Help Center

In order to connect and play on the Internet Chess Club, you'll need client software. BlitzIn is the most popular choice for Windows. Many can be downloaded for free in our Download Software section.

Once you have the software, you can go online and play. The ICC Guide provides a good introduction for BlitzIn users, covering the basics like starting and playing a game. Tips is instructional for users of any client software. If you get stuck, you can ask a question when logged in with "tell 1 <question>".

Most common actions taken by ICC members are simply a matter of clicking a link or button, but some cool advanced tricks, such as setting up your own personal simultaneous exhibition (you can do it, but you furnish the players!), require typing commands into a console window. In the server help files, you can browse through the possible commands and consider the possibilities, or look up specific commands and topics by name.

Some basic commands that can be typed:

• seeking looks for a game.
• say tells something to your opponent
• tell tells something to anybody logged into the server
• finger displays information about a player
• history lists your recent games
• observe allows you to watch games in progress ("observe *" to see the highest-rated game)
• follow follows around a player, watching his every game ("follow *" to follow the highest-rated)
• examine allows you to play over (post-mortem) games
• message leaves a message for a player who is not online, or lists your received messages