Connecting to FICS

[Matthias Gemuh]

Hi Folks,

I want to somehow connect to FICS with a chess engine and play a game.
Who can guide me through the process
a) with a WB engine (Crafty) ?
b) with a UCI engine (Fruit) ?

Thanks a lot.

Matthias.

[bob]

Hi Folks,

I want to somehow connect to FICS with a chess engine and play a game.
Who can guide me through the process
a) with a WB engine (Crafty) ?
b) with a UCI engine (Fruit) ?

Thanks a lot.

Matthias.

Using winboard, all you need to do is tell xboard/winboard the -fh option to direct it to the correct host. Or if you can get a copy of timeseal, which is their anti-lag program, you simply tell xboard/winboard to use that as the -icshelper <program> and it will connect directly.

You need a .icsrc (for unix) that has your fics username and password as the first two lines.

[Matthias Gemuh]

Using winboard, all you need to do is tell xboard/winboard the -fh option to direct it to the correct host. Or if you can get a copy of timeseal, which is their anti-lag program, you simply tell xboard/winboard to use that as the -icshelper <program> and it will connect directly.

You need a .icsrc (for unix) that has your fics username and password as the first two lines.

I have launched Winboard and connected to FICS by choosing FICS from a combo box.
However, I see no hint what to do next, nor how to get Crafty involved.

ICS seems to be only for insiders (nothing intuitive for newbies). Sad

.

Matthias.

[hgm]

To start up WinBoard with an engine, you do

winboard -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp biglion.exe -fd biglionfolder

(assuming you have a copy of timeseal.exe in the inboard folder). WinBoard will then pop up with an extra textwindow, in which you get the FICS login screen.

Type a login name there to login as guest.

When you are in, you can type commands in that window. The important one is

match OPPONENTNAME M S

where M = minutes and S = seconds per move. This should start a game against the chosen opponent. To see who is logged in, type 'who'. To know which commands there are, type 'help'.

[Matthias Gemuh]

To start up WinBoard with an engine, you do

winboard -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp biglion.exe -fd biglionfolder

(assuming you have a copy of timeseal.exe in the inboard folder). WinBoard will then pop up with an extra textwindow, in which you get the FICS login screen.

Type a login name there to login as guest.

When you are in, you can type commands in that window. The important one is

match OPPONENTNAME M S

where M = minutes and S = seconds per move. This should start a game against the chosen opponent. To see who is logged in, type 'who'. To know which commands there are, type 'help'.

OK.
Instead of "match ...", I tried "seek 2 3" and waited till WinBoard crashed.
My batch file has contents:
winboard -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp "Crafty 20.14.exe" -fd "D:\Spiele\WB_Engines\Crafty\Crafty 20.14"

I will continue tomorrow. Thanks.

Matthias.

[bob]

Using winboard, all you need to do is tell xboard/winboard the -fh option to direct it to the correct host. Or if you can get a copy of timeseal, which is their anti-lag program, you simply tell xboard/winboard to use that as the -icshelper <program> and it will connect directly.

You need a .icsrc (for unix) that has your fics username and password as the first two lines.

I have launched Winboard and connected to FICS by choosing FICS from a combo box.
However, I see no hint what to do next, nor how to get Crafty involved.

ICS seems to be only for insiders (nothing intuitive for newbies). Sad

.

Matthias.

To play automatically, you need a version of winboard with zippy included. A sample xboard command I use is this:

Code: Select all

xboard -xexit -popupExitMessage false -icshelper ./timestamp -xanimate -geometry +0+0 -ics -zp -autoflag -icshost 207.99.83.228 -fcp "crafty" -size small -initString "" -xreuse

the .icsrc has the username and password as the first two lines.

If I type the above, with the .icsrc file in the same directory, it will log in, and then sit ready to accept match requests. When someone asks for a match, it will crank up crafty, accept the match, and the game proceeds...

[bob]

To start up WinBoard with an engine, you do

winboard -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp biglion.exe -fd biglionfolder

(assuming you have a copy of timeseal.exe in the inboard folder). WinBoard will then pop up with an extra textwindow, in which you get the FICS login screen.

Type a login name there to login as guest.

When you are in, you can type commands in that window. The important one is

match OPPONENTNAME M S


where M = minutes and S = seconds per move. This should start a game against the chosen opponent. To see who is logged in, type 'who'. To know which commands there are, type 'help'.

OK.
Instead of "match ...", I tried "seek 2 3" and waited till WinBoard crashed.
My batch file has contents:
winboard -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp "Crafty 20.14.exe" -fd "D:\Spiele\WB_Engines\Crafty\Crafty 20.14"

I will continue tomorrow. Thanks.

Matthias.

don't see why that won't work. That does assume that everything you need to execute crafty is in the -fd directory you gave. And I do mean everything including the crafty.rc, book files, etc.

[Peter Skinner]

Try this:

winboard -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal -fd D:\Spiele\WB_Engines\Crafty\Crafty 20.14 -fcp "Crafty 20.14.exe"

Here is one of my .bat files:

REM -- Lilkikr on FICS
:loop
"D:\Chess\WinBoard\winboard.exe" -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal.exe -fd D:\Chess\Crafty -fcp "Crafty.exe" -icslogon s1.txt
goto loop

[bob]

Try this:

winboard -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal -fd D:\Spiele\WB_Engines\Crafty\Crafty 20.14 -fcp "Crafty 20.14.exe"

Here is one of my .bat files:

REM -- Lilkikr on FICS
:loop
"D:\Chess\WinBoard\winboard.exe" -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal.exe -fd D:\Chess\Crafty -fcp "Crafty.exe" -icslogon s1.txt
goto loop

I don't do .bat files.

[Peter Skinner]

I don't do .bat files.

And I don't chmod files to become executable

*pokes Bob in the ribs*

Pete