Comments on: Kibitz for Improvement

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:57:00 +0000

Hi, great blog! I had no idea about the “examine” variable on FICS someone mentioned in the comments, I’m definitely going to make use of that! Anyway, I second FICS for kibitzing. On a game I played last weekend I was notified after the game that spectators had whispered comments, so I was able to read them all afterward and get some interesting variations and analysis. Would be useful if you had a group of players and people take turns playing, spectating. If you play in the teamleague you would get regular spectators because of teammates I believe: http://teamleague.org/

By: Tuirgin

Tuirgin — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:45:16 +0000

Great! That’s very helpful. Thank you.

By: Israel Chauca

Israel Chauca — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:42:42 +0000

When I play standard games (15+ min) in FICS, I turn the "examine" var on (set examine 1); that way, when the game finishes it's automatically loaded in an "examine" board and I invite my opponent to go through it, most of the time my opponents agree and we have a nice time examining the game.

I found out about many FICS' features just by asking in the help channel about how to do things, there is usually someone that will have an answer, but you might found more than one way to do things. Also, the help command is a good source of information and you can use mailhelp to get the help file in your inbox. Going through my vars (type "var" to get the list) with "help v_varname" made my life a lot nicer too.

Israel

By: Tuirgin

Tuirgin — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:08:08 +0000

Thanks for the tip! I’ll definitely take a look.

By: botchvinik

botchvinik — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:31:48 +0000

There is a “Teaching ladder” on FICS where you can have other players, usually of higher strength than yourself, help analyze your game(s). You can find a “free” coach that way, I am sure.

By: Tuirgin

Tuirgin — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:41:26 +0000

4x/yr… That’s still enough to be a benefit? Hrm… Xmas & bdays might help here.

By: tommyg

tommyg — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:15:24 +0000

No the only live chess I play on the internet is at Chess.com. I was on ICC but hated it. No one wants to play long enough games on most live servers. One thing to think about with regards to having a coach is you could only go once in awhile when you have some games stored up and ready for she or he to look through. I only have a lesson with my chess coach about 4 times a year. He only wants to see me when I have some games analyzed and ready for him and I to work through together.

By: Tuirgin

Tuirgin — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:56:06 +0000

My only problem with coaches is that I can't afford to pay them! Getting a coach would be ideal—I'd love to have someone with that kind of proficiency guide me into a better understanding of the game and of my own playing. But most need to be paid in something more than praise and appreciation.

You use Chess.com for your live games, don't you? Do you use any other live chess servers?

By: tommyg

tommyg — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:47:43 +0000

Better then kibitzing might be to analyze your own games and then find a coach and have she or he go over them with you in a lesson format. I have found that to be VERY instructive and helpful (and yes sometimes painful…)

By: Tuirgin

Tuirgin — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:23:35 +0000

I’ve only played on FICS a few times. I’m not adverse to the IRC type commands, etc., but I had a hard time discovering what features were available there. How did you find out about WatchBot? Since I’m usually on Mac & Linux I haven’t spent more than 30-45 minutes with BabasChess—does it make feature discovery a lot easier than does Jin?