Author: Frederic Louguet
Date: 01:55:53 08/08/02
A few weeks ago, I decided to register a new version of my program Chess Wizard on different ICS. Here are my first impressions, maybe they will be useful to other programmers who haven't tried this. 1) Chess.Net is apparently very reluctant to accept new computer accounts. And worse, they do not answer requests. 2) Registering on FICS was not very fast, but straightforward. Unfortunately people seem to have lost interest in it. 3) ICC is, well, overcrowded ! High-rated human players seem to play only each other, or carefully selected computers. It is difficult to play someone, since as a computer I prefer not to defy humans. And very high rated computers are very high rated because they don't play other computers ! 4) Europe-echecs (jeu.echecs.com) server is not bad, but no more than 250 players at one time. And of course, cheaters are everywhere. Easily detected, but very annoying nonetheless, and not always excluded. So I believe that a new free ICS server should be very useful to everyone. I suggest a few rules : - Computers should always have a handle corresponding to their name. On all ICS servers I registered as "ChessWizard" or "ChessWizardX". No hiding ! - Only computers operated by the author or someone explicitely approved by the author (mention in the finger notes) should be allowed to have an account. No more Tiger/Crafty clones by the dozens. - Of course, the hardware used should always be specified. - No computer should be allowed to play only humans. Or, three different rating lists should be created : general (play computers and humans, rating displayed by default), play only against computers, and play only against humans. - Administrators should be sufficiently experienced to detect cheaters and react quickly. Of course exclusions should be based on e-mail adresses, and not on handles which can be easily modified. Please feel free to add suggestions and remarks. As for the name, what about FCICS (Friendly Computers Internet Chess Server !)
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