Welcome to the World of Chess!

The FICS SR team is glad to present:

November 1999

Welcome "FICS" newest Admin, afw(*);  Our newest East Coast Time Zone Admin.
Typical log-in times vary, but he is usually here early to mid-evening helping our
fellow users and staff.  afw(*) along-with TheOnlyOne(*) is the new head of the
Service Representative (SR) team.

The FICS Service Representatives (SR) primary role is to provide
assistance with new players in getting them started on the FICS server.
 Service Representatives are designated by "(SR)" in 'who' listings and in finger notes.
For information about FICS Service Representatives program, read help sr_info.

The FICS Grand Prix is underway!!!

FICS Grand Prix:

Announcing 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(U.S.Dollar) 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/grandprixindex.html
 
 

In a field of 123 participants, the top three are listed.
 
 

Rank	Name	GP  Points	# of  events	1st  place	2nd  place	3rd  place
1	bigbad	739.33	18	6	8	1
2	SGV	675.42	10	7	1	1
3	avani	469.17	7	3	3	0

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

JavaBoard - the new Java interface for FICS has just been upgraded to version 1.0.2 beta. Some minor login bugs have been corrected. Those behind a firewall may find they can now access the site as the login is now directed through port 23. 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.
 

If you're still searching for information on the 'Kasparov' vs. 'The World' match, this website should also be your source for highlights. This is the match that started on June 21, 1999 ended with the world's resignation on October 22, 1999. It was a game where the world chose the Sicilian Defense, and played the novelty move: 10...Qe6?!    Analysis is already available on this website. Enjoy!!!

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

The EscapeArtist (EA) tournament is currently in progress. The tournament is an 8 round Swiss, using a time control of 45 5. Unlike mamer tournaments the pairings for rounds are posted on the web site on Tuesdays, 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 and run 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

The tournament's current progress is round 5, the postings for the final 4 games will be as follows:
Week 5: Tuesday, November 3, 11 p.m. - Tuesday, November 9, 9 p.m.
Week 6: Tuesday, November 9, 11 p.m. - Tuesday, November 16, 9 p.m.
Week 7: Tuesday, November 16, 11 p.m. - Tuesday, November 23, 9 p.m.
Week 8: Tuesday, November 23, 11 p.m. - Tuesday, December 7, 9 p.m.

Week 8 is two weeks long to allow players to play in the 8th round despite the American Thanksgiving holiday.

You can check out the current standings of the Escape Artist Tournament by selecting the "Current Standings" link off the EA homepage.  Currently there are 30 players involved; and so far there is a 3 way tie for first place.
 

Saturday Night 20 0 Championship Series:  A new 20 0-tournament series has been created for those of you who would like to spend Saturday Night playing some quick chess.  The Saturday Night Championship Tournament Series (SNCTS).  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.  Twelve 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(TM), or visiting the SNCTS web site: http://www2.bibl.ulaval.ca/sncts (Check out the game section!).

• WEEK OF 10/23/99: avani won the closed section and trikmamak took first in the open section.
• WEEK OF 10/16/99: arvie won the closed section and gen took first in the open section.
• WEEK OF 10/09/99: avani won the closed section and johnnymc took first in the open section.
• WEEK OF 10/02/99: SGV won the closed section and seipman took first in the open 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 (15:00 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. More information about this event may be obtained by emailing DChessmaster(TM)  or while on FICS, you can 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. There is also, an Under 1800 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 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 Esekla or Bremen.
Check out the Nightly web page: http://www.monmouth.com/~zakg/50nightly/
 
   More FICS tournament Information ? Click Here 

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:

• 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"

 
Just a reminder to everyone that some players may need to adjust the time zone setting in your variables as daylight savings time has ended October 31, 1999.  Also re-check the times of scheduled events in order to avoid any confusion.  Daylight saving time in the United States and other major countries currently extends from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. See "help v_tzone" for more information on adjusting your variable setting.
 

---

"How can I set up a board so my friends and I can examine a position?"

Board Setup

November's Server Tip of the Month
is to provide a summary of the
board setup process on FICS and how it works.

Bsetup mode is a special form of the "examine" mode that allows you to set up any position you want and then use examine mode to analyze it.  The standard alias for "bsetup" is "setup".

ENTERING BSETUP MODE

USING BOARD SETUP MODE

BSETUP CLEAR -- Typing the command "bsetup clear" will give you a new, blank, empty board.

BSETUP START -- Typing the command "bsetup start" will give you the regular (STARTING) position for a game of chess.

BSETUP board_category board -- You can load a non-standard board position if you want.  The chess server has several non-standard boards.  They can be listed by using the "board" command.  For example, "boards openings" will list the various openings you can start a game from and "boards wild" will list "wild" opening positions.  Note: you must first be in bsetup mode in order to create a given board position.  To create a suicide game, type "bsetup suicide".

Another example:
The command: "bsetup openings giuoco-piano" will set up the giuoco piano position so that a player or group may be able to analyze variations.

BESETUP FEN position -- You can also set up complete board positions by supplying a FEN position.

For example:
bsetup fen rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/3P4/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR

(a)  You have to indicate the pieces and blank squares on each rank of the chess board, starting with rank 8 (Black's back rank) and going from the a-file to the h-file.  The '/' mark divides one rank of pieces from another.  Letters in CAPS mean a White piece (such as 'K' for White King); small letters mean a Black piece (such as 'k' for Black King).  The numbers (such as 1, 3, 4 and 8) refer to the number of *consecutive* blank squares.  For example, the fen position given above is the one that occurs when White opens the game with Pd3.  NOTE: You just give the board position, not which side is to move; use "tomove" to modify whose move it is.

(b)  Placing pieces -- There are two formats for placing pieces: case sensitive and designate color.  Either one works.

Here is a table of the formats.  For the "square" portion, enter a square in algebraic notation, such as e4 or h5.  You can use either "@" or "*" as the special symbol.  Please note; the first two piece placing  notation show the color by case sensitivity, and the last two columns show by designating color.

Piece	White	Black	White	Black
king	K@square	k@square	wk@square	bk@square
queen	Q@square	q@square	wq@square	bq@square
rook	R@square	r@square	wr@square	br@square
bishop	B@square	b@square	wb@square	bb@square
knight	N@square	n@square	wn@square	bn@square
pawn	P@square	p@square	wp@square	bp@square

Clearing a square -- There are three ways you can clear a square and make it empty: either place an 'x' (meaning empty piece) or "clear" the square with the following commands.

1. x@square
2. clrsquare square
3. bsetup clearsquare square

For example, "x@e4", "clrsquare e4" and "bsetup clearsquare e4" would all have the same effect: making e4 an open square. NOTE: you do not have to clear a square before placing a piece. For example, if there is a Black Queen on e5, placing a Black Pawn on e5 will automatically remove the Black Queen.

BSETUP TOMOVE white|black -- Typing "bsetup tomove white" will have White be the player to move next. Typing "bsetup tomove black" will have Black be the player to move next. NOTE: You do not need to include the "bsetup" part of the command; the "tomove" command works alone once you are in bsetup mode.

BSETUP wcastle <rights|bcastle <rights -- You may also set the castling rights for the game. Use "bsetup wcastle <rights" and "bsetup bcastle <rights" to set the castling rights for White and Black respectively. The possible 'rights' are:

   none    (no castling)
   kside   (kingside only)
   qside   (queenside only)
   both    (both sides)

When you load a board using bsetup the rights are set up automatically. On a cleared board both player's rights are set to 'none'. Therefore if you use a ready made board and move the rooks and kings around, you will need to set the appropriate castling rights. Castling rights are validated when you exit bsetup; if the rights are invalid, you will receive an error message.

BSETUP EPPOS <file -- You can indicate whether an 'en passant' capture is possible, as if a pawn had just been advanced two squares. In this case, you need to specify the file of the pawn (a - h). For example, "bsetup eppos c" would mean that a pawn on the c-file has just been moved from c7-c5 or from c2-c4, depending on the "tomove" setting. NOTE: You need to have a pawn on the right square and have the correct player "tomove" in order for the "eppos" command to work; otherwise, you will get an error message.

RULES -- Lastly! You can also change the rules for the chess game. There are different rules for suicide chess, of course ("help suicide_chess"); but there are also different castling rules for Fischer Random chess ("help fr") and for certain kinds of wild chess ("help wild"). In order to use the correct rules, you need to use bsetup to change them.

bsetup fischer      [for Fischer Random chess]
bsetup standard   [for normal chess -- this is the default]
bsetup suicide      [for suicide chess]
bsetup wild           [for wild chess]

EXITING BSETUP MODE

BSETUP DONE -- Typing "bsetup done" will exit bsetup mode and start examine mode. However, the position will be validated first. For example, the player who is not about to move cannot be in check, pawns cannot be on the 1st or 8th ranks, each side must have a king, neither side can have more than one king. If the position is valid, you will enter examine mode next. If the position is invalid, a message will be sent to you and you will remain in bsetup mode.

UNEXAMINE -- Typing "unexamine" at any point will immediate cancel both bsetup and examine modes.

SPECIAL 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 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.