Can You Hear Me Now?
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Can You Hear Me Now, ICC?

Ahead of this Thursday's launch of the Verizon iPhone 4 - which will go on sale at Apple's retail stores, Best Buy stores and more than 2,000 Verizon stores across the U.S. - thousands of chess fans will no doubt be eager to hunt down the best chess app out there. We'll save you the time: look no further than "Chess at ICC" (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chess-at-icc/id380526850?mt=8).

And in time for the Verizon launch, we've been hard at work making our "Chess at ICC" app even better, using direct member feedback to add a slew of new features and required bug fixes in the latest update!

What's New in this version:

- Seek a game with upper-lower rating limits, to control who can accept your match offer.

- Ability to observe, follow and chat with any user on the club.

- New chat system. Chat in the most popular chat rooms and with any user on the club. Maintain a chat history.

- "Observe Games" system redesigned. Now it's possible to observe ALL popular categories and save your favorite category for easy access.

- Game chat redesigned so you can chat and watch the game at the same time.

- Ability to review previous moves while observing a game.

- Ability to see the entire move list and go to any move during any games.

- Timestamp toggle. Users can now turn off timestamp to reduce bandwidth, which is useful when the signal is weak.

- Stability fixes for reported crashes.

New on Chess.FM

John Watson
NEW SHOW

In a new series on Tuesdays for Chess.FM, IM John L. Watson will depart from his interview show Chess Talk to develop a new strategy-based show called "Beyond the Opening."

In the show, John Watson will be looking at middlegame positions that arise after the openings and how we can best strategize for the complexities of the positions thereafter, ranging from pawn chains to isolated pawns, and from active piece play to the positional sacrifice to name just but a few of the motifs he'll be covering - any one of which will help chess players to improve their understanding of the game!

IM John Watson is recognized as one of the best chess trainers in the United States and also one of its most noted authors on the game. He has over 21 books to his credit; ranging from his early, ground breaking four-volume series on the English Opening to his more recent, critically acclaimed and multi-award winning Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy.

Chess Talk on Chess.FM will not be lost however, and will continue on the first Tuesday of every month from now, with Beyond the Opening filling in on each of the other Tuesdays of the month. And as a special treat this week for non-members, we're making the debut edition of Beyond the Opening free as a sampler of what's certain to be another great edition to the Chess.FM stable of regular weekly shows. So make sure you boost your rating by joining ICC now to continue watching this, and many more hit Chess.FM shows.

Date	Host	Show	FREE
Feb 08	John Watson	Pawn Chains #1

Here Comes the JudgeBot!

It is a common gripe here on ICC: members disconnecting in lost positions and refuse to resume the game, and then you have to wait weeks to be awarded what was a sure-fire win.

Over the years, many members have complained about this particular unsportsmanlike tactic of "pulling the plug" and taking all the fun out of playing on ICC - but now, enforcing the law comes JudgeBot, a new computer program that monitors every game where your opponent disconnects.

If JudgeBot determines that you are clearly winning, it will award the win to you in about 30 or 40 seconds! You will receive an ICC message and the game will appear as a win in your history. There is no need to request the win or search for days for your opponent to resume!

ICC would also like to listen to member feedback on their experience of using JudgeBot - we want you to "message JudgeBot <text>" with praise, complaints, and questions about this new system!

Click here for more details on JudgeBot.

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ICC has also made its Newsletter service available now on an RSS feed for you to get all the latest news on ICC online activities - get it now to keep in touch with ICC!

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