4 Chess Servers
An Internet Chess Server, or ICS, is a place on the
Internet where people can get together to play chess, watch other
people's games, or just chat. You can use either telnet
or a
client program like XBoard to connect to the server. There are
thousands of registered users on the different ICS hosts, and it is
not unusual to meet 200 on both chessclub.com and freechess.org.
Most people can just type xboard -ics to start XBoard as an ICS
client. Invoking XBoard in this way connects you to the Internet
Chess Club (ICC), a commercial ICS. You can log in there as a guest
even if you do not have a paid account. To connect to the largest
Free ICS (FICS), use the command xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org
instead, or substitute a different host name to connect to your
favorite ICS.
For a full description of command-line options that control
the connection to ICS and change the default values of ICS options, see
ICS options.
While you are running XBoard as an ICS client,
you use the terminal window that you started XBoard from
as a place to type in commands and read information that is
not available on the chessboard.
The first time you need to use the terminal is to enter your login name
and password, if you are a registered player. (You don't need to do
this manually; the icsLogon
option can do it for you.
see ICS options.) If you are not registered,
enter g as your name, and the server will pick a
unique guest name for you.
Some useful ICS commands
include
- help <topic>
- to get help on the given <topic>. To get a list of possible topics type
help without topic. Try the help command before you ask other
people on the server for help.
For example help register tells you how to become a registered
ICS player.
- who <flags>
- to see a list of people who are logged on. Administrators
(people you should talk to if you have a problem) are marked
with the character ‘*’, an asterisk. The <flags> allow you to
display only selected players: For example, who of shows a
list of players who are interested in playing but do not have
an opponent.
- games
- to see what games are being played
- match <player> [<mins>] [<inc>]
- to challenge another player to a game. Both opponents get <mins> minutes
for the game, and <inc> seconds will be added after each move.
If another player challenges you, the server asks if you want to
accept the challenge; use the accept or decline commands
to answer.
- accept
- decline
- to accept or decline another player's offer.
The offer may be to start a new game, or to agree to a
draw, adjourn or abort the current game. See Action Menu.
If you have more than one pending offer (for example, if more than one player
is challenging you, or if your opponent offers both a draw and to adjourn the
game), you have to supply additional information, by typing something
like accept <player>, accept draw, or draw.
- draw
- adjourn
- abort
- asks your opponent to terminate a game by mutual agreement. Adjourned
games can be continued later.
Your opponent can either decline your offer or accept it (by typing the
same command or typing accept). In some cases these commands work
immediately, without asking your opponent to agree. For example, you can
abort the game unilaterally if your opponent is out of time, and you can claim
a draw by repetition or the 50-move rule if available simply by typing
draw.
- finger <player>
- to get information about the given <player>. (Default: yourself.)
- vars
- to get a list of personal settings
- set <var> <value>
- to modify these settings
- observe <player>
- to observe an ongoing game of the given <player>.
- examine
- oldmoves
- to review a recently completed game
Some special XBoard features are activated when you are
in examine mode on ICS. See the descriptions of the menu commands
‘Forward’, ‘Backward’, ‘Pause’, ‘ICS Client’,
and ‘Stop Examining’ on the Step Menu, Mode Menu, and
Options Menu.