There is no way for two people running copies of XBoard to play -each other without going through an Internet Chess Server. - -
Under some circumstances, your ICS password may be echoed when you log on. - -
If you are connecting to the ICS by running telnet on an Internet -provider or firewall host, you may find that each line you type is -echoed back an extra time after you hit <Enter>. If your Internet -provider is a Unix system, you can probably turn its echo off by -typing stty -echo after you log in, and/or typing -<^E><Enter> (Ctrl+E followed by the Enter key) to the telnet -program after you have logged into ICS. It is a good idea to do this -if you can, because the extra echo can occasionally confuse XBoard's -parsing routines. - -
The game parser recognizes only algebraic notation. - -
Many of the following points used to be limitations in XBoard 4.2.7 and earlier, -but are now fixed: -The internal move legality tester in XBoard 4.3.xx does look at the game history, -and is fully aware of castling or en-passant-capture rights. It permits castling with -the king on the d file because this is possible in some "wild 1" games on ICS. -The piece-drop menu does not check piece drops in bughouse to see if you actually hold -the piece you are trying to drop. But this way of dropping pieces should be considered -an obsolete feature, now that pieces can be dropped by dragging them from the holdings -to the board. Anyway, if you would attempt an illegal move when using a chess engine or the ICS, -WinBoard will accept the error message that comes back, undo the move, and let you try another. -FEN positions saved by XBoard do include correct information about whether castling or -en passant are legal, and also handle the 50-move counter. -The mate detector does not understand that non-contact mate is not really mate in bughouse. -The only problem this causes while playing is minor: a "#" (mate indicator) character will -show up after a non-contact mating move in the move list. XBoard will not assume the game -is over at that point, not even when the option Detect Mates is on. -Edit Game mode always uses the rules of the selected variant, -which can be a variant that uses piece drops. -You can load and edit games that contain piece drops. -The (obsolete) piece menus are not active, -but you can perform piece drops by dragging pieces from the holdings. -Edit Position mode does not allow you to edit the crazyhouse holdings properly. -You cannot drag pieces to the holding, and using the popup menu to put pieces -there does not adapt the holding counts and leads to an inconsistent state. -Set up crazyhouse positions by loading / pasting a bFEN, from there you can set the holdings. -Fischer Random castling is fully understood. -You can enter castlings by dragging the King on top of your Rook. -You can probably also play Fischer Random successfully on ICS by typing -castling moves into the ICS Interaction window. - -
The menus may not work if your keyboard is in Caps Lock or Num Lock mode. -This seems to be a problem with the Athena menu widget, -not an XBoard bug. - -
Also see the ToDo file included with the distribution for many other -possible bugs, limitations, and ideas for improvement that have been -suggested. +
There is no way for two people running copies of XBoard to play +each other without going through an Internet Chess Server. + +Under some circumstances, your ICS password may be echoed when you log on. + +If you are connecting to the ICS by running telnet on an Internet +provider or firewall host, you may find that each line you type is +echoed back an extra time after you hit <Enter>. If your Internet +provider is a Unix system, you can probably turn its echo off by +typing stty -echo after you log in, and/or typing +<^E><Enter> (Ctrl+E followed by the Enter key) to the telnet +program after you have logged into ICS. It is a good idea to do this +if you can, because the extra echo can occasionally confuse XBoard's +parsing routines. + +The game parser recognizes only algebraic notation. + +Many of the following points used to be limitations in XBoard 4.2.7 and earlier, +but are now fixed: +The internal move legality tester in XBoard 4.3.xx does look at the game history, +and is fully aware of castling or en-passant-capture rights. It permits castling with +the king on the d file because this is possible in some "wild 1" games on ICS. +The piece-drop menu does not check piece drops in bughouse to see if you actually hold +the piece you are trying to drop. But this way of dropping pieces should be considered +an obsolete feature, now that pieces can be dropped by dragging them from the holdings +to the board. Anyway, if you would attempt an illegal move when using a chess engine or the ICS, +WinBoard will accept the error message that comes back, undo the move, and let you try another. +FEN positions saved by XBoard do include correct information about whether castling or +en passant are legal, and also handle the 50-move counter. +The mate detector does not understand that non-contact mate is not really mate in bughouse. +The only problem this causes while playing is minor: a "#" (mate indicator) character will +show up after a non-contact mating move in the move list. XBoard will not assume the game +is over at that point, not even when the option Detect Mates is on. +Edit Game mode always uses the rules of the selected variant, +which can be a variant that uses piece drops. +You can load and edit games that contain piece drops. +The (obsolete) piece menus are not active, +but you can perform piece drops by dragging pieces from the holdings. +Edit Position mode does not allow you to edit the crazyhouse holdings properly. +You cannot drag pieces to the holding, and using the popup menu to put pieces +there does not adapt the holding counts and leads to an inconsistent state. +Set up crazyhouse positions by loading / pasting a bFEN, from there you can set the holdings. +Fischer Random castling is fully understood. +You can enter castlings by dragging the King on top of your Rook. +You can probably also play Fischer Random successfully on ICS by typing +castling moves into the ICS Interaction window. + +The menus may not work if your keyboard is in Caps Lock or Num Lock mode. +This seems to be a problem with the Athena menu widget, +not an XBoard bug. + +Also see the ToDo file included with the distribution for many other +possible bugs, limitations, and ideas for improvement that have been +suggested.