xboard(6) xboard(6)
NNAAMMEE
xboard - X graphical user interface for chess
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DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
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 4.2.7 of XBoard.
MMAAJJOORR MMOODDEESS
XBoard always runs in one of four major modes. You select the major
mode from the command line when you start up XBoard.
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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
between two chess engines, interactively analyze your stored
games or set up and analyze arbitrary positions. (Note: Not all
chess engines support analysis.)
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As Internet Chess Server (ICS) interface, XBoard lets you play
against other ICS users, observe games they are playing, or
review games that have recently finished. Most of the ICS
"wild" chess variants are supported, including bughouse.
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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.
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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.
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As an interface to electronic mail correspondence chess, XBoard
works with the cmail program. See _C_M_a_i_l below for instructions.
MMEENNUUSS,, BBUUTTTTOONNSS,, AANNDD KKEEYYSS
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 bug-
house 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 _K_e_y_s below if you have problems getting this feature to
work.
FFiillee MMeennuu
RReesseett Resets XBoard and the chess engine to the beginning of a new
chess game. The `r' key is a keyboard equivalent. In Internet
Chess Server mode, clears the current state of XBoard, then
resynchronizes with the ICS by sending a refresh command. If you
want to stop playing, observing, or examining an ICS game, use
an appropriate command from the Action menu, not `Reset'. See
_A_c_t_i_o_n _M_e_n_u.
LLooaadd GGaammee
Plays a game from a record file. The `g' key is a keyboard
equivalent. A popup dialog prompts you for the file name. If
the file contains more than one game, a second popup dialog dis-
plays 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
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.
LLooaadd NNeexxtt GGaammee
Loads the next game from the last game record file you loaded.
The shifted `N' key is a keyboard equivalent.
LLooaadd PPrreevviioouuss GGaammee
Loads the previous game from the last game record file you
loaded. The shifted `P' key is a keyboard equivalent. Not
available if the last game was loaded from a pipe.
RReellooaadd SSaammee GGaammee
Reloads the last game you loaded. Not available if the last
game was loaded from a pipe.
SSaavvee GGaammee
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 oldSaveStyle option is true,
in which case they are saved in an older format that is specific
to XBoard. Bot
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