FICS Monthly Newsletter

What's New? - FICS would like to welcome the 1,763 new players that have joined the server in the month of August. Among the highlights in this month's newsletter is the upcoming Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament. Other FICS notes: FICS upgraded the account registration process in order to make it more user friendly; it is now only done by our website. Be sure to read the rest of the September monthly newsletter for more FICS news items and other chess related information. Plus, don't forget to check out the link to our previous Newsletter issues, July 1999 to present. You may find a lot of useful information in our previous newsletter's 'Server Tip of the Month' sections. A special thanks goes out to Chessty(SR) and knighttour(SR) in helping make this newsletter a success this month.

FICS Fourth Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament
Get those Hash Tables Tweaked!!!

FICS will be presenting the Fourth Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament on Saturday, September 30, 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 in the regular chess division, wulff(C), placed 1st with 4.5 points out of a possible 5.0, upsetting the highest ranking computer, EvilSilicon(C), at that time. Currently Koibito is FICS highest rated blitz computer account, we'll see if the account is up for a challenge this time. In the suicide division, the action was just as intense as RoboAmn(C) battled it out with ascp(C) for first place. RoboAmn(C) took first place with 5.0 out of a possible 5.0! 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).

FICS newest version of mamer (an automated tournament director) is now online and currently in use. Some features that our previous tournament director (mamer) lacked were added. For instance, KOTH (which now runs through mamer) replaced KOTHbot, and more. Here are some reminders for you to help get by:
Reminders regarding Mamer

FICS is always trying to raise funds to continue running the server, but without help it is very hard. If you want to contribute with a donation, please email Binford. Other ways to help us is by visiting our homepage and click on the banners. We don't get much for each click, but everything helps. Thank you all, Binford.

**** Major Events ****

The first FIDE World Cup takes place in Shenyang, China September 1st through the 13th. The event includes 24 entrants that will be split into four groups of six players for the preliminary sections which take place September 1st through the 5th. The top two players in each group will go forward to the knockout stages (ties will be resolved via playoffs on September 5th).

Knockout stages:
Quarter Finals - September 7th and 8th
Semi-Finals - September 9th and 10th
Finals - September 12th and 13th.
Each knockout match will be over two games with ties being resolved by playoff games at faster time rates.

More information is available at the official website for this event: http://www.fide.org/fide/html/review/Shenyang/index.html.
Internet coverage is available at: http://www.worldchesscup.com.

The 60th Armenian Championships are taking place in Yerevan, August 30th through September 7th. Game histories as well as other information can be found at:http://www.armchess.am/60thac.html.

The Dutch Women's Chess Championships are taking place in The Holland Casino, Rotterdam, August 22 through September 1st. This is a six player double round robin event. Details and game histories can be found at the official website: http://www.schaakbond.nl/nieuws/nkvrouwen2000/index.html .

The Icelandic Chess Championships are taking place in Kopavogur, Iceland, August 23 through September 3rd. This is a sixteen player knock-out event. Feature players include: GM Gretarsson and GM Thorhallsson. Details and game histories can be found at: http://www.skak.is/si/sthi2000.htm .

The International Open Tournament in Castellaneta - Italy was held on August 29-30-31, 2000 in Castellaneta - Taranto, South Italy.

The event was comprised of 5 tournaments: Master: Elo Fide-FSI more than 1899, National A: for Elo 1700-1899, National B: for Elo 1699-1600, National C: for Elo less than 1600, Beginners: no Elo. Three boards will be broadcasted by FICS and there will be a webcam available. The site for this event is, ex St. Chiara’s Convent, a deconsecrated Convent, age 1600 about. Prizes totaled 30 million Italian liras.

The North American Open at Bally's Las Vegas will award $100,000 in prizes this year, the biggest prize fund ever awarded in Las Vegas! The dates for this event are December 26-29, 2000. Keep posted for more information on this event in the future.

GM Joel Benjamin: World Open Champion. The World Open staged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from June 28th-July 4th 2000. The tournament finished with eight players tying for first with 7 points. GM Benjamin became the World Open 2000 Champion by winning a single round robin blitz tournament among the winners. Ivanov and Fedorowicz didn't participate in the playoff.

More information is available at the official website for this event: http://www.worldopen.com.

The Fourth Russian Cup Finals took place in Elista, August 19th through the 30th. This was a 12 player round robin of which only top players of the Russian Grand Prix were invited. GM Sergey Volkov (2554) placed first. Details and game histories can be found (in russian) at the official website: http://echess.dk.ru .

**** FICS Tournaments ****

"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. You do not have to participate every night to win.

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, "finger nightly" online. You may also find more information on the Nightly web page at: http://here.at/purdue .

NEWS FLASH - Win CASH prizes! The NEW Nightly 5 0 series of Tournaments begins August 1, 2000. The series will feature TWO tourneys in one, with CASH prizes for each section winner! "Finger Nightly" to find out more about how your favorite tournament has changed, and don't forget to log on at 10:00 pm server time every night for the action!

Suicide on Saturdays (SOS): The SOS (Suicide On Saturdays) is a tournament run each week on FICS by WarHawk(TM). 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 is a 5 0 Swiss consisting of 5 rounds. There is also a quarterly Suicide Championship held for all qualifying participants in the previous three months. 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 (2344). 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/.

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 334 players are listed here, bigbad maintains the lead!

Rank	Name	GP Points	# of events	1st place	2nd place	3rd place
1	bigbad	3733.47	93	28	31	14
2	SGV	2115.64	34	19	2	11
3	Killerman	1569.76	27	14	2	5

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

**** The Chess Academy ****

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:

Use tells to channel 65 during the Academy Hours ('tell 65 I don't understand the Lucena position'). Chess advisers will have (CA) after their handles.

Academy 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 academy@freechess.org and/or saved in your journal, accompanied by a message to Academy.

* Every Sunday at 15:00 server time, the Chess Academy will hold
Special events such as: team games, simuls and master events.

**** New Players ****

A total of 1,763 new player accounts have been created for the month of August.
Currently to date, FICS total size is 70,609 player accounts.
Active accounts in the month of August totaled 11,533.
Active accounts in the last three months totaled 17,094.

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

The timezone variable (tzone) is a useful variable that will enable you to set clocks on the server to reflect your selected timezone. The server default setting is "server". You may set your tzone variable to another timezone (such as GMT) which will then show you the time for that particular time zone.
The proper format for this command is: set tzone GMT

For a list of supported timezones and the short codes for them, see 'help timezones' online, (or check out our online version).

If you do not know the proper time zone code, but do know the time difference between your zone and the server's zone, you can enter this difference. For example, if your time zone is two hours ahead of GMT (GMT+2), you can type: 'set tzone +2'. If you need to enter fractions of an hour, use decimals.

Further information on the tzone variable can be found in: 'help v_tzone' (or the online version).

If you should you have any problems with our 'Server Tip' that you cannot resolve,
please email support@freechess.org for assistance.

It's a great way to locate other helpful "Tip of the Month" sections
and older news highlights that were covered in past issues.

We are currently looking for users who want to help us in 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 and Oxymoron.

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*

Welcome to the World of Chess!

What's New !!!

Major Events

FICS Tournaments

The Chess Academy

New Players

Server Tip of the Month