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. (Note: Not all chess engines support
95 @item xboard -ics -icshost hostname [options]
96 As Internet Chess Server (ICS) interface, XBoard
97 lets you play against other ICS users, observe games
98 they are playing, or review games that have recently finished. Most
99 of the ICS "wild" chess variants are supported, including bughouse.
100 @item xboard -ncp [options]
101 XBoard can also be used simply
102 as an electronic chessboard to play through games. It will read and
103 write game files and allow you to play through variations
104 manually. You can use it to browse games off the net or review games
105 you have saved. These features are also available in the other modes.
107 If you want to pipe games into XBoard, use the supplied shell
108 script @file{pxboard}. For example, from the news reader @file{xrn},
109 find a message with one or more games in it, click the Save button,
110 and type @samp{|pxboard} as the file name.
111 @item cmail [options]
112 As an interface to electronic mail correspondence chess, XBoard
113 works with the cmail program. See @ref{CMail} below for
117 @node Basic operation
118 @chapter Basic operation
119 @cindex Basic operation
121 To move a piece, you can drag it with the left mouse button, or you
122 can click the left mouse button once on the piece, then once more on
123 the destination square. In crazyhouse, bughouse or shogi you can
124 drag and drop pieces to the board from the holdings squares
125 displayed next to the board.
127 Old behavior, where right-clicking a square brings up a menu
128 where you can select what piece to drop on it can still be
129 selected through the @samp{Drop Menu} option.
130 Only in Edit Position mode right and middle clicking a square is still used to
131 put a piece on it, and the piece to drop is selected by sweeping
132 the mouse vertically with the button held down.
134 The default function of the right mouse button in other modes is
135 to display the position the chess program thinks it will end up in.
136 While moving the mouse vertically with this button pressed
137 XBoard will step through the principal variation to show how
138 this position will be reached.
139 Lines of play displayed in the engine-output window,
140 or PGN variations in the comment window can similarly
141 be played out on the board, by right-clicking on them.
142 Only in Analysis mode, when you walk along a PV,
143 releasing the mouse button will forward the game upto that point,
144 like you entered all previous PV moves.
145 As the display of the PV in that case starts after the first move
146 a simple right-click will play the move the engine indicates.
148 When connected to an ICS, it is possible to call up a graphical
149 representation of players seeking a game in stead of the chess board,
150 when the latter is not in use
151 (i.e. when you are not playing or observing).
152 Left-clicking the display area will switch between this 'seek graph'
154 Hovering the mouse pointer over a dot will show the details of the
155 seek ad in the message field above the board.
156 Left-clicking the dot will challenge that player.
157 Right-clicking a dot will 'push it to the back',
158 to reveal any dots that were hidden behind it.
159 Right-clicking off dots will refresh the graph.
161 Most other XBoard commands are available from the menu bar. The most
162 frequently used commands also have shortcut keys or on-screen buttons.
163 These shortcut keystrokes are mostly non-printable characters.
164 Typing a letter or digit while the board window has focus
165 will bring up a type-in box with the typed letter already in it.
166 You can use that to type a move in siuations where it is your
167 turn to enter a move,
168 type a move number to call up the position after that move
170 or, in Edit Position mode, type a FEN.
171 Some rarely used parameters can only be set through options on the
172 command line used to invoke XBoard.
174 XBoard uses a settings file, in which it can remember any changes to
175 the settings that are made through menus or command-line options,
176 so they will still apply when you restart XBoard for another session.
177 The settings can be saved into this file automatically when XBoard exits,
178 or on explicit request of the user.
179 The default name for the settings file is /etc/xboard/xboard.conf,
180 but in a standard install this file is only used as a master settings
181 file that determines the system-wide default settings,
182 and defers reading and writing of user settings to a user-specific
183 file like ~/.xboardrc in the user's home directory.
185 When XBoard is iconized, its graphical icon is a white knight if
186 it is White's turn to move, a black knight if it is Black's turn.
189 @chapter Menus, buttons, and keys
193 * File Menu:: Accessing external games and positions.
194 * Edit Menu:: Altering games, positions, PGN tags or comments.
195 * View Menu:: Controlling XBoard's shape and looks.
196 * Mode Menu:: Selecting XBoard's mode.
197 * Action Menu:: Talking to the chess engine or ICS opponents.
198 * Engine Menu:: Controlling settings and actions of the engine(s).
199 * Options Menu:: User preferences.
200 * Help Menu:: Getting help.
201 * Keys:: Other shortcut keys.
210 @cindex New Game, Menu Item
211 Resets XBoard and the chess engine to the beginning of a new chess
212 game. The @kbd{Ctrl-N} key is a keyboard equivalent. In Internet Chess
213 Server mode, clears the current state of XBoard, then
214 resynchronizes with the ICS by sending a refresh command. If you want to
215 stop playing, observing, or examining an ICS game, use an
216 appropriate command from the Action menu, not @samp{New Game}.
218 @item New Shuffle Game
219 @cindex New Shuffle Game, Menu Item
220 Similar to @samp{New Game}, but allows you to specify a particular initial position
221 (according to a standardized numbering system)
222 in chess variants which use randomized opening positions (e.g. Chess960).
223 You can also press the @samp{Pick Fixed} button to let XBoard generate
224 a random number for you.
225 The thus selected opening position will then persistently be chosen on any following
226 New Game command until you use this menu to select another.
227 Selecting position number -1 (or pushing the @samp{Randomize} button)
228 will produce a newly randomized position on any new game.
229 Using this menu item in variants that normally do not shuffle their opening position
230 does cause these variants to become shuffle variants until you use the
231 @samp{New Shuffle Game} menu to explicitly switch the randomization off,
232 or select a new variant.
234 @cindex New variant, Menu Item
235 Allows you to select a new chess variant in non-ICS mode.
236 (In ICS play, the ICS is responsible for deciding which variant will be played,
237 and XBoard adapts automatically.) The shifted @kbd{Alt+V} key is a
238 keyboard equivalent. If you play with an engine, the engine must
239 be able to play the selected variant, or the command will be ignored.
240 XBoard supports all major variants, such as xiangqi, shogi, chess, chess960,
241 Capablanca Chess, shatranj, crazyhouse, bughouse.
242 But not every board size has built-in bitmaps for un-orthodox pieces!
243 Only sizes bulky (72) and middling (49) have all pieces,
244 while size petite (33) has most.
245 These sizes would have to be set at startup through the @code{size}
246 command-line option when you start up XBoard for such variants to be playable.
248 You can overrule the default board format of the selected variant,
249 (e.g. to play suicide chess on a 6 x 6 board),
250 in this dialog, but normally you would not do that,
251 and leave them at '-1', which means 'default'.
253 @cindex Load Game, Menu Item
254 Plays a game from a record file. The @kbd{Ctrl-O} key is a keyboard equivalent.
255 A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. If the file contains more
256 than one game, a second pop-up dialog
257 displays a list of games (with information drawn from their PGN tags, if
258 any), and you can select the one you want. Alternatively, you can load the
259 Nth game in the file directly, by typing the number @kbd{N} after the
260 file name, separated by a space.
262 The game file parser will accept PGN (portable game notation),
263 or in fact almost any file that contains moves in algebraic
265 Notation of the form @samp{P@@f7}
266 is accepted for piece-drops in bughouse games;
267 this is a nonstandard extension to PGN.
268 If the file includes a PGN position (FEN tag), or an old-style
269 XBoard position diagram bracketed by @samp{[--} and @samp{--]}
270 before the first move, the game starts from that position. Text
271 enclosed in parentheses, square brackets, or curly braces is assumed to
272 be commentary and is displayed in a pop-up window. Any other
273 text in the file is ignored. PGN variations (enclosed in
274 parentheses) also are treated as comments;
275 however, if you rights-click them in the comment window,
276 XBoard will shelve the current line, and load the the selected variation,
277 so you can step through it.
278 You can later revert to the previous line with the @samp{Revert} command.
279 This way you can walk quite complex varation trees with XBoard.
280 The nonstandard PGN tag [Variant "varname"] functions similarly to
281 the -variant command-line option (see below), allowing games in certain chess
282 variants to be loaded.
283 Note that it must appear before any FEN tag for XBoard to recognize
284 variant FENs appropriately.
285 There is also a heuristic to
286 recognize chess variants from the Event tag, by looking for the strings
287 that the Internet Chess Servers put there when saving variant ("wild") games.
289 @cindex Load Position, Menu Item
290 Sets up a position from a position file. A pop-up dialog prompts
291 you for the file name. The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-O} key is a keyboard
292 equivalent. If the file contains more than one saved
293 position, and you want to load the Nth one, type the number N
294 after the file name, separated by a space. Position files must
295 be in FEN (Forsythe-Edwards notation), or in the format that the
296 Save Position command writes when oldSaveStyle is turned on.
297 @item Load Next Position
298 @cindex Load Next Position, Menu Item
299 Loads the next position from the last position file you loaded.
300 The shifted @kbd{PgDn} key is a keyboard equivalent.
301 @item Load Previous Position
302 @cindex Load Previous Position, Menu Item
303 Loads the previous position from the last position file you
304 loaded. The shifted @kbd{PgUp} key is a keyboard equivalent.
305 Not available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.
307 @cindex Save Game, Menu Item
308 Appends a record of the current game to a file.
309 The @kbd{Ctrl-S} key is a keyboard equivalent.
311 prompts you for the file name. If the game did not begin with
312 the standard starting position, the game file includes the
313 starting position used. Games are saved in the PGN (portable
314 game notation) format, unless the oldSaveStyle option is true,
315 in which case they are saved in an older format that is specific
316 to XBoard. Both formats are human-readable, and both can be
317 read back by the @samp{Load Game} command.
318 Notation of the form @samp{P@@f7}
319 is accepted for piece-drops in bughouse games;
320 this is a nonstandard extension to PGN.
322 @cindex Save Position, Menu Item
323 Appends a diagram of the current position to a file.
324 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl+S} key is a keyboard equivalent.
325 A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. Positions are saved in
326 FEN (Forsythe-Edwards notation) format unless the @code{oldSaveStyle}
327 option is true, in which case they are saved in an older,
328 human-readable format that is specific to XBoard. Both formats
329 can be read back by the @samp{Load Position} command.
331 @itemx Reload CMail Message
332 @cindex Mail Move, Menu Item
333 @cindex Reload CMail Message, Menu Item
336 @cindex Exit, Menu Item
337 Exits from XBoard. The @kbd{Ctrl-Q} key is a keyboard equivalent.
346 @cindex Copy Game, Menu Item
347 Copies a record of the current game to an internal clipboard in PGN
348 format and sets the X selection to the game text. The @kbd{Ctrl-C}
349 key is a keyboard equivalent. The game can be
350 pasted to another application (such as a text editor or another copy
351 of XBoard) using that application's paste command. In many X
352 applications, such as xterm and emacs, the middle mouse button can be
353 used for pasting; in XBoard, you must use the Paste Game command.
355 @cindex Copy Position, Menu Item
356 Copies the current position to an internal clipboard in FEN format and
357 sets the X selection to the position text. The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-C} key
358 is a keyboard equivalent. The position can be pasted
359 to another application (such as a text editor or another copy of
360 XBoard) using that application's paste command. In many X
361 applications, such as xterm and emacs, the middle mouse button can be
362 used for pasting; in XBoard, you must use the Paste Position command.
364 @cindex Copy Game List, Menu Item
365 Copies the current game list to the clipboard,
366 and sets the X selection to this text.
367 A format of comma-separated double-quoted strings is used,
369 so it can be easily imported into spread-sheet programs.
371 @cindex Paste Game, Menu Item
372 Interprets the current X selection as a game record and loads it, as
373 with Load Game. The @kbd{Ctrl-V} key is a keyboard equivalent.
375 @cindex Paste Position, Menu Item
376 Interprets the current X selection as a FEN position and loads it, as
377 with Load Position. The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-V} key is a keyboard equivalent.
379 @cindex Edit Game, Menu Item
380 Allows you to make moves for both Black and White, and to change
381 moves after backing up with the @samp{Backward} command. The clocks do
382 not run. The @kbd{Ctrl-E} key is a keyboard equivalent.
384 In chess engine mode, the chess engine continues to check moves for legality
385 but does not participate in the game. You can bring the chess engine
386 into the game by selecting @samp{Machine White}, @samp{Machine Black},
387 or @samp{Two Machines}.
389 In ICS mode, the moves are not sent to the ICS: @samp{Edit Game} takes
390 XBoard out of ICS Client mode and lets you edit games locally.
391 If you want to edit games on ICS in a way that other ICS users
392 can see, use the ICS @kbd{examine} command or start an ICS match
395 @cindex Edit Position, Menu Item
396 Lets you set up an arbitrary board position.
397 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-E} key is a keyboard equivalent.
398 Use mouse button 1 to drag pieces to new squares, or to delete a piece
399 by dragging it off the board or dragging an empty square on top of it.
400 To drop a new piece on a square, press mouse button 2 or 3 over the
402 This puts a white or black pawn in the square, respectively,
403 but you can change that to any other piece type by dragging the
404 mouse down before you release the button.
405 You will then see the piece on the originally clicked square
406 cycle through the available pieces
407 (including those of opposite color),
408 and can release the button when you see the piece you want.
409 To alter the side to move, you can click the clock
410 (the words White and Black above the board)
411 of the side you want to give the move to.
412 To clear the board you can click the clock of the side that
413 alread has the move (which is highlighted in black).
414 The old behavior with a piece menu can still be configured
415 with the aid of the @code{pieceMenu} option.
416 Selecting @samp{Edit Position} causes XBoard to discard
417 all remembered moves in the current game.
419 In ICS mode, changes made to the position by @samp{Edit Position} are
420 not sent to the ICS: @samp{Edit Position} takes XBoard out of
421 @samp{ICS Client} mode and lets you edit positions locally. If you want to
422 edit positions on ICS in a way that other ICS users can see, use
423 the ICS @kbd{examine} command, or start an ICS match against yourself.
424 (See also the ICS Client topic above.)
426 @cindex Edit Tags, Menu Item
427 Lets you edit the PGN (portable game notation)
428 tags for the current game. After editing, the tags must still conform to
432 <tag-section> ::= <tag-pair> <tag-section>
434 <tag-pair> ::= [ <tag-name> <tag-value> ]
435 <tag-name> ::= <identifier>
436 <tag-value> ::= <string>
439 See the PGN Standard for full details. Here is an example:
442 [Event "Portoroz Interzonal"]
443 [Site "Portoroz, Yugoslavia"]
446 [White "Robert J. Fischer"]
447 [Black "Bent Larsen"]
451 Any characters that do not match this syntax are silently ignored. Note that
452 the PGN standard requires all games to have at least the seven tags shown
453 above. Any that you omit will be filled in by XBoard
454 with @samp{?} (unknown value), or @samp{-} (inapplicable value).
456 @cindex Edit Comment, Menu Item
457 Adds or modifies a comment on the current position. Comments are
458 saved by @samp{Save Game} and are displayed by @samp{Load Game},
459 @samp{Forward}, and @samp{Backward}.
461 @cindex Edit Book, Menu Item
462 Pops up a window listing the moves available in the GUI book
463 (specified in the @samp{Common Engine Settings} dialog)
464 from the currently displayed position,
465 together with their weights and (optionally in braces) learn info.
466 You can then edit this list, and the new list will be stored
467 back into the book when you press OK.
468 Note that the listed percentages are neither used, nor updated when
469 you change the weights; they are just there as an optical aid.
472 @cindex Revert, Menu Item
473 @cindex Annotate, Menu Item
474 If you are examining an ICS game and Pause mode is off,
475 Revert issues the ICS command @samp{revert}.
476 In local mode, when you were editing or analyzing a game,
477 and the @code{-variations} command-line option is switched on,
478 you can start a new variation by holding the Shift key down while
479 entering a move not at the end of the game.
480 Variations can also become the currently displayed line by
481 clicking a PGN variation displayed in the Comment window.
482 This can be applied recursively,
483 so that you can analyze variations on variations;
484 each time you create a new variation by entering an alternative move
485 with Shift pressed, or select a new one from the Comment window,
486 the current variation will be shelved.
487 @samp{Revert} allows you to return to the most recently shelved variation.
488 The difference between @samp{Revert} and @samp{Annotate}
489 is that with the latter,
490 the variation you are now abandoning will be added as a comment
491 (in PGN variation syntax, i.e. between parentheses)
492 to the original move where you deviated, for later recalling.
493 The @kbd{Home} key is a keyboard equivalent to @samp{Revert}.
495 @cindex Truncate Game, Menu Item
496 Discards all remembered moves of the game beyond the current
497 position. Puts XBoard into @samp{Edit Game} mode if it was not there
499 The @kbd{End} key is a keyboard equivalent.
501 @cindex Backward, Menu Item
503 Steps backward through a series of remembered moves.
504 The @samp{[<]} button and the @kbd{Alt+LeftArrow} key are equivalents,
505 as is turning the mouse wheel towards you.
506 In addition, pressing the Control key steps back one move, and releasing
507 it steps forward again.
509 In most modes, @samp{Backward} only lets you look back at old positions;
510 it does not retract moves. This is the case if you are playing against
511 a chess engine, playing or observing a game on an ICS, or loading a game.
512 If you select @samp{Backward} in any of these situations, you will not
513 be allowed to make a different move. Use @samp{Retract Move} or
514 @samp{Edit Game} if you want to change past moves.
516 If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of @samp{Backward}
517 depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode is
518 off, @samp{Backward} issues the ICS backward command, which backs up
519 everyone's view of the game and allows you to make a different
520 move. If Pause mode is on, @samp{Backward} only backs up your local
523 @cindex Forward, Menu Item
525 Steps forward through a series of remembered moves (undoing the
526 effect of @samp{Backward}) or forward through a game file. The
527 @samp{[>]} button and the @kbd{Alt+RightArrow} key are equivalents,
528 as is turning the mouse wheel away from you.
530 If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of Forward
531 depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode is
532 off, @samp{Forward} issues the ICS forward command, which moves
533 everyone's view of the game forward along the current line. If
534 Pause mode is on, @samp{Forward} only moves your local view forward,
535 and it will not go past the position that the game was in when
538 @cindex Back to Start, Menu Item
540 Jumps backward to the first remembered position in the game.
541 The @samp{[<<]} button and the @kbd{Alt+Home} key are equivalents.
543 In most modes, Back to Start only lets you look back at old
544 positions; it does not retract moves. This is the case if you
545 are playing against a local chess engine, playing or observing a game on
546 a chess server, or loading a game. If you select @samp{Back to Start} in any
547 of these situations, you will not be allowed to make different
548 moves. Use @samp{Retract Move} or @samp{Edit Game} if you want to change past
549 moves; or use Reset to start a new game.
551 If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of @samp{Back to
552 Start} depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode
553 is off, @samp{Back to Start} issues the ICS @samp{backward 999999}
554 command, which backs up everyone's view of the game to the start and
555 allows you to make different moves. If Pause mode is on, @samp{Back
556 to Start} only backs up your local view.
558 @cindex Forward to End, Menu Item
560 Jumps forward to the last remembered position in the game. The
561 @samp{[>>]} button and the @kbd{Alt+End} key are equivalents.
563 If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of @samp{Forward to
564 End} depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode
565 is off, @samp{Forward to End} issues the ICS @samp{forward 999999}
566 command, which moves everyone's view of the game forward to the end of
567 the current line. If Pause mode is on, @samp{Forward to End} only moves
568 your local view forward, and it will not go past the position
569 that the game was in when you paused.
578 @cindex Flip View, Menu Item
579 Inverts your view of the chess board for the duration of the
580 current game. Starting a new game returns the board to normal.
581 The @kbd{F2} key is a keyboard equivalent.
582 @item Show Engine Output
583 @cindex Show Engine Output, Menu Item
584 Shows or hides a window in which the thinking output of any loaded engines
585 is displayed. The shifted @kbd{Alt+O} key is a keyboard equivalent.
586 XBoard will display lines of thinking output of the same depth ordered by score,
587 (highest score on top), rather than in the order the engine produced them.
588 Usually this amounts to the same, as a normal engine search will only find new PV
589 (and emit it as thinking output)
590 when it searches a move with a higher score than the previous variation.
591 But when the engine is in multi-variation mode this needs not always be true,
592 and it is more convenient for someone analyzing games to see the moves sorted by score.
593 The order in which the engine found them is only of interest to the engine author,
594 and can still be deduced from the time or node count printed with the line.
595 @item Show Move History
596 @cindex Show Move History, Menu Item
597 Shows or hides a list of moves of the current game.
598 The shifted @kbd{Alt+H} key is a keyboard equivalent.
599 This list allows you to move the display to any earlier position in the game
600 by clicking on the corresponding move.
601 @item Show Evaluation Graph
602 @cindex Show Evaluation Graph, Menu Item
603 Shows or hides a window which displays a graph of how the engine score(s)
604 evolved as a function of the move number.
605 The shifted @kbd{Alt+E} key is a keyboard equivalent.
606 Clicking on the graph will bring
607 the corresponding position in the board display.
609 @cindex Show Game List, Menu Item
610 Shows or hides the list of games generated by the last @samp{Load Game}
611 command. The shifted @kbd{Alt+G} key is a keyboard equivalent.
613 @cindex Tags, Menu Item
614 Pops up a window which shows the PGN (portable game notation)
615 tags for the current game.
616 For now this is a duplicate of the @samp{Edit Tags} item in the @samp{Edit} menu.
618 @cindex Comments, Menu Item
619 Pops up a window which shows any comments to or variations on the current move.
620 For now this is a duplicate of the @samp{Edit Comment} item in the @samp{Edit} menu.
622 @cindex ICS Input Box, Menu Item
623 If this option is set in ICS mode,
625 creates an extra window that you can use for typing in ICS commands.
626 The input box is especially useful if you want to type in something long or do
627 some editing on your input, because output from ICS doesn't get mixed
628 in with your typing as it would in the main terminal window.
630 @cindex Board, Menu Item
631 Summons a dialog where you can customize the look of the chess board.
632 Here you can specify the directory from which piece images should be taken,
633 when you don't want to use the built-in piece images
634 (see @code{pieceImageDirectory} option),
635 external images to be used for the board squares
636 (@code{liteBackTextureFile} and @code{darkBackTextureFile} options),
637 and square and piece colors for the default pieces.
639 @cindex Game List Tags, Menu Item
640 a duplicate of the Game List dialog in the Options menu.
649 @cindex Machine White, Menu Item
650 Tells the chess engine to play White.
651 The @kbd{Ctrl-W} key is a keyboard equivalent.
653 @cindex Machine Black, Menu Item
654 Tells the chess engine to play Black.
655 The @kbd{Ctrl-B} key is a keyboard equivalent.
657 @cindex Two Machines, Menu Item
658 Plays a game between two chess engines.
659 The @kbd{Ctrl-T} key is a keyboard equivalent.
661 @cindex Analysis Mode, Menu Item
663 XBoard tells the chess engine to start analyzing the current game/position
664 and shows you the analysis as you move pieces around.
665 The @kbd{Ctrl-A} key is a keyboard equivalent.
666 Note: Some chess engines do not support Analysis mode.
668 To set up a position to analyze, you do the following:
670 1. Select Edit Position from the Mode Menu
672 2. Set up the position. Use the middle and right buttons to
673 bring up the white and black piece menus.
675 3. When you are finished, click on either the Black or White
676 clock to tell XBoard which side moves first.
678 4. Select Analysis Mode from the Mode Menu to start the analysis.
680 You can now play legal moves to create follow-up positions for the
681 engine to analyze, while the moves will be remembered as a stored game,
682 and then step backward through this game to take the moves back.
683 Note that you can also click on the clocks to set the opposite
684 side to move (adding a so-called @samp{null move} to the game).
686 You can also tell the engine to exclude some moves from analysis.
687 (Engines that do not support the exclude-moves feature will
688 ignore this, however.)
689 The general way to do this is to play the move you want to exclude
690 starting with a double click on the piece.
691 When you use drag-drop moving, the piece you grab with a double click
692 will also remain on its square, to show you that you are not really
693 making the move, but just forbid it from the current position.
694 Playing a thus excluded move a second time will include it again.
695 Excluded moves will be listed as text in a header line in the
696 Engine Output window, and you can also re-include them by
697 right-clicking them there.
698 This header line will also contain the words 'best' and 'tail';
699 right-clicking those will exclude the currently best move,
700 or all moves not explicitly listed in the header line.
701 Once you leave the current position all memory of excluded
702 moves will be lost when you return there.
705 Selecting this menu item while already in @samp{Analysis Mode} will
706 toggle the participation of the second engine in the analysis.
707 The output of this engine will then be shown in the lower pane
708 of the Engine Output window.
709 The analysis function can also be used when observing games on an ICS
710 with an engine loaded (zippy mode); the engine then will analyse
711 the positions as they occur in the observed game.
714 @cindex Analyze Game, Menu Item
715 This option subjects the currently loaded game to automatic
716 analysis by the loaded engine.
717 The @kbd{Ctrl-G} key is a keyboard equivalent.
718 XBoard will start auto-playing the game from the currently displayed position,
719 while the engine is analyzing the current position.
720 The game will be annotated with the results of these analyses.
721 In particlar, the score and depth will be added as a comment,
722 and the PV will be added as a variation.
724 Normally the analysis would stop after reaching the end of the game.
725 But when a game is loaded from a multi-game file
726 while @samp{Analyze Game} was already switched on,
727 the analysis will continue with the next game in the file
728 until the end of the file is reached (or you switch to another mode).
730 The time the engine spends on analyzing each move can be controlled
731 through the command-line option @samp{-timeDelay},
732 which can also be set from the @samp{Load Game Options} menu dialog.
733 Note: Some chess engines do not support Analysis mode.
735 Duplicate of the item in the Edit menu.
736 Note that @samp{Edit Game} is the idle mode of XBoard, and can be used
737 to get you out of other modes. E.g. to stop analyzing, stop a game
738 between two engines or stop editing a position.
740 Duplicate of the item in the Edit menu.
742 @cindex Training, Menu Item
743 Training mode lets you interactively guess the moves of a game for one
744 of the players. You guess the next move of the game by playing the
745 move on the board. If the move played matches the next move of the
746 game, the move is accepted and the opponent's response is auto-played.
747 If the move played is incorrect, an error message is displayed. You
748 can select this mode only while loading a game (that is, after
749 selecting @samp{Load Game} from the File menu). While XBoard is in
750 @samp{Training} mode, the navigation buttons are disabled.
752 @cindex ICS Client, Menu Item
753 This is the normal mode when XBoard
754 is connected to a chess server. If you have moved into
755 Edit Game or Edit Position mode, you can select this option to get out.
757 To use xboard in ICS mode, run it in the foreground with the -ics
758 option, and use the terminal you started it from to type commands and
759 receive text responses from the chess server. See
760 @ref{Chess Servers} below for more information.
762 XBoard activates some special position/game editing features when you
763 use the @kbd{examine} or @kbd{bsetup} commands on ICS and you have
764 @samp{ICS Client} selected on the Mode menu. First, you can issue the
765 ICS position-editing commands with the mouse. Move pieces by dragging
766 with mouse button 1. To drop a new piece on a square, press mouse
767 button 2 or 3 over the square. This brings up a menu of white pieces
768 (button 2) or black pieces (button 3). Additional menu choices let
769 you empty the square or clear the board. Click on the White or Black
770 clock to set the side to play. You cannot set the side to play or
771 drag pieces to arbitrary squares while examining on ICC, but you can
772 do so in @kbd{bsetup} mode on FICS. In addition, the menu commands
773 @samp{Forward}, @samp{Backward}, @samp{Pause}, and @samp{Stop Examining}
774 have special functions in this mode; see below.
776 @cindex Machine match, Menu Item
777 Starts a match between two chess programs,
778 with a number of games and other parameters set through
779 the @samp{Match Options} menu dialog.
780 When a match is already running, selecting this item will make
781 XBoard drop out of match mode after the current game finishes.
783 @cindex Pause, Menu Item
784 Pauses updates to the board, and if you are playing against a chess engine,
785 also pauses your clock. To continue, select @samp{Pause} again, and the
786 display will automatically update to the latest position.
787 The @samp{P} button and keyboard @kbd{Pause} key are equivalents.
789 If you select Pause when you are playing against a chess engine and
790 it is not your move, the chess engine's clock
791 will continue to run and it will eventually make a move, at which point
792 both clocks will stop. Since board updates are paused, however,
793 you will not see the move until you exit from Pause mode (or select Forward).
794 This behavior is meant to simulate adjournment with a sealed move.
796 If you select Pause while you are observing or examining a game on a
797 chess server, you can step backward and forward in the current history
798 of the examined game without affecting the other observers and
799 examiners, and without having your display jump forward to the latest
800 position each time a move is made. Select Pause again to reconnect
801 yourself to the current state of the game on ICS.
803 If you select @samp{Pause} while you are loading a game, the game stops
804 loading. You can load more moves manually by selecting @samp{Forward}, or
805 resume automatic loading by selecting @samp{Pause} again.
814 @cindex Accept, Menu Item
815 Accepts a pending match offer.
816 The @kbd{F3} key is a keyboard equivalent.
817 If there is more than one offer
818 pending, you will have to type in a more specific command
819 instead of using this menu choice.
821 @cindex Decline, Menu Item
822 Declines a pending offer (match, draw, adjourn, etc.).
823 The @kbd{F4} key is a keyboard equivalent. If there
824 is more than one offer pending, you will have to type in a more
825 specific command instead of using this menu choice.
827 @cindex Call Flag, Menu Item
828 Calls your opponent's flag, claiming a win on time, or claiming
829 a draw if you are both out of time.
830 The @kbd{F5} key is a keyboard equivalent.
831 You can also call your
832 opponent's flag by clicking on his clock.
834 @cindex Draw, Menu Item
835 Offers a draw to your opponent, accepts a pending draw offer
836 from your opponent, or claims a draw by repetition or the 50-move
837 rule, as appropriate. The @kbd{F6} key is a keyboard equivalent.
839 @cindex Adjourn, Menu Item
840 Asks your opponent to agree to adjourning the current game, or
841 agrees to a pending adjournment offer from your opponent.
842 The @kbd{F7} key is a keyboard equivalent.
844 @cindex Abort, Menu Item
845 Asks your opponent to agree to aborting the current game, or
846 agrees to a pending abort offer from your opponent.
847 The @kbd{F8} key is a keyboard equivalent. An aborted
848 game ends immediately without affecting either player's rating.
850 @cindex Resign, Menu Item
851 Resigns the game to your opponent. The @kbd{F9} key is a
854 @cindex Stop Observing, Menu Item
855 Ends your participation in observing a game, by issuing the ICS
856 observe command with no arguments. ICS mode only.
857 The @kbd{F10} key is a keyboard equivalent.
859 @cindex Stop Examining, Menu Item
860 Ends your participation in examining a game, by issuing the ICS
861 unexamine command. ICS mode only.
862 The @kbd{F11} key is a keyboard equivalent.
863 @item Upload to Examine
864 @cindex Upload to Examine, Menu Item
865 Create an examined game of the proper variant on the ICS,
866 and send the game there that is currenty loaded in XBoard
867 (e.g. through pasting or loading from file).
868 You must be connected to an ICS for this to work.
869 @item Adjudicate to White
870 @itemx Adjudicate to Black
871 @itemx Adjudicate Draw
872 @cindex Adjudicate to White, Menu Item
873 @cindex Adjudicate to Black, Menu Item
874 @cindex Adjudicate Draw, Menu Item
875 Terminate an ongoing game in Two-Machines mode (including match mode),
876 with as result a win for white, for black, or a draw, respectively.
877 The PGN file of the game will accompany the result string
878 by the comment "user adjudication".
887 @cindex Load Engine, Menu Item
888 Pops up a dialog where you can select or specify an engine to be loaded.
889 You will always have to indicate whether you want to load the engine
890 as first or second engine, through the ‘Load menitioned engine as’
891 drop-down list at the bottom of the dialog.
892 You can even replace engines during a game, without disturbing that game.
893 (Beware that after loading an engine, XBoard will always be in Edit Game mode,
894 so you will have to tell the new engine what to do before it does anything!)
895 When you select an already installed engine from the ‘Select Engine from List’
897 all other fields of the dialog will be ignored.
898 In other cases, you have to specify the engine executable,
899 possible arguments on the engine command line
900 (if the engine docs say the engine needs any),
901 and the directory where the engine should look for its files
902 (if this cannot be deduced automatically from the specification of the engine executable).
903 You will also have to specify (with the aid of checkboxes) if the engine is UCI.
904 If ‘Add this engine to the list’ is ticked (which it is by default),
905 the engine will be added to the list of installed engines in your settings file,
906 (provided you save the settings!),
907 so that next time you can select it from the drop-down list.
908 You can also specify a ‘nickname’,
909 under which the engine will then appear in that drop-down list,
910 and even choose to use that nickname for it in PGN files for engine-engine games.
911 The info you supply with the checkboxes whether the engine should use GUI book,
912 or (for variant engines) automatically switch to the current variant when loaded,
913 will also be included in the list.
914 For obsolete XBoard engines, which would normally take a long delay to load
915 because XBoard is waiting for a response they will not give,
916 you can tick ‘WB protocol v1’ to speed up the loading process.
917 @item Engine #N Settings
918 @cindex Engine Settings, Menu Item
919 @cindex Engine #1 Settings, Menu Item
920 @cindex Engine #2 Settings, Menu Item
921 Pop up a menu dialog to alter the settings specific to the applicable engine.
922 (The second engine is only accessible once it has been used in Two-Machines mode.)
923 For each parameter the engine allows to be set,
924 a control element will appear in this dialog that can be used to alter the value.
925 Depending on the type of parameter (text string, number, multiple choice,
926 on/off switch, instantaneous signal) the appropriate control will appear,
927 with a description next to it.
928 XBoard has no idea what these values mean; it just passes them on to the engine.
929 How this dialog looks is completely determined by the engine,
930 and XBoard just passes it on to the user.
931 Many engines do not have any parameters that can be set by the user,
932 and in that case the dialog will be empty (except for the OK and cancel buttons).
933 UCI engines usually have many parameters. (But these are only visible with
934 a sufficiently modern version of the Polyglot adapter needed to run UCI engines,
935 e.g. Polyglot 1.4.55b.) For native XBoard engines this is less common.
937 @cindex Hint, Menu Item
938 Displays a move hint from the chess engine.
940 @cindex Book, Menu Item
941 Displays a list of possible moves from the chess engine's opening
942 book. The exact format depends on what chess engine you are using.
943 With GNU Chess 4, the first column gives moves, the second column
944 gives one possible response for each move, and the third column shows
945 the number of lines in the book that include the move from the first
946 column. If you select this option and nothing happens, the chess
947 engine is out of its book or does not support this feature.
949 @cindex Move Now, Menu Item
950 Forces the chess engine to move immediately. Chess engine mode only.
951 The @kbd{Ctrl-M} key is a keyboard equivalent.
953 @cindex Retract Move, Menu Item
954 Retracts your last move. In chess engine mode, you can do this only
955 after the chess engine has replied to your move; if the chess engine is still
956 thinking, use @samp{Move Now} first. In ICS mode, @samp{Retract Move}
957 issues the command @samp{takeback 1} or @samp{takeback 2}
958 depending on whether it is your opponent's move or yours.
959 The @kbd{Ctrl-X} key is a keyboard equivalent.
960 @item Recently Used Engines
961 @cindex Recently Used Engines, In Menu
962 At the bottom of the engine menu there can be a list of names
963 of engines that you recently loaded through the Load Engine menu dialog
964 in previous sessions.
965 Clicking on such a name will load that engine as first engine,
966 so you won't have to search for it in your list of installed engines,
967 if that is very long.
968 The maximum number of displayed engine names is set by the
969 @code{recentEngines}command-line option.
973 @section Options Menu
974 @cindex Menu, Options
977 @item General Options
978 @cindex General Options, Menu Item
979 The following items to set option values appear in the dialog
980 summoned by the general Options menu item.
981 @itemx Absolute Analysis Scores
982 @cindex Absolute Analysis Scores, Menu Item
983 Controls if scores on the Engine Output window during analysis
984 will be printed from the white or the side-to-move point-of-view.
985 @itemx Almost Always Queen
986 @cindex Almost Always Queen, Menu Item
987 If this option is on, 7th-rank pawns automatically change into
988 Queens when you pick them up,
989 and when you drag them to the promotion square and release them there,
990 they will promote to that.
991 But when you drag such a pawn backwards first,
992 its identity will start to cycle through the other available pieces.
993 This will continue until you start to move it forward;
994 at which point the identity of the piece will be fixed,
995 so that you can safely put it down on the promotion square.
996 If this option is off, what happens depends on the
997 option @code{alwaysPromoteToQueen},
998 which would force promotion to Queen when true.
999 Otherwise XBoard would bring up a dialog
1000 box whenever you move a pawn to the last rank, asking what piece
1001 you want to promote to.
1002 @itemx Animate Dragging
1003 @cindex Animate Dragging, Menu Item
1004 If Animate Dragging is on, while you are dragging a piece with the
1005 mouse, an image of the piece follows the mouse cursor.
1006 If Animate Dragging is off, there is no visual feedback while you are
1007 dragging a piece, but if Animate Moving is on, the move will be
1008 animated when it is complete.
1009 @itemx Animate Moving
1010 @cindex Animate Moving, Menu Item
1011 If Animate Moving is on, all piece moves are animated. An image of the
1012 piece is shown moving from the old square to the new square when the
1013 move is completed (unless the move was already animated by Animate Dragging).
1014 If Animate Moving is off, a moved piece instantly disappears from its
1015 old square and reappears on its new square when the move is complete.
1016 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-A} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1018 @cindex Auto Flag, Menu Item
1019 If this option is on and one player runs out of time
1022 will automatically call his flag, claiming a win on time.
1023 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-F} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1024 In ICS mode, Auto Flag will only call your opponent's flag, not yours,
1025 and the ICS may award you a draw instead of a win if you have
1026 insufficient mating material. In local chess engine mode,
1028 may call either player's flag and will not take material into account (?).
1029 @itemx Auto Flip View
1030 @cindex Auto Flip View, Menu Item
1031 If the Auto Flip View option is on when you start a game, the board
1032 will be automatically oriented so that your pawns move from the bottom
1033 of the window towards the top.
1035 If you are playing a game on an ICS, the board is always
1036 oriented at the start of the game so that your pawns move from
1037 the bottom of the window towards the top. Otherwise, the starting
1038 orientation is determined by the @code{flipView} command line option;
1039 if it is false (the default), White's pawns move from bottom to top
1040 at the start of each game; if it is true, Black's pawns move from
1041 bottom to top. @xref{User interface options}.
1043 @cindex Blindfold, Menu Item
1044 If this option is on, XBoard displays the board as usual but does
1045 not display pieces or move highlights. You can still move in the
1046 usual way (with the mouse or by typing moves in ICS mode), even though
1047 the pieces are invisible.
1049 @cindex Drop Menu, Menu Item
1050 Controls if right-clicking the board in crazyhouse / bughouse
1051 will pop up a menu to drop a piece on the clicked square
1052 (old, deprecated behavior)
1053 or allow you to step through an engine PV
1054 (new, recommended behavior).
1055 @itemx Hide Thinking
1056 @cindex Hide Thinking, Menu Item
1057 If this option is off, the chess engine's notion of the score and best
1058 line of play from the current position is displayed as it is
1059 thinking. The score indicates how many pawns ahead (or if negative,
1060 behind) the chess engine thinks it is. In matches between two
1061 machines, the score is prefixed by @samp{W} or @samp{B} to indicate
1062 whether it is showing White's thinking or Black's, and only the thinking
1063 of the engine that is on move is shown.
1064 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-H} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1065 @itemx Highlight Last Move
1066 @cindex Highlight Last Move, Menu Item
1067 If Highlight Last Move is on, after a move is made, the starting and
1068 ending squares remain highlighted. In addition, after you use Backward
1069 or Back to Start, the starting and ending squares of the last move to
1070 be unmade are highlighted.
1071 @itemx Highlight with Arrow
1072 @cindex Highlight with Arrow, Menu Item
1073 Causes the highlighting described in Highlight Last Move to be done
1074 by drawing an arrow between the highlighted squares,
1075 so that it is visible even when the width of the grid lines is set to zero.
1077 @cindex Move Sound, Menu Item
1078 Enables the sounding of an audible signal when the computer performs a move.
1079 For the selection of the sound, see @samp{Sound Options}.
1080 If you turn on this option when using XBoard with the Internet
1081 Chess Server, you will probably want to give the
1083 command to the ICS, since otherwise the ICS will ring the terminal bell
1084 after every move (not just yours). (The @file{.icsrc} file
1085 is a good place for this; see @ref{ICS options}.)
1086 @itemx One-Click Moving
1087 @cindex One-Click Moving, Menu Item
1088 If this option is on, XBoard does not wait for you to click both the
1089 from- and the to-square, or drag the piece, but performs a move as soon
1090 as it is uniqely specified.
1091 This applies to clicking an own piece that only has a single legal move,
1092 clicking an empty square or opponent piece where only one of your pieces
1093 can move (or capture) to.
1094 Furthermore, a double-click on a piece that can only make a single capture
1095 will cause that capture to be made.
1096 Promoting a Pawn by clicking its to-square will suppress the promotion
1097 popup or other methods for selecting an under-promotion,
1098 and make it promote to Queen.
1099 @itemx Periodic Updates
1100 @cindex Periodic Updates, Menu Item
1101 If this option is off (or if
1102 you are using a chess engine that does not support periodic updates),
1104 will only be updated when the analysis changes. If this option is
1105 on, the Analysis Window will be updated every two seconds.
1106 @itemx Ponder Next Move
1107 @cindex Ponder Next Move, Menu Item
1108 If this option is off, the chess engine will think only when it is on
1109 move. If the option is on, the engine will also think while waiting
1110 for you to make your move.
1111 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-P} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1112 @itemx Popup Exit Message
1113 @cindex Popup Exit Message, Menu Item
1114 If this option is on, when XBoard wants to display a message just
1115 before exiting, it brings up a modal dialog box and waits for you to
1116 click OK before exiting. If the option is off, XBoard prints the
1117 message to standard error (the terminal) and exits immediately.
1118 @itemx Popup Move Errors
1119 @cindex Popup Move Errors, Menu Item
1120 If this option is off, when you make an error in moving (such as
1121 attempting an illegal move or moving the wrong color piece), the
1122 error message is displayed in the message area. If the option is
1123 on, move errors are displayed in small pop-up windows like other errors.
1124 You can dismiss an error pop-up either by clicking its OK button or by
1125 clicking anywhere on the board, including down-clicking to start a move.
1126 @itemx Scores in Move List
1127 @cindex Scores in Move List, Menu Item
1128 If this option is on, XBoard will display the depth and score
1129 of engine moves in the Move List, in the format of a PGN comment.
1131 @cindex Show Coords, Menu Item
1132 If this option is on, XBoard displays algebraic coordinates
1133 along the board's left and bottom edges.
1134 @itemx Show Target Squares
1135 @cindex Show Target Squares, Menu Item
1136 If this option is on, all squares a piece that is 'picked up' with the mouse
1137 can legally move to are highighted with a fat colored dot in the
1138 highlightColor (non-captures) or premoveHighlightColor (captures).
1139 Legality testing must be on for XBoard to know how the piece moves.
1140 @itemx Test Legality
1141 @cindex Test Legality, Menu Item
1142 If this option is on, XBoard tests whether the moves you try to make
1143 with the mouse are legal and refuses to let you make an illegal move.
1144 The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-L} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1145 Moves loaded from a file with @samp{Load Game} are also checked. If
1146 the option is off, all moves are accepted, but if a local chess engine
1147 or the ICS is active, they will still reject illegal moves. Turning
1148 off this option is useful if you are playing a chess variant with
1149 rules that XBoard does not understand. (Bughouse, suicide, and wild
1150 variants where the king may castle after starting on the d file are
1151 generally supported with Test Legality on.)
1154 @cindex Flash Moves, Menu Item
1155 @cindex Flash Rate, Menu Item
1156 If this option is non-zero, whenever a move is completed,
1157 the moved piece flashes the specified number of times.
1158 The flash-rate setting determines how rapidly this flashing occurs.
1159 @itemx Animation Speed
1160 @cindex Animation Speed, Menu Item
1161 Determines the duration (in msec) of an animation step,
1162 when @samp{Animate Moving} is swiched on.
1163 @itemx Zoom factor in Evaluation Graph
1164 @cindex Zoom factor in Evaluation Graph, Menu Item
1165 Sets the valueof the @code{evalZoom} option,
1166 indicating the factor by which the score interval (-1,1) should be
1167 blown up on the vertical axis of the Evaluation Graph.
1169 @cindex Time Control, Menu Item
1170 Pops up a sub-menu where you can set the time-control parameters interactively.
1171 Allows you to select classical or incremental time controls,
1172 set the moves per session, session duration, and time increment.
1173 Also allows specification of time-odds factors for one or both engines.
1174 If an engine is given a time-odds factor N, all time quota it gets,
1175 be it at the beginning of a session or through the time increment or
1176 fixed time per move, will be divided by N.
1177 The shifted @kbd{Alt+T} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1179 @cindex Common Engine, Menu Item
1180 Pops up a sub-menu where you can set some engine parameters common to most engines,
1181 such as hash-table size, tablebase cache size, maximum number of processors
1182 that SMP engines can use, and where to find the Polyglot adapter needed
1183 to run UCI engines under XBoard. The feature that allows setting of these parameters on
1184 engines is new since XBoard 4.3.15, so not many XBoard/WinBoard engines respond
1185 to it yet, but UCI engines should.
1187 It is also possible to specify a GUI opening book here, i.e. an opening
1188 book that XBoard consults for any position a playing engine gets in.
1189 It then forces the engine to play the book move, rather than to think up its own,
1190 if that position is found in the book.
1191 The book can switched on and off independently for either engine.
1192 The way book moves are chosen can be influenced through the settings of
1193 book depth and variety.
1194 After both sides have played more moves than the specified depth,
1195 the book will no longer be consulted.
1196 When the variety is set to 50, moves will be played with the probability
1197 specified in the book.
1198 When set to 0, only the move(s) with the highest probability will be played.
1199 When set to 100, all listed moves will be played with equal pobability.
1200 Other settings interpolate between that.
1201 The shifted @kbd{Alt+U} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1203 @cindex Adjudications, Menu Item
1204 Pops up a sub-menu where you can enable or disable various adjudications
1205 that XBoard can perform in engine-engine games.
1206 The shifted @kbd{Alt+J} key is a keyboard equivalent.
1207 You can instruct XBoard to detect and terminate the game on checkmate
1208 or stalemate, even if the engines would not do so, to verify engine
1209 result claims (forfeiting engines that make false claims), rather than
1210 naively following the engine, to declare draw on positions
1211 which can never be won for lack of mating material, (e.g. KBK),
1212 or which are impossible to win unless the opponent seeks its own demise
1214 For these adjudications to work, @samp{Test Legality} should be switched on.
1215 It is also possible to instruct XBoard to enforce a 50-move or 3-fold-repeat
1216 rule and automatically declare draw (after a user-adjustable number of moves
1217 or repeats) even if the engines are prepared to go on.
1218 It is also possible to have XBoard declare draw on games that seem to drag on
1219 forever, or adjudicate a loss if both engines agree (for 3 consecutive moves) that one
1220 of them is behind more than a user-adjustable score threshold.
1221 For the latter adjudication to work, XBoard should be able to properly understand
1222 the engine's scores. To facilitate the latter, you can inform xboard here if
1223 the engines report scores from the viewpoint of white, or from that of their own color.
1226 @cindex ICS Options, Menu Item
1227 The following options occur in a dialog summoned by the
1228 ICS Options menu item.
1230 @cindex Auto Kibitz, Menu Item
1231 Setting this option when playing with or aginst a chess program on an ICS
1232 will cause the last line of thinking output of the engine before its move
1233 to be sent to the ICS in a kibitz command.
1234 In addition, any kibitz message received through the ICS from
1235 an opponent chess program will be diverted to the engine-output window,
1236 (and suppressed in the console),
1237 where you can play through its PV by right-clicking it.
1239 @cindex Auto Comment, Menu Item
1240 If this option is on, any remarks made on ICS while you are observing or
1241 playing a game are recorded as a comment on the current move. This includes
1242 remarks made with the ICS commands @kbd{say}, @kbd{tell}, @kbd{whisper},
1244 Limitation: remarks that you type yourself are not recognized;
1245 XBoard scans only the output from ICS, not the input you type to it.
1247 @cindex Auto Observe, Menu Item
1248 If this option is on and you add a player to your @code{gnotify}
1249 list on ICS, XBoard will automatically observe all of that
1250 player's games, unless you are doing something else (such as
1251 observing or playing a game of your own) when one starts.
1252 The games are displayed
1253 from the point of view of the player on your gnotify list; that is, his
1254 pawns move from the bottom of the window towards the top.
1255 Exceptions: If both players in a game are on your gnotify list, if
1258 variable is set to 0, or if the ICS you are using does not
1259 properly support observing from Black's point of view,
1260 you will see the game from White's point of view.
1261 @itemx Auto Raise Board
1262 @cindex Auto Raise Board, Menu Item
1263 If this option is on, whenever a new game begins, the chessboard window
1264 is deiconized (if necessary) and raised to the top of the stack of windows.
1266 @cindex Auto Save, Menu Item
1267 If this option is true, at the end of every game XBoard prompts
1268 you for a file name and appends a record of the game to the file
1270 Disabled if the @code{saveGameFile} command-line
1271 option is set, as in that case all games are saved to the specified file.
1272 @xref{Load and Save options}.
1273 @itemx Background Observe
1274 @cindex Background Observe, Menu Item
1275 Setting this option will make XBoard suppress display of any boards
1276 from observed games while you are playing.
1277 In stead the last such board will be remembered,
1278 and shown to you when you right-click the board.
1279 This allows you to peek at your bughouse partner's game when you want,
1280 without disturbing your own game too much.
1282 @cindex Dual Board, Menu Item
1283 Setting this option in combination with @samp{Background Observe}
1284 will display boards of observed games while you are playing
1285 on a second board next to that of your own game.
1286 @itemx Get Move List
1287 @cindex Get Move List, Menu Item
1288 If this option is on, whenever XBoard
1289 receives the first board of a new ICS game (or a different game from
1290 the one it is currently displaying), it
1291 retrieves the list of past moves from the ICS.
1292 You can then review the moves with the @samp{Forward} and @samp{Backward}
1294 or save them with @samp{Save Game}. You might want to
1295 turn off this option if you are observing several blitz games at once,
1296 to keep from wasting time and network bandwidth fetching the move lists over
1298 When you turn this option on from the menu, XBoard
1299 immediately fetches the move list of the current game (if any).
1301 @cindex Quiet Play, Menu Item
1302 If this option is on, XBoard will automatically issue an ICS
1304 command whenever you start a game and a
1306 command whenever you finish one. Thus, you will not be distracted
1307 by shouts from other ICS users while playing.
1309 @cindex Seek Graph, Menu Item
1310 Setting this option will cause XBoard to display an graph of
1311 currently active seek ads when you left-click the board
1312 while idle and logged on to an ICS.
1313 @itemx Auto-Refresh Seek Graph
1314 @cindex Auto-Refresh Seek Graph, Menu Item
1315 In combination with the @samp{Seek Graph} option this
1316 will cause automatic update of the seek graph while it is up.
1317 This only works on FICS and ICC,
1318 and requires a lot of bandwidth on a busy server.
1320 @itemx Premove White
1321 @itemx Premove Black
1322 @itemx First White Move
1323 @itemx First Black Move
1324 @cindex Premove, Menu Item
1325 @cindex Premove White, Menu Item
1326 @cindex Premove Black, Menu Item
1327 @cindex First White Move, Menu Item
1328 @cindex First Black Move, Menu Item
1329 If this option is on while playing a game on an ICS, you can register
1330 your next planned move before it is your turn. Move the piece with
1331 the mouse in the ordinary way, and the starting and ending squares
1332 will be highlighted with a special color (red by default). When it is
1333 your turn, if your registered move is legal, XBoard will send it to
1334 ICS immediately; if not, it will be ignored and you can make a
1335 different move. If you change your mind about your premove, either
1336 make a different move, or double-click on any piece to cancel the move
1339 You can also enter premoves for the first white and black moves
1342 @itemx ICS Alarm Time
1343 @cindex ICS Alarm, Menu Item
1344 @cindex ICS Alarm Time, Menu Item
1345 When this option is on, an alarm sound is played when your clock
1346 counts down to the icsAlarmTime in an ICS game.
1347 (By default, the time is 5 seconds, but you can pecify other values
1348 with the Alarm Time spin control.)
1349 For games with time controls that include an increment, the
1350 alarm will sound each time the clock counts down to the icsAlarmTime.
1351 By default, the alarm sound is the terminal bell, but on some systems
1352 you can change it to a sound file using the soundIcsAlarm option; see
1354 @itemx Colorize Messages
1355 @cindex Colorize Messages, Menu Item
1356 Ticking this options causes various types of ICS messages do be
1357 displayed with different foreground or background colors in the console.
1358 The colors can be individually selected for each type,
1359 through the accompanying text edits.
1362 @cindex Match Options, Menu Item
1363 Summons a dialog where you can set options important for playing automatic
1364 matches between two chess programs
1365 (e.g. by using the @samp{Machine Match} menu item in the @samp{Mode} menu).
1366 @itemx Tournament file
1367 @cindex Tournament file, Menu item
1368 To run a tournament, XBoard needs a file to record its progress,
1369 so it can resume the tourney when it is interrupted.
1370 When you want to conduct anything more complex than a simple
1371 two-player match with the currently loaded engines,
1372 (i.e. when you select a list of participants),
1373 you must not leave this field blank.
1374 When you enter the name of an existing tournament file,
1375 XBoard will ignore all other input specified in the dialog,
1376 and will take them from that tournament file.
1377 This resumes an interrupted tournament, or adds another XBoard
1378 agent playing games for it to those that are already doing so.
1379 Specifying a not-yet-existing file will cause XBoard to create it,
1380 according to the tournament parameters specified in the rest of the dialog,
1381 before it starts the tournament on ‘OK’.
1382 Provided that you specify participants;
1383 without participants no tournament file will be made, but other entered values
1384 (e.g. for the file with opening positions) will take effect.
1385 Default: configured by the @code{defaultTourneyName} option.
1386 @itemx Sync after round
1387 @itemx Sync after cycle
1388 @cindex Sync after round, Menu Item
1389 @cindex Sync after cycle, Menu Item
1390 The sync options, when on, will cause WinBoard to refrain from starting games
1391 of the next round or cycle before all games of the previous round or cycle are finished.
1392 This guarantees correct ordering in the games file,
1393 even when multiple XBoard instances are concurrently playing games for the same tourney.
1394 Default: sync after cycle, but not after round.
1395 @itemx Select Engine
1396 @itemx Tourney participants
1397 @cindex Select Engine, Menu Item
1398 @cindex Tourney participants, Menu Item
1399 With the Select Engine drop-down list you can pick an engine from your list
1400 of installed engines in the settings file, to be added to the tournament.
1401 The engines selected so far will be listed in the ‘Tourney participants’ memo.
1402 The latter is a normal text edit, so you can use normal text-editing functions
1403 to delete engines you selected by accident, or change their order.
1404 Do not type names yourself there, because names that do not exactly match
1405 one of the names from the drop-down list will lead to undefined behavior.
1407 @cindex Tourney type, Menu Item
1408 Here you can specify the type of tournament you want.
1409 XBoard’s intrinsic tournament manager support round-robins (type = 0),
1410 where each participant plays every other participant, and (multi-)gauntlets,
1411 where one (or a few) so-called ‘gauntlet engines’ play an independent set of opponents.
1412 In the latter case, you specify the number of gauntlet engines.
1413 E.g. if you specified 10 engines, and tourney type = 2,
1414 the first 2 engines each play the remaining 8.
1415 A value of -1 instructs XBoard to play Swiss; for this to work an external
1416 pairing engine must be specified through the @code{pairingEngine} option.
1417 Each Swiss round will be considered a tourney cycle in that case.
1419 @itemx Number of tourney cycles
1420 @itemx Default number of Games
1421 @cindex Number of tourney cycles, Menu Item
1422 @cindex Default number of Games, Menu Item
1423 You can specify tourneys where every two opponents play each other multiple times.
1424 Such multiple games can be played in a row,
1425 as specified by the ‘number of games per pairing’,
1426 or by repeating the entire tournament schedule a number of times
1427 (specified by the ‘number of tourney cycles’).
1428 The total number of times two engine meet will be the product of these two.
1430 the number of games per pairing is the same as the default number of match games,
1431 stored in your settings file through the @code{defaultMatchGames} option.
1432 @itemx Save Tourney Games
1433 @cindex Save Tourney Games, Menu Item
1434 File where the tournament games are saved
1435 (duplicate of the item in the @samp{Save Game Options}).
1436 @itemx Game File with Opening Lines
1437 @itemx File with Start Positions
1439 @itemx Position Number
1440 @itemx Rewind Index after
1441 @cindex Game File with Opening Lines, Menu Item
1442 @cindex File with Start Positions, Menu Item
1443 @cindex Game Number, Menu Item
1444 @cindex Position Number, Menu Item
1445 @cindex Rewind Index after, Menu Item
1446 These items optionally specify the file with move sequences or board positions the tourney
1447 games should start from.
1448 The corresponding numbers specify the number of the game or position in the file.
1449 Here a value -1 means automatic stepping through all games on the file,
1450 -2 automatic stepping every two games.
1451 The Rewind-Index parameter causes a stepping index to reset to one after reaching
1453 A setting of -2 for the game number will also be effective in a tournament without
1454 specifying a game file, but playing from the GUI book instead.
1455 In this case the first (odd) games will randomly select from the book,
1456 but the second (even) games will select the same moves from the book as the previous game.
1457 (Note this leads to the same opening only if both engines use the GUI book!)
1458 Default: No game or position file will be used. The default index if such a file is used is 1.
1459 @itemx Disable own engine bools be default
1460 @cindex Disable own engine bools be default, Menu Item
1461 Setting this option reverses the default situation for use of the GUI opening book
1462 in tournaments from what it normally is, namely not using it.
1463 So unless the engine is installed with an option to explicitly specify it should
1464 not use the GUI book (i.e. @code{-firstHasOwnBookUCI true}),
1465 it will be made to use the GUI book.
1466 @itemx Replace Engine
1467 @itemx Upgrade Engine
1468 @cindex Replace Engine, Menu Item
1469 @cindex Upgrade Engine, Menu Item
1470 With these two buttons you can alter the participants of an already running tournament.
1471 After opening the Match Options dialog on an XBoard that is playing for the tourney,
1472 you will see all the tourney parameters in the dialog fields.
1473 You can then replace the name of one engine by that of another
1474 by editing the @samp{participants} field.
1475 (But preserve the order of the others!)
1476 Pressing the button after that will cause the substitution.
1477 With the @samp{Upgrade Engine} button the substitution will only affect future games.
1478 With @samp{Replace Engine} all games the substituted engine has already played will
1479 be invalidated, and they will be replayed with the substitute engine.
1480 In this latter case the engine must not be playing when you do this,
1481 but otherwise there is no need to pause the tournament play
1482 for making a substitution.
1483 @itemx Clone Tourney
1484 @cindex CloneTourney, Menu Item
1485 Pressing this button after you have specified an existing tournament file
1486 will copy the contents of the latter to the dialog,
1487 and then puts the originally proposed name for the tourney file back.
1488 You can then run a tourney with the same parameters
1489 (possibly after changing the proposed name of the tourney file for the new tourney)
1492 @item Load Game Options
1493 @cindex Load Game Options, Menu Item
1494 Summons a dialog where you can set the @code{autoDisplayComment} and
1495 @code{autoDisplayTags} options, (which control popups when viewing loaded games),
1496 and specify the rate at which loaded games are auto-played,
1497 in seconds per move (which can be a fractional number, like 1.6).
1498 You can also set search criteria for determining which games
1499 will be displayed in the Game List for a multi-game file,
1500 and thus be eligible for loading:
1501 @itemx Elo of strongest player
1502 @itemx Elo of weakest player
1504 @cindex Elo of strongest player, Menu Item
1505 @cindex Elo of weakest player, Menu Item
1506 @cindex year, Menu Item
1507 These numeric fields set thresholds (lower limits) on the Elo rating of the mentioned player,
1508 or the date the game was played.
1511 @cindex Search mode, Menu Item
1512 @cindex find position, Menu Item
1513 This setting determines which positions in a game will be considered a match
1514 to the position currently displayed in the board window
1515 when you press the @samp{find position} button in the Game List.
1516 You can search for an exact match,
1517 a position that has all shown material in the same place,
1518 but might contain additional material,
1519 a position that has all Pawns in the same place,
1520 but can have the shown material anywhere,
1521 a position that can have all shown material anywhere,
1522 or a position that has material between certain limits anywhere.
1523 For the latter you have to place the material that must be present
1524 in the four lowest ranks of the board,
1525 and optional additional material in the four highest ranks of the board.
1526 You can request the optional material to be balanced.
1527 @itemx number of consecutive positions
1528 @cindex number of consecutive positions, Menu Item
1529 When you are searching by material, rather than for an exact match,
1530 this parameter indicates forhowmany consecutive game positions
1531 the same amount of material must be on the board before it is
1533 @itemx Also match reversed colors
1534 @itemx Also match left-right flipped position
1535 @cindex Also match reversed colors, Menu Item
1536 @cindex Also match left-right flipped position, Menu Item
1537 When looking for matching positions rather than by material,
1538 these settings determine whether mirror images
1539 (in case of a vertical flip in combination with color reversal)
1540 will be also considered a match.
1541 The left-right flipping is only useful after all castling rights
1542 have expired (or in Xiangqi).
1544 @item Save Game Options
1545 @cindex Save Game Options, Menu Item
1546 Summons a dialog where you can specify the files on which XBoard should
1547 automtically save any played or entered games,
1548 (the @code{saveGameFile} option),
1549 or the final position of such games (the @code{savePositionfile} option).
1550 You can also select 'auto-save' without a file name,
1551 in which case XBoard will prompt the user for a file name after each game.
1552 You can also set the default value for the PGN Event tag that will
1553 be used for each new game you start.
1554 Various options for the format of the game can be specified as well,
1555 such as whether scores and depths of engine games should be saved as comments,
1556 and if a tag with info about the score with which the engine came out of book
1558 For Chess, always set the format to PGN, rather than "old save stye"!
1561 @cindex Game List Tags, Menu Item
1562 Pops up a dialog where you can select the PGN tags that should appear
1563 on the lines in the game list, and their order.
1566 @cindex Sound Options, Menu Item
1567 Summons a dialog where you can specify the sounds that should accompany
1568 various events that can occur XBoard.
1569 Most events are only relevant to ICS play,
1570 but the move sound is an important exception.
1571 For each event listed in the dialog,
1572 you can select a standard sound from a menu.
1573 You can also select a user-supplied sound file,
1574 by typing its name into the designated text-edit field first,
1575 and then selecting "Above WAV File" from the menu for the event.
1576 A dummy event has been provided for trying out the sounds with the
1577 "play" button next to it.
1578 The directory with standard sounds, and the external program for playing
1579 the sounds can be specified too, but normally you would not touch these
1580 once XBoard is properly installed.
1581 When a move sound other than 'None' is selected,
1582 XBoard alerts you by playing that sound
1583 after each of your opponent's moves (or after every
1584 move if you are observing a game on the Internet Chess Server).
1585 The sound is not played after moves you make or moves read from a
1588 @item Save Settings Now
1589 @cindex Save Settings Now, Menu Item
1590 Selecting this menu item causes the current XBoard settings to be
1591 written to the settings file, so they will also apply in future sessions.
1592 Note that some settings are 'volatile', and are not saved,
1593 because XBoard considers it too unlikely that you want those to apply
1595 In particular this applies to the Chess program names, and all options
1596 giving information on those Chess programs (such as their directory,
1597 if they have their own opening book, if they are UCI or native XBoard),
1598 or the variant you are playing.
1599 Such options would still be understood when they appear in the settings
1600 file in case they were put there with the aid of a text editor, but they
1601 would disappear from the file as soon as you save the settings.
1603 Note that XBoard no longer pays attention to options values specified
1604 in the .Xresources file.
1605 (Specifying key bindings there will still work, though.)
1606 To alter the default of volatile options, you can use the following method:
1607 Rename your ~/.xboardrc settings file (to ~/.yboardrc, say), and create
1608 a new file ~/.xboardrc, which only contains the options
1611 -settingsFile ~/.yboardrc
1612 -saveSettingsFile ~/.yboardrc
1616 This will cause your settings to be saved on ~/.yboardrc in the future,
1617 so that ~/.xboardrc is no longer overwritten.
1618 You can then safely specify volatile options in ~/.xboardrc, either
1619 before or after the settingsFile options.
1620 Note that when you specify persistent options after the settingsFile options
1621 in ~/.xboardrc, you will essentially turn them into volatile options
1622 with the specified value as default, because that value will overrule
1623 the value loaded from the settings file (being read later).
1624 @item Save Settings on Exit
1625 @cindex Save Settings on Exit, Menu Item
1626 Setting this option has no immediate effect, but causes the settings
1627 to be saved when you quit XBoard. What happens then is otherwise
1628 identical to what happens when you use select "Save Settings Now",
1638 @cindex Info XBoard, Menu Item
1639 Displays the XBoard documentation in info format. For this feature to
1640 work, you must have the GNU info program installed on your system, and
1641 the file @file{xboard.info} must either be present in the current
1642 working directory, or have been installed by the @samp{make install}
1643 command when you built XBoard.
1645 @cindex Man XBoard, Menu Item
1646 Displays the XBoard documentation in man page format.
1647 The @kbd{F1} key is a keyboard equivalent. For this
1648 feature to work, the file @file{xboard.6} must have been installed by
1649 the @samp{make install} command when you built XBoard, and the
1650 directory it was placed in must be on the search path for your
1651 system's @samp{man} command.
1653 @cindex About XBoard, Menu Item
1654 Shows the current XBoard version number.
1658 @section Other Shortcut Keys
1660 @cindex Shortcut keys
1662 @item Show Last Move
1663 @cindex Show Last Move, Shortcut Key
1664 By hitting @kbd{Enter} the last move will be re-animated.
1665 @item Load Next Game
1666 @cindex Load Next Game, Menu Item
1667 Loads the next game from the last game record file you loaded.
1668 The @kbd{Alt+PgDn} key triggers this action.
1669 @item Load Previous Game
1670 @cindex Load Previous Game, Menu Item
1671 Loads the previous game from the last game record file you
1672 loaded. The @kbd{Alt+PgUp} key triggers this action.
1673 Not available if the last game was loaded from a pipe.
1674 @item Reload Same Game
1675 @cindex Reload Same Game, Menu Item
1676 Reloads the last game you loaded.
1677 Not available if the last game was loaded from a pipe.
1678 Currently no keystroke is assigned to this ReloadGameProc.
1679 @item Reload Same Position
1680 @cindex Reload Same Position, Menu Item
1681 Reloads the last position you loaded.
1682 Not available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.
1683 Currently no keystroke is assigned to this ReloadPositionProc.
1686 You can add or remove shortcut keys using the X resources
1687 @code{form.translations}. Here is an example of what would go in your
1688 @file{.Xresources} file:
1691 XBoard*form.translations: \
1692 Shift<Key>?: AboutGameProc() \n\
1693 <Key>y: AcceptProc() \n\
1694 <Key>n: DeclineProc() \n\
1695 <Key>i: NothingProc()
1698 Binding a key to @code{NothingProc} makes it do nothing, thus removing
1699 it as a shortcut key. The XBoard commands that can be bound to keys
1703 AbortProc, AboutGameProc, AboutProc, AcceptProc, AdjournProc,
1704 AlwaysQueenProc, AnalysisModeProc, AnalyzeFileProc,
1705 AnimateDraggingProc, AnimateMovingProc, AutobsProc, AutoflagProc,
1706 AutoflipProc, AutoraiseProc, AutosaveProc, BackwardProc,
1707 BlindfoldProc, BookProc, CallFlagProc, CopyGameProc, CopyPositionProc,
1708 DebugProc, DeclineProc, DrawProc, EditCommentProc, EditGameProc,
1709 EditPositionProc, EditTagsProc, EnterKeyProc, FlashMovesProc,
1710 FlipViewProc, ForwardProc, GetMoveListProc, HighlightLastMoveProc,
1711 HintProc, IcsAlarmProc, IcsClientProc, IcsInputBoxProc,
1712 InfoProc, LoadGameProc, LoadNextGameProc, LoadNextPositionProc,
1713 LoadPositionProc, LoadPrevGameProc, LoadPrevPositionProc,
1714 LoadSelectedProc, MachineBlackProc, MachineWhiteProc, MailMoveProc,
1715 ManProc, MoveNowProc, MoveSoundProc, NothingProc, OldSaveStyleProc,
1716 PasteGameProc, PastePositionProc, PauseProc, PeriodicUpdatesProc,
1717 PonderNextMoveProc, PopupExitMessageProc, PopupMoveErrorsProc,
1718 PremoveProc, QuietPlayProc, QuitProc, ReloadCmailMsgProc,
1719 ReloadGameProc, ReloadPositionProc, RematchProc, ResetProc,
1720 ResignProc, RetractMoveProc, RevertProc, SaveGameProc,
1721 SavePositionProc, ShowCoordsProc, ShowGameListProc, ShowThinkingProc,
1722 StopExaminingProc, StopObservingProc, TestLegalityProc, ToEndProc,
1723 ToStartProc, TrainingProc, TruncateGameProc, and TwoMachinesProc.
1731 This section documents the command-line options to XBoard. You can
1732 set these options in two ways: by typing them on the shell command
1733 line you use to start XBoard, or by editing the settings file
1734 (usually ~/.xboardrc) to alter the value of the setting that was
1735 saved there. Some of the options
1736 cannot be changed while XBoard is running; others set the initial
1737 state of items that can be changed with the @ref{Options} menu.
1739 Most of the options have both a long name and a short name. To turn a
1740 boolean option on or off from the command line, either give its long
1741 name followed by the value true or false
1742 (@samp{-longOptionName true}), or give just the short name to turn the
1743 option on (@samp{-opt}), or the short name preceded by @samp{x} to
1744 turn the option off (@samp{-xopt}). For options that take strings or
1745 numbers as values, you can use the long or short option names
1749 * Chess engine options:: Controlling the chess engine.
1750 * UCI + WB Engine Settings:: Setting some very common engine parameters
1751 * Tournament options:: Running tournaments and matches between engines.
1752 * ICS options:: Connecting to and using ICS.
1753 * Load and Save options:: Input/output options.
1754 * User interface options:: Look and feel options.
1755 * Adjudication Options:: Control adjudication of engine-engine games.
1756 * Other options:: Miscellaneous.
1759 @node Chess engine options
1760 @section Chess Engine Options
1761 @cindex options, Chess engine
1762 @cindex Chess engine options
1764 @item -tc or -timeControl minutes[:seconds]
1766 @cindex timeControl, option
1767 Each player begins with his clock set to the @code{timeControl} period.
1769 The additional options @code{movesPerSession} and @code{timeIncrement}
1770 are mutually exclusive.
1771 @item -mps or -movesPerSession moves
1773 @cindex movesPerSession, option
1774 When both players have made @code{movesPerSession} moves, a
1775 new @code{timeControl} period is added to both clocks. Default: 40 moves.
1776 @item -inc or -timeIncrement seconds
1778 @cindex timeIncrement, option
1779 If this option is specified, @code{movesPerSession} is ignored.
1780 Instead, after each player's move, @code{timeIncrement} seconds are
1782 Use @samp{-inc 0} if you want to require the entire
1783 game to be played in one @code{timeControl} period, with no increment.
1784 Default: -1, which specifies @code{movesPerSession} mode.
1785 @item -clock/-xclock or -clockMode true/false
1786 @cindex clock, option
1787 @cindex clockMode, option
1788 Determines whether or not to display the chess clocks. If clockMode is
1789 false, the clocks are not shown, but the side that is to play next
1790 is still highlighted. Also, unless @code{searchTime}
1791 is set, the chess engine still keeps track of the clock time and uses it to
1792 determine how fast to make its moves.
1793 @item -st or -searchTime minutes[:seconds]
1795 @cindex searchTime, option
1796 Tells the chess engine to spend at most the given amount of time
1797 searching for each of its moves. Without this option, the chess engine
1798 chooses its search time based on the number of moves and amount
1799 of time remaining until the next time control.
1800 Setting this option also sets clockMode to false.
1801 @item -depth or -searchDepth number
1803 @cindex searchDepth, option
1804 Tells the chess engine to look ahead at most the given number of moves
1805 when searching for a move to make. Without this option, the chess
1806 engine chooses its search depth based on the number of moves and
1807 amount of time remaining until the next time control. With the option,
1808 the engine will cut off its search early if it reaches the specified depth.
1809 @item -firstNPS number
1810 @itemx -secondNPS number
1811 @cindex firstNPS, option
1812 @cindex secondNPS, option
1813 Tells the chess engine to use an internal time standard based on its node count,
1814 rather then wall-clock time, to make its timing decisions.
1815 The time in virtual seconds should be obtained by dividing the node count
1816 through the given number, like the number was a rate in nodes per second.
1817 Xboard will manage the clocks in accordance with this, relying on the number
1818 of nodes reported by the engine in its thinking output. If the given number equals zero,
1819 it can obviously not be used to convert nodes to seconds, and the time reported
1820 by the engine is used to decrement the XBoard clock in stead. The engine is supposed to
1821 report in CPU time it uses, rather than wall-clock time, in this mode. This option
1822 can provide fairer conditions for engine-engine matches on heavily loaded machines,
1823 or with very fast games (where the wall clock is too inaccurate).
1824 @code{showThinking} must be on for this option to work. Default: -1 (off).
1825 Not many engines might support this yet!
1826 @item -firstTimeOdds factor
1827 @itemx -secondTimeOdds factor
1828 @cindex firstTimeOdds, option
1829 @cindex secondTimeOdds, option
1830 Reduces the time given to the mentioned engine by the given factor.
1831 If pondering is off, the effect is indistinguishable from what would happen
1832 if the engine was running on an n-times slower machine. Default: 1.
1833 @item -timeOddsMode mode
1834 @cindex timeOddsMode, option
1835 This option determines how the case is handled where both engines have a time-odds handicap.
1836 If mode=1, the engine that gets the most time will always get the nominal time,
1837 as specified by the time-control options, and its opponent's time is renormalized accordingly.
1838 If mode=0, both play with reduced time. Default: 0.
1839 @item -hideThinkingFromHuman true/false
1840 Controls the Hide Thinking option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
1841 (Replaces the Show-Thinking option of older xboard versions.)
1842 @item -thinking/-xthinking or -showThinking true/false
1843 @cindex thinking, option
1844 @cindex showThinking, option
1845 Forces the engine to send thinking output to xboard.
1846 Used to be the only way to control if thinking output was displayed
1847 in older xboard versions,
1848 but as the thinking output in xboard 4.3 is also used for several other
1849 purposes (adjudication, storing in PGN file) the display of it is now controlled
1850 by the new option Hide Thinking. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
1851 (But if xboard needs the thinking output for some purpose,
1852 it makes the engine send it despite the setting of this option.)
1853 @item -ponder/-xponder or -ponderNextMove true/false
1854 @cindex ponder, option
1855 @cindex ponderNextMove, option
1856 Sets the Ponder Next Move menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
1857 @item -smpCores number
1858 Specifies the maximum number of CPUs an SMP engine is allowed to use.
1859 Only works for engines that support the XBoard/WinBoard-protocol cores feature.
1860 @item -mg or -matchGames n
1862 @cindex matchGames, option
1863 Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
1864 with alternating colors.
1865 If the @code{loadGameFile} or @code{loadPositionFile} option is set,
1867 starts each game with the given opening moves or the given position;
1868 otherwise, the games start with the standard initial chess position.
1869 If the @code{saveGameFile} option is set, a move record for the
1870 match is appended to the specified file. If the @code{savePositionFile}
1871 option is set, the final position reached in each game of the match is appended
1872 to the specified file. When the match is over, XBoard
1873 displays the match score and exits. Default: 0 (do not run a match).
1874 @item -mm/-xmm or -matchMode true/false
1876 @cindex matchMode, option
1877 Setting @code{matchMode} to true is equivalent to setting
1878 @code{matchGames} to 1.
1879 @item -sameColorGames n
1880 @cindex sameColorGames, option
1881 Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
1882 without alternating colors.
1883 Otherwise the same applies as for the @samp{-matchGames} option,
1884 over which it takes precedence if both are specified. (See there.)
1885 Default: 0 (do not run a match).
1886 @item -fcp or -firstChessProgram program
1888 @cindex firstChessProgram, option
1889 Name of first chess engine.
1890 Default: @file{Fairy-Max}.
1891 @item -scp or -secondChessProgram program
1893 @cindex secondChessProgram, option
1894 Name of second chess engine, if needed.
1895 A second chess engine is started only in Two Machines (match) mode.
1896 Default: @file{Fairy-Max}.
1897 @item -fb/-xfb or -firstPlaysBlack true/false
1899 @cindex firstPlaysBlack, option
1900 In games between two chess engines, firstChessProgram normally plays
1901 white. If this option is true, firstChessProgram plays black. In a
1902 multi-game match, this option affects the colors only for the first
1903 game; they still alternate in subsequent games.
1904 @item -fh or -firstHost host
1905 @itemx -sh or -secondHost host
1907 @cindex firstHost, option
1909 @cindex secondHost, option
1910 Hosts on which the chess engines are to run. The default for
1911 each is @file{localhost}. If you specify another host, XBoard
1912 uses @file{rsh} to run the chess engine there. (You can substitute a
1913 different remote shell program for rsh using the @code{remoteShell}
1914 option described below.)
1915 @item -fd or -firstDirectory dir
1916 @itemx -sd or -secondDirectory dir
1918 @cindex firstDirectory, option
1920 @cindex secondDirectory, option
1921 Working directories in which the chess engines are to be run.
1922 The default is "", which means to run the chess engine
1923 in the same working directory as XBoard
1924 itself. (See the CHESSDIR environment variable.)
1925 This option is effective only when the chess engine is being run
1926 on the local host; it does not work if the engine is run remotely
1927 using the -fh or -sh option.
1928 @item -initString string or -firstInitString
1929 @itemx -secondInitString string
1930 @cindex initString, option
1931 @cindex firstInitString, option
1932 @cindex secondInitString, option
1933 The string that is sent to initialize each chess engine for a new game.
1941 Setting this option from the command line is tricky, because you must
1942 type in real newline characters, including one at the very end.
1943 In most shells you can do this by
1944 entering a @samp{\} character followed by a newline.
1945 Using the character sequence @samp{\n} in the string should work too, though.
1947 If you change this option, don't remove the @samp{new}
1948 command; it is required by all chess engines to
1951 You can remove the @samp{random} command if you like; including it
1952 causes GNU Chess 4 to randomize its move selection slightly so that it
1953 doesn't play the same moves in every game. Even without
1954 @samp{random}, GNU Chess 4 randomizes its choice of moves from its
1955 opening book. Many other chess engines ignore this command entirely
1956 and always (or never) randomize.
1958 You can also try adding other commands to the initString; see the
1959 documentation of the chess engine you are using for details.
1960 @item -firstComputerString string
1961 @itemx -secondComputerString string
1962 @cindex firstComputerString, option
1963 @cindex secondComputerString, option
1964 The string that is sent to the chess engine if its opponent is another
1965 computer chess engine. The default is @samp{computer\n}. Probably the
1966 only useful alternative is the empty string (@samp{}), which keeps the
1967 engine from knowing that it is playing another computer.
1968 @item -reuse/-xreuse or -reuseFirst true/false
1969 @itemx -reuse2/-xreuse2 or -reuseSecond true/false
1970 @cindex reuse, option
1971 @cindex reuseFirst, option
1972 @cindex reuse2, option
1973 @cindex reuseSecond, option
1974 If the option is false,
1975 XBoard kills off the chess engine after every game and starts
1976 it again for the next game.
1977 If the option is true (the default),
1978 XBoard starts the chess engine only once
1979 and uses it repeatedly to play multiple games.
1980 Some old chess engines may not work properly when
1981 reuse is turned on, but otherwise games will start faster if it is left on.
1982 @item -firstProtocolVersion version-number
1983 @itemx -secondProtocolVersion version-number
1984 @cindex firstProtocolVersion, option
1985 @cindex secondProtocolVersion, option
1986 This option specifies which version of the chess engine communication
1987 protocol to use. By default, version-number is 2. In version 1, the
1988 "protover" command is not sent to the engine; since version 1 is a
1989 subset of version 2, nothing else changes. Other values for
1990 version-number are not supported.
1991 @item -firstScoreAbs true/false
1992 @itemx -secondScoreAbs true/false
1993 @cindex firstScoreAbs, option
1994 @cindex secondScoreAbs, option
1995 If this option is set, the score reported by the engine is taken to be
1996 that in favor of white, even when the engine plays black.
1997 Important when XBoard uses the score for adjudications, or in PGN reporting.
1998 @item -niceEngines priority
1999 @cindex niceEngines, option
2000 This option allows you to lower the priority of the engine processes,
2001 so that the generally insatiable hunger for CPU time of chess engines does not interfere so much
2002 with smooth operation of XBoard (or the rest of your system).
2003 Negative values could increase the engine priority, which is not recommended.
2004 @item -firstOptions string
2005 @itemx -secondOptions string
2006 @cindex firstOptions, option
2007 @cindex secondOptions, option
2008 The given string is a comma-separated list of (option name=option value) pairs,
2009 like the following example: "style=Karpov,blunder rate=0".
2010 If an option announced by the engine at startup through the feature commands of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol
2011 matches one of the option names (i.e. "style" or "blunder rate"),
2012 it would be set to the given value (i.e. "Karpov" or 0)
2013 through a corresponding option command to the engine.
2014 This provided that the type of the value (text or numeric) matches as well.
2015 @item -firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
2016 @itemx -secondNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
2017 @cindex firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN, option
2018 @cindex secondNeedsNoncompliantFEN, option
2019 The castling rights and e.p. fields of the FEN sent to the mentioned engine
2020 with the setboard command will be replaced by the given string. This can for
2021 instance be used to run engines that do not understand Chess960 FENs in
2022 variant fischerandom, to make them at least understand the opening position,
2023 through setting the string to "KQkq -". (Note you also have to give the e.p. field!)
2024 Other possible applications are to provide work-arounds for engines that want to see
2025 castling and e.p. fields in variants that do not have castling or e.p.
2026 (shatranj, courier, xiangqi, shogi) so that XBoard would normally omit them
2027 (string = "- -"), or to add variant-specific fields that are not yet supported by XBoard
2028 (e.g. to indicate the number of checks in 3check).
2029 @item -shuffleOpenings
2030 @cindex shuffleOpenings, option
2031 Forces shuffling of the opening setup in variants that normally have a fixed initial position.
2032 Shufflings are symmetric for black and white, and exempt King and Rooks in variants
2033 with normal castling.
2034 Remains in force until a new variant is selected.
2037 @node UCI + WB Engine Settings
2038 @section UCI + WB Engine Settings
2039 @cindex Engine Settings
2040 @cindex Settings, Engine
2042 @item -fUCI or -firstIsUCI true/false
2043 @itemx -sUCI or -secondIsUCI true/false
2044 @cindex fUCI, option
2045 @cindex sUCI, option
2046 @cindex firstIsUCI, option
2047 @cindex secondIsUCI, option
2048 Indicates if the mentioned engine executable file is an UCI engine,
2049 and should be run with the aid of the Polyglot adapter rather than directly.
2050 Xboard will then pass the other UCI options and engine name to Polyglot
2051 on its command line, according to the option @code{adapterCommand}.
2056 @cindex fUCCI, option
2057 @cindex sUCCI, option
2058 @cindex fUSI, option
2059 @cindex sUSI, option
2060 Options similar to @code{fUCI} and @code{sUCI}, except that they
2061 use the indicated engine with the protocol adapter specified in
2062 the @samp{uxiAdapter} option.
2063 This can then be configured for running an UCCI or USI adapter,
2065 @item -adapterCommand string
2066 @cindex adapterCommand, option
2067 The string conatins the command that should be issued by XBoard
2068 to start an engine that is accompanied by the @code{fUCI} option.
2069 Any identifier following a percent sign in the command (e.g. %fcp)
2070 will be considered the name of an XBoard option, and be replaced
2071 by the value of that option at the time the engine is started.
2072 For starting the second engine, any leading "f" or "first" in
2073 the option name will first be replaced by "s" or "second",
2074 before finding its value.
2075 Default: 'polyglot -noini -ec "%fcp" -ed "%fd"'
2076 @item -uxiAdapter string
2077 @cindex uxiAdapter, option
2078 Similar to @code{adapterCommand}, but used for engines accompanied
2079 by the @code{fUCCI} or @code{fUSI} option, so you can configure
2080 XBoard to be ready to handle more than one flavor of non-native protocols.
2082 @item -polyglotDir filename
2083 @cindex polyglotDir, option
2084 Gives the name of the directory in which the Polyglot adapter for UCI engines resides.
2086 @item -usePolyglotBook true/false
2087 @cindex usePolyglotBook, option
2088 Specifies if the Polyglot book should be used as GUI book.
2089 @item -polyglotBook filename
2090 @cindex polyglotBook, option
2091 Gives the filename of the opening book.
2092 The book is only used when the @code{usePolyglotBook} option is set to true,
2093 and the option @code{firstHasOwnBookUCI} or @code{secondHasOwnBookUCI}
2094 applying to the engine is set to false.
2095 The engine will be kept in force mode as long as the current position is in book,
2096 and XBoard will select the book moves for it. Default: "".
2097 @item -fNoOwnBookUCI or -firstXBook or -firstHasOwnBookUCI true/false
2098 @itemx -sNoOwnBookUCI or -secondXBook or -secondHasOwnBookUCI true/false
2099 @cindex fNoOwnBookUCI, option
2100 @cindex sNoOwnBookUCI, option
2101 @cindex firstHasOwnBookUCI, option
2102 @cindex secondHasOwnBookUCI, option
2103 @cindex firstXBook, option
2104 @cindex secondXBook, option
2105 Indicates if the mentioned engine has its own opening book it should play from,
2106 rather than using the external book through XBoard.
2107 Default: depends on setting of the option @code{discourageOwnBooks}.
2108 @item -discourageOwnBooks true/false
2109 @cindex discourageOwnBooks, option
2110 When set, newly loaded engines will be assumed to use the GUI book,
2111 unless they explicitly specify differently.
2112 Otherwise they will be assumed to not use the GUI book,
2113 unless the specify differently (e.g. with @code{firstXBook}).
2116 @cindex bookDepth, option
2117 Limits the use of the GUI book to the first n moves of each side.
2119 @item -bookVariation n
2120 @cindex bookVariation, option
2121 A value n from 0 to 100 tunes the choice of moves from the GUI books
2122 from totally random to best-only. Default: 50
2123 @item -fn string or -firstPgnName string
2124 @itemx -sn string or -secondPgnName string
2125 @cindex firstPgnName, option
2126 @cindex secondPgnName, option
2129 Indicates the name that should be used for the engine in PGN tags of
2130 engine-engine games.
2131 Intended to allow you to install verions of the same engine with different settings,
2132 and still distinguish them.
2134 @item -defaultHashSize n
2135 @cindex defaultHashSize, option
2136 Sets the size of the hash table to n MegaBytes. Together with the EGTB cache size
2137 this number is also used to calculate the memory setting of XBoard/WinBoard engines,
2138 for those that support the memory feature of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol. Default: 64.
2139 @item -defaultCacheSizeEGTB n
2140 @cindex defaultCacheSizeEGTB, option
2141 Sets the size of the EGTB cache to n MegaBytes. Together with the hash-table size
2142 this number is also used to calculate the memory setting of XBoard/WinBoard engines,
2143 for those that support the memory feature of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol. Default: 4.
2144 @item -defaultPathEGTB filename
2145 @cindex defaultPathEGTB, option
2146 Gives the name of the directory where the end-game tablebases are installed, for UCI engines.
2147 Default: "/usr/local/share/egtb".
2148 @item -egtFormats string
2149 @cindex egtFormats, option
2150 Specifies which end-game tables are installed on the computer, and where.
2151 The argument is a comma-separated list of format specifications,
2152 each specification consisting of a format name, a colon, and a directory path name,
2153 e.g. "nalimov:/usr/local/share/egtb".
2154 If the name part matches that of a format that the engine requests through a feature command,
2155 xboard will relay the path name for this format to the engine through an egtpath command.
2156 One egtpath command for each matching format will be sent.
2157 Popular formats are "nalimov" DTM tablebases and "scorpio" bitbases.
2159 @item -firstChessProgramNames=@{names@}
2160 This option lets you customize the drop-down list of chess engine names
2161 that appears in the @samp{Load Engine} and @samp{Match Options} dialog.
2162 It consists of a list of strings, one per line.
2163 When an engine is loaded, the corresponding line is prefixed with "-fcp ",
2164 and processed like it appeared on the command line.
2165 That means that apart from the engine command,
2166 it can contain any list of XBoard options you want to use with this engine.
2167 (Commonly used options here are -fd, -firstXBook, -fUCI, -variant.)
2169 The value of this option is gradually built as you load new engines
2170 through the @samp{Load Engine} menu dialog, with @samp{Add to list} ticked.
2171 To change it, edit your settings file with a plain text editor.
2174 @node Tournament options
2175 @section Tournament options
2176 @cindex Tournament Options
2177 @cindex Options, Tournament
2179 @item -defaultMatchGames n
2180 @cindex defaultMatchGames, option
2181 Sets the number of games that will be used for a match between two engines
2182 started from the menu to n. Also used as games per pairing in other tournament
2183 formats. Default: 10.
2185 @cindex matchPause, option
2186 Specifies the duration of the pause between two games of a match or tournament
2187 between engines as n milliseconds.
2188 Especially engines that do not support ping need this option,
2189 to prevent that the move they are thinking on when an opponent unexpectedly
2190 resigns will be counted for the next game, (leading to illegal moves there).
2192 @item -tf filename or -tourneyFile filename
2194 @cindex tourneyFile, option
2195 Specifies the name of the tournament file used in match mode
2196 to conduct a multi-player tournament.
2197 This file is a special settings file,
2198 which stores the description of the tournament (including progress info),
2199 through normal options (e.g. for time control, load and save files),
2200 and through some special-purpose options listed below.
2201 @item -tt number or -tourneyType number
2203 @cindex tourneyType, option
2204 Specifies the type of tourney: 0 = round-robin,
2205 N>0 = (multi-)gauntlet with N gauntlet engines,
2206 -1 = Swiss through external pairing engine.
2207 Volatile option, but stored in tourney file.
2208 @item -cy number or -tourneyCycles number
2210 @cindex tourneyCycles, option
2211 Specifies the number of cycles in a tourney.
2212 Volatile option, but stored in tourney file.
2213 @item -participants list
2214 @cindex participants, option
2215 The list is a multi-line text string that specifies engines
2216 occurring in the @code{firstChesProgramNames} list
2217 in the settings file by their (implied or explicitly given) nicknames,
2218 one engine per line.
2219 The mentioned engines will play in the tourney.
2220 Volatile option, but stored in tourney file.
2221 @item -results string
2222 @cindex results, option
2223 The string of +=- characters lists the result of all played games in a toruney.
2224 Games currently playing are listed as *,
2225 while a space indicates a game that is not yet played or playing .
2226 Volatile option, but stored in tourney file.
2227 @item -defaultTourneyName string
2228 @cindex defaultTourneyName, option
2229 Specifies the name of the tournament file XBoard should propose
2230 when the @samp{Match Options} dialog is opened.
2231 Any %y, %M, %d, %h, %m, %s in the string are replaced by the current
2232 year, month, day of the month, hours, minutes, seconds of the current time,
2233 respectively, as two-digit number.
2234 A %Y would be replaced by the year as 4-digit number. Default: empty string.
2235 @item -pairingEngine filename
2236 @cindex pairingEngine, option
2237 Specifies the external program to be used to pair the participants in Swiss tourneys.
2238 XBoard communicates with this engine in the same way as it communicates with Chess engines.
2239 The only commands sent to the pairing engine are “results N string”,
2240 (where N is the number of participants,
2241 and string the results so far in the format of the results option),
2242 and “pairing N”, (where N is the number of the tourney game).
2243 To the latter the pairing engine should answer with “A-B”,
2244 where A and B are participant numbers (in the range 1-N).
2245 (There should be no reply to the results command.) Default: empty string.
2246 @item -afterGame string
2247 @itemx -afterTourney string
2248 @cindex afterGame, option
2249 @cindex afterTourney, option
2250 When non-empty, the given string will be executed as a system command
2251 after each tournament game, orafterthe tourney completes, respectively.
2252 This can be used, for example, to autmatically run a cross-table generator
2253 on the PGN file where games are saved, to update the tourney standings.
2255 @item -syncAfterRound true/false
2256 @itemx -syncAfterCycle true/false
2257 @cindex syncAfterRound, option
2258 @cindex syncAfterCycle, option
2259 Controls whether different instances of XBoard concurrently running the
2260 same tournament will wait for each other.
2261 Defaults: sync after cycle, but not after round.
2262 @item -seedBase number
2263 @cindex seedBase, option
2264 Used to store the seed of the pseudo-random-number generator in the
2265 tourneyFile, so that separate instances of XBoard working on the same
2266 tourney can take coherent 'random' decisions, such as picking an
2267 opening for a given game number.
2271 @section ICS options
2273 @cindex Options, ICS
2275 @item -ics/-xics or -internetChessServerMode true/false
2277 @cindex internetChessServerMode, option
2278 Connect with an Internet Chess Server to play chess against its
2279 other users, observe games they are playing, or review games
2280 that have recently finished. Default: false.
2281 @item -icshost or -internetChessServerHost host
2282 @cindex icshost, option
2283 @cindex internetChessServerHost, option
2284 The Internet host name or address of the chess server to connect
2285 to when in ICS mode. Default: @code{chessclub.com}.
2286 Another popular chess server to try is @code{freechess.org}.
2287 If your site doesn't have a working Internet name server, try
2288 specifying the host address in numeric form.
2290 to specify the numeric address when using the icshelper option
2291 with timestamp or timeseal (see below).
2292 @item -icsport or -internetChessServerPort port-number
2293 @cindex icsport, option
2294 @cindex internetChessServerPort, option
2295 The port number to use when connecting to a chess server in ICS
2296 mode. Default: 5000.
2297 @item -icshelper or -internetChessServerHelper prog-name
2298 @cindex icshelper, option
2299 @cindex internetChessServerHelper, option
2300 An external helper program used to communicate with the chess server.
2301 You would set it to "timestamp" for ICC (chessclub.com) or
2302 "timeseal" for FICS (freechess.org), after
2303 obtaining the correct version of timestamp or timeseal for your
2304 computer. See "help timestamp" on ICC and "help timeseal" on FICS.
2305 This option is shorthand for @code{-useTelnet -telnetProgram program}.
2306 @item -telnet/-xtelnet or -useTelnet true/false
2307 @cindex telnet, option
2308 @cindex useTelnet, option
2309 This option is poorly named; it should be called useHelper.
2310 If set to true, it instructs XBoard to run an external
2311 program to communicate with the Internet Chess Server.
2312 The program to use is given by the telnetProgram option.
2314 false (the default), XBoard opens a TCP socket and uses its own
2315 internal implementation of the telnet protocol to communicate with the
2316 ICS. @xref{Firewalls}.
2317 @item -telnetProgram prog-name
2318 @cindex telnetProgram, option
2319 This option is poorly named; it should be called helperProgram.
2320 It gives the name of the telnet program to be used with
2321 the @code{gateway} and @code{useTelnet} options. The default is
2322 @file{telnet}. The telnet program is invoked with the value of
2323 @code{internetChessServerHost} as its first argument and the value
2324 of @code{internetChessServerPort} as its second argument.
2326 @item -gateway host-name
2327 @cindex gateway, option
2328 If this option is set to a host name, XBoard communicates with the
2329 Internet Chess Server by using @file{rsh} to run
2330 the @code{telnetProgram} on the given host,
2331 instead of using its own internal implementation
2332 of the telnet protocol. You can substitute a different remote shell
2333 program for @file{rsh} using the @code{remoteShell} option described below.
2335 @item -internetChessServerCommPort or -icscomm dev-name
2336 @cindex internetChessServerCommPort, option
2337 @cindex icscomm, option
2338 If this option is set, XBoard communicates with the ICS through
2339 the given character I/O device instead of opening a TCP connection.
2340 Use this option if your system does not have any kind of
2341 Internet connection itself (not even a SLIP or PPP connection),
2342 but you do have dial-up access (or a hardwired terminal line) to
2343 an Internet service provider from which you can telnet to the ICS.
2345 The support for this option in XBoard is minimal. You need to
2346 set all communication parameters and tty modes before you enter
2349 Use a script something like this:
2352 stty raw -echo 9600 > /dev/tty00
2353 xboard -ics -icscomm /dev/tty00
2356 Here replace @samp{/dev/tty00} with the name of the device that your
2357 modem is connected to. You might have to add several more
2358 options to these stty commands. See the man pages for @file{stty}
2359 and @code{tty} if you run into problems. Also, on many systems stty
2360 works on its standard input instead of standard output, so you
2361 have to use @samp{<} instead of @samp{>}.
2363 If you are using linux, try starting with the script below.
2364 Change it as necessary for your installation.
2368 # configure modem and fire up XBoard
2372 stty 2400 ; stty raw ; stty hupcl ; stty -clocal
2373 stty ignbrk ; stty ignpar ; stty ixon ; stty ixoff
2374 stty -iexten ; stty -echo
2376 xboard -ics -icscomm /dev/modem
2379 After you start XBoard in this way, type whatever commands are
2380 necessary to dial out to your Internet provider and log in.
2381 Then telnet to ICS, using a command like
2382 @kbd{telnet chessclub.com 5000}.
2383 Important: See the paragraph below about extra echoes,
2384 in @ref{Limitations}.
2385 @item -icslogon or -internetChessServerLogonScript file-name
2386 @cindex icslogon, option
2387 @cindex internetChessServerLogonScript, option
2389 Whenever XBoard connects to the Internet Chess Server,
2390 if it finds a file with the name given in this option, it feeds the
2391 file's contents to the ICS as commands. The default file name
2393 Usually the first two lines of the file should be
2394 your ICS user name and password.
2395 The file can be either in $CHESSDIR, in XBoard's working
2396 directory if CHESSDIR is not set, or in your home directory.
2397 @item -msLoginDelay delay
2398 @cindex msLoginDelay, option
2399 If you experience trouble logging on to an ICS when using the
2400 @code{-icslogon} option, inserting some delay between characters
2401 of the logon script may help. This option adds @code{delay}
2402 milliseconds of delay between characters. Good values to try
2404 @item -icsinput/-xicsinput or -internetChessServerInputBox true/false
2405 @cindex icsinput, option
2406 @cindex internetChessServerInputBox, option
2407 Sets the ICS Input Box menu option. @xref{Mode Menu}. Default: false.
2408 @item -autocomm/-xautocomm or -autoComment true/false
2409 @cindex autocomm, option
2410 @cindex autoComment, option
2411 Sets the Auto Comment menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2412 @item -autoflag/-xautoflag or -autoCallFlag true/false
2413 @cindex autoflag, option
2414 @cindex autoCallFlag, option
2415 Sets the Auto Flag menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2416 @item -autobs/-xautobs or -autoObserve true/false
2417 @cindex autobs, option
2418 @cindex autoObserve, option
2419 Sets the Auto Observe menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2421 @cindex autoKibitz, option
2422 Enables kibitzing of the engines last thinking output (depth, score, time, speed, PV)
2424 to the ICS, in zippy mode. The option @code{showThinking} must be switched on for
2425 this option to work.
2426 Also diverts similar kibitz information of an opponent engine that is playing you
2427 through the ICS to the engine-output window, as if the engine was playing locally.
2428 @item -seekGraph true/false or -sg
2429 @cindex seekGraph, option
2431 Enables displaying of the seek graph by left-clicking the board when
2432 you are logged on to an ICS and currently idle.
2433 The seek graph show all players currently seeking games on the ICS,
2434 plotted according to their rating and the time control of the game they seek,
2435 in three different colors (for rated, unrated and wild games).
2436 Computer ads are displayed as squares, human ads are dots.
2438 @item -autoRefresh true/false
2439 @cindex autoRefresh, option
2440 Enables automatic updating of the seek graph,
2441 by having the ICS send a running update of all newly placed
2442 and removed seek ads.
2443 This consumes a substantial amount of communication bandwidth,
2444 and is only supported for FICS and ICC.
2446 @item -backgroundObserve true/false
2447 @cindex backgroundObserve, option
2448 When true, boards sent to you by the ICS from other games while you are playing
2449 (e.g. because you are observing them)
2450 will not be automatically displayed.
2451 Only a summary of time left and material of both players will appear
2452 in the message field above the board.
2453 XBoard will remember the last board it has received this way,
2454 and will display it in stead of the position in your own game
2455 when you press the right mouse button.
2456 No other information is stored on such games observed in the background;
2457 you cannot save such a game later, or step through its moves.
2458 This feature is provided solely for the benefit of bughouse players,
2459 to enable them to peek at their partner's game without the need
2462 @item -dualBoard true/false
2463 @cindex dualBoard, option
2464 In combination with -backgroundObserve true, this option will display
2465 the board of the background game side by side with that of your own game,
2466 so you can have it in view permanently.
2467 Any board or holdings info coming in will be displayed on the secondary
2469 This feature is still experimental and largely unfinished.
2470 There is no animation or highlighting of moves on the secondary board.
2472 @item -disguisePromotedPieces true/false
2473 @cindex disguisePromotedPieces, option
2474 When set promoted Pawns in crazyhouse/bughouse are displayed identical
2475 to primordial pieces of the same type, rather than distinguishable.
2477 @item -moves/-xmoves or -getMoveList true/false
2478 @cindex moves, option
2479 @cindex getMoveList, option
2480 Sets the Get Move List menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
2481 @item -alarm/-xalarm or -icsAlarm true/false
2482 @cindex alarm, option
2483 @cindex icsAlarm, option
2484 Sets the ICS Alarm menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
2485 @item -icsAlarmTime ms
2486 @cindex icsAlarmTime, option
2487 Sets the time in milliseconds for the ICS Alarm menu option.
2488 @xref{Options Menu}. Default: 5000.
2489 @item lowTimeWarning true/false
2490 @cindex lowTimeWarning, option
2491 Controls a color change of the board as a warning your time is running out.
2492 @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2493 @item -pre/-xpre \fRor\fB -premove true/false
2495 @cindex premove, option
2496 Sets the Premove menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
2497 @item -prewhite/-xprewhite or -premoveWhite
2498 @itemx -preblack/-xpreblack or -premoveBlack
2499 @itemx -premoveWhiteText string
2500 @itemx -premoveBlackText string
2501 @cindex prewhite, option
2502 @cindex premoveWhite, option
2503 @cindex preblack, option
2504 @cindex premoveBlack, option
2505 @cindex premoveWhiteText, option
2506 @cindex premoveBlackText, option
2507 Set the menu options for specifying the first move for either color.
2508 @xref{Options Menu}. Defaults: false and empty strings, so no pre-moves.
2509 @item -quiet/-xquiet or -quietPlay true/false
2510 @cindex quiet, option
2511 @cindex quietPlay, option
2512 Sets the Quiet Play menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2513 @item -colorizeMessages or -colorize/-xcolorize
2515 @cindex colorize, option
2516 @cindex colorizeMessages, option
2517 Setting colorizeMessages
2518 to true tells XBoard to colorize the messages received from
2519 the ICS. Colorization works only if your xterm
2520 supports ISO 6429 escape sequences for changing text colors.
2522 @item -colorShout foreground,background,bold
2523 @itemx -colorSShout foreground,background,bold
2524 @itemx -colorCShout foreground,background,bold
2525 @itemx -colorChannel1 foreground,background,bold
2526 @itemx -colorChannel foreground,background,bold
2527 @itemx -colorKibitz foreground,background,bold
2528 @itemx -colorTell foreground,background,bold
2529 @itemx -colorChallege foreground,background,bold
2530 @itemx -colorRequest foreground,background,bold
2531 @itemx -colorSeek foreground,background,bold
2532 @itemx -colorNormal foreground,background,bold
2534 @cindex colorShout, option
2535 @cindex colorSShout, option
2536 @cindex colorCShout, option
2537 @cindex colorChannel1, option
2538 @cindex colorChannel, option
2539 @cindex colorKibitz, option
2540 @cindex colorTell, option
2541 @cindex colorChallenge, option
2542 @cindex colorRequest, option
2543 @cindex colorSeek, option
2544 @cindex colorNormal, option
2545 These options set the colors used when colorizing ICS messages.
2546 All ICS messages are grouped into one of these categories:
2547 shout, sshout, channel 1, other channel, kibitz, tell, challenge,
2548 request (including abort, adjourn, draw, pause, and takeback), or
2549 normal (all other messages).
2551 Each foreground or background argument can be one of the following:
2552 black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, or default.
2553 Here ``default'' means the default foreground or background color of
2554 your xterm. Bold can be 1 or 0. If background is omitted, ``default''
2555 is assumed; if bold is omitted, 0 is assumed.
2557 @item -soundProgram progname
2558 @cindex soundProgram, option
2560 If this option is set to a sound-playing program that is installed and
2561 working on your system, XBoard can play sound files when certain
2562 events occur, listed below. The default program name is "play". If
2563 any of the sound options is set to "$", the event rings the terminal
2564 bell by sending a ^G character to standard output, instead of playing
2565 a sound file. If an option is set to the empty string "", no sound is
2566 played for that event.
2567 @item -soundDirectory directoryname
2568 @cindex soundDirectory, option
2570 This option specifies where XBoard will look for sound files,
2571 when these are not given as an absolute path name.
2572 @item -soundShout filename
2573 @itemx -soundSShout filename
2574 @itemx -soundCShout filename
2575 @itemx -soundChannel filename
2576 @itemx -soundChannel1 filename
2577 @itemx -soundKibitz filename
2578 @itemx -soundTell filename
2579 @itemx -soundChallenge filename
2580 @itemx -soundRequest filename
2581 @itemx -soundSeek filename
2582 @cindex soundShout, option
2583 @cindex soundSShout, option
2584 @cindex soundCShout, option
2585 @cindex soundChannel, option
2586 @cindex soundChannel1, option
2587 @cindex soundKibitz, option
2588 @cindex soundTell, option
2589 @cindex soundChallenge, option
2590 @cindex soundRequest, option
2591 @cindex soundSeek, option
2592 These sounds are triggered in the same way as the colorization events
2593 described above. They all default to "", no sound. They are played
2594 only if the colorizeMessages is on.
2595 CShout is synonymous with SShout.
2596 @item -soundMove filename
2597 @cindex soundMove, option
2598 This sound is used by the Move Sound menu option. Default: "$".
2599 @item -soundIcsAlarm filename
2600 @cindex soundIcsAlarm, option
2601 This sound is used by the ICS Alarm menu option. Default: "$".
2602 @item -soundIcsWin filename
2603 @cindex soundIcsWin, option
2604 This sound is played when you win an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
2605 @item -soundIcsLoss filename
2606 @cindex soundIcsLoss, option
2607 This sound is played when you lose an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
2608 @item -soundIcsDraw filename
2609 @cindex soundIcsDraw, option
2610 This sound is played when you draw an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
2611 @item -soundIcsUnfinished filename
2612 @cindex soundIcsUnfinished, option
2613 This sound is played when an ICS game that you are participating in is
2614 aborted, adjourned, or otherwise ends inconclusively. Default: "" (no
2618 @node Load and Save options
2619 @section Load and Save options
2620 @cindex Options, Load and Save
2621 @cindex Load and Save options
2623 @item -lgf or -loadGameFile file
2624 @itemx -lgi or -loadGameIndex index
2626 @cindex loadGameFile, option
2628 @cindex loadGameIndex, option
2629 If the @code{loadGameFile} option is set, XBoard loads the specified
2630 game file at startup. The file name @file{-} specifies the standard
2631 input. If there is more than one game in the file, XBoard
2632 pops up a menu of the available games, with entries based on their PGN
2633 (Portable Game Notation) tags.
2634 If the @code{loadGameIndex} option is set to @samp{N}, the menu is suppressed
2635 and the N th game found in the file is loaded immediately.
2636 The menu is also suppressed if @code{matchMode} is enabled or if the game file
2637 is a pipe; in these cases the first game in the file is loaded immediately.
2638 Use the @file{pxboard} shell script provided with XBoard if you
2639 want to pipe in files containing multiple games and still see the menu.
2640 If the loadGameIndex specifies an index -1, this triggers auto-increment
2641 of the index in @code{matchMode}, which means that after every game the
2642 index is incremented by one, causing each game of the match to be played
2643 from the next game in the file. Similarly, specifying an index value of -2
2644 causes the index to be incremented every two games, so that each game
2645 in the file is used twice (with reversed colors).
2646 The @code{rewindIndex} option causes the index to be reset to the
2647 first game of the file when it has reached a specified value.
2648 @item -rewindIndex n
2649 Causes a position file or game file to be rewound to its beginning after n
2650 positions or games in auto-increment @code{matchMode}.
2651 See @code{loadPositionIndex} and @code{loadGameIndex}.
2652 default: 0 (no rewind).
2653 @item -td or -timeDelay seconds
2655 @cindex timeDelay, option
2656 Time delay between moves during @samp{Load Game} or @samp{Analyze File}.
2657 Fractional seconds are allowed; try @samp{-td 0.4}.
2658 A time delay value of -1 tells
2659 XBoard not to step through game files automatically. Default: 1 second.
2660 @item -sgf or -saveGameFile file
2662 @cindex saveGameFile, option
2663 If this option is set, XBoard appends a record of every game
2664 played to the specified file. The file name @file{-} specifies the
2666 @item -autosave/-xautosave or -autoSaveGames true/false
2667 @cindex autosave, option
2668 @cindex autoSaveGames, option
2669 Sets the Auto Save menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2670 Ignored if @code{saveGameFile} is set.
2671 @item -lpf or -loadPositionFile file
2672 @itemx -lpi or -loadPositionIndex index
2674 @cindex loadPositionFile, option
2676 @cindex loadPositionIndex, option
2677 If the @code{loadPositionFile} option is set, XBoard loads the
2678 specified position file at startup. The file name @file{-} specifies the
2679 standard input. If the @code{loadPositionIndex} option is set to N,
2680 the Nth position found in the file is loaded; otherwise the
2681 first position is loaded.
2682 If the loadPositionIndex specifies an index -1, this triggers auto-increment
2683 of the index in @code{matchMode}, which means that after every game the
2684 index is incremented by one, causing each game of the match to be played
2685 from the next position in the file. Similarly, specifying an index value of -2
2686 causes the index to be incremented every two games, so that each position
2687 in the file is used twice (with the engines playing opposite colors).
2688 The @code{rewindIndex} option causes the index to be reset to the
2689 first position of the file when it has reached a specified value.
2690 @item -spf or -savePositionFile file
2692 @cindex savePositionFile, option
2693 If this option is set, XBoard appends the final position reached
2694 in every game played to the specified file. The file name @file{-}
2695 specifies the standard output.
2696 @item -pgnExtendedInfo true/false
2697 @cindex pgnExtendedInfo, option
2698 If this option is set, XBoard saves depth, score and time used for each
2699 move that the engine found as a comment in the PGN file.
2701 @item -pgnEventHeader string
2702 @cindex pgnEventHeader, option
2703 Sets the name used in the PGN event tag to string.
2704 Default: "Computer Chess Game".
2705 @item -pgnNumberTag true/false
2706 @cindex pgnNumberTag, option
2707 Include the (unique) sequence number of a tournament game into the saved
2708 PGN file as a 'number' tag.
2710 @item -saveOutOfBookInfo true/false
2711 @cindex saveOutOfBookInfo, option
2712 Include the information on how the engine(s) game out of its opening book
2713 in a special 'annotator' tag with the PGN file.
2715 @item -oldsave/-xoldsave or -oldSaveStyle true/false
2716 @cindex oldsave, option
2717 @cindex oldSaveStyle, option
2718 Sets the Old Save Style menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2719 @item -gameListTags string
2720 @cindex gameListTags, option
2721 The character string lists the PGN tags that should be printed in the
2722 Game List, and their order. The meaning of the codes is e=event,
2723 s=site, d=date, o=round, p=players, r=result, w=white Elo, b=black Elo,
2724 t=time control, v=variant, a=out-of-book info, c=result comment.
2726 @item -ini or -settingsFile filename
2727 @itemx -saveSettingsFile filename
2729 @cindex saveSettingsFile, option
2730 @cindex SettingsFile, option
2731 @cindex init, option
2732 @cindex at sign, option
2733 When XBoard encounters an option -settingsFile (or -ini for short),
2734 or @@filename, it tries to read the mentioned file,
2735 and substitutes the contents of it (presumaby more command-line options)
2736 in place of the option.
2737 In the case of -ini or -settingsFile, the name of a successfully read
2738 settings file is also remembered as the file to use for saving settings
2739 (automatically on exit, or on user command).
2740 An option of the form @@filename does not affect saving.
2741 The option -saveSettingsFile does specify a name of the file to use
2742 for saving, without reading any options from it, and is thus also effective
2743 when the file did not exist yet.
2744 So the settings will be saved to the file specified in the last
2745 -saveSettingsFile or succesfull -settingsFile / -ini command,
2746 if any, and in /etc/xboard/xboard.conf otherwise.
2747 Usualy the latter is only accessible for the system administrator, though,
2748 and will be used to contain system-wide default setings, amongst which
2749 a -saveSettingsFile and -settingsFile options to specify a settings file
2750 accessible to the individual user, such as ~/.xboardrc in the user's
2752 @item -saveSettingsOnExit true/false
2753 @cindex saveSettingsOnExit, option
2754 Controls saving of options on the settings file. @xref{Options Menu}.
2758 @node User interface options
2759 @section User interface options
2760 @cindex User interface options
2761 @cindex Options, User interface
2767 @cindex display, option
2768 @cindex geometry, option
2769 @cindex iconic, option
2770 @cindex resource name, option
2771 These and most other standard Xt options are accepted.
2773 @cindex noGUI, option
2774 Suppresses all GUI functions of XBoard
2775 (to speed up automated ultra-fast engine-engine games, which you don't want to watch).
2776 There will be no board or clock updates, no printing of moves,
2777 and no update of the icon on the task bar in this mode.
2778 @item -recentEngines number
2779 @itemx -recentEngineList list
2780 @cindex recentEngines, option
2781 @cindex recentEngineList, option
2782 When the number is larger than zero, it determines how many recently
2783 used engines will be appended at the bottom of the @samp{Engines} menu.
2784 The engines will be saved in your settings file as the option
2785 @code{recentEngineList}, by their nicknames,
2786 and the most recently used one will always be sorted to the top.
2787 If the list after that is longer than the specified number,
2788 the last one is discarded.
2789 Changes in the list will only become visible the next session,
2790 provided you saved the settings.
2792 @item -oneClickMove true/false
2793 @cindex oneClickMove, option
2794 When set, this option allows you to enter moves by only clicking the to-
2795 or from-square, when only a single legal move to or from that square
2797 Double-clicking a piece (or clicking an already selected piece)
2798 will instruct that piece to make the only capture it can legally do.
2800 @item -movesound/-xmovesound or -ringBellAfterMoves true/false
2801 @cindex movesound, option
2802 @cindex bell, option
2803 @cindex ringBellAfterMoves, option
2804 Sets the Move Sound menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2805 For compatibility with old XBoard versions, -bell/-xbell are also
2806 accepted as abbreviations for this option.
2807 @item -exit/-xexit or -popupExitMessage true/false
2808 @cindex exit, option
2809 @cindex popupExitMessage, option
2810 Sets the Popup Exit Message menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
2811 @item -popup/-xpopup or -popupMoveErrors true/false
2812 @cindex popup, option
2813 @cindex popupMoveErrors, option
2814 Sets the Popup Move Errors menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2815 @item -queen/-xqueen or -alwaysPromoteToQueen true/false
2816 @cindex queen, option
2817 @cindex alwaysPromoteToQueen, option
2818 Sets the Always Queen menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2819 @item -sweepPromotions true/false
2820 @cindex sweepPromotion, option
2821 Sets the @samp{Almost Always Promote to Queen} menu option.
2822 @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2823 @item -legal/-xlegal or -testLegality true/false
2824 @cindex legal, option
2825 @cindex testLegality, option
2826 Sets the Test Legality menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
2827 @item -size or -boardSize (sizeName | n1,n2,n3,n4,n5,n6,n7)
2828 @cindex size, option
2829 @cindex boardSize, option
2831 Determines how large the board will be, by selecting the pixel size
2832 of the pieces and setting a few related parameters.
2833 The sizeName can be one of: Titanic, giving 129x129 pixel pieces,
2834 Colossal 116x116, Giant 108x108, Huge 95x95, Big 87x87, Large 80x80, Bulky 72x72,
2835 Medium 64x64, Moderate 58x58, Average 54x54, Middling 49x49, Mediocre
2836 45x45, Small 40x40, Slim 37x37, Petite 33x33, Dinky 29x29, Teeny 25x25,
2838 Xboard installs with a set of scalable (svg) piece images,
2839 which it scales to any of the requested sizes.
2840 The square size can further be continuously scaled by sizing the board window,
2841 but this only adapts the size of the pieces,
2842 and has no effect on the width of the grid lines or the font choice
2843 (both of which would depend on he selected boardSize).
2844 The default depends on the size of your screen; it is approximately the
2845 largest size that will fit without clipping.
2847 You can select other sizes or vary other layout parameters by providing
2848 a list of comma-separated values (with no spaces) as the argument.
2849 You do not need to provide all the values; for any you omit from the
2850 end of the list, defaults are taken from the nearest built-in size.
2851 The value @code{n1} gives the piece size, @code{n2} the width of the
2853 between squares, @code{n3} the desired size for the
2854 clockFont, @code{n4} the desired size for the coordFont,
2855 @code{n5} the desired size for the messageFont,
2856 @code{n6} the smallLayout flag (0 or 1),
2857 and @code{n7} the tinyLayout flag (0 or 1).
2858 All dimensions are in pixels.
2859 If the border between squares is eliminated (0 width), the various
2860 highlight options will not work, as there is nowhere to draw the highlight.
2861 If smallLayout is 1 and @code{titleInWindow} is true,
2862 the window layout is rearranged to make more room for the title.
2863 If tinyLayout is 1, the labels on the menu bar are abbreviated
2864 to one character each and the buttons in the button bar are made narrower.
2865 @item -overrideLineGap n
2866 @cindex overrideLineGap, option
2867 When n >= 0, this forces the width of the black border between squares
2868 to n pixels for any board size. Mostly used to suppress the grid
2869 entirely by setting n = 0, e.g. in xiangqi or just getting a prettier
2870 picture. When n < 0 this the size-dependent width of the grid lines
2871 is used. Default: -1.
2872 @item -coords/-xcoords or -showCoords true/false
2873 @cindex coords, option
2874 @cindex showCoords, option
2875 Sets the Show Coords menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2876 The @code{coordFont} option specifies what font to use.
2877 @item -autoraise/-xautoraise or -autoRaiseBoard true/false
2878 @cindex autoraise, option
2879 @cindex autoRaiseBoard, option
2880 Sets the Auto Raise Board menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
2881 @item -autoflip/-xautoflip or -autoFlipView true/false
2882 @cindex autoflip, option
2883 @cindex autoFlipView, option
2884 Sets the Auto Flip View menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
2885 @item -flip/-xflip or -flipView true/false
2886 @cindex flip, option
2887 @cindex flipView, option
2888 If Auto Flip View is not set, or if you are observing but not participating
2889 in a game, then the positioning of the board at the start of each game
2890 depends on the flipView option. If flipView is false (the default),
2891 the board is positioned so that the white pawns move from the bottom to the
2892 top; if true, the black pawns move from the bottom to the top.
2893 In any case, the Flip menu option (see @ref{Options Menu})
2894 can be used to flip the board after
2896 @item -title/-xtitle or -titleInWindow true/false
2897 @cindex title, option
2898 @cindex titleInWindow, option
2899 If this option is true, XBoard displays player names (for ICS
2900 games) and game file names (for @samp{Load Game}) inside its main
2901 window. If the option is false (the default), this information is
2902 displayed only in the window banner. You probably won't want to
2903 set this option unless the information is not showing up in the
2904 banner, as happens with a few X window managers.
2905 @item -buttons/-xbuttons or -showButtonBar True/False
2906 @cindex buttons, option
2907 @cindex showButtonBar, option
2908 If this option is False, xboard omits the [<<] [<] [P] [>] [>>] button
2909 bar from the window, allowing the message line to be wider. You can
2910 still get the functions of these buttons using the menus or their keyboard
2911 shortcuts. Default: true.
2912 @item -evalZoom factor
2913 @cindex evalZoom, option
2914 The score interval (-1,1) is blown up on the vertical axis of
2915 the Evaluation Graph by the given factor.
2917 @item -evalThreshold n
2918 @cindex evalThreshold, option
2919 Score below n (centiPawn) are plotted as 0 in the Evaluation Graph.
2921 @item -mono/-xmono or -monoMode true/false
2922 @cindex mono, option
2923 @cindex monoMode, option
2924 Determines whether XBoard displays its pieces and squares with
2925 two colors (true) or four (false). You shouldn't have to
2926 specify @code{monoMode}; XBoard will determine if it is necessary.
2927 @item -showTargetSquares true/false
2928 @cindex showTargetSquares, option
2929 Determines whether XBoard can highlight the squares a piece has
2930 legal moves to, when you grab that piece with the mouse.
2932 @item -flashCount count
2933 @itemx -flashRate rate
2934 @itemx -flash/-xflash
2935 @cindex flashCount, option
2936 @cindex flashRate, option
2937 @cindex flash, option
2938 @cindex xflash, option
2939 These options enable flashing of pieces when they
2940 land on their destination square.
2942 tells XBoard how many times to flash a piece after it
2943 lands on its destination square.
2945 controls the rate of flashing (flashes/sec).
2948 sets flashCount to 3.
2950 sets flashCount to 0.
2951 Defaults: flashCount=0 (no flashing), flashRate=5.
2952 @item -highlight/-xhighlight or -highlightLastMove true/false
2953 @cindex highlight, option
2954 @cindex highlightLastMove, option
2955 Sets the Highlight Last Move menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2956 @item -highlightMoveWithArrow true/false
2957 @cindex highlight Arrow, option
2958 @cindex highlightMoveWithArrow, option
2959 Sets the Highlight with Arrow menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2960 @item -blind/-xblind or -blindfold true/false
2961 @cindex blind, option
2962 @cindex blindfold, option
2963 Sets the Blindfold menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
2964 @item -periodic/-xperiodic or -periodicUpdates true/false
2965 @cindex periodic, option
2966 @cindex periodicUpdates, option
2967 Controls updating of current move andnode counts in analysis mode. Default: true.
2970 @cindex fSAN, option
2971 @cindex sSAN, option
2972 Causes the PV in thinking output of the mentioned engine to be converted
2973 to SAN before it is further processed.
2974 Warning: this might lose engine output not understood by the parser,
2975 and uses a lot of CPU power.
2976 Default: the PV is displayed exactly as the engine produced it.
2977 @item -showEvalInMoveHistory true/false
2978 @cindex showEvalInMoveHistory, option
2979 Controls whether the evaluation scores and search depth of engine moves
2980 are displayed with the move in the move-history window.
2982 @item -clockFont font
2983 @cindex clockFont, option
2985 The font used for the clocks. If the option value is a pattern
2986 that does not specify the font size, XBoard tries to choose an
2987 appropriate font for the board size being used.
2988 Default: -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
2989 @item -coordFont font
2990 @cindex coordFont, option
2991 @cindex Font, coordinates
2992 The font used for rank and file coordinate labels if @code{showCoords}
2993 is true. If the option value is a pattern that does not specify
2994 the font size, XBoard tries to choose an appropriate font for
2995 the board size being used.
2996 Default: -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
2997 @item -messageFont font
2998 @cindex messageFont, option
2999 @cindex Font, message
3000 The font used for popup dialogs, menus, comments, etc.
3001 If the option value is a pattern that does not specify
3002 the font size, XBoard tries to choose an appropriate font for
3003 the board size being used.
3004 Default: -*-helvetica-medium-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
3005 @item -fontSizeTolerance tol
3006 @cindex fontSizeTolerance, option
3007 In the font selection algorithm, a nonscalable font will be preferred
3008 over a scalable font if the nonscalable font's size differs
3009 by @code{tol} pixels
3010 or less from the desired size. A value of -1 will force
3011 a scalable font to always be used if available; a value of 0 will
3012 use a nonscalable font only if it is exactly the right size;
3013 a large value (say 1000) will force a nonscalable font to always be
3014 used if available. Default: 4.
3015 @item -pid or -pieceImageDirectory dir
3017 @cindex pieceImageDirectory, option
3018 This options control what piece images xboard uses.
3019 XBoard will look in the specified directory for an image in png
3020 or svg format for every piece type, with names like BlackQueen.svg,
3021 WhiteKnight.svg etc.
3022 When neither of these is found (or no valid directory is specified)
3023 XBoard will use the svg piece that was installed with it
3024 (from the source-tree directory @samp{svg}).
3025 Both svg and png images will be scaled by XBoard to the required size,
3026 but the png pieces lose much in quality when scaled too much.
3028 @item -whitePieceColor color
3029 @itemx -blackPieceColor color
3030 @itemx -lightSquareColor color
3031 @itemx -darkSquareColor color
3032 @itemx -highlightSquareColor color
3033 @itemx -preoveHighlightColor color
3034 @itemx -lowTimeWarningColor color
3036 @cindex whitePieceColor, option
3037 @cindex blackPieceColor, option
3038 @cindex lightSquareColor, option
3039 @cindex darkSquareColor, option
3040 @cindex highlightSquareColor, option
3041 @cindex premoveHighlightColor, option
3042 @cindex lowTimeWarningColor, option
3043 Colors to use for the pieces, squares, and square highlights.
3047 -whitePieceColor #FFFFCC
3048 -blackPieceColor #202020
3049 -lightSquareColor #C8C365
3050 -darkSquareColor #77A26D
3051 -highlightSquareColor #FFFF00
3052 -premoveHighlightColor #FF0000
3053 -lowTimeWarningColor #FF0000
3056 On a grayscale monitor you might prefer:
3059 -whitePieceColor gray100
3060 -blackPieceColor gray0
3061 -lightSquareColor gray80
3062 -darkSquareColor gray60
3063 -highlightSquareColor gray100
3064 -premoveHighlightColor gray70
3065 -lowTimeWarningColor gray70
3068 The PieceColor options only work properly if the image files
3069 defining the pieces were pure black & white
3070 (possibly anti-aliased to produce gray scales
3071 and semi-transparancy),
3072 like the pieces images that come with the install.
3073 Their effect on colored pieces is undefined.
3074 The SquareColor option only have an effect
3075 when no board textures are used.
3076 @item -trueColors true/false
3077 @cindex trueColors, option
3078 When set, this option suppresses the effect of the
3079 PieceColor options mentioned above.
3080 This is recommended for images that are already colored.
3081 @item -useBoardTexture true/false
3082 @itemx -liteBackTextureFile filename
3083 @itemx -darkBackTextureFile filename
3084 @cindex useBoardTexture, option
3085 @cindex liteBackTextureFile, option
3086 @cindex darkBackTextureFile, option
3087 Indicate the png image files to be used for drawing the board squares,
3088 and if they should be used rather than using simple colors.
3089 The algorithm for cutting squares out of a given bitmap is such that
3090 the picture is perfectly reproduced when a bitmap the size of
3091 the complete board is given.
3092 Default: false and ""
3093 @item -drag/-xdrag or -animateDragging true/false
3094 @cindex drag, option
3095 @cindex animateDragging, option
3096 Sets the Animate Dragging menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3097 @item -animate/-xanimate or -animateMoving true/false
3098 @cindex animate, option
3099 @cindex animateMoving, option
3100 Sets the Animate Moving menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
3101 @item -animateSpeed n
3102 @cindex -animateSpeed, option
3103 Number of milliseconds delay between each animation frame when Animate
3105 @item -autoDisplayComment true/false
3106 @itemx -autoDisplayTags true/false
3107 @cindex -autoDisplayComment, option
3108 @cindex -autoDisplayTags, option
3109 If set to true, these options cause the window with the move comments,
3110 and the window with PGN tags, respectively, to pop up automatically when
3111 such tags or comments are encountered during the replaying a stored or
3112 loaded game. Default: true.
3113 @item -pasteSelection true/false
3114 @cindex -pasteSelection, option
3115 If this option is set to true, the Paste Position and Paste Game
3116 options paste from the currently selected text. If false, they paste
3117 from the clipboard. Default: false.
3118 @item -autoCopyPV true|false
3119 @cindex autoCopyPV, option
3120 When this option is set, the position displayed on the board when
3121 you terminate a PV walk
3122 (initiated by a right-click on board or engine-output window)
3123 will be automatically put on the clipboard as FEN.
3125 @item -dropMenu true|false
3126 @cindex dropMenu, option
3127 This option allows you to emulate old behavior,
3128 where the right mouse button brings up the (now deprecated) drop menu
3129 rather than displaying the position at the end of the principal variation.
3131 @item -pieceMenu true|false
3132 @cindex pieceMenu, option
3133 This option allows you to emulate old behavior,
3134 where the right mouse button brings up the (now deprecated) piece menu
3135 in Edit Position mode.
3136 From this menu you can select the piece to put on the square you
3137 clicked to bring up the menu,
3138 or select items such as @kbd{clear board}.
3139 You can also @kbd{promote} or @kbd{demote} a clicked piece to convert
3140 it into an unorthodox piece that is not directly in the menu,
3141 or give the move to @kbd{black} or @kbd{white}.
3142 @item -variations true|false
3143 @cindex variations, option
3144 When this option is on, you can start new variations in Edit Game or
3145 Analyze mode by holding the Shift key down while entering a move.
3146 When it is off, the Shift key will be ignored.
3148 @item -absoluteAnalysisScores true|false
3149 @cindex absoluteAnalysisScores, option
3150 When true, scores on the Engine Output window during analysis
3151 will be printed from the white point-of-view, rather than the
3152 side-to-move point-of-view.
3154 @item -scoreWhite true|false
3155 @cindex scoreWhite, option
3156 When true, scores will always be printed from the white point-of-view,
3157 rather than the side-to-move point-of-view.
3161 @node Adjudication Options
3162 @section Adjudication Options
3163 @cindex Options, adjudication
3165 @item -adjudicateLossThreshold n
3166 @cindex adjudicateLossThreshold, option
3167 If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a loss
3168 if both engines agree for a duration of 6 consecutive ply that the score
3169 is below the given score threshold for that engine. Make sure the score
3170 is interpreted properly by XBoard,
3171 using @code{-firstScoreAbs} and @code{-secondScoreAbs} if needed.
3172 Default: 0 (no adjudication)
3173 @item -adjudicateDrawMoves n
3174 @cindex adjudicateDrawMoves, option
3175 If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a draw
3176 if after the given number of moves it was not yet decided. Default: 0 (no adjudication)
3177 @item -checkMates true/false
3178 @cindex checkMates, option
3179 If this option is set, XBoard detects all checkmates and stalemates,
3180 and ends the game as soon as they occur.
3181 Legality-testing must be switched on for this option to work.
3183 @item -testClaims true/false
3184 @cindex testClaims, option
3185 If this option is set, XBoard verifies all result claims made by engines,
3186 and those who send false claims will forfeit the game because of it.
3187 Legality-testing must be switched on for this option to work. Default: true
3188 @item -materialDraws true/false
3189 @cindex materialDraws, option
3190 If this option is set, XBoard adjudicates games as draws when there is
3191 no sufficient material left to inflict a checkmate.
3192 This applies to KBKB with like bishops (any number, actually), and to KBK, KNK and KK.
3193 Legality-testing must be switched on for this option to work. Default: true
3194 @item -trivialDraws true/false
3195 @cindex trivialDraws, option
3196 If this option is set, XBoard adjudicates games as draws that cannot be
3197 usually won without opponent cooperation. This applies to KBKB with unlike bishops,
3198 and to KBKN, KNKN, KNNK, KRKR and KQKQ. The draw is called after 6 ply into these end-games,
3199 to allow quick mates that can occur in some exceptional positions to be found by the engines.
3200 KQKQ does not really belong in this category, and might be taken out in the future.
3201 (When bitbase-based adjudications are implemented.)
3202 Legality-testing must be on for this option to work. Default: false
3204 @cindex ruleMoves, option
3205 If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a draw after the given
3206 number of consecutive reversible moves. Engine draw claims are always accepted after 50 moves,
3207 irrespective of the given value of n.
3208 @item -repeatsToDraw n
3209 If the given value is non-zero, xboard adjudicates the game as a draw if a position
3210 is repeated the given number of times. Engines draw claims are always accepted after 3 repeats,
3211 (on the 3rd occurrence, actually), irrespective of the value of n.
3212 Beware that positions that have different castling or en-passant rights do not count
3213 as repeats, XBoard is fully e.p. and castling aware!
3217 @section Other options
3218 @cindex Options, miscellaneous
3220 @item -ncp/-xncp or -noChessProgram true/false
3222 @cindex noChessProgram, option
3223 If this option is true, XBoard acts as a passive chessboard; it
3224 does not start a chess engine at all. Turning on this option
3225 also turns off clockMode. Default: false.
3226 @item -mode or -initialMode modename
3227 @cindex mode, option
3228 @cindex initalMode, option
3229 If this option is given, XBoard selects the given modename
3230 from the Mode menu after starting and (if applicable) processing the
3231 loadGameFile or loadPositionFile option. Default: "" (no selection).
3232 Other supported values are
3233 MachineWhite, MachineBlack, TwoMachines, Analysis,
3234 AnalyzeFile, EditGame, EditPosition, and Training.
3235 @item -variant varname
3236 @cindex variant, option
3237 Activates preliminary, partial support for playing chess variants
3238 against a local engine or editing variant games. This flag is not
3239 needed in ICS mode. Recognized variant names are:
3243 wildcastle Shuffle chess, king can castle from d file
3244 nocastle Shuffle chess, no castling allowed
3245 fischerandom Fischer Random shuffle chess
3246 bughouse Bughouse, ICC/FICS rules
3247 crazyhouse Crazyhouse, ICC/FICS rules
3248 losers Lose all pieces or get mated (ICC wild 17)
3249 suicide Lose all pieces including king (FICS)
3250 giveaway Try to have no legal moves (ICC wild 26)
3251 twokings Weird ICC wild 9
3252 kriegspiel Opponent's pieces are invisible
3253 atomic Capturing piece explodes (ICC wild 27)
3254 3check Win by giving check 3 times (ICC wild 25)
3255 shatranj An ancient precursor of chess (ICC wild 28)
3256 xiangqi Chinese Chess (on a 9x10 board)
3257 shogi Japanese Chess (on a 9x9 board & piece drops)
3258 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8 board, with Archbishop
3259 and Chancellor pieces)
3260 gothic similar, with a better initial position
3261 caparandom An FRC-like version of Capablanca Chess (10x8)
3262 janus A game with two Archbishops (10x8 board)
3263 courier Medieval intermediate between shatranj and
3264 modern Chess (on 12x8 board)
3265 falcon Patented 10x8 variant with two Falcon pieces
3266 berolina Pawns capture straight ahead, and move diagonal
3267 cylinder Pieces wrap around the board edge
3268 knightmate King moves as Knight, and vice versa
3269 super Superchess (shuffle variant with 4 exo-pieces)
3270 makruk Thai Chess (shatranj-like, P promotes on 6th rank)
3271 spartan Spartan Chess (black has unorthodox pieces)
3272 fairy A catchall variant in which all piece types
3273 known to XBoard can participate (8x8)
3274 unknown Catchall for other unknown variants
3277 NOT ALL BOARDSIZES PROVIDE A COMPLETE SET OF BUILT-IN BITMAPS FOR ALL
3278 UN-ORTHODOX PIECES, though. Only in @code{boardSize} middling and bulky
3279 all 22 piece types are provided, while -boardSize petite has most
3280 of them. Archbishop, Chancellor and Amazon are supported in every
3281 size from petite to bulky. Kings or Amazons are substituted for
3282 missing bitmaps. You can still play variants needing un-orthodox
3283 pieces in other board sizes providing your own bitmaps through the
3284 @code{bitmapDirectory} or @code{pixmapDirectory} options.
3286 In the shuffle variants, XBoard now does shuffle the pieces, although
3287 you can still do it by hand using Edit Position. Some variants are
3288 supported only in ICS mode, including bughouse, and
3289 kriegspiel. The winning/drawing conditions in crazyhouse (off-board
3290 interposition on mate) are not fully understood, but losers, suicide,
3291 giveaway, atomic, and 3check should be OK.
3292 Berolina and cylinder chess can only be played with legality testing off.
3293 In crazyhouse, XBoard now does keep
3294 track of off-board pieces. In shatranj it does implement the baring
3295 rule when mate detection is switched on.
3296 @item -boardHeight N
3297 @cindex boardHeight, option
3298 Allows you to set a non-standard number of board ranks in any variant.
3299 If the height is given as -1, the default height for the variant is used.
3302 @cindex boardWidth, option
3303 Allows you to set a non-standard number of board files in any variant.
3304 If the width is given as -1, the default width for the variant is used.
3305 With a non-standard width, the initial position will always be an empty board,
3306 as the usual opening array will not fit.
3308 @item -holdingsSize N
3309 @cindex holdingsSize, option
3310 Allows you to set a non-standard size for the holdings in any variant.
3311 If the size is given as -1, the default holdings size for the variant is used.
3312 The first N piece types will go into the holdings on capture, and you will be
3313 able to drop them on the board in stead of making a normal move. If size equals 0,
3314 there will be no holdings.
3316 @item -defaultFrcPosition N
3317 @cindex defaultFrcPosition, option
3318 Specifies the number of the opening position in shuffle games like Chess960.
3319 A value of -1 means the position is randomly generated by XBoard
3320 at the beginning of every game.
3322 @item -pieceToCharTable string
3323 @cindex pieceToCharTable, option
3324 The characters that are used to represent the piece types XBoard knows in FEN
3325 diagrams and SAN moves. The string argument has to have an even length
3326 (or it will be ignored), as white and black pieces have to be given separately
3327 (in that order). The last letter for each color will be the King.
3328 The letters before that will be PNBRQ and then a whole host of fairy pieces
3329 in an order that has not fully crystallized yet (currently FEACWMOHIJGDVSLU,
3330 F=Ferz, Elephant, A=Archbishop, C=Chancellor, W=Wazir, M=Commoner, O=Cannon,
3331 H=Nightrider). You should list at least all pieces that occur in the variant
3332 you are playing. If you have less than 44 characters in the string, the pieces
3333 not mentioned will get assigned a period, and you will not be able to distinguish
3334 them in FENs. You can also explicitly assign pieces a period, in which case they
3335 will not be counted in deciding which captured pieces can go into the holdings.
3336 A tilde '~' as a piece name does mean this piece is used to represent a promoted
3337 Pawn in crazyhouse-like games, i.e. on capture it turns back onto a Pawn.
3338 A '+' similarly indicates the piece is a shogi-style promoted piece, that should
3339 revert to its non-promoted version on capture (rather than to a Pawn).
3340 Note that promoted pieces are represented by pieces 11 further in the list.
3341 You should not have to use this option often: each variant has its own default
3342 setting for the piece representation in FEN, which should be sufficient in normal use.
3344 @item -pieceNickNames string
3345 @cindex pieceNickNames, option
3346 The characters in the string are interpreted the same way as in the
3347 @code{pieceToCharTable} option. But on input, piece-ID letters are
3348 first looked up in the nicknames, and only if not defined there,
3349 in the normal pieceToCharTable. This allows you to have two letters
3350 designate the same piece, (e.g. N as an alternative to H for Horse
3351 in Xiangqi), to make reading of non-compliant notations easier.
3353 @item -colorNickNames string
3354 @cindex colorNickNames, option
3355 The side-to-move field in a FEN will be first matched against the letters
3356 in the string (first character for white, second for black),
3357 before it is matched to the regular 'w' and 'b'.
3358 This makes it easier to read non-compliant FENs,
3359 which, say, use 'r' for white.
3361 @item -debug/-xdebug or -debugMode true/false
3362 @cindex debug, option
3363 @cindex debugMode, option
3364 Turns on debugging printout.
3365 @item -debugFile filename or -nameOfDebugFile filename
3366 @cindex debugFile, option
3367 @cindex nameOfDebugFile, option
3368 Sets the name of the file to which XBoard saves debug information
3369 (including all communication to and from the engines).
3370 A @kbd{%d} in the given file name (e.g. game%d.debug) will be replaced
3371 by the unique sequence number of a tournament game,
3372 so that the debug output of each game will be written on a separate file.
3373 @item -engineDebugOutput number
3374 @cindex engineDebugOutput, option
3375 Specifies how XBoard should handle unsolicited output from the engine,
3376 with respect to saving it in the debug file.
3377 The output is further (hopefully) ignored.
3378 If number=0, XBoard refrains from writing such spurious output to the debug file.
3379 If number=1, all engine output is written faithfully to the debug file.
3380 If number=2, any protocol-violating line is prefixed with a '#' character,
3381 as the engine itself should have done if it wanted to submit info for inclusion in the debug file.
3382 This option is provided for the benefit of applications that use the debug file
3383 as a source of information, such as the broadcaster of live games TLCV / TLCS.
3384 Such applications can be protected from spurious engine output that might otherwise confuse them.
3385 @item -rsh or -remoteShell shell-name
3387 @cindex remoteShell, option
3388 Name of the command used to run programs remotely. The default
3389 is @file{rsh} or @file{remsh}, determined when XBoard is
3390 configured and compiled.
3391 @item -ruser or -remoteUser user-name
3392 @cindex ruser, option
3393 @cindex remoteUser, option
3394 User name on the remote system when running programs with the
3395 @code{remoteShell}. The default is your local user name.
3396 @item -userName username
3397 @cindex userName, option
3398 Name under which the Human player will be listed in the PGN file.
3399 Default is the login name on your local computer.
3400 @item -delayBeforeQuit number
3401 @itemx -delayAfterQuit number
3402 @cindex delayBeforeQuit, option
3403 @cindex delayAfterQuit, option
3404 These options specify how long XBoard has to wait before sending a termination signal to rogue engine processes, that do not want to react to the 'quit' command. The second one determines the pause after killing the engine, to make sure it dies.
3406 @cindex searchMode, option
3407 The integer n encodes the mode for the @samp{find position} function.
3408 Default: 1 (= Exact position match)
3409 @item -eloThresholdBoth elo
3410 @itemx -eloThresholdAny elo
3411 @cindex eloThresholdBoth, option
3412 @cindex eloThresholdAny, option
3413 Defines a lower limit for the Elo rating, which has to be surpassed
3414 before a game will be considered when searching for a board position.
3416 @item -dateThreshold year
3417 @cindex dateThreshold, option
3418 Only games not played before the given year will be considered when
3419 searching for a board position
3425 @chapter Chess Servers
3427 @cindex ICS, addresses
3428 @cindex Internet Chess Server
3429 An @dfn{Internet Chess Server}, or @dfn{ICS}, is a place on the
3430 Internet where people can get together to play chess, watch other
3431 people's games, or just chat. You can use either @code{telnet} or a
3432 client program like XBoard to connect to the server. There are
3433 thousands of registered users on the different ICS hosts, and it is
3434 not unusual to meet 200 on both chessclub.com and freechess.org.
3436 Most people can just type @kbd{xboard -ics} to start XBoard as an ICS
3437 client. Invoking XBoard in this way connects you to the Internet
3438 Chess Club (ICC), a commercial ICS. You can log in there as a guest
3439 even if you do not have a paid account. To connect to the largest
3440 Free ICS (FICS), use the command @kbd{xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org}
3441 instead, or substitute a different host name to connect to your
3443 For a full description of command-line options that control
3444 the connection to ICS and change the default values of ICS options, see
3447 While you are running XBoard as an ICS client,
3448 you use the terminal window that you started XBoard from
3449 as a place to type in commands and read information that is
3450 not available on the chessboard.
3452 The first time you need to use the terminal is to enter your login name
3453 and password, if you are a registered player. (You don't need to do
3454 this manually; the @code{icsLogon} option can do it for you.
3455 @pxref{ICS options}.) If you are not registered,
3456 enter @kbd{g} as your name, and the server will pick a
3457 unique guest name for you.
3459 Some useful ICS commands
3463 @cindex help, ICS command
3464 to get help on the given <topic>. To get a list of possible topics type
3465 @dfn{help} without topic. Try the help command before you ask other
3466 people on the server for help.
3468 For example @kbd{help register} tells you how to become a registered
3471 @cindex who, ICS command
3472 to see a list of people who are logged on. Administrators
3473 (people you should talk to if you have a problem) are marked
3474 with the character @samp{*}, an asterisk. The <flags> allow you to
3475 display only selected players: For example, @kbd{who of} shows a
3476 list of players who are interested in playing but do not have
3479 @cindex games, ICS command
3480 to see what games are being played
3481 @item match <player> [<mins>] [<inc>]
3482 to challenge another player to a game. Both opponents get <mins> minutes
3483 for the game, and <inc> seconds will be added after each move.
3484 If another player challenges you, the server asks if you want to
3485 accept the challenge; use the @kbd{accept} or @kbd{decline} commands
3489 @cindex accept, ICS command
3490 @cindex decline, ICS command
3491 to accept or decline another player's offer.
3492 The offer may be to start a new game, or to agree to a
3493 @kbd{draw}, @kbd{adjourn} or @kbd{abort} the current game. @xref{Action Menu}.
3495 If you have more than one pending offer (for example, if more than one player
3496 is challenging you, or if your opponent offers both a draw and to adjourn the
3497 game), you have to supply additional information, by typing something
3498 like @kbd{accept <player>}, @kbd{accept draw}, or @kbd{draw}.
3502 @cindex draw, ICS command
3503 @cindex adjourn, ICS command
3504 @cindex abort, ICS command
3505 asks your opponent to terminate a game by mutual agreement. Adjourned
3506 games can be continued later.
3507 Your opponent can either @kbd{decline} your offer or accept it (by typing the
3508 same command or typing @kbd{accept}). In some cases these commands work
3509 immediately, without asking your opponent to agree. For example, you can
3510 abort the game unilaterally if your opponent is out of time, and you can claim
3511 a draw by repetition or the 50-move rule if available simply by typing
3513 @item finger <player>
3514 @cindex finger, ICS command
3515 to get information about the given <player>. (Default: yourself.)
3517 @cindex vars, ICS command
3518 to get a list of personal settings
3519 @item set <var> <value>
3520 @cindex set, ICS command
3521 to modify these settings
3522 @item observe <player>
3523 @cindex observe, ICS command
3524 to observe an ongoing game of the given <player>.
3527 @cindex examine, ICS command
3528 @cindex oldmoves, ICS command
3529 to review a recently completed game
3532 Some special XBoard features are activated when you are
3533 in examine mode on ICS. See the descriptions of the menu commands
3534 @samp{Forward}, @samp{Backward}, @samp{Pause}, @samp{ICS Client},
3535 and @samp{Stop Examining} on the @ref{Edit Menu}, @ref{Mode Menu}, and
3540 By default, XBoard communicates with an Internet Chess Server
3541 by opening a TCP socket directly from the machine it is running on
3542 to the ICS. If there is a firewall between your machine and the ICS,
3543 this won't work. Here are some recipes for getting around common
3544 kinds of firewalls using special options to XBoard.
3545 Important: See the paragraph in the below about extra echoes, in
3548 Suppose that you can't telnet directly to ICS, but you can telnet
3549 to a firewall host, log in, and then telnet from there to ICS.
3550 Let's say the firewall is called @samp{firewall.example.com}. Set
3551 command-line options as follows:
3554 xboard -ics -icshost firewall.example.com -icsport 23
3557 Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, you will be prompted
3558 to log in to the firewall host. This works because port 23 is the
3559 standard telnet login service. Do so, then telnet to ICS, using a
3560 command like @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000}, or whatever command
3561 the firewall provides for telnetting to port 5000.
3563 If your firewall lets you telnet (or rlogin) to remote hosts but
3564 doesn't let you telnet to port 5000, you may be able to connect to the
3565 chess server on port 23 instead, which is the port the telnet program
3566 uses by default. Some chess servers support this (including
3567 chessclub.com and freechess.org), while some do not.
3569 If your chess server does not allow connections on port 23 and your
3570 firewall does not allow you to connect to other ports, you may be able
3571 to connect by hopping through another host outside the firewall that
3572 you have an account on. For instance, suppose you have a shell
3573 account at @samp{foo.edu}. Follow the recipe above, but instead of
3574 typing @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000} to the firewall, type
3575 @samp{telnet foo.edu} (or @samp{rlogin foo.edu}), log in there, and
3576 then type @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000}.
3578 Suppose that you can't telnet directly to ICS, but you can use rsh
3579 to run programs on a firewall host, and that host can telnet to ICS.
3580 Let's say the firewall is called @samp{rsh.example.com}. Set
3581 command-line options as follows:
3584 xboard -ics -gateway rsh.example.com -icshost chessclub.com
3588 Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, it will connect to
3589 the ICS by using @file{rsh} to run the command
3590 @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000} on host @samp{rsh.example.com}.
3592 Suppose that you can telnet anywhere you want, but you have to
3593 run a special program called @file{ptelnet} to do so.
3595 First, we'll consider the easy case, in which
3596 @samp{ptelnet chessclub.com 5000} gets you to the chess server.
3597 In this case set command line options as follows:
3600 xboard -ics -telnet -telnetProgram ptelnet
3604 Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, it will issue the
3605 command @samp{ptelnet chessclub.com 5000} to connect to the ICS.
3607 Next, suppose that @samp{ptelnet chessclub.com 5000} doesn't work;
3608 that is, your @file{ptelnet} program doesn't let you connect to
3609 alternative ports. As noted above, your chess server may allow you to
3610 connect on port 23 instead. In that case, just add the option
3611 @samp{-icsport ""} to the above command.
3612 But if your chess server doesn't let you connect on port 23, you will have
3613 to find some other host outside the firewall and hop through it. For
3614 instance, suppose you have a shell account at @samp{foo.edu}. Set
3615 command line options as follows:
3618 xboard -ics -telnet -telnetProgram ptelnet -icshost foo.edu -icsport ""
3622 Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, it will issue the
3623 command @samp{ptelnet foo.edu} to connect to your account at
3624 @samp{foo.edu}. Log in there, then type @samp{telnet chessclub.com 5000}.
3626 ICC timestamp and FICS timeseal do not work through some
3627 firewalls. You can use them only if your firewall gives a clean TCP
3628 connection with a full 8-bit wide path. If your firewall allows you
3629 to get out only by running a special telnet program, you can't use
3630 timestamp or timeseal across it. But if you have access to a
3631 computer just outside your firewall, and you have much lower netlag
3632 when talking to that computer than to the ICS, it might be worthwhile
3633 running timestamp there. Follow the instructions above for hopping
3634 through a host outside the firewall (foo.edu in the example),
3635 but run timestamp or timeseal on that host instead of telnet.
3637 Suppose that you have a SOCKS firewall that will give you a clean
3638 8-bit wide TCP connection to the chess server, but only after you
3639 authenticate yourself via the SOCKS protocol. In that case, you could
3640 make a socksified version of XBoard and run that. If you are using
3641 timestamp or timeseal, you will to socksify it, not XBoard; this may
3642 be difficult seeing that ICC and FICS do not provide source code for
3643 these programs. Socksification is beyond the scope of this document,
3644 but see the SOCKS Web site at http://www.socks.permeo.com/.
3645 If you are missing SOCKS, try http://www.funbureau.com/.
3648 @chapter Environment variables
3649 @cindex Environment variables
3651 Game and position files are found in a directory named by the
3652 @code{CHESSDIR} environment variable. If this variable is not set, the
3653 current working directory is used. If @code{CHESSDIR} is set,
3654 XBoard actually changes its working directory to
3655 @code{$CHESSDIR}, so any files written by the chess engine
3656 will be placed there too.
3659 @chapter Limitations and known bugs
3662 There is no way for two people running copies of XBoard to play
3663 each other without going through an Internet Chess Server.
3665 Under some circumstances, your ICS password may be echoed when you log on.
3667 If you are connecting to the ICS by running telnet on an Internet
3668 provider or firewall host, you may find that each line you type is
3669 echoed back an extra time after you hit @key{Enter}. If your Internet
3670 provider is a Unix system, you can probably turn its echo off by
3671 typing @kbd{stty -echo} after you log in, and/or typing
3672 @key{^E}@key{Enter} (Ctrl+E followed by the Enter key) to the telnet
3673 program after you have logged into ICS. It is a good idea to do this
3674 if you can, because the extra echo can occasionally confuse XBoard's
3677 The game parser recognizes only algebraic notation.
3679 Many of the following points used to be limitations in XBoard 4.2.7 and earlier,
3681 The internal move legality tester in XBoard 4.3.xx does look at the game history,
3682 and is fully aware of castling or en-passant-capture rights. It permits castling with
3683 the king on the d file because this is possible in some "wild 1" games on ICS.
3684 The piece-drop menu does not check piece drops in bughouse to see if you actually hold
3685 the piece you are trying to drop. But this way of dropping pieces should be considered
3686 an obsolete feature, now that pieces can be dropped by dragging them from the holdings
3687 to the board. Anyway, if you would attempt an illegal move when using a chess engine or the ICS,
3688 XBoard will accept the error message that comes back, undo the move, and let you try another.
3689 FEN positions saved by XBoard do include correct information about whether castling or
3690 en passant are legal, and also handle the 50-move counter.
3691 The mate detector does not understand that non-contact mate is not really mate in bughouse.
3692 The only problem this causes while playing is minor: a "#" (mate indicator) character will
3693 show up after a non-contact mating move in the move list. XBoard will not assume the game
3694 is over at that point, not even when the option Detect Mates is on.
3695 Edit Game mode always uses the rules of the selected variant,
3696 which can be a variant that uses piece drops.
3697 You can load and edit games that contain piece drops.
3698 The (obsolete) piece menus are not active,
3699 but you can perform piece drops by dragging pieces from the holdings.
3700 Fischer Random castling is fully understood.
3701 You can enter castlings by dragging the King on top of your Rook.
3702 You can probably also play Fischer Random successfully on ICS by typing
3703 castling moves into the ICS Interaction window.
3705 The menus may not work if your keyboard is in Caps Lock or Num Lock mode.
3706 This seems to be a problem with the Athena menu widget,
3709 Also see the ToDo file included with the distribution for many other
3710 possible bugs, limitations, and ideas for improvement that have been
3713 @chapter Reporting problems
3716 @cindex Reporting bugs
3718 @cindex Reporting problems
3720 You can report bugs and problems with XBoard using
3721 the bug tracker at @code{https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/}
3722 or by sending mail to @code{<bug-xboard@@gnu.org>}. It can also
3723 be useful to report or discuss bugs in the WinBoard Forum at
3724 @code{http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/},
3725 WinBoard development section.
3727 Please use the @file{script} program to start a typescript, run
3728 XBoard with the @samp{-debug} option, and include the typescript
3729 output in your message.
3730 Also tell us what kind of machine and what operating system version
3731 you are using. The command @samp{uname -a} will often tell you this.
3733 If you improve XBoard, please send a message about your changes,
3734 and we will get in touch with you about merging them in
3735 to the main line of development.
3738 @chapter Authors and contributors
3740 @cindex Contributors
3742 Chris Sears and Dan Sears wrote the original XBoard. They were
3743 responsible for versions 1.0 through 1.2. The color scheme was taken
3744 from Wayne Christopher's @code{XChess} program.
3746 Tim Mann was primarily responsible for XBoard versions 1.3 through
3747 4.2.7, and for WinBoard (a port of XBoard to Microsoft Win32) from its
3748 inception through version 4.2.7.
3750 John Chanak contributed the initial implementation of ICS mode. Evan
3751 Welsh wrote @code{CMail}, and Patrick Surry helped in designing,
3752 testing, and documenting it. Elmar Bartel contributed the new piece
3753 bitmaps introduced in version 3.2. Jochen Wiedmann converted the
3754 documentation to texinfo. Frank McIngvale added click/click moving,
3755 the Analysis modes, piece flashing, ZIICS import, and ICS text
3756 colorization to XBoard. Hugh Fisher added animated piece movement to
3757 XBoard, and Henrik Gram added it to WinBoard. Mark Williams
3758 contributed the initial (WinBoard-only) implementation of many new
3759 features added to both XBoard and WinBoard in version 4.1.0, including
3760 copy/paste, premove, icsAlarm, autoFlipView, training mode, auto
3761 raise, and blindfold. Ben Nye contributed X copy/paste code for
3764 In a fork from version 4.2.7, Alessandro Scotti added many elements to
3765 the user interface of WinBoard, including the board textures and
3766 font-based rendering, the evaluation-graph, move-history and
3767 engine-output window. He was also responsible for adding the UCI
3770 H. G. Muller continued this fork of the project, producing version
3771 4.3. He made WinBoard castling- and e.p.-aware, added variant support
3772 with adjustable board sizes, the crazyhouse holdings, and the fairy
3773 pieces. In addition he added most of the adjudication options, made
3774 WinBoard more robust in dealing with buggy and crashing engines, and
3775 extended time control with a time-odds and node-count-based modes.
3776 Most of the options that initially were WinBoard only have now been
3777 back-ported to XBoard.
3779 Michel van den Bergh provided the code for reading Polyglot opening books.
3781 Meanwhile, some work continued on the GNU XBoard project maintained at
3782 savannah.gnu.org, but version 4.2.8 was never released. Daniel
3783 Mehrmann was responsible for much of this work.
3785 Most recently, Arun Persaud worked with H. G. Muller to merge all
3786 the features of the never-released XBoard/WinBoard 4.2.8 of the GNU
3787 XBoard project and the never-released 4.3.16 from H. G.'s fork into a
3788 unified XBoard/WinBoard 4.4, which is now available both from the
3789 savannah.gnu.org web site and the WinBoard forum.
3794 The @file{cmail} program can help you play chess by email with opponents of
3795 your choice using XBoard as an interface.
3797 You will usually run @file{cmail} without giving any options.
3800 * CMail options:: Invoking CMail.
3801 * CMail game:: Starting a CMail game.
3802 * CMail answer:: Answering a move.
3803 * CMail multi:: Multiple games in one message.
3804 * CMail completion:: Completing a game.
3805 * CMail trouble:: Known CMail problems.
3809 @section CMail options
3812 Displays @file{cmail} usage information.
3814 Shows the conditions of the GNU General Public License.
3817 Shows the warranty notice of the GNU General Public License.
3821 Provides or inhibits verbose output from @file{cmail} and XBoard,
3822 useful for debugging. The
3824 form also inhibits the cmail introduction message.
3827 Invokes or inhibits the sending of a mail message containing the move.
3830 Invokes or inhibits the running of XBoard on the game file.
3833 Invokes or inhibits the reuse of an existing XBoard to display the
3836 Resends the last mail message for that game. This inhibits running
3839 The name of the game to be processed.
3840 @item -wgames <number>
3841 @itemx -bgames <number>
3842 @itemx -games <number>
3843 Number of games to start as White, as Black or in total. Default is 1 as
3844 white and none as black. If only one color is specified then none of the
3845 other color is assumed. If no color is specified then equal numbers of
3846 White and Black games are started, with the extra game being as White if an
3847 odd number of total games is specified.
3848 @item -me <short name>
3849 @itemx -opp <short name>
3850 A one-word alias for yourself or your opponent.
3851 @item -wname <full name>
3852 @itemx -bname <full name>
3853 @itemx -myname <full name>
3854 @itemx -oppname <full name>
3855 The full name of White, Black, yourself or your opponent.
3856 @item -wna <net address>
3857 @itemx -bna <net address>
3858 @itemx -na <net address>
3859 @itemx -oppna <net address>
3860 The email address of White, Black, yourself or your opponent.
3861 @item -dir <directory>
3862 The directory in which @file{cmail} keeps its files. This defaults to the
3863 environment variable @code{$CMAIL_DIR} or failing that, @code{$CHESSDIR},
3864 @file{$HOME/Chess} or @file{~/Chess}. It will be created if it does not exist.
3865 @item -arcdir <directory>
3866 The directory in which @file{cmail} archives completed games. Defaults to
3867 the environment variable @code{$CMAIL_ARCDIR} or, in its absence, the same
3868 directory as cmail keeps its working files (above).
3869 @item -mailprog <mail program>
3870 The program used by cmail to send email messages. This defaults to the
3871 environment variable @code{$CMAIL_MAILPROG} or failing that
3872 @file{/usr/ucb/Mail}, @file{/usr/ucb/mail} or @file{Mail}. You will need
3873 to set this variable if none of the above paths fit your system.
3874 @item -logFile <file>
3875 A file in which to dump verbose debugging messages that are invoked with
3878 @item -event <event>
3879 The PGN Event tag (default @samp{Email correspondence game}).
3881 The PGN Site tag (default @samp{NET}).
3882 @item -round <round>
3883 The PGN Round tag (default @samp{-}, not applicable).
3885 The PGN Mode tag (default @samp{EM}, Electronic Mail).
3887 Any option flags not listed above are passed through to XBoard.
3888 Invoking XBoard through CMail changes the default values of two XBoard
3889 options: The default value for @samp{-noChessProgram} is changed to
3890 true; that is, by default no chess engine is started. The default
3891 value for @samp{-timeDelay} is changed to 0; that is, by default
3892 XBoard immediately goes to the end of the game as played so far,
3893 rather than stepping through the moves one by one. You can still set
3894 these options to whatever values you prefer by supplying them on
3895 CMail's command line. @xref{Options}.
3899 @section Starting a CMail Game
3900 Type @file{cmail} from a shell to start a game as white. After an opening
3901 message, you will be prompted for a game name, which is optional---if you
3902 simply press @key{Enter}, the game name will take the form
3903 @samp{you-VS-opponent}. You will next be prompted for the short name
3904 of your opponent. If you haven't played this person before, you will also
3905 be prompted for his/her email address. @file{cmail} will then invoke
3906 XBoard in the background. Make your first move and select
3907 @samp{Mail Move} from the @samp{File} menu. @xref{File Menu}. If all is well,
3908 @file{cmail} will mail a copy of the move to your opponent. If you select
3909 @samp{Exit} without having selected @samp{Mail Move} then no move will be
3913 @section Answering a Move
3914 When you receive a message from an opponent containing a move in one of
3915 your games, simply pipe the message through @file{cmail}. In some mailers
3916 this is as simple as typing @kbd{| cmail} when viewing the message, while in
3917 others you may have to save the message to a file and do @kbd{cmail < file}
3918 at the command line. In either case @file{cmail} will display the game using
3919 XBoard. If you didn't exit XBoard when you made your first move
3920 then @file{cmail} will do its best to use the existing XBoard instead
3921 of starting a new one. As before, simply make a move and select
3922 @samp{Mail Move} from the @samp{File} menu. @xref{File Menu}. @file{cmail}
3924 XBoard that was most recently used to display the current game. This
3925 means that many games can be in progress simultaneously, each with its own
3928 If you want to look at the history or explore a variation, go ahead, but
3929 you must return to the current position before XBoard will allow you
3930 to mail a move. If you edit the game's history you must select
3931 @samp{Reload Same Game} from the @samp{File} menu to get back to the original
3932 position, then make the move you want and select @samp{Mail Move}.
3933 As before, if you decide you aren't ready to make a move just yet you can
3934 either select @samp{Exit} without sending a move or just leave
3935 XBoard running until you are ready.
3938 @section Multi-Game Messages
3940 It is possible to have a @file{cmail} message carry more than one game.
3941 This feature was implemented to handle IECG (International Email Chess
3942 Group) matches, where a match consists of one game as white and one as black,
3943 with moves transmitted simultaneously. In case there are more general uses,
3944 @file{cmail} itself places no limit on the number of black/white games
3945 contained in a message; however, XBoard does.
3947 @node CMail completion
3948 @section Completing a Game
3949 Because XBoard can detect checkmate and stalemate, @file{cmail}
3950 handles game termination sensibly. As well as resignation, the
3951 @samp{Action} menu allows draws to be offered and accepted for
3954 For multi-game messages, only unfinished and just-finished games will be
3955 included in email messages. When all the games are finished, they are
3956 archived in the user's archive directory, and similarly in the opponent's
3957 when he or she pipes the final message through @file{cmail}. The archive
3958 file name includes the date the game was started.
3961 @section Known CMail Problems
3962 It's possible that a strange conjunction of conditions may occasionally
3963 mean that @file{cmail} has trouble reactivating an existing
3964 XBoard. If this should happen, simply trying it again should work.
3965 If not, remove the file that stores the XBoard's PID
3966 (@file{game.pid}) or use the @samp{-xreuse} option to force
3967 @file{cmail} to start a new XBoard.
3969 Versions of @file{cmail} after 2.16 no longer understand the old file format
3970 that XBoard used to use and so cannot be used to correspond with
3971 anyone using an older version.
3973 Versions of @file{cmail} older than 2.11 do not handle multi-game messages,
3974 so multi-game correspondence is not possible with opponents using an older
3977 @node Other programs
3978 @chapter Other programs you can use with XBoard
3979 @cindex Other programs
3981 Here are some other programs you can use with XBoard
3984 * GNU Chess:: The GNU Chess engine.
3985 * Fairy-Max:: The Fairy-Max chess engine.
3986 * HoiChess:: The HoiChess chess engine.
3987 * Crafty:: The Crafty chess engine.
3988 * zic2xpm:: The program used to import chess sets from ZIICS.
3994 The GNU Chess engine is available from:
3996 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuchess/
3998 You can use XBoard to play a game against GNU Chess, or to
3999 interface GNU Chess to an ICS.
4004 Fairy-Max is a derivative from the once World's smallest Chess program micro-Max,
4005 which measures only about 100 lines of source code.
4006 The main difference with micro-Max is that Fairy-Max loads its move-generator
4007 tables from a file, so that the rules for piece movement can be easily configured
4008 to implement unorthodox pieces.
4009 Fairy-Max can therefore play a large number of variants, normal Chess being one of those.
4010 In addition it plays Knightmate, Capablanca and Gothic Chess, Shatranj, Courier Chess,
4011 Cylinder chess, Berolina Chess, while the user can easily define new variants.
4012 It can be obtained from:
4014 http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/dwnldpage.html
4019 HoiChess is a not-so-very-strong Chess engine, which comes with a derivative HoiXiangqi,
4020 able to play Chinese Chess. It can be obtained from the standard Linux repositories
4023 sudo apt-get install hoichess
4028 Crafty is a chess engine written by Bob Hyatt.
4029 You can use XBoard to play a game against Crafty, hook Crafty up
4030 to an ICS, or use Crafty to interactively analyze games and positions
4033 Crafty is a strong, rapidly evolving chess program. This rapid
4034 pace of development is good, because it means Crafty is always
4035 getting better. This can sometimes cause problems with
4036 backwards compatibility, but usually the latest version of Crafty
4037 will work well with the latest version of XBoard.
4038 Crafty can be obtained from its author's FTP site:
4039 ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/hyatt/.
4041 To use Crafty with XBoard, give the -fcp and -fd options as follows, where
4042 <crafty's directory> is the directory in which you installed Crafty
4043 and placed its book and other support files.
4048 The ``zic2xpm'' program is used to import chess sets from the ZIICS(*)
4049 program into XBoard. ``zic2xpm'' is part of the XBoard distribution.
4050 ZIICS is available from:
4052 ftp://ftp.freechess.org/pub/chess/DOS/ziics131.exe
4054 To import ZIICS pieces, do this:
4056 @item 1. Unzip ziics131.exe into a directory:
4059 unzip -L ziics131.exe -d ~/ziics
4061 @item 2. Use zic2xpm to convert a set of pieces to XBoard format.
4063 For example, let's say you want to use the
4064 FRITZ4 set. These files are named ``fritz4.*'' in the ZIICS distribution.
4069 zic2xpm ~/ziics/fritz4.*
4071 @item 3. Give XBoard the ``-pixmap'' option when starting up, e.g.:
4074 xboard -pixmap ~/fritz4
4078 (*) ZIICS is a separate copyrighted work of Andy McFarland.
4079 The ``ZIICS pieces'' are copyrighted works of their respective
4080 creators. Files produced by ``zic2xpm'' are for PERSONAL USE ONLY
4081 and may NOT be redistributed without explicit permission from
4082 the original creator(s) of the pieces.
4086 @unnumbered Copyright
4087 @include copyright.texi
4091 @unnumbered GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
4092 @include gpl.texinfo