2 For version xboard/WinBoard 4.2.4 and later only
3 -----------------------------------------------------
5 Zippy is a program that lets GNU Chess act as a computer player on an
6 Internet Chess Server. It also works with Crafty. Zippy is
7 unsupported, experimental code.
9 Zippy is based on XBoard, a graphical interface to GNU Chess and to
10 the ICS for the X Window system on Unix. Zippy consists of exactly
11 the same code as XBoard, plus one extra module that ties together the
12 otherwise-separate functions of talking to GNU Chess and talking to
13 the ICS. Zippy is included in the XBoard distribution.
15 There is also a version of Zippy that is based on WinBoard, a port of
16 XBoard to Win32 (Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 95). WinBoard does
17 *not* run on Windows 3.1 or 3.11, not even with Win32s. In versions
18 3.5 and later, the Zippy code is included in WinBoard.exe.
20 If you use Zippy, I ask you to do the following:
22 - Don't expect fast response if you send me mail about problems. It
23 might take weeks for me to get back to you, or I might answer right
24 away. Try to solve problems yourself before you mail me about them.
25 Try asking someone who is actively running a Zippy-based player on ICC
26 or FICS for help getting started. Mail me only if you get stuck.
28 - Be honest. Tell the admins of whatever ICS you use that your player
29 is a computer, so that it gets put onto the computer list, and follow
30 the ICS computer policies. On ICC these are in "help computer"; read
31 this file and abide by what it says.
33 - If you want to interface some other chess program to ICS, feel free
34 to start with this code. Some documentation is in the file
35 engine-intf.html in the distribution.
37 - Please do not use the -zt flag to have your program shout Zippy the
38 Pinhead sayings (or other things that my Zippy shouts). One pinhead
39 per server is plenty, and I'd like to keep the franchise. Feel free
40 to use -zt to have your program shout some other kind of sayings if
41 you like. Some of the jokes that Zippy shouts on ICC came from
42 ftp://ftp.cco.caltech.edu/pub/humor. The poetry came from Project
43 Gutenberg; try http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/booktitles.html as a starting
44 point. You might find other suitable material at these sites. Prose
45 tends to work poorly because it is dull when shouted in isolated
49 http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html
53 Unix: To build the Zippy version of xboard, on most systems just do:
54 configure --enable-zippy
57 Windows: WinBoard.exe (versions 3.5 and later) includes the Zippy
58 code. There is no longer a distinct WinZippy.exe.
60 In both xboard and WinBoard, the Zippy features are off by default.
61 You can activate them with two new resources/command line options, and
62 you can fine-tune them with some new environment variables, all
65 You will probably want to make a shell script or Windows .BAT file
66 that sets the environment variables you want to use and invokes Zippy
67 with the right command line options for your situation. Some examples
68 are at the bottom of this file.
70 If you have problems building or running Zippy, see the rest of the
71 xboard documentation: INSTALL documents the configure program, while
72 READ_ME and xboard.man (or xboard.txt) document xboard itself, and
73 WinBoard.hlp documents WinBoard. FAQ answers some frequently asked
74 questions. The file engine-intf.html contains some information about
75 the interface between xboard/WinBoard and GNU Chess (or other chess
82 -zippyPlay True/False or -zp/-xzp
83 If zippyPlay is set to True, when xboard is in -ics mode, it
84 will interface a chess engine to the ICS instead of letting you
85 play. You must also set -ics when you use this mode.
87 In zippyPlay mode, xboard blindly issues an accept command for
88 every (well, almost every, see below) challenge it gets,
89 without remembering anything about the challenge afterwards.
90 This means that often it will get several challenges very
91 close together and try to accept them all! ICS gives an error
92 message for every accept command after the one that actually
93 starts a match, but xboard just happily ignores the message.
94 xboard doesn't actually start the chess engine playing until
95 the first board image comes in from ICS.
97 The getMoveList option controls how adjourned games are
98 continued. If it is True (the default), xboard fetches the
99 move list from ICS and feeds it into the chess program before
100 having the program start play. If False, xboard feeds the
101 current position into the chess program and has it start from
102 there. The latter option gets the program going sooner, but
103 can cause problems with detection of en passant legality,
104 castling legality (if a king or rook has moved and then
105 returned to its home square), draw by repetition, and draw by
108 In zippyPlay mode, colorization in the ICS interaction window,
109 and the sounds corresponding to colors in that window, do not
110 work. zippyPassword and related features (see below) capture
111 the tells, etc., before they can be matched by the color/sound
114 -zippyTalk True/False or -zt/-xzt
115 If zippyTalk is set to True and xboard is in -ics mode:
117 (1) It will reply to anything said to it with a saying (if
118 there is a file of sayings in its working directory). This
119 includes channel tells and shouts where its name is mentioned.
120 Some things it says to opponents in specific situations will
121 also be made Zippy-ish; you might want to change that. See
122 zippyLines below for the file format.
124 (2) If a player XXX in your notify list logs on, xboard sends
125 the command "greet XXX" to ICS and tells XXX something from
126 its sayings file. You can alias this to whatever you like.
127 If XXX is censoring you, he is automatically removed from your
130 (3) If a player XXX in your notify list logs off, xboard sends
131 the command "farewell XXX" to ICS. You can alias this to
132 whatever you like. Note that the player is already gone, so
133 telling him something is futile.
135 If zippyTalk is on, colorization in the ICS interaction
136 window, and the sounds corresponding to colors in that window,
137 do not work. The reply feature captures the tells, etc.,
138 before they can be matched by the color/sound code.
140 In both -zp and -zt modes, if admin X spoofs Zippy, Zippy sends the
141 command "spoofedby X" to ICS. You can alias this to something if you
142 want; otherwise it will produce a harmless error message.
145 In zippyTalk mode, if user XXX shouts anything containing
146 this string, xboard sends the command "insult XXX" to ICS.
147 You can alias "insult" to whatever you like. This feature is
148 disabled if the option is not set.
150 -zippyPassword string
151 If someone does an ICS "tell" to xboard that begins with this
152 password, it will type the same string back as a command with
153 the password stripped off. For example, if the password is
154 !%%! and xboard sees the string "Darooha tells you: !%%!shout
155 Hi there", it will type the command "shout Hi there" to the
156 ICS. This feature is disabled if the option is not set.
158 -zippyPassword2 string
159 If someone does an ICS "tell" to xboard that begins with this
160 password, it will send the same string directly to the chess
161 engine with the password stripped off. This feature is
162 disabled if the option is not set. Use with caution.
164 -zippyWrongPassword string
165 This is a joke feature. If player XXX does an ICS "tell" to
166 xboard that begins with this password, it will send the
167 command "wrong XXX" to ICS. ICS does not define a "wrong"
168 command, but you can alias it to whatever you like. The
169 feature is supposed to be used after you've changed the
170 zippyPassword, so that people who knew the old password get a
171 funny message. Disabled if not set.
173 -zippyUseI True/False or -zui/-xzui
174 If this option is true, Zippy's shouts use the "i" command with
175 funny verbs; otherwise they use the "shout" command. Default
176 is true. The variable is automatically set to false if the "i"
177 command is disabled on ICS by the admins.
180 Name of the file Zippy looks in for sayings when -zt is set.
181 Default: yow.lines. File format: There must be a single ^
182 character or null character (control-@, ASCII code \000) after
183 each saying. Sayings can have newlines in them; Zippy will
184 remove them. Sayings can be at most about 250 characters;
185 longer ones will be ignored. The first saying in the file is
186 never used; you should put a comment there. If you have only
187 one or two sayings in your file, Zippy may get into a loop
188 trying to choose one. Zippy chooses a saying by seeking to a
189 random character position in the file, skipping ahead to the
190 *next* null character, and printing the saying that starts
191 there. If it hits end of file without finding a new saying,
192 it tries again. Yes, this is a dumb algorithm.
194 -zippyAcceptOnly string
195 Normally, Zippy automatically accepts challenges from all
196 opponents. If this option is set to an ICS login name, Zippy
197 will auto-accept challenges only from that opponent. Set the
198 option to an invalid name like "0" if you don't want Zippy to
199 auto-accept any challenges. You can still accept challenges
200 manually. Setting this option also suppresses the
201 zippyGameEnd feature described below. Default: not set.
203 -zippyNoplayCrafty True/False or -znc/-xznc
204 If this option is set to True, if Zippy's opponent kibitzes
205 "Hello from Crafty" within the first couple of moves, Zippy
206 will abort the game and add the opponent to his noplay list.
209 -zippyGameStart string
210 At the start of each game Zippy plays (including resuming from
211 adjournment), it sends this string to ICS, followed by a newline.
212 If the option is not set, nothing is sent.
215 At the end of each game, Zippy sends this string to ICS,
216 followed by a newline. If you do not set this option, the
217 string "gameend" is sent. This is not a legal ICS command,
218 but you can alias it to whatever you like, or you can leave
219 it undefined, which will cause ICS to print a harmless error
220 message after each game. If you want to send more than one
221 command at the end of the game, on ICC you can alias gameend
222 to a "multi" command (see the ICC help files), but on FICS that
223 does not work. Instead, use the -zippyGameEnd option to have
224 a string of several commands sent, with newlines in between.
225 For example, you could give WinBoard the command line option
226 -zippyGameEnd=\"say thanks\\nseek 5 0\\nseek 2 12\\n\"
227 Note the extra backslashes: these are essential, because the
228 shell will strip them from the command before passing it to
229 XBoard, and XBoard needs to see the quotes (which would
230 otherwise be stripped by the shell as well), because only within
231 quotes it will recognize the \n as a linefeed.
233 -zippyAdjourn True/False or -zadj/-xzadj
234 Zippy will allow its opponent to adjourn if this option is
235 set to true. Default: False.
237 -zippyAbort True/False or -zab/-xzab
238 Zippy will allow its opponent to abort if this option is
239 set to true. Default: False.
241 -zippyVariants string
242 Zippy will decline to play chess variants unless their names
243 (as given in engine-intf.html) are listed in this option.
244 Default: "normal". Example: "suicide,losers,bughouse,normal".
246 Obviously, zippyVariants other than "normal" will work only
247 if your chess engine can play those variants. GNU Chess
248 certainly cannot, but there are some suicide and bughouse
249 engines available. While playing bughouse, Zippy passes
250 certain extra information on to the engine; see
254 This option controls how Zippy handles bughouse partner
255 requests. If zippyBughouse is set to 0, Zippy will decline
256 any offers of partnership and tell the offerer that it cannot
257 play bughouse. If zippyBughouse is set to 1, Zippy will
258 decline offers, but you can make Zippy your partner by having
259 *it* offer *you* partnership (by using zippyPassword or typing
260 directly into its window). If zippyBughouse is set to 2,
261 Zippy will accept all offers of partnership, even if it
262 already has a partner. zippyBughouse must be at least 1 for
263 partner tells to be relayed to the engine with the ptell
268 If zippyMaxGames > 0, Zippy will play at most the given number
269 of consecutive games against the same opponent. Thereafter,
270 Zippy will decline all challenges from that opponent (with an
271 explanatory tell) until either someone else has played or
272 zippyReplayTimeout seconds have elapsed. Defaults:
273 zippyMaxGames=0, zippyReplayTimeout=120.
275 Note: If you use these options and you have Zippy doing seeks,
276 be sure to include the "m" flag in the ICS seek command. If
277 you use "seek m", when a player responds to the seek, the ICS
278 gives Zippy a challenge that it can either accept or decline.
279 If you use a seek without the "m" flag, the ICS immediately
280 starts a game between Zippy and the first opponent to respond,
281 giving Zippy no choice about whether to accept or decline.
284 If zippyShortGame > 0, Zippy will decline all challenges
285 from an opponent that terminated a game before the given number
286 of ply (with an explanatory tell) until either someone else has
287 played or zippyReplayTimeout seconds have elapsed. Do not set
288 the number of moves to large; the number of ply during which
289 opponents can abort a game without rating change would be a
290 good setting. Default: zippyShortGame=0.
292 =====================
293 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
294 =====================
296 For backward compatibility with version 4.0.2 and earlier only, most
297 of the command line options listed above can also be set as
298 environment variables. For boolean options, use 0 for false, 1 for
299 true in the corresponding environment variable. The following
300 environment variables are supported.:
302 ZIPPYPINHEAD, ZIPPYPASSWORD, ZIPPYPASSWORD2, ZIPPYWRONGPASSWORD,
303 ZIPPYUSEI, ZIPPYLINES, ZIPPYACCEPTONLY, ZIPPYNOPLAYCRAFTY,
304 ZIPPYGAMESTART, ZIPPYGAMEEND, ZIPPYADJOURN, ZIPPYABORT,
305 ZIPPYVARIANTS, ZIPPYBUGHOUSE
307 Warnings: (1) If both the command line option and the corresponding
308 environment variable are set, the environment variable takes
309 precedence! (2) Some of the environment variables have names that
310 are too long for Solaris 2.5's /bin/csh. Use the command line
311 options instead. (3) Newer options DO NOT have environment
312 variables. If you don't see it in the list above, it doesn't exist.
313 (4) In the future the environment variables may go away entirely.
314 It would be a good idea to stop using them now and switch to the
315 command line options.
317 You may also want to customize other things by editing zippy.c and
318 recompiling the program.
320 =====================
321 ICS VARIABLE SETTINGS
322 =====================
324 You need to do the following settings on ICS:
326 set highlight 0 <-- I'm not sure this is still needed
330 If you want to use the zippyPassword remote-control feature, it's a
331 good idea to do the following, so that commands you give Zippy won't
332 be truncated because the ICS wrapped a "tell" to a new line:
334 set wrap 0 <-- on ICC, or
335 set width 255 <-- on FICS
337 You will probably want to turn on server-side autoflagging too:
345 It has been discovered that Zippy can play simuls on ICC (but not on
346 FICS). If you arrange for Zippy to send the ICC command "simulize" in
347 the -zippyGameStart string, it will accept additional games while
348 playing. Zippy will use the same engine for every game, so whenever
349 it switches opponents, the engine's state will be reset with the "new"
350 command. This will of course weaken its play, so don't enable simuls
351 if you want your engine to have the highest possible rating.
353 Zippy was never designed to work with simuls; it just works by
354 accident, and it hasn't been tested much. So please report any bugs
355 you notice, but don't expect them to be fixed rapidly.
357 Be sure to use xboard/WinBoard 4.2.4 or later for simuls, because some
358 obscure bugs are fixed in that version that affect starting a game in
359 the middle (as with resuming from adjournments or switching opponents
362 As noted under -zippyPlay above, you should have -getMoveList on to
363 ensure that the engine knows the game history after switching boards
364 and thus handles draw by repetition and by the 50-move rule correctly.
365 It should, however, also work to turn off this option to speed things
366 up and reduce network bandwidth, if you don't mind the engine
367 occasionally failing to see draw possibilities. Unfortunately,
368 though, with Crafty 18.3 (and probably other versions too) as the
369 engine, users trying this have experienced Crafty crashes. This looks
370 to me like a Crafty bug, but I wasn't able to reproduce it, so it
378 Here are some small example command lines. You may want to use more
379 options; see the man page, info file, or help file, and perhaps the
380 FAQ file too. You may want to put the command line into a Unix shell
381 script or Windows .BAT file, which is simply a text file of commands.
382 On Unix, turn on execute permission for the file (chmod a+x file); on
383 Windows, give it the extension .BAT. You can then run it just like an
384 ordinary program. Please do not ask me questions about how to make a
385 shell script or .BAT file; these are not functions of xboard/WinBoard,
386 but basic operating system features that you can learn about from
387 introductory books, friends, teachers, or the online help for your
388 system. The examples below should be more than enough to get you
393 # xboard + GNU Chess on chessclub.com
394 xboard -zp -ics -icshost chessclub.com -icshelper timestamp \
397 # xboard + GNU Chess on freechess.org
398 xboard -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal \
400 # xboard + Crafty on chessclub.com
401 xboard -zp -ics -icshost chessclub.com \
402 -fd /home/crafty -fcp crafty -icshelper timestamp \
405 # xboard + Crafty on freechess.org
406 xboard -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -autoflag \
407 -fd /home/crafty -fcp crafty -icshelper timeseal \
410 Windows command lines:
412 REM WinBoard + GNU Chess on chessclub.com
413 WinBoard -zp -ics -icshost chessclub.com -fcp GNUChess -icshelper timestamp -zippyPassword beer
415 REM WinBoard + GNU Chess on freechess.org
416 WinBoard -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -fcp GNUChess -icshelper timeseal -zippyPassword beer
418 REM WinBoard + Crafty on chessclub.com
419 WinBoard -zp -ics -icshost chessclub.com -fd C:\Crafty -fcp WCrafty -icshelper timestamp -zippyPassword beer
421 REM WinBoard + Crafty on freechess.org
422 WinBoard -zp -ics -icshost freechess.org -fd C:\Crafty -fcp WCrafty -icshelper timestamp -zippyPassword beer