i have re-connected with the chess site FICS where my nickname is Texian ..  FICS (Free Internet Chess Server) is a volunteer-run Internet chess server started in 1995 when the first chess server, ICS, began charging subscription fees ..  there are currently approximately 300,000 registered accounts

resh also joined FICS recently and we played three games - well, resh played and i enjoyed the thrashing

for about a month prior to Hurricane Ike in August 2008, i had shifted almost 100% of my on-line activity to FICS and other chess related sites .. for me, i discovered that i could not intensely study chess, be involved in FICS, other chess sites, and play backgammon at FIBS at the same time

Hurricane Ike ended my intense chess training .. it was over a month before we had phone service and i was back on-line .. once we got electrical power again after about 10 days, i spent a lot of time playing GNUbg .. that brought me back to playing and enjoying backgammon and recognizing why i stopped playing and studying chess way back in the late 1970's

it was not until last Friday after F3's that i re-connected to FICS .. so, why am i interested in chess again?

the answer is simple: i have recently begun our first postal chess match using snail mail and good old fashioned postcards with my 13 year old grandson .. so, i am going to be playing chess at FICS with some regularity as i try once again to recondition my defunct chess brain and perhaps use chess as an avenue for relationship(s) with my grandchildren, the magnificent 7

while backgammon is by far my favorite game .. the FICS server and chess in general are much better suited for introducing kids to traditional gaming .. while i am no prude, i really don't think i am ready to introduce my grandson to shouts at FIBS .. hell, i might even have problems introducing his mother, a Ph.D. psycologist, to FIBS shouts although it might provide her with prospective clients and invaluable research opportunities - not to mention eveidence for having me commited  

so, while i have no plans on abandoning FIBS for FICS, i will be spending my spare time at both .. thus, reducing the time i am around FIBS for a while .. time will tell how much .. i just hope another hurricane is not going to knock me off-line again this summer .. we are still recovering from Hurricane Ike around here

thanks for the suggestion, stog .. while my first impression of VIP Chess was nothing to write home about, the 'play when u want' format we are using for our second game is way cool .. since no one is at home anymore, i'll write a favorable review here

coupled with all the other features i am gradually discovering, i can see quite a few chess games being played right here at FIBSboard .. having now played with you and resh, i can tell you it is far superior to playing with strangers at FICS .. while the folks at FICS are very nice people, they are not  nearly as social as our little thundering herd here in FIBSland .. now we need just a few more games to have a FIBS based pentatholon of gaming

anyway, thanks again  

for anyone interested, see sixty_something Vs. stog for a glimpse of our match which is being played in correspondense style, i.e. whenever we have a moment to make a move

game chat can now only be written and seen by the players involved
for screenshots see http://www.fibsboard.com/chess-62/chess-for-vip%27s-and-moderators/

as long as players realised that chat was public - we could set it so that all could chat and view chat, or that just players could chat and everyone view chat...

great minds think alike, stoggie .. i just sent you a pint even before seeing your cartoon 

great cartoon, inclusive the monster of Stoch Ness