FICS Monthly Newsletter

Please welcome the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) of mamer -- SuperIntellect.

Mamer is the FICS automated Tournament Director on our chess server. Please contact him if you have questions related to mamer's operation. Currently, the Tournament Manager (TM) list is being reviewed until the end of January. There is a demand for new TMs right now, if you would like to apply, read "help mamer_tm". Please forward your application to SuperIntellect, if you have a previous application submitted please send it again. You will be contacted if you more information is needed, thank you.

Version 4.0.5 is a minor update. The 'change log' lists about 5 new items since the last update, fixing two new bugs in 4.0.4, and about 20 more since version 4.0.3. Be sure to read the included release notes for specifics. You can also find more information at http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/mann/chess.html.

Would you like to link to previous Newsletter Issues?
It's a great way to locate other helpful:"Tip of the Month" sections
and older news highlights that were covered in past issues.
Click this button if you would like to see more.

**** Major Events ****

FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman will play a 6-game match with Peter Leko from Monday, January 3 to Sunday, January 9, 2000 in Budapest, Hungary. FICS will be bringing you a live relay of this event. It will be the first presentation of the New World Champion in a high class event. You can find more information and official coverage of this match at either of these links:
http://195.235.97.120/khalifman-leko/html/english.html
http://http://www.terra.es/deportes/ajedrez/portada.htm

When online, you can also "finger Budapest" for more details about this event.

Once again FICS will be used to transfer the games to the web page: http://www.bcf.ndirect.co.uk/Hastings/
Invited players include: K. Bischoff, B. Lalic, A. Dreev, J. Hodgson, L. McShane, J. Parker, M. Sadler, I. Sokolov and E. Sutovski. The winner will hold the Golombek Trophy for one year.
Games start on January 4, 2000 and go through to the January 12, 2000.
Play starts at 2pm GMT (8am server time).

The Escape Artist Fall 1999 Tournament: The EscapeArtist (EA) tournament is now over. This tournament counted towards the FICS Grand Prix and had a value of 750 GP points! cppe placed first with 6.5 points, cicero placed second with 6 points, innocentone and Kabal tied for third place. The EscapeArtist results are included in the last FICS Grand Prix update. You can check out the current standings of the Escape Artist Tournament by selecting the 'Current Standings' link off the EA homepage: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/EscapeArtist/index.html

More information can be found on the FICS Grand Prix right below this section.

The 1999-2000 FICS Grand Prix! This is a 'standard tournament' competition that extends throughout the entire year and keeps score based on scheduled standard tourneys run on FICS. The FICS Grand Prix cycle lasts 52 weeks: Tuesday, September 21, 1999, through Monday, September 18, 2000. During the course of these 52 weeks, a number of Grand Prix events will be held. At the end of the year there is a $150.00 (US Dollars) guaranteed prize fund. You will find information for Frequently Asked Questions, Events listings, Standings and a complete player list on the Grand Prix website at: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/EscapeArtist/FICSGrandPrix/index.html

Rank	Name	GP Points	# of events	1st place	2nd place	3rd place
1	SGV	1561.33	26	14	2	4
2	bigbad	1520.32	39	11	14	5
3	Terrapin	662.82	23	3	7	2

(The following point totals reflect events posted as of the publication date of this newsletter.)

**** FICS Tournaments ****

FICS Second Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament
Get those hash tables tweaked!!!

FICS will be presenting it's Second Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament on Saturday, January 29, 2000 @ 11:00 Server time. The Tournament will be a 5 Round Swiss and the time controls will be 5 8. This tournament will be opened to all FICS registered computer accounts. FICS First Quarterly champion was Koibito (Currently c-ranked #1 in blitz games on FICS). Contact afw by e-mail, or message him while online if you would like more information about this tournament. If you know already that you will be entering in the tournament, please message him online with the computer account's handle; a short list of entries will be listed in his finger notes.

Computer Accounts:
In order to register a computer, contact the "computers" account (the team who handles this procedure). E-mail to: computers@freechess.org with the information contained in "help computer_app". The review process usually takes a few days. You will be contacted about your request. To see a list of computers registered on the server, type "=computer". Details about these accounts are given in "help computerlist". Computers are designated on "who" lists by (C).

Suicide on Saturdays (SOS): The SOS (Suicide On Saturdays) is a tournament run each week by DChessmaster(TM). The SOS Tournament will be held every Saturday at 10 am server time (15:00 GMT). The score is kept for each player who plays in 1 or more tournaments. The weekly tournament will be a 5 0 Swiss consisting of 5 rounds. There will also be a quarterly Suicide Championship. And lastly, there will be a yearly Suicide Championship 4 player 5 0 Double Round Robin. The quarterly championships will be a qualification tournament for the annual tournament. The exact specs of this tourney are yet to be decided, but will be announced shortly.

To qualify for a quartly tournament, you must be in the top scores of a division. The divisions are under 1800 (0-1799) and over 1800 (1800-9999). The exact number of players to be picked from each section is yet to be decided; if a player is unable to attend, there may be wildcard slots. The winner of the over 1800 section qualifies to play in the yearly, 4-player Suicide Championship held at the end of September/early October (Date to be announced later). The winner of the under 1800 section gets a lesson from Haley (2326). More information about this event may be obtained by e-mailing DChessmaster(TM) or while on FICS, you can visit the SOS web site at: http://www.kingscourt.cjb.net/

The following players have qualified for the first Quarterly Championship Tournament to be held Satuday, January 8: From the over 1800 section: luvk, SandStrom, DChessmaster, Knightwizard From the under 1800 section: cox(withdrew), SuperIntellect. Wildcards: One from the under 1800 section. It will be given to the top scoring under 1800 player in the regular SOS tournament Jan. 8, 2000 so be sure to show up!

"Nightly 5 0 tournaments:These are tourneys held every day at 10:00 PM server time. As the name implies they are played with a 5 0-time control and run 5 rounds. At the end of the week an overall Champion for the week is crowned. The winners each week are the top four in overall standings. You do not have to participate everyday to win titles.

The Nightly is an open tourney and all are encouraged to participate. The tourneys also last a little over 1 hr so plan ahead!

"Nightly 5 0" Tournament of Champions: Winners of the top four in overall standings of the Nightly will be invited to participate in a monthly tournament of champions.

Each week the top 4 players from the overall standings are invited to participate in the Monthly "Tournament of Champions." This puts the top 16 players over the entire month against each other to crown the "Nightly Champion." The week of tournaments runs from Tuesday to Monday, with the top 4 players being mentioned in a special news item for all of FICS to see!

The tournament will be a Swiss system 16-player format, participants will play others in the same ratings classes, each match consists of 5 0 games. Even if you are rated lower than most players, you can still place in the Nightlies due to our generous "bonus points" system: You can earn extra points (tourney points) for such things as scoring a first or second place, achieving upset victories, or just for playing in the tournaments each night! Everyone who enters has a reasonable chance to win! Please see the Nightly Web Page for more information.

The following people have been invited to play in January in the December Tournament of Champions: RonStewart, Christen, ahijah, CitizenK, laazrockit, gron, Elohmrow, RatinaHat, JVC, soulhunter, MojoMan, RicFlair. There will be 4 more invitees before then end of the month, then the tournament will begin!!

***** The Chess Academy *****

The FICS Chess Academy provides a medium for the interaction between strong and weaker chess players. Stronger players, designated by the symbol (CA), donate their time to help their weaker counterparts in order to share knowledge. The most common event is semi-formal analysis of games or positions, there will also be lectures, master challenge sessions, guided group analysis of GM games, and more! In accordance with the principles by which FICS was founded, all Academy advisers volunteer their time and expertise. Instructors are users who are master or candidate master (expert) strength players and are enthusiastic about helping others.

Do you have a question on how to participate? To receive instruction or otherwise participate in the Chess Academy you should follow these steps:

                    Channel 65 "Events"
                    Channel 66 "Examine"
                    Channel 67 "Lectures"

The proceedings start in ch 65, but often "follow (CA Lecturer)" is used while examining a game or position. Prepare your questions and interesting games before the Chess Academy hour starts. Game submissions for analysis are welcome, and should be e-mailed to: The Chess Academy and/or saved in your journal, accompanied by a message to Academy. Use tells to channel 65 during the Chess Academy Hours ('tell 65 I don't understand the Lucena position'). Chess advisers will have (CA) after their handles.

The FICS Chess Academy weekly schedule for January:

Day:	Server Time:	Greenwich Mean Time (GMT):	Academy Event:
Monday	13:00	18:00	Group Analysis
Wednesday	15:00	20:00	Group Analysis
Thursday	07:00 21:00	12:00 2:00	Group Analysis Group Analysis
Saturday	15:00	20:00	Group Analysis
Sunday	15:00	20:00	Special Events *

* Every Sunday at 15:00 server time, the Chess Academy will hold
Special events such as: team games, simuls and master events.
The Time indicated is Server Time (GMT-5).

GM Knezevic lectures are twice every month.
He will be starting a new lecture series on the Alekhine Defence.
The next lecture is on Sunday, January 9, 2000.
All lectures will start at 9:00 server time (15:00 GMT).
To stay updated, finger the Academy account on FICS.

*****New Players *****

A total of 1,390 new player accounts have been created for the month of December.
Currently to date, FICS total size is 57,149 player accounts.
Active accounts in the month of December totaled 10,428.
Total FICS Growth since July 1, 1999 (a six month period) has been 7,589 new accounts.

***** Server Tip of the Month *****

January's "Server Tip of the Month" will cover FICS e-mail integration,
commands such as: automail, mailstored, mailmess, mailhelp, mailmoves, and how they work.

Automail is one of your FICS variable settings, you can read the help file by typing in "help v_automail". If your 'automail' variable is set to '1' or 'on', the moves of your game will be mailed to you when it is completed or adjourned. Example, "set automail 1" or "set automail on". If your 'automail' variable is zero ('0', 'false' or 'off') games will not be automatically mailed to you once a game is complete.

Your server e-mail address is used for mailing these games to you. Make sure it is correct by typing "finger" and seeing what it is; if it is not correct, contact an admin and have it changed.
[Reminder: only you and admins see your e-mail address in finger notes.]

FICS is currently looking for users who want to help us promoting FICS. Among things we are working on is to get the FICS Banner on your local chess club and personal web pages. If you have time and want to help us then send e-mail to: binford@freechess.org.

Please send comments and feedback on what you would like to see in future editions.
Edited by: afw(*)
Comments to afw or TheOnlyOne.

mailstored Hawk	for a stored game you have with Hawk
mailstored Hawk 65	for a history game played by Hawk
mailstored Hawk DAV	for a stored game between Hawk and DAV
mailstored Hawk K	for a journal game from Hawk's journal

*e-mail all* messages**	use "mailmess" alone with no arguments
*e-mail one* message**	use "mailmess #"; example: "mailmess 12"
*a range* of messages**	example: "mailmess 12-15"
messages from a user	use "mailmess user"; example: "mailmess Hawk"

mailhelp	displays all help files that can be e-mailed
mailhelp messages	e-mails you the 'messages' help file
mailhelp [filename]	e-mails you a particular help file available

Welcome to the World of Chess!

What's New !!!

Major Events

FICS Tournaments

* The Chess Academy *

New Players

* Server Tip of the Month *