Chess is a game which has been around for centuries in one form or another. It is considered to be both art and science. While it is a complex game, there are many who say the opening theory is reaching its zenith. One alternative is Fischer Random or 960chess. The rules of Fischer random allow for over 960 starting positions, 959 of which have yet to be explored in much detail. I think that one day in the far future this will replace regular chess as the preferred tournament style of chess.

Bobby Fischer was a profound player who, in my opinion, has yet to be fully fathomed with his deep ideas,strategies and tactics.

Here is a smokin chess Betty as seen in some blogs listed below: Smokin Chess Betty

Botchviniks quick commands

Botchviniks mouse buttons

This set of buttons uses the Babaschess bot to get information on interface usage on the server.

This set of buttons uses the Tschedulebot to get information about tournament times on the server.

This set of buttons uses the relay bot to assist in observing games being relayed to the server.

This set of buttons uses the Stat bot to assist in getting extra information about someones playing record(s).

This is the Keyboard Shortcuts that I use to assist with alot of different things on FICS. You will need to also download the left handed layout files I have listed below in order to use the ctrl+Alt+# shortcuts I have in the keyboard shortcuts file. But the keyboard shortcuts file will still download just fine for you if you choose not to download the layout files too. Just don't hit the ctrl+alt+# combination!

Download these files to your c:\documents and settings\botchvinik\my documents\babaschess\customCmd.
Of course, don't forget to replace "botchvinik" with your own user name. Many of the things in these files will be good examples of ways to make your own shortcuts etc to use on FICS!

Here is the piece set I currently use with Babaschess:



If you want to use this set download each of these bitmaps to a new directory called
c:\program files\babaschess\data\piece\botchvinik4. First make the directory. Next, right click on each piece above and "save image as" to the new directory.Below is a link to an executable zip file that will automatically put the chess pieces in the right spot for you:

Botchvinik4 Chess Pieces

This is the set of left handed window layouts that I have made for use with Babaschess:
1_lh
2_lh
3_lh
4_lh
5_lh
6_lh
7_lh
8_lh
These are just opposites(for the most part) of the default layouts provided when you downloaded Babaschess. If you want to use these layouts, download each of them to this directory called
c:\users\ botchvinik \My Documents\Babaschess\Layouts. BUT MAKE SURE TO CHANGE THE NAME IN THE DIRECTORY I LISTED FROM BOTCHVINIK TO YOUR NAME ON THE COMPUTER THAT YOU ARE USING!

This is the updated Channelbot plugin for FICS that someone has put together for Babaschess. It has the channel tabs in this version which makes channelbot so much easier to use. I don't remember who showed this to me or who the credit goes to. I will gladly give all the credit to the person(s) that wrote this plugin if someone can share that information with me!

Here are some themes that smalldreams from FICS has put together for Babaschess