I've tried a bunch of live chess sites. I've played Yahoo for a while, signed up for trial period at ICC and a pile of others. I've finally settled on FICS as my main site. Having discovered that there are other interfaces out there that are more like ICC's Blitzin than the old-fashioned Winboard I had been using, I'm at a loss to understand why so many are willing to fork out $50/yr to get essentially the same thing. I can think of four advantages ICC has over FICS based on my experience.
1. you can take (at extra cost) lessons from titled players
2. more titled players (because it's free for them to join) gives you more chances to play in simuls, odds games and the like.
3. more players at any one time means you rarely have to wait the sometimes 15-20 seconds it can sometimes take on FICS for someone to pick up your seek
4. Your ICC rating is as recognised as an internet rating can be, though an OTB rating still means more and probably always will.
None of these reasons are enough to get me to join, but as there are many times more players on ICC than FICS, obviously there are a lot of people who think differently. My question is to those who play on ICC or other pay to play servers, are these the reasons you saw fit to join or are there others? Are there advantages that I'm missing?
I use playchess and ICC for blitz. With my games on RHP in helps balance my act. ICC, as you said, has lots and lots of customers so your game turns up instantly, if you don't specify the ratings you're looking for. Their playing graphics are excellent, but all that typing in of formulas I think is quite clunky. Also, ICC for some reason has it's share of nuts. I always turn kibitzing off so I don't get the stupid comments during games and I set noescape on, which means if you or your opponent disconnect, it's a loss. I think it should be a loss normally. If you have a bad connection, oh, well. Playchess.com is a Chessbase spinoff so their graphics are state of the art. You play people from all over the world, especially Germany, and for some reason you don't have as many nuts. YOu have to wait somewhat longer for an opponent, especialy after 6pm EST U.S. because allthe Europeans are asleep. You can have Fritz store all your games from playchess and ICC if you want to analyze later, that's handy, and playchess keeps track of rating changes with a neat graph to see how lousy you're doing at the moment. there's another one out there called Chess 21, which I like, but I just didn't want to spring for any more money right now. Hope this helps.
ICC also has daily lectures,for free,and 1 or 2 weekly simuls,for free.I don't know if FICS has that?
I think there are 2 main reasons,one being that ICC has a larger crowd,people attract people,you know.And the second is the presence,and the opportunity to play,a large number of titled players.If you play a lot in the 5 minute pool,you'll get many games with titled players,and it's free of charge.
Personally,I just stumbled on ICC and joined,before I even heard of FICS.Had it been the other way around,I might be a FICS player now.But maybe not,I played a few games on FICS,using various interfaces,and I just find ICC so much easier to use.
I also play on playchess.com.This is a very good site as well,but somehow,for no apparent reason,I still prefer ICC,even though playchess is free for me.I don't know,guess I'm strange that way 😕
Originally posted by SirLoseALotI find the interface you use makes a big difference. Originally I was playing on FICS with the Winboard interface that I downloaded for use with chess engines. The statistics on the FICS site showed that this is by far the most popular and so I assumed it was the best available. It is very clunky to use this as an interface. You have to type everything in and there was no "sought" graph. Playing with Blitzin on ICC seemed worlds apart from that, and for that reason I was considering joining. Then I started playing with some of the other interfaces out there like Baba's, Cclient and finally settled on iNemisis. I think I like it a bit better than Blitzin. Now it seems the only thing I lose playing FICS is the occasional delay waiting for someone to pick up my seek, and even that's not too bad.
...somehow,for no apparent reason,I still prefer ICC,even though playchess is free for me.I don't know,guess I'm strange that way 😕
In response to someone else's post, yes FICS also has simuls, tournaments and lectures, but I don't think there's quite as many of them. They do not have the system that ICC has that lets you pay for things like individual lessons.
As an asside, I have about a 500 point gap between my Blitz (usually 1150-1200 depending on if I've been trying to play after 2am recently) and Standard rating (about 1700). Anyone experience similar?
I use playchess.com, mostly because it came free with Fritz8. I have to say that I am very happy with it though. I use pogo.com as a free site, and occasionally I play on yahoo. The downfall of the free sites is that they are overrun with annoying people and there are rumors of rampant cheating. The pay sites tend to try to address the cheating issue, and the graphics are far superior. I haven't tried many correspondence sites, but I have to say that I think it would be difficult to beat this site, and the cost is certainly not prohibitive for what you get.
Originally posted by BLReidYeah, Yahoo is pretty notorious. I don't know that the distinction is to be made between free and pay sites though. I find the biggest difference is between chess servers that use a one-time download interface program and some of the java-based sites. On Yahoo, for example, I have the chat filters set to maximum and I still see people posting addresses to porn sites.
The downfall of the free sites is that they are overrun with annoying people and there are rumors of rampant cheating.
One of the best things on ICC is the lechessclub.It's a club within the club,focused on improving your game.They have mentors,divided by ratings,for instance,a 1500 will be mentor for players up to 1300,a 1700 for players up to 1500,etc...
On request,these mentors will go over a game you played(standard only,no blitzgames),and show where you went wrong.They have some very good mentors.They also arrange free simuls against titled players,and a whole variety of tourneys,lectures,and what not.And it's all free!
Originally posted by SirLoseALotthis sounds good, how do i join up?
One of the best things on ICC is the lechessclub.It's a club within the club,focused on improving your game.They have mentors,divided by ratings,for instance,a 1500 will be mentor for players up to 1300,a 1700 for players up to 1500,etc...
On request,these mentors will go over a game you played(standard only,no blitzgames),and show where you went wrong ...[text shortened]... against titled players,and a whole variety of tourneys,lectures,and what not.And it's all free!