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 autmatically.) 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, crazyhous, bughouse.
Load Game
Plays a game from a record file. The g key is a keyboard equivalent.
A popup dialog prompts you for the file name. If the file contains more
than one game, a second popup 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 popup 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 popup 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 popup 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.