bcron wrote:
FICS is up and running but it seems kinda empty. If you look on the
search graph there are not any dots. You can get into a game if you
click "Quick Game" or issue a seek.

BabasChess is the best free online chess interface around. I wish they
would make a native linux version.

For other free chess you can try US Chess Live at
http://www.uschesslive.org

You can keep a name and play unlimited games but you have no rating...
for me that's even better since it's one less thing to worry about.

You can also use www.playchess.com as a guest

Sorry...I forgot to mention that the best place to play free online
chess is www.redhotpawn.com It's not live chess so you have all the
time in the world to make the right move and no excuse to make a stupid
mistake.

bcron wrote:
FICS is up and running but it seems kinda empty.

There are currently (1518GMT, 2006-11-09) 648 people logged in and 186
games in progress. That's not so very quiet.


If you look on the search graph there are not any dots. You can get
into a game if you click "Quick Game" or issue a seek.

As you say, if nobody's seeking a game, seek for one yourself.


Dave.

--
David Richerby Flammable Vomit (TM): it's like a pile
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ of puke but it burns really easily!

you are just a tad defensive no?

FICS is not dead, nor is it dying... but it's a little under the
weather I would say

Can you say that FICS is currently at the same level of activity it
normally enjoys?

If people want to know where else to play there is nothing wrong with
that. I still log on to FICS every day. I don't play much live chess
because I have a number of games going on redhowpawn.


David Richerby wrote:
bcron wrote:
FICS is up and running but it seems kinda empty.

There are currently (1518GMT, 2006-11-09) 648 people logged in and 186
games in progress. That's not so very quiet.


If you look on the search graph there are not any dots. You can get
into a game if you click "Quick Game" or issue a seek.

As you say, if nobody's seeking a game, seek for one yourself.


Dave.

--
David Richerby Flammable Vomit (TM): it's like a pile
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ of puke but it burns really easily!

In article . com,
"bcron" wrote:

you are just a tad defensive no?

There seems to be something of a war on FICS coming from a few people on
this newsgroup. They keep posting how it's down, despite the fact that
they should know better at this point.

Can you say that FICS is currently at the same level of activity it
normally enjoys?

Something close to it. There aren't clearly fewer people logged in right
now than usual - although this isn't a time of day when I normally play,
so it's hard for me to be precise.

-Ron

U¿ytkownik "David Richerby" napisa³ w
wiadomo¶ci ...
Eliyahu wrote:
Now FICS is dead, and yahoo unplayable, where can I play decent chess
for free?

FICS isn't dead. Download an interface from, e.g.,
http://www.babaschess.net/ and you'll be able to connect just fine.

Can he ? What about creating a new handle ?
And it`s hard to play decent chess there i.e. it`s hard to find players with
ratings above 2000.

I suggest picking up playchess.com. If you buy for a small sum of money
Fritz 8 or 9 then you cwill be able to play decent chess with good players
(FMs, IMs and GMs) for free ;-)

bcron wrote:
David Richerby wrote:
bcron wrote:
FICS is up and running but it seems kinda empty.

There are currently (1518GMT, 2006-11-09) 648 people logged in and
186 games in progress. That's not so very quiet.

you are just a tad defensive no?

If it counts as `defensive' to rebut falsehoods then I'm happy to be
defensive. You claimed that FICS was `kinda empty'; I demonstrated
that it wasn't.

Frankly, I'm getting pretty tired of all of these `FICS is down' posts
but I feel the need to keep rebutting them in case people start to
believe that FICS really is dead and that would, I think, be a bad
thing.

I also think it would be a good idea for the FICS people to set up a
temporary web server that just displays a page saying, ``Sorry, our
webserver's down. You can still connect using an interface. Download
one from here or here or here.''


Dave.

--
David Richerby Homicidal Vomit (TM): it's like a pile
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ of puke but it wants to kill you!

Bs'd

Thanks guys, I'm playing on FICS now through Babas.

I appreciate the help.

Why is it when I go to www.freechess.org that I get nowhere?

Eliyahu

In article .com,
"Eliyahu" wrote:

Why is it when I go to www.freechess.org that I get nowhere?

They're having hardware problems, which are hurting their web server,
their email server, and new accounts creation.

Hopefully they'll get them fixed soon.

-Ron

I didn't say anything that was false.

If people are reporting that FICS is down for players when it's clearly
not that would explain why I don't see as many people on there as I
normally do.

If you have a FICS account and the password works OR you want to play
as a guest then FICS is 100% operational.

I hope the people who are saying that it is down are just confused and
not spreading rumors to kill the traffic at FICS.

It's sort of like dumping a stock. Perception becomes reality. If you
say FICS is dead, people stop going and it dies...

I'll be on FICS everyday as usual and hopefully once the webpage is
sorted this debate will run out of steam.

It's sort of like dumping a stock. Perception becomes reality. If you
say FICS is dead, people stop going and it dies...

I'll be on FICS everyday as usual and hopefully once the webpage is
sorted this debate will run out of steam.

Why don't you (or someone) start a new thread (occasionally) announcing
FICS is operational, but experiencing technical difficulties?

Question: Does FICS broadcast/relay live events?

Question: I know I can not register a new account at this time. But
I've been having a hard time staying connected as Guest%%%, while
following games. Is there something I can do about this?


Thanks,
Pal