Free Internet Server
Free Internet Server
The Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) is a volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organized as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club (ICC), after that site began charging for membership.
History
The first Internet chess server, named the Internet Chess Server (ICS), started in the 1980s. Volunteers coded and ran it free of charge. In 1995, administrators began charging players for membership and changed the name to ICC.
Unhappy with the commercialization of ICS, which they saw as exploiting their work, a handful of programmers, led by Chris Petroff (Sparky on FICS), formed FICS and gave users free, unrestricted access. The server debuted March 5, 1995.
FICS is a non-profit site, administered entirely by volunteers. There are over 310,000 registered accounts, and in the past 12 months the server has been accessed by over 73,000 users.
The original software package, called "chessd", was released under the GNU General Public License, and has been extensively updated by many people and organizations. The last version dubbed "Chrysallis," engineered by volunteers at the Universidade Federal do Paraná in Brazil, includes backend support for the PostgreSQL and MySQL databases. Chessd is freely available on SourceForge.
Usage
Connecting
Playing chess on FICS requires connecting to the server either through a web based applet on the FICS website or using a client program, which could be as simple as a telnet client, but is usually an interface designed specifically for playing Internet chess. Users can log in as an anonymous guest or they can use the website to register for a free account. One user is permitted only one account. The server maintains game statistics and ratings for registered users. FICS uses the Glicko rating system.
Gameplay
Users may watch for seeks , game requests other users broadcast, or put out their own seeks and wait for someone else to respond. Seeks include the proposed time controls as well as a ratings limit if desired. Seeks can be set to manual, if the person who makes the seek wants to screen potential opponents before deciding which one to play. Users can also challenge a specific player to a game using the match command.
Moves are made with the mouse on an image of the chess board. However, the user also has the option of typing in moves in algebraic notation, ideal for laptop users with only the built in touchpad as their mouse.
Time Controls
People tend to play much faster games on the Internet, typically three or five minutes per player (blitz) or one minute per player (lightning). Longer games are called standard and are also common on the server. Separate ratings are maintained for lightning, blitz and standard.
Fischer delay is often used: the time control is specified by two numbers, the minutes each player is allotted at the start of the game, and the seconds added to a player's clock after making a move (the increment ). For example, in 2 12 time controls, each player receives 2 minutes at the beginning of the game, and 12 seconds is added to a player's clock after they make a move.
Timeseal is a utility which allows the server to account for the effects of lag. Each move entered by the user is timestamped locally, and the time spent for the move information to travel to the server is not deducted from the clock. This program can be helpful for people with poor connections, but it can also annoy opponents if extreme lag occurs, and large delays occur in real time but not on the clock. Unlike the Internet Chess Club and other pay servers, FICS does not track lag centrally, nor permit user preferences that exclude persistent laggers.
Interfaces
A chess interface is an application specifically designed to connect to and interact with Internet chess servers. FICS does not require a particular interface; many are available for download at the FICS website download area. Interfaces are developed independently of FICS. Accordingly, FICS does not have an official interface, nor does it endorse any particular interface. According to the current login statistics, the most popular interfaces for Windows are BabasChess, Jin , WinBoard, Thief, and Raptor. On other operating systems eboard, XBoard, Jin, JavaBoard, and Raptor are popular choices. JavaBoard and JinApplet are web interfaces; they run in a web browser and have fewer features than other clients.
Channels
There are a number of chat channels on FICS, similar to IRC, however there are a limited number of channels (numbered 0 through 255) and many are reserved for particular uses. For example, channel 1 is for general help; questions asked in channel 1 are usually answered by FICS admins or Service Representatives (SRs). Channel 4 is for helping guests, and channel 50 is for general chat. A user can listen and send tells to up to thirty channels simultaneously. Besides channels, another form of mass communication available to users is shouts, which can be seen by all users connected who haven't turned shouts off.
Variants
Currently, the following chess variants are available on FICS, besides regular chess:
- Suicide - capturing is compulsory, a player wins by losing all his pieces; the king has no special significance
- Loser's chess - like suicide, but with additional rules pertaining to the king and check
- Atomic - pieces "explode" when captured, removing all adjacent pieces except pawns
- Wild - Nine different variants similar to regular chess but with different types of starting positions, including Fischer random
- Bughouse - fast paced, four player game, in which two teams of two players face each other on two boards
- Crazyhouse - two player version of bughouse
Tournaments on FICS
A number of tournaments are regularly organised on FICS. Below is a summary of the most important of these.
Mamer tournaments
Mamer tournaments are organised by Mamer, an automated Tournament Director. Mamer is run by Mamer managers who have the designation (TM) beside their handles and who are there to supervise tournaments and assist users participating in the tournaments. The channel for mamer tournaments is channel 49, and tournaments are announced through tells to this channel as well as through cshouts. Tournaments organised by Mamer range in time controls from 1 0 to 90 30, and include all variants.
Other tournaments
Other regular tournaments on FICS mostly include tournaments featuring slow time controls (i.e. typically more than 45 minutes). Two of the most popular of these are FICS Teamleague, which uses 45 45 controls, and the Online Chess League (OCL), which uses 60 15 time controls. Both are team events with teams of 4 competing against each other, and each player typically plays one game per week. In addition, the STC Bunch, or the Slow Time Control Bunch, organises several tournaments with slow time controls.
Relay
FICS also relays top flight chess events. A bot, programmed by volunteers, learns the moves in ongoing games and relays them to special demo accounts on FICS, that are shown playing each other. These demo accounts bear the names of the grandmasters playing in the event. Thus, users and guests on FICS can watch the games in progress as they might watch any game between ordinary FICS users, and chat about the game with each other. The relay has covered every single World Chess Championship since its inception. Other major relays include the yearly relay of Wijk aan Zee, Morelia-Linares, Amber Melody, and any World Championship/World Cup events that take place.
External links
- Free Internet Chess Server
-
http:
Free Internet Chess Server Help
FICS - Free Internet Chess Server is a server for chess players to play against each other over the Internet. Help on the server and its features can be found in these pages.
Internet chess server - Wikipedia, the free ...
An Internet chess server (ICS) is an external server that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view chess over the Internet. The term specifically refers to facilities for ...
Free Internet Chess Server - Wikipedia, the free ...
The Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) is a volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organized as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club (ICC), after that site began ...
Free Internet Chess Server (FICS)
FICS - Free Internet Chess Server is a server for chess players to play against each other over the Internet. FICS supports tournaments, lectures, live game relays, chess variants ...
Free Internet Chess, Go (weiqi) games, play chess ...
Free Internet Chess - FICGS (Free Internet Correspondence Games Server) ... correspondence chess server. Here you can play chess online for free in rated ...
Free Internet Servers and low cost internet providers
This page has free internet service (free isp's) deals on low cost internet, and highspeed internet providers for windows or mac computers
Internet Server Application Programming Interface ...
(World-Wide Web) Internet Server Application Programming Interface - (ISAPI) Microsoft 's programming interface between applications and their Internet Server.
Internet Information Server definition of Internet ...
Internet Information Server. See IIS. (World-Wide Web) Internet Information Server - (IIS) Microsoft's web server and FTP server for Windows NT. IIS is intended to meet the needs of a ...
Free Internet Games Server (FIGS) | Get Free Internet ...
Get Free Internet Games Server (FIGS) at SourceForge.net. Fast, secure and free downloads from the largest Open Source applications and software directory
Free Internet Chess Server | Get Free Internet Chess ...
Get Free Internet Chess Server at SourceForge.net. Fast, secure and free downloads from the largest Open Source applications and software directory
