xboard(6)
NAME
xboard - X user interface for GNU Chess, the Internet
Chess Server (ICS), and electronic mail correspondence
chess.
SYNOPSIS
To run with GNU Chess: xboard [options]
To run with the ICS: xboard -ics [options]
To play email chess: See cmail(6).
To run standalone: xboard -ncp [options]
DESCRIPTION
xboard is a graphical chessboard that can serve as a user
interface for GNU Chess, for the Internet Chess Server, or
for electronic mail correspondence chess. xboard can also
be used by itself.
As an interface to GNU Chess, xboard lets you play a game
against the machine, set up arbitrary positions, force
variations, or watch a game between two machines.
As an interface to the Internet Chess Server (ICS), xboard
-ics lets you play against other ICS users, observe games
they are playing, or review games that have recently fin-
ished.
As an interface to electronic mail correspondence chess,
xboard works with the cmail(6) program. See its manual
page for instructions.
You can also use xboard as a 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 GNU Chess, ICS, and
correspondence games you have saved. These features are
available at all times; even if you do not have access to
GNU Chess or the ICS, you can use them by giving the com-
mand xboard -ncp.
After starting xboard, you make moves by dragging pieces
with the mouse. Press mouse button 1 while the cursor is
on one of your pieces, then move the cursor to another
square and release the button.
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. (See Iconize below if you have problems
getting this feature to work.)
OPTIONS
Most of the xboard 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.
Each option corresponds to an X resource with the same
name, so you can set options in your .Xdefaults file if
you like. For options that have two names, the longer one
is the name of the corresponding X resource; the short
name is not recognized in .Xdefaults. To turn a boolean
option on or off in your .Xdefaults file, give its long
name followed by the value True or False (XBoard*longOp-
tionName: True).
GNU Chess Options
-tc or -timeControl minutes[:seconds]
-mps or -movesPerSession moves
Each player begins with the specified amount of
time on his clock. If a player makes the speci-
fied number of moves before his clock runs out,
xboard adds the specified amount of time to his
clock. Default: 40 moves in 5 minutes.
-clock or -clockMode
Determines whether or not to display the chess
clocks. If clockMode is False, the clocks are not
shown, but the side that is to play next is still
highlighted. Also, unless searchTime or
searchDepth is set, GNU Chess still keeps track of
the clock time and uses it to determine how fast
to make its moves.
-st or -searchTime minutes[:seconds]
Tells GNU Chess to spend at most the given amount
of time searching for each of its moves. Without
this option, GNU Chess 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.
-sd or -searchDepth number
Tells GNU Chess to look ahead at most the given
number of moves when searching for a move to make.
Without this option, GNU Chess chooses its search
depth based on the number of moves and amount of
time remaining until the next time control. Set-
ting this option also sets clockMode to False.
-thinking or -showThinking
If this option is set, GNU Chess's notion of the
score and best line of play from the current posi-
tion is displayed as it is thinking. The score
indicates how many pawns ahead (or if negative,
behind) GNU Chess thinks it is. In matches
between two machines, the score is prefixed by W
or B to indicate whether it is showing White's
thinking or Black's.
-mm or -matchMode
Automatically runs a game between two chess pro-
grams. If the loadGameFile or loadPositionFile
option is set, xboard starts the game with the
given opening moves or the given position; other-
wise, the game starts 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 final position reached in the
match is appended to the specified file. When the
match is over, xboard exits. Default: False.
-fcp or -firstChessProgram program
Name of first chess program. In matches between
two machines, this program plays Black. Default:
"gnuchessx".
-scp or -secondChessProgram program
Name of second chess program, if needed. In
matches between two machines, this program plays
White; otherwise it is not started. Default:
"gnuchessx".
-fh or -firstHost host
-sh or -secondHost host
Hosts on which the chess programs are to run. The
default for each is "localhost". If you specify
another host, xboard uses rsh(1) to run the chess
program there. (You can substitute a different
remote shell program for rsh using the remoteShell
option described below.)
-initString string
The string that is sent to initialize the chess
program. Default: "new\nbeep\nrandom\neasy\n".
If you change this option, don't remove the "new"
and "beep" commands. You can remove the "random"
command if you like; including it causes GNU Chess
to randomize its move selection slightly so that
it doesn't play the same moves in every game.
(Even without "random", GNU Chess randomizes its
choice of moves from its opening book.) You can
also remove "easy" if you like; including it tog-
gles easy mode off, causing GNU Chess to think on
your time. That is, if "easy" is included in the
initString, GNU Chess thinks on your time; if not,
it does not. (Yes, this does seem backwards,
doesn't it!) You can also try adding other com-
mands to the initString; see the GNU Chess docu-
mentation for details.
-whiteString string
-blackString string
These options control what is sent when the
Machine White and Machine Black buttons are
selected. This is mostly for compatibility with
obsolete versions of GNU Chess.
Internet Chess Server Options
-ics or -internetChessServerMode
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.
To use xboard in ICS mode, run it in the fore-
ground, and use the terminal you started it from
to type commands and receive text responses from
the chess server. Useful ICS commands include who
to see who is logged on, games to see what games
are being played, match to challenge another
player to a game, observe to observe an ongoing
game, examine or oldmoves to review a recently
completed game, and of course help. Whenever you
ask to observe an ongoing game, review a completed
game, or resume an adjourned game, xboard
retrieves and parses the list of past moves from
the ICS, so you can review them with the Forward
and Backward commands or save them with Save Game.
Some special xboard features are activated when
you are in examine mode on ICS. See the descrip-
tions of the menu commands Forward, Backward,
Pause, ICS Client, and Stop Examining below.
-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 work-
ing directory if CHESSDIR is not set, or in your
home directory.
-autoflag or -autoCallFlag
If autoCallFlag is True and your opponent runs out
of time before you do, xboard will automatically
call his flag, claiming a win on time (or a draw
if you do not have mating material). Default:
False.
-autobs or -autoObserve
If autoObserve is True and you add a player to
your "gnotify" list on ICS, xboard will automati-
cally 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.
Default: False.
-quiet or -quietPlay
If this option is True, xboard will automatically
issue a "set shout 0" command whenever you start
an ICS game and a "set shout 1" command whenever
you finish one. Default: False.
-icshost or -internetChessServerHost host
The Internet host name or address of the chess
server to connect to when in ICS mode. Default:
chess.lm.com. See the file "ics-addresses" in the
xboard source distribution for a list of other
addresses to try. See also the output of the com-
mand "finger chess@ics.onenet.net". If your site
doesn't have a working Internet name server, try
specifying the host address in numeric form. The
address for chess.lm.com is 192.231.221.16.
-icsport or -internetChessServerPort port-number
The port number to use when connecting to a chess
server in ICS mode. Default: 5000.
-gateway host-name
If this option is set to a host name, xboard uses
rsh(1) to run the telnet(1) program on the given
host to communicate with the Internet Chess Server
instead of opening a direct TCP connection. (You
can substitute a different remote shell program
for rsh using the remoteShell option described
below.)
This option is useful if your machine is unable to
connect directly to the ICS but is able to rsh to
a gateway host that can connect to the ICS. As an
example, suppose the gateway host is called
gate.ralph.com, and you set options as follows:
xboard -ics -gateway gate.ralph.com -icshost
chess.lm.com Or in your .Xdefaults file:
XBoard*gateway: gate.ralph.com XBoard*inter-
netChessServerHost: chess.lm.com Then when you run
xboard in ICS mode, it will connect to the ICS by
using rsh to run the command "telnet chess.lm.com
5000" on host gate.ralph.com.
-telnet or -useTelnet
If this option is set to True, xboard runs the
telnet(1) program to communicate with the Internet
Chess Server. If the option is False (the
default), xboard opens a TCP socket to communicate
with the ICS.
One case where this option is useful is if your
machine cannot connect directly to the ICS, but
can telnet to a gateway host that can connect to
the ICS. It is more general than the gateway
option, because you may be able to telnet to a
host that you cannot rsh to, but it's not as con-
venient to use. As an example, suppose the gate-
way host is called gate.ralph.com, and you set
command-line options as follows: xboard -ics -tel-
net -icshost gate.ralph.com -icsport 23 Or in your
.Xdefaults file: XBoard*useTelnet: true
XBoard*internetChessServerHost: gate.ralph.com
XBoard*internetChessServerPort: 23 Then when you
run xboard in ICS mode, you will be prompted to
log in to the gateway host. Then telnet to ICS
(using a command like telnet chess.lm.com 5000").
See also LIMITATIONS below.
The recipe above works because the option
"-icsport 23" causes xboard to connect to the
gateway host's standard incoming telnet service
(port 23) instead of trying to connect to a chess
server running on the gateway host (port 5000).
-telnetProgram prog-name
This option 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 internetChessServerHost
as its first argument and the value of inter-
netChessServerPort as its second argument.
One case where this option is useful is if your
machine cannot make a direct TCP connection to the
ICS but can telnet there through a proxy server.
As an example, suppose that your proxy telnet pro-
gram is called ptelnet. You should then set com-
mand-line options as follows: xboard -ics -telnet
-telnetProgram ptelnet Or in your .Xdefaults file:
XBoard*useTelnet: true XBoard*telnetProgram: ptel-
net Then when you run xboard in ICS mode, it will
issue the command "ptelnet chess.lm.com 5000" to
connect to the ICS.
-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 connection. 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 dialup 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 options to these stty
commands. See the man pages for stty(1) and
tty(4) 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 Inter-
net provider and log in. Then telnet to ICS
(using a command like "telnet chess.lm.com 5000").
See also LIMITATIONS below.
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 the
loadGameIndex option is set to N, the Nth game
found in the file is loaded; otherwise the first
game is loaded.
-td or -timeDelay seconds
Time delay between moves during "Load Game".
Fractional seconds are allowed; try -td 0.4. A
time delay value of -1 tells xboard not to step
through game files automatically. Default: 1 sec-
ond.
-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 or -autoSaveGames
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.
Ignored if saveGameFile is set.
-lpf or -loadPositionFile file
-lpi or -loadPositionIndex index
If the loadPositionFile option is set, xboard
loads the specified 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.
-spf or -savePositionFile file
If this option is set, xboard appends the final
position reached in every game played to the spec-
ified file. The file name "-" specifies the stan-
dard output.
-oldsave or -oldSaveStyle
If this option is False (the default), xboard
saves games in PGN (portable game notation) and
positions in FEN (Forsythe-Edwards notation). If
the option is True, a save style that is compati-
ble with older versions of xboard is used instead.
User Interface Options
standard Xt options
xboard accepts standard Xt options like -display,
-geometry, and -iconic.
-bell or -ringBellAfterMoves
If this option is True, xboard alerts you by ring-
ing the terminal bell after each of your oppo-
nent's moves (or after every move if you are
observing a game on the Internet Chess Server).
The bell is not rung after moves you make or moves
read from a saved game file. Default: False.
If you turn on this option when using xboard with
the Internet Chess Server, you will probably want
to give the "set bell 0" command to the ICS, since
otherwise the ICS will ring the bell itself after
every move (not just yours).
-queen or -alwaysPromoteToQueen
If this option is False (the default), xboard
brings up a dialog box whenever you move a pawn to
the last rank, asking what piece you want to pro-
mote it to. If the option is True, your pawns are
always promoted to queens. (Your opponent can
still underpromote, however.)
-size or -boardSize (Large | Medium | Small)
Determines how large the board will be and what
built-in piece bitmaps will be used. On a large
board (the default), pieces are 80x80 pixels, on a
medium board 64x64 pixels, and on a small board
40x40 pixels.
-coords or -showCoords
If this option is True, xboard displays algebraic
coordinates along the board's left and bottom
edges. The default is False. The coordFont
option specifies what font to use.
-flip or -flipView
If you are playing a game on the ICS, the board is
always oriented at the start of the game so that
your pawns move from the bottom of the window
towards the top. Otherwise, the starting is
determined by the flipView 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.
-title or -titleInWindow
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 dis-
played only in the window banner. You probably
won't want to set this option unless the informa-
tion is not showing up in the banner, as happens
with a few X window managers.
-mono or -monoMode
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.
-borderXoffset
-borderYoffset
These options are part of a kludge that helps
position the Comment and Edit Comment windows in
the same place on the screen when they are closed
and reopened. They should be set equal to the
width and height of the borders that your X window
manager adds to windows when it displays them.
The defaults are correct for tvtwm(1).
-clockFont
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: -*-helvetica-
bold-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
-coordFont
The font used for rank and file coordinate labels
if showCoords 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: -*-helvetica-
bold-r-normal--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
-font The font used for popup dialogs, menus, comments,
etc. Default: -*-helvetica-medium-r-nor-
mal--14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*.
-bitmapDirectory or -bm
By default, xboard uses a set of compiled-in
bitmaps for its pieces. If the bitmapDirectory
option is set at runtime, piece bitmaps are taken
from files in the specified directory instead.
The first character of a bitmap name gives the
piece it represents (p, n, b, r, q, or k); the
next characters give the size in pixels (80, 64,
or 40), and the following character indicates
whether the piece is solid or outline (s or o).
Bitmap file names have the extension ".bm". The
outline bitmaps are used only in monochrome mode.
Two sets of bitmaps are distributed with xboard.
Those in the directory bitmaps are normally com-
piled in as the default. Those in the
bitmaps.xchess directory can be selected at run-
time with the bitmapDirectory option. If you want
to compile in the latter set as the default,
rename the bitmaps directory to "bitmaps.fselch"
and the bitmaps.xchess directory to "bitmaps";
then recompile xboard.
-whitePieceColor
Color specification for white pieces, suitable for
XParseColor(3X11). Default: #FFFFCC. These col-
ors look good on a DEC workstation. If you need
different colors, try using the xcolors applica-
tion. Source for xcolors can be found in the X11
contrib directory.
-blackPieceColor
Same for black pieces. Default: #202020.
-lightSquareColor
Same for light squares. Default: #C8C365.
-darkSquareColor
Same for dark squares. Default: #77A26D.
If you are using a grayscale monitor, try setting the col-
ors to: -whitePieceColor gray100 -blackPieceColor
gray0 -lightSquareColor gray80 -darkSquareColor
gray60
Other Options
-ncp or -noChessProgram
If this option is True, xboard acts as a passive
chessboard; it does not start a chess program at
all. Turning on this option also turns off clock-
Mode. Default: False.
-debug or -debugMode
Turns on debugging printout.
-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 pro-
grams with the remoteShell. The default is your
local user name.
MENU COMMANDS, BUTTONS, AND KEYS
All xboard commands are available on menus. The most fre-
quently used commands also have shortcut keys or on-screen
buttons.
File Menu
Reset Resets xboard and GNU Chess to the beginning of a
new chess game. The "r" key is a keyboard equiva-
lent. In Internet Chess Server mode, clears the
current state of xboard, then resynchronizes with
ICS by sending a refresh command. If you want to
stop playing, observing, or examining a game on
ICS, use an appropriate command from the Action
menu, not Reset.
Load Game
Plays a game from a record file. A popup dialog
prompts you for the file name. If the file con-
tains more than one game, and you want to load the
Nth one, type the number N after the file name,
separated by a space. The "g" key is a keyboard
equivalent.
The game file parser will accept PGN (portable
game notation), or in fact almost any file that
contains moves in algebraic notation. If the file
includes a PGN position (FEN tag), or an 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 commen-
tary and is displayed in a pop-up window. Any
other text in the file is ignored. PGN variations
(enclosed in parentheses) are treated as comments;
xboard is not able to walk variation trees.
Load Next Game
Loads the next game from the last game record file
you loaded. The shifted "N" key is a keyboard
equivalent.
Load Previous Game
Loads the previous game from the last game record
file you loaded. The shifted "P" key is a key-
board equivalent.
Reload Same Game
Reloads the last game you loaded.
Load Position
Sets up a position from a position file. A popup
dialog prompts you for the file name. 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.
Save Game
Appends a record of the current game to a file. A
popup 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) format, unless the old-
SaveStyle 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.
Save Position
Appends a diagram of the current position to a
file. A popup dialog prompts you for the file
name. Positions are saved in FEN (Forsythe-
Edwards notation) format unless the oldSaveStyle
option 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.
Mail Move
Reload CMail Message
See the manual page for cmail(6).
Exit Exits from xboard. The "q" key is a keyboard
equivalent.
Mode Menu
Pause Pauses updates to the board, and if you are play-
ing against GNU Chess, also pauses your clock. To
continue, select Pause again, and the display will
automatically update to the latest position. The
[P] button and keyboard "p" key are equivalents.
If you select Pause when you are playing against
GNU Chess and it is not your move, GNU Chess'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 in examine mode
on ICS, you can step backward and forward in the
current history of the examined game without
affecting the other observers and examiners.
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.
Edit Comment
Adds or modifies a comment on the current posi-
tion. Comments are saved by Save Game and are
displayed by Load Game, Forward, and Backward.
Machine White
Forces GNU Chess to play White. GNU Chess mode
only.
Machine Black
Forces GNU Chess to play Black. GNU Chess mode
only.
Two Machines
Plays a game between two computer programs. GNU
Chess mode only.
ICS Client
ICS mode only. Takes xboard out of the Edit Game
or Edit Position state.
While you are examining a game on the ICS, you can
issue the ICS position-editing commands with the
mouse. (Do this with ICS Client selected on the
Mode menu, not Edit Position; the latter edits
only your local copy of the position.) 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. You cannot set the side to
play or drag pieces to arbitrary squares while
examining on ICS, however; the ICS permits only
legal moves in this mode.
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.
In GNU Chess mode, GNU chess continues to check
moves for legality but does not participate in the
game. You can bring GNU Chess back 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 locally. 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. 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. 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. You can set the side to play
next by clicking on the White or Black indicator
at the top of the screen. 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 posi-
tions on ICS in a way that other ICS users can
see, use the ICS examine command, or start an ICS
match against yourself. (See also the ICS Client
topic above.)
Action Menu
Accept Accepts a pending match offer. If there is more
than one offer pending, you will have to type in a
more specific command instead of using this menu
choice. (ICS mode only)
Decline Declines a pending offer (match, draw, adjourn,
etc.). If there is more than one offer pending,
you will have to type in a more specific command
instead of using this menu choice. (ICS mode
only)
Call Flag
Calls your opponent's flag, claiming a win on
time, or claiming a draw if you are both out of
time. You can also call your opponent's flag by
clicking on his clock or by pressing the keyboard
"t" key.
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 "d" key is a keyboard equivalent. (Not avail-
able in GNU Chess mode.)
Adjourn Asks your opponent to agree to adjourning the cur-
rent game, or agrees to a pending adjournment
offer from your opponent. (ICS mode only)
Abort Asks your opponent to agree to aborting the cur-
rent game, or agrees to a pending abort offer from
your opponent. An aborted game ends immediately
without affecting either player's rating.
Resign Resigns the game to your opponent. The shifted
"R" 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)
Stop Examining
Ends your participation in examining a game, by
issuing the ICS unexamine command. (ICS mode
only)
Step Menu
Backward
Steps backward through a series of remembered
moves. The [<] button and the "b" key are equiva-
lents.
In most modes, Backward only lets you look back at
old positions; it does not retract moves. This is
the case if you are playing against GNU Chess,
playing or observing a game on the ICS, or loading
a game. If you select Backward in any of these
situations, you will not be allowed to make a dif-
ferent move. Use Retract Move or Edit Game if you
want to change past moves.
If you are examining a game on ICS, the behavior
of Backward depends on whether xboard is in Pause
mode. If Pause mode is off, Backward issues the
ICS backward command, which backs up everyone's
view of the game and allows you to make a differ-
ent 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 f key
are equivalents.
If you are examining a game on ICS, the behavior
of Forward depends 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 shifted "B" key
are equivalents.
In most modes, Back to Start only lets you look
back at old positions; it does not retract moves.
This is the case if you are playing against GNU
chess, playing or observing a game on the ICS, 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 a game on ICS, the behavior
of Back to Start depends on whether xboard is in
Pause mode. If Pause mode is off, Back to Start
issues the ICS backward 999999 command, which
backs up everyone's view of the game to the start
and allows you to make different moves. If Pause
mode is on, 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 shifted "F" key
are equivalents.
If you are examining a game on ICS, the behavior
of 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.
Revert If you are examining a game on ICS and Pause mode
is off, issues the ICS command revert.
Truncate Game
Discards all remembered moves of the game beyond
the current position. Puts xboard into Edit Game
mode if it was not there already.
Move Now
Forces GNU Chess to move immediately. (GNU Chess
mode only)
Retract Move
Retracts your last move. In GNU Chess mode, you
can do this only after GNU Chess has replied to
your move; if GNU Chess is still thinking, use
Move Now first. In ICS mode, Retract Move issues
the command takeback 1 or takeback 2 depending on
whether it is your opponent's move or yours.
Options Menu
Always Queen
Toggles the alwaysPromoteToQueen option.
Auto Flag
Toggles the autoCallFlag option.
Auto Observe
Toggles the autoObserve option.
Auto Save
Toggles the autoSaveGames option. Disabled if the
saveGameFile option is set, as in that case all
games are saved to the specified file.
Bell Toggles the ringBellAfterMoves option.
Flip View
Inverts your view of the chess board for the dura-
tion of the current game. Starting a new game
returns the board to normal.
If you are playing a game on the ICS, the board is
always oriented at the start of the game so that
your pawns move from the bottom of the window
towards the top. Otherwise, the starting orienta-
tion 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 bot-
tom to top.
Old Save Style
Toggles the oldSaveStyle option.
Quiet Play
Toggles the quietPlay option.
Show Coords
Toggles the showCoords option.
Show Thinking
Toggles the showThinking option.
Help Menu
Hint Displays a move hint from GNU Chess. GNU Chess
mode only.
Book Displays a list of possible moves from GNU Chess's
opening book. The first column gives moves, the
second 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 noth-
ing happens, GNU Chess is out of its book. GNU
Chess mode only.
About Game
Displays information about the current game, in
the form of PGN (portable game notation) tags.
About XBoard
Shows the current xboard version number.
Other shortcut keys
Iconize Pressing the i or c key iconizes xboard. The
graphical icon displays a white knight if it is
White's move, or a black knight if it is Black's
move. If your X window manager displays only text
icons, not graphical ones, check its documenta-
tion; there is probably a way to enable graphical
icons. If you are running the Motif window man-
ager mwm(1), add these lines to your .Xdefaults
file and restart mwm: Mwm*iconDecoration: active-
label label image Mwm*XBoard*iconImageBackground:
White Mwm*XBoard*iconImageForeground: Black The
first line above enables graphical icons in mwm;
you don't need it if you already have them. The
next two lines force the white knights to come out
white and the black knights black. Unfortunately
these resources can't be set from inside xboard;
you have to set them in your .Xdefaults.
You can add (or remove) xboard shortcut keys using the X
resource form.translations. Here is an example of what
would go in your .Xdefaults file: XBoard*form.transla-
tions: Shift<Key>?: AboutGameProc() \n \
<Key>y: AcceptProc() \n \
<Key>n: DeclineProc() \n \
<Key>i: NothingProc() Binding a key to NothingProc
makes it do nothing, thus removing it as a shortcut key.
The xboard functions that can be bound to keys are: Abort-
Proc, AboutGameProc, AboutProc, AcceptProc, AdjournProc,
AlwaysQueenProc, AutoflagProc, AutobsProc, AutosaveProc,
BackwardProc, BellProc, BookProc, CallFlagProc, Decline-
Proc, DrawProc, EditGameProc, EditPositionProc, FlipView-
Proc, ForwardProc, HintProc, IcsClientProc, LoadGameProc,
LoadNextGameProc, LoadPositionProc, LoadPrevGameProc,
MachineBlackProc, MachineWhiteProc, MailMoveProc, MoveNow-
Proc, OldSaveStyleProc, PauseProc, QuietPlayProc, Quit-
Proc, ReloadGameProc, ResetProc, ResignProc, RetractMove-
Proc, RevertProc, SaveGameProc, SavePositionProc, ShowCo-
ordsProc, ShowThinkingProc, StopExaminingProc, StopObserv-
ingProc, ToEndProc, ToStartProc, TruncateGameProc, and
TwoMachinesProc.
ENVIRONMENT
Game and position files are found in the directory named
by the CHESSDIR environment variable. If this variable is
not set, the current working directory is used. If CHESS-
DIR is set, xboard actually changes its working directory
to $CHESSDIR, so GNU Chess listing files will be stored
there as well.
SEE ALSO
gnuchess(6) cmail(6).
LIMITATIONS
There is no way for two people running copies of xboard to
play each other without going through the Internet Chess
Server.
The game parser recognizes only algebraic notation.
The internal move legality tester does not look at the
game history, so in some cases it misses illegal castling
or en passant captures. However, if you attempt such a
move when using GNU Chess (or the ICS), it will reject the
move, and xboard will undo it and let you try another.
Also, FEN positions saved by xboard do not include correct
information about whether castling or en passant are
legal.
In ICS mode, xboard cannot handle observing (and/or play-
ing) more than one game at a time. It may get confused if
you try to do this, though it tries to recover gracefully.
Select Reset from the File menu if you have problems.
Your password may get echoed when you log on to the ICS.
If you are connecting to the ICS by running telnet on an
Internet provider host, you may find that each line you
type is echoed back an extra time after you hit Return.
If your Internet provider is a Unix system, you can proba-
bly turn its echo off by typing "stty -echo" after you log
in, and/or by typing ^E-Return (control-E followed by the
Return key) to the telnet program after you start it. It
is a good idea to do this if you can, because otherwise
the extra echo can occasionally confuse xboard's parsing
routines.
The .icsrc file does not work properly when you connect to
ICS through a Unix gateway host with useTelnet mode. The
Unix login process apparently discards type-ahead.
Some xboard functions may not work with versions of GNU
Chess earlier than 4.0, patchlevel 73.
AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Tim Mann has been responsible for xboard versions 1.3
through 3.2. Chris Sears and Dan Sears wrote the original
xboard; they were responsible for versions 1.0 through
1.2.
Elmar Bartel contributed the new piece bitmaps for version
3.2. Evan Welsh wrote cmail. John Chanak contributed the
initial implementation of ICS mode. The color scheme and
the old 80x80 piece bitmaps were taken from Wayne Christo-
pher's XChess program.
Send bug reports to lt;bug-gnu-chess@prep.ai.mit.edu.
Please use the script(1) program to start a typescript,
run xboard with the debug option, and include the type-
script output in your message. Also tell us what kind of
machine and what operating system version you are using.
The command "uname -a" will usually tell you this.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1991 by Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard,
Massachusetts. Enhancements Copyright 1992-94 Free Soft-
ware Foundation, Inc.
XBoard's alternative piece bitmaps (bitmaps.xchess) are
derived from the bitmaps in the XChess program, which was
written and is copyrighted by Wayne Christopher.
The following terms apply to Digital Equipment Corpora-
tion's copyright interest in XBoard:
All Rights Reserved
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute
this software and its documentation for any purpose
and without fee is hereby granted, provided that
the above copyright notice appear in all copies and
that both that copyright notice and this permission
notice appear in supporting documentation, and that
the name of Digital not be used in advertising or
publicity pertaining to distribution of the soft-
ware without specific, written prior permission.
DIGITAL DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO
THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL DIG-
ITAL BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSE-
QUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULT-
ING 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.
The following terms apply to this enhanced version of
XBoard distributed by the Free Software Foundation:
This program is free software; you can redistribute
it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Gen-
eral Public License as published by the Free Soft-
ware Foundation; either version 2 of the License,
or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it
will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without
even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Gen-
eral Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General
Public License along with this program; if not,
write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675
Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.