Welcome to BabyChess Windows version 9. BabyChess
Windows is a version
of BabyChess for Windows 95.
Start BabyChess by executing the file wbch.exe. The main window
should show up,
looking like this:
BabyChess is now showing the initial position of the game of chess. First, in the Engine menu, disable Auto Response and enable Infinite Thinking. Play a move. To do this, move the pawn in front of the white king two squares forward, for example. This move is called e4. The pawn keeps staying on the square e4. On the right side of the window, you can see a list of all moves that the black can now play. Each move has a name:
Double click on one of the moves, for example c5. The move is beeing played on the board. The number above the list of legal (available) moves is the number of them.
There is a green square in the BabyChess main window:
This means the engine is ready. The engine is the part of BabyChess which is thinking. In the Engine menu, choose Start. The green square should start blinking red and a text like Knots: 51.200 is showing up. This is the number of positions the engine has considered until now. Left to this, there is something like Nc3 (0). This means the engine has found Nc3 (Knight to c3) beeing the best move. 0 is the value the engine thinks this move has. Zero means the position is equal. While you are waiting, the engine is calculating more and more positions. The Depth is increasing slowly, and seems to stop. In fact, every thinking depth is reached in a finite number of iterations.
To stop the thinking process, click Engine | Pause. During the pause, the square colors brown and yellow. Resume the engine with Engine | Start. Now click Engine | Play the best move. BabyChess now plays the actual best move. This could be Nc3.
Click Game | Backward. The last move (Nc3) is beeing taken back. The text POS: 2/3 means three moves have been put in, and just two are on the board now. To play the third move, click Game | Forward. To reach the beginning of the three moves, click Game | To the beginning. Game | To the end gets back to the end of the game.
Begin a new game with File | New game. Change the board options by clicking View | Board.... The board options window pops up. Click on the Show square names button. You can see the name of each square now. Click on Dark squares.... The Windows color dialog comes up. Click on a color that suits the dark square. Do not choose a very dark color. Get out of this dialog by clicking OK. Now click on an item in the list. For example G: 32 pixels, diagram, monochrome, BabyChess. This selects the bitmap used to display the chess pieces. By the way, some bitmaps are indexed. You can't use them. Read the file dg.list which comes with BabyChess Windows. Quit the dialog with OK. The board may now look like this:
BabyChess also has the ability to see mate. Play these moves from the initial position: f3 (white pawn from f2 to f3), e6 (black pawn from e7 to e6), and g4 (white pawn from g2 to g4). Click Engine | Start. The green square becomes red, and immediately blue. Blue means the thinking process has terminated. Here, the engine has found a mate. The best move now is: Qh4# (#1). The move is called Qh4#. The # means the move mates. The value of the move is #1, which means mate in one. Play this move by clicking Engine | Play the best move. Whatever white now plays, the white king is always threatened by the black queen on h4. A move that matches the chess rules, after that the own king always stays in check is called pseudo-legal. Such a move never is legal. In the actual position, white has got no legal moves. This is mate if the own king is in check. If the white king was not in check it would be stalemate, and the game would end draw.
You can save the actual chess position in a file whose name end in .partie. Those files can be read later at any time. *.partie files are not compatible between different versions of BabyChess.
BabyChess Windows will save some settings in files situated in your home
directory, whose names begin with `.bch_'. You can specify your home
directory
by setting the HOME environment variable. For example, if you
want D:\HOME\FUZZI to be your home directory, you can add these
lines at the end of the file C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT:
SET HOME=D:\HOME\FUZZI
You can always delete these files. When no HOME environment
variable is specified, the root directory of the drive is considered to be
the home directory.
Some menu items have a keyboard shortcut and/or a tool button:
| Menu item | Tool button | Keyboard shortcut |
| File | New Game | 
| n or Ctrl-n
|
| File | New position | m or Ctrl-m
| |
| File | Open | 
| Ctrl-e or Ctrl-o
|
| File | Save | 
| Ctrl-w or Ctrl-s
|
| File | Save as | Ctrl-v
| |
| File | Close | Ctrl-z
| |
| Game | To the beginning | 
| Ctrl-u or F5
|
| Game | Backward | 
| Ctrl-j or F6
|
| Game | Forward | 
| Ctrl-k or F7
|
| Game | To the end | 
| Ctrl-i or F8
|
| Game | Delete moves from here | 
| % or Ctrl-r
|
| Engine | Start | 
| s or F9
|
| Engine | Pause | 
| t or F11
|
| Engine | Play the best move | 
| b or F12
|
| Help | Info about BabyChess | h or F1
|
Have fun with BabyChess!