gbastin Dec 17 1992, 6:36 pm show options Newsgroups: rec.games.chess From: gbas...@x102a.ess.harris.com - Find messages by this author Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 16:17:43 GMT Local: Thurs, Dec 17 1992 8:17 am Subject: ICS Ver.2 Help Docs Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse Attached is a summary of the new ICS Version 2 commands. Enjoy! -- GaryB telnet 128.2.232.4 5000 Trying... Connected to 128.2.232.4. Escape character is '^]'. ****** Welcome to the Internet Chess Server at valkyries.andrew.cmu.edu ****** Enter Login : GaryB "GaryB" is a registered name. Type the password or press return to use a different name: ***************************************************************************** Important changes: 1. If your opponent has run out of time, you have to call their flag by typing "flag". ("f" works, too) 2. Do "stats" to see your settings, and make sure they are as you want them. If any of the settings is "0", you will not hear that sort of message. If, for instance, you see: "kibitz : 0", it means you will not hear any kibitzing. To change the setting, you can do "set kibitz 1", "set shout 1", etc. 3. The oldmoves command should take the brunt of the uses of mail and automail, which are currently disabled. 4. Do "help changes1" and "help changes2" to see all the changes. All of the other help files should be up-to-date. ************************* MESSAGE OF THE DAY ****************************** A list of bugs is being compiled. Do "help bugs" to see it. Please report to me (aka Darooha) bugs not on that list! Thanks. And enjoy. For those of you who haven't been on for a while: the record of all matches between Nov 14th and Dec 10th has been lost. Registrations are now up to date. If we managed to miss yours, feel free to re-register. VCS % help Help topics: abort changes2 load programmers stats abuse commands logon promote stored abusers computers logout promotion strength accept credits mail quit style adjourn decline match ratings tell allobservers draw motd refresh time assess flag moves registration uncensor automail games newchanges resign upstatistics bell history notation say verbose best interfaces observe servers whisper blitz internet oldmoves set who bugs kibitz open shout censor last password shutdown changes legal pending spirit changes1 listobserving players statistics VCS % help abort Command : abort Args : none Sends a request to your opponent to abort the game in progress, thus discarding it. If your opponent sends a similar request, the game is discarded. If you want to save the game (in order to continue it later), you should adjourn it. See also: adjourn VCS % help abuse Abuse: One particular form of server abuse happens when a person who is losing a match logs out to avoid the loss in ratings points. Should we discover anyone doing this, they will be added to a list of users known as "abusers." The people in this list will automatically resign their game if the connection is lost. We realize that people often get disconnected legitimately. For this reason, we must receive confirmable reports of a user doing this before they are added to the "abusers" list. If a person reconnects and finishes their game, it is considered normal operation and they will definately NOT be added to the list. All players can see who is currently on the abusers list by typing "help abusers" Anyone that is "ADMIN" (shown when doing a "who") can add or remove people from this list. After some amount of time, we may remove people from the list if we deem they have learned not to behave in such an unsportsmanlike manner. Please note that this list only has any bearing on registered games. VCS % help abusers Example 1 VCS % help accept Command : accept Args : "accept" can be used to start a match against the player who challenged you using the time controls he proposed. If you want to ask for different time controls, use the "match" command. If more than one player challenges you, you need to supply the desired player's name as an argument. See also: match, pending VCS % help adjourn Command : adjourn Args : none Sends a request to your opponent to adjourn the game in progress. If your opponent sends a similar request, the game is adjourned, in which case it is saved, and can be continued later using the "load" command. See also: load, stored VCS % help allobservers Command : allobservers Args : optional game specification "allobservers" lists all observers for a set of games. If no argument is supplied, it lists the observers of the game you're playing, or, if you're not playing, it lists the observers of all the games you're observing. If a game is specified (by number or player name) all the observers of that game are listed. See also: observe, listobserving VCS % help assess Command : assess Args : player Assess the results of a game with the indicated player. If either you or the player indicated is unregistered, assess will not indicate any change in ratings. ************************************ ********* For standard game ******** <-- results for standard game ************************************ Win : 22 <----- points you gain if you win Draw : 6 <----- points you gain/lose if you draw Loss : -10 <----- points you lose if you lose. ************************************ ******** For blitz game ********* <-- results for a blitz game ************************************ Win : 22 \ Draw : 6 - same deal as above. Loss : -10 / ************************************ See also: ratings VCS % help automail Command : automail Args :
If no address is given, this command toggles the automatic sending of mail to your email address upon game completions. Specifying an address sets your email address to the string you give. The automail flag and the address can be set using the "set" command, and the values of the variables can be seen with "stats". Automail is currently disabled. You can use the oldmoves command to show in your screen the moves of your most recent game. This should satisify most of the need for automail. See also: set, stats, oldmoves VCS % help bell Command : bell Args : none This command toggles the suppression of bell signals. The bell is character is sent at the following times unless suppressed: 1) When you are challenged to a match. 2) When you recieve an update on a game which you're observing. 3) When you recieve an update on the game which you're playing. This flag can also be changed with the "set" command. VCS % help best Command : best Args : If no argument is given, the top 20 rated players in standard chess games are printed. If is "blitz" then the top 20 blitz players are listed. VCS % help blitz Topic : Blitz Games and Ratings in ICS -------------------------------------- A Blitz game is defined as being any game in which the sum of the initial time (in minutes) plus two thirds of the increment (in seconds) is at most 10. For example, match 2 12, match 10 0, match 0 15 are just on the blitz side of the blitz/standard boundary. The blitz rating is computed precisely the same as the Standard rating. VCS % help bugs Below is a list of **ALL** known bugs. Daniel Sleator (aka Darooha) * The IRS is case sensitive for the names, but the ICS is not. This allows a player to, for example, log in as "Scratchy", because this doesn't match the registered name "scratchy". This will not be allowed in the future. Another manifestation of this is the fact that "stats", "assess" and "history" are case insensitive for players who are logged on, but require the correct case for players who are not logged on. * The game transcript available in oldmoves does not correctly record which player resigned. It always puts the resignation message in the column of the player whose turn it is, regardless of who actually resigned. It will be changed to indicate which color resigned. * The documentation for "who" is not quite up-to-date. VCS % help censor Command : censor args : The specified player is added to your list of censored players. These player's tells will not be heard by you, nor will their shouts kibitzes, whispers or says. If no argument is specified, the list of censored players is shown. To uncensor a player type "uncensor player". Also see: tell, say, whisper, shout, kibitz, uncensor. VCS % help changes IMPORTANT THINGS: (1) If you want to hear shouting do "set shout 1". (2) You can't win on time unless you call the opponent's flag with "flag". (3) Kibitz sends the message to everybody watching AND the players! (There's a new command "whisper" that does what "kibitz" used to do. (4) There's abbreviation on commands and on player names. (5) Matches are accepted with the new "accept" command. (6) "thist" has been replaced by "history" To see what's changed, look at the help files for the following commands: whisper, censor, uncensor, set, who, accept, abort, flag, load, stats, history, notation, and others. Some improvements: The algebraic parser has been rewritten. Now accepts "x" as a take character. Eg: "pxq" or "pd3xq" or "pxqd3", or even "px" if there is only one legal move where a pawn takes a piece, or "xp" if there is only one legal move where a a pawn is taken or even "x" if there is only one legal capture. Flags on the who command to control the display and select the players displayed. The "censor" and "uncensor" allow you to prevent tells from specific people. The "tell" variable turns off tells from unregistered players. A new command "abort" for killing a game by mutual agreement. More feedback all over the place -- tell, making moves, etc. There are several new variables that you can set. Do help stats to see them. Features that are gone: "save" no longer exists. Nobody could explain the purpose of this to me. "watching" no longer exists. "verbose" has been replaced by style 9. VCS % help changes1 IMPORTANT THINGS: (1) If you want to hear shouting do "set shout 1". (2) You can't win on time unless you call the opponent's flag with "flag". (3) Kibitz sends the message to everybody watching AND the players! (There's a new command "whisper" that does what "kibitz" used to do. (4) There's abbreviation on commands and on player names. (5) Matches are accepted with the new "accept" command. (6) "thist" has been replaced by "history" To see what's changed, look at the help files for the following commands: whisper, censor, uncensor, set, who, accept, abort, flag, load, stats, history, notation, and others. (help changes2 for more) VCS % help changes2 Some improvements: The algebraic parser has been rewritten. Now accepts "x" as a take character. Eg: "pxq" or "pd3xq" or "pxqd3", or even "px" if there is only one legal move where a pawn takes a piece, or "xp" if there is only one legal move where a a pawn is taken or even "x" if there is only one legal capture. Flags on the who command to control the display and select the players displayed. The "censor" and "uncensor" allow you to prevent tells from specific people. The "tell" variable turns off tells from unregistered players. A new command "abort" for killing a game by mutual agreement. More feedback all over the place -- tell, making moves, etc. There are several new variables that you can set. Do help stats to see them. Features that are gone: "save" no longer exists. Nobody could explain the purpose of this to me. "watching" no longer exists. "verbose" has been replaced by style 9. VCS % help commands There is, as yet, no summary of the commands in ICS version 2.0. "help" will list all the topics on which there is help. "help topic" will give information on the specified topic. VCS % help computers The following ICS players are all computers. If you know of any more, feel free to tell us about them. scratchy \ RFischer >-- Deep Thought(s) (IBM) BSpassky / Geraldo Geraldo is Gnuchess 4.0 (California) gnufour gnufour is Gnuchess 4.0 (Switzerland) Maxwell Maxwell is Gnuchess 3.1 (Maine) katana MChess on a 486-25 (California) Novag Novag Super Expert 'C' (Cornell) Programmers: Please do "help programmers" for suggestions about how to parse the output from this server. VCS % help credits The idea for an internet chess server (ICS) as well as the original server itself came from Michael Moore. . Richard Nash created the ratings server (IRS). Stanley Yamane wrote the board display options, and the "bestmanager utility" was written by Jose DeLeon . Everything else was written by Daniel Sleator . The following players deserve acknowledgement for significant help on the project: Desmodus, Benoni, Stan, and Stark, Rahuls, MataPato, router, observer, and onlooker. VCS % help decline Command : decline Args : If the argument is "draw", a draw offer, if present, will be declined. If the argument is "adjourn", an adjourn offer, if present, will be declined. If the argument is "abort", an abort offer, if present, will be declined. If the argument is a player name and if the player has requested a match with you, then that player will be informed that you do not wish to play a match with him/her. See also: draw, adjourn, abort, match, accept, pending. VCS % help draw Command : draw Args : none Offer your opponent a draw, or accept a draw offer from your opponent if they have already offered a draw. Note that games where only one player is present cannot be drawn. If the game continues for 1 more move, the draw offer is discarded. See also: resign, assert, pending. VCS % help flag Command : flag Args : none This command checks how much time you and your opponent have left. If both are positive nothing happens. If both time are negative the game is drawn. If one player has run out, that player forfeits on time. NOTE: As I write this, you must call your opponents flag in order to win. This is a significant difference from previous versions if ICS. VCS % help games Command : games Args : optional game number of player Displays information about the game (if specified), or about all games (if no game is specified). Here is a typical line from the output: 2 najdorf vs tab [Reg Stand inc= 5] { 3:23 - 0:46} {18-17} (B: 27) Here is what these mean: 2 -- Game Number najdorv vs tab -- The two players (white followed by black) [Reg Blitz inc= 5] -- Registered/unregistered, Blitz/Standard, clock increment { 3:23 - 0:46} -- remaining time for white and black {18-17} -- Material strength of white and black in the game. (B: 27) -- Whose move it is, and the number of the move. VCS % help history Command : history Args : If no argument is provided, this command lists the last 10 game results for the associated ratings server. If an argument is provided, it looks for game results which involved the player specified as argument. If the player has not played a match for a "long enough" period of time, no results will be returned. VCS % help interfaces Topic: Graphical Interfaces for ICS ------------------------------------ There are several graphical interfaces available for the ICS. All are available via anonymous ftp from valkyries.andrew.cmu.edu. NAME Operating System --------------------------------------- GIICS DOS with modem XICS Unix with X windows and TCP/IP XBOARD Unix with X windows and TCP/IP NeXTICS modems as well as TCP/IP MacICS Mac Programmers: Please do "help programmers" for suggestions about how to parse the output from this server. VCS % help internet Topic : How the Internet Affects ICS. ------------------------------------- Essentially, you should hope the internet cooperates with you. Should you lose your connection to the server, you will be forced to quit, and if you are in the middle of a game at the time, that game will be saved and adjourned. Should you feel you have a clear win when your opponent loses their connection, send mail to your sysadmin with a list of the moves and a request for a win. VCS % help kibitz Command : kibitz Args : msg Exactly like whisper, but sends the message to the players as well. VCS % help last Command : last Args : If no argument is provided, list the last xx players who logged in. If a name is provided, list the last few logins of that player. If the player in question has not logged in for a long enough period of time, you will not recieve any information on them. VCS % help legal Command : legal Args : none This command toggles your playing mode. If true, games which you play are considered to be registered. If false, games that you play are considered unregistered. You may not toggle this flag during a game. Unregistered players may not use this command. Note that if you are set to play legal games, but play a match with an unregistered player, the game is considered non-legal. This can also be set with "set legal 1" or "set legal 0". See also: set VCS % help listobserving Command : listobserving Args : none List the games that you're currently observing. Also see: observe, allobservers VCS % help load Command : load Args : Load the game saved in . Note that (1) it must be a game of which you were a part. (2) Your opponent must be present and (3) be ready to complete the game. The names of stored games are always of the form "whitename-blackname". Note that there is no longer a "save" command. The purpose of stored games is simply to allow the players to adjourn, or to handle network interruptions. The viewing of stored games when the opponent is not present is not currently possible. See also: stored, adjourn VCS % help logon ****** Welcome to the Internet Chess Server at valkyries.andrew.cmu.edu ****** VCS % help logout ------------------------------------------------- - Thank you for using the Internet Chess Server - - Please come back again soon. - ------------------------------------------------- VCS % help mail Command : mail Args :
NOTE: This command is currently disabled. It may be restored some time in the future if we can think of a way to reduce the load on our systems. The oldmoves command can be used to show the moves of your most recent game or that of others. This should satisfy most of the need for mail. This command mails the move listing for game number to the address you specify in
. Examples : "mail g...@ouch.com 0" "mail loud%no...@corndog.utah.edu 1" This command, obviously, can be abused. Should I start getting incredible amounts of returned mail, this feature will be revoked. So please, when you mail a game listing, make sure it will get to the address specified. See also: automail, oldmoves VCS % help match Command : match Args :