3 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.7.0/ )
5 * Code refactoring of XBoard
6 * The old X11 front-end has been largely rewritten,
7 so that all windows are now created by a single
9 * XBoard now uses the Cairo library for all drawing
10 * Pixmaps and bitmaps no longer supported;
11 XBoard now uses PNG and SVG images instead.
12 * An alternative (as yet experimental) front-end
13 using GTK has been added
15 * Interactive Analysis
16 * Excluding moves from analysis by playing them
17 * Excluded-moves header in Engine Output window
18 * Analyzing with two engines simultaneously
19 * Annotating an entire muti-game file
20 * Analysing positions by Monte-Carlo play
22 * Other New Functionality
23 * Displaying player logos (XB)
24 * Player logo on ICS can be based on player handle
25 * Chat boxes for XBoard
26 * Narrowing down of position searches
27 * Copying pieces when editing a position
28 * Starting WinBoard through drag & drop
29 * Recalling fully configured engines and ICS
30 * Creating an opening book from a game file
32 * Automatically observing partner games with dual-board
34 * Interface Improvements
35 * Recognizes file type of lone argument by extension
36 * Default startup settings configurable per mode
37 * Separate menu items for loading 1st and 2nd engine
38 * Engines can be selected from listboxes
39 * Grouping of engines in the installed-engines list
40 * Stay in Analyze or Game Start mode after engine loading
41 * 'Continue Later' button in WB tournament dialog
42 * A new --help option (XB)
43 * A second board window for observing ICS games (XB)
44 * Smoother graphics and a resizable board (XB)
45 * A rejuvenated file browser (XB Xaw)
46 * Scrolling listboxes with mouse wheel (XB Xaw)
47 * Tabbing through dialog etry fields (XB Xaw)
48 * Adapt width of auxilliary windows on board resize (WB)
49 * External piece bitmaps (WB)
50 * Border around the board (WB)
51 * Saving settings as themes (WB)
54 * Grayout of Analysis menu item in zippy mode
55 * Crash on flagging in -st mode
56 * Keep track of virginity in variant seirawan FENs
57 * Immunity to capitalized promo pieces
58 * Avoid board sizes with unavailabile variant pieces
59 * Work-around for FICS violation of SAN
60 * Check validity of tourney participants
61 * Loop-Chess promotions with legality testing on
62 * Fix -fSAN option in Analyze File mode
63 * Scrolling of Engine Output after PV walk (XB)
64 * Start browsing in currently-selected folder (WB)
65 * Allow entry of fractional timeIncrement (WB)
66 * Resolve conflict between -mps and -inc options
67 * Size of mini-Shogi promotion zone
68 * Adjudication of stalemate and perpetuals in Shogi
69 * Rep-draw detection in drop games
70 * Insufficient-material draws in Knightmate
71 * Replacing of engine in non-last game position
72 * Sweep selection of promo-piece in click-click move
73 * Don't save aborted games in tourney PGN
74 * Remember ponder, book and other settings in tourney file
75 * Do not erase PGN tags on engine loading
76 * Solved feature problems with engine loading in match mode
77 * Re-send option settings to -xreuse engine
78 * Allow use of 'shadow' promotion pieces in any variant
79 * WinBoard did not always start in its installation folder
80 * Initialization of 'Twice' checkbox in Tournament dialog (WB)
81 * Clearing of marker dots after mode or settings change
82 * some smaller bugfixes
85 (for a more detailed list with screenshots see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.6.2/ )
86 bugfix relase for 4.6.1
87 * Suppress clear-board message after pasting FEN
88 * Fix faking of castling rights after editing position with holdings
89 * Fix second-engine variant test
92 (for a more detailed list with screenshots see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.6.1/ )
94 bugfix release for 4.6.0
96 * Fix memory corruption bug on second-engine loading (through menu or in tournament),
97 which could destroy -firstInitString
98 * Fix bug loading a new engine through the menu (not loading it with the full game,
99 but just upto the current move)
100 * Prefix engine command with "./" when a pathname is split up during install, so the engine actually runs (XB)
101 * Fix fall-back to -ncp mode when engine does not start (cutting short the feature timeout)
102 * Fix bug in position search for FRC castlings (where a King could 'fall off' the board)
103 * Add a message to inform the user how to clear the board, in sweep-select edit-position mode
104 * Fix a bug that could stop the clock when the board window was dragged (XB)
105 * Fix switching off highlighting during game (so last highlights do not remain for the rest of the game)
106 * Allow user to enter the name of a non-existing file when browsing for a save file (WB)
107 * Make sure rarely used engine-related options (such as -firstNPS) are also correctly loaded during session
108 * Correctly handle parsing of Crazyhouse promotions with legality-testing off
109 * Fix click-click detour under-promotions, which were not working for non-captures
110 * Don't strip path from engine command if directory is explicitly given in Load Engine dialog
111 * Consistently make auxiliary windows top level-shells or not, with new -topLevel option (XB)
112 * No longer fatal if second engine does not support current variant (just refuse Two Machines mode)
113 * Scroll XBoard game list to keep selected item in view (XB)
114 * Suppress spurious error popup when starting observing of bughouse games
115 * Fix vertical axis ticks in eval graph with drop games
116 * Put title on same line as menu bar only for -size 72 and larger (with -titleInWindow, XB)
117 * Properly open and close debug file when switching debug mode through key binding Ctrl-D (XB)
121 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.6.0/ )
124 * Loading and installing engines through the menu
125 * Running tournaments with more than two partipants
126 * Stopping a match between two engines
127 * Replacing a tourney participant
128 * Playing openings in color-reversed pairs
129 * Perpetual chasing in Xiangqi
131 * Interface Improvements
132 * Auto-Queen, and still under-promote?
133 * Piece fonts and figurine fonts
134 * Displaying PVs as SAN
135 * Small scores in the Eval Graph
136 * How close is the 50-move draw?
137 * Sign of the engine scores
139 * Interactive Analysis
140 * Playing moves from the PV
141 * Rapidly changing the number of PVs
142 * Setting the other side to move in analysis
143 * Annotating a game with an engine
145 * Other New Functionality
146 * Searching a position in a PGN file
147 * Editing the opening book
149 * XBoard -> WinBoard Convergence
150 * Exporting the game list (XB)
151 * A move type-in box (XB)
152 * New-style Move History window (XB)
156 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.3a/ )
158 * only changes to Winboard : build non JAW by default, fix compile errors
162 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.3/ )
164 * fixes of major bugs:
165 * In the file-browse dialog . and .. no longer mask other files if they are non-first in the directory
166 * Fix XBoard crash on showing an empty Engine Settings dialog, printing a message in stead
167 * The XBoard Game List can now handle files with more than 1900 games, by paging through them
168 * The state of the Move-History window is now remembered by XBoard even when the Engine-Output window is up
169 * Fix crash on switching sounds in WinBoard under Windows Vista
170 * Fix empty-string option values on XBoard command line (which were ignored)
171 * Fix spurious vertical scrolling in XBoard Engine-Output window on clicking in it
172 * Obey an engine's san feature when sending book moves to it
173 * Fix XBoard crash when 'filtering' made Game List empty
174 * Suppress clearing of Engine-Output window on automatic updates in analyze mode
175 * Force Move-History refresh after loading/reverting variation
176 * Fix closing brace, when joining two comments to same move
178 * fixes of minor bugs:
179 * Suppress playing sounds when no -soundProgram is set
180 * Fix display of last move of last match game
181 * Update window title after last game of match
182 * Never one-click move when legality testing is off
183 * Suppress playing book move when total weigth of all moves is zero
184 * Restore echo after ^C killed XBoard during ICS password
185 * Fix default of -remoteUser, which could cause crash when playing remote engines
186 * Fix recognition of separators between options in -adapterCommand command line
187 * Fix button sizing in generic popup
188 * Fix translatability of 'Spartan Chess' menu item WB
189 * Remove some duplicats from WB language template file
190 * Fix spurious 'Unfinished' sounds during ICS examining
191 * Fix bug in handling of partner command in zippy-mode bughouse games
192 * Create more space in some WB dialogs to accomodate translations
194 * Improvements benefitting the speaking version for the visually impaired (WB):
195 * Implement NVDA support in JAWS version
196 * Fix translation of spoken composite messages
197 * Fix JAWS reading of Engine-Settings dialog by removing group-boxes
198 * Add tab stops in WB generic popup
199 * Reorder controls in Engine-Setings dialog WB, so they are tabbed through in logical order
201 * fixed compiler warnings/errors and portability:
202 * Fix use of random function in XBoard shuffle dialog callback
203 * Fix inconsistent type of the variable 'shuffleOpenings'
204 * Silence warnings during rpm build
205 * Fix warnings XBoard file browser
206 * Fix some warnings and header-file improvement
209 * Add -at and -opt options as alternative for @, as work-around for Windows shortcut bug
210 * Make occurrence of unknown option in settings file non-fatal
211 * Stale output no longer lingers in the engine-output window when a new game starts
212 * Popdown (stale) Comment window on new game
214 ** Version 4.5.2a (Winboard only)**
216 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.2/ )
218 * Fix Engine Settings button options in WinBoard
222 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.2/ )
225 * Added many option dialogs and reworked some of the old ones
227 * bugfixes, packaging and install:
229 * Fix flipBlack option XBoard with board texture
230 * Fix two bugs in reading position diagram
231 * Fix parsing bug of FRC castling
232 * Fix bugs in FRC castling rights
233 * Fix display of promotion piece in ICS superchess
234 * Fix path browsing in WinBoard
235 * Fix use of game/position file in first match game
236 * Fix build on Mac OS X
237 * install bitmaps and sounds during "make install"
238 * some minor bug fixes
239 * code cleanup (e.g. 64 bit warnings, removed malloc.h)
243 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.1/ )
246 * Revert "Implement -reset option feature in WinBoard"
247 * Fix deselection of greyed-out variant button (WB)
248 * Put warning in HTML help
249 * Fix unmarked translation
251 * Fix variant janus size prefix
252 * Fix Xiangqi King facing
253 * Fix showing of user move after adjudication
254 * Make language choice from menu persistent
256 * Fix some resource leaks
258 * fixed packaging issues:
259 * add DIFFSTAT and SHORTLOG to tar-ball
260 * added history.c to the tar-ball. Needed for Winboard
262 * fixed compiler warnings/errors:
263 * added missing header file for sprintf
264 * added missing #includes and missing prototypes to filebrowser
265 * Fix MSVC compilability
266 * Fix 64-bit Windows compilability
267 * Fix MSVC snprintf problem
269 * fixed configure problems:
270 * fixed configure script to correctly detect Xaw3d library
271 * updated configure.ac to check for Xaw header files
274 * Fix two typos in option names in texi file
279 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/whats_new/4.5.0/ for more details)
283 * User specific settings files
284 * More logical (and standard) menu structure
285 * Translation into other languages (WB)
286 * Walking the PV of an engine
287 * Exploring variations
288 * Playing through PGN variations
289 * Annotating a game with analysis results
291 * Controlling move choice of the GUI book
292 * Keeping the clock in sync in tournaments
293 * Starting an engine match from the menu
294 * Fixed thinking time per move
295 * Improved multi-PV support
296 * Where your pieces can move to
297 * Editing crazyhouse holdings
298 * Thai Chess (Makruk) and Seirawan Chess
299 * Non-compliant FEN and SAN input
300 * Improved Xiangqi adjudications
301 * Allowing engines to setup a position
303 Merging XBoard & WinBoard
304 ------------------------------
305 * Evaluation graph (XB)
307 * Filtering the game list (XB)
308 * Game-List options dialog (XB)
309 * Recalling the ICS input history (XB)
310 * Aribtrary board textures (XB)
311 * Highlight arrow (XB)
313 ICS-client Enhancements
314 -----------------------
315 * Maintaining a healty ICS connection
316 * Claiming a draw after your move
319 * Observing your bughouse partner
320 * Improved Chat-Box interface (WB)
321 * Uploading games to an ICS
322 * Side-by-side boards
327 * Repair exit-popup deadlock patch
328 * Fix bug in sending "usermove" when forcing book moves
329 * Let move parser return ImpossibleMove for off-board moves
330 * Prevent engine stall on perpetual-chase evasion
331 * Pop down old tags on loadng new game in WinBoard
332 * Fix game end during dragging
333 * Repair animate dragging
334 * Fix bug in sending cores command to engine
335 * Fix parsing of SAN shogi promotions
336 * Fix variant switch on PGN loading
337 * Allow -flipBlack to work with font-based piece rendering
338 * Allow font-based piece rendering in board sizes below petite
339 * Fix WinBoard game-list title
340 * Fix deadlock in match-result display
341 * Fix regression in colorization of zippy-matched commands
342 * Fix zippy handling of draw offers from ICS
343 * Make some more zippy code obey the --disable-zippy flag
344 * Remove unnecessary double equals from configure.ac.
345 * Cut board squares out of texture bitmap more cleverly
350 * Implement castling for variant CRC
351 * Extensive bugfix of -autoKibitz
352 * Accept <Enter> for changing chat partner
353 * Change opening array -variant fairy
354 * Send continuation lines to chat box they belong to
355 * Use -keepAlive option to determine connection health
356 * Fix of ancient WinBoard bug: check value of int options
357 * Fix bug for incommensurate time odds
358 * Fix piece-to-char table -variant fairy
359 * Fix TwoKings ICS castling-rights bug
360 * Fix reading castling rights FEN in knightmate and twokings
361 * Fix OO-castling in FRC after pasting FEN
362 * Fix bug in display of logos
363 * Fix highlighting bug in XBoard
364 * Match handles with multiple titles for channel Chat Boxes
365 * Make WinBoard makefiles use parser.c in XBoard directory
366 * Added missing sounds files to be able to compile on windows
367 * Added logo files for xboard
368 * Bugfix stale first-click
369 * Fix copying of WB Chat Window contents
370 * Fix XB crash on giving keyboard focus to non-text widget
371 * Bugfix copying from Chat Box, own lines
372 * Fix 'mamer bug' in Chat Boxes
373 * Fix copying of kibitzed lines from WB Engine-Output window
374 * Do not recognize non-ICS variants from PGN event tag
375 * Remake programVersion string after receiving engine features
376 * Set keyboard focus at startup to board window
377 * Fix window-position upset on failing engine start in WinBoard
378 * Allow lower-case promochar in moves of type h8=Q
379 * Small bugfixed for JAWS version
384 * add Winboard source files into tar-ball
385 * remove trailing \r in xboard output
386 * double buffer size to prevent overflow
387 * fix problem with empty string in -firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN
388 * updates makefiles to include dependency on config.h
389 * correctly apply some check boxes from the option menu
390 * score sign in analysis mode
391 * fix for bug #28077: xboard needs to link against x11
392 * fix castling rights when copying FEN to clipboard (again)
393 * fixed some outstanding pixmaps
394 * fix the irritating wandering off of the MoveHistory window in XBoard on opening/closing.
395 * use xtell for talking to handles, but tell for talking into a channel.
396 * fix bug in bughouse drop menu
397 * removing some rather verbose debug messages that seem no longer needed.
398 * fix engine-sync on move-number type-in bug
399 * fix declaration of engineOutputDialogUp
400 * fix double start of zippy engine after switch to gothic
401 * the last move before the time control now gets its time listed in the PGN
402 * fix casting rights after FEN pasting
403 * fix crash on engine crash
404 * fixed build on openbsd
405 * cleaned up some debug messages and typos
406 * removed files that should only be in the windboard directory
407 * added missing library for build on OS X
411 * added chat windows to keep track of multiple conversations (WinBoard only)
412 * allow the result comment as a display item in the game list
413 * added a "Mute All Sounds" item in the WinBoard Options menu
414 * new -forceIllegalMoves option
415 * new -keepAlive option (for ICS play)
416 * ported -autoDisplayComment and -autoDisplayTags to xboard, controling popups
417 * replaces analysispopup with engineoutputpopup in xboard
418 * allow copy/paste position and game to use clipboard (xboard)
419 * updated several bitmaps (xboard)
420 * Made the beep sounds for JAWS board navigation configurable
421 through command-line options
422 * added the result comment to the game-list tags when the game
423 list is exported to the clipboard
425 * fixed premove problem
426 * fixed engine did not start playing when out of GUI book on second
428 * fix bug using opening books (file were not closed)
429 * fixed crash when opening Engine #1 Settings when there were no
430 text-edit options in the dialog
431 * fixed loading of games from command lines, fixes cmail bug
432 * fix joining lines split by ICS and resizing terminal window when using ICS
433 (new option -keepLineBreaksICS, -wrapContinuationSequence, -useInternalWrap)
434 * fixed -autoDisplayComment
435 * fixed wrong default value for engineDebugOutput in xboard
436 * swapped 'tell' and 'message' parsing order for correct colorization.
437 * fixed parse bug for pgn files
438 * fix for edit-position "moves" being sent by XBoard to the engine
439 * bugfix for protocol extensions: egtbpath -> egtpath
441 * further bugfixes: #8847, #10990, #27427, #27642,
442 #27666, #27667, #27668, #27715, #27751, #27760,
443 #27772, #27799, #27826 and several small ones
444 * use "make distcheck" to generate tar-balls
445 * prepared a system to internationalize winboard menus
446 * improved mouse handler
447 * rewrote wevalgraph for better frontend/backend separation
452 A new release of both XBoard and WinBoard is now available. Version
453 4.4.0 includes many changes. It is the first major release of
454 xboard/winboard after a fork of the project after version 4.2.7. It
455 includes small changes made in the main line and changes made by a
456 fork of Alessandro Scotti and lots of changes made afterwards by
457 H.G. Muller (released as versions 4.3.x). This release represents a
458 unified version of all changes made after the fork. It includes many
459 new features and bugfixes.
461 You can get both XBoard and WinBoard from the Savannah
464 https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/
466 If you find a bug, please report it in the bug tracker at
467 https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/ or by email to bug-xboard
473 New command-line options
474 /niceEngines=N for adjusting the priority of engine processes so they don't soak up all your system resources
475 /firstOptions="..." Allows the setting of options that engines define through the feature option="..." commands
477 /firstLogo=filename.bmp Displays the mentioned bitmap next to the clock (with H:W =1:2 aspect ratio) (WB only)
478 /secondLogo=filename.bmp
479 /autoLogo=false get logo files automatically from engineDirectory\logo.bmp
481 General enhancements:
482 * New WB-protocol command: 'feature option="NAME -TYPE VALUE OTHER"', which engines can use to define options
483 * New WB-protocol command: 'option NAME VALUE' used to set value of engine-defned options.
484 * implements /delayAfterQuit and /delayBeforeQuit in XBoard, and uses SIGKILL to terminate rogue engine processes
489 New command-line options
490 /rewindIndex=N (for the new auto-increment mode of the loadGameIndex or loadPositionIndex in match mode)
491 /sameColorGames=N (for playing a match where the same player has white all the time)
492 /egtFormats="..." (for specifying where various end-game tables are installed on the computer)
495 + Time-odds factors can be set in the time-control dialog
496 + Nr of CPUs for SMP engines can be set in the Options -> UCI dialog
497 + Own-Book options can be switched from the Options -> UCI dialog
498 + The ScoreIsAbs options can be set from the Options -> Engine dialog
499 + New-Variant menu adds Superchess
501 General Enhancements:
502 * WinBoard engines can now also use the Polyglot opening book (implemented as general GUI book)
503 * New WB-protocol commands memory, cores and egtpath make interactive setting of these parameters
504 possible on WB engines
505 * New Polyglot is available that relays the interactive setting of these parameters to UCI engines
506 * Match mode suports an auto-increment mode, so that all games or positions from a file can be played
507 * Draw claims with Kings and an arbitrary number of like Bishops (e.g. KBBKB) are accepted
509 The source tree in original xboard 4.2.7 format can now be compiled under Cygwin with the aid
510 of the cygwin.mak file in the ~/winboard/ subdirectory of the source releasy, after you put
511 the hep-file from an executabl distribution there. Maefiles for other compilers are not updated
512 since 4.2.7, as I do not have those compilers.
517 This relaese was not made by the GNU xboard team, but by H.G.Muller.
518 It mainly contains developments on WinBoard. Nevertheless, an attempt
519 has been started to back-port the enormous number of improvements that
520 have been made to WinBoard since the Linux and Windows developments branched
521 to xboard. This is reflected by the source tree now having the same format
522 as that of xboard 4.2.7, including all the xboard sources.
524 An enormous amount of work still has to be done to make the xboard version
525 fully equivalent to WinBoard, especially on user-interface side. As a modest
526 beginning, the xboard source files have been patched to allow their compilation
527 with the newer back-end files from WinBoard. To this end, the number of piece
528 types in xboard has been increased from 6 to 22, and the WinBoard bitmaps
529 have been converted to xboard source format (.bm) and are included in the
530 xboard bitmaps directory. Other quick patches include the coloring of the
531 board squares (for xiangqi and holdings), and some code in the user-move
532 handling to suppress all moves into or out of the area between board and
533 holdings in crazyhouse, and the treatment of king-captures-own-piece
534 as a possibly valid move (for FRC castling). This should make it possible
535 to run xboard with the new back-end files without too much inconvenience.
537 New xboard command-line options have been added to make the added back-end
538 features available. The include the new variants (as argument of the old
539 -variant option), -boardWidth, -boardHeight and -holdingsSize. Be sure
540 to call xboard with "-boardSize middling" or "-boardSize bulky" if you
541 want to play with fairy pieces, or xboard might crash due to unavailability
542 of bitmaps. Other added xboard options are:
544 ADJUDICATION OPTIONS:
551 -adjudicateLossThreshold
568 -hideThinkingFromHuman
570 This is all completely untested, but as the options merely switch on well-tested
571 code in the back-end, there should not be too many problems with them.
572 Bugs can be reported in the WinBoard forum.
575 ** Version 4.3.14k **
577 Compared to version 4.3.13 described below, this version features
579 New command-line options:
580 /autoKibitz (for relaying the PV info of the engine to the ICS)
581 /userName="..." (for setting the name of the Human player, also as menu)
582 /engineDebugOutput=N (controlling the writing of engine output to debug file)
583 /firstNPS=N (for time management by node count or CPU time)
584 /secondNPS=N (likewise for the other engine)
587 + Enter Username (same as /userName command-line option)
588 + Save Diagram (for saving the Chessboard display as bitmap file)
589 + Machine Both (not implemented yet, but menu item already provided)
590 + New-Variant menu adds CRC, Janus and Berolina (the latter only with legality testing off!)
591 + Any variant can be played from a shuffled opening setup
594 * Problems with switching the variant in ICS zippy mode solved
595 * In ICS observing mode game history is now fully accessible
596 * Moves are not fed to engine in zippy mode, when observing a game from a variant unknown to the engine
597 * a problem with loading PGN of FRC games with move disambiguation and initial castling rights was fixed.
598 * A bug in the clock display that made previous versions of WinBoard crash for tiny displays is fixed
600 General enhancements:
601 * variant name displayed in title bar in ICS mode, when not 'normal'
602 * 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)
603 * when loading a game from a PGN file, WB automatically switches to the variant specified in the PGN tags
604 * when starting from a loaded position (using /loadPositionFile), this position will be used on subsequent 'New Game' commands as well (until we switch variant)
606 New is also that the source tree is now brought back in the original WinBoard 4.2.7 format, including
607 xboard source files. Note, however, that the xboard sources are from an older date, and I did not test
608 if they still compile together with the much newer backend sources. I did add code in xboard.c to recognize
609 the new command-line options I added since then, and in so far they are back-end options that should be enough
610 to make them work. This is completely untested, though; I did not even try to compile it. Last time anyone
611 built a working xboard.exe from this was at a stage where WinBoard did have adjustable board size, allowing
612 it to play Xiangqi. But no crazyhouse holdings yet.
615 ** Version 4.3.13a **
617 This version of WinBoard_F fixes several bugs in 4.3.12, and also addse a few new features.
618 The new features include:
619 - some more fairy pieces, so that each side now has 22 piece types in stead of 17,
620 making most fairy pieces available in board size "petite" (next to "bulky" and "middling"),
621 making the ArchBishop and Chancellor, as well as one wildcard piece (the Lance) available in all
622 sizes from "petite" to "bulky".
623 - The FRC support is fully fixed, both in local and ICS mode.
624 - A mechanism is provided for safe draw claiming in cases where a 3-fold repetition woud occur only
625 after your own move. In this case a draw will be awarded by WinBoard if the engine sends "offer draw"
626 before making its move.
627 - Genuine draw offers are not passed on immediately to the opponent but held up to when the offerer announces
629 - Variants FRC, Cylinder and Falcon are added to the "New Variant..." menu.
630 - Support for playing time-odds games is added. (Options /firstTimeOdds, /secondTimeOdds, /timeOddsMode)
631 - A mechanism is provided for attaching WinBoard options to the engine command, to create options that
632 follow the engine (e.g. time odds) in a tournament run under a tournament manager.
634 - Shatranj in ICS mode (did not work at all before)
635 - Some draw adjudications (QRKR was mistaken for KRKR, and KBKB with like Bishops is now recognized)
636 - time info in the PGN is now correct
638 ** Winboard_F.4.3.12 release notes
640 This WinBoard (beta-)version is derived from Allessandro Scotti's
641 Winboard_x, and supports the following new options, mainly in the area
642 of adjudication of engine-engine games, improved Crazyhouse support,
643 and allowing variants with non-conventional pieces and or board
644 sizes. (All option are shown here with their default values):
647 This (already existing) option has been expanded with
648 several new variants, involving non-conventional pieces and deviating
649 board sizes. The board size is automatically adapted to the selected
650 variant, unless explicitly overruled (see below). The new variants are
651 (with default board size, files x ranks, in parentheses):
653 variant name Game board description
654 knightmate Knightmate (8x8) Variant where the King moves as a Knight, and vice versa
655 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8) Variant featuring Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces
656 gothic Gothic Chess (10x8) Same as Capablanca, with a more interesting opening position
657 courier Courier Chess (12x8) a Medieval form that combines elements of Shatranj and modern Chess
658 shogi Shogi (9x9) Japanese Chess
659 xiangqi Xiangqi (9x10) Chinese Chess
660 fairy Fairy Chess (8x8) Variant were you can use all pieces of other variants together
662 The variant can be set from the newly added "File -> New Variant..."
663 sub-menu. Extra board files are indicated by the letters i, j, k, l,
664 ... For boards with more than 9 ranks, the counting starts at zero!
665 More than 10 ranks is not tested and unlikely to work in the area of
666 PGN saving / reading. Non-FIDE pieces will be referred to in FENs and
667 PGN by letters that depend on the variant, and might collide with
668 piece designators in other variants. E.g. in Xiangqi 'C' is a Cannon,
669 in Capablanca Chess it is a Chancellor. Pieces that do not belong in a
670 variant cannot be addressed in FEN and PGN either, for as long as that
671 variant is selected, unless the letter assignment is overruled with
672 the aid of the /pieceToCharTable option. The variant is not saved in
673 the winboard.ini file; on start-up we always get variant "normal"
674 unless we use the command-line option, or have added the option to the
675 winboard.ini file manually (in which case it will disappear when this
676 file is overwritten by WinBoard saving its options). WinBoard_F knows
677 the movement of all pieces occurring in Capablanca Chess (of which
678 FIDE Chess is a subset), Shatranj, Courier, Xiangqi and 9x9 Shogi, so
679 that these games can be played with legality testing enabled.
681 /pieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
682 Each piece that WinBoard knows (in its legality test) has a letter
683 associated with it, by which it will be referred to in FEN or PGN. The
684 default assignment can be overruled with this option. The value has to
685 be a string of even length, with at least 12 characters. The first
686 half of the string designates the white pieces, the second half the
687 black. The last letter for each color will be assigned to the
688 King. (This is the piece that moves as an orthodox King; note that
689 Nightmate and Xiangqi have a different royal piece.) All letters
690 before it will be assigned to the other pieces in the order:
692 P Pawn (move often depends on variant)
693 N Knight (move subtly different in Xiangqi (where it is written as H) or Shogi)
696 Q Queen (Lance L in Shogi)
697 F Ferz/General (The Shatranj 'Queen' and Xiangqi 'Adviser', used for Silver General S in Shogi.)
698 W Wazir/GrandVizer (Gold General G in Shogi, in Xiangqi it is royal and denoted by K)
699 E Alfil/Elephant (Moves subtly different in Xiangqi vs Shatranj/Courier)
702 U Unicorn (representation of Royal Knight in Knightmate, used as promoted Pawn in Shogi)
703 H Nightrider (Promoted Knight in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
704 A Archbishop/Cardinal (Promoted Bishop in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
705 C Chancellor/Marshall (Promoted Rook in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
706 G Grasshopper (Promoted Queen in Crazyhouse, promoted Lance in Shogi)
707 S (Promoted Silver in Shogi)
710 Pieces that are not mentioned (because the argument has less than 34
711 characters) will remain disabled. Mentioned pieces can be disabled by
712 assigning them a '.' (period). They are then not recognized in FEN or
713 PGN input. Non-FIDE pieces that are not assigned a letter will also
714 not appear on the promotion menu. It is not advisable to disable a
715 piece that is present in the opening position of the selected variant,
717 Promoted pieces that need to be distinguished from original pieces of
718 the same type (because of demotion on capture and transfer to the
719 holdings) will be indicated by the letter for the unpromoted piece
720 with a '+' in front of it (Shogi), or by the letter of the promoted
721 piece with a '~' after it (Crazyhouse, Bughouse, in general everything
722 with holdings that is not Shogi). To achieve this, they should be
723 assigned the characters '+' or '~', respectively.
724 All the new pieces have a native bitmap representation in the board
725 sizes 'bulky' and 'middling'. For all window sizes that do not support
726 such fairy bitmaps, promoted NBRQ are represented as a 2-sizes-smaller
727 normal piece symbol, so that Crazyhouse can be played at any
728 size. People disliking the fairy representations might even prefer
730 There is an enhanced 'Edit Position' menu popup (right-clicking on the
731 squares after selecting this mode in the main menu), featuring some
732 common non-FIDE pieces, and 'promote' and 'demote' options to make
733 those not directly in the menu. The promotion popup shows ArchBishop
734 and Chancellor in Capablanca and Gothic, (or in fact in any game where
735 this piece is not disabled or a promoted version of a normal piece),
736 and leaves only the options YES / NO in Shogi. In Xiangqi there are no
739 /fontPieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
740 This option is similar to /pieceToCharTable, but sets the font
741 character that is used to display the piece on the screen (when
742 font-based rendering is in use), rather than in the FEN or PGN. The
743 default setting should work with George Tsavdaris' WinboardF font,
744 which uses the 'intuitive' mapping of font characters to symbols. With
745 font-based rendering the fairy pieces can be used at any board size.
746 Note that UHACGS are also used to represent the promoted versions of
747 PNBRQF, in games like Crazyhouse and Shogi, where the promotion has to
748 be undone on capture. In such games you are likely to prefer a
749 different representation of those pieces then when they represent true
753 Traditional Shogi bitmaps are only included for size "moderate". For
754 other sizes you must depend on font-based rendering.
762 The option /materialDraws=TRUE causes games with insufficient mating
763 material to be adjudicated immediately as draws, in case the engines
764 would not claim these draws. This applies to KK, KNK and KBK. The
765 option /trivialDraws adjudicates KNNK, KBKB, KNKN, KBKN, KRKR and KQKQ
766 to draws after 3 moves (to allow for a quick tactical win). Note that
767 in KQKQ this might not be sound, but that problem would disappear once
768 bitbase probing is implemented.
771 The flag-fell condition is now indicated as '(!)' behind the displayed
772 time, to eliminate the necessity for overwriting the message in the
773 title bar (which might contain indispensible information in match
776 Other improvements / changes
777 Castling rights and e.p. rights are now fully maintained, and
778 considered in legality testing. They are imported from and written to
779 FEN, as is the 50-move counter. (When reading an incomplete FEN they
780 are still guessed, though.) The time (in sec, or min:sec) is now
781 always stored together with the PV information to the PGN, if storing
782 the latter was requested (through ticking "extended PGN info" in
783 "Options -> General..."). The saved time is the WinBoard clock time
784 (as opposed to the time reported by the engine).
786 ** Winboard_F.4.3.8 release notes
788 This Winboard supports the following new options (shown here with their default values):
791 This (already existing) option has been expanded with several new
792 variants, involving non-conventional pieces and deviating board
793 sizes. The board size is automatically adapted to the selected
794 variant, unless explicitly overruled (see below). The new variants are
795 (with default board size, files x ranks, in parentheses):
797 variant name Game board description
798 knightmate Knightmate (8x8) Variant where the King moves as a Knight, and vice versa
799 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8) Variant featuring Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces
800 gothic Gothic Chess (10x8) Same as Capablanca, with a more interesting opening position
801 courier Courier Chess (12x8) a Medieval form that combines elements of Shatranj and modern Chess
802 shogi Shogi (9x9) Japanese Chess
803 xiangqi Xiangqi (9x10) Chinese Chess
804 fairy Fairy Chess (8x8) Variant were you can use all pieces of other variants together
806 The variant can be set from the newly added "File -> New Variant..." sub-menu.
807 Extra board files are indicated by the letters i, j, k, l, ... For
808 boards with more than 9 ranks, the counting starts at zero! Non-FIDE
809 pieces will be referred to in FENs and PGN by letters that depend on
810 the variant, and might collide with piece designators in other
811 variants. E.g. in Xiangqi 'C' is a Cannon, in Capablanca Chess it is a
812 Chancellor. Pieces that do not belong in a variant cannot be addressed
813 in FEN and PGN either as long as that variant is selected, unless the
814 letter assignment is overruled by the /pieceToCharTable option. The
815 variant is not saved in the winboard.ini file; on start-up we always
816 get variant "normal" unless we use the command-line opton, or have
817 added the option to the winboard.ini file manually (in which case it
818 will disappear when this file is overwritten). WinBoard_F knows the
819 movement of all pieces occurring in Capablanca Chess (of which FIDE
820 Chess is a subset), Shatranj, Courier, Xiangqi and 9x9 Shogi, so that
821 these games can be played with legality testing enabled.
823 /pieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
824 Each piece that WinBoard knows (in its legality test) has a letter
825 associated with it, by which it will be referred to in FEN or PGN. The
826 default assignment can be overruled with this option. The value has to
827 be a string of even length, with at least 12 characters. The first
828 half of the string designates the white pieces, the second half the
829 black. The last letter for each color will be assigned to the
830 King. (This is the piece that moves as an orthodox King; note that
831 Nightmate and Xiangqi have a different royal piece.) All letters
832 before it will be assigned to the other pieces in the order:
834 P Pawn (move often depends on variant)
835 N Knight (move subtly different in Xiangqi (where it is written as H) or Shogi)
838 Q Queen (Lance L in Shogi)
839 F Ferz/General (Silver General S in Shogi)
840 W Wazir/GrandVizer (Gold General G in Shogi, in Xiangqi it is royal and denoted by K)
841 E Alfil/Elephant (Moves subtly different in Xiangqi vs Shatranj/Courier)
844 U Unicorn (representation of Royal Knight in Knightmate, used as promoted Pawn in Shogi)
845 H Nightrider (Promoted Knight in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
846 A Archbishop/Cardinal (Promoted Bishop in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
847 C Chancellor/Marshall (Promoted Rook in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
848 G Grasshopper (Promoted Queen in Crazyhouse, promoted Lance in Shogi)
849 S (Promoted Silver in Shogi)
852 Pieces that are not mentioned (because the argument has less than 34
853 characters) will remain disabled. Mentioned pieces can be disabled by
854 assigning them a '.' (period). They are then not recognized in FEN or
855 PGN input. It is not advisable to disable a piece that is present in
856 the opening position of the selected variant, though.
857 Promoted pieces that need to be distinguished from original pieces of
858 the same type (because of demotion on capture and transfer to the
859 holdings) will be indicated by the letter for the unpromoted piece
860 with a '+' in front of it (Shogi), or by the letter of the promoted
861 piece with a '~' after it (Crazyhouse, Bughouse, in general everything
862 with holdings that is not Shogi).
863 All the new pieces have a native biytmap representation in the board
864 sizes 'bulky' and 'middling'. For all window sizes that do not support
865 such fairy bitmaps, promoted NBRQ are represented as a 2-sizes-smaller
866 normal piece symbol, so that Crazyhouse can be played at any
867 size. People disliking the fairy representations might even prefer
869 There is an enhanced 'Edit Position' menu popup (right-clicking on the
870 squares after selecting this mode in the main menu), featuring some
871 common non-FIDE pieces, and 'promote' and 'demote' options to make
872 those not directly in the menu. The promotion popup shows ArchBishop
873 and Chancellor in Capablanca and Gothic, (or in fact in any game where
874 this piece is not disabled), and leaves only the options YES / NO in
875 Shogi. In Xiangqi there are no promotions.
878 This option does not seem to work for reading PGN files. Saving works
879 fine. For now, using it is not recommended. In the future it might be
880 redefined as only affecting engine-engine communication, .
883 Setting this option will cause upside-down display of the native piece
884 bitmaps used to represent the pieces of the side that plays black, as
885 would be needed for a traditional representation of Shogi pieces. It
886 can be set from the "Options -> Board..." sub-menu, and it is saved in
887 the winboard.ini file. For now, traditional Shogi bitmaps are not
890 Other improvements / changes
891 Castling rights and e.p. rights are now fully maintained, and
892 considered in legality testing. They are imported from and written to
893 FEN, as is the 50-move counter. The time (in sec, or min:sec) is now
894 always stored together with the PV information to the PGN, if storing
895 the latter was requested (through ticking 'extended PGN info' in
896 "Options -> General..."). The saved time is the Winboard clock time
897 (as opposed to the time reported by the engine).
899 ** Winboard_F.4.3.7 release notes
901 This Winboard supports the following new options (shown here with
902 their default values):
905 This (already existing) option has been expanded with several new
906 variants, involving non-conventional pieces and deviating board
907 sizes. The board size is automatically adapted to the selected
908 variant, unless explicitly overruled (see below). The new variants are
909 (with default board size, files x ranks, in parentheses):
911 variant name Game board description
912 knightmate Knightmate (8x8) Variant where the King moves as a Knight, and vice versa
913 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8) Variant featuring Archbishop and Chancellor as new pieces
914 gothic Gothic Chess (10x8) Same as Capablanca, with a more interesting opening position
915 courier Courier Chess (12x8) a Medieval form that combines elements of Shatranj and modern Chess
916 shogi Shogi (9x9) Japanese Chess
917 xiangqi Xiangqi (9x10) Chinese Chess
918 fairy Fairy Chess (8x8) Variant were you can use all pieces of other variants together
920 The variant can be set from the newly added "File -> New Variant..." sub-menu.
921 Extra board files are indicated by the letters i, j, k, l, ... For
922 boards with more than 9 ranks, the counting starts at zero! Non-FIDE
923 pieces will be referred to in FENs and PGN by letters that depend on
924 the variant, and might collide with piece designators in other
925 variants. E.g. in Xiangqi 'C' is a Cannon, in Capablanca Chess it is a
926 Chancellor. Pieces that do not belong in a variant cannot be addressed
927 in FEN and PGN either as long as that variant is selected, unless the
928 letter assignment is overruled by the /pieceToCharTable option. The
929 variant is not saved in the winboard.ini file; on start-up we always
930 get variant "normal" unless we use the command-line opton, or have
931 added the option to the winboard.ini file manually (in which case it
932 will disappear when this file is overwritten). WinBoard_F knows the
933 movement of all pieces occurring in Capablanca Chess (of which FIDE
934 Chess is a subset), Shatranj, Courier, Xiangqi and 9x9 Shogi, so that
935 these games can be played with legality testing enabled.
937 /pieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
938 Each piece that WinBoard knows (in its legality test) has a letter
939 associated with it, by which it will be referred to in FEN or PGN. The
940 default assignment can be overruled with this option. The value has to
941 be a string of even length, with at least 12 characters. The first
942 half of the string designates the white pieces, the second half the
943 black. The last letter for each color will be assigned to the
944 King. (This is the piece that moves as an orthodox King; note that
945 Nightmate and Xiangqi have a different royal piece.) All letters
946 before it will be assigned to the other pieces in the order:
948 P Pawn (move often depends on variant)
949 N Knight (move subtly different in Xiangqi (where it is written as H) or Shogi)
952 Q Queen (Lance L in Shogi)
953 F Ferz/General (Silver General S in Shogi)
954 W Wazir/GrandVizer (Gold General G in Shogi, in Xiangqi it is royal and denoted by K)
955 E Alfil/Elephant (Moves subtly different in Xiangqi vs Shatranj/Courier)
958 U Unicorn (representation of Royal Knight in Knightmate, used as promoted Pawn in Shogi)
959 H Nightrider (Promoted Knight in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
960 A Archbishop/Cardinal (Promoted Bishop in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
961 C Chancellor/Marshall (Promoted Rook in Shogi and CrazyHouse)
962 G Grasshopper (Promoted Queen in Crazyhouse, promoted Lance in Shogi)
963 S (Promoted Silver in Shogi)
966 Pieces that are not mentioned (because the argument has less than 34
967 characters) will remain disabled. Mentioned pieces can be disabled by
968 assigning them a '.' (period). They are then not recognized in FEN or
969 PGN input. It is not advisable to disable a piece that is present in
970 the opening position of the selected variant, though.
971 Promoted pieces that need to be distinguished from original pieces of
972 the same type (because of demotion on capture and transfer to the
973 holdings) will be indicated by the letter for the unpromoted piece
974 with a '+' in front of it (Shogi), or by the letter of the promoted
975 piece with a '~' after it (Crazyhouse, Bughouse, in general everything
976 with holdings that is not Shogi).
977 All the new pieces have a native biytmap representation in the board
978 sizes 'bulky' and 'middling'. For all window sizes that do not support
979 such fairy bitmaps, promoted NBRQ are represented as a 2-sizes-smaller
980 normal piece symbol, so that Crazyhouse can be played at any
981 size. People disliking the fairy representations might even prefer
983 There is an enhanced 'Edit Position' menu popup (right-clicking on the
984 squares after selecting this mode in the main menu), featuring some
985 common non-FIDE pieces, and 'promote' and 'demote' options to make
986 those not directly in the menu. The promotion popup shows ArchBishop
987 and Chancellor in Capablanca and Gothic, (or in fact in any game where
988 this piece is not disabled), and leaves only the options YES / NO in
989 Shogi. In Xiangqi there are no promotions.
991 /fontPieceToCharTable="PNBRQFWEMOUHACGSKpnbrqfwemouhacgsk"
992 This option is similar to /pieceToCharTable, but sets the font
993 character that is used to display the piece on the screen (when
994 font-based rendering is in use), rather than in the FEN or PGN. The
995 default setting should work with the WinboardF font, which uses the
996 'intuitive' mapping of font characters to symbols. Note that UHACGS
997 are also used to represent the promoted versions of PNBRQF, in games
998 like Crazyhouse and Shogi, where the promotion has to be undone on
1001 /boardWidth=-1 /boardHeight=-1
1002 Set a number of files and ranks of the playing board to a value that
1003 will override the defaults for the variant that is selected. A value
1004 of -1 means the variant default board size will be used for the
1005 corresponding parameter (and is itself the default value of these
1006 options). These parameters can be set in the "Files -> New Variant..."
1007 sub-menu, where they are reset to the default -1 is you OK the chosen
1008 variant without typing something to overrule it. These parameters are
1009 saved in the winboard.ini file. (But unless you saved while a variant
1010 with board-size override was selected, they will always be saved as
1012 A variant with a non-standard board size will be communicated to the
1013 engine(s) with the board size prefixed to the variant name,
1014 e.g. "variant 12x8_capablanca". In protocol 2 the engine must first
1015 enable this feature by sending "boardsizeFxR" amongst the accepted
1016 variants, where F is the maximum number of files, and R the maximum
1017 number of ranks, as decimal numbers.
1020 Set the size of the holdings for dropable pieces to a value that will
1021 override the default for the variant that is selected. A value of -1
1022 means the variant default holdings size will be used for that
1023 parameter (and is itself the default value of this options). This
1024 parameter can be set in the Files -> New Variant... sub-menu, where it
1025 is reset to the default -1 is you OK the chosen variant without typing
1026 something to overrule it. This parameters is saved in the winboard.ini
1027 file. To disable holdings, set their size to 0. They will then not be
1028 displayed. For non-zero holding size N, the holdings are displayed
1029 left and right of the board, and piece drops can be effected by
1030 dragging pieces from the holdings to the drop square. In bughouse, the
1031 holdings will be filled by the ICS. In all other variants, captured
1032 pieces will go into the holdings (after reversing their color). Only
1033 the first N pieces of the /pieceToCharTable argument will go into the
1034 holdings. All other pieces will be converted to Pawns. (In Shogi,
1035 however they will be demoted in the regular way before determining if
1036 they fit.) Pieces that are disabled (per default and per
1037 /pieceToCharTable option) might not be counted when determining what
1038 are the first N pieces. Non-standard holdingsize will be communicated
1039 to the engine by prefixing it (together with the board size, even if
1040 this is standard) to the variant name, e.g. "variant 7x7+5_shogi". In
1041 protocol 2 the engine should enable this feature by sending
1042 "holdingsH" amongst the variant names, where H is the maximum
1043 acceptable holdings size as a decimal number.
1046 When this parameter is true, a-h are converted to 1-9, and vice versa,
1047 in all move output and input (to PGN files or SAN move display as well
1048 as in communication with the engine). This might be useful for Shogi,
1049 where conventionally one uses letters to designate ranks, and digits
1050 to designate files. Engines that want to use this option must make
1051 sure pieces are never represented by lower case! This option can be
1052 set from the Files -> New Variant... menu, where it defaults to FALSE
1053 unless you explicitly set it. It is not saved in the winboard.ini
1054 file. Note that the PGN format in Shogi also leaves out the trailing
1055 '+' as check indicator: In Shogi such a trailing '+' means promotion,
1056 while a trailing '=' means defer promotion. Prefix '+' signs are used
1057 on moves with promoted pieces, disambiguation is done western SAN
1061 Causes the outline of the 'white' pieces to be superimposed onto the
1062 'black' piece symbols as well (as a black outline) when native bitmaps
1063 are used (as opposed to font-based rendering). This is useful if we
1064 choose a very light color to represent the 'black' pieces. It might be
1065 particularly useful in Shogi, where the conventional representation of
1066 the 'black' pieces is as upside-down white pieces, so that both colors
1067 would be white. This option is saved in the winboard.ini file, and can
1068 be set in the "Options -> Board..." sub-menu.
1071 This option is reserved for future use. It will cause upside-down
1072 display of the 'black' native piece bitmaps, as would be needed for
1073 Shogi. For now it can be set from the "Options -> Board..." sub-menu,
1074 and it is saved in the winboard.ini file, but it is ignored.
1082 These are all options that only affect engine-engine play, and can be
1083 set from the "Options -> Engine..." sub-menu. They are all related to
1084 adjudication of games by the GUI. Legality checking must be switched
1085 on for them to work. If /detectMate is TRUE, the GUI recognizes
1086 checkmate and stalemate (but not in games with holdings!), and ends
1087 the game accordingly before the engines can claim. This is convenient
1088 for play with engines that fail to claim, and just exit. With
1089 /testClaim set, all result and illegal-move claims by engines that
1090 claim more than their own loss are scrutinized for validity, and false
1091 claims result in forfeit of the game. Useful with buggy engines. The
1092 option /materialDraws=TRUE causes games with insufficient mating
1093 material to be adjudicated immediately as draws, in case the engines
1094 would not claim them. The option /trivialDraws adjudicates KNNK,
1095 KBKB, KNKN, KBKN, KRKR and KQKQ to draws after 3 moves (to allow for a
1096 quick tactical win. Note that in KQKQ this might not be sound, but
1097 that problem would disappear once bitbase probing is added). The
1098 /ruleMoves determine after how many reversible moves the game is
1099 adjudicated as a draw. Setting this to 0 turns this option off. Draw
1100 claims by the engine are still accepted (by /testClaim) after 50
1101 reversible moves, even if /ruleMoves species a larger number. Note
1102 that it is perfectly legal according to FIDE rules to play on after 50
1103 reversible moves, but in tournaments having two engines that want to
1104 play on forever is a nuisance in endings like KBNKR, where one of the
1105 engines thinks it is ahead and can avoids repeats virtually forever.
1106 The option /repeatsToDraw makes the GUI adjudicate a game as draw
1107 after the same position has occurred the specified number of times. If
1108 it is set to a value > 3, engines can still claim the draw after
1109 3-fold repeat. All these options are saved in the winboard.ini file.
1112 There is an "Options -> flip Clocks" command, that swaps the position
1113 of white and black clocks (convenient in over-the-board matches, where
1114 the screen is next to the board, and you want your own time to be
1115 displayed on your side of the screen). The clocks can be adjusted in
1116 "edit game" mode: right-clicking them adds one minute, left-clicking
1117 subtracts one minute. (Also for OTB matches, to keep them synchronized
1118 with the official match clock.) The flag-fell condition is now
1119 indicated as (!) behind the time.
1122 Castling rights and e.p. rights are now fully maintained, and
1123 considered in legality testing. They are imported from and written to
1124 FEN, as is the 50-move counter.
1128 These are the release notes of Winboard_F 4.3.2, which is released
1129 under the GPL. This version was derived from Allessandro Scotti's
1130 Winboard_x 4.2.7 source files. It only includes the files that were
1146 and some bitmaps for piece symbols
1148 I made modifications in the following areas:
1150 1) Adjudication and claim verification
1151 2) Fairy pieces and board sizes other than 8x8
1157 is an option to set the length of the pause between two games of a
1158 match. The value is in msec, default value is 10000 (I will present
1159 all newly implemented options with their default value as example). Be
1160 aware that some engines might not be stopped yet if you make the pause
1161 too small, but might still be puking output, which then will interfere
1162 with the next game. But the fixed value of 10 sec of the old Winboard
1163 seemed like overdoing it.
1166 When you ask for the PV-info to be stored in the PGN (a Winboard_x
1167 option), it now also stores the time spent on the move with it.
1170 In engine-engine games the messge "white/black/both" flag(s) fell" no
1171 longer appears in the window caption, but as an exclamation point
1172 behind the clock time. (To prevent the annoying overwriting of the
1173 normal header line).
1175 Adjudications and Claim verification.
1177 These functions are only present in engine-engine games, and only if
1178 legality-testing is switched on. (The latter will be typically
1179 switched off in games with bizarre rules, which the GUI doesn't know,
1180 and in that case the GUI can never have an opinion on the outcome of a
1183 Illegal-move forfeit
1184 As soon as one of the engines plays an illegal move, it forfeits the
1185 game. This feature was already present, but it should be 100% reliable
1186 now, as it also takes e.p. and castling rights into account, rather
1187 than erring on the safe side.
1190 From the above, it follows that any illegal-move claims by an engine
1191 must be false, and will result in forfeiting the game. (In Winboard_x
1192 this message is ignored, causing the game or match to hang.)
1194 Checkmate adjudication
1195 As soon as one of the engines does a move that results in checkmate,
1196 the GUI declares the game won, without waiting for the engine to claim
1199 Insufficient mating material
1200 As soon as the material on the board has shrunk to KK, KNK or KBK, the
1201 game is declared draw.
1203 /adjudicateLossThreshold=0
1204 This option was already present in Winboard_x, (to declare a game lost
1205 for which both engines agree for 3 moves that the score is below the
1206 given threshold), but a non-zero value is now also used to enable the
1207 following adjudications. If you only want the latter, just make the
1208 threshold impossibly low (-40000 will usually do the trick).
1211 If we are 3 moves into a KQKQ, KRKR, KBKB KBKN or KNKN end-game, the
1212 game is adjudicated as draw.
1215 When the specified number of repeats occurs, the game is adjudicated
1216 draw. Should keep track of e.p. and castling rights. This does not
1217 require legality-testing to be switched on. The engines retain the
1218 legal right to claim after a 3-fold repetition, though. If you set
1219 this parameter to 3 or less, they will never get the chance. Better
1220 not set it to 1 or less.
1223 After the given number of full moves without capture or Pawn move, the
1224 game is adjudicated draw. Even without legality testing. The engines
1225 retain the legal right to claim after 50 moves.
1228 When enabled, this option verifies all result claims made by the
1229 engines, and overrules the claim if it is false (forfeiting the game
1230 for the claimer). An engine can still safely claim a win for its
1231 opponent on a nonsense reason, though; this is taken to be the
1232 equivalent of 'resign'. Draw claims (made before a draw adjudication)
1233 are checked against the 50-move, 3-fold-repetition or
1234 insufficient-material rules. Win claims are always considered false,
1235 as the GUI adjudicates checkmates (and stalemates) before any engine
1241 Sets the number of files on the board. The additional files are named
1242 i, j, k, l... in PGN, and should be indicated this way in
1243 communicating moves to and from the engine. Currently works upto
1244 12. No guarantees on how the rest of the display (clocks, etc.) looks
1245 if you make this number < 8.
1248 Sets the number of ranks. Extra ranks are numbered 9, 10, 11... in
1249 PGN. This is so far largely untested, and unlikely to work for
1250 double-digit ranks. Displaying boards with upto 12 ranks seems to
1251 work, though, but double-digit ranks might cause all kind of unforseen
1252 problems in PGN file and move parser, or in communication with the
1253 engine. To avoid such problems as much as possible, in boards with
1254 more than 9 ranks the counting of ranks will start at zero rather than
1257 /fontPieceToCharTable="......."
1258 This paramater, controlling the mapping of font symbols to piece
1259 types, was already present in Winboard_x. The default is dependent on
1260 the font selected with the /renderPiecesWithFont option. It can now
1261 accept upto 32 pieces, but the length should always be even. The first
1262 half designates the white pieces, the second half the black, both in
1263 the order PNBRACHFEWDOGMQK. (The letters mentioned here are the
1264 letters by which the pieces will be indicated in PGN and FEN notation,
1265 what you have to give as argument depends on the font you use. A black
1266 king might be 'l', for instance). If you give fewer then 32 pieces,
1267 this will go at the expense of what is just before Queen. So the last
1268 two symbols you give for each color are always Queen and King, the
1269 others are assigned in the order Pawn, Knight, ... Pieces that do not
1270 get a symbol assigned will remain invisible.
1273 The letters ACDEFGHMOW are accepted in FENs in addition to the regular
1274 PNBRQK,(and of course the lower case versions for black), and are
1275 passed to the engine in a setboard or edit menu. Double-digit skips
1276 are acceptable in FENs. 'x' is interpreted as a skip of 10. Castling
1277 rights should no longer be ignored. (Doesn't work for FRC yet,
1278 though.) The 50-move-plies field should also be meaningful now.
1280 Legality testing for Fairy pieces
1281 There is a build in notion of what some of the new pieces can do, according to
1282 A = Archbishop (aka Cardinal) = N+B
1283 C = Chancellor (aka Marshall) = N+R
1284 F = Ferz (aka General), moves 1 step diagonal
1285 W = Wazir (aka Grand Vizer), moves 1 step orthogonal
1286 E = Elephant (aka Alfil), jumps 2 steps diagonal
1287 D = Dabbabah (aka War Machine), jumps 2 steps orthogonal
1288 M = Man (aka Commoner), moves as King, but is not a royal piece
1289 O = Cannon, moves along Rook lines, but cannot capture unless it jumps over
1290 exactly one piece (friend or foe), and captures the first piece
1291 it encounters thereafter. It can only jump if it captures something.
1292 The piece jumped over (the 'platform') is not affected.
1293 The other pieces have not yet any moves implemented:
1296 In games that use the mentioned pieces as described (Shatranj,
1297 Courier, Capablanca Chess) you can leave legality testing on. If you
1298 use them to represent pieces that move differently, you should switch
1299 legality testing off.
1302 Pawn motion is made dependent on the variant played: in Shatranj and
1303 Courier the double move is forbidden. In those games promotions are
1304 always to Ferz. In Capablanca Chess the ArchBishop and Chancellor also
1305 appear as choices in the promotion popup box.
1309 Several new variants names are added (replacing "variant31" upto
1310 "variant36"). They affect the initial position. (Board size has to be
1311 set separately.) They are: courier (a Medieval predecessor of modern
1312 Chess, played on a 12x8 board) capablanca (on a 10x8 board, featuring
1313 Archbishop and Chancellor) gothic (as Capablanca, but with a more
1314 exciting initial setup) xiangqi (Chinese Chess) shogi (Japanese Chess,
1315 no support yet) fairy (This variant plays on 8x8 with HEW in stead of
1316 NBR on the Queen side, so that all back-rank pieces are (potentially)
1317 different) Make sure the selected board size matches the variant; this
1320 Xiangqi and Shogi support (or lack thereof)
1321 Xiangqi is only partially supported. The board display is
1322 western-style (the pieces play on squares, rather than grid
1323 intersections). The legality testing uses the Shatranj Knight and
1324 Elephant, that cannot be blocked, and thus allows some moves that
1325 should be illegal in Xiangqi. The Palace region is indicated on the
1326 board, but there is no testing if the King or Mandarins (implemented
1327 as ordinary Ferzes) leave the Palace. SAN might be non-standard, as it
1328 uses O to indicate Cannon. Most of this will be fixed in a future
1329 version. Shogi is not yet supported at all, first the shaky
1330 implementation of Crazyhouse will have to be beefed up.
projects / xboard.git / blob