🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello everybody,

I'm going to write an article about Chess in Internet
and thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to post a draught
version before I finish it, so that you could help me.

Some problems:
   - The gnu.chess.* newsgroups do not exist up to now.
     I've been said that they'll be created soon.
     State of the art is a single newsgroup gnu.chess.
   - I haven't been able to contact Michael Nolan,
     so that the according section can be seen as pure
     fantasy up to now.
     Michael, are you listening ?
     Or does anyone have used his gateway with success ?
   - I haven't been able to contact Edward Noe,
     so that the section about FNCF hasn't been checked.
     Furthermore, the freenet computer has had too
     many users logged in when I tried during the last
     week.
     Someone of the FNCF listening ?
   - Valkyries (ICL and ICS) is still down.

But the rest (which rest?) should be ok.
I would be glad if someone could find mistakes or add
something.

I'll post the final version too, of course.
Once using LaTeX and once using ASCII text.

Best regards and hopefully,
Udo  (sprute@unibi.HRZ.Uni-Bielefeld.DE)

---LaTeX--file--is--coming--here---------------------------

\documentstyle [12pt] {article}
\title {A Guide to Chess in Internet\\Version 0.3}
\author {Udo Sprute\\sprute@unibi.HRZ.Uni-Bielefeld.DE}

\setlength {\parindent} {0pt}
\setlength {\parskip} {5pt plus 2pt minus 1pt}

\begin {document}
\maketitle

The Internet has connected a large set of computers all over the world
to support communication and cooperation between their users.

Since some of those users are desperate fans of pushing little woodpieces,
there are some chess related services available in Internet as well.

Here I try to list them all:

\tableofcontents



\section {rec.games.chess and gnu.chess}

rec.games.chess, gnu.chess, gnu.chess.announce and gnu.chess.bug are
USENET newsgroups, available mostly on unix hosts by the commands
\verb|nn| (No News is good news), \verb|rn| (Read News) or better
\verb|trn| (Threaded Read News). \\
rec.games.chess covers all chess-related topics,
The gnu.chess groups are specialized upon the GNU chess software.
If \begin{verbatim}
    trn chess
\end{verbatim} doesn't work because your system administrator
hasn't subscribed to the chess newsgroups or any newsgroups at all,
you should ask him to subscribe to them.

In the meantime, there are several other possibilities to access
the groups:


\begin {itemize}
\item Newsgroups by telnet

Some servers provide user accounts which come near to complete
unix accounts --- at least as only communication is regarded.
The most popular of them are:

\begin{itemize}
\item freenet-in-[a,b or c].cwru.edu or 129.22.8.38
\item launchpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
\end{itemize}

You should use them in the evening hours preferably because they're
heavily loaded. Example:

\begin{verbatim}
telnet launchpad.unc.edu
    launch
[you'll get help texts and menus]
quit
\end{verbatim}


\item Newsgroups by telnet 119

Some servers provide reading and writing access to
the newsgroups through low-level surfaces. They are:

\begin{itemize}
\item sol.ctr.columbia.edu or 128.59.64.40
\item news.fu-berlin.de or 130.133.4.250
\end{itemize}

Example session:
\begin{verbatim}
telnet news.fu-berlin.de 119
group rec.games.chess
article
next
body
quit
\end{verbatim}


\item Newsgroups by email

Michael Nolan has created a gate which posts all mail it receives
to rec.games.chess automagically.  So if you want to post something
to rec.games.chess, simply type:

\begin{verbatim}
mail chessnews@tssi.com
Subject: [subject]
[your text]
.
\end{verbatim}

A little trap:  Email-replys will be addressed to chessnews@tssi.com too,
if the replying person doesn't change it, and will be sent to
rec.games.chess instead of to you.  And, naturally, you won't receive
any follow-up posts too. \\
The solution: Send a mail to Michael Nolan himself
(\verb|chessnews-request| \verb|@tssi.com|) and ask him to append your name
to the distribution list for rec.games.chess that he is careing about.
Then his automaton will forward every post of the group to you by email.

Equivalently, some people at the M.I.T. have installed a few forwarders
to gnu.chess:

\begin{itemize}
\item
help-gnu-chess@prep.ai.mit.edu (help-gnu-chess-request@prep.ai.mit.edu)
for gnu.chess (questions and answers)
\end{itemize}

\begin{itemize}
\item
info-gnu-chess@prep.ai.mit.edu (info-gnu-chess-request@prep.ai.mit.edu)
for gnu.chess.announce (general informations) (moderated)
\end{itemize}

\begin{itemize}
\item
bug-gnu-chess@prep.ai.mit.edu (bug-gnu-chess-request@prep.ai.mit.edu)
for gnu.chess.bug (bug reports)
\end{itemize}



\item {Newsgroup posting by email}

If you only want to send a single contribution to any (non-test) newsgroup,
mail it to [newsgroup]@cs.utexas.edu with [newsgroup] should be
the newsgroup's name with dots substituted by hyphens.  It'll post
your mail to the named group.  It'll leave your mail's header intact,
so that email-replys will find their way back to you,
but follow-up posts still won't.  Example:

\begin{verbatim}
mail rec-games-chess@cs.utexas.edu
Subject: [subject]
[your text]
.
\end{verbatim}

\end {itemize}



\section {CHESS-L}

There is a mailing list independent from rec.games.chess, named CHESS-L
which has its home in the EARN/BITNET world.  But everyone can participate
by sending his mails to \verb|CHESS-L@GREARN|.  Example:

\begin{verbatim}
mail CHESS-L%GREARN.bitnet@vm.hrz.uni-essen.de
Subject: [subject]
[your text]
.
\end{verbatim}

As it has been indicated above, people outside of EARN/BITNET have to use
a netlink, like \verb|vm.hrz.uni-essen.de| to get their mails into the
EARN/BITNET world first.

Perhaps you would like not only to send but also to receive mails
from CHESS-L, your replys par example.  Therefore you've to send
a mail to an automaton who administrates those mailing lists.

\begin{verbatim}
mail LISTSERV%GREARN.bitnet@vm.hrz.uni-essen.de
SUBSCRIBE CHESS-L <your_real_name>
.
\end{verbatim}

You need not to mention your email address, because the automaton
can get it out of your mail's header.

The CHESS-L mailing list provides several chess-by-email tournaments.



\section {Free-Net Chess Federation (FNCF)}

The Free-Net Chess Federation, founded by Edward Noe, is an active
group of chess players, spread over several hosts in northeast USA.
You may participate in their tournaments by requesting membership at
\verb|xx011@cleveland| \verb|.freenet.edu|.  All required is a valid
email address.  If you want to read their local chess bulletin
boards or other things, you've to telnet:

\begin{verbatim}
telnet freenet-in-[a,b or c].cwru.edu
[you'll get help texts and menus]
go chess
[menus again]
quit
\end{verbatim}



\section {Internet Chess Library (ICL)}

Chess programs, match reports and other chess related texts
are stored on \verb|valkyries.andrew.cmu.edu|.  Maybe you need
to give its address explicitely: \verb|128.2.232.4|

\begin{verbatim}
ftp valkyries.andrew.cmu.edu
    anonymous
    <your_address>
hash
cd pub/chess
dir -R
ascii
get chess-faq.921215
quit
\end{verbatim}

If you cannot ftp, you can get everything by email too.

\begin{verbatim}
mail ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
help
quit
.
\end{verbatim}

To get the smallest chess program for IBM PC, try:

\begin{verbatim}
mail ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
connect valkyries.andrew.cmu.edu
chdir pub/chess/DOS
ascii
get 0-README
get Selled.txt
dir Tools
get Tools/uudecode.bas
binary
uuencode
get chess88.exe
quit
.
\end{verbatim}



\section {Internet Chess Server (ICS)}

If you would like to play a nice online game against another
chess player from anywhere, or if you would like to observe
some nice games, then login on the {\em Internet Chess Server}:

\begin{verbatim}
telnet valkyries.andrew.cmu.edu 5000
    <any_nickname>
    
who
help
quit
\end{verbatim}

You can talk to other players there too.



\section {other services}
        
During important tournaments people would like to get the newest
results as soon as possible.  Therefore a fast method of providing
news has established in the Internet chess community.  People
write the newest results into their unix' \$HOME/.plan file
and everyone can read them using the finger command:

\begin{verbatim}
finger <user>@<host>
\end{verbatim}

If your system administrator has been too lazy to implement finger,
you can try:

\begin{verbatim}
telnet <host> 79
<user>
\end{verbatim}

Par example,
David Fry (\verb|fry@math.harvard.edu|) has covered Fischer-Spassky 1992
and Robert Ryan (\verb|rryan@panix.com|) has covered Timman-Short and
Polgar-Spassky 1993.

To get the feeling and further information, try
\verb|finger yanoff@129.89.7.4| or \verb|finger yanoff@csd4.csd.uwm.edu|.

\bigskip
\bigskip

So, what do I've forgotten now ?

I haven't mentioned alt.chess.bdg because that group hasn't found its
ultimate topic up to now. \\
And I haven't listed those chess BBS's within other nets (like FidoNet)
which offer services as games by email, because I'm far away from
having a complete list of them. \\
At last I haven't mentioned all those companies, chess institutions and
editorial boards which can be reached by email. \\
But that's all, I think.

\end{document}



Yes.  You've guessed it.  English is not my native language.
So if you don't understand something, then remember that I don't know
what I'm writing.  Give me an email and I've a chance to correct it.


Udo Sprute  (sprute@unibi.HRZ.Uni-Bielefeld.DE)