CoffeeHouse: The Java Interface

By Aaron Wohl and Andrew Gove, Copyright (C) 1996-2006 Internet Chess Club, Inc.

CoffeeHouse is one of several graphical interfaces that can be used to access the ICC. If you have a suitable browser, CoffeeHouse is very easy to use and requires no installation. If CoffeeHouse does not work for you, or if you want to try a more sophisticated interface, they're available for download on our Interface page.

If after waiting a reasonable amount of time on this page (under 1 minute at 28.8 kbs), you do not see a rectangular button entitled "Open Connection" at the bottom of this page, then you are not running a Java enabled browser and you cannot use CoffeeHouse.

If the main ICC server is down, try CoffeeHouse on Queen.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Telling your browser to leave this page will close all CoffeeHouse windows. Due to bugs in some standard browsers, after running CoffeeHouse the browser may fail to reduce its memory consumption. If this happens, you may have to close your browser to recover.

This interface is still under development. It's been tested on many platforms, and it works on most of them. It's most likely to work on Netscape 3 (or newer) and Internet Explorer 3 (or newer). A version history and bug list is being maintained. If you notice something strange that's not on this list, report it to us. Suggestions are always welcome.

Using the CoffeeHouse Interface.

These instructions just give the minimum information about how to login, observe and play games, and chat with people. More detailed instructions, which describe the many other features of the ICC appear elsewhere.

Here's a table of contents for the rest of this note:

1. Logging onto the ICC
2. Observing a game
3. Starting a game
4. Playing a game
5. Ending a game
6. Chatting

1. Logging onto the ICC

First click the "Open Connection" button above. This will create a window entitled "Internet Chess Club", which will be called the "text" window in these instructions. At the bottom of this window is a place for you to type commands into the ICC. No matter what you're doing in CoffeeHouse your keys will go into that input window. [Exception: on some platforms, you must explicitly click on the input window for the keys to go there.]

The first thing to do with the input window is to login to ICC. If you have a registered account, then enter the account name followed by a blank followed by your password. If you do not have a registered account, and wish to login as an unregistered player, then type "g" then hit the "enter" (or "return") key, read the information, then hit it again.

Once you've successfully logged in, you should see some information about upcoming events, and perhaps some recent news items. (Ignore the inscrutable things like "style set to 13".)

2. Observing a game

Select the "Games in Progress" option of the "Game" menu. This puts up a new window entitled "Game List". Each line of this window is one of the ongoing games. The important parameters are the time control, and whether or not the game is rated. A time control consists of two numbers: an initial time in minutes, and an increment in seconds. The increment is how many seconds will be added to my clock whenever I make a move.

To observe a game, simply click on the game, then hit the "Observe" button. A resizable "game" window should appear showing the current position of the game. You can observe several games at once. Each one has its own game window.

While observing you'll see the kibitzes and whispers about the ongoing game in the text window. You can kibitz or whisper yourself with a command like: "whisp good move". Whispering goes to all observers, and kibitzing goes to all the observers PLUS the players.

Within the game window, several self-explanatory options are available under the "Game" menu. (Some of which only work when you're playing a game). When the game ends, the board will change from blue to gray. To stop observing a game, simply use the "close" option of the "file" menu.

3. Starting a Game

Choosing the "Find an opponent" option of the "Play" menu opens up the "Seek Graph" window. Here you'll see advertisements from other players looking for an opponent, each represented by a dot in the graph. You can examine an ad by putting your mouse over a dot. Each ad specifies a time control, and several other variables. To accept one of the ads, simply click on it. You'll be notified if this starts a game.

To place your own ad, choose your favorite time control from the Seek menu. Remember that you must be registered to play rated games.

The time control of a game consists of two numbers, such as "2 12". This means that the initial time on both players clocks is 2 minutes, and an additional 12 seconds is granted to a player who just moved.

4. Playing a Game

Simply use your mouse to move your pieces. You castle by moving your king to its destination square. The "Game" menu of the game window offers several other self-explanatory options available to you while playing.

5. Ending a Game

You can end a game by making a game-ending move on the board (such as checkmate) or you can resign, abort, or adjourn using the "Game" menu. These choices simply send a message to your opponent who has the option of complying or ignoring your request.

To claim a win when your opponent has run out of time, use the "flag" option of the "Game" menu.

6. Chatting

You can identify people talking in a given channel by the channel number that appears in parentheses after their name, as in "JDoss(9): I like food", which is a message JDoss sent to channel 9. To send a note to a channel use the tell command, as in "tell 9 I like dogfood". If you're not in channel 9 already, this puts you in it. You can join a channel directly with "+ch 9".

Of course you can also talk to anybody using tell, as in "tell john hi". "Say" is a special command for talking to your opponent. When a game ends, people often do "say Thanks for the game".