Originally posted by no1marauderI haven't had that problem at playchess, but I've had that problem in Fritz with autosave of games I play against the engine. It seems to save when I select new game, so if I play three, only the first two are saved. Of course, I only win the third, so Fritz seems rather malicious in this respect.
I liked playchess.com but for some reason it wasn't downloading my completed games automatically to a file so I could analyze them (the screen was locking whenever my opponent or myself resigned and the game wouldn't save automatically OR manually). When I spoke to the Site Admins, they blamed it on my computer but it downloads completed games from FIC ...[text shortened]... omatically and from USCL manually with no problem. Anybody else had this problem with Playchess?
I did enjoy a lot of features at ICC that I miss at playchess and FICS. ICC training bots and game database and number and quality of players still reign supreme, although I prefer the Fritz interface (and its larger size gets better with each optical prescription--age and texts and computer screens take their toll).
Originally posted by no1marauderThe Playchess server has a high proportion of European (especially German) players. If you are on when peak times would be for them you should find a game no problem. Or you could try just before and after live tournament broadcasts (live feeds with commentary from say the WCC).
It's worked at times, but then not worked at other times - I had this problem with about half my games there. I just went over for the first time since September and did an upgrade, so maybe that will solve the glitch. If I can't get my games downloaded for after game analyses, the site is worthless to me. Anybody have an opinion on which of these thre ...[text shortened]... 0 or more (I hate blitz) and what time would be best for that on any of the above-named servers?
I dont like Playchess for some reason. FICS is my favorite, They have tournaments, realy good lectures, Team chess, Suicide chess, They catch cheaters, and they have lively debates lol, You can examine yours or anyones else last 10 games at any time, and save your best games, If somone D/C, you can resume later.
Playchess may have all this stuff, but I just cant get used to its Interface
I have a decent home system, 2.4 Gig, 512 meg ram, etc. but
have had no trouble at Playchess or ICC.
I like ICC because of the instant one minute games.
They always have GM's there, and a lot of GM's come to Playchess too,
like Nigel Short, who doesn't seem to get a lot of respect from
the kibbitzers I might add.
I checked that article magnublm, and was surprised to fined The Yahoo site had a 44% share. I would have guessed ICC or Playchess.com. I'm kind of put off by Yahoo by its reputation as a computer player magnet. I only use two: ICC and the Playchess.com, the Fritz site. I liked the look of Chess21, but wasn't willing to pay the price. ICC used to be almost instant getting a game, but lately it seems to have slowed down. During the daytime I play against the snooty Europeans over at Playchess. I have to laugh sometimes at them. Once, I played a weird gambit against the Petrov ( the Cochran) and the guy resigned immediately because, as he said, "I don't play trashy openings."
Originally posted by magnublm"They" is Mark Weeks who did not spend enough time playing online to warrent the truncated opinions he offers in seven articles, 90% of which are repeated in every one. Evidently, he also tested only the Java version of FICS, as his information is grossly inaccurate with respect to the Windows and Linux clients. AQs for computers at ICC, they are well marked, or they get caught. Computers were not a problem during my 5 1/2 years as a paying member.
Have you had a look at this article?
http://chess.about.com/library/ble29wto.htm
Wonder why they say they dislike "Too many computers" at ICC?
All of my FICS, Chess,net, USCL, and ICC games are saved automatically in a pgn file. The playchess games are saved in the ChessBase format, which the required software (Fritz in my case) can convert to pgn. Yahoo offers no ability to save games in pgn format, yet he calls the site adequate, and even gives it three stars.
Chess.net was good in 1998, but is no better today than it was then. That means, that now it is crap. Nevertheless, it is leagues better than Pogo and Yahoo.
If you want an informed opinion (rooted in the experience of 25,000+ online games), check out http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/wulebgr/reviews.htm
Be warned: angelfire has pop-ups, and sometimes they are nasty. However, if you got into and out of about.com without too much scumware, you can probably get through angelfire as well.
Originally posted by RavelloHe's right. You can play engine games there but they are clearly engine against engine matches. Other than that playchess is the best blitz chess site which cracks down more than any other site on engine use. I havent played there in awhile but think it is the best site to play on. Uchess is ok but you have to wait too long to get games, Russ for some reason took away the chat which makes the site really suck and even worse it's infested with engines galore.
How can you say that?
Playchess.com is one of the few (if not the only) who kicks the most cheats as soon as they are discovered.
There's a ticker where once in a while appears the writing "XXXX was baned for engine use" or something like that.........
I appreciate a lot that policy.
I used to play a lot at www.instantchess.com
The default time limit is 15 minutes per person for the whole game, but members can alter this to whatever they want.
One downside is that people often cancel games for no reason, or leave you waiting. Also, your opponent is chosen at random, so he could be anything from an absolute beginner to a grandmaster.
I took Stonedog's advice and downloaded BabasChess for FICS. Pretty nice graphics. Not as many players as ICC. My big problem with BabasChess is I have to turn off my firewall before it will communicate. I tried adding it into my permitted list on firewall software but to no avail. A minor distraction, but annoying nevertheless.
Originally posted by buddy2I don't have this problem with Babas and my firewall.
I took Stonedog's advice and downloaded BabasChess for FICS. Pretty nice graphics. Not as many players as ICC. My big problem with BabasChess is I have to turn off my firewall before it will communicate. I tried adding it into my permitted list on firewall software but to no avail. A minor distraction, but annoying nevertheless.
I've played at Gameknot.com blitz. I've had a few trash talkers but I guess that is internet chess. I'm not a very good player anyway so that may be some of the trash talking. The bad thing is that it is random so (for me at least) you could get a very good player or someone worse that myself. It is good for a quick game.
Manny out.