2.1 File Menu

New Game

Resets XBoard and the chess engine to the beginning of a new chess game. The r key is a keyboard equivalent. In Internet Chess Server mode, clears the current state of XBoard, then resynchronizes with the ICS by sending a refresh command. If you want to stop playing, observing, or examining an ICS game, use an appropriate command from the Action menu, not ‘New Game’. See Action Menu.

New Shuffle Game

Similar to ‘New Game’, but allows you to specify a particular initial position (according to a standardized numbering system) in chess variants which use randomized opening positions (e.g. Chess960). The selected opening position will persistently be chosen on any following New Game command until you use this menu to select another. Selecting position number -1 will produce a newly randomized position on any new game. Using this menu item in variants that normally do not shuffle their opening position does cause these variants to become shuffle variants until you use the ‘New Shuffle Game’ menu to explicitly switch the randomization off, or select a new variant.

New Variant

Allows you to select a new chess variant in non-ICS mode. (In ICS play, the ICS is responsible for deciding which variant will be played, and XBoard adapts automatically.) If you play with an engine, the engine must be able to play the selected variant, or the command will be ignored. XBoard supports all major variants, such as xiangqi, shogi, chess, chess960, Capablanca Chess, shatranj, crazyhouse, bughouse.

Load Game

Plays a game from a record file. The g key is a keyboard equivalent. A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. If the file contains more than one game, a second pop-up dialog displays a list of games (with information drawn from their PGN tags, if any), and you can select the one you want. Alternatively, you can load the Nth game in the file directly, by typing the number N after the file name, separated by a space.

The game file parser will accept PGN (portable game notation), or in fact almost any file that contains moves in algebraic notation. Notation of the form ‘P@f7’ is accepted for piece-drops in bughouse games; this is a nonstandard extension to PGN. If the file includes a PGN position (FEN tag), or an old-style XBoard position diagram bracketed by ‘[--’ and ‘--]’ before the first move, the game starts from that position. Text enclosed in parentheses, square brackets, or curly braces is assumed to be commentary and is displayed in a pop-up window. Any other text in the file is ignored. PGN variations (enclosed in parentheses) are treated as comments; XBoard is not able to walk variation trees. The nonstandard PGN tag [Variant "varname"] functions similarly to the -variant command-line option (see below), allowing games in certain chess variants to be loaded. There is also a heuristic to recognize chess variants from the Event tag, by looking for the strings that the Internet Chess Servers put there when saving variant ("wild") games.

Load Next Game

Loads the next game from the last game record file you loaded. The shifted N key is a keyboard equivalent.

Load Previous Game

Loads the previous game from the last game record file you loaded. The shifted P key is a keyboard equivalent. Not available if the last game was loaded from a pipe.

Reload Same Game

Reloads the last game you loaded. Not available if the last game was loaded from a pipe.

Save Game

Appends a record of the current game to a file. A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. If the game did not begin with the standard starting position, the game file includes the starting position used. Games are saved in the PGN (portable game notation) format, unless the oldSaveStyle option is true, in which case they are saved in an older format that is specific to XBoard. Both formats are human-readable, and both can be read back by the ‘Load Game’ command. Notation of the form ‘P@f7’ is accepted for piece-drops in bughouse games; this is a nonstandard extension to PGN.

Copy Game

Copies a record of the current game to an internal clipboard in PGN format and sets the X selection to the game text. The game can be pasted to another application (such as a text editor or another copy of XBoard) using that application's paste command. In many X applications, such as xterm and emacs, the middle mouse button can be used for pasting; in XBoard, you must use the Paste Game command.

Paste Game

Interprets the current X selection as a game record and loads it, as with Load Game.

Load Position

Sets up a position from a position file. A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. If the file contains more than one saved position, and you want to load the Nth one, type the number N after the file name, separated by a space. Position files must be in FEN (Forsythe-Edwards notation), or in the format that the Save Position command writes when oldSaveStyle is turned on.

Load Next Position

Loads the next position from the last position file you loaded.

Load Previous Position

Loads the previous position from the last position file you loaded. Not available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.

Reload Same Position

Reloads the last position you loaded. Not available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.

Save Position

Appends a diagram of the current position to a file. A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. Positions are saved in FEN (Forsythe-Edwards notation) format unless the oldSaveStyle option is true, in which case they are saved in an older, human-readable format that is specific to XBoard. Both formats can be read back by the ‘Load Position’ command.

Copy Position

Copies the current position to an internal clipboard in FEN format and sets the X selection to the position text. The position can be pasted to another application (such as a text editor or another copy of XBoard) using that application's paste command. In many X applications, such as xterm and emacs, the middle mouse button can be used for pasting; in XBoard, you must use the Paste Position command.

Paste Position

Interprets the current X selection as a FEN position and loads it, as with Load Position.

Mail Move

Reload CMail Message

See CMail.

Exit

Exits from XBoard. The shifted Q key is a keyboard equivalent.