FICS Commands and Variables

FICS' command line interface is fairly confusing, but below you'll find an outline of popular commands and variables.

As well as on-line, help can also be got from the command line. Use help COMMAND, or help v_VARIABLE for info about specific commands and variables.

Commands

• finger PLAYER - Get info about a specific person
• resume Issue challenges to users with whom you have a stored or interupted game
• abort Request game abort, with result set to "no result"
• tell CHANNEL MESSAGE - Send a message to chat channel
• tell PLAYER MESSAGE - Send a message to a specific person
• . MESSAGE - Send a message to the same person
• say MESSAGE - Send a message to opponent
• shout MESSAGE - Shout message to everyone
• flag Call time if your opponent has run out of time, and autoflag is disabled
• =channel Show channels player is listening to
• +channel NUMBER - Listen to channel NUMBER
• -channel NUMBER - Stop listening to channel
• news Show FICS news
• observe ID - Load a game into the main board in examine mode
• smoves ID - Load moves from a previously played game into Scid
• =notify - Display the player names of whom you are automatically notified.
• +notify PLAYER - Add player to your notify list
• -notify PLAYER - Remove player to your notify list
• examine GAME/PLAYER - Load a game into the main board in examine mode
• play GAMENUMBER - Respond to a game request from another player
• match PLAYER [rated|unrated] [TIME] [INC] - Issue game request to a specific person
• seek Seek a new game
• moretime NUMBER - Give you opponent NUMBER more seconds
• help TOPIC - Get help about some topic

Variables

To change settings use set VARIABLE VALUE. Often VALUE is a boolean 1 or 0.

• silence Turn off shouts, cshouts and channel tells while you play, examine or observe a game
• gin Notify when games begin or end
• autoflag Automatically flag opponent as losing when his time runs out
• noescape If noescape is set and opponent disconnects, he forfeits game immediately
• availinfo Show all available information
• 1 Footnote 1 to player's personal information
• 2 Footnote 2 to player's personal information ....

Bots

Bots are special FICS accounts that gather statistics, give lectures puzzles and more. A nice page can be found at www.antiseptic-freechess.blogspot.com.au

• tell babaschess usageinfo Scid vs. PC (Show Scid vs. PC usage stats)
• tell relay games (List upcoming games)
• tell chlog show shout -t 20 (Show the last 20 minutes of shouts)
• tell Sibylle how do i add time to my opponent(Ask program Sibylle a question)

Channels

Popular channels are:

• 1 Server Help and Assistance
• 2 General discussions about FICS
• 4 Guests
• 49 Mamer tournament channel
• 50 The Chat channel

Aliases

• f finger
• n next
• t tell
• o observe

More Information

Visit Freechess.org for info about Variables or Commands