Playchess vs. ICC
I finally managed to connect to Playchess. I ran IUpdater.exe, which after a moment of thought, came to a screeching halt with an error message complaining about not finding a certain file. Which was, by no means my fault. All I did was download the free client and install it. Afterwards however, strangely enough, the client started to run just fine...no error messages this time. Talk about Artificial Intelligence...

Well, I've grown to become accustomed not to ask questions when something works, so I just went on an played a couple of games on Playchess. Hands down, that's the best chess server in existence today. Too bad it doesn't have an option to log my games in PGN format, it will only save them in Chessbase's own format. I've downloaded a converter, though, have to try it to see whether it works.
I was also busy yesterday trying to get the most out of my free 7-day trial of ICC, playing as many games as possible. At first, it seemed to me that it's much easier to get a high rating there, than it was on FICS, since in a few games, I was already approaching 1500. Never got there, though...before I knew it, it was 2 AM, and I was slowly falling asleep at the wheel, the effect being a long string of losses bringing my rating to just below 1400.

After looking around a bit, it seems that the best option is to buy Fritz. Then I'll have one year of Playchess for 50 euros, and after the year is over, I can still keep the CD :) Whereas, on ICC, I'd have to pay 49 dollars, and stay with nothing after a year...well, ok, I can still keep my statistics if I'm diligent enough to keep the logs.


Seems that I'm not alone with this opinion. Look what I've found in GM Nigel Short's finger notes on ICC:

7: Try the chessbase.com server. It is better than this nannying club.
8: There is audio as well!
- posted by Időbeosztás-guru @ 1:32 PM