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Freechess.org (also known as Free Internet Chess Server – FICS) was the first place, where I started to play chess online seriously. Before that time I played on some servers, but Freechess.org gave me the real feeling of educated chess community for the very first time.

At these days FICS has more than 300000 registered users and this huge number makes it one of the largest internet chess servers where you can play chess over the internet for free.

Functions on FICS are quite expected from chess server. You can play single games with any time limit, you can play tournament (I remember one where I even took some prize), you can attend chess lessons or chat with other users. Of course, games could be rated or unrated – depending on your choice during setup the game.

There is also a choice of different chess rules and you can play games in suicide chess, bughouse etc.

To be able to play chess on FICS you need a client. Yes, playing through browser is not possible. Or do you know about any plugin to Firefox for example? I am using WinBoard client. The control of your activities on FICS through WinBoard is a bit user unfriendly – it is in “unix mode”, so you have to write your commands on classic command line. Maybe there are better clients for FICS from this perspective, but you know – old habit is old habit.

When I have time, I usually try to participate in blitz tournaments (5 minutes per game) on Saturday and Monday. My nick is nyxcia and I would be happy to meet you on FICS.