Somewhat off topic - though an example of an interest group that would love a variety of narrowcasting possibilities. And also one of the best true web stories I have ever heard.
A Grand Master Plan / In black and white, online chess is now a
very open game
By Bob Suter. STAFF WRITER
GARY KASPAROV'S game has kept him atop the chess world for 13 years. But
recently, with a challenge looming from another highly regarded Russian,
he felt some serious practice was in order.
He turned to an avenue where he could work on his game anonymously, but
still face a level of competition that would help sharpen him up.
Kasparov logged on to the Internet.
There, on a Web site known as "The Internet Chess Club" at
www.chessclub.com, the world champion - playing under the user name
Dahlia - found an opponent who more than measured up. "This guy is no
ordinary grand master," Kasparov's friend, Shay Bushinsky recalls
Kasparov saying. "I feel very tough resistance here. This guy is
quick!"
That's when, Bushinksy said in an online remembrance, the two of
them suddenly realized that the username "PBS" probably stood for Peter
Borisovich Svidler, Kasparov's opponent to be.
Even with the formal match upcoming, the two couldn't tear away from
each other, Bushinsky recalled, with Kasparov winning three of four
matches.
The idea of two players in even the remotest of locations sharing a
game of chess is nothing new, as many ham radio enthusiasts can tell
you. But the introduction of the Internet has taken the concept to
unprecedented levels, allowing those who visit the site to monitor any
of literally thousands of chess matches that go on each day, or to
easily find an opponent at their own level.
Claiming by their tabulation as many as 50,000 individual chess
matches in play at the site at any one time, the Internet Chess Club is
"literally a gold mine" for the enthusiast, says chess expert, columnist
and TV commentator Shelby Lyman. "It's better than a gold mine."
"Chess is a worldwide activity - very, very literally," Lyman
added in a recent interview. "The Internet has sped up the flow of
information that a journalist needs severalfold. So, if there's a
tournament in Moscow or Spain, I don't have to make a call to the
tournament room and get the information I need faxed. I can go to the
Web site."
Referring to the site's database of previous matches (which includes
the "Dahlia" vs. "PBS" encounter), he continued, "Not only can you check
on things as they're happening, but you can find out about something
that happened a month or so ago. It means that I'm much more up-to-date
and topical . . . It makes my job as a journalist much easier."
Additionally, the anonymity factor in Internet chess - most people
play under their user names - has provoked a new twist on an old theme
that periodically resurfaces in chess circles, Lyman said.
"Oh, yeah," he notes, with a hint of resignation in his voice,
"there are always rumors that Bobby Fischer is playing online."
While Internet chess has been a win-win situation for chess writers
like Lyman, there have been some losers, too. Lyman said he recently
decided not to renew his subscription to a Swiss chess journal he's
subscribed to for a number of years that provided information he now
finds more expediently online.
Lyman's other regular stops online include the Web site of the
Spanish newspaper El Pais. Spaniards, according to Lyman, are serious
chess fans and the columns of their country's foremost chess journalist,
Leontxo Garcia, appear daily on the El Pais site. He's also a frequent
visitor to the rec.games.chess newsgroup where chess chat is the order
of the day.
Other online players aren't nearly as celebrated as Kasparov, but
they are just as enthusiastic.
Elias Lanides, 12, of Mineola, refers to the Internet Chess Club as
"sort of like a chat room for me."
Lanides' parents, Marguerita and John Lanides, are founders of Long
Island Chess Nuts, a group that for the past two years has been
providing a regular schedule of play and instruction for school-age
children who, like their son, have more-than-average talent for the
sport of kings.
They like the online experience and suggest other parents look into
it for their children, as well. Elias has been a member of the Internet
Chess Club for about a year, where he is known to his online opponents
only by his chess club ID.
"The most exciting part is you have no clue who the person is or how
old they are," reaffirmed his mother, Marguerita. "That's part of the
fascination. They can even be from another country. The anonymity makes
it really fascinating."
As Elias describes it, the information exchanged by players meeting
online is little more than that necessary to initiate play: "You ask
people what kind of game they want to play, how many minutes they want
to play and whether they want to play white or black. You also ask their
rating."
The ratings ICC players receive when they first become members are
the key to assuring that play is usually competitive. Additionally,
highly rated players such as grand masters or international masters have
a GM or IM designation attached to their online handles. For Elias, the
ratings mean he can find a level of play that previously might have
required traveling to one of Manhattan's fabled chess clubs.
Here ICC offers another major advantage: "I can play at home and I
can play almost anytime I want," said Elias, who plays online at least
twice a week.
Perhaps hoping to avoid the suggestion that he's a chess nerd, Elias
is quick to point out he's also a regular visitor to another Web site,
Battle.net (www.battle.net), where he plays video games with friends.
Gaming on the Web is as old as the Web itself, with game sites being
as ubiquitous as chat rooms. They range from the online versions of
traditional games - such as backgammon, checkers, mahjong and various
card games that can be found at such sites as Yahoo!Games
(games.yahoo.com) and The Big Network (www.bignetwork.com) - to
plug-in intensive, shoot-'em-up video game sites such as Heat
(www.heat.net) and Pop Rocket (www.poprocket.com). There are also sites
created by individuals with a passion for a particular game and a desire
to share it with others such as Grayson's Place
(web2.airmail.net/dmills1) and Tim & Glo's Scrabble Parlor
(www.concentric.net/Timglo).
The shared gaming experience is actually not farremoved from the
genesis of the ICC, according to the site's founder, Daniel Sleator, 44,
a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. "It goes
way back to 1989 when a grad student at Carnegie-Mellon wrote a program
called Tinymud," he explained.
Mud, Sleator explained, is an acronym for multi-user dungeon. "This
was a whole genre of electronic games - a very popular, huge thing."
These muds were text-based, role-playing games. "In a mud you can
talk to other people and interact with them. The beauty of Tinymud is
you can add more rooms."
Tinymud eventually evolved into a chess server, though one with some
serious quirks, according to Sleator.
"There were lots of problems," he explained. "Like, for instance,
there was no way to declare a draw. So you'd be faced with a situation
with two kings running around the board and no other pieces left with
the players just trying to run out the clock."
Not a serious chess player himself, Sleator, nonetheless, saw the
potential for a more workable format and undertook to correct some of
the chess server's inherent problems and those imposed by the vagaries
of network connections.
"Compensation for lag time, for instance," he cited as one problem,
"so if you have a delay in the network, time doesn't get unfairly taken
off your clock."
The Internet Chess Club was born and for a few years was available
free to any chess player with Net access. Sleator continued improving
the site, but eventually realized that he could no longer justify his
expenditure of time and resources without some degree of compensation.
"In '95," he said, "I, along with three other people, decided to
form a company and make this a service. On March 1, 1995, we went
commercial requiring [an annual $49] membership."
"This was a shock," he said, describing the initial reaction of some
users. "The Internet then was largely populated by people who thought
you never had to buy anything on the Internet.
"We had a grandfather clause, though, so anyone who already had an
account started out with a six-month free membership. People gradually
began to realize that what they were getting was worth the money in
terms of special events, network connectivity and features such as a
database of grandmaster matches."
The site even has a distinction unusual in cyberspace: a
customerservice telephone number where people can speak with a real live
human for help getting started.
Despite the ICC site's overwhelming dominance of the medium of
online chess as demonstrated by its large numbers of regular users,
Sleator doesn't see himself joining the ranks of wealthy Web Wunderkinds
anytime soon. "We're making a profit," he says, "but nobody's getting
rich - unlike other Internet companies, which are not making money and
their founders are all rich."
However, some grand masters have found in ICC a convenient way to
supplement their incomes. Suggesting ICC is still not all that far
removed from its origins as a multi-user dungeon for fantasy games,
Sleator described what is perhaps the site's most interesting feature.
"We have our own system of currency called chekels," which can be
purchased with a credit card and spent for different services.
For instance, he said, "Titled players will give you a lesson
online. Some grand masters will play a game with you for a couple of
bucks followed by an analysis."
Chekels can also be used to purchase access to special online
events, much like the pay-per-view feature cable television employs for
boxing matches - a feature very much appreciated by chroniclers of the
chess world such as columnist Lyman.
Lyman was recently able to watch games in a blitz match between
Kasparov and the world's third-ranked player, Vladimir Kramnik, staged
at the Kosmos Hotel in Moscow without having to leave the comfort of his
rural Pennsylvania home.
"It was really wonderful, and I could just follow it on my screen,"
Lyman said. "There was a chat box and I could follow comments from grand
masters from all over the world."
Copyright 1998, Newsday Inc. |
