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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 drop a new piece on a square (when applicable), press the middle or the right mouse button over the square and select from the popup menu. In cases where you can drop either a white or black piece, use the middle button (or shift+right) for white and the right button (or shift+middle) for black. When you are playing a bughouse game on an Internet Chess Server, a list of the offboard pieces that each player has available is shown in the window title after the player's name; in addition, the piece menus show the number of pieces available of each type.
All other XBoard commands are available from the menu bar. The most frequently used commands also have shortcut keys or on-screen buttons.
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 in 2.7 Other Shortcut Keys below if you have problems getting this feature to work.
2.1 File Menu Accessing external games and positions. 2.2 Mode Menu Selecting XBoard's mode. 2.3 Action Menu Talking to the chess engine or ICS opponents. 2.4 Step Menu Controlling the game. 2.5 Options Menu User preferences. 2.6 Help Menu Getting help. 2.7 Other Shortcut Keys Other shortcut keys.
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The game file parser will accept PGN (portable game notation), or in fact almost any file that contains moves in algebraic notation. 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) are treated as comments; XBoard is not able to walk variation trees. The nonstandard PGN tag [Variant "varname"] functions similarly to the -variant command-line option (see below), allowing games in certain chess variants to be loaded. 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.
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.
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To set up a position to analyze, you do the following:
1. Select Edit Position from the Mode Menu
2. Set up the position. Use the middle and right buttons to bring up the white and black piece menus.
3. When you are finished, click on either the Black or White clock to tell XBoard which side moves first.
4. Select Analysis Mode from the Mode Menu to start the analysis.
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 4. 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 issue 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 `Forward', `Backward', `Pause', and `Stop Examining' have special functions in this mode; see below.
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 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.
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 yourself. (See also the ICS Client topic above.)
<tag-section> ::= <tag-pair> <tag-section>
<empty>
<tag-pair> ::= [ <tag-name> <tag-value> ]
<tag-name> ::= <identifier>
<tag-value> ::= <string>
|
[Event "Portoroz Interzonal"] [Site "Portoroz, Yugoslavia"] [Date "1958.08.16"] [Round "8"] [White "Robert J. Fischer"] [Black "Bent Larsen"] [Result "1-0"] |
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 current 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.
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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 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' 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 different move. If Pause mode is on, `Backward' only backs up your local view.
If you are examining an ICS game, 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.
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 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 `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.
If you are examining an ICS game, 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.
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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 displayed
from the point of view of the player on your gnotify list; that is, his
pawns move from the bottom of the window towards 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.
saveGameFile command-line
option is set, as in that case all games are saved to the specified file.
See section 3.3 Load and Save Options.
If you are playing a game on an ICS, the board is always
oriented at the start of the game so that your pawns move from
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 section 3.4 User Interface Options.
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 terminal bell after every move (not just yours). (The `.icsrc' file is a good place for this; see 3.2 Internet Chess Server Options.)
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You can add or remove shortcut keys using the X resources
form.translations. Here is an example of what would go in your
`.Xdefaults' file:
XBoard*form.translations: \ Shift<Key>?: AboutGameProc() \n\ <Key>y: AcceptProc() \n\ <Key>n: DeclineProc() \n\ <Key>i: NothingProc() |
NothingProc makes it do nothing, thus removing
it as a shortcut key. The XBoard commands that can be bound to keys
are:
AbortProc, AboutGameProc, AboutProc, AcceptProc, AdjournProc, AlwaysQueenProc, AnalysisModeProc, AnalyzeFileProc, AnimateDraggingProc, AnimateMovingProc, AutobsProc, AutoflagProc, AutoflipProc, AutoraiseProc, AutosaveProc, BackwardProc, BlindfoldProc, BookProc, CallFlagProc, CopyGameProc, CopyPositionProc, DebugProc, DeclineProc, DrawProc, EditCommentProc, EditGameProc, EditPositionProc, EditTagsProc, EnterKeyProc, FlashMovesProc, FlipViewProc, ForwardProc, GetMoveListProc, HighlightLastMoveProc, HintProc, Iconify, IcsAlarmProc, IcsClientProc, IcsInputBoxProc, InfoProc, LoadGameProc, LoadNextGameProc, LoadNextPositionProc, LoadPositionProc, LoadPrevGameProc, LoadPrevPositionProc, LoadSelectedProc, MachineBlackProc, MachineWhiteProc, MailMoveProc, ManProc, MoveNowProc, MoveSoundProc, NothingProc, OldSaveStyleProc, PasteGameProc, PastePositionProc, PauseProc, PeriodicUpdatesProc, PonderNextMoveProc, PopupExitMessageProc, PopupMoveErrorsProc, PremoveProc, QuietPlayProc, QuitProc, ReloadCmailMsgProc, ReloadGameProc, ReloadPositionProc, RematchProc, ResetProc, ResignProc, RetractMoveProc, RevertProc, SaveGameProc, SavePositionProc, ShowCoordsProc, ShowGameListProc, ShowThinkingProc, StopExaminingProc, StopObservingProc, TestLegalityProc, ToEndProc, ToStartProc, TrainingProc, TruncateGameProc, and TwoMachinesProc. |
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