Introduction to the Internet Chess Club (C) Copyright 1998-2006 Internet Chess Club, Inc. Welcome to the Internet Chess Club (ICC). On the ICC you can play chess, get a rating, watch others play, study games, participate in many special events and tournaments, and get to know people from all over the world. Thousands of people (many with little computer experience) have played millions of games on the ICC. This note tells you what the ICC can do and how to use it. Here's a table of contents for the rest of this note: 0. Overview 1. Starting a game 2. Playing 3. Communicating with other players 4. Listing players and games 5. Observing games 6. Further reading 7. Contact Information 0. Overview Here are some of the things the ICC offers: * ICC helps you find appropriate opponents and acts as the referee: it checks the legality of moves, maintains a clock, handles draw offers, and determines the outcome of the game (checkmate, stalemate, draws by repetition, etc.). * A variety of communication modes are available. These include observing games, kibitzing and whispering in these games, special interest and help "channels" for talking to a group, talking one-on-one, and the ability to send a message to a player who is not currently logged on. * The ICC also maintains a small database for each member. It includes a player's ICC rating which is automatically computed (in several different categories), a history of recent games, biographical information, and a library of favorite games. There is also a searchable database of millions of the games played on ICC. * The ICC has graphical interfaces for all major computer platforms (Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, and more). This software will display one or more graphical chess boards, and allow you to make moves with your mouse. You control what happens by means of a set of commands, which you type on your keyboard. The graphical interfaces reduce the need for typing commands, but all the commands can be used with any graphical interface. (Some graphical interfaces require that a typed command begin with a slash (/) in some modes.) There is an on-line help file for every command. Typing "help seeking", for example, will display the help file for the seek command. "commands" lists the names of all the files describing ICC commands. The purpose of this note it to introduce you to the ICC command set. This note contains enough to get you started on the ICC. As you spend more time on the ICC, you will gradually learn how to use its more sophisticated features. You can get started using the system after just a few minutes. (The process of obtaining and installing graphical interfaces is explained in other documentation. The underlying command set described here works for all interfaces.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Starting a game The following commands control the initiation of a match: 5-minute, 1-minute, seek, play, match, accept, decline Typing "5-minute" is a simple way to start a blitz game. The system will automatically pair you with an opponent and start the game. All games on ICC are played with a chess clock. In a 5-minute game, you have five minutes total to make all your moves. When you move, your clock stops ticking, and when your opponent gets your move (there may be some network delay), his or her clock starts ticking. If you run out of time, you lose! For those who like ridiculously fast games, there's "1-minute". 5-minute and 1-minute games are always rated (in their own category), are only for human players (no assistance from computer chess engines or databases), and if you get disconnected during the game you lose. You can also use the command "seek" to get a game. This command is more flexible; you can specify the time control, whether the game should be rated or unrated, and more. A time control specification has two parts: the initial time (in minutes), and the increment (in seconds). The increment is added to a player's clock after each move. Games will be rated in different categories Bullet Blitz or Standard, depending on the time control. For example, say the player Darooha types "seek 3 5". This informs everyone interested that Darooha is looking to play a match with a time control of 3 5. They might see something like; Darooha (1435) seeking blitz 3 5 rated ("play 8" to respond) Anybody can now respond to this by typing "play 8", which will initiate a rated match with the given time control. (Some graphical interfaces have a graph with a colored dot for each "seeking" notice.) If Darooha had wanted to play an unrated game, he could have used the comand "seek 3 5 u". Seek can also be used to specify a rating range, as explained in "help seeking". You can post more than one seek ad, and "unseek" will remove all of them. "sought" lists all the seeking ads. You can also specify a wild chess variant by number, e.g. "seek w17 5 5". See "help wild" for a list of the chess variants available. A completely different way to start match is by using the "match" command. "match Doggie 2 8 r" proposes a rated match with Doggie with a time control of 2 8 (a blitz match). The "r" indicates rated, "u" would indicate unrated. This command gives Doggie the message that a challenge has been issued. Doggie may now accept this match with "accept Darooha" (assuming it was Darooha who sent the challenge) or with "accept" if Doggie has only one pending challenge. Doggie may also decline the match with "decline" or "decline Darooha". Every player is always either open or closed. The command "open" toggles you between these two states. (Also, the command "set open 1" opens you, the command "set open 0" closes you.) An open player is one who is interested in playing a match, a closed player is not. If your are not open, and someone challenges you, the challenge will be blocked. There are also ways to allow only challenges which meet certain conditions, by setting your variables wopen, ropen, and formula. "pending" lists your current match offers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Playing You will probably be using a graphical interface to play games on the ICC. If so, then moving is simply a matter of using your mouse to specify which piece to move and where to move it. Castling is expressed by indicating the movement of the king. Whether or not you're using a graphical interface, you can always move by typing the move in standard algebraic notation, which is useful to know anyway so you can read the move lists. Examples: Nh2 move a knight to h2 Ng4h2 move the knight on g4 to h2 e5 move a pawn to e5 O-O castle short (kingside) gxf8=N pawn on g7 captures on f8 and promotes to a knight d3-e4 a move from d3 to e4 (this isn't standard notation but works fine) You will be told if your move is ambiguous, and also if making that move would leave your king in check. Castling short is "O-O" and long is "O-O-O". Promotion is to a queen, unless a different piece is specified. See "help notation" for more details. The "takeback" feature allows you to takeback moves (with your opponent's permission). If you desire, you can give your opponent 38 seconds more time on his/her clock with the command "moretime 38". But most players are naturally competitive and won't do either of these. To give up a game, type "resign". (Do not just disconnect.) To offer a draw, type "draw" and then make your move. To offer to adjourn the game, type "adjourn". To offer to abort the game, type "abort". The "pending" command notifies you of all pending offers or draw possibilities (such as repetition or 50 move rule). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Communicating with other players Among the commands that govern communications, the most important are: tell, +channel, -channel, shout, sshout, i, say, kibitz, whisper, message "tell Doggie Hello!" sends the message "Hello!" to the player named Doggie. Tell is also used to talk to channels. "tell 250 Hello everybody" will send your message to everybody in channel 250, and echo the channel number and the number of people who received the message. Your message will appear to everybody in channel 250 as: Doggie(250): Hello everybody There are hundreds of chat channels, some designated for certain topics and groups. For a list, type "help channels". You can join channel 113 (for example) either by talking to it or by typing "+channel 113". To leave channel 113, type "-channel 113". You can be in many channels at once. Channel 1 is the help channel, so that's a good place to ask questions. "shout Hello!" sends the message to all players. (Actually, every player has the option of turning off shouts.) It echoes the number of players who received it. Only registered players are allowed to shout. "i" is a command that issues a special form of shout. "I like chess!" will generate the shout "--> Darooha likes chess!", if your name is "Darooha". "say Hello!" sends the message to your opponent (if you're playing) or to your previous opponent (if you're not playing). "kibitz Hello!" sends the message to all players and observers in the game you're playing or observing, and "whisper" does the same, but doesn't include the players. "message darooha I want a tic-tac-toe feature" will leave a message to the player named "darooha". When Darooha logs in, he will get the message. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Who is on, and what games are happening? Some basic commands for finding out what's going on on the ICC are: who, finger, games, events To see a list of players who are currently logged onto the ICC, type "who". Usually there are so many players on that this will only show a partial list. This command takes a number of optional parameters (also called arguments), detailed in "help who" and "help who1". There's no need to learn all of the details, but here are a few examples of what you can do with this command: "who T" -- Show me all the titled players (GM, IM, FM, etc). "who *H" -- Show me all the administrators logged in, excluding computers. "who 17" -- Show me the top 1/7th of all players all the players ordered by their ICC ratings. Here's an example of the result of typing "who c80!", listing the 32 players currently in channel 77 (the Japanese language channel): 3023 mihiz(GM) 2216 SuurSuomi ----^Wildbull 2849.FrozenShade(IM) 2196 AttackingTal 1611 Oxymoron 2764:Kgarde 2066^WattsPrince 1549^MikkoL 2658^Melekone(IM) 2012^jyrkip 1490 hockeyking 2416#Piiroja 2012.kleineme 1461^HarrierS 2400 SamiStar 1915^murdererman 1454^simplicitas 2323.sigma 1865.kajjohan 1144 CEO 2319^HUR 1792^Blangis ++++:guest1059 2299^jossu 1792.Zimo ++++.guest1071 2236^TsingisKhan 1777.jdudarhs701 ++++#guest16 2235^nenchess(C) 1754^tigcapa 32 Players displayed (of 2632). C = Computer. To the left of each name shown, you will see a rating (or "----" if the player has never played, or "++++" if the player is an unregistered guest) Between each name and rating, is a symbol indicating the current state of the player: ^ That player is currently playing a game. # That player is currently examining a game. . That player is idle for at least 5 minutes. : That player is not open for match challenges. ~ That player is currently giving a simultaneous exhibition. To the right of some of the names you will see some symbols in parentheses. These are the player's title. For example the (GM) title indicates that mihiz is a Grandmaster, which is the highest title. Titles like this are awarded by the international chess federation FIDE, not by ICC. There are also some special ICC titles: (*) for administrators, (C) for computers, (TD) for tournament director robots, and (DM) which is a temporary designation given to some players as a prize or so that their kibitzes will stand out. To find out information about a specific player, use the "finger" command. Here's the result of "finger NDShort": Information about NDShort(GM) (Last disconnected Sat Jan 05 2002 16:25): - rating [need] win loss draw total best Bullet 2640 [8] 142 126 19 287 2890 (11-Dec-2000) Blitz 2960 2496 1528 515 4539 3241 (07-Dec-2001) - 1: Nigel Short , MBE. 2: Olive farmer in Messinia. 3: Chess columnist for the "Sunday Telegraph". 4: Honorary Fellow of the Bolton Institute. 5: Bass guitarist ( retired ) of "The Urge". 6: Player "Bullet" and "Blitz" are two of the rating categories. The [need] column indicates how many rated games he needs in that column for his rating to become active for this month or week. Only active ratings are listed by the "best" or "best bullet" commands. Below the rating information are the personal notes of this player. You can set your notes using the "set" command, e.g. "set 1 Hi, I'm new here, and would like to make friends." The games command shows you information about all the current games. Here's part of the output of "games": 40 2041 Jonus 1977 capivara [ br 5 0] 4:20 - 4:42 (38-37) W: 11 24 2187 buctooth 2518 ratbert [ br 5 5] 4:51 - 4:24 (39-39) B: 10 47 1699 Karpov 2744 Kamsky [ sr120 0] Ex: (adj) Karpov Kams W: 57 48 games displayed (45 played, 3 examined). To summarize the information in the first line, from left to right: The game number is 40. Jonus is White and capivara is Black. Jonus' blitz rating is 2041 and capivara's is 1977. The game is a blitz game, and it's rated. The time control is 5 minutes with a 0 second increment. The current state of the clocks are 4:20 for White and 4:42 for Black. It's White turn move, and the move about to be made is move 11. Type "events" for a listing of top games to observe, tournaments to join, and other notable things going on at ICC at the moment. Type "help events" or "help events2" for a listing of events scheduled for the next few days. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Observing games Each game has a game number. This number is shown at the left end of each line printed by "games", and is also displayed whenever any information about a game is presented. It is possible to watch the progress of one or more games. This is called observing. If you're observing a game, each time anything happens in that game, your display is updated. The commands that govern this are observe unobserve "observe 2" turns on observing of game 2. Alternatively "observe Doggie" turns on observing of the game played by Doggie. "unobserve Doggie" stops observing Doggie, and "unobserve" turns off observing of all games. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Further reading There are many other features that have not been described in this note. All of these features are explained in help files, which can be obtained with the help command. The complete list of file names available with the help command are partitioned into two sets. Those that describe particular commands can be listed by typing "help". The names of those that present other information can be seen by typing "info". Here is a list of some of the information that's available in the help system. "help lists" -- How you can be notified when certain people connect, and when certain people start a game, how you can avoid playing certain players, how you can block communication from certain players, how you can make alises to streamline typing long commands that you commonly use. "help vars" -- Lists all the user-settable variables. These control such things as whether you hear shouts, whether you hear kibitzes, the default time control used by seek and match if the time control is omitted, and many other things. "help examine" -- How to play over (post-mortem) games on ICC. "help channels" -- This lists all special interest channels, and their corresponding topics. "help set" -- Explains how to set all of your variables, including the notes appearing when somebody fingers you. "help libraries" -- How to maintain your own personal library of games. "help search" -- How to find games in ICC's large database of GM and IM games. "help simul" -- How to play simultaneous matches on the ICC. "help event" -- List of exciting events in the next week, which you also see when you login. "help tournaments" -- Lists upcoming tournaments, and explains how to join them. "help wild" -- A list of chess variants you can play on ICC. "help fees" -- Explains the fees. "help abuse" -- Things not to do. "help atmosphere" -- ICC's policies regarding offensive language, and personal attacks. "help definitions" -- Defines a number of terms used in the ICC. "help commands" -- A list of the most used commands with a short description. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Contacting the ICC If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to contact us. email: icc@chessclub.com mail: Internet Chess Club phone: (412) 436-5558 USA PO Box 5485 FAX: (412) 521-5575 Pittsburgh, PA 15206 USA web: https://www.chessclub.com# 2014-01-14 BrianSP edited via web form