New online Chess Club

[andrew martin]

I'm sure I could put together an appropriate ' ECF ' rap. Whether I would be allowed to stay in my post afterwards is another matter.

[Laurie Roberts]

ICC is obviously losing a lot of trade to PlayChess, which is a much better site all round. The ICC interface is ugly,cheap and outdated and the amount of abuse which is tolerated and obvious cheating makes it unattractive to play there. The rating system is also ludicrous, as it is on PlayChess. Rampant inflation rules. It's amazing how many chessplayers get a kick out of seeing big numbers by their name. What an ego trip. However, I would like to praise the Chessbase site; of course I work with them, but I think its certainly the best site for chess around. Of course you have to pay.

Naturally,there is nothing wrong with starting a new venture like the ECF club and we are working to provide you with an excellent service. The look of the site is already superior to any chess site I know and the facilities will only improve. We'll have online lectures ,shows and lessons before very long from world-class players, as well as terrific research facilities. There may be a charge for this,a preminm membership, as the last post suggests, but the basic facilities as they are now,free at the point of delivery , will remain unchanged . One can hardly expect top Grandmasters to work for nothing or even IM's; that is ridiculous and anyone who questions this obviously doesn't earn a living from chess.

Anyway thanks to everyone for signing up. Keep going!

Andrew

Actually I find the Playchess site looks very nice but has about 1/10th of the functionality of ICC. I prefer the ICC interface. Each to their own I suppose. I think the market for chess servers is essentially an oligopoly as a server needs critical mass to be successful. I'm not sure there's room in the market for another. But it must be funded somehow so I assume someone somewhere mmust be willing to pay for it. I just hope it's not paid for through ECF membership fees since those should be spent on chess development.

[Ian Lamb]

icc has people checking if people are using computers so that comment not valid. Icc is about 10 times better than playchess.com. the interface is better the gms are better who do the videos on icc Maculey piterson is the best for covrage from eventsaround the globe. Playchess.com does not touch icc in any way what so ever.the chess fm is better than the coverage on play chess.

[Peter Lalic]

Aha - my time to jump in with an advertisement!
Did I hear (search for ) "chess lectures"?
Might I suggest my YouTube channel?
I think my account's signature has the link... enjoy!

[Ben Purton]

ICC is obviously losing a lot of trade to PlayChess, which is a much better site all round. The ICC interface is ugly,cheap and outdated and the amount of abuse which is tolerated and obvious cheating makes it unattractive to play there. The rating system is also ludicrous, as it is on PlayChess. Rampant inflation rules. It's amazing how many chessplayers get a kick out of seeing big numbers by their name. What an ego trip. However, I would like to praise the Chessbase site; of course I work with them, but I think its certainly the best site for chess around. Of course you have to pay.

ICC has more than one interface. I think the above statement is a bit poor. The levels of tournaments on ICC are far greater than playchess. In fact your cheating stuff is rubbish also, the fact on playchess you can play for real money , surely makes cheating more viable there rather than ICC? To me, Playchess is the cheaters site. ICC banned Kosteniuk famously in Dos H for running some engine whilst playing.