An
Internet chess server (
ICS) is an external
server that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view
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.
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
ArpaNet 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 centralized server for live play became a possibility.
Michael Moore, of the University of Utah, and Richard Nash recognized 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 commercialize 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 commercialize 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 ICC. Both services remain operational today.
Protocol and access
The ICS protocol is a simple,
text-based variant of the
TELNET protocol. It is sparsely
documented and not standardized, 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
BabasChess,
Thief,
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.
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! Games accounts for 44% of the players online, compared to 12% for ICC and 7% for
Playchess.
For a list of servers see
:Category:Internet chess servers.
Internet Chess Applications Not Requiring a Centralized Server
- - Chess with friends in a messenger
- A general-purpose virtual chess table (with clock) for friendly games over the internet
See also
