practical/ethical considerations? Will people be using databases, computer analysis, other people and the like? Should I be using these resources? What is considered expected and what is considered cheating? -- B


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-12-30 20:19:18)
Chess engines & databases

Hello Bradley, it's all in the rules :

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

Everything's allowed (but in the NO ENGINES category). Using chess engines is recommended if you want to make deep analysis & reach the highest ratings. The only way to cheat (that is strictly forbidden) is to mirror 2 games, as explained in the rules.

Best wishes for the new year,
Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-01 21:47:33)
January 1st

Everyone now have 30 days of vacation again ;)

Happy new year !


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-03 19:02:44)
A world champion with no privilege ?!

... finally, looks like even the top GM are decided to kill the show in the FIDE WCH cycle :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5129

>> Address by Mr Henrik Carlsen on behalf of GM Magnus Carlsen

"(...) In a future Magnus would like to see a world championship cycle with a minimum of privileges, or no privileges at all.

(...) What about the privileges of the reigning World Champion? This is a difficult question but we see strong arguments for reducing the privileges drastically or even abolishing them outright. In the past, with the right to a re-match, a reigning world champion had about 75% chance of retaining the title against an evenly strong opponent, leaving only 25% chance for all the remaining chess players in the world. It was ridiculous. Even without rematches, the 50% chance of today strongly favours the reigning champion. This may have made sense in the past when there were few serious contenders for the title, but today, with about 30 top players within 100 rating points of the top, this is no longer fair."


There are many good points but I'm not sure the game will win at the end. Any opinion ?!


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-04 14:14:38)
Rybka 4

Vasik Rajlich wrote a few comments on what can be expected from the Rybka engine/team in 2009 :

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=9199

Three engine releases are planned in 2009:

* Rybka 3+ - Rybka 3 playing strength, with bugfixes and cosmetic improvements, for Rybka 3 customers
* Pocket Rybka 3 - published by Convekta/ChessOK, packaged with their Pocket Champion interface, conforms to S. Tsukrov's Pocket-UCI protocol
* Rybka 4 - better search, better eval, new analysis features

"Our tournament goal for 2009 is to win a top freestyle event in 100% automated mode. (...)"

Very interesting, a new challenge for Eros :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-06 20:36:36)
FICGS turns into a social network !

An enormous update just occured, FICGS now has a complete social network connected to various forums.

A few links will explain better than words :)


http://www.ficgs.com/whole_display_people.php?id=9

http://www.ficgs.com/network.html
http://www.ficgs.com/discussions.html


Feel free to create your profile to discover the features : A powerful search engine that helps to find people you may know or people around you, a complete blog with 6 levels of privacy, tons of forums, a friends inviter & so on......

Feel free to let me know what you think about it, all suggestions are welcome.

I hope we'll find more and more players with these new tools :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-06 22:18:38)
Social networks & money

Hi Marc, thanks for your comments.

It is true that I'm trying to make money with the site now, also to increase significantly the prizes offered in the future, but I did not sell my soul & the site will remain a chess server before everything else ! Money can do so much too, before it becomes too much ;)

About the other social networks, well... of course a new social network is created every week but most of them are dedicated to a particular function (couchsurfing, viadeo, reunion, facebook, myspace, hi5 & so on...) and are not exactly in concurrence. Let's see how this one will go in this sea, I have many features to add yet :)

About the core of the site, I already thought about removing the ads in the chess server... It may happen very soon if most players agree that it would be a significant improvement. The ads will remain in the general forums... Believe me, I'll do the necessary, that's why your comments & suggestions are always welcome here.


Wilhelm Schuett    (2009-01-08 13:45:28)
Contact

Hello everybody! I'm new here. How can I get Contact to someone if he is not on the social network? Can I get Contact to someone if he is only on the games server?


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-08 19:17:53)
Chess improvements

Hi Hannes,

What do you mean better tables ? About the other improvements, this may be a choice in some cases. As you may have seen, there are forums with more options (ie. bbcode) inside FICGS, but I'm not sure this forum should follow the same way. The FICGS chess server is somewhere between IECG & the numerous over-featured servers, maybe it should keep its 'sober/serious' side, what do you think ?

I'm still not a fan of conditional moves, but I'm open to other improvements.

Finally, about the "dark side of FICGS", any improvement may bring new players :)


Hannes Rada    (2009-01-08 20:06:47)
New strong player !

Banikas, Hristos GM 2582 Bravo. That's what FICGS needs. More Players, More strong players. Is he an OTB GM, or Corr GM ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-08 21:17:38)
Paragraphs

See at the top of the page : "please use <br > html tag to begin a new line"

About the tournament tables, did you try to click the magnifying glass near the name of the tournament ? ie :

http://www.ficgs.com/crosstable_FICGS__CHESS__CLASS_GM__000001.html

About the tournament page & diagrams, that's a nice suggestion, I may change this quickly.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-08 21:42:49)
Halasz gambit

A new chess thematic tournament !

The very hard Halasz gambit : 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.f4

What do you think ? Ilmars ? ;)


Wilhelm Schuett    (2009-01-09 14:00:34)
phpbb

A new german chessforum, http://www.schachkiste.de/ , uses phpbb.


Tom Smith    (2009-01-11 11:54:02)
Newbie time question

Hi, new player here. I am slightly confused by the time controls, in the rules it states minimum of one move every 60 days (which to me is a little over the top) but the tournaments state 40 days then 40 days /ten moves but it doesnt state if the first 40 days is for each single move or for a set amount of moves, say for example 40 moves in the first 40 days. Could some one please clear this up for me? Thank you. Tom


Gino Figlio    (2009-01-14 01:24:15)
the "cheating" agenda

This has nothing to do with Mr. Smith but I know some people that like to push the idea that use of chess engines is "cheating" because they are also involved in the business of selling services that detect "cheaters". I have heard from this first hand and was even offered the "service" when I was involved in ICCF management. They want to sell their product to webmasters and therefore need to create the right atmosphere in the cc community to serve their business interest. It's a good idea to ask for a disclaimer before discussing this issue with new visitors.


Tom Smith    (2009-01-14 18:49:58)
Reply

Thank you all for your comments. I will reiterate again that I am not pointing the finger at anyone, I just asked about this as I do not wish to play against people who just let a computer play their moves, that is all. I do not think that all people who use engines are cheaters, and I apologize to all those who do not blindly let a computer play their games for them. I am astonished now at normajeans hostility, I dont believe I have been offensive to anyone, if I have then it is unintentional. To Normajean, I can only assume that your hostility is due to someone mentioning about selling some software, I can only say, not only have I not heard of any software of this type, but I am in no way involved at any such goings on. I came on the site to join up for some chess and had one issue I wanted to ask about before I started playing, I am beginning to regret this as I did not expect quite such a response! I can maybe understand some suspicion at a new person asking a question of this nature, and understand that some may not like me asking, so again I am sorry for the offense I have caused those players who play a fair game. "Care to confess to the libel under oath in the U.K. and get a taste of the receiving end of libel law?" This comment is ridiculously over the top and again that particular post was unecessarily hostile imo, if you read my posts to this point normajean and still dont see what I am trying to find out about then I shant try any further to answer you as you and some others have obviously found me guilty of a plot of some form against you. I thank the people who answered me honestly and calmly for their comments and I shall try the site out as I said to give it a fair shot.


Ilmars Cirulis    (2009-01-14 19:44:18)
New line

You must use
for new line.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-14 19:59:00)
New line + Cheating

Heheh, Ilmars has been trapped by himself :)

You must use <br > html tag (see at the top of the page) to begin a new line.

As it seems not to be visible enough, I may change it in a while, finally...


BTW, this discussion on cheating or not cheating will have no end, obviously. This thread is even discussed in other forums...

http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=106642


Garvin Gray    (2009-01-18 13:57:42)
to which do you belong


Either that, or that the readers are not sure exactly what you are talking about, to which I am in the second category.

On possibly a related issue, when I click on the links below, the site opens a new window and tells me I have to log in again, but when I log in again, it sends me back to the my messages page. So I can not get to the page you mention from the link.



Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-18 18:20:34)
SSDF rating list

Current SSDF ratings for the best chess engines running on 2GB Q6600 2.4 GHz are :

Deep Rybka 3 x64 - 3226
Deep Fritz 11 - 3086
Zappa Mexico II x64 - 3064
Naum 3.1 x64 - 3046
Deep Shredder 11 - 3043
Deep Hiarcs 12 x64 - 3033
Hiarcs 11.2 MP - 3008
Deep Junior 10.1 - 2981

By the way, how long before a new Deep Junior version...


Htay Kyaw    (2009-01-20 19:44:38)
Myanmar

Hi, I'm new player from Myanmar. Nice to Meet You all.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-22 10:36:06)
FIDE Grand Prix in Karlovy cancelled

After Doha & Montreux, FIDE Grand Prix in Karlovy Vary has been officially cancelled. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5162


Normajean Yates    (2009-01-28 09:46:51)
NPS comparison is meaningless..

between different engines. [ of course if you run the same engine on a faster computer you get better NPS and more powerful hw+sw combination, but that is trivial.. :)]

You will find ample discussion on this in the rec.games.chess archives 1994-2002 period.

I thought everyone knew this - I thought at least Thibault knew this! ;) [I still think he does, he is just being modest ;)] - that's why I didnt post this before.... :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-28 10:42:57)
Poker vs. Chess

I don't feel that poker playing time interfers so much with correspondence chess.

This (the time for chess waiting lists to fill) is quite usual before the start of a new championship... So, to be continued. I'll keep an eye on this.


Normajean Yates    (2009-01-29 14:59:36)
re: rybka era v open-source

I've not been keeping in touch with post-2002 developments in chess programming [that is, the literature - I have no energy to try to reverse-engineer closed code, and my skills in that are 15-years out-of-date and out of touch :(]

- Also, I think there are fewer and fewer of comparatively strong enough open-source engines now :(

Which is the strongest *open-souce* engine now, and how does it compare to even rybkas of the 3.1.x generation? I do not know [frankly, since 2002 I am too busy with literature and political activity; even though it looks like I am playing chess all the time ;)]

But I'd be interested in knowing and grateful to everyone who posts info this and related questions...

The questions are of the form of comparative strengths of stongest post-2005 open-source engines versus rybka; and *published* new ideas in chess programming which have been implemented and have been shown to improve engine strength.


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2009-01-31 09:19:05)
Mr Yates

Crafty current version is 22.10 and is still developing. Right now Dr. Hyatt is working in improving the paralellization. More info of the engine is found at computer chess forum as the author is a regular poster there.
Some people say that Rybka is a product of open source of Fruit, but that is another debate. Right now there are good open sources engines mainly glaurung, stockfish (glaurung derivative) there are also interesting projects with toga derivatives, cyclone, grapefruit, mad prune, etc.
Again I refer to an interesting discussion in talkchess about the advances in the past 10 years, software or hardware, Dr Hyatt explains that hardware development has been more important than new methods in search or evaluations of chess engines.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-01-31 15:38:45)
Dr. Hyatt

"Dr Hyatt explains that hardware development has been more important than new methods in search or evaluations of chess engines."

Surprising... maybe in a certain measure.


Normajean Yates    (2009-02-01 10:15:31)
thanks Mr R.-Román, and I am *Ms* Yates.

Mr Russi-Román, I am Ms Yates, not Mr Yates.

I thank Mr Russi-Román for the valuable info and link: (and others too) : I'll update myself whenever I have free time [not only from chess play, but from higher-priority things...]

So, what is the state of the art in noticing drawish nodes (blockade, repitition etc) during search? [remember: 'false positives' are as bad as 'false negatives'] Offhand here is one area where significantly good new heuristics would be much more important than hardware..

Another example: at present, has any program - however highly parallel - delivered mate from a suite of mate-in-60+ troitski positions (NN v P) *without* using tablebases? (ignore the 50-move rule for this question. Anyway this site doesnt have the 50-move rule...) I dont know the answer...


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-02-02 21:54:00)
Poker championship : New rules, deadline

Finally, a 2 stages single round-robin tournament (no ratings limit, everyone can play) seems a better choice for the poker holdem championship !

The deadline is now february 8, 2009... Join the fun !

Here are the new rules :

"FICGS world poker holdem championship is a 2 stages single round-robin tournament. All games are played in 30 days + 1 day / move.

Round-robin tournaments are groups of at least 7 players. The winner of each group is qualified for the next stage. In case of equality, the player with the strongest tournament entry rating (TER) is qualified for the next stage. If tournament entry ratings are equal, ratings when the next stage begins will be taken in account. Groups are built grading all players by rating and distributing them to obtain similar elo averages. Players may be invited to complete a group or to replace a forfeiting player.

Rules for poker holdem are official rules. You may find more information about the FICGS betting structure here. Both players must play until one resign or game is adjudicated. One game is played in 3 winning rounds of 100 chips by player played in no limit mode. The minimal bet is always 1 chip and does not depend on the blind's value. The small blind's value is doubled after the 50th hand, then after the 70th, 80th, 90th and 100th hand (the big blind then is 64 chips) of each round."


Don Groves    (2009-02-04 06:03:19)
The next chess computer champion?

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/supercomputers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=213000842&subSection=News


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-02-14 13:29:46)
Topalov vs. Kamsky

The match between Veselin Topalov & Gataulla Kamskiy (Gata Kamsky) is about to start, a former challenger of Vladimir Kramnik and a former challenger of Anatoly Karpov in the FIDE World Championship, quite surprising.

Both usually make amazing performances in top chess tournaments, but not exactly as regularly as Garry Kasparov. Who do you expect to win such a match ?

The prize fund is $250,000, the winner should play current FIDE world champion Viswanathan Anand later this year.

More to read in an interview with Veselin Topalov in Chessbase news, particularly on the Lvov bid, originally of $750,000.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5207


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-02-17 17:23:43)
Poker : suggestions & improvements

A new thread to discuss possible improvements for Poker Holdem 'board', in example I've been asked to add the possibility to know the "rabbits (?!)", in another way the turn & the river even if a player folds after the flop, what do you think ?

Also, for those who prefer to know what is the next card just after having played, the "slow moves" option may be a good choice but it may be really too slow (do we really need to confirm a bet ?), your opinion is needed...

I'll probably add a button to open a new window displaying the previous move very soon.

Feel free if you have any other suggestion.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-02-17 17:31:24)
Coupon Go, computers & future...

Two articles reported by the AGA (American Go Association) on Monte Carlo simulation, Coupon Go, Computer Go in general :

"Based on predictable advances in computing power, he rockons that a program will beat the best professional Go players on even footing within 28 years."

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/02/computers-get-go.html

"(...) To get around this obstacle, Berlekamp created a version of Go called Coupon Go, in which players have the option of either putting a stone on the board or taking a coupon. The coupons, which have different point values, showed Berlekamp what the most valuable moves were."

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40910/title/Coupons_help_evaluate_game_of_Go


Frightening, what do you think ? :)


Scott Nichols    (2009-02-18 02:08:31)
A couple more...

A journey of a thousand miles begins...with a flat tire. It's always darkest before the dawn...so that's the best time to steal your neighbors newspaper. Ok, Ok, I'll quit. :-D


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-02-18 14:45:13)
23x23

Are you sure ? Looks like it is not only a question of calculation anymore. In my opinion, if new algorithms can significantly improve computer play on 19x19, at the end it may work on any goban size. This will be the real match to follow during the next years or decades :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-02-25 15:37:38)
BCcard cup World Baduk Championship

Just read in the IGN Goama newsletter by Alexander Dinerchtein :

BCcard cup World Baduk Championship will be the first open tournament in Go history !

The tournament will take place in Korea, the first prize should be about $300.000 and the real point : Everyone can take part in it.

Nice to see such news in the small world of Go, I would participate for sure (just to see it) if I could :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-03 20:39:59)
Show the cards & history

Hi Don, well I don't know which solution is best, waiting for more opinions on this...

Michael, the PGN does not include the cards, actually displaying the history would take much more processor time that I prefer to save. You may also 'mouse over' the last move just below the board and you'll see the last moves played in title.

Also I just added an option : "V" in the 'move_express' (fast interface - for poker only yet), that opens a new window with an improved viewer to navigate into the game more easily... Feedbacks are welcome ;)


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2009-03-04 01:59:15)
Myanmar

In Spanish is Birmania, but now the Venezuelan newspapers use Myanmar instead.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-05 23:35:04)
Update : Auto-check (!) in "My games"

A small but interesting update (particularly for very fast players & poker players) :

Now the "My games" page will check if it's your turn in a new game ! .. Then you'll see (!) in the "My games" page title, that you can see in the task manager at the bottom or in your navigator even from another page...

Feedback welcome :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-06 00:49:04)
(!)

Hi Don, just load "My games"... let's say you have 12 pending moves.. just wait.. if suddenly you have a new move to play (so 13 pending moves), the page will reload and you'll see (!) in the page title.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-06 12:34:18)
(!) to Don

"I see the page title in my browser tab get refreshed when the timer expires" : Actually the page title gets refreshed only if you have a new move to play AND when the timer expires... and of course the (!) is displayed at the beginning of the title, so that you can see it whatever its length.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-07 23:56:15)
Unrated games

Hi Michael, that's a very good idea ! (why didn't I think about it before :))

Now thinking about this : If it is unrated, shoult it be a tournament ?! .. or a 2 players 1 or 2 game match ?

Also we may find a funny category name to suggest that this is a place to test new or unusual openings...

Any ideas ? :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-10 18:25:31)
Topalov vs. Anand

Veselin Topalov vs. Viswanathan Anand [reigning FIDE world champion] is the final match in the current FIDE world championship cycle, but it is now official that FIDE postponed the match already, from September 2009 to (at least) April 20th, 2010, and opened a new bidding process.

Where will the match take place ? To be continued.


Don Groves    (2009-03-11 04:16:19)
On all FICGS pages please

The (!) would be even more useful (imho) if it appeared on all FICGS pages, not only My Games. When I'm on My Games, I'm looking for new moves but if I'm browsing the Forum, for example, having the (!) appear in the page title would alert me to switch to My Games.


Marc Lacrosse    (2009-03-15 15:35:28)
a problem with tournament scheduling.

This is the third time I find myself enrolled in a tournament at a completeley inapproppriated time with regard to my professional duties and leisure time possibilities.

Thibault, you should do something. At least when a tournament start has been delayed for months (or more) like this one please do send a mail or message to all players announcing the date of beginning and asking for confirmation of their participation.

For what regards myself and this wch-4 round-robin final I am in the complete impossibility to free the required amount of time by now : so I regret but I have no other choice than announcing my forfeit for all these games. Please do take my name off.

By the way I won't enroll in any other championship qualifications as long as there are no better rules regarding scheduling and announcements of tournaments start date

It's completely unacceptable to stay without any news for months and then to suddenly discover that you have a new set of games running.

Marc


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-15 17:55:32)
a problem with tournament scheduling

I agree, Marc.

Well, to summary the situation is :

1. It actually happens that tournaments start up to two months late in wch cycles.

2. It would take too much time (compared to the wch tournaments duration) to ask for a confirmation to all qualified players (+ spamfolder & other problems), particularly when a few players may suddenly be invited in a tournament.

3. Players can only withdraw their participation before the wch tournament starts.

IMO, to keep this rapid format, the rules should evolve to : "A player may withdraw from a wch tournament up to 15 days after it started, if he did not play a single move. In this case a player will be immediately invited in replacement. As it is not possible to wait for all confirmations, this player may withdraw from the tournament by following the same rule."

This may at least partly solve the problem. By following this new rule, you may be replaced without any penalty.

What do you think ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-15 18:58:58)
wch cycles & rules

In addition and to make the rules clearer and less hard, we may envisage to launch a wch new cycle every 8 or 9 months - in practice 6 months seems to be really short. There are always a few games that can't be adjudicated before the very end.

About the idea to send an email to qualified players to warn them about the start date of the tournaments, I agree that it would be the best way but it may also delay tournaments (+ spamfolder & so on..). In the news, I wrote that the round-robin final would start as soon as game 22898 finished a while ago, then deleted it, which is not enough also. So if all tournaments surely start when a new cycle starts (clearly announced in the news page), it may solve the problem. What do you think ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-17 22:53:06)
Rules updated

I just made this change in the general rules & chess wch rules :

"11.6 There is no withdrawal, from any tournament, however in the case of multi-stages e.g. world championship tournaments, the games won't be rated if a player warns the referee before the tournament starts and at most 15 days after a new stage started but the first one, then a replacement will occur if possible. (this special rule is particularly dedicated to players surprisingly invited to an advanced wch stage, as it would take too much time to wait for confirmations from all qualified players)"

Don't hesitate to make suggestions if you think it can be better formulated. Thanks in advance.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-17 22:58:05)
Anand too old ?

Kasparov on Anand and young grandmasters... Is 40 too old already to compete for the world chess champion title ?!

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5293


Scott Nichols    (2009-03-18 10:28:13)
Ratings floor.

Hi Thibault. One thing I would like to see implemented is a ratings floor here. By this I mean a player can never drop below one class below his/her ratings peak. e.g., a player with a 1951 rating can never drop below 1600, a 2001 player can never drop below 1800. In the U.S. (and maybe worldwide, not sure) we have this system to keep strong players from sandbagging and artificially let their rating drop so they can play in the lower sections of big money tournaments. On FICGS I don't think that is a big problem. The problem here is that Corr. chess takes long term dedication and some players tend to drop out for whatever reason and resign all their games or just quit and let their time run out. This also drops their ratings artificially low levels. Then, as it seems to always happen, Caissa's power sweeps over them and they get back in. Or, they just bought a new super computer and want to show it off. Anyway, when they do get back in....you have an expert player coming in with a very low rating. This to me is unfair to the other players who try very hard on their ratings. e.g., In the current world Ch. cycle I am playing a very strong player who is over 800 points below my rating. I would appreciate any other opinions on this subject. Thank you.


Nadia Kaif    (2009-03-20 04:35:16)
Which is the best forum

Hi Everyone I am new here. I would like to know about the best chess forums around the world. Please share what you know.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-28 19:30:21)
New category : Unrated tournaments

Finally, a new chess tournaments category : "Unrated tournaments" in FICGS__CHESS__SPECIAL__TOURNAMENTS

A place to test new ideas & openings... Thanks to Michael Aigner for the good idea :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-03-31 22:22:54)
Poker ratings

I've just changed the rating rules for Poker. I noticed that poker ratings moved really fast, most probably too fast. Also I think it is better to favour experience to new ratings, at least under a certain rating limit (just like Go rating rules). I'll keep an eye on ratings during a few months. Consequently now the poker rating rules are :

"The poker holdem rating list takes account of rated poker holdem games played at any time control.

If you have no poker rating, you have to play at least one rated poker holdem game to appear in the rating list. Poker holdem ratings are adjusted in real time after each result :

Performance = Opponent Current Rating + 350 if the game is won, -350 if the game is lost.

Case of a win (rating > 1999) : New Rating = ((19 x Current Rating) + (1 x Performance)) / 20
Case of a win (rating < 2000) : New Rating = ((18 x Current Rating) + (2 x Performance)) / 20

Case of a loss : New Rating = ((19 x Current Rating) + (1 x Performance)) / 20

The rating calculation does not take account of wins obtained by a stronger player when the Elo difference is superior to 350 points, the same with losses by a weaker player.

In case of a loss against a player rated more than 200 points less, the opponent's rating considered in calculation is : Current Rating - 200."


Don Groves    (2009-03-31 22:39:35)
Poker ratings

The last time I checked the poker ratings list, I noticed a large number of players rated at 1800.

I thought the starting rating was 1600 except for players with a lot of previous experience. Have all these new players at 1800 asked for this higher rating?

This practice throws off the ratings for all of us who began at 1600 and have moved up by actually winning games on FICGS.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-01 18:09:47)
FIDE rating list April 2009

The new FIDE rating list is out.

1 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2812
2 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2783
3 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2770
4 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2759
5 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2756
6 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2754
7 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2753
8 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2751
9 Leko, Peter g HUN 2751
10 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2748

Veselin Topalov is ranked number 1 again, over the 2800 mark. Magnus Carlsen is more and more impressive.

You may find a more complete list in Chessbase news :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5323


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-07 13:45:37)
Rating calculation

Thanks for encouragements, Scott :)

The question could be now : Why not to install the same system for Go, but it seems to me that instant ratings are justified in this case by the duration of the games : 1. There's no real difference of level in blitz & correspondence games, so only one rating list is best. 2. Due to the difference of ratings between strong & weak players, new players can find their right place quickly this way.

Now about Poker I'm not sure yet, maybe the 2 months system would be better. To be discussed in a few months.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-07 15:42:29)
Update

The bug has been fixed, also now you can enter a new chess or Go tournament if you exceed the number of poker games limit (50), and vice versa.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-12 18:49:01)
Olympiads in a previous discussion

Hi William, this has been discussed already but it's always a good idea to try to bring new arguments. In my opinion FICGS still has to grow before to envisage it anyway, but first of all you may read the previous discussion and particularly Marc Lacrosse's point :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=294


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-14 01:14:32)
Draw offer and rules

Hello all, I'd like your opinion on this case :

A player sent a message with his move in a chess game saying "I offer draw", but he forgot to check the draw box.

His opponent replies with his next move saying his opponent most probably forgot to check the box, but finally the first player plays a new move saying he is sorry but now prefers to continue the game.

What's your opinion on this ? Should the rules be changed to adjudicate the game as a draw (if the draw offer was clear enough) or should the draw checkbox preval in all cases and in this case should it be added in the rules also ?

Thanks for your comments on this.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-14 20:23:03)
Time control in Poker games, new rule ?

Hi all,

The first poker holdem games started a few months ago, it may be time to discuss new improvements around time controls in "correspondence" (> 1 day) poker games.

The problem is obviously that the dead man defence [to last the game until death when losing] could apply, at least theorically. In my opinion, we should try to find an idea to reduce the thinking time for the players who are in an inferior "position", or for both players, or maybe the maximum total time accumulated (now 100 days) and/or the time to play a single move (now 60 days)... well, actually there are many possibilities but I can't find one simple, clear & fair enough. To change the basic time control 30 days + 1 day/move would not be a good idea IMO, an inferior increment would bring problems also.

Ideas are welcome !


Ranganathan Raman    (2009-04-23 00:03:06)
how to play Go and Poker Holdem?

any one teach here step by step
this is more use ful too new users


Normajean Yates    (2009-04-27 00:17:39)
Thib; Grothendieck and vietnam..

Thib, at least, look up Grothendieck's solidarity with Vietnam: he first presented the new foundations of algebraic geometry (which later formed his book EGA) at a seminar in the jungles near Hanoi when the USA was saturation-bombing Hanoi (the guerrillas has shifted the university to the jungles for the seminar for Grothendieck's safely; Grothendieck did not want it but it was argued it that because of his presence the University might be "accidentally" targetted by the USA which might result in deaths of lots of people, not only him.)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-28 11:47:57)
K factor & FIDE ratings

FIDE decided to increase the K factor so that ratings change quicker...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5381
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5376 (bottom)

Does anyone have an opinion on these changes ?


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-29 14:12:20)
Team tournament

Let's do it. (see new thread) :)


Nick Burrows    (2009-04-29 20:11:23)
Past game search

To look at an opponents past games, i click on the magnifying glass>games>individual game.
Then to look at the next one i have to close the window and repeat the above process for each new game
Is there a faster way?


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-29 21:12:36)
Player games search

You may use the right-click "open in a new window" for each game... or download the FICGS database (in Search games - by the way you may use Search games by specifying the name of your opponent) then view the games in Chessbase or.. or.. :)


Daniel Parmet    (2009-04-30 00:30:12)
Error in bold

Thanks Thibault for the new filter but there is a minor error. When I click running tournaments it still leaves all tournaments bolded as though this were selected. (no big deal really just thought you'd like to know)


Wolfgang Utesch    (2009-04-30 11:38:24)
Xavier Pichelin is old and new WC

Congratulations for the his win - he was better than me!
I'd like to have a longer outside from chess.
My interestings are actually more in endurance sports like cycling.
All the best for the future,
Wolfgang


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-04-30 11:51:21)
Xavier Pichelin is old and new WC

Hi Wolfgang ! I suppose the score (12-0) can't give an exact image of the games that were really interesting so far, I hope we'll have a few comments from Xavier on the games...

Anyway, all the best to you and take care, cycling may be more dangerous than chess sometimes :)


Scott Nichols    (2009-04-30 23:58:53)
Rated or unrated?

I would play either way. Usually, I only will play rated, but I would think this format would work just as well unrated.

The theme I think is fun here, with fun names. I was thinking of all kinds of bizarre openings to try, but would need to think twice about opening choice if it was rated. It sorta goes back to Michael Aigner's point on unrated tournaments IMHO. Thank you for having this new style.

The incentive in rated games is simply not to lose points if you lose, or to gain points if you win. In team chess, this incentive is not needed. The incentive is that you do not want your teammates to beat you up if you lose. ;-)


Ranganathan Raman    (2009-05-03 00:22:20)
now how many team redy?

can i join me or any 3 add your id here we form new team


Ranganathan Raman    (2009-05-03 01:14:43)
what happen with my ratings?

before Correspondence chess : 1683
now Correspondence chess : 1396
pls how will ratings now any new factor
1 game won & loss rating?


Dinesh De Silva    (2009-05-04 12:09:54)
I have some new names for teams

1.Pickled Pawns.
2.Boasty Bishops.
2.Wicked Kings.
4.Dancing Doughnuts.
5.Terrible Losers.
6.Cheesy Nuts.
7.SquareOnTheHypotenus Rooks.
Hehe!


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-05-06 11:59:44)
New team !

A new team has been built :) We still have no name but working on...

#1 Michael Aigner - 2602
#2 Xavier Pichelin - 2577
#3 Hannes Rada - 2559
#4 Thibault de Vassal - 2473


Come on everyone, funny games to play :)


Sophie Leclerc    (2009-05-11 23:36:33)
Names

All goes with the thčme.

If we can call ourselves, the dragonriders, Assuming we play the sicilian dragon.
the phantoms, If we defend yugi's new opening, f4 c4 Nc3 Nf3, in any order. This name would give us more then invisbility, it tell our opponent that we will survive (you can't kill a ghost.)

Gambit lover, if we love to play gambit, it would suit us very well.

chess angels, if we are not too guilty, that would suit us, but I am very guilty....

Pterodactyl guild, if we play the system with white and black ( for black, c5, g6, Bg7, Qa5. Black radical way to prevent d4. You can't say they are not original.


Your choice.


Normajean Yates    (2009-05-11 03:52:01)
Daniel, I think you underestimate Rs...

you give B=4, R=4.5 but in the endgame specially, the Rooks pull their weight..15th ('7th' file), escorting Ps to promotion, ...

About people playing on to mate after being a Q down or so without counterchances, well a bigger player-pool is needed ... plus I understand some newbie players not being so sure that mate is easy in a given pos (though much lengthier than in chess) - so, we need *more* non-newbie players!

And a non-newbie begins as a newbie: however, I agree that's not the whole story -- some people *will* play on to mate...one sees that in chess (8x8) too -

lets see: my bigchess record: 17/17 - wow! (with 1 pending: it is still in the gambit-opening stage)


Scott Nichols    (2009-05-11 14:19:28)
Poker norms?

Since corr. poker is so new and innovative, do you think Thib that you can come up with some levels that we could earn poker IM, or poker GM titles?


Garvin Gray    (2009-05-13 08:17:21)
new team

Daniel, I think we have a team now. Stephane Legrand has contacted me wanting to join our team, so that makes four players, if you are ok with that.

Stephane Legrand 2209
Garvin Gray 2125
Daniel Parmet 1961
Ilmar Cirulis 1805


Garvin Gray    (2009-05-13 08:18:15)
new team, correct thread lol

Daniel, I think we have a team now. Stephane Legrand has contacted me wanting to join our team, so that makes four players, if you are ok with that.

Stephane Legrand 2209
Garvin Gray 2125
Daniel Parmet 1961
Ilmar Cirulis 1805


Volker Koslowski    (2009-05-13 12:32:49)
New Team

Hi to all!

I would like to announce a new team called FSF En Passant for the first FICGS team tournament. We are:

1. Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff (2270)
2. Volker Koslowski (2264)
3. Sebastian Boehme (2175)
4. Roland Markus (2096)

and we are looking forward for some nice games at this tournament. So let's have fun :)


Normajean Yates    (2009-05-15 21:00:55)
yes, and:

no team is called 'the crusaders' so perhaps 'moudjahidienne' is not appropriate.. though I suggested the french spelling [I hope I got it right this time] becuse it reminds English-speakers of Algerian freedom fighters [the religious ones - iirc the term does *not* occur in Frantz Fanon's 'the wretched of the earth' nor in Sartre's famous introduction to that book] against France; and not the taliban-types - though when the mujahidin were fighting the *soviets* with US help [understatement], Nixon called them freedom-fighters..

I am not sure whether jihad means 'holy war' or just 'war' - in the latter case mujahidin would mean or would have meant warriors.. ('crusaders' - from the derivation from the cross, definitely meant holy warriors - I say 'meant' because to say 'mean' would be to commit the etymological fallacy (i.e. equating etymology with current meaning; which would make 'wife' a synonym of 'cow' or something iirc..)
Don (Groves), or anyone volunteering, please look it up --- I am so exhausted now I don't have the energy. Maybe in a couple of days - now I am suddenly curious about this - what does and did 'jihad' actually mean - does or did it necessarily have holy connotations?

The term itself is from pre-Islamic polytheistic Arabia, (Mohammed was *not* known for coining new words - that was *Shakespeare* (and later, Joyce ;)) strengthening my doubts..


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-05-23 00:31:31)
1st team tournament : games & results !

A new thread to comment the games & results in the 1st FICGS team tournament that just started ! The teams are :

>> The knights who say "Ni"

Michael Aigner - 2602
Xavier Pichelin - 2577
Hannes Rada - 2559
Thibault de Vassal - 2473

>> FSF En Passant

Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff (2270)
Volker Koslowski (2264)
Sebastian Boehme (2175)
Roland Markus (2096)

>> The Dark Knights

William Taylor - 2140
Scott Nichols - 2089
Don Groves - 1991
Josef Riha - 1989

>> Happy Pawn

Stephane Legrand 2209
Garvin Gray 2125
Daniel Parmet 1961
Ilmar Cirulis 1805

>> Yellow-Blue Warriors

Iouri Basiliev
Dmytro Romaniuk
Ostap Hladky
Yura Lemehov

>> The Ghost Knights

Vadim Khachaturov
Yugi Inving
Sophie Leclerc
Jorge Orden

>> The Knights with no name (yet)

Alexander Blinchevsky
Stanimir Denchev
Benjamin Block
Ranganathan Raman


You can follow the games here :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__CHESS__TEAM_EVENT_TABLE_1__000001
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__CHESS__TEAM_EVENT_TABLE_2__000001
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__CHESS__TEAM_EVENT_TABLE_3__000001
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__CHESS__TEAM_EVENT_TABLE_4__000001


Note : The first player displayed in each tournament table is not always the player of the first team because when the 1st & 3rd players of a team play White against another team, the 2nd & 4th play Black against the same team, this is not obvious to read (sorry).

I'm really sorry to the 2 players that were not included in a team, but we had to start the tournament now... The last team may still announce their name (provisional : "The knights with no name")

Have nice games :)


Normajean Yates    (2009-05-23 03:17:28)
Thib. thought of everything: & poured ..

Thib. thought of everything: all the answers are hidden in the rules somewhere ;)

And also poured water on some pleasing speculations on the lines of [from William's last post: ;Third guess -' - ] the large sum of money that [William] sent Thibault with an e-mail saying 'please let me into the second round' had the desired effect. ;)

And since the reason was what Thib. posted, that was money down the drain - wait: why was *William* the Chosen One to be invited 'to complete a group or to replace a forfeiting player' - any connection with those large sums...

... over to 'Private Eye' and 'News Of The World' ... ;)


Normajean Yates    (2009-05-27 05:02:24)
Thank you Thib: and I am so relieved!

First, about the 'thank you' to Thib.: that is for responding :) Now, to business:

>Thib said: Speaking of the server, I'm not afraid of crisis or whatever, the statistics are just better and better now..

I am so relieved! Seriously.

>Thib. said: FICGS grew very slowly during 2 or 3 years but IMO it was based on realistic views..

Exactly! That was one of the first things I noticed when I discovered this site (early June last year, I think) - I phoned my partner [she and I were in different countries on that day; coincidentally, this month also..] - told her this site *will* survive, and chess.com will *not* survive [too much money wasted by Eric of chess.com even then] - [It was only in in May last year that I had noticed chess.com in its present incarnation (earlier it did *not* offer chess-*playing*, it was a chess-reference-material site only)

(My partner doesn't play chess but of course one doesn't have to be a chess-player to be interested in issues like this!)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(beginning of digression about chess.com (as a contrasting example):)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

well chess.com has *technically speaking* survived; but there is a graded level of paying members [silver-gold-diamond-platinum-what not] - each year paying membership has to be renewed [I am a free member there; I don't play games there now except on special request :) ] -- and..

Guess what, chess.com in a few months intoduced a system that gave a *playing advantage* to paying members: the more expensive grade you are in, the greater the paying advantage. So, as far as correspondence chess is concerned, can chess.com be now considered a chess site?

(In fact I posted a thread there last year suggesting that they should introduce auction: at any time any of the opponents in a game can bid to win a game. [even if they have lone K against K+Q+Q+R :}] - then if opponent doesn't make a bigger bid then the bidder wins the game. Minimum bid € 20,00 :) (chess.com is a US site ;) )There was some heated discussion over it.. Eric (the site owner - he is a decent chap, all said and done) prudently stayed away from that discussion :)

I posted in various threads there also directly saying that chess.com is probably the only *chess* site where the more you pay, the greater advantage you have in a *game*. Is that chess?

None of the above is defamatory: it is obviously true for anyone to check - and clearly Erik silently agrees - well good luck to him...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(end of digression about chess.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



>Thib. said: so don't worry, the site will survive after both of us, I'll take care of that :)

:)
I am sure now that you will :) (but not because both of us will suddenly die tomorrow, I hope ;))



Scott Nichols    (2009-06-03 03:09:30)
Chess is dead? Not hardly.

In his book "The world of chess" by Anthony Saidy the following paragraph appears. "Later in his (Capablanca) career, his play became ever more technical and drawish. He expressed the idea that with the perfection of modern knowledge it would soon be impossible to win a game against a master. Chess would soon reach a "draw death". He even proposed interchanging the initial positions of the Bishops and Knights to inject new life into the game."

An exact quote found earlier in this same book exemplifies more of what this thread is about---In reply to a Steinitz comment Tchigorin replied "Chess is a limitless forum for the human imagination. Each position is a fresh challenge. Rules and book openings, to the creative player, are no more than guidelines to be transcended. Individualize. Each position is new--terra incognita that may contain the seed of a beautiful combination. Gladly give up a pawn in return for the attack. Play chess with joy."


Benjamin Block    (2009-06-05 17:19:42)
Opening not too importent.

1.e4 is still possible and will be it a long time more. The problem is that many players are afraid of new variants and it is why they think the move is draw.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-06-08 21:19:20)
New feature : Silent mode !

Due to several problems caused by a few players recently (mainly insults in private messages), I just created a "silent mode".

Every player who will not respect the FICGS general rules & netiquette may be placed in this mode for a certain time or permanently, that way the player can play games and enter new tournaments but it is no more possible to send messages to other players (or receive messages with moves) by any way, this is the only way to avoid troubles in tournaments.

I'm very sorry to anyone who received such messages and I'll take care to avoid and prevent this in the future.

My best wishes,
Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-06-08 22:29:42)
Vacation : now 45 days per year

I think that it will be a good news for most of us !

As it seems that many players have problems with the rapid time control, mainly in championships, and as the championships period has changed (more than 6 months if necessary), I decided to change the days of vacation per year to 45 days instead of 30 days previously.

This should avoid some games to be lost on time and a few players to forfeit all their games because of the time pressure.

This change applies immediately, so everyone now has 15 days of vacation more.

Have a nice time :)


Leif Svensson    (2009-06-09 06:20:01)
A good decision!

That is certainly good news!


Normajean Yates    (2009-06-12 09:04:06)
1.Nf3 and 1.Nc3: hyper-hyprmodern?

In the 1950-60s larry evans once wrote that 1.Nf3 and 1.Nc3 will be the openings of the 21st century. [in 'New Ideas in Chess (1958)' IIRC]. Well not even 9 years have passed, so...

(The 1st century began on 1 AD (retroactively) as there was no 'year 0'. So the 21st cent. began in 2001.)

[2001 joke: y2k+1 problem: how to provideemployment to people who were trained only to deal with the y2k problem :)]


Garvin Gray    (2009-06-13 13:44:58)
answer

Normajean, Go to:

1) Your preference page
2) Click on the magnifying glass, new window opens
3) Click on Next page: History
4) Page changes to show your rating changes over time, including the new rating graph.


Normajean Yates    (2009-06-15 00:47:48)
Wilhelm, there is a rating bar...

There is a rating bar [relative to the last modifier] So I am not allowed to contribute to many lines either! And it makes eminent sense! I *don't* want to be allowed to erase a 2600+'s opinion and substitute mine!

But uncharted territory is always open - just try: you *can* contribute in uncharted territory! That is, you an always create a new wikichess entry. And the *creator* of an entry can always modify it later: creators are exempted from the rating bar.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-06-16 22:33:44)
World Go Oza canceled by sponsors

Sad news for the world of Go, the rumor was reported in GoDiscussions.com forums then confirmed by the AGA (American Go Association) : The Nihon Kiin announced that Toyota & Denso Cup World Go Oza has been canceled by sponsors. TOM news website reported that JP Morgan is discontinuing sponsorship of the Zhonghuan Cup and GoGameWorld.net reported that the Chinese NEC Cup has been canceled as well.

Looks like the economic crisis hits the small Go world also.


Don Groves    (2009-06-18 06:20:53)
First?

It's a bit more complicated than that isn't it? What if you have logged out before the second (or third or whatever notification)? If Thibault only checks your last login, he won't send it when it's actually the first of a new sequence. Sounds like a lot of extra work to satisfy one person.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-06-23 17:11:00)
waiting lists 2400+

Hello Arno,

5 months for the next class SM tournament is quite long indeed. I may ask to all players in the waiting lists but in my experience I doubt that everyone will agree and it would be not fair that I take such a decision without asking.

Summer is not the most active season for chess but most players register for new tournaments just after the new rating list is published (next week, july 1st) so let's see... moreover the next WCH cycle will not start before november so I hope that a few players will register for this tournament.

To be continued.


Ranganathan Raman    (2009-06-25 01:29:27)
play more leran

The Interactive Way To Go' (http://playgo.to/interactive/)?
but real time play bit hard work to win new players


Wayne Lowrance    (2009-06-28 19:24:56)
Combining

Thibault, the WCH waiting list is not open for new registration !?, so what you mean ?
Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-07-01 16:20:17)
FIDE rating list, july 1st 2009

The new FIDE rating list is out, Veselin Topalov (2813) still tops it 25 points ahead of FIDE world champion Viswanathan Anand (2788), in third place Magnus Carlsen (2772)...

All players rated over 2700 :

1 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2813
2 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2788
3 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2772
4 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2768
5 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2760
6 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2759
7 Leko, Peter g HUN 2756
8 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2756
9 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2755
10 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2751
11 Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2740
12 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2739
13 Wang, Yue g CHN 2736
14 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2733
15 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2732
16 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2727
17 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2721
18 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2717
19 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2717
20 Karjakin, Sergey g UKR 2717
21 Eljanov, Pavel g UKR 2716
22 Movsesian, Sergei g SVK 2716
23 Dominguez Perez, Leinier g CUB 2716
24 Alekseev, Evgeny g RUS 2714
25 Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2712
26 Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2710
27 Motylev, Alexander g RUS 2710
28 Malakhov, Vladimir g RUS 2707
29 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime g FRA 2703
30 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2703
31 Rublevsky, Sergei g RUS 2703
32 Bu, Xiangzhi g CHN 2702
33 Ni, Hua g CHN 2701


Simon Johnson    (2009-07-06 17:02:44)
question

i'm new here, and i was wondering... are we able to play anything without it being a tournament?


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-07-08 15:05:34)
Kasparov meets Obama

This is quite a surprise to me already, Barrack Obama met former chess world champion Garry Kasparov and other opposition leaders in Russia !

Nobody knows exactly what has been said during this meeting but the site Theotherrussia.org provided a full transcript of United Civil Front Chairman Garry Kasparov’s statement to president Barack Obama and an interesting interview of Garry Kasparov... The name of the forgotten Khodorkovsky appears several times.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5562

A good summary could be : "Obama seems like a man who doesn’t try to solve problems that don’t have solutions. He saves his energy and political capital on realistic goals. If there’s a big obstacle he simply takes it off the table and deals with what can be done." (Garry Kasparov)


Normajean Yates    (2009-07-09 04:25:46)
icc offers live shatranj, that's why...

that's why I said 'theschemind mind' is the only site i knew that offers correspondence-time-control shatranj...

(should have made it explicit - anyway William Taylor has now...)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-07-09 23:20:06)
Men versus women

"(...) gender stereotypes can have a greatly debilitating effect on female players leading to a 50% performance decline when playing against males. Interestingly, this disadvantage is completely removed when players are led to believe that they are playing against a woman. This may, in part, occur because women choose a more defensive style when playing with men."

A must read article (at least funny) !

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5567

What do you think ? :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-07-24 20:01:57)
New : Go games in the forum

Now you can post complete Go games in all FICGS forums with the nice interface Eidogo (Flash), see the Help section to know how to do it with the SGF /SGF tags.

In example :


( ; FF[1] GM[1] SZ[19] AP[Ficgs] RU[Chinese] GN[Lu,Ke-von Erichsen,Svante Carl] HA[0] KM[7.5] WR[2483] PW[Lu,Ke] BR[2653] PB[von Erichsen,Svante Carl] DT[February 28 3:6:11 CET 2009] ; B[pd] ; W[dp] ; B[pq] ; W[dd] ; B[fc] ; W[cf] ; B[jd] ; W[po] ; B[pl] ; W[mp] ; B[no] ; W[mo] ; B[oo] ; W[hq] ; B[nq] ; W[mq] ; B[cn] ; W[cp] ; B[ck] ; W[qf] ; B[qh] ; W[nc] ; B[qc] ; W[oe] ; B[pe] ; W[pf] ; B[of] ; W[ph] ; B[od] ; W[ne] ; B[nd] ; W[me] ; B[md] ; W[le] ; B[ld] ; W[qi] ; B[fe] ; W[he] ; B[ke] ; W[lg] ; B[kf] ; W[hg] ; B[jh] ; W[hc] ; B[fg] ; W[hi] ; B[cc] ; W[dc] ; B[cd] ; W[de] ; B[db] ; W[eb] ; B[cb] ; W[fb] ; B[be] ; W[dj] ; B[cj] ; W[di] ; B[el] ; W[dm] ; B[bm] ; W[dn] ; B[dk] ; W[gm] ; B[gh] ; W[hh] ; B[gj] ; W[ef] ; B[ff] ; W[fj] ; B[gi] ; W[fk] ; B[gd] ; W[hd] ; B[ec] ; W[ci] ; B[bi] ; W[gc] ; B[hk] ; W[bh] ; B[jk] ; W[jb] ; B[kb] ; W[kc] ; B[lb] ; W[hb] ; B[hj] ; W[ga] ; B[aj] ; W[gl] ; B[bo] ; W[bp] ; B[jn] ; W[il] ; B[hl] ; W[hm] ; B[ln] ; W[mn] ; B[ll] ; W[jp] ; B[ng] ; W[og] ; B[nr] )




Thibault de Vassal    (2009-07-28 19:35:16)
Tournament Entry Rating (TER) history

Hello all,

A new feature, now you can see graphics for your correspondence chess, advanced chess, big chess, Go (weiqi) and Poker Holdem TER history.

To see your TER history, several ways :

1) Direct link with username :
http://www.ficgs.com/players/devassal_thibault/history.html

2) Direct link with member id :
http://www.ficgs.com/display_history.php?member=1

3) Preferences : Click the magnifying glass then click History


Why a TER history ? Because TER are more significant (and less numerous) than every rating changes for most games.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-07-28 20:06:56)
Another way to reach statistics

A new way...

4) Just click your name at the top of the window !


Scott Nichols    (2009-07-29 14:26:23)
Excellent

Another nice new feature, thank you Thibault for always working and improving this site!


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2009-08-02 21:10:26)
Vachier-Lagrave

Karpov said he knew he was a tactical player some moves he (Vachier-Lagrave) made against him (Karpov) in San Sebastian this year surprised him.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-08-04 17:29:51)
Quote festival, part 6

Maybe this is time to start a new quote fest, what do you think ? :)

As a reminder, you're encouraged to post your own quotes about anything, but do not forget that you may enter the FICGS quotes file then ;)

"Always remember: He will blunder for sure, but he may play like a genius as well."


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-08-04 19:02:35)
Kasparov vs. The flying phallus

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has found a new and strange opponent :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq_-Gf9rXhE


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-08-08 11:26:55)
MoGo vs. Many Faces Of Go

Just read in the AGA newsletter (American Go E-Journal vol. 10) on the rematch between Myeong-Wan Kim 8p vs. Computer :

"Many Faces was very different, it behaved more like a human, while MoGo was pure computer and very unpredictable. It was easier to play Many Faces -- though it may be the stronger program -- because I could predict what it was going to do. Many Faces made better shape, but MoGo had better reading. I’d really like to see both programs play each other and see what happens."

I never played MoGo, but it may be instructive...


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2009-08-08 12:58:15)
News about the match (spanish)

http://www.marca.com/2009/07/07/mas_deportes/ajedrez/1246987804.html

http://www.marca.com/2009/07/30/mas_deportes/ajedrez/1248963069.html

http://www.marca.com/2009/07/31/mas_deportes/ajedrez/1249059832.html


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-08-10 13:01:25)
Simultaneous Chess World Record

After the records by Ulf Anderson, Andrew Martin and Susan Polgar, the current Simultaneous Chess World Record has been established this year by Kiril Georgiev, who played 360 opponents at the same time, now Iranian GM Morteza Mahjoob wants to play 500 opponents to bring it at a new level.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5659

Is this kind of record worth something according to you or just a nonsense?


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-08-11 12:03:37)
A. Dinerchtein is European Go Champion

Alexander Dinerchtein 3p (silent player at FICGS) is new European Go Champion after beating Javier Aleksi Savolainen in the final round of the European Go Championship while Taranu Catalin lost his final game to Kim Joon Sang and did not succeed in defending his title.

Congrats ! :)

I hope I can post some games here soon...


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-08-12 12:43:35)
Alexander Dinerchtein

He registered under his real name (see the complete Go players list), but he didn't play yet at FICGS. He posted once in the forum though to speak about his [always interesting] Goama newsletter.


Daniel Parmet    (2009-08-19 01:53:58)
Idea: Unr, No Comp, Match

I was wondering if it was possible to setup a new competition option for chess.

Just a 2 game unrated match where both players agree no computer. Each person has W&B.

This is more appealing to me than No engine tournament where the ratings/pairings are from people that have played rated corr w/comps. We can agree to play friends in 2 games.

Thoughts?


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-08-22 15:16:12)
Unrated (no computer) matches

Hi Daniel, this has to be discussed. This would be on another path than the "competitive" way the server followed until there, particularly to avoid the "just for a glance" games that are just thrown and lost on time after a few moves like on most other correspondence chess servers... But after all maybe most players here wouldn't do it because they also play rated tournaments.

The other point is "confusion" because of too many tournaments... Many new players are still lost when arriving here and I feel I have some work to make it clearer before to add such new categories... To be continued.


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2009-08-23 13:51:45)
Slow moves

Hello Thibault!

Please don't remove the "slow moves" for poker games.

I don't like the "fast moves" because it doesn't show the situation after I have sent my move (hands and new community cards).

I don't need the chat windows but I don't like to be disconnected if I write a message to an opponent (I do that in poker games too)

Best, Heinz-Georg


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-08-26 19:21:42)
Stan Vaughan vs. Varuzhan Akobian (WCF)

Many of you probably saw this strange banner in a Chessbase news article, with this title :

"THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP"
World Chess Federation, Inc.

WCF "WORLD CHESS CHAMPION" Stan Vaughan
vs. WCF official challenger Varuzhan Akobian in WCF TITLE MATCH 2009 (starting on December 1st, 2009 at Riviera Hotel Casino, Las Vegas)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5717

The Chessbase article says that when FIDE stripped Fischer of the title in 1975, he set up the WCF which sanctioned his "World Championship" rematch with Spassky in 1992 (with a record of five million dollars prize). After winning the event, Fischer was scheduled to play WCF official challenger Stan Vaughan, but he retired.

Well well... I cannot even find a page on Wikipedia on Stan Vaughan, but the article on Chessbase also mentions that Vaughan would have been 29 time US Champion of the American Chess Association, retaining the title at 2008 Robert Fischer Memorial and also, but not least :

* 1988 US Correspondence Chess Champion
* 1989, 1995 Mensa World Correspondence Chess Champion
* 1995-2007 WCCF World Correspondence Chess Champion
* WCF “The World Chess Champion 2001-present 2009
* Retained the title in 2007 with an 11-0 title match victory over Francisco Metz, an International Master from Mexico and former 1975 USCF's US Amateur Chess Champion

To finish, Garry Kasparov would have turned down the opportunity to play him in a match for 5 million dollars in 2008 - not a big surprise.

Does anyone have more information on all this and eventually games played by this un-unknown correspondence chess champion ?


Michael Sharland    (2009-09-01 03:41:29)
I agree with the Garvin's suggestion

If you look at the waiting list for any of the standard tournaments, you will typically see only players rated in the bottom 100 points of the band. This means that certain ranges are missing profitable opportunities to play and move up their ratings.

By narrowing the standard tournament bands and offsetting them with the rapid tournament bands, you will likely see an increase in signups as more players will find tournaments that align with their desire for the ability to make rating progress.

I am also in this 2100-2199 rating range and feel that there is no tournament that I can sign up for that would help my rating improve. So I find myself waiting for a WCH tournament to move me up or down rather than playing a new tournament as I would like to.


Don Groves    (2009-09-05 00:09:13)
Too much French wine?

CHENNAI, India (Reuters) - A leading French chess player turned up drunk and dozed off after just 11 moves in an international tournament in Kolkata, losing the round on technical grounds, domestic media reported Friday.

Grandmaster Vladislav Tkachiev arrived for Thursday's match against India's Praveen Kumar in such an inebriated state that he could hardly sit in his chair and soon fell asleep, resting his head on the table, Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

Indian papers carried pictures of the world number 58 sleeping and the organizers' futile attempts to wake his up.

The game was awarded to the Indian on the technical ground of Tkachiev being unable to complete his moves within the stipulated time of an hour and 30 minutes, the paper said.

The player was warned and reprimanded by the organizers afterwards but has been allowed to take part in the remainder of the competition, the paper said.


Maurice Ellis    (2009-09-07 01:09:38)
HOW TO START PLAY

Newcomer here.Can't get anyone to challenge me in a free game. Can't seem to challenge anyone in a free game.HELP!!


Nick Burrows    (2009-09-07 12:03:38)
Carlsen training with Kasparov!

Roll over Anand & Topalov!

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5742


William Taylor    (2009-09-07 14:57:28)
Good news

I'm glad to hear that. Hopefully Carlsen will be World Champ in a few years, and then Kasparov will take up competitive chess again to challenge his former pupil in a match! ;) Well, I can dream anyway.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-09-07 19:57:45)
Good news

.. and the photos are great :)


Scott Nichols    (2009-09-16 08:58:46)
Quick Corr. Chess

With the recent narrowing of the band in standard tournaments, it occurred to me that there is even less opportunity to get games than before. For those of us (and I think it is many) who check the site many times daily waiting for the next move, there just isn't enough games to feed our tremendous appetite for chess. I propose a new catagory, Quick Corr. chess, I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but here it is. It would have it's own Quick chess rating. Bands would be, Over 2000, 1600-2000, and under 1600. Time limit-10 days per game, increment-8 hours. I truly believe there is a market for this here. Advanced chess requires that you actually be at the comp. for a length of time till game is done, so it is not an option for many. But as you can see there has been quite an increase in advanced games being played. So---if you are one of those players like me, that check for moves first thing in the morning and last thing at night, sneak your laptop into the bathroom at work to see if your opponent took the sacrifice you just offered, etc., and time after time are disappointed at not seeing any new moves, please offer your support and suggestions on this. Thank you, signed "Starving for chess". :)


Daniel Parmet    (2009-09-16 23:04:15)
If the new bands are the problem...

If the new bands are the problem then remove them. I see no reason to add this "quick corr."


Daniel Parmet    (2009-09-16 23:06:50)
bands

also I do agree the bands are a problem.

I am 1962 and only want to play higher rated players. So I won't play an 1800-2000 which means I have exactly ONE option the 1900-2100 rapid band which is mostly other 1900s anyways. The new bands lowered my opportunities to play and makes both the opportunities available to me lower overall rating averages.


Michel van der Kemp    (2009-09-19 08:58:08)
ICCF uses no rating bands

Maybe this was the reason ICCF has qualification tournaments to get into higher tiers. You win a tournament and are qualified to play in a higher tier, regardless your rating. Of course that also means new players will always start in the lowest tier and getting to a tier that suits them is a long long road.

I don't know how hard it is to implement this, but it would solve the rating issues.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-09-23 10:34:53)
Long interview

Kasparov : "I am more an aggressive player, Magnus is more of a Karpov-like player"

Full interview :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5773

What do you think about that ? :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-09-24 16:24:02)
Translator for FICGS home page in Hindi?

Hi,

A new FICGS home page will be added in Hebrew in a few minutes, could anyone help to translate it in Hindi ? (also Chinese, Japanese & Korean if possible :))

As about 20% of visitors now come from India, I thought it would be useful :)

Thanks for your help !


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-09-27 01:40:59)
Fritz 12, your opinion

From Chessbase news, Fritz 12 will be out on October 7, 2009 (new opening book by Alex Kure)

http://www.chessbase.com/shop/product.asp?pid=467

Did anyone lucky test it already ?

What about the interface & engine ? A serious opponent for Rybka 3 ?


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2009-09-28 22:21:17)
Promotion

The promotion has centered around the new interface(GUI)and the new pemium membership for playchess. About the engine they just said "new stronger engine" but no numbers given.

Seems they emphasize the GUI and Shredder 12 the new human levels. Not as much the engine strenght as they gave up in chasing Rybka. I agree with Garvin I doubt Fritz will be close to Rybka 3


Xavier Pichelin    (2010-02-06 14:25:55)
E. Kotlyanskiy new FICGS chess champion

Congratulation Edward!!
It's a very good player!!
He play very well the chess.
Edward deserves to gain win the champion FICGS because he better played than me.
Good Continuation Edward!!


Edward Kotlyanskiy    (2010-02-08 02:18:27)
E. Kotlyanskiy new FICGS chess champion

Thanks Hannes and Xavier. I most certainly enjoyed our games. Xavier played very well and I want to thank him for the exciting chess. At this point however there are still two games going so the action isn't over yet ;)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-10-04 21:18:25)
IECG stopping

Shocking news.... Email chess will miss to many players, I loved this way of playing too, server chess is just different.

The message at IECG home page :

"Due to the fact that email play declines quickly in popularity making it impossible to build tournaments in a reasonable time, and due to the practical issues of email (viruses, spam filters) making this playing mode difficult, IECG has decided to stop its operations in December 2010 and to transfer its activities to our partner the Lechenicher SchachServer Server (LSS) in the meantime."

A page of correspondence chess has ended.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-10-11 00:32:52)
Carlsen 2800+

8 points out of 10, a spectacular result and a future elo superior to 2800, this was the Carlsen's week... If the phenomenon lasts several months, chess will have a new real champion ! Likely or not ?!


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-10-22 20:41:56)
Huayong Yang is the new Go WCH finalist

Congrats to Huayong Yang who made it in the Go WCH 4 preliminary tournament with an outstanding 8/8 !

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__GO__WCH_TOURNAMENT__000004

He will play Svante Carl von Erichsen in the next Go WCH final match...

Huayong started with the minimal authorized rank (10 kyu) without an official rating but obviously he's much much stronger ... His current rating is 2334 (3 dan) already, so the question is : do his opponents have an idea on his real strength ? :)


Garvin Gray    (2009-11-02 13:39:26)
new tournaments

When is the next world championship starting? Both the newest version and round two's from the previous event.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-02 21:04:53)
new wch cycle

The new WCH cycle should start within an hour, the next rounds of previous cycles will start as soon as possible (tonight or tomorrow if all games are finished).


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-03 11:40:33)
FIDE november rating list

Finally, Magnus Carlsen crossed the 2800 mark and reaches the 2nd place on the FIDE november rating list, ahead of world champion Viswanathan Anand. The next months will be interesting, at last :)


FIDE November 1st 2009 – Top 20 Players

Rank Name Title Country Rating Games BirthYear

1 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2810 10 1975
2 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2801 10 1990
3 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2788 0 1969
4 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2786 13 1982
5 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2772 0 1975
6 Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2758 11 1986
7 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2758 11 1968
8 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2754 17 1976
9 Leko, Peter g HUN 2752 10 1979
10 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2750 0 1977
11 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2748 10 1987
12 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2739 13 1969
13 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2739 5 1983
14 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2736 13 1983
15 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2736 10 1983
16 Wang, Yue g CHN 2734 27 1987
17 Eljanov, Pavel g UKR 2729 15 1983
18 Karjakin, Sergey g UKR 2723 12 1990
19 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2719 25 1985
20 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2719 18 1972


More details in the Chessbase news :
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5879


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-04 16:58:01)
Advanced games (blitz) : improvements

Hi all,

You probably noticed that there was many forfeits in advanced games as :

1) Many new players try it but do not read the instructions.
2) The system is not efficient enough to warn the players when a game starts.

The facts :

a) When you enter a waiting list for an advanced (blitz, lightning, bullet) game, you HAVE to withdraw before leaving, or the game may start without you - the way to do it may not be clear enough.
b) When you challenge a player, you may leave the computer, the system will not start the game without you (or in rare cases).

The idea of FICGS is to provide a web interface without any software to download, consequently everything is not possible... Now it only opens a pop up (if possible) & sends an email when a game starts, and it updates the page if you are in My Games.

Possible improvements :

1) To add a sound or voice message when a game starts.
2) To close advanced games waiting lists :/
3) ...

Well, it looks like I need some ideas. Anybody help ? :)


Philip Roe    (2009-11-06 03:54:51)
Luck is the residue of design

Nick, I did not know that one. It is quite splendid and I thank you for it.

But it may not be Milton. I tried to look it up and quotation sites attribute it to a poem of his called "At a Vacation Exercise in the College" However, it does not occur there, and the Yale book of quotation credits someone called Branch Rickey in Sporting News, Feb 21 1946. A rather different source.

See http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/quotes-uncovered-who-worried-about-events/


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-07 16:16:28)
"blitz cc"

Well, FICGS cannot & will not become a fast games server to play eg. "2 0" or even "5 0" (by the way even on the fastest servers, there are lag - and other - problems) but I hope there will be more and more players interested in classical time controls (called blitz here) & 'freestyle chess'... William, I can't remember the last time when you played a fast game here, the page now only refreshes when a move is played, and faster now... With an AJAX interface, it will be almost completely transparent.

Lazaro, actually the fast games with less than 2 moves will be replaced when a new challenge is accepted, to delete the forfeited games.


John Smith    (2009-11-13 02:56:53)
Introduction to Centaur Chess

Hi all,

While I have played allot of chess, so far I only used my computer for an occasional analysis and mostly for the database features.

I am assuming it takes to know engines quite well to become good at advanced/centaur chess, so any advice would be really helpful.

1) Which engines are better at what type of positions? Is Deep Junior best at unclear sacrifices?, Rybka best for positional play?, Schredder best for endgames?

2) Which engines understand different pawn structures better, e.g. which is the best engine to study a stonewall-structure game and which is best for a King's Indian Mar de Plata game?

3) How to interpret the engine value for the position? e.g. if I, say as White, sac a pawn and the evaluation is -0.1, that is less that 1 pawn, does this mean I have enough positional compensation for the pawn?

4) Which engines take long-term weaknesses into their evaluations, even if they can't see anything concrete within their horizon?

5) Which free engines are worth consulting? toga? stockfish? Glaurung? thinker? Which of these are good for complex positions, which for quiet ones?

6) Are there any engines which improve their play during time, that is they learn? e.g. if in a position guiding the engine by hand proves that another move than its preferred one is best, will it be able to spot the move again, if the same position is re-entered?

7) Which is the best interface for analysis?

8) Is there a page with statistics of how each engine performs in every opening?

Thanks!


Michel van der Kemp    (2009-11-13 10:38:55)
Hi

I think for pretty much all these questions you are on your own. On the web you will find many rankings on how certain engines perform, mainly whilst playing other engines. All engines are able to make nice sacrifices or play positionally, as long as it doesn't go beyond their calculation horizon. If we as humans want to make decisions with a little help from our computers, well that's what determines if you are a top player I guess. But if there was a recipe to become such a player, I wish I knew it :)

Experience, and good understanding yourself is the key I guess.


Garvin Gray    (2009-11-13 17:50:34)
can't view team mates results.

I have just tried viewing results from other tables via the links provided and am still having problems opening the links in a new window. I know I have mentioned this before, but thought I would point out that the issue still exists.


John Smith    (2009-11-13 18:19:12)
thanks for your responses

I see, it is a quite unexplored area.

Have engines advanced really that much though? Surely, there has been progress, but I did an experiment, I annotated some of my games using Fritz6 and Fritz 11. What caught me off guard was the fact that their 1st recommendation was the same everywhere, and in fact, oddly, Fritz 6 converged first to the "correct" reply.

They still sometimes fail to find some critical moves made by positional masters like Karpov or Kramnik. Of course they have also found many moves of their own (Bxh2!? vs Kasparov) which were not even considered by human masters.

Since my initial questions are probably on too abstract grounds, I'd like to ask a purchase question. I will buy Rybka soonish, however I was wondering if it is worth purchasing other engines as well.

- Is Shredder 12 worth it? are there some parts of the game where it does better than Rybka?

- Are they planning to release a new Deep Junior?

- Is the old Deep Junior 11 worth it, or because it hasn't been updated, even in positions where its strengths lie it has been surpasses by other engines?


Wayne Lowrance    (2009-11-13 18:42:00)
Centaur Chess

Howdy John, I will try and give maybe a little more detail to the best my ability.
1) Rybka is probably best up to "end game" and in end game I like Naum and Zappa.
2) Stonewall: , do not know best engine, but probably not Rybka
3.) Not enough information and again it depends on Engine Tactics. But in general, probably is worth looking into deep P.V.
4) Have no idea
5) No idea.
6) Out of book move "repeat/improvement recognition" as far as I know is not a feature. You as the Centaur of course should recognize this.
7) Well, you will get big arguments here. Many will tell you Aquarium (if you can master it).
8) NO In CC chess, the book is probably the most important thing to study and improve.As mentioned, experience is number one. Dont know if this post is of any value Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-17 09:05:44)
Bill Gates, chess and Go

Billionaire Bill Gates cites go as one of his personal failures. "When I was young... I wanted to be the world's best chess player and, of course, I didn't succeed. I wanted to be the world's best Go player, too...so I've had plenty of disappointments", Gates said in his 1997 book, Bill Gates Speaks: Insight from the world's greatest entrepreneur (page 227)

http://books.google.com/books?id=Qoho6AIXTksC


Just read in the AGA newsletter.

Did he really try ? Any FIDE or AGA rating ? :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-17 12:15:57)
One engine vs. several engines

Naum discontinued ? Really ? That would be bad news...

In my experience, other engines do not really give "additional informations". One chess engine give informations, several chess engines give odds. Other (weaker) chess engines may give bad odds as well and actually quite often. Only your analysis will give you true informations, you just have to explore not only the best variant provided by your engine.

Finally most important is to NOT trust chess engines IMO. In most cases at correspondence chess against strong players, in some ways "I" won some games (by analysis and ideas) and "engines" made me lose some others, that's correspondence chess... (hear me, of course it was my entire responsibility in all my losses & I wouldn't have been able to get good results without the help of engines :))


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-17 18:35:09)
Shocking news..... Marc Lacrosse is dead

I just discovered the news when searching the web, as I had no answer from Marc by any way.....

http://www.enaos.net/P1230.aspx?IdPer=129725&IdAN=70997

Marc Lacrosse is dead in Profondeville on august 13, 2009. He was aged of 48. I have very few doubts, he is the Marc Lacrosse we played and enjoyed with... The dates & informations match.

My thoughts go to his family of course, that's appalling :(


William Taylor    (2009-11-17 20:44:08)
Terrible news

I remember him beating Anand in a simul on the ICC (he was the only one who won). The game can be seen here (in a posted comment, which also confirms his death): http://www.chessgames.com/player/marc_lacrosse.html

I didn't know him personally, but it's a great loss for the whole of FICGS.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-17 20:59:43)
Anand vs. Lacrosse

Yes, the event was related on many well known websites :

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2007/04/anand-scored-17-wins-1-loss-and-1-draw.html

http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/2007/04/anand-simul-and-interview.htm

http://www.indianchessfed.org/News/2007/April/Anandwins17gamesincharitysimul.asp


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-17 23:27:59)
Wch 7 Group N 01 (chess)

As it was impossible to build one or two new groups in coherence with existing groups with the players who entered the chess wch waiting list lately, I had to build a special group that I called N_01 .. somewhere between M_01 & regular groups. Most probably 3 or 4 players from this group will be qualified for stage 2.


Wayne Lowrance    (2009-11-18 04:21:26)
Mark Lacrosse

Very saddened by this news, so young and a very fine gentleman. FICGS will miss him
Wayne


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2009-11-18 13:26:45)
Sad News

Condolences to family


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-19 15:53:28)
Chessbase humor :)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5924

The winners at the closing ceremony: Sergey Karjakin (Bronze), Vishy Anand (Silver), Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (Natural Gas and Oil), Magnus Carlsen (Gold)

:)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-21 15:24:16)
e-mails

Ok, so the new option will be the solution. If someone does no want any email from the server, the only way is to remove your email in Preferences.


Dmitry Domanov    (2009-11-22 15:06:57)
very sad news

I have played one game against Marc in far 2003 on the playchess.de server. The game has been begun by Marc's favourite 1.Nc3! His nickname was Comcat there.

Rest in peace, Marc...


Don Groves    (2009-11-25 23:23:34)
Obama, Hu Jintao and Go

A spirit of cooperation is finally coming from a US President to the rest of the world. If he can survive for seven more years in office, we may see the dawn of a new age of US diplomacy instead of military force.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-27 19:30:34)
Ivanchuk may quite professional chess

What's wrong with Vassily Ivanchuk ? In his interview in Chessbase news, he says he may quit professional chess because of this match lost to an unknown player... Not only a match, a "crucial" match he said (like any other?), but it seems to me that there are a lot of things hidden behind the words. Maybe it's just time for him to change his life, at least I hope it is so simple.

End of the interview : "I only feel that the world has crashed down around me. Everyone is against me, and I don't see the way out…"

Strange...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5941


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-11-30 23:11:38)
Finally, he may not... :)

Many reactions, and finally Vassily Ivanchuk said he was not ready to quit professional chess.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5950

Good news :)


Nick Burrows    (2009-12-01 01:36:41)
Joop van Oosterom/Jeroen Piket?

I just came accross this statement by Tim Krabbe

The Turk was operated by William Schlumberger, Mephisto was operated by Isidore Gunsberg, Ajeeb was operated by Harry Pillsbury and , the Dutch billionaire / new World Correspondence Chess Champion, is operated by Jeroen Piket.

Is this true? Is it really a computer assisted Jeroen Piket??


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-12-02 17:50:27)
Major update : Go openings (joseki)

A major update just occured, finished FICGS Go games (chess & poker as well) are now analyzed by the server that gives the name of each known joseki [the first 2 moves at the moment] played in each corner, sometimes it also gives the way it should be played...

See an example at the bottom of this page :

http://www.ficgs.com/game_2481.html
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=2481

Finished games are not analyzed in real time, but this update opens new perspectives to see one day a function to search games by joseki.

Please do not hesitate to comment this update or to report any bug you may see.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-12-02 18:28:19)
Major update : Chess openings & endgames

A major update just occured, finished FICGS chess games (Go & poker as well) are now analyzed by the server that gives the name of each known opening & classifies the games by endgames, castlings & promotions !

Best, now you can find games by material on the board (like Chessbase) for endgames with less than 10 pieces. Just click "Search games" in the menu, eg. enter KRPP vs. KRP (whatever the order of the letters & colors), and you'll find among others this game (see the description of the game at the bottom of the page) :

http://www.ficgs.com/game_3724.html
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=3724

Note : Finished games are not analyzed in real time, but this update clearly opens new perspectives :)

Please do not hesitate to comment this update or to report any bug you may see.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-12-06 16:45:22)
Idea to avoid DMD at Poker holdem

Maybe an idea to avoid the "Dead Man Defence" at poker... I feel that this is not employed really often actually (at 2000+ ratings at least) as it is not at the player's advantage after a while but it may be an improvement anyway.

The idea is to keep the same time control but to force players to play a certain pending move before to play a new move in his other games again. In example, I have a pending move in poker games 1,2,5,6 : I play my move in games 1 & 2, my opponents play their moves, then I cannot play in games 1 & 2 again (the symbol in My games wouldn't be "!" but "#") before I played the other moves. Atually it wouldn't be so simple as it may be quite uncomfortable at every move, but something like this if I can detect real DMD.

What do you think about it? BTW did you notice that some of your opponents may use DMD while playing other games?


Daniel Parmet    (2009-12-07 17:47:02)
Here

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5950


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-12-08 21:58:39)
Magnus Carlsen vs. Pat Cash

Great idea, a chess champion plays with a tennis legend to promote the tourney (and the player).. way to go !

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5969

Too bad, I did not find the result of the tennis match :)


Vjacheslav Perevozchikov    (2009-12-14 18:18:34)
support for XFCC

Hi Tibault!
Do you plan to implement this great feature - http://www.xfcc.org/ ?
New Aquarium 2010 and «old» CB10 both support it.


Wayne Lowrance    (2009-12-24 00:33:00)
Merry christmas

A very merry Christmas and happy New Year to all on FICGS. Thank you Thibault for your nice chess server and the prompt service you provide us.
wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-12-27 14:08:37)
10 moves rule

IMO this rule is important because :

1) It dissuades cheating by creating several accounts playing together through proxies... This rule makes it really hard to win some points this way, it would be detected even more easily.

2) In many cases, new players (who did not realize that computer assistance was authorized, who do not like the correspondence time controls or who just wanted to try) forfeit their games after 3 or 4 moves rather than let it go. There is no doubt to me that this phenomenon would have much more bad effects on ratings.

3) It is likely that a player who "miniatures" another player is actually much stronger than his opponent, so his rating shouldn't increase so much.


Finally and that's the main point IMO, "unfair" situations are statistically negligible compared to the other possible rules. See the other servers...

So far I'm quite convinced that it is one of the best implemented rules here, and this is exactly the way I optimise the programs: "Statistics give better results than looking for perfection" :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-12-27 14:13:04)
Final result

The match ended on a 4-4 score.

All details - http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6013


Wayne Lowrance    (2009-12-29 18:40:55)
Rybka demise

William, wow, These are new engines for me, I will look for them.
On cloning, Stockfish is not the engine cloned as for as I know. There are two other engines for which I have downloaded because the moderators of the Rybka forum have deleted all reference to them, including engine name and download site. Vas has admitted that one in particuliar is a clone and the cloning programmer had discussions with Vas letting him know what he was doing, very interesting. Since both these engines are free downloadable making the source code available for all other programmers. It is common on the forum discussions about R3 source code being compromised. Thank you for sharing your Stockfish- Rybka testing results. What time control are your test run. Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-12-29 19:50:45)
RobboLito vs. Rybka 3

What are RobboLito, Ippolit and Igorrit ? It looks like these names are invading computer chess forums... As you may have read in the discussion mentioned below, the Rybka 3's source code may have been compromised and these engines "may" be clones of Rybka 3 (everyone does not agree on this). Good or really bad news, anyway this open source chess engine may have many consequences on the computer chess world, and correspondence chess as well...

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=8031


From the wikispace mentioned below :

IPPOLIT : Intellectual Persons Promotion Of Leninist International Tradesunions (!??)

Q. What is RobboLito?
A. RobboLito is the version of IPPOLIT that now contains endgame tablebases, the RobboBases.

A few links on RobboLito 0.085f1a, Ippolit & Igorrit (says it all IMO) :

http://ippolit.wikispaces.com/
http://ippolit.wikispaces.com/RobboLito
http://ippolit.wikispaces.com/Igorrit
http://ippolit.wikispaces.com/FAQ

see also : ippolit.wikispaces.com/Clone+(Question)

http://ippolit.wikispaces.com/News
-> IPPOLIT banned from chessprogramming wiki!
PlayChess banned IPPOLIT from use online also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r_V_QkmHjo
http://www.chesslogik.com/robbolito.htm
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/free-chessengine-robbolito-is-1-at-swisstest-rybka-2?lc=1
http://www.cyclonechess.com/rybka3.htm

"RobboLito is an open-source UCI chess engine by: Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, Igor Igorovich Igoronov, and Roberto Pescatore."

RobboLito does not yet support: multiPV, own book, egbbs, tablebases, multiple CPUs/cores, chess variants

Estimated rating: ~ 3300 ELO

Available versions:

RobboLito 0.085g3 w32 (optimized windows 32-bit executable and source code)
RobboLito_0.085g3_w32_no_SSE2 (optimized windows 32-bit executable - for older CPUs that don't support Intel SSE2 instruction set)
RobboLito 0.085g3_x64 (fast windows 64-bit PGO executable compiled by peterpan)
RobboLito 0.085g3l_x86 (optimized linux 64-bit executable and source code ported to linux by unisky)

http://www.cyclonechess.com/robbolito.htm
http://www.cyclonechess.com/rybka3.htm

http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1261597025/4
http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1258991841
http://queenchess.blogspot.com/2009/11/fritz-12-vs-robbolito-e2-latest-version.html
http://lefounumerique.xooit.com/next?t=663 (french)


Sebastien Benoit    (2009-12-30 17:22:55)
On reverse enginerring

I'v read some of the arguments for and against the theory that RobboLito is a Rybka clone and I must say that I'm more inclined to beleive it is not. But for those who think that the reverse engineering of a software as complex as Rybka is not possible... sorry but it is possible! A team ( don't know how many guys would be needed) of good computer scientists would certainly be able to reverse engineer enough of it to get a global picture of what kind of optimisations it has. And remember that computer chess is not new and a lot of knowledge is available trough books and of course, the web.

Some are claiming that a reverse engineered clone of Rybka would have the same level of functionality as the original. They say that, because they don't really understand the process. Reverse engineering doesn't necessarily lead to an approximate clone of the origninal source code. It is more a process of understanding how it works. Once you got this understanding you can write from scratch and add incrementally whatever functionnality you desire.


Thibault de Vassal    (2009-12-31 20:20:07)
Happy new year 2010

Happy new year everyone, my best wishes for 2010, plenty of good games :)


Luc-Olivier Leclerc    (2009-12-31 21:13:10)
Happy new year 2010

Happy new year 2010


And may your pawns promote


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-01-04 19:08:52)
New feature implemented

This is it... Now everyone can discuss any finished game ! Players & participants of the discussion will be notified by email if they checked the "email notification" option for forums in Preferences.

Feel free to report any bug. Any feedback welcome ! :)


Scott Nichols    (2010-01-05 05:06:18)
Poker Software?

This has come up alot recently. I'm sure there are many claims by new programs that tout their analytical ability. Sure they could give you the best statistical move, but could they bluff? I think their play would be predictable and easy to beat. I don't use them and wouldn't trust them. Just one man's opinion, any others?


Michel van der Kemp    (2010-01-05 16:55:19)
If anyone could comment any game...

Thank you.

Would it also be possible to link the new comments back to the forum? So people now which comments were made? Or some other way to browse through the comments?

Could be interesting if some high class players would comment their games.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-01-12 09:28:43)
Problem with auto-refresh in My games ?

Hello all,

Two players reported a problem for the "My games" page when both 'pending' & 'poker games' (click the icon next to "Here are your pending games") are selected and only in this case. The page wouldn't auto-refresh correctly when there's a new move to play.

As it works fine for me, I would like to know if other players experience the same problem.

Thank you!


Paolo Montrasio    (2010-01-20 17:41:37)
No newsletter

How do you opt out from receiving newsletters?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-01-20 18:03:35)
No newsletter

Hello Paolo, it is now possible by changing the email notification option in Preferences.


Paolo Montrasio    (2010-01-20 18:35:57)
No newsletter

Thank you!


Lazaro Munoz    (2010-01-21 23:16:57)
No newsletter

What newsletter?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-01-22 01:56:21)
Newsletter

You should have received an email to the address you registered with (or you entered in Preferences). Maybe it went to the spam folder :)


Kamesh Nookala    (2010-01-24 19:34:39)
Resign before 10th move

Hello HOST,

I didnt know about this forum earlier and posted in the International Chat. I am sorry for that stupid mistake of mine. But the problem which i faced now is this. There is a guy whom i defeated in all 4 meetings where i played vs. him. This poor guy found me yet again and having known by now that he cant beat me, he simply resigned. I have no grievance against him. But in my very first Rapid B tour here at ficgs, i got an advantage of +-1.00 (approx.) vs. a player who simply resigned after my white 10th move. This meant that though I am awarded with a win, yet because my opponent resigned simply instead of playing the 10th move, he denied me earning some elo. That also implies that he saved his elo by simply resigning.

I dont know much above this site as i am pretty new to this. However, i have been already a victim of this sort of activities. For e.g., I could simply resign when i play bad openings and evals dip before 10th move and i can simply save my elo. That means i can simply resign vs. Big Guys as Black and play as Black only vs. weak players.

Just thought to express my views. Rest upto the moderators


Daniel Parmet    (2010-01-29 15:52:43)
Quote festival, part 6

"Chess is stupid. I'm a war historian. You never have all the facts in life or real war as in chess. Napoleon didn't waste his time on chess. Napoleon knew luck was more important than any genius. Chess hasn't been played since IBM solved it back in 2000 when Kas- err Karm I mean Kapov couldn't... beat it. No human has ever even drawn a computer since that match when chess was solved." - Dave Daring


Hannes Rada    (2010-02-06 10:52:37)
E. Kotlyanskiy new FICGS chess champion

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__CHESS__WORLD_CHAMPIONSHIP__000003

Congratulation to the new champ !

and to a lot of very intersting games !


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-02-08 14:01:52)
E. Kotlyanskiy new FICGS chess champion

Great fair play from both players once again. Thanks Edward & Xavier for the show, the games are really interesting!


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-02-09 18:55:17)
Vocal message

A new small improvement, now FICGS should announce (in the pop up window) the start of a new advanced game with a vocal message. This will not totally solve the problem, but it gives some more chances to not miss the start of a game.


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-02-22 17:15:31)
Rating calculation

Maybe this will help: a simplification of the involved equation.
New elo= (a) x elo + (TER opponents avg.)/a
So you see a new rating is based on elo and ter. The variables (a) & (b) are simplified to remove non elo numberical values so that the expression is easier to see.
Hope this helps
Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-09-08 00:58:52)
Ilyumzhinov leaves Kalmykia presidency

FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov would fully rely on his reelection at the FIDE presidency (15 years already), "leaving" the presidency of the Kalmykia republic after 17 years...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6659

To be continued.


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


Daniel Parmet    (2010-03-08 06:41:29)
Great day for FICGS (and for me :)) !

this is already my favorite place to play as is... I can't imagine how much better it will be once you start changes from this news!


Ralph Deline    (2010-03-12 19:36:04)
Rating calculation

Hi Thibault,
Thanks for your earlier explanation. I wanted to respond sooner but then when I was at the FICGS site, I saw another player, also confused about his chess rating, questioning you about it so I threw in my two cents. In my situation, my opponent was rated about 80 points higher so when I drew, I thought I would actually go up in ratings points instead of down. That is still confusing to me.
Maybe my age is catching up with me, but for fifty years or more, using the formula for establishing ratings in Canada, I was always under the impression that your score and your opponents ratings, with a bit of math thrown in, determined your rating. I know at one time it was possible to win a tournament and lose rating points but I believe that was corrected about a decade or so ago. I wasn't playing for over a decade so I'm not certain on dates.
However, let me acknowledge the fact that I understand what you are saying, play less, win more, and your rating will improve. But I still have a hurdle to overcome. When a lower rated player ties with a highed rated player, regardless of colour, why does he get penalized instead of rewarded for achieving a result that is performing above his present rating? It doesn't seem logical.
You are probably busy and I've taken enough of your time. I don't think I will understand any explanation, you know, can't teach an old dog new tricks, so you don't have to try to explain any further. I just wanted my voice to be heard.
I have had three gross blunders in the last half year so maybe I am playing too many games. I hate to do it, but maybe I will try playing less.
Thanks for listening.
Ralph


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-03-13 21:57:01)
Anatoly Karpov next FIDE president ?

The former chess world champion Anatoly Karpov announced his candidature to become the next FIDE president, surely it would be a first step to change the negative image of FIDE in the world and to attract new sponsors... It may be something more than to change a visage for FIDE. What do you think ?

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6179


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-03-16 10:37:01)
Interview with E. Kotlyanskiy

Congrats again to Edward Kotlyanskiy, new FICGS chess champion after beating Xavier Pichelin (2577) in the 12 games final match of the 3rd cycle.

Edward kindly accepted to answer a few questions on his match and correspondence chess in general :

_________________________


> Hi Edward, first of all congratulations for winning this 12 games match against the former FICGS chess champion, Xavier Pichelin. You had to score at least one point more than your opponent, what was your strategy when the games started?

Knowing that I had to score at least +1 against Xavier, I had to try to get the games into complex positions where there are many options to play for both sides. At the point when the games started, I was the underdog to Xavier (mainly due to the face that I was rated about 200 points lower). In part, I think that one of the reasons why Xavier allowed the games to reach such complex positions is due to the fact that his rating was undoubtedly higher than mine and therefore he probably assumed that he could “outplay” me. Although this was simultaneously a brave and admirable choice, I think an option that many other players would have pursued would have been to play “drawish” lines with the hope of having all of the games ending in draws. I have great respect for Xavier due to the fact that he didn't choose such a path and allowed us to put on a hard fought show that was worth watching.

> What could you say on the hot moments of the match?

The first game in which I thought I had very good chances to win was game 34739. In this game (particularly on move 18) Xavier played the move Nb8?? Looking back at the move, I realized that the game was lost for him. I assumed that Xavier probably underestimated the threat of f5. There were no good responses and/or countermeasures for the move f5. For example, if 19) gxf5, I have 20) Nxh5 Nc6 21) Rc3! Bxh4 (Qd8 was also possible) 22) Qf4 Be7 23) g4! His king is just clearly caught in the attack! 19) exf5 also fails to 20) e6 f6 (trying to keep the king safe) 21) Bxh5!! gxh5 22) Nc6 Rc3 and therefore it’s easy to see that it is just a matter of time. Xavier did try something better although even that failed due to some nice moves. I believe that 21) g7 came as a surprise to Xavier (or that at least he hadn't seen this move when playing Nb8). After Nxh5 (another neat move), another line that I thought Xavier would enter (which is also losing) is 22) Qxc2 23) Qxc2 Rxc2 24) Nf6+! Bxf6 25) exf6. Clearly my pawns are just too strong! Knowing that I am winning after the mentioned alternatives, the other games (although I won three others) were just necessary to hold without falling for any tactics/tricks.

A second game I want to briefly comment on is game 34729. I played a very nice (although I am not sure if it is winning just yet) move known as 17.a4! It was a very nice way to open the position on both of our kings. In all honesty, the move that I think was winning in this situation 25) Rd3, I did not even consider too highly until the position reached that very move. After a relatively short analysis, I was indeed pleasantly surprised to see that; overall, it was completely winning for me.

> What could you say on the advantages and inconveniences of this 12 games match format played at a quite fast time control?

From the days when I first starting playing correspondence chess, I have always been accustomed to making moves rather quickly. In fact, when I first started playing, in some games I made moves within 10 minutes of looking at the position. Although I take a lot more time to analyze now-a-days, I still consider the speed of my play to be relatively faster compared to most other correspondence players. Playing 12 games simultaneously can have drawbacks as not having enough time to properly analyze; however, I didn't have such a problem. With the exception of a few games that I was playing on IECG at the start of the FICGS Championship, the 12 game series was my main concern.

> Without revealing your secrets, how would you define modern correspondence chess as a centaur (playing with chess engines)?

These days, it is impossible to play correspondence chess on a high level without consulting the engine. It is also unlikely that one can achieve a lot of success just by following the engine blindly (even after a long analysis). Personally, I know that some of my friends believe that in correspondence chess you are just following the engine but I believe that most “high level” correspondence players know that it just doesn't work that way.

In my opinion, one of the most important skills that a correspondence player should have is having some sense of where the engine he is analyzing with is faulty. To give a well known example, many people know that there are certain endgame positions that an engine alone can't be trusted in (a simple case is the wrong color bishop). In essence, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of whatever engine you are analyzing with is critical to playing correspondence chess at a “high level”.

> Why did you choose to play correspondence chess, do you play OTB (over the board) chess as well?

Before starting correspondence chess, I played OTB chess for quite a few years. When my schedule became busy, I realized that I wouldn't have much time to play OTB in clubs. I came across correspondence chess and got hooked on it very quickly. Also, I began to enjoy more of the subtleties of the game; something that is just lacking in OTB blitz games. I imagine that some people prefer to play practical chess (OTB) in which a move order wouldn't make much of a difference; however, I guess I am a perfectionist and believe the game should be played on as high of a level as possible.

> How many correspondence games do you usually play at the same time (on different chess servers or by email)? Would you say that it is an addiction?

Usually, I played about 5 to 10 games on average on all different sites. I did play via email on IECC but wasn't fond of playing by email therefore I went back to server only sites (IECG, FICGS, Schemingmind).

I can definitely say that correspondence chess is an addiction. All too often, I catch myself analyzing games when I really should be doing something much more time sensitive. Well, at least I can say that this addiction paid off in that I am the new FICGS champion!

> Are you interested in other games?

As far as board games go, chess is primarily the only game I play. At times I do play games like monopoly and scrabble with my friends. Another interest that I have is billiards.

> The next challenger for the FICGS chess champion title is SM Eros Riccio (winner of several PlayChess PAL freestyle tournaments). Do you think that you'll play him? What does this perspective inspire in you?

I can't wait to play Eros! I believe that he would be my toughest opponent yet (although I have played GM Leităo, Rafael (fide elo: 2619) and managed to draw). Eros is like an unstoppable juggernaut in corr chess. That said, I look forward to our games and I am certain that they will simultaneously be challenging and entertaining.

> Thanks and best of luck in your future games!


Ralph Deline    (2010-03-17 07:27:30)
Rating calculation

Thanks for the helpful comments. I feel much better now that I understand how ratings are derived. I made the assumption that since my rating changed after the conclusion of every game, that the past games had no influence on my future rating, that is, within the two month rating period. It is the same type of rating system I'm accustomed to; results, strength of opponents, a little math thrown in, and presto, a new rating. I can now go on living. Cheers.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-03-20 22:24:31)
Firebird, Ivanhoe vs. Rybka

Of course, since the free open source chess engine Ippolit is available, clones have appeared, starting with RobboLito & Igorrit, now Ivanhoe & Firebird, and some may be even stronger...

It seems that we still do not have any clue to know if Ippolit is itself a clone of Rybka or not, anyway it would interesting to compare these new engines.

Does anyone have any informations, tournament results or something for these new engines?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-03-21 01:15:37)
Freestyle Cup: April 2010

New record for sure, Garvin entered the waiting list 20 seconds after the tournament is announced :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-03-21 22:52:10)
SSDF rating list (march 2010)

The new SSDF rating list reveals at least one thing : Between an old Athlon 1200 and a modern Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, there is at least a 120 point gap. Unfortunately, Ippolit/Ivanhoe/Igorrit/Firebird are still out of the list.


SSDF RATING LIST 2010-03-21 %120316 games played by 311 computers
Rating + - Games Won Oppo
------ --- --- ----- --- ----
1 Deep Rybka 3 x64 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3227 27 -25 1005 83% 2962
2 Naum 4 x64 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3149 25 -23 986 74% 2963
3 Deep Shredder 12 x64 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3124 26 -24 863 70% 2972
4 Deep Fritz 12 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3117 37 -36 373 60% 3043
5 Deep Rybka 3 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 3090 39 -38 332 58% 3033
6 Deep Fritz 11 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3081 22 -21 1142 68% 2946
7 Zappa Mexico II x64 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3068 27 -26 696 59% 3002
8 Naum 3.1 x64 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3052 30 -29 572 59% 2990
9 Deep Hiarcs 12 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3039 22 -21 1087 61% 2958
10 Deep Shredder 11 x64 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3038 26 -26 726 58% 2981
11 Hiarcs 11.2 MP 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3010 25 -25 761 54% 2984
12 Glaurung 2.2 x64 MP 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 3007 22 -22 1001 60% 2933
13 Shredder 12 256MB A1200 MHz 3006 39 -39 320 45% 3040
14 Naum 4 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2998 29 -29 574 50% 2996
15 Deep Junior 10.1 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 2975 25 -25 766 48% 2992
16 Rybka 2.3.1 Arena 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2926 22 -22 964 52% 2912
17 Fritz 11 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2915 27 -27 669 47% 2935
18 Deep Fritz 8 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 2912 25 -26 753 39% 2991
19 Shredder 8 MP 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 2908 28 -29 603 39% 2984
20 Deep Shredder 11 256MB Athlon 1200 2907 30 -30 534 45% 2941
21 Hiarcs 11.1 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2879 23 -23 941 49% 2882
22 CM King 3.5 x64 MP 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 2866 31 -32 530 33% 2990
23 Junior 10.1 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2864 19 -20 1271 47% 2882
24 Deep Junior 8 2GB Q6600 2,4 GHz 2859 29 -30 589 36% 2961
25 Fritz 10 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2851 34 -33 458 64% 2749
26 Zap!Chess Z. 256MB Athlon 1200 MH 2842 21 -21 1060 50% 2840
27 Fruit 2.2.1 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2833 19 -19 1385 62% 2750
28 Spike 1.2 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2817 26 -26 714 57% 2766
29 Chess Tiger 2007 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2775 25 -26 748 46% 2805
29 Rybka 1.0 beta 128MB K6-2 450 MHz 2775 64 -69 115 38% 2860
31 Zap!Chess 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2737 30 -29 562 53% 2713
32 Gandalf 6.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2735 24 -24 855 56% 2693
33 Pocket Fritz 3 Hiarcs Ipaq 214 624 MHz 2733 64 -58 142 66% 2617
34 Chessmaster 9000 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2720 36 -35 385 56% 2680
35 Pro Deo 1.1 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2714 24 -23 876 57% 2660
36 Pocket Shredder Ipaq 114 624 MHz 2698 83 -70 100 74% 2520
37 Deep Sjeng 1.5a 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2675 31 -31 493 52% 2663
38 CEBoard Fruit 2.3.1 XScale 400 400 MHz 2647 65 -61 129 62% 2564
39 Revelation Rybka 2.2 XScale 500 MHz 2632 47 -45 240 62% 2549
39 Ruffian 2.0.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2632 49 -49 205 46% 2661
41 Pocket Fritz 3 Glaurung 2.1 Ipaq 614C 2528 69 -74 100 40% 2604
42 Pocket Fritz 2 XScale 400 MHz 2508 48 -46 225 57% 2459
43 Resurrection Rybka 2.2 StrongARM 203 MH 2484 43 -43 260 51% 2477
44 Resurrection Fruit '05 StrongARM 203 MH 2395 67 -63 120 60% 2320
45 Hiarcs 9.5a/9.6 Palm TungstenE OMAP 126 2392 35 -35 400 45% 2426
46 CEBoard Crafty 2004 HP RX4240 400 MHz 2375 52 -54 180 41% 2443
47 R30 v. 2.5 2274 41 -38 343 69% 2136
48 Palm Tiger 2009 Tung C 400 MHz 2229 66 -71 110 38% 2317
49 Chess Genius 1.4 SX1 OMAP 310 120 MHz 2151 50 -48 210 60% 2081
50 Chess Tiger 14.9 Palm m515 16MB 42MHz 2103 69 -74 100 39% 2182


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-03-31 20:30:54)
Freestyle Cup: April 2010

To the players who will participate to the next freestyle tournament, be sure to read the following discussion before to play :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=8345

I recommend to practice this new option (touch move) by playing a few bullet bronze games before the tournament ;)


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-05 00:58:06)
Advanced chess ratings calculation

For some reasons that I'll explain below, I updated the advanced chess (bullet, lightning, blitz, freestyle) rating calculation rules to the following :

"Performance = Opponent Current Rating if the game is drawn, + 350 if the game is won, -350 if the game is lost.

The following bonus / malus applied to White and to Black makes ratings fair, as it is not possible to force a player to take White or Black before a game :

(White) Performance = Performance - 50
(Black) Performance = Performance + 50

If there's a winner and if his rating is below 2400, his new rating his :

New Rating = ((8 x Current Rating) + (2 x Performance)) / 10

Otherwise :

New Rating = ((9 x Current Rating) + (1 x Performance)) / 10

The rating calculation does not take account of wins obtained by a stronger player when the Elo difference is greater than 350 points, the same with losses by a weaker player.

In case of a draw or loss against a player rated more than 200 points less, the opponent's rating considered in calculation is : Current Rating - 200. A player who wins a game cannot lose Elo points, a player who loses a game cannot win Elo points."

More details :

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


The rule that just changed is "If there's a winner and if his rating is below 2400, his new rating his : New Rating = ((8 x Current Rating) + (2 x Performance)) / 10".

This rule will probably be updated again in a few months with a rating limit of 2200 instead of 2400, when advanced chess ratings will be more coherent with correspondence chess ratings.

The reasons are :

1) Advanced/freestyle chess is often neglected partly because players will likely lose some rating points (many strong players using Rybka 3-like engines still have a rating of 1800 or 2000, there are several reasons to this), the main point is probably the interface but I'm fixing it (e.g. the new touch-move option - see Preferences).

2) Chess engines are just stronger and stronger while the ratings do not increase with the previous rules, as a consequence players who just tried advanced chess once years ago shouldn't still top the rating list. It is of course a way for players to find their place quicker in the rating list & to incitate players to play more games as well.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-05 13:52:12)
Chessbase april fool's joke

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6232

Worth to read... among the April 1st three stories, "Fischer’s remains to be exhumed?", "Magnus Carlsen's cousin in America (Matt Damon)" & "LHC goes online – chess grandmasters worried" on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, it looks like the trap worked quite well (I thought it was Fisher's also), what story did you think it was the april fool's joke ? :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-05 18:04:46)
Issues + New pairings

Hi Garvin, what is your browser ? I guess that you use cookies so your problem is quite strange to me as the links posted in the forum only open a new window (that should use the same session - works fine on Firefox & Chrome, at least)...

About the freestyle tournament, I just tried to add a new player during the tournament and the software seems to accept it. Finally I think it cannot be bad to authorize players to enter the waiting list until the end of the tournament, so I just added this rule.

Consequently the pairings for round 4 changed :

Table 1 : Boehme - Taylor
Table 2 : Evans - Pichelin
Table 3 : van der Kemp - Petrolo
Table 4 : Moreira - de Vassal
Table 5 : Gray - Nichols

Sorry to the players for this update, but I'm still trying to find the best rules for this kind of tournaments.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-10 00:19:35)
Freestyle Cup: April 2010

The freestyle tournament will continue tomorrow!

However I must say I regularly have some connection problems with my new provider (it should be fixed in a while - according to them), so I apologize in advance if I'm late to start a round or if I have to lose another game on time :/

See you tomorrow!


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-10 17:49:40)
Freestyle vs. Access providers

Another lesson is that maybe I shouldn't organize such tournaments (the last round was launched about 40 minutes late because of a new connection problem) before that my own access provider makes the necessary to be more stable :(

That's a shame but there's nothing else to do than to wait. It was a good tournament anyway that will allow me to improve some things for the next editions.

Thanks to all players who participated!


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-10 23:19:20)
Challenges hidden

New option for the challenges ! (see Preferences) .. now you can "hide" the challenges function. This means that a player still can challenge everyone (including you) but you won't see it. Not a perfect way but to be improved. There should be a blacklist function (during a session only) soon.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-11 20:59:51)
Match Against Rybka Forum

Oh ok, thanks Robert, I didn't see this discussion at Rybkaforum before...

The idea discussed with "Vytron" is : Half players would play their game here at FICGS, and the other half would play their game at the Rybka forum... Of course there would be a kind of time control there but this would be a friendly match before all!

So please post here if you're interested to play in the FICGS team and specify if you would be ok to play your game at the Rybkaforum.

I'm in, of course (if my new rating allow me to play :)), and I'm ok to play at the Rybkaforum.


Scott Nichols    (2010-04-12 03:59:40)
Freestyle Cup: April 2010

First of all, thanks to Thibault for having this tournament. I have some ideas for the next one for us to kick around. First and foremost we know the connection issues need to be resolved. Second, the time control. I've played both 30 & 60 minutes with 15 second increments and my preference would be the 60+15, but 30+15 is ok also, not a big deal for me. As for the time to have it, (days of the week, hour of the day), I think there is no way to satisfy everyone because of the wide range of time zones, so you just have to make a time and we will find a way to make it. -----The main new idea I have is to make it an open tournament. This means anyone can join, but only those who pay the entry fee will be eligible for prizes. The reason is to get many more players involved, but only the highest entry-paying player will win prize money. Since there are far more players here without any E-points than those with. It might even inspire more to buy points.


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-04-12 17:57:11)
Blitz Games

No, only one square would be highlighted, the current moved piece in it's new destination. This is the way I have seen it done on other site's, It makes playing blitz more enjoyable as your opponents move is quickly recognized ON the board.
I really like it. It wiuld be a very nice option. Everyone will use it once they see it :)


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-04-12 19:24:23)
NEW # 1

Well here it is:
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404FRC/

Stockfish just topped R3. Thought I would never see this day ! I still don't trust it tho, hehehe:)
Wayne


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-04-12 19:28:37)
NEW # 1

And here, NOT #1 :) hehe:
http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/40_40%20Rating%20List/40_40%20All%20Versions/rangliste.html


Peter Marriott    (2010-04-12 20:56:34)
NEW # 1

The CCRL site you showed is FRC, and the CEGT one is not. :)


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) ?


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2010-04-13 07:05:55)
NEW # 1

FRC means fischer random chess, still Rybka's not surpassed in regular chess after almost 2 years.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-13 13:13:07)
RYBKA 4 UCI available in the first part

Thanks for the great news!

I just wonder why "without copy protection" and why it is specified... or was he convinced by the "Bill Gates/Microsoft" strategy as well?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-14 16:22:00)
Firebird, Ivanhoe vs. Rybka

There are several articles that are worth to read on Firebird & the other chess engines from the Ippolit series, also on the history of chess engines from Fritz, Shredder, Hiarcs & Junior to Stockfish and programmers/clones issues, particularly at Chessvibes & ChessNinja :

Chess engine controversy
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/chess-engine-controversy/

New fish in town
http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/2010/04/new-fish-in-town.htm


Daniel Parmet    (2010-04-15 07:56:42)
Download 6 pieces tablebases

http://www.newinchess.com/Gold_Nalimov_Tablebases_set-p-2231.html


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-19 16:41:06)
Advanced chess ratings calculation

As advanced chess (not correspondence chess) ratings move too fast, I just updated the calculation rules :

If there's a winner and if his rating is below 2400, his new rating his :

New Rating = ((18 x Current Rating) + (2 x Performance)) / 20

Otherwise :

New Rating = ((19 x Current Rating) + (1 x Performance)) / 20


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-24 00:08:44)
GoDiscussions & LifeIn19x19

FICGS Go players may have read this article in the latest AGA newsletter on the 2 Go forums... So there is a new Go forum called lifein19x19.com , but what happens with GoDiscussions?

Like many other members I experienced some problems regularly for a few months but what is behind the technical problems?

Does anyone have more informations on this?

http://godiscussions.com
http://www.lifein19x19.com


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-04-23 01:11:29)
Wider rating range tournaments

Garvin, you have a very good point. I have been there and so I know how your feeling. It is very difficult to advance that is for sure.
Garvin It can be overcome, I have! please refer to my rating climb. I started off at rock bottom despite the fact that I had a rating of 2300++ going in here at ficgs. I did know know I could transfer part of my rating (1800 I Think) but I started at the bottom (1500 if memory serves).It has taken me for what seems forever to arrive to where I am now. I have worked very hard to achieve the Title and it's rating. I have a nice comp now, but the first couple of years I grew in stature with a 1.8 ghz single cpu. Have used that cpu most of my stay here.
What is my secret ?. Answer I have non. First is I have a excellent CC book (lousy for blitzing). I feel the real only way to advance here on FICS is outbook and out think your opponent in opening lines (ask Thibault :) So MY thoughts are that it would follow that I am not in favor of your proposal. Having said that, I will support what ever way Thibault goes with your ideas. Good luck my friend, I am behind you, but honestly cannot say I will support any new rating grading. Wayne


Don Groves    (2010-04-25 01:45:46)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

I still like the idea of allowing the winner of a tournament to enter the next higher level one time. It serves the same purpose as this suggestion but is limited to one player at a time so it doesn't dilute the level of play in the higher tournament. It also helps a new player find their appropriate level faster.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-27 18:27:38)
New bullet time control

Any feedback on the new bullet time control? (5 min. + 15 sec/move)

Do you think it should be even faster or is it ok? ;)


Benjamin Block    (2010-04-28 15:55:07)
FICGS down, server HACKED!

Thanks, good work!! Very good that you send a e-mail to get the news, so nobody left this site because they think it has closen down or something.


Adam Clontz    (2010-05-01 18:27:28)
chess engines

i'm new on here.... does pretty much everybody use a chess engine? i never have.


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2010-05-02 16:02:41)
Speeding up Poker games

Hello Thibault,

maybe you can create a new category (Rapid Poker) with "10 days + 12 hours per move"? Then we can test it.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-02 16:40:48)
Speeding up Poker games

I'm afraid that a few tournaments would not be enough as a test... 2 time controls would be a good idea but I'm not sure if the rating lists would be filled fast enough so if you think that this new one would not bring real problems, maybe we should change the time control for all poker standard tournaments... then the experience will tell what to do!?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-08 20:45:55)
How many games at once?

Actually there's still a rule on the number of games... If you have more than 50 running games (but poker), you cannot enter more waiting lists (but wch), the same for poker games that are limited to 50 before to enter a new waiting list... (see the complete rules for more details)

IMO the current rules are the best balanced ones.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-08 21:08:51)
New proposition

Here's a new idea, based on the fact that I don't think I'll have time (before a while, at least) to implement a script that would allow 1 or 2 tournament's winners to enter a higher class waiting list... many particular cases, not so easy.

The idea :

We could allow one (actually 2 would be still ok IMO) tournament's winner to enter a higher class waiting list for 10 Epoints (not Euros, big difference as most Epoints are won in free tournaments and cannot be cashed out if not played in tournaments with entry fee). I would place the players in the waiting lists by myself but finally it may satisfy everyone -> A player rated 1900 could enter a 2000+ waiting list but could not enter a 2200+ waiting list, the server can offer more Epoints prizes (that just increased for chess tournaments, by the way), and players could find their place more easily in the ratings.

Any opinion?


Don Groves    (2010-05-08 23:23:15)
How many games at once?

With some talking about so many games, I did not know there was still a rule for 50 games maximum. Those other games must be on other servers then and FIGCS has no control over that.

As for the proper length of correspondence games, I would not willingly play if I knew a game would take more than three months. It's not a matter of patience, it's a matter of reasonableness. A two-year game is simply unreasonable to me. I've never had a postal game last nearly that long.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-08 23:45:26)
New proposition

Actually the main problem is IMO what to do if let's say 5 players rated 2000-2200 suddenly ask for an entry in a 2200+ (class M) waiting list... It may take so much time for the 5th player to be able to enter it (waiting for a 3rd M tournament starts if 2 players can have a ticket per tournament) that he may reach the 2200 mark before that his ticket be useful.


Don Groves    (2010-05-09 05:01:36)
How many games at once?

Vacations take care of life getting too busy to play. The other stuff is a matter of opinion. Ours are different.

I have no problem with taking 10 days for a juicy decision, but some here take several days for almost every move! That becomes too much.

Another thing that happens is that when a new tournament begins, one player may let his clock go red before he starts to move in a game. Then he will play one move per day to avoid losing on time, but the other player must wait for several weeks before the game begins. Is this fair?


Daniel Parmet    (2010-05-09 06:13:15)
How many games at once?

Absolutely its fair. Both players knew the timecontrol when they signed up. One player is using the timecontrol and the other has no right to be annoyed since he agreed to the timecontrol.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-09 23:02:05)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

It looks like Rybka 4 is to be released, this discussion could gather the news, tests & results in matches of this new version against Rybka 3 and other engines (thinking about Stockfish 1.7.1, Naum 4.2, Fritz 12, Shredder 12, Hiarcs & engines that are "possible" clones of Rybka: Firebird 1.2, Ivanhoe, RobboLito, Ippolit & so on)...


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-05-09 23:25:22)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

Howdy Thibault. is this release info new where did you get it if so.
Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-09 23:34:06)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

Well, as it is possible to pre-order it at Chessbase & Chessok (Aquarium), I guess it should be released soon!?

The author of Rybka (Vasik Rajlich) said the first part of may...

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3546/aquarium.jpg


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-10 15:14:35)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

Garvin, you can change the title for your posts in the discussion :)

Well, all your ideas may work fine, let's discuss it again in the original discussion on this topic :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=8545

I just made a new proposal there.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-10 15:16:19)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

Well, the discussion continued in another thread :

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=8555

Garvin's ideas may work fine, but while some players will like the benefits, some others will be deceived not to be able to take advantage of it (quite a chancy factor)...

Here is my new proposal (based on a few Epoints, not real money) :

- Winners of any standard (class) or rapid tournament, whatever the game, may buy a ticket for 10 Epoints to enter the waiting list for the next tournament category according the following conditions :

* No more than 2 players obtained the best score in the tournament. There's no winner otherwise.

* The player's TER must not be more than 200 points below the low rating limit of the waiting list.

* At most 2 players may buy a ticket to enter the same waiting list.

* The possibility to buy a ticket is valid up to 2 months after the end of the tournament and only after the official end of the tournament [when the tournaments list shows winners, not leaders of the tournament].

* The player's account must be credited of at least 10 Epoints.


Please correct anything that looks unclear and let's discuss it again :) Thanks for all your help Garvin & all!

I'd like to have Wayne, Michel's & other opinions on the proposed changes, is this at least more acceptable according to you?


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-05-11 00:34:07)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

Bad assumption, he has not kept a date in 2 years


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-11 15:28:54)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

...and he probably has much more to do this time to protect his source code & make an engine stronger than its possible clones... so we'll see :)


Benjamin Block    (2010-05-11 18:19:01)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

Ficgs is still free... I think it can be very good indeed.

1.Some players maybe want training...

2.It will also stop an inflation. Because some new player came here and already have a high rating from example iccf.
And they start playing this site. Maybe they don´t have time for the games and left this site. With just giving a way some points.
Am i right?


Stephane Legrand    (2010-05-11 18:37:09)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

I agree with Garvin, Wayne .... I am in favour of the winner of the immediate section below being able to earn a spot in the higher division.
An i propose that if this player obtains 50% or more he can have a new one in this division.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-11 19:13:45)
Anand is new world champion

30... f5 !




Daniel Parmet    (2010-05-11 19:31:54)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

but its not actually being released either right? Its just they send you some online server login password bs. Its not a real engine this time around.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-11 20:14:40)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

Hi Kamesh, I think we should just follow the conditions that I copy again here (valid for choice #1, a tournament winner may buy a ticket if) :


* No more than 2 players obtained the best score in the tournament. There's no winner otherwise.

* The player's TER must not be more than 200 points below the low rating limit of the waiting list.

* At most 2 players may buy a ticket to enter the same waiting list.

* The possibility to buy a ticket is valid up to 2 months after the end of the tournament and only after the official end of the tournament [when the tournaments list shows winners, not leaders of the tournament].

* The player's account must be credited of at least 10 Epoints.


Let's say the winner of a class B tournament then wins a class A tournament after having bought a ticket, he has good chances to see his rating increased after the next rating calculation and before that his possibility to buy a new ticket (for class M) expires. Maybe the possibility to buy a ticket should be valid 3 months, I'm not sure.


Garvin Gray    (2010-05-12 08:59:48)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

Thib- I really think this voting idea is the wrong direction indeed.

The number of votes that you will receive will be so small as a representative of the whole site that it is not representative at all.

Furthermore, those voting most likely will not have read all of the history, counter-arguments and posts that have been made explaining why things are being proposed.

I am getting quite frustrated at reading some of the posts. I really would just like to see option 1 enacted by yourself, even for a trial period of one year.

One year might seem like a long time, but considering that this rule would only apply from when new tournaments have started, it could take a while for tournament winners to become apparent and then for them to accept their entry and then for those 'going up' to have achieved results that are worthy of analysis.


William Taylor    (2010-05-12 17:53:24)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

I was under the impression it was being released as normal, but there may be a stronger version held in reserve for the online thing.


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2010-05-12 19:31:36)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

By the way it is stated here http://www.chessbase.com/espanola/newsdetail2.asp?id=8300 (article is in spanish) by Cheparinov that Topalov's team had access to Rybka 4 during preparation. Also new Rybka opening book author, Jiri Dufek, was on Topalov's team.


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-05-12 19:41:16)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

Wow, that is interesting


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-12 20:03:42)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

Indeed, I didn't know that, thanks for the link!


Daniel Parmet    (2010-05-12 20:25:24)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

I think option1 is the best. But I completely agree with Garvin. Why not try it? We tried those silly rating band idea even though we knew it was bad. Why not try this? I think its a good idea. I agree that options 2-5 are silly.

Right now as it stands, you get nothing for winning a tournament, you might not even get many points either. If you are 1990ish and beat 6 1800s. They might have been much stronger than 1800 but the results also came in slowly 1/1 for each rating period... you don't stand to gain very many points maybe not even enough to get you to the next rating band... but you would be guaranteed to play the next rating band for sure because you won the tournament. I think you'll see alot of the invitations into the rating bands helping people out that are only missing it by a few rating points anyways. Besides its a REAL prize for winning the tournament, right now all we give is a pat on the back!


Daniel Parmet    (2010-05-12 20:25:51)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

Wow interesting.... I know it was on chessbase but I doubt it was common knowledge...


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2010-05-13 03:25:06)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

This was posted in the Hiarcs forum by Harvey Williamson:" Now it is all over it is time to share a little secret. The day before the World Championship final in Sofia started I had a conversation with Vishy's team. For the duration of the match they have had access to my fast 8/16 core machine as well as all my databases and Hiarcs opening books. Also, of course, all the engines on my machine. I Hope this managed to negate slightly the fact that Topalov had access to the latest Rybka on its Cluster for a few months leading up leading up to the final."


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-13 23:09:38)
Big chess engine

I'm very curious to see if this idea to see a Big Chess engine will give something one day :)

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34284

It could be a new challenge for programmers...


Daniel Parmet    (2010-05-14 10:41:15)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

you know an interesting thing i've noticed by listening to these post match interviews with Anand...

He is saying he expected Topalov to switch openings alot and not be so persistent. I wonder if Topalov was so persistent because he had Rybka 4 and he knew Anand did not.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-14 12:26:10)
Rybka 4 beta is playing...

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=348113&t=34270

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=16655
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=16620

"Rybka 4 will be available on May 28."
http://www.newinchess.com/Shop/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=2479&utm_source=New+In+Chess&utm_campaign=de04452343-Campaign_36_12_5_2010&utm_medium=email


Garvin Gray    (2010-05-15 11:40:44)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

http://www.chessbase.com/shop/product.asp?pid=506

This is for the single processer version I think. So will wait for the multi-processer version.


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2010-05-15 20:57:44)
Rybka 4, news, tests & results

Here is the chessbase version http://www.chesscentral.com/Deep_Rybka_4_p/deep-rybka-4.htm

and the chessok with aquarium http://chessok.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7_1


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-05-16 21:42:34)
Quick review Chess Engines

Howdy, Rybka 4 Beta 5 is out for beta testing. It is much too early to draw conclusions regarding elo strength. So far it is not looking great.
Many of the bugs from R3 are at present in R5 beta. For example the tablebase bug, bishop under promotion still not fixed, 5.04/5.12 bug tree search is reportedly still there.
In addition It is said to have severe time problem.
This is a summary of what I have been reading. But, these reports are beta remember. So R4 may still be top program after release.
In the mean time Stockfish and fire are 2 programs that are right there with rybka3 and maybe a little stronger. On my computer testing R3 is still tops.
Now, there is a new program, Houdini is available. I downloaded it this morning and have been running eng-eng matches with R3, 2 threads. So far Houdini is holding it's own. You can download the program here.
http://www.cruxis.com/chess/houdini.htm
I think CC players now have many equally strong engines available to help with their Centaur abilities and should be interesting to see the progressions Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-17 21:20:21)
Topalov used Rybka 4 before the match

"(...) the team of Veselin Topalov would have spent 100,000 Euros to secure a 112 core computer cluster, with the latest Rybka 4 program exclusively reserved for their use until the end of the match."

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6340

Wow...


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-27 00:13:35)
Number of rated FIDE players

There would be 116,362 rated FIDE players all over the world within 143 federations (most important ones are Germany, Russia, Spain, France and India.. only 26 of them have more than 1000 rated players, e.g. only 398 rated players in China)

A Chessbase article that is worth to read!

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6364


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-30 23:40:07)
Rybka 4!

So did anyone test this new version of the engine already?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-06-01 22:42:07)
Rybka 4!

Strange... many rybkaforum members will harass Vasik with questions on these performances, most probably :/

Just looking at the new CEGT rating lists, Rybka 4 would be 30 to 80 points stronger than Rybka 3 :

CEGT 40/20

1 Deep Rybka 4 x64 4CPU 3220 39 39 200 74.8% 3031 40.5%
2 Rybka 3 x64 4CPU 3181 10 10 3099 73.9% 3000 35.3%
3 Stockfish 1.7.1 x64 4CPU 3159 11 11 2201 69.1% 3019 40.3%
4 Rybka 3 x64 2CPU 3146 10 10 3481 72.6% 2977 35.7%
5 Naum 4.2 x64 4CPU 3140 15 15 1226 61.5% 3059 44.4%

CEGT 40/4

1 Rybka 4.0 x64 4CPU 3265 24 24 500 70.7% 3112 40.6%
2 Rybka 3.0 Dynamic x64 4CPU 3233 19 19 1200 79.8% 2994 25.9%
3 Rybka 3.0 x64 4CPU 3231 9 9 4300 78.0% 3012 30.2%
4 Rybka 3.0 Human x64 4CPU 3229 21 21 1000 78.8% 3001 26.8%
5 Stockfish 1.7.1 x64 4CPU 3198 13 13 2150 72.2% 3032 33.1%


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-06-02 02:54:02)
Rybka 4!

I did not hear about Fire 1.31 before... probably the new name of Firebird!?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-06-02 03:03:10)
Fire 1.31 vs. Rybka 4

It seems that the forthcoming match between the top chess engines will be Rybka 4 (just released) versus Fire 1.31 (a new free engine from the Ippolit/Ivanhoe/Robbolito series that may be a clone of Rybka but we still have no clue about this). By the way does anyone know the differences between Fire 1.31 and Firebird 1.2, it seems to me that only the name changed.

Of course Stockfish & Naum are in the race but it will be interesting to see if the creator of Rybka has found a way to keep its great engine above its supposed clones.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-06-02 16:43:27)
Rybka 4 wins ICT10

Rybka 4 just won the latest edition of the International Computer Chess Tournament (ICT10, 10th edition) ahead of Deep Sjeng (surprise!?) and far from the other Chessbase engines: Hiarcs, Deep Shredder and Deep Junior...

Interesting to see that Rybka (by Vasik Rajlich) only lost to Deep Sjeng (by Gian-Carlo Pascutto) and won all the other games, including against the well known Hiarcs (by Mark Uniacke) and Shredder (by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen).

Rybka 8/9
Deep Sjeng 7/9
Hiarcs 6/9
Deep Shredder 6/9
Deep Junior 5.5/9
Komodo 5/9

The other participants were Pandix, The Baron, Spark, The King, Kallisto, Almond, RedQueen and Joker.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6381


Peter Marriott    (2010-06-03 20:44:26)
Rybka 4!

Thib, Firebird was changed to Fire because someone emailed Norman and asked him to change the name because I guess a company name is Firebird...So Norman simply shortened it to "Fire". Fire 1.31 is new, but I don't think there is an elo increase.


Lazaro Munoz    (2010-06-04 19:12:14)
V. Anand is new chess world champion

This is the news that Thibault provided recently. However Anand has been world champion since 2007 so he is not the "new" world champion. He was defending his title in this match.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-06-06 00:56:52)
New fields in Preferences : Profile

You may now complete your profile by answering a bunch of questions (24 so far) more or less relevant, such as your favorite engines, favorite chess player, favorite chess openings, spoken languages, your personal website and so on... feel free to suggest other questions!


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-06-11 19:36:43)
FIFA world cup 2010, predictions

Hi all, I guess that this FIFA world cup 2010 is worth a discussion :)

So there are now 32 teams in the race... Any predictions on who will reach the 1/8 finals, 1/4 finals, 1/2 finals and final match?

Full list of teams:

South Africa, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria, Australia, Japan, Korea Republic, Korea DPR, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Honduras, Uruguay, England, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Italy, Switzerland, Slovakia, Greece, Slovenia, Portugal, France, United States, New Zealand

A way for me to see how many chances you give to France for this one (at least we can do better than in the Eurovision contest :))

By the way, why there are 2 Korean teams this time? I couldn't believe that "Korea DPR" is North Korea !?? Do you know something on this?


Garvin Gray    (2010-06-16 10:39:01)
Browser password issue

Hello,

Was wondering if anyone is experiencing this issue.

For the last few days or so, my net browser, be it either firefox or google chrome will not keep my password stored.

This means each time I need to keep having to ask for a new password, which gets very frustrating having to do this with each session login.

Does anyone know why this is occurring? I am using the left login option most of the time.


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-06-28 18:40:50)
Save/Reload hash in Rybka

Howdy. I had all sorts of trouble with it too. I finally posted it on Rybka forum. But first, I am not sure your going about it correct. You just need to go to select new engine, then set engine parameters, and there you find save/load hash. Sounds like your getting to this point anyways.
Ok, I paste what was told me at the forum.

This is msg I get when ticking Save Hash (Save hash failed). I created a folder R4.rsh
but apparently it is not found the path is:
C:\users\administration\documents\ChessBase\nogames\EngineParameters\Deep Rybka 4x64\R4.rsh
What am I doing wrong. R4 manual no help.
Fritz12 GUI & Vsta

That was question post:

I think you need to create a file not a folder. :grin:
Nothing ventured, nothing gained...
Reply Report

this is 1 of 2 responses. Other is from Vas himself as follows.

You need to create a dummy file - you can just do that with notepad or something.

This last was from Vas.
Ok, summary :) All you have to do is create a file.rsh: (By the way, My Son stopped bye and he said "dad I will do it for you)" So he created the dummy file "file.rsh". works fine :)
Hope this helps, Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-06-28 20:44:06)
Encyclopedia of gambits

I guess that many of you read the interesting Chessbase article by Kavalek :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6460

The link to the encyclopedia of gambits by Marco Saba was a surprise to me... really interesting, and a huge work!

http://studimonetari.org/edg/

I picked up a few ideas for the next chess thematic tournaments, so there may be the next ones in the future :

Aasum [Van Geet: Hector Gambit] 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 de4 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.f3
Abonyi-Tennison [Reti: Tennison Gambit Accepted] 1.Nf3 d5 2.e4 de4 3.Ng5
[KGA: Allgaier Gambit] 1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef4 3.Nf3 g5 4.h4 g4 5.Ng5 h6 6.Nf7
"Anti-Stonewall" [Dutch: Alapin] 1.d4 f5 2.Qd3 d5 3.g4
[Budapest: Alekhine, Balogh Gambit] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.de5 Ng4 4.e4 d6
Banzai-Leong [French] 1.e4 e6 2.b4
Batavo [Bird: Batavo Gambit] 1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 c5 3.e4
Beyer c.g. [Blackmar-Diemer: Beyer Countergambit] 1.e4 e5 2.d4 d5
Birmingham [Polish: Birmingham Gambit] 1.b4 c5
Blackburne - I [Scandinavian: 2.exd5] 1.e4 d5 2.ed5 c6
Böhnke [Scandinavian: Böhnke Gambit] 1.e4 d5 2.ed5 e5
Breyer [KGA: Breyer Gambit] 1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef4 3.Qf3
De Smet [Nimzowitsch Defence: 2.d4 e5 3.dxe5] 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 e5 3.de5 d6
[Diemer-Duhm Gambit (DDG) vs. Slav/Caro-Kann] 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e4
Gaga [King's Gambit Accepted (KGA)] 1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef4 3.g3
Halasz - II [Sicilian: Halasz Gambit] 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cd4 3.f4
Hickmann [English: Anglo-Dutch] 1.c4 f5 2.e4 fe4 3.d3
Hjoerring c.g. [Benko Gambit] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.e4
Jerome [Giuoco Piano: Jerome Gambit] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bf7
Krejcik [Dutch: Krejcik Gambit] 1.d4 f5 2.g4
Lasa [Open Game: Lopez/Mcleod, Lasa Gambit] 1.e4 e5 2.c3 f5
Lasker - III [Bird: From Gambit Accepted] 1.f4 e5 2.fe5 f6
Omega [Indian: Omega Gambit] 1.d4 Nf6 2.e4
Vector [English: Vector] 1.c4 d5 2.cd5 c6
Wheeler [Nimzowitsch Defence: Wheeler Gambit] 1.e4 Nc6 2.b4
Zilbermints - III [Queen's Gambit] 1.d4 d5 2.c4 b5
"Zurigo" [Queen's Pawn Game] 1.d4 d5 2.g4

If you notice more interesting openings, do not hesitate to suggest it here...


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-07-03 13:03:04)
FIDE ratings july 2010

Once again, Magnus Carlsen makes the news with the 2nd highest rating ever reached (2826)...

Rank Name Title Nation Rating

1 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2826
2 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2803
3 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2800
4 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2790
5 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2783
6 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2761
7 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2760
8 Eljanov, Pavel g UKR 2755
9 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2749
10 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2748
11 Karjakin, Sergey g RUS 2747
12 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2739
13 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2739
14 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2734
15 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2734
16 Leko, Peter g HUN 2734
17 Malakhov, Vladimir g RUS 2732
18 Navara, David g CZE 2731
19 Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2729
20 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2726
21 Wang, Hao g CHN 2724
22 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime g FRA 2723
23 Movsesian, Sergei g SVK 2723
24 Vitiugov, Nikita g RUS 2722
25 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2720
26 Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2719
27 Almasi, Zoltan g HUN 2717
28 Wang, Yue g CHN 2716
29 Dominguez Perez, Leinier g CUB 2716
30 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2715
31 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2713
32 Jobava, Baadur g GEO 2710
33 Tomashevsky, Evgeny g RUS 2708
34 Nepomniachtchi, Ian g RUS 2706
35 Adams, Michael g ENG 2706
36 Onischuk, Alexander g USA 2701
37 Nielsen, Peter Heine g DEN 2700
38 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam g UZB 2699
39 Caruana, Fabiano g ITA 2697
40 Fressinet, Laurent g FRA 2697
41 Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2697
42 Bologan, Viktor g MDA 2695
43 Alekseev, Evgeny g RUS 2691
44 Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2691
45 Timofeev, Artyom g RUS 2690
46 Short, Nigel D g ENG 2690
47 Efimenko, Zahar g UKR 2689
48 Rublevsky, Sergei g RUS 2688
49 Miroshnichenko, Evgenij g UKR 2686
50 Motylev, Alexander g RUS 2685


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-07-04 12:27:47)
FIDE elections: Karpov vs. Ilyumzhinov

The show started... Karpov attacks! :)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6476


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-07-05 23:34:33)
Fischer's not dead yet!

I didn't know about that... it just made the Chessbase news too.

In order to settle a paternity dispute, on the order of the Icelandic Supreme Court, the remains of former World Champion Bobby Fischer were "exhumed" on Monday...

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6479


Francisco Gramajo    (2010-07-09 20:22:16)
FIFA world cup 2010, predictions

@Rolf Staggat

Korean Soccer Success Secret

Look at the players, they are similar, they just use the hair diferent.

At the half time they put to play a new set of 10 players, no body notice the diference.


Kamesh Nookala    (2010-07-28 20:11:59)
Match vs. ICCF

Dear All,

I think if Edward, Alberto, Wayne, Thib, few others and also two guys whom i know (sorry, forgot their names), we will become a mighty force. Let's start figuring out as to who would make a new post in the forum at ICCF, any NAMES?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-08-03 11:49:16)
Match vs. ICCF

Hi Gino, thanks for your precious advices... Good ideas, and indeed ICCF could host the whole event (if they wish).

Still thinking about it... another idea (among others) : if only FICGS players who are not members of ICCF could enter the FICGS team, maybe the experience could be interesting as well as I feel that many 2200-2300 players here are getting stronger [maybe also due to the increasing level of engines] and will probably reach 2400 in a while, so they would have a chance to play a match against very strong ICCF players... The idea would be to see the real strength difference between these 2 categories of players (ICCF would be almost sure not to lose but for us the challenge would be even greater).

The other idea behind this is that ICCF may see an opportunity to make discover their server to these new players.

Finally we may suggest several ideas to ICCF, Gino's one, this one & maybe others... Whatever they choose, it could be interesting for the players, what do you think?


Scott Nichols    (2010-08-03 22:00:53)
1st team tournament : games & results !

Thanks Thib for this great tournament. It helped us all make new friends. And working together was a great treat.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-08-08 13:12:37)
Stay on Same Board

Hi Phil, ok now I see what you mean : "redirected to the viewer page after playing your move", yes it could be useful for Poker (in the fast moves process). Ok, I could add a checkbox somewhere so that when one play a move, the next window be the viewer (to see the new card or result)... Added to the wishlist.

I had some busy times these last weeks but there should be numerous updates at the end of the month.


Scott Nichols    (2010-08-09 21:12:59)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

Just a note to say how this new rule is affecting at least one player here (me), :) I "earned" entry to a higher class tournament by winning the class just below. I paid my ten E-points and received entry into the next higher class. We have been playing for a while and I am holding my own ok. I have met new players and am overjoyed at the chance to play them. They are all friendly and welcoming. Life couldn't be better, ......but....... Maybe it's just me, but I feel at this point that I never REALLY earned my way into this realm. The old way was to suffer through months and years of climbing the rating ladder a little at a time and then finally reach that next level. Also, just my opinion, is that these days there really isn't a big difference in strengths between 1850 and 2450 given that we all have fast computers running on Rybka mostly. The difference I find is the human side of the ratings. The old days whether Shredder could beat Fritz, or Deep Junior could beat Hiarcs are long gone. So I guess what I'm trying to say without rambling any further, is that as much as I like playing in the higher section, I would prefer to "EARN" it the old way. Just one players opinion, Thank you


Philip Roe    (2010-08-16 00:55:23)
Tournament entry conditions

Thibault,

Is it reasonable for someone to enter a new tournament when they have twenty four existing games and have not played a single move in any one of them?

This situation makes me hesitate to enter either B 00120 or Rapid B 00158.


Garvin Gray    (2010-08-18 17:21:58)
Newest/oldest posts first

In forum, I would like to have the option to be able to see the newer posts at the top of each topic, rather than having to scroll down through 50 older posts to get to the most recent postings.

There does not seem to be a feature to show new posts first.

Please add :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-08-18 17:37:52)
Newest/oldest posts first

You mean something like the last message at the bottom of the forum page? I may display several (5, 10) messages instead of 1 only, would it be enough?


Garvin Gray    (2010-08-18 18:07:05)
Newest/oldest posts first

What I mean is. Take this particular thread/topic. As I see it, my original post is the first post I see, then your reply is under it and now my reply (this post) will be under that.

It would be nice to have the option so that the newest posts appear first at the top of the page for that particular topic.

To use another example. With the current poker discussion, for a person to see the latest posts, they are required to scroll down, most likely past posts they have already read to get to the new posts.

It would be good to have the option in preferences to be able to see the newest posts first.

Do you understand what I am referring to now?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-08-18 18:29:28)
Newest/oldest posts first

So an option to display the forum posts in a reversed way ?!

Not so usual (?), it seems to me that posts are displayed this way only under the response form to keep an eye on the message we're to reply to.


Alexander Blinchevsky    (2010-08-18 19:07:10)
Newest/oldest posts first

Agreed with Garvin. Now, then you enter the long discussion, you already red, you need to scroll down in order to find "what's new".
Reverse order will be much more user friendly.


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2010-08-18 23:31:27)
Speeding up Poker games

In my opinion the new fold button is no improvement. It just confuses.


Don Groves    (2010-08-19 04:58:05)
Newest/oldest posts first

I'll second that too. It's called top posting. Much easier to read if one has been keeping up with the thread.


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-08-21 03:52:15)
Newest/oldest posts first

On the other hand if you have not visited a post your gonna have to scroll all of the way to the bottom to find out what its all about. The way it is now is the normal way, I prefer it
wayne


Don Groves    (2010-08-21 04:29:33)
Newest/oldest posts first

Wayne: You have the title and the previous post right there. Only if you're interested in the entire thread do you have to scroll, and you still have to do that the way it is now.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-08-21 09:23:04)
Waiting for CLASS_SM_000013

Hello Robert,

It is possible that the class GM waiting list be closed in a while if no new player enter it... I'll deal with it in a few days. It is always the same thing in July/August though.


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-08-22 19:35:47)
Newest/oldest posts first

OK, I understand you
Wayne


Garvin Gray    (2010-08-26 16:32:41)
Newest/oldest posts first

hmm?


Daniel Parmet    (2010-08-27 09:42:06)
Quote festival, part 6

-Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
-Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
-We live in a society where pizza gets to your house before the police.
-The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.
-If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.
-Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
-Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason.
-Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.
-I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay checks.
-A bank is a place that will lend you money, if you can prove that you don't need it.
-A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
-God must love stupid people. He made SO many.
-The sole purpose of a child's middle name, is so he can tell when he's really in trouble.
-The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!
-You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.


Daniel Parmet    (2010-08-27 09:43:22)
Newest/oldest posts first

whats wrong with having the option? Then people can have whichever way they prefer it.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-08-27 17:08:50)
Newest/oldest posts first

Thinking about it, actually I should change many things in this forum (e.g. response form at the bottom for the way messages are displayed right now...) I'm not sure if top posting is best but an option would do it of course, I'll do it as soon as possible (not so urgent anyway).


Simone Calvello    (2010-09-08 19:36:11)
Magnus Carlsen vs. The World

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6647

Here's Chessbase link. Here I saw that even Kasparov will give some tips to the World Team.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-09-17 00:29:38)
Svante Carl von Erichsen on Go WCH #4

As you probably read in the news, Svante Carl von Erichsen won the 4th FICGS Go WCH, beating his challenger Huayong Yang 3-2, Svante Carl wins the Go championship for the 4th time in a row!

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__GO__WORLD_CHAMPIONSHIP__000004

Svante Carl kindly accepted to answer a few questions on his match & computer Go:

FICGS - Hello Svante Carl, congratulations once again for winning this match against a surprising challenger who started here a few months ago with a 10 kyu rank, Huayong Yang, now rated 2438 after scoring 2 points in your 5 games match (which is a great achievement for sure). What did you think about his play & yours in these games?

Svante Carl - I think that he greatly underestimated his rank initially. As far as I know, he had not played for a long time and believed that his ability had therefore deteriorated. I do not think that you can drop more than one or at most two stones, though -- it is like cycling or swimming, you never unlearn it. I had the impression that we were quite evenly matched in summa, but our strengths are in different aspects of the game; I cannot really put my finger on the difference, though.

FICGS - After a previous win, you said that you spend a quite long time to analyze, which probably helps you to reach a higher level than 2 dan (your EGF rating) compared to OTB play... It looks obvious to me that correspondence chess moves generally ask for much more time than Go moves at a high level but I may be wrong, how much time did you spend on your longest analysis during the match? Do you remember for which move?

Svante Carl - I usually spend at least a few minutes on each move, except when the continuation is obvious. I often use more, and if I do not find a satisfactory move then, I will even postpone the move to another day, so that I can sleep over it and let my subconcious work on it.

FICGS - Do you watch other games played by your future opponent before starting your match? Do you think that this is really important in preparation like it can be in Correspondence chess?

Svante Carl - I sometimes glance over the games in the championship qualification tournament, but I do not try to prepare this way. I do not think that such preparation has any value in Go, especially in correspondence Go, since you have time during the game to do deep analysis. I usually try to take each game out of standard fuseki patterns pretty quickly, anyway. Of course, I know that my opponents in these title matches are always very tough and demand my utmost respect.

FICGS - Do you still follow the recent developments in computer Go? What do you think about the latest Go engines? How much time do we have yet before the best Go players are caught by computers according to you?

Svante Carl - I have the impression that the currently most promising technology (Monte Carlo/UCT) has the potential to achieve a rank of about 2 or 3 dan (EGF/KGS). I think that the next fundamentally new idea or breakthrough might add 2 stones, to get to 4 or 5 dan. I do not have any idea where it might go from that, but I think that it gets always harder.

What I would find interesting is having more intermediate board sizes. The best bots are almost on par with the best professionals on 9x9 now. I would propose to try to achieve a similar level on 11x11, then 13x13, then 15x15 etc.. Regarding 9x9, I think that the currently predominant komi of 7.5 points is too big, and that this has a negative impact on the experiments because the bots do not play in a balanced environment. It might be worthwhile to introduce the Taiwan rule (last move compensation) to get more fine-grained scores.

FICGS - What programs did you use this year to analyze? (just trying, of course it may be part of your secrets ;))

Svante Carl - It is not a secret. I just use an editor, usually EidoGo or CGoban3, to visualize the variations I imagine.

FICGS - Finally, what thoughts would you like to share on your 5 games, that could help us not to miss the best times or to help us to understand the most complex moves...

Svante Carl - I cannot give a detailed commentary, but I can try to summarize my impressions.

I think that Game 5 was quite balanced until move 21, but I think that the white invasion was a bit ambitious then. Of course, White did not need to die there, but after moves 32-33 I think that Black had a good result anyway (move 32 should go out faster in my opinion; note how E14 helps Black in enclosing White).

In Game 3, I think things got quite difficult for White in the lower left, but I let him take the initiative by backing off at move 35 (I should have simply closed off F10 then). White gained control of the centre as a result, and in the large endgame, I lost too many points there.

In Game 4, I fell behind in the opening through some slow moves (there was some discussion on the Life-in-19x19 forum about this, see the link in the comments of that game). In the endgame, Black then lost some points in the centre, so that I was a bit ahead when the game timed out.

In Game 1, I made some bad decisions on the left side, and never managed to turn things around. I think I was behind by about 5 points in the end.

In Game 2, I think that Black should not have ignored move 24. After I got quite some territory from my moyo and also reduced his top side, I could play it safe.

I look forward to the games with Olivier Drouot that recently started, but I also hope that Yang Huayong will re-enter the championship cycle.


Garvin Gray    (2010-09-17 09:29:23)
Corr. Chess Maxims

Time to look for new opponents when you have played the same person 30 times ;)


Scott Nichols    (2010-09-19 01:45:45)
Corr. Chess Maxims

I remember that game now, it did end in a draw. And you are right about what I said at the end. But I also remember the repeated draw offers that were rejected each time. You were Black, lower rated and we were barely out of the opening, so it was a distraction. I play OTB chess also and believe me, continued rejected draw offers would get that person a loss for that game. A person shouldn't have to ask someone to please quit doing something irritating, most people get subtle hints. Also, I disagree about "telling a person so", that should be done by the TD or Webmaster. That could be another maxim. "in case of any disagreements, please consult TD."

A "maxim" is just a suggestion, not a "rule". So people, especially newcomers, can know what IS and IS NOT proper during the course of a game.


Daniel Parmet    (2010-09-19 23:45:16)
Corr. Chess Maxims

Yep, I'm afraid you're a lost cause. No players cannot get away with whatever they want in tournaments read the rulebook dude. You are rating crazy. Do you not realize that for a person to improve they have to be playing beyond their rating? Ratings represent past performance. You need to judge a position based on its features not the person's playing its rating. Many positions reach draw positions early in the game as ours did when people play unambitiously. But I give up trying to convince you of your illogical ways.

Just know this: it is irrelevant whether you use the right to offer draw but it is important that you have it so your point is mute here as well.

A funny incident also happened a few weeks ago: two players kept offering each other draws every 2 moves, declining their opponent's draw then offering it themselves two moves later. It was funny because it was perpetual check and they both knew it. But everytime they offered a draw, the other one would decide maybe he'll mess up. Turn it down and offer it again about 2-3 moves later. By the end of the game each player had offered the other over 15 draws in the perpetual check scenario but the game managed to end decisively strangely.

And btw, your definition of respect and others will different. I certainly don't respect someone cause they've had more time than me to study and made a 2001 rating. I already explained I have no respect for Corr ratings whatsoever. I have also explained my rating does not represent my strength because I do not take it seriously. Do I respect people that have made a career of this? Of course. But I digress because here opinions will vary wildly and be to each their own. We have left the realm of facts. I just think it amusing to always remember that however good you are, there is always some one better. Or put even better, if you could buy a man for what he is actually worth and sell him for he thinks he's worth there would always be a huge profit. Ie there is always arrogance involved when you include ratings. A fun quote to conclude on: "First-class players lose to second-class players because second-class players sometimes play a first-class game." - Siegbert Tarrasch


Scott Nichols    (2010-09-20 00:34:24)
Corr. Chess Maxims

I knew you'd keep it going. You can't tell a bullhead like you or Obama anything. I know the reason you don't care about ratings is the same reason every loser says after he's lost again. "Well, I don't care about that anyway."

You haven't proven anything except that you seem to want to have the last word in any discussion. See you STILL can't seem to grasp the fact that a maxim is NOT a rule. If you can scroll back up to the top you will see that maxim #2. says "Generally one offer of a draw is enough for at least 10 moves" In your first post you already got it wrong by saying, "And a draw can only be offered every 10 moves." So the only thing you've proven is that you can't read and can't understand English. Here is another maxim.."Always check who the TD is before you enter any tournament."


Don Groves    (2010-09-23 07:59:49)
Road to Grandmaster

Can we say we knew you when you were a Dark Knight?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-09-23 12:34:49)
Best Games

Not so easy to find the right balance for this, depends on the number of votes per month, the number of voting players and so on... Now the total number of votes taken in account is 50, with 5 per player, the oldest votes are deleted when there are new ones.

What numbers do you suggest?


Daniel Parmet    (2010-09-24 09:51:02)
whole database transfers madfe simple

Step one.
Click on 'search games'
Step two.
At the top you will see 'all games (pgn)' click on this to download.
Step three.
Use whatever program you have to open this file (chessbase, chess assistant, scid, etc).
Step four.
Filter this file by your name.
Step five.
Copy all the games you have here into a new pgn.
Step 6.
Run Rybka.


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-09-26 20:46:49)
whole database transfers made simple

Is this what your talking about ?


How to import my Chess games in a chess database ?

There are several ways to import your chess games played at FICGS in a chess database like Chessbase or SCID. 1) You may download the complete FICGS correspondence chess database: Click "Search games" in the menu, right click & save "All games (PGN)". Import the file in your database, then you may filter the games by using your name. 2) You may create a PGN file by going to "My games" (please use the chess filter, click the rook icon if you also play Go or Poker, you may also select pending, running or all games) then clicking the printer icon. You just have to copy/paste the content of the new page into a new text file, then importing it in your chess database. 3) You may download the PGN file of a particular game or tournament, right click and save the "download" link at the bottom of

Do you mean "left mouse click" if I right click I get Link copy options, none of which seem to do what I want. I do not see a way to save "all games pgn" in any case which is what has stopped me for days. Left mouse click copies all database to where i want to open, Ie scid (which I cannot figure out either), notebad, but i see no filtering capability in notepad. So I do not know how/able to do "Import the file in my database" as your instructions say, sorry Thib, I am a pain in the butt. can you clear these things up for me ? especially your step 1.


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-09-27 02:57:43)
whole database transfers made simple

Thibault these are my right click options

1 open link in new window
2 openl link in new tab
3 book mark this link
5 save link as
6 send link
7 copy link location

These are my options on right mouse click of all games pgn


Garvin Gray    (2010-09-30 20:37:21)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

I wish to propose that the stage one groups starting from the next WCH tournament be paired differently.

Currently, from my understanding, all the players who have not qualified for the high rated round robins or elimination matches are paired into separate round robins of about seven players in each group.

Seed number 1 is in group 1 and so forth until all groups have been allocated.

The idea of this being to try and ensure that each of the groups is of equal strength.

Where I think this falls down is the issue of players with provisional ratings ie players with new ratings of 1800, 1500.

I have had the experience of having one or more of these 1800's in my group and after the group is finished, it is clear that the 1800 player has achieved a rating of 2100 plus, meaning that my group had three players with playing ability over 2100, meaning my qual group was unfairly disadvantaged.

How I would like the stage one qualifying to work from now is:

1) All players with recognised ratings are paired as per normal.
2) All the provisional rated players are put into groups by themselves.

Then normal qualification rules apply for getting to stage 2.

It is highly unlikely that a low rated player will qualify from the provisional rated groups as someone from each of those groups will be about 2100 or so by the end of the first qualifying stage.

I do ask for this to be endorsed for the next WCH.


Daniel Parmet    (2010-09-30 21:56:55)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

I agree immensely!

Further i've noticed that the color pairings tends to be very very bad for seed 2 & 3 but great for seed 1 & 4.

As seed 2 I get black against 1&4 as seed 3 I get black against 1 4 but as seed 4 I get white against 1&3. Yet these color disadvantages are not at all included as a tiebreak in any way.

The result is that in the last Wch as seed2 I never got a useful white having two tough blacks with seed #1 & #4 but in the Wch before as seed #4 I have no tough blacks because I had white against seed #1 &#3. I'm not quite sure the solution other than to somehow tie the colors into tiebreak before ratings.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-01 01:42:40)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Hi Daniel, maybe it would be more fair to reverse the colors (seed 1 plays black against seed 2 and so on)... I'm not sure if it is better but we can think about it. The color is not a good tiebreak IMO, does anyone else have an opinion on this?

Hi Garvin : "2) All the provisional rated players are put into groups by themselves." , you mean they play together in special groups? We can think about it as well but one goal of the championship was to help those players to find their place quicker in the rating list before the next cycles. I'm not sure if a 2300 player provisionnaly rated 1800 is an advantage for anyone else in the group more than seed 1.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-01 13:21:12)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Colour allocation- There are two answers to this, the most pure solution is to have double round robin groups. If this means six player groups and more groups in total, so be it, but at least it would solve the issue.

Berger Pairing Tables- It seems that the round robin groups are not paired using the Berger Pairing Tables for single round robins, why not?

If they are not, then they should be, solves all these issues of colours. This should be the case for all round robins on this site.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-01 13:30:27)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

GG- "2) All the provisional rated players are put into groups by themselves." ,

TB- You mean they play together in special groups?
We can think about it as well but one goal of the championship was to help those players to find their place quicker in the rating list before the next cycles. I'm not sure if a 2300 player provisionnaly rated 1800 is an advantage for anyone else in the group more than seed 1.

GG- It is not an advantage to have an 1800 in your group if they play to a standard of 2100. It is a severe disadvantage.

It means there is one more person in some groups that plays to a rating way above their provisional rating.

I am very concerned that you seem to be putting the needs of increasing those players ratings in the WCH above the integrity of the competition as a whole. It means you are unfairly affecting other players chances of qualifying, just for the sake of allowing new members the chance to gain a few extra rating points.

The new members still have a lot of chances to increase their rating through playing in normal tournaments, which is where the longer term members had to get their ratings from.

I am saying that those with provisional ratings should be seeded into groups by themselves in stage one.

Whoever wins these groups will clearly be about 2100/2200 playing strength and so will not be crushed in stage two anymore than those with long term 2100 ratings.

A secondary option is to seed some of these players using their advanced rating (if they have one), so at least then there does not end up being three or four 2100's trying to qualify from the same group, while having other groups with only one or two 2100's.


Daniel Parmet    (2010-10-01 17:36:43)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

I agree with everything Garvin said.

I would also like to note that I agree DRR would be great to solve the color issue but understand if thats not possible.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-01 17:39:15)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

I only meant that it is an advantage to play a 2100 player actually rated 1800 rather than 2100 in his group... Gives more chances to qualify but of course, a few Elo points will probably be lost in the process. There is a matter of luck there of course, just like when a player loses on time or forfeits his games in a group, that's why I try to launch almost 2 new cycles per year, it is not possible to avoid the lucky factor in a championship but it is possible to give more chances to everyone...

Anyway I don't think it is possible to build groups of perfectly equal strength (btw many players rated 2000-2100 after 50+ games are actually worth 2400 and more, but lost many games on time) while we need clear rules (if those players are in special groups, do they qualify the same way?).

Another option would be to prevent players who have not finished a certain number of games to enter the WCH waiting list... :/ I don't think it would be appreciated.


Scott Nichols    (2010-10-01 19:29:31)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

In my last WCH bracket I was rated 514 points above the avg. of my opponents.

I would like to suggest--All players over 2000 with at least 50 ficgs games played should be "seeded" into round 2. This would give players an incentive to play more and to try to reach the 2000 plateau.

Players below 2000 and less than 50 games would all have to play stage 1 to "qualify" for stage 2.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-02 00:03:55)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

The number of players in each round must be coherent (round 3 : 5 to 9, round 2 : 5 to 9 x 5 to 9, round 1 : 5 to 9 x 5 to 9 x 5 to 9) ... if things are easier for players rated 2000-2300 during the first round, it will be harder for them later (e.g. 1 player qualified in a group of 11 players!).

But it is true by experience that the rating limit for the M group may be below 2300 (by the way it was for the last championship)

I'm against such a rule "All players over 2000 with at least 50 ficgs games played should be seeded into round 2", a bit complicated IMO, and players rated 2250-2400 will have the same kind of complaining then :)


Daniel Parmet    (2010-10-02 00:06:39)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

In response, I don't mind a stage 2 being 11 players if 2000+ was seeded into it.


Scott Nichols    (2010-10-02 13:14:17)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Can you tell me what the standard is for being seeded into round 2? Then I can just wait until I reach that point (if ever) to join WCH, thank you.


Daniel Parmet    (2010-10-02 18:14:34)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

This is what the rules currently say "Players with a rating superior or equal to 2300 will play 1st stage in high rated groups if possible. Winners of these groups will be directly qualified for stage 3, others will play stage 2."

Though by that, it means that all players have to play stage1 regardless?


Scott Nichols    (2010-10-02 21:45:32)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

I'm sorry Daniel, but it still doesn't seem to be any clearer...


Daniel Parmet    (2010-10-02 21:51:28)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Yea its not clear to me either. I thought that it meant 2300s get seeded into stage2. No one gets seeded into stage 1. Winners of stage1 have to play stage2 to get into stage3. However this is not at all what it says.

It says EVERYONE plays stage1. If someone 2299+ wins stage1 they can skip stage 2. If someone 2299 or lower wins stage1 they go on to stage 2.


Daniel Parmet    (2010-10-02 21:52:10)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Err should say "no one gets seeded into stage 2"


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-02 23:26:17)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Hard to answer it. It only means what it means (but if you find a better way to say it, I can update the WCH rules), it can be concluded from the whole text (not from this excerpt only) that everyone plays round 1, indeed.


Daniel Parmet    (2010-10-04 01:02:30)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

I would say a better way of wording it is that Everyone plays stage1. If someone 2299+ wins stage 1 they skip stage2. If someone 2299 or lower wins stage 1 they go on to a stage 2 group.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-04 19:20:13)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Yes, but it doesn't mention the M groups, this way the number of players in the final round-robin tournament would be quite hard to predict.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-05 10:54:29)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Thibault must be impressed. The whole topic has moved away from the orginal discussion point, so that issue has dropped off the radar, meaning changes are not likely while it is not being discussed.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-05 13:09:20)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Hi Garvin, to continue on your original point, I don't think that a player provisionally rated 1800 in a WCH group is a real problem: It is not a significant advantage for anyone in the tournament (the chancy factor always exists in 7 players tournaments anyway), there is a rule [for ~2 years now] that prevents high rated players to lose many points in case of a loss or draw against such a 1800 player who is actually worth 2300 or more (there are other occasions to get free points btw e.g. general forfeits), and WCH groups help these players to find their real rating quicker. As I said the number of cycles is the point, giving more chances to everyone.

But it is true that the colors (top seed playing White against seed 2) may be reversed, so far the idea was "the rating does count to give more chances to the best player to become champion" but maybe the advantage is too big. It still needs to be discussed though.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-05 13:36:15)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Thibault,

You have missed my original point. I am saying that having a 1800 player in your group can be a DISADVANTAGE.

In none of my postings on this topic have I mentioned anything about ratings, except to express a lot of concern that you seem more concern about using the WCH tournament to improve ratings than to try and qualify the best player from each group and to have each of the groups of as close to equal standard as possible.


Daniel Parmet    (2010-10-05 13:56:29)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

I must say I agree with Garvin on all points though I have nothing more constructive to add that he hasn't said.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-05 14:21:22)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

If it is a disadvantage, it should be consequently an advantage for someone else, I meant this way... So your point is that it is a disadvantage "in the tournament", right? I do not agree with this, if the best player was actually this 1800 player, he should be able to play the championship anyway (and you have the advantage of ratings there for tiebreaks)... If players with a provisional rating play together in special wch groups, the winners (probably still under-rated) will play stage 2 and we'll have the same problem then IMO.

Do other players have an opinion or similar arguments on this point?


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-05 16:31:02)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Thibault, I am more than happy to let others give their opinions, but I really do not think you understand at all what point I am trying to make.

This is now three times that you have misunderstood what I am trying to say.

Geez I wish we could quote better in these forums. It would make discussing points much easier.

Thib: So your point is that it is a disadvantage "in the tournament", right? I do not agree with this, if the best player was actually this 1800 player, he should be able to play the championship anyway (and you have the advantage of ratings there for tiebreaks)...

GG- I am not arguing at all that the 1800's should not be able to play in the championship. Please stop mis-quoting me. I have also stated this previously. I am stating that they should be in groups in stage one all by themselves.

The disadvantage is with how the groups are paired and I finding it very difficult to not get completely pissed off with having to explain items many times for you to understand what I am trying to say.

You keep failing to respond directly to my points and I keep having to point out how you have mis-quoted my points, which does not help in the debate at all.

The groups are currently paired in the first stage with the highest rated player in Group 1, second highest rated player in Group 2, third highest rated player in Group 3 and so forth for eleven groups (in this example there are eleven groups). Then the 12th highest rated player is placed in Group 11, the thirteen highest rated player in Group 10 and back we go to the 22nd highest rated player in Group 1. The pattern keeps repeating back and forth until all players in stage one have been allocated to a Group.

Now with the 1800's being seeded in these groups with their 1800 rating is that they end up being about the 4th or 5th seed in some groups, but are not allocated to each group.

Now when some of these 1800 players start performing at a rating of 2100, it means in some groups that the top seeds have received three players of similar playing level and some other groups have not. This makes some of the groups disproportionately unfair.

If these 1800 players were somehow seeded accurately according to their playing standard, meaning they entered stage one in their proper seeding position, it would push all the rest of the players down one spot and so the Group allocations would be fairer.

Another option could also be to make it a rule that players must have a proper rating ie not provisional, before being able to play in the championship. I have tried to avoid suggesting this with my proposal to have them play in a group all by themselves.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-05 17:09:25)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Aaaaaah... makes me mad :/ Okay, one more time:

GG- I am not arguing at all that the 1800's should not be able to play in the championship. Please stop mis-quoting me. I have also stated this previously. I am stating that they should be in groups in stage one all by themselves.

Thib- I just said "if players with a provisional rating play together in special wch groups", that's the way I (mis-)understood you, so I did not say that you argued that they shouldn't play wch... The thing that is not clear to me is "I am stating that they should be in groups in stage one all by themselves.", so does it mean:

1) Provisionnaly rated players should play in special groups
2) There should be the same number of provisionnaly rated players per group
3) Tie break shouldn't be TER for provisionnaly rated players
4) Provis. rated players should earn their WCH entry, eg. # ended games >50
5) Something else

About cases 1), 3) & 4) I answered it in the discussion that I just re-read entirely.

Sorry for mis-understanding you & thanks for your patience... If I still completely miss it, maybe better would be that another player try to explain me what you mean by "they should be in groups in stage one all by themselves".


Philip Roe    (2010-10-05 17:20:42)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

I think that the management of the WCH should not be too heavily weighted toward ensuring that "the best player" wins. On behalf of the underdogs, I would like us to have at least a sporting chance. If the cards are too much stacked against us the idea of an "open" tournament is lost, and we won't enter.

I looked at the statistics for cycle 000007. The top seed won outright 7 times, and tied for first on 7 other occasions. The second seed won outright twice, and tied first 7 times. The third seed won 5 times and tied twice. The fourth seed won once and tied twice. Out of all the winners, only the the two fourth seeds who tied had provisional 1800 ratings.

Are these numbers really a cause for concern?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-05 17:58:43)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Hi Philip, thanks for taking some time to give us these numbers, really appreciated!

Well, I did not hide that I thought about this championship this way, simply because I wanted it also to look like the old classical chess championship. The point that is discussed here is a tiny detail only compared to the whole idea... Of course the 8 players of the knockout cycle have much better chances to reach the final, and the current champion is by far the favourite. Why to play a WCH that would be a boring copy of IECG & ICCF WCH?

I think that everyone has a real chance though, maybe hardly on 1 cycle but by playing 2 or 3! Have a look at Edward Kotlyanskiy's tournaments, he started WCH 3 with a rating of 2132, seed #2 in a RR group... he is champion!

http://www.ficgs.com/tournament_FICGS__CHESS__WCH_STAGE_1_GROUP_10__000003.html


Daniel Parmet    (2010-10-05 19:12:30)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

My point is that seed one has a HUGE advantage because of the fact 1) Tie breakers AND 2) colors are always in their favor. So it makes it very very hard for another player to overturn this. Black against the highest rated usually best you can ask for is a draw resulting in the fact you now have to win the rest of your games in order to not Tie the highest rated (or pray for an upset). Cause if you tie... they just win on tiebreaks.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-05 19:36:41)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Well, according to the numbers given by Philip, the number of wins by a player who is not seed 1 is over the number of wins by seed 1, but I agree that the advantage is big, that's why we could reverse the colors (I'll open a new topic to discuss it if we continue this way). But I still think that 7 players are open enough, everything can happen.


Daniel Parmet    (2010-10-05 20:41:54)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

No according to the numbers given by Philip my point is huge.

7 wins, 7 ties meaning 14 went on.
2 wins, 7 ties meaning 2 went on.
5 wins, 2 ties meaning 5 went on.
1 win, 2 ties meaning 1 went on.

Notice that because of color and tiebreaks the giant separation in place 1 2 and 3. It actually went back on spot 3 because they had white most likely. Clearly spot 2 is the worst position to hold in the tournament. Everything is against you. Color and tiebreaks.

Anyways, I agree it needs to be discussed. If others disagree with me then thats that I guess.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-05 21:22:04)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Okay, the numbers must be taken carefully, 2 wins 7 ties for seed 2 do not necessarily mean 2 went on... And I just counted for WCH 6:

Seed 1 - 2 wins 4 ties 6 qualified
Seed 2 - 2 wins 1 ties 3 qualified
Seed 3 - 5 wins 3 ties 5 qualified
Seed 4 - 1 wins 0 ties 1 qualified
Seed 5 - 0 wins 1 ties 1 qualified
Seed 6 - 0 wins 1 ties 0 qualified
Seed 7 - 1 wins 0 ties 1 qualified

And for WCH 5:

Seed 1 - 2 wins 2 ties 4 qualified
Seed 2 - 3 wins 2 ties 3 qualified
Seed 3 - 2 wins 3 ties 4 qualified
Seed 4 - 0 wins 0 ties 0 qualified
Seed 5 - 2 wins 2 ties 2 qualified
Seed 6 - 2 wins 0 ties 2 qualified

Definitely everything can happen in these groups, and I did not count the players invited to join stage 2, that do not favour top seed and that actually favour seed 2 over seed 3... Anyway as I said, I'm ok to discuss the idea to reverse colors in a new topic.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-06 01:37:29)
Colour allocation change in WCH round robins

Currently in the WCH Stage 1 groups (new players) thread, there has been a side discussion occurring about allocation of colours in round robins on this site.

Since Thib has said that he is open to discussing it in a new thread, this is a new thread.

I have made mention of the berger pairing tables, which is the accepted format in otb round robins for how to pair round robins fairly.

The Berger pairing table for seven and eight player round robin is now provided:


Round
1 1:8 2:7 3:6 4:5
2 8:5 6:4 7:3 1:2
3 2:8 3:1 4:7 5:6
4 8:6 7:5 1:4 2:3
5 3:8 4:2 5:1 6:7
6 8:7 1:6 2:5 3:4
7 4:8 5:3 6:2 7:1


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-07 14:09:49)
Paul König is dead

After that Ingo announced it in the chat, I was waiting for an online source to publish the sad news in the forum... Paul officially left us during the month of september 2010.

www.bien.de/sauerland/index.php?view=article&id=209:schachbezirk-trauert-um-paul-koenig

Many of us played him here at FICGS, at other chess servers or over the board.

My condolences to his family.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-08 15:26:38)
Colour allocation change in WCH round robins

Hello Daniel Parmet,

In the other thread WCH Stage 1 groups (new players), in your first post-

Further i've noticed that the color pairings tends to be very very bad for seed 2 & 3 but great for seed 1 & 4.

As seed 2 I get black against 1&4 as seed 3 I get black against 1 4 but as seed 4 I get white against 1&3. Yet these color disadvantages are not at all included as a tiebreak in any way.

From looking at the pairings posted above by Thibault about how colours are determined on this site, I believe your post contains a factual error which does not help your argument at all about the unfairness of pairings on here in the context of colours.

On this site-
Seed 2 is black against 1&4.
Seed 3 is WHITE, repeat WHITE, against 1 and 4.
Seed 4 is BLACK, repeat BLACK against 1&3.


Ruben Comes    (2010-10-10 07:00:31)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Guys, beyond the technical, I think that is a world champion, be able to pick any group players have 1800 or 2100. This is my humble opinion.


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    (2010-10-16 00:21:33)
Serious new Virus

Well, we just have to avoid to do the same things as always, do not open files that you did not ask and so on.


Robert Osborne    (2010-10-16 01:56:50)
Serious new Virus

Wayne... It's a HOAX... these emails go out from time to time about a "New Deadly Virus"

And you help contribute to the Spam Problem by "SEND(ing) A COPY OF THIS E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, And ask them to PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY!"

So you do the work of a spam virus for them...


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-10-16 03:19:53)
Serious new Virus

Gosh, Sorry, I meant no harm. I only wanted to help out
Wayne


Robert Osborne    (2010-10-16 03:56:45)
Serious new Virus

You are a fantastic guy Wayne... it is an honor and pleasure to be acquainted with you.

And I hope you took no offense at my reply (I see now that is possible) as I was merely describing how that nutty email works (the CAPS part was essentially a "cut & paste" from your above message. My sincere apologies for sounding like it was some sort of accusation. I know you were sincere in your warning. I should have written:

"by sending / forwarding this, we (meaning me too) actually become the "virus engine" by searching our contacts and forwarding it to others."

Somewhat ingenious (certainly devious) as the viral code that would normally do this task would probably be squashed by our anti-virus software.

Again… apologies as I have nothing but respect for you.

Respectfully,
Rob Osborne


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-10-15 23:41:43)
Serious new Virus

I got this warning via a very reliable family member. So I trust it, unless he is duped. Wayne


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-10-15 23:48:15)
Serious new Virus

And reported here
http://www.i-newswire.com/here-you-have-it-computer-virus.htm


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-16 14:14:48)
Serious new Virus

No problem Wayne :) .. we all appreciate the intention. Not everyone knows that this kind of email is ALWAYS (100.00 %) spam, whoever send it. Now a few people more know...


Simone Calvello    (2010-10-16 14:58:16)
Serious new Virus

Thank you, Wayne!
By the way, I'd like to say that the sender of the message could also be one of your friends, or so on...
There are also some viruses that enter in the PC and send them to other computers, so every message with an attachment not requested should be deleted immediately!


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2010-10-17 05:38:18)
Serious new Virus

Hi all, the database of my antivirus, is updated sometimes twice per week, so, everyday there are new viruses, trojans and derivatives, and many of them will propagate through emails, so, Thibault's advise standas, "do not open files that you did not ask and so on". If you are too curious, run a cdlive linux and open it from there.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-17 08:34:18)
Serious new Virus

I never open emails that do not have a specific subject in that column.


Wayne Lowrance    (2010-10-19 03:37:30)
Serious new Virus

ditto 4 me. I did not open this one, just reported it
Wayne


Lalit Kapoor    (2010-10-20 08:18:46)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

The same happens to me. I started as 1805 (provisional) in WCH 8. Now after 5 games finished I scored 4.5/5. Against 2nd seed I got a draw. And against seed 1 I will get at least a draw with slight advantage as Black in endgame.

Garvin Gray question is right. The 1800 (provisional) player gets an advantage for being an underdog.

But at last there would be only one champion and he have to qualify all stages.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-20 08:42:43)
WCH Stage 1 groups (new players)

Wow, finally a new post. :)

I am not sure if you have received an advantage by being in a group with other fully rated players.

My premise is that you should have been a group, or groups, with other provisionally rated players, so that those who have worked to get an accurate rating get to try and qualify in roughly even strength groups (in comparison to all the other qualifying groups).

As someone who has shown themselves to be of decent standard, you would have still probably qualified through that group of provisionals and most likely would not be out of your depth in stage 2.

Which again is the whole premise of my position.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-20 12:40:03)
In Chessbase & forums

Hey, looks like I missed many things, William became a chess star already with his website! There was an article in Chessbase & numerous discussions in chess forums...

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6725

http://france-echecs.com/index.php?mode=showComment&art=20101014033737124 (french)


Scott Nichols    (2010-10-20 20:06:33)
Freestyle Fun

Freestyle tournament is only 11 days away and already it promises to be an exciting event. Hopefully more will join, especially our friend from India, :)

We have an exciting array of players already though...,

Yuriy Perikov-a new player from Russia who has raised his rating almost 100 points in just two games.

David Evans-Last years winner. I am sure he will be looking to repeat. A definite threat.

Uh-Me-I'll be trying, :)

Marcel Jacon-I don't know anything about Marcel, but I'm sure he will be a tough opponent!

Garvin Gray-A longtime player with much experience. He seemed to improve dramatically after his computer went into the "shop" for a week towards the end of our 24 game drawn match. He will have to be watched out for.

Ruben Comes-What can I say? He is a definite favorite in this event. With his powerful openings, middlegame and unerring endings, he will be hard to beat.

Robert Mueller-I don't know Robert, but I hope to one day if I can ever get up to his level. Another strong favorite here. With an 80% win rate against top level competition, how could anybody bet against him!

Jose Moreira-Another strong unknown to me. Very experienced and I am sure a threat.

Thibault de Vassal-Our glorious leader! If his connection can hold out, we all know Thib is as strong as anybody. It would be nice to see him pull this off.

Sebastion Boehme-Don't be fooled by Sebi's relatively low Advanced rating. He is very strong, experienced Freestyle player. Another shaky connection cost him last year. I consider him to be right in with the favorites of this event.

So there it is "so far". Exciting huh?


Jimmy Huggins    (2010-10-22 10:25:55)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Hi to all the FICGS players! In the last few days there has been in the works a strong tournament on the Rybka Forum. I know that most of you play a lot of games not only here but on others sites. I have been looking into the interest of having a type of World Chess Corr Blitz Championship. With the time controls being 2 to 3 days per move. There will be a time out or some kind of extra time system in place to get you a chance to AN critical positions. As of now there are discussions on the Rybka Forum for a Tournament Format that would be comfort to most of the players who play. I have been talking to the person who does the web design there and would are working out a new sub forum to keep this tournament organized and working a clock system so everyone can keep track of there time. I'm also having a prize fund organized to the top 10 finishers. Not so much for give money to the players, but as more a means to keep all the players interested and not have any problems with aborted games. This tournament will have 3 TD's to help with any problems that may come up. We are planing on having the tournament just after the new year. I have the interested of Wayne Lowrance and Ruben Comes has said he will play. If any are interested in playing in a World Chess Corr. Blitz Championship or if you have any questions or comments. Let know on here or your can leave a message on the rybka forum my user name is "thehug"


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-22 18:11:38)
Freestyle Fun

It is accurate!

First game will be played at :

Paris - 1 pm.
London - 12 am.
Los Angeles - 4 am.
New York - 7 am.
New Delhi - 4 pm.
Berlin - 1 pm.
Buenos Aires - 8 am.
Moscow - 3 pm.


Jimmy Huggins    (2010-10-23 02:39:34)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Just after the new year, It will be flexiable as I will give all the players a chance to make it the games. It will be something like a 1 to 1 1/2 week window to get all the players sign in and know what the groups would be. As of now I'm still working on how many games will be played. I will be caping it around 30 people or so give or take a couple. So I will update you on how many games. For rounds Im going to say right now it will 2 rounds as I know most don't want to drag it out to long.(If there is interested I will look into having a semi final, and championship match if people would want it.) The number of games will be flexiable for the FICGS players. As I know most of you have a lot games going on.


Jimmy Huggins    (2010-10-25 08:28:18)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Thanks Thibault, My hope is to finish the details within the next 2 weeks. No not a round-robin, because that would simply be to much and to long. So I have gone with Vytron idea of a type of Elimination/Knockout tournament that is currently being discuss. As you are good about getting tournaments formed if you can read the current discussion and give some feedback on here or the rybka forum I would be grateful! It is in the corr chess section on the rybka forum.

Here are some of the key points and some interesting ideas that are being thrown around.

As I know most of the FICGS players play a lot of games so I have made a system that you play a 2 game match per round (One white and One Black). This would usually be a bad idea because of CC high draw rates. But we are thinking of using a unique draw odds system. Thought to many this may sounds a little strange its actually a great idea to inspire fighting chess for both sides. The idea was given by FICGS player Gino Figlio

"The scoring system idea- to draw with white (0.4), draw with black (0.6), win with white (1.0), win with black (1.1), loss with white (-0.1), loss with black (0.0)"

Another thing we are working on is the pairing system. As of now the only idea is to use a swiss pairing system after the first round.

Time Control- Since this is going to be called a "World Blitz Correspondence Chess Championship" The time controls are going to be a little faster than normal corr chess. It will be 48hr per move. But there will be a bluff time in here to help AN critical positions. This is also being debated. Right now we are looking at something between 1 weeks to 2 weeks(168 hours to 336 hours).

I had announce on the Rybka Forum in the last couple of days that a prize fund was being offer. I haven't had all my sources comeback to me yet. But as of know the fund is $1500 USD. It could be more, but I'll make official amount known before the tournament will start. I would say the winners share will be between 500 to 750. It all depends on what info I get back. I'm going to try and make all the prizes reasonable. And try and make it for the top 8 or 10 players. Also the winner will be announced the "World Blitz Correspondence Chess Champion"

I will be trying to finalize the details of the tournament in a quick fashion so I can figure out if the players interested would want to play or not. The tournament will begin just after the new year. It will be flexiable so get all the players in and know who they are playing.

The final details are that we are working hard to make the Rybka Forum really to play this kind of tournament. There is a new sub forum that will be made to help with out the traffic that would be going on with all the games. There is almost plans on getting a clock system work out. As at these time controls that would be critical.

Thanks in advance for any feedback form Thibault de Vassal and any other FICGS player!

Jimmy


Scott Nichols    (2010-10-25 21:07:25)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Hi Jimmy, I left a message on your forum. That format very new to me, :)


Gino Figlio    (2010-10-26 00:55:48)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

The proposal was based on the assumption that it was a double elimination knockout, meaning you get dropped if you lose 2 games. Since there may be a lot of draws, the new scoring system may allow to drop players with the lower scores after 2 rounds and will give more weight to better results with the black pieces. This is experimental but may stimulate more fighting chess.


Jimmy Huggins    (2010-10-26 19:44:18)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Two more quick announcements.

1.The new forum for the WBCCC-->World Blitz Corr Chess Championship has been made as of last night my time. But has not been up to everyone yet. It will be soon, I'm still talking to my Technical TD about that.

2.I'll be capping the tournament very soon as to keep the numbers reasonable and to have a tournament done in a more timely fashion. I'm going to guess when its all said and done. The finally number will be between 24 to 28 players that will play. I'll being posting a list here shortly


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-26 21:28:08)
Freestyle Fun

We cannot change the format now... 6 rounds is a lot in 2 days already, 9 rounds would kill most of the participants (IMHO) :)

It is always hard to guess the final number of players until the very last moment as registrations are authorized whenever. All I can say is that one new player is to enter the waiting list, maybe two. (ah, finally one player entered it before I can finish my message :))


Kamesh Nookala    (2010-10-27 03:38:48)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Lol Jimmy,

It was more like "I am lost!" haha. AS of now, i have stopped all stuff. Just enjoying. But as your tour is scheduled somewhere in the new year, who knows I may jump in.
As of now, banging my head as to whether I should check IN into the current FICGS Freestyle or not :)

Regards


Jimmy Huggins    (2010-10-27 22:24:14)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Tho this is only a minor note the new forum was made and is open now. Look for WBCCC on the front page of the forum


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-29 14:42:27)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Jimmy- I think it is extremely unlikely that any kind of correspondence tournament can finish in one year, unless you have an extremely short time control and are willing to have many games time out. It is just the nature of the beast with players from all over the world.

Also, what Thib means is that a new WCH cycle starts every 8 months, not that the WCH cycle takes 8 months to complete.


Jai Prakash Singh    (2010-10-31 06:41:56)
Freestyle round 4, careful winter clock!

Usually, winter clock means one hour after but it is being declared one hour before, how come? Like Indian clock is 9 hrs 30 minutes ahead of New York time in summer and 10 hrs 30 minutes in Winter.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-31 11:13:19)
Freestyle Fun

Ok i am sick of this issue. When I attempt to click on the links provided, or even when I try and open them in a new browser, I keep getting the please login screen. Which means I can not view the link.

This is an issue I am throughly sick of getting.


Garvin Gray    (2010-10-31 12:00:44)
Freestyle Fun

The crosstable link has opened to a new page with a different looking format.

Robert's link still presents the same issues, no matter if I try and open it in new window, new tab or by copying link to either same or different browser.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-10-31 12:10:44)
Freestyle Fun

"new page with a different looking format", yes that's normal, if you see the crosstable (you may enlarge the window so that it appears perfectly) that's ok.

The problem with the other link is ununderstandable to me :/ looks like your browser does not manage cookies/sessions with several tabs.


Sebastian Boehme    (2010-10-31 20:11:04)
Creating an opening book

Hi Garvin,

Book making ia for example in my case always been a very time-intense and manually tuned process. I never do import any outside games to my book.

Guidelines on how to starting out in creating an opening book you can find (or probably have already found), here:
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=11798

That site got some useful links

General rule of thumb, work on each system one by one. My favourite example: I as white play 1. e4 and Black replies 1....f5, so the Elephant Gambit arises.

Now I want to find good white moves for it, so I enable in my Book allow move adding and check my Correspondence and Playchess Games database for the replies of white. Also I see what major engines think about the moves offered by the database in say 1-2 minute analysis and what these engines themselves gotta offer. This way a reply to the elephant gambit (or maybe more) for move 2 of white can be found.
Also not in any case 1-2 minute analysis will be sufficient. You need to figure this out for yourself.

The less time intensive process: Create a database where you import games filtered by very well chosen criteria (for instance recent games i.e. 2008-2010). Then import the database games into a new empty book.

That's all I know about how it could be done.

Sebi


Garvin Gray    (2010-11-02 23:50:43)
Newest/oldest posts first

How is the concept of top posting going? We are now at over 100 posts in the rybka tourney thread and it is getting tedious having to scroll down all the time, just to read the last few posts.

If there was top posting, then the latest posts that I want to see would be visible first.


Gino Figlio    (2010-11-03 00:33:36)
Newest/oldest posts first

Top posting is not better than the current setup. You need to set a maximum # of posts per page and then links at the top for each page. That way you will never scroll down.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-11-03 17:51:57)
Newest/oldest posts first

Hi Garvin, is it better with the "last post" link? ;)


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-11-05 23:12:32)
Magnus Carlsen drops out of FIDE WCH

An interesting interview of Magnus Carlsen on the FIDE World Championship cycle and privileges of the world champion.

Always the same question: Should the reigning world champion play the next cycle in the same conditions than the other players... (no IMO, by the way the 16, 32 {whatever} who would play this tournament do have privileges the same way)

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6789


Garvin Gray    (2010-11-06 06:19:34)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Jimmy,

Possible slight change to start date proposal.

I would like to see the competition either start on December 1 (one month earlier), or on about January 14.

The reason for this is to try and reduce the impact of Christmas. If the competition starts on January 1, games could time out without people even knowing that they started due to being on holidays.

Perhaps starting earlier might be helpful as it means the competition starts while there is the current momentum for it.

But middle January is also good as it will give a chance for the new ficgs ratings to be used.

I think it would also be prudent about a week before the start of round one to personally contact all the participants and get them to confirm they are playing. Only those that confirm their participation will be paired for round one.


Jimmy Huggins    (2010-11-06 07:30:29)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

You make a good point about Christmas and even sometimes people do things on the New Year. I have to probably go with the January 14th idea. If only because I would like to give Dadi as much time as he needs to get the clock system to work. By I will leave a line on the Forum and see what people say. As for the give a week to get play to reply. I had already decide on that. I will be so much easily to do it that way. As to have to repair 2 or 3 times.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-11-06 15:00:19)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum

Hi Jimmy, good news! I'm sure that this format will attract more players.


Ilmars Cirulis    (2010-12-02 08:30:24)
New Swedish Constitution

Any comments from swedes?

I am dreaming about this: the previous version, the current version and track of all made changes with some explanations and discussions about possible consequences. Just in case - if someone has a link to smth like it.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-12-02 13:38:42)
Improvements to score Go games

New improvement in the scorer... now shapes in the center are also extrapolated, and you can check the extrapolated board below the given result

Finally, it should give quite correct results for most positions, even during the middlegame. (but you still have to remove dead groups)


Rolf Staggat    (2010-12-06 12:12:00)
New Swedish Constitution

Äh, what ???


Sebastian Boehme    (2010-12-07 20:10:10)
Who's the favorite in the WBCCC?

Seriously do not underestimate Ruben Comes. Although he is still quite new to correspondence chess, I really think he has chances too to win this event.

Cheers,
Sebi


Wilhelm Schuett    (2010-12-09 17:13:37)
New Swedish Constitution

Perhaps something perfidious and one-sided like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Sweden


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-12-13 23:14:40)
Chess positions too complex for engines

This topic may last a while but it could be interesting after all.

Why not trying to gather (and discuss) as many chess positions as possible that computers are still unable to solve with the best engines even working during days... It may help us to detect more weak points in the most recent engines.

Okay, I start with these ones:

Schuster-de Vassal : 1-0

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=36895&move=96

Peter played very well in this one but as far as I can remember this position was an easy draw... The plan was to keep the rook on the e column and White cannot progress. I knew that but at this moment, I had to play this move quickly and I made a stupid mistake: I trusted the engine... Rb8+?? 1-0 .. my comp was really a prehistoric one there but I wouldn't be surprised if the recent ones were still not able to avoid to play this Rb8+

The next position is less interesting but quite funny, and it looks like that the newest engines STILL do not understand it... Actually it shows +5.00 or even more while it is an EASY draw for any human player...

Utesch-de Vassal : 1/2-1/2

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=11345

Amazing, what do you think? :)


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2010-12-18 14:28:56)
New Swedish Constitution

Hi Ilmars, is Latvia adopting the Swedish Constitution?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-12-21 17:31:39)
Junior 12, Deep Junior 12

The new engines by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky (who where World Computer Chess Champions) Junior 12 & Deep Junior 12 are available... It probably evolved quite a lot since the amazing Junior 7, anyone tested it already?


Jimmy Huggins    (2010-12-29 11:37:07)
WBCCC news

I just got great word form Dadi Jonsson are Tech guy at Rybka. That are playing arena is in beta testing as we speak! And there is an 80% of be successful!


Garvin Gray    (2010-12-29 12:44:11)
WBCCC news

I do not understand, what does this mean? Can you explain further please?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-12-29 13:22:29)
WBCCC news

Hi Jimmy & Garvin. Same question here...


Jimmy Huggins    (2010-12-29 13:37:49)
WBCCC news

Form the letter I got. This is what I interpret it to be. First there will be a program that the players use. The program allows the players to play there games without having to look thought out the comments form the forum. As one player makes his move. It will go to the another player program ready to make his move next.

Now Dadi made the forum software so that when a move is made. That it will post the move in a thread form the present game between the two players.

So Gray I think Dadi maybe the one to create the games, but you will still be doing the pairings. I sent you his user name so the two of you can would on the other details so you can be the TD.


Ruben Comes    (2010-12-29 13:51:26)
WBCCC news

I don´t understand. Sorry.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-12-29 14:04:23)
WBCCC news

I think it is about the implementation of the Xfcc client protocol at Rybkaforum.


Jimmy Huggins    (2010-12-29 23:17:16)
WBCCC news

That maybe, But I went a head and posted the message I got for him on the Rybka site here.

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=20039


Gino Figlio    (2010-12-30 02:58:07)
WBCCC news

I doubt it will be XFCC based since the rybka forum does not support it as far as I know and the remote playing module will interact with the rybka forum to update the games.
I believe this is similar to the remoteschach.de setup where you have the option to send your moves from your computer via a remote program.


Jai Prakash Singh    (2011-01-04 08:00:30)
New site on Chess Thinking Systems

Hi Chess Friends,

Now you can visit my new chess site
http://chessthinkingsystems.blogspot.com/

and suggest me some improvements.


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-01-04 22:01:10)
WBCCC Pairings for Round 1 will be here

Hello to everyone, With in the next 12 to 24 hours the pairings for round 1 of the WBCCC will be known. I have a couple of other things to post here as well. 1.I will be running a commentary page here.

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=19300

I invite all the FICGS players to follow. There fellow FICGS combatants in play and I and a couple of others will be doing live commentary as the games go on. I hope to see you ya there! (Thib, I know you will let your presents be know when you can ;)

The 2nd thing to be noted is the info the new software that is being used. All the info for that is here. Look below on the page and you will see my name with the info on it.

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=20068;pg=2

Good luck to everyone.

P.S. I will try to remember to use your real name on here. When I post to make it easier to follow for everyone else. I'll try to have an update as games finish to let everyone know what going on.


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-01-05 22:26:22)
WBCCC Pairings for Round 1 will be here

Yeah starts the 15th. I'll let you guys know something more about the new software when it comes to me. It should be later this week. Or early next week


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-01-11 19:49:20)
WBCCC Pairings for Round 1 will be here

If you have the new Aquarium 4.06. You can now test the new software! Just leave a post here. http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=20068 and sent a message to Dadi Jonsson that you would like to get your user name and password to use the new software.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-01-12 21:01:31)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

Congratulations to SM Eros Riccio who made it in the 4th FICGS correspondence chess championship, beating FICGS WCH Edward Kotlyanskiy 6.5-5.5

As he already won the candidates final match in the 5th FICGS chess WCH, we'll have the next final match "Eros Riccio vs. Eros Riccio" :) .. just joking, means that Eros just won the 5th FICGS championship as well... 2 titles at once, an amazing performance!

Sure that we'll need veeeery strong players to try to move the new FICGS king (who also won 2 FICGS freestyle cups) in the next WCH cycles! :)

Congrats also to Edward who was really near in this match, maybe the players will explain what happened in the only game that didn't finish into a draw... Finally many thanks to both players for a nice show!


Paul Campanella    (2011-01-12 23:37:37)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

It is my opinion that Edward could have easily held his championship title if he strictly played for a draw instead of trying to win any of the games.


Edward Kotlyanskiy    (2011-01-13 01:29:48)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

I'd like to congratulate Eros on a very well played match. He had a very good match strategy coming into our games where he would try to put as much pressure on me as possible and hope for me to make a mistake. And it worked! A few mental slips on my part and before I knew it, I was lost. Just to re-emphasize what everyone already knows: Eros is undoubtedly one of the best corr players in the world. He deserved to win the championship. I thank him for making the games exciting, although maybe more for him than me :), and I look forward to playing with him again in the future.


Eros Riccio    (2011-01-13 02:36:42)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

Thanks everyone guys... Thank you Edward, it was a real pleasure for me to play with you, not only for the interesting games, but also for the many friendly chats we had during our exchange of the moves, you are a very nice person and I also look forward to playing you again soon in the future.


Vjacheslav Perevozchikov    (2011-01-13 05:08:59)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

Hi! Thank you both for the great match. Congratulations to the winner!!!

I have a question. What happened in the only game that not finished in a draw?
24... Rxc2!? wasn't a better choice for black? Or I missed something?


Jai Prakash Singh    (2011-01-13 07:16:17)
New site on Chess Thinking Systems

A new site on chess Training also

http://chesstrainingsystem.blogspot.com/


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-01-13 14:53:17)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

Two great players, a great match, much fairplay at the end, thank you... it will be hard to wait for about 10 months before the start of the next 12 games match in the 6th cycle (and yes I verified, Eros will not play himself this time :))


Daniel Parmet    (2011-01-14 08:01:36)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

in the case of Riccio winning the challenger match shouldn't the previous Champ get a rematch just so there is a 5th title bout?


Daniel Parmet    (2011-01-14 08:03:07)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

Anyways congrats to Eros


Sebastian Boehme    (2011-01-14 08:35:58)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

The most things having been said already, I would like to add a quote, which originally was about Bobby Fischer.

"Against Eros Riccio it does not matter if you win or lose. It matters whether you can survive."

Congrats Eros once again! Well done!

Cheers,

Sebi


Paul Campanella    (2011-01-14 23:50:23)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

I agree with Daniel. Edward should get a rematch against Eros in the next championship.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-01-15 00:34:20)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

Should be great, unfortunately things do not work that way (at least the current rules)... anyway Eros deserves those 6-8 months of "rest", at least to win his future matches in the 7th & 8th cycles :)


Paul Valle    (2011-01-17 21:44:53)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

Thanks to both players for a very entertaining match!


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-01-18 15:24:39)
Houdini 1.5 leads TCEC comp. chess tourn

Advanced chess "centaur" players should be interested by the following:

A "super" tournament for computers, named TCEC, just started. Premier Division finals started with the participation of the world's top engines.

Tournament format: double round robin

The participants:

1 Houdini 1.5
2 Rybka 4.0
3 Shredder 12.0
4 Stockfish 2.0.1
5 Naum 4.2
6 Ivanhoe B47cB
7 Hiarcs 13.2
8 Critter 0.9

I don't know much on this tournament, actually it may be a CCRL/SSDF system-like but as a tournament (and without rating list?), anyway thus it was able to reach the chess news in Chessdom & Susan Polgar blogspot.

The point is that the supposed "possible" Rybka-clones Ivanhoe & Houdini (both based on Ippolit, just like Firebird) entered the race... and Houdini is leading already, ahead of Rybka.

It is announced that Rybka 4 is playing, does anyone know who's behind this version of Rybka and what is the hardware? Does Vasik Rajlich know about that?

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2011/01/houdini-15-leads-tcec-computer-super.html

http://www.chessdom.com/news-2011/computer-chess-live-2011

http://www.tcec-chess.org/


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-01-18 21:19:47)
Following the WBCCC games Round 1

Thanks Jimmy for posting the links. Good luck everyone... and to the tournament directors too! (I know this must be quite stressful to make a 1st edition with a new software)


Xavier Pichelin    (2011-01-21 11:37:09)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

Congratulation Eros!
Double World Champion FICGS 0005 and 0006!!
Bravo!!!
Xavier


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-01-21 14:55:23)
Eros Riccio is the new FICGS chess champ

Double World Champion FICGS 0004 and 0005 actually.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-01-22 20:49:23)
Houdini 1.5 leads TCEC comp. chess tourn

Ah, maybe it was finished already... So Houdini wins with no loss! Bad score for Hiarcs 13.2 & Naum 4.2 :/ Dunno what can be concluded from all this, we all knew that Rybka & Houdini are the best engines nowadays.

N Engine Pts SB

1 Houdini 1.5 24.0 147.00 1= == == == 11 1= 1=
2 Rybka 4.0 23.0 128.00 0= 0= =1 11 10 1= =1
3 Stockfish 2.0.1 20.0 128.00 == 1= 0= =0 == 11 =1
4 Ivanhoe B47cB 17.0 115.00 == =0 1= =0 =1 01 ==
5 Critter 0.9 17.0 114.50 == 00 =1 =1 == 01 ==
6 Shredder 12.0 12.0 91.50 00 01 == =0 == == ==
7 Naum 4.2 12.0 80.50 0= 0= 00 10 10 == ==
8 Hiarcs 13.2 11.0 91.50 0= =0 =0 == == == ==


Mitha Sweet    (2011-01-22 21:57:16)
How to play in here..

Hello all, My name Mitha I am new here, Please explain how to play chess here.thanks.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-03-09 20:28:47)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

Okay, after another long thinking on the different effects of the possible changes, I think that we should try in a first time the following (something between proposals 2 & 4 plus minor improvements):

"All 2150+ players (but the 8 of the knockout tournament) will play M & N class groups at stage 1. The two players with the highest scores (or TER in case of equality) of the M group will qualify for the round-robin final, while the player with the lowest score (or TER in case of equality) will be eliminated, the others will qualify for stage 2. The winner of the N group will qualify for the round-robin final and at most half the players in the group will qualify for stage 2, the others will be eliminated.

Also the new members declaring to use a chess engine when registering will get a provisional rating of 2000."

Let's see the effects during the next cycle, if things are not ok we'll reconsider the idea to prevent the provisionals to enter the wch waiting list. I don't like complex rules but I like the idea of "progressive" rules. Any argument in another way is always welcome.


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-01-29 07:15:06)
Following the WBCCC games Round 1

I have been following the games for a couple of days now. I will get my new computer next week. I will make an update then.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-01-30 21:07:31)
Eros on his win in the 4th chess WCH

Eros Riccio kindly accepted to answer a few questions on his win in the 4th FICGS chess WCH, and explained how one particular game influenced another one that he finally won:

- Hi Eros, first of all congratulations for your latest outstanding results at FICGS, you won the Freestyle tournament, now two chess championships in a row... When the privilege of the champion is to defend his title without playing the preliminary tournaments, you are involved in all championship cycles & a few regular tournaments, do you plan to avoid that anyone can even reach the championship final in the future? :-)

Thanks! I must admit that this is really a magic moment for me in chess... if you consider that despite my recent ICCF Grand Master Title, probably I will also soon win my third italian Correspondence Champion Title out of three participations in the Italian Final Tournaments. And now also this huge satisfaction of being the FICGS Champion! I look forward to seeing a new challenger soon, I wonder who he will be, but let me enjoy the next few months for now ;-)

- What are your impressions on the games? Did you have any strategy from the beginning to the end? Finally did it work or was there another factor? (without revealing your secrets, of course :))

The games in the opening were as I expected, all Najdorf Sicilians except one game where I played 1.d4. My goal was to win at least one game, so I tried different aggressive variations as White (6.Bg5, 6.f3, 6.Be3 and 6.h3) with the hope of catching Edward unprepared on at least one of these, but uff, he was very well prepared on each one of them! A curious thing is that my biggest chance of winning happened in a game where I had the Black pieces! So Edward had to take some risks in one of his games where he had Black (the games where he had White were already finished or all very drawish) he was forced to avoid an easy draw he had (the 6.h3 game) and eventually he lost that game. Happy of having reached my goal of winning at least one game, I accepted his draw offer in that other game (6.f3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Be3 Be7 9.Be2) where I had good winning chances.

- You probably noticed, like many correspondence chess players, that the hardware still fastly improves while chess engines are continuously getting stronger, particularly since that "supposed" clones of Rybka (some may be even stronger than Rybka herself) appeared in the race. Do you think that the rate of draws will be so high soon that it may definitely kill correspondence chess? Do you have any opinion on these new engines?

I think that despite the big improvement of Hardwares and engines, we are still very far (and we will still be in the next 5 years, hopefully) from a situation where all the games will most probably end in a draw. So I think we can enjoy correspondence chess for many more years in the future, even if of course the Draw percentage at the highest levels will be higher and higher.

- I remember that you were surprised to win your match against Alberto in the Candidates Final of the 5th cycle (the reason why you do not even have to defend your title this time), the WCH rules (particularly the co-existence of the round-robin tournament & knockout tournament) are obviously not well understood by all players, what do you think about this system and the tie in 8 games matches? Are there changes you'd like to see in the future?

Yes, I really was! We were both convinced that with all draws, the higher rated player would have won (Alberto was higher rated than me in that match). Anyway it was our fault, as we didn't read the rules carefully. I am not sure what changes could be done in the future... maybe this is anyway the best setup, no new ideas are coming to my mind right now.

- Do you have a few more words for Edward after these nice games? Maybe also for your future opponents? :)

It was a real pleasure for me to play him, not only for the interesting games we played, but also for the friendly chats we had during the exchanges of the moves. I hope to play him again in the future for a rematch.

- Thanks for your answers and congratulations again!

Welcome, and thanks ;-)

_________

It is very interesting to see that a even a player like Eros prefered to minimize the risks (avoiding mouse drops or whatever) as much as possible by accepting a draw in a game where he had winning chances. Correspondence chess is definitely not all about chess, that's probably the lesson.

Also it is reassuring to read that correspondence chess is NOT dead yet, nor soon :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-02-02 19:50:00)
Update for BigChess & Poker rating rules

Hi all, it was a long time there wasn't any update in rating rules.

First of all, as the number of results at Poker Holdem is quite high, I feel that a change should be tried so that ratings move less fast.

Case of a win (rating > 1999) : New Rating = ((39 x Current Rating) + (1 x Performance)) / 40
Case of a win (rating < 2000) : New Rating = ((38 x Current Rating) + (2 x Performance)) / 40

Case of a loss : New Rating = ((39 x Current Rating) + (1 x Performance)) / 40

As for Big Chess, the ratings deflate because there isn't the same rule than in Poker or Advanced Chess, this is now fixed :

If there's a winner and if his rating is below 2000, his new rating his :

New Rating = ((18 x Current Rating) + (2 x Performance)) / 20

Otherwise :

New Rating = ((19 x Current Rating) + (1 x Performance)) / 20

This rule may look strange from a mathematical point of view, but combined to the other rules that provoke deflation, it gives really good results IMHO. Let's see how it works here.


Juri Eintalu    (2021-09-04 17:22:19)
ICCF ratings

Hello. I am new here. I see that my ICCF rating has been converted into a FICGS rating. However, I have not found here any information about whether the FICGS rating influences the ICCF or ELO ratings.


Paul Valle    (2011-02-03 01:27:33)
Creating an Opening book

Hi guys,
a couple of chessbase/rybka questions that I hope you can help me with:
-how do you create a completely new opening book?
-How do you start en engine tournament from a set opening position?
Paul


Scott Nichols    (2011-02-04 00:27:30)
Creating an Opening book

You click on "file" and then "new" and then "opening book". Name the book whatever you want. Then import games or books into by clicking on analysis, opening book, import games.

Part 2, I don't think there is a way, :)


Scott Nichols    (2011-02-04 18:04:19)
Creating an Opening book

I never thought of it that way Josef, I guess I knew it would be possible, just never went that far. Now, what you said opens up a lot of possibilities, thanks Josef! :)


Jai Prakash Singh    (2011-02-05 17:23:36)
New site on Chess Thinking Systems

Hi friends,

Now watch Chess Video "How to break 3000 rating in blitz chess" packed with valuable advices by GM Igor free at

http://chessthinkingsystems.blogspot.com/


Kamesh Nookala    (2011-02-06 04:14:32)
Segregation of Games on this Server

Thib,
I will tell why i face the difficulty with my database. I have one single database, which is a collection of games from everywhere, be it Correspondence or be it games from playchess. Then, whenever i download games, i happen to merge them into my main single database. Everytime, i have to run a doubles check.
There is also a funny thing which i noticed. The game file for these games from FICGS is always chess.pgn. I have to create a new DB with crap name (remember: not identical to any name of the DB from which i earlier merged games to my single DB, reason is though the games are different, based on the import database name, the games will be marked doubles) and then merge them to the single DB. Again filtering applies. So, we can help you a bit with ideas to create a collection of games, as I hope everyone deletes the LINE games, which are still underway :)


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2011-02-06 14:06:40)
Update for BigChess & Poker rating rules

Hello Thibault,

the previous poker rating rules I like better - although I currently much benefit from the new ones :)


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-02-12 04:18:32)
WBCCC Round 1 Update

This is the first update for the WBCCC, I guess some of you have been following some of the games there. There have been a lot of interesting games and some surprises a lot the way. As I'm reporting on the FICGS forum I will make most of this about the FICGS side. Here are some results so far and starting at the top boards.

B2 Uly(Vytron) vs Gino Figlio- Gino does a good job of defending a ..2.e6 line of the Sicilian. And both players agree to a draw after 34 moves.

B4 Daniel Parmet vs Sebastian Boehme- This was a Poison Pawn line of the Sicilian. The game ended before it even got out of book. A short draw, I think both people agreed that it was a good result for each player.

B6- Matt O'Brein vs Omprakash- A surprise if only for how short the game was. Matt shows his tactual muscles when his higher rated opponent much of had and oversight in this defense. As 23.g6! h6 24.Bxh6! and it looks like black has burned his bridges in this game.

B8-Stephanie vs Ruben Comes- This maybe the biggest surprise in round at least in terms of the bigger name on the FICGS side. Stephanie what looks to be a prefect opening all of the B90 lines and everyone agrees 32.Bc3! to be a new novelty and a very good one at that. Stephanie went on to grind Ruben down to a lost endgame. I very interesting game that has be to be seen to believe, I guess this going to show, that not all B90 lines lend to draws.

B13-Scott Nichols vs indrajit_sg- This was a long fought draw. When looking at the game early I thought white may have some chance to take advantage of his open g-file. But not a lot materialize later in the endgame(form the engines point of view).

B14-donkasand vs David Evans- David enter into dangerous territory with this B90 line. At move 19 he played ..Rb8 which looks to be a move to get out of book, because the other moves didn't look so good. Credit to David for finding a draw line in this game. Its another game with a look.

Kamesh Nookala vs Jimmy Huggins- What can I say I played an experimental opening and it backfired :) A well played game by Kamesh. Thanks for the chance to have a good fight with you.

Now on the 2nd set of games(Each player has 2 games in each round)

B3 Ramil Germanes vs Moz- Ramil here played a safe line in the B90 form the white side. So this looked like and easy draw.

B4 Sebastian Boehme vs Uly(Vytron)- Vytron plays and interesting side line of the Crao-Kann and play was very shape, but I got the feeling black played to ambitiously and had the worse of the position. He found a good defensive sacrifice and the good was hold to a draw. I think Sebi had winning chances, but I will have to look over the game to come up with an idea on that one. Anyway a great game to look over.

Ruben Comes vs Matthew O'Berin- Maybe the sharpest and most ambitious game in round 1. This goes in the the B97 lines, but Ruben goes for the Qf3 side line and produces a complex position after Rd3. I love this game so much I want to post the link again for everyone to please watch this game and post a comment about it.

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=20213

B13 Fulcrum2000 vs Scott Nichols- Scott tries his luck to be ambitious and backfires with his Bh4 idea. Even when looking at the game. I was thinking it to be a good idea, but as it turns out. It goes as just losing a tempo. I thought this was one of the more instructive games of the round. I liked the way white played the endgame.

And the last result I have for the round for the FICGS players is

B17-indrajit_sg vs Kamesh Nookala- This was an interesting draw were white plays and early sideline in the Sicilian that tends to be drawish unless black forces the play. Another well played game by both sides.

I just want to say there are a lot of games one should look at. As more results come in on the FICGS side I will posted. In my opinion one should follow Wayne's games I have enjoyed his play so far. He had to comeback some in his wild game with black vs deka, but I get the feeling this game will ended in a draw. I would also follow the underrated Matt O'Berin in games to come. He has proven to be a great player so far.


Scott Nichols    (2011-02-17 00:38:10)
request again tour

Hi Thib, I thought I'd take another stab at this. I would like to request a new tournament format. It would be UNRATED WITH entry fee using E-points. Time control a total of 10 days with NO INCREMENT. Winner gets all the points.

This is working very well at the WBCCC. People use their time more wisely with no increment, instead of always waiting till the end and playing fast using just the increment.

And since it is unrated WITH entry fee, your argument about time losses from before seem irrevelant.

Thanks, Scott.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-02-17 12:15:42)
request again tour

Stressful, for the least... In my opinion such tournaments are quite inhuman but I'm not sure if I could resist to play it myself :)

Anyway there may be a few points to discuss yet... With the use of the current vacation system, such tournaments may last a few months in the worst case.

I agree with Kamesh that Freestyle tournaments should probably be the priority, by the way I'll open a new thread for the next one soon. Finally the main difference is that round-robin tournaments don't ask any work (or so few) from my own, but I just wonder how many players are ready to play this format.


Kamesh Nookala    (2011-02-18 18:06:38)
request again tour

I live in the Capital, and in its heart. New Delhi!


Daniel Parmet    (2011-02-22 20:17:12)
Conditional Moves

I'm not asking Thib to program this. I am wondering if it is possible that someone else could have programmed such a thing already to work with the browser as an addon/plugin. I several opponents who move instantly (without a millisecond) inbetween the move is returned to me. It is such a fast move return that my browser instead of loading a new game comes back to the same one!


Garvin Gray    (2011-02-23 17:22:21)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

Topic is about the upcoming WCH.

I am wondering, are there any format changes in general?

And specifically in how provisionally rated and new players are handled in the group stages?


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-02-26 22:44:09)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

Okay, I'm really thinking about a solution but right now I'm not completely satisfied with this option of having these groups of provisionnaly rated players. I really think that it just moves & postpons the problem while losing some advantages, by the way many established ratings are still underestimated...

I would like to try to explain again my whole point of view on the current wch rules. The way I've been thinking this championship is purely statistical, the idea was to find the best chances to see ALL the best players in the final rounds about each 2 years. It worked quite well so far IMO, actually my main regret is not to be able to extend the knockout tournament of 1 round (we would have 16 players instead of 8), that's why it is not possible anyway to have less than 5 rounds for the whole cycle. Each one is 30 to 40 months long, it could be worse. So the whole cycle's aim is not only to find the best player of the cycle but to give chances enough as quickly as possible to the new underrated players for the next cycles!

On this point, I'm quite glad to see players like Wayne who made it the very hard way, starting from ELO 1400 (!) to reach 2540 in about 3 years only. The WCH cycle helped many other players to find their place quite quickly in the rating list, also over 2400, and I have no doubt that the best players of the round-robin cycle play the round-robin final. Usually none of these new underrated players play the RR final, they have less chances than 2200 ones to play the 2nd round because of the TER rule but they win some elo points during the 1st round. That is fair IMO, some logical improvements now protect the ratings of 2200-2300 players but I agree that it is still hard to cross certain rating ranges because ratings do not inflate the same way than advanced chess, Go or poker ones.

In summary, let's say that it is unfair that 2200 players play 1 or 2 underrated players + one player rated about 2000 who may be worth 2100 or 2200, 2300 & more... He will probably lose some rating points during round 1. However he has more chances to reach round 2 with few chances to win but more chances to get some/many elo points back.

I do not say that there is no "problem" with the current WCH rules set (there will always be border effects, whatever the rules) but my point is that I'm not sure that any change that will have heavy consequences will have good effects enough.

Finally, if the most is favourable to such a change, it looks more logical to me to forbid the provisionnaly rated players to enter the wch waiting list. By the way we will have less forfeits during round 1, so the quality of the results may be improved. What do you think?


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-02-27 21:34:13)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

Hi Garvin, sure there might be a language issue... sorry about that :/ I think I only try to interpret what you say in terms of consequences on the whole thing but I may be wrong at some points, be sure I'm not trying to avoid anything deliberately.

The provisional rating already takes account of if the player uses an engine or not (at least I try to make an estimation on what the new member says in the registration form).

As I just said in the other discussion, maybe we could try to extend the M groups to the 2200-2300 players, it may satisfy everyone as it is probably easier to cross the 2000 barrier than the 2200's, what do you think?


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-02-28 16:07:33)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

I'll answer this in a few hours. A quick suggestion meanwhile, do you think that provisional ratings (most are 1800) should be e.g. rated 2000 if the new members say that they're using an engine? It may help to solve many of these problems.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-02-28 21:02:18)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

@Garvin:

I suggest that all 2200+ players (but the 8 of the knockout tournament) play the M group at stage 1 OR that all 2100+ players (but the 8 of the knockout tournament) play the M group at stage 1 with the new rule that only half the players in these M groups can qualify for stage 2 and still 1 for stage 3. This combined to another new rule that would allow new members declaring to use a chess engine (not so many so far, maybe 20%) when registering would have a provisional rating of 2000 would solve IMO this issue (2000-2100 players would lose less points to those strong provisionally rated players during the wch) and would help to somewhat inflate the ratings that would be a logical thing when seeing the whole correspondence chess standards at the other sites (some already use this 2000 prov. rating). The ratings may even deflate due to the 10 moves rule. Actually I think I would be very favourable to one of these changes.

@Jimmy:

Fortunately there are players like Garvin, Scott, Gino & others who really helped to build the FICGS rules :) On the numbers of players by rating range, it is quite different from a cycle to another, sometimes we have 2 M groups, sometimes there is no M group at all so I'm not sure if it would be representative. Still I'm not favourable at all to have groups of provisionally rated players.


Daniel Parmet    (2011-02-28 23:25:38)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

I agree with Scott on both accounts.

I also think with you Thib re using the 2000 as first rating for new people using engines.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-03-02 15:44:26)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

Hi Garvin :)

The main point is IMO this suggestion:

"All 2100+, 2150+ or 2200+ players (but the 8 of the knockout tournament) could play the M groups at stage 1 with the new rule that only half the players in these M groups can qualify for stage 2, while the winners will qualify for stage 3 as before.

Combined to another new rule, that would allow new members declaring to use a chess engine (not so many so far, maybe 20%) when registering to get a provisional rating of 2000, it could solve this issue.

Indeed 2000-2100 players would lose less points to those strong provisionally rated players during the regular wch groups, while they keep more chances to qualify for round 2, and it would help to somewhat inflate the ratings that would be a logical thing when seeing the whole correspondence chess standards at the other sites (some already use this 2000 prov. rating).

The ratings may even deflate due to the 10 moves rule."


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-03-05 13:43:30)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

There is no similar issue for 2000's IMHO, it is probably easier to cross the 2000-2100 barrier than the 2100-2200 and of course 2200-2300. And once again they would lose much less rating points against these new 2000 provisionally rated players (that's mathematical).

On provisional ratings depending on if players declare if an engine is used, even ICCF (as far as I know) grants a 2000 prov. rating to some players, I was not convinced so far but finally... Of course new players can "lie" or change their mind on using an engine, they'll not be kicked out of any tournament but such a rule is surely better than nothing to get ratings more coherent, btw it is just an improvement of the current rule (new players who have no rating anywhere can choose their first rating between 1200 & 1800, and of course I fix it if e.g. the player declares to play with an engine with a new rating of 1200).

Anyway the idea of players needing to have an established rating before being able to enter the WCH is also fine to me. Let's just try to have more opinions on this.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-03-05 14:03:29)
FICGS chess WCH : choose your rule

Hi all, we need your opinion to choose a new rule for the next FICGS chess WCH, here are the proposals:


1) All 2200+ players (but the 8 of the knockout tournament) play the M groups at stage 1 while only half the players in these M groups can qualify for stage 2. Winners will qualify for stage 3 as before.

2) Same than 1) but also the new members declaring to use a chess engine when registering will get a provisional rating of 2000.

3) All 2100+ players (but the 8 of the knockout tournament) play the M groups at stage 1 while only half the players in these M groups can qualify for stage 2. Winners will qualify for stage 3 as before.

4) Same than 3) but also the new members declaring to use a chess engine when registering will get a provisional rating of 2000.

5) Players need to have an established rating (9 finished & rated games) before being able to enter the WCH waiting list.

6) Same than 5) but also the new members declaring to use a chess engine when registering will get a provisional rating of 2000.


As for me, I think that 2) & 4) are ok for all reasons I mentioned before. 5) & 6) are ok as well but it's a pity to reduce the number of players in the wch cycle :/


Garvin Gray    (2011-03-05 14:07:55)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

Ok for me.

In order, most want to see first:

5
3
1
4
2

Not sure how 6) works? If players have an established rating, how are they new members and need to declare.

Surely the established rating would be used.


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2011-03-05 16:04:01)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

I like 3 & 4 and 1 & 2. I do not like denying access to new members for the championship stages, seems elitist to me.


Daniel Parmet    (2011-03-10 03:15:04)
FICGS chess World Championship #9

btw your assumption that all the 1st seeds get through is wrong. In fact, I didn't get through on my last go around because all the 1800s played drawing lines as white to try to make as sterile a position as possible. This of course forced to play for a win from a drawn position which exactly as you expect - lost. These new proposed changes are in my opinion extremely silly and biased towards people in certain rating brackets. Therefore, I can't participate until I'm on the better half of the bias 2150+


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-03-15 14:08:19)
ChessVibes openings (get 10 issues free)

For correspondence chess fans who like to follow the openings theory, I just received an interesting offer from ChessVibes that I copy/paste here:
__________

Dear correspondence chess lovers,

First, we'd like to thank the administrator of this forum for giving us the opportunity to showcase our product which is especially interesting for this audience, we think. So, here we go:

Subscribe to ChessVibes Openings and get ten issues for free!

Which openings are hot in top level chess? Which are not? Receive the latest opening novelties right in your mailbox with ChessVibes Openings, a weekly PDF magazine (+ PGN!) covering the latest openings news, co-authored by International Masters Merijn van Delft and Robert Ris and published by ChessVibes since January 2009. If you subscribe and mention 'ficgs' in an email to us, you'll receive the last ten issues for free!

What is it?

Every issue consists of a PDF Magazine and the accompanying PGN file. The PDF consists of four pages (A4 size) with the following contents:

- What’s hot? A round-up of this week’s important opening developments, with statistics about the frequence and score of the week’s most important opening novelty (page 1)
- What’s not? Which openings are not recommended at the moment, according to the top players? And why not? (page 1)
Game of the week Each week you’ll find the theoretically most important game analysed by our two IMs, with a detailed survey of the opening phase (page 2).
- This week’s harvest Four more new important opening ideas from this week (page 3) revealed and described with explanation of the opening and early middlegame (page 3).
- It’s Your Move An interactive element: every week two exercises, of which the solutions/explanations will follow one week later. This will improve your understanding of certain opening, middlegame or even endgame themes even further.

Which opening variations have been discussed so far?
You can download an index in PDF here.

http://www.chessvibes.com/plaatjes/cvo/CVO_index_114.pdf

More info & subscribe: You can find more information about ChessVibes Openings, and subscribe, at:

http://www.chessvibes.com/openings/

By subscribing you would join several GMs and IMs, who have responded very positively to our relatively new chess magazine!

Best regards,

Peter Doggers
Editor-in-chief,
ChessVibes

P.S.
If you subscribe and mention 'ficgs' in an email to us at info {at} chessvibes.com, you'll receive the last ten issues for free!


Jai Prakash Singh    (2011-03-23 03:50:19)
New site on Chess Thinking Systems

Petrosian System link is now active at

http://chessthinkingsystems.blogspot.com/

or directly

http://chessthinkingsystems2.blogspot.com/p/petrosian-system.html

Please read and comment.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-04-13 14:07:34)
CHESS__WORLD_CHAMPIONSHIP__000009

Hi Peter. It should be closed in 2 days from now, all replacements and/or new groups will be done then.

I must say I am quite surprised to see several very strong players entering the waiting list after the tournaments started. Too bad that other matches cannot start in the knockout tournament :/

So I may include you in another group M in the round-robin tournament, if you wish!?


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-04-13 15:40:43)
CHESS__WORLD_CHAMPIONSHIP__000009

Okay Peter.

@Garvin : There is no guarantee to play for anyone who entered the waiting list after the closing date, I don't think it is a problem to add new groups if coherent with the existing ones (may be discussed after all), but the main point is that replacements are really useful in some groups.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-04-27 12:40:42)
Active rating lists

Obviously such changes are not good, but not doing these changes would be just worse... for Poker this is different, new players can estimate their level, existing players with no rating start at 1600, but it is quite easy to reach 1800.

For chess, maybe it should have been possible to start at 2000 from the start of the site (as it is possible in some cases at other sites), but by experience I thought it was too much, and engines are stronger today. Well, actually better would be to have a test to estimate a provisional rating... Still it wouldn't be perfect and not sure it would be appreciated :)


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-04-29 11:23:50)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update

Hello everyone! Its been a while since the last time I have updated. I would like to talk about recent happening. Then I will give an update on the games for this round.

I have had some talks with a few players. And I would like to announce that starting next year there will be more prizes. Besides the money prize next year. I haven't decide yet how many of these I will have yet. And its possible there could be more ideas to come by. Please also know that there will be money prizes still this is just something on also to add to the interests.

1.Subscriptions to annotated games. For example Chess Today, Chessvibes, chesspublishing.com and Opening Master. There can be others, these are just examples. If you have other good ideas here please post. Most likely this will be a combined prize here.

2.Rental time on the new Rybka Cluster- Not sure how exactly this one would work. It could be a lot different in a years time for the Rybka Cluster. But I think this would have some interests.

3.Hardware- Again not sure how I would do this. But I would probably have it as a middle to high end setup for a prize. Hardware is always a every changing process its hard to know what is good at that time.

Any other suggests are welcome. Probably the best realistic prize is the first one. If I have multiple prizes like this. The way it would probably play out is like a lottery system. Start with the winner and work your way down. On what they want and go 2nd, 3rd etc...

The last prize to talk about.(And maybe the best) I have had talks with the people of chesspublishing.com and next year. Whatever game is voted for "best game of the round". Will have there game analyzed, by one of the titled players on that site and have the game published. I will try and have it open to everyone that follows the games for the WBCCC.

The next thing of interest for next year. Is that we will have a conditional move system in place. It was thought in a blitz setting to be a great asset to have. For example if your opponent is in a different time zone than you and the next move to you would be a force move. It would be nice to have this option to make the forced play. Without having to say up late at night to make this obvious move. This is all the new stuff. Round 2 Update to come.


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-04-29 14:45:26)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update

The last round was very exciting! And this round has had some great games as well. To speak of there is just 4 games left. Here is the report of the most important games this round.

Starting at the top boards. We have have...

B1-Loboestepario (Gino Figilo) vs CumnorChessClub (Kevin E.Plant)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21163-

This game followed a Catalan. Gino makes ambitious choice to go with 5.Nbd2! I gave this move a ! Not because of its theoretical standing. But because it will lead to a position were white will give up a whole pawn for rapid development. Never the less, black is equal to the task and managers to hold on to the pawn for most of the game and keep the game balanced. With my human eyes, I thought for sure white had an advantage! After move 20.Be4, It looks like white has 2 racking bishops. While black has one black locked in! But in depth analysis shows, that black can hold on. And shows great defensive technique. Down the stretch. Well played by Gino and Kevin. On of my favorite games to follow.

B3-Mark Eldridge vs David Evans
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21165-

David has gotten tested in both his black games in this tournament. And this game was no different. We had another B90 line in this game. And ...8.h5 was used. This is becoming a common line in this tournament. Mark's treatment on the white side was great! I think his future opponents will think twice before trying this line again. At move 22, the game reaches the sharpest point. After move 22.fxe5! I thought that Mark had a chance vs David. But David founds some good moves to exchanges pieces and hold for a draw. The best of which was the combo of ...33.Rf3 and ...36.Rxg3! This was a nice find by him. Great job to David and Mark! I look forward to seeing both these players again.

B4-Stephanie vs Fulcrum2000
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21166-

I would normally just post FICGS member games here. But this maybe one of the top 2 or 3 most important games of this round. In what turns out to be the most exciting game of the round IMO. White has shown that they are quite good in the opening phase. At move 18 they choose 18.b3 which was suggested as being the novelty move. White gets a very strong game and after a king tour to capture the pawn. It looked like a win for sure!, but it seems a mistake was made at move 38. Instead of 38.Qc1!? the move 38.Qe8! seems to be a near winner. I thoughts on why this move was missed is because, White was in time trouble in both games. I have to believe this was a favor. As we speak Stephanie is close to defeat in the other game that I will talk about shortly. I would watch her for the reminded of the tournament. I think they will learn form this experience and be even stronger going future. Well done by both players.

B5-NATIONAL12 vs Kamesh
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21167

Two of my good friends battling here. This was a B90 battle. The novelty move was the straight forward looking 27.h4, but after some exchanges. White has to settled for equality. A good match to follow, the one other note made was this was a line pioneered by Eros Riccio.

B7-Wayne Lowrance vs tomski1981
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21169-

Wayne plays a good line vs the french vs tomski. In fact by the database expert, it was in a 100% win line!! But after the queens come off the board. It burns out to a quiet draw. Wayne has had good opening results, but has yet to get in the winners column. I have faith that Wayne will win a game very soon. Good game to both in this one.

B8-Uly vs indrajit_sg
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21170-

This was a nice game to follow. A french defense was chosen. The point in which it gets interest is the choice to play 19.bxc3!? Which leads to 21.Nh6+!? I loves this sires of moves! 27.Rh3! was also a good move here. But its seems black has just enough resources to hold the balance. ..54.Bxg6! was a good finally touch. Well played by both players.

B9-Balabachi(William Fuller) vs Sebastian Boehme
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21171

What was talked about as a drawish Ruy position. I found to be quite a game with all the early fireworks. I also liked the material imbalance in this game. Sebi has a rep of being very difficult to beat with the black pieces. This helps when you have the Ruy and the Posion pawn line of the Sicilian. As two of your best weapons. ;)

B10-Schachmatt (Matt O'Brein) vs Weirwindle
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21172-

This was an interesting Richter-Rauzer game. 15.Qf4 was the novelty move, Form there it got crazy. 21.Nb3 seems to invite a pawn race. Which in the end white loses. This was a tough game for white. I think he should have been able to hold it. But it was still a good game to follow.

B11-donkasand vs Ruben Comes
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21173

This was a nice positional game by Mike (Donkasand), This was a 6.h3 Sicilian. And we get the usually good defense here. ..7.h5 White gets great positional pressure for the whole game and even gets a pawn, but Ruben wholes for a draw.

B12-natmaku vs ralunger (Ramil Germanes)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21174

This game was a Petroff with 5.Nc3. This kind of move gives white rapid development. Its seems black equalize pretty quickly. And on move 21 a draw was agreed on.

B13-Scott Nichols vs Omprakash
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21175

This was an interesting King's Gambit game. I think Scott didn't study his opponents rep. :) The King's Gambit is Om's specialty. So this was an easy draw for black.

B14-Keoki010 (George Clement) vs deka
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21176-

In this game black returns to his pet line of the Sicilian with 2.a6(Which he played in the last round) I believe this is called the O'Kelly variation. This time around he goes for ..7.Qb6 which looks a little better than ..7.Bb5!? A draw probably should have been possible, but George was able to grid out a win. Well played by both players.

B15-parmetd (Daniel Parmet)vs SpiderG (Peter Marriott)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21177

This was a King Indian by black. And white does a good job of out playing his opponent in this game. Unfortunately it seems Peter has gotten busy in his life. This game was decide by time.

B16-Banned for Life vs TheHug(Jimmy Huggins)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21178

I face off against Alan who has the white pieces. And is consider to be one of the best players when playing 1.b3. It was a difficult game for me as I decide before hand to play a dangerous line. Needless to say I lose this game after a few small mistakes on my part. I am founding that all the players in the WBCCC are good, I maybe better off being a commentator lol, but no one would have that.

This was the first set of games.

Here is the 2nd game of the 2nd round in the next post.


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-04-29 18:36:20)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update

B1-CumnorChessClub (Kevin E.Plant) vs Moz
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21180

Kevin makes an interesting choice here with 2.a4!? vs the Silicon Defense. Not exactly sure what he wanted out of the opening. I can only guess he wanted to mix it up here. Anyway, black equalizes fairly quickly and is better. But after 18.a5! He finds the best way to equalize and both agree to a draw.

B2-jitan vs Loboestepario (Gino Figilo)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21181-

The somewhat unknown Jitan has had a good tournament. And is given his ICCF SM opponent all he can handle. In a game that is still going. Gino is down a pawn, but it appears to be a draw and I would guess the game is about to finish. This was an interesting approach by Gino who gets in b5 and h5 very early in this game. And Jitan plays the most naturally looking sac. 13.Nbxd5! it looked like for a long time Gino was in trouble, but he has found enough resources IMO. A well played game by both players.

B3-Fulcrum2000 vs Mark Eldridge
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21182

This was a nice French game to watch. The novelty move was ..11.Na5, OTB I would like white in this game and I had a feeling that white possibly could have risked an attack, but this game came down to endgame play and White was able to outplay black in the end.

B4-Kamesh vs Stephanie
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21183-

In my opinion this is the most important game the round and it is reaching its fianlly stages. I believe Stephanie to be one of the top players in this event. She has been doing well, but Kam has played the near perfect opening and got her in trouble. If you remember my previous post you remember I talk about Stephanie was in time trouble. Which has not help the cause. The one move I enjoyed the most so far in this game was 36.Ra5!, this was a nice exchange sac. And its given Kam nice pass pawns on the Queen-side. I would guess this game will be over soon. It has been a nice game to watch.

B5-David Evans vs National12
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21184

A battle of the English Countryman here. :) This was the Open Defense of the Ruy. Form the comments I got, it seems that the opening was played about as perfectly as you can get. David posed some problems to Paul(National12), but it ends in a fairly easy draw. One finally note ..10.d4 IMO is a very difficult move to beat.

B6-ppipper vs jitan
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21168-

This is one of the finally 4 games still playing. What looks like to be a draw here. The white black has been dancing for a few moves now, but blacks back rank is weak. That equals a drawish game. :)
This game started out form B90 and so has a ton of theory.

B7-indrajit_sg vs Wayne Lowrance
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21186

I fairly quiet B90 game. I don't think white got much out of the opening. Well played by Wayne here.

B8-tomski1981 vs Uly
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21187

A battle of good friends here. IMO I thought white played the this Queens pawn opening passively. And so we had an early draw at move 26.

B9-Sebastian Boehme vs Schachmatt (Matt O'Brein)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21188-

This is one of the 4 last games. And I have to say its been a good game. We had an interesting Sicilian position. I had thought black was in trouble. But after he tripled up on the d-file. Then got massive exchanges. He looks like its headed toward a draw.

B10-Weirwindle vs donkasand
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21189-

This was a nice positional Sicilian game. Although it ends in a draw. Its a must see game! Watching the drawing combo at the end is very beautiful. It starts with ..27.e4! and you can watch it form there.

B11-Ruben Comes vs Balabachi(William Fuller)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21190

Ruben opened up this rep with 3.h3!? and we ended up with a closed type of Sicilian. But his opponent stayed strong. Though out the game. Even if it looked like Ruben had some pressure. In the finally position.

B12-ralunger (Ramil Germanes) vs keoki010 (George Clement)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21191-

This game saw the Exchange variation in the Queen's gambit. It has a high rate rate. But to Ramil credit he manage to give George a couple of weak pawns in the endgame, but not enough for any real advantage.

B13-Omparakash vs natmaku
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21193-

I would have hoped for more in this game. As I'm a lover of the 6.Bc4 (Sozin) Sicilian. After 14.e5!? this forces unneeded exchanges. After which, the game looked like a draw. And that is how it ended.

B14-deka vs Scott Nichols
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21194

Usually the Exchange Slav is pretty drawish. And this game was no different. But both players did try to mount some kind of advance. Both had good posts on each others side of the board. But a drawish opening is a drawish opening.

B15-TheHug (Jimmy Huggins) vs parmentd
(Daniel Parmet)
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21195

I tried my luck in an opening that was not something with e4. And it didn't go as well I had hoped, Daniel was able to get a equal position fairly quickly. In my try at making new theory in a very uncommon line vs the King's Indian Defense.

And finally we have this last game.

B16-SpiderG (Peter Marriott) vs Banned for Life
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=21196

This would have promised to be a nice Larson Attack game. By alas Peter timed out in this game as well. I would have loved to seen this attacking game with both sides castled on opposite sides.

Well that would do it for my reports for this round. This was a great round, and the next promises to be great as well. I will post info for the next round after the last game is over with.

Any feedback is welcome!


Scott Nichols    (2011-04-29 18:54:35)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update

Jimmy, you are THE reason this tournament is so exciting. It is very much appreciated. If word gets around like I think it will for next year, we may even have some OTB GM's in there. Thanks again for all your work, Scott.


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-04-29 19:39:52)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update

Well promotion is going to be important. And I have been talking to some people about it and seeing what I can and should do. After this tournament is over, there is a good chance we will have a top tier freestyle event after that. It will be before WBCCC II. It will be a good way to promote a nice tournament. I know a some of the FICGS players would like to play in such a tournament. As far as OTB GM's maybe lol. :) I think getting more titled players form ICCF, here, and other sites is possible. I have about 5 to 6 sources I will promote heavily. Add a couple of others. I'm going to be ambitious and say we can get 60+ players in next year. And maybe more. It will be a great 6 round tournament next time. Since it will probably go the whole year. I will try and add something for vacation time in there. If we go over by a month or something. That would be oh ok.(For WBCCC II) and thanks for the compliment. :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-04-29 19:49:47)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update

I agree with Scott, very nice report & great job, keep up the good work Jimmy!


George Clement    (2011-04-29 20:49:43)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update

Jimmy, great report. You should do more of this!


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-04-30 01:03:45)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update

Thanks Thib and George. And your right George, it is my job to do so.


George Clement    (2011-04-30 17:11:19)
WBCCC-New stuff and Round 2 Update

Hey Jimmy I didn't mean it was your job. You are doing a good job!!! is what I meant. In fact it's a great job. Thanks :-)


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. :)


Paul Valle    (2011-05-03 23:40:03)
Starting Rating

First of all: This is a great site, and love the fact that the Thib interacts with users to improve the site. Many decent chess sites out there, but this is rare.

When it comes to starting ratings, I would like to add some ideas for improvement:

The point of ratings is that they should reflect playing strength.
Likewise, the goal with starting ratings is that it should reflect actual playing strength.
Rules for both should be as equal and fair as possible.

Assumption:
I) the composition of «Active Players» and their ratings here on FICGS, are a valuable source in guesstimating a new players rating. Most players here play aided by an engine and the site is free, so players here should reflect what comes in the door.
(BTW My minimum definition of an «Active Player», is someone who has made at least one move in the period leading up to the official rating list.)
II) Lightning rating is a good estimate of Correspondence Rating.

I further believe that any choices or complications made to the FIDE rules of one starting rating fits all, should mostly be done to aid good Advanced Chess Players, and good OTB-players. Such complications might not be fair, but essential for FICGS to be relevant to the elite.

My proposal:

«Newly Regs» have a choice of THREE options upon starting to play correspondence CHESS on FICGS:

A) Start with a set rating. I would suggest this be set at the average or median off all Active players. Or a fixed numerical constant times this average. You could of course set up all kinds of formulas, but the main point in should reflect the current composition of FICGS members and not estimates based on unverifiable data given by the player.

Some players might feel that they are way better than this and might be discouraged to join and fight for a long time to reach the top tournaments they feel they are entitiled to play. The seccond option is created to encourage these players to join, and give them a choice to prove their skill relativly quickly and accurately.

B) Play 10 preliminary lightning games (starting with the same rating as in A), and then using the end lightning rating as the starting rating for normal tournaments. These players will get a much more accurate starting rating, and may be well motivated to put in the effort if they care. (If all the 10 games went close to 60 moves, and both players used all their time, the playing time would be around 16 hours)

Then there are the top international correspondence or Over-The-Board players. Why bother these with 10 lightning games?

C) Titled players can start in Master with a higher fixed rating (same as in option A, but multiplied with a higher constant), but must register by credit card to prove identity.

Possible drawbacks and problems
1) Assumption I and/or II is flawed
2) A poor player might be highly overrated choosing option A)
3) Players can dump lightning rating points to a friend
4) Implementation cost – development

-What ya think folks?
reg, Paul


Paul Valle    (2011-05-04 00:00:05)
Amateur player beats Rybka 4 !?

The guy seems to be a complete charlatan:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7183
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7190
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7194
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/ukrainian-beats-rybka-4-blindfolded/

reg, Paul


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-05-26 21:40:21)
Sad news

Take care Wayne........ I only hope to read better news from you very soon.


Jai Prakash Singh    (2011-05-31 20:44:13)
New site on Chess Thinking Systems

Read a review and get Maximum discount on GM Igor Smirnov Courses at

http://chessthinkingsystems.blogspot.com/


Jai Prakash Singh    (2011-06-03 05:04:07)
New site on Chess Thinking Systems

Now watch six chess videos "How to Plan and Execute in Chess", "Breaking Stereotypes series 1,2 & 3", "How to prevent Blunders" and "How to break 3000 rating in blitz chess" all by GM Igor Smirnov free at

http://chessthinkingsystems.blogspot.com/


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-07-13 22:42:29)
More statistics for every player

I've just added a new feature to see more statistics on every player, see in Preferences >> (statistics)

You can see such informations for every player by typing in example this link:

http://www.ficgs.com/players/devassal_thibault#stats

(wow, that's really not glorious :))

Any suggestion is welcome...


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-07-23 01:45:13)
No more draws (over the board)

An interesting idea by Rustam Kasimdzhanov to avoid draws in classical chess tournaments...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7387


Jai Prakash Singh    (2011-08-02 05:12:20)
A strong Opening Surprise

hi friends,
now watch an original new video analysis by GM Igor Smirnov
A Strong Opening Surprise by White 1.b3 (Part 2-All Black replies except e5)
at http://chessthinkingsystems.blogspot.com/


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-08-19 11:43:45)
Rybka banned from ICGA

Clone or not clone, I'm not sure if this question is worth something in computer chess but ICGA did it: Rybka was banned and stripped of titles...

I just partly read RybkaInvestigation document, a few points are particularly ridiculous (like 2.2 "Sudden Strength Increase"), I have no idea on the other ones and I'm not sure if this is really important in the real world.

Finally, the punishment:

- to strip Rajlich of all ICGA Tournament Titles and,
- force the return of trophies and prize funds to the ICGA and,
- ban his programs from future competitions until he can satisfy the ICGA that they are no longer derivatives and that he has satisfied the conditions of any other penalties the ICGA imposes.
- encourage other tournaments (Leiden, Paderborn, CCT, TACCL, etc.) to disallow the entry of Rybka until it is proven “clean”.


ICGA Panel Members

The Secretariat members:
Robert Hyatt - (Crafty, Cray Blitz, World Computer Chess Champion in 1983 and 1986)
Mark Lefler (author of Now)
Harvey Williamson (part of Hiarcs Team)
Panel members:
Albert Silver (software designer for Chess Assistant (1999-2002); currently editor of
Chessbase News (2010-present))
Amir Ban (author of Junior: World Champion 2002, 2004, 2006, World microcomputer
Champion 1997, 2001)
Charles Roberson (author of NoonianChess)
Christophe Theron (author of Chess Tiger)
Dariusz Czechowski (author of Darmenios)
Don Dailey (author of Cilkchess, Star Socrates, Rex, Komodo)
Eric Hallsworth (part of Hiarcs Team, Publisher of Selective Search magazine)
Fabien Letousky (author of Fruit)
Frederic Friedel (Chessbase.com)
Gerd Isenberg (author of IsiChess)
Gyula Horvath (author of Pandix, Brainstorm)
Ingo Bauer (Shredder team)
Jan Krabbenbos (Tournament Director of Leiden tournaments)
Kai Himstedt (author of Gridchess and Cluster Toga)
Ken Thompson (creator of Belle Chess Machine, World Computer Chess Champion
1980, Turing Award winner 1983, creator of B and C programming languages,
Unix and Plan 9 developer).
Marcel van Kervinck (author of Rookie)
Maciej Szmit (assistant professor at Technical University of Lodz)
Mark Watkins (MAGMA Computer Algebra Group, School of Mathematics and
Statistics, University of Sydney)
Mark Uniacke (Hiarcs, World Microcomputer Champion 1993)
Mincho Georgiev (Pawny)
Olivier Deville (Tournament Director of ChessWars)
Omid David (author of Falcon)
Peter Skinner (Tournament Director of CCT--the major annual online computer chess
tournament)
Ralf Schäfer (author of Spike)
Richard Vida (author of Critter)
Richard Pijl (author of The Baron)
Stefan Meyer-Kahlen (author of Shredder, multiple world champions from 1996-2007)
Thomas Mayer (author of Quark)
Tord Romstad (author of Stockfish, Glaurung)
Tom Pronk (ProChess, Much)
Vladan Vuckovic (Axon, Achilles)
Wylie Garvin (game Programmer at Ubisoft Montreal)
Yngvi Björnsson (The Turk)
Zach Wegner (author of ZCT and Rondo, an upgraded version of Anthony Cozzie’s
Zappa program, which was world champion in 2005)
ICGA Board
President - David N.L. Levy
Vice-President: Yngvi Björnsson
Secretary-Treasurer: Hiroyuki Iida
Programmers Representative: Rémi Coulom
WCCC Tournament Director
Jaap van den Herik

http://www.chessvibes.com/plaatjes/rybkaevidence/RybkaInvestigation.pdf

http://www.chess.com/news/rybka-banned-and-stripped-of-titles-3798

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQshTNJ4pSM


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-10-28 01:20:25)
Official WBCCC freestyle cup 1 to begin

...btw what happened in this tournament?? any news?


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-11-13 19:52:28)
List ordered by rating

Here is, but as usual the new ratings (january 2012) will be taken in account...

Erwin Thiering 2515
Michael Bergmann 2475
Xavier Pichelin 2454
Thibault de Vassal 2449
Herbert Kruse 2436
Pavel Háse 2332
Ljubomir Tsenkov 2314
Rubén Cómes 2300
Wayne Lowrance 2266
Dariusz Fraczek 2261
Ramil Germanes 2255
Miroslav Gazi 2255
Alexander Blinchevsky 2253
Michael Sharland 2251
Sergey Kokoryukin 2251
Andrey Razumikhin 2250
Valery Nemchenko 2245
Lubos Fric 2241
Kevin D. Plant 2237
Christoph Schroeder 2236
Viktor Shishkin 2234
Slobodan Ilic 2218
Dmitri Mamrukov 2211
Vitaly Rudenko 2203
Alvin Alcala 2203
Carlos Sánchez 2203
Garvin Gray 2200
Scott Nichols 2189
Peter Unger 2181
Martin Zeman 2181
Christian Koch 2167
Stephen Hamby 2163
John Schutte 2136
David Evans 2132
Nelson Bernal Varela 2130
Darren DiAlfonso 2123
Ardiantez Polkwitzauer 2123
Thomas Dineen 2118
Peter W. Anderson 2112
Steve Lim 2110
Yu Ming Hoe 2100
Arkadiusz Wosch 2093
Djordje Kasabasic 2093
Luis Flores 2084
Daniel Parmet 2083
Lalit Kapoor 2080
Erik L. van Dijk 2074
Bernd Wolf 2072
Jose Lopez 2071
Sergey Uzdin 2064
Rodolfo d Ettorre 2064
Janos Helmer 2063
Om Prakash 2053
Mykola Simashkevitch 2043
Alexis Duenas 2037
Ireneusz Kasznia 2036
Mihail Larsky 2028
Joop Simmelink 2026
Pan Hardfeldt 2020
Henri Muller 2000
Jaroslav senior Pech 2000
Jaroslaw Gibas 2000
Bogoljub Teverovski 1997
Willy De Waele 1996
Fernando Vasquez 1992
Jose Moreira 1979
Andrew Endean 1975
Henri-Louis Muller 1972
Jose Maria Velasco 1972
Jordi Domingo 1969
Janeen Walden 1958
Andy Richard 1956
Roberto Migliorini 1949
Erika van Dijk 1943
Daniel Reboredo 1938
Coco Maceda 1938
Michael Rogers 1933
Aleksandr Aksenov 1927
Mariusz Maciej Broniek 1923
Robert Wilhelm 1901
Kieran Moore 1900
John Dyson 1889
Catalin Nita 1888
Daniel Jabot 1878
Johanes Suhardjo 1875
Mikhail Ruzin 1871
Benjamin Block 1863
Ilmar Ambos 1859
Vyacheslav Shchelykalin 1859
Jan Peter Lommler 1844
Stanislas Gounant 1840
Mircea Hrubaru 1838
Sasha Lipsits 1833
Nilson Pereira 1833
Aleksey Payzansky 1804
Jai Prakash Singh 1800
Fredi Brumec 1800
Gleen Duran 1800
Josef Strohmeier 1800
Ryszard Sternik 1776
Stepan Pech 1767
Dieter Faust 1764
Dmitriy Malish 1760
Dimitrios Ropokis 1743
Hasan Kirali 1715
Eddit Moreul 1700
Behzad Shahmiri 1700
Jaimie Wilson 1684
Dinesh Bhandarkar 1682
Philip Roe 1667
Olli Ylönen 1660
Graham Cridland 1655
Juan Alvar 1653
Jeremy Banta 1644
Luís Gonzaga Grego 1643
Pablo Siciliano 1623
Mariusz Jandula 1600
Sergey Biryukov 1598
Alejandro Canovas 1589
Jimmy Huggins 1577
Matthew O Brien 1575
Pablo Ruano 1565
Khaled Toutaoui 1528
Stanimir Denchev 1505
Leo Malagar 1500
Richard Hendricks 1479
Eric Price 1469
Antonio Pereira 1456
Angelo Piantadosi 1420
Simon Huxtable 1388
Peter Krakovsky 1326
Marc-Antoine Leurette 1243
Jorge Orden 1204
Hana Pechova 1204
Jorma Häkkinen 1192
Des Jefferis 1186
Deon Whittaker 1111
Matej Pech 1074
Jiri Mach 1022
Cédric Cavaillé 1003
Jay Melquiades 0909
Jaroslav Pech 0697


Garvin Gray    (2011-11-14 10:16:07)
New Blitz Silver Match

I am now looking for a new player to have a blitz silver match with.

If you are interested, just reply to this post and then we can discuss further.


Garvin Gray    (2011-11-15 06:54:19)
New Blitz Silver Match

No interest hey?


Alvin Alcala    (2011-11-15 18:34:37)
New Blitz Silver Match

Guy you will have a fun and exciting match if you play garvin. :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-11-28 15:10:21)
New feature to block messages

Hi all,

I just added a new feature that enables players to block/ignore all future messages from any other player.

Please note that there is NO WAY to take it back. (abuses would be easy otherwise)

The way to proceed: If a player sends abusing or provocative messages (according to the rules you have to avoid to reply it, the option appears at this condition only), just click the "report message" link THEN you'll see the "ignore future messages from this player" link. Just click it and you're done.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-11-28 18:13:08)
New feature to block messages

This will be a very useful feature. Thanks for putting it in Thib.


Don Groves    (2011-11-30 05:50:01)
New feature to block messages

I didn't know this was such a problem...


Jimmy Huggins    (2011-11-30 07:51:22)
New feature to block messages

I have had a couple guys get me to the point of just wanting to resign the game. So I didn't have to listen to them anymore.


Garvin Gray    (2011-11-30 15:18:14)
New feature to block messages

I can not recall ever having any issues with people abusing me during games.


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2011-11-30 23:35:40)
New feature to block messages

I agree with Jimmy. I have made the same experiences. I'm also glad that we have this feature now. Thank you very much, Thibault.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-12-01 01:24:23)
New feature to block messages

Yes, unfortunately it was necessary, definitely :/


Don Groves    (2011-12-01 08:02:33)
New feature to block messages

I did have one bad experience a few years ago but none since.


Garvin Gray    (2011-12-14 16:23:23)
5 player double round robins

Not a big fan of the idea of games starting at different times as more players join the tournament.

I could see that after a while and if a player is involved in a few tournaments, that it just feels like they are playing in different individual games, and new games join the list at random times.

With the way things are done at the moment, a new set of games are started when a new tournament begins, so it is obvious that the tournament you entered has started.


Garvin Gray    (2011-12-15 18:10:53)
5 player double round robins

Thib, are you saying that you are considering creating a whole new third category of chess tournaments?

We currently have standard and rapid, all seven player tournaments. Are you proposing that we have a third category, which are five player double round robins?

If you are proposing a whole new third category, then I am not in favour of this idea. We are having enough issues filling the tournaments we already have, I think adding a whole new set of tournaments will just make this situation worse, where players are sprinkled around the three events, but not enough join one particular one to get any of them started.

We have enough players on this site that tournaments should be able to start. So it is not like we are completely short of players in certain categories.


Garvin Gray    (2011-12-23 17:05:47)
5 player double round robins

To try and accommodate a few concerns of some, I think there are three possible options.

1) Change both standard and rapid divisions to 5DRR.

2) Change just one of standard or rapid to 5PDRR and leave the other as 7SRR.

3) Create an entire new division with 5DRR and leave the current standard and rapid as they are.

I think option 2 would be the most useful in providing information on whether the change is successful.

Option 1 is the most committal, as it is changing everything.

Option 3 is worth consideration, but it could lead to insufficient numbers across all three divisions. It could also 'suffer' and not provide useful feedback if the time control and rating bands chosen are not suitable.

If Option 3 was considered, it would need to be something between standard and rapid, perhaps 14 days initial plus 3 days increment.


Thibault de Vassal    (2011-12-24 17:44:25)
5 player double round robins

Maybe we have a beginning of answer in this new discussion:

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=10165

Do you think that rated or unrated 5 players double round-robin would (partly) solve the problem?


Garvin Gray    (2011-12-29 10:24:38)
5 player double round robins

I would still prefer 5 player drr's, but 4 player drr is acceptable.

All I want is this idea to start, whether it is 5P, 4P or Thib's idea of Maybe we have a beginning of answer in this new discussion:

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=10165

Do you think that rated or unrated 5 players double round-robin would (partly) solve the problem?

=======================

The only issue I have with this idea is the unrated part. All games need to be rated.

If its not rated, its not real :) and also it unrated games do not solve some of the rating band issues all of us have discussed previously.


Garvin Gray    (2011-12-29 16:11:44)
Different tournament format

Thibault has touched on an issue that I have thought about for a while, so time for a new thread.

Regularly it is discussed about the issues regarding the rating bands, getting to play different players and all sundry similiar issues.

In my opinion I think what this site really needs is more events run under the correspondence style format (not freestyle cup style), where players of significantly different ratings are playing against each other.

Here is what I envisage:

Qualification Stage:

All players of all ratings enter. Groups are divided up similar to Ficgs, except that no players are segregated, so the highest rated player is in Group A, second highest rated player in Group B and so forth.

Even numbers in each group, with a maximum of nine players in a group. There are no substitutes after a group begins.

There are no special groups for the highest rated players or knockout matches. (this is most important to distinguish this event from the WCH)

Final Stage(s):

The winners of each qualification group advance to the final stages, everyone else is eliminated. If there is a tie for first, then all tied players advance. If only one group is required, then this is the final.

If two groups are required, then it would be semi finals and normal round robin pairings would be used and the cycle repeats to get a final group of .... players.

To encourage the highest rated players to enter and to give everyone else a chance to win something substantial, e point entry fee would be 10 epoints.


Garvin Gray    (2012-01-02 02:12:58)
Chess world championship #10

Hey Thib, you certainly do have a sense of humour lol

In my group of 9 players in class M, there is Scott Nichols, Alvin Alcala and myself. Nice to see I get some new opponents lol


Philip Roe    (2012-01-04 00:02:21)
On rules & players who lost 300 pts

There are players (who I could name if asked) who are capable of strong play but who start many more games than they finish. Whatever the outcome, there is little satisfaction to playing them. The problem with trying to impose any penalty is to identify them without closely policing the sytem.

A possible solution might be that players who have recently lost many short games could be restricted in the number of new entries that they can make.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-01-10 23:07:31)
Ratings UpDates

Correspondence chess ratings (that are taken in account when a new tournament starts) do not change after every game, but yes you can see your provisional "future rating" as George says.

It is different for Go to allow strong players to climb faster the enormous ladder (2500 points for Go at most). For Poker the difference is less obvious but the game is less serious than chess and it is quite exciting to see this rating list evolving each day :) At the end I wouldn't change anything now.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-01-12 21:04:58)
Standard open : DRR with entry fee/prize

Finally, this discussion to replace the two following discussions that ended on about the same conclusion and to have opinions on this new chess tournament : CHESS STANDARD OPEN (rated double round robin for 5 players, with entry fee 30 epoints & prize 145 epoints, no elo restriction)

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=10165
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=10127


Scott Nichols    (2012-01-18 20:57:37)
Standard open : DRR with entry fee/prize

Hmmm, I must not be as strong as I thought, :) J/k, I know what you mean. BUT, the whole idea was to get a more variety here, all the free games haven't gone away, you just added something new, which IMO was sorely needed. If you look at the stats Thib, probably last year my games here dropped off, not because I wasn't entering, but because it was hard to find a game. Plus the WBCCC had an impact, at least IMO, I don't know the stats. I still play for the home team as always will as long as you are here Thib, but I also admit, I learned a lot at that forum.


Garvin Gray    (2012-01-20 17:45:57)
Standard open : DRR with entry fee/prize

I do not think a few e points either way are going to make a difference to the 2400 players. What most likely matters to them is winning tournaments and titles.

So either way they were not going to enter these events.

Just to start stratching the record ;) my original idea was for these double round robins was for one of the divisions to be replaced with them, not to create a whole new division.

As it currently stands, I really do not see the point of this change as it feels like duplications of other areas of the site.


Mario Andreoni    (2012-02-07 13:53:02)
From Gambit Thematic Tournament

Thibault,

could a player start (or propose) new tournaments (especially thematic ones)? If so, how?

Sorry if I cause you to reply to these questions for the one-millionth time :-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-02-07 14:51:01)
From Gambit Thematic Tournament

Hello Mario,

Sure, feel free to suggest new thematic tournaments in this discussion or by email, we always need good ideas :)


Don Groves    (2012-02-10 16:17:29)
Server overload?

Good news, merci !


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-02-12 19:47:17)
annotated games

That's not the right place IMO. The game would not be visible enough. See Wikichess, just follow the moves and enter the new moves if needed. That's quite long though, sorry it surely needs an update.

Why not posting it in the forum as well? We could see it more easily. Just enter [ PGN ] (without the spaces) followed by the complete game in Portable Game Notation format, then finish with [ /PGN ]


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-02-13 14:12:24)
annotated games

New player... maybe.


Don Groves    (2012-02-22 15:06:45)
Folding in Poker

The "whole system" should have changed when a few players were allowed to begin at ELO 1800 while the rest of us began at 1600. That was definitely not a fair situation.

What rating do new players begin at now?


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-02-22 18:49:31)
Folding in Poker

New players still start from 1400 to 1800. If ratings would restart right now I'm quite sure that the rating list would be about the same after 2 months or 3... Whatever the rules change (we'll avoid any in the future), players find their place after a few months of play.


Garvin Gray    (2012-02-25 13:57:13)
Folding in Poker

Ok, the main question to me is-

Which system is more able to predict the rules of a match before it begins?

If it was the first system, then that should return. If it is the current system, then keep it.

A more responsive system is usually better, but in the case of ficgs, this may not be good for two reasons:

1) While in otb chess/poker, there are very few mass time outs by a player, online this can occur, as is seen 'regularly' on here.
2) In otb chess, players do not have any kind of official rating until they have played a certain number of games.

This then means those early games to not affect all the other players ratings, which is not the case on here.

In terms of predictive accuracy, which is more accurate? That is the only consideration for me.

When I said that the ratings should be re-run, I did not mean we should start the ratings from scratch and begin from day one.

What I was saying is that ALL the previous results should be re-fed back into the system with the new rating formula and the ratings adjusted accordingly.

Then this would give information to compare as it would contain one set of ratings all measured by the same rating formula.


Paul Campanella    (2012-02-26 19:44:53)
New Player Ratings

I started at a 1600 rating. Personally, I find it completely UNACCEPTABLE that new players start at 1800 because it is a misrepresentation of their poker skills.

I started playing poker approximately a year ago on this site and I had to work exceptionally hard to make it into the top 20. As a past low ranked 1600 player... it was not easy to advance my elo to 1800+. It took considerable time and dicipline to hone my skills and get to the B-Level Tournaments. Playing those lower ranked players developed my skill because it taught me to expect the unexpected and learn all about odds and player styles.

Allow me to present some examples of players in relation to starting point and current rating:

A) I started out as a 1600 player... there were many people that were low ranked. As of now, the only 2 players that I recall advancing from a low rank to the top 20 are Paul Campanella (#16) and Dmitriy Panov (#17).

B) Slobodan Ilic (#6) and Trond Amile (#11) are both high rated good players but the reality is that it is much easier for people like them who entered in as 1800 elo to advance to the top compared to people who entered in at 1600 elo.

Now it seems that all new players get a "free ride" to the B-Class Tournaments and 200 elo points for doing absolutely nothing!

Starting at 1600 elo and advancing through the ranks is the true definition of skill. In order for players' ratings to accurately represent their skills, EVERYONE should start at 1600 and WORK their way up!


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-02-27 02:22:02)
Folding in Poker

Well, mathematically poker ratings below about 1900 mean something of a different nature (level of course but also the number of games played) than ratings over 1900 because it is much easier to win points below 2000 (see rules) and it was even easier before february 2011, so it would be much easier after the change asked by Scott. A player who starts at 1600 will need to play more games than a player who starts at 1800 to reach 2000, but not necessarily to make more efforts. In addition there are ways to manage ratings to enter certain waiting lists more quickly. Also, considering the slow inflation that exists the contrary of what you say is true in a certain measure as well, new players will have to play more games than you to reach the top, actually the whole thing is really complex.

But... anyway I'll try not to change the rules again/too many times to avoid such (logical) reactions and that's why I take time to think about this one again.

I think that this change would make the poker ratings more attractive but less realistic and accurate so...... any other opinions? :)

Also, new players DO NOT get a free ride to the B class tournaments, many still start with 1600 according to the level they pretend when registering. So the difference is not so much, actually it may help you to climb the scale faster if you can beat a 1800 player easily... Really complex as I said but anyway I think that ratings are more accurate when players can start at different levels, because more players in the different categories mean more games in each one (players will find their rating faster) and because everybody do not lie every time. Everybody will not agree with this but I have a certain experience with the chess ratings now and I'm quite certain that most changes were good ones, so probably for poker.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-03-04 22:10:37)
Folding in Poker

To resume the initial discussion and after that the top ranked poker player resigned all his poker games to obviously show that he can regain his points quickly, I propose to continue the discussion in a new thread:

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=10353


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-03-04 23:01:30)
FICGS poker ratings

A problem is that it is impossible to enter new waiting lists when having more than 50 poker games running.

On the other point your strategy may work but at the end you'll probably lose many points... I prefer to lose the almost lost games before to win the almost won ones to have a stable high rating. Anyway it would take much time to sort, I prefer to play all games the same way.

That will be an instructive challenge for sure.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-03-05 00:22:47)
FICGS poker ratings

I knew that you would answer this way... And you are right on several points.

I read the rules before to write this, we could envisage to change the rules on the general forfeits issue but it wouldn't probably be so easy to "fix" it. Maybe another discussion is needed.

About chess, this has been done the same way several times for different reasons, see Wolfgang Utesch, Wayne Lowrance... The only difference is that Nelson gave a bad reason (with the excuse that he may have done this to help to find the best rating rules, which was not necessary). But he could have said something else. What would be the perfect rule? The current rule was probably discussed in the forum previously. Nothing better was found, that's all.

Anyway, this site stands for applying rules... and IMO I have the choice between doing nothing in this special case and preventing Nelson to enter a waiting list during 2 months. Nelson was totally wrong to do this... (also because of Paul's previous message that proves that it is possible to climb the scale quite quickly, which IMO goes in the way of not changing the rating rules) but now that it's done, I think that the best thing for the site is to let him continue, at least we'll learn something from this and it will improve the rating rules.


Paul Campanella    (2012-03-05 20:37:13)
50+ Poker Games

Personally, I think that a person should be allowed to have more than 50 poker games running at once.

I think it's unfair for people to be banned from playing in new tournaments just because they have too many old games running due to the fact that some people take forever to make a move and others purposely will delay to make any more at all in a losing game.

What does everyone else think?


Paul Campanella    (2012-03-06 17:13:22)
50+ Poker Games

Keeping games running so long is a detrement to everyone!

For example, it is unfair to be denied admission to a new poker tournament just because a player has over 50 games running, when some of those games started over a year ago and people take forever to make moves or purposely delay moving in certain games due to the fear of losing rating points.

I have a fair proposal that I would like to make...

"If the poker game(s) started over one calendar year ago, then it should not count toward the 50 game limit".

Does anyone agree or disagree? Or perhaps someone has a better suggestion about the time frame? I am curious to know what people think about this.


Don Groves    (2012-03-15 05:18:21)
Replaying games

That's the problem! Firefox opens the file in a new tab and I guess that messes up my login. If I type 64299 in the game box and press go, it's fine.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-03-15 19:38:52)
Replaying games

What do you mean "file"? It shouldn't open a new tab to open this page!? Well, I have the last Firefox too and I have no such problem.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-03-21 11:59:35)
Go : Zen engine 4 stones away from 9p?

How do you understand this defeat of the 9p player Takemiya Masaki against Zen program at Go a few days ago?

http://www.usgo.org/news/2012/03/zen-computer-go-program-beats-takemiya-with-just-4-stones/

Computers become more & more dangerous even at Go, obviously.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-03-24 20:42:07)
Slow tournament entries

@Michael: there is now an open tournament but epoints are needed.

About a way to play games directly from Chessbase, this is unlikely to happen, it has been discussed before.

Finally the main problem at the moment is that we have no new players enough but... I'm working on!


Paul Valle    (2012-04-12 11:36:49)
King's Gambit solved!

I've been absent from the chess for a while. But suddenly felt the urge to waste some time at work browsing through old chess-articles. Being a huge fan of gambit-play, I thought I’d share the following: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8047
Against the King’s Gambit accepted, apparently the only way to hold a theoretical draw is by 3.Be2 …


Tano-Urayoan Russi Roman    (2012-04-12 13:37:10)
King's Gambit solved!

Did you read this: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8051, it was was an April's fool day joke.


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.


Garvin Gray    (2012-04-16 17:37:09)
About Pinformant

Ok, I signed up a couple of days ago and have looked at it a few times. Have to admit that at this stage I just do not get this.

At the moment I can see a chessbase article on the World Champs, Kramnik on his thoughts about current players and the ficgs home page.

What am I to do now to maximise how to use this new place? And how does this help get more chess players to ficgs?


Don Groves    (2012-04-19 01:38:09)
Slow tournament entries

@ Michael: You got that right! Not only losing interest but also losing track of what your plan was after weeks of waiting for your opponent to move.

I agree with Garvin that our standard time controls are too long. Another problem is that some players have so many games running simultaneously that they can't keep up. I've noticed two different kinds of these players:

(1) Some players will ignore their new games until they've finished older ones. Thus they don't move at all in new games until they are forced to by the clock.

(2) Others will ignore their older games to play the new ones (openings are fun) and return to the older games only when their clock demands it.

In either case, this kind of behavior is what leads to games lasting 6 months to a year in some cases.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-04-19 15:16:13)
Slow tournament entries

We must no forget IMHO that playing correspondence chess here has absolutely nothing to do with playing chess at Gameknot...

Playing with one's real name is really not the same as playing with a casual name, the involvement is different. The rapid time control is really hard enough IMHO when analyzing 10+ games seriously. Time controls at ICCF are longer than our standard's one as far as I remember. Times have changed though, engines as well but not everyone can play 1 move in each game a day.

FICGS will never compete with Gameknot in the number of players or games played, but the quality of chess games may be higher in average.

Let's not try to fix a problem too quickly by creating another one. The main problem right now is that no games enough are starting each month, I'm working on!

If once this problem is fixed you still think that standard time control is too long then we can debate it and envisage a change of the time control or to create a new tournaments category.


Ramil Germanes    (2012-04-20 05:19:16)
Slow tournament entries

In my almost two years of playing here in FICGS, I have observed one major factor why tournament entries are going down.

For me, it's because of the large difference of the rating brackets in a certain tournament class.

For example, in a standard class M tourney (2200-2400), if I have a rating of 2300-2399, I will not play because possibly almost all of my opponents there will be around 2200+ and the thing is it's very hard to win against these players now and I may lose rating points even if I draw with them.

But by decreasing the difference in the rating brackets, let's say 2300-2400 or even 2300-2350 for example of a certain tournament class, will encourage me to play in these tournaments because the possibility of losing rating points by drawing is minimal.

With these new bracketing, it will also give us an easier way to climb the rating ladder thus encouraging us to play more games!


Garvin Gray    (2012-04-20 15:50:47)
XFCC Play

Damn, I am still getting that issue where i can not read ficgs links on here. Each time I click on a link, as per the above link, a new window opens and I get the please type in your username and password again message screen.

And then I am back to the home page, not the link.

I have just tried in firefox, chrome and ie.


Ramil Germanes    (2012-04-21 01:42:02)
Slow tournament entries

Another thing:

Why only tournaments?

Why no option for only one or two games where you can challenge a player of your choice directly in a longer time control? (what we have now is we have no control of who our opponent is, as long as the fee is met anyone can challenge anyone, but that is not attractive to higher rated players. see it's mostly about rating points!)

Often newly registered players don't easily see how to play correspondence chess here (many asks in the chat bar how to play) because they are expecting they can play a game instantly but here you have to wait for the waiting list to be filled for the tourney to start and that may take weeks or even months. And that's kind of turn-off to them even for me before.




Garvin Gray    (2012-04-21 09:27:58)
Slow tournament entries

I have proposed previously that a new tournament should be created for all players, similar to the current ficgs world champs, except that ALL players need to start from round one. No knockout series, or separate m groups.

All players of all ratings start from round one.


Daniel Parmet    (2012-04-21 16:48:24)
LSS is the worst Corr server

I previously erroneously had this as a sidebar chat.

I will post the story here.

I had 22 games running on LSS. All of a sudden a game disappeared. I checked and found the administrator had decided to resign for me in a game where I had a cleanly winning position and 43 days on my clock. I contacted the administrator politely to inquire why he had done this. He answered rudely explaining that he did not care about my problem. After his uncalled for rudeness, I explained to him I was no longer interested in playing further games on this "joke of a server" so please remove me from a tournament that was about to start. He responded with pure insults and a memberships suspension but *did not* remove me from that tournament. When the new tournament started, I explained to him again that he was supposed to have removed me. I was only interested in finishing my current games out of respect for my opponents. The administrator then went and forfeited all currently running 19 games and placed a ban on me playing there again until 2013. I told him that was disrespectful not just to me but to my opponents as well. He then deleted my account entirely (which doesn't bother me as I would have asked for this after my 19 games finished). There you have it... Ortwin Paetzold - the bat shit crazy administrator.


Scott Nichols    (2012-04-21 17:34:46)
LSS is the worst Corr server

I have decided to quit offering my opinion here, but this one I will answer. I was very surprised by this, as I have many games on LSS and have had some limited dealings with Dr. Paetzold and they have always been prompt and courteous. LSS offers a wide variety of tournaments including my favorite, 10 days with 1 day per move increment. This is much more my style, I have tried too many times to get something like that here, but to avail. I have just renewed my membership for five years on LSS. The only thing I'm sorry about Daniel is that we had a recent draw on there, but if I had waited a little longer, obviously I would have got the full point.


Garvin Gray    (2012-04-21 19:04:37)
Slow tournament entries

Thib: The FICGS WCH is held every 8 months, so about twice a year. I'm still not opposed at all to organize a "CUP" event but it would take many rounds as well and I'm afraid it kills regular tournaments, so we probably need more players for this.

Garvin: I understand what you are saying, but currently numbers for each of the divisions are small and taking a long time to fill, if at all.

The 'cup' could even attract a few new players, or at least drag a few inactive players out of the woodwork.

I understand your point about the number of rounds. I think this could be alleviated by having nine or eleven players per group.

One of the biggest issue, which feels like it is starting to plague the ficgs wch, is a draw rate of about 95 percent.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-04-22 18:49:49)
Answer from Ortwin

Well, here is the answer from Dr. Ortwin Paetzold (LSS/IECG) that he asked me to post here. I'm glad to do it of course so that we can hear from both sides and make our own opinion with:

>>>>>>>>>>

Daniel Parmet is twisting the reality a bit. I take the right to quote my full answers, however as I do not have the permission to do so, I will not post the notes from Daniel to me, unless he quoted it here himself already.

Fact 1 is that Daniel has not read the rules of LSS or forgot about them. There is a function in LSS which lets the webmaster check this esp. in case of rule questions. Therefore he might not have known about the rule, however, when registering on LSS each player is asked to study the rules and to play according to them. I am sure, the same holds for FICGS and any other server.

Fact 2 is that on 4th April Daniel Parmet has lost a game on time by violating the 30-days-rule. The server automatically stopped the game and awarded the point to the opponent, independent from the position. The server also imposed the two week suspension to start a new tournament. The 30-days-rule was installed at IECG more than 10 years ago and I had included it into LSS right from the beginning. Daniel Parmet asked politely why the admin has cancelled his game (which I had not).

Fact 3 is that in my answer about the query why the game was finished, I have answered with reference to the rules:

“Your game was forfeited, because you did not move for 30 days. This is the maximum number of days to be used per individual move, independent of the total amount of time you have left. See the Rules and Usage Section under "Violation of Time Control". This is also the reason of your two-week-suspension. “

In his response Daniel Parmet called the LSS “a joke of a site”.

Fact 4 is that I answered to this insultation:

“Well, it is not my fault that you have not read the rules during the past five years you have played here! To be honest, this is impressing!”

I do not think this is more rude than insulting me/LSS because one has made a mistake!

Fact 5 is that I did not remove him from the waiting list of the LSS Anniversary 2012 as requested, because I thought that – once Daniel thinks reasonably about the case – he might want to continue, esp. as he wanted to continue all other games. Furthermore LSS has a feature where each player can remove himself from the waitinglist of this tournament. This all happened on 5th April! I then forgot about the matter.

Fact 6 is that on 19th April the LSS Anniverary groups were created including Daniel Parmet to one of the groups. As he was no longer suspended that time I missed that he still was on the waitinglist. I would otherwise have tried to get a replacement, which I did in other cases . When he claimed not to play in the anniversary on 20th April, I decided to remove him from all tournaments he was playing. As the tournaments were in an early stage (start date 15th Feb, Parmet finished only 3/10 and 1/12 games in them), I believe it makes less impact to withdraw a player then letting him influence the outcome, esp. as e.g. he would not use a potential qualification to the LSS WC Semi-Final or the Consolation Finals. I commented that action with the following message:

‘I have withdrawn you from this "joke of a site" (your own - wrong - words. It is not my fault that you have not read the rules!)

Thanks for playing here.’

The answer was unfriendly so I decided to cancel the membership permanently.

I would like to thank Thibault for the opportunity to express my view. I do not intend to comment anyfurther in this matter, as I think the two different versions are speaking for themselves.


George Clement    (2012-04-22 19:19:23)
LSS Move Rule

" violating the 30-days-rule. The server automatically stopped the game and awarded the point to the opponent, independent from the position. The server also imposed the two week suspension to start a new tournament. The 30-days-rule was installed at IECG more than 10 years ago and I had included it into LSS right from the beginning."

I like the idea behind this rule on LSS, IMHO it would solve some of the slow entry problems by making players move faster, which is a big part of the entry problem. I think anyone can make a least 1 move in 10 days, using todays hardware/software and communications. What do you think fellow members? I have no problem with players using time off thier clock but why wait 30 days make 10 moves then wait another 30 days?


Garvin Gray    (2012-04-24 15:01:32)
Ficgs World Cup

Following discussions about slow tournament entries, bracket and band rating issues and many other topics, a common item that came out of those discussions is that trying a modified version of the ficgs world championship is worth a trial.

So Ficgs World Cup sounds like a good name.

Format:

In the Ficgs world championship, there are many different qualifying stages, depending on your finishing position from the last cycle, your rating at the time of entry and the strength and total number of the other entrants.

While this format is very good for the concept envisaged when it was created, I think a ficgs world cup, with a format that will be explained below is required to cover a few gaps that are in the ficgs world championship.

The ficgs world cup will work as follows.

1) Everyone enters before a certain date, say June 1st 2012.
2) As soon as entries close, that is it. Entries are not taken after this date and there are NO replacements. The groups are meant to be of equal strength. Adding a new player can distort this.
3) Entrants are then divided into groups of roughly equal strength. Highest rated person is seed 1 in Group A, 2nd highest rated person is seed 1 in Group B. Serpentine pairings are used to allocate all players to each group.
4) How many players and how many groups is determined after the entries have closed. I would think that there will be probably 11 groups of 11 players (121 entries in total). It might be likely that we have to have three stages, depending on total number of entries.
5) 1 person from each group qualifies for the final stage. This is determined by total score, total wins and then TER. This does differ from the tie break formula of the FicgsWCH.

Pros:

1) Everyone gets a game against players of different ratings, no segregated groups or players
2) Everyone starts from stage one
3) The format is clear to understand

Cons:

1) May not be as tempting to the highest rated players (fear of loss of rating points)
2) Might take longer to finish

In my opinion, this is a format that deserves a couple of trial events to see if it is successful


Garvin Gray    (2012-04-28 03:13:36)
Ficgs World Cup

Ok, new name- The anti-ficgs wch ;) :P


Garvin Gray    (2012-04-29 16:51:39)
About Pinformant

Ok, I still do not get this site. So I will ask an obvious question.

How do we find each other on that site?

And how do we use it for anything that might be relevant to get new members for here?


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-04-29 18:26:23)
About Pinformant

Hi Garvin, If you really want to help, just use it like you may use Facebook or similar sites e.g. share web pages of interest, comment it and invite friends. The site will help (very much) to get new members here as soon as there are about 1000 active members, thanks to ads of course. You'll see it quickly!

To invite friends, just click the earth icon in the top menu on the right and find your contacts in your webmail or social networks (this inviter will be used at FICGS soon, it may not work on IE or Opera though), or follow this link (if you are connected) to find all ways:

http://pinformant.com/user.php?page=friends


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-04-29 23:39:50)
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Chessbase news

Sometimes strange things happen...

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8108


Don Groves    (2012-04-30 05:23:35)
Slow tournament entries

The only idea that seems to please everyone is penalizing slow players. But not everyone agrees on what "slow" means. The current rules say it is 60 days per move. But others think it should be 30 days or even less.

My own feeling is that having too many games causes most slow play, so slow players should not able to begin new games until all their games over a certain age are finished.

Perhaps a better method would be to put an upper limit on the average number of days between moves in a game.


Goran Guichsen    (2012-04-30 09:38:32)
Slow tournament entries

As I understand it (I am new here since 3 days ago)the problem is not players using the time allowed in a game. It is more spending a lot of time deliberatley when the result is obvious.

I really think Don Groves has some very good suggestions.

Another way could also be (probably already discussed) to "Claim" the result Win/Draw when the result is obvious (eg TableBasis says draw). Perhaps some higher rated players could be assigned to be arbiters.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-04-30 13:25:51)
Slow tournament entries

Hi Goran and thanks for participating into the discussion, that's always useful to have more voices here :)

There are already rules that allow a player to claim a victory before the end to shorten a game. There is no perfect solution to the famous "DMD" (Dead Man Defense) but IMO this remains a minor problem here.

Don's suggestion is interesting. There is already such a rule (max 50 games running)... I don't know what better criteria, not too complex, could be used instead. I really think that things must avoid to get more complicated at the end.

Anyway once more the real problem right now is the too low number of new members, and I'm working on.


Daniel Parmet    (2012-04-30 14:20:46)
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Chessbase news

I am actually in that photo strangely enough. I was paid to be the Tournament Director for the blitz tournament he played in.


George Clement    (2012-04-30 18:12:41)
Slow tournament entries

I think Garvin hit the nail on the head. It is the unnecessary time wasted that is the problem. Noone is saying not to take all the time needed to make a move, but waiting until your time is about out and making just enough moves to get the new increment is a problem!


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-04-30 20:09:53)
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Chessbase news

Riiiight! I recognize you on the left of Kirsan.... unexpected! :>


Garvin Gray    (2012-05-01 02:37:39)
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Chessbase news

And now he is associating himself with, in a lot of people's view, a dictator: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8115


Garvin Gray    (2012-05-01 02:37:53)
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Chessbase news

And what, no aliens :o


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-05-09 21:54:16)
Xiao Tong on his win in 6th FICGS Go WCH

I agree also... Well, I should add some words on that when new players login for the first times. But many are quickly discouraged as they do not find any opponent. But maybe we just need (much) more players.

As for me I'd like to play more live Go games, I only need more time mainly because of my correspondence tournaments :/

Any other ideas are welcome...


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-06-08 18:05:51)
Second match v Rybka Forum

@ Nick : why not, I'd be glad to organize such a match with LSS but I will not propose it, many players here came from IECG/LSS.

@ Garvin : just tell me when I can announce the match in a newsletter, we'll create a new forum topic (and/or if you have a public email) for registrations.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-07-28 11:34:00)
Rating List

Hello Robert, yes this has always worked like this (also to attract new players), that's why there's also an active players list.

Anyway there were other discussions on this issue and solutions envisaged, I'll come back to it soon...


Robert Kaspar    (2012-08-12 16:20:43)
Starting an untimed correspondence game

How do I do it? Sorry -- new to the server!


Juri Eintalu    (2022-07-13 09:45:36)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?

The ICCF Statutes webpage provides a new Statute, valid from 9th May 2022.

www.iccf.com/message?message=449

Article 17 contains a new sentence now:

"The Executive Board is empowered by Congress to propose suspension or dismissal of member federations for non-financial reasons."

Thus, the ICCF has also made a decision to suspend Russia and Belarus.

Thus, it seems that the ICCF Congress has calculated as follows:

34/(34 + 13) = 34/47 = 0.72 = 72%

It means that the "abstained" 13 voters have not been taken into account.


But who voted how, who remained neutral, who was missing, etc.?

Article 12 says the following:

"Amendments to the statutes require a vote of the general assembly, called the Congress, and a majority of two thirds of the members present or represented."

However, that Extraordinary Congress was online.

Finally, the downloadable table has other pages providing more detailed information. Thus, there is information that Estonian representative JĂĽri Kuusik did not "attend" the online congress.

The meanings of the terms "present", "represented", "attended", and "abstained" have remained unclear, which makes the manipulations possible.

Clarity is missing around that issue and on the ICCF homepage.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-08-18 12:31:29)
This is Russia :(

It's challenging for the least, but not much satisfaction to get from this indeed...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8416


Rolf Staggat    (2012-08-18 17:56:35)
This is Russia :(

No sad day for me.....

This man still thinks, he is the most important person in the world.

He only went to "Pussy Riot", because he wants to be seen on TV. He hates people like the Pussies, but he thinks it is good for HIM to provocate in front of the cameras of west-medias.

He does not know, what is reality. So now some policemen have to show him, what is real. No average intelligent person would try to find that out.

He never will be president of Russia, to be against Putin does not mean to be for Kasparov.

Kasparov only thinks in "white" or "black", but there are many more colours in real life.

By the way, the Pussies would never be known outside Russia with the noise that they call music. Now they have the time to learn.

2014 number 1 in all charts:
"Pussy Riot featuring Grandmaster Garry" the new super-group with their new song "Who is the greatest idiot"

I more prefer Grandmaster Flash.....He knows about real life.


Don Groves    (2012-08-19 09:39:13)
FICGS backup is now ok!

Great news, Thib! You only need the last hour's moves sent to your email, right?


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-08-19 14:07:45)
What happened to Boris Spassky?

After Kasparov vs. Putin, now Spassky vs. ??

A strange story... maybe we'll learn more soon on his last 2 years in french hospitals. Quite hard to conclude anything right now.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8417


Dmitri Mamrukov    (2012-08-22 17:48:55)
This is Russia :(

Russia like other countries has its Criminal Code that clearly and politically obliviously lists punishments for offenses. It existed before the trial. There is no point for liberals to further politicize this particular trial just because it got media attention.

Britain (that considers itself as a democracy model) is not above "disproportionate" sentences for political activity.

http://libcom.org/blog/pussy-riot-convicted-britain-rails-against-%E2%80%9Cdisproportionate%E2%80%9D-sentence-hypocritically-18082

http://azstarnet.com/news/world/places-where-trivial-acts-carry-harsh-penalties/article_da567f48-ce33-555e-8ff2-365ec6c38a28.html


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. "


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2012-09-20 18:32:53)
Limit number of poker games

We had this discussion several times, but it never leads to a change.

My problem is, that sometimes I cannot enter a waiting list because of too many running games. I accept, that the games can last very long - that's not nice but I can live with that. But it should not stop me to get some new games with fast players. That's the reason why I asked Thibault to increase the number of poker games. Is there a problem if the number is increased to 100?


Don Groves    (2012-09-21 13:42:54)
A radical idea?

If the parameters of games are stored in variables for each game (good idea anyway), it should only need a new dialog for the new parameters to be entered. Of course, I am not aware of your code ;-)


Garvin Gray    (2012-09-22 08:40:14)
A radical idea?

How this could be done is as follows:

Player A (person sending challenge)specifies what time control they want.

This would do away with the concept of bullet, lightning and blitz as player can choose whatever time control they want.

The three terms are not required as there is no weighting for rating purposes in advanced chess based on the the time control.

Then the challenged player can accept the challenge, or propose a new time control or parameter.

The clocks would only start after the challenge has been offered and agreed to.

This would eliminate time forfeits.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-09-27 23:39:12)
Eros Riccio wins 6th and 7th chess WCH

By beating Alberto Gueci in the final match of the 6th chess championship & Ostap Hladky in the candidates final of the 7th chess championship, Eros Riccio will remain FICGS chess champion for at least 16 months! After this huge performance, Eros accepted to answer a few questions:

----------------------------------

- Hello Eros and congratulations again for winning your 3rd and 4th (respectively 6th and 7th cycles) FICGS chess championships in a row, beating Alerto Gueci in the 12 games match of the final match and Ostap Hladky in the 8 games match of the candidates final so that you meet yourself in the last round that thus will not happen for the 3rd time of the championship (first time was during the first cycle because there was no champion yet). All games of the two matches were drawn, but it does not say much on the intensity of the match as we all know your strategy since your win in your first final match vs. Edward Kotlyanskiy when you explained that your preferred a draw that guarantees the victory than a possible win where a mouse slip is still possible. Obviously your strategy works very well but one can add that you had an impressive number of running games at the rapid time control, so very much pressure... How did you live these last months of correspondence chess and these two matches?

Hi Thib! And thanks once again for the congratulations. These 28 games (let's not forget also the 8 games match against Gino Figlio) probably started in the worst moment for me, just a few months after the very important European Team Championship on ICCF had started. When I told my captain that I was starting another 28 games... he was very disappointed and worried, as he had repeated a lot of times to every player of our team not to start new tournaments and to focus only on this tournament. Also for this reason I had decided not to join the new Italian Championship and other tournaments and to withdraw from the Champions League, but unfortunately I had no control on when to start my FICGS games. So... my priority was for my ICCF games, and fortunately for me all I needed to do in my FICGS Matches to win was to make draws, and that's what I tried to do in most of my games as fast as possible, and to my surprise my opponents accepted to draw many games quite quickly, not trying to fight each game "to death" like I would have done if I would have been them. This of course only created quick boring games, but I didn't see the point in putting energy in trying to win games myself.... I think my opponents should have done that!

- We all know that you and Alberto are good friends from long time, did it influence your match in the 6th WCH in any way according to you?

Well, it's a good think knowing your opponent's habits... you can send your moves as soon as you know he goes to bed :-)

- Ostap Hladky is undoubtly one of the strongest players at FICGS, was this match (7th WCH candidates final) very different from the other one?

Hladky was the strongest player I had ever played on FICGS, he is very unpredictable, he simply plays unexpected moves that engines don't suggest, but if you show them those moves, they slowly realize those are very good moves. I risked to lose more than one game vs him, even as White. Luckily I still managed to draw, and in my opinion he also accepted some draws too quickly.

- With the last evolutions of chess engines, playing better & better chess, would you say that you now spend less time on each game or not at all?

I don't spend less time on my games, I still try to use (almost) all the time on my "clock". Trying to analyze as many variations as possible with the time you are given has little to do with engines improvement, who still are far from being able to always suggesting the best move by simply letting them run for hours on a static position. You need to analyze going "forward" in the position in order to be able to find the best moves.

- By the way, it is said sometimes (again) that correspondence chess will not survive the decade, what do you think? Do you envisage to change for Go or poker like many players? :)

Wins and Losses still happen even at the highest levels at the present time. I think that many years still have to pass before having all draws in high level tournaments. When that happens... and it will probably happen sooner or later as chess in my opinion is a draw with perfect play... then probably new rules will be introduced, maybe the board will be enlarged and even new pieces with new movements might be invented.

- You now are ICCF GM with an impressive 2624 rating, how are going your other correspondence chess competitions? Do you have any goal to reach yet?

All my ICCF tournaments are going good, and very soon I will be Italian Champion once again (just waiting my last opponent to resign a lost position). I still haven't reached the first place in the italian elo rating list though. That would be a goal I would surely have pleasure in reaching, and of course I would like to win the ICCF's World Championship at least once. After that I can retire :-)

- Thank you Eros, also for this great correspondence chess lesson.

Welcome Thib! A pleasure for me.


Garvin Gray    (2012-10-06 17:21:33)
WCH Final match

After having read Eros Riccio's answers to the interview questions on his defending his title twice, I am proposing a few changes to the final match.

I wish to make it clear that this is not in any way an attack on any person. They can only play to the rules set and try to use those rules to their advantage.

My issue is with the rules themselves.

I would like to propose a new format for the final match, because I think it is ridiculous that any player can defend their title with short draws and make no real attempt to prove that they are superior than their opponent.

Of course if the challenger is happy to draw all eight or twelve games, then that is their 'fault' as well.

My proposal is the following:

After eight games, if neither player has won a game, then the match continues for another four games.

In the first eight games, if both sides have won at least one game each, then the result is a drawn match and the champion keeps their title.

In the tie breaking four games, as soon as one player wins a game, the match is over.

I think the current rules are weighted way too much in favour of the champion, which as we have seen from these two games, the champion does not even have to try to prove that he is better than the challenger, but can just draw all eight/twelve games and retain the title.

Thib, please change the rules for this upcoming cycle.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-10-09 14:02:47)
Go Gangnam Style :-)

... forgot to mention that I read it in the excellent AGA (American Go Association) newsletter.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-10-09 18:52:25)
WCH Final match

Of course this correspondence chess championship is very different from FIDE WCH, but it seems to me that 12 games is still enough (24 games would be quite inhuman by the way), the score in the latest final matches was not significant on the draws issue, particularly now that we all know how Eros deals with it (in a smart way that can be compared to Kramnik's strategy in his match vs. Kasparov: draw with Berlin's defence, fight with White if no risk). IMO the champion has nothing to prove as he made it in a whole cycle and by beating the previous one, while a challenger should at least be able to win one game out of 12.

Actually the real evolution should have been towards freestyle chess, but it has no success enough to organize a whole cycle and it looks like Eros is the king as well. Also I don't like the idea to melt different time controls like FIDE does. The whole challenge is about one thing, not 3 or 4 differents kinds of games.

I love the past tradition not because it is a tradition, but because I really think it is the best system so far! If a new system proves to be better to me (there will always be a question of taste though, of course) then we would have to discuss it here.

The only way to encourage players to try for wins is to go towards the ICCF format, that has other issues that I wanted to avoid at any price. And why to do the same?


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-10-11 12:58:35)
Go Gangnam Style :-)

Ah, still from AGA newsletter, finally a zoom proved that the game is shanggi (korean chess), not Go!


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-12-02 00:50:54)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Hello all,

As I mentioned in the chat bar, there is a problem to build new groups as I usually do a few weeks after the start of the chess championship...

Players who entered the waiting list for replacements are:

AUT Rada, Hannes 2465
ISR Blinchevsky, Alexander 2206
ITA Bonoldi, Fabio 2049
DEU Wolf, Bernd 2113
ARG Reboredo, Daniel 1941
ITA Fabris, Alberto 1995
ITA Piantadosi, Angelo 1319
UKR Simashkevitch, Mykola 1987
DEU Lommler, Jan Peter 1860
BEL Pepermans, Toon 2000
USA Batal, Jean 1960
GBR Hancock, Sarah 1614
USA Johnson, Bobby 2412
GBR Burrows, Nick 1935
UKR Malish, Dmitriy 1146
COL Rey, Eduardo 1800
FRA Satonnet, Patrick 1351
GBR Soszynski, Marek 2143
POL Nig, Piotr 2028
USA Davis, Mark 1192
FRA Estieu, Frederick 1383
USA Lovelace, Randy 1504
CAN Deline, Ralph 2179
UKR Bromo, Alexis 1129
BIH Dautovic, Dzenan 1653
USA Knighton, Robert 1950


4 players rated 1500-1800 already replaced those who were to lose their games on time... As a result, we have many players rated 1900-2100 and too few with low ratings. Of course players rated 2400+ will not like to play in regular groups.

Right now I could create only one group with a similar rating average, nothing more but I would have to choose a few players only, which is not a great solution. I tried several combinations, M groups and so on.

I know that a few players would prefer not to see these new groups created and right now I see no solution good enough to create it.

If I cannot find any idea, I think there won't be new groups this time.

Any suggestion?


Robert Knighton    (2012-12-02 04:33:02)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

"Round-robin tournaments are groups of 7, 9, 11 or 13 players, there may be double round-robin tournaments in case of groups of less than 7 players". . . The first group might be pushing it a little bit with Alexander being a bit low rated compared to the other two... but the rest looks ok to me. What do you think?

3 Man Double Round Robin
AUT Rada, Hannes 2465
USA Johnson, Bobby 2412
ISR Blinchevsky, Alexander 2206

3 Man Double Round Robin
CAN Deline, Ralph 2179
GBR Soszynski, Marek 2143
DEU Wolf, Bernd 2113

11 Man Round Robin
ITA Bonoldi, Fabio 2049
POL Nig, Piotr 2028
BEL Pepermans, Toon 2000
ITA Fabris, Alberto 1995
UKR Simashkevitch, Mykola 1987
USA Batal, Jean 1960
USA Knighton, Robert 1950
ARG Reboredo, Daniel 1941
GBR Burrows, Nick 1935
DEU Lommler, Jan Peter 1860
COL Rey, Eduardo 1800

3 Man Double Round Robin
BIH Dautovic, Dzenan 1653
GBR Hancock, Sarah 1614
USA Lovelace, Randy 1504

3 Man Double Round Robin
FRA Estieu, Frederick 1383
FRA Satonnet, Patrick 1351
ITA Piantadosi, Angelo 1319

3 Man Double Round Robin
USA Davis, Mark 1192
UKR Malish, Dmitriy 1146
UKR Bromo, Alexis 1129


Don Groves    (2012-12-02 04:50:44)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

On the entry page for the Chess WCH is written:

deadline : 2012 november 1st

Since new entries are still being accepted, it appears that "deadline" is an incorrect word here. Is there a real deadline and, if so, when is it?


Wayne Lowrance    (2012-12-02 04:54:10)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Robert, I do not think it is fair to insert Alexander with those too strong players. It is a problem. I can understands Thibault's problem now. Well what ever he decides is oki with me. but I would really oppose suggest divergent ratings in a group. In fact Rada has a problem he is by too high for even being that 3 group. I just do not know enough about these things to contribute.


Robert Knighton    (2012-12-02 05:03:13)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

You could do this but.. I don't know how good it would be. I would be willing to play outside my rating if that would help. I'm still new to FICGS so my rating isn't a very good comparison with other players here yet.

2 Man Double Round Robin
AUT Rada, Hannes 2465
USA Johnson, Bobby 2412


4 Man Double Round Robin
ISR Blinchevsky, Alexander 2206
CAN Deline, Ralph 2179
GBR Soszynski, Marek 2143
DEU Wolf, Bernd 2113


Stephane Legrand    (2012-12-02 09:12:23)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

why not:

as you always do :

2 Man Double Round Robin
AUT Rada, Hannes 2465
USA Johnson, Bobby 2412

and after
24 players in 3 groups of 8 players with 123123123...


Don Groves    (2012-12-02 11:48:49)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

OK, I understand accepting players past the deadline to replace those who have dropped out. But what is the rationale for adding new groups after the deadline?


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-12-02 12:45:42)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Robert/Stephane, it is also mentioned in the WCH rules: "Groups are built grading all players by rating and distributing them to obtain similar elo averages."

By the way all similar groups must have the same number of players, otherwise it would be impossible to be fair when building the next round tournaments.

@Don: Yes, the deadline does not change but there are a few lines in "My messages" that explain that it is still possible to enter the waiting list (without guarantee to be included in a tournament).


Garvin Gray    (2012-12-02 12:48:21)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

I agree with Don. Whilst not liking it, I understand for norm purposes and 'fairer' qualification chances between different groups, replacements are required.

I really do hope that the replacements are of similar rating to the player who forfeited their games.

But I certainly do not agree with adding new groups or players. All these players have entered the waiting list because they entered after the deadline.

If they get a run, they have been fortunate. To those who miss out, the message should be enter on time next time to guarantee your spot.

So Thibault, I think you are complicating matters way too much. Make the replacements to counteract the forfeits and that is it.


Nick Burrows    (2012-12-02 13:09:34)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

I think people are getting a bit too uptight!

Allowing new players hardly affects anyone's chances of progressing in the tournament, yet it allows the late players who didn't have the opportunity to log in a chance to play in the most enjoyable of all tournaments on Ficgs.


Garvin Gray    (2012-12-02 13:51:13)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Nick- Did not have the oppportunity???? The waiting list for the wch is open for a month, sometimes even more. Any player who wants to enter can do so at any stage between when the waiting list opens and when it closes. So they have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for four or more weeks to enter.

It is not like the entry period for the waiting list is only open for a couple of days.

The only people who could claim they did not have much opportunity to enter were those who only just joined the site before the waiting list closed.

As for why some of us might be 'getting too uptight'. Those who entered by the deadline have been seeded correctly as per the rules. Which means for some they have been placed in M groups with all those players being rated over 2200.

To now see the possibility of having a weak M group, which means those who have entered by the deadline have now been substantially disadvantaged compared to those who entered late.

I really do not care at all for your 'we are getting too uptight' argument Nick.

Those who respond have every right to debate the pros and cons of what is being proposed.

If you have something to actually add to this issue in terms of finding an acceptable answer for Thibault's conundrum, or wish to try and point out why his solution is not a good one, then feel free to add something to the debate and thread.

A few of us have pointed issues with Thibault's idea and our disagreement with the whole approach. That is our right to do so.

None of us have been abusive, derogatory or demeaning of anyone else, even if we disagree with the other viewpoints.

If I am an example of getting too uptight, in your opinion, so be it, but I do not like at all when players are able to enter late and even more when they look like, or are, getting an advantage they would not have gotten if they entered before the deadline.


Nick Burrows    (2012-12-02 14:04:13)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

I did not have the opportunity to enter, because I did not log on for the month it was open, as did the other players who did not enter.

I have not been "abusive, derogatory or demeaning" - lighten up! I believe I have every right in a public forum to express my perspective also, and that is that it is a game, some people take it too seriously, and that all those who were allowed to enter the waiting list, simply want the thrill of enjoying the game. That is all.


Robert Knighton    (2012-12-02 14:45:47)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

My computer broke down on me about 2 1/2 months ago. I have been without a computer until a couple weeks ago.

I could not have signed up on time :/

And I'd be willing to bet most late signups were for lack of knowledge of the tournaments available, how they work, or that they exist at all. This site is not exactly new user friendly. Getting games is confusing until you understand the unique system being used here. Same goes for finding and entering tournaments.

If I cant get in then so be it; no hard feelings, but if I can get the chance to play, that would be wonderful. What I really want is the chance to play stronger opponents. I'm still stuck in the sub 2k rating bands until more of my games finish.


Don Groves    (2012-12-03 03:24:28)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

To clarify my position on this matter: I was not implying I don't like adding new groups after the deadline, I was simply asking for the rationale for doing so. My view is that we are all better off if these kinds of things are written in the rules so there are no surprises of this sort.


Alexander Blinchevsky    (2012-12-03 06:55:41)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Wayne wrote: "I do not think it is fair to insert Alexander with those too strong players."
Actually I like to play people stronger than me, so the suggested 3-man group will be very exciting for me.
Any decision will be understandable :)


Robert Knighton    (2012-12-03 17:57:26)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

any decision on this yet?

imo Do the best you can. Get as many people in as possible. include as many as you can and the ones you cant include just have to wait for the next opportunity.

I certainly don't want to hold anyone else back just because it might not be "fair" for them to get in but not me.

"Right now I could create only one group with a similar rating average, nothing more but I would have to choose a few players only, which is not a great solution"

not great but still better than nothing at all.

I would like to hear what your thoughts are on this after hearing everyone's opinions.


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-12-05 14:20:36)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Well, at the end I think that best is to do the same than in the previous editions. If I can build only one group then be it.

A few players will be picked up randomly to have a similar rating average. At least, as Garvin says, there will be a consequence for all players who entered the waiting list after the deadline, which seems fair.

The new group(s) will be created tomorrow.


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.


Wayne Lowrance    (2012-12-05 18:27:37)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Robert Knighton. You dont understand me. I was saying it is unfair for the two strong player having to compete against a much weaker player. It would have cost him point 4 sure.
BTW I must say. I very much agree with Don Groves opinions he has stated. here. Chess is a very structure event. Touch & move example. Thib's rules are just wrong ! period.I have said with rules in place he has a very difficult task. I said I would support him in his decision. But if it were left up to me. I would simply state, Late and your out ! NO excuses. that is just the way it should be. Sorry if I am offending anyone, it certainly is NOT my intention
Wayne


Thibault de Vassal    (2012-12-05 19:02:36)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Hi Wayne,

Of course this is a very coherent opinion... but there are reasons why I created these new groups since the very first championship:

There may be several players who cannot be included into tournaments when I create them (because of the number of players per tournament). To exclude nobody, I had to wait for a few players to enter it... but of course there was always too few or too many of them, with too high or too low ratings. So I decided that the prioriy was to start as many tournaments as possible to make it as competitive as possible.


Wayne Lowrance    (2012-12-05 20:07:58)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Okey Dokey. You have examined the topic carefully and have experienced the task of grouping players. I have not. But looking out of the jail cell of my thoughts I do not agree. It just seems like it s/b possible to just have a cut off date and no exceptions.
I guess your problem is in your opinion too large a grouping or too small a grouping, keeping rating gradient to less that 100 . I would rather play in a group even if only 2 or 3 players qualified in my rating group. Thinking hard as I generate this response I begin to appreciate more of your problem. Hey what the heck do I know anyhow. ::) Wayne


Robert Knighton    (2012-12-05 21:34:02)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Wayne Lowrance said: "Robert Knighton. You dont understand me. I was saying it is unfair for the two strong player having to compete against a much weaker player. It would have cost him point 4 sure. "

Yeah I see what you mean there. Even if I could compete at that level then those players at a higher rating would suffer for it.

Also, no offense taken. We can peacefully agree to disagree on issues and perhaps we can settle it with a game one day :)

Seems like there should be a provisional tournament that new players coming to FICGS enter into automatically to determine rating, but that is a discussion for another place.


Robert Knighton    (2012-12-05 21:37:10)
Server change on dec. 9, 2012

can you send out e-mails to everyone with the new ip address thereby bypassing the Domain Name Server entirely?


Wayne Lowrance    (2012-12-05 22:36:06)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

yes, I am sort of a wildcat person, so I would not expect all to agree with me and all have my respect.
I do understand problems to new comers Entering into a new rating system. Advancing is difficult. Here at this site all are playing Centaur chess. Which means in the end you have to beat the program input to the Centaur. I wish I knew of a way to help you. because of illness I resigned all my current games causing a loss of rating from 2500 to 2280 Wayne


Wayne Lowrance    (2012-12-05 22:39:39)
Problem with new groups for the chess WC

Oppps, it was my intent to delete that last part cause it has no bearing on this topic, Sorry Wayne


Garvin Gray    (2012-12-13 16:52:12)
WBCCC 2013

This information is in regards to the World Blitz Correspondence Chess Championship for the year 2013.

It is held on Rybka Forum www.rybkaforum.net.

There is a full sub forum located on that forum that explains a lot of the rules, current list of players and specifics of information.

For a general run down, read on:

My name is Garvin Gray and I am the organiser and arbiter for this event. This event attempts to bring as many strong correspondence and freestyle players together from all the different playing sites, such as iccf, ficgs, playchess, lss and many other sites.

As the title says, this is a blitz event, meaning the time controls are short compared to normal correspondence play. This requires players to devote a greater share of their focus to these games than would normal correspondence play.

This event has been held for two years now, with the 2012 version still in progress. Feel free to browse the 2012 sub forum to see the games and how the structure works.

In the two years of this event, I feel that many new discoveries have been made and advanced freestyle chess knowledge has certainly been increased, to the benefit of all. Those who have participated in both events have gained a lot from their participation and I want to see this continue.

To allow this event to start and finish in one calendar year, we start in mid January and for 2013, it will finish in mid December. The format requires that you will play one game as white and one game as black in each round. There are 10 games in total.

Each round is paired as an individual swiss using the dutch pairing rules, but accommodations are made because each person must have one white and one black game per round.

Kibitizing is allowed and encouraged, but discussions about future positions, game analysis or anything else that could affect the result of the game is not allowed. Feel free to read the thread on game commentary.

There will also be a thread for each round that allows discussion of events during the round, general discussion about games or other general chit chat.

We do seek to provide a friendly, but competitive environment for those who want to advance their freestyle skills, or test themselves against other players from the different sites. This event will take up quite a bit of your time as the time control is fast, the play is difficult and the enjoyment factor high.

This is not meant to be a deterrent, but I feel I should make it clear that you need to be dedicated and willing to play each and every game/round.

Withdrawing or timing out mid game is not acceptable and will see you removed from the event. If you think you can not complete a particular round, it is better to contact me and have you withdrawn from that round. You are free to rejoin the event in these circumstances, but will receive zero points for those two missed games.

I hope to see more entries and good freestyling to everyone.

Cheers,

Garvin Gray
WBCCC 2013 Organiser


Mathaios Vardoulakis    (2013-01-10 13:18:55)
Chess Server Team Tournament

"I'm interested to play".Count me in please.

Happy new year to all!


Alvin Alcala    (2013-01-11 04:49:37)
Chess Server Team Tournament

Very sad news! So many interested players from FICGS wanted to join.


Rolf Staggat    (2013-01-21 18:10:26)
Progressive Chess

Another new chess-variant on this site ?
In BIGCHESS one has to wait half a year or even longer for starting a new group. In my opinion, what we need are more players not more variations.


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-02-23 22:35:01)
Houdini 3.0

The last rating difference I saw between Houdini 3 and Houdini 1.5 is about 60 elo points.

Any news in the computer chess world?


Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff    (2013-03-19 17:51:20)
Vacation: change for 3 days minimum?

I can not imagine how a player can gain an advantage from the vacation time. Ok, he can analyze his games during that time, but his opponent has the same option. So the additional time cannot be the key to a win.

In my opinion the problem for some players is that it is annoying when they have to wait longer for an answer. I don't think that this should be a reason to change the vacation rules.

If the rules are changed however, this should not happen until the beginning of next year with the new vacation period.


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-05-07 13:17:57)
Eros Riccio on his win in 8th chess WCH

As you may know, Eros Riccio won the 8th FICGS chess championship by beating Jeroen Van Assche (who remains undeafeated though, he did not lose a single chess game at FICGS yet) in the candidates final, preventing him to play Eros again in the final.

Eros kindly accepted to answer a few questions:


- Hello Eros. First of all, congratulations for winning this 8th FICGS correspondence chess championship. Once again, you did not even have to play the 12 games match to defend your title as you won the qualifying tournament. In these conditions, the challenge was really tough for Jeroen Van Assche, in despite of his prodigious chess. He had to beat you consecutively in the candidates final (8 games match), then in the final (12 games match). How did things go in this candidates final?

Eros: Hi Thibault, thanks again! I was also worried to have to play a very strong player like Van Assche, but fortunately I had again the advantage that all draws were enough to win, and so my strategy was again not to take risks in all my games. As White it was easy... and surprisingly also as Black. The only game where I had to be more careful than others was this one: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qf3 h6 8.Be3 Qc7 9.0-0-0 Nbd7 10.Qg3 b5 11.a3 Rb8. Here Jeroen surprised me with an interesting novelty, 12.Kb1. The two times I had played this position I was White against Gueci and Kruse, and in both games I continued with 12.Bxb5 but couldn't get more than a draw. The idea of 12.Kb1 is to sacrifice a Pawn for the initiative after 12...b4 13.axb4 Rxb4 14.Nb3 Nxe4. The White Bishops are very strong after 15.Nxe4 Rxe4 16.Bd3 Ra4 17.Bd4 and fully compensate the Pawn less. Anyway I managed to defend, and when I was finally able to trade the Queens we agreed for the Draw.

- You also won the ICCF Umansky Memorial a few weeks ago, the italian correspondence chess championship (again) as well, obviously you played numerous games last year, what do you plan for the next months? By the way, Jeroen already qualified for the candidates final of the 9th cycle, meaning that he may play you in the final match next year if you defend your title again, is there a chance that we can see a revenge?

Eros: Yes, like in the past, also last year I have played a lot of games... anyway for the future I am planning to reduce my games a lot. At the moment, except a few games in minor tournaments, I am only playing for the italian colors at the Olympiads and European Championship, for ICCF. I didn't register for the new Italian Championship this time... I prefer to wait that another individual top ICCF Tournament starts. And of course I am also waiting to meet my next challenger for the FICGS Final! Maybe it will be Van Assche again, we have to see if he beats his opponent in the semifinal (actually next candidates final).

- It looks like a few chess engines reached a certain maturity, I mean algorithms. As a consequence, the computer speed may become the major evolution factor during the next years, that is generally slower than the program's improvements (but the future may have surprises, of course). What do you expect from the computer chess world in the next few years and its impact on correspondence chess?

Eros: As I have already said in a previous interview, being chess probably a draw with perfect play, the more engines get stronger, the more draws we will see. That's quite obvious.

- You probably do not play chess over the board so often, yet you have a quite good ELO! (about 2200, while many correspondence chess masters are rated below 2000 or not rated at all) By the way, I can certify that you are a strong blitz player after we met a few years ago. Do you still play tournaments?

Eros: I am not playing otb chess for a few years, my peak was 22... and a few points, I don't remember exactly. One of the main reasons why I stopped is because later, when analyzing my games with an engine... every time I got frustrated a lot seeing all the blunders I was making.

- Do you estimate that playing OTB chess is good to improve at correspondence chess?

Eros: Yes, it's useful especially if you develop a strategical style, then also in your corr. games you can see more easily "long-term-strategy" plans, which is still the "weakest strenght" in all engines.

- Do you feel that you're still improving at correspondence chess? If yes, is it mainly a question of opening book or something else?

Eros: Improving at corr. chess... hmm... I will surprise you with my thought about this matter! I think I can evaluate my strenght according to the speed of the computer I am analyzing my games with. When I bought this computer, 3 years ago, I felt like I could beat the corr. World Champion. Now... as my computer is becoming older and older, I feel like my play is getting weaker each day it passes. So my answer is that I am still getting worse at corr. chess, not improving.


Attila Ba    (2013-05-15 17:41:52)
Deep analysis - can it be improved?

The idea behind deep analysis is to store engine evaluations of chess positions in a permanent way and build an analysis tree out of them. Deep analysis is an improvement over simple engine analysis in two ways:

1) Permanent storage of analysis results makes them reusable. You don't have to analyse the same position from scratch over and over again (which is a waste of valuable CPU resources) rather you can build and improve upon your earlier results.

2) The search is configurable. You have control over which positions are examined and in what way. This gives you freedom to tailor the analyis to your own needs not having to rely on the defaults provided by your engine.

This idea is presented in a revolutionary way in the Deep Rybka Aquarium GUI. However using this framework I have encountered some problems. The lesser one and non lethal one is that draws by repetition are not handled correctly. This is for a reason: moves in the transposition table should be valued in an absolute way (regardless of the line which lead to them) in order to preserve the integrity of the tree. Since Aquarium has no means to incorporate lines, it simply ignores them

My other problem is that though the search is configurable I'm not absolutely certain about what is going on. It is not entirely clear to me exactly which nodes are selected for analysis.

These problems made me to try to come up with a deep analyis program of my own. After several failed attempts finally I have on my hand a solution which is not only capable of performing deep analysis but overcomes some of the difficulties of Interactive Deep Analyis (IDeA) provided by the Aquarium framework.

First I introduced a mechanism that can handle repetitions. In order to achieve this I attribute not one but two scores to each move and re-define the concept of root position already present in IdeA. The first score which I call 'idea' score is the same as presented in IdeA. The second is what I call 'alpha' score is calculated by minimaxing the tree from the root position taking into account repetitions.

Consider the following game:

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. Ng1 Nf8

The value of move 2. ... Nf8 at depth 18 by Houdini 3.0 is -19 centipawns. So the idea score of this move at depth 0 should be -19. Yet 2. ... Nf8 repeats the starting position. Therefore its alpha score with respect to a root equaling the starting position should be 0 centipawn which is exactly what my program calculates for it. ( For the sake of simplicity I don't require threefold repetition, since you would never allow your opponent to repeat a position if you have better ideas. )

So when my programs lists the tree it will present both scores for every move (which in most of the cases are equal of course - therefore this is mostly an aesthetic improvement rather than being a substantial one).

The improvement which I'm most interested in is that having full control of node selection now I have freedom to shape the tree search.

In order to keeps things simple I have only three parameters characterising the search:

1) engine depth
2) move distance (centipawns)
3) search depth

Engine depth means a fixed depth at which each move is analyzed. After long experimenting I have arrived at depth 18 as a good default for Houdini 3.0.

Move distance is a tolerance up to which moves are allowed into the analyis. For each position first the best move is determined. The search for alternative moves is continued until a move is found that has a valuation less than the valuation of the best move by 'move distance' centipawns (it is this 'distance' away from being the best move). The tree is then expanded for moves within 'move distance'.

To compensate for exponential growth of analyzed nodes I use a simple technique: at each ply after ply 1 the move distance is halved. So if the move distance at ply 0 and ply 1 is 20 centipawns, it will be 10 centipawns for ply 2, 5 centipawns for ply 3 and so on. This means that at greater depth less and less moves are allowed per position. So the analysis with greater depth slowly evolves into 'autoplay' rather than 'tree search'.

The other method to reduce exponential growth is the well known beta cut provided by alphabeta search. In order that all candidate moves in the root position and all candidate responses to them get proper values, I only allow beta cuts with ply 2 and deeper.

Once an alphabeta search of certain depth is carried out, the whole tree is mimimaxed out for the root. Now the initial evaluations of the root moves may change. This may make moves which initially fall out of the 'move distance' to become viable. So the search has to be repeated for those moves as well. This has to be done at every ply level.

My iterative search at a certain depth only ends when no new nodes are added by the alphabeta search (the tree is 'settled' for this depth). Only then the program is allowed to deepen the search (this I call 'refined' search).

With engine depth of 18 and move distance of 10 centipawns an average position can be analyzed to depth 10 within a matter of hours. This means a couple of hundred (possibly a couple of thousand) positions are analyzed to depth 18. Depth 10 deep analyis means an ultimate depth of 28 if you take into account that the engine depth is 18.

Whether this method has added ELO value over simple engine search is yet to be tested.


Mladen Jankovic    (2013-05-16 08:33:48)
PGN notation for forfeit, loss on time

There is no such notation in the standard. The standard specifies that a checkmate move should end with '#', instead of '+', as is standard here for other reasons. So if someone wins without checkmating it would be easy to understand what hapened.

You have another problem, any draw would, due to the mechanics of the site, be a draw accepted, as the server does not track 3-fold repetition and such (I might be mistaken).

You have another problem, as the moves are contained in a single line, while the standard specifies 255 character maximum (including newline), and recommends 80 character maximum, for compatibility with older software.

While I have not encountered any problems with that, and nobody so far complained, it still is a break from the standard.

The best place to look for how PGN should work is the standard itself: http://www6.chessclub.com/help/PGN-spec


Mladen Jankovic    (2013-05-26 21:36:20)
Playing activity top 20 players

Speaking of big tournaments, there was no new WCH for a while now, and there used to be 2 starting per year.


Garvin Gray    (2013-06-04 14:56:48)
Wch cycles possible changes?

With some discussion once occurring about the format of the Ficgs wch, time for a new thread with a different slant.

Some posters have given their opinions on pros/cons of the wch cycle and changes they would like to see happen.

Most though are not incorporated because Thibault is against them, or thinks they will not work.

So time for a new question so it might be possible to get some changes or refinements.

Thibault, on what items in regards to the wch would you be willing to see some changes, or at least incorporate well thought out proposals from the members?

This could at least lead the discussion on where to head for a discussion on these matters.

Because quite frankly if Thibault does not agree with your proposal, it will not happen.

If someone wants to know my opinion on this whole matter. Feel free to ask and I will post in a later post, or possibly a whole new thread as I do have quite a bit to say. Be warned, some may not like it ;)


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-06-05 00:06:55)
Wch cycles possible changes?

Hi Garvin!

Some changes have been made for the chess WCH, about 1 year and a half ago, complicating the rules but not so bad IMO.

I'm not against changes but I'm definitely for coherence... as you know, I think that there is no point changing FICGS WCH going to another round-robin one, just an example. It would kill the original scheme & previous championships value just like FIDE killed its own scheme. I gave my opinion on this when launching the very first championship. Also, I'm quite convinced that constant changes always become bad and hide another problem.

I'm still favourable to create the FICGS CUP with another scheme though! But conditions are not fulfilled... we have no new players enough, numbers are very bad these times. FICGS major problem is here... solving it and most changes proposals become useless.

Anyway, do not think that I will have the last word here for ever, that won't be the case... I only hope that the best decisions will be made for the site.


Robert Knighton    (2013-06-06 22:58:06)
Vacation: change for 3 days minimum?

@Thibault: a 2 day minimum is bad because what if I only need 1 day this time? I must lose 2. Maybe I need 1 day only 5 seperate times and I need 40 days straight around christmas/new years.

this scenario my/Garvin's suggestion works (20 blocks split however) and yours leaves me with only 30 days for christmas/new years; just as an example.

I dont think this is complex at all.

You may take vacation up to 20 more times this year.
You have a total of 45 days of vacation you may use.

20/45
No more complex than a chess clock ;)



@Michael: I think the specific complaints were probably sent privately but I can use my imagination to come up with some possibility.

Lets say you're playing a difficult opponent in a close game in some major tournament maybe.

In order to get a time advantage your opponent goes into vacation mode immediately after you make your moves.

While in vacation mode he can still view and analyze the game without running down his clock which effectively gives him 45 extra days of clock time. This can be a significant advantage (more time = more analysis)

People can argue that it works both ways but what if the victim in this story has used his/her vacation for legitimate reasons?

Maybe the person exploiting this technique only plays a few tournaments a year to make sure he has that 45 extra days if he runs into a hard game?

As for how to solve this issue... well that is the topic of the discussion. How to prevent vacation abuse without hurting legitimate vacation needs.


Robert Knighton    (2013-06-08 22:37:01)
Vacation: change for 3 days minimum?

@Daniel: The problem with your way of thinking is that it encourages me to play as few games on this site as possible so I can always be able to use my vacation time in that way.

Also if I have real vacation coming up in a few months I wont start new games because I dont have vacation time now to cover it.

end result being less games played on the site because vacation time is easy to abuse?

Even without hard rules being put in place, my opinion would be that using vacation time to get an edge in your games is poor conduct but I don't see how there is any way to completely stop the behavior. Limiting the convenience of it is about the best that could be done.


Daniel Parmet    (2013-06-10 06:20:38)
Playing activity top 20 players

Well part of the problem is I don't see where it says I have these "tickets" to move up. I knew of the rule but had no awareness if I had ever actually won one to use.

The other part of the problem is the rating bands. By alternating rating bands between time controls, all the people over 2100 want to play 2100-2300 all the people over 2000 want to play 2000-2200 all the people over 2200 want to play only 2200-2400 or norm events. So effectively instead of 200 point bands you've create ONE HUNDRED point bands. The 2100-2300 band see only those rated 2100-2200.


Daniel Parmet    (2013-06-15 16:39:29)
Playing activity top 20 players

Well Don the good news for you is that today my last game officially finished and now I have no reason to connect to this site again! Congratulations Don!

The bad news is that even though I am gone this event in no way improves your lack of logic skills. You will have to improve these yourself.

I know quite well Thib does not *need my help.* And I outlined above my thanks for the amazing job he has done with this place. I merely said if he could use my help that it was at his disposal.


Alvin Alcala    (2013-06-21 18:51:04)
Playing activity top 20 players

Blitz and Rapid Fide events are becoming popular fast. I agree with you Scott, Thib should grabe this opportunity I'm sure a surge of new faces will com to play in this site.


Garvin Gray    (2013-07-01 13:35:39)
Wch cycles possible changes?

I guess no one else wants any changes.

Oh well I am proposing a small change in regards to the TER rule.

As it stands=

The winner of each group is qualified for the next stage.

In case of equality, the player with the strongest tournament entry rating (TER) is qualified for the next stage. If tournament entry ratings are equal, ratings when the next stage begins will be taken in account.

I would like to see these reversed, so it is the rating at the end of the event that decides who goes through. The logic of this is based on the theory being used. The theory is that the reason for highest rating moves forward is that it helps to ensure that the next group is as strong as possible. Well surely then that the most current information is the best guide to strength of play, so in my opinion the TER criteria should change to reflect this.

So the new rule would read:

The winner of each group is qualified for the next stage. In the case of equality, the player with the highest rating when the next stage begins will be qualify. Should their ratings be equal, then the strongest tournament entry rating (TER) is qualified for the next stage.


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-07-15 14:16:39)
Interview with new FICGS Go champion

Yen-Wei Huang, winner of the 8th FICGS Go championship, kindly accepted to answer a few questions for this very interesting interview!

_______________________


- Hello Yen-Wei and congratulations for winning the FICGS Go championship! Xiao Tong was obviously a tough opponent, yet you won 5-0, what happened during this match?

Hi Thib. Thanks again for your kind invitation. Xiao is definitely one of the strongest Go players on FICGS, and I was really, really lucky to have won all five games. In fact, I was behind in three of them until Xiao made some mistakes late in the games: in game 69092, I forced a tough ko fight which jeopardized my lower group. Xiao made a mistake at P2 as he missed my T3 could force another ko. Game 69093 was very close towards the end but I think the move at C13 caused him the game. Game 69096 was even closer that I won by half a point thanks to the big 7.5 komi. The other two games were not easy either and I am glad I could have hung on to the lead. Overall I really enjoyed our match and I would love to have a rematch with Xiao in the future.

- You're from Taiwan, could you tell us a bit more about you? At what age did you learn Go? Do you have any other ranks (e.g. at other sites)?

I learned Go when I was 5 and I have always enjoyed playing all my life. I used to play on servers like KGS and Tygem and I was around 6-7 dan on these sites. Recently I don't have that much time to play so that's why turned to turn-based server like FICGS.

- What do you think about the world of Go these days? Who is the very best player in the world according to you?

I think the past two years were the "warring period" in the world of Go. I would say Lee Sedol was the best player two years ago, but he seems to have lost his dominant position recently. There are many rising stars that are winning the world champions. I am especially keeping an eye on Yuta Iyama, who I think is No. 1 in Japan and has started to threaten the dominance of Chinese and Korean players.

- What about computer Go and its future? How many years do you give to the human before losing to the machine?

As a software engineer I foresee the computer Go beats the world's No. 1 player in two decades. Crazy Stone already beat Yoshio Ishida with four handicap stones earlier this year, and I believe it wouldn't take long for computers to beat pros in two handicap stones. The real challenge will come when computers need to go from handicap games to even games since they need to advance from defensive mode to attack mode. I am really excited to see how Artificial Intelligence can surprise us with its "creative" moves when the time comes.

- Do you use engines or databases? What advice would you give to beginners (and to your future challengers :))?

I know there are many useful Go engines and databases that are being developed these days, unfortunately I don't really know much about them. I do use http://ps.waltheri.net/ if I need to look something up, and I go to http://tom.com for commented games (they're in Chinese, nonetheless). Advice to beginners: just go to any search engine and you can easily find all the free resources you want. Advice to my future challengers: just try the new variations since I know none of them :)

- What new features would you like to see at FICGS?

Firstly I'd like to thank Thib for maintaining such a wonderful site. I enjoy playing Go and Poker here and maybe I'll start playing Chess sometime (I really suck so I'm not ready to embarrass myself yet). The ability to play different games is what makes FICGS unique. As Thib mentioned earlier, we need much more players, and I think FICGS simply needs to host much more tournaments, probably some with shorter time settings. With more games and more player engagement, more people will stick around. Another feature I'd really like to see is FICGS client for cellphones/tablets. The main advantage of turn-based servers is that it allows people to play wherever for whatever period of time: a 1-min ride in the elevator, a 10-min wait at the bus stop, or a couple of hours at home. If playing on FICGS is made easier, I know I will be more addicted to it :)

- Thank you very much and good luck in the next final match...

Thanks! And please go easy on our Poker match...


Don Groves    (2013-07-15 19:55:32)
Interview with new FICGS Go champion

Yen-Wei: Do you think increasing the size of the goban to 23x23 would keep the computers at bay for a few more years?


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-07-15 20:04:54)
Interview with new FICGS Go champion

Ah, good question! In my opnion, a few more years maybe... but not so much.


Yen-Wei Huang    (2013-07-16 05:01:18)
Interview with new FICGS Go champion

I doubt it. Since the 23x23 goban can be a very different game that no humans are familiar with, I believe by the time computers catch up with humans in 19x19, they can beat humans in 23x23 as well.


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-07-16 10:31:44)
Interview with new FICGS Go champion

I forgot this point, you're probably right Yen-Wei :)


Don Groves    (2013-07-17 01:42:20)
Interview with new FICGS Go champion

Thanks for your quick response!


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-07-30 23:31:51)
Next WCH Stage start

Hi all, unfortunately there was no spots available for all players in the replacements list (who registered after july 1st)... Joerg now plays but Scott doesn't. Moreover, no new groups can be built this time. The good point is that we did not have many forfeits.


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-07-31 11:34:54)
Thematic tournaments?

Thanks a lot Peter, indeed I knew the name :)

Sorry Dann, I tried to include this FEN in a PGN in the discussion but it doesn't work well :/


Scott Nichols    (2013-08-02 20:54:08)
Next WCH Stage start

That's fine Thib, I entered late. Please take my name off the list so I don't have to worry about it.

On another subject, but still Wch. I saw in the round robin final that Kamesh was entered. I don't think he has played a game on here in about 2 years. He made it clear to all of us that he was quitting online chess because of his 2 new kids. My point is this, the final RR just takes too long to reach. My suggestion: Have a single qualifying swiss tournament. The top eight players then can have a final RR to determine the winner. Have an entry fee, this will eliminate Most of the looky-loos and forfeits. I think quality, not quantity is more important.


Scott Nichols    (2013-08-07 21:21:54)
Next WCH Stage start

It could be done easy, just like wbccc. Get rid of the increments and limit games to 25 days which is more than enough. But as the saying goes, "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." Thib is hardly ever here since he started that other project, but it doesn't matter. This site just kind of runs itself. I doubt if it will grow though, what you see is what you get.


Nick Burrows    (2013-08-21 18:57:07)
Next WCH Stage start

what is Thib's new project?


Sam Berkman    (2013-08-22 20:08:10)
New FICGS software?

Is this a new moving system now? Just wondering Thib.


Sam Berkman    (2013-08-22 20:27:04)
New FICGS software?

Its pretty nice I like the new system. :)


Sam Berkman    (2013-08-24 01:44:12)
New FICGS software?

And now it disappeared was that just a test?


Garvin Gray    (2013-08-24 19:42:36)
New FICGS software?

what new moving system?


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-08-27 12:59:26)
New FICGS software?

What new moving system are you talking about, Sam? Maybe you tried the "fast moves" interface!?


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-08-27 13:10:01)
Next WCH Stage start

I have so many other projects... particularly during the summer. But none of them is the reason why FICGS doesn't evolve or doesn't get new players enough.


Sam Berkman    (2013-08-27 21:56:51)
New FICGS software?

Maybe that was it.


Garvin Gray    (2013-08-31 09:27:36)
New my games feature requested

I would like to see an additional heading item added to the my games page.

Currently I have a heap of games going. Some of them are class time control and some are rapid time control.

I think it would improve the site and make 'things' much easier if in the space between each tournament games, a new heading was added telling you either:

1) The actual name of the tournament those particular games belong to
or
2) Just a listing of class or rapid.

Because currently a game says 10 days remaining, but 10 days and 8 moves to the time control in a class event is different to having 10 days remaining in a rapid. This would then make it easier to prioritise games.


Alvin Alcala    (2013-08-31 18:26:35)
New my games feature requested

Good idea garvin!


Garvin Gray    (2013-08-31 19:08:25)
New my games feature requested

Thanks Alvin. After my post I also realised this addition is especially useful as quite a few of us having multiple games against the same opponent, so it makes it much easier to work out which tournament it comes from.

For instance I have events from Round Robin Final to standard open. Would be beneficial to know at a glance which one is which :)


Garvin Gray    (2013-09-03 17:51:13)
New my games feature requested

Hmm :)


Alvin Alcala    (2013-09-04 00:20:36)
New my games feature requested

Thib seems so busy nowadays.


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-09-04 00:43:00)
New my games feature requested

Kind of vacation, sorry :)

Just read the whole discussion (at last)... Currently, the name of the tournament appears by leaving the mouse on a game in the list. I'm not sure which choice is best, as for me I prefer to have more games available on my screen but an option may be ok I guess.

Please be patient, I should be back to code in a few weeks.


Eduardo Alex Baeza Ibanez    (2013-10-23 17:57:33)
Saludos desde Chile

Saludos a los fanaticos del ajedrez, soy uno de ellos y prueba de ello es que me he inscrito en cuanto servidor gratuito hay. Este servidor es nuevo para estoy a en una lista de espera imagino que en algun momento se completaran los cupos y comenzara los partidos, alguien que me aclare?.


Greetings to the chess fans, I am one of them and the proof is that I have enrolled as free server there. This server is new to'm on a waiting list at some point I imagine that quotas were completed and the parties began, someone enlighten me?


Garvin Gray    (2013-12-05 01:44:30)
WBCCC 2014 Entries Open

Entries for WBCCC 2014 are now open at www.rybkaforum.net.

For those not aware of our event, quite a few of the players here can speak about their experiences in the event, but as organiser I can say that many of the regular players have gotten a lot out of their participation, have improved their play and a lot has been learnt about freestyle correspondence chess in the three years that this event has been running.

Prize money is offered, but how much is determined by players and others willingness to sponsor.

Feel free to contact me by replying to this message, sending me a pm at rybka forum or private message here. A private message here is the least reliable.

Full tournament rules:

1) Tournament will be single round robin, meaning every person will play each other once.
2) A players seed position will be determined by their order of entry. The earlier you enter, the higher your number. The first person to enter will receive number 1. The seed position determines which number a player is in the round robin.
3) Entries open December 1 2013
4) Entries close January 6 2014
5) Play begins January 13 2014
6) Each round will be paired at the start of the event, with the pairings for the entire year published at the start.
7) Each round will have a maximum of four games, most likely two games (just like 2011, 2012 and 2013). The number of games will always be kept to a bare minimum
8) There will be a maximum of six paired rounds.
9) The minimum time control will be 30 days plus 1 hour per move. If the number of games per round needs to increase from 2 to 3 or 4, the time control will be lengthened. For instance, if we have 21 players, so needing 4 games per round to keep the number of games even and use five rounds, instead of the six rounds in 2013.
9) Pairings for future rounds are subject to change due to withdrawal of players and unforeseen circumstances.
10) If a player withdraws, or their games time out without an explanation that is accepted by the arbiter, all their games will be removed from the event. In effect they are no longer a participant in the event and no effect on the final placings.
11) There will be an official entry form that all players will be required to fill out before their entry will be accepted. This is so in case of emergency the organisers have a method of contact outside of Rybka Forum. It will include also include a person other than yourself to contact. Whilst I understand this might seem unnecessary to some, I do hope that events from 2013 (death of Salvador Signes and our inability to get in contact with the family) do show the need for better communication methods.

12) Xfccplay- Xfccplay is the official software provided for WBCCC 2014. Xfccplay is provided for the free use for participants whilst in the event. A user name and password will be provided once registered. Also download instructions will be provided by private message and these must be followed to install the program. The program is provided by chessok and is not to be passed on to anyone and is provided for the sole use of playing in WBCCC. All moves, draw offers etc in WBCCC 2014 must be played on this software.

13) New entrants will be required to play a couple of test games on xfccplay before entries close so that the arbiter is certain that all players are familiar with the software and its features. The organisers do not want to see players withdrawing after the event has begun because they find that they are unfamiliar with the software and get upset because their clock is running. Entries are open from December 1 to January 6. That is over a month to become familiar with the software. The organisers will not accept entries from players who have not tested the software.


Garvin Gray    (2013-12-15 10:33:57)
Entry fee for higher class tournament

Another suggestion :) I notice you have said the rule has been re-written, but where it is displayed. To make the 'ticket' rule etc more obvious, it should be contained on the page when someone clicks on the link that takes you to entering a divisions. Say I click on class sm 19 (the current division in question), it would give the ticket rules.

So, when does the new ticket rules start?


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-12-23 21:55:40)
FICGS__BIG_CHESS__WORLD_CHAMPIONSHIP__5

Hello Lazaro,

Sorry, the list remained open for replacements and it wasn't closed :/ It is by far too late now to start new groups, the new cycle will start in about 2 months from now, so feel free to enter the waiting list again as soon as it is open again.


Peter W. Anderson    (2013-12-26 11:55:26)
FICGS World Chess Championship results

I thought it would be a good idea to have a record of the FICGS world chess championship results somewhere in an easily digested form. So I have compiled them and published them on a blog.

I have done this mainly for people who are already members here but also wrote an introduction to FICGS for those who may not be familiar with it. Who knows, it might leads to some new members :)

You can see the article here
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4640212584288527521#editor/target=post;postID=4543488454188377326;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname

The link to the championship results is at the bottom. I hope someone finds it interesting. I have beeen quite careful in compiling it but I expect there may be a few small errors in it. Please let me know if there are and I will make the necessary corrections.


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-12-26 21:59:43)
FICGS Facebook app in question

Hello all,

As you probably have noticed, we have less and less new players and it seems that many correspondence chess sites encounter the same problem (but chess.com, maybe gameknot... mainly).

Nowadays, it seems that everything goes with Facebook and Facebook applications (even if Facebook enforced their rules in many ways around apps), so I'm thinking about making one... somewhat against my principles. In my opinion, there may be many other reasons why chess sites lose popularity but that's another story.

So I'd like to know your opinion on Facebook applications (well, most are spammy and with one goal, gathering personal data... that's quite obvious) and why not we could share ideas to make it useful and viral as much as possible...


Thibault de Vassal    (2013-12-29 18:12:25)
Ficgs World Championship 13

March 1st, 2014... 8 months after the previous one, as usual.

I understand that starting all new rounds at the same time is quite heavy but at least it is clear, including for me :)

Anyway, let's gather a few opinions on this to discuss it further.


Bogoljub Teverovski    (2014-01-01 22:25:10)
Thematic tournaments?

New year and new thematics!


Don Groves    (2014-01-24 03:51:05)
Withdrawal from all standard time events

IMHO, the answer to this problem is to not allow any player to enter a new tournament if that player still has more than X ongoing tournaments. The determination of X remains to be resolved. It needs to be low enough to eliminate players from entering a new tournament and then not making any moves until their clock runs low. This is completely unfair to the other players!


George Clement    (2014-02-10 20:26:55)
Standard time control abusers

Thib, I for one agree with Garvin. Currently I believe the reason that no new m or sm tours have started in months is because of the time control abuse. There is no way it should take a modern computer and analyst 30 days to come up with 10 moves. They wait 30 days play 10 fast moves and are gone for 30 days again. It's one of the main reason play on this site is going down. n'est ce pas?


Thibault de Vassal    (2014-02-13 13:30:26)
Standard time control abusers

George, the main reason why no tournaments enough can start is that the number of new players slowly decreases for a while... I tried several things to solve this problem and it didn't work, now I'm trying other things but believe me, I'm doing my possible. The thing is that it takes time (particularly for Google) :/


Thibault de Vassal    (2014-03-01 23:51:05)
Standard time control abusers

Here is a proposal... I'll post a new topic asking who is favourable to close the class A, class M & class SM tournaments, promoting regularly this new topic in the chat bar.

Then let's wait 7 days exactly. If there are more players wanting to close (temporarily, at least) these waiting lists, then it will be done.

Does it sound acceptable to you?


Thibault de Vassal    (2014-03-03 11:14:15)
Standard time control abusers

Not "any" player though, Heinz-Georg :) You know like me that Garvin has some experience and knowledge on all these topics and I respect it, even if I disagree with him sometimes or often.

In this case, I estimated that either I had to prove some things, or something good could comes out (if I'm wrong). We all know that we miss new players for about 2 years, so it sounds important to do something that can be seen even if the real game is behind the server itself...


Thibault de Vassal    (2014-03-03 23:41:34)
Standard time control abusers

At least you join Garvin on the WCH groups point (and consequently the Cup idea)...

Anyway, as there are very few new strong chess players yet, this is a quite good time to try this change. Let's see in a few weeks/months if it has first effects.


Garvin Gray    (2014-03-04 01:15:06)
Standard time control abusers

FWIW, seems like at least one person thinks I 'got my way'. This is incorrect, I did not 'get my way'.

I wanted Thibault to take action against standard time control abusers, which he has not done.

Btw, in one of my games I am now on move 70 and have mate 13 and I think my opponent is going to make another move and then try and sit on the position for another 35 days.

Will Thibault step in then?

The closing of the three standard class divisions was a response to this issue and the fact that they have not started for a long time and that something needed to be done.

It is only after a decision had been made one way or another that some comments have started to come. I gave, some days, between replies, for others to comment, so others had an opportunity to cast their opinion, disagree, give alternative opinion and also to add new rules if they wish.

Then as nothing was happening with the discussions and my opponents were continuing with their actions, the need become more pressing. I have never said for a second that there is anything wrong at all with a person who moves at a rate of one move every five days.

It is with players who are so arrogant they believe it is their right to waste their opponents lives when they clearly can play at a faster rate. If they can not move at a faster rate, how come they can make 9 moves in 3 days, then not move for 35 days?

A person who is legitimately time poor will make one move every few days to make the time control.


Don Groves    (2014-03-09 22:26:32)
Standard time control abusers

I have long ago stated my opinion that, if a player cannot make one move per week (or maybe 10 days) in each game they are playing, then that person is playing too many games. I have come up against the same problems Garvin is talking about many times and invariably players who do this are playing 30 or more games at the same time. My solution is to restrict the number of tournaments a player can enter. No player can enter a new tournament if he/she has more than two tournaments already running.


Thibault de Vassal    (2014-04-23 00:19:10)
Standard time control abusers

A problem with starting with only 10 days is players who may start a new tournament late.

Garvin, I must say I sometimes play this way myself when I have few time during a few weeks... I play easiest moves while delaying hard ones, then I concentrate on these difficult games during a short period and play several moves... Everyone may have his reasons.


David Fierry Fraillon    (2014-04-23 09:09:36)
Standard time control abusers

Hi all,
I am suffering a player abusing of time control ... he has waiting for 29 days for playing one move and then alternating one move / one day of vacation.
I read all comments on this post and i do agree with both of you (Garvin and Thibault) on main points.
Basically thibault you're wright but maybe you will reconsider your position by looking at it with new eyes :
- In the current WCH at least 6 players are using this ''technic'' : the Pech family (Stepan, Matej, Jaroslav and Jarsolav senior), Pechova and Mach
- They all coming from Czech Republic

So what i think : it is only one player (and i am sure you can check that with IP connection). That player is not interrested in winning elo and is stupid by using the same country.
It is not a person interested by chess it is only someone who want bad on FICGS : and that the point you can use for banning him.

Obviously, I am not sure of what i wrote and in theory i do not agree with writing names of the guilty ... but in that case i think you should consider that guy like a hacker and not like a chess player using a stupid technic for winning elo.


David Fierry Fraillon    (2014-04-23 13:20:16)
Standard time control abusers

okidoki ...
Reasons for ban can be fuzzy i do agree, and i think not in a ''fair play spirit''.
I should have spoken about withdrawal or something else ... whatever i am intersting in playing chess and i always intend to play my Pech's game normally.
It can even be fun to play like that : the challenge is to win by time !!! :-)

In fact i wanted to pointed out that there is maybe different ways than changing rules to avoid time abusers. It's been a long time that i did not seriously play chess, and i am not an expert in cc ... but i am thinking that the actual time rules (combined to the moves interface) are simply really good ...
As a server manager you can find out material evidence of time abusing ( even if it is not as simple as i say ) and a cheater will always find a way to cheat on new rules.


Costantino Proietti    (2014-05-07 11:07:59)
Reduction in max days available? (move)

I agree with 30 days for any move time limit.
When I played postal chess in ASIGC I was addicted waiting my opponents moves so every day I was looking for new letters. I think the stressed player is that player as kind of me that want to carry on a game without waste of time, not the player that ignores a game as the rules allow this behaviour.


Thibault de Vassal    (2014-05-13 23:01:16)
Class A, class M & class SM closed

It is now about 70 days that these waiting lists are closed, time to make a point.

The situation was the following on march 2 : "Rapid SM 12 is now empty, rapid M 71 has one player & rapid A 158 has three"

Now, Rapid SM 12 has one player , rapid M 72 (one started) has two players & rapid A 161 (three started) has one.

However only one player rated above 2200 entered the Rapid M tournament that started, and another one the current waiting list. On the other hand, respectively 2, 3 & 4 players rated above 2000 entered the Rapid A tournaments.

My conclusion is that closing class SM & class M tournaments waiting lists was not really useful while it was more useful for class A. Finally, probably one or two rapid A would have started during this period if class A was not closed.

Of course the main problem remains the lack of new players.

I now re-open the class SM, M & A waiting lists. Let's see how it evolves.


Jing Huang    (2014-05-25 11:44:03)
Class A, class M & class SM closed

To attract the new players, I have some suggestions:
(1) A league format might be interesting. (e.g. littlegolem)
(2) The way of displaying the tournament results matters a lot. You can try something different and see the effects:)


Thibault de Vassal    (2014-07-11 01:01:06)
FICGS WCh results summary updated

Starting games one after another will take... years! 4 more games after the first 8 ones is 8 months more.

Garvin, I'm not defending the status quo to do nothing at all (even if it's ok for me from times to times), I really think that things are better as they are, even if there are many problems mainly due to the lack of players. Well, nowadays the curb of new players is going the right way, I hope this is only a start.


Peter W. Anderson    (2014-07-13 10:54:56)
FICGS WCh results summary updated

I have given the question of the format of the WCh matches a lot of thought.

There is no doubt that having the advantage of the draw is a huge advantage at correspondence chess, much more so than at normal chess, simply because the draw rate is so high amongst strong correpondence players.

However, there are disadvantages to other formats. It is true that a tournament final gives a better chance of having a new champion. But the outcome is dependent upon the results of players who are not necesarrily fighting hard for the prize (perhaps they have an early loss, perhaps other parts of their lives become too busy). You might hope that in the final this would not happen, but if you look closely at the games in the round robin finals you will see some strange results, clearly drawn games being lost etc. If it can happen in the round robin final it could happen in a championship final.

Having more games in the final is a very logical option. However, as Thib has pointed out, this will create a big workload. It would make it almost impossible for a serious challenger to enter consecutive championships without having to withdraw from later ones if they reached the final (this is already very difficult witouht more games!).

Another option would be an advanced chess play-off. I would be concerned that this would be too dependant on who had the biggest hardware with less chance for human skill.

Finally, there is the chance to decide a tied match with a toss of a coin. Not a great way of picking a champion.

This problem is not so much an issue with the format as with the game itself - chess is almost certainly drawn with sensible play and as engines get stronger it is going to become harder and harder to win games.

All in all, I think the current format is very reasonable, perhaps the best.

One final observation re Neel's comment that a top player can draw a game if he wants. Perhaps, and if this is 100% true then the draw problem is realy severe. However, I am a little more hopeful. Eros Riccio sometimes beats even very strong players playing the same openings he plays - it is not as if the openings he plays are guaranteed draws in practice. He finds ways of putting them under pressure and sometimes they make a mistake. Perhaps eventually he will do so too (we may have to wait for him to get old!). Or to put another way, chess is almost certainly drawn but it is not an easy draw even at correspondence if white plays really well!


Bogoljub Teverovski    (2014-07-25 19:29:12)
Thematic tournaments?

It's time for new thematic. Let's play Budapest Gambit


Thibault de Vassal    (2014-10-27 20:44:31)
Tournaments rating ranges

Hello all,

As you may know, certain top tournaments are really too long to start... After a long wait, I finally decided to test this new rule:

12. Tournament rules

(...) Please note that the referee may change the rating ranges if a tournament takes too much time to start (such cases are quite rare).

As an example, for the tournament chess class SM, I just changed the low rating limit to 2300 only to find the 7th player. The rating limit will return to 2400 after that. This is not a good thing according to me but it may be the "less worst"... To be continued.

Feel free to tell what you think about this.


Garvin Gray    (2014-10-28 23:51:08)
July 1 2014 Fide laws of chess

With the next ficgs wch approaching, I assume this event will now be held under the new rules for the fide laws of chess that began July 1 2014.

Where is the new information contained that states how the new rules will be applied to this event as some of the fide laws chess have had some significant changes and could be make a large change for how some rules are applied on here.


Thibault de Vassal    (2014-10-31 15:40:17)
Tournaments rating ranges

Maybe a new low rating limit for class SM should be 2350... Any opinion?


Garvin Gray    (2014-10-31 16:00:59)
July 1 2014 Fide laws of chess

There have been quite a few changes. But considering our continual disagreements over many issues and the fact that apart from this event, I have walked away from this site, it is not my job to now go ahead and do your work for you.

I am not your research assistant. I offered you my advice many times over the years and in almost all occasions you flatly rejected them, or took so long to come around to them, that I have taken the decision to walk away from this site.

The new fide laws of chess have been on display since July 1 and have been confirmed in stages since then. I am not going to be your research assistant and now sit down and prepare a full document on what has changed and how it should be incorporated into this event- ESPECIALLY- when I know from your past form- that you will flat reject most, if not all, of my recommendations.

So I am not going to waste my time being your research assistant.

I have my own event to prepare for in 2015 and prepare the rules for in that event, which I am working through.

I can give you a word of warning though. If you think that the default time is the only major change, you are very wrong.


Garvin Gray    (2014-11-01 22:51:23)
July 1 2014 Fide laws of chess

There was no context other than a very simple request. With the new rules now in operation, I was asking where do we find a copy or further information on what changes have taken place for this event that flow on from the changes to the laws.

The areas I was mainly concerned with are in relation to:

5 consecutive repetition of moves and 75 moves without a pawn move or capture. The arbiter can now step and force the draw, there does not need to be a player claim.

So will the server be updated to match this? There are quite a few other changes as well where current server practices do not match the new rules.

But as I said, it is your responsibility to make sure that the competition complies with the new rules if you advertise that your tournament follows the fide laws of chess where possible.

The reason for my stance is a very simple one. Over the years, on almost every single occassion, when I have made suggestions or recommendations to you, you have gone in the opposite direction in pretty much 100 percent of cases. Or even when you have claimed to 'agree' with my recommendation, you have then given the trial period such a short time to make it practically worthless.

The last saga in relation with Nick Burrows said to me that, except for the wch, I will no longer be playing on this site.

I can tell you directly, your handling of that issue lost you a long time member.

On the format of the wch, if I actually thought this format was fair and even gave me a shot of winning it, rather than being so heavily biased in favour of Eros Riccio winning it every time, to the point of being fixed, then I would use that as sole motivation to win it.


Thibault de Vassal    (2015-01-09 20:46:20)
Eros Riccio on his win in 9th chess WCH

Eros Riccio kindly accepted to answer a few questions after his win in the 9th FICGS correspondence chess championship. Once again, his answers are worth to read... including probably a few surprises and valuable informations for most of us!

_____________________________


- Hello again Eros. Congratulations for this new win! So you played Jeroen for the second time in a row, this time in the 12 games format. There were 12 draws but it does not mean a lot. How did things go?

--> Hi Thibault! Nice to answer your questions again :-) I managed to resist again Van Assche's assaults, this time he was well-determined to win, as he made me really suffer in a couple of games. The first game was a semislav, me as Black. He played a rare variation (starting with 14.Be2 followed by 15.Qd3) that was new to me. At first the engines were giving 0.00 evaluations, but after the move 22.Qg3 they started to realize that Black's position was difficult, and they kept increasing their evaluation in White's favor move after move. That was quite a scary thing to see, and I really thought that I could have lost the game. I had to use all the thinking time (leave included) to be able to resist. This new variation impressed me so much that I decided to use it as White myself as a surprise weapon, and in fact it allowed my engine on autoplay on my old I7 980x to win a lot of games as White and a 500 dollars prize getting first place in a strong tournament on Infinity Chess. The second game was a Spanish, me as White. After his 7...0-0 I decided to avoid the Marshall (that would have probably happened if I had played 8.c3) trying the AntiMarshall variation 8.d4. I am now convinced that this variation gives nothing good to White, but I didn't know that yet when I played it! Already after the rare strong move 11...c5! things were starting to get difficult for me. He simply continued with c4 and d5, getting space advantage with his Pawns on the Queenside, while I could find no attack at all on the Kingside. Again I had to be very careful to escape with a draw.

- What can you tell about your other results this year, particularly at ICCF where you're now ranked #9 with an outstanding rating of 2639 ?

--> My ICCF elo in the past few years has raised. Slowly, but it has raised. I had no defeats and a couple of wins in the Olympiads and European team tournaments started in 2012. I am satisfied of that, as winning nowadays in top correspondence tournaments is very difficult. Important is to remain undefeated.

- Last year, you said that you felt like your play was getting weaker each day because your machine was getting older, did you finally upgrade it? But maybe this is a secret...

--> No. As I wrote earlier, I haven't updated my machine. Fortunately cpu's general speed has kept increasing not as quickly as in the past, so my I7 980x can still compete.

- Did your vision of computer chess evolve after these last 18 months? What do you expect for the next years? Do you plan to become a chess cyborg? ^^

--> Fortunately for our hobby, computer chess isn't rushing towards the "all draws" situation that I talked about a couple of years ago. That's because, fortunately, increasing cpu's power and engine's strenght is getting more and more difficult. Yes, some main lines already lead to all draws often, but chess gives so many openings options that to avoid that, you can simply play subvariations. When played a lot, also subvariations will become main variations. Then again, when the draws rate gets too high, you just pick another less played opening. It will take many years to cover every opening to a high draws rate.

- Your next challenger is Peter W. Anderson, who made a convincingly path through the round-robin cycle before to defeat SM Igor Dolgov 5-3 in the 10th candidates final (by the way he's also playing the 11th candidates final). It seems that you never played him before. How do you feel this match? Do you have any words for your opponent before that the games start?

--> I am happy to play a new player! We have just started our match, again, all my first moves as White were 1.e4. What to say... it's up to him to avoid main lines as Black (he already did it answering with 1...g6 in three games) if he wants to try to win with the black pieces. But the real challenge for him of course will be to try to win with the White pieces. It will be interesting to see if he can find holes in my Black repertoire like Van Assche was able to do. Let's wait and see!


Thibault de Vassal    (2015-01-11 01:07:34)
Class GM 3 and Rapid SM 12 entry rules

You're absolutely right Garvin... Thank you! Looks like I'm not used to this new rule yet :(

There was a ticket a few days ago for the rapid SM tournament, so I made the necessary here. The entry in class GM seems older but anyway this tournament may not start before a while, or at all. This waiting list is closed for the moment.


Thibault de Vassal    (2015-05-04 23:59:05)
Thematic tournaments?

New thematic tournament: Noteboom variation (after move 4).


Alvin Alcala    (2015-06-08 00:48:41)
2nd centaur weekend tourney

Congrats. I knew it! ficgs produces centaur champions...


Pablo Schmid    (2015-07-06 09:05:09)
Wch Match Tie Break Rules

@ Ohlin quite the opposite if the human adapt to this rule and if the computer is not "reprogrammed" for the new rule.


Thibault de Vassal    (2015-07-08 01:26:17)
Wch Match Tie Break Rules

Yes, we agree on that point, it could be more interesting... but this is not chess anymore, this is a new game. So we could even add more new rules like this one to make it even more interesting :)


Jan Ohlin    (2015-07-08 06:49:01)
Wch Match Tie Break Rules

A new game, no. Correspondence chess will become more like it was for some decades ago when top players dared to play Kingsindian and Benko gambit.


Jose Carrizo    (2015-07-08 17:17:22)
Wch Match Tie Break Rules

If a player want to win with Black today, he can play Kingsindian and the Benko Gambit without new rules.


Alvin Alcala    (2015-07-10 14:46:26)
Wch Match Tie Break Rules

Hi everyone. GM Arno wants to post in this thread as he has trouble logging in.
Introducing a 3/4-1/4 score for stalemate does not mean changing the whole game. Lasker and Réti, the fathers of this idea, knew quite well what they did, when they said, it's only a minor change (btw following the ancient chess, when mates were rare and a stalemated player had to pay half of his stake).
Some people on ChessBase argued and feared that the game might become bloodless as players would fear to sacrify material. But that's a wrong assessment.
Here is a "normal" classical GM game with a Morra Gambit, that could have happened the same way under the new rule:
E.Berg - S. Rocha (POR 2013)
1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.Bc4 a6 7.0–0 Nf6 8.Bf4 Bg4 9.h3 Bxf3 10.Qxf3 e6 11.Rfd1 Qc7 12.Rac1 Be7 13.Bb3 Rc8 14.Nd5 exd5 15.exd5 Ne5 16.Qe3 Qd7 17.Rxc8+ Qxc8 18.Bxe5 0–0 19.Bf4 Qd7 20.Rc1 Bd8 21.Qd4 Re8 22.Qb4 Be7 23.Ba4 b5 24.Bb3 Rc8 25.Rxc8+ Qxc8 26.a4 Qc5 27.Qe1 Kf8 28.Be3 Qc7 29.axb5 axb5 30.Qb4 Qb7 31.g4 h6 32.Qd4 Nd7 33.Qe4 Bf6 34.Qb4 Qa6 35.Bc2 Ne5 36.Kg2 Nc4 37.Bc1 g5 38.Bd3 Qa1 39.Bxc4 bxc4 40.Qxc4 Bxb2 41.Be3 Bf6 42.Qc8+ Kg7 43.Qf5 Qc3 44.Qe4 Qb2 45.Qf5 Qc3 46.Qe4 Qb2 47.h4 gxh4 48.Qf4 Qe5 49.Qxh6+ Kg8 50.Kg1 h3 51.Qxh3 ˝–˝
Follow the comments in the MegaBase.
White sacrifies a pawn at move 3. He regains it at move 18 by a typical piece sacrifice. Later White, who is pressing a lot, while Black defends quite well, could have won a pawn by 38.b3 (instead of 38.Bd3?): e.g. 38...Qa1 39.Bxg5 hxg5 40.bxc4 bxc4 41.Qxc4.
Berg argues he might have had practical winning chances. Either 1-0 or 1/2. So what is the big difference, if we would say: either 1-0, 3/4 or 1/2? It's just making the game more exciting, more fair and a bit less drawish, what is badly needed for correspondence chess. The basic wrong assessment is that it might be significantly easier to achieve a stalemate advantage. But it isn't (and that's why only a small percentage of games will end like that). Last but not least, players who achieve a clear endgame advantage deserve a 3/4 point instead of 1/2. K+P, K+B, K+N vs. K should be a difference to K vs. K." Thanks again, Arno


Thibault de Vassal    (2015-07-11 02:18:11)
E. Riccio on his win in the 10th CC WCH

Once again, Eros kindly answered a few questions after his win in the 10th FICGS correspondence chess championship. His answer on tie break rules meets the discussion in this thread:

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=forum_read&id=11773

____________________________


- Hello Eros and congrats again for this new win in the FICGS correspondence chess championship! This time, your opponent was Peter W. Anderson and you're playing him once again in the next final match. Actually, all games finished in less than 3 months, which looks like superfast, how did it happen?

Hello once again Thibault! Yes, the match with Anderson was very quick. The reasons are that he moves very fast, and like me, I don't seem to remember that he took any day of leave.

Also, our games were not played until the very end; many draws were agreed with many pieces on the board, as soon as we thought that none of us had winning chances.


- For many players, it is quite impossible to beat you in such a 12 games match (probably because of the tie rule). After all these won matches do you start to think that the advantage is too big?

It's a fact that a very high percentage of correspondence games played at the top level ends up in a draw... (and that percentage is even higher in my case, as my strategy is to avoid taking risks) so yes, talking against my interests, I think that something in the rules should be changed.


- By the way, your opponent suggested an interesting tie rule in the forum ( Chess, Poker & Go forum - Topic 11773 ), in the context of more general new ideas for correspondence chess rules (e.g. article by GM Arno Nickel - Correspondence Chess – the draw problem ) in order to increase the interest of the game. Do you have any opinion on all this?

The idea GM Nickel launched could be interesting, even if before we can say for sure if it can be applied in serious tournaments, it needs to be tested.

If I understood correctly, having a piece more in a draw endgame, after the game is over, a little plus on the score would be given to the player who had the small advantage.

I always thought like: How unfair! That player had King and two Knights against a lone King of his opponent... still he only got a half point anyway! Or even worse, in theory, one player could have this position: King in e1, Bishop in h1 and 6 Pawns from h2 to h7. (Black King in h8) Counting the value of pieces that would be a a +9 advantage, like a Queen more, but still it would be a draw. Another crazy scenario, more common, are those blocked positions were 16 pawns block the center (or more simply any fortress position) and not rarely it happens that a color has a huge material advantage but can't break through in any way. In this last case the player with material disadvantage could have found a genial idea to reach that blocked position, should his opponent with extra pieces still be given an advantage after the game?

Another important consideration is that this rule could discourage attacking players to play gambits or make sacrifices, as if the attack fails, their efforts to try to win would be punished! This last case would even increase the draw rate.

Probably Nickel didn't talk about giving a plus after games finished with advantage but still many pieces on board, anyway those positions (except the 16 Pawns one) could very well be played on until only one piece would be left.

After these examples we can see that there are so many different ways that a position with material advantage can be reached... but it's not always fair that the player with the advantage should be given a plus after the game. As a paradox, an advantage should be given to the opponent if he smartly managed to sacrifice one or more pieces in order to reach a draw endgame which he would have lost if he didn't give away material.


- Of course, the level of chess programs is for much in it. Do you feel that high level correspondence chess and centaur chess evolved much this year, or did it reach a kind of peak?

The level of correspondence chess increases in a parallel way as computers, databases and chess programs improve. Slowly everything keeps improving. Of course, due to the more thinking time, correspondence chess will always have a higher draw percentage than blitz games played by computers.


- Finally, what can you tell us about your correspondence chess path this year, particularly at ICCF where you're currently ranked #13?

On ICCF I am fighting with the Italian Team (I am playing in second board behind the World Champion Finocchiaro) in the 9th European Team Championship.
---> https://www.iccf.com/event?id=44123


Pablo Schmid    (2015-07-12 02:09:18)
Wch Match Tie Break Rules

Here is most examples of my ficgs practice (corr and Advanced chess). This represent a low percentage of my games. These games are food for thought from my own assisted experience against that rule that I call "+1 decisive advantage chess". I believe you could already burn a lot of chapters in ending's book. Most of my games show balanced games until the end, sometime, the "punished guy" could have played another drawing defense, sometimes not, unfairly to me. The game would be more safe, with less sacrifices of piece vs 2 or 3 pawns and things like that because of fearing an ending with king vs king + piece or king vs king + pawn even if the sacrifice was sound and well played. Game 22895 and 84758 I would probably have been punished by the rule in the ending of game 22895 (and my opponent in the other game), and that type of ending in general (piece + pawn up vs piece when the king cannot block the pawn). Game 37122 Shame on me, my advantage in that ending was not sufficient to force my opponent to sacrifice his bishop for my last pawn. This is why I only deserve 0,5!
Game 37920 That king of pawns vs piece + pawn would become lost for the player without the piece, what a way of punish some balanced sacrifices for pawns!
Game 54907 and 20704 That kind of opposite bishop ending would be "lost" for the guy pawnless even if the transition into an inferior but drawn ending was the intention of the "inferior guy".
Game 74870 The ending is perfectly balanced but my opponent couldn't finish the game the way he did because of the rule.
Game 74875 I would have been half-losing in the pawn ending after a nice defense in an interesting unbalanced material line.
Game 74880 the ending knight + h pawn would have been "half losing" for me even if we can't say that I was clearly worse overall.
Game 76734 and 76764 Technichally this game is not directly concerned by the rule but it is very close. I was on the verge of defeat but I have managed to defend stubornely. If he have played well to get a winning position and then the win disapear because of bad play but still finish with a draw, he would get a bonus because he played better overall? The way I managed to defend would not be rewarded?
Game 77809 In this game the whole deep opening line would probably be "half losing" for Black in the ending because of the new rule.
Game 80954 Suddenly it seems that I would have been punished for my defense in the final position.
Game 85106 I did not play specially badly but... I would have been punished for my way of finishing the game!


Scott Nichols    (2015-09-12 01:24:12)
New quotes?

OK, I'll start, :)

Blitz chess kills your ideas. (Bobby Fischer)


Scott Nichols    (2015-09-13 14:22:27)
New quotes?

Chess holds it's master in it's own bonds, shackling the mind and brain so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer. (Albert Einstein)


Scott Nichols    (2015-09-13 19:52:19)
New quotes?

There is more to poker than life. (Tom McEvoy)


Scott Nichols    (2015-09-14 15:44:05)
New quotes?

A great joy in life is to have a job where FICGS screen is hiding just behind my work screen, :)


Scott Nichols    (2015-09-19 18:29:06)
New quotes?

You can't beat dumb luck...


Garvin Gray    (2015-10-09 16:57:51)
Wch Match Tie Break Rules

Thib: I have not replied to this topic since my last comment for two reasons. 1) Nothing new to add 2) I had seen Scott's comment and was rather upset by it as I saw the danger in it. This discussion, in my opinion, is about one topic only.

We have discussed the ficgs world cup and other formats before, and can again, but this discussion is for one item only, so I did not want to contribute in any way to derailing the discussion. So I decided to refrain from comment as I had nothing to add.

To respond to your comments Thib- timing of the championship cycles will always be an issue, no matter the format. Regardless if you use 12 straight games, my format, or Alvin's. Or any other version.

We already have different groups starting at different times, and the final starting at different times to the other groups. This is just how things happen. It is possible that the final could be over in 8 games and in a shorter time period and time gained.

I think this format is worth trying for at least one cycle. That is also what happens with the otb world championship. There are format changes from time to time. Some are successful, some are not. Matches used to be 24 games in length. Now they are 12 games. One was played as an 8 player double round robin.

Things change as the environment changes.


Steve Vollmer    (2015-11-15 13:18:59)
New quotes?

'You just can't trust quotes on the internet' Abraham Lincoln.


Thibault de Vassal    (2015-11-15 19:08:17)
New quotes?

Okok, let's go with more quotes :)


George Jempty    (2015-11-16 17:28:32)
New quotes?

"Before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game" Siegbert Tarrasch


Thibault de Vassal    (2015-11-17 02:34:49)
FICGS chess cup : proposal

Why not a deadline... with a few more opinions, I think it will be possible (if it goes in one direction more than another)!

Anyway, we see that new opinions bring more and more questions and differences :)

On Sergey's points: First of all, I must say that if I could have brought bigger prizes for tournaments, there wouldn't have been such discussions, the whole thing (WCH particularly) would probably work better... but this is not the case, unfortunately :/

As I already said, multi-rounds tournaments are not compatible with longer time controls, and that's a pity. That's why I proposed a 1 round big tourney with a longer time control, but many players seem to be used to the rapid (or even faster) one. Finally, the schedule you propose looks like Garvin's one.


Steven DuCharme    (2015-11-21 13:32:52)
New quotes?

A chess game has 3 stages. 1.You hope you have the advantage 2.You believe you have an advantage. 3.You know you're going to lose!

Savielly Tartakower


Steven DuCharme    (2015-11-23 20:47:00)
New quotes?

"Who the bleep bleeped up chessquotes.com ?"

-Me


Scott Nichols    (2015-11-24 00:22:43)
New quotes?

Big deal, it's not like there aren't 80,000 more sites about the same subject...


Thibault de Vassal    (2015-12-02 02:48:10)
FICGS chess cup : proposal

Finally... after a way too long thought on this FICGS cup idea and FICGS wch format, I think that Garvin's idea for this new tournament should be tried.

1) Eros just won the latest WCH with all games drawn again, but not all games in the knockout tournament are draws (e.g. latest candidates final). I think that we must keep this original format because it doesn't exist elsewhere and because it is a real challenge (and it must be possible to beat Eros in 1 game... one day :)) ! Of course, the other reason is that I didn't find any other acceptable way in case of equality.

2) I still think that there are problems in both my cup idea and Garvin's idea in the current context, but this cup will be different enough from the WCH, so the two formats should probably coexist so that each player can choose (or play both).


Scott Nichols    (2015-12-08 01:22:21)
FICGS chess cup : proposal

The 32 players were fine. Time controls (a little long for my taste, but...) are even OK. I had 2 big beefs with the wch. 1. playing a 1400 that just bought a new comp that NOW plays 2000+. If I beat him--0 rating points, draw--I lose many points, etc. 2. The "seeding" of players is not fair IMO, everybody should start at the start line. then the winner can feel much more proud to repeat as champion. I actually may win an ICCF semi-final (#45349), one more game needs to finish. I was seeded 10th of 11 players when it started. I mention this because in far too many of the Wch games were drawn much too early IMO. In ICCF, at least my tour's, the games were fought much longer, down to less than 10 pieces quite often. I looked at this last one and they are calling it a draw in the middlegame. I ask WHY? Just because it's 0.00 for a while, so what? It's the WORLD CH.! How many chances will a player get the opportunity? Each game should be fought to the death. Eros is very busy and has to be getting on in years, make him WORK for it! Sorry to ramble, just a few thoughts...


Bogoljub Teverovski    (2016-01-04 22:44:52)
Thematic tournaments?

Any offers for new thematic?
I'd play 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 e5


Gregory Kohut    (2016-01-08 19:40:50)
New quotes?

"And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been."-Rainer Maria Rilke


Herbert Kruse    (2016-01-09 22:36:31)
FICGS chess cup : proposal

my ideas:

no change in running cycles, but the new one´s should be with lesser time and more games per opponnent


Thibault de Vassal    (2016-01-18 02:47:01)
FICGS chess cup : proposal

Garvin, a few more questions (do not worry, this tournament will exist & it will start this year!), according to your rules, how would you plan stage 1 & stage 2 if we have let's say 73 players for the first edition, and 103 for the second one? I mean the number of players in each tournament for the 2 stages.

Then, well... maybe this FICGS cup should have started at the very beginning of FICGS. I just didn't think that it would be useful and I'm still not sure but anyway, as a new FICGS WCH starts every 8 months, shouldn't it start 4 months after each WCH cycle? The waiting list for the next WCH will be open in a few days already. Shouldn't we take a few more time and do it best?


Ilmars Cirulis    (2016-01-20 23:30:37)
Emails from FICGS

Answers in forums and game results. (I have unsubscribe from new moves in games.)


Thibault de Vassal    (2016-01-27 00:38:13)
FICGS chess cup : proposal

Ok, I agree with that.

Here is a first try for FICGS cup rules:

"FICGS world cup championship is a multi stages tournament. All players who entered the waiting list are involved in single round-robin tournaments (2 stages or more will probably be necessary). All games during the whole cycle are played in 30 days + 1 day / move. As a reminder, the use of chess engines (Stockfish, Houdini, Rybka...) is allowed and encouraged in cup tournaments. Norms are possible according to FICGS general rules.

Round-robin tournaments are groups of 5 to 33 players (most probably 7 to 13). The winner of each group is qualified for the next stage. In case of equality, the player with most wins (and if necessary the player with the lowest tournament entry rating, then the lowest current rating) among the best scores, is declared winner and qualified for the next stage if any. Groups are built grading all players by rating and distributing them to obtain similar elo averages. There will be no replacements in these tournaments.

In the case of a withdrawal, the games won't be rated if a player warns the referee before the tournament starts and at most 15 days after a new stage started but the first one."


Anything to add?


Ilmars Cirulis    (2016-01-29 12:03:26)
AI beats a professional Go player

And http://www.nature.com/news/go-players-react-to-computer-defeat-1.19255


Thibault de Vassal    (2016-02-06 02:59:07)
Alvin Alcala wins Ultimate Chess Champ.

In the news again :)

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Sports&title=Draw-death-Not&id=122530


Scott Nichols    (2016-02-06 18:36:40)
New quotes?

"Where are you going, mon ami?

"Why, ro the Cafe de la Regence to watch Voltaire and Rousseau play at chess."

"Pooh! Mere scribblers!"

"True, but today they play Phildor."

(Chess Chronicles)


Ilmars Cirulis    (2016-02-06 20:24:10)
New quotes?

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.


Thibault de Vassal    (2016-03-05 16:20:50)
Chess960

We have chess960 tournaments... A new one starts about every 2 to 3 months, I'm not sure if it would make sense to have a championship though.


Scott Nichols    (2016-03-28 00:20:00)
3 catches on the "river"

I'm not new to poker. Against one player, he had one card to catch on the river 3 times to win. Let's see 44 x 44 x44 = 85,184 to 3 chances. This poker program has a LOT to be desired.


Garvin Gray    (2016-04-01 01:14:32)
Get rid of the new 'advert' button

There has been a new button appear just below the game board, offering suggestions like- would you like to play GM Riccio? Take Back?

I want this removed, or the option to be able to remove it. It is a distraction to the game board, and also the idea that now take backs are allowed is not on.

Get rid of it.


Jose Carrizo    (2016-04-01 03:03:31)
Get rid of the new 'advert' button

I agree with Garvin


Ilmars Cirulis    (2016-04-01 15:36:32)
Get rid of the new 'advert' button

I want to play with GM Riccio. (Of course, I would lose... :D)


Ilmars Cirulis    (2016-04-01 16:04:28)
Get rid of the new 'advert' button

Does he agree?


Roger Llull    (2016-04-01 22:04:18)
Get rid of the new 'advert' button

Seriously O_o?


Ilmars Cirulis    (2016-04-01 22:26:28)
Get rid of the new 'advert' button

It's the stupid April, day when to antagonise people by jokes or worse things. :D


Roger Llull    (2016-04-01 23:26:40)
Get rid of the new 'advert' button

Well, I guess people not getting the joke makes it even funnier. Good job Thibault!


Roger Llull    (2016-04-02 12:14:10)
Get rid of the new 'advert' button

That was not sarcasm btw. :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2016-04-03 23:50:04)
Get rid of the new 'advert' button

Huhu :) Well, I agree it appears too often though... I'll make a change if I use it again ^^


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


David Fierry Fraillon    (2016-05-11 21:35:58)
Bugs after the server crash

New games times look strange to me :
I guess Thib has put a time increment to avoid the time lost during the server crash.
What i find strange (on my games only of course) :
- a player who it was not the turn to play also get the time increment
- on the tournament FICGS_CLASSE_A_000166 :
the increment seems to be 6-7 days more than it should be
A player who was on vacation get a 7+19 days increment. I think the solution in that case is to increase the number of vacation days instead.

I will check my other tournament and i'll be back


David Fierry Fraillon    (2016-05-11 21:46:12)
Bugs after the server crash

Tournament FICGS_CLASSE_A_000170
- i 'm also finding that strange 7 days increment ina ally my games, for both player

The good news :
-that over day increment seems to be a constant
-no moves lost
-As you said the more than 100 days bug does not exist after playing one move

i played one move : it looks to be a good move :-)


Thibault de Vassal    (2016-05-12 01:47:34)
Server crash (april 2016)

Dear chessfriends, I have to pause the server again to solve the emails issue (otherwise it could have bad consequences in terms of blacklisting).

Unfortunately, this is quite complicate, so it may take several days... I'll give some news here and in the chat bar.

See you soon, thanks again for your patience!


Thibault de Vassal    (2016-05-26 22:09:27)
Server crash (april 2016)

So we're back!

The good news after this new episode is that I'm becoming even more paranoid about backups, so I'm installing stronger processes again.


Bogoljub Teverovski    (2016-06-14 10:56:14)
Thematic tournaments?

it's time for new thematic, say, Trompovsky


George Jempty    (2016-09-09 17:56:01)
Player of the Year

The game I am the most proud of the past 12 months is http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=89124 a draw against Ortiz in the first tournament mentioned above. I got a poor position with a poor opening and around move 30 was down around 0.6 to 0.7.

I took all 45 days of my vacation before December 31st and devoted almost all my analysis to this one game, with a new 8-core, 32 GB RAM machine, as well as buying Komodo 9.3 (I'm now up to 10.1). Ortiz did not play so accurately and by move 45 the engine evaluated me as completely even in a few lines but they were complicated and I was much lower on time than my opponent.

However I found a forcing line of about a dozen moves that the engine thought was inferior, but I knew was a dead drawn ending: R+2P vs. R+3P all on the same side of the board, with me also having a sufficiently active rook. So I went for this simpler solution which also let me gain time on the clock as I'd analyzed everything out beforehand. Finally after about a dozen moves in the ending Ortiz offered the draw.


Thibault de Vassal    (2016-09-21 01:55:00)
Failed to receive email

That's right... There's a new emails issue but I have no news from my server provider about this (which is unusual), I'll have to wait a few hours before to go further.


Scott Nichols    (2016-10-10 16:05:00)
New quotes?

"Quiet can only be peaceful when it isn't polluted by loneliness and unpredictability." (Jonathan Kellerman)


Mashi Nezumi    (2016-10-18 20:41:44)
New quotes?

You suffer because you desire - Buddha


Bogoljub Teverovski    (2016-11-01 11:53:06)
Thematic tournaments?

It's time for new thematic, say, Belgrade Gambit in 4-Knights


Scott Nichols    (2016-11-26 17:48:41)
New quotes?

"sometimes it;s all a bit hazy, is it me, or all the others crazy? (Einstein)


David Fierry Fraillon    (2016-12-04 07:24:53)
Future penalties for games lost on time

Ok it can be very long then ...
I am not happy with banishment solution ... i guess the idea is to have a lot of players ... and more.
IF you look at some rating evolution you will see that some player just stop corresponding chess and are back few months later and sometimes more ...
I will do it myself as soon as i will finish my games because i have to prepare myself to normal chess ...
So i think it is normal for many reason to leave corresponding chess for a few months and be back ... i think also that it is normal to resign if you can ... but as Thibault wrote you can find many reason to not be able to do it .... By the way : Thibault, can you solve the trick of creating a new account when a player is banished ? I have only two solution in mind : reducing the maximal time allowed to one move to 30 (i do not like it because i use it sometimes when i am on the X9th move ... :-) ) and reducing time for adjudication ...


Gregory Kohut    (2016-12-30 22:19:20)
New quotes?

"The finest way to end the year is wishing friends the best of cheer!"


Scott Nichols    (2017-01-07 15:20:42)
Defeating Draw Death

Maybe some new ideas can be shared here. Here is one, 2 players play a 2 game or even more game match where Black gives up the f7 Pawn. Or a set of the first 6 moves very wild in nature and then each player will have to play the same first six moves. They alternate colors of course, :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2017-01-18 03:32:56)
GM Eros Riccio 12th WCH & chess

Finally, here is a new interview with FICGS correspondence chess champion GM Eros Riccio, who gives us his (surprising?) impressions on his latest win in the championship, his current match and correspondence chess nowadays... A good matter to think about!

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__CHESS__WORLD_CHAMPIONSHIP__000012

____________

- Hi again Eros... Once more, congratulations for winning this final match in the 12th FICGS correspondence chess championship. This time, it seems that things went quite differently than in your previous matches (you scored 9 out of 12, which is a huge performance at this level), could you tell us what happened in these games?

--> Hi, yes, finally we have seen some wins after a very long series of draws. I was surprised too, I didn't risk to lose any game and I could even win one as Black... What to say, my opponent was simply not as challenging as the previous ones.

- It's a long time since you won the previous match, would you like to tell us about your other results this year, particularly at ICCF where you now rank #9 with an outstanding 2643 rating?

--> My latest final on FICGS were my only games of 2016. On ICCF I have taken some rest, the too high draw rate didn't incentive me to start new tournaments, also because drawing all games with a high rating means losing points.

- In the next final match (13th cycle), you play Peter W. Anderson for the 3rd time... so you probably know each other's opening book quite well. What do you expect for in this match?

--> Anderson is a very tough opponent, it's not a coincidence that he reached the final for the third time. I tried to win at least one game as White, but he's incredibly hard to beat. I experimented with almost anything possible against his modern defence, but I could never find a single weakness in his repertoire. I will see what to invent this time against his terrific 1...g6.

- As you probably know, another Go champion (Lee Sedol) lost a 5-games match to AlphaGo this year, while chess engines (now Stockfish 8, Houdini 5 Komodo 10...) slowly but surely continue to improve... Still waiting for the quantum computers. How do you feel things should go in the next years? Did your way of playing advanced chess or correspondence chess change these last years?

--> I have said a lot already about the very high draw rate of the recent years... I am surprised that some changes haven't been done already, like switching to chess 960, even modifying some chess rules, or at least giving 1,5 points for one win. Otherwise a lot of players will lose interest in seeing a series of all draws in the tournaments they play. I am one of those players who lost interest in correspondence chess, and even in blitz chess, engine vs engine, as we can see the extremely high draw rate situation there too.

- Finally, what can we wish for you for the next year? :)

--> Wish me to lose the match with Anderson :-) even I got bored of seeing myself there over and over in the final! That will bring some new air and that way I can take some total rest in corr. chess.

- Many thanks for your time, have a great match!

--> Welcome, and thanks.


Roger Llull    (2017-01-20 21:29:00)
GM Eros Riccio 12th WCH & chess

Pablo, changes to the WCH wouldn't make a difference for many years because the rules of each running event can't be changed now without sacrificing site credibility.

But I don't think this is about fixing the WCH final. This is about getting rid of the big frustration that represents the almost total impossibility of winning at the top level.

You can't mix thematic and classic CC Elos for the same reason you can't mix the Elo of classic time controls and the Elo of bullet time controls.

Thibault has an opportunity to bring new life to correspondence chess, but we need to see things from a different perspective. Let's make the most of what's already in place, -like Epoints- and introduce ways to add and influence new events even before they start. Because connecting with others and participating in more ways would bring new interest and benefit a lot more people than tring to fix what's already perfect -sort of- but stale.


Garvin Gray    (2017-01-26 11:37:58)
FICGS chess cup : proposal

1) Being a new event, an email should be sent to all members explaining this event and that it is a main championship event. And that entries will open Wednesday 8th February.

2) Entries open Wednesday 8th February and close Wednesday 1st March. That gives everyone three weeks to enter.

3) Entries close Wednesday 1st March. The event needs to start straight after this date.

I am aware that you need to update ratings, work out the groups, load everything into the server to get the event started, so there is a lag time after March 1st.


Thibault de Vassal    (2017-04-21 22:54:00)
WCh and other ramblings

Thanks for these words & analysis Peter! Yes, I don't know yet if Eros will fight one more time to retain the title but obviously he did it very well during these last years... the strongest engine alone would certainly not have been able to achieve this. Anyway, Herbert (& others) looks like to be ready for the challenge and this could be very interesting to see such a match! Well, let's see how this tough candidates final with Pablo finishes before :)

Well, the cup format was a first step towards a championship with more chances for everyone... the future "King's supertournament" will be another one with a thematic bigger round-robin that should definitely avoid the drawish problem & a new attempt to give sense to correspondence chess. To be continued...


Thibault de Vassal    (2017-05-13 19:50:31)
Ultimate Challenge Tour 2017, USD 20k

By the way, why "this was"? The tournament is scheduled to end not before May 20th, but I cannot find any news about it on the site.


Sergey Zemlyanov    (2017-07-03 22:02:59)
My new match with GM Eros Riccio

Hi all! I just transfer 100 euros to the site in hope to play with GM Eros Riccio in Standart Tournament with 100 e-points as entry fee. I know him as one of the strongest corrchess players of the world, but I'll try to survive in two games. And I'm not going to purposely shut out the game.


Ilmars Cirulis    (2017-07-04 14:29:42)
My new match with GM Eros Riccio

Have great games! :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2017-07-08 19:02:00)
My new match with GM Eros Riccio

One draw already... That's really fast! I couldn't play this way :)


Ilmars Cirulis    (2017-07-24 12:16:40)
My new match with GM Eros Riccio

Second game (98791) is still going.


Steven DuCharme    (2017-08-17 01:51:52)
When chess is just beauty

condolences to all who knew him


Garvin Gray    (2017-09-24 15:45:27)
WCh and other ramblings

I think it will be a case of Eros will keep defending the title until he is defeated.

This is not an uncommon situation in a lot of sports where a champion has a long unbeaten streak. Whilst they have some desire to move on to other things, voluntarily ending a many year streak by non participation can feel like all those years wasted.

Therefore, quite often what happens is that the next champion either supersedes the reigning champion because the new champion because they advanced the playing standard, or because the current champion rested on their laurels whilst the competition advanced.


Thibault de Vassal    (2017-10-19 20:05:55)
Morozevich speaking of chess & Go

An interesting interview from the now rare & still incredible Alexander Morozevich (well known for his creativity & spectacular chess), speaking about Go, Deepmind's AlphaGo, Kasparov's return (or not) & other things...

https://chess24.com/en/read/news/morozevich-on-go-computers-and-cheating


Thibault de Vassal    (2017-11-25 21:05:20)
The older rating lists

At last, all correspondence chess rating lists (from the server start, march 2006) are available by clicking "Rating lists" and following "The older rating lists"... 1 year of ratings by page.

As it was asked by a few players for a long time, only players who were REALLY active (who finished at least one game at most 1 year before or 1 year after the period) are listed in.

Many informations and good memories :) The worst part is that I can see clearly the reality: About 50% players left in about 4 or 5 years. The peak was about 900 players, there are now only 261 active correspondence chess players. Time to find new ideas, definitely.


Thibault de Vassal    (2017-12-07 16:44:05)
AlphaZero stronger than Stockfish

It looks like there's no more month without news from Google Deepmind... This time again, this is quite stunning!

AlphaZero would have been able to beat (crush) the most recent version of Stockfish, that is also the world champion program and of course the free engine well known by correspondence chess players.

But most important is that actually AlphaZero would have outperformed Stockfish after only 4 hours of training (if I understood well), while it took 8 hours to outperform AlphaGo Lee and only 120 minutes to outperform Elmo at Shogi! However it seems much much harder for the neural program to improve at chess after this stunningly fast auto-learning.

100 games played (25 wins & 25 draws with white! 3 wins with black... no loss, either with white or black, which is an incredible performance)

All details available (must read) here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.01815.pdf

http://www.sciencealert.com/it-took-4-hours-google-s-ai-world-s-best-chess-player-deepmind-alphazero

A few games played by AlphaZero against Stockfish are included in the arxiv article.




Garvin Gray    (2017-12-09 09:09:47)
AlphaZero stronger than Stockfish

Just to be clear, or a clarification for those who need it. I never stated that anyone from AlphaZero cheated, or did anything of the kind.

All I stated was that because Stockfish is an open source program, they had the opportunity to study how the program works and tune AlphaZero to take advantage of that.

Any opponent should take advantage of any small advantage they can gain.

I also made clear mention of the processing speed differences. This presented AlphaZero a clear advantage. The issue of same hardware being used is not a new topic. It is brought up in almost every tournament when chess engine tournaments are being played. That for a fair and level competition, the engines need to compete on similar strong hardware.

Reading some of the other replies and thinking further about my first post, I wonder how AlphaZero would go if a four engine event was held, with one game per day between Houdini, Komodo, Stockfish and AlphaZero with equal hardware being used?

Little opportunity then to tune AlphaZero to one specific engine and it would be more a test of the overall strength of the engine in long time control play.


Garvin Gray    (2017-12-23 00:53:39)
Monte Carlo Analysis

In the Fritz 16 gui, you choose Monte Carlo Analysis from the header options, just like you would if you were choosing infinite analysis or deep position analysis and the many other types of game styles.

Your main engine must be Fritz 16, which seems to be a pain. This is one of my questions about this analysis style. Will explain more below.

Then after choosing Monte Carlo Analysis, Fritz gui will change over to MCA and a new screen will appear with options:

Search depth: default is 5. The first is the search depth, with a default of "5". This controls how far ahead (in half-moves, or "plies") the engine will look before making a move. For example, if you leave this at "5", the engine will look 2.5 moves ahead before making a move. Remember, the engine is going to be playing a lot of games against itself and storing the moves in the form of a tree, so the search depth is important. You must realize, however, that there's something of a tradeoff here; the higher you set the search depth, the more time the engine will need to make each move -- so you're trading time for depth. On the other hand, setting a lower search depth means that many more games will be played in a given amount of time, but that the moves themselves are likely to be more superficial.



Keep in mind, too, that you should use only odd numbers for the search depth, because chess engines tend to develop a tactical "blind spot" when made to analyze at even ply depths. Rule of thumb: odd numbers good, even numbers bad.

The second setting is the "width" of the tree. This is similar in some ways to the "Branching factor" in Deep Position Analysis and is another "space for time" tradeoff. If you create a "Narrow" tree, you won't see many alternative moves displayed in your game tree but the overall process of playing games and generating the tree will be faster. "Broad" trees show more alternatives but take longer to generate (it requires more processor time and thus slows down the chess engine).

-------------------------------------

So in all from my reading- what I can seem to deduce is- MCA plays many games against itself starting from the set position. The longer you leave the analysis, the more 'reliable' the results.

The question, or issue I am having at the moment for testing is, in the Fritz gui, I am having to use Fritz 16 as the main engine but am not seeing the analysis change to any other engines, so am wondering how long before it does, or will it only analysis the position in Fritz 16?

Considering at the start when you were loading your setting, you were given the option of four engines, this seems confusing to me.

So I thought I would ask if someone else had more experience with MCA and how it works?

Also, what about Deep position analysis? We could start a thread about that one too.


Thibault de Vassal    (2017-12-29 23:07:05)
FICGS Android APP beta version

Finally... finally, FICGS Android applications are here:

http://www.ficgs.com/chess-online_gbr.html

Basically, the 4 versions are quite the same: only the name & icon change.

I tested it in many ways and it looks like it works fine and display seems ok, so feel free to try it, any feedback would be much appreciated!

I will publish it in APP stores soon, let's hope it will help to attract many new players (most probably Go players & chess players without engines IMO) and bring back a few ones :)


Steven DuCharme    (2018-01-06 03:46:12)
My New Chess Rule

You may not move a non-pawn onto your foe's side of the board until all your non-pawns have moved.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-01-06 20:46:05)
My New Chess Rule

Seems to be a reasonable one :) By the way, it could end in the FICGS quotes file ^^

Is there one game to illustrate it?


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-01-10 22:29:48)
1st King Supertournament

Dear chessfriends, FICGS Android apps are now bringing a really different playing experience!

All 4 apps are now dedicated to either chess, Go or Poker Holdem (or all games) with specific features that make it easier and compliant with laws in more countries, that's why it is now useful to install them all and use it according to your taste at the moment.

Of course, it is more dedicated to "chess for fun", that's why it's a good time to start the very 1st FICGS chess King Supertournament:

- No engines or databases allowed
- Unrated thematic tournament: King's gambit
- Marathon tournament : unlimited number of players / games
- Flash deadline: The tournament will start on January 17th, 2018

Will you dare to enter this much fun and challenging waiting list? :)


Finally, these apps are very good news for FICGS as new players are coming again... It was really time, particularly after the last server crash! Now I'll make my possible to make FICGS great again, or even greater :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-01-11 03:13:36)
1st King Supertournament

Hi Christoph,

I agree that engines may be there anyway (I added a permanent warning in the "move_express" page), and also that King's Gambit needs to be analyzed again and again :)

There are several reasons for this choice for this particular tournament...

1. The tournament's format: The number of games may be huge and practically impossible to manage with databases & engines analysis. At least, it could be dissuasive! By the way, there are regularly King's gambit thematic in the Special Chess Tournaments category.

2. The "applications friendly" idea: Unlike most other tournaments, this one will be particulary playable just for fun from anywhere with a phone.

And before everything, this is just an experiment...

Let's try something new :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-01-16 16:43:40)
Conditional chess moves (again)

Hi all,

Before everything, let's make it clear: Absolute priority (for years actually, but particularly since the launch of the Android apps) right now is to increase the popularity of the server, that slowly went down for more than 5 years. Now it's going better for the first time since, but I'm still working on and have much to do there.

Well, let's say this would be the right thing to do after all (which is another debate, with questions like what if a player does not want his opponent to use this option that by the way he cannot or does not want to use himself because it goes too fast and/or gains time on clock - case that I saw at another server).

Don't misunderstand me: I already used conditional moves at other servers and I liked it too, but I did not find it essential. Also, we all know that all opinions are in nature. And as a reminder, one goal of this server was to offer the simpliest & lightest (HTML or HTML & few javascript) interface.

Kim, one question to think about the work to do in your step 1:

How do you imagine the communication between a Javascript interface & php server? Well, I know how to implement Ajax (which I chose not to use at FICGS), this is not the point here. But it is not enough that moves are verified by javascript - that is a big work if you do it from zero - , it must be validated by the server itself, then confirmed or not to the player, meaning casually one more step. Means more php jobs from the server (which is not a big deal) so new codes that would be compatible between that Javascript UI (that must fit to site's design) & FICGS (that is not obvious if you know the small possible differences in terms of PGN format), a new field in database, the way to handle it after few conditional moves & so on.

Once more, it is feasible, of course. But there are obvious difficulties: it is not possible to add such code without being completely in FICGS codes, that are not object-oriented.

Anyway, if the number of active players grows again, I'm quite sure we'll have a good occasion to discuss it (with some more pressure ^^).


Kym Farnik    (2018-01-17 00:34:08)
Conditional chess moves (again)

Hi
First thanks for making your position clear.

Yes, JS talking Ajax to a PHP handler.
I have implemented this type of thing in the past.

Even if the main FICGS code is totally procedural, it is not uncommon to build a new feature using an OO module, and in time either run old and new code in parallel. Or... migrate all the code to a new OO framework over time.

The play move and add conditionals interface would need to be made JS and redesigned. The back end would I expect have a game/move/conditional validator function.
There are plenty of JS chess interfaces that could be used as design input.

I recognize this is a major project for a one man team. I'd say 4-6 weeks of full time effort, possibly longer if we have to design a OO framework for the back end. Hence my offer to help as I'm semi-retired and have time.

A good isolated dev and test environment is mandatory. This is not just a simple site hack.

I hope this helps!


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-01-18 18:07:57)
Spice up chess? More members

Anyway, if the apps finally attract new players enough, then I'll be glad to open new tournaments categories... This would be the solution to many things.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-01-20 01:15:06)
New feature : picture of the game

As you may have seen in the "move_express" page or "viewer" page, it is now possible to generate a picture of a game (available for chess, big chess & Go, not poker holdem).

The picture is also "attached" to the public viewer page, eg. http://www.ficgs.com/game_98779.html when you share the url.


It is particularly convenient to share a game result or a position (just add the move number in the url) in your favourite social networks...

Any feedback is welcome, if you have any suggestion :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-01-22 00:51:19)
Chess engines in no engines tournaments

New topic to discuss what should be done when chess engines are probably or obviously used in no engines tournaments. Not so easy to judge, and it would be easy to make it quite invisible IMHO.

- Elo rating points loss?
- Loss of all games in the tournament?
- Nothing (comments will be enough)

Any other idea or preference?


Garvin Gray    (2018-01-22 01:06:01)
Chess engines in no engines tournaments

The penalties have to be similar to players who are caught using engines at otb tournaments.

Loss of all games in the tournament ie they are kicked out of the tournament and then further sanctions are applied.

But working out how the person used engine assistance is the key question?

Most would say, oh the player choose the top or second ranked engine move almost all of the time. But most decent players would do that anyways.

So that is not a good enough standard. And so that then needs a new test.

It is personally one of the reasons why I did not speak in favour of the event.


Kym Farnik    (2018-01-24 12:39:21)
Laws of Chess - new version

https://www.fide.com/component/handbook/?id=208&view=article

FIDE have news rulz effective 1/1/208.

Enjoy! Also: Here are the changes... http://rules.fide.com/images/stories/Laws_of_Chess_2018_-_approved_amendments_-_correction_highlighted_version.pdf


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-01-24 17:35:56)
Laws of Chess - new version

Thanks Kym! Always instructive...


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-01-25 01:53:48)
Conditional chess moves (again)

As you may have noticed, chess.js & chessboard.js are now integrated as an option in the viewer page...

But strangely, it seems there are some bugs in the PGN processing, or at least this 24.R2e1 in WCH game 98780 (Kruse-Riccio) should be ok with the "sloppy" option.

You can see the new feature here:

http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=98780&auto=1


Zack Stephen    (2018-01-26 02:57:33)
FICGS Android APP beta version

I find that I have to frequently login to the site both via the browser and via your new app. Am I the only one who experiences this? This site should not require logins via the app.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-02-11 00:38:48)
New FICGS app: beta test

Anyone to test this new chess trainer? Any feedback welcome :)

http://www.ficgs.com/scripts/chess_board/chess.php

This will be the next FICGS feature and app for Android!

Main question: is the elo scale realistic according to you?


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-02-13 20:07:32)
New FICGS app: beta test

After hundreds of bug fixes & improvements, it looks like a v1.0 now, compatible with most devices... Will be on the Play Store soon.

Any feedback welcome :)


Ilmars Cirulis    (2018-02-14 11:27:28)
New FICGS app: beta test

Hmm, interesting. Going to test it on Android rectangle before the night sleep.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-02-14 16:14:53)
New FICGS app: beta test

Thanks Ilmars :)


Kym Farnik    (2018-02-16 09:21:20)
Stockfish 9 released

FYI Development builds now have dynamic contempt.

Author: Stefano Cardanobile
Date: Fri Feb 9 19:07:19 2018 +0100
Timestamp: 1518199639

Introduce dynamic contempt

Make contempt dependent on the current score of the root position.

The idea is that we now use a linear formula like the following to decide
on the contempt to use during a search :

contempt = x + y * eval

where x is the base contempt set by the user in the "Contempt" UCI option,
and y * eval is the dynamic part which adapts itself to the estimation of
the evaluation of the root position returned by the search. In this patch,
we use x = 18 centipawns by default, and the y * eval correction can go
from -20 centipawns if the root eval is less than -2.0 pawns, up to +20
centipawns when the root eval is more than 2.0 pawns.

To summarize, the new contempt goes from -0.02 to 0.38 pawns, depending if
Stockfish is losing or winning, with an average value of 0.18 pawns by default.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-02-16 19:33:12)
New FICGS app: beta test

3 new FICGS applications based on the "Chess Trainer" app :

- Blindfold chess : same, but on en empty board... for experts, IM & GM.
- Chess 960 : the famous Fischer random chess version... much fun!
- Random : even more random, up to 7 knights, bishops, rooks or queens.

As for me, I quite like the "Random chess" app :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-02-25 22:46:22)
New FICGS app: beta test

9 days after, it looks like that the hundreds (!) of known bugs & compatibility issues are now fixed !

Now, the Chess Trainer is also on Facebook... if anyone want to test it:

https://apps.facebook.com/chess_trainer/


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-02-27 20:06:27)
New FICGS app: beta test

After a few bug fixes again, all 4 apps are now available on Facebook... See also:

https://apps.facebook.com/blindfold_chess/
https://apps.facebook.com/fischer_random/
https://apps.facebook.com/random_chess/

Chess 960 & Random Chess are really tough ^^


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.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-03-21 20:37:41)
FICGS chess cup : proposal

[a few posts before & after were edited or deleted]

As I just said in the game thread, that's why I always prefered the knockout format :/ Such suspicions are a cancer in round-robin championships and a pity as this was a real tough & interesting tournament (initiated by Garvin, for the memories).

Of course, this comment is not a judgement in any matter. Systems are the problem, not the problems caused by the systems.

Anyway, let's wait the end of the tournament, then I'll tell and explain my decision, that will eventually open a new debate to change the rules if necessary (I would be surprised though).


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-03-26 01:38:20)
Translations needed, new FICGS homepages

Dear chessfriends, any help to improve translations of the new FICGS responsive homepages (https only) will be very appreciated :)

https://ficgs.com/ajedrez.html (es)
https://ficgs.com/xadrez.html (pt)
https://ficgs.com/schach.html (de)
https://ficgs.com/scacchi.html (it)
https://ficgs.com/catur.html (id)

... also russian, ukrainian, chinese, korean, japanese, hindi, vietnamese.

If you have any suggestions, please write to web [at] ficgs.com


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-03-31 02:06:03)
Vallejo Pons leaves European Chess Ch.

Quite incredibly sad story for GM Francisco Vallejo Pons after having played poker for money under an old & strange spanish law...

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2018/03/chess-francisco-vallejo-pons-poker-tax-dispute-30327.htm

http://www.chess.com/news/view/hunted-by-spanish-tax-authority-vallejo-leaves-european-championship

http://www.change.org/p/spanish-tax-authority-my-aim-is-to-seek-as-many-signatures-as-possible-to-help-out-a-sportsman-in-distress


William Taylor    (2018-04-01 22:56:16)
Poll: renaming the Queen as Dragon

Agreed. Only question now is what we do with chess games in progress - let them play out, or somehow convert them to the new game partway through?


Kym Farnik    (2018-04-06 00:52:07)
New style? Please revert

The new desktop style is not so usable. Please revert to previous style.

Thanks, Kym


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-04-06 16:15:50)
New style? Please revert

Ah... as there is no desktop style (as far as I know), I do not see what this is about?! Could you specify? Many thanks!


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-04-06 16:16:46)
New style? Please revert

If you mean "background color/image", either it is selected randomly each time you login, or you can choose it in Preferences.


Kym Farnik    (2018-04-06 16:36:42)
New style? Please revert

No. The old 'My Games' used to show both my time remaining and my opponents.
Now it looks like the App version.
My Tournaments has gone missing as well.


Kym Farnik    (2018-04-06 16:42:18)
New style? Please revert

Found the problem. I'm using Firefox 60beta.
Chrome works ok.
Somehow the device detection is not working with Firefox Beta.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-04-06 17:03:20)
New style? Please revert

?? .. that seems very strange... if you could send me a screen capture, it could help much to prevent some strangeness. I'm always afraid of browsers updates :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-04-07 02:21:30)
New style? Please revert

Many thanks for the capture! This is exactly the mobile version, so either it was the url memorized somewhere in your browser, or you reached it via the new https homepage, but it was not "detected", you always can choose what interface you use.


John Hadden    (2018-04-12 09:54:00)
Design

Hi... don't want to be annoying to the developers - in general the new style is more inviting than the old - but it is still pretty busy. I had to search for quite a while to even find what was going on. Still not quite sure if it is possible to have a game outside of a tournament - or how the tournaments work. Fair play for making tournaments with prizes... but Im not likely to pay to join if I don't know what's going on...

PS... I had to press post twice there...


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-04-12 22:24:54)
Design

Hello John,

You are right, many things are not easy for new players, particularly not used to the "correspondence chess style".

Tournaments are the main thing here by far for the moment... maybe this will evolve with some time but it is still difficult to find opponents for advanced chess games for a few years (but from time to time).

Just to know, did you read the Help section? I'll try to add some things there... to start.

Many thanks for the feedback!


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-04-15 18:52:45)
Big chess castling

Hi William,

Everything is possible, as for me I always disliked the strange castling rules at chess 960 and didn't want to complexify rules for Big Chess (now also called Sweet Chess at another website, if I remember well :))

It is too late for a change on this one, but it is always possible to create new chess variants.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-05-11 01:54:44)
New domain names for FICGS apps

Quite good news for FICGS !

As you may know, .app domains are available for a few days... I was not able to take the very best domain names (chess.app & ajedrez.app), but very good ones anyway. I hope more players will come from Google to the following:

playchess.app (english)
jugarajedrez.app (spanish)

xadrez.app (portuguese)
echecs.app (french)


These ones should be online with the Chess Trainer app within a few days... By the way I also bought:

pokerholdem.app
playgogames.app

It is really hard to find good keywords in english for the Go game... Maybe baduk.app & weiqi.app would have been better but not so sure.


William Taylor    (2018-05-13 22:11:04)
New domain names for FICGS apps

You may be able to sell playchess.app on to ChessBase for a decent amount.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-05-13 23:58:43)
New domain names for FICGS apps

I have no idea but that is not the aim... by the way, if they did not buy it, most probably they don't care about it.


Steven DuCharme    (2018-06-12 01:45:25)
Free Digital Chess Magazine

sign up for emails from newinchess.com asap


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-06-19 00:34:08)
Chess Trainer app on Facebook

Hi all,

About one month that the Chess Trainer app is available on Facebook... surprisingly (I didn't expect much from this way), it is now used by about 130 players a day (357 at most) and about 60 new players per day. Quite not bad for a non-viral app after all, to be continued.

Do not hesitate to rate the apps, also on Facebook, it may help :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-06-30 20:22:16)
Interview with 15th chess WCH finalist

For once, as Eros & I couldn't find much more to say after all his consecutive wins, I asked Ramil Germanes these few questions around his match & correspondence chess (with what may look like a quite surprising conclusion).

_______________________


- Hello Ramil, many thanks for answering those few questions! This is a first time with the WCH finalist, as the winner (Eros again) agreeded this could be an interesting experiment for a change, so we'll probably have a quite different point of view this time! You just finished your games to score 6-6 (12 draws), Eros retaining the title again. I guess this was the first time you played such a correspondence chess match, what are your impressions on this knockout format?

Yes this is the first time I've played a world championship match although I played before in earlier editions of this world championship but not reaching the challenger level. My impression? Its great playing for the world championship but I know its nearly impossible to beat the world champion.


- Let's rewind a few months backward, would you make other choices, in openings or anything?

I don't know. Tbh, I'm not very good on chess theory and not very updated as well. So I'm just playing basic moves hoping for opportunities to come up.


- So, is Eros beatable in this final match according to you? (please give us some hope) ^^

With how quickly you can search information and the strength of chess engines nowadays, its almost impossible to beat him unless you have access to alpha zero (haha). Though maybe Herbert Kruse can pull it off.


- What can you tell us about yourself and your relation to chess & correspondence chess?

I'm just an ordinary guy from the Philipines who happens to love playing chess. But my love of computers is what brought me to correspondence chess and to ficgs.


- Do you play other games, e.g. Go, Shogi, cards games?

No I don't know how to play those games.


- Could you tell us how these 12 games went from your own point of view?

For me, the games went through their normal course. Both of us didn't made any major mistakes so all games were drawn. That's just how it went. Though there were new moves on some the games it doesn't really changes result of the older games played before.


- Would you share a few tips to play good correspondence chess in 2018, or at least to beat the best chess engines? :)

Sorry but i dont know. I will be the new world champion by now if i know, hehehe.


- You told me that your computer configuration was basically a quad-core i5 3570 / 4gb on Fritz GUI (about 10,500 kn/s) / Windows 10, and we know that many of us (Eros included) still use such configs or even dual-core, would an octa-core have brought a significant advantage to you to win this match according to you?

Oh I don't know they still have those configurations. But I've already encountered opponents in Infinity Chess with 18-22 cores configs. Anyways, an octa-core or faster cpu would definitely be going to speed up my analysis and will let me analyze more lines and variations which may improves my overall play.

Honestly, I don't have that much time these days for correspondence chess. In my match against Eros, I had only about 1 hour of analysis time before work and about another 1 hour after work. Since I already have a family and 2 kids, they have to be my priority first. And I think somebody also can relate to this. So a faster cpu would be very helpful in the match and maybe will give a better chance than a slower cpu.


- As far as I know, you love to build computers, did you use or think about using several ones at the same time for analysis?

No. I only used one computer in my match against Eros. I have 2 other computers but both are slower.


- How much time you've been playing correspondence chess & how do you feel the way the game changed over the years?

I've been playing correspondence chess since 2010 and I have observed that its easier to win games in the past when chess engines were still weaker. Because you notice some players depend only on engine moves and engines still commit mistakes and you can exploit those mistakes if you "investigate" further.

Unlike now, engines are very strong that even players who rely solely on engines moves will be very hard to beat. It lessens the gap of players that know how to "use" the engines and the ones who do not.


- Finally, what makes you love correspondence chess in 2018?

I will always love chess and correspondence chess but what makes it exciting now is the rise of the new kind of engines.

Engines like Leela chess zero that has a different approach in playing chess. Maybe more of these kind of chess engines will be seen in the future. Because of its use of monte carlo analysis and neural networks, we are starting to see moves that we have never seen before. Very aggressive attacks and moves defying opening principles can now be seen. Correspondence chess is getting exciting again!


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


Steven DuCharme    (2018-10-29 18:06:40)
New Chess Record...

Mr.Ding or Liren is up to 98 unbeaten games and going. Tal's 95 lasted 44 years!


William Taylor    (2018-10-30 12:05:46)
New Chess Record...

Remarkable, but still some way short of Tiviakov's record. (Ding has of course been playing much stronger players than Tiv.)


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-10-31 03:04:21)
World Championship Tie-breaks

Well, the 1 day per move rule has several reasons to remain (including avoiding more forfeits/losses on time), and coherence is really important IMO. I do not agree that Eros cannot be beaten (I couldn't do it by myself though ^^), I trust Murphy's law :) I see several reasons to all these consecutive victories, Eros explained many by himself, and I don't think it's enough to change the format, by the way we now have the CUP format for all players who prefer other parameters (thanks Garvin!).

As for Twitch & other good ideas like this, truth is that there should have been many Freestyle tournaments these last years but I couldn't organize it anymore and still can't at the moment :/ But most important is that despite of computers supremacy in correspondence chess, now Go & poker holdem, I'm convinced that the best years of FICGS are to come, and it will bring more competition, new champions & good things. Let's wait & see!


Paul Larwinski    (2018-11-14 21:44:07)
World Championship Tie-breaks

no , there should be nothing changed , the ficgs.com chess Champion must be beaten to by new champion.

when you look at last match , they have played mostly same openings, not even taking openings chances is it


Garvin Gray    (2018-11-18 03:12:48)
World Championship Groups

I see in the chat box there is a comment about adding players for a new group in the WCH.

This should not be allowed and is a bad idea. The original groups were worked out based on ratings available at the close of entry.

And also now this new group will be a rating scattered group, rather than being similar to the others.

Players have protested before about adding players and new groups well after the entry deadline has passed. I have frankly had a gutful of having to protest about it.

It is one of main things that is turning me off this site. Having to keep protesting against items on this site when others have said similar viewpoints to mine, but the site owner keeps trying to sneak in his ideas via the backdoor.


Garvin Gray    (2018-11-19 02:36:26)
World Championship Groups

Ok, please clarify- your comment in the chat box is: A few more players for an additional chess WCH group?

The key word to me is 'additional' chess Wch group.

In your latest reply, you say accepting a few later runners to add as replacements into existing groups to substitute for those who have not started their games or forfeited out.

I have no real objection to the later, but I have a strong objection to creating a completely new group from those who did not enter on time and that new group could potentially not be as strong and evenly distributed for ratings from the original WCH groups.


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-11-30 00:38:11)
AlphaZero 2.0

Looks like a new version of AlphaZero is to be "released"... don't know much about it, all links are welcome. It would reach about 3600 elo, to compare with its previous version and with the last Stockfish (I guess that we will never see a human/computer match again ^^).

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/lczero/bRlSX5nYqv8


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-12-02 19:14:19)
Stockfish 10 is available

That is probably the most famous chess engine nowadays, Stockfish 10 is now available at https://stockfishchess.org/ (for its 10th birthday)

Any thoughts, testing, news or information are welcome here.


William Taylor    (2018-12-06 22:50:39)
AlphaZero 2.0

The result seems very conclusive again. For those who were concerned about the time control last time, that has been addressed. A couple of news articles:
https://www.chess.com/news/view/updated-alphazero-crushes-stockfish-in-new-1-000-game-match
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/alphazero-really-is-that-good


Thibault de Vassal    (2018-12-07 02:36:32)
AlphaZero 2.0

And of course the article on the Deepmind's website:

https://deepmind.com/blog/alphazero-shedding-new-light-grand-games-chess-shogi-and-go/


Garvin Gray    (2019-01-24 13:56:38)
James Romig

Asking him to find is the site administrator responsibility. I know that sounds like a buck pass, but as following up on game time outs and other question marks is truly the responsibility of the arbiter of the events, in this case, the person in charge of the site, Thibault De Vassal. Not us.

And also, if we have the correct James Romig, he had 45 calendar days available for holidays to use to avoid timing out his games, so that excuse that he went on tour is not a good enough excuse.

He entered the event and is responsible for managing his time. If he knew he was going on concert, he should not have accepted his place if he could not fulfil his commitments.


Thibault de Vassal    (2019-01-24 18:58:12)
James Romig

Hi all,

Well, it seems to me that a website administrator shouldn't intervene in players private life / ask for or discuss players private life if it does not come from players or players families (as it happens regularly, most often for bad news).

Of course general forfeits happen quite/too often, sometimes there are expressed concerns from other players, sometimes unexpressed concerns or nothing at all, whatever... so IMO the website administrator/referee shouldn't have to act according to such criteria.

Finally, it seems to me that we have to wait for news (but of course friends can contact each other).

As Garvin said, sometimes players make some choices (e.g. if not taking vacation days for any reason is considered as a choice) and there may be unfortunate consequences for themselves & for their opponents. That's what can happen on chess websites... more than in real tournaments, of course.


Graham Kerr    (2019-03-16 22:17:51)
World Championship Groups

No worries, when it didn't get a response here a started a new thread, you answered there ;-)


Steven DuCharme    (2019-05-23 01:40:02)
New rating system

Start at 10K. Draws don't affect ratings. Ratings adjust via formula 250 - number of loser's moves. Combined adjustment is neitral. No floor or ceiling. ur welcome


Thibault de Vassal    (2019-05-23 22:33:34)
NEW RATING SYSTEM

Reinventing a rating system is always audacious :) So draws wouldn't be considered at all? It seems to me that would become a complete new game (but why not... if we call it "brutal chess", maybe :))


Thibault de Vassal    (2019-07-17 14:24:57)
CHESSHERE.COM

Oh wow, indeed... sad news.


Steven DuCharme    (2019-07-28 05:24:07)
CHESSHERE.COM

New owners took over not that long ago. Site redesigned early this year. Subscribers are getting their money back at least.


Thibault de Vassal    (2019-08-02 19:56:12)
Android App not working

Finally, if necessary uninstalling then installing again (the new version) should solve the problem.


Thibault de Vassal    (2019-08-23 21:42:55)
CHESSHERE.COM

Yes, I know that... good news!


Thibault de Vassal    (2019-11-28 12:08:42)
Lee Sedol quits Go because of A.I.

Finally, is it time for Go players to play "advanced Go"? Would it make sense like it used to be at chess?

Meanwhile, Go champion Lee Sedol resigns (it seems for several reasons actually, now ranked #54 at GoRatings.org - by the way the full rating list is worth to watch until rank 800)

So, we human will not probably beat what will replace AlphaZero in the future, but as in chess we could learn a lot from it, if not build great centaur teams.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50573071


Thibault de Vassal    (2019-12-05 21:32:38)
IECG chess-server.net

Does anyone know how things are going at (IECG) chess-server.net ?

For those who don't know, this correspondence chess server was born at about the same time as FICGS (for about the same reasons) as an evolution for IECG where I used to play correspondence chess by email until 2006, so it's kind of "big brother" by history and "little brother" by chronology... and quite different on many points AFAIK.

As far as I know many of the IECG players continued to play there, after that many joined us here (FICGS started maybe few weeks before). As for me of course I concentrated to play at FICGS all these years so I'm not really aware about Ortwin's server. Now I can see that its traffic recently went badly down (like many chess servers actually and even very impressive ones)... that's the reason for this post: any news about it?


Steven DuCharme    (2019-12-08 19:51:08)
IECG chess-server.net

If you mean www.chess-server.net it's going well enough imo. It will apparently be upgraded (redesigned) before year's end.
IECG ended operations 12/31/2010 when it became chess-server.net.

Where did you see the news about that sites' traffic?


Thibault de Vassal    (2019-12-08 23:21:56)
IECG chess-server.net

Good news! I check from time to time how are going other chess websites at Alexa traffic rank & Similarweb.


Steven DuCharme    (2019-12-31 20:16:06)
IECG chess-server.net

Looks like the new version will be good to go at 12:00 CET on January 10,2020


Thibault de Vassal    (2020-03-02 20:44:28)
Chess WCH #22 (march 1st, 2020)

Dear chessfriends,

This time, the correspondence chess rating list was updated just after that the new correspondence chess WCH cycle started, this is not really usual (and the answer is yes, I forgot to update it) but it can happen and it happened before... Just to remind that there is no particular rule about this, so one can't expect a 100% deterministic situation when a championship starts.

Best of luck everyone :)


Daniel Parmet    (2020-04-28 22:59:06)
The State of correspondence chess

I have played correspondence chess now for 13 years. During that time, I have played 983 correspondence games. These days I mostly play at ICCF and some of these issues may be ICCF specific... but since ICCF has no forum and I want to get a sense of the health of correspondence chess in general... I posit my thoughts here.

First of all, I think the number of correspondence players and the number of correspondence games are decreasing across the board on all correspondence websites due to the things I want to talk about.

Second, I primarily shifted my playing to ICCF years ago for two reasons: 1) The higher level of competition available; 2) The norms available. Although I was concerned with their fees which are usually minor but, in many cases, certain organizers do construct outlandish tournaments that you need to be wary of (looking at you Venezuela).

On the first point, I think ICCF is a little more open to high caliber players competing up until a point (they really try to prevent you from playing a 2450+ player until you are 2450+ yourself). And the rating protections get tougher and tougher the further you go but they make it easy to play 2300 players. While most websites outside of ICCF, usually have one annual Cup / WCH or Thematics, these other websites usually make it impossible to play anyone more than a few hundred points above you no matter your rating outside of these few events.

On the second point, I think ICCF norms are somewhat of an illusion. They’ve always been hard and much harder to achieve than OTB norms which received a watering down of requirements of decades ago. In fact, ICCF norms are so much harder than FIDE norms that one actually needs to achieve two norms to receive the prerequisite title in ICCF vs the standard three norms required by FIDE. In the US, for example, there are 116 ICCF Titled players in history (13 GMs, 25 SIM, 78 IMs) vs 828 FIDE Titled players in present (101 GMs 166 IM 561 FMs) [https://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml]. Now however, there is a proposal, for the ICCF GM Title only, proposed by Dennis Doren, ICCF Rules Commissioner who really does a lot for correspondence chess, and SIM Uwe Staroske, ICCF Qualifications and Ratings Commissioner, to remove the requirement to have to play GMs to get the GM Title [leaving IM and SIM untouched] [https://www.iccf.com/Proposal.aspx?id=1280]. This proposal states, “A search of the ICCF data indicates that 21 players obtained at least 2 GM norms across 24 games but failed to get the GM title because of the requirement of "5 GM" opponents. (Only 5 of those players are currently active).” Leaving aside the fact that this proposal violates the very definition of the GM Title, one must beat the club in order to join it, the proposal further outlines the real problems without addressing them, “The GM Title has already become far harder to earn than it used to be, due to the rating suppression caused by the increase in draws.” Wow, let’s unpack that one line because it is a doozy!

Really, this one line, that is easily overlooked, is two huge problems that correspondence is facing: 1) death by one thousand draw paper cuts and 2) rating deflation. I will argue later that there is a third huge problem but let’s start with the ones acknowledged by ICCF itself. Every correspondence player knows the draw rate is going up. As engines and hardware get stronger, players are able to save positions that in the past would have been lost and we are finding ever easier ways to head straight towards 0.00 as Black. I would love to see a detailed analysis that describes how much harder it has become to win as Black against a decent correspondence player (let’s say someone 2300+). In the last five years, I have beaten three 2300+ players as Black without counting mouseslips (one in 2015, one in 2016 and one any day now in 2020) despite playing extremely aggressive openings like the KID (for the record that’s three Black wins out 103 Black draws or 2.91% Win rate). That may be part of the draw problem, but I have witnessed my own draw rate skyrocket 2014: 82.4% 2015: 86.7% 2016: 90.2% 2017: 90.6% 2018: 91% 2019 is still in progress. Often for these norms, you need to score +2, +3, +4 or +5 despite the fact that +1 usually wins the event… and with the draw rate North of 90% in a 12-13 game event that means you are likely to win 1 game on average… but in many events the entire cross table often sees one to three entire wins (look at a recently completed tournament here where I scored my first IM norm that required +0 and I scored +1). My win was one of five wins in the entire tournament 100/105 = 95.2% draw rate! [https://www.iccf.com/event?id=73482]. People love to tell me that’s fine because we are talking about such a weak event as Category 8 [2449 was the rating average]. Fine, I do not accept your argument but let’s look at the World Championship then shall we? Let’s look at the most recently concluded World Championship 30 which finished on 10/2/2019, Category 13 [2562 was the rating average]. This event was won by the new World Champion SIM Kochemasov, Andrey Leonidovich 2540 [https://www.iccf.com/event?id=66745]. Congrats to the new World Champion on his two wins! The event had 8 decisive games out 136 or a draw rate of 91.2% (not far off my own). But wait did I say SIM? I did. In fact, congratulations to the World Champion on scoring his final GM norm as well! This World Championship saw 5 SIMs compete in a field with 12 GMs. While 3 of the SIMs finished 1st 2nd and 3rd, only our new World Champion scored a GM norm. The problem is with all the draws that norms are not just becoming hard, but maintaining or increasing one’s rating is becoming hard. And one’s rating is how one receives any decent invites to have a chance at a norm in the first place.

The draws are a death by one thousand cuts as I recently played one of the ICCF’s proposal’s outlined “21 players that could have obtained a GM norm.” My rating is 2389 and his rating is 2504 (although SIM, he is recognized by all his peers as a GM caliber player). As Black, I obtained an easy draw without ever being in any trouble at all. The player had a rather angry initial discussion with me post mortem about how he felt it was wrong that a 2504 should have to play a player as weak as 2389 where the draw would kill his rating. He felt that his rating was being destroyed by these draws with weaker players and that ICCF should protect him from us. He felt I have it easier as a lower rated player because I can gain rating from these draws. Let’s look at his argument that one is causing the other and it is only happening to those 2500+. At the time that draw occurred, I gained exactly 1.17915 rating points from it (and he lost the same); however, this was the first draw in over 40 games in which I *gained* rating points (this statement is no longer true as a few higher rated players have since given me draws but at the time of the game’s conclusion this was the case). Yes, that’s right, ICCF already does such a good job of protecting higher rated players that it actively hands out advice to new players to be very particular about what invites and events they play because the draws could kill their initial rating. I too have experienced a net negative loss of rating points from draws and still seen my rating going up only due to the fact that wins are easier and ever so slightly more common to come by at my level. However, it means I am not exempt from the draw problem. It is patently false that this problem is limited to those 2500+ as in my last 43 draws, I lost rating in 42 of them and gained rating from 1 of them. Therefore, it appears draws are causing rating deflation and this is the real problem in both norms and correspondence in general. With the exception of matches, perhaps there is a way to have draws not count against one’s rating since there are so many of them? It kind of blends the Chess rating concept with that of Bridge where one cannot lose rating points once earned. What we can see is that the player’s argument that draws are causing rating deflation is probably true. One problem is at least partly causing the other one.

There is a third more devious problem worse than the two outlined above in my opinion. While rating deflation, draws, less players and norms are real issues… they are dwarfed by the change in behavior caused by these issues. I know it is a bit overdramatic to talk about such issues in a time of COVID, but there has been a great increase in the number of players playing Dead Man Defense (often shortened by correspondence players to DMD+ and DMD=). It is important to note that the death rate in COVID for those in the elderly category is markedly higher and the correspondence community in general is also markedly higher. I have heard estimates of the average age of correspondence player being 70-75 range though I haven’t seen any data. Back to DMD, what is DMD and why is it such awful behavior? The players are hoping you die before you win so they can claim either a win on time or if it goes to adjudication then at least claim a draw. The other hope is that you might mouse slip by being forced to play more moves which while that would never happen over the board does surprisingly account for a large portion of wins in ICCF correspondence high-level play. One of the main problems this issue causes is that if someone takes an early draw against a player who then goes on to die, the entire rest of the field gets a free half point and you are punished for playing your game quicker than your peers. Often, players over the board resign once mate is unstoppable or a simple endgame is reached in which the result is known to players of all levels. In correspondence, often even sooner than these players will resign or offer draws, knowing that perpetual check is unavoidable should we play another 10 moves past the piece sac against a bare king? How about when the engine reads +25 +30 or +40? So, for the most, correspondence players draw or resign much earlier than one might over the board due to engine and tablebase assistance. On that note, depending on the tournament, players can outright claim wins and draws either on the 6-piece tablebase (always allowed) or the sometimes allowed on an event by event basis the 7-piece tablebase. It is considered out right rude to make a player play all the way to the 6-piece tablebase to claim. I recently claimed one win in a six piece tablebase up an entire piece where my jolly opponent wanted to discuss the game in a post mortem (rarely done in correspondence in general anyways). I declined to even respond to him even though I was already having a very lively and fun post mortem with a Venezuelan on our extremely interesting draw. A worse example is the 92 move game I played with opposite colored bishops where I had two extra pawns. I offered a draw as white and the higher rated player to my lower rated opponent who declined it, forcing me to play to a 7-piece tablebase claim to end the game. This kind of behavior used to be quite rare. In the past, I would say it happened in 1 out of every 100 games… these days it seems to happen in every other game (1/2!). I have seven different opponents right now that are DMD+ against me where the engine reads +148 (or in some cases even sees mate! The 2504 player that complained about my rating earlier also complained someone was DMD+ him… I remarked that I have no less than 7 players DMD+ me and if they would resign? My rating would be about 2450 right which sort of eliminates his claim about our “giant” rating difference). The issue is that due to rating deflation these players need to artificially keep their rating high as long as they can because that’s how they will get their next invite. With the new terrible time control that is not yet Official (although there is a proposal to make it Official: https://www.iccf.com/Proposal.aspx?id=1282), players only need to make a move once every 50 days to pointlessly extend the game. I have a DMD= draw currently going on 16 months now where the player is just moving Kg1 Kf1 Kg1 every 50 days. This time control exasperates the DMD problem. When I contacted ICCF Officials to point out the severity of this problem, I was told that I should report it to the TD on a case by case basis only if it is DMD+ as they will not look at DMD= at all. However, it is usually the TDs that are the biggest offenders (6 of the 7 players described above were TDs). In fact, it is usually the same general casts of characters which allows for an easy black list to be created that bars these players from play until they can fix their atrocious behavior. This behavior needs to be punished. These players need to be reprimanded. In the end, lack of norms, rating deflation and the draw death will not make me quit correspondence chess. It is DMD+/DMD= that will make me quit. This experience is my personal experience with high level correspondence over thirteen years and I would love to hear from other correspondence players concerning these problems.


Steven DuCharme    (2020-06-05 02:51:26)
ATTENTION USA PLAYERS

Please join/renew the United States Chess Federation asap...tyvm


Garvin Gray    (2020-09-18 07:05:09)
Stockfish 12, neural network

I do not put much faith in CEGT rating lists. What those rating lists measure is engine play v engine play.

Whilst that can be interesting to see if any 'newcomers' or updates are worthy of consideration, for our purposes of correspondence chess analysis, engine v engine play has some major limitations.


Ilmars Cirulis    (2020-11-08 19:27:01)
THE QUEENS GAMBIT...

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/11/queens-gambit-a-real-life-chess-champion-on-netflixs-new-hit


Daniel Parmet    (2020-12-12 18:01:32)
What happened to all the players?

Here I quote LSS rule:
"Dear Chessfriends,

in the past there have been many complaints about games where one player started moving slowly esp in a lost position, partially using the 30-day-per-individual-move rule to its extreme. To my opinion, this is not a good attitude of sportsmanship.

I have therefore developed a measure against this. Depending on the position, the used time of reflection and the ratings of both players, the server can detect such games with a high probability. Actually, the delay of games is already part of the LSS Rules, but was not in effect so far.

Effective 1st October, 2020, such games will now be stopped by the server and the delaying player will be suspended for 3 weeks to start new tournaments. Further penalties might be introduced, if required.

The algorithm will not be revealed to avoid misuse and it might be due to change without notice.

Best wishes
Ortwin Pätzold"


Thibault de Vassal    (2021-04-12 12:14:19)
Wch 22 Stage 2 ended

Well, any solution is fine to me, but I'm not sure it would be ok for all players, particularly those who may try to manage many games in various WCH cycles... but maybe it is time to decide and to make a new rule.


Thibault de Vassal    (2021-04-15 14:48:06)
Wch 22 Stage 2 ended

There is no full calendar indeed but that is a mistake... for now, there is a line "Schedule" in My messages that displays when the next WCH & CUP will start, but I could add the same for next rounds if we decide that all next rounds should start with new cycles. A start at 1st of the next month may be not so easy to manage according to the cases.


Garvin Gray    (2021-04-18 17:28:11)
Wch 22 Stage 2 ended

I do not disagree with your general sentiment, but as someone who has been on this site a long time, I have experienced a lot of negotiations and discussions like this, where the discussions end up going nowhere, or some kind of 'change' is promised , and then after a while, those format changes are walked back.

Therefore, I have become rather jaded by this entire process and I am now of the opinion that Thibault just offers these discussions in an attempt to make it look like he is entertaining differing opinions, when really he TRULY can not bring himself to make the changes that some of these discussions are asking for as he already believes that the site is perfect as it is.

So, you are then treating the forum posters like mugs if you are saying, lets discuss the topic and come up with new ideas, if you have no genuine intention of embracing any of the ideas proposed.

I have now said my last post on this matter for quite a while.

I have made it clear what I think of these forum discussions and their purpose, so there is now no further requirement for me to reply.


Thibault de Vassal    (2021-06-19 11:19:01)
What is the longest game of Big Chess?

Yes, checkmate is the goal (in some way) of the game, but it doesn't say it automatically ends the game. Of course I can specify it.

Finally your opponent did resign... new players do not always get immediately how the site works.

And yes, the ratio may evolve, it happened once only since FICGS started.


Ilmars Cirulis    (2023-06-03 02:36:50)
GUI for Big Chess?

1) File... -> New Variant
here I choose "standard" and specify "Board size" 16 ranks and 16 files.

2) The FEN for Big Chess starting position is rnb1rbnqknbr1bnr/pppppppnnppppppp/7pp7/16/16/16/16/16/16/16/16/16/16/7PP7/PPPPPPPNNPPPPPPP/RNB1RBNQKNBR1BNR w - - 0 1 (if I haven't made any mistake) - copy it into clipboard

3) Edit -> Paste Position From Clipboard
(or Ctrl+Shift+V)


Paul Brand Lyard    (2021-07-18 21:19:39)
Chess engines levels from 1985 to 2020

Lc0 27.0 is a very nice engine to play,with Shredder, and the SF12 nuue is great.
So,the new "21 one moves#" played on 2020, on engine SF11 nuue
by
" The Sandra Lyard13061975 Inventor Annapurna'chess,and chess player", Stockfish11.


Don Groves    (2021-07-19 21:40:45)
Next Ficgs World Championship Tournament

My new email is dgrovespdxATgmail.com


Juri Eintalu    (2021-09-27 16:29:57)
How to Accept a Draw in Chess

I am new on FICGS and I do not understand how to accept a draw offering in chess. I accepted a draw, but after about 12 hours, my clock is still running and the draw is not fixed. I do not want to accept a draw together with making a move, as in the OTB game making a move means rejecting the draw.


Juri Eintalu    (2021-10-06 18:54:56)
How to Accept a Draw in Chess

Now, as a new user on FICGS, I have a new problem. I do not know how to block another user whose aggressive comments I really do not want to read or respond to.

The system of accepting a draw can be tested, of course, if 2 staff members of FICGS play 4 unrated games with each other, proposing a draw on the 4. move. First, whether checking the "Accept" box is sufficient; Second, whether my claim is true that it is possible to check the "Accept", make a move and send it - to achieve acceptance of a draw.

Possibly, there are some time-out problems with the promised pop-up window.

I really do not respond ever again to GG-s empty etc comments.


Juri Eintalu    (2021-10-07 04:56:34)
How to Accept a Draw in Chess

Ilmars Cirulis
How to Accept a Draw in Chess

"JE, you can always skip reading forum. :D

About the topic - I don't have any problems with offering or accepting draw here."

- Unfortunately, I am unable to understand what you are trying to say. I am new here and I asked a question. Now, I have heard two "answers": that the others do not have that problem. - Then my "answer" is that I have had no such problems e.g., on Lichess. And I have always imagined that if someone asks help on the forum, then the decent answer would not be like GG-s "answer" mentioning some "box for the idiots". And I can always skip using that platform FICGS as well.


Ilmars Cirulis    (2021-11-01 15:36:57)
First steps in 8-piece endgame TBs

http://arves.org/arves/index.php/en/latestnews/latest-news/2-ongecategoriseerd/1509-8-men-tablebase-first-explorations


Juri Eintalu    (2021-11-27 02:49:44)
Unvaccinated correspondence chessplayers

I have read that in Latvia, unvaccinated deputies of the parliament are banned from voting and giving speeches — even from far, digitally. Estonian newspapers wrote about this.
I have also read that in some parts of Australia, the unvaccinated deputies of some local offices cannot vote even from far. I do not know what to believe.
However, online voting cannot spread the virus.
Therefore, a question arises concerning correspondence chess. Imagine that someone demands that unvaccinated chess players be banned from playing online chess because online chess cannot infect anyone with the virus.
I do not understand what the logic of all of this is.


Thibault de Vassal    (2021-12-01 02:12:36)
Repeated draw offers

I just updated the process and rules... let's give a try to this new version (without any human intervention on the result of the game):

"Also, no player will make draw offers repeatedly, particularly several times in a row. Doing so may lead to get blocked by your opponents, finally to get a limited access to the server (until to solve the problem)."

It is now possible to report then block draw offers (at least the main message & popup) just like it is possible with private messages in games. Then it shouldn't be annoying anymore.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-02-27 14:00:58)
FICGS support to Ukraine

I must say I'm not used at all to merge politics &/or war to chess... I'm not sure if FICGS should display a ukrainian flag during these obviously very sad times. But I'll do it if the most think it's a good idea. Personally I do support civil people under bombs, probably in all cases.

Also it is quite tough to understand what happens there from 2014 & Minsk agreements... I discussed about it with russians, ukrainians, read many news & fake news, much complexity. I do not think this is the place to discuss about it though, so let's just decide about a way to support or if we should stop players clocks only.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-02-27 14:08:41)
FICGS support to Ukraine

As one ukrainian player registered for the FICGS chess championship, I wrote to him to know his views on his own situation. We may also have to decide what to do about this championship in this very particular case (particularly if I do not receive any news).


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-02-28 21:22:28)
Ukrainian players clocks during war

Let's do this.

Ukrainian players in activity are now in vacation for 45 days. Of course they still have 45 days of vacation remaining. Even if the war ends shortly, I think this is the least time to recover from such dramatic events. If war should last, then this special vacation could be renewed.

Consequently this topic is closed.


Garvin Gray    (2022-03-02 08:18:43)
Russian flag replaced

The situation between ficgs and National sports is very different.

With National Sports, they receive funding and are playing under the name Russia. Therefore, when that team wins, the Russian Government receives a benefit.

On here, whilst players are from Russia, we are all playing as individuals.

And as been clearly noted in a lot of news articles, most Russian people do not support the actions of the Russian Government.

I think this is case in ficgs where if a Russian player wanted to change their flag to a neutral flag, they should be given that opportunity, but it should not be forced on them.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-03-02 19:54:37)
FICGS support to Ukraine

Clocks for ukrainian players in activity have been stopped yesterday (45 days of special "vacation", can be renewed if necessary).

I don't hold any of this against russian players as well. As I said in the other post:

"(...) At tennis, in example, Elina Svitolina (UKR) didn't want to play Anastasia Potapova (RUS) yesterday, but federation of tennis "removed" russian flag for individual players... the match finally happened (Svitolina won 6-2 6-1 by the way). All russians I know do not support this war, so I think it is a good sign of support from them to join this idea, kind of support for peace.

If any russian player is pro-Poutine or supports this war, of course he can talk to me and ask for his flag (not meaning he'll get it)."


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-03-07 21:08:28)
HTTPS not available on March 7th

There was a huge issue on FICGS server today, I'm glad to have been able to fix this as it was really tough and unlikely ^^ This is what happens when running an old system with recent modules...

No time was added to clocks as it lasted less than 24 hours (sorry :)), and a few players connect to HTTP (not really secure, particularly if you used the right login field).

I started to work with the most recent Linux system a few weeks ago so I should be ready to migrate FICGS to this new server at some time... There is no urge though, it will be a long and difficult operation.


Juri Eintalu    (2022-03-21 21:23:10)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN

FIDE bans Karjakin for 6 months because of his announcements concerning the Ukraine war.

https://www.fide.com/news/1650


Juri Eintalu    (2022-04-13 09:54:42)
ICCF Extraordinary Congress

ICCF is about to change its Statute to be able to suspend or exclude countries from the ICCF based on other reasons than financial reasons.

Then, the ICCF is about to suspend Russia and Belarus, using this fresh Amendment.

No reasons or principles are provided, the only criteria are the majority of votes.

However, if any new principles would be introduced, they would be applied backwards-looking and selectively.

https://www.iccf.com/Proposals.aspx?id=76


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-05-08 02:18:53)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN

"A few minutes ago it was announced that the Court of Appeals of the Ethical and Disciplinary Commission (EDC) of the FIDE has rejected the appeal filed by Grand Master Sergey Karjakin against the 6 month disqualification he had been given for having embarrassed the TRUST because of his own Declarations in favor of Russian invasion into Ukraine.
“According to the FIDE Card and the Code of Ethics and Disciplinary FIDE, such a decision can be contested before the Arbitral Court of Sport (CAS) within 21 days”, the sentence reads.
The disqualification, as it is known, will prevent Karjakin from participating in the Madrid nominees Tournament, where he will most likely be replaced by Ding Liren. The Russian player, born in Crimea, said he is considering the possibility of a new International Federation in competition with FIDE."


Juri Eintalu    (2022-07-10 19:05:13)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?

It seems that Russia and Belarus have not been suspended from the international chess federation ICCF.

The ICCF Extraordinary Congress tried to suspend Russian and Belarus federations.

Online voting was carried on 27 April - 09 May 2022.

https://www.iccf.com/congresses

ICCF homepage does not provide a clear result. I do not see it. The link to THAT Congress disappeared today.

The downloadable table of the voting results does not show in detail, what country made what decision.

An excerpt from the results:

***

EC 2022-003 Suspend the Russian Federation - Void if EC 2022-001 is Defeated

For 33, Against 10, Abstain 14
(I calculate that FOR: 58%)

Amendment of ICCF Statute Article 17, EC 2022-01 required 2/3 votes. The result was:

For 34, Against 10, Abstain 13.
I calculate that FOR: 60% which is less than the required 2/3 or 67%.

***

It seems that the ICCF did not succeed to change its Statute so as to allow the suspension of Russia and Belarus based on majority voting.

Unfortunately, in my homeland, there is no information available on how our representative voted (if he voted) and based on what considerations. The national federation also has not responded to my question sent officially through the ICCF server. I also do not see any relevant news on the national federation's website.


Juri Eintalu    (2022-07-16 15:00:54)
Unvaccinated correspondence chessplayers

I am afraid that it is already too late to respond to my post written 7 months ago. For example, now I am already unable or unwilling to find out that old news reporting that somewhere, someone wanted to prohibit even online voting for the unvaccinated.


Yeturu Aahlad    (2022-08-18 22:12:06)
poker reflection time

Am I misunderstanding the math? I don't think that would make a meaningful difference. Against an opponent playing as slowly as possible, the new rule with 30-day max accumulated time would end the game 30 days sooner.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-08-19 02:51:26)
respectful legacy

Hello Yeturu,

Indeed, Aleksey is the last ukrainian player I didn't succeed to get news from yet (or who did not continue his games since the war started), after several attempts :/ I hope he's ok... The only Aleksey Payzansky on Facebook seems to be ok as of may, 2022 (no update since that time). As rules already specify, if I learn (soon or late) that he died during his games, his rating will be retroactively restored. But games have to end at one time, I guess.

About games where there is a clear lead, I don't think it can be a sufficient reason for adjudications, at least in poker games.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-08-19 02:55:17)
poker reflection time

"the new rule with 30-day max accumulated time would end the game 30 days sooner" : Statistically, it is quite hard to evaluate IMO... so... maybe.

Anyway, I'll make that change within a few weeks if there is no strong argument against this.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-09-29 21:36:29)
Next thematic tournament

Change has been done:

Anti-Stonewall [Dutch: Alapin] 1.d4 f5 2.Qd3 d5 3.g4


Misha Allport    (2022-10-03 16:58:26)
Number of moves affect the ratng result?

If I am playing a stronger player(+600 points).do the number of moves I make in a loss affect my new rating?(i.e. do I lose fewer points being defeated in 60 moves as opposed to being beaten in 10 moves)?


Herbert Kruse    (2022-10-21 10:52:59)
Magnus Carlsen vs. Hans Niemann

Breaking News: Hans Niemann is suing!

https://en.chessbase.com/post/breaking-news-hans-niemann-is-suing


Scott Ligon    (2022-11-23 21:22:50)
I did not win a game since 3 years

Surely there are some positions where it's difficult to determine, even with engine assistance, whether the position is a game theoretic win or a draw. And then playing that position out would be interesting. That's all my proposed variant would depend on. The first player looks for a position that would be interesting to play, and if they've done their job well, the second player has a difficult task in deciding whether they want to play the side with advantage for a win or the other side for a draw. I think this would work up until the point that chess is actually solved.

The starting position could be as simple as 1. g4 (a terrible first move of course). Maybe black has a forced win and maybe with careful play white can hold the draw. If I did a lot of Stockfish analysis the answer might become clear but with a quick analysis I'm not sure. But if I knew the answer either way for 1. g4, I could always look at other positions. At least this would be a game where the outcome isn't immediately obvious.


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-07-27 19:06:48)
FIDE rating change proposal

Maybe you heard about this strange proposal made by a mathematician to make FIDE ratings (<2000) more coherent against some deflation...

http://en.chessbase.com/post/fide-seeks-proposals-rating-changes

http://www.chess.com/news/view/fide-mathematician-proposes-changes-to-improve-rating-accuracy


I'm somewhat doubtful about this idea to change some data rather than the algorithm, what do you think?


Bogoljub Teverovski    (2023-08-09 13:46:12)
Next thematic tournament

I offer new thematic Fajarowitz d4 Nf6 c4 e5 de Ne4


Juri Eintalu    (2023-11-15 21:44:51)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

Dear Herbert Kruse

My Public Appeal is about the sports sanctions, particularly about the chess sanctions, in the context of the Ukraine/Russia war and the more recent Israel/Palestine war.

My position is that it is wrong to politicise sports and, therefore, it was wrong to impose chess sanctions on Russia and Ukraine. The chess sanctions imposed on Russia and Ukraine should be lifted.

However, if these sanctions remain in force and politicising sports is regarded as a new normal, I think similar sanctions should be imposed on all countries that have seriously violated the international conventions.

Since October 2023, Israel has committed serious war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip (and elsewhere too).

Therefore, I suggest that if the chess sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus will not be removed, then similar sanctions should be imposed on Israel.

For example, Israel should be excluded from the International Correspondence Chess Federation membership.

I explained all these points in my Public Appeal.

In your replies, you have actually not addressed my arguments presented in the Public Appeal.

First, you started to talk about the Jews in Germany. But the word "Jew(s)" appeared only once in my Public Appeal - to declare that the sanctions should be imposed on the states or the citizens of states and not based on ethnicity:

"As far as the Jews are concerned, collective punishment must not be applied to them. No one may be accused or discriminated against based on their nationality."

Finally, you started to talk about Israel's right to self-defence. Again, this distorts the content of my Public Appeal. I have nowhere and never denied Israel's right to self-defence. However, from the right to self-defence, it in no way follows that one has a right to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Unnecessarily killing a large number of unarmed civilians is a war crime, and it cannot be justified by referring to self-defence or the war crimes the other side has earlier committed.

Unfortunately, I cannot continue discussing this with you, as you have systematically ignored the content of my Public Appeal.


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-11-17 19:27:42)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

First of all, Russell Tribunal in Palestine was criticized:

"Judge Richard Goldstone, writing in The New York Times in October 2011, said of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine that "It is not a 'tribunal.' The 'evidence' is going to be one-sided and the members of the 'jury' are critics whose harsh views of Israel are well known. In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute."[34]

South African journalist and human rights activist Benjamin Pogrund, now living in Israel, described the Cape Town Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine as "It's theatre: the actors know their parts and the result is known before they start. Israel is to be dragged into the mud."[35]

After the Cape Town session, Israeli MK Otniel Schneller filed a complaint with the Knesset's Ethics Committee against MK Hanin Zoabi, who testified at the Tribunal that "Israel is an apartheid state".[36]

A group of Jewish South Africans protested against the court, and the organiser of the protest called it a "Kangaroo Court."[37]

Daniele Archibugi and Alice Pease have argued that it is a rather common practice that those accused of international crimes challenge the impartiality of their accusers. And it may be the case that the organisers of opinion tribunals, as of any other tribunal, might be biased or produce insufficient evidence. But to further develop the rule of law, those which are unsatisfied about the outcomes of these tribunals should be able to produce further evidence and legal arguments rather than unsubstantiated criticism. Legal discourse, they argue, is necessarily based on the opposition of contrasting views.[38] "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tribunal


Juri Eintalu    (2023-11-18 03:57:22)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

to Thibault de Vassal:

"Recently, Hamas chose to attack civilians instead of Israel (this is a war crime, no ambiguity there), Israel now does everything to destroy Hamas, making many victims among civilians. But this may not be war crimes according to definition. Nothing obvious there, we'll see."

The 07 October attack is quite recent, and I would not say that all the circumstances are clear. For example, I am not sure that Hamas "chose" to kill civilians.

The only thing that is sure is that some number of civilians were killed by Hamas. It is sure, because Israel accuses Hamas of killing the civilians, and one of Hamas leaders has publicly admitted, that during that attack, Hamas killed some civilians "accidentally".

Killing civilians may make it a war crime. Intentionally killing civilians may make it an act of terrorism.

After the 07 October attack, Israel has killed awfully many civilians in the Gaza Strip. I totally agree with those experts who say that such a bombing of the sieged territory is not self-defence and it is a war crime - at the very least.

Note that during the 07 October attack, approximately 1200 people were killed, some of them were soldiers, and the others were civilians, many of them unarmed civilians.

Under Israel's bombs, in the Gaza Strip, during one month, more than 10,000 unarmed civilians were killed. Most of them were women and children. And it has not yet ended.

As of now, no one of the participants in the present discussion has said anything at all about the content of my Public Appeal. It seems that no one has even read it, despite I inserted the link into my initial post. I did not try to present the text directly here, on the Forum, as it was perhaps too lengthy for the Forum.

I shall provide the link to my Public Appeal again:

https://medium.com/@eintalu/a-public-appeal-to-chess-organisations-on-the-bombing-of-the-gaza-strip-be56afd3f5ca

Concerning civilian causalities of the Gaza bombing, and the comparison of the Ukraine war and the Israel war, I provided the following information in my Public Appeal:


<International organisations confirm that Israel has managed to kill more children in the Gaza Strip in one month in 2023 than were killed in all the war zones on the planet in the whole of 2022. In fact, significantly more children have been killed by Israeli bombs in one month than in two years of war in Ukraine. See also, e.g.:

“GAZA: 3,195 CHILDREN KILLED IN THREE WEEKS SURPASSES ANNUAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN KILLED IN CONFLICT ZONES SINCE 2019”
Save the Children, 29 October 2023

https://www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-3195-children-killed-three-weeks-surpasses-annual-number-children-killed-conflict-zones# >


Now, while talking about the attacks on civilians, you (as other participants of the discussion) simply ignore my Public Appeal.

Concerning your political views about the real intentions of Russia when starting a war against Ukraine, what you present dogmatically and without evidence - the only sober reply is that dogmatically and without evidence, one could as well assert whatever about the Israeli real intentions concerning the Gaza war.

However, we have direct evidence from the public speeches of Israel's leadership, that the intentions of the Gaza war are genocidal.

I conclude that you are trying to whitewash Israeli large-scale war crimes and crimes against humanity while ignoring the text of my Public Appeal.


Juri Eintalu    (2023-11-19 00:58:48)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

ARGUMENTS CONCERNING THE RUSSIA/UKRAINE WAR

None of the commentators explained why it was necessary and reasonable to politicise sports and to impose sanctions on Russia and Belarus. No one answered my corresponding arguments from my Public Appeal. No one explained why the sanctions were imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, while no sanctions were imposed on the US for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

HERBERT KRUSE PRESENTED THE FOLLOWING "ARGUMENT":

"like Ukraine Israel had its "Butcha" at the music festival, so who attacked?

and there were constant rockets on Israel from Gaza, should they just allow it?

and the hostiges should just given up?

if my state can not defend me, maybe u can help?!"

This emotional and psychological manipulation completely ignored all my relevant arguments and explanations.

Now, let us take only the first phrase of this mumbo-jumbo:

"like Ukraine Israel had its 'Butcha' at the music festival, so who attacked?"

My Public Appeal was about chess sanctions. Now, the data are as follows:

2022, February 24:
Russia started its invasion of Ukraine

2022, February 27:
An extraordinary meeting of the FIDE Council was held on the current situation and the urgent measures to be taken after the military action launched by Russia in Ukraine.
https://fide.com/news/1603

Thus, it seems that they waited for the beginning of the Russian invasion and had a plan for how to react, as they responded only a few days later.

Israel had occupied Palestinian territories for 55 years, but the chess federation FIDE had never reacted.

2022, March 16:
Russia and Belarus teams suspended from FIDE competitions.
https://fide.com/news/1638

2022, March 30:
Russian troops leave Bucha (near Kyiv).

2022, April 01:
The corpses in Bucha were discovered.

Now, the first obvious problem with Herbert Kruse's "argument" is that the timeline proves that the chess sanctions on Russia were imposed BEFORE the corpses in Bucha were discovered.

The second problem is that he does not know or pretends not to know the definitions of such terms as "war crime".

The third problem is that, as a matter of fact, we do NOT know WHEN these people were executed, and we do NOT know WHO executed them.

It is so because there were actually TWO massacres in Bucha.
The shelling killed some people, "The Guardian" reported. These people were lying on the streets. The satellite images proved that they were killed before the Russian Army left the town.
However, some people were executed in the cellars. Unfortunately, the satellite images cannot prove the time of the executions in the cellars.
There is one additional problem. Ukraine has not made public the names and personal data of the victims. Therefore, we do not even know what percentage of the victims were Ukrainians and what percentage were Russians.

THIBAULT THE VASSAL PRESENTED THE FOLLOWING SEQUENCE OF ARGUMENTS:

"Ukraine is attacked mainly because Poutine (at least) argues it historically belongs to Russia with no consideration of its recent history & international treaties (and among other reasons because he obviously sees nazis in every people open on what a man/woman/family could look like, meaning many europeans & americans)."

Thibault has no evidence whatsoever for one's claim that Putin "obviously sees nazis in every people open on what a man/woman/family could look like, meaning many europeans & americans)." There is even no evidence to the claim that the Russian administration thinks that the majority of Ukrainians were Nazis. The evidence might be the public speeches of Russian leaders. But I have seen no such speech with such theses. Indeed, Putin has said something else.

I believe that Thibault presents one's prejudices as "obvious facts".

Besides, it has nothing to do with the arguments of my Public Appeal.

"There are few doubts that war crimes have been committed there."

In the Ukraine/Russia war, BOTH sides have committed a lot of war crimes, and it is well documented and proven.

However, the chess sanctions on Russia were not imposed because of the war crimes, as can be seen from the schedule above. The motivation to impose those sanctions was, initially, merely the fact that Russia started a war (not a war crime but a crime against peace).

Moreover, in the Ukraine/Donbas domestic war too, both sides committed war crimes. Ukraine committed crimes against humanity, and there were clear genocidal elements of the behaviour towards the Russian-speaking minority of Ukraine. It is also well-documented and proven. At the beginning of my Public Appeal, I mentioned that Karyakin argued from the premise that Ukrainian ultra-nationalists murdered a lot of Russians in Ukraine.

However, I see that the responses to my Public Appeal have altogether ignored all my arguments, and everyone has preferred to talk about something else.


Juri Eintalu    (2023-11-19 01:39:29)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

Thibault the Vassal:

"Juri, when you say << For example, I am not sure that Hamas "chose" to kill civilians. >>, I'm not sure if your topic is determinism or something else but obviously you cannot be sure of anything. Did you watch the videos? Anyway, any army killing or kidnapping civilians is a war crime for sure and that's most probably terrorism in this case."

I do not understand what you are talking about?

I cannot be sure about the videos because I know that Israel is a liar.

I cannot be sure that it was Hamas as and organization who (intentionally) killed the civilians. Perhaps some members of Hamas enjoyed killing civilians despite the commands of their chiefs.

I cannot be sure that these were members of Hamas who murdered the civilians. Perhaps Israel knew about the attack and these civilians were killed during the attack by, say, the Israeli secret service. Perhaps Netanyahu wanted it to happen to get an excuse to start the carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip.

I cannot be sure that all the civilians killed were killed by Hamas. It is plausible to guess that some civilians were killed by Israeli forces.

After all, I know that earlier, Israel had intentionally killed its own soldiers and its own civilians.

There are or have been such dubious doctrines in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF):

HANNIBAL DIRECTIVE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Directive

DAHYIA DOCTRINE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_doctrine

I also know that reportedly here have been some witnesses in Israel, Jews, who have claimed in Israel TV and radio, that they saw that Israeli forces killed civilian hostages and random civilians nearby.

Therefore, I am not in a hurry decide, what actually happened on 07 October 2023.

What I reported above was that I regard it as proven beyond reasonable doubt that Hamas killed some unknown number of civilians.

Finally, Thibault the Vassal, I do not accept your attitude, and particularly I completely condemn the attitude of Herbert Kruse.

Are you both some kind of communists or Stalinists?

It is not a crime not to believe such assertions that have not been sufficiently proven.

If you demand that one must blindly believe whatever propaganda the government or the mainstream media produces, then you are a totalitarianist.

I do not want to talk to such people.

However, now, at least, I know how such people are thinking, who defend absolutely illogical and inconsistent policies.


Juri Eintalu    (2023-11-20 02:21:47)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

"Israeli Security Establishment: Hamas Likely Didn’t Have Advance Knowledge of Nova Festival"
Haaretz, 18 November 2023

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-18/ty-article/.premium/israeli-security-establishment-hamas-likely-didnt-have-prior-knowledge-of-nova-festival/0000018b-e2ee-d168-a3ef-f7fe8ca20000

"Hamas had not planned to attack music festival, Israeli report says"
Al Jazeera, 18 November 2023

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/18/hamas-had-not-planned-to-attack-israel-music-festival-israeli-report-says

'“An investigation into the incident revealed an [Israeli military] combat helicopter that arrived at the scene from the Ramat David base fired at the terrorists and apparently also hit some of the revelers there,” the Haaretz report cited an unnamed police official as saying.'

The funniest thing is that after Mr Herbert Kruse claimed that I should be in jail for not thinking that the official narrative on the 07 October attack was entirely true and proven - the very next day Israeli newspapers reported that some unspecified number of civilians were killed not by Hamas but by Israeli helicopter.

The sad thing is that the discussion of the 07 October events is absolutely irrelevant to my Public Appeal.

As I have explained above several times.

Suppose that all the 1200 people killed on 07 October were civilians. Suppose that Hamas is a terrorist organisation (I have not checked their background, I heard the name "Hamas" first time in my life on 07 October). Suppose that the 07 attack was a terrorist attack and all the civilians were killed intentionally.

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING can be inferred concerning my Public Appeal.

I have explained already several times that Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip are in no way justified by 07 October events.

It follows from the international conventions, from the entrenched definitions of "war crime", "genocide", etc.

I have also explained, already in my Public Appeal, that there is no need to impose sports sanctions on Hamas, as Hamas has been announced to be a terrorist organisation by the European Union, shortly after the 07 October events.

Moreover, I have explained above, that one cannot expel Hamas from the chess organisations like FIDE or ICCF, because it has never been there.

I do not want to talk to such demagogues as Herbert Kruse and Thibault de Vassal.

Among other things, both have completely ignored my arguments and the actual text of my Public Appeal.

There is an ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Compared to the enormous crimes of Israel, the scale of killing unarmed civilians, the Russian Chess Federation has been sanctioned for small things, while the current racist, fascist Nazi-Israel has remained untouched, with impunity.


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-11-20 19:39:27)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

Juri, you probably spread fake news:

___________________________

Social media users recently circulated video footage they claimed shows an Israeli helicopter killing Israelis at an Oct. 7 concert in Israel.

Stew Peters, a far-right radio host and the filmmaker behind the anti-COVID-19 vaccine films "Died Suddenly" and "Watch the Water," shared the 14-second video clip on X, formerly Twitter.

"VIDEO PROVES and ISRAEL ADMITS it slaughtered its own people on Oct. 7th," Peters wrote Nov. 9. "This attack was NOT made by goat herders on paragliders. Footage from Israeli helicopter shows the IDF killing many people at October 7 concert in Israel. IDF helicopters fired on civilians fleeing the PsyTrance Music Festival."

Other social media users shared Peters’ post, and it was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) We also found this video clip misrepresented on TikTok.

(...)

GeoConfirmed, a group that works to geolocate video footage, analyzed the Israel Defense Forces’ video, and concluded it was not filmed at the site of the Nova music festival.

We found no evidence to support Peters’ claim that the video clip showed Israeli forces killing people at an Oct. 7 concert in Israel. A group that works to geolocate video footage analyzed the Israel Defense Forces’ video and said it was not filmed at the music festival site.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/nov/17/stew-peters/no-this-video-doesnt-show-israeli-military-killing/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57UQKWdZRco

_________________________


In doubt, such news (probably fake news) have no place here... Thanks in advance.

Now we heard your message (and I did respond to your public appeal), feel free to let chess organizations decide what they have to do, no need to discuss it more here.


Juri Eintalu    (2023-11-25 22:00:10)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

Thibault de Vassal:

"Juri, you probably spread fake news:..."

"In doubt, such news (probably fake news) have no place here... Thanks in advance."

I have NOT shared that video here, on the Forum, neither a link to it. And I have NOT mentioned that video here, on the Forum.

You are a sick slanderer, Mr. Thibault de Vassal.

Don't worry, I will not play a single chess game on the platform FICGS anymore. I decided so already half a year ago.


Bogoljub Teverovski    (2023-11-28 12:23:28)
Next thematic tournament

I offer new thematic - Scandinavian 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6


Ilmars Cirulis    (2023-12-27 19:30:42)
Fried Liver analysis on rybkaforum.net?

I tried to browse it using web.archive.org website, but I don't remember when (which year) and where (which place in the forum) it was posted...

There was some collective analysis of Fried Liver, after some poster postulated that black is okay in this variation.

Thank you in advance and Happy New Year of 2024! :)


Thibault de Vassal    (2024-01-01 01:10:03)
Fried Liver analysis on rybkaforum.net?

Hmmm... should be a thematic tournament some time ;) Happy new year Ilmars!


Ilmars Cirulis    (2024-01-05 21:18:39)
Fried Liver analysis on rybkaforum.net?

Happy New Year for you too, Thibault! :)


A. T. S. Broekhuizen    (2024-03-16 20:34:57)
message for Thibault regarding...

... the tournament that I withdrawed from.

Dear Thibault,

February 25. I sent you an email that I had accidentally enrolled in two standard class M tournaments, by clicking a second time before the next page loaded.
This night I saw some new games and assumed it was the new WCC cycle. But upon closer inspection, it was the second Class M tournament that I thought I had withrawn from.
Added to the imminent new WCC this will be a bit much. So is it still possible to fix this?




There are 12 results for new in wikichess.


Thibault de Vassal    (2407)
e4 e5 f4 exf4 Nf3 d6

The extremely popular Fischer Defense (planning h6 and g5 but only rarely Bg4, a natural-looking but often weak move that beginners play too early) is complicated and subtle. After Bobby Fischer lost a 1959 game at Mar del Plata to Boris Spassky, in which the Kieseritsky Gambit was played, he left in tears and promptly went to work at devising a new King's Gambit defense. In a 1962 article titled "A Bust to the King's Gambit" he put forth this idea and claimed that it refuted the King's Gambit, which was clearly not the case. The article concluded with the famously arrogant line, "Of course white can always play differently in which case he merely loses differently." Nonetheless, the article was possibly the most influential ever written about an opening, and ever since the King's Gambit has been rare in Grandmaster play, though a few players such as Joseph Gallagher still use it.

============

Contributors : Thibault de Vassal


Thibault de Vassal    (2425)
e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 d4 exd4 Nxd4 Nf6 Nxc6 bxc6 e5 Qe7 Qe2 Nd5 c4 Ba6 b3 O-O-O g3 g5 Bb2 Bg7 Nd2 Nb4 Nf3 Rhe8 Bh3 h5

!? New
leads in a small black advantage (see Gonzales - Utesch 2006 corr. FICGS)
============

Contributors : Wolfgang Utesch, Thibault de Vassal


Thibault de Vassal    (2425)
d4 Nf6 c4 e5 dxe5 Ng4 Bf4 g5 Bg3 Bg7 Nf3 Nc6 h4 Ngxe5 Nxe5 Nxe5 hxg5 Nxc4 Nc3 c6 e4 Nxb2 Qd2 d5 exd5

New and very strong! (see Game 2916 : Utesch - Schuster 2006 corr. FICGS)

============

Contributors : Wolfgang Utesch, Thibault de Vassal


Gavin Wilson    (1400)
e4 e6 d4 f5 e5 Ne7 g4

A new idea in the Advance variation, perhaps conceived in the belief that new, passive-looking defences like the Kingston Defence need to be walloped immediately. But it seems unsound. According to Fritz, White loses his 0.55 advantage immediately with this move.


============

Contributors : Gavin Wilson


Mike Hoogland    (1760)
d4 f5 g3 Nf6 Bg2 e6

More solid than g6. After this move, black most commonly plays the stonewall, with d5 and c6, or attacks the centre with d6-e5.

============

Contributors : Mike Hoogland


Sebastian Boehme    (1836)
e4 c5 Nf3 d6 d4 cxd4 Nxd4 Nf6 Nc3 a6 Bg5 e6 f4 Qb6 Qd3

A new sort of Poisoned Pawn. White offers a pawn like after 8. Qd2, but weakens a little bit its light squared bishop.

============

Contributors : Sebastian Boehme


Sophie Leclerc    (1242)
e4 f5 exf5 Nf6 g4 g6 g5 Ne4 d3 Nd6 fxg6 hxg6 Bg2 Nc6 Nc3 Nf5 Nf3 d6 Bd2 Bg7 h4 Qd7 Qe2 Ncd4 Qd1 Qe6+ Kf1 Qf7 Nxd4 Ng3+ Kg1 Bxd4 Qf3 Nxh1 Qxf7+ Kxf7 Bxh1 c6 Rb1 Rxh4 Ne2 Bh3

This cut away white retreat and instore a new mate treat.

============

Contributors : Sophie Leclerc


Telmo Escobar    (2002)
e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 Bb5 a6 Ba4 Nf6 O-O Bc5


"New Arkangelsk" variation.
============

Contributors : Telmo Escobar


Sophie Leclerc    (1573)
e4 c5 Nf3 d6 d4 cxd4 Nxd4 Nf6 Nc3 g6 Be3 Bg7 f3 h5

A new variation, Yugi variation, ( no, I don,t who got the idea), but black decide to delay castle and make this usefull move as this move gain even more control over the g4 square, it will be harder for white to continue with his pawn storm.

Black may want to play Bd7 and Nc6 before this move,

Can this be a good dragon variation. of course black may not castle at all.


right after making this strange, the play will normaly continue by white playing on kingside and black on the queen side. His king may go to the d7 square in order to find safety and connect his rook.
============

Contributors : Sophie Leclerc


Sophie Leclerc    (1573)
f4 d6 Nf3 Nc6 c4 Nf6

The new yugi attack take position after Nc3, he take seiorus claim on d5 and e5 square when we let him play this.

Move strange would be to fianchetto both bishop.

============

Contributors : Sophie Leclerc


Sebastian Boehme    (2175)
e4 e6 d4 d5 Nc3 Nf6 Bg5 Bb4 e5 h6 exf6

A new idea.

============

Contributors : Sebastian Boehme


Daniel Barrish    (2000)
e4 c5 Nf3 d6 d4 cxd4 Nxd4 Nf6 Nc3 g6 Be3 Bg7 f3 Nc6 Qd2 O-O Bc4 Rb8


This is the newer, modern Chinese Dragon. The basic idea is to play b5, Na5-c4 Bxc4 bxc4 and atack down the b file.
============

Contributors : Daniel Barrish






FICGS : new ,   Wikipedia : new ,   Dmoz : new ,   Google : new ,   Yahoo : new




You know you're going to lose. Even when I was ahead I knew I was going to lose. - On playing against Fischer. (Andrew Soltis)

I know people who have all the will in the world, but still can't play good Chess. (Bobby Fischer)

For me, Chess is life and every game is like a new life. Every Chess player gets to live many lives in one lifetime. (Eduard Gufeld)




Back to FICGS , Wikichess




[Chess forum] [Rating lists] [Countries] [Chess openings] [Legal informations] [Contact]
[Social network] [Hot news] [Discussions] [Seo forums] [Meet people] [Directory]