I ABANDON THE CHESS PLATFORM FICS

I shall leave the chess platform Free Internet Chess Server.

First of all, there is no one to play with

Almost everyone prefers to play blitz or bullet. Only some players agree to play rapid or slow games. The number of players interested in rapid or slow games is not big enough. If you want to play with time control 15 minutes per game or slower, usually there are no challenges, or your challenge will not be accepted.

Sometimes, you must wait hours before someone accepts your challenge for a rapid game. 

It is particularly so if your rating is above 2000.

Sometimes, the system ignores your "formula" and gives you an opponent with a rating above or below the limits you had fixed.

One of the players on FICS has an abnormally high rating. If that player is a grandmaster, I know his name but will not reveal it here. Considering that only a few players have high ratings, that player must always win to keep an exceptionally high rating. I suspect the player is an admin and uses chess engines during the games.

FICS Chat is abusive

When waiting for challenges or for your challenge to be accepted, you look at the discussions in the chat.

Interestingly, the Free Internet Chess Club members discuss everything in the Politics chat, including the chess candidate tournament. 

It is even more surprising that when you enter the Politics chat, some members ask whether you are interested in politics.

Unfortunately, you cannot freely discuss politics on the FICS Politics chat.

You think you are talking about politics with chess players who consider themselves intelligent. Instead, you regularly speak with the same anonymous governmental political instructor. 

If your opinions or even questions do not match with the Western compulsory narrative, you will be constantly targeted in an abusive way.

Your arguments will not be refuted. Instead, everything you say will be distorted and wrongly interpreted. The context will be changed. The unacceptable argumentum ad hominem will be used. Personal attacks will constantly appear.

The political instructor, a thought policeman, will constantly observe whether you have joined the chat. As soon as you enter the chat, the political instructor joins it. The political instructor is probably one of the admins of FICS.

Anyway, the FICS has not de-platformed that nasty person.

The political instructor attributes you with various motives and beliefs and sometimes even explicitly declares that one suspects you of being a criminal.

A symmetrical answer would be to declare that you suspect that this person is a paedophile, corps-eater, etc.

Sometimes, the political instructor makes some explicit extremist announcements.

Once, that person declared that all philosophers should be jailed.

The McCarthyist political instructor even goes as far as to personally target you absolutely outside the context. For example:

YOU:

"Hello! It's nice weather today!"

POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR LOGS IN:

"You may talk about the weather, but a week ago you expressed stupid views about the Ukrainian war."

(Then, the political instructor will misdescribe your views.)

Then, someone accepts your challenge, and the chessgame starts. You are supposed to play chess right after some totalitarianist Stalinist maniac has seriously insulted and slandered you.

Your game's notation and result will be recorded, but the chat is self-destructive. The evidence of abusive behaviour will be eliminated.

It is not freedom of speech. Instead, the FICS is hosting some info-terrorists who are seriously damaging others' freedom of speech.

Mobialia chess interface

The best chess interface for FICS is probably Mobialia Chess. It is sufficiently laconic so that nothing disturbs you during the game.

Unfortunately, once, it failed to show me the chessboard and did not allow me to abort the game either.

Because of unknown reasons, Mobialia also has an Android app for mobile phones. It is pretty useless as most players play blitz, and correspondence chess is excluded from FICS.

Mobialia's nice feature is tactics problems. I like it as the problems are chosen from the games of great chess masters.

However, Mobialia behaves like a spy program. It hangs your clipboard. 

Mobialia can be connected with FICS or ICC (Internet Chess Club). To change my account, I need to insert my password using the clipboard. Unfortunately, Mobialia has taken over my clipboard, and to be able to use it, I have to switch off Mobialia and restart my computer altogether.

CHESSBASE IS MAKING TRICKS

Chessbase is undoubtedly the best PGN editor out there. Nowadays, most chess databases, including the Chess Informator and Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO), are in the Chessbase format.

One cannot avoid Chessbase if one is playing chess seriously.

Unfortunately, Chessbase misuses its monopoly status. Its behaviour, its databases, and the chess programs associated with it violate consumer rights and business ethics codes.

Chessbase forces to buy new versions of it

I had the Chessbase PGN editor, version 14. This old program could create, open, and edit all the PGN files and databases in Chessbase format. I was pretty satisfied with this version and did not intend to upgrade it or buy a newer version. Free updates of Chessbase 14 were sometimes available anyway.

Recently, Chessbase started advertising that I had to buy a newer version. When using the automated analyses of the games, it ceased to make comments in the style "peredecessor", referring to earlier games from the same position. 

I did not need that superficial feature anyway. It is strange, however, that Chessbase announced that the program is outdated and that the feature requires an update. 

When I bought Chessbase years ago, where did they say such features would expire? - Nowhere!

Things became worse, however. 

Suddenly, Chessbase 14 suggested I make a free update, which I did. Unfortunately, the updated version did not work correctly, so I could not create new games with the correct data. Thus, I was forced to buy Chessbase 17, wasting 189 Euros.

It seems that the sudden "update" was specially designed to make the program unusable and force consumers to buy a newer version.

That is a robbery.

Chessbase behaves as a spy program

There is the "Let's Check" feature on Chessbase. If you are analysing a position using the chess engine, then "Let's Check" allows you to see the analyses of other users with different chess engines and depth of analysis.

Sometimes, if you make a move in the position, the "Let's Check" feature turns on, but sometimes it does not. 

On its homepage, Chessbase somewhere declares that your analyses are "yours", but you can see the analyses of others. However, Chessbase does not explain in what sense exactly your analyses are "yours". And it does not explain how it gets the analyses of others.

Thus, there is a suspicion that Chessbase will take your engine analysis from your local computer, store it in the cloud, and make it visible to others.

The general feature of Chessbase is that, seemingly on purpose, it does not give exact information concerning several disputable features.

Suppose you are a top grandmaster preparing for an important match or competition. In that case, I suggest you use chess engines for your opening preparation only if you are not logged in to Chessbase and your computer is not connected to the internet.

Perhaps you should even use Chessbase only on a computer, never connected to the internet.

There is another feature of Chessbase that makes it look like a spy program

Newer versions of Chasbase are stealing the clipboard content. If you are copying a chessgame in another program and do not use the clipboard cleaner, what happens if you open the Chessbase?

Your clipboard content immediately appears in Chessbase as a new game. Worse, it is already saved in the file named "My PGN Downloads."

The user has not been informed about such a feature. It is also difficult to find how to switch off that feature.

No other chess program I know steals or even saves the clipboard's content. For example, Shredder pastes a game from the clipboard only if you click the "Paste" button, and it saves it only if you click "Save."

In this sense, Chessbase is similar to the spy program Microsoft Edge, which steals the addresses of the web pages you visit on other browsers. 

Of course, Chessbase does not steal your passwords from the clipboard unless you use the PGN file as a password.

If you need to be cautious, do not keep the Chessbase open while working with other chess programs, and remember to use a comfortable clipboard cleaner.

Chessbase app is not working

There is a cheaper version of Chessbase—the Chessbase app for Android. It can be used on a mobile phone.

Unfortunately, it is a waste of money. Chessbase still sells that app on Google Play. However, it seems abandoned, and its real name should be "No Games Found." For years, it has been unable to find games from the databases and constantly hangs. To exit, one must use the "Stop" command from the mobile phone's settings.

The Chessbase app malfunctions independently of the speed of the internet connection and the Android version or mobile phone used.

Playchess malfunctions

I have played hundreds of chessgames on some chess platforms, and never something suspicious happened. I was playing for free, without charge.

Some chess platforms, however, behave strangely. 

I wrote about Chessbase's "Playchess" earlier. 

You pay money for the service, but it downloads the wrong games onto your local computer, deletes them, makes them inaccessible, etc. 

You are setting the rating difference in the "formula", but the system ignores your command and gives you an opponent with the ELO 500 points above or below your strength. 

You have a perfect internet connection and receive messages during the game, but the chessboard suddenly hangs, and you lose an important match. Playchess declares that you have been disconnected, which is considered a forfeit. But it never happened on some other platforms.

The new version of Chessbase malfunctions

While Chessbase forced me to buy a new version of Chessbase, the latest version does not work correctly.

The "Tactical Analysis" feature never failed on Chessbase 14. Unfortunately, on Chessbase 17, it gives a "Runtime error" message and stops working.

To use the automated analysis feature, I have to use Shredder, which is five times cheaper than Chessbase, or Scid, which is entirely free.

***

And so on.

So let's pay more and more money for the monstrum.

A TECHNICAL MISTAKE ON ICC

I just lost a game because the Mobialia interface did not show me the chessboard, and I could not abort either. If this happens again, I will cease playing on ICC (International Chess Club)!

Here is the "game". Without seeing the board, I accidentally hit some pieces....

[Event "ICC 15 5"] [Site "Internet Chess Club"] [Date "2024.04.14"] [Round "-"] [White "Nanomaster"] [Black "sedsak"] [Result "0-1"] [ICCResult "White resigns"] [WhiteElo "1914"] [BlackElo "1787"] [Opening "Modern defense"] [ECO "A40"] [NIC "QO.17"] [Time "15:55:29"] [PlyCount "4"] [TimeControl "900+5"] 1. d4 g6 2. d5 Bg7 {White resigns} 0-1

I ABANDON THE PLATFORM PLAYCHESS

Chessbase's playing platform, Playchess, cheated again. 

Today, it robbed 30 points of my ELO. 

It is interesting to note that it always happens then and only then when I have reached the top 5 or 10 on the list of current-day players.

Today, in my rapid game Nanomaster—Sd75, I had white pieces. I suddenly couldn't make a move, and the system announced that my opponent had left the game and was playing another one.

Do I really have to wait politely? It is a rapid game that was interrupted.

Earlier today, the server was down for a while.

After approximately 5 minutes, I tried different buttons on Playchess, like "Refresh", etc.

Suddenly, Playchess declared I had lost a game because my opponent CLAIMED I had disconnected the game.

At the same time, I had a perfect internet connection, but I was technically unable to press the "Claim win" or "Abort" buttons.

It was technically impossible to report the problem. As always, the "Help" button gave an error message.

According to Playchess, my opponent closed the game and, therefore, I lost the game!

In a 15-minute game, I had used 5 minutes, and 10 minutes were left. I was not thinking about my last move for more than 2 minutes. 

Tell me, how could my opponent start a new game and make an official complaint if I had been disconnected for only two minutes?! What normal person would complain if the opponent was disconnected for only one minute?

Please explain how I could have been disconnected if my clock was running and Playchess was able to send me messages that my opponent started a new game, that my opponent made a complaint, and that the arbiter ascribed me a loss?

You are cheaters, Chessbase and your Playchess!

Despite paying for the service for one year, I will no longer play a single game on Playchess.