<p>If you have other questions about XBoard/WinBoard that aren't answered\r
in this FAQ, you can try Aaron Tay's WinBoard and Chess Engines FAQ, at\r
<a href="http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/"\r
->http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/</a>.\r
+>defunct URL</a>.\r
\r
<P>For general news and information about chess, try the newsgroup hierarchy\r
rec.games.chess.*, especially the groups rec.games.chess.misc and\r
FAQs maintained by Steve Pribut; look for them on the newsgroups or at\r
<A HREF=\r
"http://www.clark.net/pub/pribut/chess.html"\r
->http://www.clark.net/pub/pribut/chess.html</A>.\r
+>defunct URL</A>.\r
\r
<P>Like other GNU software, you can get XBoard, and\r
WinBoard by anonymous FTP from \r
<p>Beginner questions and discussion about the program may get faster\r
answers on the WinBoard Forum at <a\r
href="http://f11.parsimony.net/forum16635/"\r
->http://f11.parsimony.net/forum16635/</a>. \r
+>http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/</a>.\r
+This forum also constains a section dedicated to propose and discuss\r
+new features for WinBoard / XBoard or WinBoard protocol,\r
+and reposrt bugs.\r
\r
<p>If you are developing a\r
chess engine that works with XBoard or WinBoard (or an alternative\r
list, hosted at\r
<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-engines"\r
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-engines</a>.\r
+For better response, join the above-mentioned WinBoard forum,\r
+or the <a href="http://www.talkchess.com/forum">CCC forum</a>.\r
+\r
\r
<P>Any time you want to report a possible bug in XBoard or WinBoard,\r
we need to know exactly what you did, and exactly what error (or\r
<li>Protocol version 3. The members of the chess engine authors'\r
mailing list discussed a set of proposed features for the next version\r
of the XBoard/WinBoard chess engine communication protocol.\r
-Unfortunately, this project has gotten only as far as that discussion\r
-took it; no revisions of the protocol spec or coding have been done\r
-yet. A few simple features are very clearly needed, though, and will\r
-probably appear in time.<p>\r
+The WinBoard 4.3 fork has taken the protocol in a different direction,\r
+though, extending version 2 with new features as they were needed,\r
+rather than upgrading to a new protocol in a single sweep.\r
+It does not seem likely that there will be a v3 protocol in the\r
+foreseeable future.\r
+<p>\r
\r
<li>Contributed features. Several people have mailed me code to add\r
various features. Most of this code is available on the\r
the future.<p>\r
\r
<li>Internationalization. Several people have expressed interest in\r
-internationalizing XBoard/WinBoard, and so hopefully this project will\r
-go forward. Once the internationalization support is in, we will need\r
-more translators. Watch for news on the xboard-devel mailing list on\r
-our Savannah pages.\r
+internationalizing XBoard/WinBoard. Version 4.4 implements \r
+internationalization in its XBoard branch,\r
+and includes (partial) Turkish and German translations.\r
+For WinBoard a suitable way o internationalization still has to be found,\r
+as all menu strings there are not in the C code, but in a Windows resource\r
+file. In any case, we will need more translators, to update the existing\r
+translations (for version 4.3.7) to the current version, and to provide\r
+translaions for oter languages. Watch for news on the xboard-devel mailing \r
+list on our Savannah pages.\r
\r
</ul>\r
\r
chess code as XBoard, but the front end graphics code is a complete\r
rewrite. WinBoard is free software.\r
\r
-<P>The WinBoard distribution includes a port of GNU Chess to Win32.\r
-The GNU Chess port is distributed in executable form, with instructions for\r
-rebuilding it from the standard GNU Chess sources (available separately). You\r
-should have at least 16 to 24 MB of memory to run GNU Chess with WinBoard.\r
+<P>The WinBoard distribution includes a sample Chess engine.\r
\r
<P>The WinBoard distribution also includes the ICC timestamp and FICS\r
timeseal programs (topic <A HREF="#[B.12]">[B.12]</A>).\r
<H3><A NAME="[B.14]">[B.14] How do I play bughouse with XBoard or WinBoard?\r
</A></H3>\r
\r
-XBoard and WinBoard have simple but effective bughouse support.\r
-Offboard piece holdings are shown in the board window's banner, and\r
-you drop offboard pieces using the right mouse button. Press it over\r
-the destination square to pop up a menu of pieces.\r
+XBoard and WinBoard have full bughouse support.\r
+Offboard piece holdings are shown next to the board, and\r
+you drop offboard pieces by dragging them with the mouse \r
+(holding the left button down) to their drop square,\r
+or left-click the piece and the drop square, just like when you enter\r
+any ordinary move.\r
\r
<P>XBoard and WinBoard can display only one board at a time, but you\r
can observe your partner's game by running a second copy of the\r
The chess engines are too strong and always beat me. How can I adjust\r
the difficulty level to make them weaker?</a></h3>\r
\r
-<p>The simplest way to get that effect is to make sure the\r
-XBoard/WinBoard Auto Flag option is off, set a very fast time control\r
-so that the chess engine can't think for long, but take as much time\r
-over your own moves as you want. Also feel free to use Retract Move if\r
-you make a blunder. \r
+<p>The best way is to get a weaker chess engine.\r
+On the <a href="http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar">ChessWar</a> website\r
+you will find a rating list of virtually all engines that are able to\r
+play under XBoard/WinBoard, from super-humanly strong to ridculously weak.\r
+Most of them can be downloaded for free from the internet.</p>\r
+\r
+<p>A way to get that effect is to limit the time the engine can use for\r
+deciding on its move. The time-odds options or menu items in the \r
+time-control dialog) can be used to this end. This is only of limited \r
+help, as engines do not weeken that much at faster time-control,\r
+and there is a practical limit to how fast you can order the engine\r
+to go. Also feel free to use Retract Move if\r
+you make a blunder. </p>\r
\r
<p>Many chess coaches will let you switch sides after\r
they get a stronger position so that you can get experience playing\r
projects / xboard.git / commitdiff