ICS Ver.2 Help Docs
gba...@x102a.ess.harris.com
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 <sle...@cs.cmu.edu> (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 : <player>
"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 : <address>
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 : <str>
If no argument is given, the top 20 rated players in standard chess
games are printed. If <str> 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 <sle...@cs.cmu.edu> (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 : <name>
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. <mmo...@lark.utah.edu>.
Richard Nash <na...@visus.com> created the ratings server (IRS).
Stanley Yamane <stya...@phoenix.princeton.edu> wrote the board
display options, and the "bestmanager utility" was written by Jose
DeLeon <jad...@altair.csustan.edu>.
Everything else was written by Daniel Sleator <sle...@cs.cmu.edu>.
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 : <player name | draw | abort | adjourn>
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 : <name>
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 : <name>
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 : <filename>
Load the game saved in <filename>. 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 : <address> <num>
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 <num> to the
address you specify in <address>.
Examples : "mail go...@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 : <name> <time> <increment>
Request a match with player "name" of game in <time> minutes with an
increment of <increment> seconds added to the clock after each move.
The time and increment arguments are optional. If the increment is
omitted, the default value is 0. If both are omitted the default is 2 12.
If you have already been challenged to a match by <name> then doing a
match command with exactly the same time parameters will commence the
match. Alternatively, a match may be started by saying "accept opponent"
or "accept" if there's only one challenge.
Note that if you change your mind, and decide you don't want to play a
person, but you've already offered a match, you can use "match" with no
arguments. This withdraws the challenge.
Pending challenges (both from you and from others to you) can be seen
with the "pending" command.
See also: pending, decline, accept.
VCS % help motd
*****************************************************************************
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 <sle...@cs.cmu.edu> (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 moves
Command : moves
Args : <game number | player>
List the moves of the game specified by its number or by the name of a
player playing it. If no argument is provided, and you are in a match,
it lists the moves for that game.
See also: games, oldmoves
VCS % help newchanges
VCS % help notation
Topic : Notation Support on ICS
-------------------------------
Algebraic ("Nd4"), absolute ("e3-h4") and "x" notation are all supported.
Case is always ignored.
Examples:
e5 a pawn move or capture to e5
d3-e4 a move or capture from d3 to e4 (always works)
nh2 move a knight to h2
ngh2 move a knight on the g file to h2
n4h2 move a knight on the 4rd rank to h2
ng4h2 move the knight on g4 to h2
nxp take a pawn with a knight
nxph2 take the pawn on h2 with a knight
ng4xp take a pawn with the kinght on g4
ngxp take a pawn with a knight on the g file.
xp take a pawn
nx take something with a knight
x take something
You will be told if your move is ambiguous, and also if making that
move would leave your king in check.
Castling king side is "o-o" and queen side is "o-o-o". Promotion is to
a queen, unless you've issued the command "promote piece", which
will promote to the specified piece when the move is made.
VCS % help observe
Command : observe
Args : <num | name>
This shows you the board positions after each move of the specified
game. If you are already observing the specified game, this will
remove it from your observation list. The game may be specified either
by its number or by the name of one of the players playing that game.
If no argument is specified, all observation is turned off.
See also: refresh, games
VCS % help oldmoves
Command : oldmoves
Args : <game number | player>
The "old game" of a player is the game most recently completed.
The oldmoves command allows you to see the old game of any player
currently logged on. If no argument is provided, it uses your own old
game.
See also: games, moves
VCS % help open
Command : open
Args : none
This command toggles whether or not you accept match requests.
If your open flag is False, you automatically refuse all offers for matches.
If it is True, match requests come through as per normal.
Can also be changed with "set open 1" or "set open 0", and can be
viewed with stats. This variable is automatically set to 0 when
you issue a "match" command.
See also: stats, set.
VCS % help password
Command : password
Args : oldpassword newpassword
This command changes your password. The first argument is your
old password, and the second is your new one. A password may not
contain blanks, and may be at most 15 characters in length.
VCS % help pending
Command : pending
Args : none
If you're not playing, it lists the current challenges from others
to you and from you to others. If you are playing, it lists current
offers (draw, abort or adjourn) from you and the opponent.
Also see: match, decline
VCS % help players
Command : players
Args : <none>
This is equivalent to "who wa".
VCS % help programmers
Messages of the following form will ALWAYS appear to the players of a
match exactly twice for each match -- once at the beginning and once
at the end:
{Game 4 (Wood vs. abx) Creating registered Blitz match..}
{Game 4 (Wood vs. abx) abx resigns.}
I suggest this method be used to look for the start and end of games.
These messages also appear to all players observing a game, regardless
of the setting of their "ginform" flag.
VCS % help promote
Command : promote
Args : <piece>
Set the piece type which a pawn will be promoted to should it make
it to the back rank. Legal specifications are :
queen
rook
bishop
knight
VCS % help promotion
Topic : Promotion on ICS
------------------------
Promotion of a pawn on the back rank is defaulted to queen. You
can change this through the promote command, to be any piece except a
pawn or a king. Promotion of pawn is not interactive! Upon movement
of the piece to the back rank, it is automatically promoted to the
piece you have indicated with the promote command (or queen if you
have not specified anything).
VCS % help quit
Command : quit
Args : none
Log off. If you are in the middle of a game, you resign it. Otherwise
you simply leave the game.
VCS % help ratings
Topics : Ratings on ICS (USCF hybrid system)
-------------------------------------
Ratings are computed as follows :
-- If you have played less than 20 games :
o When you win, you add 400 to your opponents rating, and average in.
o When you lose, subtract 400 from your opponents rating, and average in.
o When you tie, you average your opponents rating in with yours.
-- After 20 games :
o If rated < 2100, you can fluctuate a max of 32 points.
o If rated < 2400, you can fluctuate a max of 24 points.
o If rated >= 2400, you can fluctuate a max of 16 points.
o For win, take diff. in ratings, divide by 25, and add to the max
fluctuation / 2. If this is less than 1, it is set to one.
o For loss, take the diff. in ratings, divide by 25, and add to the
negative max fluctuation / 2. If this is > -1, it is set to -1.
o For tie, if equal rating, no change, otherwise higher rated + max
fluctuation/8, lower rated -max fluctuation/8.
VCS % help refresh
Command : refresh
Args : <game number | player>
Redraw the board for the game indicated by its number or by the name
of a player playing it. If you are playing and not observing or if you are
observing only 1 game, you need not supply an argument.
See also: observe
VCS % help registration
TOPIC : Registration on ICS
---------------------------
There are two classes of players on the server. Once class is
registered, and the other is not. Unregistered players can play
matches and do most of the things registered players can, except that
their scores are not saved, and matches they play are not recorded.
Since unregistered matches are not recorded, registered players who
play unregistered ones will not have the game recorded on their
ratings either.
Basically, look around for a bit as an unregistered player. When
you are serious and ready to see just how good you are, send mail to
<ch...@valkyries.andrew.cmu.edu> listing your handle and desired
password, and you will be registered. Thenceforth, your rating will
determine your standing amongst the other players.
VCS % help resign
Command : resign
Args : none
Resign the game to your opponent.
VCS % help say
Command : say
Args : msg
The message is sent to a player. The recipient of the message is
the person with whom you're playing (if you're playing), otherwise
it's the player with whom you last played.
See also: kibitz, whisper, tell, shout
VCS % help servers
Command : servers
Args : NONE
Lists all of the ICS servers connected to the ratings server. If you
have a hard time finding competion where you are, try one of those.
VCS % help set
Command : set
Args : variable value
You can use this command to change any of the information displayed
by the command "stats" (except ratings of course!). See "stats" for
the meaning of each variable.
For example, to play unrated games, type "set legal 0", or "set l 0",
since variable names can be abbreviated. (Alternatively, you can use
"on" or "true" for "1" and "off" or "false" for "0".)
To clear the "Email" and "Note" fields, you need to set them to a
single quote ('), which is automatically stripped. For example,
set Note '
will make the Note field empty. All of these variables are stored
when you exit.
See also: stats
VCS % help shout
Command : shout
Args : msg
Shout the message <msg> to everyone logged on. Please do not abuse this
feature, or else it will have to be removed. Currently, only registered
players can use this command. After it completes, shout prints the number
of people who heard you. A shout does not go to players who have censored
the person shouting.
See also: tell, say, kibitz, whisper, censor
VCS % help shutdown
Command : shutdown
Args : none
Shut down the game. This command can only be used by Bobby Fischer.
VCS % help spirit
Topic : The spirit of ICS play
------------------------------
Basically, the main thing to remember is that ICS is here first and
foremost as a place to have fun playing chess with others around the globe.
Ratings are of secondary importance.
VCS % help statistics
Command : statistics
Args : <str>
If no argument is given, then a chart and some statistics about
standard games are printed. If <str> is "blitz" then the same thing for blitz
games is listed.
VCS % help stats
Command : stats
Args : <name>
List the win-loss record and the rating for the player indicated
in <name>. If no name is listed, your own stats are printed. Along with
stats, the following user-settable variables are shown:
Email: The player's email address for receiving game listings
Note: A message one might leave for others to see indicating (say) whether
he/she likes blitz games or longer games or when he is normally logged
in. The Note can be at most 100 characters in length.
The following are binary variables -- 0 means no, 1 means yes;
open: Am I open to challenges?
legal: Will my games be rated ones?
shout: Will I hear when others shout?
kibitz: Will I hear others kibitzs and whispers?
tell: Will I receive tells from unregistered players?
pinform: Will I be informed when each player enters and leaves the server?
ginform: Will I be informed of the start and end of each game?
automail: Will my games automatically be mailed to me? (not operating now)
bell: Will a bell ring when each move is displayed on my screen?
The variable style controls the manner in which moves are displayed to me.
See also: set, ratings, style.
VCS % help stored
Command : stored
Args : none
This command lists all of the games which you currently have stored
in the database.
See also: load, adjourn
VCS % help strength
Command : strength
Args : <game number | player>
NOTE: This command no longer exists. This information may be obtained
with the games command. (E.g. "game 1" gives this information (and
more) about game 1. Alternatively, you can "game me" if your name is
"me" is is uniquely determined by the letters "me".)
Print the strength of each side for the game indicated by its number
or by the name of a player playing it. If no argument is provided, and
you are in a game, your game's strengths are shown.
This command is intended to be used with board style 9 (the style
where only moves are printed), since this information is show with the
other board styles.
Piece Value
----- -----
Pawn 1
Knight 3
Bishop 3
Rook 5
Queen 9
King 0
See also: style
VCS % help style
Command : style
Args : <num>
This command allows you to choose among the various board display
options. "num" is the style number (see below). If no argument is provided,
your current setting, along with the available options, is displayed.
1. Standard ICS board (default)
2. USA-Today Sports Center-style board
3. Experimental vt-100 ANSI board for dark backgrounds
4. Experimental vt-100 ANSI board for light backgrounds
5. Style suggested by ajpi...@med.unc.edu
6. Email Board suggested by Thomas Fought (t...@rsch.oclc.org)
7. Miniature board
8. ICS interface maker board-- raw data dump
9. last 2 moves only (previous non-verbose mode)
Some graphics interfaces work only with specific board styles.
See also: interfaces
VCS % help tell
Command : tell
Args : <who> <msg>
This command tells the player indicated by <who>, the message
contained in <msg>.
If the <who> is replaced by a dot as in:
tell . hello
tell .hello
Then the message is sent to the previous recipient of a tell.
You can turn off tells from a particular player with the "censor" command.
"censor john" turns off tells from john to you.
VCS % help time
Command : time
Args : <game number | player>
Print the time statistics for the game indicated by its number or by
the name of a player playing it. If no argument is provided, and you are
in a game, your game's time statistics are shown.
This command is intended to be used with board style 9 (where only
the moves are given), since the board display includes the time, and
it can be updated with "refresh".
See also: style
VCS % help uncensor
Command : uncensor
args : <name>
The specified player is removed from 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, all players are removed from your censor
list. Players are added to the list with "censor player".
Also see: tell, say, whisper, shout, kibitz, uncensor.
VCS % help upstatistics
Command : upstatistics
Args : none
Lists a number of self-explanatory statistics about what happened
since the server came up.
VCS % upstatistics
Statistics since the server came up 15 hours, 7 minutes, 20 seconds ago:
There are currently 25 players, and 3 games.
48 - Maximum number of players simultaneously here.
17 - Maximum number of simultaneous games.
800 - Number of times players connected.
604 - Number of games played.
63671 - Number of commands issued.
(Debugging information: allocs in use = 11, max allocs in use = 437)
VCS % help verbose
There is no verbose command. Style 9 now does what verbose=off
used to do. ("set style 9" or "style 9" will set the style to 9.)
VCS % help whisper
Command : whisper
Args : msg
Send the message <msg> to all the people observing a game
but NOT the players of that game. The game used is the one you're
playing or the unique one you're observing.
Observers with "kibitz" flag off (see "stats" and "set") will not
receive the message, neither will players censoring you. You can use
whisper if you are registered and are observing a game, or if you are
playing a game. If you want to comment on a game, you should use
"kibitz" or "whisper" instead of "shout". Upon completion, whisper
will print the number of people who received your message.
See also: kibitz, shout, tell, say, set, stats, censor
VCS % help who
Command : who
Args : any combination of the set {olafr123tvw}
The command "who" prints current ICS users. The format of the
output is controlled by various flags. Here is typical default output
from who:
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| User Standard Blitz On for Idle |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 0Xu Darooha 1298 (30) 914 3 |
| 0 U Blaster ---- ---- 1 |
| Uo Dracula ---- ---- 2 |
| |
| 3 Players displayed |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Starting from left to right: A number indicates that the player is
currently playing a game (that game), "X" means the player is not open
to matches, "u" means the player's legal flag is 0 (doesn't want to
play rated games), "U" means the player is not registered, "o" means
the player is observing at least one game.
Then come the standard and blitz ratings (each followed by the number
of games played -- omitted if more than 99). Then come the time since
the player logged on, and the idle time. (Each of the form h:m.)
The players are sorted according to the average of the standard and
blitz ratings.
There are a number of optional flags, that select which players to
show and how to show them:
(A) flags that select who to display are:
o - (open) lists players who are open for games
l - (legal) lists players with legal flag on
(i.e. those willing to play rated games)
f - (free) lists players who are not playing games
a - (available) lists players available for games (o&f)
r - (registered) lists players who are registered
(B) flags that select which portion of the list of players to display are:
1 - lists top 1/3 of the players logged in
2 - lists middle 1/3 of the players logged in
3 - lists bottom 1/3 of the players logged in
If two digits are given, then the second digit is the denominator in
the above fraction. I.e. "27" shows the 2nd from the best group of
1/7 of the players selected.
(C) flags that list players in different formats are:
t - (terse) lists players and their standard ratings only in columns
v - (verbose) lists in the format shown above (default)
w - (win-loss) lists win-loss record for players
Flags can be combined. For instance, "who ol" shows players that are open
for matches and want to play rated games. The command "players" is equivalent
to "who aw".
VCS % quit
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