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== History ==
[[File:FICS telnet login.png|thumb|FICS login screen]]▼
=== Internet Chess Server ===
In January 1992, Michael Moore of the [[University of Utah]] and Richard Nash started the first online service facilitating live chess games, the [[Internet Chess Server|American Internet Chess Server]] (commonly known as the Internet Chess Server or ICS). The initial release, accessible via [[telnet]], was hosted at the [[University of Utah]], but over its first two years it moved repeatedly across American universities, with additional servers opening and connecting to each other through Nash's Internet Ratings Server.<ref name="Petroff-2009">{{Cite web |last=Petroff |first=Chris |date=5 March 2009 |title=History of the Internet Chess Server – Part I |url=http://members.cox.net/cpetroff/FICS/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100313150500/http://members.cox.net/cpetroff/FICS/ |archive-date=13 March 2010 |access-date=10 May 2010}}</ref><ref name="fics10year"/><ref name="Doggers-2024">{{Cite book |last=Doggers |first=Peter |title=The Chess Revolution: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age |publisher=Puzzlewright |year=2024 |isbn=9781454959243}}</ref> The software was coded, supported, and operated by volunteers. [[Daniel Sleator]], professor of computer science at [[Carnegie Mellon University]], took over operation in July 1992 and improved the code. One of his primary contributions was a mechanism to adjust clock times for the effects of internet lag. He announced plans to commercialize the service, copyrighted the code in 1994, and rebranded it as the [[Internet Chess Club]] (ICC) in 1995, charging membership fees.<ref name="Stone-2006">{{Cite web|url=http://www.edcollins.com/chess/fics-icc.htm |title=Pawns Call King a Rook |first=Brad |last=Stone |access-date=10 May 2010 |date=11 May 2006 }}</ref><ref name="The Chicago Chess Player-1995">{{Cite web |date=November 1995 |title=Trapped in the (Inter) Net |url=https://www.chicagochessleague.org/cicl/bulls/history/Yr1995_96/Nov1995.pdf |website=The Chicago Chess Player}}</ref>
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=== Development of a free alternative ===
▲[[File:FICS telnet login.png|thumb|FICS login screen]]
Several former ICS programmers saw the move as exploiting their work and, on the day its rebranding was announced, they created a mailing list focused on developing an alternative. Work had been in progress, using Nash's original code, since Sleator initially revealed his commercialization plans.<ref name="Petroff-2009" /><ref name="The Chicago Chess Player-1995" /> Several developers contributed, led by Nash, Henrik Gram, David Flynn, and Chris Petroff. The effort led to servers in several places around the world and in the United States, with the latter consolidating to form the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS), launched on 5 March 1995.<ref name="Petroff-2009" /><ref name="The Chicago Chess Player-1995" /><ref name="fics10year">{{Cite web|url=http://www.freechess.org/Events/Anniversary/2005/index.html |title=FICS 10th Anniversary Celebrations |access-date=10 May 2010}}</ref> Its tagline is "we do it for the game--not the money".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Slater |first=Derek |date=1 September 1999 |title=Knight Moves |work=CIO|pages=20}}</ref>
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