Welcome to the Chess and Other Games forum! This forum is for discussion of games such as Chess, Go, Draughts, and any other similar games. This FAQ is an attempt to answer some of the most common questions in and about this forum.

What this forum is not for:
"Forum games" such as werewolf are discussed/played in the Puzzles and Other Games forum, which overlaps in subject matter with this forum.
Backgammon is discussed in the Backgammon forum.
Poker is discussed in most of the rest of this site.
Gambling games other than poker -- try the Other Gambling forum.
Chess related beats and brags and other posts that don't deserve a thread of their own belong in the Chess BBV thread or the Low Content thread.

Where can I play real-time chess online?
There are probably 100 sites where you can play real-time chess online, with varying amounts of features. The most popular serious sites are FICS, ICC, and Playchess. FICS is free while the other two require a yearly membership fee. To get the most out of these sites, you will also need to download an interface from the site. ICC and Playchess have their own proprietary interfaces while BabasChess is currently the most popular interface for FICS.

Where can I play correspondence chess online?
Correspondence chess used to refer to chess by mail. Now it is mostly played by email or web interface, but over a matter of days or months instead of minutes or hours. Some popular sites are RedHotPawn, ItsYourTurn, and chess.com. For really serious cc players, there's the International Correspondence Chess Federation which runs World Championships, awards Master and Grandmaster titles, etc.

Where can I play a real life tournament?
Ask at your local chessclub. If you're in the USA, the US Chess Federation has information online about clubs and upcoming tourneys. Most other countries have the same.

How does the chess rating system work? What does it mean when someone says he's rated 1900?
You get a rating by playing some rated games, in a tournament rated by a chess federation such as the USCF. You may also need to pay a membership fee. Every federation's rating system is slightly different, so a rating of 1900 is meaningless unless you know what body gave it. However the FIDE (international) and USCF (USA) ratings are usually quite close. As a very rough guide, think 800 = beginner, 1500 = competent player, 2000 = strong amateur, 2500 = grandmaster, 2800 = world champion material.

What are chess variants? Where can I play them online?
Many people have developed variations on chess, although none of them have ever threatened the popularity of the classic game.` Two of the most popular are bughouse, which is played by teams of 2 players with 2 chessboards, and Fischer-random chess or Chess960 which is played with the pieces "shuffled" on the back ranks. Many of these variants are available on ICC and FICS.

How do I get better at chess?
Play chess, solve tactics problems, read chess books and articles, play through master games with commentary, analyse your own games alone or with the help of a stronger player, post your games here for feedback. Recommending specific books or articles is beyond the scope of this FAQ, but here are some threads where the question was discussed.
Chess book recommendations

How do I post a game in a thread?
If possible, post your game in PGN. Any chess program will produce this for you. This makes it easier for other players to copy and paste and play back in a program of their choice. If you want to include diagrams, you can use any chess software or the online diagram generator or game replayer on the chessvideos.tv site. You can also use the game replayer to post a link to a game that other posters can click to play through.

What chess software should I use?
There are a lot of free and paid options for storing, playing through or analysing chess games. Some popular options:
Chessbase is the industry standard for chess databases. Chessbase light is free to use and has all the features you need to store your own games.
Winboard is a basic interface for playing online or against an engine.
Scid is a completely free, open source database program.
Crafty is a free, open source chess engine
Rybka 3 is currently the strongest publicly available chess engine. Rybka 2 is available for free download from the site.

What are some other useful chess sites?
The Chess Tactics Server and Chess Tempo are two tactics training sites with slightly different approaches.
Chessgames.com and Chesslive.de are online searchable databases of chess games.
Chessvideos.tv has hundreds of chess training videos.
Chesspublishing.com has up to date opening information from grandmaster contributors.
Chessbase has tournament coverage and news from the chess world
Chess Cafe has weekly strategy articles from a number of respected chess writers
The Week in Chess has a weekly digest of tournament results and downloadable games, very useful if you want to keep a database up to date.
Chess.com has daily articles from master and grandmaster players, mostly targeted at weaker players.

How good are computers at board games?
Draughts (checkers) has been totally solved -- the Chinook program will never lose a game of draughts.
Chess will most likely never be solved, but the best computers are ahead of the best humans.
Computers cannot compete with professional players in the game of Go.

Where can I play go online?
You can play Go online at the KGS go server or the International Go Server, or correspondence go at the Dragon Go Server. Like the chess servers, you will need an interface to get the most out of these servers. One such interface is qGo.
correspondence go: #dragon go server

What are some other resources for learning and playing go?
GoProblems.com is an interactive server with thousands of problems arranged by difficulty and theme
Sensei's Library is a wiki with lots of information on the game, probably a good spot for beginners to start reading online
GnuGo is possibly the strongest free engine
GoBase is an online database of quality Go games.

Where can I play other games online?
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but here are some links
Brettspielwelt is a free gaming portal which offers online versions of many board games, mostly German games such as Settlers of Catan, Lost Cities, Caylus, Carcassonne, Thurn und Taxis
Pogo is a web-based site for board and card games including Monopoly, Draughts, and Scrabble.=
The International Scrabble Club is a server for online scrabble play. An interface, WordBiz, is required.
Metaforge is the official site for playing Stratego online

This is a first draft of a FAQ for this forum. For the next week or so I'd like to take suggestions to improve it. Then I will incorporate the suggestions and Ryan Beal will (probably) sticky it.

some things that could be changed:

• The FAQ is a bit light on resources for games other than chess. I'm not recommending specific books or making an exhaustive list of websites, but if there is is an important or definitive site that is missing, suggest it.
  
• The FAQ doesn't include much on forum rules. Hopefully it shouldn't need anything more than "no flame wars, keep the low content posts in the low content threads, etc".
  
• Some sites may need to be removed if they are competing with 2+2 or its advertisers. Ryan tells me they are OK so long as I don't own any of them (I don't) and they keep the discussion here (that might mean sites like chesspublishing should be axed).

Great post! I will sleep on this and see if I come up with anything to add.

If you're going to provide feedback to a game/position/etc using a chess engine, make it clear in your post that the analysis is coming from the engine and not from you.

On the Go servers: On the Japanese server IGS glGo is the standard client but other clients are available due to its open protocol. qGo is available on more OSes.

The US server KGS has its own Java-based client which is the only option due to its encrypted communications.

The Korean server Tygem has high-level competition but is hard to get to for English-only speakers, though it does have Japanese and Chinese sites. I believe its client options are limited as well.

Oh and IGS stands for Internet Go Server, not International.

maybe add some acronyms used here, i cant think of many of top of my head but

OTB = over the board
USCF = United States Chess Federation
FIDE = Fédération Internationale des Échecs (World Chess Federation)

Oh, and a mention of Kombilo game database analyzer would be good too, especially in conjunction with the GoGod game collection.

where can i go to watch epic/historic chess matches ?

good stuff, keep it coming

for epic/historic matches: maybe the best thing to do would be to go to wikipedia and look up the history of the World Chess Championship, then you can search for games from each match on chessgames.com. If you mean you want to follow historic matches as they happen then chessbase.com will have them, or links to them.

Probably mentions of the AGA and EGF won't hurt either for people who want to play live tournaments.

I'm not close to being in ICC's corner, but I think it deserves a more prominent place as a FAQ answer as to where to play online chess. ICC is *the* place to play online chess. That's where the internet chess action is, point-blank.

Yes, ICC is a pay site, but you can get 2 weeks for free, and that's the best place to start, if you're already serious about chess.

^^^ I concur about ICC with kioshk 100%

Great idea and post RoundTower! Thanks a bunch for doing this for the forum.

Perhaps a referral system when they sign up and pay for ICC? I figure there's free months right there, might as well get accumulated and/or given to major contributors on the forum. (maybe: just an idea)

I will also sleep on it and return the thread, but all I can think of right now is Maybe a brief explanation of Algebraic Notation or a link to one. A complete chess noob has little to no idea of Notation at first and most think it's more complicated than it is.

Probably more to come later.

Does SCRABBLE® belong here?

Thanks for the feedback and kind words everyone! Here are my thoughts on your thoughts. Version 1.1 will be up shortly in this thread.

good point, I will add a short section on etiquette replying to threads

will incorporate all of these

maybe the best thing to do is to add a link to a glossary of acronyms/chess terms?

I don't see why not, it's something that could belong equally well here or in POG.

excellent point, will include a link to an explanation of the notation, probably on wikipedia.

I've thought about this quite a bit, here's how I feel.

I don't see ICC as *the* place to play internet chess. For example right now there are 990 players on FICS, 1160 on ICC, and 3660 on playchess which are the three "serious" servers I mentioned. Yahoo, for example, has more, but probably only a handful of human players >1600. I think ICC has traditionally been the place for heavy or old-school internet users, while Playchess has taken over a lot of the market share among people who only started playing in the last few years thanks to being packaged with Fritz etc. ICC is also the main option if you want to play blitz or bullet against 2300+ rated players, but that's not the main goal of most people who will be reading this FAQ. I'm trying to be as objective as possible, though I would recommend a free option than a pay one if everything was equal. So I think giving them equal billing in the FAQ is best -- the place for debating the relative merits of the different sites is in a different thread.

As for a referral system, I don't think 2+2 would want to get involved with that on an official level. If you want to be someone's referrer, that's cool, but don't spam threads with affiliate links.

Chess forum FAQ - version 1.1 - updated May 18 2009

Welcome to the Chess and Other Games forum! This forum is for discussion of games such as Chess, Go, Draughts, and any other similar games. This FAQ is an attempt to answer some of the most common questions in and about this forum.

What this forum is not for:
"Forum games" such as werewolf are discussed/played in the Puzzles and Other Games forum, which overlaps in subject matter with this forum.
Backgammon is discussed in the Backgammon forum.
Poker is discussed in most of the rest of this site.
Gambling games other than poker -- try the Other Gambling forum.
Chess related beats and brags and other posts that don't deserve a thread of their own belong in the Chess BBV thread or the Low Content thread.

Glossaries of chess and go terms
If you are unfamiliar with a chess term try this wikipedia page. For go terms, this page at Sensei's library contains links to definitions and explanations of some common go terms.

How does chess notation work?
Algebraic chess notation is very simple to learn and understand. It should be one of the first things you learn if you want to discuss chess online. This page provides a simple walkthrough.

Where can I play real-time chess online?
There are probably 100 sites where you can play real-time chess online, with varying amounts of features. The most popular serious sites are FICS, ICC, and Playchess. FICS is free while the other two require a yearly membership fee. To get the most out of these sites, you will also need to download an interface from the site. ICC and Playchess have their own proprietary interfaces while BabasChess is currently the most popular interface for FICS.

Where can I play correspondence chess online?
Correspondence chess used to refer to chess by mail. Now it is mostly played by email or web interface, but over a matter of days or months instead of minutes or hours. Some popular sites are RedHotPawn, ItsYourTurn, and chess.com. For really serious cc players, there's the International Correspondence Chess Federation which runs World Championships, awards Master and Grandmaster titles, etc.

Where can I play a real life tournament?
Ask at your local chessclub. If you're in the USA, the US Chess Federation has information online about clubs and upcoming tourneys. Most other countries have the same.

How does the chess rating system work? What does it mean when someone says he's rated 1900?
You get a rating by playing some rated games, in a tournament rated by a chess federation such as the USCF. You may also need to pay a membership fee. Every federation's rating system is slightly different, so a rating of 1900 is meaningless unless you know what body gave it. However the FIDE (international) and USCF (USA) ratings are usually quite close. As a very rough guide, think 800 = beginner, 1500 = competent player, 2000 = strong amateur, 2500 = grandmaster, 2800 = world champion material.

What are chess variants? Where can I play them online?
Many people have developed variations on chess, although none of them have ever threatened the popularity of the classic game.` Two of the most popular are bughouse, which is played by teams of 2 players with 2 chessboards, and Fischer-random chess or Chess960 which is played with the pieces "shuffled" on the back ranks. Many of these variants are available on ICC and FICS.

How do I get better at chess?
Play chess, solve tactics problems, read chess books and articles, play through master games with commentary, analyse your own games alone or with the help of a stronger player, post your games here for feedback. Recommending specific books or articles is beyond the scope of this FAQ, but here are some threads where the question was discussed.
Chess book recommendations

How do I post a game in a thread?
If possible, post your game in PGN. Any chess program will produce this for you. This makes it easier for other players to copy and paste and play back in a program of their choice. If you want to include diagrams, you can use any chess software or the online diagram generator or game replayer on the chessvideos.tv site. You can also use the game replayer to post a link to a game that other posters can click to play through.

Should I reply to someone else's threads?
Yes. Regardless of your playing strength, feel free to contribute your thoughts. However, please respect the following etiquette guidelines:
1. Don't post analysis from your computer and pass it off as your own - say that you are using a computer engine and preferably say which one.
2. In a puzzle thread, consider posting your answer in spoiler tags, so that people don't accidentally see the answer.

What chess software should I use?
There are a lot of free and paid options for storing, playing through or analysing chess games. Some popular options:
Chessbase is the industry standard for chess databases. Chessbase light is free to use and has all the features you need to store your own games.
Winboard is a basic interface for playing online or against an engine.
Scid is a completely free, open source database program.
Crafty is a free, open source chess engine
Rybka 3 is currently the strongest publicly available chess engine. Rybka 2 is available for free download from the site.

What are some other useful chess sites?
The Chess Tactics Server and Chess Tempo are two tactics training sites with slightly different approaches.
Chessgames.com and Chesslive.de are online searchable databases of chess games.
Chessvideos.tv has hundreds of chess training videos.
Chesspublishing.com has up to date opening information from grandmaster contributors.
Chessbase has tournament coverage and news from the chess world
Chess Cafe has weekly strategy articles from a number of respected chess writers
The Week in Chess has a weekly digest of tournament results and downloadable games, very useful if you want to keep a database up to date.
Chess.com has daily articles from master and grandmaster players, mostly targeted at weaker players.

How good are computers at board games?
Draughts (checkers) has been totally solved -- the Chinook program will never lose a game of draughts.
Chess will most likely never be solved, but the best computers are ahead of the best humans.
Computers cannot compete with professional players in the game of Go.

Where can I play go in real life?
Although go is less popular in the Western world than chess, there may be a go club near you especially if you live in or near a big city. The sites of the American Go Association and the European Go Federation have information on go in the US and in Europe respectively.

Where can I play go online?
You can play Go online at the KGS go server or the Internet Go Server. Like the chess servers, you will need an interface to get the most out of these servers. The standard interface for IGS is glGo. Another interface is qGo, which is open source and available on more OSes. KGS has its own interface which is the only option.
The Korean server Tygem has high-level competition but is hard to get to for English-only speakers, though it does have Japanese and Chinese sites.
You can play correspondence go at the Dragon Go Server.

What are some other resources for learning and playing go?
GoProblems.com is an interactive server with thousands of problems arranged by difficulty and theme
Sensei's Library is a wiki with lots of information on the game, probably a good spot for beginners to start reading online
GnuGo is possibly the strongest free engine
GoBase is an online database of quality Go games.
Kombilo] is a go database program
GoGoD is a very large database of professional go games and other information available on CD.

Where can I play other games online?
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but here are some links
Brettspielwelt is a free gaming portal which offers online versions of many board games, mostly German games such as Settlers of Catan, Lost Cities, Caylus, Carcassonne, Thurn und Taxis
Pogo is a web-based site for board and card games including Monopoly, Draughts, and Scrabble. Yahoo! Games is similar.
The International Scrabble Club is a server for online scrabble play. An interface, WordBiz, is required.
Metaforge is the official site for playing Stratego online

I would also second mentioning ICC as the premier location a bit more clearly. Not to mention the hoards of free training videos on ICC from IM/GM/etc players. It's barely mentioned in the FAQ. I'm not exactly a fan of the site in and of itself as I think they're really over exploiting their position in the market, but they are - by far - the best site to play and learn about chess online. Comparing the number of users on PlayChess, which is made up of 99% Germans, with the number of players on ICC when it's close to German peak hours and it's 7am American time is really silly. And FICS is only worth playing on if you can't afford $5/month, and this is a poker site after all.

havent seen this answered yet...

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess...on?cid=1015456

must be a better link somewhere, but good games none the less

hmm - I think you just have your facts wrong.

I checked now when it's close to peak time for FICS (presumably for ICC too) and the figures are FICS 1540/ICC 2130/Playchess 5690. Among people who have their nationality showing, the ratio is currently about 3:1 Germans:Americans, though the majority are from other nations entirely. Perhaps there's some time of day when it's close, but it looks to me like playchess is clearly bigger. They also have training videos, although I haven't compared them to ICC's.

I'm not in playchess's camp here (personally, I don't have an account on either site, though not because I can't afford $5/month, and would recommend FICS to anyone asking me). I'm just trying to be objective. Maybe the best thing is to include a link in the FAQ to whatever thread it was where people argued over which site is better. It can't hurt to mention that ICC has training videos, etc, if they are worthwhile.

edit: ICC has about twice as many titled players logged on afaics (110 vs 55), I think that's the only meaningful place where they are bigger.

I'm not saying playchess isn't larger. You can play on there for free (which is also worth mentioning), I'd certainly expect it to be. I thought it was just silly to compare the population at 7am. ICC peaks around 3k or so usually.

ICC has many free videos, free lectures, many free simuls, live coverage of most of every major event and the most important feature for me - auto pairing of matches. PlayChess (from my limited experience there) had substantially fewer features and charges money for alot of them like the training videos. And FICS has basically nothing.

I just think it's strange to just say here's two sites that both charge money and then there's this free site without any further discussion.

well it's not meant to be an essay on the merits of each site! I mean if this was a poker FAQ on a chess site and the question was "where can I play poker online" I would probably just list a few of the big sites, maybe warn people away from Absolute/UB if I thought it was appropriate. I wouldn't go into the minutiae of which site has softer games, better software etc. That belongs somewhere else.

In the poker example would you not mention that Stars has a lucrative VIP program for high volume players, while FTP has base 27% rakeback that must be obtained through a third party, etc?

I suppose a link: "A comparison of the sites is available here: ...." would also be just fine. It just seems like quite important information imo. I posted a fairly comprehensive comparison of PlayChess and ICC already. And listing the features of FICS shouldn't take too long.

A more apt description might be "the place to experience chess online."

Your answer focused on playing, but that's just one aspect. ICC has live GM commentary and live coverage of every major tournament throughout the world (and some minor ones, too!). ICC has video recaps with GM commentary of the same tournaments if you miss it live. Untold numbers of instructive videos. Interfaces which are vastly superior in every way to any other site.

Comparing FICS and ICC is like comparing watching I Love Lucy with your rabbit ear antennae to having DirectTV and Tivo.

And again, anyone gets a free 2 weeks every 3 or 4 months to sample ICC. I'm not a paying member and they damn sure don't pay me, but I recognize their benefits.

weirdly Dire feels the exact opposite

I think I'm going to mention some of the other features of ICC, provide a link for discussion and say that some people just feel really strongly about this question.

I have unlimited access to playchess thanks to an old Fritz 8 i purchased back when there was no expire date for their serial numbers. I like that and think ICCs price is a bit steep.