Originally posted by ArrakYep, the board sizes on PC are better than you'll find anywhere - there's an option to make the board the entire screen, that should be big enough for anybody.
so let me get this stright playchess uses the exact same board as fritz? same size too?
You can use 3d boards online, and I have, but it lags.
I have ICC and Playchess. I use it for blitz mostly. To use Playchess you have to have Fritz or equivalent. The board sizes on both are big enough. I have bad eyesight and have no trouble with either. Playchess is primarily European (German) so you don't have as many people on late at night. They're all sleeping. Of course there are plenty from U.S. You can examine games quickly on Playchess, as they are saved automatically, but it's no big dea. You can do the same with ICC, downloading them automatically from ICC into Fritz via pgn. Fritz has some pretty useless bells and whistles: temperature and weather of locale your opponent comes from, personal melodies. The 3-D stuff is a waste of time, as far as i'm concerned. As for FICS, with a babbas interface it looks good and large, but they have this lag problem where a 5 minute blitz game can take forever to end and you sit there watching the screen while doing nothing. Playchess, you run out of time, you lose. On ICC you still get jerks who adjourn in losing positions, something impossible to do on PC. It's absolutely ridiculous to adjourn a blitz game and i've pleaded with icc to no avail. Other than that, i find ICC to have the most opponents, quicker to find someone to play with. Playchess people can be pretty snooty. I once had a German resign because i was playing the Cochrane Gambit and he didn't think that was real chess. Go figure.
Originally posted by buddy2Well presented.
I have ICC and Playchess. I use it for blitz mostly. To use Playchess you have to have Fritz or equivalent. The board sizes on both are big enough. I have bad eyesight and have no trouble with either. Playchess is primarily European (German) so you don't have as many people on late at night. They're all sleeping. Of course there are plenty from U.S. ...[text shortened]... se i was playing the Cochrane Gambit and he didn't think that was real chess. Go figure.
Originally posted by buddy2I had one guy from Iceland, I think, who said he wouldn't play me because I was American.
Playchess people can be pretty snooty.
His saying that really put me in my place and taught me a lesson, so I recalled all the US troops from around the world, because, of course, I'm responsible for sending them there. I closed all the child labor sweat shops that, of course, I'm responsible for opening. I went ahead and took AIDS back. I probably shouldn't have let that stay out so long. My bad there. I went ahead and gave every country nuclear technology because, really thats only fair. And I then I defected to Iceland.
I really wanted to thank that guy for setting me straight by not playing me.
Originally posted by IronPawnXBobby?
I had one guy from Iceland, I think, who said he wouldn't play me because I was American.
His saying that really put me in my place and taught me a lesson, so I recalled all the US troops from around the world, because, of course, I'm responsible for sending them there. I closed all the child labor sweat shops that, of course, I'm responsible for ope ...[text shortened]... o Iceland.
I really wanted to thank that guy for setting me straight by not playing me.
I just checked the voting site above and found people said the best site was...
blitz sites FICS=41%
ICC=27%
Playchess=4%
World Chess Network=27%
This was a surprise to me, especially the position of Playchess. Maybe in Europe it would be the top. World Chess Network is a friendly site. Smaller board than ICC or Playchess. A variety of players from all over the world. Still gives you ads when you log in, whether you're a member or not. Also caters to online gaming, dungeons and dragons, etc.
Correspondence chess:
RHP=79%
Gameknot=21%
Yaaay! I used to be a member of Gameknot. And playing there is just as good as RHP. But its forums are horrendously censored. I was banned from forums for a month for posting "off topic." As an adult, i resented being treated like a child, so i just quit, even tho i had many months of subscription left. I looked around and found RHP, which is nice.
I have a marginal preference for the ICC - the interface is less clunky, there is a sought graph, and teh two simuls I played in when a member were fun. Although there are a lot more idiots on the ICC than on Playchess.
FICS clearly isn't the best place to play real time chess btw. I think there were 32 votes for it when I checked - are there even 32 active real time players on the site?! (I mean for chess - not for bug, where it is indeed the best.)
Originally posted by IronPawnXIf he did play you, he'd probably insist on starting the game with the pieces scrambled all willy-nilly.
I had one guy from Iceland, I think, who said he wouldn't play me because I was American.
His saying that really put me in my place and taught me a lesson, so I recalled all the US troops from around the world, because, of course, I'm responsible for sending them there. I closed all the child labor sweat shops that, of course, I'm responsible for ope ...[text shortened]... o Iceland.
I really wanted to thank that guy for setting me straight by not playing me.
Originally posted by IronPawnXI have had experiences like that as well. Many people cry "stupid American!" when I beat them.
I had one guy from Iceland, I think, who said he wouldn't play me because I was American.
His saying that really put me in my place and taught me a lesson, so I recalled all the US troops from around the world, because, of course, I'm responsible for sending them there. I closed all the child labor sweat shops that, of course, I'm responsible for ope ...[text shortened]... o Iceland.
I really wanted to thank that guy for setting me straight by not playing me.
Originally posted by WulebgrIf there's a case for ICC being that much better I'd like to have it clearly explained. My experience there is limited to a trial membership period a year or so ago, but not only wasn't that enough time to convince me ICC was significantly better, it's not at all clear that I'd prefer it to FICS if they were both free. Perhaps there are advantages I am unaware of, but it seems that whenever I hear someone claim that playing on ICC is a far better experience than you get with FICS it's simply asserted as fact, supported at best by the "of course it's better, you have to pay for it..." type of argument.
You get what you pay for. That is exactly how good free internet chess server is.
I play there a few times a week and nearly always find some disappointment.
To be sure, ICC does offer a lot of extras, but none that I'd personally be too likey to take advantage of even if they were available to me. I'm just interested in a place to play chess. If I had time for all that other stuff then I'd have time to join a real chess club where you play with actual physical pieces and didn't have any worries about your opponent was using computer assistance (unless there was a trip to the bathroom after every move.) In that light what I found was in my trial period was a) On average I spent a bit less time waiting for a game on ICC, though this is rarely an issue on FICS which was not nearly so bad as Playchess b) I like the interface I use on FICS (iNemisis) better than Blitzin which I used on ICC: it's more flexible and works exclusively with .pgn files. I haven't tried ICC's new one c) After a couple years of playing online chess I have only run across one truly rude SOB (not counting Yahoo), and it was during the short period I was playing on ICC.
Perhaps my expectations are just low. If I can get a game against a worthy opponent without waiting forever or fighting with an awkward interface I'm 95% of the way to online bliss. Are there dimensions to the internet chess experience that I'm missing or are there just some who are more willing to nitpick over the remaining 5% than I?