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35 <h3 class="section">2.2 Mode Menu</h3>
37 <p><a name="index-Menu_002c-Mode-26"></a><a name="index-Mode-Menu-27"></a>
39 <dt>Machine White<dd><a name="index-Machine-White_002c-Menu-Item-28"></a>Tells the chess engine to play White.
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40 <br><dt>Machine Black<dd><a name="index-Machine-Black_002c-Menu-Item-29"></a>Tells the chess engine to play Black.
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41 <br><dt>Two Machines<dd><a name="index-Two-Machines_002c-Menu-Item-30"></a>Plays a game between two chess engines.
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42 <br><dt>Analysis Mode<dd><a name="index-Analysis-Mode_002c-Menu-Item-31"></a>XBoard tells the chess engine to start analyzing the current game/position
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43 and shows you the analysis as you move pieces around.
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44 Note: Some chess engines do not support Analysis mode.
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46 To set up a position to analyze, you do the following:
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48 1. Select Edit Position from the Mode Menu
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50 2. Set up the position. Use the middle and right buttons to
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51 bring up the white and black piece menus.
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53 3. When you are finished, click on either the Black or White
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54 clock to tell XBoard which side moves first.
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56 4. Select Analysis Mode from the Mode Menu to start the analysis.
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58 The analysis function can also be used when observing games on an ICS
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59 with an engine loaded (zippy mode); the engine then will analyse
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60 the positions as they occur in the observed game.
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61 <br><dt>Analyze File<dd><a name="index-Analyze-File_002c-Menu-Item-32"></a>This option lets you load a game from a file (PGN, XBoard format, etc.)
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62 and analyze it. When you select this menu item, a popup window appears
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63 and asks for a filename to load.
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64 If the file contains multiple games, another popup appears that lets
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65 you select which game you wish to analyze.
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66 After a game is loaded, use the XBoard arrow buttons to step
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67 forwards/backwards through the game and watch the analysis.
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68 Note: Some chess engines do not support Analysis mode.
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69 <br><dt>ICS Client<dd><a name="index-ICS-Client_002c-Menu-Item-33"></a>This is the normal mode when XBoard
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70 is connected to a chess server. If you have moved into
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71 Edit Game or Edit Position mode, you can select this option to get out.
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73 To use xboard in ICS mode, run it in the foreground with the -ics
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74 option, and use the terminal you started it from to type commands and
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75 receive text responses from the chess server. See
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76 <a href="Chess-Servers.html#Chess-Servers">Chess Servers</a> below for more information.
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78 XBoard activates some special position/game editing features when you
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79 use the <kbd>examine</kbd> or <kbd>bsetup</kbd> commands on ICS and you have
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80 ‘<samp><span class="samp">ICS Client</span></samp>’ selected on the Mode menu. First, you can issue the
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81 ICS position-editing commands with the mouse. Move pieces by dragging
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82 with mouse button 1. To drop a new piece on a square, press mouse
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83 button 2 or 3 over the square. This brings up a menu of white pieces
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84 (button 2) or black pieces (button 3). Additional menu choices let
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85 you empty the square or clear the board. Click on the White or Black
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86 clock to set the side to play. You cannot set the side to play or
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87 drag pieces to arbitrary squares while examining on ICC, but you can
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88 do so in <kbd>bsetup</kbd> mode on FICS. In addition, the menu commands
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89 ‘<samp><span class="samp">Forward</span></samp>’, ‘<samp><span class="samp">Backward</span></samp>’, ‘<samp><span class="samp">Pause</span></samp>’, and ‘<samp><span class="samp">Stop Examining</span></samp>’
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90 have special functions in this mode; see below.
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91 <br><dt>Edit Game<dd><a name="index-Edit-Game_002c-Menu-Item-34"></a>Allows you to make moves for both Black and White, and to change
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92 moves after backing up with the ‘<samp><span class="samp">Backward</span></samp>’ command. The clocks do
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95 In chess engine mode, the chess engine continues to check moves for legality
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96 but does not participate in the game. You can bring the chess engine
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97 into the game by selecting ‘<samp><span class="samp">Machine White</span></samp>’, ‘<samp><span class="samp">Machine Black</span></samp>’,
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98 or ‘<samp><span class="samp">Two Machines</span></samp>’.
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100 In ICS mode, the moves are not sent to the ICS: ‘<samp><span class="samp">Edit Game</span></samp>’ takes
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101 XBoard out of ICS Client mode and lets you edit games locally.
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102 If you want to edit games on ICS in a way that other ICS users
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103 can see, use the ICS <kbd>examine</kbd> command or start an ICS match
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105 <br><dt>Edit Position<dd><a name="index-Edit-Position_002c-Menu-Item-35"></a>Lets you set up an arbitrary board position.
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106 Use mouse button 1 to drag pieces to new squares, or to delete a piece
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107 by dragging it off the board or dragging an empty square on top of it.
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108 To drop a new piece on a square, press mouse button 2 or 3 over the
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109 square. This brings up a menu of white pieces (button 2) or
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110 black pieces (button 3). Additional menu choices let you empty the
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111 square or clear the board. You can set the side to play next by
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112 clicking on the word White or Black at the top of the screen.
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113 Selecting ‘<samp><span class="samp">Edit Position</span></samp>’ causes XBoard to discard
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114 all remembered moves in the current game.
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116 In ICS mode, changes made to the position by ‘<samp><span class="samp">Edit Position</span></samp>’ are
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117 not sent to the ICS: ‘<samp><span class="samp">Edit Position</span></samp>’ takes XBoard out of
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118 ‘<samp><span class="samp">ICS Client</span></samp>’ mode and lets you edit positions locally. If you want to
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119 edit positions on ICS in a way that other ICS users can see, use
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120 the ICS <kbd>examine</kbd> command, or start an ICS match against yourself.
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121 (See also the ICS Client topic above.)
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122 <br><dt>Training<dd><a name="index-Training_002c-Menu-Item-36"></a>Training mode lets you interactively guess the moves of a game for one
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123 of the players. You guess the next move of the game by playing the
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124 move on the board. If the move played matches the next move of the
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125 game, the move is accepted and the opponent's response is autoplayed.
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126 If the move played is incorrect, an error message is displayed. You
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127 can select this mode only while loading a game (that is, after
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128 selecting ‘<samp><span class="samp">Load Game</span></samp>’ from the File menu). While XBoard is in
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129 ‘<samp><span class="samp">Training</span></samp>’ mode, the navigation buttons are disabled.
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130 <br><dt>Show Game List<dd><a name="index-Show-Game-List_002c-Menu-Item-37"></a>Shows or hides the list of games generated by the last ‘<samp><span class="samp">Load Game</span></samp>’
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132 <br><dt>Show Move History<dd><a name="index-Show-Move-History_002c-Menu-Item-38"></a>Shows or hides a list of moves of the current game.
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133 This list allows you to move the display to any earlier position in the game
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134 by clicking on the corresponding move.
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135 <br><dt>Show Engine Output<dd><a name="index-Show-Engine-Output_002c-Menu-Item-39"></a>Shows or hides a window in which the thinking output of any loaded engines
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137 <br><dt>Edit Tags<dd><a name="index-Edit-Tags_002c-Menu-Item-40"></a>Lets you edit the PGN (portable game notation)
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138 tags for the current game. After editing, the tags must still conform to
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139 the PGN tag syntax:
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141 <pre class="example"> <tag-section> ::= <tag-pair> <tag-section>
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143 <tag-pair> ::= [ <tag-name> <tag-value> ]
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144 <tag-name> ::= <identifier>
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145 <tag-value> ::= <string>
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147 <p class="noindent">See the PGN Standard for full details. Here is an example:
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149 <pre class="example"> [Event "Portoroz Interzonal"]
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150 [Site "Portoroz, Yugoslavia"]
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151 [Date "1958.08.16"]
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153 [White "Robert J. Fischer"]
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154 [Black "Bent Larsen"]
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157 <p class="noindent">Any characters that do not match this syntax are silently ignored. Note that
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158 the PGN standard requires all games to have at least the seven tags shown
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159 above. Any that you omit will be filled in by XBoard
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160 with ‘<samp><span class="samp">?</span></samp>’ (unknown value), or ‘<samp><span class="samp">-</span></samp>’ (inapplicable value).
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161 <br><dt>Edit Comment<dd><a name="index-Edit-Comment_002c-Menu-Item-41"></a>Adds or modifies a comment on the current position. Comments are
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162 saved by ‘<samp><span class="samp">Save Game</span></samp>’ and are displayed by ‘<samp><span class="samp">Load Game</span></samp>’,
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163 ‘<samp><span class="samp">Forward</span></samp>’, and ‘<samp><span class="samp">Backward</span></samp>’.
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164 <br><dt>ICS Input Box<dd><a name="index-ICS-Input-Box_002c-Menu-Item-42"></a>If this option is set in ICS mode,
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166 creates an extra window that you can use for typing in ICS commands.
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167 The input box is especially useful if you want to type in something long or do
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168 some editing on your input, because output from ICS doesn't get mixed
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169 in with your typing as it would in the main terminal window.
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170 <br><dt>Pause<dd><a name="index-Pause_002c-Menu-Item-43"></a>Pauses updates to the board, and if you are playing against a chess engine,
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171 also pauses your clock. To continue, select ‘<samp><span class="samp">Pause</span></samp>’ again, and the
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172 display will automatically update to the latest position.
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173 The ‘<samp><span class="samp">P</span></samp>’ button and keyboard <kbd>p</kbd> key are equivalents.
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175 If you select Pause when you are playing against a chess engine and
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176 it is not your move, the chess engine's clock
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177 will continue to run and it will eventually make a move, at which point
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178 both clocks will stop. Since board updates are paused, however,
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179 you will not see the move until you exit from Pause mode (or select Forward).
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180 This behavior is meant to simulate adjournment with a sealed move.
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182 If you select Pause while you are observing or examining a game on a
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183 chess server, you can step backward and forward in the current history
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184 of the examined game without affecting the other observers and
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185 examiners, and without having your display jump forward to the latest
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186 position each time a move is made. Select Pause again to reconnect
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187 yourself to the current state of the game on ICS.
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189 If you select ‘<samp><span class="samp">Pause</span></samp>’ while you are loading a game, the game stops
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190 loading. You can load more moves manually by selecting ‘<samp><span class="samp">Forward</span></samp>’, or
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191 resume automatic loading by selecting ‘<samp><span class="samp">Pause</span></samp>’ again.
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projects / xboard.git / blob