while moving the mouse vertically with this button pressed will step
through the principal variation to show how this position will be
reached.
+Lines of play displayed in the engine-output window an similarly
+be played out on the board, by right-clicking on them.
+
+When connected to an ICS, it is possible to call up a graphical
+representation of players seeking a game in stead of the chess board,
+when the latter is not in use
+(i.e. when you are not playing or observing).
+Left-clicking the display area will switch between this 'seek graph'
+and the chess board.
+Hovering the mouse pointer over a dot will show the details of the
+seek ad in the message field above the board.
+Left-clicking the dot will challenge that player.
+Right-clicking a dot will 'push it to the back',
+to reveal any dots that were hidden behind it.
+Right-clicking off dots will refresh the graph.
Most other XBoard commands are available from the menu bar. The most
frequently used commands also have shortcut keys or on-screen buttons.
@item New Game
@cindex New Game, Menu Item
Resets XBoard and the chess engine to the beginning of a new chess
-game. The @kbd{r} key is a keyboard equivalent. In Internet Chess
+game. The @kbd{Ctrl-N} 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
@cindex New variant, Menu Item
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
+and XBoard adapts automatically.) The shifted @kbd{Alt+V} key is a
+keyboard equivalent. 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.
(But not every board size has built-in bitmaps for un-orthodox pieces!)
@item Load Game
@cindex Load Game, Menu Item
-Plays a game from a record file. The @kbd{g} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+Plays a game from a record file. The @kbd{Ctrl-O} 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
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.
+parentheses) also are treated as comments;
+however, if you rights-click them in the comment window,
+XBoard will shelve the current line, and load the the selected variation,
+so you can step through it.
+You can later revert to the previous line with the @samp{Revert} command.
+This way you can walk quite complex varation trees with XBoard.
+(The XBoard PGN parser is currenty limited to three nested levels of variations
+on top of the main game, however.)
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
+variants to be loaded.
+Note that it must appear before any FEN tag for XBoard to recognize
+variant FENs appropriately.
+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.
@item Load Next Game
@cindex Load Next Game, Menu Item
Loads the next game from the last game record file you loaded.
-The shifted @kbd{N} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+The @kbd{Alt+PgDn} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Load Previous Game
@cindex Load Previous Game, Menu Item
Loads the previous game from the last game record file you
-loaded. The shifted @kbd{P} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+loaded. The @kbd{Alt+PgUp} key is a keyboard equivalent.
Not available if the last game was loaded from a pipe.
@item Reload Same Game
@cindex Reload Same Game, Menu Item
@item Save Game
@cindex Save Game, Menu Item
Appends a record of the current game to a file.
+The @kbd{Ctrl-S} key is a keyboard equivalent.
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
@item Copy Game
@cindex Copy Game, Menu Item
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
+format and sets the X selection to the game text. The @kbd{Ctrl-C}
+key is a keyboard equivalent. 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
@item Paste Game
@cindex Paste Game, Menu Item
Interprets the current X selection as a game record and loads it, as
-with Load Game.
+with Load Game. The @kbd{Ctrl-V} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Load Position
@cindex Load Position, Menu Item
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
+you for the file name. The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-O} key is a keyboard
+equivalent. 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
@item Load Next Position
@cindex Load Next Position, Menu Item
Loads the next position from the last position file you loaded.
+The shifted @kbd{Alt+PgDn} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Load Previous Position
@cindex Load Previous Position, Menu Item
Loads the previous position from the last position file you
-loaded. Not available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.
+loaded. The shifted @kbd{Alt+PgUp} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+Not available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.
@item Reload Same Position
@cindex Reload Same Position, Menu Item
Reloads the last position you loaded.
@item Save Position
@cindex Save Game, Menu Item
Appends a diagram of the current position to a file.
-A pop-up dialog
-prompts you for the file name. Positions are saved in
+The shifted @kbd{Ctrl+S} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. Positions are saved in
FEN (Forsythe-Edwards notation) format unless the @code{oldSaveStyle}
option is true, in which case they are saved in an older,
human-readable format that is specific to XBoard. Both formats
@item Copy Position
@cindex Copy Position, Menu Item
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
+sets the X selection to the position text. The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-C} key
+is a keyboard equivalent. 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
@item Paste Position
@cindex Paste Position, Menu Item
Interprets the current X selection as a FEN position and loads it, as
-with Load Position.
+with Load Position. The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-V} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Mail Move
@itemx Reload CMail Message
@cindex Mail Move, Menu Item
See @ref{CMail}.
@item Exit
@cindex Exit, Menu Item
-Exits from XBoard. The shifted @kbd{Q} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+Exits from XBoard. The @kbd{Ctrl-Q} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@end table
@node Mode Menu
@table @asis
@item Machine White
@cindex Machine White, Menu Item
-Tells the chess engine to play White.
+Tells the chess engine to play White.
+The @kbd{Ctrl-W} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Machine Black
@cindex Machine Black, Menu Item
Tells the chess engine to play Black.
+The @kbd{Ctrl-B} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Two Machines
@cindex Two Machines, Menu Item
Plays a game between two chess engines.
+The @kbd{Ctrl-T} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Analysis Mode
@cindex Analysis Mode, Menu Item
XBoard tells the chess engine to start analyzing the current game/position
and shows you the analysis as you move pieces around.
+The @kbd{Ctrl-A} key is a keyboard equivalent.
Note: Some chess engines do not support Analysis mode.
To set up a position to analyze, you do the following:
@item Analyze File
@cindex Analyze File, Menu Item
This option lets you load a game from a file (PGN, XBoard format, etc.)
-and analyze it. When you select this menu item, a pop-up window appears
+and analyze it. The @kbd{Ctrl-F} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+When you select this menu item, a pop-up window appears
and asks for a file name to load.
If the file contains multiple games, another pop up appears that lets
you select which game you wish to analyze.
@cindex Edit Game, Menu Item
Allows you to make moves for both Black and White, and to change
moves after backing up with the @samp{Backward} command. The clocks do
-not run.
+not run. The @kbd{Ctrl-E} key is a keyboard equivalent.
In chess engine mode, the chess engine continues to check moves for legality
but does not participate in the game. You can bring the chess engine
@item Edit Position
@cindex Edit Position, Menu Item
Lets you set up an arbitrary board position.
+The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-E} key is a keyboard equivalent.
Use mouse button 1 to drag pieces to new squares, or to delete a piece
by dragging it off the board or dragging an empty square on top of it.
To drop a new piece on a square, press mouse button 2 or 3 over the
@item Show Engine Output
@cindex Show Engine Output, Menu Item
Shows or hides a window in which the thinking output of any loaded engines
-is displayed.
+is displayed. The shifted @kbd{Alt+O} key is a keyboard equivalent.
XBoard will display lines of thinking output of the same depth ordered by score,
(highest score on top), rather than in the order the engine produced them.
Usually this amounts to the same, as a normal engine search will only find new PV
@item Show Evaluation Graph
@cindex Show Evaluation Graph, Menu Item
Shows or hides a window which displays a graph of how the engine score(s)
-evolved as a function of the move number. Clicking on the graph will bring
+evolved as a function of the move number.
+The shifted @kbd{Alt+G} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+Clicking on the graph will bring
the corresponding position in the board display.
@item Show Game List
@cindex Show Game List, Menu Item
Shows or hides the list of games generated by the last @samp{Load Game}
-command.
+command. The shifted @kbd{Alt+L} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Show Move History
@cindex Show Move History, Menu Item
Shows or hides a list of moves of the current game.
+The shifted @kbd{Alt+H} key is a keyboard equivalent.
This list allows you to move the display to any earlier position in the game
by clicking on the corresponding move.
@item Edit Tags
Pauses updates to the board, and if you are playing against a chess engine,
also pauses your clock. To continue, select @samp{Pause} again, and the
display will automatically update to the latest position.
-The @samp{P} button and keyboard @kbd{p} key are equivalents.
+The @samp{P} button and keyboard @kbd{Pause} key are equivalents.
If you select Pause when you are playing against a chess engine and
it is not your move, the chess engine's clock
@table @asis
@item Accept
@cindex Accept, Menu Item
-Accepts a pending match offer. If there is more than one offer
+Accepts a pending match offer.
+The @kbd{F3} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+If there is more than one offer
pending, you will have to type in a more specific command
instead of using this menu choice.
@item Decline
@cindex Decline, Menu Item
-Declines a pending offer (match, draw, adjourn, etc.). If there
+Declines a pending offer (match, draw, adjourn, etc.).
+The @kbd{F4} key is a keyboard equivalent. If there
is more than one offer pending, you will have to type in a more
specific command instead of using this menu choice.
@item Call Flag
@cindex Call Flag, Menu Item
Calls your opponent's flag, claiming a win on time, or claiming
-a draw if you are both out of time. You can also call your
-opponent's flag by clicking on his clock or by pressing the
-keyboard @kbd{t} key.
+a draw if you are both out of time.
+The @kbd{F5} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+You can also call your
+opponent's flag by clicking on his clock.
@item Draw
@cindex Draw, Menu Item
Offers a draw to your opponent, accepts a pending draw offer
from your opponent, or claims a draw by repetition or the 50-move
-rule, as appropriate. The @kbd{d} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+rule, as appropriate. The @kbd{F6} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Adjourn
@cindex Adjourn, Menu Item
Asks your opponent to agree to adjourning the current game, or
agrees to a pending adjournment offer from your opponent.
+The @kbd{F7} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Abort
@cindex Abort, Menu Item
Asks your opponent to agree to aborting the current game, or
-agrees to a pending abort offer from your opponent. An aborted
+agrees to a pending abort offer from your opponent.
+The @kbd{F8} key is a keyboard equivalent. An aborted
game ends immediately without affecting either player's rating.
@item Resign
@cindex Resign, Menu Item
-Resigns the game to your opponent. The shifted @kbd{R} key is a
+Resigns the game to your opponent. The @kbd{F9} key is a
keyboard equivalent.
@item Stop Observing
@cindex Stop Observing, Menu Item
Ends your participation in observing a game, by issuing the ICS
observe command with no arguments. ICS mode only.
+The @kbd{F10} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Stop Examining
@cindex Stop Examining, Menu Item
Ends your participation in examining a game, by issuing the ICS
unexamine command. ICS mode only.
+The @kbd{F11} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+@item Upload to Examine
+@cindex Upload to Examine, Menu Item
+Create an examined game of the proper variant on the ICS,
+and send the game there that is currenty loaded in XBoard
+(e.g. through pasting or loading from file).
+You must be connected to an ICS for this to work.
@item Adjudicate to White
@itemx Adjudicate to Black
@itemx Adjudicate Draw
@cindex Backward, Menu Item
@cindex <, Button
Steps backward through a series of remembered moves.
-The @samp{[<]} button and the @kbd{b} key are equivalents,
+The @samp{[<]} button and the @kbd{Alt+LeftArrow} key are equivalents,
as is turning the mouse wheel towards you.
In addition, pressing the Control key steps back one move, and releasing
it steps forward again.
@cindex >, Button
Steps forward through a series of remembered moves (undoing the
effect of @samp{Backward}) or forward through a game file. The
-@samp{[>]} button and the @kbd{f} key are equivalents,
+@samp{[>]} button and the @kbd{Alt+RightArrow} key are equivalents,
as is turning the mouse wheel away from you.
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of Forward
@cindex Back to Start, Menu Item
@cindex <<, Button
Jumps backward to the first remembered position in the game.
-The @samp{[<<]} button and the shifted @kbd{B} key are equivalents.
+The @samp{[<<]} button and the @kbd{Alt+Home} key are equivalents.
In most modes, Back to Start only lets you look back at old
positions; it does not retract moves. This is the case if you
@cindex Forward to End, Menu Item
@cindex >>, Button
Jumps forward to the last remembered position in the game. The
-@samp{[>>]} button and the shifted @kbd{F} key are equivalents.
+@samp{[>>]} button and the @kbd{Alt+End} key are equivalents.
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of @samp{Forward to
End} depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode
your local view forward, and it will not go past the position
that the game was in when you paused.
@item Revert
+@itemx Annotate
@cindex Revert, Menu Item
+@cindex Annotate, Menu Item
If you are examining an ICS game and Pause mode is off, issues
the ICS command @samp{revert}.
In local mode, when you were editing or analyzing a game,
and have been entering a number of moves by hand, starting from
a position not at the end of the game,
the revert command restores the game to the variation you started from.
-The variation you had been entering is currently added as a comment
-to the original move where you deviated.
This can be applied recursively,
so that you can analyze variations on variations;
each time you create a new variation by entering an alternative move,
the current variation will be shelved.
Revert allows you to return to the most recently shelved variation.
+The difference between Revert and Annotate is that with the latter,
+the variation you had been entering and are now abandoning
+is currently added as a comment
+(in PGN variation syntax, i.e. between parentheses)
+to the original move where you deviated.
+Note that such 'variation comments' can be played out on the board again
+(also when they were loaded from file)
+by clicking them in the comment window.
+The @kbd{Home} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Truncate Game
@cindex Truncate Game, Menu Item
Discards all remembered moves of the game beyond the current
position. Puts XBoard into @samp{Edit Game} mode if it was not there
already.
+The @kbd{End} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Move Now
@cindex Move Now, Menu Item
Forces the chess engine to move immediately. Chess engine mode only.
+The @kbd{Ctrl-M} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Retract Move
@cindex Retract Move, Menu Item
Retracts your last move. In chess engine mode, you can do this only
thinking, use @samp{Move Now} first. In ICS mode, @samp{Retract Move}
issues the command @samp{takeback 1} or @samp{takeback 2}
depending on whether it is your opponent's move or yours.
+The @kbd{Ctrl-X} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@end table
@node Options Menu
@cindex Flip View, Menu Item
Inverts your view of the chess board for the duration of the
current game. Starting a new game returns the board to normal.
-The @kbd{v} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+The @kbd{F2} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Adjudications
@cindex Adjudications, Menu Item
Pops up a sub-menu where you can enable or disable various adjudications
that XBoard can perform in engine-engine games.
+The shifted @kbd{Alt+J} key is a keyboard equivalent.
You can instruct XBoard to detect and terminate the game on checkmate
or stalemate, even if the engines would not do so, to verify engine
result claims (forfeiting engines that make false claims), rather than
It then forces the engine to play the book move, rather than to think up its own,
if that position is found in the book.
The book can switched on and off independently for either engine.
+The shifted @kbd{Alt+U} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Engine #N Settings
@cindex Engine Settings, Menu Item
@cindex Engine #1 Settings, Menu Item
If an engine is given a time-odds factor N, all time quota it gets,
be it at the beginning of a session or through the time increment or
fixed time per move, will be divided by N.
+The shifted @kbd{Alt+T} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Always Queen
@cindex Always Queen, Menu Item
If this option is off, XBoard brings up a dialog
box whenever you move a pawn to the last rank, asking what piece
you want to promote it to. If the option is true, your pawns are
always promoted to queens. Your opponent can still under-promote.
+The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-Q} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Animate Dragging
@cindex Animate Dragging, Menu Item
If Animate Dragging is on, while you are dragging a piece with the
move is completed (unless the move was already animated by Animate Dragging).
If Animate Moving is off, a moved piece instantly disappears from its
old square and reappears on its new square when the move is complete.
+The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-A} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Auto Comment
@cindex Auto Comment, Menu Item
If this option is on, any remarks made on ICS while you are observing or
before the other,
XBoard
will automatically call his flag, claiming a win on time.
+The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-F} key is a keyboard equivalent.
In ICS mode, Auto Flag will only call your opponent's flag, not yours,
and the ICS may award you a draw instead of a win if you have
insufficient mating material. In local chess engine mode,
XBoard
-may call either player's flag and will not take material into account.
+may call either player's flag and will not take material into account (?).
@item Auto Flip View
@cindex Auto Flip View, Menu Item
If the Auto Flip View option is on when you start a game, the board
If this option is off, the chess engine will think only when it is on
move. If the option is on, the engine will also think while waiting
for you to make your move.
+The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-P} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Popup Exit Message
@cindex Popup Exit Message, Menu Item
If this option is on, when XBoard wants to display a message just
machines, the score is prefixed by @samp{W} or @samp{B} to indicate
whether it is showing White's thinking or Black's, and only the thinking
of the engine that is on move is shown.
+The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-H} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@item Test Legality
@cindex Test Legality, Menu Item
If this option is on, XBoard tests whether the moves you try to make
with the mouse are legal and refuses to let you make an illegal move.
+The shifted @kbd{Ctrl-L} key is a keyboard equivalent.
Moves loaded from a file with @samp{Load Game} are also checked. If
the option is off, all moves are accepted, but if a local chess engine
or the ICS is active, they will still reject illegal moves. Turning
command when you built XBoard.
@item Man XBoard
@cindex Man XBoard, Menu Item
-Displays the XBoard documentation in man page format. For this
+Displays the XBoard documentation in man page format.
+The @kbd{F1} key is a keyboard equivalent. For this
feature to work, the file @file{xboard.6} must have been installed by
the @samp{make install} command when you built XBoard, and the
directory it was placed in must be on the search path for your
@cindex Shortcut keys
@table @asis
@item Iconize
-Pressing the @kbd{i} or @kbd{c} key iconizes XBoard. The graphical
+Pressing the @kbd{-} key iconizes XBoard. The graphical
icon displays a white knight if it is White's move, or a black knight
if it is Black's move. If your X window manager displays only text
icons, not graphical ones, check its documentation; there is probably
(shatranj, courier, xiangqi, shogi) so that XBoard would normally omit them
(string = "- -"), or to add variant-specific fields that are not yet supported by XBoard
(e.g. to indicate the number of checks in 3check).
+@item -shuffleOpenings
+@cindex shuffleOpenings, option
+Forces shuffling of the opening setup in variants that normally have a fixed initial position.
+Shufflings are symmetric for black and white, and exempt King and Rooks in variants
+with normal castling.
+Remains in force until a new variant is selected.
@end table
@node UCI + WB Engine Settings
this option to work.
Also diverts similar kibitz information of an opponent engine that is playing you
through the ICS to the engine-output window, as if the engine was playing locally.
+@item -seekGraph true/false or -sg
+@cindex seekGraph, option
+@cindex sg, option
+Enables displaying of the seek graph by left-clicking the board when
+you are logged on to an ICS and currently idle.
+The seek graph show all players currently seeking games on the ICS,
+plotted according to their rating and the time control of the game they seek,
+in three different colors (for rated, unrated and wild games).
+Computer ads are displayed as squares, human ads are dots.
+Default: false.
+@item -autoRefresh true/false
+@cindex autoRefresh, option
+Enables automatic updating of the seek graph,
+by having the ICS send a running update of all newly placed
+and removed seek ads.
+This consumes a substantial amount of communication bandwidth,
+and is only supported for FICS and ICC.
+Default: false.
+@item -backgroundObserve true/false
+@cindex backgroundObserve, option
+When true, boards sent to you by the ICS from other games while you are playing
+(e.g. because you are observing them)
+will not be automatically displayed.
+Only a summary of time left and material of both players will appear
+in the message field above the board.
+XBoard will remember the last board it has received this way,
+and will display it in stead of the position in your own game
+when you press the right mouse button.
+No other information is stored on such games observed in the background;
+you cannot save such a game later, or step through its moves.
+This feature is provided solely for the benefit of bughouse players,
+to enable them to peek at their partner's game without the need
+to logon twice.
+Default: false.
+@item -dualBoard true/false
+@cindex dualBoard, option
+In combination with -backgroundObserve true, this option will display
+the board of the background game side by side with that of your own game,
+so you can have it in view permanently.
+Any board or holdings info coming in will be displayed on the secondary
+board immediately.
+This feature is still experimental and largely unfinished.
+There is no animation or highlighting of moves on the secondary board.
+Default: false.
+@item -oneClickMove true/false
+@cindex oneClickMove, option
+When set, this option allows you to enter moves by only clicking the to-
+or from-square, when only a single legal move to or from that square
+is possible.
+Double-clicking a piece (or clicking an already selected piece)
+will instruct that piece to make the only capture it can legally do.
+Defaut: false.
@item -moves/-xmoves or -getMoveList true/false
@cindex moves, option
@cindex getMoveList, option
projects / xboard.git / blobdiff