Gary will tell you that I did not know my way around the interface. He had to help me with changing channels and how to contact the TD and things like this
Yes all this is very true, it'll be a lot easier for you next time Don
I hope so. I play on ICC/FICS once or twice a year. At the end of the tournament I am usually getting quite comfortable. Then I log on again 6 months later and most of it forgotten I guess ICC/FICS regulars have the same issues if they don't use Playchess regularly.
This is a bit off topic, I haven't used FICS before and I have to say I was impressed, I'm currently running Komodo there for Don to get it's rating up (although it was recently clobbered by a Firebird). The CB interface looks more modern, but I am finding I can actually do more automatically on FICS - for instance the winboard -zippygameend parameter allows you to automatically seek games in up to three different time controls after each game ends.
I suspect the reason that people don't move from your chargeable CB server to a free offering like FICS, is that they have a lot of their investment tied up in the ctg format and it was never easy to use ctg books on ICS.
But now with the aquarium book adapter (and if Suj gets the mingame feature he requested) I don't see it a being a big showstopper anymore for engine players to move from CB to FICS, at least people would have to write new kibitzing macros
garybelton wrote:This is a bit off topic, I haven't used FICS before and I have to say I was impressed, I'm currently running Komodo there for Don to get it's rating up (although it was recently clobbered by a Firebird). The CB interface looks more modern, but I am finding I can actually do more automatically on FICS - for instance the winboard -zippygameend parameter allows you to automatically seek games in up to three different time controls after each game ends.
I suspect the reason that people don't move from your chargeable CB server to a free offering like FICS, is that they have a lot of their investment tied up in the ctg format and it was never easy to use ctg books on ICS.
But now with the aquarium book adapter (and if Suj gets the mingame feature he requested) I don't see it a being a big showstopper anymore for engine players to move from CB to FICS, at least people would have to write new kibitzing macros
The book adapter is an issue. I have never got it to work properly with ChessPartner. I know that Sjeng and Hiarcs both gave up on trying to use a ctg in CCT12.The other issue is that CTG's are used as read only so no learning is possible. Convekta have not yet fully cracked the ctg format.
ps. Off topic seems like a good idea
I was impressed with FICS also everything seemed to work and some nice features like 'mailmoves'
I guess ICC/FICS regulars have the same issues if they don't use Playchess regularly.