Pauses updates to the board, and if you are playing against a chess engine,
also pauses your clock. To continue, select ‘Pause’ again, and the
display will automatically update to the latest position.
-The ‘P’ button and keyboard p key are equivalents.
+The ‘P’ button and keyboard 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
@@ -432,150 +626,142 @@ resume automatic loading by selecting ‘Pause
-2.3 Action Menu
+2.5 Action Menu
-
+
-- Accept
- Accepts a pending match offer. If there is more than one offer
+
- Accept
- Accepts a pending match offer.
+The 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.
-
- Decline
- Declines a pending offer (match, draw, adjourn, etc.). If there
+
- Decline
- Declines a pending offer (match, draw, adjourn, etc.).
+The 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.
-
- Call Flag
- 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 t key.
-
- Draw
- Offers a draw to your opponent, accepts a pending draw offer
+
- Call Flag
- Calls your opponent's flag, claiming a win on time, or claiming
+a draw if you are both out of time.
+The F5 key is a keyboard equivalent.
+You can also call your
+opponent's flag by clicking on his clock.
+
- Draw
- 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 d key is a keyboard equivalent.
-
- Adjourn
- Asks your opponent to agree to adjourning the current game, or
+rule, as appropriate. The F6 key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Adjourn
- Asks your opponent to agree to adjourning the current game, or
agrees to a pending adjournment offer from your opponent.
-
- Abort
- Asks your opponent to agree to aborting the current game, or
-agrees to a pending abort offer from your opponent. An aborted
+The F7 key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Abort
- Asks your opponent to agree to aborting the current game, or
+agrees to a pending abort offer from your opponent.
+The F8 key is a keyboard equivalent. An aborted
game ends immediately without affecting either player's rating.
-
- Resign
- Resigns the game to your opponent. The shifted R key is a
+
- Resign
- Resigns the game to your opponent. The F9 key is a
keyboard equivalent.
-
- Stop Observing
- Ends your participation in observing a game, by issuing the ICS
+
- Stop Observing
- Ends your participation in observing a game, by issuing the ICS
observe command with no arguments. ICS mode only.
-
- Stop Examining
- Ends your participation in examining a game, by issuing the ICS
+The F10 key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Stop Examining
- Ends your participation in examining a game, by issuing the ICS
unexamine command. ICS mode only.
-
- Adjudicate to White
- Adjudicate to Black
- Adjudicate Draw
- Terminate an ongoing game in Two-Machines mode (including match mode),
+The F11 key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Upload to Examine
- 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.
+
- Adjudicate to White
- Adjudicate to Black
- Adjudicate Draw
- Terminate an ongoing game in Two-Machines mode (including match mode),
with as result a win for white, for black, or a draw, respectively.
The PGN file of the game will accompany the result string
by the comment "user adjudication".
-2.4 Step Menu
+2.6 Engine Menu
-
+
-- Backward
- Steps backward through a series of remembered moves.
-The ‘[<]’ button and the b 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.
-
-
In most modes, ‘Backward’ only lets you look back at old positions;
-it does not retract moves. This is the case if you are playing against
-a chess engine, playing or observing a game on an ICS, or loading a game.
-If you select ‘Backward’ in any of these situations, you will not
-be allowed to make a different move. Use ‘Retract Move’ or
-‘Edit Game’ if you want to change past moves.
-
-
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of ‘Backward’
-depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode is
-off, ‘Backward’ issues the ICS backward command, which backs up
-everyone's view of the game and allows you to make a different
-move. If Pause mode is on, ‘Backward’ only backs up your local
-view.
-
- Forward
- Steps forward through a series of remembered moves (undoing the
-effect of ‘Backward’) or forward through a game file. The
-‘[>]’ button and the f key are equivalents,
-as is turning the mouse wheel away from you.
-
-
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of Forward
-depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode is
-off, ‘Forward’ issues the ICS forward command, which moves
-everyone's view of the game forward along the current line. If
-Pause mode is on, ‘Forward’ only moves your local view forward,
-and it will not go past the position that the game was in when
-you paused.
-
- Back to Start
- Jumps backward to the first remembered position in the game.
-The ‘[<<]’ button and the shifted B 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
-are playing against a local chess engine, playing or observing a game on
-a chess server, or loading a game. If you select ‘Back to Start’ in any
-of these situations, you will not be allowed to make different
-moves. Use ‘Retract Move’ or ‘Edit Game’ if you want to change past
-moves; or use Reset to start a new game.
-
-
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of ‘Back to
-Start’ depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode
-is off, ‘Back to Start’ issues the ICS ‘backward 999999’
-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.
-
- Forward to End
- Jumps forward to the last remembered position in the game. The
-‘[>>]’ button and the shifted F key are equivalents.
-
-
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of ‘Forward to
-End’ depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode
-is off, ‘Forward to End’ issues the ICS ‘forward 999999’
-command, which moves everyone's view of the game forward to the end of
-the current line. If Pause mode is on, ‘Forward to End’ only moves
-your local view forward, and it will not go past the position
-that the game was in when you paused.
-
- Revert
- If you are examining an ICS game and Pause mode is off, issues
-the ICS command ‘revert’.
-
- Truncate Game
- Discards all remembered moves of the game beyond the current
-position. Puts XBoard into ‘Edit Game’ mode if it was not there
-already.
-
- Move Now
- Forces the chess engine to move immediately. Chess engine mode only.
-
- Retract Move
- Retracts your last move. In chess engine mode, you can do this only
+
- Engine #N Settings
- Pop up a menu dialog to alter the settings specific to the applicable engine.
+(The second engine is only accessible once it has been used in Two-Machines mode.)
+For each parameter the engine allows to be set,
+a control element will appear in this dialog that can be used to alter the value.
+Depending on the type of parameter (text string, number, multiple choice,
+on/off switch, instantaneous signal) the appropriate control will appear,
+with a description next to it.
+XBoard has no idea what these values mean; it just passes them on to the engine.
+How this dialog looks is completely determined by the engine,
+and XBoard just passes it on to the user.
+Many engines do not have any parameters that can be set by the user,
+and in that case the dialog will be empty (except for the OK and cancel buttons).
+UCI engines usually have many parameters. (But these are only visible with
+a sufficiently modern version of the Polyglot adapter needed to run UCI engines,
+e.g. Polyglot 1.4.55b.) For native XBoard engines this is less common.
+
- Hint
- Displays a move hint from the chess engine.
+
- Book
- Displays a list of possible moves from the chess engine's opening
+book. The exact format depends on what chess engine you are using.
+With GNU Chess 4, the first column gives moves, the second column
+gives one possible response for each move, and the third column shows
+the number of lines in the book that include the move from the first
+column. If you select this option and nothing happens, the chess
+engine is out of its book or does not support this feature.
+
- Move Now
- Forces the chess engine to move immediately. Chess engine mode only.
+The Ctrl-M key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Retract Move
- Retracts your last move. In chess engine mode, you can do this only
after the chess engine has replied to your move; if the chess engine is still
thinking, use ‘Move Now’ first. In ICS mode, ‘Retract Move’
issues the command ‘takeback 1’ or ‘takeback 2’
depending on whether it is your opponent's move or yours.
+The Ctrl-X key is a keyboard equivalent.
-2.5 Options Menu
+2.7 Options Menu
-
+
-- Flip View
- Inverts your view of the chess board for the duration of the
-current game. Starting a new game returns the board to normal.
-The v key is a keyboard equivalent.
-
- Adjudications
- Pops up a sub-menu where you can enable or disable various adjudications
+
- Time Control
- Pops up a sub-menu where you can set the time-control parameters interactively.
+Allows you to select classical or incremental time controls,
+set the moves per session, session duration, and time increment.
+Also allows specification of time-odds factors for one or both engines.
+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 Alt+T key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Common Engine
- Pops up a sub-menu where you can set some engine parameters common to most engines,
+such as hash-table size, tablebase cache size, maximum number of processors
+that SMP engines can use, and where to find the Polyglot adapter needed
+to run UCI engines under XBoard. The feature that allows setting of these parameters on
+engines is new since XBoard 4.3.15, so not many XBoard/WinBoard engines respond
+to it yet, but UCI engines should.
+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 shifted Alt+U key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Adjudications
- Pops up a sub-menu where you can enable or disable various adjudications
that XBoard can perform in engine-engine games.
+The shifted 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
@@ -593,57 +779,44 @@ of them is behind more than a user-adjustable score threshold.
For the latter adjudication to work, XBoard should be able to properly understand
the engine's scores. To facilitate the latter, you can inform xboard here if
the engines report scores from the viewpoint of white, or from that of their own color.
-
- Engine Settings
- Pops up a sub-menu where you can set some engine parameters common to most engines,
-such as hash-table size, tablebase cache size, maximum number of processors
-that SMP engines can use, and where to find the Polyglot adapter needed
-to run UCI engines under XBoard. The feature that allows setting of these parameters on
-engines is new since XBoard 4.3.15, so not many XBoard/WinBoard engines respond
-to it yet, but UCI engines should.
-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.
-
- Time Control
- Pops up a sub-menu where you can set the time-control parameters interactively.
-Allows you to select classical or incremental time controls,
-set the moves per session, session duration, and time increment.
-Also allows specification of time-odds factors for one or both engines.
-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.
-
- Always Queen
- If this option is off, XBoard brings up a dialog
+
- Game List
- Pops up a dialog where you can select the PGN tags that should appear
+on the lines in the game list, and their order.
+
- Always Queen
- 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.
-
- Animate Dragging
- If Animate Dragging is on, while you are dragging a piece with the
+The shifted Ctrl-Q key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Animate Dragging
- If Animate Dragging is on, while you are dragging a piece with the
mouse, an image of the piece follows the mouse cursor.
If Animate Dragging is off, there is no visual feedback while you are
dragging a piece, but if Animate Moving is on, the move will be
animated when it is complete.
-
- Animate Moving
- If Animate Moving is on, all piece moves are animated. An image of the
+
- Animate Moving
- If Animate Moving is on, all piece moves are animated. An image of the
piece is shown moving from the old square to the new square when 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.
-
- Auto Comment
- If this option is on, any remarks made on ICS while you are observing or
+The shifted Ctrl-A key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Auto Comment
- If this option is on, any remarks made on ICS while you are observing or
playing a game are recorded as a comment on the current move. This includes
remarks made with the ICS commands say, tell, whisper,
and kibitz.
Limitation: remarks that you type yourself are not recognized;
XBoard scans only the output from ICS, not the input you type to it.
-
- Auto Flag
- If this option is on and one player runs out of time
+
- Auto Flag
- If this option is on and one player runs out of time
before the other,
XBoard
will automatically call his flag, claiming a win on time.
+The shifted 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.
-
- Auto Flip View
- If the Auto Flip View option is on when you start a game, the board
+may call either player's flag and will not take material into account (?).
+
- Auto Flip View
- If the Auto Flip View option is on when you start a game, the board
will be automatically oriented so that your pawns move from the bottom
of the window towards the top.
-
- Auto Observe
- If this option is on and you add a player to your
gnotify
+
- Auto Observe
- If this option is on and you add a player to your
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.
@@ -656,19 +829,19 @@ your ICS
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.
-
- Auto Raise Board
- If this option is on, whenever a new game begins, the chessboard window
+
- Auto Raise Board
- If this option is on, whenever a new game begins, the chessboard window
is deiconized (if necessary) and raised to the top of the stack of windows.
-
- Auto Save
- If this option is true, at the end of every game XBoard prompts
+
- Auto Save
- If this option is true, at the end of every game XBoard prompts
you for a file name and appends a record of the game to the file
you specify.
Disabled if the
saveGameFile command-line
option is set, as in that case all games are saved to the specified file.
See Load and Save options.
-
- Blindfold
- If this option is on, XBoard displays the board as usual but does
+
- Blindfold
- If this option is on, XBoard displays the board as usual but does
not display pieces or move highlights. You can still move in the
usual way (with the mouse or by typing moves in ICS mode), even though
the pieces are invisible.
-
- Flash Moves
- If this option is on, whenever a move is completed, the moved piece flashes.
+
- Flash Moves
- If this option is on, whenever a move is completed, the moved piece flashes.
The number of times to flash is set by the flashCount command-line
option; it defaults to 3 if Flash Moves is first turned on from the menu.
@@ -679,7 +852,7 @@ orientation is determined by the
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.
-
- Get Move List
- If this option is on, whenever XBoard
+
- Get Move List
- If this option is on, whenever XBoard
receives the first board of a new ICS game (or a different game from
the one it is currently displaying), it
retrieves the list of past moves from the ICS.
@@ -691,11 +864,19 @@ to keep from wasting time and network bandwidth fetching the move lists over
and over.
When you turn this option on from the menu, XBoard
immediately fetches the move list of the current game (if any).
-
- Highlight Last Move
- If Highlight Last Move is on, after a move is made, the starting and
+
- Highlight Dragging
- If Highlight Dragging is on, and the option -showTargetSquares is also on
+in the settings file, all squares a piece that is 'picked up' with the mouse
+can legally move to are highighted with a fat colored dot in the
+highlightColor (non-captures) or premoveHighlightColor (captures).
+Legality testing must be on for XBoard to know how the piece moves.
+
- Highlight Last Move
- If Highlight Last Move is on, after a move is made, the starting and
ending squares remain highlighted. In addition, after you use Backward
or Back to Start, the starting and ending squares of the last move to
be unmade are highlighted.
-
- Move Sound
- If this option is on, XBoard alerts you by playing a sound
+
- Highlight with Arrow
- Causes the highlighting described in Highlight Last Move to be done
+by drawing an arrow between the highlighted squares,
+so that it is visible even when the width of the grid lines is set to zero.
+
- Move Sound
- If this option is on, XBoard alerts you by playing a sound
after each of your opponent's moves (or after every
move if you are observing a game on the Internet Chess Server).
The sound is not played after moves you make or moves read from a
@@ -709,38 +890,43 @@ Chess Server, you will probably want to give the
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.)
-
- ICS Alarm
- When this option is on, an alarm sound is played when your clock
+
- ICS Alarm
- When this option is on, an alarm sound is played when your clock
counts down to the icsAlarmTime (by default, 5 seconds) in an ICS
game. For games with time controls that include an increment, the
alarm will sound each time the clock counts down to the icsAlarmTime.
By default, the alarm sound is the terminal bell, but on some systems
you can change it to a sound file using the soundIcsAlarm option; see
below.
-
- Old Save Style
- If this option is off, XBoard saves games in PGN
-(portable game notation) and positions in FEN (Forsythe-Edwards
-notation). If the option is on, a save style that is compatible
-with older versions of XBoard is used instead.
-The old position style is more human-readable
-than FEN; the old game style has no particular advantages.
-
- Periodic Updates
- If this option is off (or if
+
- One-Click Moving
- If this option is on, XBoard does not wait for you to click both the
+from- and the to-square, or drag the piece, but performs a move as soon
+as it is uniqely specified.
+This applies to clicking an own piece that only has a single legal move,
+clicking an empty square or opponent piece where only one of your pieces
+can move (or capture) to.
+Furthermore, a double-click on a piece that can only make a single capture
+will cause that capture to be made.
+Promoting a Pawn by clicking its to-square will suppress the promotion
+popup, and make it promote to Queen.
+
- Periodic Updates
- If this option is off (or if
you are using a chess engine that does not support periodic updates),
the analysis window
will only be updated when the analysis changes. If this option is
on, the Analysis Window will be updated every two seconds.
-
- Ponder Next Move
- If this option is off, the chess engine will think only when it is on
+
- Ponder Next Move
- 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.
-
- Popup Exit Message
- If this option is on, when XBoard wants to display a message just
+The shifted Ctrl-P key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Popup Exit Message
- If this option is on, when XBoard wants to display a message just
before exiting, it brings up a modal dialog box and waits for you to
click OK before exiting. If the option is off, XBoard prints the
message to standard error (the terminal) and exits immediately.
-
- Popup Move Errors
- If this option is off, when you make an error in moving (such as
+
- Popup Move Errors
- If this option is off, when you make an error in moving (such as
attempting an illegal move or moving the wrong color piece), the
error message is displayed in the message area. If the option is
on, move errors are displayed in small pop-up windows like other errors.
You can dismiss an error pop-up either by clicking its OK button or by
clicking anywhere on the board, including down-clicking to start a move.
-
- Premove
- If this option is on while playing a game on an ICS, you can register
+
- Premove
- If this option is on while playing a game on an ICS, you can register
your next planned move before it is your turn. Move the piece with
the mouse in the ordinary way, and the starting and ending squares
will be highlighted with a special color (red by default). When it is
@@ -749,23 +935,25 @@ ICS immediately; if not, it will be ignored and you can make a
different move. If you change your mind about your premove, either
make a different move, or double-click on any piece to cancel the move
entirely.
-
- Quiet Play
- If this option is on, XBoard will automatically issue an ICS
+
- Quiet Play
- If this option is on, XBoard will automatically issue an ICS
set shout 0
command whenever you start a game and a
set shout 1
command whenever you finish one. Thus, you will not be distracted
by shouts from other ICS users while playing.
-
- Show Coords
- If this option is on, XBoard displays algebraic coordinates
+
- Show Coords
- If this option is on, XBoard displays algebraic coordinates
along the board's left and bottom edges.
-
- Hide Thinking
- If this option is off, the chess engine's notion of the score and best
+
- Hide Thinking
- If this option is off, the chess engine's notion of the score and best
line of play from the current position is displayed as it is
thinking. The score indicates how many pawns ahead (or if negative,
behind) the chess engine thinks it is. In matches between two
machines, the score is prefixed by ‘W’ or ‘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.
-
- Test Legality
- If this option is on, XBoard tests whether the moves you try to make
+The shifted Ctrl-H key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Test Legality
- 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 Ctrl-L key is a keyboard equivalent.
Moves loaded from a file with ‘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
@@ -773,61 +961,79 @@ off this option is useful if you are playing a chess variant with
rules that XBoard does not understand. (Bughouse, suicide, and wild
variants where the king may castle after starting on the d file are
generally supported with Test Legality on.)
+
- Save Settings Now
- Selecting this menu item causes the current XBoard settings to be
+written to the settings file, so they will also apply in future sessions.
+Note that some settings are 'volatile', and are not saved,
+because XBoard considers it too unlikely that you want those to apply
+next time.
+In particular this applies to the Chess program names, and all options
+giving information on those Chess programs (such as their directory,
+if they have their own opening book, if they are UCI or native XBoard),
+or the variant you are playing.
+Such options would still be understood when they appear in the settings
+file in case they were put there with the aid of a text editor, but they
+would disappear from the file as soon as you save the settings.
+
- Save Settings on Exit
- Setting this option has no immediate effect, but causes the settings
+to be saved when you quit XBoard. What happens then is otherwise
+identical to what happens when you use select "Save Settings Now",
+see there.
-2.6 Help Menu
+2.8 Help Menu
-
+
-- Info XBoard
- Displays the XBoard documentation in info format. For this feature to
+
- Info XBoard
- Displays the XBoard documentation in info format. For this feature to
work, you must have the GNU info program installed on your system, and
the file xboard.info must either be present in the current
working directory, or have been installed by the ‘make install’
command when you built XBoard.
-
- Man XBoard
- Displays the XBoard documentation in man page format. For this
+
- Man XBoard
- Displays the XBoard documentation in man page format.
+The F1 key is a keyboard equivalent. For this
feature to work, the file xboard.6 must have been installed by
the ‘make install’ command when you built XBoard, and the
directory it was placed in must be on the search path for your
system's ‘man’ command.
-
- Hint
- Displays a move hint from the chess engine.
-
- Book
- Displays a list of possible moves from the chess engine's opening
-book. The exact format depends on what chess engine you are using.
-With GNU Chess 4, the first column gives moves, the second column
-gives one possible response for each move, and the third column shows
-the number of lines in the book that include the move from the first
-column. If you select this option and nothing happens, the chess
-engine is out of its book or does not support this feature.
-
- About XBoard
- Shows the current XBoard version number.
+
- About XBoard
- Shows the current XBoard version number.
-2.7 Other Shortcut Keys
+2.9 Other Shortcut Keys
-
+
-- Iconize
- Pressing the i or c key iconizes XBoard. The graphical
+
- Iconize
- Pressing the - 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
a way to enable graphical icons. If you get black and white reversed,
we would like to hear about it; see Problems below for
instructions on how to report this problem.
+
- Load Next Game
- Loads the next game from the last game record file you loaded.
+The Alt+PgDn key is a keyboard equivalent.
+
- Load Previous Game
- Loads the previous game from the last game record file you
+loaded. The Alt+PgUp 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.
+
- Reload Same Position
- Reloads the last position you loaded.
+Not available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.
You can add or remove shortcut keys using the X resources
@@ -867,8 +1073,8 @@ are:
ToStartProc, TrainingProc, TruncateGameProc, and TwoMachinesProc.
-
+
Next:
Chess Servers,
Previous:
Menus,
Up:
Top
@@ -877,7 +1083,7 @@ Up:
Top
3 Options
-
+
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
@@ -914,8 +1120,8 @@ true or false (‘XBoard*longOptionName: true
-
+
Next:
UCI + WB Engine Settings,
Up:
Options
@@ -923,36 +1129,36 @@ Up:
Options
3.1 Chess Engine Options
-
+
-- -tc or -timeControl minutes[:seconds]
- Each player begins with his clock set to the
timeControl period.
+ - -tc or -timeControl minutes[:seconds]
- Each player begins with his clock set to the
timeControl period.
Default: 5 minutes.
The additional options movesPerSession and timeIncrement
are mutually exclusive.
-
- -mps or -movesPerSession moves
- When both players have made
movesPerSession moves, a
+
- -mps or -movesPerSession moves
- When both players have made
movesPerSession moves, a
new timeControl period is added to both clocks. Default: 40 moves.
-
- -inc or -timeIncrement seconds
- If this option is specified,
movesPerSession is ignored.
+
- -inc or -timeIncrement seconds
- If this option is specified,
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.
-
- -clock/-xclock or -clockMode true/false
- Determines whether or not to display the chess clocks. If clockMode is
+
- -clock/-xclock or -clockMode true/false
- Determines whether or not to display the chess clocks. If clockMode is
false, the clocks are not shown, but the side that is to play next
is still highlighted. Also, unless
searchTime
is set, the chess engine still keeps track of the clock time and uses it to
determine how fast to make its moves.
-
- -st or -searchTime minutes[:seconds]
- Tells the chess engine to spend at most the given amount of time
+
- -st or -searchTime minutes[:seconds]
- Tells the chess engine to spend at most the given amount of time
searching for each of its moves. Without this option, the chess engine
chooses its search time based on the number of moves and amount
of time remaining until the next time control.
Setting this option also sets clockMode to false.
-
- -depth or -searchDepth number
- Tells the chess engine to look ahead at most the given number of moves
+
- -depth or -searchDepth number
- Tells the chess engine to look ahead at most the given number of moves
when searching for a move to make. Without this option, the chess
engine chooses its search depth based on the number of moves and
amount of time remaining until the next time control. With the option,
the engine will cut off its search early if it reaches the specified depth.
-
- -firstNPS number
- -secondNPS number
- Tells the chess engine to use an internal time standard based on its node count,
+
- -firstNPS number
- -secondNPS number
- Tells the chess engine to use an internal time standard based on its node count,
rather then wall-clock time, to make its timing decisions.
The time in virtual seconds should be obtained by dividing the node count
through the given number, like the number was a rate in nodes per second.
@@ -965,16 +1171,16 @@ can provide fairer conditions for engine-engine matches on heavily loaded machin
or with very fast games (where the wall clock is too inaccurate).
showThinking must be on for this option to work. Default: -1 (off).
Not many engines might support this yet!
-
- -firstTimeOdds factor
- -secondTimeOdds factor
- Reduces the time given to the mentioned engine by the given factor.
+
- -firstTimeOdds factor
- -secondTimeOdds factor
- Reduces the time given to the mentioned engine by the given factor.
If pondering is off, the effect is indistinguishable from what would happen
if the engine was running on an n-times slower machine. Default: 1.
-
- -timeOddsMode mode
- This option determines how the case is handled where both engines have a time-odds handicap.
+
- -timeOddsMode mode
- This option determines how the case is handled where both engines have a time-odds handicap.
If mode=1, the engine that gets the most time will always get the nominal time,
as specified by the time-control options, and its opponent's time is renormalized accordingly.
If mode=0, both play with reduced time. Default: 0.
- -hideThinkingFromHuman true/false
- Controls the Hide Thinking option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
(Replaces the Show-Thinking option of older xboard versions.)
-
- -thinking/-xthinking or -showThinking true/false
- Forces the engine to send thinking output to xboard.
+
- -thinking/-xthinking or -showThinking true/false
- Forces the engine to send thinking output to xboard.
Used to be the only way to control if thinking output was displayed
in older xboard versions,
but as the thinking output in xboard 4.3 is also used for several other
@@ -982,10 +1188,10 @@ purposes (adjudication, storing in PGN file) the display of it is now controlled
by the new option Hide Thinking. See Options Menu. Default: false.
(But if xboard needs the thinking output for some purpose,
it makes the engine send it despite the setting of this option.)
-
- -ponder/-xponder or -ponderNextMove true/false
- Sets the Ponder Next Move menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -ponder/-xponder or -ponderNextMove true/false
- Sets the Ponder Next Move menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
- -smpCores number
- Specifies the maximum number of CPUs an SMP engine is allowed to use.
Only works for engines that support the XBoard/WinBoard-protocol cores feature.
-
- -mg or -matchGames n
- Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
+
- -mg or -matchGames n
- Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
with alternating colors.
If the
loadGameFile or loadPositionFile option is set,
XBoard
@@ -996,35 +1202,35 @@ 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).
-
- -mm/-xmm or -matchMode true/false
- Setting
matchMode to true is equivalent to setting
+
- -mm/-xmm or -matchMode true/false
- Setting
matchMode to true is equivalent to setting
matchGames to 1.
-
- -sameColorGames n
- Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
+
- -sameColorGames n
- Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
without alternating colors.
Otherwise the same applies as for the ‘-matchGames’ option,
over which it takes precedence if both are specified. (See there.)
Default: 0 (do not run a match).
-
- -fcp or -firstChessProgram program
- Name of first chess engine.
+
- -fcp or -firstChessProgram program
- Name of first chess engine.
Default: Fairy-Max.
-
- -scp or -secondChessProgram program
- Name of second chess engine, if needed.
+
- -scp or -secondChessProgram program
- Name of second chess engine, if needed.
A second chess engine is started only in Two Machines (match) mode.
Default: Fairy-Max.
-
- -fb/-xfb or -firstPlaysBlack true/false
- In games between two chess engines, firstChessProgram normally plays
+
- -fb/-xfb or -firstPlaysBlack true/false
- In games between two chess engines, firstChessProgram normally plays
white. If this option is true, firstChessProgram plays black. In a
multi-game match, this option affects the colors only for the first
game; they still alternate in subsequent games.
-
- -fh or -firstHost host
- -sh or -secondHost host
- Hosts on which the chess engines are to run. The default for
+
- -fh or -firstHost host
- -sh or -secondHost host
- Hosts on which the chess engines are to run. The default for
each is localhost. If you specify another host, XBoard
uses rsh to run the chess engine there. (You can substitute a
different remote shell program for rsh using the
remoteShell
option described below.)
-
- -fd or -firstDirectory dir
- -sd or -secondDirectory dir
- Working directories in which the chess engines are to be run.
+
- -fd or -firstDirectory dir
- -sd or -secondDirectory dir
- Working directories in which the chess engines are to be run.
The default is "", which means to run the chess engine
in the same working directory as XBoard
itself. (See the CHESSDIR environment variable.)
This option is effective only when the chess engine is being run
on the local host; it does not work if the engine is run remotely
using the -fh or -sh option.
-
- -initString string
- -secondInitString string
- The string that is sent to initialize each chess engine for a new game.
+
- -initString string
- -secondInitString string
- The string that is sent to initialize each chess engine for a new game.
Default:
new
@@ -1051,11 +1257,11 @@ and always (or never) randomize.
You can also try adding other commands to the initString; see the
documentation of the chess engine you are using for details.
-
- -firstComputerString string
- -secondComputerString string
- The string that is sent to the chess engine if its opponent is another
+
- -firstComputerString string
- -secondComputerString string
- The string that is sent to the chess engine if its opponent is another
computer chess engine. The default is ‘computer\n’. Probably the
only useful alternative is the empty string (‘’), which keeps the
engine from knowing that it is playing another computer.
-
- -reuse/-xreuse or -reuseFirst true/false
- -reuse2/-xreuse2 or -reuseSecond true/false
- If the option is false,
+
- -reuse/-xreuse or -reuseFirst true/false
- -reuse2/-xreuse2 or -reuseSecond true/false
- If the option is false,
XBoard kills off the chess engine after every game and starts
it again for the next game.
If the option is true (the default),
@@ -1063,26 +1269,26 @@ XBoard starts the chess engine only once
and uses it repeatedly to play multiple games.
Some old chess engines may not work properly when
reuse is turned on, but otherwise games will start faster if it is left on.
-
- -firstProtocolVersion version-number
- -secondProtocolVersion version-number
- This option specifies which version of the chess engine communication
+
- -firstProtocolVersion version-number
- -secondProtocolVersion version-number
- This option specifies which version of the chess engine communication
protocol to use. By default, version-number is 2. In version 1, the
"protover" command is not sent to the engine; since version 1 is a
subset of version 2, nothing else changes. Other values for
version-number are not supported.
-
- -firstScoreAbs true/false
- -secondScoreAbs true/false
- If this option is set, the score reported by the engine is taken to be
+
- -firstScoreAbs true/false
- -secondScoreAbs true/false
- If this option is set, the score reported by the engine is taken to be
that in favor of white, even when the engine plays black.
Important when XBoard uses the score for adjudications, or in PGN reporting.
-
- -niceEngines priority
- This option allows you to lower the priority of the engine processes,
+
- -niceEngines priority
- This option allows you to lower the priority of the engine processes,
so that the generally insatiable hunger for CPU time of chess engines does not interfere so much
with smooth operation of XBoard (or the rest of your system).
Negative values could increase the engine priority, which is not recommended.
-
- -firstOptions string
- -secondOptions string
- The given string is a comma-separated list of (option name=option value) pairs,
+
- -firstOptions string
- -secondOptions string
- The given string is a comma-separated list of (option name=option value) pairs,
like the following example: "style=Karpov,blunder rate=0".
If an option announced by the engine at startup through the feature commands of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol
matches one of the option names (i.e. "style" or "blunder rate"),
it would be set to the given value (i.e. "Karpov" or 0)
through a corresponding option command to the engine.
This provided that the type of the value (text or numeric) matches as well.
-
- -firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
- -secondNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
- The castling rights and e.p. fields of the FEN sent to the mentioned engine
+
- -firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
- -secondNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
- The castling rights and e.p. fields of the FEN sent to the mentioned engine
with the setboard command will be replaced by the given string. This can for
instance be used to run engines that do not understand Chess960 FENs in
variant fischerandom, to make them at least understand the opening position,
@@ -1092,12 +1298,16 @@ castling and e.p. fields in variants that do not have castling or e.p.
(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).
+
- -shuffleOpenings
- 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.
-
+
Next:
ICS options,
Previous:
Chess engine options,
Up:
Options
@@ -1106,33 +1316,33 @@ Up:
Options
3.2 UCI + WB Engine Settings
-
+
-- -fUCI or -firstIsUCI true/false
- -sUCI or -secondIsUCI true/false
- Indicates if the mentioned engine executable file is an UCI engine,
+
- -fUCI or -firstIsUCI true/false
- -sUCI or -secondIsUCI true/false
- Indicates if the mentioned engine executable file is an UCI engine,
and should be run with the aid of the Polyglot adapter rather than directly.
Xboard will then pass the other UCI options and engine name to Polyglot
through a .ini temporary file created for the purpose.
-
- -PolyglotDir filename
- Gives the name of the directory in which the Polyglot adapter for UCI engines expects its files.
+
- -PolyglotDir filename
- Gives the name of the directory in which the Polyglot adapter for UCI engines expects its files.
Default: "/usr/local/share/polyglot".
-
- -usePolyglotBook true/false
- Specifies if the Polyglot book should be used.
-
- -PolyglotBook filename
- Gives the filename of the opening book that Polyglot should use.
+
- -usePolyglotBook true/false
- Specifies if the Polyglot book should be used.
+
- -PolyglotBook filename
- Gives the filename of the opening book that Polyglot should use.
From XBoard 4.3.15 on, native XBoard/WinBoard engines will also use the opening book specified here,
provided the
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 "".
-
- -fNoOwnBookUCI or -firstXBook or -firstHasOwnBookUCI true/false
- -sNoOwnBookUCI or -secondXBook or -secondHasOwnBookUCI true/false
- Indicates if the mentioned engine has its own opening book it should play from,
+
- -fNoOwnBookUCI or -firstXBook or -firstHasOwnBookUCI true/false
- -sNoOwnBookUCI or -secondXBook or -secondHasOwnBookUCI true/false
- Indicates if the mentioned engine has its own opening book it should play from,
rather than using the external book through XBoard. Default: false.
-
- -defaultHashSize n
- Sets the size of the hash table to n MegaBytes. Together with the EGTB cache size
+
- -defaultHashSize n
- Sets the size of the hash table to n MegaBytes. Together with the EGTB cache size
this number is also used to calculate the memory setting of XBoard/WinBoard engines,
for those that support the memory feature of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol. Default: 64.
-
- -defaultCacheSizeEGTB n
- Sets the size of the EGTB cache to n MegaBytes. Together with the hash-table size
+
- -defaultCacheSizeEGTB n
- Sets the size of the EGTB cache to n MegaBytes. Together with the hash-table size
this number is also used to calculate the memory setting of XBoard/WinBoard engines,
for those that support the memory feature of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol. Default: 4.
-
- -defaultPathEGTB filename
- Gives the name of the directory where the end-game tablebases are installed, for UCI engines.
+
- -defaultPathEGTB filename
- Gives the name of the directory where the end-game tablebases are installed, for UCI engines.
Default: "/usr/local/share/egtb".
-
- -egtFormats string
- Specifies which end-game tables are installed on the computer, and where.
+
- -egtFormats string
- Specifies which end-game tables are installed on the computer, and where.
The argument is a comma-separated list of format specifications,
each specification consisting of a format name, a colon, and a directory path name,
e.g. "nalimov:/usr/local/share/egtb".
@@ -1144,8 +1354,8 @@ Default: "".
-
+
Next:
Load and Save options,
Previous:
UCI + WB Engine Settings,
Up:
Options
@@ -1154,12 +1364,12 @@ Up:
Options
3.3 ICS options
-
+
-- -ics/-xics or -internetChessServerMode true/false
- Connect with an Internet Chess Server to play chess against its
+
- -ics/-xics or -internetChessServerMode true/false
- Connect with an Internet Chess Server to play chess against its
other users, observe games they are playing, or review games
that have recently finished. Default: false.
-
- -icshost or -internetChessServerHost host
- The Internet host name or address of the chess server to connect
+
- -icshost or -internetChessServerHost host
- The Internet host name or address of the chess server to connect
to when in ICS mode. Default:
chessclub.com.
Another popular chess server to try is freechess.org.
If your site doesn't have a working Internet name server, try
@@ -1167,15 +1377,15 @@ 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).
-
- -icsport or -internetChessServerPort port-number
- The port number to use when connecting to a chess server in ICS
+
- -icsport or -internetChessServerPort port-number
- The port number to use when connecting to a chess server in ICS
mode. Default: 5000.
-
- -icshelper or -internetChessServerHelper prog-name
- An external helper program used to communicate with the chess server.
+
- -icshelper or -internetChessServerHelper prog-name
- An external helper program used to communicate with the chess server.
You would set it to "timestamp" for ICC (chessclub.com) or
"timeseal" for FICS (freechess.org), after
obtaining the correct version of timestamp or timeseal for your
computer. See "help timestamp" on ICC and "help timeseal" on FICS.
This option is shorthand for
-useTelnet -telnetProgram program.
-
- -telnet/-xtelnet or -useTelnet true/false
- This option is poorly named; it should be called useHelper.
+
- -telnet/-xtelnet or -useTelnet true/false
- This option is poorly named; it should be called useHelper.
If set to true, it instructs XBoard to run an external
program to communicate with the Internet Chess Server.
The program to use is given by the telnetProgram option.
@@ -1183,21 +1393,21 @@ If the option is
false (the default), XBoard opens a TCP socket and uses its own
internal implementation of the telnet protocol to communicate with the
ICS. See Firewalls.
-
- -telnetProgram prog-name
- This option is poorly named; it should be called helperProgram.
+
- -telnetProgram prog-name
- This option is poorly named; it should be called helperProgram.
It gives the name of the telnet program to be used with
the
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.
-
- -gateway host-name
- If this option is set to a host name, XBoard communicates with the
+
- -gateway host-name
- If this option is set to a host name, XBoard communicates with the
Internet Chess Server by using rsh to run
the
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.
-
- -internetChessServerCommPort or -icscomm dev-name
- If this option is set, XBoard communicates with the ICS through
+
- -internetChessServerCommPort or -icscomm dev-name
- If this option is set, XBoard communicates with the ICS through
the given character I/O device instead of opening a TCP connection.
Use this option if your system does not have any kind of
Internet connection itself (not even a SLIP or PPP connection),
@@ -1240,7 +1450,7 @@ Then telnet to ICS, using a command like
telnet chessclub.com 5000.
Important: See the paragraph below about extra echoes,
in Limitations.
-
- -icslogon or -internetChessServerLogonScript file-name
- Whenever XBoard connects to the Internet Chess Server,
+
- -icslogon or -internetChessServerLogonScript file-name
- Whenever XBoard connects to the Internet Chess Server,
if it finds a file with the name given in this option, it feeds the
file's contents to the ICS as commands. The default file name
is .icsrc.
@@ -1248,34 +1458,75 @@ Usually the first two lines of the file should be
your ICS user name and password.
The file can be either in $CHESSDIR, in XBoard's working
directory if CHESSDIR is not set, or in your home directory.
-
- -msLoginDelay delay
- If you experience trouble logging on to an ICS when using the
+
- -msLoginDelay delay
- If you experience trouble logging on to an ICS when using the
-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.
-
- -icsinput/-xicsinput or -internetChessServerInputBox true/false
- Sets the ICS Input Box menu option. See Mode Menu. Default: false.
-
- -autocomm/-xautocomm or -autoComment true/false
- Sets the Auto Comment menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -autoflag/-xautoflag or -autoCallFlag true/false
- Sets the Auto Flag menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -autobs/-xautobs or -autoObserve true/false
- Sets the Auto Observe menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -autoKibitz
- Enables kibitzing of the engines last thinking output (depth, score, time, speed, PV)
+
- -icsinput/-xicsinput or -internetChessServerInputBox true/false
- Sets the ICS Input Box menu option. See Mode Menu. Default: false.
+
- -autocomm/-xautocomm or -autoComment true/false
- Sets the Auto Comment menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -autoflag/-xautoflag or -autoCallFlag true/false
- Sets the Auto Flag menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -autobs/-xautobs or -autoObserve true/false
- Sets the Auto Observe menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -autoKibitz
- Enables kibitzing of the engines last thinking output (depth, score, time, speed, PV)
before it moved
to the ICS, in zippy mode. The option
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.
-
- -moves/-xmoves or -getMoveList true/false
- Sets the Get Move List menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-
- -alarm/-xalarm or -icsAlarm true/false
- Sets the ICS Alarm menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-
- -icsAlarmTime ms
- Sets the time in milliseconds for the ICS Alarm menu option.
+
- -seekGraph true/false or -sg
- 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.
+
- -autoRefresh true/false
- 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.
+
- -backgroundObserve true/false
- 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.
+
- -dualBoard true/false
- 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.
+
- -oneClickMove true/false
- 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.
+Default: false.
+
- -moves/-xmoves or -getMoveList true/false
- Sets the Get Move List menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -alarm/-xalarm or -icsAlarm true/false
- Sets the ICS Alarm menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -icsAlarmTime ms
- Sets the time in milliseconds for the ICS Alarm menu option.
See Options Menu. Default: 5000.
-
- lowTimeWarning true/false
- Controls a color change of the board as a warning your time is running out.
+
- lowTimeWarning true/false
- Controls a color change of the board as a warning your time is running out.
See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -pre/-xpre \fRor\fB -premove true/false
- Sets the Premove menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-
- -quiet/-xquiet or -quietPlay true/false
- Sets the Quiet Play menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -colorizeMessages or -colorize
- Setting colorizeMessages
+
- -pre/-xpre \fRor\fB -premove true/false
- Sets the Premove menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -quiet/-xquiet or -quietPlay true/false
- Sets the Quiet Play menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -colorizeMessages or -colorize
- Setting colorizeMessages
to true tells XBoard to colorize the messages received from
the ICS. Colorization works only if your xterm
supports ISO 6429 escape sequences for changing text colors.
-
- -colorShout foreground,background,bold
- -colorSShout foreground,background,bold
- -colorChannel1 foreground,background,bold
- -colorChannel foreground,background,bold
- -colorKibitz foreground,background,bold
- -colorTell foreground,background,bold
- -colorChallege foreground,background,bold
- -colorRequest foreground,background,bold
- -colorSeek foreground,background,bold
- -colorNormal foreground,background,bold
- These options set the colors used when colorizing ICS messages.
+
- -colorShout foreground,background,bold
- -colorSShout foreground,background,bold
- -colorChannel1 foreground,background,bold
- -colorChannel foreground,background,bold
- -colorKibitz foreground,background,bold
- -colorTell foreground,background,bold
- -colorChallege foreground,background,bold
- -colorRequest foreground,background,bold
- -colorSeek foreground,background,bold
- -colorNormal foreground,background,bold
- These options set the colors used when colorizing ICS messages.
All ICS messages are grouped into one of these categories:
shout, sshout, channel 1, other channel, kibitz, tell, challenge,
request (including abort, adjourn, draw, pause, and takeback), or
@@ -1303,22 +1554,22 @@ them if you turn
-colorize on without specifying your own colors.
xboard*colorSeek: blue
xboard*colorNormal: default
-
- -soundProgram progname
- If this option is set to a sound-playing program that is installed and
+
- -soundProgram progname
- If this option is set to a sound-playing program that is installed and
working on your system, XBoard can play sound files when certain
events occur, listed below. The default program name is "play". If
any of the sound options is set to "$", the event rings the terminal
bell by sending a ^G character to standard output, instead of playing
a sound file. If an option is set to the empty string "", no sound is
played for that event.
-
- -soundShout filename
- -soundSShout filename
- -soundChannel filename
- -soundKibitz filename
- -soundTell filename
- -soundChallenge filename
- -soundRequest filename
- -soundSeek filename
- These sounds are triggered in the same way as the colorization events
+
- -soundShout filename
- -soundSShout filename
- -soundChannel filename
- -soundKibitz filename
- -soundTell filename
- -soundChallenge filename
- -soundRequest filename
- -soundSeek filename
- These sounds are triggered in the same way as the colorization events
described above. They all default to "", no sound. They are played
only if the colorizeMessages is on.
-
- -soundMove filename
- This sound is used by the Move Sound menu option. Default: "$".
-
- -soundIcsAlarm filename
- This sound is used by the ICS Alarm menu option. Default: "$".
-
- -soundIcsWin filename
- This sound is played when you win an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
-
- -soundIcsLoss filename
- This sound is played when you lose an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
-
- -soundIcsDraw filename
- This sound is played when you draw an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
-
- -soundIcsUnfinished filename
- This sound is played when an ICS game that you are participating in is
+
- -soundMove filename
- This sound is used by the Move Sound menu option. Default: "$".
+
- -soundIcsAlarm filename
- This sound is used by the ICS Alarm menu option. Default: "$".
+
- -soundIcsWin filename
- This sound is played when you win an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
+
- -soundIcsLoss filename
- This sound is played when you lose an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
+
- -soundIcsDraw filename
- This sound is played when you draw an ICS game. Default: "" (no sound).
+
- -soundIcsUnfinished filename
- This sound is played when an ICS game that you are participating in is
aborted, adjourned, or otherwise ends inconclusively. Default: "" (no
sound).
@@ -1340,11 +1591,19 @@ sound).
xboard*soundIcsUnfinished: unfinished.wav
xboard*soundIcsAlarm: alarm.wav
-
+
-dropMenu true|falseThis option allows you to emulate old behavior,
+where the right mouse button brings up the (now deprecated) drop menu
+rather than displaying the position at the end of the principal variation.
+Default: False.
+
-variations true|falseWhen this option is on, you can start new variations in Edit Game or
+Analyze mode by holding the Shift key down while entering a move.
+When it is off, the Shift key will be ignored.
+Default: False.
+
-
+
Next:
User interface options,
Previous:
ICS options,
Up:
Options
@@ -1353,9 +1612,9 @@ Up:
Options
3.4 Load and Save options
-
+
-- -lgf or -loadGameFile file
- -lgi or -loadGameIndex index
- If the
loadGameFile option is set, XBoard loads the specified
+ - -lgf or -loadGameFile file
- -lgi or -loadGameIndex index
- If the
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
@@ -1378,16 +1637,16 @@ 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).
-
- -td or -timeDelay seconds
- Time delay between moves during ‘Load Game’. Fractional seconds
-are allowed; try ‘-td 0.4’. A time delay value of -1 tells
-XBoard not to step through game files automatically. Default: 1
-second.
-
- -sgf or -saveGameFile file
- If this option is set, XBoard appends a record of every game
+
- -td or -timeDelay seconds
- Time delay between moves during ‘Load Game’ or ‘Analyze File’.
+Fractional seconds are allowed; try ‘-td 0.4’.
+A time delay value of -1 tells
+XBoard not to step through game files automatically. Default: 1 second.
+
- -sgf or -saveGameFile file
- If this option is set, XBoard appends a record of every game
played to the specified file. The file name - specifies the
standard output.
-
- -autosave/-xautosave or -autoSaveGames true/false
- Sets the Auto Save menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -autosave/-xautosave or -autoSaveGames true/false
- Sets the Auto Save menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
Ignored if
saveGameFile is set.
-
- -lpf or -loadPositionFile file
- -lpi or -loadPositionIndex index
- If the
loadPositionFile option is set, XBoard loads the
+
- -lpf or -loadPositionFile file
- -lpi or -loadPositionIndex index
- If 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
@@ -1400,26 +1659,46 @@ 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.
-
- -spf or -savePositionFile file
- If this option is set, XBoard appends the final position reached
+
- -spf or -savePositionFile file
- If this option is set, XBoard appends the final position reached
in every game played to the specified file. The file name -
specifies the standard output.
-
- -pgnExtendedInfo true/false
- If this option is set, XBoard saves depth, score and time used for each
+
- -pgnExtendedInfo true/false
- If this option is set, XBoard saves depth, score and time used for each
move that the engine found as a comment in the PGN file.
Default: false.
-
- -pgnEventHeader string
- Sets the name used in the PGN event tag to string.
+
- -pgnEventHeader string
- Sets the name used in the PGN event tag to string.
Default: "Computer Chess Game".
-
- -saveOutOfBookInfo true/false
- Include the information on how the engine(s) game out of its opening book in a special 'annotator' tag with the PGN file.
-
- -oldsave/-xoldsave or -oldSaveStyle true/false
- Sets the Old Save Style menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -gameListTags string
- The character string lists the PGN tags that should be printed in the
+
- -saveOutOfBookInfo true/false
- Include the information on how the engine(s) game out of its opening book
+in a special 'annotator' tag with the PGN file.
+
- -oldsave/-xoldsave or -oldSaveStyle true/false
- Sets the Old Save Style menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -gameListTags string
- The character string lists the PGN tags that should be printed in the
Game List, and their order. The meaning of the codes is e=event,
s=site, d=date, o=round, p=players, r=result, w=white Elo, b=black Elo,
-t=time control, v=variant, a=out-of-book info.
+t=time control, v=variant, a=out-of-book info, c=result comment.
Default: "eprd"
+
- -ini or -settingsFile filename
- -saveSettingsFile filename
- @filename
- When XBoard encounters an option -settingsFile (or -ini for short),
+or @filename, it tries to read the mentioned file,
+and substitutes the contents of it (presumaby more command-line options)
+in place of the option.
+In the case of -ini or -settingsFile, the name of a successfully read
+settings file is also remembered as the file to use for saving settings
+(automatically on exit, or on user command).
+An option of the form @filename does not affect saving.
+The option -saveSettingsFile does specify a name of the file to use
+for saving, without reading any options from it, and is thus also effective
+when the file did not exist yet.
+So the settings will be saved to the file specified in the last
+-saveSettingsFile or succesfull -settingsFile / -ini command,
+if any, and in /etc/xboard/xboard.conf otherwise.
+Usualy the latter is only accessible for the system administrator, though,
+and will be used to contain system-wide default setings, amongst which
+a -saveSettingsFile and -settingsFile options to specify a settings file
+accessible to the individual user, such as ~/.xboardrc in the user's
+home directory.
-
+
Next:
Adjudication Options,
Previous:
Load and Save options,
Up:
Options
@@ -1428,31 +1707,36 @@ Up:
Options
3.5 User interface options
-
+
-- -display
- -geometry
- -iconic
- These and most other standard Xt options are accepted.
-
- -noGUI
- Suppresses all GUI functions of XBoard
+
- -display
- -geometry
- -iconic
- These and most other standard Xt options are accepted.
+
- -noGUI
- Suppresses all GUI functions of XBoard
(to speed up automated ultra-fast engine-engine games, which you donÂ’t want to watch).
There will be no board or clock updates, no printing of moves,
and no update of the icon on the task bar in this mode.
-
- -movesound/-xmovesound or -ringBellAfterMoves true/false
- Sets the Move Sound menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -movesound/-xmovesound or -ringBellAfterMoves true/false
- Sets the Move Sound menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
For compatibility with old XBoard versions, -bell/-xbell are also
accepted as abbreviations for this option.
-
- -exit/-xexit or -popupExitMessage true/false
- Sets the Popup Exit Message menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-
- -popup/-xpopup or -popupMoveErrors true/false
- Sets the Popup Move Errors menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -queen/-xqueen or -alwaysPromoteToQueen true/false
- Sets the Always Queen menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -legal/-xlegal or -testLegality true/false
- Sets the Test Legality menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-
- -size or -boardSize (sizeName | n1,n2,n3,n4,n5,n6,n7)
- Determines how large the board will be, by selecting the pixel size
+
- -exit/-xexit or -popupExitMessage true/false
- Sets the Popup Exit Message menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -popup/-xpopup or -popupMoveErrors true/false
- Sets the Popup Move Errors menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -queen/-xqueen or -alwaysPromoteToQueen true/false
- Sets the Always Queen menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -legal/-xlegal or -testLegality true/false
- Sets the Test Legality menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -size or -boardSize (sizeName | n1,n2,n3,n4,n5,n6,n7)
- Determines how large the board will be, by selecting the pixel size
of the pieces and setting a few related parameters.
The sizeName can be one of: Titanic, giving 129x129 pixel pieces,
Colossal 116x116, Giant 108x108, Huge 95x95, Big 87x87, Large 80x80, Bulky 72x72,
Medium 64x64, Moderate 58x58, Average 54x54, Middling 49x49, Mediocre
45x45, Small 40x40, Slim 37x37, Petite 33x33, Dinky 29x29, Teeny 25x25,
or Tiny 21x21.
-Pieces of all these sizes are built into XBoard.
+Orthodox pieces of all these sizes are built into XBoard.
Other sizes can
be used if you have them; see the pixmapDirectory and bitmapDirectory
options.
+Complete sets of un-orthodox pieces are only provided in sizes
+Bulky, Middling and (to a lesser extent) Petite;
+Archbishop, Marshall and Amazon are also available in all sizes between
+Bulky and Petite.
+When no bitmap is available, the piece will be displayed as Amazon or King.
The default depends on the size of your screen; it is approximately the
largest size that will fit without clipping.
@@ -1474,11 +1758,11 @@ If smallLayout is 1 and
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.
-
- -coords/-xcoords or -showCoords true/false
- Sets the Show Coords menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -coords/-xcoords or -showCoords true/false
- Sets the Show Coords menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
The
coordFont option specifies what font to use.
-
- -autoraise/-xautoraise or -autoRaiseBoard true/false
- Sets the Auto Raise Board menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-
- -autoflip/-xautoflip or -autoFlipView true/false
- Sets the Auto Flip View menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-
- -flip/-xflip or -flipView true/false
- If Auto Flip View is not set, or if you are observing but not participating
+
- -autoraise/-xautoraise or -autoRaiseBoard true/false
- Sets the Auto Raise Board menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -autoflip/-xautoflip or -autoFlipView true/false
- Sets the Auto Flip View menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -flip/-xflip or -flipView true/false
- If Auto Flip View is not set, or if you are observing but not participating
in a game, then the positioning of the board at the start of each game
depends on the flipView option. If flipView is false (the default),
the board is positioned so that the white pawns move from the bottom to the
@@ -1486,20 +1770,24 @@ top; if true, the black pawns move from the bottom to the top.
In any case, the Flip menu option (see Options Menu)
can be used to flip the board after
the game starts.
-
- -title/-xtitle or -titleInWindow true/false
- If this option is true, XBoard displays player names (for ICS
+
- -title/-xtitle or -titleInWindow true/false
- If this option is true, XBoard displays player names (for ICS
games) and game file names (for ‘Load Game’) inside its main
window. If the option is false (the default), this information is
displayed only in the window banner. You probably won't want to
set this option unless the information is not showing up in the
banner, as happens with a few X window managers.
-
- -buttons/-xbuttons or -showButtonBar True/False
- If this option is False, xboard omits the [<<] [<] [P] [>] [>>] button
+
- -buttons/-xbuttons or -showButtonBar True/False
- If this option is False, xboard omits the [<<] [<] [P] [>] [>>] button
bar from the window, allowing the message line to be wider. You can
still get the functions of these buttons using the menus or their keyboard
shortcuts. Default: true.
-
- -mono/-xmono or -monoMode true/false
- Determines whether XBoard displays its pieces and squares with
+
- -mono/-xmono or -monoMode true/false
- Determines whether XBoard displays its pieces and squares with
two colors (true) or four (false). You shouldn't have to
specify
monoMode; XBoard will determine if it is necessary.
-
- -flashCount count
- -flashRate rate
- -flash/-xflash
- These options enable flashing of pieces when they
+
- -showTargetSquares true/false
- Determines whether XBoard can highlight the squares a piece has
+legal moves to, when you grab that piece with the mouse.
+If this option is set, this feature can be controlled through
+the Highlight Dragging menu item.
+
- -flashCount count
- -flashRate rate
- -flash/-xflash
- These options enable flashing of pieces when they
land on their destination square.
flashCount
tells XBoard how many times to flash a piece after it
@@ -1512,23 +1800,24 @@ sets flashCount to 3.
xflash
sets flashCount to 0.
Defaults: flashCount=0 (no flashing), flashRate=5.
-
- -highlight/-xhighlight or -highlightLastMove true/false
- Sets the Highlight Last Move menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -blind/-xblind or -blindfold true/false
- Sets the Blindfold menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-
- -clockFont font
- The font used for the clocks. If the option value is a pattern
+
- -highlight/-xhighlight or -highlightLastMove true/false
- Sets the Highlight Last Move menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -highlightMoveWithArrow true/false
- Sets the Highlight with Arrow menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -blind/-xblind or -blindfold true/false
- Sets the Blindfold menu option. See Options Menu. Default: false.
+
- -clockFont font
- The font used for the clocks. 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–*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
-
- -coordFont font
- The font used for rank and file coordinate labels if
showCoords
+
- -coordFont font
- The font used for rank and file coordinate labels if
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–*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
-
- -font font
- The font used for popup dialogs, menus, comments, etc.
+
- -font font
- The font used for popup dialogs, menus, comments, etc.
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-medium-r-normal–*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
-
- -fontSizeTolerance tol
- In the font selection algorithm, a nonscalable font will be preferred
+
- -fontSizeTolerance tol
- In the font selection algorithm, a nonscalable font will be preferred
over a scalable font if the nonscalable font's size differs
by
tol pixels
or less from the desired size. A value of -1 will force
@@ -1536,7 +1825,7 @@ 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.
-
- -bm or -bitmapDirectory dir
- -pixmap or -pixmapDirectory dir
- These options control what piece images xboard uses. The XBoard
+
- -bm or -bitmapDirectory dir
- -pixmap or -pixmapDirectory dir
- These options control what piece images xboard uses. The XBoard
distribution includes one set of pixmap pieces in xpm format, in the
directory pixmaps, and one set of bitmap pieces in xbm format,
in the directory bitmaps. Pixmap
@@ -1579,7 +1868,7 @@ by supplying files named icon_white.bm, <
For more information about pixmap pieces and how to get additional
sets, see zic2xpm below.
-
- -whitePieceColor color
- -blackPieceColor color
- -lightSquareColor color
- -darkSquareColor color
- -highlightSquareColor color
- -lowTimeWarningColor color
- Colors to use for the pieces, squares, and square highlights.
+
- -whitePieceColor color
- -blackPieceColor color
- -lightSquareColor color
- -darkSquareColor color
- -highlightSquareColor color
- -lowTimeWarningColor color
- Colors to use for the pieces, squares, and square highlights.
Defaults:
-whitePieceColor #FFFFCC
@@ -1600,22 +1889,22 @@ Defaults:
-premoveHighlightColor gray70
-lowTimeWarningColor gray70
-
- -drag/-xdrag or -animateDragging true/false
- Sets the Animate Dragging menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-
- -animate/-xanimate or -animateMoving true/false
- Sets the Animate Moving menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-
- -animateSpeed n
- Number of milliseconds delay between each animation frame when Animate
+
- -drag/-xdrag or -animateDragging true/false
- Sets the Animate Dragging menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -animate/-xanimate or -animateMoving true/false
- Sets the Animate Moving menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
+
- -animateSpeed n
- Number of milliseconds delay between each animation frame when Animate
Moves is on.
-
- -autoDisplayComment true/false
- -autoDisplayTags true/false
- If set to true, these options cause the window with the move comments,
+
- -autoDisplayComment true/false
- -autoDisplayTags true/false
- If set to true, these options cause the window with the move comments,
and the window with PGN tags, respectively, to pop up automatically when
such tags or comments are encountered during the replaying a stored or
loaded game. Default: true.
-
- -pasteSelection true/false
- If this option is set to true, the Paste Position and Paste Game
+
- -pasteSelection true/false
- If this option is set to true, the Paste Position and Paste Game
options paste from the currently selected text. If false, they paste
from the clipboard. Default: false.