Blunders blunders

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
Excuse my ignorance but who or what is FICS? Is this a blitz web site that is worth while exploring? If so how about a link to it?

FICS is like ICC, or playchess...but better (because its 100% free)


heres the link to that: -
http://www.freechess.org/

and if you decided to sign up I also suggest:-
http://www.babaschess.net/

^^ which links you to a download, babas is an excellent chess client for use with FICS -- much better than that jin applet crap.

Originally posted by Shinidoki
FICS is like ICC, or playchess...but better (because its 100% free)


heres the link to that: -
http://www.freechess.org/

and if you decided to sign up I also suggest:-
http://www.babaschess.net/

^^ which links you to a download, babas is an excellent chess client for use with FICS -- much better than that jin applet crap.

Thanks I will have a look at it. As I know OTB my rating is 300 points higher for blitz than normally timed games it will be interesting to see if I hit 2100 there or only 1500 (that might settle the debate)

Free internet chess server. You can play online real-time games and tournaments with java, or you can download interface. Then even have chess lectures

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
Thanks I will have a look at it. As I know OTB my rating is 300 points higher for blitz than normally timed games it will be interesting to see if I hit 2100 there or only 1500 (that might settle the debate)

there is a "surveybot" at FICS -- its sole purpose is to try and find a reliable formula for converting OTB ratings to standard FICS ones.

its findings seem to suggest that FICS ratings are lower than FIDE.

so, a server 1700 player should be closer to 1900 FIDE -- that is of course, if surveybot has any credability to its work. (which I honestly doubt)

so....bascially what I'm trying to say is, you propably won't hit 2100 blitz.

Originally posted by Shinidoki
FICS is like ICC, or playchess...but better (because its 100% free)


heres the link to that: -
http://www.freechess.org/

and if you decided to sign up I also suggest:-
http://www.babaschess.net/

^^ which links you to a download, babas is an excellent chess client for use with FICS -- much better than that jin applet crap.

Isn't jin the best interface for Fics? What is that babas thing?

Originally posted by ivan2908
Isn't jin the best interface for Fics? What is that babas thing?

there are several usable clients.

the mains ones are:-

A) Jin
B) Winboard
C) Babas

personally i have a strong dislike for jin - becuase to get a game I have to be a programmer first, not only that, it actaully takes a long time to load on my computer.

winboard i havn't used.

and then we have Babas, which is downloaded (thus, no loading times) and basically it is just a very user friendly cleint full of nice little features

Originally posted by Shinidoki
there are several usable clients.

the mains ones are:-

A) Jin
B) Winboard
C) Babas

personally i have a strong dislike for jin - becuase to get a game I have to be a programmer first, not only that, it actaully takes a long time to load on my computer.

winboard i havn't used.

and then we have Babas, which is downloaded (thus, no loading times) and basically it is just a very user friendly cleint full of nice little features

Thanks for the information. What I detest when a play Jin is that I can't save PGN files. So I'll try to use that other interface

Originally posted by ivan2908
Thanks for the information. What I detest when a play Jin is that I can't save PGN files. So I'll try to use that other interface

With babas you can.....

and not only can you save pgn files you can save them by your oppenant (so a whole file full of Shini vs Bigdave another shini vs. smallblingblingdave) or, by type (blitz is one file, standard another) or by date (all the game you play on 21/10/11 will be in that file, while all the games played on 22/10/11 will be stored in another file)

Originally posted by Shinidoki
FICS is like ICC, or playchess...but better (because its 100% free)

that might be a bit of a strech (not much), but FICS is free.

I wouldn't even touch jin or winboard/xboard (as fics client) after using babaschess. it's simply superior in every way, and best piece of chess related software I've come across.

Originally posted by Shinidoki
With babas you can.....

wow, you've really been busy on FICS, if you're 'shinidoki' there as well! 2174 blitz games, 3199 standards and a couple of hundreds of other games as well. 🙂

As a plus, I presume at blitz it is virtually impossible to use an engine so you are guaranteed to be playing against a human opponent.

Originally posted by wormwood
wow, you've really been busy on FICS, if you're 'shinidoki' there as well! 2174 blitz games, 3199 standards and a couple of hundreds of other games as well. 🙂

yes.... thats me.


I just fingered myself:-

Total time online: 53 days, 23 hrs, 17 mins
% of life online: 17.8 (since Wed Nov 2, 06:58 PST 2005)

^^ so yes, I have been very busy -- 20% of my life busy.

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
As a plus, I presume at blitz it is virtually impossible to use an engine so you are guaranteed to be playing against a human opponent.

I'm not sure on that -- there are computer accounts for blitz, so its possible. (but i think they use a certain interface)


however, ...if you had fritz running in the background, and you kept on alt-tabbing then playing the moves yourself, you would most certaintly have a very low blitz rating.

Originally posted by Shinidoki
yes.... thats me.


I just fingered myself:-

Total time online: 53 days, 23 hrs, 17 mins
% of life online: 17.8 (since Wed Nov 2, 06:58 PST 2005)

^^ so yes, I have been very busy -- 20% of my life busy.

plus 20% sleeping;
20% having sex;
20% eating.

when do you get to earn a living?

Originally posted by Shinidoki
% of life online: 17.8 (since Wed Nov 2, 06:58 PST 2005)

that's like 5h of FICS daily, on average! 😀 well, I guess many of us are pretty obsessive with RHP too (4-6h daily for me) or CTS (2-3h)...