tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89556430774667368052024-03-12T16:51:28.879-07:00Mind The Check (english version)Check your mind abilitiesMindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-74838300758778005092017-05-08T15:39:00.001-07:002017-05-08T15:39:10.981-07:00MindTheCheck has changed!<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.mindthecheck.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US">MindTheCheck</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">, the
web site to play chess online, is changed, features and layout has been revised.
New features have been added while others have been removed temporary and will
be included later in the roadmap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">What is changed and why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Time control</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">: not
all chess web sites allow you to customize the time control such as those with
two or three periods used in official competitions and that’s a pity because even
though 90% of online chess players play usual time limit, trying new time
control could be interesting. The new release classifies chess games in four
categories: bullet, blitz, regular e turn games. News are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">time
compensation methods: time increment (<b>Fischer delay</b>) is used al lot
in internet chess competition and was missed;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">composing time
control in more periods</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(up to 3) as
in the most important chess competitions;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">quantifying
the <a href="http://mindthecheck-en.blogspot.it/2011/01/on-line-chess-part-14-live-or-turn.html"><b>lag</b> </a>during the online connection and using it to adapt the
clock in order to have a fairer use of time between the players.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Turn based games in the previous release
were constrained to be 30 days per move, now they are allowed to be one day per
move up to 30 days per move.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Rating</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">: each
game category has its own rating and it is always treated separately because of
the different speed it requires. Players can monitor their statistics for each
category.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Simultaneous games</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">: it is
understandable that more turn based games can be played simultaneously because of
their slowness as the players have more time to focus on more battles; the new release
allows users to play other game categories simultaneously that’s because it
should be possible to play under stress condition for training or simply for
fun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Computer analysis</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">: games
can be analyzed by the strong chess engine <a href="https://stockfishchess.org/">Stockfish</a>! You can submit to Stockfish
analysis even positions loaded (FEN) or created or games loaded in PGN format.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Play computer</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">: 8
levels are now available to challenge <a href="https://stockfishchess.org/">Stockfish </a>chess engine. Now the
availability of the engine opponent depends only on the browser version.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Sessions to share</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">: played
games can be shared using sessions among several users; you can share in real
time games and positions. This feature is designed for those who want to do chess
lessons remotely or for those who want to submit a game or a position to the
attention and analysis of others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The technology used for the new
release is different in order to improve response time from the server. For
this reason it is not available a mobile device version yet. Even the Big Game
has been suspended for the moment waiting for the next new features in the
roadmap. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">So, <a href="https://www.mindthecheck.com/en/play-chess/">MindTheCheck </a>is a free chess
service that is not still but moving continuously towards a new future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-4711797697220468012014-04-01T14:39:00.000-07:002014-04-01T14:39:28.250-07:00The Big Game<div>
<b>The Big Game? What is it?</b></div>
The Big Game (Il Partitone) is a two-team chess game. Each player chooses which side of the board he would like to play (white or black color), and so the team to join. It is not necessary to start partecipating from the very first move, however once the player has chosen his color, it will never change through the game.<br />
<br />
<div>
<b>How partecipate?</b><br />
The user looks at the board position and, if he decides to join the team which has the turn, he just plays his move. The move gets registered as a suggestion but it won't be played yet.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>What does it mean being a team member?</b><br />
A player, before suggesting the move he believes to be the best, doesn't know which moves the other members have suggested so far. Those move will be unveiled just after the player's suggestion and, after that, it will be possible for the player to chat with the other members of the team.<br />
So, each player suggests a move and he is unaware about what other members have suggested so far. After the player's suggestion, all other suggestions will be visible and the team members start communicating by chatting, discussing, analysing moves and strategies.<br />
Obviously the two team are not supposed to communicating each other, neither seeing the suggestions of the opponent team.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>How does the game step forward?</b><br />
Every day, at 00:00 AM UTC, the most suggested move gets picked up and played. If two or more suggestions are eligible to be chosen, it will be picked a move up at random among them.<br />
If no proposal is available at 00:00 AM UTC, the decision is postponed of one day. The postponement can be grant for at most 6 times in a row. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>How does the game stop?</b></div>
<div>
If no proposal is available after 7 days, the game will be time forfaited.<br />
If most of the member resigns, the game will be terminated by resignation.<br />
If the chosen move contains a draw proposal and the opponent team accepted it, the game will be draw.</div>
<div>
If the chosen move leads to draw by stallmate, by material, by repetition or by the rule of 50 moves, the game will be draw.<br />
If the chosen move is a checkmate, the game will be over.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>MindTheCheck and its Big Games</b></div>
<div>
Each <b>MindTheCheck</b>'s <b>Big Game </b>starts at 00:00 AM UTC after the termination of the previous Big Game, and all the Big Games are saved.<br />
The access to the <b>Big Game</b> is free but requires a registration to MindTheCheck, which is free as well.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-48565352536691836312014-03-31T14:31:00.000-07:002014-03-31T14:31:00.269-07:00Play against the Computer...this is MindTheCheck!MindTheCheck has a strong chess engine among its users and now you can play chess with it! The engine is the famous Sockfish, one of the strongest ever.<br />
<br />
Why Stockfish? Here are the reasons:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>it's open source;</li>
<li>it supports UCI protocol;</li>
<li>it has several skill levels.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
UCI protocol makes the SW integration easy so a number of engines are based on this protocol (e.g. Shredder).<br />
However, the free Shredder version (1.5) does not permit to change the skill level while Stockfish does, futhermore Stockfish has 20 different skill levels.<br />
<br />
<b>Is MindTheCheck equipped with a dedicated server for the chess engine?</b><br />
No, it isn't. Instead there are several clients acting as an engine. The "Computer" is a MindTheCheck's user which connects to the website and stays available to play as long as it gets disconnected.<br />
Clients balance the load: each engine instance will play one or more games at the same time. When a client disconnects, another client with less load at that moment will take over.<br />
<br />
Playing is easy and quick, if you can't find any human opponent online, you will train yourself with the computer now.<br />
<br />MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-3960672794733277152013-11-25T12:54:00.000-08:002013-11-25T12:56:26.349-08:00First Round Robin TournamentThe upcoming <a href="http://www.mindthecheck.com/">MtC </a>event is scheduled to start on December 11th 2013! Its nickname is <b>RRT </b>(which stands for Round Robin Turn-based tournament) and it is the first <b>double Round-Robin tournament</b>, with <b>rated turn-based</b> games (we recall: the time for one move is 30 days). The tournament will start with no more then 8 partecipants and with at least 6! Pairings are made with <b>Berger </b>criteria and in case the number of registrations is odd, Anonymous will be the dummy partecipant. Tie break are handled using the <b>Sonneborg-Berger</b>, that is by adding scores of the opponents who were beaten by a given
player and half the scores of the opponents who she drew with.<br />
<br />MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-69722036126435757612013-04-10T09:59:00.000-07:002013-05-20T19:12:26.458-07:001^ Unrated SoMMindTheCheck is pleased to announce the first <b>Set Of Matches</b> event!<br />
Users will be able to register starting from <i><u>May 21th</u></i> and the event remains open for registration till <i>June 10th</i>.<br />
The first SoM consists of up to<b> 4 unrated turn-based chess games</b> each player and it is a way to meet people on the virtual board and exploit the MindTheCheck features like the <b>post-game analysis</b>.<br />
<b>Unrated chess games</b> do not alter the player ELO rating so people are free to play without worry too much about mistakes.<br />
<b>Turn-based games</b> have very large time constraint (30 days timeout each move) so it gives players enough time to play a good game.<br />
<br />
So, have nice games with MtC events!MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-33251360699537858432013-04-07T13:31:00.001-07:002013-04-07T13:31:42.136-07:00MindTheCheck's events<br />
<br />
MindTheCheck is about to open a new section dedicated to events, such as tournaments and series of matches. Every registered user will be able to participate in these events, always <b>FREE</b>.<br />
The section is still experimental, but would allow players to meet each other.<br />
<br />
The first MtC event will be of type <b>SoM </b>(<i>Set of Matches</i>), ie a set of turn-based chess matches to a maximum of 4 matches per player. Each event will be accompanied by a special web space in order to monitor the progress of the event and ranking. The first SoM is friendly (unrated), ie the matches do not contribute to change the player's ELO rating: a way to socialize with the most active users of the Club.<br />
<br />
When will be possible to apply to a new event, users will be notified by email. Among their settings it will be added an option to disable this service for those who does not want to receive this type of information.<br />
<br />
Stay tuned, therefore, the first event of MindTheCheck is coming soon...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-65293064125301732932013-01-27T15:12:00.000-08:002013-02-02T15:27:04.174-08:00Post-game analysis roomMind The Check has recently released the new feature "<b>post-game analysis</b>", with which it is possible to comment on a game in real time with your opponent or anyone who wants to participate in the analysis.<br />
It is a tool that aims to be a sort of chat at the board where, instead of words, the participants exchange moves, variations, lines of play, evaluations of positions and moves. Born to permit the player to review the game with the opponent which I consider an important moment in the noble Game, share those important moments that were crucial to the outcome of the game or are simply considered relevant.<br />
<br />
<b>How to access post-game analysis?</b><br />
Only registered users can benefit of the post-match and only the players in a game, as owners of it, they can open a table of analysis on their game. Once opened, any registered user can intervene and eventually contribute.<br />
You can access the analysis area in three ways:<br />
<ol>
<li>immediately on conclusion of a game, clicking the "<i>Analyze</i>" button;</li>
<li>from the list of matches, clicking on "<i>Play</i>" and then clicking on "<i>Analyze</i>" button;</li>
<li>from the list of matches, if a table of analysis has already been created, by clicking on the "<i>Analyze</i>" button;</li>
</ol>
<b>Let's see a concrete example of use of this tool.</b><br />
Two players have just finished a game (for the sake of example the game follows a famous game between Richard Reti (2675) and Savielly Tartakower (2625), Vienna, 1910), black has abandoned and the button "<i>Analyze</i>" appears on top of the board.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Fig. 1 - The game is over and the button "<i>Analyze</i>" gets shown</b></div>
<br />
When you click "<i>Analyze</i>" you go in another view, the analysis room, which contains a main board on the left, the list of moves int the center, navigation keys and controls to enter the comments that you want to match are just on bottom. On the right there is an empty space to contain diagrams of the lines other participant are analysing.<br />
<br />
One can navigate between the moves in two ways:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>with the navigation keys (in the center of which a pawn can flip the board)</li>
<li>by left-clicking with the mouse</li>
</ul>
<br />
Assume you select Qd3 and add annotation to this move. The evaluation will be translated into symbolic form corresponding to the <b>Numerical Annotation Glyph</b> (<b>NAG</b>) and included in the list of moves.<br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Fig. 2 - An evaluation of Qd3</b></div>
<br />
To add a <b>text comment</b> to the final move, you must enter the text in the editable text box and click the small arrow to the right.<br />
To add a <b>variant </b>(in the example in place of 8 .... Cxe4), just move from a given position (8. 0-0-0) and the variant is created automatically.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>How to interact with other participants?</b><br />
Each time a participant wants to "<b>see</b>" or create a different line from what you are analyzing, in the right area you will see a diagram with their line of interest. If more participants are annotating the game at the same time, you'll see a set of diagrams on the right, one for each participant: if you want to follow the line of one of them just "<i>click</i>" on the diagram and "<i>watch</i>" on the main board about the evolution of this line and then break away when you want, by moving or positioning yourself on another existing position.<br />
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<b>Fig. 3 - 10. Nf3 under analysis, but two other partecipants are evaluating different positions</b></div>
<br />
There is no way to chat between participants because the goal here is the analysis: you discuss about the game in front of the board and the language is mainly the NAG.<br />
<br />
This mode of interaction has no matches in the other online gaming sites even if I found some similarities but the purpose is very different. Mind The check seeks to share the analysis and manage the analysis at the same time creating a collaboration tool for chess players.<br />
<br />
I hope I have done something pleasant to the players,<br />
Good Game!<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-3001544289169560472012-11-05T14:52:00.000-08:002012-11-05T14:52:27.690-08:00On-line Chess - Part 1.18 - Play for freeThe most famous chess web sites hardly allow a player to <b>play for free</b> (unless you are a very famous chess player, in that case you are very welcome to join). Important chess servers’ access is not free but you can try for free for one week only. Others require a<b> free registration</b> with limited features and a <b>premium registration</b> with prices per <b>month</b>, 3 months, 6 months and per year. Premium memberships are full options in this case but there is a saving for long term registration.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<b>Figure </b>14 – <a href="http://www.chesscube.com/">http://www.chesscube.com</a> premium membership fees<br />
<br />
<br />
Another policy is to have different premium memberships from the lowest level one with some features only to the highest level with full features.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<b>Figure </b>15 – <a href="http://www.gameknot.com/">http://www.gameknot.com</a> premium membership fees<br />
<br />
<br />
Usually free registration limitations are on<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>the number of games playable at the same time or in a day, </li>
<li>the possibility to access tournaments, </li>
<li>the number of game archived is limited, </li>
<li>computer analysis is not allowed, </li>
<li>play in teams is not allowed, </li>
<li>very basic statistics, colors and pieces customization are not allowed, just to mention a few.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Other providers who ask money as well to all the members offer an “exploration” mode in which the user can play for free for a limited amount of time or games. Expired this period they are invited to pay the fee for the next games.<br />
Talking about money, some web sites allow <b>playing with money</b> (both symbolic and real). I understand that could be attractive for someone but I believe playing a game gives other immaterial earnings.<br />
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MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-856225718327674422012-11-03T16:16:00.001-07:002012-11-03T16:16:31.022-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.17 - Other stuffPlaying chess on-line attracts several people, from the field and not. So it is not surprising that a web site providing the possibility to play has a <b>store </b>of chess material (boards, chess pieces, chess clocks, magazines, books, training material like videos, collection of games and so on). Another interesting feature to attract people mad of chess is <b>chess puzzles</b>. You are asked to solve the problem of the day typically. Sometimes the web site holds <b>news </b>from the chess world, tournaments, top players events, chess social events or international events with video, photos and articles. What about people who are not close to chess world? They want to find only an opponent to defeat or to chat with, the rest is useless…but is nice to have for the chess community.MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-32681390025888536452012-11-03T01:53:00.003-07:002012-11-03T01:53:57.966-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.16 - PopulationIt is very annoying to log-in, create a game and wait plenty of time because no one else in connected. Some popular web sites are full of people ready to play so that you don’t have to wait more that few second to find an opponent. Some other is completely unknown or less popular and the risk is to waste your time. There are some interesting web sites still unknown that are worth playing at, so I don’t want to give the advice to leave them empty. On the contrary I want to <i>foster visiting those web sites, try and let them take off, especially if they are free</i>!MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-38728836828569626382012-11-01T15:10:00.001-07:002012-11-01T15:11:16.565-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.15 - GraphicsBeauty is a subjective parameter during the evaluation of a web site. What does it mean? When you play chess at home or in a chess club it doesn’t matter if the board is made of cardboard and the pieces are made of plastic. What’s really matter is the game, the battle and who will win. Is it really true? If you have the chance to chose between a cardboard chess board and a wooden board with sheesham chessmen, which one will you chose? Now, back to the on-line chess. There are a lot of chess pieces pictures on the web and the game providers let their user to choose between different styles, colors and dimension of both sets and board squares. Sometimes the number of possibilities is limited if the subscription is free while if you pay for a premium subscription the choice is greater.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1n82DUOgLcEHcpJOeFB36bM22xevGfetAmbjD7w0uQeBf1zNrUWVjUjwbTSQ5XATC7GzRhsPV5GWozagu1p_-GwlD5LNOwqvGvC1qJ4TT__D_-e3AeeXmEOfY3YUsbUqfiH7xGBNHi4/s1600/fig13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1n82DUOgLcEHcpJOeFB36bM22xevGfetAmbjD7w0uQeBf1zNrUWVjUjwbTSQ5XATC7GzRhsPV5GWozagu1p_-GwlD5LNOwqvGvC1qJ4TT__D_-e3AeeXmEOfY3YUsbUqfiH7xGBNHi4/s320/fig13.png" width="268" /></a></div>
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<b>Figure</b> 13 - Graphic interface Come2Play from www.come2play.com<br />
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<b>Chessboard </b>and <b>sets </b>are not the only graphic parameter to judge. <b>Font </b>is another parameter. Sometimes the font is too small or the text components in the web page are too close, or on the page there are fonts of different kind. If the web page contains too much information with small font together with bigger and different font, it could be difficult to find the information you need. <br />
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Anyway the beauty is subjective. Someone prefers simplicity: few things but very good.MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-5112395869859646322012-10-31T10:04:00.000-07:002012-10-31T10:04:34.430-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.14 - Play everywherNowadays computers are not the only mean to reach internet. Cell phones, <b>smart phones</b>, iPhone, iPod, Wii and so on have access to internet. Big online chess providers know about this revolution and adapted their web sites to be reached from those devices. The cost is high for the provider and so it is difficult to find this feature for free. Typically there is an application to download on your portable device which is the client program. Even if the download is free, if you want to play often or affect your rating you should pay a fee.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9_BELo9mdRBk-xo39SH59zmeZ0G__9hQrxgGxjO5ctmC_j7VqFDbvJenGRInjrDmwuxrH8egaUId2R27cHpcbUiRizqbesdwPZ-iKRHu-4YhSyXuhHJsgGNwLFJYP75Kf325IDt1-cQ/s1600/fig12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9_BELo9mdRBk-xo39SH59zmeZ0G__9hQrxgGxjO5ctmC_j7VqFDbvJenGRInjrDmwuxrH8egaUId2R27cHpcbUiRizqbesdwPZ-iKRHu-4YhSyXuhHJsgGNwLFJYP75Kf325IDt1-cQ/s1600/fig12.png" /></a></div>
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lang=EN-US><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]--> – iPhone application provided by <span lang="EN-US"><span lang="IT"><a href="http://www.chess.com/">http://www.chess.com</a></span></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: IT;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Furthermore <b>social networks</b> counts thousands of people and give the possibility for developers to public their software to be used by social networks’ users. So if you want to play chess online you surely will find a way!</span></div>
MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-76481880821437884662012-10-30T13:20:00.000-07:002012-10-30T13:20:45.535-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.13 - SecurityOn a real chess game it is not possible to cheat. Online chess games instead can be cheated in several ways depending of the security model implemented. Yah, the server receives the information about the move and the timestamp from the clients. Nobody is able to see what the user is doing sitting in front of his/her PC.
Let’s start from the most common cheating type: the <b>computer aid</b>. Instead of using their own brain, cheaters open a window on their PC where their favorite chess program is running. The position of the game in progress is replicated in the chess program and analyzed by the CPU (which will do the dirty job), the program hints the best move for every position and unlucky opponents can be defeated soon if not stronger than the machine. The consequence is that cheaters gain points rapidly and they will be at the top of the ladder even if not deserved. Is there a remedy for that? Some online game providers claim they have one. The principle is that suspicious games are analyzed with a computer engine and if there is a match that is the footprint of a cheat. Can anyone be sure 100% that it is a cheat? Difficult to say. Anyway other techniques can be added and the following three are just examples:<br />
<ul>
<li>The rating evolution is monitored because a quick rising of the rating is a symptom of good game but also of cheating. </li>
<li>The suspect cheater is notified by a message encouraging him/her to stop cheating or simply informing that from now on a strict monitoring will be performed on his/her games. </li>
<li>The suspect cheater is <b>marked </b>so that every user knows what could happen if they accept a challenge from a suspect cheater. </li>
<li>The number of times the game is suspended is monitored. It could be an indication that the player is using the time to query a chess program.</li>
</ul>
When the cheater is confirmed he/she is banned from using the chess service.<br />
Another popular way to gain points is to<b> play against yourself</b>. Cheaters create two accounts and winning against themselves let them improve their rating. Some game providers overcome this techniques by force the users at registration time to accept to not create more than one account otherwise they will be banned. Some other game providers instead have tools to detect if the players of a game come from the same IP address. What if the cheater uses two different PC?<br />
Another historical way to cheat an opponent is to<b> interrupt the game</b> when thing is going bad on the board. Let’s think the case there is a temporary connection failure of a client. Some game providers simply null the game because they think it is unfair to assign a result in this case. But cheaters could turn off their computer in order to simulate an internet connection failure. Usually providers face this problem in two ways:
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<ul>
<li>adjourning the game when accidental disconnection has happened and give the chance to reconnect in order to complete the game </li>
<li>declaring the victory for the player remained online</li>
</ul>
Other providers claim they have an intelligent system able to recognize abusive game interruptions, which is the best solution to the problem.<br />
Now let’s have a look at complex cheating techniques. As we already said, the client program sends a time stamp together with the move up to the server. Time stamp could be modified to get more time. Usually the connection between the client and the server is encrypted but even the most famous chess server (ICC) has not a strong protection against hackers that could <b>decrypt </b>the message and change the time stamp.
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MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-47927896446615273382012-10-29T17:48:00.000-07:002012-10-29T17:48:23.994-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.12 - CustomizationsAs a user of the game service you have the chance to customize the interface you use to play. Type of chess pieces and colors of white and dark squares of the board are examples of personal settings.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kJ9_LANR0YS5pa9WvR82NOQLQWNJbHkCz8o4yOrdLo3vMIhCBzv8-hlkTmKTGfXnfYuxV9JwfmokyEfR4VuUvLKQYEKdlxpJL0CsXxj804nRPZ_JpCnLAJ931-uuhQeTRPhfHUctd-o/s1600/fig11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kJ9_LANR0YS5pa9WvR82NOQLQWNJbHkCz8o4yOrdLo3vMIhCBzv8-hlkTmKTGfXnfYuxV9JwfmokyEfR4VuUvLKQYEKdlxpJL0CsXxj804nRPZ_JpCnLAJ931-uuhQeTRPhfHUctd-o/s320/fig11.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span><span lang="EN-US"><b>Figure</b> </span><span lang="EN-US">11</span><span lang="EN-US"> – <a href="http://www.chess.com/">www.chess.com</a> board settings</span></div>
<br />Another common one is the automatic pawn promotion to queen. Even if sometimes there are not so many choices this features in nice to have. The move highlight is useful when you want to see quickly what the opponent move is when you come back to your monitor. Other minor settings are the movement of the piece when you move or the alert sounds.<br />
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MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-76348666313380166862012-10-28T22:37:00.000-07:002012-10-28T22:37:23.612-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.11 - AnalysisYour games are stored in a database so they are available to all people to inspect and comment. Analyzing games is useful for improvements and on-line gaming providers allow their users to have this feature. How? In several ways. First of all the user can post the game to a <b>forum </b>and wait for someone to review and comment. Simple and effective, because when a lot of people could analyze your game and so the amount of data produced could be very interesting, with no cost for the provider. The drawback is that it could happen no one wants to review your game or the reviewers are not good enough. Sometimes there is a <b>committee </b>entitled for reviewing the games when required. In this case the guys in the committee should be prepared enough for producing good quality comments. Another scenario is the help of a<b> computer program</b>. Your game is put in queue and it will wait to be processed by a chess engine. This solution has a cost in terms of hardware resources to guarantee the service to every user, while the chess engine could be open Source. Other commercial chess engines, like Fritz for instance, perform better analysis so someone prefers to download the PGN format of the game and run his/her favorite chess engine for a deep analysis.<br /><br />Analysis is good for training but is lesser amusing than <b>reviewing the game with your opponent at the end of a match</b>, still in front of the chessboard with the clock still warm. Ok, the quality of the analysis is poor but you still have your variants in your mind and would like to see the reaction of the opponent.MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-10577432517382476772012-10-27T23:51:00.000-07:002012-10-27T23:51:11.578-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.10 - Game archive and statisticsA good player takes note of the move list of his/her games in order to analyze later and improve from mistakes. No piece of paper is required when you play on-line chess because the system takes note of the game moves and save the game in the <b>Portable Game Notation</b> format in a database. That’s really useful. Database access makes it easy to query for a match against an opponent or for a game played years ago. You can then review the game using your client program or download the <b>PGN </b>file and open it using your favorite computer chess program in order to let it analyze deeply the game and find the mistakes and good moves. <b>Game archive</b> has a cost for providers of the gaming service (disk space is not for free), for this reason usually if you want to store all your games you have to pay while free subscription have limited storage size.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivj-I630R29usz97BB9Jrg_p5zRaFa-tTg99RcNUUZbTQmWuULPIYcmHxGqrS0NWKiel14Zgw7H28R36HuBAeyyMtzC025bY9bOgEooLeoNEqcY2ujWAh-5F6QsjWgr_jk5xhyphenhyphenYC1v7Ws/s1600/fig10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivj-I630R29usz97BB9Jrg_p5zRaFa-tTg99RcNUUZbTQmWuULPIYcmHxGqrS0NWKiel14Zgw7H28R36HuBAeyyMtzC025bY9bOgEooLeoNEqcY2ujWAh-5F6QsjWgr_jk5xhyphenhyphenYC1v7Ws/s320/fig10.png" width="252" /></a></div>
<b>Figure</b> 10 – <a href="http://www.geekswithchess.com/">www.geekswithchess.com</a> game archive <br /><br />Another possibility is to <b>upload games</b> in PGN format on the database. Even if they are not played using the provider service, this is a way to collect the games you want on the net so they become available everywhere an internet connection is available. <br /><b>Statistics </b>are another interesting feature. In the basic form statistics report the number of games played, won, drawn and lost. Advanced forms could report your rating evolution over time or the statistics on openings used in your games and several ways to present the data graphically. Any means to show you how strong you are is appreciated.MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-11152807687222011302012-10-27T10:34:00.001-07:002012-10-27T23:53:16.747-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.9 - Games watchingIf you ever entered a chess club, for sure you have stop by a table watching a game in progress. Observing a game in progress just like a real spectator is possible also on-line. Typically there is a <b>list of ongoing games</b> and you can join to watch one of them. Some time you are allowed to write down messages into the local chat.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq8HgLl8B9RfjlXm0uwjIsUDis3SxRCo3HK4yDeW8bs2F9EzxyH3Qx8RvtmZ9JSwXoCEPaBl32N5oEF_zvCtim9a9j6xQxtKU2FgAe_Oya3W2YACQbwsqPjnoQVte254zQCF6R8sJtzoA/s1600/fig9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq8HgLl8B9RfjlXm0uwjIsUDis3SxRCo3HK4yDeW8bs2F9EzxyH3Qx8RvtmZ9JSwXoCEPaBl32N5oEF_zvCtim9a9j6xQxtKU2FgAe_Oya3W2YACQbwsqPjnoQVte254zQCF6R8sJtzoA/s320/fig9.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Figure 9</b> – <a href="http://www.chess.com/">www.chess.com</a> game view panelMindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-27180194480135978452012-10-13T17:04:00.000-07:002012-10-27T23:46:28.823-07:00Welcome Mind The Check!<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.mindthecheck.com/">Mind The Check</a></b> is the new web site for playing online chess for free. it offers the chance to play correspondence chess (turn based chess) and live chess(time based chess), rated and unrated games, gives the players the opportunity to check their progress in term of strength and look at their own games whenever they want.<br />
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The site is online for some time but it unveils itself only recently to the web community, thanks to its latest stable version that makes use of cutting-edge software technologies as JSF2.0 and Atmosphere Framework.<br />
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The project was created by combining the need to renew competence and the curiosity for some emerging technologies, finding in an old interest in the Game of Chess, a breeding ground for this activity. By the time the project has grown, maintaining the same spirit and gaining expertise everytime an obstacle got passed, opening the door to new ideas and new challenges.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.mindthecheck.com/">Mind The Check</a></b> is constantly evolving, so many ideas still have to be realized, but it is now ready to be known and it is open to any advice or suggestions that can make the chess player life on the virtual chess board easier or just more interesting.<br />
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Good game!<br />
<br />MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-33006976354819625932012-09-30T11:12:00.000-07:002012-09-30T12:44:01.562-07:00On-line Chess - Part 1.8 - Other play possibilities Usually you are not allowed to play more than one game at a time mainly for security as we will see later. That’s not true for all the gaming sites.<br />
<div>
But let’s go back to the rating concept. You can play against anyone and increase your rating, very easy. Too easy maybe: in the real world to increase your rating you should participate to official tournaments. For this reason it is very common to find <strong>tournaments</strong> on-line. Tournaments start when a certain number of people join the tournament which is scheduled at a fixed time and publicized on the site.</div>
<div>
Tournaments could be of various types:</div>
<ul>
<li>In<strong> round-robin</strong> tournaments each player plays against every other player in two games (once as white, once as black). The winner is determined by the score but when two players have the same score a tie-break method can be used. The <strong>tie-break</strong> method widely used for this kind of tournament is the <strong>Neustadtl score</strong>. A player's Neustadtl score is calculated by adding the sum of the conventional scores of the players they have defeated to half the sum of the conventional scores of those they have drawn against. Round-robin tournaments are simple but they are effective only when the number of players is limited to few users.</li>
<li><strong>Knock-out</strong> tournaments are used when there are a lot of players in order to reduce the time taken by the competition. Players are put into smaller groups and then the winner(s) of that group are combined with winners of other groups to form a new group. The winner(s) of the final group are the winner(s) of the entire tournament. One or more players could advance from each group. If one only has to advance, a tie-break method is used.</li>
<li>A <strong>Swiss</strong> tournament goes for a predetermined number of rounds, with all of the players taking part in each round. In each round two players compete head-to-head. All players participate in the entire tournament – none are eliminated. The winner (and top places) of the tournament is based on the final scores of the players. The final score is based on the number of points they accumulated for each round. The tournament lasts for a number of rounds announced before the tournament. After the last round, players are ranked by their score. If this is tied then a tie break score, such as the sum of all their opponents' scores (Buchholz chess rating), can be used. The <strong>Buchholz System</strong> is in fact the sum of the score of each of the opponents of a player. </li>
</ul>
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When the users of a web site are quite a number, it is common to find <strong>teams</strong> of players playing against. Not a one-to-one challenge but a many-to-many challenge. The team wins if the score of its members is higher than other teams after the fight. Team members become friends, they exchange information trough dedicated chat.</div>
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Also teams can compete in tournaments. In this case the rating is different.</div>
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Some game providers allow users to play different chess variants and gain rating also for those games. The most popular <strong>chess</strong> <strong>variants</strong> you can find are</div>
<ul>
<li>Chess 960</li>
<li>Reverse (suicide chess)</li>
<li>Checkers</li>
<li>Bughouse</li>
</ul>
MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-90091266594889463862011-02-25T16:14:00.000-08:002011-02-25T16:14:06.064-08:00On-line Chess - Part 1.7 - Challenges<!--[if !mso]> <style>
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Ok, you logged in to a chess on-line web site and you are ready to start a game but how could you find an opponent? There are several ways to. The most common is the <b>direct challenge</b>: from the list of on-line users you chose the one you would like to play with. Yes, maybe you know the player by its nickname and would like to play with him/her, or looking at the player rating you can chose to challenge someone a bit stronger than you to increase your own rating. So the choice is yours in this case. <br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhef1c7wap2oOHl9Y9S-f3YskEY7RFoggaWjBiAB7ZVT7oXOITr-1Us3qUMSKBqSXuG6EsqCcRGUj3_DQ3_hm8j0gQKzEl0eWF2sjvgxgxI_AnVISaQDbBlEFMhWG8CvLranGjodzUJRJ4/s1600/chesshere2-bis.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhef1c7wap2oOHl9Y9S-f3YskEY7RFoggaWjBiAB7ZVT7oXOITr-1Us3qUMSKBqSXuG6EsqCcRGUj3_DQ3_hm8j0gQKzEl0eWF2sjvgxgxI_AnVISaQDbBlEFMhWG8CvLranGjodzUJRJ4/s400/chesshere2-bis.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoCaption"><br />
</div><div class="MsoCaption"><b>Figure 7</b> – <a href="http://www.chesshere.com/">http://www.chesshere.com</a> allows the player to invite another player and to show the list of current invitations<span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div>There is another possibility: you <b>create the game</b> you want (setting time limits and color for instance) and wait for someone to come to your <b>table</b>. In the other way round, you see a list of created games with their characteristics and you can chose to join the game you want. Nice, but you may ask: “why should I see a list of lots of games I don’t want to play?” In fact, you may be not interested to play against too much stronger people, or too much weaker people. That’s why some good gaming web sites allow their user to set constraints when creating the game. Those constraints limit the possible opponents to players with a rating inside a <b>fixed range</b> or inside a <b>range around the creator rating</b> (300 points below and 300 points above for instance).<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzYrHJpscw05rKojeg-BzVo60HPId2mBEz6hU9NcohOiqyBUcyEJ_vdYx3YGz1d99YFhPk-C-XBCYngZFfXEYL_as9YYQHthU8wQxA-Zf0jzw6yxGNyFdhcfuHJIrvsMuzSqrzqmLQiz0/s1600/chesscube3-bis.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzYrHJpscw05rKojeg-BzVo60HPId2mBEz6hU9NcohOiqyBUcyEJ_vdYx3YGz1d99YFhPk-C-XBCYngZFfXEYL_as9YYQHthU8wQxA-Zf0jzw6yxGNyFdhcfuHJIrvsMuzSqrzqmLQiz0/s320/chesscube3-bis.PNG" width="279" /></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></div><br />
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<b>Figure 8</b> – <a href="http://www.chesscube.com/">http://www.chesscube.com</a> game creation with rating range constraint<br />
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</div>A similar concept is used by other sites where each player specifies the constraints and the system will <b>find automatically an opponent </b>that fulfills that requirements: the user does not chose to join the game because it is not allowed to see the list of created games. <br />
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What happens if there is none who can play with you? Play against a computer seems to be a forced choice but is it what you really wanted? It is better to be clear: “Sorry, no one available. Retry or if you want you can play against the machine”. <br />
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Interesting is the feature to <b>invite a friend</b> of yours even if he/she is not a registered user. The invitation needs only the email address and if your friend is checking his/her email in that moment he/she could join the game with you (but if he is not connected…). <br />
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I talked about friends. That is a concept widely used in most gaming web sites. You have the chance to maintain a list of other users (your <b>friends</b>) and check if they are connected, if so you can challenge one of them or chat with him/her. The concept behind is simple: a friend is someone you want to be connected with, someone you want to play with often. Some online chess providers have another interesting feature which is the opposite of friends: a list of people you don’t want to play with. In fact when the system finds automatically an opponent for you, you won’t have the chance to reject the match usually (in some case instead that is possible: the game can be null if the player doesn’t move his first move or acknowledges the match). Using the <b>black list</b> (or <b>block list</b> or <b>no-play list</b>) the system will not create a match between you and the undesired user.MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-7322456860161811932011-02-03T04:53:00.000-08:002011-02-03T04:53:33.165-08:00On-line Chess - Part 1.6 - Rating and levels<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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Why playing a game like chess is addictive? Because it is a beautiful game! Yes, of course. Because you meet people! Yes. Because you like the theory behind! Yah. But unconsciously a better answer is because you want to prove you’re stronger than the opponent. Another variant: because you want to prove you’re stronger than a lot of people. A more modest variant: because you want to prove you’re the strongest player, that’s all! <br />
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<b>Rating </b>helps to find your strength among other player. <b>ELO rating</b> is the most used. It is a simple formula returning a number: bigger the number, stronger you are.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgueq8kycWK6-U8a7NOfhuVXxGnr0wO3g7GF2z-lksOgHzVtCJLa8MB5h0DwVPpbvay4E_H9ihLdB97XjW9xa1vGrInB6UmxulMHzPiX7QImetrAJQ9HkczldRbUQA_HwggeSyd3bhpe0c/s1600/rating.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgueq8kycWK6-U8a7NOfhuVXxGnr0wO3g7GF2z-lksOgHzVtCJLa8MB5h0DwVPpbvay4E_H9ihLdB97XjW9xa1vGrInB6UmxulMHzPiX7QImetrAJQ9HkczldRbUQA_HwggeSyd3bhpe0c/s320/rating.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<b>Figure 6</b> – Rating computation formula. W=1(won) or 0.5(tied) or 0(lost); R1 is the current rating of the player, R1’ is the new rating, R2 is the rating of the opponent, K is the maximum possible adjustment per game and this constant is set to 32 unless the player has a provisional rating, in that case K depends on the number of games played by the opponent.<br />
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</style> <![endif]--> Talking about ELO rating is not completely correct. It is more correct to talk about a rating used to have a rank in a top list. <br />
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Every provider uses its own formula, especially because ELO rating formula doesn’t work well when the players have played too few games. This is the problem of <b>how to start computing the rating.</b><br />
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In order to start the rating computation you should have an initial rating. There are different ways:<br />
<ul><li>get a fixed initial rating (1200, 1400 or 1500 for beginners) from the system; </li>
<li>play a bunch of games without having assigned a rating so that after this period the system can determine the best estimation of your rating. Sometimes the system accept hints about your experience in chess in order to find the most appropriate opponents for you during the estimation; </li>
<li>play with a provisional rating for 20 games and after that your rating is established. In this case the rating is computed using different formulas for established and provisional players. The initial rating is chosen by the player during the registration.</li>
</ul>A derived problem is to take into account the fact that a player could have been away from tournaments for years before start playing again. This is a special case of the previous problem in fact in both cases the rating of the player is not sure. For this reason some providers use a different and more complicated formula called <b>Glicko System</b> [1].<br />
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<b>Ladder </b>is another possibility. No rating, only a <b>rank </b>in a ladder. People who win will raise the ladder, those who lose does not rise and soon will be taken over by others. The goal is to be at the top of the ladder (rank 1) instead of having the highest rating. <br />
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Famous chess programs have the concept of <b>levels</b>: beginner, intermediate, master. Splitting the number of games into rooms is useful to spread the load over more game servers. So why not create rooms based of player levels? Yes it is possible but less attractive than rating, isn’t it? <br />
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Ratings, ladders and levels are usually different for different categories of game: <b>correspondence </b>game, <b>classical </b>game, <b>blitz </b>game (3-5min), <b>bullet </b>(less than 3 min) and <b>chess variants</b> have their own rating. <br />
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Today I don’t feel concentrated enough but I would like to play a game anyway, just to spend time, but if a play and I lose I will compromise my rating. Some web sites give you the possibility to play a not rated game, so you can still play for training for example without compromise your rank or your rating.<br />
Almost all providers ask you to sign up before starting use the service. It is reasonable because at least your nickname should be visible by your adversary. Someone could think: “why should I give my personal information like e-mail and nationality if I’m just trying to play a single game?” Very few web sites let you play chess as <b>anonymous</b>: no ratings, no registered games, no customizations, just play! In case they like the service they will sign up whenever they want.<br />
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<i>[1] The Glicko System, Mark E. Glickman, </i><a href="http://math.bu.edu/people/mg/glicko/glicko.doc/glicko.html">http://math.bu.edu/people/mg/glicko/glicko.doc/glicko.html</a>MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-57722138263571362312011-01-28T13:54:00.000-08:002011-01-28T13:54:02.603-08:00On-line Chess - Part 1.5 - Social meetings<!--[if !mso]> <style>
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Usually when you play chess you don’t speak with your opponent…or you don’t speak at all. But on-line it is different, people like chatting, like knows something more about the opponent person rather then its name and nationality (and optionally an avatar). A <b>chat </b>feature is always provided by every on-line gaming web site. You can find different kinds of chat:<br />
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<ul><li>during the game: it is a <b>private chat</b> only between the two players; </li>
<li><b>public </b>or <b>general chat</b>: every user can post a message and usually is for wave a challenge; </li>
<li>in <b>rooms </b>or <b>thematic chat rooms</b>: nothing to do with playing chess, it is just chatting; </li>
<li>among <b>team </b>members: a team is a group of player that competes against other teams; </li>
<li>in <b>clubs</b>: a club is the place where you can meet new friends, discuss things and play games. It can be found by anybody and club founder and club moderators are responsible for everything that happens in the club.</li>
</ul>Chats are usually controlled in order to <b>filter offensive words</b>. The abuse of the chat service is mentioned into the terms and conditions of the service and it is punished by banning the bad user. In some cases the chat is forbidden for users <b>under 13</b>.<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizo8aTOsR2yP8Ak0473RnUrix4saFNvwZkPkgJHvoYdeIKDAAbcTTc1nXZCr97eKgxR5t04rUjGyNM8qzWjIraLyleSQrklPYhmvVnlx2coD01FU2SFsAkVtJW3l92qKbPMHqd_BiBgTw/s1600/instantchess1-bis.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizo8aTOsR2yP8Ak0473RnUrix4saFNvwZkPkgJHvoYdeIKDAAbcTTc1nXZCr97eKgxR5t04rUjGyNM8qzWjIraLyleSQrklPYhmvVnlx2coD01FU2SFsAkVtJW3l92qKbPMHqd_BiBgTw/s320/instantchess1-bis.PNG" width="320" /></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoCaption"><b>Figure <span>4</span></b> – <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.instantchess.com">www.instantchess.com</a> private chat</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWRk3JoTkJ9a4Pyz8krH9j2GwRTwz8jFO6blJm6B2_NCd16hgNyPEk88EvC7bp-D2VE5p7GtU9ck7oIDEmsCFya6EM3hHiSuhEDllEL3B7OXOtPI8KAj7VtqyZPzGxubW4D6ea7Wq0Opk/s1600/chesshere3-bis.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWRk3JoTkJ9a4Pyz8krH9j2GwRTwz8jFO6blJm6B2_NCd16hgNyPEk88EvC7bp-D2VE5p7GtU9ck7oIDEmsCFya6EM3hHiSuhEDllEL3B7OXOtPI8KAj7VtqyZPzGxubW4D6ea7Wq0Opk/s320/chesshere3-bis.PNG" width="320" /></a></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoCaption"><b>Figure <span>5</span></b> – <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.chesshere.com">www.chesshere.com</a> private chat and chat room</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Almost all web sites allow their users to have a list of their <b>friends </b>in order to connect with them easily by chat or for playing. When you meet a new player in a game and find out he/she is a good player or simply it is nice to chat with, having him/her in your list help you looking for him/her when you connect next time. <br />
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So, on-line chess gaming web sites are, as a matter of facts, a sort of social networks and in most case is possible to find connections with popular social networks websites like <b>facebook</b>.MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-82508058173360495282011-01-27T14:01:00.000-08:002011-01-27T14:01:33.797-08:00On-line Chess - Part 1.4 - Live or turn basedWhat do you think when you say chess? Yes, two people sat down by a chess board from their own side, thinking most of the time, handling their pieces from time to time and struck their clock button. Oh yes, I have seen also two people at the chess board, handling their pieces stressfully without any break, beating on their clock button with violence and thinking only in the spare time. Those scenarios are two typical examples of classic chess games (the second one is the so called blitz game).<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Wait a moment. There is another kind of game, historically very important. It is correspondence chess. Two players exchange their moves by mail. There is no time constraint (or they are quite long).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Correspondence chess</span> is easily implemented over internet. Each move is stored in a database and the player simply could be notified by e-mail that the opponent move has been issued. This kind of game is sometime called <span style="font-weight: bold;">turn based</span> game or <span style="font-weight: bold;">postal </span>game. A game of this kind must have an end, so there are long time limits to finish the game and to make a single move (I’m talking about days). Furthermore, what happens if you have a game in place from days but you have to go far from your (or any) PC for any reason but you don’t want to lose? Providers of such kind of chess game give you the possibility to go on “<span style="font-weight: bold;">vacation</span>” for a period: the game is simply suspended and everybody is happy. Vacation time is limited of course and during a game you cannot go on vacation more than a certain number of times.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The equivalent of classic chess is <span style="font-weight: bold;">live chess</span> or <span style="font-weight: bold;">real time chess</span>. In this case the chess clock plays a crucial role because the time variable can condition the game (and let people to make mistakes but that’s part of the beauty of the game). Often you can chose the time control with an extra time per move rather than the <span style="font-weight: bold;">sudden-death</span> approach: you will see two numbers when you chose the time limits, the first is the amount of time a player has in order to finish the game while the second is the <span style="font-weight: bold;">bonus </span>in seconds added to your clock every move you make. In the sudden-death time control when the time expires there is no time to play a single move.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, think at the following scenario: you are playing a live chess game, make your move and your clock stops while your opponent’s one starts (automatically done by the client program – what a great privation! I loved pushing the button on my classic chess clock.) but your opponent won’t see the move instantly because, due to the connection speed, the move information has to be uploaded to the server and forwarded to the opponent client. This time is called <span style="font-weight: bold;">lag</span>. Your opponent will see your chess clock going on for the time of the lag and when the move is received the clock goes back to the real time stamp.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtynMyD2SryLrrJeEivTzBWfrPqsq9YeA6QGVUmu6Ll8TPerOrNRo5yl6_n0ZaUTmEiW6zBNCTCgpJu6gVsIQoXxpbZEbx_EN5JxyA7n8DVGljlGEyyaHOBCj_nj9dngg4FRDTv0N0/s1600/g11914.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564357295665331026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtynMyD2SryLrrJeEivTzBWfrPqsq9YeA6QGVUmu6Ll8TPerOrNRo5yl6_n0ZaUTmEiW6zBNCTCgpJu6gVsIQoXxpbZEbx_EN5JxyA7n8DVGljlGEyyaHOBCj_nj9dngg4FRDTv0N0/s400/g11914.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 226px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 342px;" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Figure 3</span> – Lag example: client A sends its move to the server which forwards it to the client B. Client B receives the move and starts counting the time of B (Tb). When B moves it sends to server both the move and the time spent for the move Tb. Due to delay in B connection, the server receives the information after a time called LAG. In the meantime the clock B of the client A was ticking down and when A receives the opponent move and time, the clock B is updated and it appears player B has gained time, but it has not.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Any consequences? The total game time is longer that the one agreed at the beginning of the game. This is not a big issue because the lag time is a dead time for both players. Nasty instead is the situation very closed to the time zero: you make your move at 0:00:03 but your opponent receives it only after 5 sec. In the meantime your opponent sees your clock becoming negative and starts thinking happily about the victory but then receives your move and … checkmate! Gosh!</div>It is not advised to play rated games when a player has great lag and some web sites does not allow playing blitz games in case of consistent lag, in fact delays of seconds in the connection could make lightening games unfeasible.<br />
Sometimes the players recognize the lag is increasing too much during a game and the provider gives them the possibility to <span style="font-weight: bold;">abort </span>the game or to <span style="font-weight: bold;">adjourn </span>to another day.<br />
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Some chess playing web sites have different approaches to lag phenomenon:<br />
<ul><li>simply don’t do anything; </li>
<li> lag compensation: clocks are compensated with average lag. The perception of excessive lag effect is reduced and the lag is continuously measured; </li>
<li>automatic abort or adjourn of the game </li>
<li>not automatic abort or adjourn of the game but players agreed upon that adopt policies in case of lag</li>
</ul>Very <span style="font-weight: bold;">poor connections</span> are affected by <span style="font-weight: bold;">interruptions</span>. Some good web sites takes care of poor internet connection of its users, when the disconnection arises the game is adjourned automatically or the user online gets notified to wait more, giving the time necessary for the disconnected user to reconnect and continue the game. That could lead to cheating problem and needs to be faced with (see security section).MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-34427980507008345402011-01-27T13:59:00.000-08:002011-01-27T13:59:21.663-08:00On-line Chess - Part 1.3 - Language supportIf you can speak English you could play with a lot of people all around the world because most of chess web sites have English as allowed language. Looking around I found out that language support is not provided by most of the sites. Language support means that an Italian player, for instance, could log-in the web site and find an interface with Italian content (buttons, links, information, alert messages, tutorials and so on). Ok, it is true a chess player has to know at least English language nowadays and if he/she wants to play anyway I’m pretty sure he/she will be able to somehow (chess has its own language!) but why limit people to use the playing service because they have never studied English?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOJEF6HbnKttaNfFnSh-KU0T6s2icr8bUXGHJUZo1hdw4sGk3yRJ0V1UaIBIKa4QgGVUGnNYcmJk3cXQP7NPI3kgSpOGCR0oH1S66aSbwKngBiEIjLyLKKQoJq9qI2-FFV6qHri9x/s1600/chessmaniac3-bis.PNG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563958455302879394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOJEF6HbnKttaNfFnSh-KU0T6s2icr8bUXGHJUZo1hdw4sGk3yRJ0V1UaIBIKa4QgGVUGnNYcmJk3cXQP7NPI3kgSpOGCR0oH1S66aSbwKngBiEIjLyLKKQoJq9qI2-FFV6qHri9x/s400/chessmaniac3-bis.PNG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a> <br />
<div class="MsoCaption"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Figure 2</span> – <a href="http://www.chessmaniac.com/">www.chessmaniac.com</a> language support is far to be perfect. Italian and English words lives together in the home page</div>When you have to chat to some other player through the service an interesting but limiting solution has been adopted: a set of prepared phrases are ready to be chosen in the language of one player, the destination player receives that phrases translated in his/her language. Undoubtedly is a plus, but what a wonderful chat when the discussion needs to be complex!MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8955643077466736805.post-88212710436645047342011-01-27T13:58:00.000-08:002011-01-27T13:58:00.968-08:00On-line Chess - Part 1.2 - Client programEvery web site allowing users to play chess has a client program. A client program is a piece of software that interfaces the player with the game server. In the past the client program was downloadable but this solution is not considered very attractive because once you install it on a PC you are compelled to use that PC to play on-line. On the contrary, if the interface player-server is usable without downloading and installing any software, the player will be able to play theoretically from any PC or any device with an internet connection (play-everywhere-every-time principle). Anyway there are benefits using downloadable software: - the client is nicer, has better graphic and outstanding effects<br />
- once installed you don’t have to wait for loading from internet any data to start a game<br />
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That’s the reason why the most popular chess servers are still accessible by downloadable software. Usually those servers have a standard interface allowing different programs to connect with (Fritz and WinBoard to mention a few).<br />
Moreover downloadable clients are very easy to use for mobile devices because they can be customized for that platform so it is quite common to have a mobile application downloadable for free even if the desktop access is performed by web technologies. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFA3Agqx3_cQ_XvSzDnU1Rpdy81OVofTgoswnmoLKTKJ1u7p0PYFd6C7UvqXP8ECQXTG03-6h0Sa591LkkkMz5et8l14jGzbxTuvYYgBwsHiyi2KMeiEyrGTYk5-8rPEDbu57ei3OS/s1600/fig_1-chesscube1-bis.PNG"><br />
</a><br />
Nowadays fat clients can be implemented with relatively recent technologies (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActionScript">actionscript</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28programming_language%29">java</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript">javascript</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28programming%29">Ajax</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Silverlight">Silverlight</a>, …) usable by any browser, and faster computers and internet connections make downloadable software less and less attractive. Most of the client programs you can find on the web for chess are written in JavaScript. Java applets are also used but the time to load the program is notoriously greater. With latest version of java (JRE and JDK &gt; 1.6) applets are faster than before so, even if they are not considered the best approach by most of people, maybe java applets deserve more consideration now than before. ActionScript is the language of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash">Adobe flash</a> (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flex">Flex</a>): it is not a free technology like java but it is powerful and allows exploiting the flash library for graphics. It is worth saying that at the moment Apple is attacking Adobe because flash is not performing well on its handset devices; Microsoft and Google are supporting Apple against Adobe so the future could not so brighter for Flash as in the past and other technologies like HTML5 will come soon.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF09-sMXXD1R2xcAFIoekdNmsCg5pb7Q6tOngnfaApqFjksVeaJ2dbAGnrLHIf4vXf48_rZ-DtxRTUYqemKmsXnsCGboDBaef2v1f8On1V1fnoukIde9C6qe4Cw_h2g4JPsFjZVVTJ/s1600/fig_1-chesscube1-bis.PNG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562911702886322594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF09-sMXXD1R2xcAFIoekdNmsCg5pb7Q6tOngnfaApqFjksVeaJ2dbAGnrLHIf4vXf48_rZ-DtxRTUYqemKmsXnsCGboDBaef2v1f8On1V1fnoukIde9C6qe4Cw_h2g4JPsFjZVVTJ/s320/fig_1-chesscube1-bis.PNG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 230px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Figure 1</span> – <a href="http://www.chesscube.com/">www.chesscube.com</a> client interface implemented using flash technology.<br />
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Of course, in order to play using a java client, the local PC (or mobile device) must have java correctly installed and enabled in your browser. It is free and maybe you will find it already installed because java is used by many other applications.<br />
Same for actionscript. You should have Flash installed on your PC. It is free and several web sites require flash for other purposes.<br />
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Typically the client program allows the user to pick up a piece from the chess board and perform the move. The move is validated and sent to the server (hopefully encrypted) which forwards it to the opponent client program. Client programs could be thin in the sense they could not perform any validity check but just reporting the move to the server which performs checks and holds the status of the game, or they could be fat in the sense they hold the logic to performs all the checks and may or may not hold the status of the game. Some clients have also the responsibility to show the list of connected players but sometimes the program does only the minimum required and other technologies are used to perform database accesses.MindTheCheckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647750335676558205noreply@blogger.com0