1) The first thing that most of us did when joining the icc is explore the icc's help files. But the longer the help file the more you had to type more to keep scrolling through it which can be a bit of a hassle. But there is a way around that. On icc each member has his own variables which are saved by the server. One of them is the height variable which tells the server how many lines of a help file you will see before typing more again. The default is 24 lines but you can change that value with the set command. Example set height 120 will allow you to see 120 lines. As the height variable is saved you only need to do this once.
Since this page has been written icc's webhelp variable allows you to view icc web pages on the web. Its still aplicable if you type set webhelp 0 to view them in the console.
2) Another feature is gnotification which, is similar to notification. With gnotify you are informed when your favorite player starts a game. To start this, if your favorite player was Leon you would type +gnotify leon. This is private and no one will know whom you have gnotified. And you can also notify a group, such as grandmasters. Type +gnot &gm to do this. There is also &im &wgm. A typical gnotification looks like: Game notification: Hypercube (2100) vs. anat (2153) rated 1-minute 1 0. Gnotify has some benefits that other methods of learning about games don't have. Unlike the follow * command you get to see complete games. When a gnotify comes up of a game that interests you, you observe the game then from the start. Typically if you type fast only 2 moves may have gone by before your in there. Also you dont have to follow anyone. If anat plays a game you can watch it. After the game you'll get notified if they start another game and if not you can take the next game that interests you.
Gnotifications have been improved with clickable links now.
3) Often you are sitting in front of the icc and you want to see one of some great players games. Maybe you are just in the mood for a Capablanca game. Well you could load up chessbase. But then you have to open that 700,000 game database and do some search then sort out some game out of your 2,000 game search list which can be a bit of work. You also might decide to look at a games in one of the tournament libraries that the icc has listed in 'help cool' This is fun to do if you are actually following the tournament. But if you are just looking for a great game not a round 5 draw you still have more to do. First you have to find a tournament that player played in. Then the player you are looking for might have played 9 rounds but only won 1-2 games. Less well known is that the icc has player libraries of many famous players and each library contains usually 100 games by that player. Many players have more than one library such as GKasparov1 through Gkasparov5 libraries with 500 games combined. All of these libraries are listed in 'help hist-libs' . After awhile you learn the names of your favorite players libraries. Then you type liblist libraryname to see the game list. Right click on a game and select examine to get started looking at one of them. For those who dont have blitzin 2 or anyone who just likes typing type something like examine GKasparov1 %50 to call up that game and hit enter to move forward.
4) Finaly many people will creat formulas on the icc. 'help formula' for the technical details on how to do this. Formulas decline challenges for you if its not the type of game that you say you want to play. You can be broad in defining what you will play such as everyone but. Example set formula !Freeweek. This means you will play anyone but a free trialer. Or you can be specific. Example set formula time=5 & inc=0. This means you decline everything but 5 0 challenges. What most dont realize is that with the mood variable you can arrange to turn your formula on and off. Handy if you decide to play your freind who is on as a freeweeker. Lets say you want your formula to be inc=0 & !Freeweek. This means no increments and you'll only play members of more than a week or two. If instead of this you type set formula (inc=0 & !Freeweek) | mood=1 you will have set up and on and off switch. | means 'or' by the way in a formula. Since when you log in your mood variable is always 0 the second half will never be true and have no affect. But if you type set mood=1 you will make all challenges pass your formula effectivly turning it off since mood=1 will always be true in your formula making every challenge one you want to play.