Visual Impairment

Snailbucket games are played on the Free Internet Chess Server FICS for which screen-readable interfaces have been developed.

First steps

Upon joining Snailbucket, you create a profile. A mouse is needed to drag and drop some of the elements. Feel free to ignore the respective settings in the profile creation dialogue. Create your SB account, then confirm this by clicking the confirmation link in the email sent to you, and let us know via separate email of the following settings:

1. Your country (disclosure voluntary).
2. Your preferred game controls (disclosure encouraged; help article here).
3. Your generally bad times (disclosure strongly encouraged; help article here); use FICS server time which is EDT/EST.

Please check both help articles to learn how these features work.

After we have received your email, we will adjust your settings manually for you.

Example

In your email, you might ask that we set your preferences e.g. in the following way:

"Hi!

I'm visually impaired. Please create my profile in the following way:
1. Country: Canada.
2. Preferred time controls, in this order: 90 30, 45 45, 50 10. No games with 120 30, or 75 0, please.
3. Generally bad times for me to start a game: 2100 until 0900 FICS server time."

Tournaments

We run several Slow and Rapid tournaments per year. On our Main page, there's a table with one tournament per column. Columns on the right side of the table store some finished tournaments. Columns on the left side are for ongoing and/or upcoming tournaments. In these columns, you'll find links to all pages you need to participate: sign up link, confirmed players, game forum, pairings, and standings. Not every Snailbucket feature is enabled for every tourney format. The Regulations page gives you detailed info what to expect from each tournament.

Help

Click Help on the top menu to access articles on Snailbucket features such as Game Control Preferences, Generally Bad Times, Schedule Ahead and others.

Please contact us, if anything is not working as expected, if an image lacks alternative text, or if you have suggestions how we can improve the website. Thank you!