Useful ICC Commands

Here are just a few basic commands that will help you navigate around the Internet Chess Club. From my experience, many people are unfamiliar with the wide range of options available on ICC and thus are really missing out on a lot! There may be alternative ways to execute some of these commands using the various menus in the BlitzIn and Dasher interfaces. If the following commands are completely new to you, then I also recommend checking out my ICC tutorial.

To execute a command, you should type at the command prompt at the bottom of a console. In the examples, you may always replace the name fpawn by another username.

match fpawn 10 2 -:- challenge me to game with 10 minutes plus 2 sec/move increment
seek 10 2 1500-2000 -:- seek a 10 2 game within rating range 1500-2000
type: 15 or click on button 15 at top of Dasher -:- automatically get a 15-minute game
type: 5 or click on button 5 -:- automatically get a 5-minute game (highly recommended)
type: 1 or click on button 1 -:- automatically get a 1-minute game (very addictive)
set noescape 1 -:- disconnection = forfeit, no matter what the reason
set notakeback 1 -:- do not allow takeback requests

tell fpawn Hello! -:- you tell hello to me
say good game -:- say is like tell, but to your current or most recent opponent
F9 key -:- press it once to continue talking to someone or more often for multiple people
message -:- when you log in, type this to see if you got any messages
message fpawn Where are you? -:- sends a message to me when I am offline
tell 1 How do I play a game? -:- sends your question to channel 1 (help channel)
g-join NorthCA -:- request to join Northern California channel
tell 312 howdy! -:- talk to channel 312, which is the NorthCA group

+notify fpawn -:- add me to your list of friends
+censor fpawn -:- block all communication from me (e.g. if someone is rude to you)
+noplay fpawn -:- block me from challenging you
-notify, -censor, -noplay -:- remove username from that list

set busy 2 -:- only people on your notify list can talk to you (use 0 to reset)
away not available -:- anyone who tries to talk to you sees "fpawn is not available"
set quietplay 2 -:- block almost all communication during games (use 0 to reset)
set kibitz 2 -:- block kibitzes from all but titled players, e.g. GM or IM (use 1 to reset)

history -:- show your most recent 20 games on ICC (right click on game to examine)
examine -:- opens a chess board for you to examine moves on
mex fpawn -:- allow me to analyze with you (assuming I am watching your game)
observe fpawn -:- watch the board I am currently playing or examining on
follow fpawn -:- keep watching my board continuously
follow -:- with no name afterwards, this stops following me
setwhitename Kasparov -:- set white player name when examining a game
setblackname Fischer -:- set black player name when examining a game
liblist -:- show games contained in your personal library (right click on game to examine)
libkeep -:- save an examined game to the end of your personal library
libkeepexam Kasparov Fischer + %54 -:- save game Kasparov vs Fischer that was won to white to library spot 54 (replace "+" with "=" for draw and "-" if black won)
pgn fpawn -:- shows PGN notation for my game (use Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to copy into Fritz)
fen fpawn -:- shows FEN code for current position (also can copy directly into Fritz)

play TrainingBot -:- solve tactics and checkmate puzzles (ranked from 1 to 8 stars)
say hint, say give, say skip -:- ask TrainingBot for a hint, the solution or skip puzzle
tell TrainingBot difficulty 3 -:- set puzzles to level 3 or harder
tell TrainingBot progress -:- shows how many puzzles you have solved
play ProblemBot -:- same as TrainingBot, but only compositions (harder problems)