
                       The Internet Chess Server

   John Chanak (MataPato), William Kish (router), Daniel Sleator (Darooha)
                      Carnegie Mellon University

		Minor updates 11/21/94 by Tim Mann (mann)


Introduction.

The Internet Chess Server (ICS) is a system that allows people from
all over the world to play chess, watch others playing, and converse.
The communication medium through which this takes place is known as
the Internet -- a communications network connecting computers at
thousands of universities, corporations, and government sites around
the world.  The ICS is the place where anyone with an account on an
internet-connected computer can play chess.  The number of people with
such access is well over a million, and is growing rapidly.

What's it like?

Of course access to the ICS is through a computer screen, keyboard,
and perhaps mouse.  But a more apt description of the way it feels is
like a big party.  Some people play chess intensely, while others mill
around watching the games, conversing with their old friends, and
making new ones.  The party-like atmosphere really keeps people coming
back -- it has been described by many as an addiction (but not one
that you want to break!).

Who's on the ICS?

Though the majority of players are from the United States, a
significant percentage is from Europe.  (Of course the balance changes
as a function of the time of day.)  There are also many players from
Israel, Australia, Singapore, and Japan.

The strength (that is, skill at chess) of the players varies as widely
as their geographical locations.  Playing strengths range from
beginner to International Master, and every so often a Grand Master
drops in and adds some excitement.  The ICS provides an Elo-style
rating system which automatically computes a rating for each player
based on his or her performance against others.  These rating points
are coveted by most players, and motivate them to play as well as they
can.

Many computers play on the ICS.  Deep Thought -- the world's best
chess computer -- drops by occasionally, as do several commercial
programs like Fritz II, Chess Genius, MChess Pro, and ChessMaster
4000.  There is even a research project whose program plays on the ICS
and learns from its mistakes.
 
Statistics.

There are over 4000 registered players on the ICS.  During the late
afternoon, there will typically be 90 people connected, and roughly 25
games in progress.  Because of the wide range of time zones, the
number of players rarely goes below 20.

A large number of games are played on the ICS, most of them short (less
than 20 minutes total time).  For many months there have consistently
been more than a thousand games played per day.  The current average
is over fifteen hundred.

Although all games on the ICS are timed, the tyranny of the clock is
ameliorated by an innovative incremental clock system.  The players
select a time increment which will be added to a player's clock after
each move.  The vast majority of games on the ICS are played with this
incremental clock system.

How do I connect?

The best way to find out what it's all about is to try it yourself.
If you have access to electronic mail, then it's very likely that you
can connect to the ICS.  On most systems, the command to do this is:

        telnet chess.lm.com 5000

or if you have xboard:

	xboard -ics -icshost chess.lm.com

The ICS has moved quite often in its history, and may have moved again
by the time you read this.  See the file "ics.addresses" in the xboard
distribution if the address given above doesn't work for you, or look
for the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions list) on the Usenet newsgroup
rec.games.chess.

Once you've connected, the ICS will ask you to log into the server.
Use any name you like.  If the system says the name is registered and
asks you for a password, pick a different name and try again.  After
you're in, type "help intro1" to see the first of several help files
that explain what's going on.  To avoid distractions while you're
trying to read the help files, you may want to issue the command "set
shout 0".  Do a "set shout 1" later if you want to hear the general
conversation on the server.

There are a number of interfaces available that run on various
platforms (NeXT, X Windows, PC, Macintosh, Amiga, etc).  These give
you a pretty board display, and allow you to enter your moves with a
mouse.  Type "help interfaces" for a listing.

There is also a European ICS server.  It runs on the machine
anemone.daimi.aau.dk.  Again, see "ics.addresses" or the
rec.games.chess FAQ file if this address doesn't work for you.
Euro-ICS generally does not have as many users logged in, so you may
prefer to use the North American ICS even if you are in Europe.

History and credits.

Michael Moore (of the University of Utah) and Richard Nash recognized
the potential for such a server, and programmed the first version of
the ICS.  It came on-line in early 1992.  John Chanak, William Kish,
and Aaron Putnam moved the server to a host machine at Carnegie Mellon
University (CMU) in the fall of 1992, and took over its operation.
The program has since been rewritten by Daniel Sleator.  In 1993 a
European ICS was established in Denmark.  Later the North American ICS
was moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), then to
the University of California at Santa Barbara, then to the University
of Oklahoma, then to the Oklahoma Board of Regents, and most recently 
to Telerama (Luce McQuillin Corp.).

Many others have helped in the creation and operation of the ICS.  The
following individuals deserve special thanks: Tony Acero, Shirish
Chinchalkar, Dima Dakhnovsky, Aviv Friedman, Peter Jansen, Dannie
Kjeldgaard, Tim Mann, Pappu L. N. Murthy, Chris Petroff, and Stanley
Yamane.
