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Thibault de Vassal    (2026-03-13 23:17:02)
Post-tickets FICGS

The long answer:

FICGS story is a quite simple & classic one, the reasons why it's declining are quite obvious, and unfortunately the solutions aren't. A bit of story:

1. Luckily, FICGS.com was created when there were a demand, just after IECG stopped... It grew very quickly, and I was in a rush to code it (FICGS was the very first dynamic website I ran from A to Z), there were ideas from everywhere. FICGS.com was the shortest domain name available, but not a so good one. Quite hard to remember, hard to tell, not clear for search engines (unlike chess.com which is a perfect one). Maybe it was a mistake to choose it, I can't tell. Either it meant "Free Internet Chess Games Server" or "Free Internet Correspondence Games Server", so I added another game, Go (Weiqi), to FICGS, which is a quite heavy decision: After that, FICGS is not only a chess server anymore.

2. A few years after, there are several thousands players (a few hundreds active). The number of new players slowly decreases month after month but a few sponsors come. Obviously, the way I coded FICGS made it more and more difficult to fully update from a PHP version to another one, or to change it in deep. Even now, I'm not sure to regret it though cause I couldn't have done it differently, so it is what it is. At this time, chess.com was less interesting than FICGS (my taste), but success is already here thanks to a perfect marketing formula: best domain name & pay for options. On the contrary, I chose to keep FICGS completely free.

3. Chess engines explode, correspondence chess continues its evolution (human's thinking decreases in moves decision), finally I add another game that is in a hype: poker texas holdem. New sponsors come, I still play correspondence chess myself but now I play another game even more: Google. FICGS also extends this way and it works in some ways. At its peak, FICGS is about the 32,000th most visited website worldwide. But the number of players continues to decrease, Android & phones started to change the landscape already. Chess.com released its app and added probably its best feature: a quick Stockfish analysis with evaluation & explanation for each move (which is excellent for blitz games but quite a non-sense for a correspondence chess website).

4. The number of players suddenly declines very quickly, I react by creating FICGS apps for Android, a dozen apps... On some apps, you can play against the machine, virtual opponents, chess 960, blindfold & so on. But the way to maintain it is not easy at all for many reasons, but the main one is that Google (Playstore) constantly change technical things & rules. After a few years, I even have to completely remake it, losing what was acquired. And some apps still fail to re-appear at Playstore, that's why I just made the APK files available to direct download. But these applications confirm something clear: blitz is more fun and attracts much more players. Changing rating ranges for correspondence chess tournaments or championships formats won't be a solution for this.

5. FICGS is now 20 years old! Internet completely changed over the years but it survived longer than Messenger, Skype & many other great services. If you look at many websites, new versions of their modern interfaces are often worst (bugs or options) than previous ones. FICGS was never perfect, maybe even clear, but at least it remained coherent. Now Google (just like all major services) is mainly governed by AI, sponsors left - that does not change anything, FICGS will continue to run. I created other websites, but none so far successfully helped in a way or another to solve the problem we encounter here: how to increase the number of correspondence chess, Go or poker players again? If FICGS becomes a pure correspondence chess site again with a brand new interface, I'm quite sure that wouldn't change anything or almost. I might be wrong of course, but according to me, this is a deep problem, connected to society evolutions, computers, phones, our attention, time, even health & so on... In my personal case, I wish to play correspondence chess again, but still cannot find the time to do it. Finally I have no idea what internet will look like within 5 years, but FICGS will be there. Maybe an AI will find a solution soon ^^ Meanwhile, I received many ideas to improve FICGS and I have to thank you very much for this. Few ideas were released for reasons I explained here (but new ones are always wecome), I hope you'll better understand it by reading this.


Have good games & take care!


Stanislas Gounant    (2026-02-27 22:12:08)
Next thematic tournament

I amused myself by looking at the most frequently played lines at the top level, stopping at the first six moves. Then I used Stockfish to evaluate the resulting positions. I was surprised to find that Stockfish rated a Benoni line +0.91 at 40 half-moves deep. I suppose there must be a lot of theory surrounding this line, but with a rating of +0.91, there's certainly enough to work with. Here's the line in question (sorry for the Google translation):
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6


Garvin Gray    (2026-02-13 02:36:18)
Is rating just a number on this site?

I am taking this comment from the chat to this forum for further discussion.

In my opinion, this statement is false. On this site, your rating is not just a number. Your rating dictates which tournaments you can enter and most importantly, when you enter a class/rapid group tournament, or a wch tournament, your rating dictates your chances of success.

Example: If you have made it through to the round robin final and you are the seventh seed, this means generally there is about 50 rating points between the top seed and the bottom seed.

But with TER being used as the first tie break, if you are the bottom seed, you have to win the group outright. Any ties and you are done. And so forth if you are the sixth player by rating for anyone higher.

The top seed in that group, who could only be the top seed by 1 or 2 points, in effect gets draw odds against the field. That is such an enormous advantage that it can not be understated how much of an advantage it is.

I think it is now so clear that your rating on this site is not just a number. It dictates everything about your playing experience. From which tournaments you can enter, to how you progress in the wch cycle and if you can get tickets to higher level tournaments.


Thibault de Vassal    (2026-01-31 22:56:08)
Poker ELO

Hello Yeturu & very sorry, for some reason I completely overlooked that post.

Of course I agree that ELO is not ideal for poker, I quickly changed some parameters to make it a bit more stable.

There are many many ways to do it different & probably better, particularly when not only H2H is played, but the idea was to do it looking like chess, so this is just a choice among many others.

Reaching elo 2000 with constant all-in does not shock me much as players under this rating probably do not play as many as hands (it takes time & many games to gain points)...


George Jempty    (2025-12-10 21:02:50)
Too many groups for tourneys

Well then there is the implementing of those decisions as well, and I have 25 years experience as a web developer, and have offered my assistance lately, but nothing has come of it. I think the decisions themselves are however Thib's purview


George Jempty    (2025-12-04 13:20:38)
Too many groups for tourneys

The very highest groups take forever to fill up. I think the low bound for the higher groups, rapid or standard, should be 2300.


George Jempty    (2025-11-20 22:23:26)
Clarification of Rating Groups

I guess I "opened a can of worms" by exercising the rule regarding the ability to enter a higher rated group. But in my case specifically, my future rating is now over 2200, so I personally believe there has been NO HARM DONE. But I intend to continue to use this rule, for instance to enter >=2300 tourneys, if/when I get to 2250, there are already five entrants, and I pay the requisite e-points. I didn't outsmart anybody, I just found the necessary rule at https://ficgs.com/membership.html#tickets. A button or some other mechanism however would be a great idea


Ulises Pineda    (2025-11-19 06:45:16)
Clarification of Rating Groups

I'm contributing with my moves and participation in the platform, I also don't ask for money to the site owner to see my moves or to start new games, because it goes both ways, without players like me participating, the site would die, if someone gets a very sour taste in their mouth that they stop participating, it's the beginning of the end.
The players are needed, is the site needed? We're already playing a game in another place, Ozen, I see you making conditional moves over there that you can't send here, so what's the advantage of playing over here instead of playing over there?
At the end of the day, I come here because of the players I can face here, that only play at FICGS, so it's the only way. If they happen to leave because of some circumstances, then the site becomes pointless.
FICGS is its players.
FICGS needs the players more than the players need FICGS.
Gratitude goes both ways, I don't feel appreciated because the site's owner hasn't even replied here, because I'm just another useless player and if I left someone else would come to replace me, perhaps someone that buys tickets.
If I'm not valuable, if my games and move contributions are meaningless perhaps I should stop creating new games around here, there's other places that are completely free, have more features, and don't let players pay to get in higher rated tiers.


Bahadir Ozen    (2025-11-18 13:32:10)
Clarification of Rating Groups

Mr. Ulises Pineda,

I read what you wrote. I understand and agree with you. However, you're missing a crucial point.

The FICGS website doesn't charge any fees for entering tournaments like the ICCF or other sites. And we know that the world is currently dominated by a capitalist system. Mr. Thibault's efforts shouldn't be discounted here. As correspondence chess players, our numbers are small, anyway.

There's a lot of effort involved, and you can contribute through e-points or donations.

At the end of the day, think about it this way: FICGS offers a free marathon service, and we're debating whether it should be 20 or 40 km...


George Jempty    (2025-11-12 16:06:48)
a 2300-player tried the Budapest

I guess for me it's kind of personal because I played the Budapest on and off for decades, even beat an IM with it in a simul, but eventually became convinced it was borderline unsound. I think you can get interesting games without playing *too* unsoundly, for instance as Black I play the Siesta


George Jempty    (2025-11-08 12:11:03)
Clarification of Rating Groups

Hello Garvin Gray, there is a similar rule if you are within 50 points of the floor of the next higher group, and "the field has gotten to the last two entries", and you pay 10 e-points.

I think this policy helps fill up hard to fill groups, like standard-M. Nobody has joined the new/empty rating list for that group in the meantime.

On a personal note, my future rating just since the last update earlier this week, has even gone up over 20 points and now stands at 2199, AND I have a clearly winning position (+3.0 per SF 17) against a 2300.

IMO I am clearly worthy of standard-M, and am not making a mockery of anything.


George Jempty    (2025-11-04 13:58:15)
Banning players who forfeit too much

ok I will try to find the particular instance that prompted this post (it's been a few weeks so I've forgotten) and let Thib know so he can perhaps take some kind of action


Scott Ligon    (2025-10-31 12:46:50)
a 2300-player tried the Budapest

To make things just slightly interesting. There's no challenge at all in holding the draw with black while playing a standard opening. Modern engines make it trivially easy. But in the Budapest or the Albin Countergambit or Alekhine's Defense, I'm pretty sure black can still hold the draw, but you have to be careful.


Thibault de Vassal    (2025-10-27 18:45:17)
Cheating / Forfeiting

I understand... I'll have a look at that soon.


Garvin Gray    (2025-10-27 14:15:04)
Russian flag replaced

Before you take any action, you should actually check your facts regarding Israel. I really hate discussing this topic, but since now the site owner is considering taking similar against those who display the Israel flag as those who were from Russia and Belarus, it is extremely important to remember how we got here in both situations.

With Russia and Belarus, it was because they started a war of aggression on another correspondence chess federation.

And all sporting bodies took swift action against them in suspending their Federations and preventing their teams from competing, and players from competing and their own flag.

With the situation between Hamas/Hezbollah and Isreal, it was Hamas that was the aggressor. There was no war on July 6, 2023 and Gaza was in a state of peace. But then Hamas attacked Isreal, chopping the heads of babies and taking hostages and raping Israeli women hostages.

What did you expect the Isreali Government to do in response? Sit back and let a terrorist organisation keep the hostages and are you saying that Isreal does not have a right to defend itself?

It is quite disgusting that there are wars all over the world at the moment, about 20 at the moment, but it is only when Jews defend themselves that people feel the need to virtue signal their sense of outrage.

The correct word for them is anti-semites. We used to say 'Never again' after the Holocaust, but it now seem perfectly acceptable to support a terrorist organisation when it attacks Israel and Israel responds by trying to eliminate the threat once and for all.

And it should also be noted as we saw over a week ago. A sixth peace offer was made and Hamas responded like all the others. With more aggression.

Decide to take action against Israel on this site and you prove your antisemitism.


George Jempty    (2025-10-07 17:28:05)
Banning players who forfeit too much

Can't we do something about this problem? I now stand to lose rating points by drawing against a serial forfeiter who now continues to play against me after their rating went down over 125 points, and mine has gone up as much. I entered the tournament figuring however that I would gain rating points, except my rating in the meantime has gone up around 125 points. THIS IS UNFAIR. I propose that anybody that forfeits more than one game in a month, that they get banned.


George Jempty    (2025-10-07 17:20:01)
Cheating / Forfeiting

You know what angers me about these players, is that I entered a tournament when one of them was around 2150 and me around 2000, and I stood to GAIN rating points by drawing. Well they've forfeited a bunch of games and there rating is down to close to 2000, whereas my latest rating was 2125, and my future rating is over 2150 at the moment. So now if I only draw against them I stand to LOSE rating points, unless they forfeit against me, which may or may not happen,


George Jempty    (2025-10-07 17:15:16)
Next thematic tournament

Yeah probably too tame for correspondence, interestingly I do intend to play 4.f3 for the most part, but I came up with the 4.Bf4 idea when investgating the Leningrad variation. After 4.Bg5 c5 now 5.d5?! which had been the standard is considered sub-optimal by the engine which prefers 5.e3, and after 5...h6, I concluded that White didn't have to play 6.Bxf6 or 6.Bh4, which is when I started investigating 4.Bf4. I actually may start playing this in FIDE tournaments where I will probably be much lower rated, exactly to get into such a tame line


A. T. S. Broekhuizen    (2025-08-01 09:13:35)
50 moves rule

it's not important anymore. In this wch game the site doesn't recognize checkmate: 147445


Ulises Pineda    (2025-07-08 07:43:23)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?

I thought it was clever of me to retire scripts on demand, but I realized I've been a fool after spending the last week being unable to find a win against the 50 million question and wondering what would I achieve after finding such a line, raising it to 100 million? 200 million?

I stand corrected and the other opponents have it right, I finally get why they don't even bother, so I'm retiring from finding lines that refute the nodes, and it's my first time since this all started where I'll be playing my moves without a winning line on my hand.


Stanislas Gounant    (2025-07-05 23:13:44)
50 moves rule

Not in one of my games ...


Stanislas Gounant    (2025-05-18 16:51:38)
Changing in Poker game.

DOne


Thibault de Vassal    (2025-05-18 01:26:50)
Changing in Poker game.

Hi Stanislas, could you send a screen capture to my email please? Many thanks!


Stanislas Gounant    (2025-05-17 22:45:27)
Changing in Poker game.

I play a poker Game and now when I watch the game, I only see the countdown of the clock I can't the the name of the player and is rating. Is it a good update or a bug


Ulises Pineda    (2025-04-24 16:20:25)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?

I'm going to find a winning line against it, and then I'm going to find a win against your next step, and then I'm going to find another one against the next one, so skipping steps are a way to save time.

Remember I never made a move in our games until I had found the line, I only played it out, I'm still surprised you haven't dedicated the time to find it as if you were your own opponent, unless I'm the only person in the world that knows how to find such lines.

By using Stockfish 17.1 @ 20 million of nodes you would get it retired by me already, I don't understand why you'd want me to retire 10 million or 15 million first, because this has never been about the number of nodes, this is about telling me how you're going to pick your moves so I can find a line that would make your method make a game losing blunder.

Remember you sent me a message thinking 10 million nodes would play just fine right before I made a move that would make it blunder, what I don't know is why didn't you see the move before I played it, or from the distance, and that it surprised you, have people really forgotten how to analyze games? If you build a big tree of moves and replies to them, it's going to contain a line that beats Stockfish at fixed nodes, it'll take me about 24 hours to find the one against Stockfish 17.1 @ 10 million nodes, and about 48 hours to find one against Stockfish 17.1 @ 20 million nodes, the difference is we'll save the amount of games we have to face each other.


Stanislas Gounant    (2025-03-30 03:05:34)
The future of cheating over the board?

I seem to remember reading that at the 2016 World Championship in New York, the organizers isolated the players from the spectators with an anti-radiation curtain. I don't know if it works for sound frequencies. In any case, I suppose that devices can detect the abnormal presence of ultrasound as well as that of audible sounds.


Scott Ligon    (2025-03-29 15:42:08)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?

I played one last game using the 10 million node strategy against Pineda. The game ended in a draw, but I had to deviate from the 10 million node strategy at the end to avoid losing. I thought the finish was interesting.

https://ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=147951

The key position came after black's 56th move, and up to that point with black I am just following the 10 million node strategy. These are the moves:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. O-O Bg7 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. d3 a5 7. h3 b6 8. a3 Nf6 9. Qe2 O-O 10. Nc3 Ne8 11. e5 Nc7 12. Qe4 Ne6 13. Re1 Qd7 14. Qh4 f6 15. Be3 h6 16. Qg3 g5 17. h4 Qd8 18. Bd2 b5 19. b3 Kh7 20. Rac1 Kg8 21. Rcd1 Ra7 22. Rb1 Ra8 23. Rbc1 Ra7 24. Rcd1 Rb7 25. Bc1 Ra7 26. a4 b4 27. Ne2 Qe8 28. Bb2 Qf7 29. Nd2 Qh5 30. hxg5 fxg5 31. Qe3 Rd7 32. Nc4 Rdd8 33. Ng3 Qg6 34. Nxa5 h5 35. Qe4 Qe8 36. Ne2 h4 37. Rf1 Nf4 38. f3 Be6 39. Nxf4 Rxf4 40. Qe2 g4 41. Bc1 gxf3 42. Rxf3 Rg4 43. Rdf1 Rg6 44. Nc4 Bg4 45. Be3 Rd5 46. a5 Bxf3 47. Rxf3 Bxe5 48. Nb6 Rd8 49. a6 Re6 50. a7 Bc7 51. a8=Q Rxa8 52. Nxa8 Qxa8 53. Rf1 Qe8 54. Qf3 Bd6 55. Bg5 Kg7 56. Bxh4 Be5

I ran a width 6 / depth 55 search with Stockfish 17 on the position after black's 56th move, and the top 5 moves for white along with their eval scores were:

57. Re1
+ (0.39)

57. Qf5
+ (0.37)

57. Qg4+
+ (0.32)

57. Bg3
+ (0.25)

57. Qh3
+ (0.01)

Based on that, you might think white should only consider the top 4 moves. But if we look at this from the point of view of exploiting the 10 million node strategy, here are the evaluations of those top 5 moves after the 10 million node strategy response:

57. Re1 Bd4+
+ (0.52)

57. Qf5 Bd4+
+ (0.54)

57. Qg4+ Qg6
+ (0.42)

57. Bg3 Bc3
+ (0.27)

57. Qh3 Rg6
+ (1.65)

So presumably using that logic, my opponent played Qh3 where the 10 million node strategy would require me to respond with Rg6, which loses the game. Qh3 doesn't stand out at all unless you're trying to exploit the 10 million node strategy. The actual game ended with 57. Qh3 Bd4+ and we agreed to a draw.


Stanislas Gounant    (2025-02-23 09:55:28)
King's Gambit Accepted, Breyer Gambit

https://www.mjae.com/breyer.html


Scott Ligon    (2025-01-07 18:55:30)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?

I am running an experiment where each move will be selected by Stockfish 17 in a deterministic configuration, so it will be possible to predict my response to any given move with certainty. I believe Stockfish 17 at these settings is so strong that it will be difficult if not impossible to exploit this strategy. However, if I reach a position where it looks like this strategy is going to lose, I reserve the right to deviate. If this happens, I will message my opponent to let them know that I am no longer following this system.

I'm using a python script to interact with Stockfish, but you should be able to get the same results running Stockfish 17 from the command line. I am currently running the search with the parameter nodes = 10 million (previously I tried nodes = 5 million but I found a way for white to win against Stockfish at that setting). From the command line:

go nodes 10000000

In order for Stockfish to be deterministic, it needs to be running on just 1 thread and from the command line that's the default. If for some reason Threads has a different value on your machine:

setoption name Threads value 1

I'm using the default size for the hash table, but if you run the search a second time without clearing the hash, you will get a different search result. So either close and restart Stockfish between searches or else clear the hash table:

setoption name Clear Hash

Lastly you need to be able to input the position before running the search. It is important that you enter the position via FEN string rather than by inputting the moves, because you might get different search results otherwise. Use only the first four fields of the FEN string, like this to get black's response after 1 e4:

position fen rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq -

From that position if you run Stockfish with nodes = 10 million, the last two lines of text output should say:

info depth 32 seldepth 46 multipv 1 score cp -26 lowerbound nodes 10000376 nps 462252 hashfull 999 tbhits 0 time 21634 pv c7c5
bestmove c7c5 ponder g1f3

I think only the values of "nps" and "time" will vary, everything else should be identical between runs / machines. So in this case Stockfish 17 recommends the Sicilian Defense and gives an evaluation of +0.26. (cp -26 is the evaluation in centipawns from the perspective of the side to move, but usually evals are given from white's POV).


Stanislas Gounant    (2024-12-29 23:49:39)
Next Ficgs World Championship Tournament

Thank you for the translation

I think Thibault has a better command of the French language than I do. (google translation for this sentence)


Stanislas Gounant    (2024-12-29 21:33:40)
Next Ficgs World Championship Tournament

Les prochains championnats débutent quand? Je pense que si il n'y a pas d'annonces régulières sur le chat les gens ne vont pas s'inscrire sur les waiting lists. De même si les waitings lists restent ouvertes alors que les tournois ont commencés cela peut pauser des problèmes


Thibault de Vassal    (2024-12-11 03:09:53)
New Tie Break System

Hi Garvin,

I can only say: Yes, this tie break system is good (probably better even if it remains subjective) & interesting.

But I don't think that changing this rule would be so good, it would lose in coherence & simplicity, and complexify the understanding of past tournaments... So, I'll go to the 2nd option, let's make 9+ players round-robin groups (as far as possible).


Stanislas Gounant    (2024-11-12 03:28:20)
50 moves rule

OK,n I find it :

"the 50 moves rule is not implemented (it is nonsense at correspondence time controls)"

I am just a sore looser


Stanislas Gounant    (2024-11-12 01:02:19)
50 moves rule

Does this site use the rule of 50 moves, or not ? And why ?


A. T. S. Broekhuizen    (2024-09-10 14:05:28)
Group winners first stage of Ficgs WCH

For group 1 t/m 5 it is already clear as crystal who's going to win and for the last groups as well, but those are shared group wins. Sadly many players prolong their game. And for group 6 and 7 I can understand, since the rules are such that in case of a tie the group win goes to the highest TER and after that to the highest rating holder.
But wouldn't it be best to just start a second round ASAP with two groups of five players? Or will it really come down to TER's and most recent ratings?

I included an oversight of the group winners:

Group 1
Kireev, Sergey

Group 2
Hallqvist, Niklas

Group 3
Knittel, Martin

Group 4
Swiatek, Janusz

Group 5
LaDuke, Matt

Group 6
Gounant, Stanislas
Pech, Stepan

Group 7
DeBonis, Patrick
Broekhuizen, A. T. S.
Ward, David


Thibault de Vassal    (2024-07-14 03:15:45)
poker reflection time

We must consider all points here: If games are shorter, ratings will be less accurate. I understand the point, but there is no easy solution.


Ilmars Cirulis    (2024-07-09 20:13:02)
Big Chess theory?

Big Chess endgames with pawns and knights are from outer space, imho. :) I can't say that I understand them.


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?


Scott Ligon    (2024-01-12 22:51:02)
Fried Liver analysis on rybkaforum.net?

For the 6 lines I posted, those eval depths are, in order:
46, 47, 45, 46, 45, 43.

For the line with the highest eval of +0.80, the win percentage for white is given as 27.4%, so further analysis might be warranted but that's where I left it. My understanding is that Stockfish 16 changed the semantics of the numeric evaluations. An eval of +1.0 used to mean white had a one pawn advantage (in some very abstract sense), but now +1.0 is supposed to correlate with a 50% probability that white has an objectively winning position.


Garvin Gray    (2023-12-02 11:01:06)
Referee Adjudication

And this is a rule that really does need changing. As soon as the 7 man tablebase position has arisen, the player should be able to claim for win or draw and as soon as the result is verified, the game is over.

Allowing the other player to continue playing when the result is clear from the tablebase position is just pointlessly delaying of the game and can lead to claims of dead man defense.

I really do not understand why Thibault sticks with this outdated policy when as soon as the 7 man position arises, the result is clear and the position should be declared as such.


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    (2023-11-19 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.


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-11-18 19:42:16)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

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.

On Israel response, many experts say different things, so it remains unclear yet to me. (it is important not to listen what one want to hear only)

About your text, you seem to neglict all contextual elements to compare Russia, Thaïland, Congo, North Korea, China or whatever situation in any country... No chess organization reacted much when Peng Shuai (chinese tennis star) disappeared, but tennis world reacted! For Rohingya, Karabakh or about war in Irak or Afghanisatan. How many chess players in these countries? That is not the same. Russia & Ukraine are among the most influential chess nations in the world. Russia is the biggest country, has the most nuclear weapons. That's why it seems pertinent that chess players and organizations take position towards not just peace (undermeaning "do what Russia wants"), but a fair and right peace.

You say : "Concerning your political views about the real intentions of Russia when starting a war against Ukraine, what you present dogmatically and without evidence"

The evidence is in Putin's speeches, "Russia defends its interests", obviously Ukraine (another country for a while) should not be free of his choices, in example to join an alliance to protect itself just like Finland or other countries... Obviously Ukraine is Russia's interest and should not join OTAN. Did ever OTAN attack Russia?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Dgy4vYTp_Jo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxS9YIBeJbY

Watching full speeches is even more instructive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akzr0K0CE0M

Putin's rhetoric remains both crude and manipulative, appealing to people's conservative reflexes. And it works on most people who get outraged at the slightest conspiracy theory, it's no coincidence.

Finally, the argument saying that there shouldn't be politics in chess or sports has no foundations other than a subjective point of view.

You say that these bans by FIDE were out of international laws and that the same restrictions should apply to israeli playesrs... well, so just prove it and make appeal I guess. Karjakin probably thought about that already!?

Meanwhile, these discussions are only point of views.


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    (2023-11-18 03:11:09)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

Ilmars Cirulis:

"Both Netanyahu and Hamas should be in prison. :(

Poor civilians on both sides."

I have approximately the same opinion.

However, concerning chess sanctions, we can sanction only Israel.

We cannot impose chess sanctions on Hamas, as Hamas is not a state and it is not represented in the FIDE or ICCF.

We cannot expel Hamas from the ICCF because it has never been there.

My essay was about chess sanctions, not about such things as the International Criminal Court (ICC).

However, if to speak on that issue, my view is that both Hamas and Israel should be prosecuted in the ICCF.


Vadrya Pokshtya    (2023-11-17 21:36:46)
Battle of Kings

On average, a game lasts 70-80 moves. This is provided that the players understand what they are doing. Otherwise the game may end quickly.
Since, unlike ordinary chess, the board does not become empty as events develop on the board, but on the contrary, the evolution of chess pieces pushes towards the collapse of the entire system, its finitude is obvious. The spawning process cannot last forever - everything is limited by the 8x8 chessboard.


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-11-17 20:54:53)
Battle of Kings

About evaluation of positions, the value of pieces is not obvious as well... that's the good point, but still, in such complex games, calculation becomes even more important. I hope to see Alphazero playing this game one day ;)


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-11-17 20:52:46)
Battle of Kings

I understand your point of view. Indeed, it would be very tough to evaluate positions, but I think that pure calculation would be far enough to surpass human abilities there.

I agree that the bot is really weak :) After a second game, I realized that it had no strategy at all... and that the game is even more interesting!


Vadrya Pokshtya    (2023-11-17 20:38:28)
Battle of Kings

Thanks, but you are wrong about the engine being able to crush this chess variant ;)
Knowledgeable people, programmers with whom I had the opportunity to talk about this chess variant, argued that not a single engine would be able to adequately evaluate positions in the Battle of Kings due to the colossal combinatorial complexity of the game.
Please note that the server bot plays very, very weakly. The program does not understand the concept of the game and makes a superficial assessment of the position based on material balance.
Playing against a bot is very different from playing against a human.
At the moment you can play by correspondence against other players here https://www.schemingmind.com/default.aspx
or here
https://games.dtco.ru/

Thank you again for your positive feedback!


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


Ilmars Cirulis    (2023-11-17 17:47:21)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

Both Netanyahu and Hamas should be in prison. :(

Poor civilians on both sides.


Herbert Kruse    (2023-11-17 08:00:18)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

btw, the palestinian have rich friends, who could use their money to make their lifes better, but the use it for weapons and make the people their pawn sacrifice to destroy israel und jews at all


and i must say, that in my opinion netanyahu should be in prison for his corruption and try to weaken the democraty, which obvioulsly a lot of israelis think too as u could see in the big protest month ago.


Herbert Kruse    (2023-11-15 11:36:41)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations

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?!


Gregory Kohut    (2023-08-10 14:14:24)
Chess & Go in TV shows

In the tv show Ironside police consultant Robert T Ironside played chess in one episode I saw.


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-08-10 00:10:24)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN

Unfortunately, and I find it quite sad myself, everything is politics (at some point at least).

In my opinion, deciding to attack a country, collaterally killing thousands of russian & ukrainian people (to "save" how many? [if it was really the purpose]), while hoping there will not be any other collateral consequences by arguing that sport, trading, culture & so on should not be politicized is surely not realistic. Of course this war was about culture, trading & even sport long time before to bring russian tanks in Ukraine.

The fact that Karjakin is supporting this russian invasion (consequently banning himself) seems very secondary here...

Farewell (or not).


Juri Eintalu    (2023-08-09 22:29:42)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN

I have not made any political posts on the Forum.
Quite to the contrary: I have criticized politicizing sports.

I am shocked by the answers I received from Garvin Gray and Thibault de Vassal. I do not think their comments exemplify a civilized discussion. The problem is that they are not arbitrary chess players but chess organizers. I conclude that rational discussion with those who support politicizing chess is impossible.

I had already forgotten the FICGS server, but now I have received a notification that someone has commented on my old post.

Bogoljub Teverovski announces on 09 August 2023:

"A self-ban of karjakin continues"

No hints have been made about what event he is talking about—no references, links, or explanations.

I can only understand that Bogoljub regards the FIDE ban on Karjakin as a Karjakin's SELF-ban.

Let me add that 1 e2-e4 is the initial move of the Queen's gambit, and 1 Ng1-f3 is the most popular opening in checkers.

I am logging out from the FICGS not to receive any notifications anymore.


Stanislas Gounant    (2023-08-09 00:42:36)
Next Ficgs World Championship Tournament

I try to ask the players of my chess club to join FICGS and the poker championship


Stanislas Gounant    (2023-07-29 04:30:46)
Next Ficgs World Championship Tournament

Il faut refaire des annonces sur le chat sinon personne ne va s'inscrire. Et ne pas oublier de fermer la waiting list une fois que le tournoi aura démaré


Stanislas Gounant    (2023-07-23 15:53:11)
Next Ficgs World Championship Tournament

18 players now. 3 groups of 6 players ?


Stanislas Gounant    (2023-07-23 14:23:08)
Next Ficgs World Championship Tournament

Hi Thibault, When start poker championship


Ilmars Cirulis    (2023-06-04 00:14:46)
GUI for Big Chess?

I have the same version. It shows "normal", yes, and i wrote "standard" because of some brain fart, probably.


Yeturu Aahlad    (2023-06-03 21:23:49)
GUI for Big Chess?

Ilmars, which version of winboard are you using? In 4.8.0, "standard" is "normal". With that, I have reproduced your instructions - Thanks!

File->save game and save position are useful, but the saved files can't just be reopened with a double-click. The board size is not represented in the files. Repeating Ilmars' first step, then file->load game or load position works.


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)


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-03-31 22:52:44)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?

Sorry if I quoted you wrongly... Could you specify?

Yes, first you were talking about wether FIDE and ICCF decisions were justified, but our discussion went on the global case:

you said (quote):

"If country A starts a war against country B, the relevant question is whether that war is justified or unjustified, whether it is a war of aggression or, instead, the attacker has the right to do so. "

"You argue that any context should be analysed in-depth, but you fail to hint at why Russia should be punished and the US should not."

So let's separate discussions: one is about FIDE/ICCF decisions, the other one is about war & its justifications.

About ICCF, I am not aware of a process to ban the russian team just after the invasion, I'm not sure what it means as well... does this mean that the russian team should have played under a neutral banner (that could be understandable), or does this mean that the whole team (every player) was banned?

I have no problem to talk about US war crimes in these countries... if you read my post again, there is a link to a page that deals with it.

I have no problem to talk about war crimes commited by Ukraine as well. There were war crimes for sure. There are proofs of that.

Questions remain: how many, for what aim... Everything will be analyzed.

My additional questions were not provocative, these are real questions to better understand your point of view. But I did not understand your answer (or you did not answer ?!)

Feel free to continue the discussion, you're welcome.


Juri Eintalu    (2023-03-31 21:13:22)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?

You are quoting me wrongly. And you are doing it intentionally.

Moreover, I was talking about whether FIDE and ICCF decisions were justified. My argument was that these decisions applied some important principles discriminatively, selectively.

Suddenly, you started to talk about whether the Russian invasion of Ukraine was justified. You also started to talk about war crimes.

Let me remind that the ICCF started a process of banning the Russian team just a few days after the Russian invasion began.Thus, your arguments about what happened months later might be pretty irrelevant.

Let me also remind you that you decided to talk ONLY about Russian war crimes in Ukraine. You dismissed the US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, the war crimes committed during the Donbas civil war (both Ukraine and the separatists committed war crimes there), and, finally, you also dismissed the war crimes committed by Ukraine in the present war.

And now, before I answered to your mess, you managed to attack me personally.

My answer to your provocative questions is that if the political regime will go absolutely crazy, then I will not defend that regime against anyone. But I still hope that it will not go absolutely crazy.

Anyway, I will not discuss with you anymore, because you are systematically ignoring important relevant facts and you regularly change the context of discussion.


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-03-31 16:56:17)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?

Hello Juri,

Thanks for taking time to develop...

I agree that justification is the (never easy) key.

After thinking about it, I may also agree that it is possible in a certain measure to compare russians ignorance during Ukraine's war to americans ignorance during Iraq's war. A difference is that Russia's government acts like a dictator (russians are condemned as soon as they show against this war)

I do agree that US should probably be punished for some wars (at least for the the announced reasons and what actually happened - number of civil deaths, etc.), by an International Court of Justice.

On this topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_the_Iraq_War

I quite agree that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were aggressions 'stricto sensu', but...

- I cannot agree that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were similar to what happens in Ukraine. The aim was probably partly oil-related but AFAIK it was not to introduce separatism, it was not to annex territories, it was not to spread a dictatorship, it was not to force people to change their culture & national identity (but yes, this may happen in Ukraine just like it happens in Russia, for the same reasons)...

- Saddam Hussein was a true & violent dictator who was probably a reason enough to move his regime, just like it is the case with talibans, IMHO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein

It seems to me that it is very possible to justify to fight &/or to remove some dictatorships.

Russia should obviously be punished for many reasons:

- Annexion of territories (that has no nothing to do with their nazis justifications... their argument is mainly "history").
- Numerous crimes of war (that will be documented)

Finally, there are nazis quite everywhere, even in France. The question is "how many" and what do they do? The Russia's argument does not try to be subtle or precise on this matter, it just looks like "europeans turned nazi cause Europe helps Ukraine", right?


Juri Eintalu    (2023-03-31 09:09:17)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?

To Thibault de Vassal:

Thank you for taking a look at my open letter on Medium.

“... isn’t it a bit short to compare Russia’s war in Ukraine to what happened in Afghanistan, Iraq or Serbia? (that are quite different cases by the way, involving different groups of countries)”

If country A starts a war against country B, the relevant question is whether that war is justified or unjustified, whether it is a war of aggression or, instead, the attacker has the right to do so.

By now, it is a piece of common knowledge that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were wars of aggression.

Chess organisations FIDE and ICCF have punished Russian chess organisations for the Russian invasion of Ukraine while not punishing the US chess organisations for the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. FIDE and ICCF have not presented any comprehensive analyses about how justified or unjustified some of those wars are. You are turning the burden of proof around and accusing me of not delivering the arguments that FIDE and ICCF had to present.

“It seems that most russians in Russia still support this war (“special op”) while everyone ignored the truth about those weapons in Irak (in example). Any context should be analysed in depth IMHO.”

Excuse me, but I cannot follow what you are trying to say.

You argue that any context should be analysed in-depth, but you fail to hint at why Russia should be punished and the US should not. Your only fact mentioned, “everyone ignored the truth about those weapons in Irak”, remains mysterious. I do not understand in what context you are saying this.

We know already for ten years that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

Concerning your other remarks, I make only one reply. We know that there are saliently some Nazis in Ukraine.

Here, on the chess forum, I technically cannot answer in detail to your several remarks that, in my mind, are all somewhat inexact or vague.


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-03-30 21:52:40)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?

Extract from your open letter:

"Second, this decision was discriminatory and selective. For example, US correspondence chess players were not punished for the fact that the US had started wars in Afghanistan, Iraq or Serbia.


Well, many can agree that some US representatives should be judged for what looks like obvious lies but isn't it a bit short to compare Russia's war in Ukraine to what happened in Afghanistan, Iraq or Serbia? (that are quite different cases by the way, involving different groups of countries)

It seems that most russians in Russia still support this war ("special op") while everyone ignored the truth about those weapons in Irak (in example). Any context should be analyzed in depth IMHO. Would you accept to play chess with players from a country that just completely destroyed yours and who think at -randomly- 80% probability that it was a good thing (and incidentally that you are a nazi)?

Here, players from Russia & Belarus can still play chess under a neutral flag partly because I can't filter players geographically (I know russians who left their country because they are against this war) but this remain a complex question that depends on many things.


Thibault de Vassal    (2023-02-05 20:53:53)
Advertising a win or a draw with 7th or

You found the right way (email or any way to contact webmaster)...

As of January 2023, rule is :

"11. 5. Adjudications

In some cases, the game continues but the result is obvious.

If time control is superior to 1 day and if a player doesn't want to resign (or accept draw) and obviously last the game, his opponent may report to referee a first time. If the player takes 30 days more to finish the game, his opponent may call referee another time, then the game will be adjudicated. An analysis submitted by a player should contain sufficient information so that no doubt is possible. This may include a sequence of moves, but in some circumstances it may be sufficient to claim a win or a draw on the basis of material or positional advantage. Final decision belongs to referee."


Stanislas Gounant    (2022-12-04 23:28:09)
I did not win a game since 3 years

Thibault, is it possible to have thematics tournaments, double round robin and in a starting position unbalanced ?


Stanislas Gounant    (2022-11-30 23:08:17)
I did not win a game since 3 years

I think the meanning of this topic is now to find some positions where theory is unclear I think it's the case of the bishop's gambit, and for the traxler, i think there is not a lot of games because it is refuted


Stanislas Gounant    (2022-11-30 20:00:22)
I did not win a game since 3 years

In my openning tree of 200 000 games with games played since 2019 and players rated 2400 and more in big datatbase 2023 + games played since 2019 and players rated 2300 and more in correspondence datatbase 2022 + games played in 2022 and players rated 2300 and more on FICGS :

Bishop's Gambit : 27 Games

Traxler Counterattack : 29 Games


Stanislas Gounant    (2022-11-30 19:55:08)
I did not win a game since 3 years

In my openning tree of 11 700 000 games with games of big database 2023 + correspondence database 2022 + games play on FICGS in 2022 :

Bishop's Gambit : 6123 Games

Traxler Counterattack : 4293 Games


Stanislas Gounant    (2022-11-27 23:06:56)
I did not win a game since 3 years

Yes John Shaw, I forget to write is name


Stanislas Gounant    (2022-11-27 21:48:49)
I did not win a game since 3 years

But John said he had refuted the bishop's gambit


Stanislas Gounant    (2022-11-27 21:46:50)
I did not win a game since 3 years

I think it's better to play a position with players can't open the center. But i'm ok to play a thematic tournament with black and white on bishop's gambit. Rated if it's possible Thibault


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.


Stanislas Gounant    (2022-11-23 20:17:39)
I did not win a game since 3 years

The problem with the starting positions in FICGS thematic tournaments, one of the player can open the position and it will be draw. Some years ago, someone show me a youtube video about a game played on TCEC between leela chess zero and Stockfish.
https://tcec-chess.com/#div=sf&game=61&season=15
The engines start to play at move 7, white had more space and black can't open the position


Scott Ligon    (2022-11-22 14:49:30)
I did not win a game since 3 years

Correspondence chess with modern engines is a draw. The game isn't solved in the game theoretic sense, but from a practical standpoint it plays like a solved game. Anyone who runs the latest version of Stockfish on a computer with decent specs is unbeatable. That's been my experience anyway.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-11-22 02:31:19)
I did not win a game since 3 years

Voilà un débat qui pourrait être intéressant...

Stanislas' message in english:

"I've been playing on this computer-assisted site for 15 years. Fifteen years ago to win a game you had to use several analysis programs depending on the game phases. I seem to remember that Hiarcs was better in the final than the other programs. Until a few years ago, it was possible to find fortresses that resisted the onslaught of the adversary, even when my program told me that I had lost. But it's been 3 years since I only won against players who played without the help of the computer or who made a mistake when playing their move. What I would like is that a solution be found to restore interest in the game by correspondence."


Stanislas Gounant    (2022-11-21 18:00:54)
I did not win a game since 3 years

Cela fait 15 ans que je joue sur ce site, assisté par ordinateur. Il y a 15 ans pour gagner une partie il fallait utiliser plusieurs programmes d'analyse suivant les phases de jeu. Je crois me souvenir que Hiarcs était meilleur en finale que les autres programmes. Il y a quelques années encore, il était possible de trouver des forteresses qui résistaient aux assauts de l'adversaire, même quand mon programme me disait que j'avais perdu. Mais cela fait 3 ans que je n'ai gagné que contre des joueurs qui jouaient sans l'aide de l'ordinateur ou qui se sont trompés de case en jouant leur coup. Ce que j'aimerais c'est qu'une solution soit trouvée pour redonner de l'intérêt au jeu par correspondance.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-10-12 02:57:51)
Rating System.....

FICGS has its own rating system, it looks like ELO but it slightly differs to take account of what might provoke a global deflation due to rules about forfeits & the constantly increasing level.

All calculation details are in terms & conditions :

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


Patrycja Zerowska    (2022-10-08 00:56:47)
Threefold repetition

Mr. Thbault de Vassal, you say that this case is treated the same way on most chess websites. This is not true. At the ICCF website, which is the standard for correspondence chess, the draw must be claimed (this in agreement with the Laws of Chess):

" ICCF:
9.2.1 The game is drawn, upon a correct claim by a player having the move, when the same position for at least the third time (not necessarily by a repetition of moves):
9.2.1.1 is about to appear, declares to the tournament director (or the server) the intention to make this move, or
9.2.1.2 has just appeared, and the player claiming the draw has the move.

At other websites, the rule is also correctly applied:

chess-mail.com
"8. To check the draw ( threefold repetition ; the fifty-move rule ) : Click on "Send and offer the draw". "

Gameknot:
"To declare the draw in a game due to the threefold repetition rule, please use "Declare draw" link located directly below the game board."

None of these sites violates the correct rule.

The FICGS way of handling this case involves several violations of the rules. First of all, the draw must be claimed. This rule exists for more than 100 years, and the advent of server chess hasn't changed it. Secondly, you require me to make a move, thereby taking back my claim and my intended move. Every beginner is told that it is forbidden to take back a move, a draw claim or a draw offer. Thirdly, you refuse to stop the clocks, allowing a player to lose on time by your inaction. This "inaction" constitutes interference in the course of the game by a third party, which is forbidden. Fourthly, your bot wants to automatically end the game when there is threefold repetition (or 50-move rule). Again this is forbidden by the rules! A bot can only act upon a claim, and never when there is no claim. With all these violations, we are no longer talking about chess, but about an undesirable chess variant.

It would be so easy to add a button under the chess board, where a player can make a draw claim. Why isn't this done?

You or your referee still hasn't taken action, and a whole week has passed since my claim.

I have always - since 1972 - played according to the rules and I refuse to violate the rules here and now. Therefore I won't make a move; it is forbidden.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-10-07 02:58:17)
Threefold repetition

Hello Patrycja,

Sorry for the delay, I just saw the email indeed... As Scott says, you have to play the move anyway before to claim a draw (if the site does not recognize it automatically). It seems to me that's how work most chess websites.


1. Why is there no automatic arbiter which processes draw claims? If I am not mistaken, this site exists more than 15 years already, and yet the Laws of Chess are not yet fully implemented.

> The only way to claim a draw after a threefold repetition is to play the move.


2. Why can't I stop my clock when I make such a claim? See art. 9.5 of FIDE's Laws of Chess.

> FICGS offers (mainly) correspondence chess, that is not OTB chess, and some FIDE laws do not apply here.


3. Why doesn't the arbiter or the referee stop my clock? Without this, a player making a claim can timeout, or, when she is short on time, may be reluctant to make a draw claim.

> FICGS is an automatic place, mainly. Games continue even if the referee has to take action later.


4. Why doesn't the referee take action? Is there a referee at all?

> There is one. But he may take some time... the forum & chat are good alternatives to get answers to any question.


Patrycja Zerowska    (2022-10-06 09:54:59)
Threefold repetition

It seems that there is no way to claim a draw by threefold repetition on this site. In the game 136386, where I have Black, the position that occurred after my 50th move, is the same as that after my 58th move, and will be the same after my intended 60th move, namely 60... Bf7. I therefore claim a draw in this game.

Since apparently there is no "automatic arbiter" to process the claim, I called the "referee" on 1 October 2022 (5 days ago), explaining that I made a draw claim as described above (and mentioning my intended move), but I haven't received a reaction yet.

This particular game has been a dead draw at least since move 35. I offered a draw after my 35th move and on my 59th move. Both offers were declined.

1. Why is there no automatic arbiter which processes draw claims? If I am not mistaken, this site exists more than 15 years already, and yet the Laws of Chess are not yet fully implemented.

2. Why can't I stop my clock when I make such a claim? See art. 9.5 of FIDE's Laws of Chess.

3. Why doesn't the arbiter or the referee stop my clock? Without this, a player making a claim can timeout, or, when she is short on time, may be reluctant to make a draw claim.

4. Why doesn't the referee take action? Is there a referee at all?

In the rules section of this site I read: "Also, there is no way to stop the clocks, players cannot claim that they stopped to play after they called the referee for any reason..." This is a violation of the rules of chess; it implies that on this site it is not chess that is being played, but a weird chess variant. Of course I disagree with this corruption of the playing rules, and so should everyone who call themselves chess players!

Your strange rules also state that the referee will "act as soon as possible", but so far, after five days, no referee has shown up. So you are not even acting in agreement to your own rules.

Finally, I find in your rules the following statement: "All games are played until a player resign, accept draw, or lose on time." This is the most ridiculous "rule" I have ever encountered. Not only renders this farcical rule a win by checkmate illegitimate, it is a blatant ignoring of the Laws of Chess, which allow games to be ended by accepted draw claims, or for any other reason at the discretion of an arbiter.


Misha Allport    (2022-10-03 22:21:52)
Number of moves affect the ratng result?

If it has no effect, then the quality of play by the loser is unimportant. Scholar Mate=120 moves. Is that right?


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.


Yeturu Aahlad    (2022-08-16 21:32:54)
respectful legacy

Today, an esteemed opponent, Aleksey Payzansky, a Ukrainian player, resigned all his Poker games against me. I've been wanting to start a discussion here on a FICGS policy of respectful legacy for some time now. What follows is a straw-man to start the discussion.
1. It is reasonable to require a minimum degree of prior participation before this policy applies.
2. Under appropriate circumstances, this policy may be applied retroactively.
3. If we know that a participant has died, it will trigger this policy.
4. If a participant announces that they will no longer participate or suspend their participation for an unknown length of time, it will trigger this policy. (Controversial - this is regardless of their reasons for doing so.)
5. If a participant stops participating for a prescribed length of time without any announcement, it will trigger this policy retroactively from the time the participation stopped. (Controversial - the intent is to give the participant the benefit of doubt.)

When the policy applies,
1. All of the participant's pending games (retroactively if applicable) will be adjudged. A player with a clear lead will be declared the winner. Games which are too close will be either declared a tie or removed from the record with no adjustment of ELO. (Controversial - time on the clock will not be a consideration in the adjudication.)
2. Returning participants will be welcomed. They will retain their ELO, and their degree of prior participation will be reset to zero.

I would be happy to see this policy applied retroactively to Aleksey if that is appropriate.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-08-11 04:06:49)
poker reflection time

Not really, but it does not bring so much improvement (there will be players whose rhythm will take about the same total time at the end - if I understood well) while it complexifies the understanding of the time added per move, IMHO.


Christoph Schroeder    (2022-07-30 23:20:26)
poker reflection time

A single stage of a poker tournament lasts 3-5 years, as discussed in this thread. Preliminaries and finals combined, we are at 6-10 years per tournament.

Is "last man standing (being alive)" really the guiding principle of these tournaments? And does this annoy nobody?

It is very sad to see that this topic is another example where discussion is encouraged, an obvious solution is possible, but nothing happens.


Juri Eintalu    (2022-07-17 06:30:46)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN

Interesting. Russian defence minister Shoigu ordered the Russian army to do everything possible to prevent Ukraine from shelling Donetsk and Luhansk republics.

The next day, Sergey Karyakin appeared in Donetsk's chess club. Karyakin gave a simultaneous chess exhibition in the Donetsk chess club.

Karyakin announces that under the shelling, he understood the following. It is unimportant to have expensive cars, but it is of the utmost importance to stay alive and to have good friends.

On the same day, in the evening, Russia started the heaviest attack on Marinka - the town west of Donetsk, from where Ukraine was shelling Donetsk.

Karyakin invites all chess players to visit Donetsk's wonderful chess club.

No comments.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-05-11 01:41:05)
Carlos Alcaraz y el ajedrez :)

Approximative translation ^^


Q. One of the most unknown aspects of you is that you like to take a nap and play chess before games. Can you explain it to me?

A. That's right. I was caught on camera at the Next Gen in Milan and in Rio I also slept because rest is important and even more so in such an intense week in which it rained and the games were delayed. Recovery was key and naps before games are for me. And chess helps me because you are focused, your head works...

Q. How does chess specifically help you to practice tennis?

A. It helps me to be faster mentally, to observe plays, to see the movement you want to make, the strategy... To be focused all the time. In chess, like tennis, you get lost for a moment and the game is already mixed up. In this aspect they are two quite similar disciplines.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-05-11 01:02:59)
Carlos Alcaraz y el ajedrez :)

The recent winner of Rio, Barcelona & Madrid Open 2022 talks about his incredible performances at tennis, and how blitz chess helps him...

(spanish language)

https://www.marca.com/tenis/2022/03/07/6225c2c6e2704ed95f8b45cc.html

"P. Uno de los aspectos más desconocidos en usted es que le gusta hacer siesta y el ajedrez antes de los partidos. ¿Me lo puede explicar?

R. Así es. Me pillaron con la cámara en el Next Gen de Milán y en Río también dormía porque el descanso es importante y más en una semana tan intensa en la que llovió y se retrasaron los partidos. La recuperación era clave y las siestas antes de los partidos para mí lo son. Y el ajedrez me ayuda porque estás concentrado, la cabeza te funciona...

P. ¿En qué le ayuda concretamente el ajedrez para la práctica del tenis?

R. Me ayuda a estar más rápido mentalmente, a observar jugadas, a ver el movimiento que quieres hacer, la estrategia... A estar concentrado todo el tiempo. En el ajedrez, como el tenis, te despistas un momento y ya se revuelve la partida. En este aspecto son dos disciplinas bastante parecidas."


Juri Eintalu    (2022-05-10 10:32:44)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN

The wars can be unique, but they are classified as "just/unjust" wars or "justified/unjustified" wars.

JUST WAR
Encyclopedia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/topic/just-war

The West is of the opinion that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is an unjustified war.

Karjakin is of the opinion that it is justified war.

My arguments above assumed that if the Ukrainian war is unjustified, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were even much more unjustified.


Juri Eintalu    (2022-05-09 20:00:46)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN

I am worried about Kasparov's demand that only those Russian players should be allowed to participate in international tournaments who publicly disapprove Russian invasion of Ukraine. This demand seems to be extremist, like Lenin's and Stalin's slogans.

First, not every Russian sportsman can have the luxury of being a dissident.

Second, Kasparov is notoriously inconsistent (outside of the chessboard). From his logic, it follows that FIDE should have banned all the US chess players who did not publicly disapprove of invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.


Thibault de Vassal    (2022-04-26 22:50:40)
Ukrainian players clocks during war

Yes, I made that stupid mistake to mix the 60 days / move & the 100 days max accumulated time in my mind... as a consequence, even that 2nd period of 45 days vacation more for Alexey did not help. As soon as I saw that result, I added some time to his other games. I'm now working on a script that will solve this very special case for our ukrainian friends (because these dramatic circumstances may last), in other words, I'll have to shift the last move time, possibly again & again.

Of course this result will be canceled within hours, by the way I specified in terms & conditions (soon uploaded) that such human intervention like this may only happen in case of war.


Giacomo Rita    (2022-04-04 00:22:26)
TITLE FEM

why, despite having two FEM standards, was I not awarded the title?


Juri Eintalu    (2022-03-23 17:34:51)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN

The Telegram channel "Chess Patriot" was established on 13 March 2022. FIDE made its complaint about Karjakin to the ethics committee earlier. Probably it was based on Karjakin's two tweets on Twitter, plus Karjakin's public letter to Putin. The complaint was made only 3 days after the Ukraine war started.
After FIDE banned Karjakin for 6 months, he has started to make a war propaganda on his Telegram channel. He asks "reasonable Ukrainians" not to fight and not to defend the Kyiv regime.
Karjakin's Twitter history is fun. After 24. February, several outstanding chess players should be banned as well by FIDE due to the nature of their replies to Karjakin's tweets.
I am sure that FIDE's ethics code did not contain any demand not to support any wars. There is even not any demand not to talk about the ongoing war during the chess competition, etc.
Moreover, this ethics code was applied right before it will be outdated. Since 1 April 2022, that code used to ban Karjakin is not valid anymore.
I am sure that this code was arbitrarily interpreted to ban Karjakin.


Juri Eintalu    (2022-03-22 22:10:27)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN

When FIDE decided to complain about Karjakin to the ethics committee, FIDE said that Karjakin was "supporting the unjustified war".

In the decision of the ethics committee, no references are given to Karjakin's relevant announcements.

As a philosopher, I am unable to understand how the chess organization can decide whether some war is a justified war. Moreover, "supporting the unjustified war" may mean that Karjakin tried to show that this war is justified indeed.

While I feel that this war is unjustified, I also feel that FIDE has chosen a side in the complex conflict and is far from being neutral.


Juri Eintalu    (2022-03-22 22:02:44)
FICGS support to Ukraine

What happens today is a greater conflict than occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan only because some great forces are vehemently supporting the invaded Ukraine.




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