xboard(6) Games Manual xboard(6)
NAME
xboard - X graphical user interface for chess
SYNOPSIS
xboard [options]
xboard -ics -icshost hostname [options]
xboard -ncp [options]
|pxboard
cmail [options]
DESCRIPTION
XBoard is a graphical chessboard that can serve as a user interface to
chess engines (such as GNU Chess), the Internet Chess Servers, elec-
tronic mail correspondence chess, or your own collection of saved
games.
This manual documents version 4.9.1 of XBoard.
MAJOR MODES
XBoard always runs in one of four major modes. You select the major
mode from the command line when you start up XBoard.
xboard [options]
As an interface to GNU Chess or another chess engine running on
your machine, XBoard lets you play a game against the machine,
set up arbitrary positions, force variations, watch a game be-
tween two chess engines, interactively analyze your stored games
or set up and analyze arbitrary positions. To run engines that
use the UCI standard XBoard will draw upon the Polyglot adapter
fully transparently, but you will need to have the polyglot
package installed for this to work.
xboard -ics -icshost hostname [options]
As Internet Chess Server (ICS) interface, XBoard lets you play
against other ICS users, observe games they are playing, or re-
view games that have recently finished. Most of the ICS "wild"
chess variants are supported, including bughouse.
xboard -ncp [options]
XBoard can also be used simply as an electronic chessboard to
play through games. It will read and write game files and allow
you to play through variations manually. You can use it to
browse games off the net or review games you have saved. These
features are also available in the other modes.
|pxboard
If you want to pipe games into XBoard, use the supplied shell
script `pxboard'. For example, from the news reader `xrn', find
a message with one or more games in it, click the Save button,
and type `|pxboard' as the file name.
cmail [options]
As an interface to electronic mail correspondence chess, XBoard
works with the cmail program. See CMail below for instructions.
BASIC OPERATION
To move a piece, you can drag it with the left mouse button, or you can
click the left mouse button once on the piece, then once more on the
destination square. To under-promote a Pawn you can drag it backwards
until it morphs into the piece you want to promote to, after which you
drag that forward to the promotion square. Or after selecting the pawn
with a first click you can then click the promotion square and move the
mouse while keeping the button down until the piece that you want ap-
pears in the promotion square. To castle you move the King to its des-
tination or, in Chess960, on top of the Rook you want to castle with.
In crazyhouse, bughouse or shogi you can drag and drop pieces to the
board from the holdings squares displayed next to the board.
Old behavior, where right-clicking a square brings up a menu where you
can select what piece to drop on it can still be selected through the
`Drop Menu' option. Only in Edit Position mode right and middle click-
ing a square is still used to put a piece on it, and the piece to drop
is selected by sweeping the mouse vertically with the button held down.
The default function of the right mouse button in other modes is to
display the position the chess program thinks it will end up in. While
moving the mouse vertically with this button pressed XBoard will step
through the principal variation to show how this position will be
reached. Lines of play displayed in the engine-output window, or PGN
variations in the comment window can similarly be played out on the
board, by right-clicking on them. Only in Analysis mode, when you walk
along a PV, releasing the mouse button might forward the game upto that
point, like you entered all previous PV moves. As the display of the
PV in that case starts after the first move a simple right-click will
play the move the engine indicates.
In Analysis mode you can also make a move by grabbing the piece with a
double-click of the left mouse button (or while keeping the `Ctrl' key
pressed). In this case the move you enter will not be played, but will
be excluded from the analysis of the current position. (Or included if
it was already excluded; it is a toggle.) This only works for engines
that support this feature.
When connected to an ICS, it is possible to call up a graphical repre-
sentation of players seeking a game in stead of the chess board, when
the latter is not in use (i.e. when you are not playing or observing).
Left-clicking the display area will switch between this 'seek graph'
and the chess board. Hovering the mouse pointer over a dot will show
the details of the seek ad in the message field above the board. Left-
clicking the dot will challenge that player. Right-clicking a dot will
'push it to the back', to reveal any dots that were hidden behind it.
Right-clicking off dots will refresh the graph.
Most other XBoard commands are available from the menu bar. The most
frequently used commands also have shortcut keys or on-screen buttons.
These shortcut keystrokes are mostly non-printable characters. Typing
a letter or digit while the board window has focus will bring up a
type-in box with the typed letter already in it. You can use that to
type a move in situations where it is your turn to enter a move, type a
move number to call up the position after that move in the display, or,
in Edit Position mode, type a FEN. Some rarely used parameters can
only be set through options on the command line used to invoke XBoard.
XBoard uses a settings file, in which it can remember any changes to
the settings that are made through menus or command-line options, so
they will still apply when you restart XBoard for another session. The
settings can be saved into this file automatically when XBoard exits,
or on explicit request of the user. Note that the board window can be
sized by the user, but that this will not affect the size of the clocks
above it, and won't be remembered in the settings file. To persis-
tently change the size of the clocks, use the `size' command-line op-
tion when starting XBoard. The default name for the settings file is
/etc/xboard/xboard.conf, but in a standard install this file is only
used as a master settings file that determines the system-wide default
settings, and defers reading and writing of user settings to a user-
specific file like ~/.xboardrc in the user's home directory.
When XBoard is iconized, its graphical icon is a white knight if it is
White's turn to move, a black knight if it is Black's turn.
MENUS, BUTTONS, AND KEYS
File Menu
New Game
Resets XBoard and the chess engine to the beginning of a new
chess game. The `Ctrl-N' key is a keyboard equivalent. In Inter-
net 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 `New Game'.
See Action Menu.
New Shuffle Game
Similar to `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).
shuffle
Ticking `shuffle' will cause the current variant to be played
with shuffled initial position. Shuffling will preserve the
possibility to castle in the way allowed by the variant.
Fischer castling
Ticking `Fischer castling' will allow castling with Kings and
Rooks that did not start in their normal place, as in Chess960.
Start-position number
randomize
pick fixed
The `Start-position number' selects a particular start position
from all allowed shufflings, which will then be used for every
new game. Setting this to -1 (which can be done by pressing the
`randomize' button) will cause a fresh random position to be
picked for every new game. Pressing the `pick fixed' button
causes `Start-position number' to be set to a random value, to
be used for all subsequent games.
New Variant
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 automatically.) The shifted
`Alt+V' key is a keyboard equivalent. If you play with an en-
gine, the engine must be able to play the selected variant, or
the corresponding choice will be disabled. XBoard supports all
major variants, such as xiangqi, shogi, chess, chess960, makruk,
Capablanca Chess, shatranj, crazyhouse, bughouse.
You can overrule the default board format of the selected vari-
ant, (e.g. to play suicide chess on a 6 x 6 board), in this dia-
log, but normally you would not do that, and leave them at '-1',
which means 'default' for the chosen variant.
Load Game
Plays a game from a record file. The `Ctrl-O' key is a keyboard
equivalent. A pop-up dialog prompts you for the file name. If
the file contains more than one game, a second pop-up dialog
displays a list of games (with information drawn from their PGN
tags, if any), and you can select the one you want. Alterna-
tively, you can load the Nth game in the file directly, by typ-
ing the number `N' after the file name, separated by a space.
The game-file parser will accept PGN (portable game notation),
or in fact almost any file that contains moves in algebraic no-
tation. Notation of the form `P@f7' is accepted for piece-drops
in bughouse games; this is a nonstandard extension to PGN. If
the file includes a PGN position (FEN tag), or an old-style
XBoard position diagram bracketed by `[--' and `--]' before the
first move, the game starts from that position. Text enclosed in
parentheses, square brackets, or curly braces is assumed to be
commentary and is displayed in a pop-up window. Any other text
in the file is ignored. PGN variations (enclosed in parentheses)
also are treated as comments; however, if you rights-click them
in the comment window, XBoard will shelve the current line, and
load the the selected variation, so you can step through it.
You can later revert to the previous line with the `Revert' com-
mand. This way you can walk quite complex varation trees with
XBoard. The nonstandard PGN tag [Variant "varname"] functions
similarly to the -variant command-line option (see below), al-
lowing games in certain chess variants to be loaded. Note that
it must appear before any FEN tag for XBoard to recognize vari-
ant FENs appropriately. There is also a heuristic to recognize
chess variants from the Event tag, by looking for the strings
that the Internet Chess Servers put there when saving variant
("wild") games.
Load Position
Sets up a position from a position file. A pop-up dialog
prompts you for the file name. The shifted `Ctrl-O' key is a
keyboard equivalent. If the file contains more than one saved
position, and you want to load the Nth one, type the number N
after the file name, separated by a space. Position files must
be in FEN (Forsythe-Edwards notation), or in the format that the
Save Position command writes when oldSaveStyle is turned on.
Load Next Position
Loads the next position from the last position file you loaded.
The shifted `PgDn' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Load Previous Position
Loads the previous position from the last position file you
loaded. The shifted `PgUp' key is a keyboard equivalent. Not
available if the last position was loaded from a pipe.
Save Game
Appends a record of the current game to a file. The `Ctrl-S'
key is a keyboard equivalent. A pop-up dialog prompts you for
the file name. If the game did not begin with the standard
starting position, the game file includes the starting position
used. Games are saved in the PGN (portable game notation) for-
mat, unless the oldSaveStyle option is true, in which case they
are saved in an older format that is specific to XBoard. Both
formats are human-readable, and both can be read back by the
`Load Game' command. Notation of the form `P@f7' is accepted
for piece-drops in bughouse games; this is a nonstandard exten-
sion to PGN.
Save Position
Appends a diagram of the current position to a file. The
shifted `Ctrl+S' key is a keyboard equivalent. A pop-up dialog
prompts you for the file name. Positions are saved in FEN
(Forsythe-Edwards notation) format unless the `oldSaveStyle' op-
tion is true, in which case they are saved in an older, human-
readable format that is specific to XBoard. Both formats can be
read back by the `Load Position' command.
Save Selected Games
Will cause all games selected for display in the current Game
List to be appended to a file of the user's choice.
Save Games as Book
Creates an opening book from the currently loaded game file, in-
corporating only the games currently selected in the Game List.
The book will be saved on the file specified in the `Common En-
gine' options dialog. The value of `Book Depth' specified in
that same dialog will be used to determine how many moves of
each game will be added to the internal book buffer. This com-
mand can take a long time to process, and the size of the buffer
is currently limited. At the end the buffer will be saved as a
Polyglot book, but the buffer will not be cleared, so that you
can continue adding games from other game files.
Mail Move
Reload CMail Message
See CMail.
Exit Exits from XBoard. The `Ctrl-Q' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Edit Menu
Copy Game
Copies a record of the current game to an internal clipboard in
PGN format and sets the X selection to the game text. The `Ctrl-
C' key is a keyboard equivalent. The game can be pasted to an-
other application (such as a text editor or another copy of
XBoard) using that application's paste command. In many X ap-
plications, such as xterm and emacs, the middle mouse button can
be used for pasting; in XBoard, you must use the Paste Game com-
mand.
Copy Position
Copies the current position to an internal clipboard in FEN for-
mat and sets the X selection to the position text. The shifted
`Ctrl-C' key is a keyboard equivalent. The position can be
pasted to another application (such as a text editor or another
copy of XBoard) using that application's paste command. In many
X applications, such as xterm and emacs, the middle mouse button
can be used for pasting; in XBoard, you must use the Paste Posi-
tion command.
Copy Game List
Copies the current game list to the clipboard, and sets the X
selection to this text. A format of comma-separated double-
quoted strings is used, including all tags, so it can be easily
imported into spread-sheet programs.
Paste Game
Interprets the current X selection as a game record and loads
it, as with Load Game. The `Ctrl-V' key is a keyboard equiva-
lent.
Paste Position
Interprets the current X selection as a FEN position and loads
it, as with Load Position. The shifted `Ctrl-V' key is a key-
board equivalent.
Edit Game
Allows you to make moves for both Black and White, and to change
moves after backing up with the `Backward' command. The clocks
do not run. The `Ctrl-E' key is a keyboard equivalent.
In chess engine mode, the chess engine continues to check moves
for legality but does not participate in the game. You can bring
the chess engine into the game by selecting `Machine White',
`Machine Black', or `Two Machines'.
In ICS mode, the moves are not sent to the ICS: `Edit Game'
takes XBoard out of ICS Client mode and lets you edit games lo-
cally. If you want to edit games on ICS in a way that other ICS
users can see, use the ICS `examine' command or start an ICS
match against yourself.
Edit Position
Lets you set up an arbitrary board position. The shifted `Ctrl-
E' key is a keyboard equivalent. Use mouse button 1 to drag
pieces to new squares, or to delete a piece by dragging it off
the board or dragging an empty square on top of it. When you do
this keeping the `Ctrl' key pressed, or start dragging with a
double-click, you will move a copy of the piece, leaving the
piece itself where it was. In variants where pieces can promote
(such as Shogi), left-clicking an already selected piece pro-
motes or demotes it. To drop a new piece on a square, press
mouse button 2 or 3 over the square. This puts a white or black
pawn in the square, respectively, but you can change that to any
other piece type by dragging the mouse down before you release
the button. You will then see the piece on the originally
clicked square cycle through the available pieces (including
those of opposite color), and can release the button when you
see the piece you want. (Note you can swap the function of but-
ton 2 and 3 by pressing the shift key, and that there is an op-
tion `monoMouse' to combine al functions in one button, which
then acts as button 3 over an empty square, and as button 1 over
a piece.) To alter the side to move, you can click the clock
(the words White and Black above the board) of the side you want
to give the move to. To clear the board you can click the clock
of the side that already has the move (which is highlighted in
black). If you repeat this the board will cycle from empty to a
`pallette board' containing every piece once to the initial po-
sition to the one before clearing. The quickest way to set up a
position is usually to start with the pallette board, and move
the pieces to were you want them, duplicating them where neces-
sary by using the `Ctrl' key, dragging those you don't want off
board, and use static button 2 or 3 clicks to place the Pawns.
The old behavior with a piece menu can still be configured with
the aid of the `pieceMenu' option. Dragging empty squares off
board can create boards with holes (inaccessible black squares)
in them. Selecting `Edit Position' causes XBoard to discard all
remembered moves in the current game.
In ICS mode, changes made to the position by `Edit Position' are
not sent to the ICS: `Edit Position' takes XBoard out of `ICS
Client' mode and lets you edit positions locally. If you want to
edit positions on ICS in a way that other ICS users can see, use
the ICS `examine' command, or start an ICS match against your-
self. (See also the ICS Client topic above.)
Edit Tags
Lets you edit the PGN (portable game notation) tags for the cur-
rent game. After editing, the tags must still conform to the PGN
tag syntax:
<tag-section> ::= <tag-pair> <tag-section>
<empty>
<tag-pair> ::= [ <tag-name> <tag-value> ]
<tag-name> ::= <identifier>
<tag-value> ::= <string>
See the PGN Standard for full details. Here is an example:
[Event "Portoroz Interzonal"]
[Site "Portoroz, Yugoslavia"]
[Date "1958.08.16"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Robert J. Fischer"]
[Black "Bent Larsen"]
[Result "1-0"]
Any characters that do not match this syntax are silently ig-
nored. Note that the PGN standard requires all games to have at
least the seven tags shown above. Any that you omit will be
filled in by XBoard with `?' (unknown value), or `-' (inapplica-
ble value).
Edit Comment
Adds or modifies a comment on the current position. Comments are
saved by `Save Game' and are displayed by `Load Game', PGN vari-
ations will also be printed in this window, and can be promoted
to main line by right-clicking them. `Forward', and `Backward'.
Edit Book
Pops up a window listing the moves available in the GUI book
(specified in the `Common Engine Settings' dialog) from the cur-
rently displayed position, together with their weights and (op-
tionally in braces) learn info. You can then edit this list,
and the new list will be stored back into the book when you
press 'save changes'. When you press the button 'add next
move', and play a move on the board, that move will be added to
the list with weight 1. Note that the listed percentages are
neither used, nor updated when you change the weights; they are
just there as an optical aid. When you right-click a move in
the list it will be played.
Revert
Annotate
If you are examining an ICS game and Pause mode is off, Revert
issues the ICS command `revert'. In local mode, when you were
editing or analyzing a game, and the `-variations' command-line
option is switched on, you can start a new variation by holding
the Shift key down while entering a move not at the end of the
game. Variations can also become the currently displayed line
by clicking a PGN variation displayed in the Comment window.
This can be applied recursively, so that you can analyze varia-
tions on variations; each time you create a new variation by en-
tering an alternative move with Shift pressed, or select a new
one from the Comment window, the current variation will be
shelved. `Revert' allows you to return to the most recently
shelved variation. The difference between `Revert' and `Anno-
tate' is that with the latter, the variation you are now aban-
doning will be added as a comment (in PGN variation syntax, i.e.
between parentheses) to the original move where you deviated,
for later recalling. The `Home' key is a keyboard equivalent to
`Revert'.
Truncate Game
Discards all remembered moves of the game beyond the current po-
sition. Puts XBoard into `Edit Game' mode if it was not there
already. The `End' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Backward
< Steps backward through a series of remembered moves. The `[<]'
button and the `Alt+LeftArrow' key are equivalents, as is turn-
ing the mouse wheel towards you. In addition, pressing the ???
key steps back one move, and releasing it steps forward again.
In most modes, `Backward' only lets you look back at old posi-
tions; it does not retract moves. This is the case if you are
playing against a chess engine, playing or observing a game on
an ICS, or loading a game. If you select `Backward' in any of
these situations, you will not be allowed to make a different
move. Use `Retract Move' or `Edit Game' if you want to change
past moves.
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of `Backward' de-
pends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode is off,
`Backward' issues the ICS backward command, which backs up ev-
eryone's view of the game and allows you to make a different
move. If Pause mode is on, `Backward' only backs up your local
view.
Forward
> Steps forward through a series of remembered moves (undoing the
effect of `Backward') or forward through a game file. The `[>]'
button and the `Alt+RightArrow' key are equivalents, as is turn-
ing the mouse wheel away from you.
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of Forward de-
pends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode is off,
`Forward' issues the ICS forward command, which moves everyone's
view of the game forward along the current line. If Pause mode
is on, `Forward' only moves your local view forward, and it will
not go past the position that the game was in when you paused.
Back to Start
<< Jumps backward to the first remembered position in the game.
The `[<<]' button and the `Alt+Home' key are equivalents.
In most modes, Back to Start only lets you look back at old po-
sitions; it does not retract moves. This is the case if you are
playing against a local chess engine, playing or observing a
game on a chess server, or loading a game. If you select `Back
to Start' in any of these situations, you will not be allowed to
make different moves. Use `Retract Move' or `Edit Game' if you
want to change past moves; or use Reset to start a new game.
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of @samp{Back to
Start} depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause mode
is off, `Back to Start' issues the ICS `backward 999999' com-
mand, which backs up everyone's view of the game to the start
and allows you to make different moves. If Pause mode is on,
@samp{Back to Start} only backs up your local view.
Forward to End
>> Jumps forward to the last remembered position in the game. The
`[>>]' button and the `Alt+End' key are equivalents.
If you are examining an ICS game, the behavior of @samp{Forward
to End} depends on whether XBoard is in Pause mode. If Pause
mode is off, `Forward to End' issues the ICS `forward 999999'
command, which moves everyone's view of the game forward to the
end of the current line. If Pause mode is on, `Forward to End'
only moves your local view forward, and it will not go past the
position that the game was in when you paused.
View Menu
Flip View
Inverts your view of the chess board for the duration of the
current game. Starting a new game returns the board to normal.
The `F2' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Show Engine Output
Shows or hides a window in which the thinking output of any
loaded engines is displayed. The shifted `Alt+O' key is a key-
board equivalent. XBoard will display lines of thinking output
of the same depth ordered by score, (highest score on top),
rather than in the order the engine produced them. Usually this
amounts to the same, as a normal engine search will only find
new PV (and emit it as thinking output) when it searches a move
with a higher score than the previous variation. But when the
engine is in multi-variation mode this needs not always be true,
and it is more convenient for someone analyzing games to see the
moves sorted by score. The order in which the engine found them
is only of interest to the engine author, and can still be de-
duced from the time or node count printed with the line. Right-
clicking a line in this window, and then moving the mouse verti-
cally with the right button kept down, will make XBoard play
through the PV listed there. The use of the board window as
'variation board' will normally end when you release the right
button, or when the opponent plays a move. But beware: in
Analysis mode, moves thus played out might be added to the game,
depending on the setting of the option 'Play moves of clicked
PV', when you initiate the click left of the PV in the score
area. The Engine-Output pane for each engine will contain a
header displaying the multi-PV status and a list of excluded
moves in Analysis mode, which are also responsive to right-
clicking: Clicking the words 'fewer' or 'more' will alter the
number of variations shown at each depth, through the engine's
MultiPV option, while clicking in between those and moving the
mouse horizontally adjust the option 'Multi-PV Margin'. (In so
far the engines support those.)
Show Move History
Shows or hides a list of moves of the current game. The shifted
`Alt+H' key is a keyboard equivalent. This list allows you to
move the display to any earlier position in the game by clicking
on the corresponding move.
Show Evaluation Graph
Shows or hides a window which displays a graph of how the engine
score(s) evolved as a function of the move number. The shifted
`Alt+E' key is a keyboard equivalent. The title bar shows the
score (and search depth at which it was obtained) of the cur-
rently displayed position numerically. Clicking on the graph
will bring the corresponding position in the board display. A
button 3 click will toggle the display mode between plain and
differential (showing the difference in score between successive
half moves). Using the mouse wheel over the window will change
the scale of the low-score region (from -1 to +1).
Show Game List
Shows or hides the list of games generated by the last `Load
Game' command. The shifted `Alt+G' key is a keyboard equivalent.
The line describing each game is built from a selection of the
PGN tags. Which tags contribute, and in what order, can be
changed by the `Game list tags' menu dialog, which can be popped
up through the `Tags' button below the Game List. Display can
be restricted to a sub-set of the games meeting certain crite-
ria. A text entry below the game list allows you to type a text
that the game lines must contain in order to be displayed.
Games can also be selected based on their Elo PGN tag, as set in
the `Load Game Options' dialog, which can be popped up through
the `Thresholds' button below the Game List. Finally they can
be selected based on containing a position similar to the one
currently displayed in the main window, by pressing the 'Posi-
tion' button below the Game List, (which searches the entire
list for the position), or the 'Narrow' button (which only
searches the already-selected games). What counts as similar
enough to be selected can also be set in the `Load Game Options'
dialog, and ranges from an exact match to just the same mate-
rial.
Tags Pops up a window which shows the PGN (portable game notation)
tags for the current game. For now this is a duplicate of the
`Edit Tags' item in the `Edit' menu.
Comments
Pops up a window which shows any comments to or variations on
the current move. For now this is a duplicate of the `Edit Com-
ment' item in the `Edit' menu.
ICS Input Box
If this option is set in ICS mode, XBoard creates an extra win-
dow that you can use for typing in ICS commands. The input box
is especially useful if you want to type in something long or do
some editing on your input, because output from ICS doesn't get
mixed in with your typing as it would in the main terminal win-
dow.
ICS/Chat Console
This menu item opens a window in which you can interact with the
ICS, so you don't have to use the messy xterm from which you
launched XBoard for that. The window has a text entry at the
bottom where you can type your commands and messages unhindered
by the stream of ICS output. The latter will be displayed in a
large pane above the input field, the ICS Console. Up and down
arrow keys can be used to recall previous input lines. Typing
an <Esc> character in the input field transfers focus back to
the board window (so you could operate the menus there through
accelerator keys). Typing a printable character in the board
window transfers focus back to the input field of the `ICS
Chat/Console' window.
Chats There is a row of buttons at the top of the `ICS Chat/Console'
dialog, which can be used to navigate between upto 5 'chats'
with other ICS users (or channels). These will switch the win-
dow to 'chat mode', where the ICS output pane is vertically
split to divert messages from a specific user or ICS channel to
the lower half. Lines typed in the input field will then be in-
terpreted as messages to be sent to that user or channel, (auto-
matically prefixed with the apporpriate ICS command and user
name) rather than as commands to the ICS. Chats will keep col-
lecting ICS output intended for them even when not displayed,
and their buttons will turn orange to alert the user there has
been activity. Typing <Tab> in the input field will switch to
another active chat, giving priority to those with content you
have not seen yet.
New Chat
Buttons for chats currently not assigned to a user or channel
will carry the text `New Chat', and pressing them will switch to
chat mode, enabling you to enter the user name or channel number
you want to use it for. Typing Ctrl-N in the input field is a
keyboard equivalent.
Chat partner
To (re-)assign a chat, write the name of your chat partner, the
channel number, or the words 'shouts', 'whispers', 'cshouts' in
the `Chat partner' text entry (ending with <Enter>!). Typing
Ctrl-O in the input field at the bottom of the window will open
a chat with the person that last sent you a 'tell' that was
printed in the ICS Console output pane. The `ICS text menu' can
contain a button `Open Chat (name)' that can be used to open a
chat with as partner the word/number you right-clicked in the
output pane to pop up this menu.
End Chat
This button, only visible when the chat pane is open, will clear
the `Chat partner' field, so that the chat can be assigned to a
new user or channel. Typing Ctrl-E in the input field is a key-
board equivalent.
Hide This button, only visible when the chat pane is open, will close
the latter, so you can use the input field to give commands to
the ICS again. Typing Ctrl-H in the input field is a keyboard
equivalent.
ICS text menu
Brings up a menu that is user-configurable through the `icsMenu'
option. Buttons in this menu can sent pre-configured commands
directly to the ICS, or can put partial commands in the input
field of the `ICS Chat/Console' window, so that you can complete
those with some text of your own before sending them to the ICS
by pressing Enter. This menu item can also be popped up by
right-clicking in the text memos of the ICS Chat/Console window.
In that case the word that was clicked can be incorporated in
the message sent to the ICS. E.g. to challenge a player whose
name you click for a game, or prepare for sending him a message
through a 'tell' commands.
Edit ICS menu
Brings up an edit box with the definition of the `ICS text
menu', so you can adapt its appearance to your needs. The menu
is defined by a semi-colon-separated list, each button through a
pair of items in it. The first item of each pair is the text on
the button, the second the text to be sent when the button is
pressed. The word '$input' in the text will put that text in
the input field of the `ICS Chat/Console' with the cursor in
that place, the word '$name' will be replaced by the word right-
clicked to pop up the text menu.
Edit Theme List
Brings up an edit box with the definitions of the themes shown
in the listbox of the `Board' dialog, so you can delete, re-or-
der or alter themes defined previously.
Board Summons a dialog where you can customize the look of the chess
board.
White Piece Color
Black Piece Color
Light Square Color
Dark Square Color
Highlight Color
Premove Highlight Color
These items set the color of pieces, board squares and move
highlights (borders or arrow). Square colors are only used when
the `Use Board Textures' option is off, the piece colors only
when `Use piece bitmaps with their own colors' is off. You can
type the color as hexadecimally encoded RGB value preceded by
'#', or adjust it through the R, G, B and D buttons to make it
redder, greener, bluer or darker. A sample of the adjusted
color will be displayed behind its text description; pressing
this colored button restores the default value for the color.
Flip Pieces Shogi Style
With this option on XBoard will swap white and black pieces,
when you flip the view of the board to make white play downward.
This should be used with piece themes that do not distinguish
sides by color, but by orientation.
Mono Mode
This option sets XBoard to pure black-and-white display (no grey
scales, and thus no anti-aliasing).
Logo Size
Specifies the width of the engine logos displayed next to the
clocks, in pixels. Setting it to 0 suppresses the display of
such logos. The height of the logo will be half its width. In
the GTK build of XBoard any non-zero value is equivalent, and
the logos are always sized to 1/4 of the board width.
Line Gap
This option specifies the width of the grid lines that separate
the squares, which change color on highlighting the move. Set-
ting it to 0 suppresses these lines, which in general looks bet-
ter, but hides the square-border highlights, so that you would
have to rely on other forms of highlighting. Setting the value
to -1 makes XBoard choose a width by itself, depending on the
square size.
Use Board Textures
Light-Squares Texture File
Dark-Squares Texture File
When the option `Use Board Textures' is set, the squares will
not be drawn as evenly colored surfaces, but will be cut from a
texture image, as specified by the `Texture Files'. Separate
images can be used for light and dark squares. XBoard will try
to cut the squares out of the texture image with as little over-
lap as possible, so they all look different. The name of the
texture file can contain a size hint, e.g. `xqboard-9x10.png',
alerting XBoard to the fact that it contains a whole-board im-
age, out of which squares have to be cut in register with the
nominal sub-division.
Use external piece bitmaps with their own color
When this option is on XBoard will ignore the piece-color set-
tings, and draw the piece images in their original colors. The
piece-color settings would only work well for evenly colored
pieces, such as the default theme.
Directory with Pieces Images
When a directory is specified here, XBoard will first look for
piece images (SVG or PNG files) in that directory, and fall back
on the image from the default theme only for images it cannot
find there. An image file called White/BlackTile in the direc-
tory will be prefered as fall-back for missing pieces over the
default image, however.
Selectable themes
New name for current theme
When a theme name is specified while pressing 'OK', the combina-
tion of settings specified in the dialog will be stored in
XBoard's list of themes, which will be saved with the other op-
tions in the settings file (as the `themeNames' option). This
name will then appear in the selection listbox next time you
open the dialog, so that you can recall the entire combination
of settings by double-clicking it.
Here you can specify the directory from which piece images
should be taken, when you don't want to use the built-in piece
images (see `pieceImageDirectory' option), external images to be
used for the board squares (`liteBackTextureFile' and `darkBack-
TextureFile' options), and square and piece colors for the de-
fault pieces. The current combination of these settings can be
assigned a 'theme' name by typing one in the text entry in the
lower-left of the dialog, and closing the latter with OK. It
will then appear in the themes listbox next time you open the
dialog, where you can recall the complete settings combination
with a double-click.
Fonts Pops up a dialog where you can set the fonts used in the main
elements of various windows. Pango font names can be typed for
each window type, and behind each text entry there are buttons
to adjust the point size, and toggle the 'bold' or 'italic' at-
tributes of the font.
Game List Tags
a duplicate of the Game List dialog in the Options menu.
Mode Menu
Machine White
Tells the chess engine to play White. The `Ctrl-W' key is a
keyboard equivalent.
Machine Black
Tells the chess engine to play Black. The `Ctrl-B' key is a
keyboard equivalent.
Two Machines
Plays a game between two chess engines. The `Ctrl-T' key is a
keyboard equivalent.
Analysis Mode
XBoard tells the chess engine to start analyzing the current
game/position and shows you the analysis as you move pieces
around. The `Ctrl-A' key is a keyboard equivalent. Note: Some
chess engines do not support Analysis mode.
To set up a position to analyze, you do the following:
1. Set up the position by any means. (E.g. using `Edit Position'
mode, pasing a FEN or loading a game and stepping to the posi-
tion.)
2. Select Analysis Mode from the Mode Menu to start the analy-
sis.
You can now play legal moves to create follow-up positions for
the engine to analyze, while the moves will be remembered as a
stored game, and then step backward through this game to take
the moves back. Note that you can also click on the clocks to
set the opposite side to move (adding a so-called `null move' to
the game).
You can also tell the engine to exclude some moves from analy-
sis. (Engines that do not support the exclude-moves feature
will ignore this, however.) The general way to do this is to
play the move you want to exclude starting with a double click
on the piece. When you use drag-drop moving, the piece you grab
with a double click will also remain on its square, to show you
that you are not really making the move, but just forbid it from
the current position. Playing a thus excluded move a second
time will include it again. Excluded moves will be listed as
text in a header line in the Engine Output window, and you can
also re-include them by right-clicking them there. This header
line will also contain the words 'best' and 'tail'; right-click-
ing those will exclude the currently best move, or all moves not
explicitly listed in the header line. Once you leave the cur-
rent position all memory of excluded moves will be lost when you
return there.
Selecting this menu item while already in `Analysis Mode' will
toggle the participation of the second engine in the analysis.
The output of this engine will then be shown in the lower pane
of the Engine Output window. The analysis function can also be
used when observing games on an ICS with an engine loaded (zippy
mode); the engine then will analyze the positions as they occur
in the observed game.
Analyze Game
This option subjects the currently loaded game to automatic
analysis by the loaded engine. The `Ctrl-G' key is a keyboard
equivalent. XBoard will start auto-playing the game from the
currently displayed position, while the engine is analyzing the
current position. The game will be annotated with the results
of these analyses. In particlar, the score and depth will be
added as a comment, and the PV will be added as a variation.
Normally the analysis would stop after reaching the end of the
game. But when a game is loaded from a multi-game file while
`Analyze Game' was already switched on, the analysis will con-
tinue with the next game in the file until the end of the file
is reached (or you switch to another mode).
The time the engine spends on analyzing each move can be con-
trolled through the command-line option `-timeDelay', which can
also be set from the `Load Game Options' menu dialog. Note:
Some chess engines do not support Analysis mode.
Edit Game
Duplicate of the item in the Edit menu. Note that `Edit Game'
is the idle mode of XBoard, and can be used to get you out of
other modes. E.g. to stop analyzing, stop a game between two en-
gines or stop editing a position.
Edit Position
Duplicate of the item in the Edit menu.
Training
Training mode lets you interactively guess the moves of a game
for one of the players. You guess the next move of the game by
playing the move on the board. If the move played matches the
next move of the game, the move is accepted and the opponent's
response is auto-played. If the move played is incorrect, an
error message is displayed. You can select this mode only while
loading a game (that is, after selecting `Load Game' from the
File menu). While XBoard is in `Training' mode, the navigation
buttons are disabled.
ICS Client
This is the normal mode when XBoard is connected to a chess
server. If you have moved into Edit Game or Edit Position mode,
you can select this option to get out.
To use xboard in ICS mode, run it in the foreground with the
-ics option, and use the terminal you started it from to type
commands and receive text responses from the chess server. See
Chess Servers below for more information.
XBoard activates some special position/game editing features
when you use the `examine' or `bsetup' commands on ICS and you
have `ICS Client' selected on the Mode menu. First, you can is-
sue the ICS position-editing commands with the mouse. Move
pieces by dragging with mouse button 1. To drop a new piece on
a square, press mouse button 2 or 3 over the square. This
brings up a menu of white pieces (button 2) or black pieces
(button 3). Additional menu choices let you empty the square or
clear the board. Click on the White or Black clock to set the
side to play. You cannot set the side to play or drag pieces to
arbitrary squares while examining on ICC, but you can do so in
`bsetup' mode on FICS. In addition, the menu commands `For-
ward', `Backward', `Pause', and `Stop Examining' have special
functions in this mode; see below.
Machine Match
Starts a match between two chess programs, with a number of
games and other parameters set through the `Tournament Options'
menu dialog. When a match is already running, selecting this
item will make XBoard drop out of match mode after the current
game finishes.
Pause Pauses updates to the board, and if you are playing against a
chess engine, also pauses your clock. To continue, select
`Pause' again, and the display will automatically update to the
latest position. The `P' button and keyboard `Pause' key are
equivalents.
If you select Pause when you are playing against a chess engine
and it is not your move, the chess engine's clock will continue
to run and it will eventually make a move, at which point both
clocks will stop. Since board updates are paused, however, you
will not see the move until you exit from Pause mode (or select
Forward). This behavior is meant to simulate adjournment with a
sealed move.
If you select Pause while you are observing or examining a game
on a chess server, you can step backward and forward in the cur-
rent history of the examined game without affecting the other
observers and examiners, and without having your display jump
forward to the latest position each time a move is made. Select
Pause again to reconnect yourself to the current state of the
game on ICS.
If you select `Pause' while you are loading a game, the game
stops loading. You can load more moves manually by selecting
`Forward', or resume automatic loading by selecting `Pause'
again.
Action Menu
Accept Accepts a pending match offer. The `F3' key is a keyboard
equivalent. If there is more than one offer pending, you will
have to type in a more specific command instead of using this
menu choice.
Decline
Declines a pending offer (match, draw, adjourn, etc.). The `F4'
key is a keyboard equivalent. If there is more than one offer
pending, you will have to type in a more specific command in-
stead of using this menu choice.
Call Flag
Calls your opponent's flag, claiming a win on time, or claiming
a draw if you are both out of time. The `F5' key is a keyboard
equivalent. You can also call your opponent's flag by clicking
on his clock.
Draw Offers a draw to your opponent, accepts a pending draw offer
from your opponent, or claims a draw by repetition or the
50-move rule, as appropriate. The `F6' key is a keyboard equiva-
lent.
Adjourn
Asks your opponent to agree to adjourning the current game, or
agrees to a pending adjournment offer from your opponent. The
`F7' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Abort Asks your opponent to agree to aborting the current game, or
agrees to a pending abort offer from your opponent. The `F8'
key is a keyboard equivalent. An aborted game ends immediately
without affecting either player's rating.
Resign Resigns the game to your opponent. The `F9' key is a keyboard
equivalent.
Stop Observing
Ends your participation in observing a game, by issuing the ICS
observe command with no arguments. ICS mode only. The `F10' key
is a keyboard equivalent.
Stop Examining
Ends your participation in examining a game, by issuing the ICS
unexamine command. ICS mode only. The `F11' key is a keyboard
equivalent.
Upload to Examine
Create an examined game of the proper variant on the ICS, and
send the game there that is currenty loaded in XBoard (e.g.
through pasting or loading from file). You must be connected to
an ICS for this to work.
Adjudicate to White
Adjudicate to Black
Adjudicate Draw
Terminate an ongoing game in Two-Machines mode (including match
mode), with as result a win for white, for black, or a draw, re-
spectively. The PGN file of the game will accompany the result
string by the comment "user adjudication".
Engine Menu
Edit Engine List
Opens a window that shows the list of engines registered for use
by XBoard, together with the options that would be used with
them when you would select them from the `Load Engine' dialogs.
You can then edit this list, e.g. for re-ordering the engines,
or adding uncommon options needed by this engine (e.g. to cure
non-compliant behavior).
By editing you can also organize the engines into collapsible
groups. By sandwiching a number of engine lines between lines
"# NAME" and "# end", the thus enclosed engines will not ini-
tially appear in engine listboxes of other dialogs, but only the
single line "# NAME" (where NAME can be an arbitrary text) will
appear in their place. Selecting that line will then show the
enclosed engines in the listbox, which recursively can contain
other groups. The line with the group name will still present
as a header, and selecting that line will collapse the group
again, and makes the listbox go back to displaying the surround-
ing group.
Load New 1st Engine
Load New 2nd Engine
Pops up a dialog where you can select or specify an engine to be
loaded. You can even replace engines during a game, without
disturbing that game. (Beware that after loading an engine,
XBoard will always be in Edit Game mode, so you will have to
tell the new engine what to do before it does anything!)
Select engine from list
The listbox shows the engines registered for use with XBoard be-
fore. (This means XBoard has information on the engine type,
whether it plays book etc. in the engine list stored in its
settings file.) Double-clicking an engine here will load it and
close the dialog. The list can also contain groups, indicated
by a starting '#' sign. Double-clicking such a group will
'open' it, and show the group contents in the listbox instead of
the total list, with the group name as header. Double-clicking
the header will 'close' the group again.
Nickname
Use nickname in PGN player tags of engine-engine games
When a `Nickname' is specified, the engine will appear under
this name in the `Select Engine' listbox. Otherwise the name
there will be a tidied version of the engine command. The user
can specify if the nickname is also to be used in PGN tags; nor-
mally the name engines report theselves would be used there.
Engine Command
The command needed to start the engine from the command line.
For compliantly installed engine this is usually just a single
word, the name of the engine package (e.g. 'crafty' or 'stock-
fish'). Some engines need additional parameters on the command
line. For engines that are not in a place where the system
would expect them a full pathname can be specified, and usually
the browse button for this oprion is the easiest way to obtain
that.
Engine Directory
Compliant engines could run from any directory, and by default
this option is proposed as '.', the current directory. If a
(path)name is specified here, XBoard will start the engine in
that directory. If you make the field empty, it will try to de-
rive the directory from the engine command (if that was a path
name).
UCI When the `UCI' checkbox is ticked XBoard will assume the engine
is of UCI type, and will invoke the corresponding adapter (as
specified in the `adapterCommand' option stored in its settings
file)to use it. By default this adapter is Polyglot, which must
be installed from a separate package!
USI/UCCI
Ticking this checkbox informs XBoard that the engine is of USI
or UCCI type (as Shogi or Xiangqi engines often are). This
makes XBoard invoke an adapter to run the engines, as specified
by the `uxiAdapter' option stored in its settings file. The
UCI2WB program is an adapter that can handle both these engine
types, as well as UCI.
WB protocol v1
Ticking this checkbox informs XBoard the engine is using an old
version (1) of the communication protocol, so that it won't re-
spond to a request to interrogate its properties. XBoard then
won't even try that, saving you a wait of several seconds each
time the engine is started. Do not use this on state-of-the-art
engines, as it would prevent XBoard from interrogating its capa-
bilities, so that many of its features might not work!
Must not use GUI book
By default XBoard assumes engines are responsible for their own
opening book, but unticking this option makes XBoard consult its
own book (as per `Opening-Book Filename') on behalf of the en-
gine.
Add this engine to the list
By default XBoard would add the engine you specified, with all
the given options to its list of registered engines (kept in its
settings file), when you press 'OK'. Next time you could then
simply select it from the listbox, or use the command "xboard
-fe NICKNAME" to start XBoard with the engine and accompanying
options. New engines are always added at the end of the exist-
ing list, or, when you have opened a group in the `Select En-
gine' listbox, at the end of that group. But can be re-ordered
later with the aid of the `Edit Engine List' menu item. When
you untick this checkbox before pressing 'OK' the engine will be
loaded, but will not be added to the engine list.
Force current variant with this engine
Ticking this option will make XBoard automatically start the en-
gine in the current variant, even when XBoard was set for a dif-
ferent variant when you loaded the engine. Useful when the en-
gine plays multiple variants, and you specifically want to play
one different from its primary one.
Engine #1 Settings
Engine #2 Settings
Pop up a menu dialog to alter the settings specific to the ap-
plicable engine. For each parameter the engine allows to be
set, a control element will appear in this dialog that can be
used to alter the value. Depending on the type of parameter
(text string, number, multiple choice, on/off switch, instanta-
neous signal) the appropriate control will appear, with a de-
scription next to it. XBoard has no idea what these values
mean; it just passes them on to the engine. How this dialog
looks is completely determined by the engine, and XBoard just
passes it on to the user. Many engines do not have any parame-
ters that can be set by the user, and in that case the dialog
will be empty (except for the OK and cancel buttons). UCI en-
gines usually have many parameters. (But these are only visible
with a sufficiently modern version of the Polyglot adapter
needed to run UCI engines, e.g. Polyglot 2.0.1.) For native
XBoard engines this is less common.
Common Settings
Pops up a menu dialog 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.
The shifted `Alt+U' key is a keyboard equivalent. Older
XBoard/WinBoard engines might not respond to these settings, but
UCI engines always should.
Maximum Number of CPUs per Engine
Specifies the number of search threads any engine can maximally
use. Do not set it to a number larger than the number of cores
your computer has. (Or half of it when you want two engines to
run simultaneously, as in a Two-Machines game with `Ponder Next
Move' on.)
Polyglot Directory
Hash-Table Size
Specifies the maximum amount of memory (RAM) each engine is al-
lowed to use for storing info on positions it already searched,
so it would not have to search them again. Do not set it so
that it is more than half (or if you use two engines, more than
a quarter) of the memory your computer has, or it would slow the
engines down by an extreme amount.
EGTB Path
Sets the value of the `egtFormats' option, which specifies where
on your computer the files for End-Game Tables are stored. It
must be a comma-separated list of path names, the path for each
EGT flavor prefixed with the name of the latter and a colon.
E.g. "nalimov:/home/egt/dtm,syzygy:/home/egt/dtz50". The path
names after the colon will be sent to the engines that say they
can use the corresponding EGT flavor.
EGTB Cache Size
Specifies the amount of memory the engine should use to buffer
end-game information. Together with the `Hash-Table Size' this
determines how much memory the engine is allowed to use in to-
tal.
Use GUI Book
Opening-Book Filename
The `Opening-Book Filename' specifies an opening book in Poly-
glot format (usually a .bin file), from which XBoard can play
moves on behalf of the engine. This is also the book file on
which the `Edit Book' and `Save Games as Book' menu items oper-
ate. A checkbox `Use GUI Book' can be used to temporarily dis-
able the book without losing the setting. (This does not pre-
vent editing or saving games on it!)
Book Depth
Book Variety
The way moves are selected from the book can be controlled by
two options. `Book Depth' controls for how deep into the game
the book will be consulted (measured in full moves). `Book Va-
riety' controls the likelihood of playing weaker moves. When
the variety is set to 50, moves will be played with the proba-
bility specified in the book. When set to 0, only the move(s)
with the highest probability will be played. When set to 100,
all listed moves will be played with equal pobability. Other
settings interpolate between that.
Engine #1 Has Own Book
Engine #2 Has Own Book
These checkboxes control on a per-engine basis whether XBoard
will consult the opening book for them. If ticked, XBoard will
never play moves from its GUI book, giving the engine the oppor-
tunity to use its own. These options are automatically set
whenever you load an engine, based on the setting of `Must not
use GUI book' when you installed that through the `Load Engine'
menu dialog.
Hint Displays a move hint from the chess engine.
Book Displays a list of possible moves from the chess engine's open-
ing book. The exact format depends on what chess engine you are
using. With GNU Chess 4, the first column gives moves, the sec-
ond column gives one possible response for each move, and the
third column shows the number of lines in the book that include
the move from the first column. If you select this option and
nothing happens, the chess engine is out of its book or does not
support this feature.
Move Now
Forces the chess engine to move immediately. Chess engine mode
only. The `Ctrl-M' key is a keyboard equivalent. Many engines
won't respond to this.
Retract Move
Retracts your last move. In chess engine mode, you can do this
only after the chess engine has replied to your move; if the
chess engine is still thinking, use `Move Now' first. In ICS
mode, `Retract Move' issues the command `takeback 1' or `take-
back 2' depending on whether it is your opponent's move or
yours. The `Ctrl-X' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Recently Used Engines
At the bottom of the engine menu there can be a list of names of
engines that you recently loaded through the Load Engine menu
dialog in previous sessions. Clicking on such a name will load
that engine as first engine, so you won't have to search for it
in your list of installed engines, if that is very long. The
maximum number of displayed engine names is set by the `recen-
tEngines' command-line option.
Options Menu
Mute all Sounds
Ticking this menu item toggles all sounds XBoard can make on or off,
without losing their definitions.
General Options
The following items to set option values appear in the dialog summoned
by the general Options menu item.
Absolute Analysis Scores
Controls if scores on the Engine Output window during analysis
will be printed from the white or the side-to-move point-of-
view.
Almost Always Queen
If this option is on, 7th-rank pawns automatically change into
Queens when you pick them up, and when you drag them to the pro-
motion square and release them there, they will promote to that.
But when you drag such a pawn backwards first, its identity will
start to cycle through the other available pieces. This will
continue until you start to move it forward; at which point the
identity of the piece will be fixed, so that you can safely put
it down on the promotion square. If this option is off, what
happens depends on the option `alwaysPromoteToQueen', which
would force promotion to Queen when true. Otherwise XBoard
would bring up a dialog box whenever you move a pawn to the last
rank, asking what piece you want to promote to.
Animate Dragging
If Animate Dragging is on, while you are dragging a piece with
the mouse, an image of the piece follows the mouse cursor. If
Animate Dragging is off, there is no visual feedback while you
are dragging a piece, but if Animate Moving is on, the move will
be animated when it is complete.
Animate Moving
If Animate Moving is on, all piece moves are animated. An image
of the piece is shown moving from the old square to the new
square when the move is completed (unless the move was already
animated by Animate Dragging). If Animate Moving is off, a
moved piece instantly disappears from its old square and reap-
pears on its new square when the move is complete. The shifted
`Ctrl-A' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Auto Flag
If this option is on and one player runs out of time before the
other, XBoard will automatically call his flag, claiming a win
on time. The shifted `Ctrl-F' key is a keyboard equivalent. In
ICS mode, Auto Flag will only call your opponent's flag, not
yours, and the ICS may award you a draw instead of a win if you
have insufficient mating material. In local chess engine mode,
XBoard may call either player's flag.
Auto Flip View
If the Auto Flip View option is on when you start a game, the
board will be automatically oriented so that your pawns move
from the bottom of the window towards the top.
If you are playing a game on an ICS, the board is always ori-
ented at the start of the game so that your pawns move from the
bottom of the window towards the top. Otherwise, the starting
orientation is determined by the `flipView' command line option;
if it is false (the default), White's pawns move from bottom to
top at the start of each game; if it is true, Black's pawns move
from bottom to top. See User interface options.
Blindfold
If this option is on, XBoard displays the board as usual but
does not display pieces or move highlights. You can still move
in the usual way (with the mouse or by typing moves in ICS
mode), even though the pieces are invisible.
Drop Menu
Controls if right-clicking the board in crazyhouse / bughouse
will pop up a menu to drop a piece on the clicked square (old,
deprecated behavior) or allow you to step through an engine PV
(new, recommended behavior).
Enable Variation Trees
If this option is on, playing a move in Edit Game or Analyze
mode while keeping the Shift key pressed will start a new varia-
tion. You can then recall the previous line through the `Re-
vert' menu item. When off, playing a move will truncate the
game and append the move irreversibly.
Headers in Engine Output Window
Controls the presence of column headers above the variations and
associated information printed by the engine, on which you can
issue button 3 clicks to open or close the columns. Available
columns are search depth, score, node count, time used, table-
base hits, search speed and selective search depth.
Hide Thinking
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 be-
tween two machines, the score is prefixed by `W' or `B' to indi-
cate whether it is showing White's thinking or Black's, and only
the thinking of the engine that is on move is shown. The
shifted `Ctrl-H' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Highlight Last Move
If Highlight Last Move is on, after a move is made, the starting
and ending squares remain highlighted. In addition, after you
use Backward or Back to Start, the starting and ending squares
of the last move to be unmade are highlighted.
Highlight with Arrow
Causes the highlighting described in Highlight Last Move to be
done by drawing an arrow between the highlighted squares, so
that it is visible even when the width of the grid lines is set
to zero.
One-Click Moving
If this option is on, XBoard does not wait for you to click both
the from- and the to-square, or drag the piece, but performs a
move as soon as it is uniqely specified. This applies to click-
ing an own piece that only has a single legal move, clicking an
empty square or opponent piece where only one of your pieces can
move (or capture) to. Furthermore, a double-click on a piece
that can only make a single capture will cause that capture to
be made. Promoting a Pawn by clicking its to-square will sup-
press the promotion popup or other methods for selecting an un-
der-promotion, and make it promote to Queen.
Periodic Updates
If this option is off (or if you are using a chess engine that
does not support periodic updates), the analysis window will
only be updated when the analysis changes. If this option is on,
the Analysis Window will be updated every two seconds.
Play Move(s) of Clicked PV
If this option is on, right-clicking on the first move of a PV
or on the data fields left of it in the Engine Output window
during Analyze mode will cause the first move of that PV to be
played. You could also play more than one (or no) PV move by
moving the mouse to engage in the PV walk such a right-click
will start, to seek out another position along the PV where you
want to continue the analysis, before releasing the mouse but-
ton. Clicking on later moves of the PV only temporarily show
the moves for as long you keep the mouse button down, without
adding them to the game.
Ponder Next Move
If this option is off, the chess engine will think only when it
is on move. If the option is on, the engine will also think
while waiting for you to make your move. The shifted `Ctrl-P'
key is a keyboard equivalent.
Popup Exit Message
If this option is on, when XBoard wants to display a message
just before exiting, it brings up a modal dialog box and waits
for you to click OK before exiting. If the option is off,
XBoard prints the message to standard error (the terminal) and
exits immediately.
Popup Move Errors
If this option is off, when you make an error in moving (such as
attempting an illegal move or moving the wrong color piece), the
error message is displayed in the message area. If the option
is on, move errors are displayed in small pop-up windows like
other errors. You can dismiss an error pop-up either by click-
ing its OK button or by clicking anywhere on the board, includ-
ing down-clicking to start a move.
Scores in Move List
If this option is on, XBoard will display the depth and score of
engine moves in the Move List, in the format of a PGN comment.
Show Coords
If this option is on, XBoard displays algebraic coordinates
along the board's left and bottom edges.
Show Target Squares
If this option is on, all squares a piece that is 'picked up'
with the mouse can legally move to are highighted with a fat
colored dot in yellow (non-captures) or red (captures). Special
moves might have other colors (e.g. magenta for promotion, cyan
for a partial move). Legality testing must be on for XBoard to
know how the piece moves, but with legality testing off some en-
gines would offer this information.
Sticky Windows
Controls whether the auxiliary windows such as Engine Output,
Move History and Evaluation Graph should keep touching XBoard's
main window when you move the latter.
Test Legality
If this option is on, XBoard tests whether the moves you try to
make with the mouse are legal and refuses to let you make an il-
legal move. The shifted `Ctrl-L' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Moves loaded from a file with `Load Game' are also checked. If
the option is off, all moves are accepted, but if a local chess
engine or the ICS is active, they will still reject illegal
moves. Turning off this option is useful if you are playing a
chess variant with rules that XBoard does not understand. (Bug-
house, suicide, and wild variants where the king may castle af-
ter starting on the d file are generally supported with Test Le-
gality on.)
Top-Level Dialogs
Controls whether the auxiliary windows will appear as icons in
the task bar and independently controllable, or whether they
open and minimize all together with the main window.
Flash Moves
Flash Rate
If this option is non-zero, whenever a move is completed, the
moved piece flashes the specified number of times. The flash-
rate setting determines how rapidly this flashing occurs.
Animation Speed
Determines the duration (in msec) of an animation step, when
`Animate Moving' is swiched on.
Zoom factor in Evaluation Graph
Sets the value of the `evalZoom' option, indicating the factor
by which the score interval (-1,1) should be blown up on the
vertical axis of the Evaluation Graph.
Time Control
Pops up a sub-menu where you can set the time-control parameters inter-
actively. The shifted `Alt+T' key is a keyboard equivalent.
classical
Selects classical TC, where the game is devided into sessions of
a certain number of moves, and after each session the start time
is again added to the clocks.
incremental
Selects a TC mode where the game will start with a base time on
the clocks, and after every move an 'increment' will be added to
it.
fixed max
Selects a TC mode where you have to make each move within a
given time, and any left-over time is not carried over to the
next move.
Divide entered times by 60
To allow entering of sub-minute initial time or sub-second in-
crement, you can tick this checkbox. The initial time can then
be entered in seconds, and the increment in units of 1/60 sec-
ond.
Moves per session
Sets the duration of a session for classical time control.
Initial time
Time initially on the clock in classical or incremental time
controls. In classical time controls this time will also be
added to the clock at the start of ach new session.
Increment or max
Time to be added to the clock after every move in incremental TC
mode. Fore 'fixed maximum' TC mode, the clock will be set to
this time before every move, irrespective of how much was left
on that clock.
Time-Odds factors
When these options are set to 1 the clocks of the players will
be set according to the other specified TC parameters. Players
can be given unequal times by specifying a time-odds factor for
one of them (or a different factor for both of them). Any time
received by that player will then be divided by that factor.
Adjudications
Pops up a sub-menu where you can enable or disable various adjudica-
tions that XBoard can perform in engine-engine games. The shifted
`Alt+J' key is a keyboard equivalent.
Detect all Mates
When this option is set XBoard will terminate the game on check-
mate or stalemate, even if the engines would not do so. Only
works when `Test Legality' is on.
Verify Engine Result Claims
When this option is set XBoard will verify engine result claims,
(forfeiting engines that make false claims), rather than naively
beleiving the engine. Only works when `Test Legality' is on.
Draw if Insufficient Mating Material
When this option is set XBoard will terminate games with a draw
result when so little material is left that checkmate is not
longer possible. In normal Chess this applies to KK, KNK, KBK
and some positions with multiple Bishops all on the same square
shade. Only works when `Test Legality' is on.
Adjudicate Trivial Draws
When this option is set XBoard will terminate games with a draw
result in positions that could only be won against an idiot. In
normal Chess this applies to KNNK, KRKR, KBKN, KNKN, and KBKB
with Bishops on different square shades. KQKQ will also be ad-
judicated a draw (possibly unjustly so). Only works when `Test
Legality' is on.
N-Move Rule
When this option is set to a value differnt from zero XBoard
will terminate games with a draw result after the specified num-
ber of reversible moves (i.e. without captures or pawn pushes)
is made.
N-fold Repeats
When this option is set to a value larger than 1, XBoard will
terminate games with a draw result when the same position has
occurred the specified number of times.
Draw after N Moves Total
When this option is set to a value different from zero, XBoard
will terminate games with a draw result after that many moves
have been played. Useful in automated engine-engine matches, to
prevent one game between stubborn engines will soak up all your
computer time.
Win / Loss Threshold
When this option is set to a value different from zero, XBoard
will terminate games as a win when both engines agree the score
is above the specified value (interpreted as centi-Pawn) for
three successive moves.
Negate Score of Engine #1
Negate Score of Engine #2
These options should be used with engines that report scores
from the white point of view, rather than the side-to-move POV
as XBoard would otherwise assume when adjudicating games based
on the engine score. When the engine is installed with the ex-
tra option `firstScoreIsAbs' true in the engine list the option
would be automatically set when the engine is loaded throuhgh
the Engine menu, or with the `fe' or `se' command-line option.
ICS Options
Pops up a menu dialog where options can be set that affect playing
against an Internet Chess Server.
Auto-Kibitz
Setting this option when playing with or aginst a chess program
on an ICS will cause the last line of thinking output of the en-
gine before its move to be sent to the ICS in a kibitz command.
In addition, any kibitz message received through the ICS from an
opponent chess program will be diverted to the engine-output
window, (and suppressed in the console), where you can play
through its PV by right-clicking it.
Auto-Comment
If this option is on, any remarks made on ICS while you are ob-
serving or playing a game are recorded as a comment on the cur-
rent move. This includes remarks made with the ICS commands
`say', `tell', `whisper', and `kibitz'. Limitation: remarks
that you type yourself are not recognized; XBoard scans only the
output from ICS, not the input you type to it.
Auto-Observe
If this option is on and you add a player to your `gnotify' list
on ICS, XBoard will automatically observe all of that player's
games, unless you are doing something else (such as observing or
playing a game of your own) when one starts. The games are dis-
played from the point of view of the player on your gnotify
list; that is, his pawns move from the bottom of the window to-
wards the top. Exceptions: If both players in a game are on
your gnotify list, if your ICS `highlight' variable is set to 0,
or if the ICS you are using does not properly support observing
from Black's point of view, you will see the game from White's
point of view.
Auto-Raise Board
If this option is on, whenever a new game begins, the chessboard
window is deiconized (if necessary) and raised to the top of the
stack of windows.
Auto Save
If this option is true, at the end of every game XBoard prompts
you for a file name and appends a record of the game to the file
you specify. Disabled if the `saveGameFile' command-line option
is set, as in that case all games are saved to the specified
file. See Load and Save options.
Background Observe while Playing
Setting this option will make XBoard suppress display of any
boards from observed games while you are playing. Instead the
last such board will be remembered, and shown to you when you
right-click the board. This allows you to peek at your bughouse
partner's game when you want, without disturbing your own game
too much.
Dual Board for Background-Observed Game
Setting this option in combination with `Background Observe'
will display boards of observed games while you are playing on a
second board next to that of your own game.
Get Move List
If this option is on, whenever XBoard receives the first board
of a new ICS game (or a different game from the one it is cur-
rently displaying), it retrieves the list of past moves from the
ICS. You can then review the moves with the `Forward' and
`Backward' commands or save them with `Save Game'. You might
want to turn off this option if you are observing several blitz
games at once, to keep from wasting time and network bandwidth
fetching the move lists over and over. When you turn this op-
tion on from the menu, XBoard immediately fetches the move list
of the current game (if any).
Quiet Play
If this option is on, XBoard will automatically issue an ICS
`set shout 0' command whenever you start a game and a `set shout
1' command whenever you finish one. Thus, you will not be dis-
tracted by shouts from other ICS users while playing.
Seek Graph
Setting this option will cause XBoard to display an graph of
currently active seek ads when you left-click the board while
idle and logged on to an ICS.
Auto-Refresh Seek Graph
In combination with the `Seek Graph' option this will cause au-
tomatic update of the seek graph while it is up. This only
works on FICS and ICC, and requires a lot of bandwidth on a busy
server.
Auto-InputBox PopUp
Controls whether the ICS Input Box will pop up automatically
when you type a printable character to the board window in ICS
mode.
Quit After Game
Controls whether XBoard will automatically disconnect from the
ICS and close when the game currently in progress finishes.
Premove
Premove for White
Premove for Black
First White Move
First Black Move
If the `Premove' option is on while playing a game on an ICS,
you can register your next planned move before it is your turn.
Move the piece with the mouse in the ordinary way, and the
starting and ending squares will be highlighted with a special
color (red by default). When it is your turn, if your regis-
tered move is legal, XBoard will send it to ICS immediately; if
not, it will be ignored and you can make a different move. If
you change your mind about your premove, either make a different
move, or double-click on any piece to cancel the move entirely.
You can also enter premoves for the first white and black moves
of the game.
Alarm
Alarm Time
When this option is on, an alarm sound is played when your clock
counts down to the `Alarm Time' in an ICS game. (By default,
the time is 5 seconds, but you can specify other values with the
Alarm Time spin control.) For games with time controls that in-
clude an increment, the alarm will sound each time the clock
counts down to the icsAlarmTime. By default, the alarm sound is
the terminal bell, but on some systems you can change it to a
sound file using the soundIcsAlarm option; see below.
Colorize Messages
Ticking this options causes various types of ICS messages do be
displayed with different foreground or background colors in the
console. The colors can be individually selected for each type,
through the accompanying text edits.
-icsMenu string
The string defines buttons for the `ICS text menu'. Each button
definition consists of two semi-colon-terminated pieces of text,
the first giving the label to be written on the button, the sec-
ond the text that should be sent to the ICS when that button is
pressed. This second part (the 'message') can contain line-
feeds, so that you can send multiple ICS commands with one but-
ton. Some message in the text, all starting with a $-sign, are
treated special. When the message contains '$input', it will
not be sent directly to the ICS, but will be put in the input
field of the `ICS Chat/Console', with the text cursor at the in-
dicated place, so you can addsome text to the message before
sending it off. If such a message starts with '$add' it will be
placed behind any text that is already present in the input
field, otherwise this field will be cleared first. The word
'$name' occurring in the message will be replaced by the word
that was clicked (through button 3) in the ICS Chat/Console.
There are two special messages: '$chat' will open a new chat
with the clicked word in the chat-partner field, while '$copy'
will copy the text that is currently-selected in the ICS Console
to the clipboard. An example of a text menu as it might occur
in your settings file (where you could edit it):
-icsMenu {copy;$copy;
list players;who;
list games;games;
finger (player);finger $name;
bullet (player);match $name 1 1 r;
blitz (player);match $name 5 1 r;
rapid (player);match $name 30 0 r;
open chat (player);$chat;
tell (player);tell $name $input;
ask pieces;ptell Please give me a $input;
P;$add Pawn $input;
N;$add Knight $input;
B;$add Bishop $input;
R;$add Rook $input;
Q;$add Queen $input;
}
Tournament Options
Summons a dialog where you can set options important for playing auto-
matic matches between two or more chess programs (e.g. by using the
`Machine Match' menu item in the `Mode' menu).
Tournament file
To run a tournament, XBoard needs a file to record its progress,
so it can resume the tourney when it is interrupted. When you
want to conduct anything more complex than a simple two-player
match with the currently loaded engines, (i.e. when you select a
list of participants), you must not leave this field blank.
When you enter the name of an existing tournament file, XBoard
will ignore all other input specified in the dialog, and will
take the corresponding info from that tournament file. This re-
sumes an interrupted tournament, or adds another XBoard agent
playing games for it to those that are already doing so. Speci-
fying a not-yet-existing file will cause XBoard to create it,
according to the tournament parameters specified in the rest of
the dialog, before it starts the tournament on ‘OK’. Provided
that you specify participants; without participants no tourna-
ment file will be made, but other entered values (e.g. for the
file with opening positions) will take effect. Default: config-
ured by the `defaultTourneyName' option.
Sync after round
Sync after cycle
The sync options, when on, will cause WinBoard to refrain from
starting games of the next round or cycle before all games of
the previous round or cycle are finished. This guarantees cor-
rect ordering in the games file, even when multiple XBoard in-
stances are concurrently playing games for the same tourney.
Default: sync after cycle, but not after round.
Select Engine
Tourney participants
From the Select Engine listbox you can pick an engine from your
list of engines registered in the settings file, to be added to
the tournament. The engines selected so far will be listed in
the ‘Tourney participants’ memo. The latter is a normal text
edit, so you can use normal text-editing functions to delete en-
gines you selected accidentally, or change their order. Typing
names here yourself is not recommended, because names that do
not exactly match one of the names from the selection listbox
will lead to undefined behavior.
Tourney type
Here you can specify the type of tournament you want. XBoard’s
intrinsic tournament manager support round-robins (type = 0),
where each participant plays every other participant, and
(multi-)gauntlets, where one (or a few) so-called ‘gauntlet en-
gines’ play an independent set of opponents. In the latter
case, you specify the number of gauntlet engines. E.g. if you
specified 10 engines, and tourney type = 2, the first 2 engines
each play the remaining 8. A value of -1 instructs XBoard to
play Swiss; for this to work an external pairing engine must be
specified through the `pairingEngine' option. Each Swiss round
will be considered a tourney cycle in that case. Default:0
Number of tourney cycles
Default Number of Games in Match
You can specify tourneys where every two opponents play each
other multiple times. Such multiple games can be played in a
row, as specified by the ‘number of games per pairing’, or by
repeating the entire tournament schedule a number of times
(specified by the ‘number of tourney cycles’). The total number
of times two engines meet will be the product of these two. De-
fault is 1 cycle; the number of games per pairing is the same as
the default number of match games, stored in your settings file
through the `defaultMatchGames' option.
Pause between Match Games
Time (in milliseconds) XBoard waits before starting a new game
after a previous match or tournament game finishes. Such a
waiting period is important for engines that do not support
'ping', as these sometimes still produce a move long after the
game finished because of the opponent resigning, which would be
mistaken for a move in the next game if that had already
started.
Save Tourney Games on
File where the tournament games are saved (duplicate of the item
in the `Save Game Options').
Game File with Opening Lines
File with Start Positions
Game Number
Position Number
Rewind Index after this many Games
These items optionally specify the file with move sequences or
board positions the tourney games should start from. The corre-
sponding numbers specify the number of the game or position in
the file. Here a value -1 means automatic stepping through all
games on the file, -2 automatic stepping every two games. The
Rewind-Index parameter causes a stepping index to reset to one
after reaching a specified value. A setting of -2 for the game
number will also be effective in a tournament without specifying
a game file, but playing from the GUI book instead. In this
case the first (odd) games will randomly select from the book,
but the second (even) games will select the same moves from the
book as the previous game. (Note this leads to the same opening
only if both engines use the GUI book!) Default: No game or po-
sition file will be used. The default index if such a file is
used is 1.
Disable own engine books by default
Setting this option reverses the default situation for use of
the GUI opening book in tournaments from what it normally is,
namely not using it. So unless the engine is installed with an
option to explicitly specify it should not use the GUI book
(i.e. `-firstHasOwnBookUCI true'), it will be made to use the
GUI book.
Replace Engine
Upgrade Engine
With these two buttons you can alter the participants of an al-
ready running tournament. After opening the Match Options dia-
log on an XBoard that is playing for the tourney, you will see
all the tourney parameters in the dialog fields. You can then
replace the name of one engine by that of another by editing the
`participants' field. (But preserve the order of the others!)
Pressing the button after that will cause the substitution.
With the `Upgrade Engine' button the substitution will only af-
fect future games. With `Replace Engine' all games the substi-
tuted engine has already played will be invalidated, and they
will be replayed with the substitute engine. In this latter
case the engine must not be playing when you do this, but other-
wise there is no need to pause the tournament play for making a
substitution.
Clone Tourney
Pressing this button after you have specified an existing tour-
nament file will copy the contents of the latter to the dialog,
and then puts the originally proposed name for the tourney file
back. You can then run a tourney with the same parameters (pos-
sibly after changing the proposed name of the tourney file for
the new tourney) by pressing 'OK'.
Continue Later
Pressing the `Continue Later' button confirms the current value
of all items in the dialog and closes it, but will not automati-
cally start the tournament. This allows you to return to the
dialog later without losing the settings you already entered, to
adjust paramenters through other menu dialogs. (The `Common En-
gine Setting', `Time Control' and `General Options' dialogs can
be accessed without closing the `Tournament Options' dialog
through the respective buttons at the bottom of the latter.)
Load Game Options
Summons a dialog where you can set options that control loading of
games.
Auto-Display Tags
Setting this option causes a window to pop up on loading a game,
displaying the PGN Tags for that game.
Auto-Display Comment
Setting this option causes a window to pop up whenever there is
a comment to (or variation on) the currently displayed move.
Auto-Play speed of loaded games
This option sets the number of seconds between moves when a
newly loaded game is auto-playing. A decimal fraction on the
number is understood. Setting it to -1 disables auto-play,
staying in the start position of the game after the loading com-
pletes. Setting it to 0 will instantly move to the final posi-
tion of the game. The `Auto-Play speed' is also used to deter-
mine the analysis time for each move during `Analyze Game'.
Note that auto-playing (including game analysis) can be stopped
at any time through the `P' button above the board.
options to use in game-viewer mode
Specifies the options automatically set when XBoard is invoked
with the option `-viewer' on its command line, as will happen
when it is started in response to clicking a PGN game file. The
default setting would start XBoard without engine (due to the
`-ncp' option), but if you want it to automatically start with
your favorite engine, and automatically start analyzing, you
could include the necessary options for that here (e.g. `-fe
<engine> -initialMode analysis').
Thresholds for position filtering in game list
The following options can be set to limit the display of games
in the `Game List' window to a sub-set, meeting the specified
criteria.
Elo of strongest player at least
Elo of weakest player at least
Games with an Elo tag specifying a lower rating for the men-
tioned player will not be diplayed in the `Game List'.
No games before year
Games with a Date tag before the specified year will not be
diplayed in the `Game List'.
Final nr of pieces
A single number or a range (like 8-10) can be entered here, and
will cause only games where the number of men in the final posi-
tion is in the given range will be diplayed in the `Game List'.
Minimum nr consecutive positions
Specifies for how many consecutive positions the more fuzzy po-
sition-matching criteria have to be satisfied in order to count
as a match.
Search mode
find position
XBoard can select games for display in the `Game List' based on
whether (in addition to the conditions on the PGN tags) they
contain a position that matches the position currently displayed
on the board, by pressing the `find position' or `narrow' but-
tons in the `Game List' window. The `Search mode' setting de-
termines what counts as match. You can search for an exact
match, a position that has all shown material in the same place,
but might contain additional material, a position that has all
Pawns in the same place, but can have the shown material any-
where, a position that can have all shown material anywhere,
or a position that has material between certain limits anywhere.
For the latter you have to place the material that must mini-
mally be present in the four lowest ranks of the board, and op-
tional additional material in the four highest ranks of the
board. You can request the optional material to be balanced,
i.e. equal for white and black.
narrow The `narrow' button is similar in function to the `find posi-
tion' button, but only searches in the already selected games,
rather than the complete game file, and can thus be used to re-
fine a search based on multiple criteria.
Also match reversed colors
Also match left-right flipped position
When looking for matching positions rather than by material,
these settings determine whether mirror images (in case of a
vertical flip in combination with color reversal) will be also
considered a match. The left-right flipping is only useful af-
ter all castling rights have expired (or in Xiangqi).
Save Game Options
Summons a dialog where you can specify whether XBoard should automati-
cally save files of games when they finish, and where and how to do
that.
Auto-Save Games
When set XBoard will automatically save games on a file as they
finish. (Not when you abort them by pressing `New Game',
though!) It will either prompt you for a filename, or use the
file specified by the `saveGameFile' option.
Own Games Only
Setting this option will exclude games by others observed on an
Internet Chess Server from automatic saving.
Save Games on File
Name of the file on which games should be saved automatically.
Games are always appended to the file, and will never overwrite
anything.
Save Final Position on File
When a name is defined, the final position of each game is ap-
pended to the mentioned file.
PGN Event Header
Specifies the name of the event used in the PGN event tag of new
games that you create.
Old Save Style
Saves games in an obsolete and now long forgotten format, rather
than as PGN. Never use this for orthodox Chess!
Include Number Tag in tourney PGN
When on this option will cause the non-standard 'Number' tag to
be written in any game saved in PGN format. It will contain the
unique number of the game in the tourney. (As opposed to the
'Round' tag, which can be shared by many games.)
Save Score/Depth Info in PGN
When on this option will cause the score and depth at which it
was calculated by an engine, and (when available) thinking time
to be saved with the move as a comment to the move, in the for-
mat {score/depth time}. Here 'score'is in pawn units from the
point of view of the player that made the move, with two digits
behind the decimal Pawn.
Save Out-of-Book Info in PGN
When on this option causes the score of the first move the en-
gine made after coming out of book in an 'Annotator' PGN tag.
Game List
Pops up a dialog where you can select the PGN tags that should appear
on the lines in the `Game List', and their order.
Sound Options
Summons a dialog where you can specify the sounds that should accompany
various events that can occur in XBoard. Most events are only relevant
to ICS play, but the move sound is an important exception. For each
event listed in the dialog, you can select a standard sound from a
menu.
Sound Program
Specifies the command XBoard should invoke to play sounds. The
specified text will be suffixed by the name of the sound file,
and then run as a command.
Sounds Directory
Specifies the directory where XBoard will look for files with
the names of the standard sounds.
User WAV File
When we type a filename here, it can be assigned to the events
by selecting `Above WAV File' from the drop downs.
Try-Out Sound
Play The 'event' triggering the Try-Out sound is pressing of the
`Play' button behind it. This allows you to judge the sounds.
Save Settings Now
Selecting this menu item causes the current XBoard settings to be writ-
ten to the settings file, (.xboardrc in your home directory), so they
will also apply in future sessions. Note that some settings are
'volatile', and are not saved, because XBoard considers it too unlikely
that you want those to apply next time. In particular this applies to
the Chess program, and all options giving information on those Chess
programs (such as their directory, if they have their own opening book,
if they are UCI or native XBoard), or the variant you are playing.
Such options would still be understood when they appear in the settings
file in case they were put there with the aid of a text editor, but
they would disappear from the file as soon as you save the settings.
Note that XBoard no longer pays attention to options values specified
in the .Xresources file. (Specifying key bindings there will still
work, though.) To alter the default of volatile options, you can use
the following method: Rename your ~/.xboardrc settings file (to
~/.yboardrc, say), and create a new file ~/.xboardrc, which only con-
tains the options
-settingsFile ~/.yboardrc
-saveSettingsFile ~/.yboardrc
This will cause your settings to be saved on ~/.yboardrc in the future,
so that ~/.xboardrc is no longer overwritten. You can then safely
specify volatile options in ~/.xboardrc, either before or after the
settingsFile options. Note that when you specify persistent options
after the settingsFile options in this ~/.xboardrc, you will essen-
tially turn them into volatile options with the specified value as de-
fault, because that value will overrule the value loaded from the set-
tings file (being read later).
Save Settings on Exit
Setting this option has no immediate effect, but causes the settings to
be saved when you quit XBoard. What happens then is otherwise identical
to what happens when you use select "Save Settings Now", see there.
Help Menu
Info XBoard
Displays the XBoard documentation in info format. For this fea-
ture to work, you must have the GNU info program installed on
your system, and the file `xboard.info' must either be present
in the current working directory, or have been installed by the
`make install' command when you built XBoard.
Man XBoard
Displays the XBoard documentation in man page format. The `F1'
key is a keyboard equivalent. For this feature to work, the
file `xboard.6' must have been installed by the `make install'
command when you built XBoard, and the directory it was placed
in must be on the search path for your system's `man' command.
About XBoard
Shows the current XBoard version number.
Other Shortcut Keys
Show Last Move
By hitting `Enter' the last move will be re-animated.
Load Next Game
Loads the next game from the last game record file you loaded.
The `Alt+PgDn' key triggers this action.
Load Previous Game
Loads the previous game from the last game record file you
loaded. The `Alt+PgUp' key triggers this action. Not available
if the last game was loaded from a pipe.
Reload Same Game
Reloads the last game you loaded. Not available if the last
game was loaded from a pipe. Currently no keystroke is assigned
to this ReloadGameProc.
Reload Same Position
Reloads the last position you loaded. Not available if the last
position was loaded from a pipe. Currently no keystroke is as-
signed to this ReloadPositionProc.
In the Xaw build of XBoard you can add or remove shortcut keys using
the X resources `paneA.translations'. Here is an example of what could
go into your `.Xdefaults' file:
XBoard*paneA.translations: \
Shift<Key>?: MenuItem(Help.About) \n\
Ctrl<Key>y: MenuItem(Action.Accept) \n\
Ctrl<Key>n: MenuItem(Action.Decline) \n\
Ctrl<Key>i: MenuItem(Nothing)
So the key should always be bound to the action 'MenuItem', with the
(hierarchical) name of the menu item as argument. There are a few ac-
tions available for which no menu item exists: Binding a key to `Noth-
ing' makes it do nothing, thus removing it as a shortcut key. Other
such functions that can be bound to keys are:
AboutGame, DebugProc (switches the -debug option on or off),
LoadNextGame, LoadPrevGame, ReloadGame, ReloadPosition.
OPTIONS
This section documents the command-line options to XBoard. You can set
these options in two ways: by typing them on the shell command line you
use to start XBoard, or by editing the settings file (usually
~/.xboardrc) to alter the value of the setting that was saved there.
Some of the options cannot be changed while XBoard is running; others
set the initial state of items that can be changed with the Options
menu.
Most of the options have both a long name and a short name. To turn a
boolean option on or off from the command line, either give its long
name followed by the value true or false (`-longOptionName true'), or
give just the short name to turn the option on (`-opt'), or the short
name preceded by `x' to turn the option off (`-xopt'). For options that
take strings or numbers as values, you can use the long or short option
names interchangeably.
Chess Engine Options
-tc or -timeControl minutes[:seconds]
Each player begins with his clock set to the `timeControl' pe-
riod. Default: 5 minutes. The additional options `movesPerSes-
sion' and `timeIncrement' are mutually exclusive.
-mps or -movesPerSession moves
When both players have made `movesPerSession' moves, a new
`timeControl' period is added to both clocks. Default: 40
moves.
-inc or -timeIncrement seconds
If this option is specified, `movesPerSession' is ignored. In-
stead, after each player's move, `timeIncrement' seconds are
added to his clock. Use `-inc 0' if you want to require the en-
tire game to be played in one `timeControl' period, with no in-
crement. Default: -1, which specifies `movesPerSession' mode.
-clock/-xclock or -clockMode true/false
Determines whether or not to display the chess clocks. If clock-
Mode is false, the clocks are not shown, but the side that is to
play next is still highlighted. Also, unless `searchTime' is
set, the chess engine still keeps track of the clock time and
uses it to determine how fast to make its moves.
-shoMoveTime true/false
When this option is set the time that has been thought about the
current move will be displayed behind the remaining time in
parentheses (in seconds). Default: false.
-st or -searchTime minutes[:seconds]
Tells the chess engine to spend at most the given amount of time
searching for each of its moves. Without this option, the chess
engine chooses its search time based on the number of moves and
amount of time remaining until the next time control. Setting
this option also sets clockMode to false.
-depth or -searchDepth number
Tells the chess engine to look ahead at most the given number of
moves when searching for a move to make. Without this option,
the chess 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.
-firstNPS number
-secondNPS number
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 num-
ber 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 num-
ber 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-en-
gine matches on heavily loaded machines, or with very fast games
(where the wall clock is too inaccurate). `showThinking' must
be on for this option to work. Default: -1 (off). Not many en-
gines might support this yet!
-firstTimeOdds factor
-secondTimeOdds factor
Reduces the time given to the mentioned engine by the given fac-
tor. 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.
-timeOddsMode mode
This option determines how the case is handled where both en-
gines have a time-odds handicap. If mode=1, the engine that
gets the most time will always get the nominal time, as speci-
fied by the time-control options, and its opponent's time is
renormalized accordingly. If mode=0, both play with reduced
time. Default: 0.
-hideThinkingFromHuman true/false
Controls the Hide Thinking option. See Options Menu. Default:
true. (Replaces the Show-Thinking option of older xboard ver-
sions.)
-thinking/-xthinking or -showThinking true/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 op-
tion Hide Thinking. See 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.)
-ponder/-xponder or -ponderNextMove true/false
Sets the Ponder Next Move menu option. See Options Menu. De-
fault: true.
-smpCores number
Specifies the maximum number of CPUs an SMP engine is allowed to
use. Only works for engines that support the XBoard/WinBoard-
protocol cores feature.
-mg or -matchGames n
Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
with alternating colors. If the `loadGameFile' or `loadPosi-
tionFile' option is set, XBoard starts each game with the given
opening moves or the given position; otherwise, the games start
with the standard initial chess position. If the `saveGameFile'
option is set, a move record for the match is appended to the
specified file. If the `savePositionFile' option is set, the fi-
nal position reached in each game of the match is appended to
the specified file. When the match is over, XBoard displays the
match score and exits. Default: 0 (do not run a match).
-mm/-xmm or -matchMode true/false
Setting `matchMode' to true is equivalent to setting
`matchGames' to 1.
-sameColorGames n
Automatically runs an n-game match between two chess engines,
without alternating colors. Otherwise the same applies as for
the `-matchGames' option, over which it takes precedence if both
are specified. (See there.) Default: 0 (do not run a match).
-epd This option puts XBoard in a special mode for solving EPD test-
suites, for the entire duration of the session. In this mode
games are aborted after a single move, and that move will be
compared with the best-move or avoid-move from the EPD position
description from which the 'game' was started. Playing a best
move counts as a win, playing an avoid move as a loss, and play-
ing any other move counts as a draw. This option should be used
in combination with match mode, and an EPD file of starting po-
sitions with an auto-incrementing index. Color assignment will
be such that the first engine plays all moves, and the second
engine will be never involved. The results for individual posi-
tions, as well as the time used for solving them, will be re-
ported in the lower pane of the Engine Output window.
-fcp or -firstChessProgram program
-scp or -secondChessProgram program
Name of first and second chess engine, respectively. A second
chess engine is started only in Two Machines (match) mode, or in
Analyze mode with two engines. The second engine is by default
the same as the first. Default for the first engine: `fairy-
max'.
-fe or -firstEngine nickname
-se or -secondEngine nickname
This is an alternative to the `fcp' and `scp' options for speci-
fying the first and second engine, for engines that were already
registered (using the `Load Engine' dialog) in XBoard's settings
file. It will not only retrieve the real name of the engine,
but also all options configured with it. (E.g. if it is UCI,
whether it should use book.)
-fb/-xfb or -firstPlaysBlack true/false
In games between two chess engines, firstChessProgram normally
plays white. If this option is true, firstChessProgram plays
black. In a multi-game match, this option affects the colors
only for the first game; they still alternate in subsequent
games.
-fh or -firstHost host
-sh or -secondHost host
Hosts on which the chess engines are to run. The default for
each is `localhost'. If you specify another host, XBoard uses
`rsh' to run the chess engine there. (You can substitute a dif-
ferent remote shell program for rsh using the `remoteShell' op-
tion described below.)
-fd or -firstDirectory dir
-sd or -secondDirectory dir
Working directories in which the chess engines are to be run.
The default is "", which means to run the chess engine in the
same working directory as XBoard itself. (See the CHESSDIR en-
vironment variable.) This option is effective only when the
chess engine is being run on the local host; it does not work if
the engine is run remotely using the -fh or -sh option.
-initString string or -firstInitString
-secondInitString string
The string that is sent to initialize each chess engine for a
new game. Default:
new
random
Setting this option from the command line is tricky, because you
must type in real newline characters, including one at the very
end. In most shells you can do this by entering a `\' character
followed by a newline. Using the character sequence `\n' in the
string should work too, though.
If you change this option, don't remove the `new' command; it is
required by all chess engines to start a new game.
You can remove the `random' command if you like; including it
causes GNU Chess 4 to randomize its move selection slightly so
that it doesn't play the same moves in every game. Even without
`random', GNU Chess 4 randomizes its choice of moves from its
opening book. Many other chess engines ignore this command en-
tirely and always (or never) randomize.
You can also try adding other commands to the initString; see
the documentation of the chess engine you are using for details.
-firstComputerString string
-secondComputerString string
The string that is sent to the chess engine if its opponent is
another computer chess engine. The default is `computer\n'.
Probably the only useful alternative is the empty string (`'),
which keeps the engine from knowing that it is playing another
computer.
-reuse/-xreuse or -reuseFirst true/false
-reuse2/-xreuse2 or -reuseSecond true/false
If the option is false, XBoard kills off the chess engine after
every game and starts it again for the next game. If the option
is true (the default), XBoard starts the chess engine only once
and uses it repeatedly to play multiple games. Some old chess
engines may not work properly when reuse is turned on, but oth-
erwise games will start faster if it is left on.
-firstProtocolVersion version-number
-secondProtocolVersion version-number
This option specifies which version of the chess engine communi-
cation protocol to use. By default, version-number is 2. In
version 1, the "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.
-firstScoreAbs true/false
-secondScoreAbs true/false
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.
-niceEngines priority
This option allows you to lower the priority of the engine pro-
cesses, so that the generally insatiable hunger for CPU time of
chess engines does not interfere so much with smooth operation
of XBoard (or the rest of your system). Negative values could
increase the engine priority, which is not recommended.
-firstOptions string
-secondOptions string
The given string is a comma-separated list of (option name=op-
tion value) pairs, like the following example: "style=Kar-
pov,blunder rate=0". If an option announced by the engine at
startup through the feature commands of the XBoard/WinBoard pro-
tocol matches one of the option names (i.e. "style" or "blunder
rate"), it would be set to the given value (i.e. "Karpov" or 0)
through a corresponding option command to the engine. This pro-
vided that the type of the value (text or numeric) matches as
well.
-firstNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
-secondNeedsNoncompliantFEN string
The castling rights and e.p. fields of the FEN sent to the men-
tioned engine with the setboard command will be replaced by the
given string. This can for instance be used to run engines that
do not understand Chess960 FENs in variant fischerandom, to make
them at least understand the opening position, through setting
the string to "KQkq -". (Note you also have to give the e.p.
field!) Other possible applications are to provide work-arounds
for engines that want to see castling and e.p. fields in vari-
ants that do not have castling or e.p. (shatranj, courier, xi-
angqi, shogi) so that XBoard would normally omit them (string =
"- -"), or to add variant-specific fields that are not yet sup-
ported by XBoard (e.g. to indicate the number of checks in
3check).
-shuffleOpenings
Forces shuffling of the opening setup in variants that normally
have a fixed initial position. Shufflings are symmetric for
black and white, and exempt King and Rooks in variants with nor-
mal castling. Remains in force until a new variant is selected.
-fischerCastling
Specifies Fischer castling (as in Chess960) should be enabled in
variants that normally would not have it. Remains in force un-
til a new variant is selected.
UCI + WB Engine Settings
-fUCI or -firstIsUCI true/false
-sUCI or -secondIsUCI true/false
Indicates if the mentioned engine executable file is a UCI en-
gine, and should be run with the aid of the Polyglot adapter
rather than directly. Xboard will then pass the other UCI op-
tions and engine name to Polyglot on its command line, according
to the option `adapterCommand'.
-fUCCI
-sUCCI
-fUSI
-sUSI Options similar to `fUCI' and `sUCI', except that they use the
indicated engine with the protocol adapter specified in the `ux-
iAdapter' option. This can then be configured for running a
UCCI or USI adapter, as the need arises.
-adapterCommand string
The string contains the command that should be issued by XBoard
to start an engine that is accompanied by the `fUCI' option.
Any identifier following a percent sign in the command (e.g.
%fcp) will be considered the name of an XBoard option, and be
replaced by the value of that option at the time the engine is
started. For starting the second engine, any leading "f" or
"first" in the option name will first be replaced by "s" or
"second", before finding its value. Default: 'polyglot -noini
-ec "%fcp" -ed "%fd"'
-uxiAdapter string
Similar to `adapterCommand', but used for engines accompanied by
the `fUCCI' or `fUSI' option, so you can configure XBoard to be
ready to handle more than one flavor of non-native protocols.
Default: ""
-polyglotDir filename
Gives the name of the directory in which the Polyglot adapter
for UCI engines resides. Default: "".
-usePolyglotBook true/false
Specifies if the Polyglot book should be used as GUI book.
-polyglotBook filename
Gives the filename of the opening book. The book is only used
when the `usePolyglotBook' option is set to true, and the option
`firstHasOwnBookUCI' or `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 se-
lect the book moves for it. Default: "".
-fNoOwnBookUCI or -firstXBook or -firstHasOwnBookUCI true/false
-sNoOwnBookUCI or -secondXBook or -secondHasOwnBookUCI true/false
Indicates if the mentioned engine has its own opening book it
should play from, rather than using the external book through
XBoard. Default: depends on setting of the option `discourage-
OwnBooks'.
-discourageOwnBooks true/false
When set, newly loaded engines will be assumed to use the GUI
book, unless they explicitly specify differently. Otherwise
they will be assumed to not use the GUI book, unless the specify
differently (e.g. with `firstXBook'). Default: false.
-bookDepth n
Limits the use of the GUI book to the first n moves of each
side. Default: 12.
-bookVariation n
A value n from 0 to 100 tunes the choice of moves from the GUI
books from totally random to best-only. Default: 50
-mcBookMode
When this volatile option is specified, the probing algorithm of
the GUI book is altered to always select the move that is most
under-represented based on its performance. When all moves are
played in approximately the right proportion, a book miss will
be reported, to give the engine opportunity to explore a new
move. In addition score of the moves will be kept track of dur-
ing the session in a book buffer. By playing an match in this
mode, a book will be built from scratch. The only output are
the saved games, which can be converted to an actual book later,
with the `Save Games as Book' command. The latter command can
also be used to pre-fill the book buffer before adding new games
based on the probing algorithm.
-fn string or -firstPgnName string
-sn string or -secondPgnName string
Indicates the name that should be used for the engine in PGN
tags of engine-engine games. Intended to allow you to install
versions of the same engine with different settings, and still
distinguish them. Default: "".
-defaultHashSize n
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 XBoard/WinBoard engines, for those that sup-
port the memory feature of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol. De-
fault: 64.
-defaultCacheSizeEGTB n
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 XBoard/WinBoard engines, for those that sup-
port the memory feature of the XBoard/WinBoard protocol. De-
fault: 4.
-defaultPathEGTB filename
Gives the name of the directory where the end-game tablebases
are installed, for UCI engines. Default: "/usr/lo-
cal/share/egtb".
-egtFormats string
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/lo-
cal/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" and "gaviota" DTM table-
bases, syzygy DTZ tablebases and "scorpio" bitbases. Default:
"".
-firstChessProgramNames={names}
This option lets you customize the listbox with chess-engine
names that appears in the `Load Engine' and `Tournament Options'
dialog. It consists of a list of strings, one per line. When
an engine is loaded, the corresponding line is prefixed with
"-fcp ", and processed like it appeared on the command line.
That means that apart from the engine command, it can contain
any number of XBoard options you want to use with this engine.
(Commonly used options here are -fd, -firstXBook, -fUCI, -vari-
ant.)
The value of this option is gradually built as you load new en-
gines through the `Load Engine' menu dialog, with `Add to list'
ticked. To change it in other ways, (e.g. deleting engines),
use the menu item `Edit Engine List' in the `Engine' menu.
Tournament options
-defaultMatchGames n
Sets the number of games that will be used for a match between
two engines started from the menu to n. Also used as games per
pairing in other tournament formats. Default: 10.
-matchPause n
Specifies the duration of the pause between two games of a match
or tournament between engines as n milliseconds. Especially en-
gines that do not support ping need this option, to prevent that
the move they are thinking on when an opponent unexpectedly re-
signs will be counted for the next game, (leading to illegal
moves there). Default: 10000.
-tf filename or -tourneyFile filename
Specifies the name of the tournament file used in match mode to
conduct a multi-player tournament. This file is a special set-
tings file, which stores the description of the tournament (in-
cluding progress info), through normal options (e.g. for time
control, load and save files), and through some special-purpose
options listed below.
-tt number or -tourneyType number
Specifies the type of tourney: 0 = round-robin, N>0 =
(multi-)gauntlet with N gauntlet engines, -1 = Swiss through ex-
ternal pairing engine. Volatile option, but stored in tourney
file.
-cy number or -tourneyCycles number
Specifies the number of cycles in a tourney. Volatile option,
but stored in tourney file.
-participants list
The list is a multi-line text string that specifies engines oc-
curring in the `firstChesProgramNames' list in the settings file
by their (implied or explicitly given) nicknames, one engine per
line. The mentioned engines will play in the tourney. Volatile
option, but stored in tourney file.
-results string
The string of +=- characters lists the result of all played
games in a tourney. Games currently playing are listed as *,
while a space indicates a game that is not yet played. Volatile
option, but stored in tourney file.
-defaultTourneyName string
Specifies the name of the tournament file XBoard should propose
when the `Match Options' dialog is opened. Any %y, %M, %d, %h,
%m, %s in the string are replaced by the current year, month,
day of the month, hours, minutes, seconds of the current time,
respectively, as two-digit number. A %Y would be replaced by
the year as 4-digit number. Default: empty string.
-pairingEngine filename
Specifies the external program to be used to pair the partici-
pants in Swiss tourneys. XBoard communicates with this engine
in the same way as it communicates with Chess engines. The only
commands sent to the pairing engine are “results N string”,
(where N is the number of participants, and string the results
so far in the format of the results option), and “pairing N”,
(where N is the number of the tourney game). To the latter the
pairing engine should answer with “A-B”, where A and B are par-
ticipant numbers (in the range 1-N). (There should be no reply
to the results command.) Default: empty string.
-afterGame string
-afterTourney string
When non-empty, the given string will be executed as a system
command after each tournament game, or after the tourney com-
pletes, respectively. This can be used, for example, to autmat-
ically run a cross-table generator on the PGN file where games
are saved, to update the tourney standings. Default: ""
-syncAfterRound true/false
-syncAfterCycle true/false
Controls whether different instances of XBoard concurrently run-
ning the same tournament will wait for each other. Defaults:
sync after cycle, but not after round.
-seedBase number
Used to store the seed of the pseudo-random-number generator in
the tourneyFile, so that separate instances of XBoard working on
the same tourney can take coherent 'random' decisions, such as
picking an opening for a given game number.
ICS options
-ics/-xics or -internetChessServerMode true/false
Connect with an Internet Chess Server to play chess against its
other users, observe games they are playing, or review games
that have recently finished. Default: false.
-icshost or -internetChessServerHost host
The Internet host name or address of the chess server to connect
to when in ICS mode. Default: `chessclub.com'. Another popular
chess server to try is `freechess.org'. If your site doesn't
have a working Internet name server, try specifying the host ad-
dress in numeric form. You may also need to specify the numeric
address when using the icshelper option with timestamp or time-
seal (see below).
-icsport or -internetChessServerPort port-number
The port number to use when connecting to a chess server in ICS
mode. Default: 5000.
-icshelper or -internetChessServerHelper prog-name
An external helper program used to communicate with the chess
server. You would set it to "timestamp" for ICC (chessclub.com)
or "timeseal" for FICS (freechess.org), after obtaining the cor-
rect version of timestamp or timeseal for your computer. See
"help timestamp" on ICC and "help timeseal" on FICS. This op-
tion is shorthand for `-useTelnet -telnetProgram program'.
-telnet/-xtelnet or -useTelnet true/false
This option is poorly named; it should be called useHelper. If
set to true, it instructs XBoard to run an external program to
communicate with the Internet Chess Server. The program to use
is given by the telnetProgram option. If the option is false
(the default), XBoard opens a TCP socket and uses its own inter-
nal implementation of the telnet protocol to communicate with
the ICS. See Firewalls.
-telnetProgram prog-name
This option is poorly named; it should be called helperProgram.
It gives the name of the telnet program to be used with the
`gateway' and `useTelnet' options. The default is `telnet'. The
telnet program is invoked with the value of `inter-
netChessServerHost' as its first argument and the value of `in-
ternetChessServerPort' as its second argument. See Firewalls.
-gateway host-name
If this option is set to a host name, XBoard communicates with
the Internet Chess Server by using `rsh' to run the `telnetPro-
gram' on the given host, instead of using its own internal im-
plementation of the telnet protocol. You can substitute a dif-
ferent remote shell program for `rsh' using the `remoteShell'
option described below. See Firewalls.
-internetChessServerCommPort or -icscomm dev-name
If this option is set, XBoard communicates with the ICS through
the given character I/O device instead of opening a TCP connec-
tion. Use this option if your system does not have any kind of
Internet connection itself (not even a SLIP or PPP connection),
but you do have dial-up access (or a hardwired terminal line) to
an Internet service provider from which you can telnet to the
ICS.
The support for this option in XBoard is minimal. You need to
set all communication parameters and tty modes before you enter
XBoard.
Use a script something like this:
stty raw -echo 9600 > /dev/tty00
xboard -ics -icscomm /dev/tty00
Here replace `/dev/tty00' with the name of the device that your
modem is connected to. You might have to add several more op-
tions to these stty commands. See the man pages for `stty' and
`tty' if you run into problems. Also, on many systems stty works
on its standard input instead of standard output, so you have to
use `<' instead of `>'.
If you are using linux, try starting with the script below.
Change it as necessary for your installation.
#!/bin/sh -f
# configure modem and fire up XBoard
# configure modem
(
stty 2400 ; stty raw ; stty hupcl ; stty -clocal
stty ignbrk ; stty ignpar ; stty ixon ; stty ixoff
stty -iexten ; stty -echo
) < /dev/modem
xboard -ics -icscomm /dev/modem
After you start XBoard in this way, type whatever commands are
necessary to dial out to your Internet provider and log in.
Then telnet to ICS, using a command like `telnet chessclub.com
5000'. Important: See the paragraph below about extra echoes,
in Limitations.
-icslogon or -internetChessServerLogonScript file-name
Whenever XBoard connects to the Internet Chess Server, if it
finds a file with the name given in this option, it feeds the
file's contents to the ICS as commands. The default file name is
`.icsrc'. Usually the first two lines of the file should be
your ICS user name and password. The file can be either in
$CHESSDIR, in XBoard's working directory if CHESSDIR is not set,
or in your home directory.
-msLoginDelay delay
If you experience trouble logging on to an ICS when using the
`-icslogon' option, inserting some delay between characters of
the logon script may help. This option adds `delay' milliseconds
of delay between characters. Good values to try are 100 and 250.
-icsinput/-xicsinput or -internetChessServerInputBox true/false
Sets the ICS Input Box menu option. See Mode Menu. Default:
false.
-autocomm/-xautocomm or -autoComment true/false
Sets the Auto Comment menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
false.
-autoflag/-xautoflag or -autoCallFlag true/false
Sets the Auto Flag menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
false.
-autobs/-xautobs or -autoObserve true/false
Sets the Auto Observe menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
false.
-autoKibitz
Enables kibitzing of the engines last thinking output (depth,
score, time, speed, PV) before it moved to the ICS, in zippy
mode. The option `showThinking' must be switched on for this op-
tion to work. Also diverts similar kibitz information of an op-
ponent engine that is playing you through the ICS to the engine-
output window, as if the engine was playing locally.
-seekGraph true/false or -sg
Enables displaying of the seek graph by left-clicking the board
when you are logged on to an ICS and currently idle. The seek
graph show all players currently seeking games on the ICS, plot-
ted according to their rating and the time control of the game
they seek, in three different colors (for rated, unrated and
wild games). Computer ads are displayed as squares, human ads
are dots. Default: false.
-autoRefresh true/false
Enables automatic updating of the seek graph, by having the ICS
send a running update of all newly placed and removed seek ads.
This consumes a substantial amount of communication bandwidth,
and is only supported for FICS and ICC. Default: false.
-backgroundObserve true/false
When true, boards sent to you by the ICS from other games while
you are playing (e.g. because you are observing them) will not
be automatically displayed. Only a summary of time left and ma-
terial of both players will appear in the message field above
the board. XBoard will remember the last board it has received
this way, and will display it instead of the position in your
own game when you press the right mouse button. No other infor-
mation is stored on such games observed in the background; you
cannot save such a game later, or step through its moves. This
feature is provided solely for the benefit of bughouse players,
to enable them to peek at their partner's game without the need
to logon twice. Default: false.
-dualBoard true/false
In combination with -backgroundObserve true, this option will
display the board of the background game side by side with that
of your own game, so you can have it in view permanently. Any
board or holdings info coming in will be displayed on the sec-
ondary board immediately. This feature is still experimental
and largely unfinished. There is no animation or highlighting
of moves on the secondary board. Default: false.
-disguisePromotedPieces true/false
When set promoted Pawns in crazyhouse/bughouse are displayed
identical to primordial pieces of the same type, rather than
distinguishable. Default: true.
-moves/-xmoves or -getMoveList true/false
Sets the Get Move List menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
true.
-alarm/-xalarm or -icsAlarm true/false
Sets the ICS Alarm menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
true.
-icsAlarmTime ms
Sets the time in milliseconds for the ICS Alarm menu option.
See Options Menu. Default: 5000.
lowTimeWarning true/false
Controls a color change of the board as a warning your time is
running out. See Options Menu. Default: false.
-pre/-xpre or -premove true/false
Sets the Premove menu option. See Options Menu. Default: true.
-prewhite/-xprewhite or -premoveWhite
-preblack/-xpreblack or -premoveBlack
-premoveWhiteText string
-premoveBlackText string
Set the menu options for specifying the first move for either
color. See Options Menu. Defaults: false and empty strings, so
no pre-moves.
-quiet/-xquiet or -quietPlay true/false
Sets the Quiet Play menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
false.
-colorizeMessages or -colorize/-xcolorize
Setting colorizeMessages to true tells XBoard to colorize the
messages received from the ICS. Colorization works only if your
xterm supports ISO 6429 escape sequences for changing text col-
ors. Default: true.
-colorShout foreground,background,bold
-colorSShout foreground,background,bold
-colorCShout foreground,background,bold
-colorChannel1 foreground,background,bold
-colorChannel foreground,background,bold
-colorKibitz foreground,background,bold
-colorTell foreground,background,bold
-colorChallege foreground,background,bold
-colorRequest foreground,background,bold
-colorSeek foreground,background,bold
-colorNormal foreground,background,bold
These options set the colors used when colorizing ICS messages.
All ICS messages are grouped into one of these categories:
shout, sshout, channel 1, other channel, kibitz, tell, chal-
lenge, request (including abort, adjourn, draw, pause, and take-
back), or normal (all other messages).
Each foreground or background argument can be one of the follow-
ing: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, or
default. Here ``default'' means the default foreground or back-
ground color of your xterm. Bold can be 1 or 0. If background
is omitted, ``default'' is assumed; if bold is omitted, 0 is as-
sumed.
-soundProgram progname
If this option is set to a sound-playing program that is in-
stalled and working on your system, XBoard can play sound files
when certain events occur, listed below. The default program
name is "play". If any of the sound options is set to "$", the
event rings the terminal bell by sending a ^G character to stan-
dard output, instead of playing a sound file. If an option is
set to the empty string "", no sound is played for that event.
-soundDirectory directoryname
This option specifies where XBoard will look for sound files,
when these are not given as an absolute path name.
-soundShout filename
-soundSShout filename
-soundCShout filename
-soundChannel filename
-soundChannel1 filename
-soundKibitz filename
-soundTell filename
-soundChallenge filename
-soundRequest filename
-soundSeek filename
These sounds are triggered in the same way as the colorization
events described above. They all default to "", no sound. They
are played only if the colorizeMessages is on. CShout is syn-
onymous with SShout.
-soundMove filename
This sound is played when a player other than yourself makes a
move. Default: "$".
-soundRoar filename
This sound is played when a Lion makes a hit-and-run or double
capture/ Default: "" (no sound).
-soundIcsAlarm filename
This sound is used by the ICS Alarm menu option. Default: "$".
-soundIcsWin filename
This sound is played when you win an ICS game. Default: "" (no
sound).
-soundIcsLoss filename
This sound is played when you lose an ICS game. Default: "" (no
sound).
-soundIcsDraw filename
This sound is played when you draw an ICS game. Default: "" (no
sound).
-soundIcsUnfinished filename
This sound is played when an ICS game that you are participating
in is aborted, adjourned, or otherwise ends inconclusively. De-
fault: "" (no sound).
Load and Save options
-lgf or -loadGameFile file
-lgi or -loadGameIndex index
If the `loadGameFile' option is set, XBoard loads the specified
game file at startup. The file name `-' specifies the standard
input. If there is more than one game in the file, XBoard pops
up a menu of the available games, with entries based on their
PGN (Portable Game Notation) tags. If the `loadGameIndex' op-
tion is set to `N', the menu is suppressed and the N th game
found in the file is loaded immediately. The menu is also sup-
pressed if `matchMode' is enabled or if the game file is a pipe;
in these cases the first game in the file is loaded immediately.
Use the `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 `matchMode', which means that af-
ter 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 `rewindIndex' option
causes the index to be reset to the first game of the file when
it has reached a specified value.
-rewindIndex n
Causes a position file or game file to be rewound to its begin-
ning after n positions or games in auto-increment `matchMode'.
See `loadPositionIndex' and `loadGameIndex'. default: 0 (no
rewind).
-td or -timeDelay seconds
Time delay between moves during `Load Game' or `Analyze File'.
Fractional seconds are allowed; try `-td 0.4'. A time delay
value of -1 tells XBoard not to step through game files automat-
ically. Default: 1 second.
-sgf or -saveGameFile file
If this option is set, XBoard appends a record of every game
played to the specified file. The file name `-' specifies the
standard output.
-autosave/-xautosave or -autoSaveGames true/false
Sets the Auto Save menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
false. Ignored if `saveGameFile' is set.
-onlyOwnGames true/false
Suppresses auto-saving of ICS observed games. Default: false.
-lpf or -loadPositionFile file
-lpi or -loadPositionIndex index
If the `loadPositionFile' option is set, XBoard loads the speci-
fied position file at startup. The file name `-' specifies the
standard input. If the `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 `match-
Mode', which means that after every game the index is incre-
mented 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 en-
gines playing opposite colors). The `rewindIndex' option causes
the index to be reset to the first position of the file when it
has reached a specified value.
-spf or -savePositionFile file
If this option is set, XBoard appends the final position reached
in every game played to the specified file. The file name `-'
specifies the standard output.
-positionDir directory
Specifies the directory where file browsing should start when
using the `Load Position' menu item.
-pgnExtendedInfo true/false
If this option is set, XBoard saves depth, score and time used
for each move that the engine found as a comment in the PGN
file. Default: false.
-pgnTimeLeft true/false
If this option is set, XBoard will save the remaining clock time
for the player that has just moved as part of the `pgnExtended-
Info', rather than the time that player thought about his latest
move. Default: false.
-pgnEventHeader string
Default: false. Sets the name used in the PGN event tag to
string. Default: "Computer Chess Game".
-pgnNumberTag true/false
Include the (unique) sequence number of a tournament game into
the saved PGN file as a 'number' tag. Default: false.
-saveOutOfBookInfo true/false
Include the information on how the engine(s) game out of its
opening book in a special 'annotator' tag with the PGN file.
Default: true.
-oldsave/-xoldsave or -oldSaveStyle true/false
Sets the Old Save Style menu option. See Options Menu. De-
fault: false.
-gameListTags string
The character string lists the PGN tags that should be printed
in the Game List, and their order. The meaning of the codes is
e=event, s=site, d=date, o=round, p=players, r=result, w=white
Elo, b=black Elo, t=time control, v=variant, a=out-of-book info,
c=result comment. Default: "eprd"
-ini or -settingsFile filename
-saveSettingsFile filename
@filename
When XBoard encounters an option -settingsFile (or -ini for
short), or @filename, it tries to read the mentioned file, and
substitutes the contents of it (presumaby more command-line op-
tions) in place of the option. In the case of -ini or -set-
tingsFile, the name of a successfully read settings file is also
remembered as the file to use for saving settings (automatically
on exit, or on user command). An option of the form @filename
does not affect saving. The option -saveSettingsFile does spec-
ify a name of the file to use for saving, without reading any
options from it, and is thus also effective when the file did
not exist yet. So the settings will be saved to the file speci-
fied in the last -saveSettingsFile or succesful -settingsFile /
-ini command, if any, and in /etc/xboard/xboard.conf otherwise.
Usualy the latter is only accessible for the system administra-
tor, though, and will be used to contain system-wide default
settings, amongst which a -saveSettingsFile and -settingsFile
options to specify a settings file accessible to the individual
user, such as ~/.xboardrc in the user's home directory.
-saveSettingsOnExit true/false
Controls saving of options on the settings file. See Options
Menu. Default: true.
User interface options
-noGUI Suppresses all GUI functions of XBoard (to speed up automated
ultra-fast engine-engine games, which you don't want to watch).
There will be no board or clock updates, no printing of moves,
and no update of the icon on the task bar in this mode.
-logoSize N
This option controls the drawing of player logos next to the
clocks. The integer N specifies the width of the logo in pix-
els; the logo height will always be half the width. When N = 0,
no logos will be diplayed. Default: 0.
-firstLogo imagefile
-secondLogo imagefile
Specify the images to be used as player logos when `logoSize' is
non-zero, next to the white and black clocks, respectively.
-autoLogo true/false
-logoDir filename
When `autoLogo' is set, XBoard will search for a PNG image file
with the name of the engine or ICS in the directory specified by
`logoDir'. For a human player it will look for a file <user-
name>.png in this directory, but only when ~/.logo.png does not
provide one.
-recentEngines number
-recentEngineList list
When the number is larger than zero, it determines how many re-
cently used engines will be appended at the bottom of the `En-
gines' menu. The engines will be saved in your settings file as
the option `recentEngineList', by their nicknames, and the most
recently used one will always be sorted to the top. If the list
after that is longer than the specified number, the last one is
discarded. Changes in the list will only become visible the
next session, provided you saved the settings. Default: 6.
-oneClickMove true/false
When set, this option allows you to enter moves by only clicking
the to- or from-square, when only a single legal move to or from
that square is possible. Double-clicking a piece (or clicking
an already selected piece) will instruct that piece to make the
only capture it can legally do. Default: false.
-monoMouse true/false
When set button 1 clicks on empty squares in Edit Position mode
will be interpreted as button 3 clicks, so they place a piece.
Default: false.
-movesound/-xmovesound or -ringBellAfterMoves true/false
Sets the Move Sound menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
false. For compatibility with old XBoard versions, -bell/-xbell
are also accepted as abbreviations for this option.
-analysisBell N
When N is non-zero, the Move Sound will be played whenever a new
PV arrives in analysis mode after more than N seconds of analy-
sis. Default: 0.
-exit/-xexit or -popupExitMessage true/false
Sets the Popup Exit Message menu option. See Options Menu. De-
fault: true.
-popup/-xpopup or -popupMoveErrors true/false
Sets the Popup Move Errors menu option. See Options Menu. De-
fault: false.
-queen/-xqueen or -alwaysPromoteToQueen true/false
Sets the Always Queen menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
false.
-sweepPromotions true/false
Sets the `Almost Always Promote to Queen' menu option. See Op-
tions Menu. Default: false.
-legal/-xlegal or -testLegality true/false
Sets the Test Legality menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
true.
-size or -boardSize (sizeName | n1,n2,n3,n4,n5,n6,n7)
Determines how large the board will be, by selecting the pixel
size of the pieces and setting a few related parameters. The
sizeName can be one of: Titanic, giving 129x129 pixel pieces,
Colossal 116x116, Giant 108x108, Huge 95x95, Big 87x87, Large
80x80, Bulky 72x72, Medium 64x64, Moderate 58x58, Average 54x54,
Middling 49x49, Mediocre 45x45, Small 40x40, Slim 37x37, Petite
33x33, Dinky 29x29, Teeny 25x25, or Tiny 21x21. Xboard installs
with a set of scalable (svg) piece images, which it scales to
any of the requested sizes. The square size can further be con-
tinuously scaled by sizing the board window, but this only
adapts the size of the pieces, and has no effect on the width of
the grid lines or the font choice (both of which would depend on
he selected boardSize). The default depends on the size of your
screen; it is approximately the largest size that will fit with-
out clipping.
You can select other sizes or vary other layout parameters by
providing a list of comma-separated values (with no spaces) as
the argument. You do not need to provide all the values; for
any you omit from the end of the list, defaults are taken from
the nearest built-in size. The value `n1' gives the piece size,
`n2' the width of the black border between squares, `n3' the de-
sired size for the clockFont, `n4' the desired size for the co-
ordFont, `n5' the desired size for the messageFont, `n6' the
smallLayout flag (0 or 1), and `n7' the tinyLayout flag (0 or
1). All dimensions are in pixels. If the border between
squares is eliminated (0 width), the various highlight options
will not work, as there is nowhere to draw the highlight. If
smallLayout is 1 and `titleInWindow' is true, the window layout
is rearranged to make more room for the title. If tinyLayout is
1, the labels on the menu bar are abbreviated to one character
each and the buttons in the button bar are made narrower.
-overrideLineGap n
When n >= 0, this forces the width of the black border between
squares to n pixels for any board size. Mostly used to suppress
the grid entirely by setting n = 0, e.g. in xiangqi or just get-
ting a prettier picture. When n < 0 this the size-dependent
width of the grid lines is used. Default: -1.
-coords/-xcoords or -showCoords true/false
Sets the Show Coords menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
false. The `coordFont' option specifies what font to use.
-autoraise/-xautoraise or -autoRaiseBoard true/false
Sets the Auto Raise Board menu option. See Options Menu. De-
fault: true.
-autoflip/-xautoflip or -autoFlipView true/false
Sets the Auto Flip View menu option. See Options Menu. De-
fault: true.
-flip/-xflip or -flipView true/false
If Auto Flip View is not set, or if you are observing but not
participating in a game, then the positioning of the board at
the start of each game depends on the flipView option. If
flipView is false (the default), the board is positioned so that
the white pawns move from the bottom to the top; if true, the
black pawns move from the bottom to the top. In any case, the
Flip menu option (see Options Menu) can be used to flip the
board after the game starts.
-title/-xtitle or -titleInWindow true/false
If this option is true, XBoard displays player names (for ICS
games) and game file names (for `Load Game') inside its main
window. If the option is false (the default), this information
is displayed only in the window banner. You probably won't want
to set this option unless the information is not showing up in
the banner, as happens with a few X window managers.
-buttons/-xbuttons or -showButtonBar True/False
If this option is False, xboard omits the [<<] [<] [P] [>] [>>]
button bar from the window, allowing the message line to be
wider. You can still get the functions of these buttons using
the menus or their keyboard shortcuts. Default: true.
-evalZoom factor
The score interval (-1,1) is blown up on the vertical axis of
the Evaluation Graph by the given factor. Default: 1
-evalThreshold n
Score below n (centiPawn) are plotted as 0 in the Evaluation
Graph. Default: 25
-mono/-xmono or -monoMode true/false
Determines whether XBoard displays its pieces and squares with
two colors (true) or four (false). You shouldn't have to specify
`monoMode'; XBoard will determine if it is necessary.
-showTargetSquares true/false
Determines whether XBoard can highlight the squares a piece has
legal moves to, when you grab that piece with the mouse. De-
fault: false.
-flashCount count
-flashRate rate
-flash/-xflash
These options enable flashing of pieces when they land on their
destination square. `flashCount' tells XBoard how many times to
flash a piece after it lands on its destination square.
`flashRate' controls the rate of flashing (flashes/sec). Abbre-
viations: `flash' sets flashCount to 3. `xflash' sets flash-
Count to 0. Defaults: flashCount=0 (no flashing), flashRate=5.
-highlight/-xhighlight or -highlightLastMove true/false
Sets the Highlight Last Move menu option. See Options Menu. De-
fault: false.
-highlightMoveWithArrow true/false
Sets the Highlight with Arrow menu option. See Options Menu. De-
fault: false.
-blind/-xblind or -blindfold true/false
Sets the Blindfold menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
false.
-periodic/-xperiodic or -periodicUpdates true/false
Controls updating of current move andnode counts in analysis
mode. Default: true.
-fSAN
-sSAN Causes the PV in thinking output of the mentioned engine to be
converted to SAN before it is further processed. Warning: this
might lose engine output not understood by the parser, and uses
a lot of CPU power. Default: the PV is displayed exactly as the
engine produced it.
-showEvalInMoveHistory true/false
Controls whether the evaluation scores and search depth of en-
gine moves are displayed with the move in the move-history win-
dow. Default: true.
-clockFont font
The font used for the clocks. If the option value is a pattern
that does not specify the font size, XBoard tries to choose an
appropriate font for the board size being used. Default Xaw:
-*-helvetica-bold-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*. Default GTK: Sans
Bold %d.
-coordFont font
The font used for rank and file coordinate labels if `showCo-
ords' is true. If the option value is a pattern that does not
specify the font size, XBoard tries to choose an appropriate
font for the board size being used. Default Xaw: -*-helvetica-
bold-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*. Default GTK: Sans Bold %d.
-messageFont font
The font used for popup dialogs, menus, etc. If the option
value is a pattern that does not specify the font size, XBoard
tries to choose an appropriate font for the board size being
used. Default Xaw: -*-helvetica-medium-r-nor-
mal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*. Default GTK: Sans Bold %d
-tagsFont font
The font used in the Edit Tags dialog. If the option value con-
tains %d, XBoard will replace it by an appropriate font for the
board size being used. (Only used in GTK build.) Default: Sans
Normal %d.
-commentFont font
The font used in the Edit Comment dialog. If the option value
contains %d, XBoard will replace it by an appropriate font for
the board size being used. (Only used in GTK build.) Default:
Sans Normal %d.
-icsFont font
The font used to display ICS output in the ICS Chat window. As
ICS output often contains tables aligned by spaces, a mono-space
font is recommended here. If the option value contains %d,
XBoard will replace it by an appropriate font for the board size
being used. (Only used in GTK build.) Default: Monospace Nor-
mal %d.
-moveHistoryFont font
The font used in Move History and Engine Output windows. As
these windows display mainly moves, one could use a figurine
font here. If the option value contains %d, XBoard will replace
it by an appropriate font for the board size being used. (Only
used in GTK build.) Default: Sans Normal %d.
-gameListFont font
The font used in the listbox of the Game List window. If the
option value contains %d, XBoard will replace it by an appropri-
ate font for the board size being used. (Only used in GTK
build.) Default: Sans Bold %d.
-fontSizeTolerance tol
In the font selection algorithm, a nonscalable font will be pre-
ferred over a scalable font if the nonscalable font's size dif-
fers by `tol' pixels or less from the desired size. A value of
-1 will force a scalable font to always be used if available; a
value of 0 will use a nonscalable font only if it is exactly the
right size; a large value (say 1000) will force a nonscalable
font to always be used if available. Default: 4.
-pid or -pieceImageDirectory dir
This options control what piece images xboard uses. XBoard will
look in the specified directory for an image in png or svg for-
mat for every piece type, with names like BlackQueen.svg,
WhiteKnight.svg etc. When neither of these is found (or no
valid directory is specified) XBoard will first ty to use an im-
age White/BlackTile.svg in that same directory, and if that is
not present either use the svg piece that was installed with it
(from the source-tree directory `svg'). Both svg and png images
will be scaled by XBoard to the required size, but the png
pieces lose much in quality when scaled too much. Default: "".
-inscriptions utf8string
The positions in the utf8string correspond to XBoard's piece
types, and for each type a glyph can be defined. This glyph
will then be rendered on top of the image for the piece. This
is useful in combination with the White/BlackTile.svg images,
which could be the image of a blank Shogi tile, for writing the
kanji piece name on top of it on the fly. Default: "".
-whitePieceColor color
-blackPieceColor color
-lightSquareColor color
-darkSquareColor color
-highlightSquareColor color
-preoveHighlightColor color
-lowTimeWarningColor color
Colors to use for the pieces, squares, and square highlights.
Defaults:
-whitePieceColor #FFFFCC
-blackPieceColor #202020
-lightSquareColor #C8C365
-darkSquareColor #77A26D
-highlightSquareColor #FFFF00
-premoveHighlightColor #FF0000
-lowTimeWarningColor #FF0000
On a grayscale monitor you might prefer:
-whitePieceColor gray100
-blackPieceColor gray0
-lightSquareColor gray80
-darkSquareColor gray60
-highlightSquareColor gray100
-premoveHighlightColor gray70
-lowTimeWarningColor gray70
The PieceColor options only work properly if the image files
defining the pieces were pure black & white (possibly anti-
aliased to produce gray scales and semi-transparancy), like the
pieces images that come with the install. Their effect on col-
ored pieces is undefined. The SquareColor option only have an
effect when no board textures are used.
-trueColors true/false
When set, this option suppresses the effect of the PieceColor
options mentioned above. This is recommended for images that
are already colored.
-useBoardTexture true/false
-liteBackTextureFile filename
-darkBackTextureFile filename
Indicate the png image files to be used for drawing the board
squares, and if they should be used rather than using simple
colors. The algorithm for cutting squares out of a given bitmap
is such that the picture is perfectly reproduced when a bitmap
the size of the complete board is given. If the filename ends
in "-NxM.png", with integer N and M, it is assumed to contain a
bitmap of a complete board of N files and M ranks, and XBoard
will scale it to exactly match the current square size. If
N=M=0 it scales the entire bitmap to the size of the board, ir-
respective of the number of files and ranks of the latter.
Without any -NxM suffix textures are only blown up by an integer
factor when they are smaller than the square size, or, when the
name starts with "xq", too small to cover the complete Xiangqi
board. Default: false and ""
-drag/-xdrag or -animateDragging true/false
Sets the Animate Dragging menu option. See Options Menu. De-
fault: true.
-animate/-xanimate or -animateMoving true/false
Sets the Animate Moving menu option. See Options Menu. Default:
true.
-animateSpeed n
Number of milliseconds delay between each animation frame when
Animate Moves is on.
-autoDisplayComment true/false
-autoDisplayTags true/false
If set to true, these options cause the window with the move
comments, and the window with PGN tags, respectively, to pop up
automatically when such tags or comments are encountered during
the replaying a stored or loaded game. Default: true.
-pasteSelection true/false
If this option is set to true, the Paste Position and Paste Game
options paste from the currently selected text. If false, they
paste from the clipboard. Default: false.
-autoCopyPV true|false
When this option is set, the position displayed on the board
when you terminate a PV walk (initiated by a right-click on
board or engine-output window) will be automatically put on the
clipboard as FEN. Default: false.
-dropMenu true|false
This option allows you to emulate old behavior, where the right
mouse button brings up the (now deprecated) drop menu rather
than displaying the position at the end of the principal varia-
tion. Default: False.
-pieceMenu true|false
This option allows you to emulate old behavior, where the right
mouse button brings up the (now deprecated) piece menu in Edit
Position mode. From this menu you can select the piece to put
on the square you clicked to bring up the menu, or select items
such as `clear board'. You can also `promote' or `demote' a
clicked piece to convert it into an unorthodox piece that is not
directly in the menu, or give the move to `black' or `white'.
-variations true|false
When this option is on, you can start new variations in Edit
Game or Analyze mode by holding the Shift key down while enter-
ing a move. When it is off, the Shift key will be ignored. De-
fault: False.
-appendPV true|false
When this option is on, a button 3 click left of a PV in the En-
gine Output window will play the first move of that PV in Ana-
lyze mode, or as many moves as you walk through it by moving the
mouse. Default: False.
-absoluteAnalysisScores true|false
When true, scores on the Engine Output window during analysis
will be printed from the white point-of-view, rather than the
side-to-move point-of-view. Default: False.
-scoreWhite true|false
When true, scores will always be printed from the white point-
of-view, rather than the side-to-move point-of-view. Default:
False.
-memoHeaders true|false
When true, column headers will be displayed in the Engine Output
window for the depth, score, time and nodes data. A button 3
click on these headers will hide or show the corresponding data.
(Not intended for dynamic use, as already printed data of the
current search will not be affected!) Defaul: False.
Adjudication Options
-adjudicateLossThreshold n
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 en-
gine. Make sure the score is interpreted properly by XBoard, us-
ing `-firstScoreAbs' and `-secondScoreAbs' if needed. Default:
0 (no adjudication)
-adjudicateDrawMoves n
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.
Default: 0 (no adjudication)
-checkMates true/false
If this option is set, XBoard detects all checkmates and stale-
mates, and ends the game as soon as they occur. Legality-test-
ing must be switched on for this option to work. Default: true
-testClaims true/false
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
-materialDraws true/false
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
-trivialDraws true/false
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
-ruleMoves n
If the given value is non-zero, XBoard adjudicates the game as a
draw after the given number of consecutive reversible moves. En-
gine draw claims are always accepted after 50 moves, irrespec-
tive of the given value of n.
-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. En-
gines draw claims are always accepted after 3 repeats, (on the
3rd occurrence, actually), irrespective of the value of n. Be-
ware that positions that have different castling or en-passant
rights do not count as repeats, XBoard is fully e.p. and
castling aware!
Install options
--show-config parameter
When called with this option, XBoard will close immediately af-
ter printing the value of the indicated configuration parameter,
or, when no parameter was given, after printing a list of all
such parameters. Currently the only valid values for parameter
are Datadir and Sysconfdir. This option can be used by install
scripts for board themes to figure out where the currently ac-
tive XBoard stores its data.
-date timestamp
-saveDate timestamp
These options specify an epoch as an integer number. The `save-
Date' option is written by XBoard in the settings file every
time the settings are saved, with the current time, so that
later runs of XBoard can know this. The `date' option can be
included in settings files to indicate when lines following it
were added to those files. Some options will be ignored if the
epoch specified by the latest `date' option predates the -save-
Date setting (implying they must have been seen before).
-autoInstall list
When the list is set to a non-empty string, XBoard will scan the
operating system's plugin directory for engines supporting UCI
and XBoard protocol at startup. When it finds an engine that
was installed after it last saved its settings, a line to launch
that engine (as per specs in the plugin file) is appended to the
-firstChessProgramNames list of installed engines. In the fu-
ture it will be possible to use the autoInstall list to limit
this automatic adding of engines based on the chess variant they
play.
-addMasterOption string
Adds the mentioned string as an additional line of XBoard's mas-
ter settings file, after adding a line with a `date' option to
timestamp it. Intended to add options of the 'install' type
(see below) to the master file, which will then be processed by
any XBoard that has not seen them since it last saved its set-
tings.
-autoClose
The presence of this option cause XBoard to close immediately
after processing all its options (from settings file and command
line). Typically used from install scripts together with op-
tions that change XBoard's settings files, so that XBoard can be
run in batch mode rather than interactively.
-installEngine string
Adds the given string as an additional line to the value of the
`firstChessProgramNames' option when the -saveDate setting pre-
ceeds the -date setting. Intended for adding to the master set-
tings file with the aid of -addMasterOption in the install
script of engines, as a method for broadcasting the presence of
a new engine to all users, which would then see it automatically
registered with XBoard. Made obsolete by the advent of the
plugin standard (see the `autoInstall' option), which broadcasts
such presence in a non-XBoard-specific way by dropping *.eng
files in a certain system directory.
-installTheme string
Adds the given string as an additional line to the value of the
-themeNames option when the -saveDate setting preceeds the -date
setting. Intended for adding to the master settings file with
the aid of -addMasterOption in the install script of board
graphics themes, as a method for broadcasting the availability
of a new theme to all users, who would then see the theme appear
automatically in the listbox in the View Board menu dialog next
time they run XBoard.
Other options
-ncp/-xncp or -noChessProgram true/false
If this option is true, XBoard acts as a passive chessboard; it
does not start a chess engine at all. Turning on this option
also turns off clockMode. Default: false.
-viewer
-viewerOptions string
Presence of the volatile option `viewer' on the command line
will cause the value of the persistent option `viewerOptions' as
stored in the settings file to be appended to the command line.
The `view' option will be used by desktop associations with game
or position file types, so that `viewerOptions' can be used to
configure the exact mode XBoard will start in when it should act
on such a file (e.g. in -ncp mode, or analyzing with your fa-
vorite engine). The options are also automatically appended when
Board is invoked with a single argument not being an option
name, which is then assumed to be the name of a `loadGameFile'
or (when the name ends in .fen) a `loadPositionFile'. Default:
"-ncp -engineOutputUp false -saveSettingsOnExit false".
-tourneyOptions string
When XBoard is invoked with a single argument that is a file
with .trn extension, it will assume this argument to be the
value of a `tourneyFile' option, and append the value of the
persistent option `tourneyOptions' as stored in the settings
file to the command line. Thus the value of `tourneyOptions'
can be used to configure XBoard to automatically start running a
tournament when it should act on such a file. Default: "-ncp
-mm -saveSettingsOnExit false".
-mode or -initialMode modename
If this option is given, XBoard selects the given modename from
the Mode menu after starting and (if applicable) processing the
loadGameFile or loadPositionFile option. Default: "" (no selec-
tion). Other supported values are MachineWhite, MachineBlack,
TwoMachines, Analysis, AnalyzeFile, EditGame, EditPosition, and
Training.
-variant varname
Activates (sometimes partial) support for playing chess vari-
ants against a local engine or editing variant games. This flag
is not needed in ICS mode. Recognized variant names are:
normal Normal chess
wildcastle Shuffle chess, king can castle from d file
nocastle Shuffle chess, no castling allowed
fischerandom Fischer Random shuffle chess
bughouse Bughouse, ICC/FICS rules
crazyhouse Crazyhouse, ICC/FICS rules
losers Lose all pieces or get mated (ICC wild 17)
suicide Lose all pieces including king (FICS)
giveaway Try to have no legal moves (ICC wild 26)
twokings Weird ICC wild 9
kriegspiel Opponent's pieces are invisible
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 intermediate between shatranj and
modern Chess (on 12x8 board)
falcon Patented 10x8 variant with two Falcon pieces
berolina Pawns capture straight ahead, and move diagonally
cylinder Pieces wrap around the board edge
knightmate King moves as Knight, and vice versa
super Superchess (shuffle variant with 4 exo-pieces)
makruk Thai Chess (shatranj-like, P promotes on 6th rank)
asean ASEAN Chess (a modernized version of Makruk)
spartan Spartan Chess (black has unorthodox pieces)
great Great Shatranj, a 10x8 variant without sliders
grand Grand Chess, on 10x10 with Capablanca pieces
lion Mighty-Lion Chess, with a multi-capturing Lion
elven Eleven Chess, with Lion and crowned sliders on 10x10
chu Chu Shogi, historic 12x12 variant with 2x46 pieces
fairy A catchall variant in which all piece types
known to XBoard can participate (8x8)
unknown Catchall for other unknown variants
In the shuffle variants, XBoard does shuffle the pieces, al-
though you can still do it by hand using Edit Position. Some
variants are supported only in ICS mode, including bughouse, and
kriegspiel. Berolina and cylinder chess are only partially sup-
ported, and can only be played with legality testing off.
Apart from these standard variants, engines can define variants
of arbitrary names, briefing XBoard transparently on the rules
for piece movement, board size and initial setup, so that they
work nearly as well as fully-supported standard variants. (But
obviously only while using that engine.) The user might have to
alter the adjudication settings for some variants, however. E.g.
it makes no sense to adjudicate a draw after 50 reversible moves
in variants that have a 64-move rule, or no similar rule at all.
Default: "normal". Except when the first engine gave an explicit
list of variants it supports, and 'normal' is not amongst those.
In that case the first variant the engine mentioned it did play
will be chosen.
-boardHeight N
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
-boardWidth N
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 posi-
tion will always be an empty board, as the usual opening array
will not fit. Default: -1
-holdingsSize N
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
-defaultFrcPosition N
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
-pieceToCharTable string
The characters that are used to represent the piece types XBoard
knows in FEN diagrams and SAN moves. 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. The string argument has to specify an even number
of pieces (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 FEACWMOHIJGDVLSU, 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 fewer
characters in the string than XBoard has pieces, the pieces not
mentioned will get assigned a period, and will not be usable in
the variant. 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 to 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). By default the second 11 pieces known
to XBoard are the promoted forms of the first 11. A piece spec-
ified by the character combination ^ plus letter will be assumed
to be the promoted form of the piece indicated by that letter,
and get a '+' assigned. To get around the limitation of the al-
phabet, piece IDs can also be 'dressed letters', i.e. a single
letter (upper case for white, lower case for black) followed by
a single quote or an exclamation point. Default: "" (meaning
the default for the variant is used).
-pieceNickNames string
The characters in the string are interpreted the same way as in
the `pieceToCharTable' option. But on input, piece-ID letters
are first looked up in the nicknames, and only if not defined
there, in the normal pieceToCharTable. This allows you to have
two letters designate the same piece, (e.g. N as an alternative
to H for Horse in Xiangqi), to make reading of non-compliant no-
tations easier. Default: ""
-colorNickNames string
The side-to-move field in a FEN will be first matched against
the letters in the string (first character for white, second for
black), before it is matched to the regular 'w' and 'b'. This
makes it easier to read non-compliant FENs, which, say, use 'r'
for white. Default: ""
-debug/-xdebug or -debugMode true/false
Turns on debugging printout.
-debugFile filename or -nameOfDebugFile filename
Sets the name of the file to which XBoard saves debug informa-
tion (including all communication to and from the engines). A
`%d' in the given file name (e.g. game%d.debug) will be replaced
by the unique sequence number of a tournament game, so that the
debug output of each game will be written on a separate file.
-engineDebugOutput number
Specifies how XBoard should handle unsolicited output from the
engine, with respect to saving it in the debug file. The output
is further (hopefully) ignored. If number=0, XBoard refrains
from writing such spurious output to the debug file. If num-
ber=1, all engine output is written faithfully to the debug
file. If number=2, any protocol-violating line is prefixed with
a '#' character, as the engine itself should have done if it
wanted to submit info for inclusion in the debug file. This op-
tion is provided for the benefit of applications that use the
debug file as a source of information, such as the broadcaster
of live games TLCV / TLCS. Such applications can be protected
from spurious engine output that might otherwise confuse them.
-rsh or -remoteShell shell-name
Name of the command used to run programs remotely. The default
is `rsh' or `remsh', determined when XBoard is configured and
compiled.
-ruser or -remoteUser user-name
User name on the remote system when running programs with the
`remoteShell'. The default is your local user name.
-userName username
Name under which the Human player will be listed in the PGN
file. Default is the login name on your local computer.
-delayBeforeQuit number
-delayAfterQuit number
These options order pauses before and after sending the "quit"
command to an engine that must be terminated. The pause between
quit and the previous command is specified in milliseconds. The
pause after quit is used to schedule a kill signal to be sent to
the engine process after the number of specified seconds plus
one. This signal is a different one as the terminiation signal
described in the protocol specs which engines can suppress or
ignore, and which is sent directly after the "quit" command.
Setting `delayAfterQuit' to -1 will suppress sending of the kill
signal. Default: 0
-searchMode n
The integer n encodes the mode for the `find position' function.
Default: 1 (= Exact position match)
-eloThresholdBoth elo
-eloThresholdAny elo
Defines a lower limit for the Elo rating, which has to be sur-
passed before a game will be considered when searching for a
board position. Default: 0
-dateThreshold year
Only games not played before the given year will be considered
when searching for a board position
CHESS SERVERS
An "Internet Chess Server", or "ICS", is a place on the Internet where
people can get together to play chess, watch other people's games, or
just chat. You can use either `telnet' or a client program like XBoard
to connect to the server. There are thousands of registered users on
the different ICS hosts, and it is not unusual to meet 200 on both
chessclub.com and freechess.org.
Most people can just type `xboard -ics' to start XBoard as an ICS
client. Invoking XBoard in this way connects you to the Internet Chess
Club (ICC), a commercial ICS. You can log in there as a guest even if
you do not have a paid account. To connect to the largest Free ICS
(FICS), use the command `xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org' instead,
or substitute a different host name to connect to your favorite ICS.
For a full description of command-line options that control the connec-
tion to ICS and change the default values of ICS options, see ICS op-
tions.
While you are running XBoard as an ICS client, you use the terminal
window that you started XBoard from as a place to type in commands and
read information that is not available on the chessboard.
The first time you need to use the terminal is to enter your login name
and password, if you are a registered player. (You don't need to do
this manually; the `icsLogon' option can do it for you. See ICS op-
tions.) If you are not registered, enter `g' as your name, and the
server will pick a unique guest name for you.
Some useful ICS commands include
help <topic>
to get help on the given <topic>. To get a list of possible top-
ics type "help" without topic. Try the help command before you
ask other people on the server for help.
For example `help register' tells you how to become a registered
ICS player.
who <flags>
to see a list of people who are logged on. Administrators (peo-
ple you should talk to if you have a problem) are marked with
the character `*', an asterisk. The <flags> allow you to display
only selected players: For example, `who of' shows a list of
players who are interested in playing but do not have an oppo-
nent.
games to see what games are being played
match <player> [<mins>] [<inc>]
to challenge another player to a game. Both opponents get <mins>
minutes for the game, and <inc> seconds will be added after each
move. If another player challenges you, the server asks if you
want to accept the challenge; use the `accept' or `decline' com-
mands to answer.
accept
decline
to accept or decline another player's offer. The offer may be
to start a new game, or to agree to a `draw', `adjourn' or
`abort' the current game. See Action Menu.
If you have more than one pending offer (for example, if more
than one player is challenging you, or if your opponent offers
both a draw and to adjourn the game), you have to supply addi-
tional information, by typing something like `accept <player>',
`accept draw', or `draw'.
draw
adjourn
abort asks your opponent to terminate a game by mutual agreement. Ad-
journed games can be continued later. Your opponent can either
`decline' your offer or accept it (by typing the same command or
typing `accept'). In some cases these commands work immedi-
ately, without asking your opponent to agree. For example, you
can abort the game unilaterally if your opponent is out of time,
and you can claim a draw by repetition or the 50-move rule if
available simply by typing `draw'.
finger <player>
to get information about the given <player>. (Default: your-
self.)
vars to get a list of personal settings
set <var> <value>
to modify these settings
observe <player>
to observe an ongoing game of the given <player>.
examine
oldmoves
to review a recently completed game
Some special XBoard features are activated when you are in examine mode
on ICS. See the descriptions of the menu commands `Forward', `Back-
ward', `Pause', `ICS Client', and `Stop Examining' on the Edit Menu,
Mode Menu, and Action Menu.
FIREWALLS
By default, XBoard communicates with an Internet Chess Server by open-
ing a TCP socket directly from the machine it is running on to the ICS.
If there is a firewall between your machine and the ICS, this won't
work. Here are some recipes for getting around common kinds of fire-
walls using special options to XBoard. Important: See the paragraph in
the below about extra echoes, in Limitations.
Suppose that you can't telnet directly to ICS, but you can telnet to a
firewall host, log in, and then telnet from there to ICS. Let's say
the firewall is called `firewall.example.com'. Set command-line options
as follows:
xboard -ics -icshost firewall.example.com -icsport 23
Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, you will be prompted to log in to
the firewall host. This works because port 23 is the standard telnet
login service. Do so, then telnet to ICS, using a command like `telnet
chessclub.com 5000', or whatever command the firewall provides for tel-
netting to port 5000.
If your firewall lets you telnet (or rlogin) to remote hosts but
doesn't let you telnet to port 5000, you may be able to connect to the
chess server on port 23 instead, which is the port the telnet program
uses by default. Some chess servers support this (including chess-
club.com and freechess.org), while some do not.
If your chess server does not allow connections on port 23 and your
firewall does not allow you to connect to other ports, you may be able
to connect by hopping through another host outside the firewall that
you have an account on. For instance, suppose you have a shell account
at `foo.edu'. Follow the recipe above, but instead of typing `telnet
chessclub.com 5000' to the firewall, type `telnet foo.edu' (or `rlogin
foo.edu'), log in there, and then type `telnet chessclub.com 5000'.
Suppose that you can't telnet directly to ICS, but you can use rsh to
run programs on a firewall host, and that host can telnet to ICS.
Let's say the firewall is called `rsh.example.com'. Set command-line
options as follows:
xboard -ics -gateway rsh.example.com -icshost chessclub.com
Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, it will connect to the ICS by us-
ing `rsh' to run the command `telnet chessclub.com 5000' on host
`rsh.example.com'.
Suppose that you can telnet anywhere you want, but you have to run a
special program called `ptelnet' to do so.
First, we'll consider the easy case, in which `ptelnet chessclub.com
5000' gets you to the chess server. In this case set command line op-
tions as follows:
xboard -ics -telnet -telnetProgram ptelnet
Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, it will issue the command `ptel-
net chessclub.com 5000' to connect to the ICS.
Next, suppose that `ptelnet chessclub.com 5000' doesn't work; that is,
your `ptelnet' program doesn't let you connect to alternative ports. As
noted above, your chess server may allow you to connect on port 23 in-
stead. In that case, just add the option `-icsport ""' to the above
command. But if your chess server doesn't let you connect on port 23,
you will have to find some other host outside the firewall and hop
through it. For instance, suppose you have a shell account at
`foo.edu'. Set command line options as follows:
xboard -ics -telnet -telnetProgram ptelnet -icshost foo.edu -icsport ""
Then when you run XBoard in ICS mode, it will issue the command `ptel-
net foo.edu' to connect to your account at `foo.edu'. Log in there,
then type `telnet chessclub.com 5000'.
ICC timestamp and FICS timeseal do not work through some firewalls.
You can use them only if your firewall gives a clean TCP connection
with a full 8-bit wide path. If your firewall allows you to get out
only by running a special telnet program, you can't use timestamp or
timeseal across it. But if you have access to a computer just outside
your firewall, and you have much lower netlag when talking to that com-
puter than to the ICS, it might be worthwhile running timestamp there.
Follow the instructions above for hopping through a host outside the
firewall (foo.edu in the example), but run timestamp or timeseal on
that host instead of telnet.
Suppose that you have a SOCKS firewall that will give you a clean 8-bit
wide TCP connection to the chess server, but only after you authenti-
cate yourself via the SOCKS protocol. In that case, you could make a
socksified version of XBoard and run that. If you are using timestamp
or timeseal, you will to socksify it, not XBoard; this may be difficult
seeing that ICC and FICS do not provide source code for these programs.
Socksification is beyond the scope of this document, but see the SOCKS
Web site at http://www.socks.permeo.com/. If you are missing SOCKS,
try http://www.funbureau.com/.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Game and position files are found in a directory named by the `CHESS-
DIR' environment variable. If this variable is not set, the current
working directory is used. If `CHESSDIR' is set, XBoard actually
changes its working directory to `$CHESSDIR', so any files written by
the chess engine will be placed there too.
LIMITATIONS AND KNOWN BUGS
There is no way for two people running copies of XBoard to play each
other without going through an Internet Chess Server.
Under some circumstances, your ICS password may be echoed when you log
on.
If you are connecting to the ICS by running telnet on an Internet
provider or firewall host, you may find that each line you type is
echoed back an extra time after you hit <Enter>. If your Internet
provider is a Unix system, you can probably turn its echo off by typing
`stty -echo' after you log in, and/or typing <^E><Enter> (Ctrl+E fol-
lowed by the Enter key) to the telnet program after you have logged
into ICS. It is a good idea to do this if you can, because the extra
echo can occasionally confuse XBoard's parsing routines.
The game parser recognizes only algebraic notation.
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 drop-
ping 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, XBoard will accept the error message that comes back, undo the
move, and let you try another. FEN positions saved by XBoard do in-
clude correct information about whether castling or en passant are le-
gal, 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 (ob-
solete) piece menus are not active, but you can perform piece drops by
dragging pieces from 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, not an
XBoard bug.
Also see the ToDo file included with the distribution for many other
possible bugs, limitations, and ideas for improvement that have been
suggested.
REPORTING PROBLEMS
You can report bugs and problems with XBoard using the bug tracker at
`https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/' or by sending mail to
`<bug-xboard@gnu.org>'. It can also be useful to report or discuss
bugs in the WinBoard Forum at `http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/',
WinBoard development section.
Please use the `script' program to start a typescript, run XBoard with
the `-debug' option, and include the typescript output in your message.
Also tell us what kind of machine and what operating system version you
are using. The command `uname -a' will often tell you this.
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.
AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Chris Sears and Dan Sears wrote the original XBoard. They were respon-
sible for versions 1.0 through 1.2. The color scheme was taken from
Wayne Christopher's `XChess' program.
Tim Mann was primarily responsible for XBoard versions 1.3 through
4.2.7, and for WinBoard (a port of XBoard to Microsoft Win32) from its
inception through version 4.2.7.
John Chanak contributed the initial implementation of ICS mode. Evan
Welsh wrote `CMail', and Patrick Surry helped in designing, testing,
and documenting it. Elmar Bartel contributed the new piece bitmaps in-
troduced in version 3.2. Jochen Wiedmann converted the documentation
to texinfo. Frank McIngvale added click/click moving, the Analysis
modes, piece flashing, ZIICS import, and ICS text colorization to
XBoard. Hugh Fisher added animated piece movement to XBoard, and Hen-
rik Gram added it to WinBoard. Mark Williams contributed the initial
(WinBoard-only) implementation of many new features added to both
XBoard and WinBoard in version 4.1.0, including copy/paste, premove,
icsAlarm, autoFlipView, training mode, auto raise, and blindfold. Ben
Nye contributed X copy/paste code for XBoard.
In a fork from version 4.2.7, Alessandro 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 continued this fork of the project, producing version 4.3.
He 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 were WinBoard only have now been back-ported to
XBoard.
Michel van den Bergh provided the code for reading Polyglot opening
books.
Meanwhile, some work continued on the GNU XBoard project maintained at
savannah.gnu.org, but version 4.2.8 was never released. Daniel
Mehrmann was responsible for much of this work.
Most recently, Arun Persaud worked with H. G. Muller to merge all the
features of the never-released XBoard/WinBoard 4.2.8 of the GNU XBoard
project and the never-released 4.3.16 from H. G.'s fork into a unified
XBoard/WinBoard 4.4, which is now available both from the savan-
nah.gnu.org web site and the WinBoard forum.
CMAIL
The `cmail' program can help you play chess by email with opponents of
your choice using XBoard as an interface.
You will usually run `cmail' without giving any options.
CMail options
-h Displays `cmail' usage information.
-c Shows the conditions of the GNU General Public License. See
Copying.
-w Shows the warranty notice of the GNU General Public License.
See Copying.
-v
-xv Provides or inhibits verbose output from `cmail' and XBoard,
useful for debugging. The `-xv' form also inhibits the cmail in-
troduction message.
-mail
-xmail Invokes or inhibits the sending of a mail message containing the
move.
-xboard
-xxboard
Invokes or inhibits the running of XBoard on the game file.
-reuse
-xreuse
Invokes or inhibits the reuse of an existing XBoard to display
the current game.
-remail
Resends the last mail message for that game. This inhibits run-
ning XBoard.
-game <name>
The name of the game to be processed.
-wgames <number>
-bgames <number>
-games <number>
Number of games to start as White, as Black or in total. Default
is 1 as white and none as black. If only one color is specified
then none of the other color is assumed. If no color is speci-
fied then equal numbers of White and Black games are started,
with the extra game being as White if an odd number of total
games is specified.
-me <short name>
-opp <short name>
A one-word alias for yourself or your opponent.
-wname <full name>
-bname <full name>
-myname <full name>
-oppname <full name>
The full name of White, Black, yourself or your opponent.
-wna <net address>
-bna <net address>
-na <net address>
-oppna <net address>
The email address of White, Black, yourself or your opponent.
-dir <directory>
The directory in which `cmail' keeps its files. This defaults to
the environment variable `$CMAIL_DIR' or failing that, `$CHESS-
DIR', `$HOME/Chess' or `~/Chess'. It will be created if it does
not exist.
-arcdir <directory>
The directory in which `cmail' archives completed games. De-
faults to the environment variable `$CMAIL_ARCDIR' or, in its
absence, the same directory as cmail keeps its working files
(above).
-mailprog <mail program>
The program used by cmail to send email messages. This defaults
to the environment variable `$CMAIL_MAILPROG' or failing that
`/usr/ucb/Mail', `/usr/ucb/mail' or `Mail'. You will need to set
this variable if none of the above paths fit your system.
-logFile <file>
A file in which to dump verbose debugging messages that are in-
voked with the `-v' option.
-event <event>
The PGN Event tag (default `Email correspondence game').
-site <site>
The PGN Site tag (default `NET').
-round <round>
The PGN Round tag (default `-', not applicable).
-mode <mode>
The PGN Mode tag (default `EM', Electronic Mail).
Other options
Any option flags not listed above are passed through to XBoard.
Invoking XBoard through CMail changes the default values of two
XBoard options: The default value for `-noChessProgram' is
changed to true; that is, by default no chess engine is started.
The default value for `-timeDelay' is changed to 0; that is, by
default XBoard immediately goes to the end of the game as played
so far, rather than stepping through the moves one by one. You
can still set these options to whatever values you prefer by
supplying them on CMail's command line. See Options.
Starting a CMail Game
Type `cmail' from a shell to start a game as white. After an opening
message, you will be prompted for a game name, which is optional -- if
you simply press <Enter>, the game name will take the form `you-VS-op-
ponent'. You will next be prompted for the short name of your opponent.
If you haven't played this person before, you will also be prompted for
his/her email address. `cmail' will then invoke XBoard in the back-
ground. Make your first move and select `Mail Move' from the `File'
menu. See File Menu. If all is well, `cmail' will mail a copy of the
move to your opponent. If you select `Exit' without having selected
`Mail Move' then no move will be made.
Answering a Move
When you receive a message from an opponent containing a move in one of
your games, simply pipe the message through `cmail'. In some mailers
this is as simple as typing `| cmail' when viewing the message, while
in others you may have to save the message to a file and do `cmail <
file' at the command line. In either case `cmail' will display the game
using XBoard. If you didn't exit XBoard when you made your first move
then `cmail' will do its best to use the existing XBoard instead of
starting a new one. As before, simply make a move and select `Mail
Move' from the `File' menu. See File Menu. `cmail' will try to use the
XBoard that was most recently used to display the current game. This
means that many games can be in progress simultaneously, each with its
own active XBoard.
If you want to look at the history or explore a variation, go ahead,
but you must return to the current position before XBoard will allow
you to mail a move. If you edit the game's history you must select
`Reload Same Game' from the `File' menu to get back to the original po-
sition, then make the move you want and select `Mail Move'. As before,
if you decide you aren't ready to make a move just yet you can either
select `Exit' without sending a move or just leave XBoard running until
you are ready.
Multi-Game Messages
It is possible to have a `cmail' message carry more than one game.
This feature was implemented to handle IECG (International Email Chess
Group) matches, where a match consists of one game as white and one as
black, with moves transmitted simultaneously. In case there are more
general uses, `cmail' itself places no limit on the number of
black/white games contained in a message; however, XBoard does.
Completing a Game
Because XBoard can detect checkmate and stalemate, `cmail' handles game
termination sensibly. As well as resignation, the `Action' menu allows
draws to be offered and accepted for `cmail' games.
For multi-game messages, only unfinished and just-finished games will
be included in email messages. When all the games are finished, they
are archived in the user's archive directory, and similarly in the op-
ponent's when he or she pipes the final message through `cmail'. The
archive file name includes the date the game was started.
Known CMail Problems
It's possible that a strange conjunction of conditions may occasionally
mean that `cmail' has trouble reactivating an existing XBoard. If this
should happen, simply trying it again should work. If not, remove the
file that stores the XBoard's PID (`game.pid') or use the `-xreuse' op-
tion to force `cmail' to start a new XBoard.
Versions of `cmail' after 2.16 no longer understand the old file format
that XBoard used to use and so cannot be used to correspond with anyone
using an older version.
Versions of `cmail' older than 2.11 do not handle multi-game messages,
so multi-game correspondence is not possible with opponents using an
older version.
OTHER PROGRAMS YOU CAN USE WITH XBOARD
Here are some other programs you can use with XBoard
GNU Chess
The GNU Chess engine is available from:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuchess/
You can use XBoard to play a game against GNU Chess, or to interface
GNU Chess to an ICS.
Fairy-Max
Fairy-Max is a derivative from the once 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-genera-
tor tables from a file, so that the rules for piece movement can be
easily configured to implement unorthodox pieces. Fairy-Max can there-
fore play a large number of variants, normal Chess being one of those.
In addition it plays Knightmate, Capablanca and Gothic Chess, Shatranj,
Courier Chess, Cylinder chess, Berolina Chess, while the user can eas-
ily define new variants. It can be obtained from:
http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/dwnldpage.html
HoiChess
HoiChess is a not-so-very-strong Chess engine, which comes with a de-
rivative HoiXiangqi, able to play Chinese Chess. It can be obtained
from the standard Linux repositories through:
sudo apt-get install hoichess
Crafty
Crafty is a chess engine written by Bob Hyatt. You can use XBoard to
play a game against Crafty, hook Crafty up to an ICS, or use Crafty to
interactively analyze games and positions for you.
Crafty is a strong, rapidly evolving chess program. This rapid pace of
development is good, because it means Crafty is always getting better.
This can sometimes cause problems with backwards compatibility, but
usually the latest version of Crafty will work well with the latest
version of XBoard. Crafty can be obtained from its author's FTP site:
ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/hyatt/.
To use Crafty with XBoard, give the -fcp and -fd options as follows,
where <crafty's directory> is the directory in which you installed
Crafty and placed its book and other support files.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 1991 Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, Massachu-
setts.
All Rights Reserved.
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, pro-
vided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in sup-
porting documentation, and that the name of Digital not be used in ad-
vertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software with-
out specific, written prior permission.
Digital disclaims all warranties with regard to this software, includ-
ing all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event
shall Digital be liable for any special, indirect or consequential dam-
ages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or
profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious
action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of
this software.
Enhancements copyright (C) 1992-2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Free Software Founda-
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Published by the Free Software Foundation
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