+@setfilename xboard.info
+
@ifinfo
@format
INFO-DIR-SECTION Games
are playing a bughouse game on an Internet Chess Server, a list of the
offboard pieces that each player has available is shown in the window
title after the player's name; in addition, the piece menus show the
-number of pieces available of each type.
+number of pieces available of each type. From version 4.3.14 on, it is
+also possible in crazyhouse, bughouse or shogi to dag and drop pieces
+to the board from the holdings squares displayed next to the board.
All other XBoard commands are available from the menu bar. The most
frequently used commands also have shortcut keys or on-screen buttons.
@cindex File Menu
@cindex Menu, File
@table @asis
-@item Reset
-@cindex Reset, Menu Item
+@item New Game
+@cindex New Game, Menu Item
Resets XBoard and the chess engine to the beginning of a new chess
game. The @kbd{r} key is a keyboard equivalent. In Internet Chess
Server mode, clears the current state of XBoard, then
resynchronizes with the ICS by sending a refresh command. If you want to
stop playing, observing, or examining an ICS game, use an
-appropriate command from the Action menu, not @samp{Reset}.
+appropriate command from the Action menu, not @samp{New Game}.
@xref{Action Menu}.
+@item New Shuffle Game
+@cindex New Shuffle Game, Menu Item
+Similar to @samp{New Game}, but allows you to specify a particular initial position
+(according to a standardized numbering system)
+in chess variants which use randomized opening positions (e.g. Chess960).
+The selected opening position will persistently be chosen on any following
+New Game command until you use this menu to select another. Selecting
+position number -1 will produce a newly randomized position on any new game.
+Using this menu item in variants that normally do not shuffle their opening position
+does cause these variants to become shuffle variants until you use the
+@samp{New Shuffle Game} menu to explicitly switch the randomization off,
+or select a new variant.
+@item New Variant
+@cindex New variant, Menu Item
+Allows you to select a new chess variant in non-ICS mode.
+(In ICS play, the ICS is responsible for deciding which variant will be played,
+and XBoard adapts autmatically.) If you play with an engine, the engine must
+be able to play the selected variant, or the command will be ignored.
+XBoard supports all major variants, such as xiangqi, shogi, chess, chess960,
+Capablanca Chess, shatranj, crazyhous, bughouse.
@item Load Game
@cindex Load Game, Menu Item
Plays a game from a record file. The @kbd{g} key is a keyboard equivalent.
@cindex Show Game List, Menu Item
Shows or hides the list of games generated by the last @samp{Load Game}
command.
+@item Show Move History
+@cindex Show Move History, Menu Item
+Shows or hides a list of moves of the current game.
+This list allows you to move the display to any earlier position in the game
+by clicking on the corresponding move.
+@item Show Engine Output
+@cindex Show Engine Output, Menu Item
+Shows or hides a window in which the thinking output of any loaded engines
+is displayed.
@item Edit Tags
@cindex Edit Tags, Menu Item
Lets you edit the PGN (portable game notation)
@cindex Menu, Options
@cindex Options Menu
@table @asis
+@item Flip View
+@cindex Flip View, Menu Item
+Inverts your view of the chess board for the duration of the
+current game. Starting a new game returns the board to normal.
+The @kbd{v} key is a keyboard equivalent.
+@item Adjudications
+@cindex Adjudications, Menu Item
+Pops up a sub-menu where you can enable or disable various adjudications
+that XBoard can perform in engine-engine games.
+You can instruct XBoard to detect and terminate the game on checkmate
+or stalemate, even if the engines would not do so, to verify engine
+result claims (forfeiting engines that make false claims), rather than
+naively following the engine, to declare draw on posititions
+which can never be won for lack of mating material, (e.g. KBK),
+or which are impossble to win unless the opponent seeks its own demise
+(e.g. KBKN).
+For these adjudications to work, @samp{Test Legality} should be switched on.
+It is also possible to insruct XBoard to enforce a 50-move or 3-fold-repeat
+rule and automtically declare draw (after a user-adjustable number of moves
+or repeats) even if the engines are prepared to go on.
+It is also possible to have XBoard declare draw on games that seem to drag on
+forever, or adjudicate a loss if both engines agree (for 3 cosecutive moves) that one
+of them is behind more than a user-adjustable score threshold.
+For the latter adjudication to work, XBoard should be able to properly understand
+the engine's scores. To faclitate the latter, you can inform xboard here if
+the engines report scores from the viewpoint of white, or from that of their own color.
+@item Engine Settings
+@citem Engine Settings, Menu Item
+Pops up a sub-menu where you can set some engine parameters common to most engines,
+such as hash-table size, tablebase cache size, maximum number of processors
+that SMP engines can use, and where to find the Polyglot adapter needed
+to run UCI engines under XBoard. The feature tht allows setting of these parameters on
+engines is new since XBoard 4.3.15, so not many WinBoard engines respond
+to it yet, but UCI engines should.
+It is also possible to specify a GUI opening book here, i.e. an opening
+book that XBoard consults for any position a playing engine gets in.
+It then forces the engine to play the book move, rather than to think up its own,
+if that position is found in the book.
+The book can switched on and off independently for either engine.
+@item Time Control
+@cindex Time Control, Menu Item
+Pops up a sub-menu where you can set the time-control parameters interactively.
+Allows you to select classical or incremental time controls,
+set the moves per session, session duration, and time increment.
+Also allows specification of time-odds factors for one or both engines.
+If an engine is given a time-odds factor N, all time quota it gets,
+be it at the beginning of a session or through the time increment or
+fixed time per move, will be divided by N.
@item Always Queen
@cindex Always Queen, Menu Item
If this option is off, XBoard brings up a dialog
If this option is on, whenever a move is completed, the moved piece flashes.
The number of times to flash is set by the flashCount command-line
option; it defaults to 3 if Flash Moves is first turned on from the menu.
-@item Flip View
-@cindex Flip View, Menu Item
-Inverts your view of the chess board for the duration of the
-current game. Starting a new game returns the board to normal.
-The @kbd{v} key is a keyboard equivalent.
If you are playing a game on an ICS, the board is always
oriented at the start of the game so that your pawns move from
@cindex Show Coords, Menu Item
If this option is on, XBoard displays algebraic coordinates
along the board's left and bottom edges.
-@item Show Thinking
-@cindex Show Thinking, Menu Item
-If this option is set, the chess engine's notion of the score and best
+@item Hide Thinking
+@cindex Hide Thinking, Menu Item
+If this option is off, the chess engine's notion of the score and best
line of play from the current position is displayed as it is
thinking. The score indicates how many pawns ahead (or if negative,
behind) the chess engine thinks it is. In matches between two
@menu
* Chess engine options:: Controlling the chess engine.
+* WB + UCI Engine Settings:: Setting some very common engine parameters
* ICS options:: Connecting to and using ICS.
* Load and Save options:: Input/output options.
* User interface options:: Look and feel options.
+* Adjudication options:: Control adjudcation of engine-engine games.
* Other options:: Miscellaneous.
@end menu
engine chooses its search depth based on the number of moves and
amount of time remaining until the next time control. With the option,
the engine will cut off its search early if it reaches the specified depth.
+@item -firstNPS number
+@itemx -secondNPS number
+@cindex firstNPS, option
+@cindex secondNPS, option
+Tells the chess engine to use an internal time standard based on its node count,
+rather then wall-clock time, to make its timing decisions.
+The time in virtual seconds should be obtained by dividing the node count
+through the given number, like the number was a rate in nodes per second.
+Xboard will manage the clocks in accordance with this, relying on the number
+of nodes reported by the engine in its thinking output. If the given number equals zero,
+it can obviously not be used to convert nodes to seconds, and the time reported
+by the engine is used to decrement the XBoard clock in stead. The engine is supposed to
+report in CPU time it uses, rather than wall-clock time, in this mode. This option
+can provide fairer conditions for engine-engine matches on heavily loaded machines,
+or with very fast games (where the wall clock is too inaccurate).
+@code{showThinking} must be on for this option to work. Default: -1 (off).
+Not many engines might support this yet!
+@item -firstTimeOdds factor
+@itemx -secondTimeOdds factor
+@cindex firstTimeOdds, option
+@cindex secondTimeOdds, option
+Reduces the time given to the mentioned engine by the given factor.
+If pondering is off, the effect is indistinguishable from what would happen
+if the engine was running on an n-times slower machine. Default: 1.
+@item -timeOddsMode mode
+@cindex timeOddsMode, option
+This option determines how the case is handled where both engines have a time-odds handicap.
+If mode=1, the engine that gets the most time will always get the nominal time,
+as specified by the time-control options, and its opponent's time is renormalized accordingly.
+If mode=0, both play with reduced time. Default: 0.
+@item -hideThinkingFromHuman true/false
+Controls the Hide Thinking option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
+(Relaces the Show-Thinking option of older xboard versions.)
@item -thinking/-xthinking or -showThinking true/false
@cindex thinking, option
@cindex showThinking, option
-Sets the Show Thinking option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
+Forces the engine to send thinking output to xboard.
+Used to be the only way to control if thinking output was displayed
+in older xboard versions,
+but as the thinking output in xboard 4.3 is also used for several other
+purposes (adjudication, storing in PGN file) the display of it is now controlled
+by the new option Hide Thinking. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
+(But if xboard needs the thinking output for some purpose,
+it makes the engine send it despite the setting of this option.)
@item -ponder/-xponder or -ponderNextMove true/false
@cindex ponder, option
@cindex ponderNextMove, option
Sets the Ponder Next Move menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: true.
+@item -smpCores number
+@citem smpCores, option
+Specifies the maxmum nmber of CPUs an SMP engine is allowed to use.
+Only works for engines that support the WinBoard-protocol cores feature.
@item -mg or -matchGames n
@cindex mg, option
@cindex matchGames, option
@cindex matchMode, option
Setting @code{matchMode} to true is equivalent to setting
@code{matchGames} to 1.
+@item -sameColorGames n
+@cinex sameColorGames, option
+Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
+without alternating colors.
+Otherwise the same applies as for the @samp{-matchGames} option,
+over which it takes precedence if both are specified. (See there.)
+Default: 0 (do not run a match).
@item -fcp or -firstChessProgram program
@cindex fcp, option
@cindex firstChessProgram, option
Name of first chess engine.
-Default: @file{gnuchessx}.
+Default: @file{Fairy-Max}.
@item -scp or -secondChessProgram program
@cindex scp, option
@cindex secondChessProgram, option
Name of second chess engine, if needed.
A second chess engine is started only in Two Machines (match) mode.
-Default: @file{gnuchessx}.
+Default: @file{Fairy-Max}.
@item -fb/-xfb or -firstPlaysBlack true/false
@cindex fb, option
@cindex firstPlaysBlack, option
"protover" command is not sent to the engine; since version 1 is a
subset of version 2, nothing else changes. Other values for
version-number are not supported.
+@item -firstScoreAbs true/false
+@itemx -secondScoreAbs true/false
+@cindex firstScoreAbs, option
+@cindex secondScoreAbs, option
+If this option is set, the score reported by the engine is taken to be
+that in favor of white, even when the engine plays black.
+Important when XBoard uses the score for adjudications, or in PGN reporting.
+@end table
+
+
+
+@node UCI + WB Engine Settings
+@cindex Engine Settings
+@cindex Settings, Engine
+@table @asis
+@item -fUCI or -firstIsUCI true/false
+@itemx -sUCI or -secondIsUCI true/false
+@cindex fUCI, option
+@cindex sUCI, option
+@cindex firstIsUCI, option
+@cindex secondIsUCI, option
+Indicates if the mentioned engine executable file is an UCI engine,
+and should be run with the aid of the Polyglot adapter rather than directly.
+Xboard will then pass the other UCI options and engine name to Polyglot
+through a .ini temporary file ceated for the purpose.
+@item -PolyglotDir filename
+@cindex PolyglotDir, option
+Gives the name of the directory in which the Polyglot adapter for UCI engines expects its files.
+Default: "/usr/local/share/polyglot".
+@item -usePolyglotBook true/false
+@cindex usePolyglotBook, option
+Specifies if the Polygot book should be used.
+@item -PolyglotBook filename
+@cindex PolyglotBook, option
+Gives the filename of the opening book that Polyglot should use.
+From XBoard 4.3.15 on, native WinBoard engines will also use the opening book specified here,
+provided the @code{usePolyglotBook} option is set to true,
+and the option @code{firstHasOwnBookUCI} or @code{secondHasOwnBookUCI} applying to the engine
+is set to false.
+The engine will be kept in force mode as long as the current position is in book,
+and XBoard will select the book moves for it. Default "".
+@item -fNoOwnBookUCI or -firstHasOwnBookUCI true/false
+@itemx -sNoOwnBookUCI or -secondHasOwnBookUCI true/false
+@cindex fNoOwnBookUCI, option
+@cindex sNoOwnBookUCI, option
+@cindex firstHasOwnBookUCI, option
+@cindex secondHasOwnBookUCI, option
+Indicates if the mentioned engine has its own opening book it should play from,
+rather than using the external book through XBoard. Default: false.
+@item -defaultHashSize n
+@cindex defaultHashSize, option
+Sets the size of the hash table to n MegaBytes. Together with the EGTB cache size
+this number is also used to calculate the memory setting of WinBoard engines,
+for those that support the memory feature of WinBoard protocol. Default: 64.
+@item -defaultCacheSizeEGTB n
+@cindex defaultCacheSizeEGTB, option
+Sets the size of the EGTB cache to n MegaBytes. Together with the hash-table size
+this number is also used to calculate the memory setting of WinBoard engines,
+for those that support the memory feature of WinBoard protocol. Default: 4.
+@item -defaultPathEGTB filename
+@cindex defaultPathEGTB, option
+Gives the name of the directory where the end-game tablebases are installed, for UCI engines.
+Default: "/usr/local/share/egtb".
+@item -egtFormats string
+@cindex egtFormats, option
+Specifies which end-game tables are installed on the computer, and where.
+The argument is a comma-separated list of format specifications,
+each specification consisting of a format name, a colon, and a directory path name,
+e.g. "nalimov:/usr/local/share/egtb".
+If the name part matches that of a format that the engine requests through a feature command,
+xboard will relay the path name for this format to the engine through an egtpath command.
+One egtpath command for each matching format will be sent.
+Popular formats are "nalimov" DTM tablebases and "scorpio" bitbases.
+Default: "".
@end table
@node ICS options
@cindex autobs, option
@cindex autoObserve, option
Sets the Auto Observe menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
+@item -autoKibitz
+@cindex autoKibitz, option`
+Enables kibitzing of the engines last thinking output (depth, score, time, speed, PV)
+before it moved
+to the ICS, in zippy mode. The option @code{showThinking} must be switched on for
+this option to work.
@item -moves/-xmoves or -getMoveList true/false
@cindex moves, option
@cindex getMoveList, option
is a pipe; in these cases the first game in the file is loaded immediately.
Use the @file{pxboard} shell script provided with XBoard if you
want to pipe in files containing multiple games and still see the menu.
+If the loadGameIndex specifies an index -1, this triggers auto-increment
+of the index in @code{matchMode}, which means that after every game the
+index is incremented by one, causing each game of the match to be played
+from the next game in the file. Similarly, specifying an index value of -2
+causes the index to be incremented every two games, so that each game
+in the file is used twice (with reversed colors).
+The @code{rewindIndex} option causes the index to be reset to the
+first game of the file when it has reached a specified value.
+@item -rewindIndex n
+@citem rewindIndex, option
+Causes a position file or game file to be rewound to its beginning after n
+positions or games in auto-increment @code{matchMode}.
+See @code{loadPositionIndex} and @code{loadGameIndex}.
+default: 0 (no rewind).
@item -td or -timeDelay seconds
@cindex td, option
@cindex timeDelay, option
standard input. If the @code{loadPositionIndex} option is set to N,
the Nth position found in the file is loaded; otherwise the
first position is loaded.
+If the loadPositionIndex specifies an index -1, this triggers auto-increment
+of the index in @code{matchMode}, which means that after every game the
+index is incremented by one, causing each game of the match to be played
+from the next position in the file. Similarly, specifying an index value of -2
+causes the index to be incremented every two games, so that each position
+in the file is used twice (with the engines playing opposite colors).
+The @code{rewindIndex} option causes the index to be reset to the
+first position of the file when it has reached a specified value.
@item -spf or -savePositionFile file
@cindex spf, option
@cindex savePositionFile, option
If this option is set, XBoard appends the final position reached
in every game played to the specified file. The file name @file{-}
specifies the standard output.
-@item -oldsave/-xoldsave or -oldSaveStyle true/false
+@item -pgnExtendedInfo true/false
+@cindex pgnExtendedInfo, option`
+If this option is set, WinBoard saves depth, score and time used for each
+move that the engine found as a comment in the PGN file.
+Default: false.
+@item -pgnEventHeader string
+@cindex pgnEventHeader, option`
+Sets the name used in the PGN event tag to string.
+Default: "Computer Chess Game".
+@item -saveOutOfBookInfo true/false
+@cindex saveOutOfBookInfo, option`
+Include the information on how the engine(s) game out of its opening book in a special annotator tag with the PGN file.@item -oldsave/-xoldsave or -oldSaveStyle true/false
@cindex oldsave, option
@cindex oldSaveStyle, option
Sets the Old Save Style menu option. @xref{Options Menu}. Default: false.
Moves is on.
@end table
+@node Adjudication Options
+@section Adjudication Options
+@cindex Options, adjudication
+@table @asis
+@item -adjudicateLossThreshold n
+@cindex adjudicateLossThreshold, option
+If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a loss
+if both engines agree for a duration of 6 consecutive ply that the score
+is below the given score threshold for that engine. Make sure the score
+is interpreted properly by XBoard,
+using @code{-firstScoreAbs} and @code{-secondScoreAbs} if needed.
+Default: 0 (no adjudiction)
+@item -adjudicateDrawMoves n
+@cindex adjudicateDrawMoves, option
+If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a draw
+if after the given number of moves it was not yet decided. Defaut: 0 (no adjudication)
+@item -checkMates true/false
+@cindex checkMates, option
+If this option is set, XBoard detects all checkmates and stalemates,
+and ends the game as soon as they occur.
+Legality-testing must be switched on for this option to work.
+Default: true
+@item -testClaims true/false
+@cindex testClaims, option
+If this option is set, XBoard verifies all result claims made by engines,
+and those who send false claims will forfeit the game because of it.
+Legality-testing must be switched on for this option to work. Default: true
+@item -materialDraws true/false
+@cindex materialDraws, option
+If this option is set, XBoard adjudicates games as draws when there is
+no sufficient material left to inflict a checkmate.
+This applies to KBKB with like bishops (any number, actually), and to KBK, KNK and KK.
+Legality-testing must be switched on for this option to work. Default: true
+@item -trivialDraws true/false
+@cindex trivialDraws, option
+If this option is set, XBoard adjudicates games as draws that cannot be
+usually won without opponent cooperation. This applies to KBKB with unlike bishops,
+and to KBKN, KNKN, KNNK, KRKR and KQKQ. The draw is called after 6 ply into these end-games,
+to allow quick mates that can occur in some exceptional positions to be found by the engines.
+KQKQ does not really belong in this category, and might be taken out in the future.
+(When bitbase-based adjudications are implemented.)
+Legality-testing must be on for this option to work. Default: false
+@item -ruleMoves n
+@cindex ruleMoves, option
+If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a draw after the given
+number of consecutive reversible moves. Engine draw claims are always accepted after 50 moves,
+irrespective of the given value of n.
+@item -repeatsToDraw n
+If the given value is non-zero, xboard adjudicates the game as a draw if a position
+is repeated the given number of times. Engines draw claims are always accepted after 3 repeats,
+(on the 3rd occurrence, actually), irrespective of the value of n.
+Beware that positions that have different castling or en-passant rights do not count
+as repeats, XBoard is fully e.p. and castling aware!
+@end table
+
@node Other options
@section Other Options
@cindex Options, miscellaneous
atomic Capturing piece explodes (ICC wild 27)
3check Win by giving check 3 times (ICC wild 25)
shatranj An ancient precursor of chess (ICC wild 28)
+xiangqi Chinese Chess (on a 9x10 board)
+shogi Japanese Chess (on a 9x9 board & piece drops)
+capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8 board, with Archbishop
+ and Chancellor pieces)
+gothic similar, with a better initial position
+caparandom An FRC-like version of Capablanca Chess (10x8)
+janus A game with two Archbishops (10x8 board)
+courier Medieval intermedite between shatranj and
+ modern Chess (on 12x8 board)
+falcon Patented 10x8 variant with two Falcon pieces
+berolina Pawns capture straight ahead, and move diagonal
+cylinder Pieces wrap around the board edge
+knightmate King moves as Knight, and vice versa
+super Superchess (shuffle variant with 4 exo-pieces)
+fairy A catchall variant in which all piece types
+ known to XBoard can participate (8x8)
unknown Catchall for other unknown variants
@end example
-In the shuffle variants, xboard does not shuffle the pieces, but
-you can do it by hand using Edit Position. Some variants are
-supported only in ICS mode, including fischerandom, bughouse, and
+In the shuffle variants, XBoard now does shuffle the pieces, although
+you can still do it by hand using Edit Position. Some variants are
+supported only in ICS mode, including bughouse, and
kriegspiel. The winning/drawing conditions in crazyhouse (offboard
interposition on mate), losers, suicide, giveaway, atomic, and 3check
-are not fully understood. In crazyhouse, xboard does not yet keep
-track of offboard pieces. Shatranj is unsupported, but it may be
-usable if you turn off Test Legality.
+are not fully understood.
+Berolina and cylinder chess can only be played with legality testing off.
+In crazyhouse, XBoard now does keep
+track of offboard pieces. In shatranj it does implement the baring
+rule when mate detection is switched on.
+@item -boardHeight N
+@cindex boardHeight, option
+Allows you to set a non-standard number of board ranks in any variant.
+If the height is given as -1, the default height for the variant is used.
+Default: -1
+@item -boardWidth N
+@cindex boardWidth, option
+Allows you to set a non-standard number of board files in any variant.
+If the width is given as -1, the default width for the variant is used.
+With a non-standard width, the initial position will always be an empty board,
+as the usual opening array will not fit.
+Default: -1
+@item -holdingsSize N
+@cindex holdingsSize, option
+Allows you to set a non-standard size for the holdings in any variant.
+If the size is given as -1, the default holdings size for the variant is used.
+The first N piece types will go into the holdings on capture, and you will be
+able to drop them on the board in stead of making a normal move. If size equals 0,
+there will be no holdings.
+Default: -1
+@item -defaultFrcPosition N
+@cindex defaultFrcPosition, option
+Specifies the number of the opening position in shuffle games like Chess960.
+A value of -1 means the position is randomly generated by XBoard
+at the beginning of every game.
+Default: -1
+@item -pieceToSquareTable string
+@cindex pieceToSquareTable, option
+The characters that are used to represent the piece types XBoard knows in FEN
+diagrams and SAN moves. The string argument has to have an even length
+(or it will be ignored), as white and black pieces have to be given separately
+(in that order). The last letter for each color will be the King.
+The letters before that will be PNBRQ and then a whole host of fairy pieces
+in an order that has not fully crystallized yet (currently FEACWMOHIJGDVSLU,
+F=Ferz, Elephant, A=Archbishop, C=Chancellor, W=Wazir, M=Commoner, O=Cannon,
+H=Nightrider). You should list at least all pieces that occur in the variant
+you are playing. If you have less than 44 characters in the string, the pieces
+not mentioned will get assigned a period, and you will not be able to distinguish
+them in FENs. You can also explicitly assign pieces a period, in which case they
+will not be counted in deciding which captured pieces can go into the holdings.
+A tilde '~' as a piece name does mean this piece is used to represent a promoted
+Pawn in crazyhouse-like games, i.e. on capture it turns back onto a Pawn.
+A '+' similarly indicates the piece is a shogi-style promoted piece, that should
+revert to its non-promoted version on capture (rather than to a Pawn).
+Note that promoted pieces are represented by pieces 11 further in the list.
+You should not have to use this option often: each variant has its own default
+setting for the piece representation in FEN, which should be sufficient in normal use.
+Default: ""
@item -debug/-xdebug or -debugMode true/false
@cindex debug, option
@cindex debugMode, option
@cindex remoteUser, option
User name on the remote system when running programs with the
@code{remoteShell}. The default is your local user name.
+@item -userName username
+@cindex userName, option
+Name under which the Human player will be listed in the PGN file.
+Default is the login name on your local computer.
@end table
@node Chess Servers
The game parser recognizes only algebraic notation.
-The internal move legality tester does not look at the game history,
-so in some cases it misses illegal castling or en passant captures.
-It permits castling with the king on the d file because this is possible in
-some "wild 1" games on ICS. It does not check
-piece drops in bughouse and crazyhouse to see if you actually
-hold the piece you are trying to drop.
-However, if you attempt an illegal move when using
-a chess engine or chess server, XBoard will accept the error message
-that comes back, undo the move, and let you try another.
-
-Fischer Random castling is not understood. You can probably play
-Fischer Random successfully on ICS by typing castling moves into the ICS
-Interaction window, but they will not be animated correctly, and saved
-games will not be loaded correctly if castling occurs.
-
-FEN positions saved by XBoard
-never include correct information about whether castling is legal or
-how many half-moves have been made since the last irreversible move,
-and sometimes may not correctly indicate when en passant capture is available.
-
-The mate detector does not understand that non-contact mate is not
-really mate in bughouse and crazyhouse. The only problem this causes
-while playing is minor: a @samp{#} (mate indicator) character will show
-up after a non-contact mating move in the move list; XBoard will
-not assume the game is over at that point. However, if you are editing
-a game, Edit Game mode will be terminated by a non-contact mate.
+Many of the following points used to be limitations in XBoard 4.2.7 and earlier,
+but are now fixed:
+The internal move legality tester in XBoard 4.3.xx does look at the game history,
+and is fully aware of castling or en-passant-capture rights. It permits castling with
+the king on the d file because this is possible in some "wild 1" games on ICS.
+The piece-drop menu does not check piece drops in bughouse to see if you actually hold
+the piece you are trying to drop. But this way of dropping pieces should be considered
+an obsolete feature, now that pieces can be dropped by dragging them from the holdings
+to the board. Anyway, if you would attempt an illegal move when using a chess engine or the ICS,
+WinBoard will accept the error message that comes back, undo the move, and let you try another.
+FEN positions saved by XBoard do include correct information about whether castling or
+en passant are legal, and also handle the 50-move counter.
+The mate detector does not understand that non-contact mate is not really mate in bughouse.
+The only problem this causes while playing is minor: a "#" (mate indicator) character will
+show up after a non-contact mating move in the move list. XBoard will not assume the game
+is over at that point, not even when the option Detect Mates is on.
+Edit Game mode always uses the rules of the selected variant,
+which can be a variant that uses piece drops.
+You can load and edit games that contain piece drops.
+The (obsolete) piece menus are not active,
+but you can perform piece drops by dragging pieces from the holdings.
+Edit Position mode does not allow you to edit the crazyhouse holdings properly.
+You cannot drag pieces to the holding, and using the popup menu to put pieces
+there does not adapt the holding counts and leads to an inconsistent state.
+Set up crazyhouse positions by loading / pasting a bFEN, from there you can set the holdings.
+Fischer Random castling is fully understood.
+You can enter castlings by dragging the King on top of your Rook.
+You can probably also play Fischer Random successfully on ICS by typing
+castling moves into the ICS Interaction window.
The menus may not work if your keyboard is in Caps Lock or Num Lock mode.
This seems to be a problem with the Athena menu widget,
.
@end example
+The WinBoard / XBoard 4.3 line is being developed by H.G. Muller
+independently of the GNU Savannah xboard project.
+Bug reports on this version, and suggestions for improvements and additions,
+are best posted in the WinBoard forum,
+WinBoard-development section (http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum).
+
If you improve XBoard, please send a message about your changes,
and we will get in touch with you about merging them in
to the main line of development.
Tim Mann has been responsible for XBoard versions 1.3 and beyond, and
for WinBoard, a port of XBoard to Microsoft Win32 (Windows NT and
-Windows 95).
+Windows 95). H.G.Muller is responsible for version 4.3.
Mark Williams contributed the initial (WinBoard-only) implementation
of many new features added to both XBoard and WinBoard in version
Evan Welsh wrote @code{CMail}. Patrick Surry helped in designing,
testing, and documenting CMail.
+Allessandro Scotti added many elements to the user interface of WinBoard,
+including the board textures and font-based rendering, the evaluation-graph,
+move-history and engine-output window.
+He was also responsible for adding the UCI support.
+
+H.G. Muller made WinBoard castling- and e.p.-aware,
+added variant support with adjustable board sizes,
+the crazyhouse holdings, and the fairy pieces.
+In addition he added most of the adjudication options,
+made WinBoard more robust in dealing with buggy and crashing engines,
+and extended time control with a time-odds and node-count-based modes.
+Most of the options that initially wre WinBoard only have now been back-ported to XBoard.
+
+Michel van den Bergh provided the code for reading Polyglot opening books.
+
@node CMail
@chapter CMail
@cindex cmail
You can use XBoard to play a game against GNU Chess, or to
interface GNU Chess to an ICS.
+@node Fairy-Max
+@section Fairy-Max
+
+Fairy-Max is a derivative from the World's smallest Chess program micro-Max,
+which measures only about 100 lines of source code.
+The main difference with micro-Max is that Fairy-Max loads its move-generator
+tables from a file, so that the rules for piece movement can be easily configured
+to implement unorthodox pieces.
+Fairy-Max can therefore play a lage number of variants, normal Chess being one of those.
+In addition it plas Knightmate, Capablanca and Gothic Chess, Shatranj, Courier Chess,
+Cylinder chess, Berolina Chess, while the user can easily define new variants.
+It can be obtained from:
+
+http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/dwnldpage.html
+
+@node HoiChess
+@section HoiChess
+
+HoiChess is a not-so-very-strong Chess engine, which comes with a derivative HoiXiangqi,
+able to play Chinese Chess. It can be obtained from the standard Linux repositories
+through:
+
+sudo apt-get install hoichess
+
@node Crafty
@section Crafty
projects / xboard.git / blobdiff