Correspondence Atomic Chess
There
are two basic types of atomic games you can play: correspondence and
live. Correspondence games allow you to play against an opponent
even when the two of you are not logged on at the same time. Time
controls are anywhere from something like 12 hours to 30 days per
move. It's easy to become impatient waiting for moves, but if you
start many correspondence games at the same time you usually have
at least a few moves a day to make. You can play correspondence atomic
chess at
Brain King and at
Scheming Mind. Beware that the rules at Brain King are a simplified
version of the rules presented in this book. At Brain King there is no
check, checkmate, or stalemate, which makes the rules quite simple: just
capture your opponent's king directly or indirectly by explosion.
Live Atomic Chess
For live atomic chess action, you can play at
The Internet Chess Club ,
Chess Live ,
and at
The Free Internet Chess Server .
Keep in mind that there are membership fees at The Internet Chess Club and
at Chess Live, but you may be able to get free trial memberships. The
Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) is, as its name says, entirely free.
Games played at these sites are usually at very fast time
controls (1 to 5 minutes per side), but sometimes you can get a game
a little slower. I recommend starting with games no faster than 5 minutes
per side, and I recommend playing with an increment (a certain number of
seconds added to your clock after each move). If you have trouble finding
a game try seeking an unrated game.
Playing At FICS
FICS, the Free Internet Chess Server, is an excellent place to play atomic
chess (as well as regular chess and other variants if you must). First you
must sign up for your free account (you can play as an unregistered guest,
but your priveleges will be severely limited, and not many people would play
games with you). Go to the FICS website and sign up:
When you get your user name (choose wisely because you can never change it)
and password, you can play regular chess right away with their default web
interface. Unfortunately, the default interface doesn't support atomic chess.
So you will want another free interface (which you can also use off-line and
which has more features). There are free chess programs on the web that can
serve as FICS interfaces. I personally use and enjoy Winboard (for windows).
Go to Tim Mann's page to download it for free:
You can also get a Unix version there: XBoard. Scroll down toward the bottom
of the page and click on the download link. If you download winboard,
in the WinBoard folder, you'll see a file called "Chess Server - freechess.org."
Double-click that to connect to the FICS server.
Ok, once in FICS, you'll see a console window in which you type commands to
do things such as play games, check your statistics, listen to lectures,
chat with other players, watch games, and enter tournaments. To get started,
you can type "help" (but first you'll have to enter your user name and password).
After typing "help," you'll see a list of commands you can type for help
in specific categories. Browse the help categories to see what this place is
all about. But I'll get you started with some basic commands (this list is
far from being complete):
Getting Information:
| Command |
Description |
| finger |
Typing this command will give you information about your account
and your statistics |
| finger [username] |
This will give you information about another user. (In general, do not type
the brackets or quotation marks that I write.) |
| set 1 [message] |
This will set a message in your finger notes visible to anyone who fingers
you. A good message would be: "Play atomic. Type +chan 99 to join the atomic channel.
Type 'help atomic' to learn the rules.
See 'http://www.virtual.parkland.edu/lblackburn/Atomic/atomic.html'
for more information about atomic chess." You can have up to ten finger notes
(with some maximum character limitation on each). |
| best x |
See a list of the top twenty rated atomic players (humans and computers).
In general, "x" means atomic in many commands. Omitting it here will give you
the top players in regular chess. You can also type "hbest x" for a list of
the top twenty human atomic players. |
| rank 1-100 x |
This will give you a list of the top 100 atomic players--useful if
you're searching for opponents. |
| history [username] |
This gives a history of the last ten games a user played.
If you omit a username, you will get your own history. |
Observing:
| games |
This will provide you with a list of games that are currently being played.
The numbers in the far left column are the game numbers, then comes the White
player's rating, then the White player's username, etc. |
| games /x |
This will provide you with a list of atomic chess games currently being played. |
| observe [game number] |
This will allow you to watch a game being played. Find a number by
typing "games". You will automatically stop observing when the game ends,
but if you want to stop observing sooner, you may type "unobserve" |
| examine [username] [game number] |
This will cause you to examine a game in the history list of a user.
Get the game number from the far left column in the history list for that user.
When you are done examining, type "unexamine". |
| follow /x |
If you're in the mood to watch atomic games to learn, this will cause
you to always be observing the highest rated atomic game currently being played.
Type "unfollow" when done. |
Communicating:
| tell 1 [question] |
This will post a question to the help channel (channel 1), where
administrators or other eager users can answer it for you. By the way,
communication in FICS is done in several ways, including speaking in
channels. Anyone that has channel 1 turned on will see your question.
You will have channel 1 turned on when you first log on. |
| +chan 99 |
This will add you to channel 99, the Atomic Channel.
All atomic players should do this. Once added, you will see any messages posted
to this channel. |
| in 99 |
This will give you a list of all players currently listening to channel 99. |
| tell 99 [message] |
Speak to everyone listening to channel 99. |
| tell [username] [message] |
This allows you to communicate with a particular user. Typing
"finger [username]" will allow you to see if the user is logged in. |
Playing:
| sought |
This will give you a list of all games users are seeking to play.
A game number is in the far left column for each seek. Then comes the
seeker's rating, the seeker's username, the time control (minutes per side
and seconds per increment), whether the game will be rated or unrated,
the type of game (look for atomic), and finally rating restrictions on who can
accept the seek. |
| play [number] |
This declares that you want to play the game being sought. Wait for the
game to start and begin playing. |
| seek atomic 5 12 |
This seeks an atomic game of 5 minutes with 12 second increments.
Popular atomic time controls at FICS include 1 0, 2 0, 3 0, 3 5, 5 0, and 5 12
(with most of the games being played at the quicker time controls).
I strongly recommend playing slower games with increments (the atomic endgame
can be beautiful). If you omit the word "atomic" then you'll be seeking a
regular chess game. |
| flag |
Type this to end the game when your opponent runs out of time.
It is also possible to set up automatic flagging: In WinBoard go to
Options -> General. Or I believe you can just type set flag 1 in the console
to permanently set up automatic flagging. |
| refresh |
This refreshes your interface view.
I find this necessary when capturing en passant in atomic using WinBoard
(because the interface forgets to remove the capturing pawn from the graphics).
There are other reasons why sometimes you might have to refresh. |
| match [username] atomic 5 12 |
This will issue a challenge to play atomic chess against a specific user.
Try this when no one is accepting your seeks.
Get potential opponent user names by typing "in 99". |
Examining:
| e b atomic |
This will enter examine mode with an atomic board, an excellent way to
follow along the lessons in this book. As you make the moves in an atomic opening
or game, the interface will correctly follow the rules of atomic chess and
remove the correct pieces in explosions. Type "unexamine" when done. |
| bsetup atomic |
This will give you an empty atomic board and wait for you to set up
some pieces, an excellent way to set up the positions found in this book.
If you are using WinBoard, right click over a square to place a piece on it.
When you are done setting up a position, type
"tomove [white or black]" and then "bsetup done".
Then you will be able to make moves. |
| bsetup fen [FEN] |
If you have a FEN, you can load it with this command. After typing this command,
type "bsetup atomic", "tomove [white or black]" and then
"bsetup done". You can learn about Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN)
at wikipedia). |
Further FICS Advice
There is much more that you can do at FICS, including emailing games to
yourself, playing in tournaments (the tournament channel is 49 by the way),
listening to lectures, and keeping a journal of your best games.
Browse the help files, ask general questions in channel 1, and ask atomic
related questions in channel 99.
If you've never been to FICS and you've never played an atomic game, I recommend
messaging channel 99 something like "I'm new to atomic. Will anyone play an
unrated game with me?" If I'm online and available, I'll gladly play.
If you intend to use FICS solely for atomic chess, then I suggest that you
type this command: "set formula atomic". This declares that you are not open
to non-atomic challenges and you will only see seeks for atomic games
(which is convenient because otherwise your console can get flooded with
seek messages). If you change your mind later, you can type
"set formula" to clear your formula. It is possible to use your formula to
screen for games in many other ways.
Type "help formula" for more information.
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