Internet chess server
Encyclopedia
An Internet chess server (ICS) is an external server
that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view the board game of chess
over the Internet
. The term specifically refers to facilities for connecting players through a variety of graphical chess clients located on each user's computer.
in any way that allowed mass use by the public, and consequently, chess3 was and still is relatively unknown to the public.
In the eighties, chess play by email
was still fairly novel. Latency with email was less than with traditional correspondence chess
via paper letters. Often one could complete a dozen moves in a week. As network technology improved, public, widespread use of a centralised server for live play became a possibility.
Michael Moore, of the University of Utah, and Richard Nash recognised the potential of an Internet chess server and created its first incarnation. The official opening date of the ICS was January 15, 1992. John Chanak, William Kish, and Aaron Putnam moved the server to a host machine at Carnegie Mellon University
in July 1992, and took over its operation. Although it was buggy
and suffered from lag
problems, the server was popular among a small group of chess enthusiasts. Over time, many features were added to the ICS, such as ELO ratings
and support for graphical
clients, and the server was made more stable.
In late 1992, Daniel Sleator
, professor of computer science
at Carnegie Mellon University, took over management of the ICS. He addressed, among other issues, the frequent complaint that players would lose blitz games on time due to Internet lag. In 1994, he copyrighted the code, and began receiving purchase offers from companies wanting to commercialise the server. There were questions about whether Sleator was right to claim that the ICS was his intellectual property, since he did not code the original server, although he had made substantial improvements to its code.
On March 1, 1995, Sleator announced his intentions to commercialise ICS himself, renaming it the Internet Chess Club
, or ICC, and charging a yearly membership fee of $US 49 ($US 59.95 in 2007). This announcement was highly controversial among existing members. Many volunteers who had contributed in various ways to the flourishing of ICS were upset that anyone would attempt to profit from their efforts. Active players on the server who were used to the service being provided without charge were not pleased with the addition of the membership fee.
A handful of programmers who had worked on the original ICS became unhappy with what they saw as the commoditization of their project. They formed the Free Internet Chess Server
(FICS), and continued to allow everyone to have access to all features for free. In 1996, John Fanning
, uncle of Napster
founder Shawn Fanning
, started Chess.net, a commercial Internet chess server to rival ICS. Both services remain operational today.
variant of the TELNET
protocol. It is sparsely documented
and not standardised, although a few reference implementations and several clients
exist.
In theory, an ICS can be accessed from any TELNET client. That said, almost all users
choose to play using a graphical client, called an interface. Currently, the most popular interface is XBoard
(and its Windows
counterpart, WinBoard). In recent years, however, it has lost ground to newer interfaces like Pychess
and eboard.
In addition to standalone clients, many servers also offer Java interfaces that can be used directly from a Web browser
. These are popular with new users
and users of public computers.
accounts for 44% of the players online, compared to 12% for ICC and 7% for Playchess
. Despite Yahoo! Games
dominance over the online chess market, there are still new online chess servers being developed.
For a list of servers see :Category:Internet chess servers.
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view the board game of chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
over the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. The term specifically refers to facilities for connecting players through a variety of graphical chess clients located on each user's computer.
History
In the 1970s, one could play correspondence chess in a PLATO System program called 'chess3'. Several users used chess3 regularly; often a particular user would make several moves per day, sometimes with several games simultaneously in progress. In theory one could use chess3 to play a complete game of chess in one sitting, but chess3 was not usually used this way. PLATO was not connected to internet predecessor ArpaNetARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
in any way that allowed mass use by the public, and consequently, chess3 was and still is relatively unknown to the public.
In the eighties, chess play by email
Play-by-mail game
Play-by-mail games, sometimes known as "Play-by-post", are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. One example, chess, has been played by mail for centuries . Another example, Diplomacy, has been played by mail since the 1960s, starting with a printed newsletter written by John...
was still fairly novel. Latency with email was less than with traditional correspondence chess
Correspondence chess
Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...
via paper letters. Often one could complete a dozen moves in a week. As network technology improved, public, widespread use of a centralised server for live play became a possibility.
Michael Moore, of the University of Utah, and Richard Nash recognised the potential of an Internet chess server and created its first incarnation. The official opening date of the ICS was January 15, 1992. John Chanak, William Kish, and Aaron Putnam moved the server to a host machine at Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in July 1992, and took over its operation. Although it was buggy
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
and suffered from lag
Lag
Lag is a common word meaning to fail to keep up or to fall behind. In real-time applications, the term is used when the application fails to respond in a timely fashion to inputs...
problems, the server was popular among a small group of chess enthusiasts. Over time, many features were added to the ICS, such as ELO ratings
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
and support for graphical
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
clients, and the server was made more stable.
In late 1992, Daniel Sleator
Daniel Sleator
Daniel Dominic Kaplan Sleator is a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He discovered amortized analysis and he invented many data structures with Robert Tarjan, such as splay trees, link/cut trees, and skew heaps. He also pioneered the theory of link grammars and developed...
, professor of computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at Carnegie Mellon University, took over management of the ICS. He addressed, among other issues, the frequent complaint that players would lose blitz games on time due to Internet lag. In 1994, he copyrighted the code, and began receiving purchase offers from companies wanting to commercialise the server. There were questions about whether Sleator was right to claim that the ICS was his intellectual property, since he did not code the original server, although he had made substantial improvements to its code.
On March 1, 1995, Sleator announced his intentions to commercialise ICS himself, renaming it the Internet Chess Club
Internet Chess Club
The Internet Chess Club is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC currently has over 30,000 subscribing members...
, or ICC, and charging a yearly membership fee of $US 49 ($US 59.95 in 2007). This announcement was highly controversial among existing members. Many volunteers who had contributed in various ways to the flourishing of ICS were upset that anyone would attempt to profit from their efforts. Active players on the server who were used to the service being provided without charge were not pleased with the addition of the membership fee.
A handful of programmers who had worked on the original ICS became unhappy with what they saw as the commoditization of their project. They formed the Free Internet Chess Server
Free Internet Chess Server
The Free Internet Chess Server is a volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organised as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club , after that site began charging for membership.-History:...
(FICS), and continued to allow everyone to have access to all features for free. In 1996, John Fanning
John Fanning
John Fanning was the Founding Chairman and CEO of Napster. He founded the company with his nephew Shawn Fanning. He owned 70% of the company and represented the founders on the board of directors...
, uncle of Napster
Napster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
founder Shawn Fanning
Shawn Fanning
Shawn Fanning is an American computer programmer, serial entrepreneur, and angel investor. He developed Napster, one of the first popular peer-to-peer file sharing platforms, in 1998. The popularity of Napster was widespread and Fanning was featured on the cover of Time magazine...
, started Chess.net, a commercial Internet chess server to rival ICS. Both services remain operational today.
Protocol and access
The ICS protocol is a simple, text-basedText-based
Usually used in reference to a computer application, a text-based application is one whose primary input and output are based on text rather than graphics or sound. This does not mean that text-based applications do not have graphics or sound, just that the graphics or sound are secondary to the...
variant of the TELNET
TELNET
Telnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...
protocol. It is sparsely documented
Documentation
Documentation is a term used in several different ways. Generally, documentation refers to the process of providing evidence.Modules of Documentation are Helpful...
and not standardised, although a few reference implementations and several clients
Client (computing)
A client is an application or system that accesses a service made available by a server. The server is often on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network....
exist.
In theory, an ICS can be accessed from any TELNET client. That said, almost all users
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
choose to play using a graphical client, called an interface. Currently, the most popular interface is XBoard
XBoard
XBoard and WinBoard are free graphical user interface clients. Originally developed by Tim Mann, these programs are compatible with various chess engines that support the Chess Engine Communication Protocol such as GNU Chess...
(and its Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
counterpart, WinBoard). In recent years, however, it has lost ground to newer interfaces like Pychess
PyChess
PyChess is a Free software chess game developed for Linux. It allows users to play offline or on the online, through the free chess community FICS. PyChess also incooperates a chess engine which in contrast to most other AIs for chess is written in the Python language, focusing more on fun of play...
and eboard.
In addition to standalone clients, many servers also offer Java interfaces that can be used directly from a Web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
. These are popular with new users
Newbie
Newbie or noob is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in any profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet activity, such as online gaming or Linux use...
and users of public computers.
Available servers
Over the years, several Internet chess servers have been created. The Internet Chess Club is currently the largest server but each server has its own strengths and character. However, Mark Weeks claims that Yahoo! GamesYahoo! Games
Yahoo! Games is the section of the Yahoo! website in which Yahoo! users can play games either with other users or by themselves. The games on the website are typically Java applets or quick Flash games, but there are others which require a download. Many of the games that require a download...
accounts for 44% of the players online, compared to 12% for ICC and 7% for Playchess
Playchess
Playchess is a commercial Internet chess server edited by ChessBase devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. As of February 2011, Playchess has over 31,000 players online, including many internationally titled players who remain pseudo-anonymous and other masters whose...
. Despite Yahoo! Games
Yahoo! Games
Yahoo! Games is the section of the Yahoo! website in which Yahoo! users can play games either with other users or by themselves. The games on the website are typically Java applets or quick Flash games, but there are others which require a download. Many of the games that require a download...
dominance over the online chess market, there are still new online chess servers being developed.
For a list of servers see :Category:Internet chess servers.
External links
- Internet chess servers, Tim Mann
- History of the Internet Chess Server 1992–1995, Chris Petroff