From: Daniel Sleator Sent: Monday, April 01, 1996 10:14 PM To: L. Mitchell Wein Subject: ICC help file: Manual2 (from guest125) ******************************* Manual2 ********************************* (second half of "info" files) Copyright (C) 1995 Internet Chess Club This Manual file contains all the text of the files in the second half of the "info" list. The files have been combined into a single file so that you can email it to yourself easily with the "mailhelp" command. Be advised that this file is almost 1000 lines! Prior to mailing it to yourself, PLEASE check the email address in your finger and make sure it is correct! We don't want to get bounced mail with a file this large. Thanks, and enjoy! If you have any questions or comments, send a message to arcsin or POTZY. __________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS OF Manual2: kermit, Kriegspiel, lag, lagflag, mood, notation, notify, odds-games, paid, package, PCArating, PLAYtheMASTER, privacy, programmers, quick, ratings, records, refund, registration, rules, simul, slics, suggestions, team-games, timestamp, tournaments, value, wild, wild5, wild6, wild7, wild8, wild9, wild10, wild11, wild12, wild13, wild14, winboard, WWW, xboard, ziics, zmodem. __________________________________________________________________________ ***** KERMIT ***** Kermit is used to transfer ICC interfaces and other files from your Unix (or Vax) host machine to your PC or Mac. An alternative is zmodem, "help zmodem". Kermit is the second step to take in getting an interface. The first step is to "ftp" the interface from ics.onenet.net to your host machine. "help ftp-hints" for more info on ftp. Before using kermit make sure both your local server and communications program support this file transfer process. Then use the following steps to transfer files: 1) Type kermit at the shell prompt-when you see the kermit prompt you are ready to continue. 2) Type 'set file type text' or 'set file type binary' depending on the file type you are transferring. Remember all compressed files are in binary format. ICC interface need to be transferred using binary. 3) Type 'send filename.ext'. This will begin the transfer process and kermit will prompt you to issue the appropriate receive command on your computer. This procedure varies depending on your communications software. In ProComm for example hitting the Page-Down key initiates the transfer. 4) When the transfer is complete you will be returned to the kermit prompt. To return to the shell prompt type "quit'. In addition kermit provides help files covering all kermit commands. These files may be accessed by typing '?' at the kermit prompt. See also: interfaces, zmodem, ftp-hints ***** KRIEGSPIEL ***** Kriegspiel (wild 16) is a chess variant in which you cannot see your opponent's pieces! You can only see your own pieces, and you have to guess where your opponent's pieces are. When you try to make a move, ICC may tell you that your move is illegal, in which case you should make another move instead. To play Kriegspiel, just match someone for a wild 16 game: match Fred 2 12 w16 The referee makes the following announcements where appropriate: "White's move" "Black's move" "Pawn at captured" "Piece at captured" "Rank check" "File check" "Long-diagonal check" (the longer diagonal from the king's point of view) "Short-diagonal check" (e.g. for a king on e1, the short diagonal is e1 to h4) "Knight check" " pawn tries" (number of legal capturing moves using pawns) When you try an illegal move, you are simply told "Illegal move", whether it is moving into check or moving through an enemy piece. Your opponent is not told anything when you try an illegal move. Moves must be entered in dumb-computer format, e.g. "e2e4". Input strings such as "nxq" which might be interepreted differently depending on the enemy position are not allowed, with one exception: "px" is allowed, to save you the trouble of trying a dozen possible diagonal pawn moves when you know that precisely one of them is legal. Other acceptable forms include "e2-e4", "o-o", and "f7g8=N". Moves like "Rd3" are currently not accepted (because there are a few cases where they could be context-dependent). Most graphical interfaces generate strings like "e2e4" for you when you make moves with the mouse. (But see the note below about pawn captures under xboard and slics). Opponent's moves show up in the form "?" or "?xf3". This might break some interfaces. You cannot observe rated Kriegspiel games. This is to prevent people from logging in with a second account, and seeing all the pieces while they are playing on another account! You CAN observe unrated Kriegspiel games, if you're registered. In examine mode you can see all the pieces and moves. E.g. if you have examine=1, at the end of the game you'll be able to see your opponents pieces (you may have to "refresh"), review the move history etc. The illegal moves tried are not recorded. xboard 3.4, slics 22f, and probably some other interfaces will not allow you to even attempt a diagonal pawn move with the mouse when they can't see a piece to take. The move is not even being transmitted to the server in this case; it's just being rejected by the client. So with those interfaces, you should type in pawn capturing moves, e.g. "px" or "d5c4". Naturally these problems are not the fault of the interface writers! We sprang kriegspiel on them with no warning (sorry guys). Ziics happens to work well as is. Notes and known problems: (1) Kriegspiel on ICC is still in an experimental state. Message fishbait if you encounter a problem not mentioned here. (2) Pawn captures must be done by keyboard on some interfaces. (3) Channel 89 (the Wild Bunch) might be an appropriate forum. (4) Kriegspiel with lag is painful. Even with timestamp, your clock will run while you wait to hear that your move is illegal. (5) Format of referee's messages changed slightly on Feb 7. See also: wild, bughouse ***** LAG ***** In any communication network, there is a delay between when a piece of data is sent and when it is received. When the network is congested with lots of traffic, this delay sometimes gets very large, and is called "netlag". Long delays happen when the network discards some data (generally due to excessive congestion) and it has to be retransmitted. As congestion gets worse and data is lost more often, the hosts at each end wait longer before retransmitting it. (They do this to keep from making the congestion worse and worse until the net stops working entirely.) Thus the lags you see get longer as well as happening more frequently. A still longer lag can occur if equipment fails somewhere on the net between you and ICC, so that no data at all can get through for a while. Everyone has lag sometimes, because some lag originates close to the server, but some people do have much more frequent and severe lag than others, so have compassion on them. ICC has developed a program to compensate for lag on your chess clock. Do "help timestamp" to learn about the program and how to download it. Lag on today's Internet is unavoidable. Many schemes have been proposed for detecting lag on ICC and adjusting clocks to compensate, and if we find a good one we may implement it. However, this still won't eliminate the problem. Perhaps the most effective thing you can do to fight lag in the long run is to support the National Information Infrastructure initiative, and/or other proposals for upgrading network capacity in the U.S. and around the world. In general, lag is not necessarily caused by the network. If the ICC host itself were to be become overloaded, this could cause lag-like symptoms for everyone logged in. As best we can tell, telerama is not currently overloaded in this way, but we are monitoring the situation and gathering more data. If you notice more lag during daylight hours in the US, when the ICC has a lot of people logged in, remember that the network is also more heavily loaded (mostly by non-ICC traffic!) at that time. See also: lagflag, timestamp ***** LAGFLAG ***** FLAGGING POLICY for the Internet Chess Club: >>>>> IT IS LEGAL TO FLAG ANYBODY, ANYTIME <<<<< By "legal", we mean that lag-flagging will not get you banned or put on the abuser's list. The policy does NOT say that you SHOULD lag-flag. Many people consider it bad sportsmanship to flag when your opponent has obvious lag. We discourage flagging when your opponent is lagging. The following are RECOMMENDATIONS on how to be nice to your opponent if he has lag: 1) You can abort the game if your opponent has obvious bad lag. 2) You can give your opponent more time with the "moretime" command. 3) You can offer him a draw. 4) You can adjourn, and finish later when he has less lag. As a result of this new policy, we hope to eliminate the shouting of names and insults at "lag-flaggers" that often happens on this server. It will no longer be acceptable to shout names and insults at people who have flagged you. And, in the spirit of a friendly ICC, we recommend that you not put a list of "lag-flaggers" in your notes. A new feature, the "noplay" list, allows you to keep a list of people who cannot challenge you, and you cannot challenge. If lag-flaggers bother you, just add them to this list. "help list" for more details. Nobody likes to lose a game by getting lag and running out of time. BEFORE you play, check if you are having bad lag. If you have bad lag, then it is YOUR responsibility to do one of the following things: 1) Don't play. 2) Don't play rated. Play unrated so you won't lose points from lag-flagging. 3) Use a long time control, so lag won't be a big factor in the game. 4) Agree with your opponent before the game that you won't "lag-flag". Note that your opponent does NOT have to agree to this. And YOU don't have to play him! 5) If all else fails: If you are in a game, and get very bad lag, disconnect, try come back as soon as possible, and tell your opponent that you have bad lag. You can ask him to continue the game later when you don't have bad lag, or you can ask him to "moretime" you or abort. If no agreement can be reached, ask an admin to help. Keep in mind that lag is intermittent and unpredictable. Some long lags may make it impossible to disconnect before your flag falls. Also, having no lag before a game does not mean that you will be lag-free during a game. There are several reasons we have adopted this new policy: 1) Time is a critical part of all chess games, especially blitz. If you claim lag and expect your opponent not to flag you for the rest of the game, you are taking away one of his legitimate methods of winning the game. 2) It is not possible to tell if your opponent really has lag. He may be "faking" the lag, although this behavior is very rare. The new policy will eliminate all these arguments and potential fights. Many of the ugliest shouts on ICC have been directed at people who flag, and we want this to stop. Also, admins don't have the time to investigate every case of lag- flagging, to see if it's faked or not. The policy is not perfect, but we feel it is the best current solution to the lag-flag problem. ***** MOOD ***** "mood" is a variable that you can set and use in your formula. Its only purpose is to be used in your formula; it does nothing by itself. It is a rather advanced feature of formulas; make sure you have experience setting your formula before trying "mood". Say, sometimes you are at work and only play blitz while the boss is out. But when you're at home you play standard with people within 200 points of your rating. Also, you sometimes like to play wild and standard with people outside of your rating range. With the mood variable you can make one formula to handle all 3 of these cases: set formula (mood = 0 & blitz) | (mood = 1 & standard & rating > myrating-200 & rating < myrating+200 ) | (mood = 2) This way depending on what mood you are in you could: set mood 0 -- only allows blitz challenges set mood 1 -- only allows standard within 200 points of you set mood 2 -- allows all challenges NOTE: When you log on your mood is automatically set to 0. You should make your most common mood to be 0 so you don't have to switch it all the time. See also: vars, formula ***** NOTATION ***** Chess move notation on ICC -------------------------- ICC uses an extended form of algebraic notation to represent moves. Case is ignored (except for "B" which means "bishop" and "b" which, in some cases, means "bishop" OR the b-file). A piece can appear on to the right of an "x". Examples: e8 a pawn move or capture to e8 pe8 same e8=n same but specify promotion to knight fe pawn capture from f to e file fe5 same but with destination square specified ne5 move a knight to e5 RxB take a bishop with a rook ("rxB" is the same) Rxb if possible, take a bishop with a rook, if not possible, take something on the b file with a rook bc4 may be ambiguous: EITHER move a B to c4 or cap. c4 with a P bxc4 same Bxc4 capture c4 with a bishop nf3e5 move the knight on f3 to e5 d3-e4 a move or capture from d3 to e4 (always works) d3e4 same nxph2 take the pawn on h2 with a knight nxh2 take the thing on h2 with a knight xp take a pawn with something nx take something with a knight x take something o-o short castle. Also indicated by "oo" or "e1-g1" or "e1g1". when the king is on e1. Long castle analogous. Examine mode only: Q@c4 drop a white queen on c4. q@c4 drop a black queen on c4. wq@c4, bq@c4 another way to drop a white or black queen on c4. x@c4 make c4 an empty square. You will be told if your move is ambiguous, and also if making that move would leave your king in check. See also: moves, style ***** NOTIFY ***** ICC provides notification features. You can be notified by a message to your screen, anytime someone logs on or logs off. You can also be notified anytime someone begins a game. You can choose who to put on these "notify" and "game notify" lists, so that you will be notified only about certain people. See "help list" for information on how to add people to your notify lists. You can also do "set pin 1" to be notified of ALL people logging in or out. And you can do "set gin 1" to be notified of all games that start or end. Do "help vars" for more info on pin and gin. See also: list, vars, znotl ***** ODDS-GAMES ***** The purpose of odds is to change the conditions of a match between two players of widely differing strengths so that the weaker player has a better chance of winning. There are two types of odds available on the ICC: time odds, and material odds. In a time-odds game, the two players have different amounts of time. In a material-odds game, the two players start with different sets of pieces. A TIME-ODDS challenge is made by adding additional numbers to the match command. For example if you typed: match Darooha 1 4 2 12 you would start with 1 minute (and have a 4 second increment), and Darooha would start with 2 minutes (with 12 second increment). You would only want to do this if you were much better than Darooha! All time odds games are unrated. Suggested time odds for 0 increment games, based on rating-point differences between the two players are: Rating Point Spread Time in minutes 0 5 versus 5 200 4 versus 6 400 3 versus 7 600 2 versus 8 800 1 versus 10 A MATERIAL-ODDS challenge is made by specifying a wild designator (such as "w10") in the match command. (This must appear in the command somewhere after the name of the opponent.) The color you desire may also be specified. For example: match Darooha w11 white issues a challenge to Darooha for a wild 11 (knight odds) game, in which you will be white. For all of the odds games (except w10) the stronger player should get white. Wild 10, 11, 12, 13, are pawn, knight, rook and queen odds, respectively. Wild 14 is a variation of rook odds. To see the starting position for wild 11, do "help wild11". This file also contains an offset added to White's rating for purposes of computing the rating changes caused by the game. In the case of w11, the offset is 300 -- if White is 300 points stronger, then either player stands to gain the same amount by winning. See the help files wild10 through wild14 for the rest of the rating offsets. See also: match, wild ***** PAID ***** Some people expressed a concern that not enough people would join the ICC. We addressed this concern by presenting the current membership figures during the first 9 months of ICC's operation. The numbers showed that plenty of people were joining to make the club very active and to provide opponents around-the-clock. The ICC continues to grow. Date: Total Paid Accounts Mar 1, 1995 0 Mar 31, 1995: 184 May 2, 1995: 479 Jun 6, 1995: 646 Jul 7, 1995: 841 Jul 31, 1995: 1000 Aug 31, 1995: 1253 Sep 30, 1995: 1653 Oct 31, 1995: 1920 Nov 30, 1995: 2105 There were actually more members than listed above, because the numbers don't include free memberships such as IMs, GMs, interface writers, admins. They also don't include people who extended their membership through the incentive program (help incentive). See also: event-all, value, refund ***** PACKAGE ***** Educational Group Packages for Internet Chess Club Memberships. Student/Youth memberships on ICC are discounted 50% from the regular adult price ($24.50 for one year, versus $49). We will provide even greater discounts for groups of students from the same school. The package rates are: 5 to 9 --- $18 each 10 or more --- $16 each So, for example, if you get a package of 10, the cost is $160, instead of the usual price of $245. Here are some other considerations. 1) Packages are available for elementary, junior high, and high schools (not colleges). 2) Each student will have his/her own ICC account, with nickname, password, ratings, finger-notes, etc. 3) Students may use their accounts at school or at home. 4) Packages are purchased with a single payment, giving your school a certain number of memberships valid for one-year from the date of purchase. 5) Memberships CAN be transferred between students. This allows you to deal with changes that might occur as a result of the beginning of a new school year, students moving away, or losing interest. We will make a new account for the replacement student, valid to one year from the package purchase date. 6) We have on-line administrators who work to ensure an environment suitable for children. We take action against any inappropriate behavior, so that your students will have a pleasant place to play chess! Read "help atmosphere" for more details. To order a package, send mail to the address below. Please provide payment, the name of your school, and a list containing the name, age, email address, and desired nickname for each student. If you have questions, contact POTZY, arcsin, or Darooha on-line, or send email to ICC@CHESS.LM.COM, or call (412) 362-6334. ICC 840 College St. Pittsburgh, PA 15232 USA See also: event-all, fees, value ***** PCArating ***** This file contains the latest available rating list for the Professional Chess Association. The list is long, so is not included in this manual. Please do "help PCArating" to see the list of top Grandmasters and their ratings. ***** PLAYtheMASTER ***** Every Monday night at 7pm EDT, we will have "Play the Master"! A master (USCF or ICC) will be here to play games with anyone rated under 1800 blitz on ICC! We hope this will give a lot of people a chance to play blitz against a master, who may have never played a master before! People are welcome to watch, play (if under 1800), and have fun by kibitzing comments! It will be a fun, non-serious type of event. HASSLE the master with kibitzes, to make the game more even! :) To challenge the master, just type "match JDoss 2 5 u" assuming JDoss is the Master who is playing that night. After each game, the master will accept the first unrated 2 5 challenge he sees from a player rated under 1800. The master will play all comers for an hour or more. Please only play one game each Monday, so everyone can get a chance to play the master. 4/17: POTZY 4/24: BlueWalker 5/1: JDoss 5/8: Sima 5/15: rooroo 5/22: BlueWalker 5/29: toc 6/5: Lomax 6/12: Verlager 6/19: Epor 6/26: POTZY 7/3: ADOLF(IM) 7/10: DAGON 7/17: Broncept(IM) 7/24: ADOLF(IM) 7/31: Epor 8/7: Roman(GM) 8/14: ADOLF (IM) 8/21: CapedCrusader(FM) 8/29: JDoss 9/4: frucht 9/10: Epor 9/17: diceman 9/24: apu 10/1: fmtex (FM) 10/8: ADOLF(IM) 10/16: DGurevich(GM) 10/23: Epor 10/30: frucht 11/6: JDoss 11/13: Epor 11/20: Hamilton(FM) 12/11: Kevlar(GM) 12/18: Ove 1/1: Epor 1/8: Attila 1/15: Ouija(FM) 1/22: Temptation(IM) 1/29: POTZY 2/5: MrSnrub(IM) 2/12: CampSnoopy22 2/19: Schroer(IM) 2/26: MrSnrub(IM) 3/4: Verlager 3/11: BlueWalker 3/18: Masters: To volunteer, contact Wendigo or POTZY. When playing, it helps to do "set formula rating<1800 & time=2 & inc=5 & unrated" See also: event, event-all ***** PRIVACY ***** The ICC is very serious about protecting your privacy. - We do not give out your email address, real name, or any other information you gave when you registered. - The email, accumulated hours, % life that you see when you type "finger" is visible only to you and to admins. Admins will not give out any of this information. - ICC does not sell or give out membership lists. ICC does not send junk email to its members. - ICC does not log "tells". Any conversation you have with another member will be confidential. Admins cannot listen in on any private "tell" conversation, and conversations are not recorded on disk in any way. If you want to know the identity of an ICC member, please do not ask an admin. Ask the member himself. It's his/her decision to tell you. ***** PROGRAMMERS ***** Please contact sleator@cs.cmu.edu if you want information about writing programs that automatically parse the output of ICC. There are a number of features that can make this much easier. See also: style12, style10 ***** QUICK ***** The following is a short list of ICC commands to help you get started. A complete list of ICC commands, with on-line descriptions, is available by typing "help commands". who --> the who command shows the users currently logged in players --> shows a list of players open for matches match --> challenges specified player to a match accept --> accepts a match challenge from another user abort --> sends an abort request to your opponent adjourn --> sends a request for adjournment to your opponent draw --> sends a request for a draw to your opponent resign --> resigns the current match shout --> sends your message to all users listening to shouts tell --> sends your message to specified recipient message --> leaves a message for specified recipient (shows yours if no name given) finger --> shows file of specified user (your file if no name given) help --> lists all the command help files help file --> shows the specified help file. info --> lists all the information files quit --> exits ICC There are some important help files you should know about. To read any of these, just type "help filename" on ICC. You can also mail them with the "mailhelp filename" command. For info on graphical interfaces, type "help interface". commands: A complete list of all ICC commands, with one-line descriptions. Manuals: Tells how to get complete manuals. index: An index to the introductory files to help you enjoy ICC more. value: A list of exciting current and upcoming ICC features. event: A list of upcoming ICC events! Grandmasters, lectures, etc. event-all: A list of all previous events on ICC. channels: A list of discussion groups you can join. GMs, IMs, FMs: Lists of FIDE titled players on ICC. atmosphere: The atmosphere on ICC and how we hope to keep it pleasant. agreement: The agreement between the ICC and its members. incentive: The Membership Incentive Program. interfaces: Graphical interfaces available for use with ICC. vars: Lists all your variables and how to change them. list: All the "lists" that you can view or modify. MarketPlace: List of companies selling chess books, magazines, PC programs. reg: How to register, and reasons to register. fees: ICC membership fees. If you have any questions, help is available on-line by talking to the help channel (channel 1) or by talking to admins. Admins are listed by "in 0". See also: flyer, commands, index ***** RATINGS ***** ICC maintains5 different ratings for each player. They are bullet, blitz, standard, wild, and glicko. See "help definitions". A player is said to be provisional if he/she has played fewer than 20 games, and established otherwise. An entirely different system is used for established and provisional players. The rating during the provisional period is the average of a set of values, one for each game played. The values (of which the rating is an average) depend on whether the opponent is provisional, or is established. The value against a provisional player is the average of the two ratings (using 1600 if the player has never played) plus 200 times the outcome (which is -1, 0, 1 for loss, draw and win). The value against an established player is the opponent's rating plus 400 times the outcome. Some extra points are now added to the rating for the purpose of keeping the average rating of all established active players close to 1720. In particular, 1/5th of 1720 minus the current average is added to the rating. To explain the extablished period requires the use of a formula. Suppose your rating is r1, and the opponent's is r2. Let w be 1 if you win, .5 if you draw, and 0 if you lose. After a game, your new rating will be: 1 r1 + K (w - (-----------------)) (r2-r1)/400 1 + 10 I still need to explain the variable K. This is the largest change your rating can experience as a result of the game. The value K=32 is always used for established player versus established player. (The USCF has a system in which this K-factor diminishes for more highly rated players.) If you're playing a provisional player, the factor K is scaled by n/20, where n is the number of games your opponent has played. So, as in the provisional case, if you play an opponent who has never played, your rating can't change. This formula has the property that if both players are established then the sum of the rating changes is zero. It turns out that if the rating difference is more than 719 points, then if the strong player wins, there is no change in either rating. Note that during the provisional period, BEATING a player whose rating is more than 400 points below yours will DECREASE your rating. This is a consequence of the averaging process. It's useful too, because it prevents the technique of getting an inflated provisional rating after one game, and then beating 19 weak players to get an established rating that is too high. A new rating system has been added, the "Glicko" rating. Do "help glicko" for more information. See also: assess, match, glicko ***** RECORDS ***** Most simultaneous logins on ICC: 355 players, Mar 24, 1995. 476 players, Sep 11, 1995. 495 players, Sep 19, 1995. 522 players, Sep 22, 1995. 575 players, Sep 26, 1995. Most titled players (GM, IM, FM) logged in at once: 30 on Oct 3, 1995 Most observers of one game: 180, Mar 24, 1995, Man vs. Machine Match, GM Sagalchik versus *Socrates. 213, Apr 22, 1995, Psakhis vs. MephistoIII 2-game Match. 237, May 6, 1995, Roman vs. Psakhis 2-game Match. 393, Sep 11, 1995, Kasparov-Anand World Championship, Game 1. 394, Sep 19, 1995, Kasparov-Anand World Championship, Game 6. 442, Sep 22, 1995, Kasparov-Anand World Championship, Game 8. 472, Oct 3, 1995, Kasparov-Anand World Championship, Game 14. 486, Feb 17, 1996, Kasparov-DEEPBLUE Match, Game 6. Highest ratings (human): Blitz -- 2937 Roman (1904-273-146) 4-30-95 Standard -- 2814 argh ( 32-2-4) 2-17-95 Highest ratings (computer): Blitz -- 2928 MephistoIII (341-54-37) 9-04-95 Standard -- 2861 WCHESS (28-2-4) 10-29-95 First human to reach the following rating levels in blitz: 2600: -- 2604 junior (???-??-??) ?-??-93 2700: -- 2700 Roman (102-14-12) 5-04-94 2800: -- 2802 Roman (130-22-15) 9-17-94 2900: -- 2900 Roman (1808-268-145) 4-25-95 Simul records (no "moretime") Blitz: Perfect score: 10-0, Schroer 11-06-95, TC = 4 16 Blitz: Most points 11.5-0.5, Schroer 11-22-95, TC = 8 10 Standard: Perfect score: 14-0, Schroer 11-29-95, TC = 7 12 Standard: Most points: 15-5, Schroer 2-28-96, TC =20 20 See also: best, rank ***** REFUNDS ***** If at any time you are not satisfied with the service you are receiving from the Internet Chess Club, you may request a refund for the remaining portion of your membership. To receive a refund, send a letter (not email) to: Internet Chess Club 840 College Street Pittsburgh, PA 15232 USA Please include the following information: 1) ICC handle, ICC password, Real name (for making out the check) 2) Mailing address 3) Reason you are not satisfied: We want all our members to enjoy ICC, and we value your ideas on how to make ICC better. If you will be unable to use the ICC for a few months, we will be glad to extend your membership. Please read "help absent" for information. If you want to change your handle, please read "help handle". Handle changes can't be accomplished by getting a refund and re-registering, because the registration will be blocked by the expired account. See also: absent, handle, value ***** REGISTRATION ***** To register on the Internet Chess Club, all you need to do is telnet again to ICC (telnet chess.lm.com), and type "r" at the login prompt. You will be guided through a series of questions. Then a password will be emailed to you. On your first login, you will be asked how you wish to pay your membership fee. We don't have to actually receive your payment until 7 days after you register, so feel free to try us out for several days before deciding if you want to join. For more information on fees, please do "help fees". What do registered members get, that unregistered members don't? - take part or watch all events that are closed to unregs, like the World Championship broadcasts, DeepBlue-Kasparov broadcasts, US Championship broadcasts, Harvard Cup, Play the Master, Lectures, etc. - ICC ratings for standard, blitz, bullet and wild. - search and examine our database of over 60,000 games. - email any game from histories, libraries, or the database. - observe GM games. - free entry into official WBCA tournaments. - play in "Tomato" tournaments every day. - play against the computers, like BulletC, WimpD, etc. - permanent name. - finger notes and variables you don't have to set everytime you login. - lists that don't go away, like notify, gnotify, censor, alias, etc. - discounts on chess products in "help MarketPlace". - history of your games. - personal libraries of games. - shout and s-shout. - send and receive messages to people. See also: agreement, fees, incentive, refund, value ***** RULES ***** A draw by repetition may be claimed by typing "draw" when the current position (with the same player to move) has occurred twice before. Three-fold repetition of some prior position does not allow the claiming of a draw. A draw may also be claimed if the 50 moves leading to the current position are all reversible. If you have a king, at most one minor piece, and nothing else, then we say you do not have mating material. The moment neither player has mating material, the game is declared a draw, regardless of the state of the clocks. If flag is called, and neither player has any time, then the game is drawn. If (when flag is called) one player has run out of time, and the other player does not have mating material, then the game is drawn. The motivating philosophy is that if it's impossible to win on the board, then it should not be possible to win using the clock. Note that in the unlikely event that a player with a minor piece has a mating attack, the implementation will give the wrong result. However this rule is simple and gives the correct result in the vast majority of cases. (Has it ever been wrong in a real game on ICC?) This is a very close approximation to the "Revised WBCA Blitz Rules" of Nov 1992. The actual rules require judgement in a number of situations, and would be cumbersome to implement. See also: draw, flag, abort ***** SIMUL ***** Simultaneous matches (where one player plays several games at once) can be played on the ICC. It's simple to start a simul. Ask for challenges from all those who you want to play against. For each challenge you receive, add the player to your simul list with "+sim darooha", "+sim arcsin", etc. Then begin the simul with the players on your list with "startsimul". The simul player can move to a specific game with the "goto" command, as in "goto 3" or "goto arcsin". "goto" with no parameter goes to another game in which it's your move (if there is one). If you are giving a simul, and get disconnected, you can resume the simul: Log back in, request challenges from all the players that still had games in progress, add them to your simul list, and type "start". It's no different than the procedure for starting a new simul, except the adjourned games will be used, rather than starting new games. IM Jonathan Schroer gives simuls to ICC members every Wednesday! See also: startsimul, Schroer ***** SLICS ***** INSTALLING SLICS 2.2f If you have any problems send a message to Zek on ICC, email him at amcfarl@wko.com or call Andy at (502) 691-9363. First you need to get SLICS to your PC. Read "help interfaces" and "help ftp-hints" for info on how to download. SLICS is a Windows 3.1 interface for the Internet Chess Club. It supports a SLIP, PPP or TCP/IP connection by Winsock. 1. Create a new directory on your hard drive, example c:\slics. Installing SLICS requires 1.3 mb of disk space. 2. Copy the file slics22f.exe to c:\slics. 3. In Windows 3.1 File Manager or Windows 95 Windows Explorer, change to the directory you created, then double click on the file slics22f.exe. This will extract the 23 files that make up SLICS 2.2f. 4. Use a text editor like 'notepad' in Windows to edit the SLICS file icsprofs.dat. In the section marked [ICC], change icshandle to your ICC user name. Change ICSPassword to your ICC password (leave it blank if you are not registered). Change icsrcfile to ex_ics.rc, or copy the file ex_ics.rc to _ics.rc. [ICC] icshandle=Zek ICSPassword=******** icsrcfile=ex_ics.rc 5. Create an icon for the file chessbd.exe. 6. Connect to Internet. Minimize the program you used to establish the SLIP or PPP connection. Double click on the icon you just created to run the SLICS program. On the menu bar click on ICS. You should see at least 'ManualLogin', 'ICC' and 'ICC-TMSTAMP'. Click on 'ICC-TMSTAMP' or 'ICC' to connect to ICC. See also: interfaces, ftp-hints ***** SUGGESTIONS ***** How to make suggestions regarding the ICC Leave a message with Darooha ("mess darooha add a tic-tac-toe option"), or send mail to Daniel Sleator . Or, you can also leave suggestions or comments with any of the other admins. (to see a list of current admins, type "help admins".) Constructive comments about policies, schedules, activities, features, bugs, incidents, etc. are welcome. See also: admins ***** TEAM-GAMES ***** A team game is a "discussion" or "consultation" game where a group of players on a team can talk about and plan the moves together. Two teams discuss the moves among themselves, and then agree/vote on a move, and the team-captain makes the move. Members of opposing teams cannot hear the discussion of the other team. One of the teams can be a single strong player or a computer. Team games are a good way to learn chess from hearing stronger players discuss the positions. It's recommended to use at least a 30 second increment in team games. Channels make it convenient to play team games on ICC. Here's how it works. A pair of captains is chosen, and two channels are chosen for the game, say 7 and 8. All the players and the captain of one team go into channel 7 (using the command "chan 7") and the members of the other team enter channel 8 with "chan 8". Now by typing "in 7 8" you can see who is in channel 7 and not 8, 8 and not 7, and who's in both. To leave channel 8 type "-chan 8". You communicate with your team by telling to the channel. To talk to channel 7 type "tell 7 hi". Thereafter you can say ", hello" to talked to the channel you just talked to. Team games are organized in channel 10. If one "team" is a single player, the other team can discuss in channel 10. See also: inchannel, channels, tell ***** TIMESTAMP (TM) ***** We have developed a system that eliminates the effects that lag has on your clock in ICC games. A "timestamp" program measures the amount of time you spend thinking about each move. The ICC server uses this information to update the clocks. You can ONLY be flagged if you have actually used more than your allotted time. You will NEVER be lag-flagged again! You run timestamp in addition to your usual ICC interface program. It has been tested with xboard, xics, ziics, and giics, slics, MacICS, and other interfaces. There are two main versions of timestamp: Unix timestamp and MS Windows timestamp. There is also a version of timestamp built into the Mac interface "Fixation". Unix timestamp works with any client if you connect to ICC through a Unix machine. Of course it works if your own machine runs Unix. It also works if your own machine does not run Unix, but you connect to ICC through a shell account on a Unix machine. In the latter case, though, timestamp cannot compensate for any lag that might exist between your own machine and the Unix machine where you run timestamp. Such lag can occur (for example) if the Unix machine is heavily loaded, so that you are not getting enough CPU time, or if you are calling over a noisy phone line with an error-correcting modem. You can use MS Windows timestamp if you have a PC running Microsoft Windows that is on the Internet (most likely using SLIP or PPP), and your Internet software package supports the Winsock API. Nearly all do. MS Windows timestamp works with all the Windows clients, including SLICS, Raja, and WinBoard. All data sent in both directions between the timestamp program and the ICC server is encrypted. It can be used to send sensitive information (such as credit card numbers) over the network without worrying about evesdroppers. To find out how to get and use timestamp, type "help unix-timestamp" if you need the Unix version, or type "help win-timestamp" if you need the MS Windows version. See also: unix-timestamp, win-timestamp ***** TOURNAMENTS ***** This file has a current list of tournaments that ICC players can sign up for. It is constantly being updated with new tournaments, so is not included in this manual. Please do "help tournaments" to see the list, and to see information about how you can run a tournament and get it announced in this file. ***** VALUE ***** In addition to the basic ICC features of playing games, watching games, and communicating with players and friends worldwide, the ICC provides a wide range of features and exciting chess events for its members! Altogether, ICC is a tremendous value for one low yearly membership fee. FEATURES: - anti-lag timestamping of moves (never get "lag-flagged" again!) - histories of past 20 games for every player, available for emailing, examining, discussing with friends - personal libraries of up to 40 games you can save and show to friends on-line - on-line database of over 60,000 ICC master games available nowhere else. You can search by player, opening, and other parameters. You can examine online or email to yourself. - ECO opening identification system - match formulas to specify the kind of games and opponents you want to play - emailing games in PGN format - auto-notification of friend's arrival, departure, and game playing - time-odds games, and material-odds games. Many types of chess variants ("wild chess") - bughouse! - Kriegspiel! - many discussion groups (channels) for a wide variety of chess and non-chess topics EVENTS and MEMBERS: - many strong players (Grandmasters and International Masters you can watch) - world-wide large attendance, 24 hours a day - Tomato tournaments - Weekly Play the Master nights - Weekly International Master Simuls! - Weekly Official WBCA Tournaments - LIVE Broadcasts, including World Championships (Kasparov-Anand), US Championships, Harvard Cup, Holland-Israel GM Match, etc. - Grandmaster-Grandmaster matches, Grandmaster-Computer matches. - Lectures and Lessons, several every month. - Read "help event-all" for a complete list of events that have been held! You will see we have many every week! - A professional staff to maintain a well-run Club and provide top-quality features, events, and services. Type "help reg" for a list of advantages to being a registered member of ICC, compared with being unregistered. There will be many more improvements suggested by ICC members that will continue to maintain the ICC as the most exciting place for chess players in the world. -- The Internet Chess Club See also: event, event-all, fees, flyer, refund, registration ***** WILD ***** "Wild" is the name given to different types of chess that you can play on ICC! These include different setup of the pieces, material-odds games, and bughouse and Kriegspiel! The variable "wild" controls the how the initial position is generated. There are 14 types of wild so far. In variants 0 through 4, each side has eight pawns, in their usual positions, and only the ranks 1 and 8 differ from normal chess. Here are the meanings of each type of wild game: 0: This is regular old chess. 1: In this variant both sides have the same set of pieces as in normal chess. The white king starts on d1 or e1 and the black king starts on d8 or e8, and the rooks are in their usual positions. Bishops are always on opposite colors. Subject to these constraints the position is random. Castling is similar to normal chess: o-o-o indicates long castling and o-o short castling. 2: Here the usual set of pieces is arranged randomly on the first and eighth ranks. Black's arrangement is always a mirror image of White's. Castling is not allowed. 3: Here the set of pieces itself is randomly chosen (subject to the constraint that there is one king of each color). Black's pieces mirror White's, and castling is not allowed. 4: A random set of pieces is generated. These are placed randomly for white and black, subject to the constraint that the bishops must be balanced. 5 through 14: Read the help files wild5, wild6, ..., wild14. 16: Kriegspiel! You can't see your opponent's pieces! "help Kriegspiel". 24: Bughouse! Play with a partner, and use the pieces he captures on you board by "dropping" them onto the board! "help bughouse". Wild 10 through 14 are "odds" games. Read "help odds-games" for info. For example, pawn odds, queen odds, etc. See also: odds-games, match, wild5, wild6, ..., wild14, bughouse, Kriegspiel %***** WILD5 ***** % A game concocted by Darooha R N B K Q B N R P P P P P P P P - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p p p p p p p p r n b k q b n r %See also: match, wild, wild6, ..., wild14 %***** WILD6 ***** % Empty position for setting up positions in examine mode. % Do "help examine" for information on how to add pieces to the board. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - %See also: wild, match, examine %***** WILD7 ***** %Suggested by Socrates. - - - - k - - - - - - - - p p p - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P P P - - - - - - - - K - - - - %See also: wild, match %***** WILD8 ***** %Suggested by mann r n b q k b n r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p p p p p p p p P P P P P P P P - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - R N B Q K B N R %See also: wild, match %***** WILD9 ***** % Here there are two kings. If you sweep the board in the following % order: a1 a2 a3...a8 b1 b2..h8, the king you come to first is the one % you must mate. The other king is just an ordinary piece. % % Warning: xboard may refuse to make certain moves, because they're not % legal according to its definition of legal (like leaving one of your kings % in check). These moves must be typed in. r n b q k k n r p p p p p p p p - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P P P P P P P P R N B Q K K N R %See also: wild, match %***** WILD10 ***** %Stronger player handicapped by pawn and move. -100 r n b q k b n r p p p p p - p p - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P P P P P P P P R N B Q K B N R %See also: match, wild %***** WILD11 ***** % Odds of a Knight: Stronger player takes White, and before % play begins his N/b1 is removed. From then on, play pro- % ceeds normally. 300 r n b q k b n r p p p p p p p p - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P P P P P P P P R - B Q K B N R %See also: wild, match %***** WILD12 ***** % Odds of a Rook: Stronger player takes White, and before % play begins his R/a1 is removed. From then on, play % proceeds normally. Queenside castling with the "ghost" % of that Rook is *not* permitted. 500 r n b q k b n r p p p p p p p p - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P P P P P P P P - N B Q K B N R %See also: wild, Match %***** WILD13 ***** % Odds of a Queen: Stronger player takes White, and before % play begins his Queen is removed. From then on, play pro- % ceeds normally. 900 r n b q k b n r p p p p p p p p - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P P P P P P P P R N B - K B N R %See also: wild, match %***** WILD14 ***** % Odds of a Rook (variant): Stronger player takes White, and % before play begins his R/a1 is removed, *and* his a2 pawn is put % on a3. From then on, play proceeds normally. Queenside % castling with the "ghost" of that Rook is *not* permitted. 500 r n b q k b n r p p p p p p p p - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P - - - - - - - - P P P P P P P - N B Q K B N R %See also: wild, match ***** WINBOARD ***** If you have any problems send a message to Zek on ICC, email me at amcfarl@wko.com or call Andy at (502) 691-9363. First you need to get winboard to your PC. Read "help interfaces" and "help ftp-hints" for info on how to download. WINBOARD 3.4 Winboard runs on Windows 95 or Windows NT. It supports a TCP/IP connection as well as a raw modem connection to a shell account. TCP/IP includes SLIP and PPP. If you can run Netscape, you have a TCP/IP connection. Winbd341.exe contains the files to run winboard as an interface. The complete distribution is the file winboard-3.4.pl1.zip. Both files are on the chess.lm.com ftp site in the directory /pub/icc/interface/WIN3 or /pub/icc/uploads. INSTALLING WINBD341.EXE Create a new directory, say C:\WINBOARD. Copy the file winbd341.exe to that directory. Run the file winbd341.exe to extract all of the included files. This will require 1.0M of free disk space. Create an icon for the file winboard.exe. If you have a raw modem connection to a shell account, the setup is different. Consult the winboard online help. TCP/IP connection: Winboard does not work with the 16 bit version of with Trumpet Winsock. The winsock timestamp does not work with Netcom's Netcruiser software. Both work with Dial Up Networking in Windows 95. If you want to run timestamp, create an icon for the file tmstamp.exe. Establish a TCP/IP connection with Dial Up Networking or a similar program, minimize that program, run timestamp, minimize it, then run winboard. To run winboard without timestamp, delete the line "-icshost localhost" from the file winboard.ini. Contents: README.1ST This file WINBOARD.INI A configuration file. TMSTAMP.EXE The winsock timestamp TMSTAMP.TXT CHANGELO Files from winboard-3.4.pl1.zip: COPYING COPYRIGH FAQ ICS-ADDR ICS-INFO INSTALL.WIN READ_ME.WIN TODO WINBOARD.EXE WINBOARD.HLP See also: interfaces, ftp-hints ***** WWW ***** ICC has a COOL WWW page now! try: http://www.hydra.com/icc/ World Wide Web sites that have a wide variety of chess-related material and news: http://www.easynet.co.uk/pages/worldchess/home.htm http://www.traveller.com/chess http://www.brad.ac.uk/~mdcrowth/chess.html In addition USCF Book Selections are available at: http://dab.psi.net/ChapterOne/ See also: addresses ***** XBOARD ***** xboard is the name of the most popular Unix interface program for ICC. To get it, you must (1) "ftp" it to your Unix machine, and (2) compile it. Do "help ftp" for help on using ftp, and "help interface" for help finding xboard on the ftp server. Do "finger mann" for current news about xboard. To unpack and compile the xboard distribution, xboard-*.tar.gz, give these Unix commands: gzip -cd < xboard-*.tar.gz | tar -xvf - cd xboard-*/ configure make If you have any problems with the last two steps, read the READ_ME and INSTALL files in the xboard-*/ directory. You will also find the gnuchess/xboard FAQ (answers to frequently asked questions) there. xboard (versions 3.3pl3 or later) can be used with timestamp as follows: xboard -ics -icshost 192.231.221.16 -telnet -telnetProgram timestamp See also: interface, ftp ***** ZIICS ***** INSTALLING ZIICS 1.30 If you have any problems send a message to Zek on ICC, email me at amcfarl@wko.com or call Andy at (502) 691-9363. First you need to get ziics130.exe to your PC. Read "help interfaces" and "help ftp-hints" for info on how to download. ZIICS is an MSDOS telnet interface for playing on the Internet Chess Club. It requires a raw modem connection to a shell account. ZIICS will not work on SLIP, PPP, TCP/IP or Netcon's NetCruiser. 1. Create a new directory on your hard drive, example c:\ziics. This method of installation requires 3 mb of disk space. 2. Copy the file ziics130.exe to c:\ziics. 3. Type 'c:' and 'cd \ziics' to make c:\ziics the current directory. 4. Type 'ziics130'. This will extract the 90 files that make up ZIICS 1.30. 5. Use a text editor like 'edit' in MSDOS or 'notepad' in Windows to read the file ZIICS.DOC. This tells how to create a configuration file for ZIICS. 6. After you create the configuration file ZIICS.CNF, you can run the program ziics.exe. ALTERNATE METHOD OF INSTALING ZIICS 1.30: Follow the same steps as above, but use the file z130.exe instead of ziics130.exe. This will install 23 files that require 660K of disk space. The other files are extra chess set files for VGA. See also: interfaces, ftp-hints ***** ZMODEM ***** Zmodem can be used to transfer ICC interfaces and other files between a Unix machine, and a PC or Mac. An alternative method is kermit, "help kermit". This is the step to take after using ftp to get the interface from ics.onenet.net to your host machine. Zmodem is a transfer protocol that is up to five (5) times as fast as the kermit protocol and in addition provides excellent error checking capability. Before attempting zmodem downloads check to ensure both your host and communications package support this transfer mode. Downloading text files with zmodem: At the shell prompt type 'sz filename.txt' In most cases your communications software will begin the process automatically and return you to the prompt when completed. Downloading binary files with zmodem: At the shell prompt type 'sz -b filename.ext' Remember all compressed files must be downloaded in binary mode. Once again most communications packages will begin and end this process automatically. For further command help type 'man sz' at the shell prompt on many UNIX systems. Also check the documentation included with the communications program you are using concerning this and other supported file transfer utilities. See also: interfaces, ftp-hints, kermit ***** END OF MANUAL2 *****