1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
3 @setfilename xboard.info
11 INFO-DIR-SECTION Games
13 * xboard: (xboard). An X Window System graphical chessboard.
22 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
23 @include copyright.texi
27 .TH xboard 6 "$Date: " "GNU"
30 xboard @- X graphical user interface for chess
35 .B xboard -ics -icshost hostname [options]
37 .B xboard -ncp [options]
52 XBoard is a graphical chessboard that can serve as a
53 user interface to chess engines (such as GNU Chess), the
54 Internet Chess Servers,
55 electronic mail correspondence chess, or your own collection of saved games.
57 This manual documents version @value{VERSION} of XBoard.
60 * Major modes:: The main things XBoard can do.
61 * Basic operation:: Mouse and keyboard functions.
62 * Menus:: Menus, buttons, and keys.
63 * Options:: Command options supported by XBoard.
64 * Chess Servers:: Using XBoard with an Internet Chess Server (ICS).
65 * Firewalls:: Connecting to a chess server through a firewall.
66 * Environment:: Environment variables.
67 * Limitations:: Known limitations and/or bugs.
68 * Problems:: How and where to report any problems you run into.
69 * Contributors:: People who have helped developing XBoard.
70 * CMail:: Using XBoard for electronic correspondence chess.
71 * Other programs:: Other programs you can use with XBoard.
73 * Copyright:: Copyright notice for this manual.
75 * Copying:: The GNU General Public License.
77 * Index:: Index of concepts and symbol names.
84 XBoard always runs in one of four major modes. You select the
85 major mode from the command line when you start up XBoard.
88 @item xboard [options]
89 As an interface to GNU Chess or another chess engine running on your
90 machine, XBoard lets you play a game against the machine,
91 set up arbitrary positions, force variations, watch a game between two
92 chess engines, interactively analyze your stored games or set up and
93 analyze arbitrary positions.
94 To run engines that use the UCI standard XBoard will draw upon
95 the Polyglot adapter fully transparently, but you will need to have
96 the polyglot package installed for this to work.
97 @item xboard -ics -icshost hostname [options]
98 As Internet Chess Server (ICS) interface, XBoard
99 lets you play against other ICS users, observe games
100 they are playing, or review games that have recently finished. Most
101 of the ICS "wild" chess variants are supported, including bughouse.
102 @item xboard -ncp [options]
103 XBoard can also be used simply
104 as an electronic chessboard to play through games. It will read and
105 write game files and allow you to play through variations
106 manually. You can use it to browse games off the net or review games
107 you have saved. These features are also available in the other modes.
109 If you want to pipe games into XBoard, use the supplied shell
110 script @file{pxboard}. For example, from the news reader @file{xrn},
111 find a message with one or more games in it, click the Save button,
112 and type @samp{|pxboard} as the file name.
113 @item cmail [options]
114 As an interface to electronic mail correspondence chess, XBoard
115 works with the cmail program. See @ref{CMail} below for
119 @node Basic operation
120 @chapter Basic operation
121 @cindex Basic operation
123 To move a piece, you can drag it with the left mouse button, or you
124 can click the left mouse button once on the piece, then once more on
125 the destination square. To under-promote a Pawn you can drag it backwards
126 until it morphs into the piece you want to promote to, after which you
127 drag that forward to the promotion square.
128 Or after selecting the pawn with a first click you can then click
129 the promotion square and move the mouse while keeping the button down
130 until the piece that you want appears in the promotion square.
131 To castle you move the King to its destination or, in Chess960,
132 on top of the Rook you want to castle with.
133 In crazyhouse, bughouse or shogi you can
134 drag and drop pieces to the board from the holdings squares
135 displayed next to the board.
137 Old behavior, where right-clicking a square brings up a menu
138 where you can select what piece to drop on it can still be
139 selected through the @samp{Drop Menu} option.
140 Only in Edit Position mode right and middle clicking a square is still used to
141 put a piece on it, and the piece to drop is selected by sweeping
142 the mouse vertically with the button held down.
144 The default function of the right mouse button in other modes is
145 to display the position the chess program thinks it will end up in.
146 While moving the mouse vertically with this button pressed
147 XBoard will step through the principal variation to show how
148 this position will be reached.
149 Lines of play displayed in the engine-output window,
150 or PGN variations in the comment window can similarly
151 be played out on the board, by right-clicking on them.
152 Only in Analysis mode, when you walk along a PV,
153 releasing the mouse button might forward the game upto that point,
154 like you entered all previous PV moves.
155 As the display of the PV in that case starts after the first move
156 a simple right-click will play the move the engine indicates.
158 In Analysis mode you can also make a move by grabbing the piece
159 with a double-click of the left mouse button
160 (or while keeping the @kbd{Ctrl} key pressed).
161 In this case the move you enter will not be played,
162 but will be excluded from the analysis of the current position.
163 (Or included if it was already excluded; it is a toggle.)
164 This only works for engines that support this feature.
166 When connected to an ICS, it is possible to call up a graphical
167 representation of players seeking a game in stead of the chess board,
168 when the latter is not in use
169 (i.e. when you are not playing or observing).
170 Left-clicking the display area will switch between this 'seek graph'
172 Hovering the mouse pointer over a dot will show the details of the
173 seek ad in the message field above the board.
174 Left-clicking the dot will challenge that player.
175 Right-clicking a dot will 'push it to the back',
176 to reveal any dots that were hidden behind it.
177 Right-clicking off dots will refresh the graph.
179 Most other XBoard commands are available from the menu bar. The most
180 frequently used commands also have shortcut keys or on-screen buttons.
181 These shortcut keystrokes are mostly non-printable characters.
182 Typing a letter or digit while the board window has focus
183 will bring up a type-in box with the typed letter already in it.
184 You can use that to type a move in situations where it is your
185 turn to enter a move,
186 type a move number to call up the position after that move
188 or, in Edit Position mode, type a FEN.
189 Some rarely used parameters can only be set through options on the
190 command line used to invoke XBoard.
192 XBoard uses a settings file, in which it can remember any changes to
193 the settings that are made through menus or command-line options,
194 so they will still apply when you restart XBoard for another session.
195 The settings can be saved into this file automatically when XBoard exits,
196 or on explicit request of the user.
197 Note that the board window can be sized by the user, but that this
198 will not affect the size of the clocks above it, and won't be remembered
199 in the settings file.
200 To persistently change the size of the clocks, use the @code{size}
201 command-line option when starting XBoard.
202 The default name for the settings file is /etc/xboard/xboard.conf,
203 but in a standard install this file is only used as a master settings
204 file that determines the system-wide default settings,
205 and defers reading and writing of user settings to a user-specific
206 file like ~/.xboardrc in the user's home directory.
208 When XBoard is iconized, its graphical icon is a white knight if
209 it is White's turn to move, a black knight if it is Black's turn.
212 @chapter Menus, buttons, and keys
216 * File Menu:: Accessing external games and positions.
217 * Edit Menu:: Altering games, positions, PGN tags or comments.
218 * View Menu:: Controlling XBoard's shape and looks.
219 * Mode Menu:: Selecting XBoard's mode.
220 * Action Menu:: Talking to the chess engine or ICS opponents.
221 * Engine Menu:: Controlling settings and actions of the engine(s).
222 * Options Menu:: User preferences.
223 * Help Menu:: Getting help.
224 * Keys:: Other shortcut keys.
233 @cindex New Game, Menu Item
234 Resets XBoard and the chess engine to the beginning of a new chess
235 game. The @kbd{Ctrl-N} key is a keyboard equivalent. In Internet Chess
236 Server mode, clears the current state of XBoard, then
237 resynchronizes with the ICS by sending a refresh command. If you want to
238 stop playing, observing, or examining an ICS game, use an
239 appropriate command from the Action menu, not @samp{New Game}.
241 @item New Shuffle Game
242 @cindex New Shuffle Game, Menu Item
243 Similar to @samp{New Game}, but allows you to specify a particular initial position
244 (according to a standardized numbering system)
245 in chess variants which use randomized opening positions (e.g. Chess960).
246 You can also press the @samp{Pick Fixed} button to let XBoard generate
247 a random number for you.
248 The thus selected opening position will then persistently be chosen on any following
249 New Game command until you use this menu to select another.
250 Selecting position number -1 (or pushing the @samp{Randomize} button)
251 will produce a newly randomized position on any new game.
252 Using this menu item in variants that normally do not shuffle their opening position
253 does cause these variants to become shuffle variants until you use the
254 @samp{New Shuffle Game} menu to explicitly switch the randomization off,
255 or select a new variant.
257 @cindex New variant, Menu Item
258 Allows you to select a new chess variant in non-ICS mode.
259 (In ICS play, the ICS is responsible for deciding which variant will be played,
260 and XBoard adapts automatically.) The shifted @kbd{Alt+V} key is a
261 keyboard equivalent. If you play with an engine, the engine must
262 be able to play the selected variant, or the corresponding choice will be disabled.
263 XBoard supports all major variants, such as xiangqi, shogi, chess, chess960,
264 makruk, Capablanca Chess, shatranj, crazyhouse, bughouse.
266 You can overrule the default board format of the selected variant,
267 (e.g. to play suicide chess on a 6 x 6 board),
268 in this dialog, but normally you would not do that,
269 and leave them at '-1', which means 'default' for the chosen variant.
271 @cindex Load Game, Menu Item
272 Plays a game from a record file. The @kbd{Ctrl-O} key is a keyboard equivalent.
273 A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. If the file contains more
274 than one game, a second pop-up dialog
275 displays a list of games (with information drawn from their PGN tags, if
276 any), and you can select the one you want. Alternatively, you can load the
277 Nth game in the file directly, by typing the number @kbd{N} after the
278 file name, separated by a space.
280 The game-file parser will accept PGN (portable game notation),
281 or in fact almost any file that contains moves in algebraic
283 Notation of the form @samp{P@@f7}
284 is accepted for piece-drops in bughouse games;
285 this is a nonstandard extension to PGN.
286 If the file includes a PGN position (FEN tag), or an old-style
287 XBoard position diagram bracketed by @samp{[--} and @samp{--]}
288 before the first move, the game starts from that position. Text
289 enclosed in parentheses, square brackets, or curly braces is assumed to
290 be commentary and is displayed in a pop-up window. Any other
291 text in the file is ignored. PGN variations (enclosed in
292 parentheses) also are treated as comments;
293 however, if you rights-click them in the comment window,
294 XBoard will shelve the current line, and load the the selected variation,
295 so you can step through it.
296 You can later revert to the previous line with the @samp{Revert} command.
297 This way you can walk quite complex varation trees with XBoard.
298 The nonstandard PGN tag [Variant "varname"] functions similarly to
299 the -variant command-line option (see below), allowing games in certain chess
300 variants to be loaded.
301 Note that it must appear before any FEN tag for XBoard to recognize
302 variant FENs appropriately.
303 There is also a heuristic to
304 recognize chess variants from the Event tag, by looking for the strings
305 that the Internet Chess Servers put there when saving variant ("wild") games.
307 @cindex Load Position, Menu Item
308 Sets up a position from a position file. A pop-up dialog prompts
309 you for the file name. The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-O} key is a keyboard
310 equivalent. If the file contains more than one saved
311 position, and you want to load the Nth one, type the number N
312 after the file name, separated by a space. Position files must
313 be in FEN (Forsythe-Edwards notation), or in the format that the
314 Save Position command writes when oldSaveStyle is turned on.
315 @item Load Next Position
316 @cindex Load Next Position, Menu Item
317 Loads the next position from the last position file you loaded.
318 The shifted @kbd{PgDn} key is a keyboard equivalent.
319 @item Load Previous Position
320 @cindex Load Previous Position, Menu Item
321 Loads the previous position from the last position file you
322 loaded. The shifted @kbd{PgUp} key is a keyboard equivalent.
323 Not available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.
325 @cindex Save Game, Menu Item
326 Appends a record of the current game to a file.
327 The @kbd{Ctrl-S} key is a keyboard equivalent.
329 prompts you for the file name. If the game did not begin with
330 the standard starting position, the game file includes the
331 starting position used. Games are saved in the PGN (portable
332 game notation) format, unless the oldSaveStyle option is true,
333 in which case they are saved in an older format that is specific
334 to XBoard. Both formats are human-readable, and both can be
335 read back by the @samp{Load Game} command.
336 Notation of the form @samp{P@@f7}
337 is accepted for piece-drops in bughouse games;
338 this is a nonstandard extension to PGN.
340 @cindex Save Position, Menu Item
341 Appends a diagram of the current position to a file.
342 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl+S} key is a keyboard equivalent.
343 A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. Positions are saved in
344 FEN (Forsythe-Edwards notation) format unless the @code{oldSaveStyle}
345 option is true, in which case they are saved in an older,
346 human-readable format that is specific to XBoard. Both formats
347 can be read back by the @samp{Load Position} command.
348 @item Save Selected Games
349 @cindex Save Selected Games
350 Will cause all games selected for display in the current Game List
351 to be appended to a file of the user's choice.
352 @item Save Games as Book
353 @cindex Save Games as Book, Menu Item
354 Creates an opening book from the currently loaded game file,
355 incorporating only the games currently selected in the Game List.
356 The book will be saved on the file specified in the @samp{Common Engine}
358 The value of @samp{Book Depth} specified in that same dialog will
359 be used to determine how many moves of each game will be added to
360 the internal book buffer.
361 This command can take a long time to process,
362 and the size of the buffer is currently limited.
363 At the end the buffer will be saved as a Polyglot book,
364 but the buffer will not be cleared,
365 so that you can continue adding games from other game files.
367 @itemx Reload CMail Message
368 @cindex Mail Move, Menu Item
369 @cindex Reload CMail Message, Menu Item
372 @cindex Exit, Menu Item
373 Exits from XBoard. The @kbd{Ctrl-Q} key is a keyboard equivalent.
382 @cindex Copy Game, Menu Item
383 Copies a record of the current game to an internal clipboard in PGN
384 format and sets the X selection to the game text. The @kbd{Ctrl-C}
385 key is a keyboard equivalent. The game can be
386 pasted to another application (such as a text editor or another copy
387 of XBoard) using that application's paste command. In many X
388 applications, such as xterm and emacs, the middle mouse button can be
389 used for pasting; in XBoard, you must use the Paste Game command.
391 @cindex Copy Position, Menu Item
392 Copies the current position to an internal clipboard in FEN format and
393 sets the X selection to the position text. The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-C} key
394 is a keyboard equivalent. The position can be pasted
395 to another application (such as a text editor or another copy of
396 XBoard) using that application's paste command. In many X
397 applications, such as xterm and emacs, the middle mouse button can be
398 used for pasting; in XBoard, you must use the Paste Position command.
400 @cindex Copy Game List, Menu Item
401 Copies the current game list to the clipboard,
402 and sets the X selection to this text.
403 A format of comma-separated double-quoted strings is used,
405 so it can be easily imported into spread-sheet programs.
407 @cindex Paste Game, Menu Item
408 Interprets the current X selection as a game record and loads it, as
409 with Load Game. The @kbd{Ctrl-V} key is a keyboard equivalent.
411 @cindex Paste Position, Menu Item
412 Interprets the current X selection as a FEN position and loads it, as
413 with Load Position. The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-V} key is a keyboard equivalent.
415 @cindex Edit Game, Menu Item
416 Allows you to make moves for both Black and White, and to change
417 moves after backing up with the @samp{Backward} command. The clocks do
418 not run. The @kbd{Ctrl-E} key is a keyboard equivalent.
420 In chess engine mode, the chess engine continues to check moves for legality
421 but does not participate in the game. You can bring the chess engine
422 into the game by selecting @samp{Machine White}, @samp{Machine Black},
423 or @samp{Two Machines}.
425 In ICS mode, the moves are not sent to the ICS: @samp{Edit Game} takes
426 XBoard out of ICS Client mode and lets you edit games locally.
427 If you want to edit games on ICS in a way that other ICS users
428 can see, use the ICS @kbd{examine} command or start an ICS match
431 @cindex Edit Position, Menu Item
432 Lets you set up an arbitrary board position.
433 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-E} key is a keyboard equivalent.
434 Use mouse button 1 to drag pieces to new squares, or to delete a piece
435 by dragging it off the board or dragging an empty square on top of it.
436 When you do this keeping the @kbd{Ctrl} key pressed,
437 or start dragging with a double-click,
438 you will move a copy of the piece, leaving the piece itself where it was.
439 In variants where pieces can promote (such as Shogi),
440 left-clicking an already selected piece promotes or demotes it.
441 To drop a new piece on a square, press mouse button 2 or 3 over the
443 This puts a white or black pawn in the square, respectively,
444 but you can change that to any other piece type by dragging the
445 mouse down before you release the button.
446 You will then see the piece on the originally clicked square
447 cycle through the available pieces
448 (including those of opposite color),
449 and can release the button when you see the piece you want.
450 (Note you can swap the function of button 2 and 3 by pressing
451 the shift key, and that there is an option @code{monoMouse}
452 to combine al functions in one button, which then acts as
453 button 3 over an empty square, and as button 1 over a piece.)
454 To alter the side to move, you can click the clock
455 (the words White and Black above the board)
456 of the side you want to give the move to.
457 To clear the board you can click the clock of the side that
458 already has the move (which is highlighted in black).
459 If you repeat this the board will cycle from empty to a
460 @code{pallette board} containing every piece once to the initial
461 position to the one before clearing.
462 The quickest way to set up a position is usually to start
463 with the pallette board, and move the pieces to were you
464 want them, duplicating them where necessary by using the
465 @kbd{Ctrl} key, dragging those you don't want off board,
466 and use static button 2 or 3 clicks to place the Pawns.
467 The old behavior with a piece menu can still be configured
468 with the aid of the @code{pieceMenu} option.
469 Dragging empty squares off board can create boards with
470 holes (inaccessible black squares) in them.
471 Selecting @samp{Edit Position} causes XBoard to discard
472 all remembered moves in the current game.
474 In ICS mode, changes made to the position by @samp{Edit Position} are
475 not sent to the ICS: @samp{Edit Position} takes XBoard out of
476 @samp{ICS Client} mode and lets you edit positions locally. If you want to
477 edit positions on ICS in a way that other ICS users can see, use
478 the ICS @kbd{examine} command, or start an ICS match against yourself.
479 (See also the ICS Client topic above.)
481 @cindex Edit Tags, Menu Item
482 Lets you edit the PGN (portable game notation)
483 tags for the current game. After editing, the tags must still conform to
487 <tag-section> ::= <tag-pair> <tag-section>
489 <tag-pair> ::= [ <tag-name> <tag-value> ]
490 <tag-name> ::= <identifier>
491 <tag-value> ::= <string>
494 See the PGN Standard for full details. Here is an example:
497 [Event "Portoroz Interzonal"]
498 [Site "Portoroz, Yugoslavia"]
501 [White "Robert J. Fischer"]
502 [Black "Bent Larsen"]
506 Any characters that do not match this syntax are silently ignored. Note that
507 the PGN standard requires all games to have at least the seven tags shown
508 above. Any that you omit will be filled in by XBoard
509 with @samp{?} (unknown value), or @samp{-} (inapplicable value).
511 @cindex Edit Comment, Menu Item
512 Adds or modifies a comment on the current position. Comments are
513 saved by @samp{Save Game} and are displayed by @samp{Load Game},
514 PGN variations will also be printed in this window,
515 and can be promoted to main line by right-clicking them.
516 @samp{Forward}, and @samp{Backward}.
518 @cindex Edit Book, Menu Item
519 Pops up a window listing the moves available in the GUI book
520 (specified in the @samp{Common Engine Settings} dialog)
521 from the currently displayed position,
522 together with their weights and (optionally in braces) learn info.
523 You can then edit this list, and the new list will be stored
524 back into the book when you press 'save changes'.
525 When you press the button 'add next move', and play a move
526 on the board, that move will be added to the list with weight 1.
527 Note that the listed percentages are neither used, nor updated when
528 you change the weights; they are just there as an optical aid.
529 When you right-click a move in the list it will be played.
532 @cindex Revert, Menu Item
533 @cindex Annotate, Menu Item
534 If you are examining an ICS game and Pause mode is off,
535 Revert issues the ICS command @samp{revert}.
536 In local mode, when you were editing or analyzing a game,
537 and the @code{-variations} command-line option is switched on,
538 you can start a new variation by holding the Shift key down while
539 entering a move not at the end of the game.
540 Variations can also become the currently displayed line by
541 clicking a PGN variation displayed in the Comment window.
542 This can be applied recursively,
543 so that you can analyze variations on variations;
544 each time you create a new variation by entering an alternative move
545 with Shift pressed, or select a new one from the Comment window,
546 the current variation will be shelved.
547 @samp{Revert} allows you to return to the most recently shelved variation.
548 The difference between @samp{Revert} and @samp{Annotate}
549 is that with the latter,
550 the variation you are now abandoning will be added as a comment
551 (in PGN variation syntax, i.e. between parentheses)
552 to the original move where you deviated, for later recalling.
553 The @kbd{Home} key is a keyboard equivalent to @samp{Revert}.
555 @cindex Truncate Game, Menu Item
556 Discards all remembered moves of the game beyond the current
557 position. Puts XBoard into @samp{Edit Game} mode if it was not there
559 The @kbd{End} key is a keyboard equivalent.
561 @cindex Backward, Menu Item
563 Steps backward through a series of remembered moves.
564 The @samp{[<]} button and the @kbd{Alt+LeftArrow} key are equivalents,
565 as is turning the mouse wheel towards you.
566 In addition, pressing the ??? key steps back one move, and releasing
567 it steps forward again.
569 In most modes, @samp{Backward} only lets you look back at old positions;
570 it does not retract moves. This is the case if you are playing against
571 a chess engine, playing or observing a game on an ICS, or loading a game.
572 If you select @samp{Backward} in any of these situations, you will not
573 be allowed to make a different move. Use @samp{Retract Move} or
574 @samp{Edit Game} if you want to change past moves.
576 If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of @samp{Backward}
577 depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode is
578 off, @samp{Backward} issues the ICS backward command, which backs up
579 everyone's view of the game and allows you to make a different
580 move. If Pause mode is on, @samp{Backward} only backs up your local
583 @cindex Forward, Menu Item
585 Steps forward through a series of remembered moves (undoing the
586 effect of @samp{Backward}) or forward through a game file. The
587 @samp{[>]} button and the @kbd{Alt+RightArrow} key are equivalents,
588 as is turning the mouse wheel away from you.
590 If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of Forward
591 depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode is
592 off, @samp{Forward} issues the ICS forward command, which moves
593 everyone's view of the game forward along the current line. If
594 Pause mode is on, @samp{Forward} only moves your local view forward,
595 and it will not go past the position that the game was in when
598 @cindex Back to Start, Menu Item
600 Jumps backward to the first remembered position in the game.
601 The @samp{[<<]} button and the @kbd{Alt+Home} key are equivalents.
603 In most modes, Back to Start only lets you look back at old
604 positions; it does not retract moves. This is the case if you
605 are playing against a local chess engine, playing or observing a game on
606 a chess server, or loading a game. If you select @samp{Back to Start} in any
607 of these situations, you will not be allowed to make different
608 moves. Use @samp{Retract Move} or @samp{Edit Game} if you want to change past
609 moves; or use Reset to start a new game.
611 If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of @samp{Back to
612 Start} depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode
613 is off, @samp{Back to Start} issues the ICS @samp{backward 999999}
614 command, which backs up everyone's view of the game to the start and
615 allows you to make different moves. If Pause mode is on, @samp{Back
616 to Start} only backs up your local view.
618 @cindex Forward to End, Menu Item
620 Jumps forward to the last remembered position in the game. The
621 @samp{[>>]} button and the @kbd{Alt+End} key are equivalents.
623 If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of @samp{Forward to
624 End} depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode
625 is off, @samp{Forward to End} issues the ICS @samp{forward 999999}
626 command, which moves everyone's view of the game forward to the end of
627 the current line. If Pause mode is on, @samp{Forward to End} only moves
628 your local view forward, and it will not go past the position
629 that the game was in when you paused.
638 @cindex Flip View, Menu Item
639 Inverts your view of the chess board for the duration of the
640 current game. Starting a new game returns the board to normal.
641 The @kbd{F2} key is a keyboard equivalent.
642 @item Show Engine Output
643 @cindex Show Engine Output, Menu Item
644 Shows or hides a window in which the thinking output of any loaded engines
645 is displayed. The shifted @kbd{Alt+O} key is a keyboard equivalent.
646 XBoard will display lines of thinking output of the same depth ordered by score,
647 (highest score on top), rather than in the order the engine produced them.
648 Usually this amounts to the same, as a normal engine search will only find new PV
649 (and emit it as thinking output)
650 when it searches a move with a higher score than the previous variation.
651 But when the engine is in multi-variation mode this needs not always be true,
652 and it is more convenient for someone analyzing games to see the moves sorted by score.
653 The order in which the engine found them is only of interest to the engine author,
654 and can still be deduced from the time or node count printed with the line.
655 Right-clicking a line in this window, and then moving the mouse vertically with the
656 right button kept down, will make XBoard play through the PV listed there.
657 The use of the board window as 'variation board' will normally end when
658 you release the right button,
659 or when the opponent plays a move.
660 But beware: in Analysis mode, moves thus played out might be added to the game,
661 depending on the setting of the option 'Play moves of clicked PV',
662 when you initiate the click left of the PV in the score area.
663 The Engine-Output pane for each engine will contain a header displaying the
664 multi-PV status and a list of excluded moves in Analysis mode,
665 which are also responsive to right-clicking:
666 Clicking the words 'fewer' or 'more' will alter the number of variations
667 shown at each depth, through the engine's MultiPV option,
668 while clicking in between those and moving the mouse horizontally adjust
669 the option 'Multi-PV Margin'. (In so far the engines support those.)
670 @item Show Move History
671 @cindex Show Move History, Menu Item
672 Shows or hides a list of moves of the current game.
673 The shifted @kbd{Alt+H} key is a keyboard equivalent.
674 This list allows you to move the display to any earlier position in the game
675 by clicking on the corresponding move.
676 @item Show Evaluation Graph
677 @cindex Show Evaluation Graph, Menu Item
678 Shows or hides a window which displays a graph of how the engine score(s)
679 evolved as a function of the move number.
680 The shifted @kbd{Alt+E} key is a keyboard equivalent.
681 The title bar shows the score (and search depth at which it was obtained)
682 of the currently displayed position numerically.
683 Clicking on the graph will bring
684 the corresponding position in the board display.
685 A button 3 click will toggle the display mode between plain and differential
686 (showing the difference in score between successive half moves).
687 Using the mouse wheel over the window will change the scale of the
688 low-score region (from -1 to +1).
690 @cindex Show Game List, Menu Item
691 Shows or hides the list of games generated by the last @samp{Load Game}
692 command. The shifted @kbd{Alt+G} key is a keyboard equivalent.
693 The line describing each game is built from a selection of the PGN tags.
694 Which tags contribute, and in what order, can be changed by the @samp{Game list tags}
695 menu dialog, which can be popped up through the @samp{Tags} button below the Game List.
696 Display can be restricted to a sub-set of the games meeting certain criteria.
697 A text entry below the game list allows you to type a text that the game lines
698 must contain in order to be displayed.
699 Games can also be selected based on their Elo PGN tag,
700 as set in the @samp{Load Game Options} dialog, which can be popped up through the
701 @samp{Thresholds} button below the Game List.
702 Finally they can be selected based on containing a position similar to the one
703 currently displayed in the main window, by pressing the 'Position' button below
704 the Game List, (which searches the entire list for the position), or the 'Narrow'
705 button (which only searches the already-selected games).
706 What counts as similar enough to be selected can also be set in the
707 @samp{Load Game Options} dialog, and ranges from an exact match to just the
710 @cindex Tags, Menu Item
711 Pops up a window which shows the PGN (portable game notation)
712 tags for the current game.
713 For now this is a duplicate of the @samp{Edit Tags} item in the @samp{Edit} menu.
715 @cindex Comments, Menu Item
716 Pops up a window which shows any comments to or variations on the current move.
717 For now this is a duplicate of the @samp{Edit Comment} item in the @samp{Edit} menu.
719 @cindex ICS Input Box, Menu Item
720 If this option is set in ICS mode,
722 creates an extra window that you can use for typing in ICS commands.
723 The input box is especially useful if you want to type in something long or do
724 some editing on your input, because output from ICS doesn't get mixed
725 in with your typing as it would in the main terminal window.
726 @item ICS Chat/Console
727 @cindex ICS Chat/Console, Menu Item
728 This menu item opens a window in which you can interact with the ICS,
729 and conduct upto 5 chats with other ICS users (or channels),
730 so you don't have to use the messy xterm from which you launched XBoard
732 The window has a text entry at the bottom where you can type your
733 commands and messages unhindered by the stream of ICS output.
734 The latter will be displayed in a large pane above the input field,
736 This pane can be vertically split into two, however, where half of it
737 is then used to display selected ICS output, belonging to a chat with
738 another user, or output from an ICS channel.
739 Such output will then not appear in the Console pane.
741 To use the window, write the name of your chat partner, the channel number,
742 or the words 'shouts', 'whispers', 'cshouts' in the upper field
743 (ending with <Enter>).
744 Everything you type in the lowest field will then automatically be sent to
745 the mentioned party, while everything that party sends to you will
746 appear in the central text pane, rather than appear in the ICS console.
747 The row of buttons allow you to choose between chat;
748 to start a new chat, just select an empty button,
749 and complete the @samp{Chat partner} field.
750 There are several keyboard accelerators to control this window:
751 Ctrl-H will hide the private chat, and dedicates the input field to
753 Ctrl-E will erase the current chat and chat partner.
754 Ctrl-N will open a new chat with a yet unspecified partner.
755 Ctrl-O will open a new chat with the last person from which you received
756 a tell in the ICS console pane.
757 <Esc> will transfer keyboard focus to the board window,
758 allowing you to invoke menu items through accelerator keys;
759 typing a printable character there transfers focus back to the input field
761 <Tab> will switch to another busy chat,
762 giving priority to those with content you have not seen yet.
763 (The buttons for selecting such chats turn orange.)
764 Up and down arrow keys can be used to recall previous input lines.
766 @cindex ICS text menu, Menu Item
767 Brings up a menu that is user-configurable through the @code{icsMenu} option.
768 Buttons in this menu can sent pre-configured commands directly to the ICS,
769 or can put partial commands in the input field of the @samp{ICS Chat/Console}
770 window, so that you can complete those with some text of your own before
771 sending them to the ICS by pressing Enter.
772 This menu item can also be popped up by right-clicking in the text memos
773 of the ICS Chat/Console window.
774 In that case the word that was clicked can be incorporated in the message
775 sent to the ICS. E.g. to challenge a player whose name you click for a game,
776 or prepare for sending him a message through a 'tell' commands.
778 @cindex Board, Menu Item
779 Summons a dialog where you can customize the look of the chess board.
780 @item White Piece Color
781 @itemx Black Piece Color
782 @itemx Light Square Color
783 @itemx Dark Square Color
784 @itemx Highlight Color
785 @itemx Premove Highlight Color
786 @cindex Piece Color, Menu Item
787 @cindex Square Color, Menu Item
788 @cindex Highlight Color, Menu Item
789 These items set the color of pieces, board squares and move highlights
791 Square colors are only used when the @samp{Use Board Textures} option is off,
792 the piece colors only when @samp{Use piece bitmaps with their own colors} is off.
793 You can type the color as hexadecimally encoded RGB value preceded by '#',
794 or adjust it through the R, G, B and D buttons to make it redder, greener, bluer
796 A sample of the adjusted color will be displayed behind its text description;
797 pressing this colored button restores the default value for the color.
798 @item Flip Pieces Shogi Style
799 @cindex Flip Pieces Shogi Style, Menu Item
800 With this option on XBoard will swap white and black pieces,
801 when you flip the view of the board to make white play downward.
802 This should be used with piece themes that do not distinguish sides by color,
805 @cindex Mono Mode, Menu Item
806 This option sets XBoard to pure black-and-white display
807 (no grey scales, and thus no anti-aliasing).
809 @cindex Logo Size, Menu Item
810 Specifies the width of the engine logos displayed next to the clocks, in pixels.
811 Setting it to 0 suppresses the display of such logos.
812 The height of the logo will be half its width.
813 In the GTK build of XBoard any non-zero value is equivalent,
814 and the logos are always sized to 1/4 of the board width.
816 @cindex Line Gap, Menu Item
817 This option specifies the width of the grid lines that separate the squares,
818 which change color on highlighting the move.
819 Setting it to 0 suppresses these lines, which in general looks better,
820 but hides the square-border highlights,
821 so that you would have to rely on other forms of highlighting.
822 Setting the value to -1 makes XBoard choose a width by itself,
823 depending on the square size.
824 @item Use Board Textures
825 @itemx Light-Squares Texture File
826 @itemx Dark-Squares Texture File
827 @cindex Use Board Texture, Menu Item
828 @cindex Texture Files, Menu Item
829 When the option @samp{Use Board Textures} is set,
830 the squares will not be drawn as evenly colored surfaces,
831 but will be cut from a texture image, as specified by the
832 @samp{Texture Files}.
833 Separate images can be used for light and dark squares.
834 XBoard will try to cut the squares out of the texture image
835 with as little overlap as possible, so they all look different.
836 The name of the texture file can contain a size hint,
837 e.g. @code{xqboard-9x10.png}, alerting XBoard to the fact that
838 it contains a whole-board image, out of which squares have to
839 be cut in register with the nominal sub-division.
840 @item Use external piece bitmaps with their own color
841 @cindex Draw pieces with their own colors, Menu Item
842 When this option is on XBoard will ignore the piece-color settings,
843 and draw the piece images in their original colors.
844 The piece-color settings would only work well for evenly colored
845 pieces, such as the default theme.
846 @item Directory with Pieces Images
847 @cindex Piece-Image Directory, Menu Item
848 When a directory is specified here, XBoard will first look for
849 piece images (SVG or PNG files) in that directory,
850 and fall back on the image from the default theme only for
851 images it cannot find there.
852 An image file called White/BlackTile in the directory will be prefered
853 as fall-back for missing pieces over the default image, however.
854 @item Selectable themes
855 @itemx New name for current theme
856 @cindex Board Themes, Menu Item
857 @cindex Theme name, Menu Item
858 When a theme name is specified while pressing 'OK',
859 the combination of settings specified in the dialog
860 will be stored in XBoard's list of themes,
861 which will be saved with the other options in the settings file
862 (as the @code{themeNames} option).
863 This name will then appear in the selection listbox next time
865 so that you can recall the entire combination of settings
866 by double-clicking it.
869 Here you can specify the directory from which piece images should be taken,
870 when you don't want to use the built-in piece images
871 (see @code{pieceImageDirectory} option),
872 external images to be used for the board squares
873 (@code{liteBackTextureFile} and @code{darkBackTextureFile} options),
874 and square and piece colors for the default pieces.
875 The current combination of these settings can be assigned a 'theme' name
876 by typing one in the text entry in the lower-left of the dialog,
877 and closing the latter with OK.
878 It will then appear in the themes listbox next time you open the dialog,
879 where you can recall the complete settings combination with a double-click.
881 @cindex Game List Tags, Menu Item
882 a duplicate of the Game List dialog in the Options menu.
891 @cindex Machine White, Menu Item
892 Tells the chess engine to play White.
893 The @kbd{Ctrl-W} key is a keyboard equivalent.
895 @cindex Machine Black, Menu Item
896 Tells the chess engine to play Black.
897 The @kbd{Ctrl-B} key is a keyboard equivalent.
899 @cindex Two Machines, Menu Item
900 Plays a game between two chess engines.
901 The @kbd{Ctrl-T} key is a keyboard equivalent.
903 @cindex Analysis Mode, Menu Item
905 @cindex move exclusion
906 XBoard tells the chess engine to start analyzing the current game/position
907 and shows you the analysis as you move pieces around.
908 The @kbd{Ctrl-A} key is a keyboard equivalent.
909 Note: Some chess engines do not support Analysis mode.
911 To set up a position to analyze, you do the following:
913 1. Set up the position by any means. (E.g. using @samp{Edit Position}
914 mode, pasing a FEN or loading a game and stepping to the position.)
916 2. Select Analysis Mode from the Mode Menu to start the analysis.
918 You can now play legal moves to create follow-up positions for the
919 engine to analyze, while the moves will be remembered as a stored game,
920 and then step backward through this game to take the moves back.
921 Note that you can also click on the clocks to set the opposite
922 side to move (adding a so-called @samp{null move} to the game).
924 You can also tell the engine to exclude some moves from analysis.
925 (Engines that do not support the exclude-moves feature will
926 ignore this, however.)
927 The general way to do this is to play the move you want to exclude
928 starting with a double click on the piece.
929 When you use drag-drop moving, the piece you grab with a double click
930 will also remain on its square, to show you that you are not really
931 making the move, but just forbid it from the current position.
932 Playing a thus excluded move a second time will include it again.
933 Excluded moves will be listed as text in a header line in the
934 Engine Output window, and you can also re-include them by
935 right-clicking them there.
936 This header line will also contain the words 'best' and 'tail';
937 right-clicking those will exclude the currently best move,
938 or all moves not explicitly listed in the header line.
939 Once you leave the current position all memory of excluded
940 moves will be lost when you return there.
943 Selecting this menu item while already in @samp{Analysis Mode} will
944 toggle the participation of the second engine in the analysis.
945 The output of this engine will then be shown in the lower pane
946 of the Engine Output window.
947 The analysis function can also be used when observing games on an ICS
948 with an engine loaded (zippy mode); the engine then will analyze
949 the positions as they occur in the observed game.
952 @cindex Analyze Game, Menu Item
953 This option subjects the currently loaded game to automatic
954 analysis by the loaded engine.
955 The @kbd{Ctrl-G} key is a keyboard equivalent.
956 XBoard will start auto-playing the game from the currently displayed position,
957 while the engine is analyzing the current position.
958 The game will be annotated with the results of these analyses.
959 In particlar, the score and depth will be added as a comment,
960 and the PV will be added as a variation.
962 Normally the analysis would stop after reaching the end of the game.
963 But when a game is loaded from a multi-game file
964 while @samp{Analyze Game} was already switched on,
965 the analysis will continue with the next game in the file
966 until the end of the file is reached (or you switch to another mode).
968 The time the engine spends on analyzing each move can be controlled
969 through the command-line option @samp{-timeDelay},
970 which can also be set from the @samp{Load Game Options} menu dialog.
971 Note: Some chess engines do not support Analysis mode.
973 Duplicate of the item in the Edit menu.
974 Note that @samp{Edit Game} is the idle mode of XBoard, and can be used
975 to get you out of other modes. E.g. to stop analyzing, stop a game
976 between two engines or stop editing a position.
978 Duplicate of the item in the Edit menu.
980 @cindex Training, Menu Item
981 Training mode lets you interactively guess the moves of a game for one
982 of the players. You guess the next move of the game by playing the
983 move on the board. If the move played matches the next move of the
984 game, the move is accepted and the opponent's response is auto-played.
985 If the move played is incorrect, an error message is displayed. You
986 can select this mode only while loading a game (that is, after
987 selecting @samp{Load Game} from the File menu). While XBoard is in
988 @samp{Training} mode, the navigation buttons are disabled.
990 @cindex ICS Client, Menu Item
991 This is the normal mode when XBoard
992 is connected to a chess server. If you have moved into
993 Edit Game or Edit Position mode, you can select this option to get out.
995 To use xboard in ICS mode, run it in the foreground with the -ics
996 option, and use the terminal you started it from to type commands and
997 receive text responses from the chess server. See
998 @ref{Chess Servers} below for more information.
1000 XBoard activates some special position/game editing features when you
1001 use the @kbd{examine} or @kbd{bsetup} commands on ICS and you have
1002 @samp{ICS Client} selected on the Mode menu. First, you can issue the
1003 ICS position-editing commands with the mouse. Move pieces by dragging
1004 with mouse button 1. To drop a new piece on a square, press mouse
1005 button 2 or 3 over the square. This brings up a menu of white pieces
1006 (button 2) or black pieces (button 3). Additional menu choices let
1007 you empty the square or clear the board. Click on the White or Black
1008 clock to set the side to play. You cannot set the side to play or
1009 drag pieces to arbitrary squares while examining on ICC, but you can
1010 do so in @kbd{bsetup} mode on FICS. In addition, the menu commands
1011 @samp{Forward}, @samp{Backward}, @samp{Pause}, and @samp{Stop Examining}
1012 have special functions in this mode; see below.
1014 @cindex Machine match, Menu Item
1015 Starts a match between two chess programs,
1016 with a number of games and other parameters set through
1017 the @samp{Tournament Options} menu dialog.
1018 When a match is already running, selecting this item will make
1019 XBoard drop out of match mode after the current game finishes.
1021 @cindex Pause, Menu Item
1022 Pauses updates to the board, and if you are playing against a chess engine,
1023 also pauses your clock. To continue, select @samp{Pause} again, and the
1024 display will automatically update to the latest position.
1025 The @samp{P} button and keyboard @kbd{Pause} key are equivalents.
1027 If you select Pause when you are playing against a chess engine and
1028 it is not your move, the chess engine's clock
1029 will continue to run and it will eventually make a move, at which point
1030 both clocks will stop. Since board updates are paused, however,
1031 you will not see the move until you exit from Pause mode (or select Forward).
1032 This behavior is meant to simulate adjournment with a sealed move.
1034 If you select Pause while you are observing or examining a game on a
1035 chess server, you can step backward and forward in the current history
1036 of the examined game without affecting the other observers and
1037 examiners, and without having your display jump forward to the latest
1038 position each time a move is made. Select Pause again to reconnect
1039 yourself to the current state of the game on ICS.
1041 If you select @samp{Pause} while you are loading a game, the game stops
1042 loading. You can load more moves manually by selecting @samp{Forward}, or
1043 resume automatic loading by selecting @samp{Pause} again.
1047 @section Action Menu
1048 @cindex Menu, Action
1049 @cindex Action, Menu
1052 @cindex Accept, Menu Item
1053 Accepts a pending match offer.
1054 The @kbd{F3} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1055 If there is more than one offer
1056 pending, you will have to type in a more specific command
1057 instead of using this menu choice.
1059 @cindex Decline, Menu Item
1060 Declines a pending offer (match, draw, adjourn, etc.).
1061 The @kbd{F4} key is a keyboard equivalent. If there
1062 is more than one offer pending, you will have to type in a more
1063 specific command instead of using this menu choice.
1065 @cindex Call Flag, Menu Item
1066 Calls your opponent's flag, claiming a win on time, or claiming
1067 a draw if you are both out of time.
1068 The @kbd{F5} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1069 You can also call your
1070 opponent's flag by clicking on his clock.
1072 @cindex Draw, Menu Item
1073 Offers a draw to your opponent, accepts a pending draw offer
1074 from your opponent, or claims a draw by repetition or the 50-move
1075 rule, as appropriate. The @kbd{F6} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1077 @cindex Adjourn, Menu Item
1078 Asks your opponent to agree to adjourning the current game, or
1079 agrees to a pending adjournment offer from your opponent.
1080 The @kbd{F7} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1082 @cindex Abort, Menu Item
1083 Asks your opponent to agree to aborting the current game, or
1084 agrees to a pending abort offer from your opponent.
1085 The @kbd{F8} key is a keyboard equivalent. An aborted
1086 game ends immediately without affecting either player's rating.
1088 @cindex Resign, Menu Item
1089 Resigns the game to your opponent. The @kbd{F9} key is a
1090 keyboard equivalent.
1091 @item Stop Observing
1092 @cindex Stop Observing, Menu Item
1093 Ends your participation in observing a game, by issuing the ICS
1094 observe command with no arguments. ICS mode only.
1095 The @kbd{F10} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1096 @item Stop Examining
1097 @cindex Stop Examining, Menu Item
1098 Ends your participation in examining a game, by issuing the ICS
1099 unexamine command. ICS mode only.
1100 The @kbd{F11} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1101 @item Upload to Examine
1102 @cindex Upload to Examine, Menu Item
1103 Create an examined game of the proper variant on the ICS,
1104 and send the game there that is currenty loaded in XBoard
1105 (e.g. through pasting or loading from file).
1106 You must be connected to an ICS for this to work.
1107 @item Adjudicate to White
1108 @itemx Adjudicate to Black
1109 @itemx Adjudicate Draw
1110 @cindex Adjudicate to White, Menu Item
1111 @cindex Adjudicate to Black, Menu Item
1112 @cindex Adjudicate Draw, Menu Item
1113 Terminate an ongoing game in Two-Machines mode (including match mode),
1114 with as result a win for white, for black, or a draw, respectively.
1115 The PGN file of the game will accompany the result string
1116 by the comment "user adjudication".
1120 @section Engine Menu
1122 @cindex Menu, Engine
1124 @item Edit Engine List
1125 @cindex Edit Engine List, Menu Item
1126 Opens a window that shows the list of engines registered for use
1127 by XBoard, together with the options that would be used with them
1128 when you would select them from the @samp{Load Engine} dialogs.
1129 You can then edit this list, e.g. for re-ordering the engines,
1130 or adding uncommon options needed by this engine
1131 (e.g. to cure non-compliant behavior).
1133 By editing you can also organize the engines into collapsible groups.
1134 By sandwiching a number of engine lines between lines "# NAME" and "# end",
1135 the thus enclosed engines will not initially appear in engine listboxes
1136 of other dialogs, but only the single line "# NAME"
1137 (where NAME can be an arbitrary text) will appear in their place.
1138 Selecting that line will then show the enclosed engines in the listbox,
1139 which recursively can contain other groups.
1140 The line with the group name will still present as a header,
1141 and selecting that line will collapse the group again,
1142 and makes the listbox go back to displaying the surrounding group.
1143 @item Load New 1st Engine
1144 @itemx Load New 2nd Engine
1145 @cindex Load New Engine, Menu Item
1146 Pops up a dialog where you can select or specify an engine to be loaded.
1147 You can even replace engines during a game, without disturbing that game.
1148 (Beware that after loading an engine, XBoard will always be in Edit Game mode,
1149 so you will have to tell the new engine what to do before it does anything!)
1151 @item Select engine from list
1152 @cindex Select engine, Menu Item
1153 The listbox shows the engines registered for use with XBoard before.
1154 (This means XBoard has information on the engine type, whether it plays book etc.
1155 in the engine list stored in its settings file.)
1156 Double-clicking an engine here will load it and close the dialog.
1157 The list can also contain groups, indicated by a starting '#' sign.
1158 Double-clicking such a group will 'open' it,
1159 and show the group contents in the listbox instead of the total list,
1160 with the group name as header.
1161 Double-clicking the header will 'close' the group again.
1163 @itemx Use nickname in PGN player tags of engine-engine games
1164 @cindex Nickname, Menu Item
1165 When a @samp{Nickname} is specified, the engine will appear under this name
1166 in the @samp{Select Engine} listbox.
1167 Otherwise the name there will be a tidied version of the engine command.
1168 The user can specify if the nickname is also to be used in PGN tags;
1169 normally the name engines report theselves would be used there.
1170 @item Engine Command
1171 @cindex Engine Command, Menu Item
1172 The command needed to start the engine from the command line.
1173 For compliantly installed engine this is usually just a single word,
1174 the name of the engine package (e.g. 'crafty' or 'stockfish').
1175 Some engines need additional parameters on the command line.
1176 For engines that are not in a place where the system would expect them
1177 a full pathname can be specified, and usually the browse button
1178 for this oprion is the easiest way to obtain that.
1179 @item Engine Directory
1180 @cindex Engine Directory, Menu Item
1181 Compliant engines could run from any directory,
1182 and by default this option is proposed as '.', the current directory.
1183 If a (path)name is specified here, XBoard will start the engine
1185 If you make the field empty, it will try to derive the directory
1186 from the engine command (if that was a path name).
1188 @cindex UCI, Menu Item
1189 When the @samp{UCI} checkbox is ticked XBoard will assume
1190 the engine is of UCI type, and will invoke the corresponding adapter
1191 (as specified in the @code{adapterCommand} option stored in its
1192 settings file)to use it.
1193 By default this adapter is Polyglot,
1194 which must be installed from a separate package!
1196 @cindex USI/UCCI, Menu Item
1197 Ticking this checkbox informs XBoard that the engine is of USI or UCCI type
1198 (as Shogi or Xiangqi engines often are).
1199 This makes XBoard invoke an adapter to run the engines,
1200 as specified by the @code{uxiAdapter} option stored in its settings file.
1201 The UCI2WB program is an adapter that can handle both these engine types,
1203 @item WB protocol v1
1204 @cindex WB protocol v1, Menu Item
1205 Ticking this checkbox informs XBoard the engine is using an old version (1)
1206 of the communication protocol, so that it won't respond to a request
1207 to interrogate its properties.
1208 XBoard then won't even try that, saving you a wait of several seconds
1209 each time the engine is started.
1210 Do not use this on state-of-the-art engines,
1211 as it would prevent XBoard from interrogating its capabilities,
1212 so that many of its features might not work!
1213 @item Must not use GUI book
1214 @cindex Use GUI book, Menu Item
1215 By default XBoard assumes engines are responsible for their own opening book,
1216 but unticking this option makes XBoard consult its own book
1217 (as per @samp{Opening-Book Filename}) on behalf of the engine.
1218 @item Add this engine to the list
1219 @cindex Add engine, Menu Item
1220 By default XBoard would add the engine you specified,
1221 with all the given options to its list of registered engines
1222 (kept in its settings file), when you press 'OK'.
1223 Next time you could then simply select it from the listbox,
1224 or use the command "xboard -fe NICKNAME" to start XBoard with the
1225 engine and accompanying options.
1226 New engines are always added at the end of the existing list,
1227 or, when you have opened a group in the @samp{Select Engine} listbox,
1228 at the end of that group.
1229 But can be re-ordered later with the aid
1230 of the @samp{Edit Engine List} menu item.
1231 When you untick this checkbox before pressing 'OK'
1232 the engine will be loaded, but will not be added to the engine list.
1233 @item Force current variant with this engine
1234 @cindex Force variant with engine, Menu Item
1235 Ticking this option will make XBoard automatically start the engine
1236 in the current variant, even when XBoard was set for a different
1237 variant when you loaded the engine.
1238 Useful when the engine plays multiple variants,
1239 and you specifically want to play one different from its primary one.
1242 @item Engine #1 Settings
1243 @itemx Engine #2 Settings
1244 @cindex Engine #N Settings, Menu Item
1245 Pop up a menu dialog to alter the settings specific to the applicable engine.
1246 For each parameter the engine allows to be set,
1247 a control element will appear in this dialog that can be used to alter the value.
1248 Depending on the type of parameter (text string, number, multiple choice,
1249 on/off switch, instantaneous signal) the appropriate control will appear,
1250 with a description next to it.
1251 XBoard has no idea what these values mean; it just passes them on to the engine.
1252 How this dialog looks is completely determined by the engine,
1253 and XBoard just passes it on to the user.
1254 Many engines do not have any parameters that can be set by the user,
1255 and in that case the dialog will be empty (except for the OK and cancel buttons).
1256 UCI engines usually have many parameters. (But these are only visible with
1257 a sufficiently modern version of the Polyglot adapter needed to run UCI engines,
1258 e.g. Polyglot 2.0.1.) For native XBoard engines this is less common.
1260 @item Common Settings
1261 @cindex Common Settings, Menu Item
1262 Pops up a menu dialog where you can set some engine parameters common to most engines,
1263 such as hash-table size, tablebase cache size, maximum number of processors
1264 that SMP engines can use.
1265 The shifted @kbd{Alt+U} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1266 Older XBoard/WinBoard engines might not respond to these settings,
1267 but UCI engines always should.
1268 The @samp{EGT path} field corresponds to the setting of the
1269 @code{egtFormats} option to specify where to find tablebases
1270 of various flavors. See the description of this option for the required syntax.
1272 It is also possible to specify a GUI opening book here, i.e. an opening
1273 book that XBoard consults for any position a playing engine gets in.
1274 It then forces the engine to play the book move, rather than to think up its own,
1275 if that position is found in the book.
1276 The book can switched on and off independently for either engine.
1277 The way book moves are chosen can be influenced through the settings of
1278 book depth and variety.
1279 After both sides have played more moves than the specified depth,
1280 the book will no longer be consulted.
1281 When the variety is set to 50, moves will be played with the probability
1282 specified in the book.
1283 When set to 0, only the move(s) with the highest probability will be played.
1284 When set to 100, all listed moves will be played with equal pobability.
1285 Other settings interpolate between that.
1288 @cindex Hint, Menu Item
1289 Displays a move hint from the chess engine.
1291 @cindex Book, Menu Item
1292 Displays a list of possible moves from the chess engine's opening
1293 book. The exact format depends on what chess engine you are using.
1294 With GNU Chess 4, the first column gives moves, the second column
1295 gives one possible response for each move, and the third column shows
1296 the number of lines in the book that include the move from the first
1297 column. If you select this option and nothing happens, the chess
1298 engine is out of its book or does not support this feature.
1300 @cindex Move Now, Menu Item
1301 Forces the chess engine to move immediately. Chess engine mode only.
1302 The @kbd{Ctrl-M} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1303 Many engines won't respond to this.
1305 @cindex Retract Move, Menu Item
1306 Retracts your last move. In chess engine mode, you can do this only
1307 after the chess engine has replied to your move; if the chess engine is still
1308 thinking, use @samp{Move Now} first. In ICS mode, @samp{Retract Move}
1309 issues the command @samp{takeback 1} or @samp{takeback 2}
1310 depending on whether it is your opponent's move or yours.
1311 The @kbd{Ctrl-X} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1312 @item Recently Used Engines
1313 @cindex Recently Used Engines, In Menu
1314 At the bottom of the engine menu there can be a list of names
1315 of engines that you recently loaded through the Load Engine menu dialog
1316 in previous sessions.
1317 Clicking on such a name will load that engine as first engine,
1318 so you won't have to search for it in your list of installed engines,
1319 if that is very long.
1320 The maximum number of displayed engine names is set by the
1321 @code{recentEngines} command-line option.
1325 @section Options Menu
1326 @cindex Menu, Options
1327 @cindex Options Menu
1328 @section General Options
1329 @cindex General Options, Menu Item
1330 The following items to set option values appear in the dialog
1331 summoned by the general Options menu item.
1333 @item Absolute Analysis Scores
1334 @cindex Absolute Analysis Scores, Menu Item
1335 Controls if scores on the Engine Output window during analysis
1336 will be printed from the white or the side-to-move point-of-view.
1337 @item Almost Always Queen
1338 @cindex Almost Always Queen, Menu Item
1339 If this option is on, 7th-rank pawns automatically change into
1340 Queens when you pick them up,
1341 and when you drag them to the promotion square and release them there,
1342 they will promote to that.
1343 But when you drag such a pawn backwards first,
1344 its identity will start to cycle through the other available pieces.
1345 This will continue until you start to move it forward;
1346 at which point the identity of the piece will be fixed,
1347 so that you can safely put it down on the promotion square.
1348 If this option is off, what happens depends on the
1349 option @code{alwaysPromoteToQueen},
1350 which would force promotion to Queen when true.
1351 Otherwise XBoard would bring up a dialog
1352 box whenever you move a pawn to the last rank, asking what piece
1353 you want to promote to.
1354 @item Animate Dragging
1355 @cindex Animate Dragging, Menu Item
1356 If Animate Dragging is on, while you are dragging a piece with the
1357 mouse, an image of the piece follows the mouse cursor.
1358 If Animate Dragging is off, there is no visual feedback while you are
1359 dragging a piece, but if Animate Moving is on, the move will be
1360 animated when it is complete.
1361 @item Animate Moving
1362 @cindex Animate Moving, Menu Item
1363 If Animate Moving is on, all piece moves are animated. An image of the
1364 piece is shown moving from the old square to the new square when the
1365 move is completed (unless the move was already animated by Animate Dragging).
1366 If Animate Moving is off, a moved piece instantly disappears from its
1367 old square and reappears on its new square when the move is complete.
1368 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-A} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1370 @cindex Auto Flag, Menu Item
1371 If this option is on and one player runs out of time
1374 will automatically call his flag, claiming a win on time.
1375 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-F} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1376 In ICS mode, Auto Flag will only call your opponent's flag, not yours,
1377 and the ICS may award you a draw instead of a win if you have
1378 insufficient mating material. In local chess engine mode,
1380 may call either player's flag.
1381 @item Auto Flip View
1382 @cindex Auto Flip View, Menu Item
1383 If the Auto Flip View option is on when you start a game, the board
1384 will be automatically oriented so that your pawns move from the bottom
1385 of the window towards the top.
1387 If you are playing a game on an ICS, the board is always
1388 oriented at the start of the game so that your pawns move from
1389 the bottom of the window towards the top. Otherwise, the starting
1390 orientation is determined by the @code{flipView} command line option;
1391 if it is false (the default), White's pawns move from bottom to top
1392 at the start of each game; if it is true, Black's pawns move from
1393 bottom to top. @xref{User interface options}.
1395 @cindex Blindfold, Menu Item
1396 If this option is on, XBoard displays the board as usual but does
1397 not display pieces or move highlights. You can still move in the
1398 usual way (with the mouse or by typing moves in ICS mode), even though
1399 the pieces are invisible.
1401 @cindex Drop Menu, Menu Item
1402 Controls if right-clicking the board in crazyhouse / bughouse
1403 will pop up a menu to drop a piece on the clicked square
1404 (old, deprecated behavior)
1405 or allow you to step through an engine PV
1406 (new, recommended behavior).
1407 @item Enable Variation Trees
1408 @cindex Enable Variation Trees, Menu Item
1409 If this option is on, playing a move in Edit Game or Analyze mode
1410 while keeping the Shift key pressed will start a new variation.
1411 You can then recall the previous line through the @samp{Revert} menu item.
1412 When off, playing a move will truncate the game and append the move
1414 @item Headers in Engine Output Window
1415 @cindex Headers in Engine Output Window, Menu Item
1416 Controls the presence of column headers above the variations and
1417 associated information printed by the engine, on which you can issue
1418 button 3 clicks to open or close the columns.
1419 Available columns are search depth, score, node count, time used,
1420 tablebase hits, search speed and selective search depth.
1422 @cindex Hide Thinking, Menu Item
1423 If this option is off, the chess engine's notion of the score and best
1424 line of play from the current position is displayed as it is
1425 thinking. The score indicates how many pawns ahead (or if negative,
1426 behind) the chess engine thinks it is. In matches between two
1427 machines, the score is prefixed by @samp{W} or @samp{B} to indicate
1428 whether it is showing White's thinking or Black's, and only the thinking
1429 of the engine that is on move is shown.
1430 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-H} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1431 @item Highlight Last Move
1432 @cindex Highlight Last Move, Menu Item
1433 If Highlight Last Move is on, after a move is made, the starting and
1434 ending squares remain highlighted. In addition, after you use Backward
1435 or Back to Start, the starting and ending squares of the last move to
1436 be unmade are highlighted.
1437 @item Highlight with Arrow
1438 @cindex Highlight with Arrow, Menu Item
1439 Causes the highlighting described in Highlight Last Move to be done
1440 by drawing an arrow between the highlighted squares,
1441 so that it is visible even when the width of the grid lines is set to zero.
1442 @item One-Click Moving
1443 @cindex One-Click Moving, Menu Item
1444 If this option is on, XBoard does not wait for you to click both the
1445 from- and the to-square, or drag the piece, but performs a move as soon
1446 as it is uniqely specified.
1447 This applies to clicking an own piece that only has a single legal move,
1448 clicking an empty square or opponent piece where only one of your pieces
1449 can move (or capture) to.
1450 Furthermore, a double-click on a piece that can only make a single capture
1451 will cause that capture to be made.
1452 Promoting a Pawn by clicking its to-square will suppress the promotion
1453 popup or other methods for selecting an under-promotion,
1454 and make it promote to Queen.
1455 @item Periodic Updates
1456 @cindex Periodic Updates, Menu Item
1457 If this option is off (or if
1458 you are using a chess engine that does not support periodic updates),
1460 will only be updated when the analysis changes. If this option is
1461 on, the Analysis Window will be updated every two seconds.
1462 @item Play Move(s) of Clicked PV
1463 @cindex Play Move(s) of Clicked PV, Menu Item
1464 If this option is on, right-clicking on the first move of a PV
1465 or on the data fields left of it in the Engine Output window
1466 during Analyze mode will cause the first move of that PV to be played.
1467 You could also play more than one (or no) PV move by moving the mouse
1468 to engage in the PV walk such a right-click will start,
1469 to seek out another position along the PV where you want to continue
1470 the analysis, before releasing the mouse button.
1471 Clicking on later moves of the PV only temporarily show the moves
1472 for as long you keep the mouse button down,
1473 without adding them to the game.
1474 @item Ponder Next Move
1475 @cindex Ponder Next Move, Menu Item
1476 If this option is off, the chess engine will think only when it is on
1477 move. If the option is on, the engine will also think while waiting
1478 for you to make your move.
1479 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-P} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1480 @item Popup Exit Message
1481 @cindex Popup Exit Message, Menu Item
1482 If this option is on, when XBoard wants to display a message just
1483 before exiting, it brings up a modal dialog box and waits for you to
1484 click OK before exiting. If the option is off, XBoard prints the
1485 message to standard error (the terminal) and exits immediately.
1486 @item Popup Move Errors
1487 @cindex Popup Move Errors, Menu Item
1488 If this option is off, when you make an error in moving (such as
1489 attempting an illegal move or moving the wrong color piece), the
1490 error message is displayed in the message area. If the option is
1491 on, move errors are displayed in small pop-up windows like other errors.
1492 You can dismiss an error pop-up either by clicking its OK button or by
1493 clicking anywhere on the board, including down-clicking to start a move.
1494 @item Scores in Move List
1495 @cindex Scores in Move List, Menu Item
1496 If this option is on, XBoard will display the depth and score
1497 of engine moves in the Move List, in the format of a PGN comment.
1499 @cindex Show Coords, Menu Item
1500 If this option is on, XBoard displays algebraic coordinates
1501 along the board's left and bottom edges.
1502 @item Show Target Squares
1503 @cindex Show Target Squares, Menu Item
1504 If this option is on, all squares a piece that is 'picked up' with the mouse
1505 can legally move to are highighted with a fat colored dot in
1506 yellow (non-captures) or red (captures).
1507 Special moves might have other colors
1508 (e.g. magenta for promotion, cyan for a partial move).
1509 Legality testing must be on for XBoard to know how the piece moves,
1510 but with legality testing off some engines would offer this information.
1511 @item Sticky Windows
1512 @cindex Sticky Windows, Menu Item
1513 Controls whether the auxiliary windows such as Engine Output, Move History
1514 and Evaluation Graph should keep touching XBoard's main window when
1515 you move the latter.
1517 @cindex Test Legality, Menu Item
1518 If this option is on, XBoard tests whether the moves you try to make
1519 with the mouse are legal and refuses to let you make an illegal move.
1520 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-L} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1521 Moves loaded from a file with @samp{Load Game} are also checked. If
1522 the option is off, all moves are accepted, but if a local chess engine
1523 or the ICS is active, they will still reject illegal moves. Turning
1524 off this option is useful if you are playing a chess variant with
1525 rules that XBoard does not understand. (Bughouse, suicide, and wild
1526 variants where the king may castle after starting on the d file are
1527 generally supported with Test Legality on.)
1528 @item Top-Level Dialogs
1529 @cindex Top-Level Dialogs, Menu Item
1530 Controls whether the auxiliary windows will appear as icons in the
1531 task bar and independently controllable, or whether they open and
1532 minimize all together with the main window.
1535 @cindex Flash Moves, Menu Item
1536 @cindex Flash Rate, Menu Item
1537 If this option is non-zero, whenever a move is completed,
1538 the moved piece flashes the specified number of times.
1539 The flash-rate setting determines how rapidly this flashing occurs.
1540 @item Animation Speed
1541 @cindex Animation Speed, Menu Item
1542 Determines the duration (in msec) of an animation step,
1543 when @samp{Animate Moving} is swiched on.
1544 @item Zoom factor in Evaluation Graph
1545 @cindex Zoom factor in Evaluation Graph, Menu Item
1546 Sets the value of the @code{evalZoom} option,
1547 indicating the factor by which the score interval (-1,1) should be
1548 blown up on the vertical axis of the Evaluation Graph.
1550 @section Time Control
1551 @cindex Time Control, Menu Item
1552 Pops up a sub-menu where you can set the time-control parameters interactively.
1553 The shifted @kbd{Alt+T} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1556 @cindex classical, Menu Item
1557 Selects classical TC,
1558 where the game is devided into sessions of a certain number of moves,
1559 and after each session the start time is again added to the clocks.
1561 @cindex incremental, Menu Item
1562 Selects a TC mode where the game will start with a base time on the clocks,
1563 and after every move an 'increment' will be added to it.
1565 @cindex fixed max, Menu Item
1566 Selects a TC mode where you have to make each move within a given time,
1567 and any left-over time is not carried over to the next move.
1568 @item Moves per session
1569 @cindex Moves per session, Menu Item
1570 Sets the duration of a session for classical time control.
1572 @cindex Initial time, Menu Item
1573 Time initially on the clock in classical or incremental time controls.
1574 In classical time controls this time will also be added to the clock
1575 at the start of ach new session.
1576 @item Increment or max
1577 @cindex Increment or max, Menu Item
1578 Time to be added to the clock after every move in incremental TC mode.
1579 Fore 'fixed maximum' TC mode, the clock will be set to this time
1580 before every move, irrespective of how much was left on that clock.
1581 @item Time-Odds factors
1582 @cindex Time-Odds factors, Menu Item
1583 When these options are set to 1 the clocks of the players will be set
1584 according to the other specified TC parameters.
1585 Players can be given unequal times by specifying a time-odds factor
1586 for one of them (or a different factor for both of them).
1587 Any time received by that player will then be divided by that factor.
1590 @section Adjudications
1591 @cindex Adjudications, Menu Item
1592 Pops up a sub-menu where you can enable or disable various adjudications
1593 that XBoard can perform in engine-engine games.
1594 The shifted @kbd{Alt+J} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1596 @item Detect all Mates
1597 @cindex Detect all Mates, Menu Item
1598 When this option is set
1599 XBoard will terminate the game on checkmate or stalemate,
1600 even if the engines would not do so.
1601 Only works when @samp{Test Legality} is on.
1602 @item Verify Engine Result Claims
1603 @cindex Verify Engine Result Claims, Menu Item
1604 When this option is set
1605 XBoard will verify engine result claims,
1606 (forfeiting engines that make false claims),
1607 rather than naively beleiving the engine.
1608 Only works when @samp{Test Legality} is on.
1609 @item Draw if Insufficient Mating Material
1610 @cindex Draw if Insufficient Mating Material, Menu Item
1611 When this option is set
1612 XBoard will terminate games with a draw result
1613 when so little material is left
1614 that checkmate is not longer possible.
1615 In normal Chess this applies to KK, KNK, KBK
1616 and some positions with multiple Bishops all on the same
1618 Only works when @samp{Test Legality} is on.
1619 @item Adjudicate Trivial Draws
1620 @cindex Adjudicate Trivial Draws, Menu Item
1621 When this option is set
1622 XBoard will terminate games with a draw result
1623 in positions that could only be won against an idiot.
1624 In normal Chess this applies to KNNK, KRKR, KBKN, KNKN,
1625 and KBKB with Bishops on different square shades.
1626 KQKQ will also be adjudicated a draw (possibly unjustly so).
1627 Only works when @samp{Test Legality} is on.
1629 @cindex N-Move Rule, Menu Item
1630 When this option is set to a value differnt from zero
1631 XBoard will terminate games with a draw result
1632 after the specified number of reversible moves
1633 (i.e. without captures or pawn pushes) is made.
1634 @item N-fold Repeats
1635 @cindex N-fold Repeats, Menu Item
1636 When this option is set to a value larger than 1,
1637 XBoard will terminate games with a draw result when
1638 the same position has occurred the specified number of times.
1639 @item Draw after N Moves Total
1640 @cindex Draw after N Moves Total, Menu Item
1641 When this option is set to a value different from zero,
1642 XBoard will terminate games with a draw result
1643 after that many moves have been played.
1644 Useful in automated engine-engine matches,
1645 to prevent one game between stubborn engines will soak up
1646 all your computer time.
1647 @item Win / Loss Threshold
1648 @cindex Win / Loss Threshold, Menu Item
1649 When this option is set to a value different from zero,
1650 XBoard will terminate games as a win when both engines
1651 agree the score is above the specified value
1652 (interpreted as centi-Pawn)
1653 for three successive moves.
1654 @item Negate Score of Engine #1
1655 @itemx Negate Score of Engine #2
1656 @cindex Negate Score of Engine, Menu Item
1657 These options should be used with engines
1658 that report scores from the white point of view,
1659 rather than the side-to-move POV as XBoard would otherwise
1660 assume when adjudicating games based on the engine score.
1661 When the engine is installed with the extra option
1662 @code{firstScoreIsAbs} true in the engine list
1663 the option would be automatically set when the engine is
1664 loaded throuhgh the Engine menu,
1665 or with the @code{fe} or @code{se} command-line option.
1668 @section ICS Options
1669 @cindex ICS Options, Menu Item
1670 Pops up a menu dialog where options can be set that affect
1671 playing against an Internet Chess Server.
1674 @cindex Auto-Kibitz, Menu Item
1675 Setting this option when playing with or aginst a chess program on an ICS
1676 will cause the last line of thinking output of the engine before its move
1677 to be sent to the ICS in a kibitz command.
1678 In addition, any kibitz message received through the ICS from
1679 an opponent chess program will be diverted to the engine-output window,
1680 (and suppressed in the console),
1681 where you can play through its PV by right-clicking it.
1683 @cindex Auto-Comment, Menu Item
1684 If this option is on, any remarks made on ICS while you are observing or
1685 playing a game are recorded as a comment on the current move. This includes
1686 remarks made with the ICS commands @kbd{say}, @kbd{tell}, @kbd{whisper},
1688 Limitation: remarks that you type yourself are not recognized;
1689 XBoard scans only the output from ICS, not the input you type to it.
1691 @cindex Auto-Observe, Menu Item
1692 If this option is on and you add a player to your @code{gnotify}
1693 list on ICS, XBoard will automatically observe all of that
1694 player's games, unless you are doing something else (such as
1695 observing or playing a game of your own) when one starts.
1696 The games are displayed
1697 from the point of view of the player on your gnotify list; that is, his
1698 pawns move from the bottom of the window towards the top.
1699 Exceptions: If both players in a game are on your gnotify list, if
1702 variable is set to 0, or if the ICS you are using does not
1703 properly support observing from Black's point of view,
1704 you will see the game from White's point of view.
1705 @item Auto-Raise Board
1706 @cindex Auto Raise Board, Menu Item
1707 If this option is on, whenever a new game begins, the chessboard window
1708 is deiconized (if necessary) and raised to the top of the stack of windows.
1710 @cindex Auto Save, Menu Item
1711 If this option is true, at the end of every game XBoard prompts
1712 you for a file name and appends a record of the game to the file
1714 Disabled if the @code{saveGameFile} command-line
1715 option is set, as in that case all games are saved to the specified file.
1716 @xref{Load and Save options}.
1717 @item Background Observe while Playing
1718 @cindex Background Observe while Playing, Menu Item
1719 Setting this option will make XBoard suppress display of any boards
1720 from observed games while you are playing.
1721 Instead the last such board will be remembered,
1722 and shown to you when you right-click the board.
1723 This allows you to peek at your bughouse partner's game when you want,
1724 without disturbing your own game too much.
1725 @item Dual Board for Background-Observed Game
1726 @cindex Dual Board for Background-Observed Game, Menu Item
1727 Setting this option in combination with @samp{Background Observe}
1728 will display boards of observed games while you are playing
1729 on a second board next to that of your own game.
1731 @cindex Get Move List, Menu Item
1732 If this option is on, whenever XBoard
1733 receives the first board of a new ICS game (or a different game from
1734 the one it is currently displaying), it
1735 retrieves the list of past moves from the ICS.
1736 You can then review the moves with the @samp{Forward} and @samp{Backward}
1738 or save them with @samp{Save Game}. You might want to
1739 turn off this option if you are observing several blitz games at once,
1740 to keep from wasting time and network bandwidth fetching the move lists over
1742 When you turn this option on from the menu, XBoard
1743 immediately fetches the move list of the current game (if any).
1745 @cindex Quiet Play, Menu Item
1746 If this option is on, XBoard will automatically issue an ICS
1748 command whenever you start a game and a
1750 command whenever you finish one. Thus, you will not be distracted
1751 by shouts from other ICS users while playing.
1753 @cindex Seek Graph, Menu Item
1754 Setting this option will cause XBoard to display an graph of
1755 currently active seek ads when you left-click the board
1756 while idle and logged on to an ICS.
1757 @item Auto-Refresh Seek Graph
1758 @cindex Auto-Refresh Seek Graph, Menu Item
1759 In combination with the @samp{Seek Graph} option this
1760 will cause automatic update of the seek graph while it is up.
1761 This only works on FICS and ICC,
1762 and requires a lot of bandwidth on a busy server.
1763 @item Auto-InputBox PopUp
1764 @cindex Auto-InputBox PopUp, Menu Item
1765 Controls whether the ICS Input Box will pop up automatically when
1766 you type a printable character to the board window in ICS mode.
1767 @item Quit After Game
1768 @cindex Quit After Game, Menu Item
1769 Controls whether XBoard will automatically disconnect from the ICS
1770 and close when the game currently in progress finishes.
1772 @itemx Premove for White
1773 @itemx Premove for Black
1774 @itemx First White Move
1775 @itemx First Black Move
1776 @cindex Premove, Menu Item
1777 @cindex Premove for White, Menu Item
1778 @cindex Premove for Black, Menu Item
1779 @cindex First White Move, Menu Item
1780 @cindex First Black Move, Menu Item
1781 If the @samp{Premove} option is on while playing a game on an ICS,
1782 you can register your next planned move before it is your turn.
1784 the mouse in the ordinary way, and the starting and ending squares
1785 will be highlighted with a special color (red by default). When it is
1786 your turn, if your registered move is legal, XBoard will send it to
1787 ICS immediately; if not, it will be ignored and you can make a
1788 different move. If you change your mind about your premove, either
1789 make a different move, or double-click on any piece to cancel the move
1792 You can also enter premoves for the first white and black moves
1796 @cindex Alarm, Menu Item
1797 @cindex Alarm Time, Menu Item
1798 When this option is on, an alarm sound is played when your clock
1799 counts down to the @samp{Alarm Time} in an ICS game.
1800 (By default, the time is 5 seconds, but you can specify other values
1801 with the Alarm Time spin control.)
1802 For games with time controls that include an increment, the
1803 alarm will sound each time the clock counts down to the icsAlarmTime.
1804 By default, the alarm sound is the terminal bell, but on some systems
1805 you can change it to a sound file using the soundIcsAlarm option; see
1807 @item Colorize Messages
1808 @cindex Colorize Messages, Menu Item
1809 Ticking this options causes various types of ICS messages do be
1810 displayed with different foreground or background colors in the console.
1811 The colors can be individually selected for each type,
1812 through the accompanying text edits.
1813 @item -icsMenu string
1814 @cindex icsMenu, option
1815 The string defines buttons for the @samp{ICS text menu}.
1816 Each button definition consists of two semi-colon-terminated pieces of text,
1817 the first giving the label to be written on the button,
1818 the second the text that should be sent to the ICS when that button is pressed.
1819 This second part (the 'message') can contain linefeeds, so that you can send
1820 multiple ICS commands with one button.
1821 Some message in the text, all starting with a $-sign, are treated special.
1822 When the message contains '$input', it will not be sent directly to the ICS,
1823 but will be put in the input field of the @samp{ICS Chat/Console},
1824 with the text cursor at the indicated place, so you can addsome text to
1825 the message before sending it off.
1826 If such a message starts with '$add' it will be placed behind any text
1827 that is already present in the input field, otherwise this field will
1829 The word '$name' occurring in the message will be replaced by the word
1830 that was clicked (through button 3) in the ICS Chat/Console.
1831 There are two special messages: '$chat' will open a new chat with
1832 the clicked word in the chat-partner field,
1833 while '$copy' will copy the text that is currently-selected
1834 in the ICS Console to the clipboard.
1835 An example of a text menu as it might occur in your settings file
1836 (where you could edit it):
1839 -icsMenu @{copy;$copy;
1842 finger (player);finger $name;
1843 bullet (player);match $name 1 1 r;
1844 blitz (player);match $name 5 1 r;
1845 rapid (player);match $name 30 0 r;
1846 open chat (player);$chat;
1847 tell (player);tell $name $input;
1848 ask pieces;ptell Please give me a $input;
1850 N;$add Knight $input;
1851 B;$add Bishop $input;
1853 Q;$add Queen $input;
1858 @section Tournament Options
1859 @cindex Tournament Options, Menu Item
1860 Summons a dialog where you can set options important for playing automatic
1861 matches between two or more chess programs
1862 (e.g. by using the @samp{Machine Match} menu item in the @samp{Mode} menu).
1864 @item Tournament file
1865 @cindex Tournament file, Menu item
1866 To run a tournament, XBoard needs a file to record its progress,
1867 so it can resume the tourney when it is interrupted.
1868 When you want to conduct anything more complex than a simple
1869 two-player match with the currently loaded engines,
1870 (i.e. when you select a list of participants),
1871 you must not leave this field blank.
1872 When you enter the name of an existing tournament file,
1873 XBoard will ignore all other input specified in the dialog,
1874 and will take the corresponding info from that tournament file.
1875 This resumes an interrupted tournament, or adds another XBoard
1876 agent playing games for it to those that are already doing so.
1877 Specifying a not-yet-existing file will cause XBoard to create it,
1878 according to the tournament parameters specified in the rest of the dialog,
1879 before it starts the tournament on ‘OK’.
1880 Provided that you specify participants;
1881 without participants no tournament file will be made, but other entered values
1882 (e.g. for the file with opening positions) will take effect.
1883 Default: configured by the @code{defaultTourneyName} option.
1884 @item Sync after round
1885 @itemx Sync after cycle
1886 @cindex Sync after round, Menu Item
1887 @cindex Sync after cycle, Menu Item
1888 The sync options, when on, will cause WinBoard to refrain from starting games
1889 of the next round or cycle before all games of the previous round or cycle are finished.
1890 This guarantees correct ordering in the games file,
1891 even when multiple XBoard instances are concurrently playing games for the same tourney.
1892 Default: sync after cycle, but not after round.
1894 @itemx Tourney participants
1895 @cindex Select Engine, Menu Item
1896 @cindex Tourney participants, Menu Item
1897 From the Select Engine listbox you can pick an engine from your list
1898 of engines registered in the settings file, to be added to the tournament.
1899 The engines selected so far will be listed in the ‘Tourney participants’ memo.
1900 The latter is a normal text edit, so you can use normal text-editing functions
1901 to delete engines you selected accidentally, or change their order.
1902 Typing names here yourself is not recommended, because names that do not exactly match
1903 one of the names from the selection listbox will lead to undefined behavior.
1905 @cindex Tourney type, Menu Item
1906 Here you can specify the type of tournament you want.
1907 XBoard’s intrinsic tournament manager support round-robins (type = 0),
1908 where each participant plays every other participant, and (multi-)gauntlets,
1909 where one (or a few) so-called ‘gauntlet engines’ play an independent set of opponents.
1910 In the latter case, you specify the number of gauntlet engines.
1911 E.g. if you specified 10 engines, and tourney type = 2,
1912 the first 2 engines each play the remaining 8.
1913 A value of -1 instructs XBoard to play Swiss; for this to work an external
1914 pairing engine must be specified through the @code{pairingEngine} option.
1915 Each Swiss round will be considered a tourney cycle in that case.
1917 @item Number of tourney cycles
1918 @itemx Default number of Games
1919 @cindex Number of tourney cycles, Menu Item
1920 @cindex Default number of Games, Menu Item
1921 You can specify tourneys where every two opponents play each other multiple times.
1922 Such multiple games can be played in a row,
1923 as specified by the ‘number of games per pairing’,
1924 or by repeating the entire tournament schedule a number of times
1925 (specified by the ‘number of tourney cycles’).
1926 The total number of times two engines meet will be the product of these two.
1928 the number of games per pairing is the same as the default number of match games,
1929 stored in your settings file through the @code{defaultMatchGames} option.
1930 @item Save Tourney Games
1931 @cindex Save Tourney Games, Menu Item
1932 File where the tournament games are saved
1933 (duplicate of the item in the @samp{Save Game Options}).
1934 @item Game File with Opening Lines
1935 @itemx File with Start Positions
1937 @itemx Position Number
1938 @itemx Rewind Index after
1939 @cindex Game File with Opening Lines, Menu Item
1940 @cindex File with Start Positions, Menu Item
1941 @cindex Game Number, Menu Item
1942 @cindex Position Number, Menu Item
1943 @cindex Rewind Index after, Menu Item
1944 These items optionally specify the file with move sequences or board positions the tourney
1945 games should start from.
1946 The corresponding numbers specify the number of the game or position in the file.
1947 Here a value -1 means automatic stepping through all games on the file,
1948 -2 automatic stepping every two games.
1949 The Rewind-Index parameter causes a stepping index to reset to one after reaching
1951 A setting of -2 for the game number will also be effective in a tournament without
1952 specifying a game file, but playing from the GUI book instead.
1953 In this case the first (odd) games will randomly select from the book,
1954 but the second (even) games will select the same moves from the book as the previous game.
1955 (Note this leads to the same opening only if both engines use the GUI book!)
1956 Default: No game or position file will be used. The default index if such a file is used is 1.
1957 @item Disable own engine books be default
1958 @cindex Disable own engine books be default, Menu Item
1959 Setting this option reverses the default situation for use of the GUI opening book
1960 in tournaments from what it normally is, namely not using it.
1961 So unless the engine is installed with an option to explicitly specify it should
1962 not use the GUI book (i.e. @code{-firstHasOwnBookUCI true}),
1963 it will be made to use the GUI book.
1964 @item Replace Engine
1965 @itemx Upgrade Engine
1966 @cindex Replace Engine, Menu Item
1967 @cindex Upgrade Engine, Menu Item
1968 With these two buttons you can alter the participants of an already running tournament.
1969 After opening the Match Options dialog on an XBoard that is playing for the tourney,
1970 you will see all the tourney parameters in the dialog fields.
1971 You can then replace the name of one engine by that of another
1972 by editing the @samp{participants} field.
1973 (But preserve the order of the others!)
1974 Pressing the button after that will cause the substitution.
1975 With the @samp{Upgrade Engine} button the substitution will only affect future games.
1976 With @samp{Replace Engine} all games the substituted engine has already played will
1977 be invalidated, and they will be replayed with the substitute engine.
1978 In this latter case the engine must not be playing when you do this,
1979 but otherwise there is no need to pause the tournament play
1980 for making a substitution.
1982 @cindex CloneTourney, Menu Item
1983 Pressing this button after you have specified an existing tournament file
1984 will copy the contents of the latter to the dialog,
1985 and then puts the originally proposed name for the tourney file back.
1986 You can then run a tourney with the same parameters
1987 (possibly after changing the proposed name of the tourney file for the new tourney)
1989 @item Continue Later
1990 @cindex Continue Later, Menu Item
1991 Pressing the @samp{Continue Later} button confirms the current value of all
1992 items in the dialog and closes it,
1993 but will not automatically start the tournament.
1994 This allows you to return to the dialog later without losing the settings you
1995 already entered, to adjust paramenters through other menu dialogs.
1996 (The @samp{Common Engine Setting}, @samp{Time Control} and @samp{General Options}
1997 dialogs can be accessed without closing the @samp{Tournament Options} dialog
1998 through the respective buttons at the bottom of the latter.)
2001 @section Load Game Options
2002 @cindex Load Game Options, Menu Item
2003 Summons a dialog where you can set options that control loading of games.
2005 @item Auto-Display Tags
2006 @cindex Auto-Display Tags, Menu Item
2007 Setting this option causes a window to pop up on loading a game,
2008 displaying the PGN Tags for that game.
2009 @item Auto-Display Comment
2010 @cindex Auto-Display Comment, Menu Item
2011 Setting this option causes a window to pop up whenever there
2012 is a comment to (or variation on) the currently displayed move.
2013 @item Auto-Play speed of loaded games
2014 @cindex Auto-Play speed, Menu Item
2015 This option sets the number of seconds between moves
2016 when a newly loaded game is auto-playing.
2017 A decimal fraction on the number is understood.
2018 Setting it to -1 disables auto-play, staying in the start position
2019 of the game after the loading completes.
2020 Setting it to 0 will instantly move to the final position of the game.
2021 The @samp{Auto-Play speed} is also used to determine the
2022 analysis time for each move during @samp{Analyze Game}.
2023 Note that auto-playing (including game analysis) can be stopped at any
2024 time through the @samp{P} button above the board.
2025 @item options to use in game-viewer mode
2026 @cindex Game-Viewer options, Menu Item
2027 Specifies the options automatically set when XBoard is invoked
2028 with the option @code{-viewer} on its command line,
2029 as will happen when it is started in response to clicking a PGN game file.
2030 The default setting would start XBoard without engine
2031 (due to the @code{-ncp} option),
2032 but if you want it to automatically start with your favorite engine,
2033 and automatically start analyzing, you could include the necessary
2034 options for that here (e.g. @code{-fe <engine> -initialMode analysis}).
2035 @item Thresholds for position filtering in game list
2036 @cindex Thresholds for game selection, Menu Item
2037 The following options can be set to limit the display of games
2038 in the @samp{Game List} window to a sub-set,
2039 meeting the specified criteria.
2040 @item Elo of strongest player at least
2041 @item Elo of weakest player at least
2042 @cindex Elo limits, Menu Item
2043 Games with an Elo tag specifying a lower rating for the mentioned player
2044 will not be diplayed in the @samp{Game List}.
2045 @item No games before year
2046 @cindex Date limit, Menu item
2047 Games with a Date tag before the specified year
2048 will not be diplayed in the @samp{Game List}.
2049 @item Final nr of pieces
2050 @cindex Final number of pieces, Menu Item
2051 A single number or a range (like 8-10) can be entered here,
2052 and will cause only games where the number of men in the final
2053 position is in the given range
2054 will be diplayed in the @samp{Game List}.
2055 @item Minimum nr consecutive positions
2056 @cindex Consecutive positions, Menu Item
2057 Specifies for how many consecutive positions the more fuzzy
2058 position-matching criteria have to be satisfied
2059 in order to count as a match.
2061 @itemx find position
2062 @cindex Search mode, Menu Item
2063 @cindex find position, Menu Item
2064 XBoard can select games for display in the @samp{Game List}
2065 based on whether (in addition to the conditions on the PGN tags)
2066 they contain a position that matches the
2067 position currently displayed on the board,
2068 by pressing the @samp{find position}
2069 or @samp{narrow} buttons in the @samp{Game List} window.
2070 The @samp{Search mode} setting determines what counts as match.
2071 You can search for an exact match,
2072 a position that has all shown material in the same place,
2073 but might contain additional material,
2074 a position that has all Pawns in the same place,
2075 but can have the shown material anywhere,
2076 a position that can have all shown material anywhere,
2077 or a position that has material between certain limits anywhere.
2078 For the latter you have to place the material that must minimally be present
2079 in the four lowest ranks of the board,
2080 and optional additional material in the four highest ranks of the board.
2081 You can request the optional material to be balanced,
2082 i.e. equal for white and black.
2084 @cindex narrow, Menu Item
2085 The @samp{narrow} button is similar in fuction to the @samp{find position} button,
2086 but only searches in the already selected games,
2087 rather than the complete game file,
2088 and can thus be used to refine a search based on multiple criteria.
2089 @item Also match reversed colors
2090 @itemx Also match left-right flipped position
2091 @cindex Match reversed colors, Menu Item
2092 @cindex Match left-right flipped position, Menu Item
2093 When looking for matching positions rather than by material,
2094 these settings determine whether mirror images
2095 (in case of a vertical flip in combination with color reversal)
2096 will be also considered a match.
2097 The left-right flipping is only useful after all castling rights
2098 have expired (or in Xiangqi).
2101 @section Save Game Options
2102 @cindex Save Game Options, Menu Item
2103 Summons a dialog where you can specify whether XBoard should
2104 automatically save files of games when they finish,
2105 and where and how to do that.
2107 @item Auto-Save Games
2108 @cindex Auto-Save Games, Menu Item
2109 When set XBoard will automatically save games on a file as they finish.
2110 (Not when you abort them by pressing @samp{New Game}, though!)
2111 It will either prompt you for a filename,
2112 or use the file specified by the @code{saveGameFile} option.
2113 @item Own Games Only
2114 @cindex Own Games Only, Menu Item
2115 Setting this option will exclude games by others observed on an
2116 Internet Chess Server from automatic saving.
2117 @item Save Games on File
2118 @cindex Save Games on File, Menu Item
2119 Name of the file on which games should be saved automatically.
2120 Games are always appended to the file,
2121 and will never overwrite anything.
2122 @item Save Final Position on File
2123 @cindex Save Final Position on File, Menu Item
2124 When a name is defined, the final position of each game
2125 is appended to the mentioned file.
2126 @item PGN Event Header
2127 @cindex PGN Event Header, Menu Item
2128 Specifies the name of the event used in the PGN event tag
2129 of new games that you create.
2130 @item Old Save Style
2131 @cindex Old Save Style, Menu Item
2132 Saves games in an obsolete and now long forgotten format,
2133 rather than as PGN. Never use this for orthodox Chess!
2134 @item Include Number Tag in tourney PGN
2135 @cindex Include Number Tag in tourney PGN, Menu Item
2136 When on this option will cause the non-standard 'Number' tag
2137 to be written in any game saved in PGN format.
2138 It will contain the unique number of the game in the tourney.
2139 (As opposed to the 'Round' tag, which can be shared by many games.)
2140 @item Save Score/Depth Info in PGN
2141 @cindex Save Score/Depth in PGN, Menu Item
2142 When on this option will cause the score and depth at which it was
2143 calculated by an engine, and (when available) thinking time
2144 to be saved with the move as a comment to the move,
2145 in the format @{score/depth time@}.
2146 Here 'score'is in pawn units from the point of view of the player
2147 that made the move, with two digits behind the decimal Pawn.
2148 'Time' is in seconds, or min:sec.
2149 @item Save Out-of-Book Info in PGN
2150 @cindex Save Out-of-Book Info in PGN, Menu Item
2151 When on this option causes the score of the first move
2152 the engine made after coming out of book in an 'Annotator' PGN tag.
2156 @cindex Game List Tags, Menu Item
2157 Pops up a dialog where you can select the PGN tags that should appear
2158 on the lines in the @samp{Game List}, and their order.
2160 @section Sound Options
2161 @cindex Sound Options, Menu Item
2162 Summons a dialog where you can specify the sounds that should accompany
2163 various events that can occur in XBoard.
2164 Most events are only relevant to ICS play,
2165 but the move sound is an important exception.
2166 For each event listed in the dialog,
2167 you can select a standard sound from a menu.
2170 @cindex Sound Program, Menu Item
2171 Specifies the command XBoard should invoke to play sounds.
2172 The specified text will be suffixed by the name of the sound file,
2173 and then run as a command.
2174 @item Sounds Directory
2175 @cindex Sounds Directory, Menu Item
2176 Specifies the directory where XBoard will look for files with
2177 the names of the standard sounds.
2179 @cindex User WAV File, Menu Item
2180 When we type a filename here, it can be assigned to the events
2181 by selecting @samp{Above WAV File} from the drop downs.
2184 @cindex Try-Out Sound, Menu Item
2185 The 'event' triggering the Try-Out sound is pressing
2186 of the @samp{Play} button behind it.
2187 This allows you to judge the sounds.
2190 @section Save Settings Now
2191 @cindex Save Settings Now, Menu Item
2192 Selecting this menu item causes the current XBoard settings to be
2193 written to the settings file, (.xboardrc in your home directory),
2194 so they will also apply in future sessions.
2195 Note that some settings are 'volatile', and are not saved,
2196 because XBoard considers it too unlikely that you want those to apply
2198 In particular this applies to the Chess program, and all options
2199 giving information on those Chess programs (such as their directory,
2200 if they have their own opening book, if they are UCI or native XBoard),
2201 or the variant you are playing.
2202 Such options would still be understood when they appear in the settings
2203 file in case they were put there with the aid of a text editor, but they
2204 would disappear from the file as soon as you save the settings.
2206 Note that XBoard no longer pays attention to options values specified
2207 in the .Xresources file.
2208 (Specifying key bindings there will still work, though.)
2209 To alter the default of volatile options, you can use the following method:
2210 Rename your ~/.xboardrc settings file (to ~/.yboardrc, say), and create
2211 a new file ~/.xboardrc, which only contains the options
2214 -settingsFile ~/.yboardrc
2215 -saveSettingsFile ~/.yboardrc
2219 This will cause your settings to be saved on ~/.yboardrc in the future,
2220 so that ~/.xboardrc is no longer overwritten.
2221 You can then safely specify volatile options in ~/.xboardrc, either
2222 before or after the settingsFile options.
2223 Note that when you specify persistent options after the settingsFile options
2224 in this ~/.xboardrc, you will essentially turn them into volatile options
2225 with the specified value as default, because that value will overrule
2226 the value loaded from the settings file (being read later).
2228 @section Save Settings on Exit
2229 @cindex Save Settings on Exit, Menu Item
2230 Setting this option has no immediate effect, but causes the settings
2231 to be saved when you quit XBoard. What happens then is otherwise
2232 identical to what happens when you use select "Save Settings Now",
2241 @cindex Info XBoard, Menu Item
2242 Displays the XBoard documentation in info format. For this feature to
2243 work, you must have the GNU info program installed on your system, and
2244 the file @file{xboard.info} must either be present in the current
2245 working directory, or have been installed by the @samp{make install}
2246 command when you built XBoard.
2248 @cindex Man XBoard, Menu Item
2249 Displays the XBoard documentation in man page format.
2250 The @kbd{F1} key is a keyboard equivalent. For this
2251 feature to work, the file @file{xboard.6} must have been installed by
2252 the @samp{make install} command when you built XBoard, and the
2253 directory it was placed in must be on the search path for your
2254 system's @samp{man} command.
2256 @cindex About XBoard, Menu Item
2257 Shows the current XBoard version number.
2261 @section Other Shortcut Keys
2263 @cindex Shortcut keys
2265 @item Show Last Move
2266 @cindex Show Last Move, Shortcut Key
2267 By hitting @kbd{Enter} the last move will be re-animated.
2268 @item Load Next Game
2269 @cindex Load Next Game, Menu Item
2270 Loads the next game from the last game record file you loaded.
2271 The @kbd{Alt+PgDn} key triggers this action.
2272 @item Load Previous Game
2273 @cindex Load Previous Game, Menu Item
2274 Loads the previous game from the last game record file you
2275 loaded. The @kbd{Alt+PgUp} key triggers this action.
2276 Not available if the last game was loaded from a pipe.
2277 @item Reload Same Game
2278 @cindex Reload Same Game, Menu Item
2279 Reloads the last game you loaded.
2280 Not available if the last game was loaded from a pipe.
2281 Currently no keystroke is assigned to this ReloadGameProc.
2282 @item Reload Same Position
2283 @cindex Reload Same Position, Menu Item
2284 Reloads the last position you loaded.
2285 Not available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.
2286 Currently no keystroke is assigned to this ReloadPositionProc.
2289 In the Xaw build of XBoard you can add or remove shortcut keys
2290 using the X resources @code{paneA.translations}.
2291 Here is an example of what could go into your
2292 @file{.Xdefaults} file:
2295 XBoard*paneA.translations: \
2296 Shift<Key>?: MenuItem(Help.About) \n\
2297 Ctrl<Key>y: MenuItem(Action.Accept) \n\
2298 Ctrl<Key>n: MenuItem(Action.Decline) \n\
2299 Ctrl<Key>i: MenuItem(Nothing)
2302 So the key should always be bound to the action 'MenuItem',
2303 with the (hierarchical) name of the menu item as argument.
2304 There are a few actions available for which no menu item exists:
2305 Binding a key to @code{Nothing} makes it do nothing, thus removing
2306 it as a shortcut key. Other such functions that can be bound to keys
2310 AboutGame, DebugProc (switches the -debug option on or off),
2311 LoadNextGame, LoadPrevGame, ReloadGame, ReloadPosition.
2319 This section documents the command-line options to XBoard. You can
2320 set these options in two ways: by typing them on the shell command
2321 line you use to start XBoard, or by editing the settings file
2322 (usually ~/.xboardrc) to alter the value of the setting that was
2323 saved there. Some of the options
2324 cannot be changed while XBoard is running; others set the initial
2325 state of items that can be changed with the @ref{Options} menu.
2327 Most of the options have both a long name and a short name. To turn a
2328 boolean option on or off from the command line, either give its long
2329 name followed by the value true or false
2330 (@samp{-longOptionName true}), or give just the short name to turn the
2331 option on (@samp{-opt}), or the short name preceded by @samp{x} to
2332 turn the option off (@samp{-xopt}). For options that take strings or
2333 numbers as values, you can use the long or short option names
2337 * Chess engine options:: Controlling the chess engine.
2338 * UCI + WB Engine Settings:: Setting some very common engine parameters
2339 * Tournament options:: Running tournaments and matches between engines.
2340 * ICS options:: Connecting to and using ICS.
2341 * Load and Save options:: Input/output options.
2342 * User interface options:: Look and feel options.
2343 * Adjudication Options:: Control adjudication of engine-engine games.
2344 * Install options:: Maintaining and extending the XBoard install.
2345 * Other options:: Miscellaneous.
2348 @node Chess engine options
2349 @section Chess Engine Options
2350 @cindex options, Chess engine
2351 @cindex Chess engine options
2353 @item -tc or -timeControl minutes[:seconds]
2355 @cindex timeControl, option
2356 Each player begins with his clock set to the @code{timeControl} period.
2358 The additional options @code{movesPerSession} and @code{timeIncrement}
2359 are mutually exclusive.
2360 @item -mps or -movesPerSession moves
2362 @cindex movesPerSession, option
2363 When both players have made @code{movesPerSession} moves, a
2364 new @code{timeControl} period is added to both clocks. Default: 40 moves.
2365 @item -inc or -timeIncrement seconds
2367 @cindex timeIncrement, option
2368 If this option is specified, @code{movesPerSession} is ignored.
2369 Instead, after each player's move, @code{timeIncrement} seconds are
2371 Use @samp{-inc 0} if you want to require the entire
2372 game to be played in one @code{timeControl} period, with no increment.
2373 Default: -1, which specifies @code{movesPerSession} mode.
2374 @item -clock/-xclock or -clockMode true/false
2375 @cindex clock, option
2376 @cindex clockMode, option
2377 Determines whether or not to display the chess clocks. If clockMode is
2378 false, the clocks are not shown, but the side that is to play next
2379 is still highlighted. Also, unless @code{searchTime}
2380 is set, the chess engine still keeps track of the clock time and uses it to
2381 determine how fast to make its moves.
2382 @item -st or -searchTime minutes[:seconds]
2384 @cindex searchTime, option
2385 Tells the chess engine to spend at most the given amount of time
2386 searching for each of its moves. Without this option, the chess engine
2387 chooses its search time based on the number of moves and amount
2388 of time remaining until the next time control.
2389 Setting this option also sets clockMode to false.
2390 @item -depth or -searchDepth number
2392 @cindex searchDepth, option
2393 Tells the chess engine to look ahead at most the given number of moves
2394 when searching for a move to make. Without this option, the chess
2395 engine chooses its search depth based on the number of moves and
2396 amount of time remaining until the next time control. With the option,
2397 the engine will cut off its search early if it reaches the specified depth.
2398 @item -firstNPS number
2399 @itemx -secondNPS number
2400 @cindex firstNPS, option
2401 @cindex secondNPS, option
2402 Tells the chess engine to use an internal time standard based on its node count,
2403 rather then wall-clock time, to make its timing decisions.
2404 The time in virtual seconds should be obtained by dividing the node count
2405 through the given number, like the number was a rate in nodes per second.
2406 Xboard will manage the clocks in accordance with this, relying on the number
2407 of nodes reported by the engine in its thinking output. If the given number equals zero,
2408 it can obviously not be used to convert nodes to seconds, and the time reported
2409 by the engine is used to decrement the XBoard clock in stead. The engine is supposed to
2410 report in CPU time it uses, rather than wall-clock time, in this mode. This option
2411 can provide fairer conditions for engine-engine matches on heavily loaded machines,
2412 or with very fast games (where the wall clock is too inaccurate).
2413 @code{showThinking} must be on for this option to work. Default: -1 (off).
2414 Not many engines might support this yet!
2415 @item -firstTimeOdds factor
2416 @itemx -secondTimeOdds factor
2417 @cindex firstTimeOdds, option
2418 @cindex secondTimeOdds, option
2419 Reduces the time given to the mentioned engine by the given factor.
2420 If pondering is off, the effect is indistinguishable from what would happen
2421 if the engine was running on an n-times slower machine. Default: 1.
2422 @item -timeOddsMode mode
2423 @cindex timeOddsMode, option
2424 This option determines how the case is handled where both engines have a time-odds handicap.
2425 If mode=1, the engine that gets the most time will always get the nominal time,
2426 as specified by the time-control options, and its opponent's time is renormalized accordingly.
2427 If mode=0, both play with reduced time. Default: 0.
2428 @item -hideThinkingFromHuman true/false
2429 Controls the Hide Thinking option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
2430 (Replaces the Show-Thinking option of older xboard versions.)
2431 @item -thinking/-xthinking or -showThinking true/false
2432 @cindex thinking, option
2433 @cindex showThinking, option
2434 Forces the engine to send thinking output to xboard.
2435 Used to be the only way to control if thinking output was displayed
2436 in older xboard versions,
2437 but as the thinking output in xboard 4.3 is also used for several other
2438 purposes (adjudication, storing in PGN file) the display of it is now controlled
2439 by the new option Hide Thinking. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2440 (But if xboard needs the thinking output for some purpose,
2441 it makes the engine send it despite the setting of this option.)
2442 @item -ponder/-xponder or -ponderNextMove true/false
2443 @cindex ponder, option
2444 @cindex ponderNextMove, option
2445 Sets the Ponder Next Move menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
2446 @item -smpCores number
2447 Specifies the maximum number of CPUs an SMP engine is allowed to use.
2448 Only works for engines that support the XBoard/WinBoard-protocol cores feature.
2449 @item -mg or -matchGames n
2451 @cindex matchGames, option
2452 Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
2453 with alternating colors.
2454 If the @code{loadGameFile} or @code{loadPositionFile} option is set,
2456 starts each game with the given opening moves or the given position;
2457 otherwise, the games start with the standard initial chess position.
2458 If the @code{saveGameFile} option is set, a move record for the
2459 match is appended to the specified file. If the @code{savePositionFile}
2460 option is set, the final position reached in each game of the match is appended
2461 to the specified file. When the match is over, XBoard
2462 displays the match score and exits. Default: 0 (do not run a match).
2463 @item -mm/-xmm or -matchMode true/false
2465 @cindex matchMode, option
2466 Setting @code{matchMode} to true is equivalent to setting
2467 @code{matchGames} to 1.
2468 @item -sameColorGames n
2469 @cindex sameColorGames, option
2470 Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
2471 without alternating colors.
2472 Otherwise the same applies as for the @samp{-matchGames} option,
2473 over which it takes precedence if both are specified. (See there.)
2474 Default: 0 (do not run a match).
2475 @item -fcp or -firstChessProgram program
2476 @itemx -scp or -secondChessProgram program
2478 @cindex firstChessProgram, option
2480 @cindex secondChessProgram, option
2481 Name of first and second chess engine, respectively.
2482 A second chess engine is started only in Two Machines (match) mode,
2483 or in Analyze mode with two engines.
2484 The second engine is by default the same as the first.
2485 Default for the first engine: @file{fairymax}.
2486 @item -fe or -firstEngine nickname
2487 @itemx -se or -secondEngine nickname
2489 @cindex secondEngine, option
2491 @cindex firstEngine, option
2492 This is an alternative to the @code{fcp} and @code{scp} options
2493 for specifying the first and second engine,
2494 for engines that were already registered (using the @samp{Load Engine} dialog)
2495 in XBoard's settings file.
2496 It will not only retrieve the real name of the engine,
2497 but also all options configured with it.
2498 (E.g. if it is UCI, whether it should use book.)
2499 @item -fb/-xfb or -firstPlaysBlack true/false
2501 @cindex firstPlaysBlack, option
2502 In games between two chess engines, firstChessProgram normally plays
2503 white. If this option is true, firstChessProgram plays black. In a
2504 multi-game match, this option affects the colors only for the first
2505 game; they still alternate in subsequent games.
2506 @item -fh or -firstHost host
2507 @itemx -sh or -secondHost host
2509 @cindex firstHost, option
2511 @cindex secondHost, option
2512 Hosts on which the chess engines are to run. The default for
2513 each is @file{localhost}. If you specify another host, XBoard
2514 uses @file{rsh} to run the chess engine there. (You can substitute a
2515 different remote shell program for rsh using the @code{remoteShell}
2516 option described below.)
2517 @item -fd or -firstDirectory dir
2518 @itemx -sd or -secondDirectory dir
2520 @cindex firstDirectory, option
2522 @cindex secondDirectory, option
2523 Working directories in which the chess engines are to be run.
2524 The default is "", which means to run the chess engine
2525 in the same working directory as XBoard
2526 itself. (See the CHESSDIR environment variable.)
2527 This option is effective only when the chess engine is being run
2528 on the local host; it does not work if the engine is run remotely
2529 using the -fh or -sh option.
2530 @item -initString string or -firstInitString
2531 @itemx -secondInitString string
2532 @cindex initString, option
2533 @cindex firstInitString, option
2534 @cindex secondInitString, option
2535 The string that is sent to initialize each chess engine for a new game.
2543 Setting this option from the command line is tricky, because you must
2544 type in real newline characters, including one at the very end.
2545 In most shells you can do this by
2546 entering a @samp{\} character followed by a newline.
2547 Using the character sequence @samp{\n} in the string should work too, though.
2549 If you change this option, don't remove the @samp{new}
2550 command; it is required by all chess engines to
2553 You can remove the @samp{random} command if you like; including it
2554 causes GNU Chess 4 to randomize its move selection slightly so that it
2555 doesn't play the same moves in every game. Even without
2556 @samp{random}, GNU Chess 4 randomizes its choice of moves from its
2557 opening book. Many other chess engines ignore this command entirely
2558 and always (or never) randomize.
2560 You can also try adding other commands to the initString; see the
2561 documentation of the chess engine you are using for details.
2562 @item -firstComputerString string
2563 @itemx -secondComputerString string
2564 @cindex firstComputerString, option
2565 @cindex secondComputerString, option
2566 The string that is sent to the chess engine if its opponent is another
2567 computer chess engine. The default is @samp{computer\n}. Probably the
2568 only useful alternative is the empty string (@samp{}), which keeps the
2569 engine from knowing that it is playing another computer.
2570 @item -reuse/-xreuse or -reuseFirst true/false
2571 @itemx -reuse2/-xreuse2 or -reuseSecond true/false
2572 @cindex reuse, option
2573 @cindex reuseFirst, option
2574 @cindex reuse2, option
2575 @cindex reuseSecond, option
2576 If the option is false,
2577 XBoard kills off the chess engine after every game and starts
2578 it again for the next game.
2579 If the option is true (the default),
2580 XBoard starts the chess engine only once
2581 and uses it repeatedly to play multiple games.
2582 Some old chess engines may not work properly when
2583 reuse is turned on, but otherwise games will start faster if it is left on.
2584 @item -firstProtocolVersion version-number
2585 @itemx -secondProtocolVersion version-number
2586 @cindex firstProtocolVersion, option
2587 @cindex secondProtocolVersion, option
2588 This option specifies which version of the chess engine communication
2589 protocol to use. By default, version-number is 2. In version 1, the
2590 "protover" command is not sent to the engine; since version 1 is a
2591 subset of version 2, nothing else changes. Other values for
2592 version-number are not supported.
2593 @item -firstScoreAbs true/false
2594 @itemx -secondScoreAbs true/false
2595 @cindex firstScoreAbs, option
2596 @cindex secondScoreAbs, option
2597 If this option is set, the score reported by the engine is taken to be
2598 that in favor of white, even when the engine plays black.
2599 Important when XBoard uses the score for adjudications, or in PGN reporting.
2600 @item -niceEngines priority
2601 @cindex niceEngines, option
2602 This option allows you to lower the priority of the engine processes,
2603 so that the generally insatiable hunger for CPU time of chess engines does not interfere so much
2604 with smooth operation of XBoard (or the rest of your system).
2605 Negative values could increase the engine priority, which is not recommended.
2606 @item -firstOptions string
2607 @itemx -secondOptions string
2608 @cindex firstOptions, option
2609 @cindex secondOptions, option
2610 The given string is a comma-separated list of (option name=option value) pairs,
2611 like the following example: "style=Karpov,blunder rate=0".
2612 If an option announced by the engine at startup through the feature commands of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol
2613 matches one of the option names (i.e. "style" or "blunder rate"),
2614 it would be set to the given value (i.e. "Karpov" or 0)
2615 through a corresponding option command to the engine.
2616 This provided that the type of the value (text or numeric) matches as well.
2617 @item -firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
2618 @itemx -secondNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
2619 @cindex firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN, option
2620 @cindex secondNeedsNoncompliantFEN, option
2621 The castling rights and e.p. fields of the FEN sent to the mentioned engine
2622 with the setboard command will be replaced by the given string. This can for
2623 instance be used to run engines that do not understand Chess960 FENs in
2624 variant fischerandom, to make them at least understand the opening position,
2625 through setting the string to "KQkq -". (Note you also have to give the e.p. field!)
2626 Other possible applications are to provide work-arounds for engines that want to see
2627 castling and e.p. fields in variants that do not have castling or e.p.
2628 (shatranj, courier, xiangqi, shogi) so that XBoard would normally omit them
2629 (string = "- -"), or to add variant-specific fields that are not yet supported by XBoard
2630 (e.g. to indicate the number of checks in 3check).
2631 @item -shuffleOpenings
2632 @cindex shuffleOpenings, option
2633 Forces shuffling of the opening setup in variants that normally have a fixed initial position.
2634 Shufflings are symmetric for black and white, and exempt King and Rooks in variants
2635 with normal castling.
2636 Remains in force until a new variant is selected.
2637 @item -fischerCastling
2638 @cindex fischerCastling, option
2639 Specifies Fischer castling (as in Chess960) should be enabled in variants
2640 that normally would not have it.
2641 Remains in force until a new variant is selected.
2644 @node UCI + WB Engine Settings
2645 @section UCI + WB Engine Settings
2646 @cindex Engine Settings
2647 @cindex Settings, Engine
2649 @item -fUCI or -firstIsUCI true/false
2650 @itemx -sUCI or -secondIsUCI true/false
2651 @cindex fUCI, option
2652 @cindex sUCI, option
2653 @cindex firstIsUCI, option
2654 @cindex secondIsUCI, option
2655 Indicates if the mentioned engine executable file is a UCI engine,
2656 and should be run with the aid of the Polyglot adapter rather than directly.
2657 Xboard will then pass the other UCI options and engine name to Polyglot
2658 on its command line, according to the option @code{adapterCommand}.
2663 @cindex fUCCI, option
2664 @cindex sUCCI, option
2665 @cindex fUSI, option
2666 @cindex sUSI, option
2667 Options similar to @code{fUCI} and @code{sUCI}, except that they
2668 use the indicated engine with the protocol adapter specified in
2669 the @samp{uxiAdapter} option.
2670 This can then be configured for running a UCCI or USI adapter,
2672 @item -adapterCommand string
2673 @cindex adapterCommand, option
2674 The string contains the command that should be issued by XBoard
2675 to start an engine that is accompanied by the @code{fUCI} option.
2676 Any identifier following a percent sign in the command (e.g. %fcp)
2677 will be considered the name of an XBoard option, and be replaced
2678 by the value of that option at the time the engine is started.
2679 For starting the second engine, any leading "f" or "first" in
2680 the option name will first be replaced by "s" or "second",
2681 before finding its value.
2682 Default: 'polyglot -noini -ec "%fcp" -ed "%fd"'
2683 @item -uxiAdapter string
2684 @cindex uxiAdapter, option
2685 Similar to @code{adapterCommand}, but used for engines accompanied
2686 by the @code{fUCCI} or @code{fUSI} option, so you can configure
2687 XBoard to be ready to handle more than one flavor of non-native protocols.
2689 @item -polyglotDir filename
2690 @cindex polyglotDir, option
2691 Gives the name of the directory in which the Polyglot adapter for UCI engines resides.
2693 @item -usePolyglotBook true/false
2694 @cindex usePolyglotBook, option
2695 Specifies if the Polyglot book should be used as GUI book.
2696 @item -polyglotBook filename
2697 @cindex polyglotBook, option
2698 Gives the filename of the opening book.
2699 The book is only used when the @code{usePolyglotBook} option is set to true,
2700 and the option @code{firstHasOwnBookUCI} or @code{secondHasOwnBookUCI}
2701 applying to the engine is set to false.
2702 The engine will be kept in force mode as long as the current position is in book,
2703 and XBoard will select the book moves for it. Default: "".
2704 @item -fNoOwnBookUCI or -firstXBook or -firstHasOwnBookUCI true/false
2705 @itemx -sNoOwnBookUCI or -secondXBook or -secondHasOwnBookUCI true/false
2706 @cindex fNoOwnBookUCI, option
2707 @cindex sNoOwnBookUCI, option
2708 @cindex firstHasOwnBookUCI, option
2709 @cindex secondHasOwnBookUCI, option
2710 @cindex firstXBook, option
2711 @cindex secondXBook, option
2712 Indicates if the mentioned engine has its own opening book it should play from,
2713 rather than using the external book through XBoard.
2714 Default: depends on setting of the option @code{discourageOwnBooks}.
2715 @item -discourageOwnBooks true/false
2716 @cindex discourageOwnBooks, option
2717 When set, newly loaded engines will be assumed to use the GUI book,
2718 unless they explicitly specify differently.
2719 Otherwise they will be assumed to not use the GUI book,
2720 unless the specify differently (e.g. with @code{firstXBook}).
2723 @cindex bookDepth, option
2724 Limits the use of the GUI book to the first n moves of each side.
2726 @item -bookVariation n
2727 @cindex bookVariation, option
2728 A value n from 0 to 100 tunes the choice of moves from the GUI books
2729 from totally random to best-only. Default: 50
2731 @cindex mcBookMode, option
2732 When this volatile option is specified, the probing algorithm of the
2733 GUI book is altered to always select the move that is most under-represented
2734 based on its performance.
2735 When all moves are played in approximately the right proportion,
2736 a book miss will be reported, to give the engine opportunity to
2738 In addition score of the moves will be kept track of during the session
2740 By playing an match in this mode, a book will be built from scratch.
2741 The only output are the saved games, which can be converted to an
2742 actual book later, with the @samp{Save Games as Book} command.
2743 The latter command can also be used to pre-fill the book buffer
2744 before adding new games based on the probing algorithm.
2745 @item -fn string or -firstPgnName string
2746 @itemx -sn string or -secondPgnName string
2747 @cindex firstPgnName, option
2748 @cindex secondPgnName, option
2751 Indicates the name that should be used for the engine in PGN tags of
2752 engine-engine games.
2753 Intended to allow you to install versions of the same engine with different settings,
2754 and still distinguish them.
2756 @item -defaultHashSize n
2757 @cindex defaultHashSize, option
2758 Sets the size of the hash table to n MegaBytes. Together with the EGTB cache size
2759 this number is also used to calculate the memory setting of XBoard/WinBoard engines,
2760 for those that support the memory feature of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol. Default: 64.
2761 @item -defaultCacheSizeEGTB n
2762 @cindex defaultCacheSizeEGTB, option
2763 Sets the size of the EGTB cache to n MegaBytes. Together with the hash-table size
2764 this number is also used to calculate the memory setting of XBoard/WinBoard engines,
2765 for those that support the memory feature of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol. Default: 4.
2766 @item -defaultPathEGTB filename
2767 @cindex defaultPathEGTB, option
2768 Gives the name of the directory where the end-game tablebases are installed, for UCI engines.
2769 Default: "/usr/local/share/egtb".
2770 @item -egtFormats string
2771 @cindex egtFormats, option
2772 Specifies which end-game tables are installed on the computer, and where.
2773 The argument is a comma-separated list of format specifications,
2774 each specification consisting of a format name, a colon, and a directory path name,
2775 e.g. "nalimov:/usr/local/share/egtb".
2776 If the name part matches that of a format that the engine requests through a feature command,
2777 xboard will relay the path name for this format to the engine through an egtpath command.
2778 One egtpath command for each matching format will be sent.
2779 Popular formats are "nalimov" and "gaviota" DTM tablebases,
2780 syzygy DTZ tablebases and "scorpio" bitbases.
2782 @item -firstChessProgramNames=@{names@}
2783 @cindex firstChessProgramNames, option
2784 This option lets you customize the listbox with chess-engine names
2785 that appears in the @samp{Load Engine} and @samp{Tournament Options} dialog.
2786 It consists of a list of strings, one per line.
2787 When an engine is loaded, the corresponding line is prefixed with "-fcp ",
2788 and processed like it appeared on the command line.
2789 That means that apart from the engine command,
2790 it can contain any number of XBoard options you want to use with this engine.
2791 (Commonly used options here are -fd, -firstXBook, -fUCI, -variant.)
2793 The value of this option is gradually built as you load new engines
2794 through the @samp{Load Engine} menu dialog, with @samp{Add to list} ticked.
2795 To change it in other ways, (e.g. deleting engines),
2796 use the menu item @samp{Edit Engine List} in the @samp{Engine} menu.
2799 @node Tournament options
2800 @section Tournament options
2801 @cindex Tournament Options
2802 @cindex Options, Tournament
2804 @item -defaultMatchGames n
2805 @cindex defaultMatchGames, option
2806 Sets the number of games that will be used for a match between two engines
2807 started from the menu to n. Also used as games per pairing in other tournament
2808 formats. Default: 10.
2810 @cindex matchPause, option
2811 Specifies the duration of the pause between two games of a match or tournament
2812 between engines as n milliseconds.
2813 Especially engines that do not support ping need this option,
2814 to prevent that the move they are thinking on when an opponent unexpectedly
2815 resigns will be counted for the next game, (leading to illegal moves there).
2817 @item -tf filename or -tourneyFile filename
2819 @cindex tourneyFile, option
2820 Specifies the name of the tournament file used in match mode
2821 to conduct a multi-player tournament.
2822 This file is a special settings file,
2823 which stores the description of the tournament (including progress info),
2824 through normal options (e.g. for time control, load and save files),
2825 and through some special-purpose options listed below.
2826 @item -tt number or -tourneyType number
2828 @cindex tourneyType, option
2829 Specifies the type of tourney: 0 = round-robin,
2830 N>0 = (multi-)gauntlet with N gauntlet engines,
2831 -1 = Swiss through external pairing engine.
2832 Volatile option, but stored in tourney file.
2833 @item -cy number or -tourneyCycles number
2835 @cindex tourneyCycles, option
2836 Specifies the number of cycles in a tourney.
2837 Volatile option, but stored in tourney file.
2838 @item -participants list
2839 @cindex participants, option
2840 The list is a multi-line text string that specifies engines
2841 occurring in the @code{firstChesProgramNames} list
2842 in the settings file by their (implied or explicitly given) nicknames,
2843 one engine per line.
2844 The mentioned engines will play in the tourney.
2845 Volatile option, but stored in tourney file.
2846 @item -results string
2847 @cindex results, option
2848 The string of +=- characters lists the result of all played games in a tourney.
2849 Games currently playing are listed as *,
2850 while a space indicates a game that is not yet played.
2851 Volatile option, but stored in tourney file.
2852 @item -defaultTourneyName string
2853 @cindex defaultTourneyName, option
2854 Specifies the name of the tournament file XBoard should propose
2855 when the @samp{Match Options} dialog is opened.
2856 Any %y, %M, %d, %h, %m, %s in the string are replaced by the current
2857 year, month, day of the month, hours, minutes, seconds of the current time,
2858 respectively, as two-digit number.
2859 A %Y would be replaced by the year as 4-digit number. Default: empty string.
2860 @item -pairingEngine filename
2861 @cindex pairingEngine, option
2862 Specifies the external program to be used to pair the participants in Swiss tourneys.
2863 XBoard communicates with this engine in the same way as it communicates with Chess engines.
2864 The only commands sent to the pairing engine are “results N string”,
2865 (where N is the number of participants,
2866 and string the results so far in the format of the results option),
2867 and “pairing N”, (where N is the number of the tourney game).
2868 To the latter the pairing engine should answer with “A-B”,
2869 where A and B are participant numbers (in the range 1-N).
2870 (There should be no reply to the results command.) Default: empty string.
2871 @item -afterGame string
2872 @itemx -afterTourney string
2873 @cindex afterGame, option
2874 @cindex afterTourney, option
2875 When non-empty, the given string will be executed as a system command
2876 after each tournament game, or after the tourney completes, respectively.
2877 This can be used, for example, to autmatically run a cross-table generator
2878 on the PGN file where games are saved, to update the tourney standings.
2880 @item -syncAfterRound true/false
2881 @itemx -syncAfterCycle true/false
2882 @cindex syncAfterRound, option
2883 @cindex syncAfterCycle, option
2884 Controls whether different instances of XBoard concurrently running the
2885 same tournament will wait for each other.
2886 Defaults: sync after cycle, but not after round.
2887 @item -seedBase number
2888 @cindex seedBase, option
2889 Used to store the seed of the pseudo-random-number generator in the
2890 tourneyFile, so that separate instances of XBoard working on the same
2891 tourney can take coherent 'random' decisions, such as picking an
2892 opening for a given game number.
2896 @section ICS options
2898 @cindex Options, ICS
2900 @item -ics/-xics or -internetChessServerMode true/false
2902 @cindex internetChessServerMode, option
2903 Connect with an Internet Chess Server to play chess against its
2904 other users, observe games they are playing, or review games
2905 that have recently finished. Default: false.
2906 @item -icshost or -internetChessServerHost host
2907 @cindex icshost, option
2908 @cindex internetChessServerHost, option
2909 The Internet host name or address of the chess server to connect
2910 to when in ICS mode. Default: @code{chessclub.com}.
2911 Another popular chess server to try is @code{freechess.org}.
2912 If your site doesn't have a working Internet name server, try
2913 specifying the host address in numeric form.
2915 to specify the numeric address when using the icshelper option
2916 with timestamp or timeseal (see below).
2917 @item -icsport or -internetChessServerPort port-number
2918 @cindex icsport, option
2919 @cindex internetChessServerPort, option
2920 The port number to use when connecting to a chess server in ICS
2921 mode. Default: 5000.
2922 @item -icshelper or -internetChessServerHelper prog-name
2923 @cindex icshelper, option
2924 @cindex internetChessServerHelper, option
2925 An external helper program used to communicate with the chess server.
2926 You would set it to "timestamp" for ICC (chessclub.com) or
2927 "timeseal" for FICS (freechess.org), after
2928 obtaining the correct version of timestamp or timeseal for your
2929 computer. See "help timestamp" on ICC and "help timeseal" on FICS.
2930 This option is shorthand for @code{-useTelnet -telnetProgram program}.
2931 @item -telnet/-xtelnet or -useTelnet true/false
2932 @cindex telnet, option
2933 @cindex useTelnet, option
2934 This option is poorly named; it should be called useHelper.
2935 If set to true, it instructs XBoard to run an external
2936 program to communicate with the Internet Chess Server.
2937 The program to use is given by the telnetProgram option.
2939 false (the default), XBoard opens a TCP socket and uses its own
2940 internal implementation of the telnet protocol to communicate with the
2941 ICS. @xref{Firewalls}.
2942 @item -telnetProgram prog-name
2943 @cindex telnetProgram, option
2944 This option is poorly named; it should be called helperProgram.
2945 It gives the name of the telnet program to be used with
2946 the @code{gateway} and @code{useTelnet} options. The default is
2947 @file{telnet}. The telnet program is invoked with the value of
2948 @code{internetChessServerHost} as its first argument and the value
2949 of @code{internetChessServerPort} as its second argument.
2951 @item -gateway host-name
2952 @cindex gateway, option
2953 If this option is set to a host name, XBoard communicates with the
2954 Internet Chess Server by using @file{rsh} to run
2955 the @code{telnetProgram} on the given host,
2956 instead of using its own internal implementation
2957 of the telnet protocol. You can substitute a different remote shell
2958 program for @file{rsh} using the @code{remoteShell} option described below.
2960 @item -internetChessServerCommPort or -icscomm dev-name
2961 @cindex internetChessServerCommPort, option
2962 @cindex icscomm, option
2963 If this option is set, XBoard communicates with the ICS through
2964 the given character I/O device instead of opening a TCP connection.
2965 Use this option if your system does not have any kind of
2966 Internet connection itself (not even a SLIP or PPP connection),
2967 but you do have dial-up access (or a hardwired terminal line) to
2968 an Internet service provider from which you can telnet to the ICS.
2970 The support for this option in XBoard is minimal. You need to
2971 set all communication parameters and tty modes before you enter
2974 Use a script something like this:
2977 stty raw -echo 9600 > /dev/tty00
2978 xboard -ics -icscomm /dev/tty00
2981 Here replace @samp{/dev/tty00} with the name of the device that your
2982 modem is connected to. You might have to add several more
2983 options to these stty commands. See the man pages for @file{stty}
2984 and @code{tty} if you run into problems. Also, on many systems stty
2985 works on its standard input instead of standard output, so you
2986 have to use @samp{<} instead of @samp{>}.
2988 If you are using linux, try starting with the script below.
2989 Change it as necessary for your installation.
2993 # configure modem and fire up XBoard
2997 stty 2400 ; stty raw ; stty hupcl ; stty -clocal
2998 stty ignbrk ; stty ignpar ; stty ixon ; stty ixoff
2999 stty -iexten ; stty -echo
3001 xboard -ics -icscomm /dev/modem
3004 After you start XBoard in this way, type whatever commands are
3005 necessary to dial out to your Internet provider and log in.
3006 Then telnet to ICS, using a command like
3007 @kbd{telnet chessclub.com 5000}.
3008 Important: See the paragraph below about extra echoes,
3009 in @ref{Limitations}.
3010 @item -icslogon or -internetChessServerLogonScript file-name
3011 @cindex icslogon, option
3012 @cindex internetChessServerLogonScript, option
3014 Whenever XBoard connects to the Internet Chess Server,
3015 if it finds a file with the name given in this option, it feeds the
3016 file's contents to the ICS as commands. The default file name
3018 Usually the first two lines of the file should be
3019 your ICS user name and password.
3020 The file can be either in $CHESSDIR, in XBoard's working
3021 directory if CHESSDIR is not set, or in your home directory.
3022 @item -msLoginDelay delay
3023 @cindex msLoginDelay, option
3024 If you experience trouble logging on to an ICS when using the
3025 @code{-icslogon} option, inserting some delay between characters
3026 of the logon script may help. This option adds @code{delay}
3027 milliseconds of delay between characters. Good values to try
3029 @item -icsinput/-xicsinput or -internetChessServerInputBox true/false
3030 @cindex icsinput, option
3031 @cindex internetChessServerInputBox, option
3032 Sets the ICS Input Box menu option. @xref{Mode Menu}. Default: false.
3033 @item -autocomm/-xautocomm or -autoComment true/false
3034 @cindex autocomm, option
3035 @cindex autoComment, option
3036 Sets the Auto Comment menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3037 @item -autoflag/-xautoflag or -autoCallFlag true/false
3038 @cindex autoflag, option
3039 @cindex autoCallFlag, option
3040 Sets the Auto Flag menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3041 @item -autobs/-xautobs or -autoObserve true/false
3042 @cindex autobs, option
3043 @cindex autoObserve, option
3044 Sets the Auto Observe menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3046 @cindex autoKibitz, option
3047 Enables kibitzing of the engines last thinking output (depth, score, time, speed, PV)
3049 to the ICS, in zippy mode. The option @code{showThinking} must be switched on for
3050 this option to work.
3051 Also diverts similar kibitz information of an opponent engine that is playing you
3052 through the ICS to the engine-output window, as if the engine was playing locally.
3053 @item -seekGraph true/false or -sg
3054 @cindex seekGraph, option
3056 Enables displaying of the seek graph by left-clicking the board when
3057 you are logged on to an ICS and currently idle.
3058 The seek graph show all players currently seeking games on the ICS,
3059 plotted according to their rating and the time control of the game they seek,
3060 in three different colors (for rated, unrated and wild games).
3061 Computer ads are displayed as squares, human ads are dots.
3063 @item -autoRefresh true/false
3064 @cindex autoRefresh, option
3065 Enables automatic updating of the seek graph,
3066 by having the ICS send a running update of all newly placed
3067 and removed seek ads.
3068 This consumes a substantial amount of communication bandwidth,
3069 and is only supported for FICS and ICC.
3071 @item -backgroundObserve true/false
3072 @cindex backgroundObserve, option
3073 When true, boards sent to you by the ICS from other games while you are playing
3074 (e.g. because you are observing them)
3075 will not be automatically displayed.
3076 Only a summary of time left and material of both players will appear
3077 in the message field above the board.
3078 XBoard will remember the last board it has received this way,
3079 and will display it instead of the position in your own game
3080 when you press the right mouse button.
3081 No other information is stored on such games observed in the background;
3082 you cannot save such a game later, or step through its moves.
3083 This feature is provided solely for the benefit of bughouse players,
3084 to enable them to peek at their partner's game without the need
3087 @item -dualBoard true/false
3088 @cindex dualBoard, option
3089 In combination with -backgroundObserve true, this option will display
3090 the board of the background game side by side with that of your own game,
3091 so you can have it in view permanently.
3092 Any board or holdings info coming in will be displayed on the secondary
3094 This feature is still experimental and largely unfinished.
3095 There is no animation or highlighting of moves on the secondary board.
3097 @item -disguisePromotedPieces true/false
3098 @cindex disguisePromotedPieces, option
3099 When set promoted Pawns in crazyhouse/bughouse are displayed identical
3100 to primordial pieces of the same type, rather than distinguishable.
3102 @item -moves/-xmoves or -getMoveList true/false
3103 @cindex moves, option
3104 @cindex getMoveList, option
3105 Sets the Get Move List menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3106 @item -alarm/-xalarm or -icsAlarm true/false
3107 @cindex alarm, option
3108 @cindex icsAlarm, option
3109 Sets the ICS Alarm menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3110 @item -icsAlarmTime ms
3111 @cindex icsAlarmTime, option
3112 Sets the time in milliseconds for the ICS Alarm menu option.
3113 @xref{Options Menu}. Default: 5000.
3114 @item lowTimeWarning true/false
3115 @cindex lowTimeWarning, option
3116 Controls a color change of the board as a warning your time is running out.
3117 @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3118 @item -pre/-xpre \fRor\fB -premove true/false
3120 @cindex premove, option
3121 Sets the Premove menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3122 @item -prewhite/-xprewhite or -premoveWhite
3123 @itemx -preblack/-xpreblack or -premoveBlack
3124 @itemx -premoveWhiteText string
3125 @itemx -premoveBlackText string
3126 @cindex prewhite, option
3127 @cindex premoveWhite, option
3128 @cindex preblack, option
3129 @cindex premoveBlack, option
3130 @cindex premoveWhiteText, option
3131 @cindex premoveBlackText, option
3132 Set the menu options for specifying the first move for either color.
3133 @xref{Options Menu}. Defaults: false and empty strings, so no pre-moves.
3134 @item -quiet/-xquiet or -quietPlay true/false
3135 @cindex quiet, option
3136 @cindex quietPlay, option
3137 Sets the Quiet Play menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3138 @item -colorizeMessages or -colorize/-xcolorize
3140 @cindex colorize, option
3141 @cindex colorizeMessages, option
3142 Setting colorizeMessages
3143 to true tells XBoard to colorize the messages received from
3144 the ICS. Colorization works only if your xterm
3145 supports ISO 6429 escape sequences for changing text colors.
3147 @item -colorShout foreground,background,bold
3148 @itemx -colorSShout foreground,background,bold
3149 @itemx -colorCShout foreground,background,bold
3150 @itemx -colorChannel1 foreground,background,bold
3151 @itemx -colorChannel foreground,background,bold
3152 @itemx -colorKibitz foreground,background,bold
3153 @itemx -colorTell foreground,background,bold
3154 @itemx -colorChallege foreground,background,bold
3155 @itemx -colorRequest foreground,background,bold
3156 @itemx -colorSeek foreground,background,bold
3157 @itemx -colorNormal foreground,background,bold
3159 @cindex colorShout, option
3160 @cindex colorSShout, option
3161 @cindex colorCShout, option
3162 @cindex colorChannel1, option
3163 @cindex colorChannel, option
3164 @cindex colorKibitz, option
3165 @cindex colorTell, option
3166 @cindex colorChallenge, option
3167 @cindex colorRequest, option
3168 @cindex colorSeek, option
3169 @cindex colorNormal, option
3170 These options set the colors used when colorizing ICS messages.
3171 All ICS messages are grouped into one of these categories:
3172 shout, sshout, channel 1, other channel, kibitz, tell, challenge,
3173 request (including abort, adjourn, draw, pause, and takeback), or
3174 normal (all other messages).
3176 Each foreground or background argument can be one of the following:
3177 black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, or default.
3178 Here ``default'' means the default foreground or background color of
3179 your xterm. Bold can be 1 or 0. If background is omitted, ``default''
3180 is assumed; if bold is omitted, 0 is assumed.
3182 @item -soundProgram progname
3183 @cindex soundProgram, option
3185 If this option is set to a sound-playing program that is installed and
3186 working on your system, XBoard can play sound files when certain
3187 events occur, listed below. The default program name is "play". If
3188 any of the sound options is set to "$", the event rings the terminal
3189 bell by sending a ^G character to standard output, instead of playing
3190 a sound file. If an option is set to the empty string "", no sound is
3191 played for that event.
3192 @item -soundDirectory directoryname
3193 @cindex soundDirectory, option
3195 This option specifies where XBoard will look for sound files,
3196 when these are not given as an absolute path name.
3197 @item -soundShout filename
3198 @itemx -soundSShout filename
3199 @itemx -soundCShout filename
3200 @itemx -soundChannel filename
3201 @itemx -soundChannel1 filename
3202 @itemx -soundKibitz filename
3203 @itemx -soundTell filename
3204 @itemx -soundChallenge filename
3205 @itemx -soundRequest filename
3206 @itemx -soundSeek filename
3207 @cindex soundShout, option
3208 @cindex soundSShout, option
3209 @cindex soundCShout, option
3210 @cindex soundChannel, option
3211 @cindex soundChannel1, option
3212 @cindex soundKibitz, option
3213 @cindex soundTell, option
3214 @cindex soundChallenge, option
3215 @cindex soundRequest, option
3216 @cindex soundSeek, option
3217 These sounds are triggered in the same way as the colorization events
3218 described above. They all default to "", no sound. They are played
3219 only if the colorizeMessages is on.
3220 CShout is synonymous with SShout.
3221 @item -soundMove filename
3222 @cindex soundMove, option
3223 This sound is played when a player other than yourself makes a move.
3225 @item -soundRoar filename
3226 @cindex soundRoar, option
3227 This sound is played when a Lion makes a hit-and-run or double capture/
3228 Default: "" (no sound).
3229 @item -soundIcsAlarm filename
3230 @cindex soundIcsAlarm, option
3231 This sound is used by the ICS Alarm menu option. Default: "$".
3232 @item -soundIcsWin filename
3233 @cindex soundIcsWin, option
3234 This sound is played when you win an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
3235 @item -soundIcsLoss filename
3236 @cindex soundIcsLoss, option
3237 This sound is played when you lose an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
3238 @item -soundIcsDraw filename
3239 @cindex soundIcsDraw, option
3240 This sound is played when you draw an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
3241 @item -soundIcsUnfinished filename
3242 @cindex soundIcsUnfinished, option
3243 This sound is played when an ICS game that you are participating in is
3244 aborted, adjourned, or otherwise ends inconclusively. Default: "" (no
3248 @node Load and Save options
3249 @section Load and Save options
3250 @cindex Options, Load and Save
3251 @cindex Load and Save options
3253 @item -lgf or -loadGameFile file
3254 @itemx -lgi or -loadGameIndex index
3256 @cindex loadGameFile, option
3258 @cindex loadGameIndex, option
3259 If the @code{loadGameFile} option is set, XBoard loads the specified
3260 game file at startup. The file name @file{-} specifies the standard
3261 input. If there is more than one game in the file, XBoard
3262 pops up a menu of the available games, with entries based on their PGN
3263 (Portable Game Notation) tags.
3264 If the @code{loadGameIndex} option is set to @samp{N}, the menu is suppressed
3265 and the N th game found in the file is loaded immediately.
3266 The menu is also suppressed if @code{matchMode} is enabled or if the game file
3267 is a pipe; in these cases the first game in the file is loaded immediately.
3268 Use the @file{pxboard} shell script provided with XBoard if you
3269 want to pipe in files containing multiple games and still see the menu.
3270 If the loadGameIndex specifies an index -1, this triggers auto-increment
3271 of the index in @code{matchMode}, which means that after every game the
3272 index is incremented by one, causing each game of the match to be played
3273 from the next game in the file. Similarly, specifying an index value of -2
3274 causes the index to be incremented every two games, so that each game
3275 in the file is used twice (with reversed colors).
3276 The @code{rewindIndex} option causes the index to be reset to the
3277 first game of the file when it has reached a specified value.
3278 @item -rewindIndex n
3279 Causes a position file or game file to be rewound to its beginning after n
3280 positions or games in auto-increment @code{matchMode}.
3281 See @code{loadPositionIndex} and @code{loadGameIndex}.
3282 default: 0 (no rewind).
3283 @item -td or -timeDelay seconds
3285 @cindex timeDelay, option
3286 Time delay between moves during @samp{Load Game} or @samp{Analyze File}.
3287 Fractional seconds are allowed; try @samp{-td 0.4}.
3288 A time delay value of -1 tells
3289 XBoard not to step through game files automatically. Default: 1 second.
3290 @item -sgf or -saveGameFile file
3292 @cindex saveGameFile, option
3293 If this option is set, XBoard appends a record of every game
3294 played to the specified file. The file name @file{-} specifies the
3296 @item -autosave/-xautosave or -autoSaveGames true/false
3297 @cindex autosave, option
3298 @cindex autoSaveGames, option
3299 Sets the Auto Save menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3300 Ignored if @code{saveGameFile} is set.
3301 @item -onlyOwnGames true/false
3302 @cindex onlyOwnGames, option
3303 Suppresses auto-saving of ICS observed games. Default: false.
3304 @item -lpf or -loadPositionFile file
3305 @itemx -lpi or -loadPositionIndex index
3307 @cindex loadPositionFile, option
3309 @cindex loadPositionIndex, option
3310 If the @code{loadPositionFile} option is set, XBoard loads the
3311 specified position file at startup. The file name @file{-} specifies the
3312 standard input. If the @code{loadPositionIndex} option is set to N,
3313 the Nth position found in the file is loaded; otherwise the
3314 first position is loaded.
3315 If the loadPositionIndex specifies an index -1, this triggers auto-increment
3316 of the index in @code{matchMode}, which means that after every game the
3317 index is incremented by one, causing each game of the match to be played
3318 from the next position in the file. Similarly, specifying an index value of -2
3319 causes the index to be incremented every two games, so that each position
3320 in the file is used twice (with the engines playing opposite colors).
3321 The @code{rewindIndex} option causes the index to be reset to the
3322 first position of the file when it has reached a specified value.
3323 @item -spf or -savePositionFile file
3325 @cindex savePositionFile, option
3326 If this option is set, XBoard appends the final position reached
3327 in every game played to the specified file. The file name @file{-}
3328 specifies the standard output.
3329 @item -positionDir directory
3330 @cindex positionDir, option
3331 Specifies the directory where file browsing should start when using
3332 the @samp{Load Position} menu item.
3333 @item -pgnExtendedInfo true/false
3334 @cindex pgnExtendedInfo, option
3335 If this option is set, XBoard saves depth, score and time used for each
3336 move that the engine found as a comment in the PGN file.
3338 @item -pgnEventHeader string
3339 @cindex pgnEventHeader, option
3340 Sets the name used in the PGN event tag to string.
3341 Default: "Computer Chess Game".
3342 @item -pgnNumberTag true/false
3343 @cindex pgnNumberTag, option
3344 Include the (unique) sequence number of a tournament game into the saved
3345 PGN file as a 'number' tag.
3347 @item -saveOutOfBookInfo true/false
3348 @cindex saveOutOfBookInfo, option
3349 Include the information on how the engine(s) game out of its opening book
3350 in a special 'annotator' tag with the PGN file.
3352 @item -oldsave/-xoldsave or -oldSaveStyle true/false
3353 @cindex oldsave, option
3354 @cindex oldSaveStyle, option
3355 Sets the Old Save Style menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3356 @item -gameListTags string
3357 @cindex gameListTags, option
3358 The character string lists the PGN tags that should be printed in the
3359 Game List, and their order. The meaning of the codes is e=event,
3360 s=site, d=date, o=round, p=players, r=result, w=white Elo, b=black Elo,
3361 t=time control, v=variant, a=out-of-book info, c=result comment.
3363 @item -ini or -settingsFile filename
3364 @itemx -saveSettingsFile filename
3366 @cindex saveSettingsFile, option
3367 @cindex SettingsFile, option
3368 @cindex init, option
3369 @cindex at sign, option
3370 When XBoard encounters an option -settingsFile (or -ini for short),
3371 or @@filename, it tries to read the mentioned file,
3372 and substitutes the contents of it (presumaby more command-line options)
3373 in place of the option.
3374 In the case of -ini or -settingsFile, the name of a successfully read
3375 settings file is also remembered as the file to use for saving settings
3376 (automatically on exit, or on user command).
3377 An option of the form @@filename does not affect saving.
3378 The option -saveSettingsFile does specify a name of the file to use
3379 for saving, without reading any options from it, and is thus also effective
3380 when the file did not exist yet.
3381 So the settings will be saved to the file specified in the last
3382 -saveSettingsFile or succesfull -settingsFile / -ini command,
3383 if any, and in /etc/xboard/xboard.conf otherwise.
3384 Usualy the latter is only accessible for the system administrator, though,
3385 and will be used to contain system-wide default settings, amongst which
3386 a -saveSettingsFile and -settingsFile options to specify a settings file
3387 accessible to the individual user, such as ~/.xboardrc in the user's
3389 @item -saveSettingsOnExit true/false
3390 @cindex saveSettingsOnExit, option
3391 Controls saving of options on the settings file. @xref{Options Menu}.
3395 @node User interface options
3396 @section User interface options
3397 @cindex User interface options
3398 @cindex Options, User interface
3401 @cindex noGUI, option
3402 Suppresses all GUI functions of XBoard
3403 (to speed up automated ultra-fast engine-engine games, which you don't want to watch).
3404 There will be no board or clock updates, no printing of moves,
3405 and no update of the icon on the task bar in this mode.
3407 @cindex logoSize, option
3408 This option controls the drawing of player logos next to the clocks.
3409 The integer N specifies the width of the logo in pixels;
3410 the logo height will always be half the width.
3411 When N = 0, no logos will be diplayed.
3413 @item -firstLogo imagefile
3414 @itemx -secondLogo imagefile
3415 @cindex firstLogo, option
3416 @cindex secondLogo, option
3417 Specify the images to be used as player logos when @code{logoSize}
3418 is non-zero, next to the white and black clocks, respectively.
3419 @item -autoLogo true/false
3420 @itemx -logoDir filename
3421 @cindex autoLogo, option
3422 @cindex logoDir, option
3423 When @code{autoLogo} is set, XBoard will search for a PNG image file
3424 with the name of the engine or ICS in the directory specified
3426 For a human player it will look for a file <username>.png in this
3427 directory, but only when ~/.logo.png does not provide one.
3428 @item -recentEngines number
3429 @itemx -recentEngineList list
3430 @cindex recentEngines, option
3431 @cindex recentEngineList, option
3432 When the number is larger than zero, it determines how many recently
3433 used engines will be appended at the bottom of the @samp{Engines} menu.
3434 The engines will be saved in your settings file as the option
3435 @code{recentEngineList}, by their nicknames,
3436 and the most recently used one will always be sorted to the top.
3437 If the list after that is longer than the specified number,
3438 the last one is discarded.
3439 Changes in the list will only become visible the next session,
3440 provided you saved the settings.
3442 @item -oneClickMove true/false
3443 @cindex oneClickMove, option
3444 When set, this option allows you to enter moves by only clicking the to-
3445 or from-square, when only a single legal move to or from that square
3447 Double-clicking a piece (or clicking an already selected piece)
3448 will instruct that piece to make the only capture it can legally do.
3450 @item -monoMouse true/false
3451 @cindex monoMouse, option
3452 When set button 1 clicks on empty squares in Edit Position mode
3453 will be interpreted as button 3 clicks, so they place a piece.
3455 @item -movesound/-xmovesound or -ringBellAfterMoves true/false
3456 @cindex movesound, option
3457 @cindex bell, option
3458 @cindex ringBellAfterMoves, option
3459 Sets the Move Sound menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3460 For compatibility with old XBoard versions, -bell/-xbell are also
3461 accepted as abbreviations for this option.
3462 @item -analysisBell N
3463 @cindex analysisBell, option
3464 When N is non-zero, the Move Sound will be played whenever a new
3465 PV arrives in analysis mode after more than N seconds of analysis.
3467 @item -exit/-xexit or -popupExitMessage true/false
3468 @cindex exit, option
3469 @cindex popupExitMessage, option
3470 Sets the Popup Exit Message menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3471 @item -popup/-xpopup or -popupMoveErrors true/false
3472 @cindex popup, option
3473 @cindex popupMoveErrors, option
3474 Sets the Popup Move Errors menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3475 @item -queen/-xqueen or -alwaysPromoteToQueen true/false
3476 @cindex queen, option
3477 @cindex alwaysPromoteToQueen, option
3478 Sets the Always Queen menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3479 @item -sweepPromotions true/false
3480 @cindex sweepPromotion, option
3481 Sets the @samp{Almost Always Promote to Queen} menu option.
3482 @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3483 @item -legal/-xlegal or -testLegality true/false
3484 @cindex legal, option
3485 @cindex testLegality, option
3486 Sets the Test Legality menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3487 @item -size or -boardSize (sizeName | n1,n2,n3,n4,n5,n6,n7)
3488 @cindex size, option
3489 @cindex boardSize, option
3491 Determines how large the board will be, by selecting the pixel size
3492 of the pieces and setting a few related parameters.
3493 The sizeName can be one of: Titanic, giving 129x129 pixel pieces,
3494 Colossal 116x116, Giant 108x108, Huge 95x95, Big 87x87, Large 80x80, Bulky 72x72,
3495 Medium 64x64, Moderate 58x58, Average 54x54, Middling 49x49, Mediocre
3496 45x45, Small 40x40, Slim 37x37, Petite 33x33, Dinky 29x29, Teeny 25x25,
3498 Xboard installs with a set of scalable (svg) piece images,
3499 which it scales to any of the requested sizes.
3500 The square size can further be continuously scaled by sizing the board window,
3501 but this only adapts the size of the pieces,
3502 and has no effect on the width of the grid lines or the font choice
3503 (both of which would depend on he selected boardSize).
3504 The default depends on the size of your screen; it is approximately the
3505 largest size that will fit without clipping.
3507 You can select other sizes or vary other layout parameters by providing
3508 a list of comma-separated values (with no spaces) as the argument.
3509 You do not need to provide all the values; for any you omit from the
3510 end of the list, defaults are taken from the nearest built-in size.
3511 The value @code{n1} gives the piece size, @code{n2} the width of the
3513 between squares, @code{n3} the desired size for the
3514 clockFont, @code{n4} the desired size for the coordFont,
3515 @code{n5} the desired size for the messageFont,
3516 @code{n6} the smallLayout flag (0 or 1),
3517 and @code{n7} the tinyLayout flag (0 or 1).
3518 All dimensions are in pixels.
3519 If the border between squares is eliminated (0 width), the various
3520 highlight options will not work, as there is nowhere to draw the highlight.
3521 If smallLayout is 1 and @code{titleInWindow} is true,
3522 the window layout is rearranged to make more room for the title.
3523 If tinyLayout is 1, the labels on the menu bar are abbreviated
3524 to one character each and the buttons in the button bar are made narrower.
3525 @item -overrideLineGap n
3526 @cindex overrideLineGap, option
3527 When n >= 0, this forces the width of the black border between squares
3528 to n pixels for any board size. Mostly used to suppress the grid
3529 entirely by setting n = 0, e.g. in xiangqi or just getting a prettier
3530 picture. When n < 0 this the size-dependent width of the grid lines
3531 is used. Default: -1.
3532 @item -coords/-xcoords or -showCoords true/false
3533 @cindex coords, option
3534 @cindex showCoords, option
3535 Sets the Show Coords menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3536 The @code{coordFont} option specifies what font to use.
3537 @item -autoraise/-xautoraise or -autoRaiseBoard true/false
3538 @cindex autoraise, option
3539 @cindex autoRaiseBoard, option
3540 Sets the Auto Raise Board menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3541 @item -autoflip/-xautoflip or -autoFlipView true/false
3542 @cindex autoflip, option
3543 @cindex autoFlipView, option
3544 Sets the Auto Flip View menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3545 @item -flip/-xflip or -flipView true/false
3546 @cindex flip, option
3547 @cindex flipView, option
3548 If Auto Flip View is not set, or if you are observing but not participating
3549 in a game, then the positioning of the board at the start of each game
3550 depends on the flipView option. If flipView is false (the default),
3551 the board is positioned so that the white pawns move from the bottom to the
3552 top; if true, the black pawns move from the bottom to the top.
3553 In any case, the Flip menu option (see @ref{Options Menu})
3554 can be used to flip the board after
3556 @item -title/-xtitle or -titleInWindow true/false
3557 @cindex title, option
3558 @cindex titleInWindow, option
3559 If this option is true, XBoard displays player names (for ICS
3560 games) and game file names (for @samp{Load Game}) inside its main
3561 window. If the option is false (the default), this information is
3562 displayed only in the window banner. You probably won't want to
3563 set this option unless the information is not showing up in the
3564 banner, as happens with a few X window managers.
3565 @item -buttons/-xbuttons or -showButtonBar True/False
3566 @cindex buttons, option
3567 @cindex showButtonBar, option
3568 If this option is False, xboard omits the [<<] [<] [P] [>] [>>] button
3569 bar from the window, allowing the message line to be wider. You can
3570 still get the functions of these buttons using the menus or their keyboard
3571 shortcuts. Default: true.
3572 @item -evalZoom factor
3573 @cindex evalZoom, option
3574 The score interval (-1,1) is blown up on the vertical axis of
3575 the Evaluation Graph by the given factor.
3577 @item -evalThreshold n
3578 @cindex evalThreshold, option
3579 Score below n (centiPawn) are plotted as 0 in the Evaluation Graph.
3581 @item -mono/-xmono or -monoMode true/false
3582 @cindex mono, option
3583 @cindex monoMode, option
3584 Determines whether XBoard displays its pieces and squares with
3585 two colors (true) or four (false). You shouldn't have to
3586 specify @code{monoMode}; XBoard will determine if it is necessary.
3587 @item -showTargetSquares true/false
3588 @cindex showTargetSquares, option
3589 Determines whether XBoard can highlight the squares a piece has
3590 legal moves to, when you grab that piece with the mouse.
3592 @item -flashCount count
3593 @itemx -flashRate rate
3594 @itemx -flash/-xflash
3595 @cindex flashCount, option
3596 @cindex flashRate, option
3597 @cindex flash, option
3598 @cindex xflash, option
3599 These options enable flashing of pieces when they
3600 land on their destination square.
3602 tells XBoard how many times to flash a piece after it
3603 lands on its destination square.
3605 controls the rate of flashing (flashes/sec).
3608 sets flashCount to 3.
3610 sets flashCount to 0.
3611 Defaults: flashCount=0 (no flashing), flashRate=5.
3612 @item -highlight/-xhighlight or -highlightLastMove true/false
3613 @cindex highlight, option
3614 @cindex highlightLastMove, option
3615 Sets the Highlight Last Move menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3616 @item -highlightMoveWithArrow true/false
3617 @cindex highlight Arrow, option
3618 @cindex highlightMoveWithArrow, option
3619 Sets the Highlight with Arrow menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3620 @item -blind/-xblind or -blindfold true/false
3621 @cindex blind, option
3622 @cindex blindfold, option
3623 Sets the Blindfold menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
3624 @item -periodic/-xperiodic or -periodicUpdates true/false
3625 @cindex periodic, option
3626 @cindex periodicUpdates, option
3627 Controls updating of current move andnode counts in analysis mode. Default: true.
3630 @cindex fSAN, option
3631 @cindex sSAN, option
3632 Causes the PV in thinking output of the mentioned engine to be converted
3633 to SAN before it is further processed.
3634 Warning: this might lose engine output not understood by the parser,
3635 and uses a lot of CPU power.
3636 Default: the PV is displayed exactly as the engine produced it.
3637 @item -showEvalInMoveHistory true/false
3638 @cindex showEvalInMoveHistory, option
3639 Controls whether the evaluation scores and search depth of engine moves
3640 are displayed with the move in the move-history window.
3642 @item -clockFont font
3643 @cindex clockFont, option
3645 The font used for the clocks. If the option value is a pattern
3646 that does not specify the font size, XBoard tries to choose an
3647 appropriate font for the board size being used.
3648 Default Xaw: -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
3649 Default GTK: Sans Bold %d.
3650 @item -coordFont font
3651 @cindex coordFont, option
3652 @cindex Font, coordinates
3653 The font used for rank and file coordinate labels if @code{showCoords}
3654 is true. If the option value is a pattern that does not specify
3655 the font size, XBoard tries to choose an appropriate font for
3656 the board size being used.
3657 Default Xaw: -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
3658 Default GTK: Sans Bold %d.
3659 @item -messageFont font
3660 @cindex messageFont, option
3661 @cindex Font, message
3662 The font used for popup dialogs, menus, etc.
3663 If the option value is a pattern that does not specify
3664 the font size, XBoard tries to choose an appropriate font for
3665 the board size being used.
3666 Default Xaw: -*-helvetica-medium-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
3667 Default GTK: Sans Bold %d
3668 @item -tagsFont font
3669 @cindex tagsFont, option
3671 The font used in the Edit Tags dialog.
3672 If the option value contains %d, XBoard will replace it by
3673 an appropriate font for the board size being used.
3674 (Only used in GTK build.)
3675 Default: Sans Normal %d.
3676 @item -commentFont font
3677 @cindex commentFont, option
3678 @cindex Font, comment
3679 The font used in the Edit Comment dialog.
3680 If the option value contains %d, XBoard will replace it by
3681 an appropriate font for the board size being used.
3682 (Only used in GTK build.)
3683 Default: Sans Normal %d.
3685 @cindex icsFont, option
3687 The font used to display ICS output in the ICS Chat window.
3688 As ICS output often contains tables aligned by spaces,
3689 a mono-space font is recommended here.
3690 If the option value contains %d, XBoard will replace it by
3691 an appropriate font for the board size being used.
3692 (Only used in GTK build.)
3693 Default: Monospace Normal %d.
3694 @item -moveHistoryFont font
3695 @cindex moveHistoryFont, option
3696 @cindex Font, moveHistory
3697 The font used in Move History and Engine Output windows.
3698 As these windows display mainly moves,
3699 one could use a figurine font here.
3700 If the option value contains %d, XBoard will replace it by
3701 an appropriate font for the board size being used.
3702 (Only used in GTK build.)
3703 Default: Sans Normal %d.
3704 @item -gameListFont font
3705 @cindex gameListFont, option
3706 @cindex Font, gameList
3707 The font used in the listbox of the Game List window.
3708 If the option value contains %d, XBoard will replace it by
3709 an appropriate font for the board size being used.
3710 (Only used in GTK build.)
3711 Default: Sans Bold %d.
3712 @item -fontSizeTolerance tol
3713 @cindex fontSizeTolerance, option
3714 In the font selection algorithm, a nonscalable font will be preferred
3715 over a scalable font if the nonscalable font's size differs
3716 by @code{tol} pixels
3717 or less from the desired size. A value of -1 will force
3718 a scalable font to always be used if available; a value of 0 will
3719 use a nonscalable font only if it is exactly the right size;
3720 a large value (say 1000) will force a nonscalable font to always be
3721 used if available. Default: 4.
3722 @item -pid or -pieceImageDirectory dir
3724 @cindex pieceImageDirectory, option
3725 This options control what piece images xboard uses.
3726 XBoard will look in the specified directory for an image in png
3727 or svg format for every piece type, with names like BlackQueen.svg,
3728 WhiteKnight.svg etc.
3729 When neither of these is found (or no valid directory is specified)
3730 XBoard will first ty to use an image White/BlackTile.svg in that same
3731 directory, and if that is not present either
3732 use the svg piece that was installed with it
3733 (from the source-tree directory @samp{svg}).
3734 Both svg and png images will be scaled by XBoard to the required size,
3735 but the png pieces lose much in quality when scaled too much.
3737 @item -inscriptions utf8string
3738 @cindex inscriptions, option
3739 The positions in the utf8string correspond to XBoard's piece types,
3740 and for each type a glyph can be defined.
3741 This glyph will then be rendered on top of the image for the piece.
3742 This is useful in combination with the White/BlackTile.svg images,
3743 which could be the image of a blank Shogi tile, for writing the
3744 kanji piece name on top of it on the fly.
3747 @item -whitePieceColor color
3748 @itemx -blackPieceColor color
3749 @itemx -lightSquareColor color
3750 @itemx -darkSquareColor color
3751 @itemx -highlightSquareColor color
3752 @itemx -preoveHighlightColor color
3753 @itemx -lowTimeWarningColor color
3755 @cindex whitePieceColor, option
3756 @cindex blackPieceColor, option
3757 @cindex lightSquareColor, option
3758 @cindex darkSquareColor, option
3759 @cindex highlightSquareColor, option
3760 @cindex premoveHighlightColor, option
3761 @cindex lowTimeWarningColor, option
3762 Colors to use for the pieces, squares, and square highlights.
3766 -whitePieceColor #FFFFCC
3767 -blackPieceColor #202020
3768 -lightSquareColor #C8C365
3769 -darkSquareColor #77A26D
3770 -highlightSquareColor #FFFF00
3771 -premoveHighlightColor #FF0000
3772 -lowTimeWarningColor #FF0000
3775 On a grayscale monitor you might prefer:
3778 -whitePieceColor gray100
3779 -blackPieceColor gray0
3780 -lightSquareColor gray80
3781 -darkSquareColor gray60
3782 -highlightSquareColor gray100
3783 -premoveHighlightColor gray70
3784 -lowTimeWarningColor gray70
3787 The PieceColor options only work properly if the image files
3788 defining the pieces were pure black & white
3789 (possibly anti-aliased to produce gray scales
3790 and semi-transparancy),
3791 like the pieces images that come with the install.
3792 Their effect on colored pieces is undefined.
3793 The SquareColor option only have an effect
3794 when no board textures are used.
3795 @item -trueColors true/false
3796 @cindex trueColors, option
3797 When set, this option suppresses the effect of the
3798 PieceColor options mentioned above.
3799 This is recommended for images that are already colored.
3800 @item -useBoardTexture true/false
3801 @itemx -liteBackTextureFile filename
3802 @itemx -darkBackTextureFile filename
3803 @cindex useBoardTexture, option
3804 @cindex liteBackTextureFile, option
3805 @cindex darkBackTextureFile, option
3806 Indicate the png image files to be used for drawing the board squares,
3807 and if they should be used rather than using simple colors.
3808 The algorithm for cutting squares out of a given bitmap is such that
3809 the picture is perfectly reproduced when a bitmap the size of
3810 the complete board is given.
3811 If the filename ends in "-NxM.png", with integer N and M,
3812 it is assumed to contain a bitmap of a complete board of N files
3813 and M ranks, and XBoard will scale it to exactly match the
3814 current square size.
3815 If N=M=0 it scales the entire bitmap to the size of the board,
3816 irrespective of the number of files and ranks of the latter.
3817 Without any -NxM suffix textures are only blown up by an integer
3818 factor when they are smaller than the square size, or,
3819 when the name starts with "xq", too small to cover the
3820 complete Xiangqi board.
3821 Default: false and ""
3822 @item -drag/-xdrag or -animateDragging true/false
3823 @cindex drag, option
3824 @cindex animateDragging, option
3825 Sets the Animate Dragging menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3826 @item -animate/-xanimate or -animateMoving true/false
3827 @cindex animate, option
3828 @cindex animateMoving, option
3829 Sets the Animate Moving menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3830 @item -animateSpeed n
3831 @cindex -animateSpeed, option
3832 Number of milliseconds delay between each animation frame when Animate
3834 @item -autoDisplayComment true/false
3835 @itemx -autoDisplayTags true/false
3836 @cindex -autoDisplayComment, option
3837 @cindex -autoDisplayTags, option
3838 If set to true, these options cause the window with the move comments,
3839 and the window with PGN tags, respectively, to pop up automatically when
3840 such tags or comments are encountered during the replaying a stored or
3841 loaded game. Default: true.
3842 @item -pasteSelection true/false
3843 @cindex -pasteSelection, option
3844 If this option is set to true, the Paste Position and Paste Game
3845 options paste from the currently selected text. If false, they paste
3846 from the clipboard. Default: false.
3847 @item -autoCopyPV true|false
3848 @cindex autoCopyPV, option
3849 When this option is set, the position displayed on the board when
3850 you terminate a PV walk
3851 (initiated by a right-click on board or engine-output window)
3852 will be automatically put on the clipboard as FEN.
3854 @item -dropMenu true|false
3855 @cindex dropMenu, option
3856 This option allows you to emulate old behavior,
3857 where the right mouse button brings up the (now deprecated) drop menu
3858 rather than displaying the position at the end of the principal variation.
3860 @item -pieceMenu true|false
3861 @cindex pieceMenu, option
3862 This option allows you to emulate old behavior,
3863 where the right mouse button brings up the (now deprecated) piece menu
3864 in Edit Position mode.
3865 From this menu you can select the piece to put on the square you
3866 clicked to bring up the menu,
3867 or select items such as @kbd{clear board}.
3868 You can also @kbd{promote} or @kbd{demote} a clicked piece to convert
3869 it into an unorthodox piece that is not directly in the menu,
3870 or give the move to @kbd{black} or @kbd{white}.
3871 @item -variations true|false
3872 @cindex variations, option
3873 When this option is on, you can start new variations in Edit Game or
3874 Analyze mode by holding the Shift key down while entering a move.
3875 When it is off, the Shift key will be ignored.
3877 @item -appendPV true|false
3878 @cindex appendPV, option
3879 When this option is on, a button 3 click left of a PV in the Engine
3880 Output window will play the first move of that PV in Analyze mode,
3881 or as many moves as you walk through it by moving the mouse.
3883 @item -absoluteAnalysisScores true|false
3884 @cindex absoluteAnalysisScores, option
3885 When true, scores on the Engine Output window during analysis
3886 will be printed from the white point-of-view, rather than the
3887 side-to-move point-of-view.
3889 @item -scoreWhite true|false
3890 @cindex scoreWhite, option
3891 When true, scores will always be printed from the white point-of-view,
3892 rather than the side-to-move point-of-view.
3894 @item -memoHeaders true|false
3895 @cindex memoHeaders, option
3896 When true, column headers will be displayed in the Engine Output window
3897 for the depth, score, time and nodes data.
3898 A button 3 click on these headers will hide or show the corresponding data.
3899 (Not intended for dynamic use, as already printed data of the current search
3900 will not be affected!)
3904 @node Adjudication Options
3905 @section Adjudication Options
3906 @cindex Options, adjudication
3908 @item -adjudicateLossThreshold n
3909 @cindex adjudicateLossThreshold, option
3910 If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a loss
3911 if both engines agree for a duration of 6 consecutive ply that the score
3912 is below the given score threshold for that engine. Make sure the score
3913 is interpreted properly by XBoard,
3914 using @code{-firstScoreAbs} and @code{-secondScoreAbs} if needed.
3915 Default: 0 (no adjudication)
3916 @item -adjudicateDrawMoves n
3917 @cindex adjudicateDrawMoves, option
3918 If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a draw
3919 if after the given number of moves it was not yet decided. Default: 0 (no adjudication)
3920 @item -checkMates true/false
3921 @cindex checkMates, option
3922 If this option is set, XBoard detects all checkmates and stalemates,
3923 and ends the game as soon as they occur.
3924 Legality-testing must be switched on for this option to work.
3926 @item -testClaims true/false
3927 @cindex testClaims, option
3928 If this option is set, XBoard verifies all result claims made by engines,
3929 and those who send false claims will forfeit the game because of it.
3930 Legality-testing must be switched on for this option to work. Default: true
3931 @item -materialDraws true/false
3932 @cindex materialDraws, option
3933 If this option is set, XBoard adjudicates games as draws when there is
3934 no sufficient material left to inflict a checkmate.
3935 This applies to KBKB with like bishops (any number, actually), and to KBK, KNK and KK.
3936 Legality-testing must be switched on for this option to work. Default: true
3937 @item -trivialDraws true/false
3938 @cindex trivialDraws, option
3939 If this option is set, XBoard adjudicates games as draws that cannot be
3940 usually won without opponent cooperation. This applies to KBKB with unlike bishops,
3941 and to KBKN, KNKN, KNNK, KRKR and KQKQ. The draw is called after 6 ply into these end-games,
3942 to allow quick mates that can occur in some exceptional positions to be found by the engines.
3943 KQKQ does not really belong in this category, and might be taken out in the future.
3944 (When bitbase-based adjudications are implemented.)
3945 Legality-testing must be on for this option to work. Default: false
3947 @cindex ruleMoves, option
3948 If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a draw after the given
3949 number of consecutive reversible moves. Engine draw claims are always accepted after 50 moves,
3950 irrespective of the given value of n.
3951 @item -repeatsToDraw n
3952 If the given value is non-zero, xboard adjudicates the game as a draw if a position
3953 is repeated the given number of times. Engines draw claims are always accepted after 3 repeats,
3954 (on the 3rd occurrence, actually), irrespective of the value of n.
3955 Beware that positions that have different castling or en-passant rights do not count
3956 as repeats, XBoard is fully e.p. and castling aware!
3959 @node Install options
3960 @section Install options
3961 @cindex Options, install
3963 @item --show-config parameter
3964 @cindex show-config, option
3965 When called with this option, XBoard will close immediately after printing the
3966 value of the indicated configuration parameter, or, when no parameter was given,
3967 after printing a list of all such parameters.
3968 Currently the only valid values for parameter are Datadir and Sysconfdir.
3969 This option can be used by install scripts for board themes
3970 to figure out where the currently active XBoard stores its data.
3971 @item -date timestamp
3972 @itemx -saveDate timestamp
3973 @cindex date, option
3974 @cindex saveDate, option
3975 These options specify an epoch as an integer number.
3976 The @code{saveDate} option is written by XBoard in the settings file every time the
3977 settings are saved, with the current time, so that later runs of XBoard can know this.
3978 The @code{date} option can be included in settings files to indicate when lines
3979 following it were added to those files.
3980 Some options will be ignored if the epoch specified by the latest @code{date} option
3981 predates the -saveDate setting (implying they must have been seen before).
3982 @item -autoInstall list
3983 @cindex autoInstall, option
3984 When the list is set to a non-empty string, XBoard will scan the
3985 operating system's plugin directory for engines supporting UCI
3986 and XBoard protocol at startup.
3987 When it finds an engine that was installed after it last saved
3988 its settings, a line to launch that engine (as per specs in
3989 the plugin file) is appended to the -firstChessProgramNames
3990 list of installed engines.
3991 In the future it will be possible to use the autoInstall list to limit
3992 this automatic adding of engines based on the chess variant they play.
3993 @item -addMasterOption string
3994 @cindex addMasterOption, option
3995 Adds the mentioned string as an additional line of XBoard's master settings file,
3996 after adding a line with a @code{date} option to timestamp it.
3997 Intended to add options of the 'install' type (see below) to the master file,
3998 which will then be processed by any XBoard that has not seen them since
3999 it last saved its settings.
4001 @cindex autoClose, option
4002 The presence of this option cause XBoard to close immediately after processing
4003 all its options (from settings file and command line).
4004 Typically used from install scripts together with options that change XBoard's
4005 settings files, so that XBoard can be run in batch mode rather than interactively.
4006 @item -installEngine string
4007 @cindex installEngine, option
4008 Adds the given string as an additional line to the value of the
4009 @code{firstChessProgramNames} option when the -saveDate setting preceeds the -date setting.
4010 Intended for adding to the master settings file with the aid of -addMasterOption
4011 in the install script of engines, as a method for broadcasting the presence
4012 of a new engine to all users,
4013 which would then see it automatically registered with XBoard.
4014 Made obsolete by the advent of the plugin standard (see the @code{autoInstall} option),
4015 which broadcasts such presence in a non-XBoard-specific way
4016 by dropping *.eng files in a certain system directory.
4017 @item -installTheme string
4018 @cindex installTheme, option
4019 Adds the given string as an additional line to the value of the
4020 -themeNames option when the -saveDate setting preceeds the -date setting.
4021 Intended for adding to the master settings file with the aid of -addMasterOption
4022 in the install script of board graphics themes,
4023 as a method for broadcasting the availability of a new theme to all users,
4024 who would then see the theme appear automatically in the listbox in the
4025 View Board menu dialog next time they run XBoard.
4029 @section Other options
4030 @cindex Options, miscellaneous
4032 @item -ncp/-xncp or -noChessProgram true/false
4034 @cindex noChessProgram, option
4035 If this option is true, XBoard acts as a passive chessboard; it
4036 does not start a chess engine at all. Turning on this option
4037 also turns off clockMode. Default: false.
4039 @itemx -viewerOptions string
4040 @cindex viewer, option
4041 @cindex viewerOptions, option
4042 Presence of the volatile option @code{viewer} on the command line
4043 will cause the value of the persistent option @code{viewerOptions}
4044 as stored in the settings file to be appended to the command line.
4045 The @code{view} option will be used by desktop associations with
4046 game or position file types, so that @code{viewerOptions} can be
4047 used to configure the exact mode XBoard will start in when it
4048 should act on such a file (e.g. in -ncp mode, or analyzing
4049 with your favorite engine). The options are also automatically
4050 appended when Board is invoked with a single argument not being
4051 an option name, which is then assumed to be the name of a
4052 @code{loadGameFile} or (when the name ends in .fen) a
4053 @code{loadPositionFile}.
4054 Default: "-ncp -engineOutputUp false -saveSettingsOnExit false".
4055 @item -tourneyOptions string
4056 @cindex tourneyOptions, option
4057 When XBoard is invoked with a single argument that is a file
4058 with .trn extension, it will assume this argument to be the value
4059 of a @code{tourneyFile} option,
4060 and append the value of the persistent option @code{tourneyOptions}
4061 as stored in the settings file to the command line.
4062 Thus the value of @code{tourneyOptions} can be
4063 used to configure XBoard to automatically start running a
4064 tournament when it should act on such a file.
4065 Default: "-ncp -mm -saveSettingsOnExit false".
4066 @item -mode or -initialMode modename
4067 @cindex mode, option
4068 @cindex initalMode, option
4069 If this option is given, XBoard selects the given modename
4070 from the Mode menu after starting and (if applicable) processing the
4071 loadGameFile or loadPositionFile option. Default: "" (no selection).
4072 Other supported values are
4073 MachineWhite, MachineBlack, TwoMachines, Analysis,
4074 AnalyzeFile, EditGame, EditPosition, and Training.
4075 @item -variant varname
4076 @cindex variant, option
4077 Activates (sometimes partial) support for playing chess variants
4078 against a local engine or editing variant games. This flag is not
4079 needed in ICS mode. Recognized variant names are:
4083 wildcastle Shuffle chess, king can castle from d file
4084 nocastle Shuffle chess, no castling allowed
4085 fischerandom Fischer Random shuffle chess
4086 bughouse Bughouse, ICC/FICS rules
4087 crazyhouse Crazyhouse, ICC/FICS rules
4088 losers Lose all pieces or get mated (ICC wild 17)
4089 suicide Lose all pieces including king (FICS)
4090 giveaway Try to have no legal moves (ICC wild 26)
4091 twokings Weird ICC wild 9
4092 kriegspiel Opponent's pieces are invisible
4093 atomic Capturing piece explodes (ICC wild 27)
4094 3check Win by giving check 3 times (ICC wild 25)
4095 shatranj An ancient precursor of chess (ICC wild 28)
4096 xiangqi Chinese Chess (on a 9x10 board)
4097 shogi Japanese Chess (on a 9x9 board & piece drops)
4098 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8 board, with Archbishop
4099 and Chancellor pieces)
4100 gothic similar, with a better initial position
4101 caparandom An FRC-like version of Capablanca Chess (10x8)
4102 janus A game with two Archbishops (10x8 board)
4103 courier Medieval intermediate between shatranj and
4104 modern Chess (on 12x8 board)
4105 falcon Patented 10x8 variant with two Falcon pieces
4106 berolina Pawns capture straight ahead, and move diagonally
4107 cylinder Pieces wrap around the board edge
4108 knightmate King moves as Knight, and vice versa
4109 super Superchess (shuffle variant with 4 exo-pieces)
4110 makruk Thai Chess (shatranj-like, P promotes on 6th rank)
4111 asean ASEAN Chess (a modernized version of Makruk)
4112 spartan Spartan Chess (black has unorthodox pieces)
4113 great Great Shatranj, a 10x8 variant without sliders
4114 grand Grand Chess, on 10x10 with Capablanca pieces
4115 lion Mighty-Lion Chess, with a multi-capturing Lion
4116 elven Eleven Chess, with Lion and crowned sliders on 10x10
4117 chu Chu Shogi, historic 12x12 variant with 2x46 pieces
4118 fairy A catchall variant in which all piece types
4119 known to XBoard can participate (8x8)
4120 unknown Catchall for other unknown variants
4123 In the shuffle variants, XBoard does shuffle the pieces, although
4124 you can still do it by hand using Edit Position. Some variants are
4125 supported only in ICS mode, including bughouse, and
4127 Berolina and cylinder chess are only partially supported,
4128 and can only be played with legality testing off.
4130 Apart from these standard variants, engines can define variants
4131 of arbitrary names, briefing XBoard transparently on the rules
4132 for piece movement, board size and initial setup,
4133 so that they work nearly as well as fully-supported standard variants.
4134 (But obviously only while using that engine.)
4135 The user might have to alter the adjudication settings for some
4136 variants, however. E.g. it makes no sense to adjudicate a draw
4137 after 50 reversible moves in variants that have a 64-move rule,
4138 or no similar rule at all.
4140 Default: "normal". Except when the first engine gave an explicit list
4141 of variants it supports, and 'normal' is not amongst those.
4142 In that case the first variant the engine mentioned it did play will
4144 @item -boardHeight N
4145 @cindex boardHeight, option
4146 Allows you to set a non-standard number of board ranks in any variant.
4147 If the height is given as -1, the default height for the variant is used.
4150 @cindex boardWidth, option
4151 Allows you to set a non-standard number of board files in any variant.
4152 If the width is given as -1, the default width for the variant is used.
4153 With a non-standard width, the initial position will always be an empty board,
4154 as the usual opening array will not fit.
4156 @item -holdingsSize N
4157 @cindex holdingsSize, option
4158 Allows you to set a non-standard size for the holdings in any variant.
4159 If the size is given as -1, the default holdings size for the variant is used.
4160 The first N piece types will go into the holdings on capture, and you will be
4161 able to drop them on the board in stead of making a normal move. If size equals 0,
4162 there will be no holdings.
4164 @item -defaultFrcPosition N
4165 @cindex defaultFrcPosition, option
4166 Specifies the number of the opening position in shuffle games like Chess960.
4167 A value of -1 means the position is randomly generated by XBoard
4168 at the beginning of every game.
4170 @item -pieceToCharTable string
4171 @cindex pieceToCharTable, option
4172 The characters that are used to represent the piece types XBoard knows in FEN
4173 diagrams and SAN moves.
4174 You should not have to use this option often: each variant has its own default
4175 setting for the piece representation in FEN, which should be sufficient in normal use.
4176 The string argument has to specify an even number of pieces
4177 (or it will be ignored), as white and black pieces have to be given separately
4178 (in that order). The last letter for each color will be the King.
4179 The letters before that will be PNBRQ and then a whole host of fairy pieces
4180 in an order that has not fully crystallized yet (currently FEACWMOHIJGDVLSU,
4181 F=Ferz, Elephant, A=Archbishop, C=Chancellor, W=Wazir, M=Commoner, O=Cannon,
4182 H=Nightrider). You should list at least all pieces that occur in the variant
4183 you are playing. If you have fewer characters in the string than XBoard has
4184 pieces, the pieces not mentioned will get assigned a period,
4185 and will not be usable in the variant.
4186 You can also explicitly assign pieces a period, in which case they
4187 will not be counted in deciding which captured pieces can go into the holdings.
4188 A tilde '~' as a piece name does mean this piece is used to represent a promoted
4189 Pawn in crazyhouse-like games, i.e. on capture it turns back to a Pawn.
4190 A '+' similarly indicates the piece is a shogi-style promoted piece, that should
4191 revert to its non-promoted version on capture (rather than to a Pawn).
4192 By default the second 11 pieces known to XBoard are the promoted forms of the first 11.
4193 A piece specified by the character combination ^ plus letter will be assumed
4194 to be the promoted form of the piece indicated by that letter,
4195 and get a '+' assigned.
4196 To get around the limitation of the alphabet,
4197 piece IDs can also be 'dressed letters', i.e. a single letter
4198 (upper case for white, lower case for black)
4199 followed by a single quote or an exclamation point.
4200 Default: "" (meaning the default for the variant is used).
4201 @item -pieceNickNames string
4202 @cindex pieceNickNames, option
4203 The characters in the string are interpreted the same way as in the
4204 @code{pieceToCharTable} option. But on input, piece-ID letters are
4205 first looked up in the nicknames, and only if not defined there,
4206 in the normal pieceToCharTable. This allows you to have two letters
4207 designate the same piece, (e.g. N as an alternative to H for Horse
4208 in Xiangqi), to make reading of non-compliant notations easier.
4210 @item -colorNickNames string
4211 @cindex colorNickNames, option
4212 The side-to-move field in a FEN will be first matched against the letters
4213 in the string (first character for white, second for black),
4214 before it is matched to the regular 'w' and 'b'.
4215 This makes it easier to read non-compliant FENs,
4216 which, say, use 'r' for white.
4218 @item -debug/-xdebug or -debugMode true/false
4219 @cindex debug, option
4220 @cindex debugMode, option
4221 Turns on debugging printout.
4222 @item -debugFile filename or -nameOfDebugFile filename
4223 @cindex debugFile, option
4224 @cindex nameOfDebugFile, option
4225 Sets the name of the file to which XBoard saves debug information
4226 (including all communication to and from the engines).
4227 A @kbd{%d} in the given file name (e.g. game%d.debug) will be replaced
4228 by the unique sequence number of a tournament game,
4229 so that the debug output of each game will be written on a separate file.
4230 @item -engineDebugOutput number
4231 @cindex engineDebugOutput, option
4232 Specifies how XBoard should handle unsolicited output from the engine,
4233 with respect to saving it in the debug file.
4234 The output is further (hopefully) ignored.
4235 If number=0, XBoard refrains from writing such spurious output to the debug file.
4236 If number=1, all engine output is written faithfully to the debug file.
4237 If number=2, any protocol-violating line is prefixed with a '#' character,
4238 as the engine itself should have done if it wanted to submit info for inclusion in the debug file.
4239 This option is provided for the benefit of applications that use the debug file
4240 as a source of information, such as the broadcaster of live games TLCV / TLCS.
4241 Such applications can be protected from spurious engine output that might otherwise confuse them.
4242 @item -rsh or -remoteShell shell-name
4244 @cindex remoteShell, option
4245 Name of the command used to run programs remotely. The default
4246 is @file{rsh} or @file{remsh}, determined when XBoard is
4247 configured and compiled.
4248 @item -ruser or -remoteUser user-name
4249 @cindex ruser, option
4250 @cindex remoteUser, option
4251 User name on the remote system when running programs with the
4252 @code{remoteShell}. The default is your local user name.
4253 @item -userName username
4254 @cindex userName, option
4255 Name under which the Human player will be listed in the PGN file.
4256 Default is the login name on your local computer.
4257 @item -delayBeforeQuit number
4258 @itemx -delayAfterQuit number
4259 @cindex delayBeforeQuit, option
4260 @cindex delayAfterQuit, option
4261 These options order pauses before and after sending the "quit" command to an engine that must be terminated.
4262 The pause between quit and the previous command is specified in milliseconds.
4263 The pause after quit is used to schedule a kill signal to be sent to the engine process after the
4264 number of specified seconds plus one.
4265 This signal is a different one as the terminiation signal described in the protocol specs
4266 which engines can suppress or ignore, and which is sent directly after the "quit" command.
4267 Setting @code{delayAfterQuit} to -1 will suppress sending of the kill signal.
4270 @cindex searchMode, option
4271 The integer n encodes the mode for the @samp{find position} function.
4272 Default: 1 (= Exact position match)
4273 @item -eloThresholdBoth elo
4274 @itemx -eloThresholdAny elo
4275 @cindex eloThresholdBoth, option
4276 @cindex eloThresholdAny, option
4277 Defines a lower limit for the Elo rating, which has to be surpassed
4278 before a game will be considered when searching for a board position.
4280 @item -dateThreshold year
4281 @cindex dateThreshold, option
4282 Only games not played before the given year will be considered when
4283 searching for a board position
4289 @chapter Chess Servers
4291 @cindex ICS, addresses
4292 @cindex Internet Chess Server
4293 An @dfn{Internet Chess Server}, or @dfn{ICS}, is a place on the
4294 Internet where people can get together to play chess, watch other
4295 people's games, or just chat. You can use either @code{telnet} or a
4296 client program like XBoard to connect to the server. There are
4297 thousands of registered users on the different ICS hosts, and it is
4298 not unusual to meet 200 on both chessclub.com and freechess.org.
4300 Most people can just type @kbd{xboard -ics} to start XBoard as an ICS
4301 client. Invoking XBoard in this way connects you to the Internet
4302 Chess Club (ICC), a commercial ICS. You can log in there as a guest
4303 even if you do not have a paid account. To connect to the largest
4304 Free ICS (FICS), use the command @kbd{xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org}
4305 instead, or substitute a different host name to connect to your
4307 For a full description of command-line options that control
4308 the connection to ICS and change the default values of ICS options, see
4311 While you are running XBoard as an ICS client,
4312 you use the terminal window that you started XBoard from
4313 as a place to type in commands and read information that is
4314 not available on the chessboard.
4316 The first time you need to use the terminal is to enter your login name
4317 and password, if you are a registered player. (You don't need to do
4318 this manually; the @code{icsLogon} option can do it for you.
4319 @pxref{ICS options}.) If you are not registered,
4320 enter @kbd{g} as your name, and the server will pick a
4321 unique guest name for you.
4323 Some useful ICS commands
4327 @cindex help, ICS command
4328 to get help on the given <topic>. To get a list of possible topics type
4329 @dfn{help} without topic. Try the help command before you ask other
4330 people on the server for help.
4332 For example @kbd{help register} tells you how to become a registered
4335 @cindex who, ICS command
4336 to see a list of people who are logged on. Administrators
4337 (people you should talk to if you have a problem) are marked
4338 with the character @samp{*}, an asterisk. The <flags> allow you to
4339 display only selected players: For example, @kbd{who of} shows a
4340 list of players who are interested in playing but do not have
4343 @cindex games, ICS command
4344 to see what games are being played
4345 @item match <player> [<mins>] [<inc>]
4346 to challenge another player to a game. Both opponents get <mins> minutes
4347 for the game, and <inc> seconds will be added after each move.
4348 If another player challenges you, the server asks if you want to
4349 accept the challenge; use the @kbd{accept} or @kbd{decline} commands
4353 @cindex accept, ICS command
4354 @cindex decline, ICS command
4355 to accept or decline another player's offer.
4356 The offer may be to start a new game, or to agree to a
4357 @kbd{draw}, @kbd{adjourn} or @kbd{abort} the current game. @xref{Action Menu}.
4359 If you have more than one pending offer (for example, if more than one player
4360 is challenging you, or if your opponent offers both a draw and to adjourn the
4361 game), you have to supply additional information, by typing something
4362 like @kbd{accept <player>}, @kbd{accept draw}, or @kbd{draw}.
4366 @cindex draw, ICS command
4367 @cindex adjourn, ICS command
4368 @cindex abort, ICS command
4369 asks your opponent to terminate a game by mutual agreement. Adjourned
4370 games can be continued later.
4371 Your opponent can either @kbd{decline} your offer or accept it (by typing the
4372 same command or typing @kbd{accept}). In some cases these commands work
4373 immediately, without asking your opponent to agree. For example, you can
4374 abort the game unilaterally if your opponent is out of time, and you can claim
4375 a draw by repetition or the 50-move rule if available simply by typing
4377 @item finger <player>
4378 @cindex finger, ICS command
4379 to get information about the given <player>. (Default: yourself.)
4381 @cindex vars, ICS command
4382 to get a list of personal settings
4383 @item set <var> <value>
4384 @cindex set, ICS command
4385 to modify these settings
4386 @item observe <player>
4387 @cindex observe, ICS command
4388 to observe an ongoing game of the given <player>.
4391 @cindex examine, ICS command
4392 @cindex oldmoves, ICS command
4393 to review a recently completed game
4396 Some special XBoard features are activated when you are
4397 in examine mode on ICS. See the descriptions of the menu commands
4398 @samp{Forward}, @samp{Backward}, @samp{Pause}, @samp{ICS Client},
4399 and @samp{Stop Examining} on the @ref{Edit Menu}, @ref{Mode Menu}, and
4404 By default, XBoard communicates with an Internet Chess Server
4405 by opening a TCP socket directly from the machine it is running on
4406 to the ICS. If there is a firewall between your machine and the ICS,
4407 this won't work. Here are some recipes for getting around common
4408 kinds of firewalls using special options to XBoard.
4409 Important: See the paragraph in the below about extra echoes, in
4412 Suppose that you can't telnet directly to ICS, but you can telnet
4413 to a firewall host, log in, and then telnet from there to ICS.
4414 Let's say the firewall is called @samp{firewall.example.com}. Set
4415 command-line options as follows:
4418 xboard -ics -icshost firewall.example.com -icsport 23
4421 Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, you will be prompted
4422 to log in to the firewall host. This works because port 23 is the
4423 standard telnet login service. Do so, then telnet to ICS, using a
4424 command like @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000}, or whatever command
4425 the firewall provides for telnetting to port 5000.
4427 If your firewall lets you telnet (or rlogin) to remote hosts but
4428 doesn't let you telnet to port 5000, you may be able to connect to the
4429 chess server on port 23 instead, which is the port the telnet program
4430 uses by default. Some chess servers support this (including
4431 chessclub.com and freechess.org), while some do not.
4433 If your chess server does not allow connections on port 23 and your
4434 firewall does not allow you to connect to other ports, you may be able
4435 to connect by hopping through another host outside the firewall that
4436 you have an account on. For instance, suppose you have a shell
4437 account at @samp{foo.edu}. Follow the recipe above, but instead of
4438 typing @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000} to the firewall, type
4439 @samp{telnet foo.edu} (or @samp{rlogin foo.edu}), log in there, and
4440 then type @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000}.
4442 Suppose that you can't telnet directly to ICS, but you can use rsh
4443 to run programs on a firewall host, and that host can telnet to ICS.
4444 Let's say the firewall is called @samp{rsh.example.com}. Set
4445 command-line options as follows:
4448 xboard -ics -gateway rsh.example.com -icshost chessclub.com
4452 Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, it will connect to
4453 the ICS by using @file{rsh} to run the command
4454 @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000} on host @samp{rsh.example.com}.
4456 Suppose that you can telnet anywhere you want, but you have to
4457 run a special program called @file{ptelnet} to do so.
4459 First, we'll consider the easy case, in which
4460 @samp{ptelnet chessclub.com 5000} gets you to the chess server.
4461 In this case set command line options as follows:
4464 xboard -ics -telnet -telnetProgram ptelnet
4468 Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, it will issue the
4469 command @samp{ptelnet chessclub.com 5000} to connect to the ICS.
4471 Next, suppose that @samp{ptelnet chessclub.com 5000} doesn't work;
4472 that is, your @file{ptelnet} program doesn't let you connect to
4473 alternative ports. As noted above, your chess server may allow you to
4474 connect on port 23 instead. In that case, just add the option
4475 @samp{-icsport ""} to the above command.
4476 But if your chess server doesn't let you connect on port 23, you will have
4477 to find some other host outside the firewall and hop through it. For
4478 instance, suppose you have a shell account at @samp{foo.edu}. Set
4479 command line options as follows:
4482 xboard -ics -telnet -telnetProgram ptelnet -icshost foo.edu -icsport ""
4486 Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, it will issue the
4487 command @samp{ptelnet foo.edu} to connect to your account at
4488 @samp{foo.edu}. Log in there, then type @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000}.
4490 ICC timestamp and FICS timeseal do not work through some
4491 firewalls. You can use them only if your firewall gives a clean TCP
4492 connection with a full 8-bit wide path. If your firewall allows you
4493 to get out only by running a special telnet program, you can't use
4494 timestamp or timeseal across it. But if you have access to a
4495 computer just outside your firewall, and you have much lower netlag
4496 when talking to that computer than to the ICS, it might be worthwhile
4497 running timestamp there. Follow the instructions above for hopping
4498 through a host outside the firewall (foo.edu in the example),
4499 but run timestamp or timeseal on that host instead of telnet.
4501 Suppose that you have a SOCKS firewall that will give you a clean
4502 8-bit wide TCP connection to the chess server, but only after you
4503 authenticate yourself via the SOCKS protocol. In that case, you could
4504 make a socksified version of XBoard and run that. If you are using
4505 timestamp or timeseal, you will to socksify it, not XBoard; this may
4506 be difficult seeing that ICC and FICS do not provide source code for
4507 these programs. Socksification is beyond the scope of this document,
4508 but see the SOCKS Web site at http://www.socks.permeo.com/.
4509 If you are missing SOCKS, try http://www.funbureau.com/.
4512 @chapter Environment variables
4513 @cindex Environment variables
4515 Game and position files are found in a directory named by the
4516 @code{CHESSDIR} environment variable. If this variable is not set, the
4517 current working directory is used. If @code{CHESSDIR} is set,
4518 XBoard actually changes its working directory to
4519 @code{$CHESSDIR}, so any files written by the chess engine
4520 will be placed there too.
4523 @chapter Limitations and known bugs
4526 There is no way for two people running copies of XBoard to play
4527 each other without going through an Internet Chess Server.
4529 Under some circumstances, your ICS password may be echoed when you log on.
4531 If you are connecting to the ICS by running telnet on an Internet
4532 provider or firewall host, you may find that each line you type is
4533 echoed back an extra time after you hit @key{Enter}. If your Internet
4534 provider is a Unix system, you can probably turn its echo off by
4535 typing @kbd{stty -echo} after you log in, and/or typing
4536 @key{^E}@key{Enter} (Ctrl+E followed by the Enter key) to the telnet
4537 program after you have logged into ICS. It is a good idea to do this
4538 if you can, because the extra echo can occasionally confuse XBoard's
4541 The game parser recognizes only algebraic notation.
4543 Many of the following points used to be limitations in XBoard 4.2.7 and earlier,
4545 The internal move legality tester in XBoard 4.3.xx does look at the game history,
4546 and is fully aware of castling or en-passant-capture rights. It permits castling with
4547 the king on the d file because this is possible in some "wild 1" games on ICS.
4548 The piece-drop menu does not check piece drops in bughouse to see if you actually hold
4549 the piece you are trying to drop. But this way of dropping pieces should be considered
4550 an obsolete feature, now that pieces can be dropped by dragging them from the holdings
4551 to the board. Anyway, if you would attempt an illegal move when using a chess engine or the ICS,
4552 XBoard will accept the error message that comes back, undo the move, and let you try another.
4553 FEN positions saved by XBoard do include correct information about whether castling or
4554 en passant are legal, and also handle the 50-move counter.
4555 The mate detector does not understand that non-contact mate is not really mate in bughouse.
4556 The only problem this causes while playing is minor: a "#" (mate indicator) character will
4557 show up after a non-contact mating move in the move list. XBoard will not assume the game
4558 is over at that point, not even when the option Detect Mates is on.
4559 Edit Game mode always uses the rules of the selected variant,
4560 which can be a variant that uses piece drops.
4561 You can load and edit games that contain piece drops.
4562 The (obsolete) piece menus are not active,
4563 but you can perform piece drops by dragging pieces from the holdings.
4564 Fischer Random castling is fully understood.
4565 You can enter castlings by dragging the King on top of your Rook.
4566 You can probably also play Fischer Random successfully on ICS by typing
4567 castling moves into the ICS Interaction window.
4569 The menus may not work if your keyboard is in Caps Lock or Num Lock mode.
4570 This seems to be a problem with the Athena menu widget,
4573 Also see the ToDo file included with the distribution for many other
4574 possible bugs, limitations, and ideas for improvement that have been
4577 @chapter Reporting problems
4580 @cindex Reporting bugs
4582 @cindex Reporting problems
4584 You can report bugs and problems with XBoard using
4585 the bug tracker at @code{https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/}
4586 or by sending mail to @code{<bug-xboard@@gnu.org>}. It can also
4587 be useful to report or discuss bugs in the WinBoard Forum at
4588 @code{http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/},
4589 WinBoard development section.
4591 Please use the @file{script} program to start a typescript, run
4592 XBoard with the @samp{-debug} option, and include the typescript
4593 output in your message.
4594 Also tell us what kind of machine and what operating system version
4595 you are using. The command @samp{uname -a} will often tell you this.
4597 If you improve XBoard, please send a message about your changes,
4598 and we will get in touch with you about merging them in
4599 to the main line of development.
4602 @chapter Authors and contributors
4604 @cindex Contributors
4606 Chris Sears and Dan Sears wrote the original XBoard. They were
4607 responsible for versions 1.0 through 1.2. The color scheme was taken
4608 from Wayne Christopher's @code{XChess} program.
4610 Tim Mann was primarily responsible for XBoard versions 1.3 through
4611 4.2.7, and for WinBoard (a port of XBoard to Microsoft Win32) from its
4612 inception through version 4.2.7.
4614 John Chanak contributed the initial implementation of ICS mode. Evan
4615 Welsh wrote @code{CMail}, and Patrick Surry helped in designing,
4616 testing, and documenting it. Elmar Bartel contributed the new piece
4617 bitmaps introduced in version 3.2. Jochen Wiedmann converted the
4618 documentation to texinfo. Frank McIngvale added click/click moving,
4619 the Analysis modes, piece flashing, ZIICS import, and ICS text
4620 colorization to XBoard. Hugh Fisher added animated piece movement to
4621 XBoard, and Henrik Gram added it to WinBoard. Mark Williams
4622 contributed the initial (WinBoard-only) implementation of many new
4623 features added to both XBoard and WinBoard in version 4.1.0, including
4624 copy/paste, premove, icsAlarm, autoFlipView, training mode, auto
4625 raise, and blindfold. Ben Nye contributed X copy/paste code for
4628 In a fork from version 4.2.7, Alessandro Scotti added many elements to
4629 the user interface of WinBoard, including the board textures and
4630 font-based rendering, the evaluation-graph, move-history and
4631 engine-output window. He was also responsible for adding the UCI
4634 H. G. Muller continued this fork of the project, producing version
4635 4.3. He made WinBoard castling- and e.p.-aware, added variant support
4636 with adjustable board sizes, the crazyhouse holdings, and the fairy
4637 pieces. In addition he added most of the adjudication options, made
4638 WinBoard more robust in dealing with buggy and crashing engines, and
4639 extended time control with a time-odds and node-count-based modes.
4640 Most of the options that initially were WinBoard only have now been
4641 back-ported to XBoard.
4643 Michel van den Bergh provided the code for reading Polyglot opening books.
4645 Meanwhile, some work continued on the GNU XBoard project maintained at
4646 savannah.gnu.org, but version 4.2.8 was never released. Daniel
4647 Mehrmann was responsible for much of this work.
4649 Most recently, Arun Persaud worked with H. G. Muller to merge all
4650 the features of the never-released XBoard/WinBoard 4.2.8 of the GNU
4651 XBoard project and the never-released 4.3.16 from H. G.'s fork into a
4652 unified XBoard/WinBoard 4.4, which is now available both from the
4653 savannah.gnu.org web site and the WinBoard forum.
4658 The @file{cmail} program can help you play chess by email with opponents of
4659 your choice using XBoard as an interface.
4661 You will usually run @file{cmail} without giving any options.
4664 * CMail options:: Invoking CMail.
4665 * CMail game:: Starting a CMail game.
4666 * CMail answer:: Answering a move.
4667 * CMail multi:: Multiple games in one message.
4668 * CMail completion:: Completing a game.
4669 * CMail trouble:: Known CMail problems.
4673 @section CMail options
4676 Displays @file{cmail} usage information.
4678 Shows the conditions of the GNU General Public License.
4681 Shows the warranty notice of the GNU General Public License.
4685 Provides or inhibits verbose output from @file{cmail} and XBoard,
4686 useful for debugging. The
4688 form also inhibits the cmail introduction message.
4691 Invokes or inhibits the sending of a mail message containing the move.
4694 Invokes or inhibits the running of XBoard on the game file.
4697 Invokes or inhibits the reuse of an existing XBoard to display the
4700 Resends the last mail message for that game. This inhibits running
4703 The name of the game to be processed.
4704 @item -wgames <number>
4705 @itemx -bgames <number>
4706 @itemx -games <number>
4707 Number of games to start as White, as Black or in total. Default is 1 as
4708 white and none as black. If only one color is specified then none of the
4709 other color is assumed. If no color is specified then equal numbers of
4710 White and Black games are started, with the extra game being as White if an
4711 odd number of total games is specified.
4712 @item -me <short name>
4713 @itemx -opp <short name>
4714 A one-word alias for yourself or your opponent.
4715 @item -wname <full name>
4716 @itemx -bname <full name>
4717 @itemx -myname <full name>
4718 @itemx -oppname <full name>
4719 The full name of White, Black, yourself or your opponent.
4720 @item -wna <net address>
4721 @itemx -bna <net address>
4722 @itemx -na <net address>
4723 @itemx -oppna <net address>
4724 The email address of White, Black, yourself or your opponent.
4725 @item -dir <directory>
4726 The directory in which @file{cmail} keeps its files. This defaults to the
4727 environment variable @code{$CMAIL_DIR} or failing that, @code{$CHESSDIR},
4728 @file{$HOME/Chess} or @file{~/Chess}. It will be created if it does not exist.
4729 @item -arcdir <directory>
4730 The directory in which @file{cmail} archives completed games. Defaults to
4731 the environment variable @code{$CMAIL_ARCDIR} or, in its absence, the same
4732 directory as cmail keeps its working files (above).
4733 @item -mailprog <mail program>
4734 The program used by cmail to send email messages. This defaults to the
4735 environment variable @code{$CMAIL_MAILPROG} or failing that
4736 @file{/usr/ucb/Mail}, @file{/usr/ucb/mail} or @file{Mail}. You will need
4737 to set this variable if none of the above paths fit your system.
4738 @item -logFile <file>
4739 A file in which to dump verbose debugging messages that are invoked with
4742 @item -event <event>
4743 The PGN Event tag (default @samp{Email correspondence game}).
4745 The PGN Site tag (default @samp{NET}).
4746 @item -round <round>
4747 The PGN Round tag (default @samp{-}, not applicable).
4749 The PGN Mode tag (default @samp{EM}, Electronic Mail).
4751 Any option flags not listed above are passed through to XBoard.
4752 Invoking XBoard through CMail changes the default values of two XBoard
4753 options: The default value for @samp{-noChessProgram} is changed to
4754 true; that is, by default no chess engine is started. The default
4755 value for @samp{-timeDelay} is changed to 0; that is, by default
4756 XBoard immediately goes to the end of the game as played so far,
4757 rather than stepping through the moves one by one. You can still set
4758 these options to whatever values you prefer by supplying them on
4759 CMail's command line. @xref{Options}.
4763 @section Starting a CMail Game
4764 Type @file{cmail} from a shell to start a game as white. After an opening
4765 message, you will be prompted for a game name, which is optional---if you
4766 simply press @key{Enter}, the game name will take the form
4767 @samp{you-VS-opponent}. You will next be prompted for the short name
4768 of your opponent. If you haven't played this person before, you will also
4769 be prompted for his/her email address. @file{cmail} will then invoke
4770 XBoard in the background. Make your first move and select
4771 @samp{Mail Move} from the @samp{File} menu. @xref{File Menu}. If all is well,
4772 @file{cmail} will mail a copy of the move to your opponent. If you select
4773 @samp{Exit} without having selected @samp{Mail Move} then no move will be
4777 @section Answering a Move
4778 When you receive a message from an opponent containing a move in one of
4779 your games, simply pipe the message through @file{cmail}. In some mailers
4780 this is as simple as typing @kbd{| cmail} when viewing the message, while in
4781 others you may have to save the message to a file and do @kbd{cmail < file}
4782 at the command line. In either case @file{cmail} will display the game using
4783 XBoard. If you didn't exit XBoard when you made your first move
4784 then @file{cmail} will do its best to use the existing XBoard instead
4785 of starting a new one. As before, simply make a move and select
4786 @samp{Mail Move} from the @samp{File} menu. @xref{File Menu}. @file{cmail}
4788 XBoard that was most recently used to display the current game. This
4789 means that many games can be in progress simultaneously, each with its own
4792 If you want to look at the history or explore a variation, go ahead, but
4793 you must return to the current position before XBoard will allow you
4794 to mail a move. If you edit the game's history you must select
4795 @samp{Reload Same Game} from the @samp{File} menu to get back to the original
4796 position, then make the move you want and select @samp{Mail Move}.
4797 As before, if you decide you aren't ready to make a move just yet you can
4798 either select @samp{Exit} without sending a move or just leave
4799 XBoard running until you are ready.
4802 @section Multi-Game Messages
4804 It is possible to have a @file{cmail} message carry more than one game.
4805 This feature was implemented to handle IECG (International Email Chess
4806 Group) matches, where a match consists of one game as white and one as black,
4807 with moves transmitted simultaneously. In case there are more general uses,
4808 @file{cmail} itself places no limit on the number of black/white games
4809 contained in a message; however, XBoard does.
4811 @node CMail completion
4812 @section Completing a Game
4813 Because XBoard can detect checkmate and stalemate, @file{cmail}
4814 handles game termination sensibly. As well as resignation, the
4815 @samp{Action} menu allows draws to be offered and accepted for
4818 For multi-game messages, only unfinished and just-finished games will be
4819 included in email messages. When all the games are finished, they are
4820 archived in the user's archive directory, and similarly in the opponent's
4821 when he or she pipes the final message through @file{cmail}. The archive
4822 file name includes the date the game was started.
4825 @section Known CMail Problems
4826 It's possible that a strange conjunction of conditions may occasionally
4827 mean that @file{cmail} has trouble reactivating an existing
4828 XBoard. If this should happen, simply trying it again should work.
4829 If not, remove the file that stores the XBoard's PID
4830 (@file{game.pid}) or use the @samp{-xreuse} option to force
4831 @file{cmail} to start a new XBoard.
4833 Versions of @file{cmail} after 2.16 no longer understand the old file format
4834 that XBoard used to use and so cannot be used to correspond with
4835 anyone using an older version.
4837 Versions of @file{cmail} older than 2.11 do not handle multi-game messages,
4838 so multi-game correspondence is not possible with opponents using an older
4841 @node Other programs
4842 @chapter Other programs you can use with XBoard
4843 @cindex Other programs
4845 Here are some other programs you can use with XBoard
4848 * GNU Chess:: The GNU Chess engine.
4849 * Fairy-Max:: The Fairy-Max chess engine.
4850 * HoiChess:: The HoiChess chess engine.
4851 * Crafty:: The Crafty chess engine.
4857 The GNU Chess engine is available from:
4859 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuchess/
4861 You can use XBoard to play a game against GNU Chess, or to
4862 interface GNU Chess to an ICS.
4867 Fairy-Max is a derivative from the once World's smallest Chess program micro-Max,
4868 which measures only about 100 lines of source code.
4869 The main difference with micro-Max is that Fairy-Max loads its move-generator
4870 tables from a file, so that the rules for piece movement can be easily configured
4871 to implement unorthodox pieces.
4872 Fairy-Max can therefore play a large number of variants, normal Chess being one of those.
4873 In addition it plays Knightmate, Capablanca and Gothic Chess, Shatranj, Courier Chess,
4874 Cylinder chess, Berolina Chess, while the user can easily define new variants.
4875 It can be obtained from:
4877 http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/dwnldpage.html
4882 HoiChess is a not-so-very-strong Chess engine, which comes with a derivative HoiXiangqi,
4883 able to play Chinese Chess. It can be obtained from the standard Linux repositories
4886 sudo apt-get install hoichess
4891 Crafty is a chess engine written by Bob Hyatt.
4892 You can use XBoard to play a game against Crafty, hook Crafty up
4893 to an ICS, or use Crafty to interactively analyze games and positions
4896 Crafty is a strong, rapidly evolving chess program. This rapid
4897 pace of development is good, because it means Crafty is always
4898 getting better. This can sometimes cause problems with
4899 backwards compatibility, but usually the latest version of Crafty
4900 will work well with the latest version of XBoard.
4901 Crafty can be obtained from its author's FTP site:
4902 ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/hyatt/.
4904 To use Crafty with XBoard, give the -fcp and -fd options as follows, where
4905 <crafty's directory> is the directory in which you installed Crafty
4906 and placed its book and other support files.
4910 @unnumbered Copyright
4911 @include copyright.texi
4915 @unnumbered GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
4916 @include gpl.texinfo