1 ** Version master 20110822 (not an official release)
4 * i18n support via gettext in XBoard, more languages in Winboard
5 * implement new promotion dialog/method (experimental)
6 * implement move type-in for XBoard
7 * engines can be loaded/switch while running
9 * copy game list menu item for XBoard
10 * added tournament manager
14 * fixed compiler warnings
15 * removed flex generated parser
19 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.3/ )
21 * fixes of major bugs:
22 * In the file-browse dialog . and .. no longer mask other files if they are non-first in the directory
23 * Fix XBoard crash on showing an empty Engine Settings dialog, printing a message in stead
24 * The XBoard Game List can now handle files with more than 1900 games, by paging through them
25 * The state of the Move-History window is now remembered by XBoard even when the Engine-Output window is up
26 * Fix crash on switching sounds in WinBoard under Windows Vista
27 * Fix empty-string option values on XBoard command line (which were ignored)
28 * Fix spurious vertical scrolling in XBoard Engine-Output window on clicking in it
29 * Obey an engine's san feature when sending book moves to it
30 * Fix XBoard crash when 'filtering' made Game List empty
31 * Suppress clearing of Engine-Output window on automatic updates in analyze mode
32 * Force Move-History refresh after loading/reverting variation
33 * Fix closing brace, when joining two comments to same move
35 * fixes of minor bugs:
36 * Suppress playing sounds when no -soundProgram is set
37 * Fix display of last move of last match game
38 * Update window title after last game of match
39 * Never one-click move when legality testing is off
40 * Suppress playing book move when total weigth of all moves is zero
41 * Restore echo after ^C killed XBoard during ICS password
42 * Fix default of -remoteUser, which could cause crash when playing remote engines
43 * Fix recognition of separators between options in -adapterCommand command line
44 * Fix button sizing in generic popup
45 * Fix translatability of 'Spartan Chess' menu item WB
46 * Remove some duplicats from WB language template file
47 * Fix spurious 'Unfinished' sounds during ICS examining
48 * Fix bug in handling of partner command in zippy-mode bughouse games
49 * Create more space in some WB dialogs to accomodate translations
51 * Improvements benefitting the speaking version for the visually impaired (WB):
52 * Implement NVDA support in JAWS version
53 * Fix translation of spoken composite messages
54 * Fix JAWS reading of Engine-Settings dialog by removing group-boxes
55 * Add tab stops in WB generic popup
56 * Reorder controls in Engine-Setings dialog WB, so they are tabbed through in logical order
58 * fixed compiler warnings/errors and portability:
59 * Fix use of random function in XBoard shuffle dialog callback
60 * Fix inconsistent type of the variable 'shuffleOpenings'
61 * Silence warnings during rpm build
62 * Fix warnings XBoard file browser
63 * Fix some warnings and header-file improvement
66 * Add -at and -opt options as alternative for @, as work-around for Windows shortcut bug
67 * Make occurrence of unknown option in settings file non-fatal
68 * Stale output no longer lingers in the engine-output window when a new game starts
69 * Popdown (stale) Comment window on new game
71 ** Version 4.5.2a (Winboard only)**
73 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.2/ )
75 * Fix Engine Settings button options in WinBoard
79 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.2/ )
82 * Added many option dialogs and reworked some of the old ones
84 * bugfixes, packaging and install:
86 * Fix flipBlack option XBoard with board texture
87 * Fix two bugs in reading position diagram
88 * Fix parsing bug of FRC castling
89 * Fix bugs in FRC castling rights
90 * Fix display of promotion piece in ICS superchess
91 * Fix path browsing in WinBoard
92 * Fix use of game/position file in first match game
93 * Fix build on Mac OS X
94 * install bitmaps and sounds during "make install"
95 * some minor bug fixes
96 * code cleanup (e.g. 64 bit warnings, removed malloc.h)
100 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.1/ )
103 * Revert "Implement -reset option feature in WinBoard"
104 * Fix deselection of greyed-out variant button (WB)
105 * Put warning in HTML help
106 * Fix unmarked translation
108 * Fix variant janus size prefix
109 * Fix Xiangqi King facing
110 * Fix showing of user move after adjudication
111 * Make language choice from menu persistent
113 * Fix some resource leaks
115 * fixed packaging issues:
116 * add DIFFSTAT and SHORTLOG to tar-ball
117 * added history.c to the tar-ball. Needed for Winboard
119 * fixed compiler warnings/errors:
120 * added missing header file for sprintf
121 * added missing #includes and missing prototypes to filebrowser
122 * Fix MSVC compilability
123 * Fix 64-bit Windows compilability
124 * Fix MSVC snprintf problem
126 * fixed configure problems:
127 * fixed configure script to correctly detect Xaw3d library
128 * updated configure.ac to check for Xaw header files
131 * Fix two typos in option names in texi file
136 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.0/ for more details)
140 * User specific settings files
141 * More logical (and standard) menu structure
142 * Translation into other languages (WB)
143 * Walking the PV of an engine
144 * Exploring variations
145 * Playing through PGN variations
146 * Annotating a game with analysis results
148 * Controlling move choice of the GUI book
149 * Keeping the clock in sync in tournaments
150 * Starting an engine match from the menu
151 * Fixed thinking time per move
152 * Improved multi-PV support
153 * Where your pieces can move to
154 * Editing crazyhouse holdings
155 * Thai Chess (Makruk) and Seirawan Chess
156 * Non-compliant FEN and SAN input
157 * Improved Xiangqi adjudications
158 * Allowing engines to setup a position
160 Merging XBoard & WinBoard
161 ------------------------------
162 * Evaluation graph (XB)
164 * Filtering the game list (XB)
165 * Game-List options dialog (XB)
166 * Recalling the ICS input history (XB)
167 * Aribtrary board textures (XB)
168 * Highlight arrow (XB)
170 ICS-client Enhancements
171 -----------------------
172 * Maintaining a healty ICS connection
173 * Claiming a draw after your move
176 * Observing your bughouse partner
177 * Improved Chat-Box interface (WB)
178 * Uploading games to an ICS
179 * Side-by-side boards
184 * Repair exit-popup deadlock patch
185 * Fix bug in sending "usermove" when forcing book moves
186 * Let move parser return ImpossibleMove for off-board moves
187 * Prevent engine stall on perpetual-chase evasion
188 * Pop down old tags on loadng new game in WinBoard
189 * Fix game end during dragging
190 * Repair animate dragging
191 * Fix bug in sending cores command to engine
192 * Fix parsing of SAN shogi promotions
193 * Fix variant switch on PGN loading
194 * Allow -flipBlack to work with font-based piece rendering
195 * Allow font-based piece rendering in board sizes below petite
196 * Fix WinBoard game-list title
197 * Fix deadlock in match-result display
198 * Fix regression in colorization of zippy-matched commands
199 * Fix zippy handling of draw offers from ICS
200 * Make some more zippy code obey the --disable-zippy flag
201 * Remove unnecessary double equals from configure.ac.
202 * Cut board squares out of texture bitmap more cleverly
207 * Implement castling for variant CRC
208 * Extensive bugfix of -autoKibitz
209 * Accept <Enter> for changing chat partner
210 * Change opening array -variant fairy
211 * Send continuation lines to chat box they belong to
212 * Use -keepAlive option to determine connection health
213 * Fix of ancient WinBoard bug: check value of int options
214 * Fix bug for incommensurate time odds
215 * Fix piece-to-char table -variant fairy
216 * Fix TwoKings ICS castling-rights bug
217 * Fix reading castling rights FEN in knightmate and twokings
218 * Fix OO-castling in FRC after pasting FEN
219 * Fix bug in display of logos
220 * Fix highlighting bug in XBoard
221 * Match handles with multiple titles for channel Chat Boxes
222 * Make WinBoard makefiles use parser.c in XBoard directory
223 * Added missing sounds files to be able to compile on windows
224 * Added logo files for xboard
225 * Bugfix stale first-click
226 * Fix copying of WB Chat Window contents
227 * Fix XB crash on giving keyboard focus to non-text widget
228 * Bugfix copying from Chat Box, own lines
229 * Fix 'mamer bug' in Chat Boxes
230 * Fix copying of kibitzed lines from WB Engine-Output window
231 * Do not recognize non-ICS variants from PGN event tag
232 * Remake programVersion string after receiving engine features
233 * Set keyboard focus at startup to board window
234 * Fix window-position upset on failing engine start in WinBoard
235 * Allow lower-case promochar in moves of type h8=Q
236 * Small bugfixed for JAWS version
241 * add Winboard source files into tar-ball
242 * remove trailing \r in xboard output
243 * double buffer size to prevent overflow
244 * fix problem with empty string in -firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN
245 * updates makefiles to include dependency on config.h
246 * correctly apply some check boxes from the option menu
247 * score sign in analysis mode
248 * fix for bug #28077: xboard needs to link against x11
249 * fix castling rights when copying FEN to clipboard (again)
250 * fixed some outstanding pixmaps
251 * fix the irritating wandering off of the MoveHistory window in XBoard on opening/closing.
252 * use xtell for talking to handles, but tell for talking into a channel.
253 * fix bug in bughouse drop menu
254 * removing some rather verbose debug messages that seem no longer needed.
255 * fix engine-sync on move-number type-in bug
256 * fix declaration of engineOutputDialogUp
257 * fix double start of zippy engine after switch to gothic
258 * the last move before the time control now gets its time listed in the PGN
259 * fix casting rights after FEN pasting
260 * fix crash on engine crash
261 * fixed build on openbsd
262 * cleaned up some debug messages and typos
263 * removed files that should only be in the windboard directory
264 * added missing library for build on OS X
268 * added chat windows to keep track of multiple conversations (WinBoard only)
269 * allow the result comment as a display item in the game list
270 * added a "Mute All Sounds" item in the WinBoard Options menu
271 * new -forceIllegalMoves option
272 * new -keepAlive option (for ICS play)
273 * ported -autoDisplayComment and -autoDisplayTags to xboard, controling popups
274 * replaces analysispopup with engineoutputpopup in xboard
275 * allow copy/paste position and game to use clipboard (xboard)
276 * updated several bitmaps (xboard)
277 * Made the beep sounds for JAWS board navigation configurable
278 through command-line options
279 * added the result comment to the game-list tags when the game
280 list is exported to the clipboard
282 * fixed premove problem
283 * fixed engine did not start playing when out of GUI book on second
285 * fix bug using opening books (file were not closed)
286 * fixed crash when opening Engine #1 Settings when there were no
287 text-edit options in the dialog
288 * fixed loading of games from command lines, fixes cmail bug
289 * fix joining lines split by ICS and resizing terminal window when using ICS
290 (new option -keepLineBreaksICS, -wrapContinuationSequence, -useInternalWrap)
291 * fixed -autoDisplayComment
292 * fixed wrong default value for engineDebugOutput in xboard
293 * swapped 'tell' and 'message' parsing order for correct colorization.
294 * fixed parse bug for pgn files
295 * fix for edit-position "moves" being sent by XBoard to the engine
296 * bugfix for protocol extensions: egtbpath -> egtpath
298 * further bugfixes: #8847, #10990, #27427, #27642,
299 #27666, #27667, #27668, #27715, #27751, #27760,
300 #27772, #27799, #27826 and several small ones
301 * use "make distcheck" to generate tar-balls
302 * prepared a system to internationalize winboard menus
303 * improved mouse handler
304 * rewrote wevalgraph for better frontend/backend separation
309 A new release of both XBoard and WinBoard is now available. Version
310 4.4.0 includes many changes. It is the first major release of
311 xboard/winboard after a fork of the project after version 4.2.7. It
312 includes small changes made in the main line and changes made by a
313 fork of Alessandro Scotti and lots of changes made afterwards by
314 H.G. Muller (released as versions 4.3.x). This release represents a
315 unified version of all changes made after the fork. It includes many
316 new features and bugfixes.
318 You can get both XBoard and WinBoard from the Savannah
321 https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/
323 If you find a bug, please report it in the bug tracker at
324 https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/ or by email to bug-xboard
330 New command-line options
331 /niceEngines=N for adjusting the priority of engine processes so they don't soak up all your system resources
332 /firstOptions="..." Allows the setting of options that engines define through the feature option="..." commands
334 /firstLogo=filename.bmp Displays the mentioned bitmap next to the clock (with H:W =1:2 aspect ratio) (WB only)
335 /secondLogo=filename.bmp
336 /autoLogo=false get logo files automatically from engineDirectory\logo.bmp
338 General enhancements:
339 * New WB-protocol command: 'feature option="NAME -TYPE VALUE OTHER"', which engines can use to define options
340 * New WB-protocol command: 'option NAME VALUE' used to set value of engine-defned options.
341 * implements /delayAfterQuit and /delayBeforeQuit in XBoard, and uses SIGKILL to terminate rogue engine processes
346 New command-line options
347 /rewindIndex=N (for the new auto-increment mode of the loadGameIndex or loadPositionIndex in match mode)
348 /sameColorGames=N (for playing a match where the same player has white all the time)
349 /egtFormats="..." (for specifying where various end-game tables are installed on the computer)
352 + Time-odds factors can be set in the time-control dialog
353 + Nr of CPUs for SMP engines can be set in the Options -> UCI dialog
354 + Own-Book options can be switched from the Options -> UCI dialog
355 + The ScoreIsAbs options can be set from the Options -> Engine dialog
356 + New-Variant menu adds Superchess
358 General Enhancements:
359 * WinBoard engines can now also use the Polyglot opening book (implemented as general GUI book)
360 * New WB-protocol commands memory, cores and egtpath make interactive setting of these parameters
361 possible on WB engines
362 * New Polyglot is available that relays the interactive setting of these parameters to UCI engines
363 * Match mode suports an auto-increment mode, so that all games or positions from a file can be played
364 * Draw claims with Kings and an arbitrary number of like Bishops (e.g. KBBKB) are accepted
366 The source tree in original xboard 4.2.7 format can now be compiled under Cygwin with the aid
367 of the cygwin.mak file in the ~/winboard/ subdirectory of the source releasy, after you put
368 the hep-file from an executabl distribution there. Maefiles for other compilers are not updated
369 since 4.2.7, as I do not have those compilers.
374 This relaese was not made by the GNU xboard team, but by H.G.Muller.
375 It mainly contains developments on WinBoard. Nevertheless, an attempt
376 has been started to back-port the enormous number of improvements that
377 have been made to WinBoard since the Linux and Windows developments branched
378 to xboard. This is reflected by the source tree now having the same format
379 as that of xboard 4.2.7, including all the xboard sources.
381 An enormous amount of work still has to be done to make the xboard version
382 fully equivalent to WinBoard, especially on user-interface side. As a modest
383 beginning, the xboard source files have been patched to allow their compilation
384 with the newer back-end files from WinBoard. To this end, the number of piece
385 types in xboard has been increased from 6 to 22, and the WinBoard bitmaps
386 have been converted to xboard source format (.bm) and are included in the
387 xboard bitmaps directory. Other quick patches include the coloring of the
388 board squares (for xiangqi and holdings), and some code in the user-move
389 handling to suppress all moves into or out of the area between board and
390 holdings in crazyhouse, and the treatment of king-captures-own-piece
391 as a possibly valid move (for FRC castling). This should make it possible
392 to run xboard with the new back-end files without too much inconvenience.
394 New xboard command-line options have been added to make the added back-end
395 features available. The include the new variants (as argument of the old
396 -variant option), -boardWidth, -boardHeight and -holdingsSize. Be sure
397 to call xboard with "-boardSize middling" or "-boardSize bulky" if you
398 want to play with fairy pieces, or xboard might crash due to unavailability
399 of bitmaps. Other added xboard options are:
401 ADJUDICATION OPTIONS:
408 -adjudicateLossThreshold
425 -hideThinkingFromHuman
427 This is all completely untested, but as the options merely switch on well-tested
428 code in the back-end, there should not be too many problems with them.
429 Bugs can be reported in the WinBoard forum.
432 ** Version 4.3.14k **
434 Compared to version 4.3.13 described below, this version features
436 New command-line options:
437 /autoKibitz (for relaying the PV info of the engine to the ICS)
438 /userName="..." (for setting the name of the Human player, also as menu)
439 /engineDebugOutput=N (controlling the writing of engine output to debug file)
440 /firstNPS=N (for time management by node count or CPU time)
441 /secondNPS=N (likewise for the other engine)
444 + Enter Username (same as /userName command-line option)
445 + Save Diagram (for saving the Chessboard display as bitmap file)
446 + Machine Both (not implemented yet, but menu item already provided)
447 + New-Variant menu adds CRC, Janus and Berolina (the latter only with legality testing off!)
448 + Any variant can be played from a shuffled opening setup
451 * Problems with switching the variant in ICS zippy mode solved
452 * In ICS observing mode game history is now fully accessible
453 * Moves are not fed to engine in zippy mode, when observing a game from a variant unknown to the engine
454 * a problem with loading PGN of FRC games with move disambiguation and initial castling rights was fixed.
455 * A bug in the clock display that made previous versions of WinBoard crash for tiny displays is fixed
457 General enhancements:
458 * variant name displayed in title bar in ICS mode, when not 'normal'
459 * 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)
460 * when loading a game from a PGN file, WB automatically switches to the variant specified in the PGN tags
461 * when starting from a loaded position (using /loadPositionFile), this position will be used on subsequent 'New Game' commands as well (until we switch variant)
463 New is also that the source tree is now brought back in the original WinBoard 4.2.7 format, including
464 xboard source files. Note, however, that the xboard sources are from an older date, and I did not test
465 if they still compile together with the much newer backend sources. I did add code in xboard.c to recognize
466 the new command-line options I added since then, and in so far they are back-end options that should be enough
467 to make them work. This is completely untested, though; I did not even try to compile it. Last time anyone
468 built a working xboard.exe from this was at a stage where WinBoard did have adjustable board size, allowing
469 it to play Xiangqi. But no crazyhouse holdings yet.
472 ** Version 4.3.13a **
474 This version of WinBoard_F fixes several bugs in 4.3.12, and also addse a few new features.
475 The new features include:
476 - some more fairy pieces, so that each side now has 22 piece types in stead of 17,
477 making most fairy pieces available in board size "petite" (next to "bulky" and "middling"),
478 making the ArchBishop and Chancellor, as well as one wildcard piece (the Lance) available in all
479 sizes from "petite" to "bulky".
480 - The FRC support is fully fixed, both in local and ICS mode.
481 - A mechanism is provided for safe draw claiming in cases where a 3-fold repetition woud occur only
482 after your own move. In this case a draw will be awarded by WinBoard if the engine sends "offer draw"
483 before making its move.
484 - Genuine draw offers are not passed on immediately to the opponent but held up to when the offerer announces
486 - Variants FRC, Cylinder and Falcon are added to the "New Variant..." menu.
487 - Support for playing time-odds games is added. (Options /firstTimeOdds, /secondTimeOdds, /timeOddsMode)
488 - A mechanism is provided for attaching WinBoard options to the engine command, to create options that
489 follow the engine (e.g. time odds) in a tournament run under a tournament manager.
491 - Shatranj in ICS mode (did not work at all before)
492 - Some draw adjudications (QRKR was mistaken for KRKR, and KBKB with like Bishops is now recognized)
493 - time info in the PGN is now correct
495 ** Winboard_F.4.3.12 release notes
497 This WinBoard (beta-)version is derived from Allessandro Scotti's
498 Winboard_x, and supports the following new options, mainly in the area
499 of adjudication of engine-engine games, improved Crazyhouse support,
500 and allowing variants with non-conventional pieces and or board
501 sizes. (All option are shown here with their default values):
504 This (already existing) option has been expanded with
505 several new variants, involving non-conventional pieces and deviating
506 board sizes. The board size is automatically adapted to the selected
507 variant, unless explicitly overruled (see below). The new variants are
508 (with default board size, files x ranks, in parentheses):
510 variant name Game board description
511 knightmate Knightmate (8x8) Variant where the King moves as a Knight, and vice versa
512 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8) Variant featuring Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces
513 gothic Gothic Chess (10x8) Same as Capablanca, with a more interesting opening position
514 courier Courier Chess (12x8) a Medieval form that combines elements of Shatranj and modern Chess
515 shogi Shogi (9x9) Japanese Chess
516 xiangqi Xiangqi (9x10) Chinese Chess
517 fairy Fairy Chess (8x8) Variant were you can use all pieces of other variants together
519 The variant can be set from the newly added "File -> New Variant..."
520 sub-menu. Extra board files are indicated by the letters i, j, k, l,
521 ... For boards with more than 9 ranks, the counting starts at zero!
522 More than 10 ranks is not tested and unlikely to work in the area of
523 PGN saving / reading. Non-FIDE pieces will be referred to in FENs and
524 PGN by letters that depend on the variant, and might collide with
525 piece designators in other variants. E.g. in Xiangqi 'C' is a Cannon,
526 in Capablanca Chess it is a Chancellor. Pieces that do not belong in a
527 variant cannot be addressed in FEN and PGN either, for as long as that
528 variant is selected, unless the letter assignment is overruled with
529 the aid of the /pieceToCharTable option. The variant is not saved in
530 the winboard.ini file; on start-up we always get variant "normal"
531 unless we use the command-line option, or have added the option to the
532 winboard.ini file manually (in which case it will disappear when this
533 file is overwritten by WinBoard saving its options). WinBoard_F knows
534 the movement of all pieces occurring in Capablanca Chess (of which
535 FIDE Chess is a subset), Shatranj, Courier, Xiangqi and 9x9 Shogi, so
536 that these games can be played with legality testing enabled.
538 /pieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
539 Each piece that WinBoard knows (in its legality test) has a letter
540 associated with it, by which it will be referred to in FEN or PGN. The
541 default assignment can be overruled with this option. The value has to
542 be a string of even length, with at least 12 characters. The first
543 half of the string designates the white pieces, the second half the
544 black. The last letter for each color will be assigned to the
545 King. (This is the piece that moves as an orthodox King; note that
546 Nightmate and Xiangqi have a different royal piece.) All letters
547 before it will be assigned to the other pieces in the order:
549 P Pawn (move often depends on variant)
550 N Knight (move subtly different in Xiangqi (where it is written as H) or Shogi)
553 Q Queen (Lance L in Shogi)
554 F Ferz/General (The Shatranj 'Queen' and Xiangqi 'Adviser', used for Silver General S in Shogi.)
555 W Wazir/GrandVizer (Gold General G in Shogi, in Xiangqi it is royal and denoted by K)
556 E Alfil/Elephant (Moves subtly different in Xiangqi vs Shatranj/Courier)
559 U Unicorn (representation of Royal Knight in Knightmate, used as promoted Pawn in Shogi)
560 H Nightrider (Promoted Knight in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
561 A Archbishop/Cardinal (Promoted Bishop in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
562 C Chancellor/Marshall (Promoted Rook in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
563 G Grasshopper (Promoted Queen in Crazyhouse, promoted Lance in Shogi)
564 S (Promoted Silver in Shogi)
567 Pieces that are not mentioned (because the argument has less than 34
568 characters) will remain disabled. Mentioned pieces can be disabled by
569 assigning them a '.' (period). They are then not recognized in FEN or
570 PGN input. Non-FIDE pieces that are not assigned a letter will also
571 not appear on the promotion menu. It is not advisable to disable a
572 piece that is present in the opening position of the selected variant,
574 Promoted pieces that need to be distinguished from original pieces of
575 the same type (because of demotion on capture and transfer to the
576 holdings) will be indicated by the letter for the unpromoted piece
577 with a '+' in front of it (Shogi), or by the letter of the promoted
578 piece with a '~' after it (Crazyhouse, Bughouse, in general everything
579 with holdings that is not Shogi). To achieve this, they should be
580 assigned the characters '+' or '~', respectively.
581 All the new pieces have a native bitmap representation in the board
582 sizes 'bulky' and 'middling'. For all window sizes that do not support
583 such fairy bitmaps, promoted NBRQ are represented as a 2-sizes-smaller
584 normal piece symbol, so that Crazyhouse can be played at any
585 size. People disliking the fairy representations might even prefer
587 There is an enhanced 'Edit Position' menu popup (right-clicking on the
588 squares after selecting this mode in the main menu), featuring some
589 common non-FIDE pieces, and 'promote' and 'demote' options to make
590 those not directly in the menu. The promotion popup shows ArchBishop
591 and Chancellor in Capablanca and Gothic, (or in fact in any game where
592 this piece is not disabled or a promoted version of a normal piece),
593 and leaves only the options YES / NO in Shogi. In Xiangqi there are no
596 /fontPieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
597 This option is similar to /pieceToCharTable, but sets the font
598 character that is used to display the piece on the screen (when
599 font-based rendering is in use), rather than in the FEN or PGN. The
600 default setting should work with George Tsavdaris' WinboardF font,
601 which uses the 'intuitive' mapping of font characters to symbols. With
602 font-based rendering the fairy pieces can be used at any board size.
603 Note that UHACGS are also used to represent the promoted versions of
604 PNBRQF, in games like Crazyhouse and Shogi, where the promotion has to
605 be undone on capture. In such games you are likely to prefer a
606 different representation of those pieces then when they represent true
610 Traditional Shogi bitmaps are only included for size "moderate". For
611 other sizes you must depend on font-based rendering.
619 The option /materialDraws=TRUE causes games with insufficient mating
620 material to be adjudicated immediately as draws, in case the engines
621 would not claim these draws. This applies to KK, KNK and KBK. The
622 option /trivialDraws adjudicates KNNK, KBKB, KNKN, KBKN, KRKR and KQKQ
623 to draws after 3 moves (to allow for a quick tactical win). Note that
624 in KQKQ this might not be sound, but that problem would disappear once
625 bitbase probing is implemented.
628 The flag-fell condition is now indicated as '(!)' behind the displayed
629 time, to eliminate the necessity for overwriting the message in the
630 title bar (which might contain indispensible information in match
633 Other improvements / changes
634 Castling rights and e.p. rights are now fully maintained, and
635 considered in legality testing. They are imported from and written to
636 FEN, as is the 50-move counter. (When reading an incomplete FEN they
637 are still guessed, though.) The time (in sec, or min:sec) is now
638 always stored together with the PV information to the PGN, if storing
639 the latter was requested (through ticking "extended PGN info" in
640 "Options -> General..."). The saved time is the WinBoard clock time
641 (as opposed to the time reported by the engine).
643 ** Winboard_F.4.3.8 release notes
645 This Winboard supports the following new options (shown here with their default values):
648 This (already existing) option has been expanded with several new
649 variants, involving non-conventional pieces and deviating board
650 sizes. The board size is automatically adapted to the selected
651 variant, unless explicitly overruled (see below). The new variants are
652 (with default board size, files x ranks, in parentheses):
654 variant name Game board description
655 knightmate Knightmate (8x8) Variant where the King moves as a Knight, and vice versa
656 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8) Variant featuring Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces
657 gothic Gothic Chess (10x8) Same as Capablanca, with a more interesting opening position
658 courier Courier Chess (12x8) a Medieval form that combines elements of Shatranj and modern Chess
659 shogi Shogi (9x9) Japanese Chess
660 xiangqi Xiangqi (9x10) Chinese Chess
661 fairy Fairy Chess (8x8) Variant were you can use all pieces of other variants together
663 The variant can be set from the newly added "File -> New Variant..." sub-menu.
664 Extra board files are indicated by the letters i, j, k, l, ... For
665 boards with more than 9 ranks, the counting starts at zero! Non-FIDE
666 pieces will be referred to in FENs and PGN by letters that depend on
667 the variant, and might collide with piece designators in other
668 variants. E.g. in Xiangqi 'C' is a Cannon, in Capablanca Chess it is a
669 Chancellor. Pieces that do not belong in a variant cannot be addressed
670 in FEN and PGN either as long as that variant is selected, unless the
671 letter assignment is overruled by the /pieceToCharTable option. The
672 variant is not saved in the winboard.ini file; on start-up we always
673 get variant "normal" unless we use the command-line opton, or have
674 added the option to the winboard.ini file manually (in which case it
675 will disappear when this file is overwritten). WinBoard_F knows the
676 movement of all pieces occurring in Capablanca Chess (of which FIDE
677 Chess is a subset), Shatranj, Courier, Xiangqi and 9x9 Shogi, so that
678 these games can be played with legality testing enabled.
680 /pieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
681 Each piece that WinBoard knows (in its legality test) has a letter
682 associated with it, by which it will be referred to in FEN or PGN. The
683 default assignment can be overruled with this option. The value has to
684 be a string of even length, with at least 12 characters. The first
685 half of the string designates the white pieces, the second half the
686 black. The last letter for each color will be assigned to the
687 King. (This is the piece that moves as an orthodox King; note that
688 Nightmate and Xiangqi have a different royal piece.) All letters
689 before it will be assigned to the other pieces in the order:
691 P Pawn (move often depends on variant)
692 N Knight (move subtly different in Xiangqi (where it is written as H) or Shogi)
695 Q Queen (Lance L in Shogi)
696 F Ferz/General (Silver General S in Shogi)
697 W Wazir/GrandVizer (Gold General G in Shogi, in Xiangqi it is royal and denoted by K)
698 E Alfil/Elephant (Moves subtly different in Xiangqi vs Shatranj/Courier)
701 U Unicorn (representation of Royal Knight in Knightmate, used as promoted Pawn in Shogi)
702 H Nightrider (Promoted Knight in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
703 A Archbishop/Cardinal (Promoted Bishop in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
704 C Chancellor/Marshall (Promoted Rook in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
705 G Grasshopper (Promoted Queen in Crazyhouse, promoted Lance in Shogi)
706 S (Promoted Silver in Shogi)
709 Pieces that are not mentioned (because the argument has less than 34
710 characters) will remain disabled. Mentioned pieces can be disabled by
711 assigning them a '.' (period). They are then not recognized in FEN or
712 PGN input. It is not advisable to disable a piece that is present in
713 the opening position of the selected variant, though.
714 Promoted pieces that need to be distinguished from original pieces of
715 the same type (because of demotion on capture and transfer to the
716 holdings) will be indicated by the letter for the unpromoted piece
717 with a '+' in front of it (Shogi), or by the letter of the promoted
718 piece with a '~' after it (Crazyhouse, Bughouse, in general everything
719 with holdings that is not Shogi).
720 All the new pieces have a native biytmap representation in the board
721 sizes 'bulky' and 'middling'. For all window sizes that do not support
722 such fairy bitmaps, promoted NBRQ are represented as a 2-sizes-smaller
723 normal piece symbol, so that Crazyhouse can be played at any
724 size. People disliking the fairy representations might even prefer
726 There is an enhanced 'Edit Position' menu popup (right-clicking on the
727 squares after selecting this mode in the main menu), featuring some
728 common non-FIDE pieces, and 'promote' and 'demote' options to make
729 those not directly in the menu. The promotion popup shows ArchBishop
730 and Chancellor in Capablanca and Gothic, (or in fact in any game where
731 this piece is not disabled), and leaves only the options YES / NO in
732 Shogi. In Xiangqi there are no promotions.
735 This option does not seem to work for reading PGN files. Saving works
736 fine. For now, using it is not recommended. In the future it might be
737 redefined as only affecting engine-engine communication, .
740 Setting this option will cause upside-down display of the native piece
741 bitmaps used to represent the pieces of the side that plays black, as
742 would be needed for a traditional representation of Shogi pieces. It
743 can be set from the "Options -> Board..." sub-menu, and it is saved in
744 the winboard.ini file. For now, traditional Shogi bitmaps are not
747 Other improvements / changes
748 Castling rights and e.p. rights are now fully maintained, and
749 considered in legality testing. They are imported from and written to
750 FEN, as is the 50-move counter. The time (in sec, or min:sec) is now
751 always stored together with the PV information to the PGN, if storing
752 the latter was requested (through ticking 'extended PGN info' in
753 "Options -> General..."). The saved time is the Winboard clock time
754 (as opposed to the time reported by the engine).
756 ** Winboard_F.4.3.7 release notes
758 This Winboard supports the following new options (shown here with
759 their default values):
762 This (already existing) option has been expanded with several new
763 variants, involving non-conventional pieces and deviating board
764 sizes. The board size is automatically adapted to the selected
765 variant, unless explicitly overruled (see below). The new variants are
766 (with default board size, files x ranks, in parentheses):
768 variant name Game board description
769 knightmate Knightmate (8x8) Variant where the King moves as a Knight, and vice versa
770 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8) Variant featuring Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces
771 gothic Gothic Chess (10x8) Same as Capablanca, with a more interesting opening position
772 courier Courier Chess (12x8) a Medieval form that combines elements of Shatranj and modern Chess
773 shogi Shogi (9x9) Japanese Chess
774 xiangqi Xiangqi (9x10) Chinese Chess
775 fairy Fairy Chess (8x8) Variant were you can use all pieces of other variants together
777 The variant can be set from the newly added "File -> New Variant..." sub-menu.
778 Extra board files are indicated by the letters i, j, k, l, ... For
779 boards with more than 9 ranks, the counting starts at zero! Non-FIDE
780 pieces will be referred to in FENs and PGN by letters that depend on
781 the variant, and might collide with piece designators in other
782 variants. E.g. in Xiangqi 'C' is a Cannon, in Capablanca Chess it is a
783 Chancellor. Pieces that do not belong in a variant cannot be addressed
784 in FEN and PGN either as long as that variant is selected, unless the
785 letter assignment is overruled by the /pieceToCharTable option. The
786 variant is not saved in the winboard.ini file; on start-up we always
787 get variant "normal" unless we use the command-line opton, or have
788 added the option to the winboard.ini file manually (in which case it
789 will disappear when this file is overwritten). WinBoard_F knows the
790 movement of all pieces occurring in Capablanca Chess (of which FIDE
791 Chess is a subset), Shatranj, Courier, Xiangqi and 9x9 Shogi, so that
792 these games can be played with legality testing enabled.
794 /pieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
795 Each piece that WinBoard knows (in its legality test) has a letter
796 associated with it, by which it will be referred to in FEN or PGN. The
797 default assignment can be overruled with this option. The value has to
798 be a string of even length, with at least 12 characters. The first
799 half of the string designates the white pieces, the second half the
800 black. The last letter for each color will be assigned to the
801 King. (This is the piece that moves as an orthodox King; note that
802 Nightmate and Xiangqi have a different royal piece.) All letters
803 before it will be assigned to the other pieces in the order:
805 P Pawn (move often depends on variant)
806 N Knight (move subtly different in Xiangqi (where it is written as H) or Shogi)
809 Q Queen (Lance L in Shogi)
810 F Ferz/General (Silver General S in Shogi)
811 W Wazir/GrandVizer (Gold General G in Shogi, in Xiangqi it is royal and denoted by K)
812 E Alfil/Elephant (Moves subtly different in Xiangqi vs Shatranj/Courier)
815 U Unicorn (representation of Royal Knight in Knightmate, used as promoted Pawn in Shogi)
816 H Nightrider (Promoted Knight in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
817 A Archbishop/Cardinal (Promoted Bishop in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
818 C Chancellor/Marshall (Promoted Rook in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
819 G Grasshopper (Promoted Queen in Crazyhouse, promoted Lance in Shogi)
820 S (Promoted Silver in Shogi)
823 Pieces that are not mentioned (because the argument has less than 34
824 characters) will remain disabled. Mentioned pieces can be disabled by
825 assigning them a '.' (period). They are then not recognized in FEN or
826 PGN input. It is not advisable to disable a piece that is present in
827 the opening position of the selected variant, though.
828 Promoted pieces that need to be distinguished from original pieces of
829 the same type (because of demotion on capture and transfer to the
830 holdings) will be indicated by the letter for the unpromoted piece
831 with a '+' in front of it (Shogi), or by the letter of the promoted
832 piece with a '~' after it (Crazyhouse, Bughouse, in general everything
833 with holdings that is not Shogi).
834 All the new pieces have a native biytmap representation in the board
835 sizes 'bulky' and 'middling'. For all window sizes that do not support
836 such fairy bitmaps, promoted NBRQ are represented as a 2-sizes-smaller
837 normal piece symbol, so that Crazyhouse can be played at any
838 size. People disliking the fairy representations might even prefer
840 There is an enhanced 'Edit Position' menu popup (right-clicking on the
841 squares after selecting this mode in the main menu), featuring some
842 common non-FIDE pieces, and 'promote' and 'demote' options to make
843 those not directly in the menu. The promotion popup shows ArchBishop
844 and Chancellor in Capablanca and Gothic, (or in fact in any game where
845 this piece is not disabled), and leaves only the options YES / NO in
846 Shogi. In Xiangqi there are no promotions.
848 /fontPieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
849 This option is similar to /pieceToCharTable, but sets the font
850 character that is used to display the piece on the screen (when
851 font-based rendering is in use), rather than in the FEN or PGN. The
852 default setting should work with the WinboardF font, which uses the
853 'intuitive' mapping of font characters to symbols. Note that UHACGS
854 are also used to represent the promoted versions of PNBRQF, in games
855 like Crazyhouse and Shogi, where the promotion has to be undone on
858 /boardWidth=-1 /boardHeight=-1
859 Set a number of files and ranks of the playing board to a value that
860 will override the defaults for the variant that is selected. A value
861 of -1 means the variant default board size will be used for the
862 corresponding parameter (and is itself the default value of these
863 options). These parameters can be set in the "Files -> New Variant..."
864 sub-menu, where they are reset to the default -1 is you OK the chosen
865 variant without typing something to overrule it. These parameters are
866 saved in the winboard.ini file. (But unless you saved while a variant
867 with board-size override was selected, they will always be saved as
869 A variant with a non-standard board size will be communicated to the
870 engine(s) with the board size prefixed to the variant name,
871 e.g. "variant 12x8_capablanca". In protocol 2 the engine must first
872 enable this feature by sending "boardsizeFxR" amongst the accepted
873 variants, where F is the maximum number of files, and R the maximum
874 number of ranks, as decimal numbers.
877 Set the size of the holdings for dropable pieces to a value that will
878 override the default for the variant that is selected. A value of -1
879 means the variant default holdings size will be used for that
880 parameter (and is itself the default value of this options). This
881 parameter can be set in the Files -> New Variant... sub-menu, where it
882 is reset to the default -1 is you OK the chosen variant without typing
883 something to overrule it. This parameters is saved in the winboard.ini
884 file. To disable holdings, set their size to 0. They will then not be
885 displayed. For non-zero holding size N, the holdings are displayed
886 left and right of the board, and piece drops can be effected by
887 dragging pieces from the holdings to the drop square. In bughouse, the
888 holdings will be filled by the ICS. In all other variants, captured
889 pieces will go into the holdings (after reversing their color). Only
890 the first N pieces of the /pieceToCharTable argument will go into the
891 holdings. All other pieces will be converted to Pawns. (In Shogi,
892 however they will be demoted in the regular way before determining if
893 they fit.) Pieces that are disabled (per default and per
894 /pieceToCharTable option) might not be counted when determining what
895 are the first N pieces. Non-standard holdingsize will be communicated
896 to the engine by prefixing it (together with the board size, even if
897 this is standard) to the variant name, e.g. "variant 7x7+5_shogi". In
898 protocol 2 the engine should enable this feature by sending
899 "holdingsH" amongst the variant names, where H is the maximum
900 acceptable holdings size as a decimal number.
903 When this parameter is true, a-h are converted to 1-9, and vice versa,
904 in all move output and input (to PGN files or SAN move display as well
905 as in communication with the engine). This might be useful for Shogi,
906 where conventionally one uses letters to designate ranks, and digits
907 to designate files. Engines that want to use this option must make
908 sure pieces are never represented by lower case! This option can be
909 set from the Files -> New Variant... menu, where it defaults to FALSE
910 unless you explicitly set it. It is not saved in the winboard.ini
911 file. Note that the PGN format in Shogi also leaves out the trailing
912 '+' as check indicator: In Shogi such a trailing '+' means promotion,
913 while a trailing '=' means defer promotion. Prefix '+' signs are used
914 on moves with promoted pieces, disambiguation is done western SAN
918 Causes the outline of the 'white' pieces to be superimposed onto the
919 'black' piece symbols as well (as a black outline) when native bitmaps
920 are used (as opposed to font-based rendering). This is useful if we
921 choose a very light color to represent the 'black' pieces. It might be
922 particularly useful in Shogi, where the conventional representation of
923 the 'black' pieces is as upside-down white pieces, so that both colors
924 would be white. This option is saved in the winboard.ini file, and can
925 be set in the "Options -> Board..." sub-menu.
928 This option is reserved for future use. It will cause upside-down
929 display of the 'black' native piece bitmaps, as would be needed for
930 Shogi. For now it can be set from the "Options -> Board..." sub-menu,
931 and it is saved in the winboard.ini file, but it is ignored.
939 These are all options that only affect engine-engine play, and can be
940 set from the "Options -> Engine..." sub-menu. They are all related to
941 adjudication of games by the GUI. Legality checking must be switched
942 on for them to work. If /detectMate is TRUE, the GUI recognizes
943 checkmate and stalemate (but not in games with holdings!), and ends
944 the game accordingly before the engines can claim. This is convenient
945 for play with engines that fail to claim, and just exit. With
946 /testClaim set, all result and illegal-move claims by engines that
947 claim more than their own loss are scrutinized for validity, and false
948 claims result in forfeit of the game. Useful with buggy engines. The
949 option /materialDraws=TRUE causes games with insufficient mating
950 material to be adjudicated immediately as draws, in case the engines
951 would not claim them. The option /trivialDraws adjudicates KNNK,
952 KBKB, KNKN, KBKN, KRKR and KQKQ to draws after 3 moves (to allow for a
953 quick tactical win. Note that in KQKQ this might not be sound, but
954 that problem would disappear once bitbase probing is added). The
955 /ruleMoves determine after how many reversible moves the game is
956 adjudicated as a draw. Setting this to 0 turns this option off. Draw
957 claims by the engine are still accepted (by /testClaim) after 50
958 reversible moves, even if /ruleMoves species a larger number. Note
959 that it is perfectly legal according to FIDE rules to play on after 50
960 reversible moves, but in tournaments having two engines that want to
961 play on forever is a nuisance in endings like KBNKR, where one of the
962 engines thinks it is ahead and can avoids repeats virtually forever.
963 The option /repeatsToDraw makes the GUI adjudicate a game as draw
964 after the same position has occurred the specified number of times. If
965 it is set to a value > 3, engines can still claim the draw after
966 3-fold repeat. All these options are saved in the winboard.ini file.
969 There is an "Options -> flip Clocks" command, that swaps the position
970 of white and black clocks (convenient in over-the-board matches, where
971 the screen is next to the board, and you want your own time to be
972 displayed on your side of the screen). The clocks can be adjusted in
973 "edit game" mode: right-clicking them adds one minute, left-clicking
974 subtracts one minute. (Also for OTB matches, to keep them synchronized
975 with the official match clock.) The flag-fell condition is now
976 indicated as (!) behind the time.
979 Castling rights and e.p. rights are now fully maintained, and
980 considered in legality testing. They are imported from and written to
981 FEN, as is the 50-move counter.
985 These are the release notes of Winboard_F 4.3.2, which is released
986 under the GPL. This version was derived from Allessandro Scotti's
987 Winboard_x 4.2.7 source files. It only includes the files that were
1003 and some bitmaps for piece symbols
1005 I made modifications in the following areas:
1007 1) Adjudication and claim verification
1008 2) Fairy pieces and board sizes other than 8x8
1014 is an option to set the length of the pause between two games of a
1015 match. The value is in msec, default value is 10000 (I will present
1016 all newly implemented options with their default value as example). Be
1017 aware that some engines might not be stopped yet if you make the pause
1018 too small, but might still be puking output, which then will interfere
1019 with the next game. But the fixed value of 10 sec of the old Winboard
1020 seemed like overdoing it.
1023 When you ask for the PV-info to be stored in the PGN (a Winboard_x
1024 option), it now also stores the time spent on the move with it.
1027 In engine-engine games the messge "white/black/both" flag(s) fell" no
1028 longer appears in the window caption, but as an exclamation point
1029 behind the clock time. (To prevent the annoying overwriting of the
1030 normal header line).
1032 Adjudications and Claim verification.
1034 These functions are only present in engine-engine games, and only if
1035 legality-testing is switched on. (The latter will be typically
1036 switched off in games with bizarre rules, which the GUI doesn't know,
1037 and in that case the GUI can never have an opinion on the outcome of a
1040 Illegal-move forfeit
1041 As soon as one of the engines plays an illegal move, it forfeits the
1042 game. This feature was already present, but it should be 100% reliable
1043 now, as it also takes e.p. and castling rights into account, rather
1044 than erring on the safe side.
1047 From the above, it follows that any illegal-move claims by an engine
1048 must be false, and will result in forfeiting the game. (In Winboard_x
1049 this message is ignored, causing the game or match to hang.)
1051 Checkmate adjudication
1052 As soon as one of the engines does a move that results in checkmate,
1053 the GUI declares the game won, without waiting for the engine to claim
1056 Insufficient mating material
1057 As soon as the material on the board has shrunk to KK, KNK or KBK, the
1058 game is declared draw.
1060 /adjudicateLossThreshold=0
1061 This option was already present in Winboard_x, (to declare a game lost
1062 for which both engines agree for 3 moves that the score is below the
1063 given threshold), but a non-zero value is now also used to enable the
1064 following adjudications. If you only want the latter, just make the
1065 threshold impossibly low (-40000 will usually do the trick).
1068 If we are 3 moves into a KQKQ, KRKR, KBKB KBKN or KNKN end-game, the
1069 game is adjudicated as draw.
1072 When the specified number of repeats occurs, the game is adjudicated
1073 draw. Should keep track of e.p. and castling rights. This does not
1074 require legality-testing to be switched on. The engines retain the
1075 legal right to claim after a 3-fold repetition, though. If you set
1076 this parameter to 3 or less, they will never get the chance. Better
1077 not set it to 1 or less.
1080 After the given number of full moves without capture or Pawn move, the
1081 game is adjudicated draw. Even without legality testing. The engines
1082 retain the legal right to claim after 50 moves.
1085 When enabled, this option verifies all result claims made by the
1086 engines, and overrules the claim if it is false (forfeiting the game
1087 for the claimer). An engine can still safely claim a win for its
1088 opponent on a nonsense reason, though; this is taken to be the
1089 equivalent of 'resign'. Draw claims (made before a draw adjudication)
1090 are checked against the 50-move, 3-fold-repetition or
1091 insufficient-material rules. Win claims are always considered false,
1092 as the GUI adjudicates checkmates (and stalemates) before any engine
1098 Sets the number of files on the board. The additional files are named
1099 i, j, k, l... in PGN, and should be indicated this way in
1100 communicating moves to and from the engine. Currently works upto
1101 12. No guarantees on how the rest of the display (clocks, etc.) looks
1102 if you make this number < 8.
1105 Sets the number of ranks. Extra ranks are numbered 9, 10, 11... in
1106 PGN. This is so far largely untested, and unlikely to work for
1107 double-digit ranks. Displaying boards with upto 12 ranks seems to
1108 work, though, but double-digit ranks might cause all kind of unforseen
1109 problems in PGN file and move parser, or in communication with the
1110 engine. To avoid such problems as much as possible, in boards with
1111 more than 9 ranks the counting of ranks will start at zero rather than
1114 /fontPieceToCharTable="......."
1115 This paramater, controlling the mapping of font symbols to piece
1116 types, was already present in Winboard_x. The default is dependent on
1117 the font selected with the /renderPiecesWithFont option. It can now
1118 accept upto 32 pieces, but the length should always be even. The first
1119 half designates the white pieces, the second half the black, both in
1120 the order PNBRACHFEWDOGMQK. (The letters mentioned here are the
1121 letters by which the pieces will be indicated in PGN and FEN notation,
1122 what you have to give as argument depends on the font you use. A black
1123 king might be 'l', for instance). If you give fewer then 32 pieces,
1124 this will go at the expense of what is just before Queen. So the last
1125 two symbols you give for each color are always Queen and King, the
1126 others are assigned in the order Pawn, Knight, ... Pieces that do not
1127 get a symbol assigned will remain invisible.
1130 The letters ACDEFGHMOW are accepted in FENs in addition to the regular
1131 PNBRQK,(and of course the lower case versions for black), and are
1132 passed to the engine in a setboard or edit menu. Double-digit skips
1133 are acceptable in FENs. 'x' is interpreted as a skip of 10. Castling
1134 rights should no longer be ignored. (Doesn't work for FRC yet,
1135 though.) The 50-move-plies field should also be meaningful now.
1137 Legality testing for Fairy pieces
1138 There is a build in notion of what some of the new pieces can do, according to
1139 A = Archbishop (aka Cardinal) = N+B
1140 C = Chancellor (aka Marshall) = N+R
1141 F = Ferz (aka General), moves 1 step diagonal
1142 W = Wazir (aka Grand Vizer), moves 1 step orthogonal
1143 E = Elephant (aka Alfil), jumps 2 steps diagonal
1144 D = Dabbabah (aka War Machine), jumps 2 steps orthogonal
1145 M = Man (aka Commoner), moves as King, but is not a royal piece
1146 O = Cannon, moves along Rook lines, but cannot capture unless it jumps over
1147 exactly one piece (friend or foe), and captures the first piece
1148 it encounters thereafter. It can only jump if it captures something.
1149 The piece jumped over (the 'platform') is not affected.
1150 The other pieces have not yet any moves implemented:
1153 In games that use the mentioned pieces as described (Shatranj,
1154 Courier, Capablanca Chess) you can leave legality testing on. If you
1155 use them to represent pieces that move differently, you should switch
1156 legality testing off.
1159 Pawn motion is made dependent on the variant played: in Shatranj and
1160 Courier the double move is forbidden. In those games promotions are
1161 always to Ferz. In Capablanca Chess the ArchBishop and Chancellor also
1162 appear as choices in the promotion popup box.
1166 Several new variants names are added (replacing "variant31" upto
1167 "variant36"). They affect the initial position. (Board size has to be
1168 set separately.) They are: courier (a Medieval predecessor of modern
1169 Chess, played on a 12x8 board) capablanca (on a 10x8 board, featuring
1170 Archbishop and Chancellor) gothic (as Capablanca, but with a more
1171 exciting initial setup) xiangqi (Chinese Chess) shogi (Japanese Chess,
1172 no support yet) fairy (This variant plays on 8x8 with HEW in stead of
1173 NBR on the Queen side, so that all back-rank pieces are (potentially)
1174 different) Make sure the selected board size matches the variant; this
1177 Xiangqi and Shogi support (or lack thereof)
1178 Xiangqi is only partially supported. The board display is
1179 western-style (the pieces play on squares, rather than grid
1180 intersections). The legality testing uses the Shatranj Knight and
1181 Elephant, that cannot be blocked, and thus allows some moves that
1182 should be illegal in Xiangqi. The Palace region is indicated on the
1183 board, but there is no testing if the King or Mandarins (implemented
1184 as ordinary Ferzes) leave the Palace. SAN might be non-standard, as it
1185 uses O to indicate Cannon. Most of this will be fixed in a future
1186 version. Shogi is not yet supported at all, first the shaky
1187 implementation of Crazyhouse will have to be beefed up.
projects / xboard.git / blob