Free Flight, Free Speech

Hi All, and more specifically, to the participants of The FACCT I (2017).

Only one week left for the grand opening and first series of tournament games left.

A few important comments regarding preparation. Please follow up before the Tournament date on April 8th @ 1600 UTC


Register for the Free Internet Chess Server

If you are a FACCT competitor, this is a requirement to be able to multiplay the chess games that you had been assigned.
Creating an account in the FICS is very simple and as the name says: it's free.
One caveat: FICS does not appreciate your having more than 1 single account for yourself. I recommend therefore you follow all their guidelines, and if you already have an account, simply let us know your name (handle) and we'll use that.

[url]http://www.freechess.org/cgi-bin/Register/FICS_register.cgi?Language=English[/url]

Note: you can actually create a FICS handle if you are just interested to watch the games occur as they are played (Tournament Fan/viewer/spectator). Not only if you intend to play games in the server. Tournament games will be released in PGN for off-board enjoyment, but if you are looking forward to watch games as they occur, you would need to have a FICS handle.[/list]

Install a chess client in your computer

In order to play chess online on FICS (and therefore play your paired opponents), you would be better off by having a chess client to connect to FICS. We don't enforce any particular client and you are free to choose any, but keep in mind that you probably would not only verify that you can connect to FICS, but also that you are comfortable with the interface of choice. You would be better off, as well, if your chess client gives you access to a FICS command line where you would be able to challenge your opponents as the tournament requires.

I enjoy using ChessX in FICS, but unfortunately it does not have a good command line interface for FICS (that I know of).

For that reason, I recommend eboard, which is shown in the images below, in the given examples. But eboard is only a linux based client.

pychess, a python-based variant is available for Windows as well as linux!

FICS suggests a list of interfaces here
http://freechess.org/interfaces.html

you could find there clients for any OS (even android).

Finally, althought NOT Recommended, FICS can be accessed via the browser
http://www.freechess.org/Login/jin/index.php

Whatever your choice, If you are a Tournament competitor, do make sure before the Tournamennt begins that you have installed a client and that you are comfortable with the one you choose for your specific computing needs.


Access your Chess Client command line for FICS

And familiarize yourself with the most common commands:

1. help ==> help for any topic
2. players ==> list available players online
3.finger==> tell you about the stats of a given player
4. match ==> Challenges an user to a game. This is the most important command, since the player controlling white, will issue the Tournament game
5. accept ==> accept a game match, also accept draw
6. decline ==> decline a game match, or draw
7. follow ==> you can watch someone else games with this.
8. draw ==> propose an end-game for draw
9. resign ==> resigns a game

The following

Example

Follows setting a game using eboard as the client.
Any other client (with an accessible FICS command line) will allow you to do the same, in very similar manner.


Connecting to FICS

To connect to FICS in eboard, you can use the menu: Peer -> Connect to FICS



The command line below cmd will allow you to enter your FICS handle name and then the password

After which you'll receive a connecting confirmation/welcoming message in the FICS console, and a new option will show in addition to "main board" and "console", one gets a "seek graph" listing users (or computers) willing to challenge you a game.




Since you don't know my password, use your own handle name to log in




Now that you are connected, know how to challenge a match for the FACCT

For the FACCT tournaments, we do have specific regulations for a valid game.
This includes,

* you must play with the color assigned
* you must play the opponent assigned
* you must play with the exact time control required (60 minutes with 60 s added per move for Standard game. 5 minutes with 12 s added per move for Blitz game)
* You must play rated game
* The game must start at the scheduled time (on the mark). Players can prepare on the board several minutes beforehand.

To achieve this, every game will be issued with an specific command. I recommend white player issues the command and Black accepts, but black can issue the command as well if specifically indicating the appropriate color.

A game is proposed with the match command, that works as follow




Per example, assume JWocky is to play as White Blitz against IAHMCOL; then JWocky issues the game like



* note, for FACCT, rated is required, and Blitz always has 5 12 for time control. (or 60 60 for Standard!)

IAHM-COL does receive a note in his client that he is being challenged (specific information about the challenge does show)


And it informs you of commands you can use, like "accept" or "decline"

Naturally in the Tournament you will be accepting


Once both players are sat in the board, the time will remain static until White and Black make their first move. At this point the time is playing for or against you

Remember to be ready on the board at least 5 minutes before schedule time. And keep yourself ready to launch those moves at schedule time, every game





Last but not least,

the command follow, can be used to follow a game as it happens,


like



Per example will allow you to use your chess client to watch the game IAHMCOL is playing.