Welcome to the World of Chess!

The FICS SR team is glad to present:

October 1999

FICS is pleased to announce that out this month's Tournaments section of the newsletter is packed with new information.   Our Tournament Managers (TM's) are doing their best to give the people what they want.  More tournament action!!!  Aside from the general day to day tournaments, here is a quick run-down of this month's newly scheduled tournaments:

October 5:    The EscapeArtist Tournament
October 23:  Quarterly Computer Championship
October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30:  Saturday 20 0 Championships
October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30:  Suicide on Saturdays (SOS)

For more details on these events, see the Tournaments section of the Newsletter.
 
 

JavaBoard - the new Java interface for FICS is now released in a user beta test.  It is accessible from our home page by clicking on "Login now".  JavaBoard is an interface; mainly for new players used to play chess on the server right off your Internet browser.  This project has been in the works for over a year, and FICS is pleased that it has come so far.  You may also find help with JavaBoard by seeing the tutorial at:
http://www.freechess.org/javaboard/tutorial/tutorial.html.

JavaBoard has been developed by TheDane and Hawk.
 

Congratulations to the new US Champion Interplay Champion; Boris Gulko.  On September 9, 1999, in the third game of the Finals against GM Gregory Serper, Gulko played simply and solidly, earning the draw he needed to take the match and the title 2.5 - 0.5.  More information about this event can be found at the U.S. Chess Federation web site: http://www.uschess.org/news/uschamp99/results_current.html

Standings:  Finals
 

Round #	1	2	3	4	Ttl
Gulko(2618)	1	1	=		2.5
Serper(2540)	0	0	=		0.5

No fourth game was played, as Gulko won the match 2.5 - 0.5

Owen Williams Press Release:
I have read the press release attributed to Mr. Kuruvilla Abraham, Manager of Vishy Anand, and it contains sufficient inaccuracies to warrant a response.

The complete Williams statement appears at Kasparov's official site:
http://www.clubkasparov.ru/index0e.htm
 

The Escape Artist Fall 1999 Tournament:  The next EscapeArtist tournament registration ends Tuesday, October 5th at 9:00 server time(GMT-6).  Pairings for Round 1 are posted on the web site on Tuesday, October 5, 1999 at 11 p.m. server time.  You have all week to finish your game, and you arrange it with your opponent at both of your conveniences.  The tournament will be an 8 round Swiss Pairing using a time control of  45  5.  Unlike mamer tournaments this is a hand paired event and runs one round per week.  It also counts towards the FICS Grand Prix and has a value of 750 GP points! Channel 201 is the unofficial channel for these tournaments.  More information about this event may be obtained by emailing innocentone , or finger the EscapeArtist account on FICS, and by visiting the EscapeArtist web page at: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/EscapeArtist/eafall.html

FICS Grand Prix:  FICS has instituted a standard tourney grand prix! This is a competition that extends throughout the entire year and keeps score based on scheduled standard tourneys run on FICS! At the end of the year there is a $150.00(U.S.Dollar) guaranteed prize fund, so watch out for these Grand Prix events!

For more information visit the Grand Prix website:http://www.angelfire.com/wi/EscapeArtist/grandprixindex.html

FICS 1st Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament:  FICS will be presenting its first Quarterly Computer Chess Tournament on Saturday, October 23, 1999 @ 11:00 Server time (15:00 GMT).  The Tournament will be a 5 Round Swiss using a time control of  5  8.  This tournament will be opened to all FICS registered computer accounts.  Contact afw or jperry by email, or message them while online if you would like more information.

Saturday 20 0 Championships:  a new 20 0-tournament series has been created for those of you who would like to spend your weekend playing some quick chess. Held every Saturday evening at 19:00 server time, the tournament has already attracted as many as 23 participants for a single tourney. The tournament features chances to earn both FICS Grand Prix points and FICS titles. 12 players have already earned the title of FCE (Free Chess Expert) through their high level of play. Another unique feature of the tournament is it's two sections: an Open Section and a Closed Section (reserved for those with outstanding performances in the Open Section). More information about this event may be obtained by emailing Terrapin, or visiting the SNCTS web site: http://www2.bibl.ulaval.ca/sncts (Check out the game section!).

Suicide on Saturdays (SOS): There is now a new scheduled Suicide Tournament on FICS!   The SOS Tournament will be held every Saturday at 10 am Server time (14:00 GMT).  The score is kept for every player who plays in one or more of the Tournaments.  Each quarter will have a championship Tournament consisting of the top 5 players from the under and over 1800 sections.  The prize for the winner of the under 1800 section is a 1 hour lesson from Haley(2219), the 4th ranked suicide player on the server.   The weekly tournament will be a 5 0 Swiss consisting of 5 rounds, and the quarterly Championship will be a 5 0 Round Robin.  The winner of the over 1800 section qualifies to play in the yearly Suicide Championship.  The yearly Suicide Championship will be a 4 player 5 0 Double Round Robin.  For more information contact DChessmaster on FICS, or visit the SOS web site at: http://www.kingscourt.cjb.net/

"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, and a news item is posted with the winners name. Also, an Under 1800 title and an Upset title are awarded each week, and are included on the weekly news items. You do not have to participate everyday to win the title.

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 Bremen.
Check out the Nightly web page: http://play.at/nightly
 
 

• WEEK ENDING 9/25/99:  Beyonder wins the over-all Nightly Champion Title and best U1800 with 20 tourney points, and timp captured the Upset Champion title with 1778 upset points.
• WEEK ENDING 9/18/99:  Pawnmeister wins the over-all Nightly Champion Title this week with 21.5 tourney points, beyonder is best U1800 with 21.5 tourney points, and greatone captured the Upset Champion title with 1511 upset points.
• WEEK ENDING 9/11/99:  Cavebird wins a 'REPEAT' over-all Nightly Champion Title with 25.5 tourney points, gen is best U1800 with 24 tourney points, and MPDL captured theUpset Champion title with 925 upset points.
• WEEK ENDING 9/4/99:  Cavebird wins wins the over-all Nightly Champion this week, with 23.5 tourney points, Bremen is best U1800 with 22 tourney points, and rafferty is the Upset Champion with 1618 upset points.
• WEEK ENDING 8/28/99:  Antonov wins the over-all Nightly Champion this week, with 37 tourney points, cavebird is best U1800 with 26.5 tourney points, and Skids captured the Upset Champion title with 2398 upset points.

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

• See the schedule for Academy Hours by typing 'help motd'.
• Use the 'date' command to check the time of day.
• Add one or more of the following channels:

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

October's Tip of the Month is to provide a summary of the adjudication process available on FICS and how it works.

Adjudication means that the result of the game is decided by a review of the game situation, rather than having the game completed by the two opponents.  In many cases, because one player disconnected in a losing positions and fails to finish the game.  Another instance, is when a simple connection failure happens and the disconnected player fails to re-log on and finish the game in a timely manner.

On this chess server, adjudications are made by admins who are skilled at chess.  Adjudications should be used only as a last resort.  Whenever possible, adjourned games should be completed by the opponents themselves.  You should attempt to complete the game by messaging your opponents, trying to find times to complete the games, and giving them ample opportunity to do so.  Users are on different time schedules, so please be patient when waiting for your game to be completed.  Adjudications take time and effort, especially on a server with many users, so only ask for adjudication when you absolutely need one.

Before you ask for an adjudication, please read *carefully* both this help file and the one about disconnection - use "help disconnection".
 

GUIDELINES: You may request adjudication in these two situations:

(a) The game is 7+ days old, and you have contacted your opponent
      several times but he/she refuses to continue;
(b) The game is 7+ days old, you have messaged your opponent several times about continuing, your opponent has been on the server and therefore had a chance to read your messages, but you have had no reply from him/her (in order to see when your opponent has been on the server, type "log handle" such as "log TheOnlyOne").

Format:  message Adjudicate White Black result (any analysis)

Instructions:  Be sure to list the names for White and Black in the correct order, only one game per message.  If you have a certain line of play (series of moves) you will follow in order to preserve the win or draw, please mention it.  If it is a suicide chess game, please mention this information as well. (You do not need an adjudication in order to resign a game; read "help resign").
 

Examples:

(a)  message adjudicate Obliviax theblob I want my game with theblob to be a draw; neither of us can make progress or gain an advantage.
(b)  message adjudicate afw toddmf Please adjudicate my game with toddmf as a win. After I play Bxg5, I'll be ahead a piece.

SPECIAL NOTES:

(a) "Finger Adjudicate" for current information about guidelines for adjudication decisions and the format for submitting requests.
(b) The command "stored" gives a list of your stored (adjourned) games.
(c) "Match [opponent]" is used to continue resumed games with a single opponent.  "Resume" will automatically challenge users online with whom you have adjourned games.

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 email to:  binford@freechess.org .
 

The Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) Monthly Newsletter

Please send comments and feedback on what you would like to see on this page.
Edited by: afw(SR)(TM)

Comments to afw or TheOnlyOne.