For posting: - invitations to games (you can also use the New Game menu or go straight to the Chess Invitation) - information about upcoming tournaments - discussion of games (please limit this to completed games or discussion on how a game has arrived at a certain position ... speculation on who has an advantage or the benefits of potential moves is not permitted) - links to interesting related sites (non-promotional)
Google "Chess conversion algebraic descriptive" You can find conversion programs you can use in case you want to read chess literature written in a format you don't like.
ketchuplover: There's still the IECC, https://www.chess-iecc.com/ I have played there for 5-6 years during the 90s, then stopped when IYT appeared, which was much more convenient.
435152: There was a guy here 2-3 years ago claiming to be Bobby Fischer. He didn't finish a sufficient number of games for us to judge one way or another, but he sure had a character nasty enough to fit the role... he got booted off the site for persistent rude behaviour. he played only Fisher random and Embassy - fitting the role too. Now, of course, we'll never know.
Tuesday: That's as good a method as any, but watch it! You might find that you like the game, and then you're hooked for life. No patch or chessoholics anonymous will save you. Be warned!
even if it were not the rule, to force the program to have and calculate all the draw rules, especially the one about repetition of position 3 times, would be far too heavy on the system resources. better to resolve such positions manually by a referee.
and why couldn't there be a dark chess program? the difference is only in the evaluation which is based on probabilities rather than real positions. I don't know if anyone actually wrote one, but the project sounds interresting. I'll try to do it myself, the next time I'm young again...
surprisingly enough there seems to be no rule here against outside help in any form. unlike other sites, Fencer seems to adopt the sensible attitude that since you can't check or enforce it, there's no point in having a rule against it.
there are several good players here that declare openly that they are in "cyborg" mode (that is, basically, human aided by program).
you'll find that correspondence chess clubs have varying attitudes towars computer aided play. one club I belong to, IECC, has adopted the rule that calculating moves is forbidden, but database search is equivalent to book search, and therefore allowed. as for me, I've adopted the same principle.
as for me, I'm still active in the IECC, which is an email chess organisation, but have slipped to only 1-2 games since IYT, and then GT and BK became active. it's simply too comfortable to play on a server.