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+<title>XBoard - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation - NEWS</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>What is new in WinBoard / XBoard 4.5.0?</h2>
+<table cellpadding="20"><tr valign="top"><td>
+<h4>General New Features</h4>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#tag-C13">Each user his own settings file</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-D1">More logical (and standard) menu structure</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C6">Translation into other languages (WB)</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-A3">Walking the PV of an engine</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-A2">Exploring variations</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C4">Playing through PGN variations</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-D2">Annotating a game with analysis results</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C12">Editing Comments</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C10">Controlling move choice of the GUI book</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C11">Keeping the clock in sync in tournaments</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C9">Starting an engine match from the menu</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-A1">Fixed thinking time per move</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-A5">Improved multi-PV support</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-A4">Where your pieces can move to</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-A8">Editing crazyhouse holdings</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-A9">Thai Chess (Makruk) and Seirawan Chess</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C7">Non-compliant FEN and SAN input</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C8">Improved Xiangqi adjudications</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-D4">Allowing engines to setup a position</a></li>
+</ul>
+</td><td>
+<h4>XBoard -> WinBoard Convergence</h4>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#tag-A6">Evaluation graph (XB)</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-A7">Settings file (XB)</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-B1">Filtering the game list (XB)</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-B4">Game-List options dialog (XB)</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C1">Recalling the ICS input history (XB)</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-D3">Aribtrary board textures (XB)</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-D5">Highlight arrow (XB)</a></li>
+</ul>
+<h4>ICS-client Enhancements</h4>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#tag-B2">Maintaining a healty ICS connection</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-B5">Claiming a draw after your move</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-B6">ICS seek graph</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-B7">One-click moving</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-B8">Observing your bughouse partner</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C2">Improved Chat-Box interface (WB)</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C3">Uploading games to an ICS</a></li>
+<li><a href="#tag-C5">Side-by-side boards</a></li>
+</ul>
+</td><td>
+<img src="winboardF.png">
+</td></tr></table>
+<h3><a name="tag-A1">Fixed thinking time per move</a></h3>
+<p>
+The clocks are now displayed counting down in fixed-time-per-move time controls.
+This mode of time control can still be selected through the command-line
+option -st (-searchTime), but in WinBoard it is now also possible
+to select it interactively from the Options -> Time-Control menu dialog.
+As soon as a player's turn comes up, his clock will be reset to the
+selected time per move, and start counting down.
+If he does not move before the clock reaches zero,
+a time loss can result.
+</p><p>
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-A2">Exploring variations</a></h3>
+<p>
+XBoard and WinBoard now allow you to explore variations on a given game,
+much like you can do on an Internet Chess Server in "examine" mode.
+You can do this in Edit Game mode,
+for the purpose of annotating the game with alternative variations,
+or in Analyze mode, where an engine evaluates the various branches.
+</p><p>
+It works like this: you can use the < and > buttons
+(or equivalently, the Left and Right arrow keys,
+or the Step -> Forward and Step -> Backward menu items),
+to step through a game or variation.
+When you are not at the end of the game, and start playing moves,
+XBoard would normally truncate the game at that point,
+and append the new move.
+However, you can now indicate that the entered move starts a new variation
+by keeping the Shift key pressed while entering it.
+XBoard then stores the tail of the game in memory, rather than discarding it.
+You can then continue the game along a new line of play,
+and the arrow keys will step you through that new line
+(the "current variation"),
+</p><p>
+When you have studied the variation to your satisfaction,
+you can then use the Step -> Revert menu to recall the previous variation,
+i.e. the one that XBoard stored last because you altered a move in it.
+This brings you back to the position where you played the alternative move,
+and puts back the original tail of the game,
+so that the arrow keys now step you through that.
+The later variation you now abandoned will be irretrievably lost,
+but as an alternative to 'Revert' there is a new 'Annotate' menu item,
+which would add that variation as a comment
+(in PGN variation format, i.e. between parentheses)
+to the next move.
+So you will see the alternative to the played move
+displayed in the comment window as soon as you play that move.
+This can be repeated any number of times,
+so you can make variations on variations
+(leading to nested variation comments in the PGN).
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-C4">Playing through variations from PGN</a></h3>
+<p>
+PGN files can contain (nested) variations between parentheses.
+WinBoard and XBoard have always treated such variations like comments,
+adding them to the move after which they occurred,
+and displaying them in the comment popup.
+In WinBoard as well as XBoard it is now possible to right-click
+such a variation in the comment popup,
+in Edit Game or Analyze mode,
+on which the current line will be shelved,
+and the clicked variation will take over its place.
+(See <a href="#tag-A2">Exploring Variations</a> above.)
+</p><p>
+The user can then play through the variation on the board in the
+way he would normally play through the main line of the game.
+When he is done, he can use Revert in the Step menu
+to resume the main line.
+</p>
+<table cellpadding="20" valign="top"><tr><td>
+<h3><a name="tag-A8">Editing a crazyhouse position</a></h3>
+<p>
+Previous versions of XBoard and WinBoard did not allow you to edit the holdings
+in Edit Positon mode, which made this mode useless for setting up
+crazyhouse or bughouse positions.
+(You could still paste a bughouse FEN containing the holdings in brackets
+between the board and side-to-move fields.)
+The new version does allow such editing.
+When you drag a piece into the holdings file,
+it automatically puts it on the square designated for it,
+and adapts the piece counts consistently.
+When you drag it out of the holdings, the piece counts are decreased,
+and if non-zero the other copies of the piece will stay in the holding
+while you take one to the board.
+</p><p>
+It is even possible to add pieces in the holdings using the piece menu.
+Setting an empty square on top of a stack of pieces,
+will delete all these pieces.
+</p>
+</td><td>
+<img src="crazy.png">
+</td></tr></table>
+<h3><a name="tag-A3">Walking the PV of an engine</a></h3>
+<p>
+XBoard and WinBoard now allow you to see the position the engine thinks
+it will end up in (i.e. the positon at the end of the Principal Variation),
+by right-clicking the board.
+When you then move the mouse vertically, keeping the right button pressed,
+it will step through all the positions of the PV that ly between this
+end position and the current game position on which the engine is thinking
+or analyzing.
+This 'PV walk' will continue until you either release the right button,
+or the engine moves,
+after which the board display will revert to the current game position.
+</p><p>
+On right-clicking the board,
+you will always get to see the last PV the engine produced as thinking output.
+(Show Thinking must be on for this feature to work.)
+This can be a PV from before the engine made the move,
+but if the engine is pondering,
+it will in general be a PV from its ponder search.
+In Two-Machines mode, you will get to see the PV of the
+engine that is currently thinking.
+</p><p>
+You can also call up a PV in the board display by right-clicking
+the Engine-Output window.
+In this case you will get to see the PV that you clicked on.
+So you can select from which engine you will see the PV,
+but also walk through PVs of lower depth than the most recent one.
+If the engine is in multi-PV mode,
+you can select one of the alternative variations.
+This also works for PVs received through an ICS from the opponent,
+captured by the -autoKibitz option to the Engine-Output window.
+</p><p>
+Also in this case, the selected PV will remain displayed as long
+as you keep the right mouse button down,
+even when the engine in the mean time produces new lines
+of thinking output.
+(But not if it actualy moves; then you revert to the game.)
+The line you selected will be highlighted in the Engine-Output window.
+If a selected PV from before the engine moved starts with
+a different move than was actually played,
+the retraction of the played move is inserted before the PV.
+</p><p>
+This new feature interferes with the historic usage of the right mouse button,
+namely the summoning up of the (now deprecated) piece-drop menu
+in crazyhouse and bughouse.
+For people that still want the old behavior,
+an option -dropMenu true|false is provided.
+The default value of this option is false,
+but by setting it, the old behavior is restored,
+and the PV display on right-clicking the board disabled.
+</p>
+<table cellpadding="20" valign="top"><tr><td>
+<h3><a name="tag-A4">Where your pieces can move to</a></h3>
+<p>
+Experienced Chess players will not need it, or even dislike this option,
+but it might be useful to a beginner.
+And even an experienced Chess player might appreciate it
+when he plays a variant he is not so familiar with:
+XBoard and WinBoard can now indicate the possible locations a piece can move to.
+When you switch this option on,
+as soon as you 'pick up' a piece with the mouse,
+(i.e. left-click it, for as long as you keep the left mouse button down),
+XBoard will indicate all the squares that piece can move to with a fat dot.
+For captures, it will use another color (the -premoveHighlightColor, normally red)
+than for non-captures (where it uses the -highlightColor, normally yellow).
+</p><p>
+This feature is only active with the option -showMoveTargets true
+(stored in the settings file),
+but can then still be controlled with the option -highlightDragging,
+which also has an item in the Options menu,
+so you can quickly switch it on and off.
+Furthermore, legality testing must be on for XBoard to know how the piece moves.
+</p><p>
+In variants with mandatory capture (suicide, losers, giveaway)
+it works a bit different:
+if the piece you pick up has a capture it is still indicated in red,
+but as non-captures with this piece are then automatically illegal,
+the yellow dots are used to indicate captures by other pieces.
+This can be handy to quickly alert you when you overlooked a capture:
+when you pick up another piece than the one who must capture,
+you will not see the expected non-capture moves of that piece light up,
+but in stead see some yellow dots on enemy pieces appear.
+</p><p>
+One other peculiarity in variants is that XBoard implements some pieces
+occurring in variants as 'wildcard pieces', that are allowed to do any
+move even when legality testing is on.
+(To facilitate playing exotic variants without switching legality
+checking off completely.)
+For such a piece, a red dot on the starting square of the piece itself
+will appear.
+Drop moves (e.g in crazyhouse) will not be indicated.
+</p>
+</td><td>
+<img src="showXQmove.png">
+</td></tr></table>
+<h3><a name="tag-A5">Improved Muti-PV support</a></h3>
+<p>
+Normally an engine produces only a single PV for each move it plays.
+Some engines can operate in multi-PV mode, however,
+where they produce mutiple lines with an exact score.
+This is more a matter of the engine than the GUI,
+but the new XBoard and WinBoard have a tiny improvement to help
+interpretation of multi-PV engine output.
+</p><p>
+In stead of displaying the Thinking-Output lines in the
+Engine-Output window strictly in the order that they came in,
+XBoard now sorts lines of the same depth by score,
+so that the line of the highest score (the true PV)
+is always displayed on top.
+In practice this requires new lines to be inserted not at the top,
+(as always happened in earlier versions),
+but can be inserted somewhat lower down if their score was lower.
+Not a big deal, but it helps to get a more quiet display.
+The original order, which usually is of less importance,
+can aways be deduced from the time or number of nodes displayed with the line.
+</p>
+<table cellpadding="20" valign="top"><tr><td>
+<img src="evalgraph.png">
+</td><td>
+<h3><a name="tag-A6">Evaluation Graph</a></h3>
+<p>
+XBoard now has a new auxilliary window (which WinBoard already had for years),
+for displaying the engine score(s) as a function of move number as a graph.
+Clicking a point on this graph will bring you to the corresponding
+position in this game.
+(I.e. it will display the position on the board like you moved there
+with the arrow keys.)
+</p><p>
+Like the other windows, the Evaluation Graph can be sized and moved with the mouse,
+and its size and psition can be determined by command-line options,
+which are saved in the settings file.
+By compiled-in default XBoard starts with this window open,
+but closing it once and saving the settings is enough to change that for future sessions.
+</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<h3><a name="tag-C13">Settings-file redirection</a></h3>
+<p>
+There is one novelty in the way WinBoard and XBoard handle their settings files.
+It has always been possible to have one settings file specify another.
+The contents of that settings file would simply be substituted at the place where you refer to it
+with the -settinngsFile option (-ini, for short).
+But the saving of settings then used to still go to the original settings file.
+This should be considered a bug, really, and has now been fixed.
+The settings file to which you save now will be the last one that was encountered in an -ini option
+(and did actually exist).
+This change makes new, very versatile use of the settings files possible,
+for instance to give every user its own, private settings file.
+</p><p>
+So "-settingsFile FILENAME" is a way to redirect saving of settings to an existing settings file.
+The option "-saveSettingsFile FILENAME" has been added as a way to specify where to save settings
+without any options being read, and without the need for a file of that name to already exist.
+</p><p>
+The settings file name specification can now contain symbolic references to user-dependent file names,
+such as '%HOMEPATH%' for WinBoard and '~' for XBoard.
+For WinBoard, any environment variables at the beginning of the path names will be recognized and expanded.
+You could, for instance, also use %HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH%\winboard.ini,
+so that people will get their private settings files in (say)
+C:\Documents and Settings\<USER NAME>\winboard.ini.
+The pre-configured winboard.ini in the binary install now will redirect the
+reading and saving of settings to %APPDATA%\winboard.ini, which on most Windows systems would
+translate to C:\Documents and Settings\<USER NAME>\Application Data\winboard.ini.
+<b>So people used to editing their winboard.ini file, beware:
+you now have to look for that in a completely different place!</b>
+</p><p>
+Note that this mechanism of redirection an be nested,
+and even on a system where a user has no access to the master settings file,
+and is not comfortable with the location of his private settings file,
+he could use the -settingsFile option in the latter
+to order a second redirection to a location where he would like it.
+There are in fact novel configuration tricks one can play using such redirection.
+If you are not happy with the defaults of somem volatile options,
+(i.e. options that are not sved with the settings, so that they reset to their defaults the next session),
+you can change them by editing the required volatile options into your primary user settings file.
+Because this primary users settings file will never be overwritten when you redirect the settings file away from it,
+the volatile options in there will stick.
+And when you write settings for persistent options in that primary file
+after the -settingsFile option that redirects reading to the settings file where you save,
+these will overrule the saved options,
+so that effectively you turn those persistent options in volatile ones with a default chosen by yourself!
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-A7">Settings file</a></h3>
+<p>
+XBoard now can save its settings on a file,
+like WinBoard already does for years.
+The format in which the settings are stored is the same as that of the command line,
+except that all options are on separate lines.
+The settings can be saved on user command (from the Options menu),
+as well as automatically on exit, under control of an option -saveSettingsOnExit,
+which is itself saved in the file.
+Its value can be changed from the Option menu.
+</p><p>
+The contents of the default settings file
+(/etc/xboard/xboard.conf for XBoard)
+will be prefixed to the command line,
+so that the latter overrules any settings in the file.
+Furthermore, both the settings file and the command line
+can contain options that refer to other settings files:
+-settingsFile filename (or its shorthand -ini filename)
+and @filename both cause the contents of the mentioned file to be inserted in that place.
+In the case of -settingsFile the filename is also remembered as the place
+to save the settings.
+</p><p>
+The standard install of XBoard uses a -saveSettingsFile and a -settingsFile option
+in the default settings file to divert loading and saving to a user-specific file
+~/.xboardrc in the user's home directory.
+The system adminitrator can the use the default settings file /etc/xboard/xboard.conf
+to specify default settings for xboard that he wants to deviate from the compiled-in defaults.
+As the -settingsFile option that includes the user settings is at the end of the
+default settings file, the user settings will overrule such system-wide defaults.
+</p><p>
+The settings include the open/closed status of the auxiliary windows
+(Engine Output, Move History, Evaluation Graph),
+and their position and size.
+So XBoard will open in the same window configuration and layout
+as the previous time you left it,
+when you have Save Settings on Exit on.
+</p><p>
+Not all options are saved in the settings file.
+Some options that are considered unlikely to need the same values next time, are 'volatile'.
+This applies or instance to the engine names (-fcp, -scp) and accompanying info
+(-fd, -firstXBook, -fUCI), or the selected variant.
+These options will thus revert to the compiled-in or system-wide defaults
+in the next session.
+</p>
+<table cellpadding="20" valign="top"><tr><td>
+<img src="makruk.png">
+</td><td valign="top">
+<h3><a name="tag-A9">Thai chess</a></h3>
+Makruk is a form of Chess played in Thailand,
+by about 2 million people, which makes it one of the World's major
+Chess variants.
+WinBoard / Xboard now supports Makruk:
+it knows how the pieces moves, that Pawns promote on the 6th rank,
+and how to set up the initial position (with Pawns on the 3rd rank).
+Just start XBoard with the option "-variant makruk",
+or select it from the "File -> New Variant" menu.
+The letters used in SAN and PGN are M for the Queen replacement
+(for the Thai name "Med"),
+which moves one step dagonal, as in Shatranj,
+and S for the Bishop replacement
+(which moves like the Silver General from Shogi).
+</p><p>
+The latest version of Fairy-Max (4.8o) supports Makruk as a
+pre-programmed variant.
+So it can be used as an engine to play this game against the computer.
+</p>
+<h3><a>Seirawan chess</a></h3>
+<p>
+Another variant that has been added is Seirawan Chess.
+In this variants the players start with two un-orthodox pieces in hand,
+which can be 'gated' onto the board when a piece is developed
+from the back rank (appearing on the square that piece evacuated).
+In XBoard such moves can now be entered by first selecting the
+piece you want to gate from the holdings,
+and then perform your move on the board.
+When you drag a back-rank piece, you will immediately see
+the gated piece appearing from under it.
+Gating moves use SAN (orlong algebraic) promotion notation.
+</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<h3><a name="tag-B1">Filtering the Game List</a></h3>
+<p>
+The XBoard Game-List window now includes a "Filter" field
+(like WinBoard has),
+where you can type any text string.
+The display of the Game List will then be limited to those lines
+containing the given string. So if you want to see only drawn games,
+like the screenshot example shown here,
+you can put "1/2-1/2" in the filter, an press the "Apply" button
+(or type <Enter>).
+Of course you have to make sure that the game result is actually
+amongst the items that are displayed in the Game List lines.
+(This can be controlled with the -gameListTags option.)
+</p>
+<table cellpadding="20" valign="top"><tr><td>
+<img src="gamelist.png">
+</td><td valign="top">
+<p>
+This feature is very convenient when you are dealing with large game lists.
+As the 'result comment' is one of the items you can select for
+display in the game list,
+it is for instance very easy to find time losses, false claims or
+illegal moves in your tournaments.
+Just filter on the phrases "on time", "False" or "Illegal",
+and only the games appear in the list that ended that way.
+You can also use it to easily pick out the games of your own engine from the
+PGN file of a large tournament like ChessWar.
+</p><p>
+Selecting the game to load from the list can now also be done
+in XBoard using the arrow keys (and <Home>, <End>),
+which have been given key bindings to the "prev" and "next" buttons
+in the Game List dialog.
+</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<h3><a name="tag-B2">Maintaining a healthy ICS connection</a></h3>
+<p>
+The -keepAlive option in WinBoard and XBoard now not only serves
+to prevent you from being automaticaly logged out by the ICS,
+(be careful not to abuse that!),
+but now is also checking if the ICS is still responding.
+If there is no message from the ICS at all in reaction to the 'date'
+command that WinBoard sends to 'ping' it by the time the next 'date'
+command is sent, WinBoard will conclude the connection has been
+broken without the proper notification by the system,
+and performs a fatal error exit.
+You can the use a script to have WinBoard automatically
+establish a new connection, and login again.
+</p><p>
+</p>
+<table cellpadding="20"><tr valign="top"><td>
+<h3><a name="tag-B4">Game-List options dialog</a></h3>
+<p>
+XBoard now has a dialog in its Options menu to select the PGN tags
+that will be displayed in the Game List,
+similar to that of WinBoard.
+The tags can be selected and ordered in a user-friendy way,
+by selecting them with the mouse, and moving them auround
+with the up and down buttons.
+</p><p>
+The newly selected layout wil become effective
+the next time a new Game List is made.
+This can be because you open a new file with multiple games in it,
+or because you re-open the Game-List window.
+</p>
+</td><td>
+<img src="glopt.png">
+</td></tr></table>
+<h3><a name="tag-B5">Claiming a draw in ICS play</a></h3>
+<p>
+To claim a draw that will only become claimable after your move,
+different ICS have different mechanisms.
+On FICS you have to write "draw MOVE" on the same line.
+ICC does not understand this, but will count a draw offer made through
+a plain "draw" command before your move count as a draw claim
+after that move when this move creates a third repetition or
+a 50-move draw.
+</p><p>
+The ICC mechanism did not need special support,
+but WinBoard and XBoard now also support the FICS mechanism.
+You will have to trigger it the same way as doing things on ICC:
+first offer the draw, then do the move.
+XBoard will check now for any move (by user or engine) if it will create
+a claimable draw.
+And if it does, while the user or engine have just offered a draw,
+it will first send the move to the ICS 'FICS fashion',
+and after that it sends the plain move
+(to accomodate ICS that do not understand this).
+This should provide a secure way to claim the draw.
+</p><p>
+In connection with this patch, the adjudications
+were made to work in any non-ICS game, not only in Two Machines mode.
+(For ICS play the ICS of course decides.)
+</p>
+<table cellpadding="20"><tr valign="top"><td>
+<img src="seekgraph.png">
+</td><td>
+<h3><a name="tag-B6">Answering seek ads on an ICS</a></h3>
+<p>
+WinBoard and XBoard now support a seek graph.
+This graph can appear in place of the board when you are
+logged on to an ICS, and not playing or observing a game.
+When you click the board in this situation,
+a 'sought' command will be sent to the ICS to fetch the list of
+seek ads (without you seeing it).
+This list will then be represented as a 2-dimensional graph,
+with time-control on the horizontal axis, and opponent rating on the vertical.
+</p><p>
+Clicking one of the dots will send a 'play' command to the ICS
+to challenge that opponent (which will usually start the game immediately).
+You can also click a dot to interrogate it,
+i.e. see the details of the corresponding seek ad displayed
+in the message field above the board.
+</p><p>
+Which click will do what is not yet fully decided;
+the current trial version (in the 'seekgraph' branch of the repository here)
+can do everything with only the left mouse button,
+the down-click for showing the ad details,
+the up-click (if it is still on the dot) to start the game.
+The right button can make life a bit easier, though;
+the press here also shows the ad text,
+but the release is always ignored,
+so that you don't have to worry where to do the up-click
+in case you don't want to make the challenge after reading the ad.
+</p><p>
+To activate this functionality, you will have to use the option
+"-seekGraph true" (shorthand "-sg").
+The automatic refreshing of the graph currently is supported only for
+FICS and ICC (and compatible servers),
+and must be swiched on with the option "-autoRefresh true".
+Both these options are persistent, i.e. saved to the settings file,
+but their default setting is "false", so you have to enable them
+at least once.
+WinBoard has checkboxes in the Options -> ICS menu dialog for setting these options.
+</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<h3><a name="tag-B7">One-click moving</a></h3>
+<p>
+When the option "-oneClickMove" is set to "true",
+clicking a square to or from which only a single legal move is possible
+causes that move to be made immediately.
+I.e. you can click your own piece to make it move,
+or you can click an empty squareto move there,
+or an enemy piece to capture it.
+This works when playing on ICS or against an engine.
+Currently left-click is used,
+but it is still under study if it would be better
+(e.g. less accident prone)
+to use another type of click for this.
+(E.g. double clicking, or right-clicking.)
+</p><p>
+Another type of'smart move' enabled by this option is an only-capture:
+when a piece has only a single captur move, a double left-click
+on that piece makes the capture.
+WinBoard has a checkbox in the Options -> ICS menu dialog for switching this option.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-B8">Observing an ICS game while playing</a></h3>
+It is now possible to observe a game 'in the background',
+while playing on an ICS.
+When the (persistent) option "-backgroundObserve true" is used,
+XBoard / WinBoard will not let incoming boards from observed games disturb the
+display of a game you are currently playing.
+It will merely store the board in memory for safe keeping,
+and will display a summary line in the message field above the board,
+listing the remaining times of white and black player,
+their strength, and which side is to move.
+Pressing the right mouse button will summon up the last such received board
+on the display, in stead of the position in your own game,
+until you release that button again.
+</p><p>
+This way you can have a quick peek at the game you are observing,
+which might be useful when playing bughouse on an ICS that
+does not allow guest logins to follow the game of your partner
+on another instance of XBoard.
+WinBoard has a checkbox in the Options -> ICS menu dialog for switching this option.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-C1">Recalling old input lines in ICS play</a></h3>
+<p>
+XBoard now allows the use op the <Up> and <Down> arrow keys
+to call up and walk through previously given input lines,
+(WinBoard already had this.)
+so you can reset them (possibly after correcting the typo that made
+the ICS not understand them in the first place.
+For this you must use the ICS input box,
+like with any other form of local line editing;
+what you type directly in the X-terminal console window will
+not be remembered, and the arrows will not work there.
+<h3><a name="tag-C2">Making it easier to start a chat</a></h3>
+<p>
+The user interface for the chat windows of WinBoard has been improved.
+Next to dedicating a Chat Box to a single handle, channel or whispers,
+it is now also possible to dedicate it to shouts.
+(Just type 'shouts' in the chat-partner field.)
+In addition, it is now possible to open a Chat Box pre-intialized
+for talking to a given handle from the ICS context menu:
+right-clicking a player name in the ICS text field of the console
+will pop up the ICS context menu.
+You will now find an item "Open Chat Box (name)" in this menu.
+Selecting that will pop up a fresh Chat Box,
+(provided that you have not yet reached your maximum quota of chat boxes,
+which has been increased to 5),
+with the name that
+you clicked already in the Chat Partner field,
+so that you can immediately start typing your first message
+to that person.
+(And receive his answers in that Chat Box, as usual.)
+</p><p>
+The Chat Boxes now aso contain buttons to directly navigate to other
+Chat Windows, making a stacked set of Chat Windows behave
+like it was a single tabbed window.
+The buttons turn grey if there was activity in the corresponding
+box (if it is not the top-most).
+A new command-line option -chatBoxes can be used to already have some
+boxes opened at startup.
+E.g. -chatBoxes "shouts;50" would open Chat Boxes for handling shouts
+and channel-50 traffic.
+WinBoard has a textedit in the Options -> ICS menu dialog for
+defining the startup Chat Boxes.
+</p><p>
+The ICS text menu now already appears on the down-click of the right
+mouse button, so that the release of the same click can already be used
+to select an item from the menu.
+The menu now also pops up in such a way that the upper-right item
+is already under the mouse pointer as soon as it appears.
+As the menu is user-configurable through the -icsMenu option,
+the user could put a default action there.
+This action will then be triggered by a simple (stationary) right-click
+in the ICS text field.
+In the default setting, the "Open Chat Box (name)" item is in this
+position, so a right-click on a handle will open a Chat Box to that handle.
+But all other actions can also still be selected, by moving the pointer there
+before you up-click.
+</p><p>
+It is now possible to define commands in the ICS text menu that use the
+clicked player name not at the end, but somewhere in the middle.
+A "%s" contained in the defined command string will be replaced by the player name
+(or selected text), and only if the command does not contain %s it is appended at the end.
+</p><p>
+Yet another improvement is that the Chat Boxes now recognize URLs,
+and open a browser to display the corresponding web page when you click one.
+</p>
+<table cellpadding="20" valign="top"><tr><td>
+<h3><a name="tag-C3">Uploading a game to an ICS</a></h3>
+<p>
+It is now possible to let XBoard and WinBoard upload a game to the ICS
+for examining.
+When you are logged on to an ICS,
+there is an item "Upload to Examine" available in the "Action" menu.
+Selecting this will start an examined game on the ICS,
+and send all moves of the game currently in XBoard.
+This could be a game you just played or observed,
+but it could also be a game loaded from a game file,
+or pasted into XBoard from the clipboard.
+If there is no current game in XBoard,
+an new examined game will be started in the opening position
+</p><p>
+You can only use this command at times you are not doing anything else
+on the ICS (like playing or observing).
+When the currently loaded game is a variant,
+XBoard tries to figure out the wild number to start an examined
+game in that variant.
+This is experimental, and might not always work,
+especially in variants that not every ICS supports
+(e.g. Shatranj, Xiangqi, Shogi or Makruk).
+Castling rights in FRC might still be problematic.
+</p>
+</td><td>
+<img src="upload.png">
+</td></tr></table>
+<table cellpadding="20" valign="top"><tr><td>
+<img src="dual.png">
+</td><td>
+<h3><a name="tag-C5">Displaying two boards at once</a></h3>
+<p>
+This is a _very_ experimental patch (more a hack really).
+When the option -backgroundObserve is in force,
+so that you can observe an ICS game while playing one,
+using the (persistent) option -dualBoard true,
+the board of the observed game is displayed right of the
+board of your own game,
+in the same window.
+This way you can keep it in view all the time,
+rather than having to press a mouse button for it.
+</p><p>
+This works in both WinBoard and XBoard,
+although in the latter it messes up positioning of the clocks
+for your own game.
+(No clocks are displayed for the partner game yet.)
+When the observed game has a different board format than
+the one you are playing, the result is undefined.
+Many other things, such as highlighting, might not work correctly yet.
+WinBoard has a checkbox in the Options -> ICS menu dialog for switching this option.
+</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<h3><a name="tag-C6">National versions</a></h3>
+<p>
+WinBoard is now able to display all texts in its menus,
+dialogs and displayed messages, in a foreign language, under direction of a language file.
+This file must contain a list of substitutions to be made,
+of the form "original English text" === "replacement text".
+A new persistent option /language=FILENAME will cause WinBoard
+to use the mentioned file to translate itself.
+If the FILENAME does not contain a period, the extention ".LNG" will be automatically appended.
+</p><p>
+All available translations should appear in the Help menu, and by clicking one
+WinBoard should switch to that language.
+(This is still an experimental feature,
+and not all text might change when you apply it a second time.)
+</p><p>
+A Spanish translation is already available in a file español.lng.
+We hope other translations will follow soon.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-C7">Local PGN and FEN standards</a></h3>
+<p>
+Sometimes one encounters FENs or SAN moves that use piece indicators that are not standard.
+E.g. because they are in another language, or for a variant that has no unambiguous standard.
+The (volatile) options -pieceNickNames and -colorNickNames can be used to make XBoard / WinBoard aware of these alternative names,
+so it can read FEN ans PGN files using them, next to the standard names.
+If standard names and nick names conflict, the nick names will prevail.
+On output, and for communicating with engines, the standard names will always be used.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-C8">Xiangqi adjudications</a></h3>
+<p>
+The recognition of mating potential in Xiangqi has been made 100% accurate,
+so that this variant can now be played with the option -materialDraws on.
+The option -trivialDraws now also has special Xiangqi knowledge,
+and catches most cases where both sides have not enough material to overcome the opponent defenders.
+The Xiangqi 50-move rule has been changed to not count checks and check evasions.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-C9">Starting an engine-engine match</a></h3>
+<p>
+WinBoard now has a menu item (in the Mode menu) to start a match between two engines.
+The number of games will be taken from the value of the (persistent) option /defaultMatchGames,
+which can now be set from the Options -> Common Engine dialog.
+WinBoard will not automatically exit after a match that was started this way finishes,
+as it does with matches started with the -mg or -mm option.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-C10">Book-move selection</a></h3>
+<p>
+The selection of moves from the GUI book can now be controlled through two new (persistent) options:
+-bookDepth and -bookVariation.
+The value of these options can be set in the Options -> COmmon Engine menu dialog.
+With -bookDepth N you can limit use of the book to the first N full moves of each game.
+The value of -bookVariation N can be used to tune the randomness of the move choice.
+It can be varied from totally random picking of one of the listed moves,
+ignoring the book weights (N=100), to playng the move(s) with the highest weights only (N=0).
+The default setting, N=50, would play the moves with a frequency proportional to the book weight.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-C11">Adjusting the clocks in OTB tournaments</a></h3>
+<p>
+The clocks can no be adjusted in any mode using them, by Shift left-click to subtract a minute,
+and Shift right-click to add one.
+Before this was only possible by (unshifted) clicking in Edit-Game mode.
+Plain clicking still counts as claiming the flag in other modes.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-C12">Editing Comments</a></h3>
+<p>
+The editing of comments has been slightly changed.
+Previous versions of WinBoard / XBoard considered anything enclosed in (), [], or {} as comment,
+and when you edited it, automatically put braces {} around it before saving the result.
+This would mess up (sub-)variations, which should be in parentheses ().
+The editing of comments now has been changed to explicitly show you the enclosing delimiters.
+This way the correct type of bracketing will be preserved on editing.
+The downside of this is that the user will remain responsible for preserving correctness
+of the nesting and concatenation of different types of comments.
+E.g. the comment box could contain a true comment, starting with '{',
+and be followed by a variation, ending with ')',
+and changing the latter into '}' before saving the new comment would thoroughly mess things up.
+</p><p>
+There is one exception: when enclosing bracketing is obviously missing,
+enclosing braces {} are still added.
+So when adding a comment in places where there was nothing,
+if you type a plain text,
+the old behavior still applies, and you will get a regular comment in your PGN.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-D1">Reorganization of the menus</a></h3>
+<p>
+The menus of XBoard and WinBoard have been re-organized.
+You will still find most of the familiar items,
+but they have been re-grouped into different main menus now.
+New are the 'Edit' and 'View' main menus,
+created to make the menu structure more standard.
+Another new main item is the 'Engine' menu, while the 'Step' menu is gone.
+</p><p>
+The 'File' menu has been slimmed down a bit.
+The Copy and Paste items have been relocated to 'Edit',
+where they belong.
+The items to load next,previous or the same games or positions
+have been removed.
+(The shortcut keys will still work, though.)
+The Game List should provide a more convenient way
+to select games from multi-game files.
+</p><p>
+All items for popping up auxiliary windows have been removed
+from the 'Mode' menu, and now are in the new 'View' menu.
+The latter also contains the items for Board and Font options
+(which do not yet exist in XBoard).
+Flip View and Swap Clocks (WB) have also been moved there.
+</p><p>
+The 'Step' menu is gone;
+its items are mostly moved to the new 'Edit' menu,
+as some (like 'Truncate Game') were clearly edit functions,
+and also stepping through the game is mostly used for editing.
+(And I cannot imagine anyone using menus for that anyway,
+as the button bar and keyboard arrows perform amuch less
+clumsy way to do that...)
+For completeness also all other editing functions
+(games, positions, tags, comments)
+have been added to the 'Edit' menu as duplicats.
+</p><p>
+The new 'Engine' main menu contains the items for setting
+Engine options.
+(And the second engine now automatically starts when
+you want to see or alter its options!)
+It also contains the items that directly interact with the engine,
+such as Move Now, Retract Move, Book and Hint.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-D2">Annotating a game with analysis results</a></h3>
+<p>
+The mode 'Analyze File' has been given a new function.
+In stead of switching to plain analysis mode after loading the file,
+(which you could have done by loading the file,
+and then switching on 'Analysis Mode'),
+it now auto-plays the game in analysis mode.
+As the auto-play steps through all positions,
+these are analyzed by the engine,
+and the game is annotated with the results from this analysis.
+In particular the score and depth of the engine's
+final PV line are stored,
+(so later appear in the PGN as comments, when you save the game),
+and the PV itself is added as a comment in PGN variation format.
+</p>
+<table cellpadding="10"><tr><td>
+<img src="Spartan.png">
+</td><td>
+<h3><a name="tag-D3">Using arbitrary graphics for the board</a></h3>
+<p>
+In XBoard the graphics for the squares used to come
+together with those for the pieces.
+This made all squares of the same color look exactly the same.
+The human eye is very sensitive to such spatial repetition.
+It is now possible to use an arbitrary image as texture for the board squares.
+The options -liteBackTextureFile and -darkBackTextureFile,
+which were already working in WinBoard, can now also be used in XBoard
+to accomplish this.
+They must specify a pixmap file that is at least as large as a board square.
+If the pixmap is larger, XBoard will cut the squares from it with
+as little overlap as possible, to prevent repetitive patterns.
+If you supply a pixmap larger than the entire board,
+the squares cut from them are not overlapping at all,
+and are cut in a way that centers them on the largest squares
+that could be cut from the pixmap without overlapping.
+This is useful when you want to supply a pixmap of a complete
+Xiangqi board, and then want to use it at a different square size.
+</p>
+<h3><a name="tag-D5">Highlight moves with arrow</a></h3>
+<p>
+XBoard now also allows highlighting of the last move with an arrow.
+This allows you to set the width of the grid lines to zero,
+for a nicer look of the board when you use textures,
+and still highlight the move.
+(Not for pre-move yet, sorry.)
+A menu item in the Option menu controls this feature.
+<h3><a name="tag-D4">Variant engines can setup the opening position</a></h3>
+<p>
+General support for variants has been enhanced by extending
+WinBoard protocol with a command that an engine can use to set up
+the opening position of a variant that XBoard does not know.
+When XBoard at the beginning of the game, when legality testing is off,
+receives a 'setup' command from the first engine,
+it takes the setting of the pieceToCharTable and FEN for the
+initial position from this command.
+In all other cases the command is ignored.
+The second engine will receive the start position from XBoard,
+and the game counts as having been started from a setup position.
+Fairy-Max uses this feature to play, (amongst others),
+Spartan Chess, (picture on the left), which requires two Kings,
+and thus cannot be mapped on the standard opening position
+for variants where white and black have different pieces
+(as is used in variant fairy).
+</td></tr></table>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
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