Playing chess on the Internet has been around for a while by now and as with everything on the Internet, things are ephemeral. Most of the players in the early days of the ICS have started or already drifted away from online chess. These players usually began playing around 1996, and the ICS Interviews project started in 2011, which is fifteen years later. A lot happens in fifteen years. Many players are literally unreachable, some have died, some quit completely, and the memories of those players wanes with every moment that passes. Hopefully, we’ll be able to document some memorable voices from internet chess before that period of time fades completely.
While every interview is a part of the ICS Interviews series, most people are further subdivided into another category. Usually those categories will be related to chess variants, such as the Wild 5, Bughouse, and Atomic series. There also may be other categories selected in time. But each series is a part of the larger series – the subsections are merely special areas of interest for players specifically interested in those specific variants.
I’ve made contact with as many players as possible. I want to get a wide range of experiences, variants, and timelengths represented throughout the ICS Interviews project. Some players I’m unable to contact or find, but if you want to be interviewed and think you’d be a good fit in the project, please drop me an email – the link is at the bottom of the screen. There are several players I would love to interview but they haven’t logged onto their specific ICS handle in several years in most cases. I no longer have the ability to log in at an ICS and leave messages (mainly because so many people have left or no longer log in, or depressingly so – some server no longer exist), so email or another contact method is required. On the flip side, if you know someone else who may be a great fit within this project, ask them to contact me.
My wishlist for interviews
- Seipman (FICS)
- Flesh (FICS)
- MoltenThinker (ICC) – Completed March 2019!
- Chess-WhoCares (ICC)
- MarcoBR (FICS)
- Bugholio (FICS)
- grasgraaier (FICS)
- BoondockSaint (USCL) / Edgecrusher (FICS)
- TheChessKid (ICC)
- TOPCAT (FICS)
- DragonSlayr (chess.net/FICS)
