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35 <h3 class="section">2.5 Options Menu</h3>
37 <p><a name="index-Menu_002c-Options-72"></a><a name="index-Options-Menu-73"></a>
39 <dt>Flip View<dd><a name="index-Flip-View_002c-Menu-Item-74"></a>Inverts your view of the chess board for the duration of the
40 current game. Starting a new game returns the board to normal.
41 The <kbd>v</kbd> key is a keyboard equivalent.
42 <br><dt>Adjudications<dd><a name="index-Adjudications_002c-Menu-Item-75"></a>Pops up a sub-menu where you can enable or disable various adjudications
43 that XBoard can perform in engine-engine games.
44 You can instruct XBoard to detect and terminate the game on checkmate
45 or stalemate, even if the engines would not do so, to verify engine
46 result claims (forfeiting engines that make false claims), rather than
47 naively following the engine, to declare draw on positions
48 which can never be won for lack of mating material, (e.g. KBK),
49 or which are impossible to win unless the opponent seeks its own demise
51 For these adjudications to work, ‘<samp><span class="samp">Test Legality</span></samp>’ should be switched on.
52 It is also possible to instruct XBoard to enforce a 50-move or 3-fold-repeat
53 rule and automatically declare draw (after a user-adjustable number of moves
54 or repeats) even if the engines are prepared to go on.
55 It is also possible to have XBoard declare draw on games that seem to drag on
56 forever, or adjudicate a loss if both engines agree (for 3 consecutive moves) that one
57 of them is behind more than a user-adjustable score threshold.
58 For the latter adjudication to work, XBoard should be able to properly understand
59 the engine's scores. To facilitate the latter, you can inform xboard here if
60 the engines report scores from the viewpoint of white, or from that of their own color.
61 <br><dt>Engine Settings<dd>Pops up a sub-menu where you can set some engine parameters common to most engines,
62 such as hash-table size, tablebase cache size, maximum number of processors
63 that SMP engines can use, and where to find the Polyglot adapter needed
64 to run UCI engines under XBoard. The feature that allows setting of these parameters on
65 engines is new since XBoard 4.3.15, so not many XBoard/WinBoard engines respond
66 to it yet, but UCI engines should.
67 It is also possible to specify a GUI opening book here, i.e. an opening
68 book that XBoard consults for any position a playing engine gets in.
69 It then forces the engine to play the book move, rather than to think up its own,
70 if that position is found in the book.
71 The book can switched on and off independently for either engine.
72 <br><dt>Time Control<dd><a name="index-Time-Control_002c-Menu-Item-76"></a>Pops up a sub-menu where you can set the time-control parameters interactively.
73 Allows you to select classical or incremental time controls,
74 set the moves per session, session duration, and time increment.
75 Also allows specification of time-odds factors for one or both engines.
76 If an engine is given a time-odds factor N, all time quota it gets,
77 be it at the beginning of a session or through the time increment or
78 fixed time per move, will be divided by N.
79 <br><dt>Always Queen<dd><a name="index-Always-Queen_002c-Menu-Item-77"></a>If this option is off, XBoard brings up a dialog
80 box whenever you move a pawn to the last rank, asking what piece
81 you want to promote it to. If the option is true, your pawns are
82 always promoted to queens. Your opponent can still under-promote.
83 <br><dt>Animate Dragging<dd><a name="index-Animate-Dragging_002c-Menu-Item-78"></a>If Animate Dragging is on, while you are dragging a piece with the
84 mouse, an image of the piece follows the mouse cursor.
85 If Animate Dragging is off, there is no visual feedback while you are
86 dragging a piece, but if Animate Moving is on, the move will be
87 animated when it is complete.
88 <br><dt>Animate Moving<dd><a name="index-Animate-Moving_002c-Menu-Item-79"></a>If Animate Moving is on, all piece moves are animated. An image of the
89 piece is shown moving from the old square to the new square when the
90 move is completed (unless the move was already animated by Animate Dragging).
91 If Animate Moving is off, a moved piece instantly disappears from its
92 old square and reappears on its new square when the move is complete.
93 <br><dt>Auto Comment<dd><a name="index-Auto-Comment_002c-Menu-Item-80"></a>If this option is on, any remarks made on ICS while you are observing or
94 playing a game are recorded as a comment on the current move. This includes
95 remarks made with the ICS commands <kbd>say</kbd>, <kbd>tell</kbd>, <kbd>whisper</kbd>,
96 and <kbd>kibitz</kbd>.
97 Limitation: remarks that you type yourself are not recognized;
98 XBoard scans only the output from ICS, not the input you type to it.
99 <br><dt>Auto Flag<dd><a name="index-Auto-Flag_002c-Menu-Item-81"></a>If this option is on and one player runs out of time
102 will automatically call his flag, claiming a win on time.
103 In ICS mode, Auto Flag will only call your opponent's flag, not yours,
104 and the ICS may award you a draw instead of a win if you have
105 insufficient mating material. In local chess engine mode,
107 may call either player's flag and will not take material into account.
108 <br><dt>Auto Flip View<dd><a name="index-Auto-Flip-View_002c-Menu-Item-82"></a>If the Auto Flip View option is on when you start a game, the board
109 will be automatically oriented so that your pawns move from the bottom
110 of the window towards the top.
111 <br><dt>Auto Observe<dd><a name="index-Auto-Observe_002c-Menu-Item-83"></a>If this option is on and you add a player to your <code>gnotify</code>
112 list on ICS, XBoard will automatically observe all of that
113 player's games, unless you are doing something else (such as
114 observing or playing a game of your own) when one starts.
115 The games are displayed
116 from the point of view of the player on your gnotify list; that is, his
117 pawns move from the bottom of the window towards the top.
118 Exceptions: If both players in a game are on your gnotify list, if
120 <code>highlight</code>
121 variable is set to 0, or if the ICS you are using does not
122 properly support observing from Black's point of view,
123 you will see the game from White's point of view.
124 <br><dt>Auto Raise Board<dd><a name="index-Auto-Raise-Board_002c-Menu-Item-84"></a>If this option is on, whenever a new game begins, the chessboard window
125 is deiconized (if necessary) and raised to the top of the stack of windows.
126 <br><dt>Auto Save<dd><a name="index-Auto-Save_002c-Menu-Item-85"></a>If this option is true, at the end of every game XBoard prompts
127 you for a file name and appends a record of the game to the file
129 Disabled if the <code>saveGameFile</code> command-line
130 option is set, as in that case all games are saved to the specified file.
131 See <a href="Load-and-Save-options.html#Load-and-Save-options">Load and Save options</a>.
132 <br><dt>Blindfold<dd><a name="index-Blindfold_002c-Menu-Item-86"></a>If this option is on, XBoard displays the board as usual but does
133 not display pieces or move highlights. You can still move in the
134 usual way (with the mouse or by typing moves in ICS mode), even though
135 the pieces are invisible.
136 <br><dt>Flash Moves<dd><a name="index-Flash-Moves_002c-Menu-Item-87"></a>If this option is on, whenever a move is completed, the moved piece flashes.
137 The number of times to flash is set by the flashCount command-line
138 option; it defaults to 3 if Flash Moves is first turned on from the menu.
140 <p>If you are playing a game on an ICS, the board is always
141 oriented at the start of the game so that your pawns move from
142 the bottom of the window towards the top. Otherwise, the starting
143 orientation is determined by the <code>flipView</code> command line option;
144 if it is false (the default), White's pawns move from bottom to top
145 at the start of each game; if it is true, Black's pawns move from
146 bottom to top. See <a href="User-interface-options.html#User-interface-options">User interface options</a>.
147 <br><dt>Get Move List<dd><a name="index-Get-Move-List_002c-Menu-Item-88"></a>If this option is on, whenever XBoard
148 receives the first board of a new ICS game (or a different game from
149 the one it is currently displaying), it
150 retrieves the list of past moves from the ICS.
151 You can then review the moves with the ‘<samp><span class="samp">Forward</span></samp>’ and ‘<samp><span class="samp">Backward</span></samp>’
153 or save them with ‘<samp><span class="samp">Save Game</span></samp>’. You might want to
154 turn off this option if you are observing several blitz games at once,
155 to keep from wasting time and network bandwidth fetching the move lists over
157 When you turn this option on from the menu, XBoard
158 immediately fetches the move list of the current game (if any).
159 <br><dt>Highlight Last Move<dd><a name="index-Highlight-Last-Move_002c-Menu-Item-89"></a>If Highlight Last Move is on, after a move is made, the starting and
160 ending squares remain highlighted. In addition, after you use Backward
161 or Back to Start, the starting and ending squares of the last move to
162 be unmade are highlighted.
163 <br><dt>Move Sound<dd><a name="index-Move-Sound_002c-Menu-Item-90"></a>If this option is on, XBoard alerts you by playing a sound
164 after each of your opponent's moves (or after every
165 move if you are observing a game on the Internet Chess Server).
166 The sound is not played after moves you make or moves read from a
167 saved game file. By default, the
168 sound is the terminal bell, but on some systems you can change it
169 to a sound file using the soundMove option; see below.
171 <p>If you turn on this option when using XBoard with the Internet
172 Chess Server, you will probably want to give the
173 <kbd>set bell 0</kbd>
174 command to the ICS, since otherwise the ICS will ring the terminal bell
175 after every move (not just yours). (The <samp><span class="file">.icsrc</span></samp> file
176 is a good place for this; see <a href="ICS-options.html#ICS-options">ICS options</a>.)
177 <br><dt>ICS Alarm<dd><a name="index-ICS-Alarm_002c-Menu-Item-91"></a>When this option is on, an alarm sound is played when your clock
178 counts down to the icsAlarmTime (by default, 5 seconds) in an ICS
179 game. For games with time controls that include an increment, the
180 alarm will sound each time the clock counts down to the icsAlarmTime.
181 By default, the alarm sound is the terminal bell, but on some systems
182 you can change it to a sound file using the soundIcsAlarm option; see
184 <br><dt>Old Save Style<dd><a name="index-Old-Save-Style_002c-Menu-Item-92"></a>If this option is off, XBoard saves games in PGN
185 (portable game notation) and positions in FEN (Forsythe-Edwards
186 notation). If the option is on, a save style that is compatible
187 with older versions of XBoard is used instead.
188 The old position style is more human-readable
189 than FEN; the old game style has no particular advantages.
190 <br><dt>Periodic Updates<dd><a name="index-Periodic-Updates_002c-Menu-Item-93"></a>If this option is off (or if
191 you are using a chess engine that does not support periodic updates),
193 will only be updated when the analysis changes. If this option is
194 on, the Analysis Window will be updated every two seconds.
195 <br><dt>Ponder Next Move<dd><a name="index-Ponder-Next-Move_002c-Menu-Item-94"></a>If this option is off, the chess engine will think only when it is on
196 move. If the option is on, the engine will also think while waiting
197 for you to make your move.
198 <br><dt>Popup Exit Message<dd><a name="index-Popup-Exit-Message_002c-Menu-Item-95"></a>If this option is on, when XBoard wants to display a message just
199 before exiting, it brings up a modal dialog box and waits for you to
200 click OK before exiting. If the option is off, XBoard prints the
201 message to standard error (the terminal) and exits immediately.
202 <br><dt>Popup Move Errors<dd><a name="index-Popup-Move-Errors_002c-Menu-Item-96"></a>If this option is off, when you make an error in moving (such as
203 attempting an illegal move or moving the wrong color piece), the
204 error message is displayed in the message area. If the option is
205 on, move errors are displayed in small pop-up windows like other errors.
206 You can dismiss an error pop-up either by clicking its OK button or by
207 clicking anywhere on the board, including down-clicking to start a move.
208 <br><dt>Premove<dd><a name="index-Premove_002c-Menu-Item-97"></a>If this option is on while playing a game on an ICS, you can register
209 your next planned move before it is your turn. Move the piece with
210 the mouse in the ordinary way, and the starting and ending squares
211 will be highlighted with a special color (red by default). When it is
212 your turn, if your registered move is legal, XBoard will send it to
213 ICS immediately; if not, it will be ignored and you can make a
214 different move. If you change your mind about your premove, either
215 make a different move, or double-click on any piece to cancel the move
217 <br><dt>Quiet Play<dd><a name="index-Quiet-Play_002c-Menu-Item-98"></a>If this option is on, XBoard will automatically issue an ICS
218 <kbd>set shout 0</kbd>
219 command whenever you start a game and a
220 <kbd>set shout 1</kbd>
221 command whenever you finish one. Thus, you will not be distracted
222 by shouts from other ICS users while playing.
223 <br><dt>Show Coords<dd><a name="index-Show-Coords_002c-Menu-Item-99"></a>If this option is on, XBoard displays algebraic coordinates
224 along the board's left and bottom edges.
225 <br><dt>Hide Thinking<dd><a name="index-Hide-Thinking_002c-Menu-Item-100"></a>If this option is off, the chess engine's notion of the score and best
226 line of play from the current position is displayed as it is
227 thinking. The score indicates how many pawns ahead (or if negative,
228 behind) the chess engine thinks it is. In matches between two
229 machines, the score is prefixed by ‘<samp><span class="samp">W</span></samp>’ or ‘<samp><span class="samp">B</span></samp>’ to indicate
230 whether it is showing White's thinking or Black's, and only the thinking
231 of the engine that is on move is shown.
232 <br><dt>Test Legality<dd><a name="index-Test-Legality_002c-Menu-Item-101"></a>If this option is on, XBoard tests whether the moves you try to make
233 with the mouse are legal and refuses to let you make an illegal move.
234 Moves loaded from a file with ‘<samp><span class="samp">Load Game</span></samp>’ are also checked. If
235 the option is off, all moves are accepted, but if a local chess engine
236 or the ICS is active, they will still reject illegal moves. Turning
237 off this option is useful if you are playing a chess variant with
238 rules that XBoard does not understand. (Bughouse, suicide, and wild
239 variants where the king may castle after starting on the d file are
240 generally supported with Test Legality on.)
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