ICC is a ghost town

[jswaff]

"Back in the day" several engine authors used to hang out on ICC. Seems that's not the case anymore. Sadly I can leave my engine online all day and not get a game. 10-20 years ago it would play constantly.

Is there another online meeting place for casual play and conversation, or are those days long gone?

[mvanthoor]

"Back in the day" several engine authors used to hang out on ICC. Seems that's not the case anymore. Sadly I can leave my engine online all day and not get a game. 10-20 years ago it would play constantly.

Is there another online meeting place for casual play and conversation, or are those days long gone?

I'd look into Lichess, or maybe Chess.com (but they seem to try and foist a subscription on you for everything you try to do). ICC (and FICS) just feel... massively old. I've looked into them some time ago, but they don't even come close to what we call "user friendly" nowadays.

People are not going to connect to servers by IRC-like clients anymore, and type up commands. If you connect to a server you do it with something like Discord, or you use a service through a website. If a service can't provide that sort of user experience, it's out of the game.

[jswaff]

I don't mind a subscription. Actually I have a chess.com account. But, AFAIK it's "browser only" and you can't interface an XBoard compatible engine to it like you can with ICC / FICS. Or can you?

[amanjpro]

I don't mind a subscription. Actually I have a chess.com account. But, AFAIK it's "browser only" and you can't interface an XBoard compatible engine to it like you can with ICC / FICS. Or can you?

Not sure about Chess.com, but in LiChess you can definitely do so with this python script: https://github.com/ShailChoksi/lichess-bot

My engine is running 24/7 on a raspberrypi: https://lichess.org/@/zahak_engine

[JVMerlino]

I don't mind a subscription. Actually I have a chess.com account. But, AFAIK it's "browser only" and you can't interface an XBoard compatible engine to it like you can with ICC / FICS. Or can you?

Not sure about Chess.com, but in LiChess you can definitely do so with this python script: https://github.com/ShailChoksi/lichess-bot

My engine is running 24/7 on a raspberrypi: https://lichess.org/@/zahak_engine

Yeah, it's really hard to get a game on ICC. With Myrddin I've opened it up to anybody at any rating (although still rated games), and the account can go for a full day and get nothing.

So, for those of us who know nothing about Python, how easy is it to get this up and running. Can it be tested with a guest account (on the assumption that LiChess even has guest accounts)?

[amanjpro]

I don't mind a subscription. Actually I have a chess.com account. But, AFAIK it's "browser only" and you can't interface an XBoard compatible engine to it like you can with ICC / FICS. Or can you?

Not sure about Chess.com, but in LiChess you can definitely do so with this python script: https://github.com/ShailChoksi/lichess-bot

My engine is running 24/7 on a raspberrypi: https://lichess.org/@/zahak_engine

Yeah, it's really hard to get a game on ICC. With Myrddin I've opened it up to anybody at any rating (although still rated games), and the account can go for a full day and get nothing.

So, for those of us who know nothing about Python, how easy is it to get this up and running. Can it be tested with a guest account (on the assumption that LiChess even has guest accounts)?

I know no python either, and I set it up in 10 mins... All you need is an account, and a text editor to edit the configuration file

I don't think guest accounts exist for bots, but it takes two mins to create an account anyways

[phhnguyen]

If you want to test your engine as an online bot, there is very little chance to get games, regardless your bot is in ICC, FICS or even Lichess. There are so many bots on any sites when human players typically don’t want to vs bots. My bots sometimes got no games for a few days on Lichess either. (I don’t use ICC, but from my experience, actually FICS is much better than Lichess in terms of getting games).

I have to implement a new feature to help that by making my chess GUI (Banksia GUI - can work as a chess bot manager) to auto challenge other players (for both FICS and Lichess). That feature can keep your bot playing all day.

Find more information from the below video:

[Mergi]

I've found lichess bots to be absolutely terrible - every other bot is just some sort of stockfish or its derivative. It's a plague. I wonder why do people waste computing power like that.

[jswaff]

If you want to test your engine as an online bot, there is very little chance to get games, regardless your bot is in ICC, FICS or even Lichess. There are so many bots on any sites when human players typically don’t want to vs bots. My bots sometimes got no games for a few days on Lichess either. (I don’t use ICC, but from my experience, actually FICS is much better than Lichess in terms of getting games).

I have to implement a new feature to help that by making my chess GUI (Banksia GUI - can work as a chess bot manager) to auto challenge other players (for both FICS and Lichess). That feature can keep your bot playing all day.

Find more information from the below video:

It's not so much about testing - I can do that on my own machine. It's more about an online "hang out" to drop in once in a while and find other engines and engine authors online. That used to be the case with ICC, but I guess that's ancient history now.

[phhnguyen]

I've found lichess bots to be absolutely terrible - every other bot is just some sort of stockfish or its derivative. It's a plague. I wonder why do people waste computing power like that.

I think it is much better than you thought: they are not only Stockfish/clones but Lc0/clones, twice better

However, low score bots typically use their own engines, not clones.