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16 <p>XBoard is a graphical user interface for chess in all its major
17 forms, including international chess, xiangqi (Chinese chess),
18 shogi (Japanese chess) and Makruk, in addition to many minor variants such as
19 Losers Chess, Crazyhouse, Chess960 and Capablanca Chess. It displays a
20 chessboard on the screen, accepts moves made with the mouse, and loads
21 and saves games in Portable Game Notation (PGN). It serves as a
22 front-end for many different chess services, including:</p>
25 Chess engines that will run on your machine and play a game against
26 you or help you analyze, such as GNU Chess, Crafty, or many
29 <li>Chess servers on the Internet, where you can connect to play chess
30 with people from all over the world, watch other users play, or just
31 hang out and chat.</li>
33 <li>Correspondence chess played by electronic mail. The CMail program
34 automates the tasks of parsing email from your opponent, playing his
35 moves out on your board, and mailing your reply move after you've
38 <p>XBoard runs on Unix and Unix-like systems that use the X Window
41 <table cellpadding="20"><tr><td valign="top">
44 <li><a href="#tag-A1">WinBoard</a> (MS Windows port)</li>
45 <li><a href="#download">Downloading</a></li>
46 <li><a href="#tag-A4">Documentation</a></li>
47 <li><a href="user_guide/UserGuide.html">On-line User Guide</a></li>
48 <li><a href="#tag-A5">More Screenshots</a></li>
49 <li><a href="whats_new/4.6.0">What's New in 4.6.0?</a> (beta)</li>
50 <li><a href="whats_new/4.5.3">What's New in 4.5.3?</a> (stable)</li>
51 <li><a href="whats_new/4.5.2">What's New in 4.5.2?</a></li>
52 <li><a href="whats_new/4.5.1">What's New in 4.5.1?</a></li>
53 <li><a href="whats_new/4.5.0">What's New in 4.5.0?</a></li>
54 <li><a href="whats_new/4.4.0">What's New in 4.4.x?</a></li>
55 <li><a href="#tag-A3">How can you help us?</a></li>
56 <li><a href="FAQ.html">Frequently Asked Questions</a></li>
59 <img src="whats_new/4.5.0/Spartan.png">
60 <p>XBoard, playing some Chess variant</p>
62 <img src="whats_new/4.4.0/marble.png">
63 <p>WinBoard, configured with marble board</p>
66 <h3><a name="tag-A1">Winboard</h3>
68 <p>The project also includes a port to MicroSoft-Windows systems called
71 <p>You can find the downloads for binaries and preconfigured installer packages of Winboard at
72 the <a href="http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewforum.php?f=19">Winboard Forum</a>,
73 where yo can also report problems, get help from other WinBoard users or discuss feature requests.
74 Windows builds of development versions or installers for special configuartions
75 can be found at <a href="http://hgm.nubati.net/ ">HGM's web page</a>.
78 <p>Development for Winboard, reporting bugs and any other requests can
79 also be done at the same places as for XBoard (see below).</p>
81 <h3><a name="download"></a>Downloading XBoard</h3>
83 <h4>stable version (4.5.3a)</h4>
85 <p>Sources of current stable version can be found on the main GNU ftp server:
86 <a href="http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/">http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/</a> (via http) and
88 <a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/</a> (via ftp).
89 It can also be found on one of the <a href="/prep/ftp.html">mirrors
91 please <a href="http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/xboard">use a mirror</a> if
94 <p>Precompiled versions are available
95 for <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Factory:/Contrib/">openSUSE</a>
96 and <a href="http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/xboard">debian-squeeze</a>
98 (if you know of other distribution that package it, please let us
101 <h4>development version</h4>
103 <p>We regularly do so called 'developer releases', which include the newest and the latest we are working on.
104 If you want to <a href="#tag-A3">help us</a> test, or just want to use the new features, you might prefer to use those over the stable version.
107 <p>At the <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/apersaud:/xboard">Open Build Server</a> we provide packages that can be installed in parallel to the normal xboard version. To do this the programs are renamed to xboardnext (latest from the v4.6.x branch in git) and xboardgit (latest version from the master branch in git). Packages are available for: Debian 6.0, Fedora 14, Fedora 15, Mandriva 2010, Mandriva 2010.1, RedHat RHEL 5, RedHat RHEL 6, opensuse 11.3, opensuse 11.4, opensuse Tumbleweed, opensuse Factory, Ubunut 10.10, Ubuntu 11.04.</p>
109 <p> Windows builds of development version can be found at <a href="http://hgm.nubati.net/ ">HGM's web page</a>.
112 <p>Furthermore we provide two development versions (tagged commits in git):</p>
115 <li>A snapshot of the v4.6.x branch (a few commits behind the build server packages mentioned above): <a href="ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/"> 4.6.0.20120212 </a> <br />
116 This is a release candidate for version 4.6.0. <a href="http://packages.debian.org/experimental/xboard">Debian packages</a> of these tar-balls are available.
118 <li>A snapshot of the master branch: <a href="ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/"> master-20120212 </a>. <br />
120 The master branch includes the development for v4.6.x and also has some more experimental features that need more testing and/or debugging. Precompiled packaged versions are available for <a href="http://packages.debian.org/experimental/xboard">debian</a> and <a href="http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-4.5TM.exe ">Windows</a>. More current versions from the master branch can be downloaded via git or from the Open Build Server (see above).
122 <li> New GTK branch in git (no developer release available yet). </li>
125 <h5>How to build the development version</h5>
129 <p> After cloning the git-repository or downloading and unpacking a snapshot tar ball,
130 run ./autogen.sh, ./configure and then make and make install.</p>
133 <p> Unpack the tar ball and do ./configure followed by make and make install.</p>
136 <p>For development sources and other information, please see
137 the <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/">XBoard project
138 page</a> at <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org">savannah.gnu.org</a>.</p>
140 <p>A snapshot of the latest source code for all branches is available at
141 the <a href="http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/xboard.git">git
142 repository</a> on Savannah.</p>
146 <p>You can also find an archive of old versions on <a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/old-gnu/xboard/">the ftp server</a>.</p>
148 <h3><a name="tag-A4">Documentation</h3>
150 <p>The official <a href="manual/">manual page for XBoard</a> is available online,
151 as is <a href="/manual/">documentation for most GNU software</a>.
152 This discusses every feature XBoard has in detail.
153 You may also find this information on your local system by
154 running <em>info xboard</em> or <em>man xboard</em>, or by
155 looking at <em>/usr/doc/xboard/</em>,
156 <em>/usr/local/doc/xboard/</em>, or similar directories on your system.</p>
158 <p>There now also exists an <a href="user_guide/UserGuide.html">XBoard User Guide</a>, which only presents the main features in a more pedestrian way.
159 This would be an excellent starting point if you are a novice XBoard user.
160 If you have prior experience with XBoard, but just want to know what new features have been added since the version you were used to,
161 the pages in the <a href="whats_new/index.html">What's New</a> section would be the place to go.
164 <p>A description of the Chess Engine Communication Protocol used by XBoard to communicate with Chess Engines can be found <a href="engine-intf.html">here</a>.</p>
166 <h3><a name="tag-A5"Screenshots</h3>
168 <p>These are screenshots taken from version 4.4.0 (click to enlarge).</p>
169 <a href="graphics/xboard-4.4.0.png"><img src="graphics/xboard-4.4.0.png" alt=" [screenshot normal game] " height="200" /></a>
170 <a href="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-variant.png"><img src="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-variant.png" alt=" [screenshot bughouse game] " height="200" /></a>
171 <a href="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-showgi.png"><img src="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-showgi.png" alt=" [screenshot shogi game] " height="200" /></a>
172 <a href="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-petite.png"><img src="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-petite.png" alt=" [screenshot auxiliary windows " height="200" /></a>
173 <a href="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-XQ.png"><img src="graphics/xboard-4.4.0-XQ.png" alt=" [screenshot xiangqi game] " height="200" /></a>
175 <h3><a name="tag-A3">Help needed</h3>
177 <p>It would be great if people would like to help in the developing process. We can use all kinds of help, from people who just use the software and have a feature request (send them to developer mailing list), to people who can update/check the documentation and especially people who test development versions (send problems to the developer mailing list).
178 Have a look at the following list in case you are interested:</p>
180 <h4>Translators </h4>
181 <p>We added support for different languages to XBoard and need people to translate it. The translation is handled by <a href="http://translationproject.org/html/welcome.html">the translation project</a>. You can check on the <a href="http://translationproject.org/domain/xboard.html">current status</a> and how to <a href="http://translationproject.org/html/translators.html">join the translation project</a>. </p>
184 <p> We are always looking for people who are willing to test the latest new features and give us feedback or new ideas. If you are interested, please send an email to our list at <a href="mailto:xboard-devel@gnu.org"><xboard-devel@gnu.org></a> or just try out the program and reports bugs either to the email list or to the bug-tracker (see <a href="#download">below</a> for links).</p>
186 <h4>GTK developer needed</h4>
187 <p> We are also working on merging Winboard and XBoard back into one version using a cross platform GTK-front end. This will help us clean up the code and make things like internationalization easier. We made some progress, if you know want to help out there are still lots of things waiting to be done. Email the <a href="mailto:xboard-devel@gnu.org">mailing list</a> for more information. </p>
189 <h4>EPD test-suite capability</h4>
190 <p>A sort of match mode where one engine automatically does a number of 'games',
191 (using a position file filled with EPDs as starting positions),
192 except that each 'game' lasts only for one move, and the 'result' is then computed
193 by XBoard depending on if this move was the correct solution specified in the EPD.</p>
195 <h4>Multi-board ICS mode</h4>
196 <p>Implement a slave mode where XBoard forks itself, connecting a pipe between
197 what normally would be the ICS socket of the child, and a new output channel
198 of the parent, so that the parent can forward board and move lists belonging to
199 a specific game to the slave dedicated to display it.</p>
201 <h4>Update the documentation</h4>
202 <p>The documentation could need some updates. In our effort to merge
203 Winboard and XBoard back together, we also want to merge the RTF file
204 back into the XBoard texinfo file. This will take some effort though,
205 since the two versions still differ in several areas and this would
206 need to be highlighted. The benefit would be though that we could
207 prepare a much better and up to date Windows documentation.
210 <h4>Update the webpage</h4>
212 <p>The content of the webpage could be updated with screenshots from
213 the latest version. We also have a new tutorial that could be
214 integrated. The webpage should also be integrated with git, so that
215 all developers have access to it.</p>
222 <li> <a href="http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html">Tim's original pages</a> are still available.</li>
223 <li> XBoard can also run engines that use the UCI protocol, with
224 the aid of the Polyglot protocol adapter. A new Polyglot
225 version, (1.4.67b), especially adapted to support the new
226 features of XBoard 4.4.0 and later, can be
227 found <a href="http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algebra/Toga/polyglot-release/">here</a>.</li>
231 <li> Incomplete list of computer engines that work with XBoard
233 <li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/chess/">GNU chess</a></li>
234 <li><a href="http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/CVfairy.html">Fairy-Max</a></li>
235 <li><a href="http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/html/lastupdates.htm">A list with lots of engines</a></li>
237 <li><a href="http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/XQ.html">List of Xiangqi engines</a></li>
238 <li> other popular engines are crafty, phalanx, fruit, toga2, glaurung, ... </li>
241 <li> Chess server you can connect to using XBoard
243 <li> <a href="http://www.freechess.org"> Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) </a></li>
245 <li> <a href="http://www.chessclub.com/"> The Internet Chess Club </a> </li>
247 <li> <a href="http://80.100.28.169/"> The Variant ICS </a> </li>
250 <li> Other interfaces
252 <li> <a href="http://www.bergo.eng.br/eboard/">eboard</a> </li>
258 <h3>Frequently Asked Question(FAQ)</h3>
260 <p>If you have any questions, please check out our <a href="FAQ.html">FAQ</a>.</p>
263 <h3>Mailing Lists and Discussion Forums</h3>
265 <h4>mailing lists</h4>
267 <p>XBoard has two mailing lists:
268 <a href="mailto:bug-xboard@gnu.org"><bug-xboard@gnu.org></a> and
269 <a href="mailto:xboard-devel@gnu.org"><xboard-devel@gnu.org></a>.</p>
271 <p>The main discussion list is
272 <a href="mailto:xboard-devel@gnu.org"><xboard-devel@gnu.org></a>,
273 and is used to discuss most aspects of XBoard, including development
274 and enhancement requests. Please send bug reports
275 to <a href="mailto:bug-xboard@gnu.org"><bug-xboard@gnu.org></a>.</p>
277 <p>Announcements about XBoard and most other GNU software are made on
278 <a href="mailto:info-gnu@gnu.org"><info-gnu@gnu.org></a>.</p>
280 <p>To subscribe to these or any GNU mailing lists, please send an empty
281 mail with a Subject: header of just <tt>subscribe</tt> to the relevant
282 -request list. For example, to subscribe yourself to the GNU
283 announcement list, you would send mail to <a
284 href="mailto:info-gnu-request@gnu.org?Subject=subscribe"><info-gnu-request@gnu.org></a>.
285 Or you can use the <a
286 href="http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu">mailing list web
289 <h4>discussion forums</h4>
291 <p>A very active forum is the <a href="http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/">WinBoard Forum</a> (where our current main developer HGM can be found).</p>
293 <h3>Reporting Bugs and Requesting New Features</h3>
295 <p> If you think you found a bug, please check the <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=xboard">bugtracker</a> for open and already closed bugs. If you found a new bug, please, file a bug-report either via our bug-related email list or in the <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=xboard">bugtracker</a>.
298 <p> For feature requests, please use our mailinglist: <a href="mailto:xboard-devel@gnu.org"><xboard-devel@gnu.org></a>.</p>
300 <!-- will be in one of the next releases
301 -<h3>Translating XBoard</h3>
303 <p>To translate XBoard's messages into other languages, please see the <a
304 href="http://translationproject.org/domain/xboard.html">Translation Project
305 page for XBoard</a>. If you have a new translation of the message strings,
306 or updates to the existing strings, please have the changes made in this
307 repository. Only translations from this site will be incorporated into
308 XBoard. For more information, see the <a
309 href="http://translationproject.org/html/welcome.html">Translation
310 Project welcome page</a>.
313 <p>Please remember that development of XBoard, and GNU in general, is a
314 volunteer effort, and you also can contribute. For information, please
315 read <a href="/help/">How to help GNU</a>.</p>
318 <h3 id="license">Licensing</h3>
321 is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
322 terms of the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html"
323 rel="license">GNU General Public License</a> as published by the Free
324 Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your
325 option) any later version.</p>
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331 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to
332 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>.
333 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
335 Please send broken links and other corrections or suggestions to
336 <a href="mailto:bug-xboard@gnu.org"><bug-xboard@gnu.org></a>.</p>
339 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
340 README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations
343 <p>Copyright © 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
345 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
346 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative
347 Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p>
351 <!-- timestamp start -->
352 $Date: 2012/02/13 06:54:08 $
353 <!-- timestamp end -->