The Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) is a volunteer-run

online chess Online chess is chess that is played over the Internet, allowing players to play against each other. This was first done asynchronously through PLATO and email in the 1970s. In 1992, the Internet Chess Server facilitated live online play via t ...

platform. When the original

Internet Chess Server The American Internet Chess Server, commonly known as Internet Chess Server (ICS) was a telnet-based chess server which allowed users to play live chess over the internet. History In the 1970s, one could play correspondence chess in a PLAT ...

(ICS) was commercialized and rebranded as the

Internet Chess Club The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC had over 30,000 subscribing members in 2005. It was the first Internet chess server and was the largest p ...

(ICC) in 1995, a group of users and developers came together to fork the code and host an alternative committed to free access. A rivalry between ICC and FICS persisted for years. Users download one of several graphical client programs, connect to the server via

telnet Telnet (sometimes stylized TELNET) is a client-server application protocol that provides access to virtual terminals of remote systems on local area networks or the Internet. It is a protocol for bidirectional 8-bit communications. Its main ...

, and can play chess or

variants Variant may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Variant'' (magazine), a former British cultural magazine * Variant cover, an issue of comic books with varying cover art * ''Variant'' (novel), a novel by Robison Wells * " The Variant", 2021 epis ...

at a range of time controls. Games played on FICS are stored in a database, which has been used to train chess engines and to support academic studies. Though based in the US, the user base is international. In addition to the games themselves, there are

chat rooms The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

, pairing systems, analysis tools, and ratings. A relay system displays high-profile tournament games for users to see. As of 2024, FICS is still operational, though has declined in popularity with the rise of web-based chess sites.

History

Internet Chess Server

In January 1992, Michael Moore of the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

and Richard Nash started the first online service facilitating live chess games, the American Internet Chess Server (commonly known as the Internet Chess Server or ICS). The initial release, accessible via

, was hosted at the

, but over its first two years it moved repeatedly across American universities, with additional servers opening and connecting to each other through Nash's Internet Ratings Server. The software was coded, supported, and operated by volunteers.

Daniel Sleator Daniel Dominic Kaplan Sleator (born 10 December 1953) is a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States. In 1999, he won the ACM Paris Kanellakis Award (jointly with Robert Tarjan) for the splay tree d ...

, professor of computer science at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

, took over operation in July 1992 and improved the code. One of his primary contributions was a mechanism to adjust clock times for the effects of internet lag. He announced plans to commercialize the service, copyrighted the code in 1994, and rebranded it as the

(ICC) in 1995, charging membership fees. Sleator's decision to commercialize the ICS was controversial, outraging members who felt the internet should be free and open, or who simply did not want to pay for a service which had been free. According to journalist Brad Stone, "players lost their tempers and were exiled from the server, opposition groups were formed, lawsuits were threatened, ICC administrators were harassed, and plans to erect alternative servers were formed".

Development of a free alternative

Several former ICS programmers saw the move as exploiting their work and, on the day its rebranding was announced, they created a mailing list focused on developing an alternative. Work had been in progress, using Nash's original code, since Sleator initially revealed his commercialization plans. Several developers contributed, led by Nash, Henrik Gram, David Flynn, and Chris Petroff. The effort led to servers in several places around the world and in the United States, with the latter consolidating to form the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS), launched on 5 March 1995. Its tagline is "we do it for the game--not the money".

Growth and rivalry with ICC

After a few months, FICS had 1,500 members. In 1998, the Free Internet Chess Organization (FICS) was organized as a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

, although the formal entity was dissolved in 2007. The server is still maintained and administered by volunteers. FICS never matched the popularity of ICC, but as of 2012 it had about 900 people logged in at any given time, and by August 2014 it had over 650,000 registered accounts. In 2016, 50,000 active players played a total of 23 million games. The two servers used different names for similar features, which were then part of the rivalry. For example, very fast games in which each player only has one or two minutes to make all their moves are called "lightning" on FICS but "bullet" on ICC. The terms became shibboleths, marking members of each community and derided by the other. In a 2024 book, Peter Doggers drew a comparison between the FICS and ICC rivalry and the later

Lichess Lichess (; ) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source Internet chess server run by a Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization of the same name. Users of the site can play online chess anonymously and optionally register an ...

vs.

Chess.com Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...

rivalry, with one side committed to free and open principles and the other offering more features for a fee.

Usage

FICS is accessible via

and was text-only by default. Before graphical interfaces, users would see a board created by

ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...

characters, with the lines of the board created by hyphens and

pipes Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circu ...

, and pieces represented by letters. Whereas ICC has dedicated, proprietary graphical interfaces, several have been developed for FICS, with none having official status. The earliest were XICS and

XBoard XBoard is a graphical user interface chessboard for chess engines under the X Window System. It is developed and maintained as free software by the GNU project. WinBoard is a port of XBoard to run natively on Microsoft Windows. Overview Original ...

, with subsequent programs including

WinBoard XBoard is a graphical user interface chessboard for chess engines under the X Window System. It is developed and maintained as free software by the GNU project. WinBoard is a port of XBoard to run natively on Microsoft Windows. Overview Original ...

, BabasChess, Jin, Thief, Raptor, eboard,

PyChess ''PyChess'' is a free software chess client developed for GNU. It allows users to play offline or online via the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS). PyChess also incorporates a built-in chess engine, which in contrast to most other chess AIs is ...

, and JavaBoard. Though built with pre-web technology, which typically requires a dedicated client, there are also web-based interfaces. Users can play using an anonymous guest account or register for an account with a username. Registered users can play games rated using the

Glicko rating system The Glicko rating system and Glicko-2 rating system are methods of assessing a player's strength in zero-sum two-player games. The Glicko rating system was invented by Mark Glickman in 1995 as an improvement on the Elo rating system and initiall ...

, with separate ratings based on time control and chess variant. Once connected, discussion takes place in a wide number of function-specific or subject-specific chat channels numbered 0 through 255. For example, channel 0 is for administrators only, 1 is for general help, 50 is general chat, and 49 is for tournaments. Though based in the US, FICS, like the ICS before it, was notable for its international diversity. Early descriptions of using the servers highlight playing against and talking with people from around the world, which was a rare experience in the 1990s.

Variants

In addition to standard chess, FICS hosts several

chess variants A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways. "International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be co ...

, including

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

, loser's, atomic, wild (including

chess960 Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, is a chess variant that randomizes the starting position of the pieces on the back rank. It was introduced by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 1996 to reduce the emphasis on opening prepa ...

), bughouse, and

crazyhouse Crazyhouse is a chess variant in which captured enemy pieces can be reintroduced, or ''dropped'', into the game as one's own. It was derived as a two-player, single-board variant of bughouse chess. Its drop rule is reminiscent of shogi and the ga ...

. It became known for the popularity of its variants and the strength of its variant players. In particular, ''Chess Daily News'' said it is "well-known for featuring the best bughouse and crazyhouse play in the world".

Relay

FICS relays major live chess events. A bot takes the moves in ongoing games and relays them to special demo accounts bearing the names of players in the event. Users watch and comment on the games in progress. The relay has covered several

World Chess Championships The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the 2024 World Chess Championship. The first event recognized ...

as well as

Wijk aan Zee Wijk aan Zee (; ) is a village on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk, the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus chess tournament or the Hoogove ...

, Morelia-Linares and Amber Melody. The web-based

platform obtains its tournament relays via FICS.

References

External links

* {{Official website
FICS Game Database
– database of all games played Internet chess servers Chess websites 1995 in chess Internet properties established in 1995