This section gives an overview of the various Chess server commands. Not all of the commands are always available, this depends on the context, whether you are connected to a chess server or to a remote ChessPartner.

To send a command, just type it in the console window and <Enter> to send.

For the most common commands there are easy to use menus available. For the less used commands you may have to fall back to typing the command in the console window.

To find out what commands a specific chess server understands, type the help command. For help on a specific command the syntax is usually: help  xxx Where xxx is the command you want help on.

Some of the commands can be accessed by right clicking the mouse on the Internet console, the menu depend on the context where you have clicked. If you clicked on a name in the list one of the context menus would be: Challenge player

Games

The games command returns a list of games in progress, there is a dialog available from the Internet menu, this allow you to set various options.

Observe

With the observe command you can observe the moves of a game in progress. After observe type the name of one of the players of the game you want to observe. The list of games can be retrieved with the games command as discussed before.

The moves list with be filled with moves from the point you start observing, thus earlier moves are not listed.

Use the unobserve command to stop observing the game.

There is an easier way to observe a game, first ask for a list of games, then right click on one of the player names in the list, the drop down menu has the observer command.

If you don’t want others to observe the games you are playing you can use de command: set private 1. To cancel this: set private 0.

Who

The who commands gives you a list of logged in players, if there are more player than fit on one screen, use the next command to get the next screen.

The who command as many options, we won’t describe them here. The program has a dialog, which allows you to use the most common options of the who command. The dialog can be found under the Internet menu.

Sending and receiving game requests

To challenge someone for a game use the following procedure:

Other may challenge you as well, when this happens a dialog pops up with the challenges, you can either accept or decline the challenge. It is also possible to do a counter challenge with different parameters.

Playing the game

When you have accepted a challenge or some accepted you match request, the game can begin. Moves can be played as usual, just move the pieces on the board. Moves from your opponent are automatically played on the board.

During the game there are a number of commands available.

Resign

The opponent wins the game; no answer from opponent is required.

Draw

Send a draw offer to the remote player, the opponent can accept or decline the offer. When there is a legal draw, e.g. 50 moves rule or 3-fold repetition the chess server automatically accepts the draw offer.

Adjourn

Adjourns the game. The server saves the game. You can continue the game at a later time.

Flag

The opponent has lost on time, this command must be send to claim a win. The chess server verifies the claim.

Chat

You can chat with others on the chess server. With the ‘say’ command you can send a message to your current opponent. If you are not playing a game you can use the ‘tell’ command. E.g.

 

Say Great match, huh ?

Tell knight what is your personal rating ?

 

When you receive a message is looks like this:

 

<player> tells you <message>

e.g.

Knight tells you My rating is 2234

 

When you are a registered player and don’t want messages from non registered players you can use the ‘set tell 0’ command. ‘set tell 1’ accepts messages again.

Stopping

To stop the session with the chess server you can either type the quit command from the console window or click the disconnect button from the toolbar.

Letting the program play on the servers

Instead of play the moves your self; it is also possible to let the computer play the moves. Normally this should only be done if you are logged in using a computer account, generally it is considered cheating when you let the computer play using a normal account.

In order to let the computer play you have to check the ‘Computer Plays’ option in the Internet console properties. You can only change this setting when you are not connected to the server. If you want to play fully automatic you can also check the ‘Automatic Challenge Accept’ option.

 

In addition the Engine Active option must be set, however this option can be enable or disabled during internet play, advantage is you can now play togheter with the engine.

Be aware when the Computer plays option is on this is always reflected in your interface variable independent wheter the engine is active or not.

 

The contents of the ‘Auto Seek Command’ field is send at the end of each completed game, normally you would use this to place new seeks. Multiple commands can be issued by separating them by \n

 

New is the Max rematch field, by entering a number you can limit the number of auto played games against the same opponents. This is usefull for unattended play.