Hey HN,
I made this web app to play online chess on the Free Internet Chess Server — one of the oldest internet chess servers out there. FICS has been around since 1995 and has a community of over 800,000 registered users. It offers a ton of invaluable chess resources including support for a wide variety of awesome desktop chess interfaces--and now a web-based interface too!
Hmm "play with over 800,000" doesn't sound at all realistic.. Is that everyone who's ever registered?
Also, I used to use Babaschess but lately play in the browser with Jin applet. I think that's been around for many years.
Anyway, I love FICS, there's total non-commercialness, a great volunteer spirit, excellent help channel, even a duck channel. Plus I met one of my best friends there. If your app brings more people to FICS, well done. :-)
You're right - 800,000 seems like a bit of stretch - but that's the number of registered players, excluding the guest players. At any given time, there are about a thousand players logged in and ready for play.
The hope is that not only will Free Chess Club serve as a modern alternative to Jin for existing FICS users but also draw in more new users to FICS. Do check it out!
3 comments
[ 5.3 ms ] story [ 17.1 ms ] threadAlso, I used to use Babaschess but lately play in the browser with Jin applet. I think that's been around for many years.
Anyway, I love FICS, there's total non-commercialness, a great volunteer spirit, excellent help channel, even a duck channel. Plus I met one of my best friends there. If your app brings more people to FICS, well done. :-)
The hope is that not only will Free Chess Club serve as a modern alternative to Jin for existing FICS users but also draw in more new users to FICS. Do check it out!