3 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.9.0/ )
5 * New features in this release
6 * Running EPD test suites
7 * Getting instant help (XB)
8 * Editing castling rights in a position
9 * Use mouse wheel to set up position (XB)
10 * Allow engine to pop up its settings dialog
11 * Specifying ultra-fast games (XB)
12 * Installing board themes from packages (XB)
13 * Using a single-button mouse
14 * A special directory for start positions
15 * Allow terminal-less ICS play (XB)
16 * Sound warnings in analysis mode
17 * Changing fonts through the GUI (XB)
18 * Automatic adapting of fonts to board size (XB)
22 * Allowing more than 26 piece types
23 * More flexible piece promotion
24 * Restricting promotion choice
25 * New configurable move types
26 * Inscribing pieces with text
27 * Setting rules from the command line
28 * Allow inaccessible squares
29 * Load Shogi games in .kif format
34 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.8.0/ )
36 * New features in this release
37 * Resuming saved unfinished games
38 * Setting up positions more easily
39 * Bitbase adjudication
40 * Showing tablebase hits
42 * Recalling board themes (XBoard)
43 * Playing moves by clicking them
44 * Fonts in the XBoard GTK build
45 * Using the mousewheel (XBoard)
46 * Displaying a blunder graph
47 * Slicing up a PGN database
48 * Auto-install of engines
54 * Highlighting squares on engine command
55 * Let the engine finish a user move
56 * Non-standard variant names
57 * Fischer castling in any variant
58 * Knowing the moves of unknown pieces
61 * Fix crash on using some Browse buttons in dialogs of the GTK
63 * Fix buffer overflow in PGN parser, when all lines end in
65 * Fix crash on specifying non-existent board texture.
66 * Prevent crash on double-click in XB Game List Tags dialog.
67 * Fix the auto-display comment control in the General Options
68 dialog of WinBoard, which was ignored.
69 * Fix adjusting clocks by clicking them in Xaw build.
70 * Fix zooming of Evaluation Graph XB with mousewheel, which was
72 * Fix sticky-windows feature WB for Windows 8, where it did not
74 * WinBoard's seek graph is now sized to also cover any board rim.
75 * Key bindings XB for non menu items are no longer ignored.
76 * Set castling rights correctly after loading of game file from
78 * Allow castling and e.p. moves to be edited into opening book
79 (and prevent their disappearance from it).
80 * The sorting of engine output was made more robust against
81 engines that send thinking output on fail lows.
82 * Fix node-count display, which was clipped to 32 bits.
83 * Suppress board-size oscillations in GTK build.
84 * Fixed detection of screen size in GTK. (This is a mixed
85 blessing, as now it picks the largest possible window size, and
86 in GTK interactive down-sizing is not possible.)
87 * Fix mode highlighting after refusal of Two Machines mode because
88 2nd engine did not support variant.
89 * Blow up textures that are too small.
90 * Ignore invalid color specs in stead of treating them as black
91 (important because Cairo does not understand old xpm color
93 * Prevent XB and WB from becoming unresponsive during lengthy
94 tasks such as book building.
95 * Fix slowdown of WB during loading of huge PGN files due to
96 Game-List window update.
97 * Limit width of menu bar for small board sizes in GTK build.
98 * Improve the code to kill rogue engines in XB.
99 * Drawing of pieces outside the board (in maximaized windows),
100 which left lots of debris, is now suppressed.
101 * Make WB window sizing handle multiple screens.
102 * 50-move counter is no longer reset on Chess960 castlings.
103 * Fix legality testing of A-side castling in FRC (which was
104 allowed with Rook on a- and blocker on b-file).
105 * Fixed piece ID of Falcon in Falcon Chess, which was written as
106 '.' and could not be selected on promotion.
107 * Fix cross-edge e.p. captures in Cylinder Chess (which was not
109 * Fix animation of Seirawan Chess castling + gating at Rook
110 square, which made Rook disappear.
111 * Fix adjudication of stalemates in variant Giveaway.
112 * Display of the variant tag in the Game List now works.
113 * Reset move entry (clearing target-square markers) on 'clear
114 board' in Edit Position mode.
115 * The Game List is automatically updated when you alter the tag
116 selection for the game lines.
117 * Indicate current variant in New Variant dialog of the GTK build
118 (by printing it in boldface on the button).
121 * GTK: in a tiling window manager the size of the board seems to be
122 calculated incorrectly. A temporary fix for this is to use a fixed
123 size by using the "-size <N>" and "-fixedSize true" options
129 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.7.3/ )
131 bugfix release for 4.7.2
133 * Fix buffer overflow in parser on long PGN with scores
134 * Allow castling and e.p. capture moves to survive when editing opening book
135 * Fix node-count overflow in engine output
136 * Better sorting of fail-low lines in engine output
137 * Fix Chess960 a-side castling legality check
138 * Fix position search in Chess960
139 * Fix adjudication of Giveaway stalemates
140 * Adapt WinBoard window positioning to work with multiple screens
141 * Cure some weirdness in XBoard when dragging pieces outside the board
142 * Some dialog layout improvements to facilitate internationalization
143 * Fix crash on using some dialog Browse buttons in GTK version
144 * Connect manual menu item work in GTK version
145 * Put code for OS X integration in the GTK version
149 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.7.2/ )
151 bugfix release for 4.7.1
153 * Make PGN parser immune to unprotected time stamps
155 * Fix GUI book after setup position
156 * Allow drops / promotions/ deferrals to be edited into book
157 * Allow entry of negative numbers in spin control (WB)
158 * Fix grabbing of selected piece
159 * Fix initial board sizing WB
160 * Fix -zippyVariants option
165 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.7.1/ )
167 bugfix release for 4.7.0
169 * updated translations
170 * fixed texinfo 5.0 problems
171 * Work-around for Xt selection bug
172 * Add -backupSettingsFile option
173 * Make skipping of unknown option smarter
174 * Let popping up of WinBoard chatbox for channel open it
175 * Fix vertical sizing of GTK board
176 * Fix buffer overflow in feature parsing
177 * Accept setup command for non-standard board size
178 * Fix fatal error on unsupported board size
180 * Let XBoard -autoBox option also affect move type-in
181 * Fix spurious popup after batch-mode Analyze Game
182 * Fix saving of analyzed game
183 * Provide compatibility with Alien Edition setup command
184 * Fix quoting of book name in tourney file
185 * Fix disappearence of pieces that were moved illegally
186 * Fix horrible bug in reading scores from PGN
187 * Print score of final position in Analyze Game
188 * Fix GTK SetInsertPos
189 * Fix scrolling of Chat Box
190 * Make Chat Box window obey -topLevel option
191 * Fix Xaw file browser
192 * Update zippy.README
197 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.7.0/ )
199 * Code refactoring of XBoard
200 * The old X11 front-end has been largely rewritten,
201 so that all windows are now created by a single
203 * XBoard now uses the Cairo library for all drawing
204 * Pixmaps and bitmaps no longer supported;
205 XBoard now uses PNG and SVG images instead.
206 * An alternative (as yet experimental) front-end
207 using GTK has been added
209 * Interactive Analysis
210 * Excluding moves from analysis by playing them
211 * Excluded-moves header in Engine Output window
212 * Analyzing with two engines simultaneously
213 * Annotating an entire muti-game file
214 * Analysing positions by Monte-Carlo play
216 * Other New Functionality
217 * Displaying player logos (XB)
218 * Player logo on ICS can be based on player handle
219 * Chat boxes for XBoard
220 * Narrowing down of position searches
221 * Copying pieces when editing a position
222 * Starting WinBoard through drag & drop
223 * Recalling fully configured engines and ICS
224 * Creating an opening book from a game file
226 * Automatically observing partner games with dual-board
228 * Interface Improvements
229 * Recognizes file type of lone argument by extension
230 * Default startup settings configurable per mode
231 * Separate menu items for loading 1st and 2nd engine
232 * Engines can be selected from listboxes
233 * Grouping of engines in the installed-engines list
234 * Stay in Analyze or Game Start mode after engine loading
235 * 'Continue Later' button in WB tournament dialog
236 * A new --help option (XB)
237 * A second board window for observing ICS games (XB)
238 * Smoother graphics and a resizable board (XB)
239 * A rejuvenated file browser (XB Xaw)
240 * Scrolling listboxes with mouse wheel (XB Xaw)
241 * Tabbing through dialog etry fields (XB Xaw)
242 * Adapt width of auxilliary windows on board resize (WB)
243 * External piece bitmaps (WB)
244 * Border around the board (WB)
245 * Saving settings as themes (WB)
248 * Grayout of Analysis menu item in zippy mode
249 * Crash on flagging in -st mode
250 * Keep track of virginity in variant seirawan FENs
251 * Immunity to capitalized promo pieces
252 * Avoid board sizes with unavailabile variant pieces
253 * Work-around for FICS violation of SAN
254 * Check validity of tourney participants
255 * Loop-Chess promotions with legality testing on
256 * Fix -fSAN option in Analyze File mode
257 * Scrolling of Engine Output after PV walk (XB)
258 * Start browsing in currently-selected folder (WB)
259 * Allow entry of fractional timeIncrement (WB)
260 * Resolve conflict between -mps and -inc options
261 * Size of mini-Shogi promotion zone
262 * Adjudication of stalemate and perpetuals in Shogi
263 * Rep-draw detection in drop games
264 * Insufficient-material draws in Knightmate
265 * Replacing of engine in non-last game position
266 * Sweep selection of promo-piece in click-click move
267 * Don't save aborted games in tourney PGN
268 * Remember ponder, book and other settings in tourney file
269 * Do not erase PGN tags on engine loading
270 * Solved feature problems with engine loading in match mode
271 * Re-send option settings to -xreuse engine
272 * Allow use of 'shadow' promotion pieces in any variant
273 * WinBoard did not always start in its installation folder
274 * Initialization of 'Twice' checkbox in Tournament dialog (WB)
275 * Clearing of marker dots after mode or settings change
276 * some smaller bugfixes
279 (for a more detailed list with screenshots see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.6.2/ )
280 bugfix relase for 4.6.1
281 * Suppress clear-board message after pasting FEN
282 * Fix faking of castling rights after editing position with holdings
283 * Fix second-engine variant test
286 (for a more detailed list with screenshots see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.6.1/ )
288 bugfix release for 4.6.0
290 * Fix memory corruption bug on second-engine loading (through menu or in tournament),
291 which could destroy -firstInitString
292 * Fix bug loading a new engine through the menu (not loading it with the full game,
293 but just upto the current move)
294 * Prefix engine command with "./" when a pathname is split up during install, so the engine actually runs (XB)
295 * Fix fall-back to -ncp mode when engine does not start (cutting short the feature timeout)
296 * Fix bug in position search for FRC castlings (where a King could 'fall off' the board)
297 * Add a message to inform the user how to clear the board, in sweep-select edit-position mode
298 * Fix a bug that could stop the clock when the board window was dragged (XB)
299 * Fix switching off highlighting during game (so last highlights do not remain for the rest of the game)
300 * Allow user to enter the name of a non-existing file when browsing for a save file (WB)
301 * Make sure rarely used engine-related options (such as -firstNPS) are also correctly loaded during session
302 * Correctly handle parsing of Crazyhouse promotions with legality-testing off
303 * Fix click-click detour under-promotions, which were not working for non-captures
304 * Don't strip path from engine command if directory is explicitly given in Load Engine dialog
305 * Consistently make auxiliary windows top level-shells or not, with new -topLevel option (XB)
306 * No longer fatal if second engine does not support current variant (just refuse Two Machines mode)
307 * Scroll XBoard game list to keep selected item in view (XB)
308 * Suppress spurious error popup when starting observing of bughouse games
309 * Fix vertical axis ticks in eval graph with drop games
310 * Put title on same line as menu bar only for -size 72 and larger (with -titleInWindow, XB)
311 * Properly open and close debug file when switching debug mode through key binding Ctrl-D (XB)
315 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.6.0/ )
318 * Loading and installing engines through the menu
319 * Running tournaments with more than two partipants
320 * Stopping a match between two engines
321 * Replacing a tourney participant
322 * Playing openings in color-reversed pairs
323 * Perpetual chasing in Xiangqi
325 * Interface Improvements
326 * Auto-Queen, and still under-promote?
327 * Piece fonts and figurine fonts
328 * Displaying PVs as SAN
329 * Small scores in the Eval Graph
330 * How close is the 50-move draw?
331 * Sign of the engine scores
333 * Interactive Analysis
334 * Playing moves from the PV
335 * Rapidly changing the number of PVs
336 * Setting the other side to move in analysis
337 * Annotating a game with an engine
339 * Other New Functionality
340 * Searching a position in a PGN file
341 * Editing the opening book
343 * XBoard -> WinBoard Convergence
344 * Exporting the game list (XB)
345 * A move type-in box (XB)
346 * New-style Move History window (XB)
350 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.3a/ )
352 * only changes to Winboard : build non JAW by default, fix compile errors
356 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.3/ )
358 * fixes of major bugs:
359 * In the file-browse dialog . and .. no longer mask other files if they are non-first in the directory
360 * Fix XBoard crash on showing an empty Engine Settings dialog, printing a message in stead
361 * The XBoard Game List can now handle files with more than 1900 games, by paging through them
362 * The state of the Move-History window is now remembered by XBoard even when the Engine-Output window is up
363 * Fix crash on switching sounds in WinBoard under Windows Vista
364 * Fix empty-string option values on XBoard command line (which were ignored)
365 * Fix spurious vertical scrolling in XBoard Engine-Output window on clicking in it
366 * Obey an engine's san feature when sending book moves to it
367 * Fix XBoard crash when 'filtering' made Game List empty
368 * Suppress clearing of Engine-Output window on automatic updates in analyze mode
369 * Force Move-History refresh after loading/reverting variation
370 * Fix closing brace, when joining two comments to same move
372 * fixes of minor bugs:
373 * Suppress playing sounds when no -soundProgram is set
374 * Fix display of last move of last match game
375 * Update window title after last game of match
376 * Never one-click move when legality testing is off
377 * Suppress playing book move when total weigth of all moves is zero
378 * Restore echo after ^C killed XBoard during ICS password
379 * Fix default of -remoteUser, which could cause crash when playing remote engines
380 * Fix recognition of separators between options in -adapterCommand command line
381 * Fix button sizing in generic popup
382 * Fix translatability of 'Spartan Chess' menu item WB
383 * Remove some duplicats from WB language template file
384 * Fix spurious 'Unfinished' sounds during ICS examining
385 * Fix bug in handling of partner command in zippy-mode bughouse games
386 * Create more space in some WB dialogs to accomodate translations
388 * Improvements benefitting the speaking version for the visually impaired (WB):
389 * Implement NVDA support in JAWS version
390 * Fix translation of spoken composite messages
391 * Fix JAWS reading of Engine-Settings dialog by removing group-boxes
392 * Add tab stops in WB generic popup
393 * Reorder controls in Engine-Setings dialog WB, so they are tabbed through in logical order
395 * fixed compiler warnings/errors and portability:
396 * Fix use of random function in XBoard shuffle dialog callback
397 * Fix inconsistent type of the variable 'shuffleOpenings'
398 * Silence warnings during rpm build
399 * Fix warnings XBoard file browser
400 * Fix some warnings and header-file improvement
403 * Add -at and -opt options as alternative for @, as work-around for Windows shortcut bug
404 * Make occurrence of unknown option in settings file non-fatal
405 * Stale output no longer lingers in the engine-output window when a new game starts
406 * Popdown (stale) Comment window on new game
408 ** Version 4.5.2a (Winboard only)**
410 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.2/ )
412 * Fix Engine Settings button options in WinBoard
416 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.2/ )
419 * Added many option dialogs and reworked some of the old ones
421 * bugfixes, packaging and install:
423 * Fix flipBlack option XBoard with board texture
424 * Fix two bugs in reading position diagram
425 * Fix parsing bug of FRC castling
426 * Fix bugs in FRC castling rights
427 * Fix display of promotion piece in ICS superchess
428 * Fix path browsing in WinBoard
429 * Fix use of game/position file in first match game
430 * Fix build on Mac OS X
431 * install bitmaps and sounds during "make install"
432 * some minor bug fixes
433 * code cleanup (e.g. 64 bit warnings, removed malloc.h)
437 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.1/ )
440 * Revert "Implement -reset option feature in WinBoard"
441 * Fix deselection of greyed-out variant button (WB)
442 * Put warning in HTML help
443 * Fix unmarked translation
445 * Fix variant janus size prefix
446 * Fix Xiangqi King facing
447 * Fix showing of user move after adjudication
448 * Make language choice from menu persistent
450 * Fix some resource leaks
452 * fixed packaging issues:
453 * add DIFFSTAT and SHORTLOG to tar-ball
454 * added history.c to the tar-ball. Needed for Winboard
456 * fixed compiler warnings/errors:
457 * added missing header file for sprintf
458 * added missing #includes and missing prototypes to filebrowser
459 * Fix MSVC compilability
460 * Fix 64-bit Windows compilability
461 * Fix MSVC snprintf problem
463 * fixed configure problems:
464 * fixed configure script to correctly detect Xaw3d library
465 * updated configure.ac to check for Xaw header files
468 * Fix two typos in option names in texi file
473 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.0/ for more details)
477 * User specific settings files
478 * More logical (and standard) menu structure
479 * Translation into other languages (WB)
480 * Walking the PV of an engine
481 * Exploring variations
482 * Playing through PGN variations
483 * Annotating a game with analysis results
485 * Controlling move choice of the GUI book
486 * Keeping the clock in sync in tournaments
487 * Starting an engine match from the menu
488 * Fixed thinking time per move
489 * Improved multi-PV support
490 * Where your pieces can move to
491 * Editing crazyhouse holdings
492 * Thai Chess (Makruk) and Seirawan Chess
493 * Non-compliant FEN and SAN input
494 * Improved Xiangqi adjudications
495 * Allowing engines to setup a position
497 Merging XBoard & WinBoard
498 ------------------------------
499 * Evaluation graph (XB)
501 * Filtering the game list (XB)
502 * Game-List options dialog (XB)
503 * Recalling the ICS input history (XB)
504 * Aribtrary board textures (XB)
505 * Highlight arrow (XB)
507 ICS-client Enhancements
508 -----------------------
509 * Maintaining a healty ICS connection
510 * Claiming a draw after your move
513 * Observing your bughouse partner
514 * Improved Chat-Box interface (WB)
515 * Uploading games to an ICS
516 * Side-by-side boards
521 * Repair exit-popup deadlock patch
522 * Fix bug in sending "usermove" when forcing book moves
523 * Let move parser return ImpossibleMove for off-board moves
524 * Prevent engine stall on perpetual-chase evasion
525 * Pop down old tags on loadng new game in WinBoard
526 * Fix game end during dragging
527 * Repair animate dragging
528 * Fix bug in sending cores command to engine
529 * Fix parsing of SAN shogi promotions
530 * Fix variant switch on PGN loading
531 * Allow -flipBlack to work with font-based piece rendering
532 * Allow font-based piece rendering in board sizes below petite
533 * Fix WinBoard game-list title
534 * Fix deadlock in match-result display
535 * Fix regression in colorization of zippy-matched commands
536 * Fix zippy handling of draw offers from ICS
537 * Make some more zippy code obey the --disable-zippy flag
538 * Remove unnecessary double equals from configure.ac.
539 * Cut board squares out of texture bitmap more cleverly
544 * Implement castling for variant CRC
545 * Extensive bugfix of -autoKibitz
546 * Accept <Enter> for changing chat partner
547 * Change opening array -variant fairy
548 * Send continuation lines to chat box they belong to
549 * Use -keepAlive option to determine connection health
550 * Fix of ancient WinBoard bug: check value of int options
551 * Fix bug for incommensurate time odds
552 * Fix piece-to-char table -variant fairy
553 * Fix TwoKings ICS castling-rights bug
554 * Fix reading castling rights FEN in knightmate and twokings
555 * Fix OO-castling in FRC after pasting FEN
556 * Fix bug in display of logos
557 * Fix highlighting bug in XBoard
558 * Match handles with multiple titles for channel Chat Boxes
559 * Make WinBoard makefiles use parser.c in XBoard directory
560 * Added missing sounds files to be able to compile on windows
561 * Added logo files for xboard
562 * Bugfix stale first-click
563 * Fix copying of WB Chat Window contents
564 * Fix XB crash on giving keyboard focus to non-text widget
565 * Bugfix copying from Chat Box, own lines
566 * Fix 'mamer bug' in Chat Boxes
567 * Fix copying of kibitzed lines from WB Engine-Output window
568 * Do not recognize non-ICS variants from PGN event tag
569 * Remake programVersion string after receiving engine features
570 * Set keyboard focus at startup to board window
571 * Fix window-position upset on failing engine start in WinBoard
572 * Allow lower-case promochar in moves of type h8=Q
573 * Small bugfixed for JAWS version
578 * add Winboard source files into tar-ball
579 * remove trailing \r in xboard output
580 * double buffer size to prevent overflow
581 * fix problem with empty string in -firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN
582 * updates makefiles to include dependency on config.h
583 * correctly apply some check boxes from the option menu
584 * score sign in analysis mode
585 * fix for bug #28077: xboard needs to link against x11
586 * fix castling rights when copying FEN to clipboard (again)
587 * fixed some outstanding pixmaps
588 * fix the irritating wandering off of the MoveHistory window in XBoard on opening/closing.
589 * use xtell for talking to handles, but tell for talking into a channel.
590 * fix bug in bughouse drop menu
591 * removing some rather verbose debug messages that seem no longer needed.
592 * fix engine-sync on move-number type-in bug
593 * fix declaration of engineOutputDialogUp
594 * fix double start of zippy engine after switch to gothic
595 * the last move before the time control now gets its time listed in the PGN
596 * fix casting rights after FEN pasting
597 * fix crash on engine crash
598 * fixed build on openbsd
599 * cleaned up some debug messages and typos
600 * removed files that should only be in the windboard directory
601 * added missing library for build on OS X
605 * added chat windows to keep track of multiple conversations (WinBoard only)
606 * allow the result comment as a display item in the game list
607 * added a "Mute All Sounds" item in the WinBoard Options menu
608 * new -forceIllegalMoves option
609 * new -keepAlive option (for ICS play)
610 * ported -autoDisplayComment and -autoDisplayTags to xboard, controling popups
611 * replaces analysispopup with engineoutputpopup in xboard
612 * allow copy/paste position and game to use clipboard (xboard)
613 * updated several bitmaps (xboard)
614 * Made the beep sounds for JAWS board navigation configurable
615 through command-line options
616 * added the result comment to the game-list tags when the game
617 list is exported to the clipboard
619 * fixed premove problem
620 * fixed engine did not start playing when out of GUI book on second
622 * fix bug using opening books (file were not closed)
623 * fixed crash when opening Engine #1 Settings when there were no
624 text-edit options in the dialog
625 * fixed loading of games from command lines, fixes cmail bug
626 * fix joining lines split by ICS and resizing terminal window when using ICS
627 (new option -keepLineBreaksICS, -wrapContinuationSequence, -useInternalWrap)
628 * fixed -autoDisplayComment
629 * fixed wrong default value for engineDebugOutput in xboard
630 * swapped 'tell' and 'message' parsing order for correct colorization.
631 * fixed parse bug for pgn files
632 * fix for edit-position "moves" being sent by XBoard to the engine
633 * bugfix for protocol extensions: egtbpath -> egtpath
635 * further bugfixes: #8847, #10990, #27427, #27642,
636 #27666, #27667, #27668, #27715, #27751, #27760,
637 #27772, #27799, #27826 and several small ones
638 * use "make distcheck" to generate tar-balls
639 * prepared a system to internationalize winboard menus
640 * improved mouse handler
641 * rewrote wevalgraph for better frontend/backend separation
646 A new release of both XBoard and WinBoard is now available. Version
647 4.4.0 includes many changes. It is the first major release of
648 xboard/winboard after a fork of the project after version 4.2.7. It
649 includes small changes made in the main line and changes made by a
650 fork of Alessandro Scotti and lots of changes made afterwards by
651 H.G. Muller (released as versions 4.3.x). This release represents a
652 unified version of all changes made after the fork. It includes many
653 new features and bugfixes.
655 You can get both XBoard and WinBoard from the Savannah
658 https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/
660 If you find a bug, please report it in the bug tracker at
661 https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/ or by email to bug-xboard
667 New command-line options
668 /niceEngines=N for adjusting the priority of engine processes so they don't soak up all your system resources
669 /firstOptions="..." Allows the setting of options that engines define through the feature option="..." commands
671 /firstLogo=filename.bmp Displays the mentioned bitmap next to the clock (with H:W =1:2 aspect ratio) (WB only)
672 /secondLogo=filename.bmp
673 /autoLogo=false get logo files automatically from engineDirectory\logo.bmp
675 General enhancements:
676 * New WB-protocol command: 'feature option="NAME -TYPE VALUE OTHER"', which engines can use to define options
677 * New WB-protocol command: 'option NAME VALUE' used to set value of engine-defned options.
678 * implements /delayAfterQuit and /delayBeforeQuit in XBoard, and uses SIGKILL to terminate rogue engine processes
683 New command-line options
684 /rewindIndex=N (for the new auto-increment mode of the loadGameIndex or loadPositionIndex in match mode)
685 /sameColorGames=N (for playing a match where the same player has white all the time)
686 /egtFormats="..." (for specifying where various end-game tables are installed on the computer)
689 + Time-odds factors can be set in the time-control dialog
690 + Nr of CPUs for SMP engines can be set in the Options -> UCI dialog
691 + Own-Book options can be switched from the Options -> UCI dialog
692 + The ScoreIsAbs options can be set from the Options -> Engine dialog
693 + New-Variant menu adds Superchess
695 General Enhancements:
696 * WinBoard engines can now also use the Polyglot opening book (implemented as general GUI book)
697 * New WB-protocol commands memory, cores and egtpath make interactive setting of these parameters
698 possible on WB engines
699 * New Polyglot is available that relays the interactive setting of these parameters to UCI engines
700 * Match mode suports an auto-increment mode, so that all games or positions from a file can be played
701 * Draw claims with Kings and an arbitrary number of like Bishops (e.g. KBBKB) are accepted
703 The source tree in original xboard 4.2.7 format can now be compiled under Cygwin with the aid
704 of the cygwin.mak file in the ~/winboard/ subdirectory of the source releasy, after you put
705 the hep-file from an executabl distribution there. Maefiles for other compilers are not updated
706 since 4.2.7, as I do not have those compilers.
711 This relaese was not made by the GNU xboard team, but by H.G.Muller.
712 It mainly contains developments on WinBoard. Nevertheless, an attempt
713 has been started to back-port the enormous number of improvements that
714 have been made to WinBoard since the Linux and Windows developments branched
715 to xboard. This is reflected by the source tree now having the same format
716 as that of xboard 4.2.7, including all the xboard sources.
718 An enormous amount of work still has to be done to make the xboard version
719 fully equivalent to WinBoard, especially on user-interface side. As a modest
720 beginning, the xboard source files have been patched to allow their compilation
721 with the newer back-end files from WinBoard. To this end, the number of piece
722 types in xboard has been increased from 6 to 22, and the WinBoard bitmaps
723 have been converted to xboard source format (.bm) and are included in the
724 xboard bitmaps directory. Other quick patches include the coloring of the
725 board squares (for xiangqi and holdings), and some code in the user-move
726 handling to suppress all moves into or out of the area between board and
727 holdings in crazyhouse, and the treatment of king-captures-own-piece
728 as a possibly valid move (for FRC castling). This should make it possible
729 to run xboard with the new back-end files without too much inconvenience.
731 New xboard command-line options have been added to make the added back-end
732 features available. The include the new variants (as argument of the old
733 -variant option), -boardWidth, -boardHeight and -holdingsSize. Be sure
734 to call xboard with "-boardSize middling" or "-boardSize bulky" if you
735 want to play with fairy pieces, or xboard might crash due to unavailability
736 of bitmaps. Other added xboard options are:
738 ADJUDICATION OPTIONS:
745 -adjudicateLossThreshold
762 -hideThinkingFromHuman
764 This is all completely untested, but as the options merely switch on well-tested
765 code in the back-end, there should not be too many problems with them.
766 Bugs can be reported in the WinBoard forum.
769 ** Version 4.3.14k **
771 Compared to version 4.3.13 described below, this version features
773 New command-line options:
774 /autoKibitz (for relaying the PV info of the engine to the ICS)
775 /userName="..." (for setting the name of the Human player, also as menu)
776 /engineDebugOutput=N (controlling the writing of engine output to debug file)
777 /firstNPS=N (for time management by node count or CPU time)
778 /secondNPS=N (likewise for the other engine)
781 + Enter Username (same as /userName command-line option)
782 + Save Diagram (for saving the Chessboard display as bitmap file)
783 + Machine Both (not implemented yet, but menu item already provided)
784 + New-Variant menu adds CRC, Janus and Berolina (the latter only with legality testing off!)
785 + Any variant can be played from a shuffled opening setup
788 * Problems with switching the variant in ICS zippy mode solved
789 * In ICS observing mode game history is now fully accessible
790 * Moves are not fed to engine in zippy mode, when observing a game from a variant unknown to the engine
791 * a problem with loading PGN of FRC games with move disambiguation and initial castling rights was fixed.
792 * A bug in the clock display that made previous versions of WinBoard crash for tiny displays is fixed
794 General enhancements:
795 * variant name displayed in title bar in ICS mode, when not 'normal'
796 * when receiving a challenge in ICS zippy mode, it is checked if the engine supports the variant (/zippyVariants="..." can still be used to limit the allowed variants, and for protocol-1 engines is still the only thing to go on)
797 * when loading a game from a PGN file, WB automatically switches to the variant specified in the PGN tags
798 * when starting from a loaded position (using /loadPositionFile), this position will be used on subsequent 'New Game' commands as well (until we switch variant)
800 New is also that the source tree is now brought back in the original WinBoard 4.2.7 format, including
801 xboard source files. Note, however, that the xboard sources are from an older date, and I did not test
802 if they still compile together with the much newer backend sources. I did add code in xboard.c to recognize
803 the new command-line options I added since then, and in so far they are back-end options that should be enough
804 to make them work. This is completely untested, though; I did not even try to compile it. Last time anyone
805 built a working xboard.exe from this was at a stage where WinBoard did have adjustable board size, allowing
806 it to play Xiangqi. But no crazyhouse holdings yet.
809 ** Version 4.3.13a **
811 This version of WinBoard_F fixes several bugs in 4.3.12, and also addse a few new features.
812 The new features include:
813 - some more fairy pieces, so that each side now has 22 piece types in stead of 17,
814 making most fairy pieces available in board size "petite" (next to "bulky" and "middling"),
815 making the ArchBishop and Chancellor, as well as one wildcard piece (the Lance) available in all
816 sizes from "petite" to "bulky".
817 - The FRC support is fully fixed, both in local and ICS mode.
818 - A mechanism is provided for safe draw claiming in cases where a 3-fold repetition woud occur only
819 after your own move. In this case a draw will be awarded by WinBoard if the engine sends "offer draw"
820 before making its move.
821 - Genuine draw offers are not passed on immediately to the opponent but held up to when the offerer announces
823 - Variants FRC, Cylinder and Falcon are added to the "New Variant..." menu.
824 - Support for playing time-odds games is added. (Options /firstTimeOdds, /secondTimeOdds, /timeOddsMode)
825 - A mechanism is provided for attaching WinBoard options to the engine command, to create options that
826 follow the engine (e.g. time odds) in a tournament run under a tournament manager.
828 - Shatranj in ICS mode (did not work at all before)
829 - Some draw adjudications (QRKR was mistaken for KRKR, and KBKB with like Bishops is now recognized)
830 - time info in the PGN is now correct
832 ** Winboard_F.4.3.12 release notes
834 This WinBoard (beta-)version is derived from Allessandro Scotti's
835 Winboard_x, and supports the following new options, mainly in the area
836 of adjudication of engine-engine games, improved Crazyhouse support,
837 and allowing variants with non-conventional pieces and or board
838 sizes. (All option are shown here with their default values):
841 This (already existing) option has been expanded with
842 several new variants, involving non-conventional pieces and deviating
843 board sizes. The board size is automatically adapted to the selected
844 variant, unless explicitly overruled (see below). The new variants are
845 (with default board size, files x ranks, in parentheses):
847 variant name Game board description
848 knightmate Knightmate (8x8) Variant where the King moves as a Knight, and vice versa
849 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8) Variant featuring Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces
850 gothic Gothic Chess (10x8) Same as Capablanca, with a more interesting opening position
851 courier Courier Chess (12x8) a Medieval form that combines elements of Shatranj and modern Chess
852 shogi Shogi (9x9) Japanese Chess
853 xiangqi Xiangqi (9x10) Chinese Chess
854 fairy Fairy Chess (8x8) Variant were you can use all pieces of other variants together
856 The variant can be set from the newly added "File -> New Variant..."
857 sub-menu. Extra board files are indicated by the letters i, j, k, l,
858 ... For boards with more than 9 ranks, the counting starts at zero!
859 More than 10 ranks is not tested and unlikely to work in the area of
860 PGN saving / reading. Non-FIDE pieces will be referred to in FENs and
861 PGN by letters that depend on the variant, and might collide with
862 piece designators in other variants. E.g. in Xiangqi 'C' is a Cannon,
863 in Capablanca Chess it is a Chancellor. Pieces that do not belong in a
864 variant cannot be addressed in FEN and PGN either, for as long as that
865 variant is selected, unless the letter assignment is overruled with
866 the aid of the /pieceToCharTable option. The variant is not saved in
867 the winboard.ini file; on start-up we always get variant "normal"
868 unless we use the command-line option, or have added the option to the
869 winboard.ini file manually (in which case it will disappear when this
870 file is overwritten by WinBoard saving its options). WinBoard_F knows
871 the movement of all pieces occurring in Capablanca Chess (of which
872 FIDE Chess is a subset), Shatranj, Courier, Xiangqi and 9x9 Shogi, so
873 that these games can be played with legality testing enabled.
875 /pieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
876 Each piece that WinBoard knows (in its legality test) has a letter
877 associated with it, by which it will be referred to in FEN or PGN. The
878 default assignment can be overruled with this option. The value has to
879 be a string of even length, with at least 12 characters. The first
880 half of the string designates the white pieces, the second half the
881 black. The last letter for each color will be assigned to the
882 King. (This is the piece that moves as an orthodox King; note that
883 Nightmate and Xiangqi have a different royal piece.) All letters
884 before it will be assigned to the other pieces in the order:
886 P Pawn (move often depends on variant)
887 N Knight (move subtly different in Xiangqi (where it is written as H) or Shogi)
890 Q Queen (Lance L in Shogi)
891 F Ferz/General (The Shatranj 'Queen' and Xiangqi 'Adviser', used for Silver General S in Shogi.)
892 W Wazir/GrandVizer (Gold General G in Shogi, in Xiangqi it is royal and denoted by K)
893 E Alfil/Elephant (Moves subtly different in Xiangqi vs Shatranj/Courier)
896 U Unicorn (representation of Royal Knight in Knightmate, used as promoted Pawn in Shogi)
897 H Nightrider (Promoted Knight in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
898 A Archbishop/Cardinal (Promoted Bishop in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
899 C Chancellor/Marshall (Promoted Rook in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
900 G Grasshopper (Promoted Queen in Crazyhouse, promoted Lance in Shogi)
901 S (Promoted Silver in Shogi)
904 Pieces that are not mentioned (because the argument has less than 34
905 characters) will remain disabled. Mentioned pieces can be disabled by
906 assigning them a '.' (period). They are then not recognized in FEN or
907 PGN input. Non-FIDE pieces that are not assigned a letter will also
908 not appear on the promotion menu. It is not advisable to disable a
909 piece that is present in the opening position of the selected variant,
911 Promoted pieces that need to be distinguished from original pieces of
912 the same type (because of demotion on capture and transfer to the
913 holdings) will be indicated by the letter for the unpromoted piece
914 with a '+' in front of it (Shogi), or by the letter of the promoted
915 piece with a '~' after it (Crazyhouse, Bughouse, in general everything
916 with holdings that is not Shogi). To achieve this, they should be
917 assigned the characters '+' or '~', respectively.
918 All the new pieces have a native bitmap representation in the board
919 sizes 'bulky' and 'middling'. For all window sizes that do not support
920 such fairy bitmaps, promoted NBRQ are represented as a 2-sizes-smaller
921 normal piece symbol, so that Crazyhouse can be played at any
922 size. People disliking the fairy representations might even prefer
924 There is an enhanced 'Edit Position' menu popup (right-clicking on the
925 squares after selecting this mode in the main menu), featuring some
926 common non-FIDE pieces, and 'promote' and 'demote' options to make
927 those not directly in the menu. The promotion popup shows ArchBishop
928 and Chancellor in Capablanca and Gothic, (or in fact in any game where
929 this piece is not disabled or a promoted version of a normal piece),
930 and leaves only the options YES / NO in Shogi. In Xiangqi there are no
933 /fontPieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
934 This option is similar to /pieceToCharTable, but sets the font
935 character that is used to display the piece on the screen (when
936 font-based rendering is in use), rather than in the FEN or PGN. The
937 default setting should work with George Tsavdaris' WinboardF font,
938 which uses the 'intuitive' mapping of font characters to symbols. With
939 font-based rendering the fairy pieces can be used at any board size.
940 Note that UHACGS are also used to represent the promoted versions of
941 PNBRQF, in games like Crazyhouse and Shogi, where the promotion has to
942 be undone on capture. In such games you are likely to prefer a
943 different representation of those pieces then when they represent true
947 Traditional Shogi bitmaps are only included for size "moderate". For
948 other sizes you must depend on font-based rendering.
956 The option /materialDraws=TRUE causes games with insufficient mating
957 material to be adjudicated immediately as draws, in case the engines
958 would not claim these draws. This applies to KK, KNK and KBK. The
959 option /trivialDraws adjudicates KNNK, KBKB, KNKN, KBKN, KRKR and KQKQ
960 to draws after 3 moves (to allow for a quick tactical win). Note that
961 in KQKQ this might not be sound, but that problem would disappear once
962 bitbase probing is implemented.
965 The flag-fell condition is now indicated as '(!)' behind the displayed
966 time, to eliminate the necessity for overwriting the message in the
967 title bar (which might contain indispensible information in match
970 Other improvements / changes
971 Castling rights and e.p. rights are now fully maintained, and
972 considered in legality testing. They are imported from and written to
973 FEN, as is the 50-move counter. (When reading an incomplete FEN they
974 are still guessed, though.) The time (in sec, or min:sec) is now
975 always stored together with the PV information to the PGN, if storing
976 the latter was requested (through ticking "extended PGN info" in
977 "Options -> General..."). The saved time is the WinBoard clock time
978 (as opposed to the time reported by the engine).
980 ** Winboard_F.4.3.8 release notes
982 This Winboard supports the following new options (shown here with their default values):
985 This (already existing) option has been expanded with several new
986 variants, involving non-conventional pieces and deviating board
987 sizes. The board size is automatically adapted to the selected
988 variant, unless explicitly overruled (see below). The new variants are
989 (with default board size, files x ranks, in parentheses):
991 variant name Game board description
992 knightmate Knightmate (8x8) Variant where the King moves as a Knight, and vice versa
993 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8) Variant featuring Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces
994 gothic Gothic Chess (10x8) Same as Capablanca, with a more interesting opening position
995 courier Courier Chess (12x8) a Medieval form that combines elements of Shatranj and modern Chess
996 shogi Shogi (9x9) Japanese Chess
997 xiangqi Xiangqi (9x10) Chinese Chess
998 fairy Fairy Chess (8x8) Variant were you can use all pieces of other variants together
1000 The variant can be set from the newly added "File -> New Variant..." sub-menu.
1001 Extra board files are indicated by the letters i, j, k, l, ... For
1002 boards with more than 9 ranks, the counting starts at zero! Non-FIDE
1003 pieces will be referred to in FENs and PGN by letters that depend on
1004 the variant, and might collide with piece designators in other
1005 variants. E.g. in Xiangqi 'C' is a Cannon, in Capablanca Chess it is a
1006 Chancellor. Pieces that do not belong in a variant cannot be addressed
1007 in FEN and PGN either as long as that variant is selected, unless the
1008 letter assignment is overruled by the /pieceToCharTable option. The
1009 variant is not saved in the winboard.ini file; on start-up we always
1010 get variant "normal" unless we use the command-line opton, or have
1011 added the option to the winboard.ini file manually (in which case it
1012 will disappear when this file is overwritten). WinBoard_F knows the
1013 movement of all pieces occurring in Capablanca Chess (of which FIDE
1014 Chess is a subset), Shatranj, Courier, Xiangqi and 9x9 Shogi, so that
1015 these games can be played with legality testing enabled.
1017 /pieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
1018 Each piece that WinBoard knows (in its legality test) has a letter
1019 associated with it, by which it will be referred to in FEN or PGN. The
1020 default assignment can be overruled with this option. The value has to
1021 be a string of even length, with at least 12 characters. The first
1022 half of the string designates the white pieces, the second half the
1023 black. The last letter for each color will be assigned to the
1024 King. (This is the piece that moves as an orthodox King; note that
1025 Nightmate and Xiangqi have a different royal piece.) All letters
1026 before it will be assigned to the other pieces in the order:
1028 P Pawn (move often depends on variant)
1029 N Knight (move subtly different in Xiangqi (where it is written as H) or Shogi)
1032 Q Queen (Lance L in Shogi)
1033 F Ferz/General (Silver General S in Shogi)
1034 W Wazir/GrandVizer (Gold General G in Shogi, in Xiangqi it is royal and denoted by K)
1035 E Alfil/Elephant (Moves subtly different in Xiangqi vs Shatranj/Courier)
1038 U Unicorn (representation of Royal Knight in Knightmate, used as promoted Pawn in Shogi)
1039 H Nightrider (Promoted Knight in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
1040 A Archbishop/Cardinal (Promoted Bishop in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
1041 C Chancellor/Marshall (Promoted Rook in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
1042 G Grasshopper (Promoted Queen in Crazyhouse, promoted Lance in Shogi)
1043 S (Promoted Silver in Shogi)
1046 Pieces that are not mentioned (because the argument has less than 34
1047 characters) will remain disabled. Mentioned pieces can be disabled by
1048 assigning them a '.' (period). They are then not recognized in FEN or
1049 PGN input. It is not advisable to disable a piece that is present in
1050 the opening position of the selected variant, though.
1051 Promoted pieces that need to be distinguished from original pieces of
1052 the same type (because of demotion on capture and transfer to the
1053 holdings) will be indicated by the letter for the unpromoted piece
1054 with a '+' in front of it (Shogi), or by the letter of the promoted
1055 piece with a '~' after it (Crazyhouse, Bughouse, in general everything
1056 with holdings that is not Shogi).
1057 All the new pieces have a native biytmap representation in the board
1058 sizes 'bulky' and 'middling'. For all window sizes that do not support
1059 such fairy bitmaps, promoted NBRQ are represented as a 2-sizes-smaller
1060 normal piece symbol, so that Crazyhouse can be played at any
1061 size. People disliking the fairy representations might even prefer
1063 There is an enhanced 'Edit Position' menu popup (right-clicking on the
1064 squares after selecting this mode in the main menu), featuring some
1065 common non-FIDE pieces, and 'promote' and 'demote' options to make
1066 those not directly in the menu. The promotion popup shows ArchBishop
1067 and Chancellor in Capablanca and Gothic, (or in fact in any game where
1068 this piece is not disabled), and leaves only the options YES / NO in
1069 Shogi. In Xiangqi there are no promotions.
1072 This option does not seem to work for reading PGN files. Saving works
1073 fine. For now, using it is not recommended. In the future it might be
1074 redefined as only affecting engine-engine communication, .
1077 Setting this option will cause upside-down display of the native piece
1078 bitmaps used to represent the pieces of the side that plays black, as
1079 would be needed for a traditional representation of Shogi pieces. It
1080 can be set from the "Options -> Board..." sub-menu, and it is saved in
1081 the winboard.ini file. For now, traditional Shogi bitmaps are not
1084 Other improvements / changes
1085 Castling rights and e.p. rights are now fully maintained, and
1086 considered in legality testing. They are imported from and written to
1087 FEN, as is the 50-move counter. The time (in sec, or min:sec) is now
1088 always stored together with the PV information to the PGN, if storing
1089 the latter was requested (through ticking 'extended PGN info' in
1090 "Options -> General..."). The saved time is the Winboard clock time
1091 (as opposed to the time reported by the engine).
1093 ** Winboard_F.4.3.7 release notes
1095 This Winboard supports the following new options (shown here with
1096 their default values):
1099 This (already existing) option has been expanded with several new
1100 variants, involving non-conventional pieces and deviating board
1101 sizes. The board size is automatically adapted to the selected
1102 variant, unless explicitly overruled (see below). The new variants are
1103 (with default board size, files x ranks, in parentheses):
1105 variant name Game board description
1106 knightmate Knightmate (8x8) Variant where the King moves as a Knight, and vice versa
1107 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8) Variant featuring Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces
1108 gothic Gothic Chess (10x8) Same as Capablanca, with a more interesting opening position
1109 courier Courier Chess (12x8) a Medieval form that combines elements of Shatranj and modern Chess
1110 shogi Shogi (9x9) Japanese Chess
1111 xiangqi Xiangqi (9x10) Chinese Chess
1112 fairy Fairy Chess (8x8) Variant were you can use all pieces of other variants together
1114 The variant can be set from the newly added "File -> New Variant..." sub-menu.
1115 Extra board files are indicated by the letters i, j, k, l, ... For
1116 boards with more than 9 ranks, the counting starts at zero! Non-FIDE
1117 pieces will be referred to in FENs and PGN by letters that depend on
1118 the variant, and might collide with piece designators in other
1119 variants. E.g. in Xiangqi 'C' is a Cannon, in Capablanca Chess it is a
1120 Chancellor. Pieces that do not belong in a variant cannot be addressed
1121 in FEN and PGN either as long as that variant is selected, unless the
1122 letter assignment is overruled by the /pieceToCharTable option. The
1123 variant is not saved in the winboard.ini file; on start-up we always
1124 get variant "normal" unless we use the command-line opton, or have
1125 added the option to the winboard.ini file manually (in which case it
1126 will disappear when this file is overwritten). WinBoard_F knows the
1127 movement of all pieces occurring in Capablanca Chess (of which FIDE
1128 Chess is a subset), Shatranj, Courier, Xiangqi and 9x9 Shogi, so that
1129 these games can be played with legality testing enabled.
1131 /pieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
1132 Each piece that WinBoard knows (in its legality test) has a letter
1133 associated with it, by which it will be referred to in FEN or PGN. The
1134 default assignment can be overruled with this option. The value has to
1135 be a string of even length, with at least 12 characters. The first
1136 half of the string designates the white pieces, the second half the
1137 black. The last letter for each color will be assigned to the
1138 King. (This is the piece that moves as an orthodox King; note that
1139 Nightmate and Xiangqi have a different royal piece.) All letters
1140 before it will be assigned to the other pieces in the order:
1142 P Pawn (move often depends on variant)
1143 N Knight (move subtly different in Xiangqi (where it is written as H) or Shogi)
1146 Q Queen (Lance L in Shogi)
1147 F Ferz/General (Silver General S in Shogi)
1148 W Wazir/GrandVizer (Gold General G in Shogi, in Xiangqi it is royal and denoted by K)
1149 E Alfil/Elephant (Moves subtly different in Xiangqi vs Shatranj/Courier)
1152 U Unicorn (representation of Royal Knight in Knightmate, used as promoted Pawn in Shogi)
1153 H Nightrider (Promoted Knight in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
1154 A Archbishop/Cardinal (Promoted Bishop in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
1155 C Chancellor/Marshall (Promoted Rook in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
1156 G Grasshopper (Promoted Queen in Crazyhouse, promoted Lance in Shogi)
1157 S (Promoted Silver in Shogi)
1160 Pieces that are not mentioned (because the argument has less than 34
1161 characters) will remain disabled. Mentioned pieces can be disabled by
1162 assigning them a '.' (period). They are then not recognized in FEN or
1163 PGN input. It is not advisable to disable a piece that is present in
1164 the opening position of the selected variant, though.
1165 Promoted pieces that need to be distinguished from original pieces of
1166 the same type (because of demotion on capture and transfer to the
1167 holdings) will be indicated by the letter for the unpromoted piece
1168 with a '+' in front of it (Shogi), or by the letter of the promoted
1169 piece with a '~' after it (Crazyhouse, Bughouse, in general everything
1170 with holdings that is not Shogi).
1171 All the new pieces have a native biytmap representation in the board
1172 sizes 'bulky' and 'middling'. For all window sizes that do not support
1173 such fairy bitmaps, promoted NBRQ are represented as a 2-sizes-smaller
1174 normal piece symbol, so that Crazyhouse can be played at any
1175 size. People disliking the fairy representations might even prefer
1177 There is an enhanced 'Edit Position' menu popup (right-clicking on the
1178 squares after selecting this mode in the main menu), featuring some
1179 common non-FIDE pieces, and 'promote' and 'demote' options to make
1180 those not directly in the menu. The promotion popup shows ArchBishop
1181 and Chancellor in Capablanca and Gothic, (or in fact in any game where
1182 this piece is not disabled), and leaves only the options YES / NO in
1183 Shogi. In Xiangqi there are no promotions.
1185 /fontPieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
1186 This option is similar to /pieceToCharTable, but sets the font
1187 character that is used to display the piece on the screen (when
1188 font-based rendering is in use), rather than in the FEN or PGN. The
1189 default setting should work with the WinboardF font, which uses the
1190 'intuitive' mapping of font characters to symbols. Note that UHACGS
1191 are also used to represent the promoted versions of PNBRQF, in games
1192 like Crazyhouse and Shogi, where the promotion has to be undone on
1195 /boardWidth=-1 /boardHeight=-1
1196 Set a number of files and ranks of the playing board to a value that
1197 will override the defaults for the variant that is selected. A value
1198 of -1 means the variant default board size will be used for the
1199 corresponding parameter (and is itself the default value of these
1200 options). These parameters can be set in the "Files -> New Variant..."
1201 sub-menu, where they are reset to the default -1 is you OK the chosen
1202 variant without typing something to overrule it. These parameters are
1203 saved in the winboard.ini file. (But unless you saved while a variant
1204 with board-size override was selected, they will always be saved as
1206 A variant with a non-standard board size will be communicated to the
1207 engine(s) with the board size prefixed to the variant name,
1208 e.g. "variant 12x8_capablanca". In protocol 2 the engine must first
1209 enable this feature by sending "boardsizeFxR" amongst the accepted
1210 variants, where F is the maximum number of files, and R the maximum
1211 number of ranks, as decimal numbers.
1214 Set the size of the holdings for dropable pieces to a value that will
1215 override the default for the variant that is selected. A value of -1
1216 means the variant default holdings size will be used for that
1217 parameter (and is itself the default value of this options). This
1218 parameter can be set in the Files -> New Variant... sub-menu, where it
1219 is reset to the default -1 is you OK the chosen variant without typing
1220 something to overrule it. This parameters is saved in the winboard.ini
1221 file. To disable holdings, set their size to 0. They will then not be
1222 displayed. For non-zero holding size N, the holdings are displayed
1223 left and right of the board, and piece drops can be effected by
1224 dragging pieces from the holdings to the drop square. In bughouse, the
1225 holdings will be filled by the ICS. In all other variants, captured
1226 pieces will go into the holdings (after reversing their color). Only
1227 the first N pieces of the /pieceToCharTable argument will go into the
1228 holdings. All other pieces will be converted to Pawns. (In Shogi,
1229 however they will be demoted in the regular way before determining if
1230 they fit.) Pieces that are disabled (per default and per
1231 /pieceToCharTable option) might not be counted when determining what
1232 are the first N pieces. Non-standard holdingsize will be communicated
1233 to the engine by prefixing it (together with the board size, even if
1234 this is standard) to the variant name, e.g. "variant 7x7+5_shogi". In
1235 protocol 2 the engine should enable this feature by sending
1236 "holdingsH" amongst the variant names, where H is the maximum
1237 acceptable holdings size as a decimal number.
1240 When this parameter is true, a-h are converted to 1-9, and vice versa,
1241 in all move output and input (to PGN files or SAN move display as well
1242 as in communication with the engine). This might be useful for Shogi,
1243 where conventionally one uses letters to designate ranks, and digits
1244 to designate files. Engines that want to use this option must make
1245 sure pieces are never represented by lower case! This option can be
1246 set from the Files -> New Variant... menu, where it defaults to FALSE
1247 unless you explicitly set it. It is not saved in the winboard.ini
1248 file. Note that the PGN format in Shogi also leaves out the trailing
1249 '+' as check indicator: In Shogi such a trailing '+' means promotion,
1250 while a trailing '=' means defer promotion. Prefix '+' signs are used
1251 on moves with promoted pieces, disambiguation is done western SAN
1255 Causes the outline of the 'white' pieces to be superimposed onto the
1256 'black' piece symbols as well (as a black outline) when native bitmaps
1257 are used (as opposed to font-based rendering). This is useful if we
1258 choose a very light color to represent the 'black' pieces. It might be
1259 particularly useful in Shogi, where the conventional representation of
1260 the 'black' pieces is as upside-down white pieces, so that both colors
1261 would be white. This option is saved in the winboard.ini file, and can
1262 be set in the "Options -> Board..." sub-menu.
1265 This option is reserved for future use. It will cause upside-down
1266 display of the 'black' native piece bitmaps, as would be needed for
1267 Shogi. For now it can be set from the "Options -> Board..." sub-menu,
1268 and it is saved in the winboard.ini file, but it is ignored.
1276 These are all options that only affect engine-engine play, and can be
1277 set from the "Options -> Engine..." sub-menu. They are all related to
1278 adjudication of games by the GUI. Legality checking must be switched
1279 on for them to work. If /detectMate is TRUE, the GUI recognizes
1280 checkmate and stalemate (but not in games with holdings!), and ends
1281 the game accordingly before the engines can claim. This is convenient
1282 for play with engines that fail to claim, and just exit. With
1283 /testClaim set, all result and illegal-move claims by engines that
1284 claim more than their own loss are scrutinized for validity, and false
1285 claims result in forfeit of the game. Useful with buggy engines. The
1286 option /materialDraws=TRUE causes games with insufficient mating
1287 material to be adjudicated immediately as draws, in case the engines
1288 would not claim them. The option /trivialDraws adjudicates KNNK,
1289 KBKB, KNKN, KBKN, KRKR and KQKQ to draws after 3 moves (to allow for a
1290 quick tactical win. Note that in KQKQ this might not be sound, but
1291 that problem would disappear once bitbase probing is added). The
1292 /ruleMoves determine after how many reversible moves the game is
1293 adjudicated as a draw. Setting this to 0 turns this option off. Draw
1294 claims by the engine are still accepted (by /testClaim) after 50
1295 reversible moves, even if /ruleMoves species a larger number. Note
1296 that it is perfectly legal according to FIDE rules to play on after 50
1297 reversible moves, but in tournaments having two engines that want to
1298 play on forever is a nuisance in endings like KBNKR, where one of the
1299 engines thinks it is ahead and can avoids repeats virtually forever.
1300 The option /repeatsToDraw makes the GUI adjudicate a game as draw
1301 after the same position has occurred the specified number of times. If
1302 it is set to a value > 3, engines can still claim the draw after
1303 3-fold repeat. All these options are saved in the winboard.ini file.
1306 There is an "Options -> flip Clocks" command, that swaps the position
1307 of white and black clocks (convenient in over-the-board matches, where
1308 the screen is next to the board, and you want your own time to be
1309 displayed on your side of the screen). The clocks can be adjusted in
1310 "edit game" mode: right-clicking them adds one minute, left-clicking
1311 subtracts one minute. (Also for OTB matches, to keep them synchronized
1312 with the official match clock.) The flag-fell condition is now
1313 indicated as (!) behind the time.
1316 Castling rights and e.p. rights are now fully maintained, and
1317 considered in legality testing. They are imported from and written to
1318 FEN, as is the 50-move counter.
1322 These are the release notes of Winboard_F 4.3.2, which is released
1323 under the GPL. This version was derived from Allessandro Scotti's
1324 Winboard_x 4.2.7 source files. It only includes the files that were
1340 and some bitmaps for piece symbols
1342 I made modifications in the following areas:
1344 1) Adjudication and claim verification
1345 2) Fairy pieces and board sizes other than 8x8
1351 is an option to set the length of the pause between two games of a
1352 match. The value is in msec, default value is 10000 (I will present
1353 all newly implemented options with their default value as example). Be
1354 aware that some engines might not be stopped yet if you make the pause
1355 too small, but might still be puking output, which then will interfere
1356 with the next game. But the fixed value of 10 sec of the old Winboard
1357 seemed like overdoing it.
1360 When you ask for the PV-info to be stored in the PGN (a Winboard_x
1361 option), it now also stores the time spent on the move with it.
1364 In engine-engine games the messge "white/black/both" flag(s) fell" no
1365 longer appears in the window caption, but as an exclamation point
1366 behind the clock time. (To prevent the annoying overwriting of the
1367 normal header line).
1369 Adjudications and Claim verification.
1371 These functions are only present in engine-engine games, and only if
1372 legality-testing is switched on. (The latter will be typically
1373 switched off in games with bizarre rules, which the GUI doesn't know,
1374 and in that case the GUI can never have an opinion on the outcome of a
1377 Illegal-move forfeit
1378 As soon as one of the engines plays an illegal move, it forfeits the
1379 game. This feature was already present, but it should be 100% reliable
1380 now, as it also takes e.p. and castling rights into account, rather
1381 than erring on the safe side.
1384 From the above, it follows that any illegal-move claims by an engine
1385 must be false, and will result in forfeiting the game. (In Winboard_x
1386 this message is ignored, causing the game or match to hang.)
1388 Checkmate adjudication
1389 As soon as one of the engines does a move that results in checkmate,
1390 the GUI declares the game won, without waiting for the engine to claim
1393 Insufficient mating material
1394 As soon as the material on the board has shrunk to KK, KNK or KBK, the
1395 game is declared draw.
1397 /adjudicateLossThreshold=0
1398 This option was already present in Winboard_x, (to declare a game lost
1399 for which both engines agree for 3 moves that the score is below the
1400 given threshold), but a non-zero value is now also used to enable the
1401 following adjudications. If you only want the latter, just make the
1402 threshold impossibly low (-40000 will usually do the trick).
1405 If we are 3 moves into a KQKQ, KRKR, KBKB KBKN or KNKN end-game, the
1406 game is adjudicated as draw.
1409 When the specified number of repeats occurs, the game is adjudicated
1410 draw. Should keep track of e.p. and castling rights. This does not
1411 require legality-testing to be switched on. The engines retain the
1412 legal right to claim after a 3-fold repetition, though. If you set
1413 this parameter to 3 or less, they will never get the chance. Better
1414 not set it to 1 or less.
1417 After the given number of full moves without capture or Pawn move, the
1418 game is adjudicated draw. Even without legality testing. The engines
1419 retain the legal right to claim after 50 moves.
1422 When enabled, this option verifies all result claims made by the
1423 engines, and overrules the claim if it is false (forfeiting the game
1424 for the claimer). An engine can still safely claim a win for its
1425 opponent on a nonsense reason, though; this is taken to be the
1426 equivalent of 'resign'. Draw claims (made before a draw adjudication)
1427 are checked against the 50-move, 3-fold-repetition or
1428 insufficient-material rules. Win claims are always considered false,
1429 as the GUI adjudicates checkmates (and stalemates) before any engine
1435 Sets the number of files on the board. The additional files are named
1436 i, j, k, l... in PGN, and should be indicated this way in
1437 communicating moves to and from the engine. Currently works upto
1438 12. No guarantees on how the rest of the display (clocks, etc.) looks
1439 if you make this number < 8.
1442 Sets the number of ranks. Extra ranks are numbered 9, 10, 11... in
1443 PGN. This is so far largely untested, and unlikely to work for
1444 double-digit ranks. Displaying boards with upto 12 ranks seems to
1445 work, though, but double-digit ranks might cause all kind of unforseen
1446 problems in PGN file and move parser, or in communication with the
1447 engine. To avoid such problems as much as possible, in boards with
1448 more than 9 ranks the counting of ranks will start at zero rather than
1451 /fontPieceToCharTable="......."
1452 This paramater, controlling the mapping of font symbols to piece
1453 types, was already present in Winboard_x. The default is dependent on
1454 the font selected with the /renderPiecesWithFont option. It can now
1455 accept upto 32 pieces, but the length should always be even. The first
1456 half designates the white pieces, the second half the black, both in
1457 the order PNBRACHFEWDOGMQK. (The letters mentioned here are the
1458 letters by which the pieces will be indicated in PGN and FEN notation,
1459 what you have to give as argument depends on the font you use. A black
1460 king might be 'l', for instance). If you give fewer then 32 pieces,
1461 this will go at the expense of what is just before Queen. So the last
1462 two symbols you give for each color are always Queen and King, the
1463 others are assigned in the order Pawn, Knight, ... Pieces that do not
1464 get a symbol assigned will remain invisible.
1467 The letters ACDEFGHMOW are accepted in FENs in addition to the regular
1468 PNBRQK,(and of course the lower case versions for black), and are
1469 passed to the engine in a setboard or edit menu. Double-digit skips
1470 are acceptable in FENs. 'x' is interpreted as a skip of 10. Castling
1471 rights should no longer be ignored. (Doesn't work for FRC yet,
1472 though.) The 50-move-plies field should also be meaningful now.
1474 Legality testing for Fairy pieces
1475 There is a build in notion of what some of the new pieces can do, according to
1476 A = Archbishop (aka Cardinal) = N+B
1477 C = Chancellor (aka Marshall) = N+R
1478 F = Ferz (aka General), moves 1 step diagonal
1479 W = Wazir (aka Grand Vizer), moves 1 step orthogonal
1480 E = Elephant (aka Alfil), jumps 2 steps diagonal
1481 D = Dabbabah (aka War Machine), jumps 2 steps orthogonal
1482 M = Man (aka Commoner), moves as King, but is not a royal piece
1483 O = Cannon, moves along Rook lines, but cannot capture unless it jumps over
1484 exactly one piece (friend or foe), and captures the first piece
1485 it encounters thereafter. It can only jump if it captures something.
1486 The piece jumped over (the 'platform') is not affected.
1487 The other pieces have not yet any moves implemented:
1490 In games that use the mentioned pieces as described (Shatranj,
1491 Courier, Capablanca Chess) you can leave legality testing on. If you
1492 use them to represent pieces that move differently, you should switch
1493 legality testing off.
1496 Pawn motion is made dependent on the variant played: in Shatranj and
1497 Courier the double move is forbidden. In those games promotions are
1498 always to Ferz. In Capablanca Chess the ArchBishop and Chancellor also
1499 appear as choices in the promotion popup box.
1503 Several new variants names are added (replacing "variant31" upto
1504 "variant36"). They affect the initial position. (Board size has to be
1505 set separately.) They are: courier (a Medieval predecessor of modern
1506 Chess, played on a 12x8 board) capablanca (on a 10x8 board, featuring
1507 Archbishop and Chancellor) gothic (as Capablanca, but with a more
1508 exciting initial setup) xiangqi (Chinese Chess) shogi (Japanese Chess,
1509 no support yet) fairy (This variant plays on 8x8 with HEW in stead of
1510 NBR on the Queen side, so that all back-rank pieces are (potentially)
1511 different) Make sure the selected board size matches the variant; this
1514 Xiangqi and Shogi support (or lack thereof)
1515 Xiangqi is only partially supported. The board display is
1516 western-style (the pieces play on squares, rather than grid
1517 intersections). The legality testing uses the Shatranj Knight and
1518 Elephant, that cannot be blocked, and thus allows some moves that
1519 should be illegal in Xiangqi. The Palace region is indicated on the
1520 board, but there is no testing if the King or Mandarins (implemented
1521 as ordinary Ferzes) leave the Palace. SAN might be non-standard, as it
1522 uses O to indicate Cannon. Most of this will be fixed in a future
1523 version. Shogi is not yet supported at all, first the shaky
1524 implementation of Crazyhouse will have to be beefed up.
projects / xboard.git / blob