This manual documents version 4.5.0 of XBoard. +
This manual documents version 4.5.2 of XBoard.
To move a piece, you can drag it with the left mouse button, or you can click the left mouse button once on the piece, then once more on -the destination square. To drop a new piece on a square (when -applicable), press the middle or the right mouse button over the -square and select from the pop-up menu. In cases where you can drop -either a white or black piece, use the middle button (or shift+right) -for white and the right button (or shift+middle) for black. When you -are playing a bughouse game on an Internet Chess Server, a list of the -off-board pieces that each player has available is shown in the window -title after the player's name; in addition, the piece menus show the -number of pieces available of each type. From version 4.3.14 on, it is -also possible in crazyhouse, bughouse or shogi to drag and drop pieces -to the board from the holdings squares displayed next to the board. -This latter method for dropping pieces during a game is preferred, -and the piece-drop menu is now deprecated (except for editing a position). -Although the old behavior can still be selected through a command-line -option, the default function of the right mouse button is to display -the position the chess program thinks it will end up in, -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 +the destination square. In crazyhouse, bughouse or shogi you can +drag and drop pieces to the board from the holdings squares +displayed next to the board. +Old behavior, where right-clicking a square brings up a menu +where you can select what piece to drop on it can still be +selected through a command-line option. +But only in Edit Position mode right clicking a square is still used to +pop up a menu, where you can select which piece to drop. + +
The default function of the right mouse button in other modes is +to display the position the chess program thinks it will end up in. +While moving the mouse vertically with this button pressed +XBoard will step through the principal variation to show how +this position will be reached. +Lines of play displayed in the engine-output window, +or PGN variations in the comment window can 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 @@ -169,6 +166,19 @@ it is White's turn to move, a black knight if it is Black's turn. See Iconize in Keys below if you have problems getting this feature to work. +
+ +size
+command-line option when you start up XBoard for such variants to be playable.
+
+ You can overrule the default board format of the selected variant,
+(e.g. to play suicide chess on a 6 x 6 board),
+in this dialog, but normally you would not do that,
+and leave them at '-1', which means 'default'.
+
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.
--variations command-line option is switched on,
@@ -398,11 +417,11 @@ the variation you are now abandoning will be added as a comment
(in PGN variation syntax, i.e. between parentheses)
to the original move where you deviated, for later recalling.
The Home key is a keyboard equivalent to ‘Revert’.
-In most modes, Back to Start only lets you look back at old
@@ -450,7 +469,7 @@ is off, ‘Back to Start’ issue
command, which backs up everyone's view of the game to the start and
allows you to make different moves. If Pause mode is on, ‘Back
to Start’ only backs up your local view.
-
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of ‘Forward to
@@ -471,14 +490,14 @@ Up: Menus
- The analysis function can also be used when observing games on an ICS
with an engine loaded (zippy mode); the engine then will analyse
the positions as they occur in the observed game.
- It is also possible to specify a GUI opening book here, i.e. an opening
book that XBoard consults for any position a playing engine gets in.
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 way book moves are chosen can be influenced through the settings of
+book depth and variety.
+After both sides have played more moves than the specified depth,
+the book will no longer be consulted.
+When the variety is set to 50, moves will be played with the probability
+specified in the book.
+When set to 0, only the move(s) with the highest probability will be played.
+When set to 100, all listed moves will be played with equal pobability.
+Other settings interpolate between that.
The shifted Alt+U key is a keyboard equivalent.
- If you are playing a game on an ICS, the board is always
oriented at the start of the game so that your pawns move from
@@ -852,52 +922,28 @@ orientation is determined by the If you turn on this option when using XBoard with the Internet
-Chess Server, you will probably want to give the
-set bell 0
-command to the ICS, since otherwise the ICS will ring the terminal bell
-after every move (not just yours). (The .icsrc file
-is a good place for this; see ICS options.)
- You can also enter premoves for the first white and black moves
+of the game.
+
This section documents the command-line options to XBoard. You can
set these options in two ways: by typing them on the shell command
line you use to start XBoard, or by setting them as X resources
@@ -1127,38 +1260,38 @@ Up: Options
- You can also try adding other commands to the initString; see the
documentation of the chess engine you are using for details.
- For more information about pixmap pieces and how to get additional
sets, see zic2xpm below.
- An Internet Chess Server, or ICS, is a place on the
+ An Internet Chess Server, or ICS, is a place on the
Internet where people can get together to play chess, watch other
people's games, or just chat. You can use either Some useful ICS commands
include
For example help register tells you how to become a registered
ICS player.
- Some special XBoard features are activated when you are
@@ -2191,7 +2326,7 @@ Up: Top
- By default, XBoard communicates with an Internet Chess Server
by opening a TCP socket directly from the machine it is running on
@@ -2321,9 +2456,9 @@ Up: Top
- Game and position files are found in a directory named by the
+ Game and position files are found in a directory named by the
There is no way for two people running copies of XBoard to play
+ 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.
@@ -2400,9 +2535,9 @@ Up: Top
-
You can report bugs and problems with XBoard using
the bug tracker at
Chris Sears and Dan Sears wrote the original XBoard. They were
responsible for versions 1.0 through 1.2. The color scheme was taken
from Wayne Christopher's The cmail program can help you play chess by email with opponents of
+ The cmail program can help you play chess by email with opponents of
your choice using XBoard as an interface.
You will usually run cmail without giving any options.
@@ -2514,7 +2649,7 @@ Up: CMail
- Type cmail from a shell to start a game as white. After an opening
message, you will be prompted for a game name, which is optional—if you
@@ -2601,7 +2736,7 @@ Up: CMail
- When you receive a message from an opponent containing a move in one of
your games, simply pipe the message through cmail. In some mailers
@@ -2635,7 +2770,7 @@ Up: CMail
- It is possible to have a cmail message carry more than one game.
This feature was implemented to handle IECG (International Email Chess
@@ -2653,7 +2788,7 @@ Up: CMail
- Because XBoard can detect checkmate and stalemate, cmail
handles game termination sensibly. As well as resignation, the
@@ -2674,7 +2809,7 @@ Up: CMail
- It's possible that a strange conjunction of conditions may occasionally
mean that cmail has trouble reactivating an existing
@@ -2700,9 +2835,9 @@ Up: Top
-
Here are some other programs you can use with XBoard
The GNU Chess engine is available from:
@@ -2740,7 +2875,7 @@ Up: Other programs
- Fairy-Max is a derivative from the once World's smallest Chess program micro-Max,
which measures only about 100 lines of source code.
@@ -2763,7 +2898,7 @@ Up: Other programs
- HoiChess is a not-so-very-strong Chess engine, which comes with a derivative HoiXiangqi,
able to play Chinese Chess. It can be obtained from the standard Linux repositories
@@ -2780,7 +2915,7 @@ Up: Other programs
- Crafty is a chess engine written by Bob Hyatt.
You can use XBoard to play a game against Crafty, hook Crafty up
@@ -2807,7 +2942,7 @@ Up: Other programs
- The “zic2xpm” program is used to import chess sets from the ZIICS(*)
program into XBoard. “zic2xpm” is part of the XBoard distribution.
@@ -3617,498 +3752,524 @@ Up: Top
2.3 View Menu
+3.3 View Menu
-
-
pixmapDirectory and bitmapDirectory options),
+an external pixmap to be used for the board squares
+(liteBackTextureFile and darkBackTextureFile options),
+and square and piece colors for the built-ins.
+2.4 Mode Menu
+3.4 Mode Menu
-
-
2.5 Action Menu
+3.5 Action Menu
-
-
2.6 Engine Menu
+3.6 Engine Menu
-
-
2.7 Options Menu
+3.7 Options Menu
-
-
loadGameFile and loadPositionFile options),
+and the number of the game or position to use from these files.
+Values -1 and -2 of this 'index' convey a special meaning,
+namely that XBoard should automatically step through all lines or positions
+in these files.
+With -1 such stepping is done every game; with -2 every two games,
+so that each line or position is played with both colors before stepping
+to the next one.
+You can have XBoard automatically rewind to the first line or position
+in the file after the index reaches a certain vaue,
+which you can also specify here.
+autoDisplayComment and
+autoDisplayTags options, (which control popups when viewing loaded games),
+and specify the rate at which loaded games are auto-played,
+in seconds per move (which can be a fractional number, like 1.6).
+saveGameFile option),
+or the final position of such games (the savePositionfile option).
+You can also select 'auto-save' without a file name,
+in which case XBoard will prompt the user for a file name after each game.
+You can also set the default value for the PGN Event tag that will
+be used for each new game you start.
+Various options for the format of the game can be specified as well,
+such as whether scores and depths of engine games should be saved as comments,
+and if a tag with info about the score with which the engine came out of book
+should be included.
+For Chess, always set the format to PGN, rather than "old save stye"!
+gnotify
-list on ICS, XBoard will automatically observe all of that
-player's games, unless you are doing something else (such as
-observing or playing a game of your own) when one starts.
-The games are displayed
-from the point of view of the player on your gnotify list; that is, his
-pawns move from the bottom of the window towards the top.
-Exceptions: If both players in a game are on your gnotify list, if
-your ICS
-highlight
-variable is set to 0, or if the ICS you are using does not
-properly support observing from Black's point of view,
-you will see the game from White's point of view.
-saveGameFile command-line
-option is set, as in that case all games are saved to the specified file.
-See Load and Save options.
-flipView command line option;
if it is false (the default), White's pawns move from bottom to top
at the start of each game; if it is true, Black's pawns move from
bottom to top. See User interface options.
-gnotify
+list on ICS, XBoard will automatically observe all of that
+player's games, unless you are doing something else (such as
+observing or playing a game of your own) when one starts.
+The games are displayed
+from the point of view of the player on your gnotify list; that is, his
+pawns move from the bottom of the window towards the top.
+Exceptions: If both players in a game are on your gnotify list, if
+your ICS
+highlight
+variable is set to 0, or if the ICS you are using does not
+properly support observing from Black's point of view,
+you will see the game from White's point of view.
+saveGameFile command-line
+option is set, as in that case all games are saved to the specified file.
+See Load and Save options.
+2.8 Help Menu
+3.8 Help Menu
-
-
2.9 Other Shortcut Keys
+3.9 Other Shortcut Keys
-
@@ -1081,9 +1214,9 @@ Up: Top
-3 Options
+4 Options
-3.1 Chess Engine Options
+4.1 Chess Engine Options
-
-
timeControl period.
+timeControl period.
Default: 5 minutes.
The additional options movesPerSession and timeIncrement
are mutually exclusive.
-movesPerSession moves, a
+movesPerSession moves, a
new timeControl period is added to both clocks. Default: 40 moves.
-movesPerSession is ignored.
+movesPerSession is ignored.
Instead, after each player's move, timeIncrement seconds are
added to his clock.
Use ‘-inc 0’ if you want to require the entire
game to be played in one timeControl period, with no increment.
Default: -1, which specifies movesPerSession mode.
-searchTime
is set, the chess engine still keeps track of the clock time and uses it to
determine how fast to make its moves.
-showThinking must be on for this option to work. Default: -1 (off).
Not many engines might support this yet!
-loadGameFile or loadPositionFile option is set,
XBoard
@@ -1202,35 +1335,35 @@ match is appended to the specified file. If the savePositionFile
option is set, the final position reached in each game of the match is appended
to the specified file. When the match is over, XBoard
displays the match score and exits. Default: 0 (do not run a match).
-matchMode to true is equivalent to setting
+matchMode to true is equivalent to setting
matchGames to 1.
-remoteShell
option described below.)
- new
@@ -1257,11 +1390,11 @@ and always (or never) randomize.
3.2 UCI + WB Engine Settings
+4.2 UCI + WB Engine Settings
-
-
usePolyglotBook option is set to true,
and the option firstHasOwnBookUCI or secondHasOwnBookUCI applying to the engine
is set to false.
The engine will be kept in force mode as long as the current position is in book,
-and XBoard will select the book moves for it. Default "".
-3.3 ICS options
+4.3 ICS options
-
-
chessclub.com.
Another popular chess server to try is freechess.org.
If your site doesn't have a working Internet name server, try
@@ -1377,15 +1510,15 @@ specifying the host address in numeric form.
You may also need
to specify the numeric address when using the icshelper option
with timestamp or timeseal (see below).
--useTelnet -telnetProgram program.
-gateway and useTelnet options. The default is
telnet. The telnet program is invoked with the value of
internetChessServerHost as its first argument and the value
of internetChessServerPort as its second argument.
See Firewalls.
-telnetProgram on the given host,
instead of using its own internal implementation
of the telnet protocol. You can substitute a different remote shell
program for rsh using the remoteShell option described below.
See Firewalls.
--icslogon option, inserting some delay between characters
of the logon script may help. This option adds delay
milliseconds of delay between characters. Good values to try
are 100 and 250.
-showThinking must be switched on for
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.
--colorize on without specifying your own colors.
xboard*colorSeek: blue
xboard*colorNormal: default
- 3.4 Load and Save options
+4.4 Load and Save options
-
-
loadGameFile option is set, XBoard loads the specified
+loadGameFile option is set, XBoard loads the specified
game file at startup. The file name - specifies the standard
input. If there is more than one game in the file, XBoard
pops up a menu of the available games, with entries based on their PGN
@@ -1637,16 +1772,16 @@ first game of the file when it has reached a specified value.
positions or games in auto-increment matchMode.
See loadPositionIndex and loadGameIndex.
default: 0 (no rewind).
-saveGameFile is set.
-loadPositionFile option is set, XBoard loads the
+loadPositionFile option is set, XBoard loads the
specified position file at startup. The file name - specifies the
standard input. If the loadPositionIndex option is set to N,
the Nth position found in the file is loaded; otherwise the
@@ -1659,23 +1794,23 @@ causes the index to be incremented every two games, so that each position
in the file is used twice (with the engines playing opposite colors).
The rewindIndex option causes the index to be reset to the
first position of the file when it has reached a specified value.
-3.5 User interface options
+4.5 User interface options
-
-
@@ -1911,37 +2046,37 @@ Up: Options
-titleInWindow is true,
the window layout is rearranged to make more room for the title.
If tinyLayout is 1, the labels on the menu bar are abbreviated
to one character each and the buttons in the button bar are made narrower.
-coordFont option specifies what font to use.
-monoMode; XBoard will determine if it is necessary.
-flashCount
tells XBoard how many times to flash a piece after it
@@ -1800,24 +1935,24 @@ sets flashCount to 3.
xflash
sets flashCount to 0.
Defaults: flashCount=0 (no flashing), flashRate=5.
-showCoords
+showCoords
is true. If the option value is a pattern that does not specify
the font size, XBoard tries to choose an appropriate font for
the board size being used.
Default: -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal–*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
-tol pixels
or less from the desired size. A value of -1 will force
@@ -1825,7 +1960,7 @@ a scalable font to always be used if available; a value of 0 will
use a nonscalable font only if it is exactly the right size;
a large value (say 1000) will force a nonscalable font to always be
used if available. Default: 4.
- -whitePieceColor #FFFFCC
@@ -1889,15 +2024,15 @@ Defaults:
-premoveHighlightColor gray70
-lowTimeWarningColor gray70
- 3.6 Adjudication Options
+4.6 Adjudication Options
-
-
-firstScoreAbs and -secondScoreAbs if needed.
Default: 0 (no adjudication)
-3.7 Other options
+4.7 Other options
-
-
@@ -2100,9 +2235,9 @@ Up: Top
-remoteShell. The default is your local user name.
-4 Chess Servers
+5 Chess Servers
-telnet or a
client program like XBoard to connect to the server. There are
@@ -2135,25 +2270,25 @@ unique guest name for you.
-
5 Firewalls
+6 Firewalls
6 Environment variables
+7 Environment variables
-CHESSDIR environment variable. If this variable is not set, the
current working directory is used. If CHESSDIR is set,
XBoard actually changes its working directory to
@@ -2339,9 +2474,9 @@ Up: Top
-7 Limitations and known bugs
+8 Limitations and known bugs
-8 Reporting problems
+9 Reporting problems
-https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/
or by sending mail to <bug-xboard@gnu.org>. It can also
@@ -2429,9 +2564,9 @@ Up: Top
-9 Authors and contributors
+10 Authors and contributors
-XChess program.
@@ -2490,9 +2625,9 @@ Up: Top
-10 CMail
+11 CMail
-10.1 CMail options
+11.1 CMail options
10.2 Starting a CMail Game
+11.2 Starting a CMail Game
10.3 Answering a Move
+11.3 Answering a Move
10.4 Multi-Game Messages
+11.4 Multi-Game Messages
10.5 Completing a Game
+11.5 Completing a Game
10.6 Known CMail Problems
+11.6 Known CMail Problems
11 Other programs you can use with XBoard
+12 Other programs you can use with XBoard
-
@@ -2721,7 +2856,7 @@ Up: Other programs
-
11.1 GNU Chess
+12.1 GNU Chess
11.2 Fairy-Max
+12.2 Fairy-Max
11.3 HoiChess
+12.3 HoiChess
11.4 Crafty
+12.4 Crafty
11.5 zic2xpm
+12.5 zic2xpm
Index
-
Table of Contents
-
-
-
-