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Detailed description of Chess Assistant 8.1
Index
20.1. Introduction
Chess Assistant 8.1 allows you to play chess live over Internet through the Internet
Chess Club game server, otherwise known as ICC. The interface was designed to help novices
play with no knowledge of server commands, and yet enjoy all the same privilegies as
experienced users do. Looking for a game, playing a game, and watching the games of others
can all be done extremely easily, and with it all the tools that a database such as Chess
Assistant 8.1 can offer. ICC has tested and certified the interface, and highly recommends
it.
You will find it easy to read charts showing who is online, who they are playing with,
what interesting games are going on at the moment, and of course who is looking for an
opponent. A single click permits one to change the order of information allowing one to
see everything according to rating, alphabetical order, game type (color coded for bullet,
blitz or standard time controls), and even from fastest to slowest time controls. You can
also set specific filters to display your preferences permanently. For example, you could
set it to show only human players rated between 2805-3012 playing blitz or standard games.
The message window allows you to set repeated messages, tells (for chatting with
others), or any command in fact, and permits you to switch between one and another,
releasing you from the necessity to type everything once and again.
Playing a game with Chess Assistant provides a player far more possibilities than
merely moving the pieces. New options've been created to make it possible to play “Advanced
Chess” directly online. Possibilities such as trying out moves and variations on the
board before sending them, accessing the main database’s tree to see all the statistics
on the moves being played, and of course turn on the engine (only possible if you are
using a computer account). You can have the engine play automatically or only suggest
lines while you're making your decisions. Besides, a simple click will switch you from one
to the next, permitting you to use any engine (Tigers, Shredder 9, Crafty, etc.)
configured with Chess Assistant. You can also set options to save the game
information in full or partly, for instance, comments made by players, time per move, etc.
When watching the games of others, all the restrictions are removed, and you can follow
Grandmaster games (the option only for registered ICC players) accompanying
Chess Assistant 8.1 users have the right to a month’s free membership in
ICC!!!
their moves with the tree, and watching the engine mercilessly point out their blunders
(or brilliancies ;-)). Feel free to comment through “kibitzes”, comments that can be
seen by players, or “whispers”, comments that can only be seen by other spectators,
and save them as well. There are also colored symbols permitting you to switch between the
games easily and see at a glance whether another game you are observing's had any new
moves played.
If a game is being displayed in Examine mode, a mode for showing and analyzing games
such as in lectures, classes, and special ICC events, not only can you see the colored
comments such as highlighted squares and arrows, but you can also save them along with the
other information you've chosen to be saved, so that they may later be looked through at
your own leisure.
ICC has a number of different databases such as a player’s history, their library,
and finally, a searchable database of over 1,000,000 Grandmaster and International Master
games played on ICC. Everything can easily be found and accessed without any special
knowledge of server commands, and added to your databases in Chess Assistant.
Finally, if the appearance of the display isn’t to your liking, you can go back to
the classic Blitz In appearance, or modify settings to your liking: set any font, color,
or background (including photos) and create and save different Styles. These Styles can
also be shared with other Chess Assistant users. Check out the website for new Styles to
be downloaded.
Index
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