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27 <a name="Other-options"></a>
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33 <h3 class="section">3.7 Other options</h3>
35 <p><a name="index-Options_002c-miscellaneous-356"></a>
37 <dt>-ncp/-xncp or -noChessProgram true/false<dd><a name="index-ncp_002c-option-357"></a><a name="index-noChessProgram_002c-option-358"></a>If this option is true, XBoard acts as a passive chessboard; it
38 does not start a chess engine at all. Turning on this option
39 also turns off clockMode. Default: false.
40 <br><dt>-mode or -initialMode modename<dd><a name="index-mode_002c-option-359"></a><a name="index-initalMode_002c-option-360"></a>If this option is given, XBoard selects the given modename
41 from the Mode menu after starting and (if applicable) processing the
42 loadGameFile or loadPositionFile option. Default: "" (no selection).
43 Other supported values are
44 MachineWhite, MachineBlack, TwoMachines, Analysis,
45 AnalyzeFile, EditGame, EditPosition, and Training.
46 <br><dt>-variant varname<dd><a name="index-variant_002c-option-361"></a>Activates preliminary, partial support for playing chess variants
47 against a local engine or editing variant games. This flag is not
48 needed in ICS mode. Recognized variant names are:
50 <pre class="example"> normal Normal chess
51 wildcastle Shuffle chess, king can castle from d file
52 nocastle Shuffle chess, no castling allowed
53 fischerandom Fischer Random shuffle chess
54 bughouse Bughouse, ICC/FICS rules
55 crazyhouse Crazyhouse, ICC/FICS rules
56 losers Lose all pieces or get mated (ICC wild 17)
57 suicide Lose all pieces including king (FICS)
58 giveaway Try to have no legal moves (ICC wild 26)
59 twokings Weird ICC wild 9
60 kriegspiel Opponent's pieces are invisible
61 atomic Capturing piece explodes (ICC wild 27)
62 3check Win by giving check 3 times (ICC wild 25)
63 shatranj An ancient precursor of chess (ICC wild 28)
64 xiangqi Chinese Chess (on a 9x10 board)
65 shogi Japanese Chess (on a 9x9 board & piece drops)
66 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8 board, with Archbishop
67 and Chancellor pieces)
68 gothic similar, with a better initial position
69 caparandom An FRC-like version of Capablanca Chess (10x8)
70 janus A game with two Archbishops (10x8 board)
71 courier Medieval intermediate between shatranj and
72 modern Chess (on 12x8 board)
73 falcon Patented 10x8 variant with two Falcon pieces
74 berolina Pawns capture straight ahead, and move diagonal
75 cylinder Pieces wrap around the board edge
76 knightmate King moves as Knight, and vice versa
77 super Superchess (shuffle variant with 4 exo-pieces)
78 fairy A catchall variant in which all piece types
79 known to XBoard can participate (8x8)
80 unknown Catchall for other unknown variants
82 <p>In the shuffle variants, XBoard now does shuffle the pieces, although
83 you can still do it by hand using Edit Position. Some variants are
84 supported only in ICS mode, including bughouse, and
85 kriegspiel. The winning/drawing conditions in crazyhouse (off-board
86 interposition on mate), losers, suicide, giveaway, atomic, and 3check
87 are not fully understood.
88 Berolina and cylinder chess can only be played with legality testing off.
89 In crazyhouse, XBoard now does keep
90 track of off-board pieces. In shatranj it does implement the baring
91 rule when mate detection is switched on.
92 <br><dt>-boardHeight N<dd><a name="index-boardHeight_002c-option-362"></a>Allows you to set a non-standard number of board ranks in any variant.
93 If the height is given as -1, the default height for the variant is used.
95 <br><dt>-boardWidth N<dd><a name="index-boardWidth_002c-option-363"></a>Allows you to set a non-standard number of board files in any variant.
96 If the width is given as -1, the default width for the variant is used.
97 With a non-standard width, the initial position will always be an empty board,
98 as the usual opening array will not fit.
100 <br><dt>-holdingsSize N<dd><a name="index-holdingsSize_002c-option-364"></a>Allows you to set a non-standard size for the holdings in any variant.
101 If the size is given as -1, the default holdings size for the variant is used.
102 The first N piece types will go into the holdings on capture, and you will be
103 able to drop them on the board in stead of making a normal move. If size equals 0,
104 there will be no holdings.
106 <br><dt>-defaultFrcPosition N<dd><a name="index-defaultFrcPosition_002c-option-365"></a>Specifies the number of the opening position in shuffle games like Chess960.
107 A value of -1 means the position is randomly generated by XBoard
108 at the beginning of every game.
110 <br><dt>-pieceToSquareTable string<dd><a name="index-pieceToSquareTable_002c-option-366"></a>The characters that are used to represent the piece types XBoard knows in FEN
111 diagrams and SAN moves. The string argument has to have an even length
112 (or it will be ignored), as white and black pieces have to be given separately
113 (in that order). The last letter for each color will be the King.
114 The letters before that will be PNBRQ and then a whole host of fairy pieces
115 in an order that has not fully crystallized yet (currently FEACWMOHIJGDVSLU,
116 F=Ferz, Elephant, A=Archbishop, C=Chancellor, W=Wazir, M=Commoner, O=Cannon,
117 H=Nightrider). You should list at least all pieces that occur in the variant
118 you are playing. If you have less than 44 characters in the string, the pieces
119 not mentioned will get assigned a period, and you will not be able to distinguish
120 them in FENs. You can also explicitly assign pieces a period, in which case they
121 will not be counted in deciding which captured pieces can go into the holdings.
122 A tilde '~' as a piece name does mean this piece is used to represent a promoted
123 Pawn in crazyhouse-like games, i.e. on capture it turns back onto a Pawn.
124 A '+' similarly indicates the piece is a shogi-style promoted piece, that should
125 revert to its non-promoted version on capture (rather than to a Pawn).
126 Note that promoted pieces are represented by pieces 11 further in the list.
127 You should not have to use this option often: each variant has its own default
128 setting for the piece representation in FEN, which should be sufficient in normal use.
130 <br><dt>-debug/-xdebug or -debugMode true/false<dd><a name="index-debug_002c-option-367"></a><a name="index-debugMode_002c-option-368"></a>Turns on debugging printout.
131 <br><dt>-debugFile filename or -nameOfDebugFile filename<dd><a name="index-debugFile_002c-option-369"></a><a name="index-nameOfDebugFile_002c-option-370"></a>Sets the name of the file to which WinBoard saves debug information
132 (including all communication to and from the engines).
133 <br><dt>-engineDebugOutput number<dd><a name="index-engineDebugOutput_002c-option-371"></a>Specifies how WinBoard should handle unsolicited output from the engine,
134 with respect to saving it in the debug file.
135 The output is further (hopefully) ignored.
136 If number=0, WinBoard refrains from writing such spurious output to the debug file.
137 If number=1, all engine output is written faithfully to the debug file.
138 If number=2, any protocol-violating line is prefixed with a '#' character,
139 as the engine itself should have done if it wanted to submit info for inclusion in the debug file.
140 This option is provided for the benefit of applications that use the debug file
141 as a source of information, such as the broadcaster of live games TLCV / TLCS.
142 Such applications can be protected from spurious engine output that might otherwise confuse them.
143 <br><dt>-rsh or -remoteShell shell-name<dd><a name="index-rsh_002c-option-372"></a><a name="index-remoteShell_002c-option-373"></a>Name of the command used to run programs remotely. The default
144 is <samp><span class="file">rsh</span></samp> or <samp><span class="file">remsh</span></samp>, determined when XBoard is
145 configured and compiled.
146 <br><dt>-ruser or -remoteUser user-name<dd><a name="index-ruser_002c-option-374"></a><a name="index-remoteUser_002c-option-375"></a>User name on the remote system when running programs with the
147 <code>remoteShell</code>. The default is your local user name.
148 <br><dt>-userName username<dd><a name="index-userName_002c-option-376"></a>Name under which the Human player will be listed in the PGN file.
149 Default is the login name on your local computer.
150 <br><dt>-delayBeforeQuit number<dt>-delayAfterQuit number<dd><a name="index-delayBeforeQuit_002c-option-377"></a><a name="index-delayAfterQuit_002c-option-378"></a>These options specify how long WinBoard has to wait before sending a termination signal to rogue engine processes, that do not want to react to the 'quit' command. The second one determines the pause after killing the engine, to make sure it dies.