The FICS SR team is glad to present:
April 2000
Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) News
What's New? - Both our total New Player accounts and Active accounts have again hit new monthly records for the server for the third month in a row! FICS would like to welcome the 2,036 new players that have joined us in the month of March. Total active users in the past month have also hit a new high of 11,594. Among the highlights in this month's newsletter is the new scheduled tourney on Wednesdays at 11:15AM server time to cater to the lunchtime crowd, the time controls are 4 minutes with no increment. We also have information on the Nomination Chess simul event played on March 23rd with GM Keith Arkell. You will find the news on the qualifiers who will now advance to the finals in the Italian Tournament hosted by frengo(TM). FICS will also be hosting its 3rd Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament on Saturday, April 29, 2000.
Be sure to read the rest of the April Monthly Newsletter for more FICS news and other chess related information. Plus, don't forget to check out the links to our previous Newsletter issues, July 1999 to present. You will also find a lot of useful information in our previous 'Server Tip of the Month' sections.
Nomination Chess with GM Arkell
FICS hosted a Nomination Chess Simul with GM Keith Arkell on March 23, 2000. Nomination chess is like normal chess, but the stronger player has to mate with a certain piece on a certain square, which is predetermined by the observers before the start of the game. The opponent player is unaware of the details.
For example, if the nomination is 'Mate with Knight on e4', the stronger player has to mate with that piece on e4. He must not lose that piece, allow the opponent to sac it, or exchange it off. The stronger play wins if he carries that out. The opponent wins if he can capture that piece, occupy the square without it being possible to remove the blockader, by mate, stalemate, or draw with the stronger player. Since the game is 5 0, time forfeits are also possible.
If the GM is able to carry out the mating task he wins. Any other checkmate loses. Stalemate or a draw is a loss for the GM as well as if he is mated. Players can be forfeited on time. Of course the opponent does not know what task is being performed.
You will find more information and a listing of the games played as well as the nominated pieces and squares for the nomination chess tournament on : The Nomination Chess Tournament Webpage.
Final score for 14 games stands at GMArkell - 5, FICSers - 9.
Italian Championships Update
The 5th and last qualifier of The FICS Italian Internet Chess Championship was played on March 31st, and has narrowed the field down to fourteen players in the open section, eight players in the U1600 section and twelve players in the U1300 section. The time control for this tournament is 5 0 blitz. There were no rating requirements in this tournament, however, only Italian players were admitted. The finals of the two minor sections will take place on April 4, 2000 at 20:15 GMT. The main section final date has not been announced. The tournament organizer is frengo(TM).
You can find more information for the tournament such as grids and many games from the tournament (in zipped PGN format) at: The Italian Championship website , and the The Italian Chess Webzine . You can also get other information not mentioned by emailing the tournament manager frengo(TM).
FICS Third Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament
Get those Hash Tables Tweaked!!!
FICS will be presenting the Third Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament on Saturday, April 29, 2000 promptly at 11:00 server time. The tournament is a swiss-paired 5 round event with a 5 8 time control. The eight second increment is done in order to allow for cyborgs (human assisted chess programs) to participate. The tournament will be open to all FICS registered computer accounts. Our previous Quarterly champion was Oort who managed to beat Koibito (Currently the #5 ranked computer on FICS in blitz) in our last quarterly event. A suicide computer chess division will also be run which will start 15 minutes after the main event. 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).
Unregistered computers will be banned from playing rated games.
EscapeArtist Tournament 2000
The EscapeArtist (EA) tournament format for 2000 has been posted!!! The tournament is an 8 round Swiss, using a 45 5 time control. Unlike the server's mamer tournaments, players have a total of three months to complete their sections. Participants arrange the time to play when it's convenient for both players. If a section starts on March 1st, then the section will end play on May 31st. Each section of EscapeArtist Tournaments are worth 200 FICS Grand Prix Points. Channel 201 is the unofficial channel for these tournaments. More information about this event may be obtained by emailing innocentone, you can also finger the EscapeArtist account on FICS, or visit the EscapeArtist web page at http://www.angelfire.com/wi/EscapeArtist/EscapeArtist/spring.html
You can check out the current standings of the Escape Artist Tournament by selecting
the "Current Standings" link off the EA homepage. Current sections in
progress:
March 1 - May 31 (Registration closed February 29, 10:00 p.m. server time)
April 1 - June 30 (Registration closes April 2, 10:00 p.m. server time)
May 1 - July 31 (Registration closes April 30, 10:00 p.m. server time)
June 1 - August 31 (Registration closes May 31, 10:00 p.m. server time)
The FICS Grand Prix!!!
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
The top three participants in a field of 210 players are listed here, bigbad takes the lead!!!
Rank |
Name |
GP |
# of |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
1 |
bigbad |
2323.03 |
61 |
16 |
21 |
10 |
2 |
SGV |
1903.28 |
32 |
17 |
2 |
11 |
3 |
Knightnite |
1088.69 |
20 |
10 |
5 |
3 |
(The following point totals reflect events posted as of the publication date of this newsletter.)
Rapid Chess event in Iceland
Organized by the Chess Federation of Iceland, the Iceland Speed Championship is
probably the strongest chess tournament held in Iceland for over two decades. Twelve
Grandmasters will playoff in two groups of 6, where each player takes on all the other
players in the group. The groups will be randomly selected with the exception of the
following: Kasparov and Anand will not be in the same group and three Icelandic
grandmasters will be in each group. Time controls are 25 minutes with 0 increment.
The two top players in each group qualify for the Finals.
In case of a tie, the sole winner will be determined by two 5-minute blitz games. If
there is still a draw, there will be a game of "sudden death" where white has 4
minutes and black 5 minutes, whereby a draw is sufficient for black.
You can find more information on this event at: http://www.chess.is.
"Nightly 5 0" tournaments: These are tournaments held every night
at 10:00 PM server time. As the name implies, they are played with a 5 0 time
control and the tournament is a 5-round swiss paired event. At the end of the week
an overall Champion for the week is crowned, and a FICS news item is posted with the
winners name. There is also an U1600 title and an upset title. The titles are
awarded each week, and are included on the weekly news items. You do not have to
participate every night 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! For more information, contact timp online or message him. You may also find more information on the Nightly web page at: http://freechess.cjb.net
"Nightly 5 0" Tournament of Champions: Each week, the winners of
the three sections are invited to participate in the monthly "Tournament of
Champions." This tournament is made up of the top 12 players over the cycle plus the
'wild cards'; which are the four highest point scorers for the entire cycle that did not
qualify for the 'Nightly Champion' title. The weekly cycle for the Nightly runs from
Sunday to Saturday.
The 'Tournament of Champions' final is a swiss-paired 16 player format, where participants will play others in their rating class. Each match consists of 5 0 games between the opponents, with the winner being the first person to score 2 points in round 1. This winner then moves on to the next round! For the first and second rounds of the Tournament of Champions, you need to score 2 points to advance, for the semi-final round it is 3 points, and in the championship round the winner is the first to achieve 4 points.
The Tournament of Champions has entered its third cycle of the year! Progress has been a bit slow due to spring break time, but we have made it to the second round! The second round pairings are: Trikmamak-Mojoman, Mikmuwessu-Taffa, msheaf-Epitaph, Iwulu-spdolan. Second Round Matches are best of three.
Tournament of Champions Cycle 2 Finals Update:
Congratulations to Laazrockit for winning a second Consecutive Cycle Championship!
Laazrockit defeated Halcyonn 4-1 in a best of seven match played at FICS. Thank you
to all that participated!
For more details, check out: The Nightly Web Page.
SOS Update!
The FICS Tournament Manager (TM) Team would like bid farewell to DChessmaster. DC, who created the Suicide on Saturdays concept in October 1999 and managed the tournament, resigned his position effective March 17, 2000. Scheduling conflicts no longer permit him to continue as a TM. For a short period the future of the SOS Tourney was up in the air, but since then WarHawk has agreed to take over the job of running the tourney. We will miss you DChessmaster, good luck!
Suicide on Saturdays (SOS): The SOS (Suicide On Saturdays) is a tournament run each week on FICS. The tournament is held every Saturday at 10:00 am server time (CST). 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. Lastly, there will be an Annual Suicide Championship 4 player 5 0 Double Round Robin! The quarterly championships will be a qualification tournament for the annual tournament.
To qualify for a quarterly tournament, you must be in the top 4 scores in the over 1800 section or top 2 from the under 1800 section. If a player is forced to withdraw or is unable to attend, a wildcard slot will be available to the next qualified player from their division. The winner of the under 1800 section gets a lesson from Haley (2362). More information about this event may be obtained by e-mailing timp(TM), contacting him on FICS, or visit the SOS web site at: http://www.kingscourt.cjb.net/
SOS News - Congratulations to Sandstrom!
Sandstrom won FICS first ever SOS Quarterly Championship Tournament held on January 8,
2000. He now qualifies to play in the Annual Server Suicide Championship
Tournament. The following shows player standings for the new quarter (Jan, Feb,
Mar). Current SOS Quarterly standings - Other interesting statistics for the previous quarter:
First: Knightwizard (22.5)
Second: DChessmaster (22.0)
Third: carlosab (6.5)
Highest Score (1st place): luvk(39.5)
Highest Rating: Haley(2350)
Most Improved Rating: luvk(+202)
Highest Score(under 1800): cox(15.0)
Most Improved Rating(under 1800): paddles(+141)
Click here for more FICS tournament information!
The FICS Chess Academy provides a medium for the interaction between strong and weaker chess players. Chess advisors, designated by the symbol (CA), donate their time to help weaker counterparts in order to share their 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! Instructors are master or candidate master (expert) strength players and are enthusiastic about helping others improve their chess.
To receive instruction or otherwise participate in the Chess Academy you should follow these steps:
The proceedings start in channel 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 March:
| Day | Server Time |
Academy Event |
| Monday | 13:00 | Group Analysis |
| Wednesday | 15:00 | Group Analysis |
| Thursday | 7:00 21:00 |
Group Analysis Group Analysis |
| Saturday | 15:00 | Group Analysis |
| Sunday | 15:00 | 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 next lecture by GM Knezevic is scheduled for April 2nd
GM Knezevic lectures are twice every month.
Lectures are held on the first and third Sunday's of the month.
All lectures will start at 09:00 server time.
To stay updated, finger the Academy account on FICS.
A total of 2,036 new player accounts have been created for the month
of March.
Currently to date, FICS total size is 62,670 player accounts.
Active accounts in the month of March totaled 11,594.
April's "Server Tip of the Month" will cover, How to work with Journal entries on FICS
The Journal Feature: The journal feature was created for our registered users to be able to store up to 26 games. These slots will be lettered from A-Z. The regular user will only be able to store a total of 12 games, lettered from A-L.
There are three main features that you will need to know to fully utilize this command are:
To save a game to your journal, you must first learn to use the jsave command. The proper format for this command is: jsave <slot letter> <handle> <source>
Example #1: 'jsave A TheDane 24', will save TheDane's game history number 24 into your slot A.
The word jsave is the command, the letter 'A' is the journal slot, TheDane is the player's user_name whose game it is that you would like to save, and the number '24' is the game number from that user_name's history file. To obtain the game number, type "hist user_name" and it will show the last 10 games played.
Example #2: 'jsave A TheDane G', will save the game in TheDane's journal slot G into your journal slot A.
Once again, the word jsave is the command, the letter 'A' is the journal slot you want to save into, TheDane is the user whose game you would like to save, and the 'G' is the game letter from that user's journal. To obtain the game letter, type journal <handle> and it will show that players journal if it is available for public viewing.
It is possible to hide your journal from other users (except admins) by using the 'jprivate' variable. Proper syntax for this command is 'set jprivate 1'. Conversely, 'set jprivate 0' will allow others access to your journal.
To review all of the games in a journal, you would type 'journal <handle>'. If you are reviewing your own journal, you may omit the handle and simply type 'journal'.
There are several commands you can use to display information about a particular journal game, these are:
To remove a game from your journal, use the jkill command. The proper format for this command is: 'jkill <letter>'.
Example #3: 'jkill A', will remove the game in your journal slot A.
Should you have a problem with our 'Server Tip' that you cannot resolve, e-mail support@freechess.org for assistance.
Would you like to see previous Newsletter
Issues?
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Click this button if you would like to see more.
The FICS Link Exchange Program:
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 an 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 Oxymoron.