Start a game

Sending a challenge to all players

The easiest way to start a game is by sending a challenge to all players. To do that click on Seek a game button or select from the menu bar Game and Seek a game.
You can also type the seek command manually in the text window, using the seek command.

Seek a game window will let you set some parameters before sending the challenge:

- 'opponent's rating' If you set a rating range make sure that your own rating is between minimum and maximum. The average rating on ISC is around 900. Expert players have over 1800. If you just started the system will set a range for you by default.
- the next 2 boxes let you avoid players with a provisional rating and players who have not signed the fairplay agreement.
- 'initial time' is the time you have when the game starts.
- 'increment' is the time in minutes added after each play. If you don't want to use increment let it 0.
- 'challenge' controls what happens when you challenge a play and you are wrong. If challenge is SINGLE there is no penalty. If challenge is DOUBLE you will pass that turn and your opponent plays again.
-'rated' if the rated box is unchecked the game will not count in your stats and your rating will not change if you win or lose.

Once you send the challenge you will see the number of players who received your challenge. When another player accepts your seek the game will automatically start.

Accepting a challenge

To see all the challenges available at any given time, go to Seek Graph. Each of the dots on the graph represents a pending request for a game. Clicking on a dot will accept that particular game request. Moving your mouse over a dot will display the information about that seek on the bottom of the seek graph:
- player's rating
- player's handle
- dictionary
- initial time, increment time (added after each play)
- challenge rule (single or double)
- noescape if noescape is ON.

Faster games are listed to the left, slower ones to the right. The vertical lines mark faster games (less than 10 mintes), normal games, and slow games (more than 35 minutes). The highest rated players are listed on the top, lower rated ones near the bottom.

A hollow circle represents a request for an unrated game. A square dot represents a request sent by a computer player.

Sending a challenge to a specific player

Instead of sending a general game request to all players, you can challenge a specific player using the match command. To match someone left click on a name and select Match from the menu or select from the menu bar Game and Match.

The match window let you fill out the form with the desired opponent's name and game parameters.
To get a list of players who are not playing click on a empty space in the main console window and select Who from the menu.

To challenge someone left click on a name and select Match option from the menu.

Playing a game with a computer player

To see what computers are available type who C. Computers on ISC have a C label after their names. If they don't have a (*) you can start a game by clicking on their name and selecting Match from the menu. The game will start immediately with the time controls and the dictionary that you proposed.

You can also start a game by accepting their seek requests. Every time a computer is free sends a seek request. To see all seek requests go to Seek Graph and look for square dots. You can start a game by clicking on the dot. If you accept their seek request the game will have the time controls and dictionary proposed by computer.