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From: mann@pa.dec.com (Tim Mann) Newsgroups: gnu.chess,rec.games.chess.computer,alt.chess.ics,alt.answers,rec.answers,news.answers Subject: FAQ -- GNU Chess and XBoard Frequently Asked Questions Followup-To: gnu.chess Reply-To: bug-gnu-chess@prep.ai.mit.edu Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Summary: Answers to frequently asked questions in the gnu.chess newsgroup, covering the chess-playing program GNU Chess, the chess interfaces XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard, and other chess topics. Archive-name: games/chess/gnu-faq Version: $Id: FAQ.html,v 1.80 1996/12/20 01:19:13 mann Exp $ Posting-frequency: monthly GNU Chess and XBoard: Frequently Asked Questions Here is the list of frequently asked questions and answers for the gnu.chess newsgroup, covering the chess-playing program GNU Chess, the chess interfaces XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard, and a few other chess topics. In addition to the plain text version that is posted to the newsgroups, a hyperlinked version of this FAQ is available on the Web through the page http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Tim_Mann/chess.html . _______________________________________________________________________ Outline * [A] Introduction and hot topics * [B] GNU Chess * [C] GNU Chess bugs and problems * [D] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard * [E] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard bugs and problems * [F] Miscellaneous _______________________________________________________________________ Detailed contents * [A] Introduction and hot topics * [A.1] What are the gnu.chess newsgroup and info-gnu-chess mailing list for? * [A.2] How do I subscribe or unsubscribe? * [A.3] Where can I get chess information and chess software? * [A.4] What are the current version numbers for GNU Chess, XBoard, etc.? * [A.5] Who is working on this project? * [A.6] How do I report bugs, offer help, etc.? * [B] GNU Chess * [B.1] What is GNU Chess? * [B.2] What is GNU Chess's rating? * [B.3] Does GNU Chess run on a PC under DOS (or Windows, or OS/2)? * [B.4] Does GNU Chess run on an Amiga? * [B.5] Does GNU Chess run on a Macintosh? * [B.6] Does GNU Chess run on VMS? * [B.7] Does GNU Chess run on the Acorn Archimedes? * [B.8] Does GNU Chess run on Atari computers? * [B.9] How do I build GNU Chess? Do I have to have gcc? * [C] GNU Chess bugs and problems * [C.1] XBoard tells me "Error: first chess program (gnuchessx) exited unexpectedly". * [C.2] GNU Chess lets its flag fall a move or two before the time control. * [C.3] GNU Chess (used with XBoard) freezes after it gets out of its opening book. * [C.4] GNU Chess (used with XBoard) sometimes tells me that a legal move is illegal. * [C.5] GNU Chess crashes when I try to compile and run it on the DEC Alpha. * [C.6] Running (or building) GNU Chess fails with a message about FIONREAD. * [C.7] GNU Chess runs way too slow and makes my disk seek wildly. * [D] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard * [D.1] What is XBoard? * [D.2] Is there an XBoard for Microsoft Windows? What is WinBoard? * [D.3] Is there an XBoard for the Amiga? What is AmyBoard? * [D.4] Is there an XBoard for the Macintosh? * [D.5] Does XBoard run on VMS? * [D.6] What is cmail? * [D.7] How do I build XBoard? Do I have to have gcc? * [D.8] Can I use XBoard to play a game of chess with another human? * [D.9] Will WinBoard run on Windows 3.1? * [D.10] How do I use XBoard or WinBoard as an external viewer for PGN files with my Web browser? * [D.11] How do I use WinBoard as an external viewer for PGN files with the MS Windows File Manager or Explorer? * [D.12] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal with XBoard? * [D.13] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal with WinBoard? * [D.14] How do I play bughouse with XBoard or WinBoard? * [D.15] How can I scroll back in the WinBoard console? * [D.16] What is Zippy? How can I interface a chess program to the Internet Chess Servers? * [E] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard bugs and problems * [E.1] I can't build XBoard because the X11/Xaw/... include files are not found. * [E.2] Building XBoard fails due to undefined symbols or missing include files. * [E.3] I have problems using WinBoard on ICS with a modem. I'm not running SLIP or PPP, but just dialing in to an ordinary login account ("shell account"). * [E.4] I have problems using WinBoard on ICS with Windows 95 and SLIP or PPP. When trying to start up, it gets the error "Address family not supported by protocol family" (or some equally strange message). * [E.5] When I try to run WinBoard, I get the message "Failed to start chess program gnuchesx on localhost: NO LANGFILE (file gnuchess.lang not found)". * [E.6] I want to use XBoard or WinBoard as an Internet Chess Server interface, but the ICS Client option is grayed out on the menu. * [E.7] How do I give command-line options to a Windows program like WinBoard? * [E.8] When I try to log in to ICC using timestamp (or to FICS using timeseal) with XBoard, it accepts my handle, but just beeps at me when I type my password. * [E.9] When I exit from WinBoard after using it to play against GNU Chess or Crafty, the chess program keeps running in the background. * [E.10] When running WinBoard, I get the message "Error getting user name: The operation being requested was not performed because user has not logged on to the network." * [E.11] WinZippy (the Windows version of Zippy) crashes Windows 95! * [F] Miscellaneous * [F.1] What is XChess? * [F.2] What is Winsock Chess? * [F.3] What is Crafty? * [F.4] How do I use Crafty with XBoard? * [F.5] How do I use Crafty with WinBoard? _______________________________________________________________________ [A] Introduction and hot topics _______________________________________________________________________ [A.1] What are the gnu.chess newsgroup and info-gnu-chess mailing list for? The newsgroup gnu.chess and the mailing list info-gnu-chess@prep.ai.mit.edu are for the discussion of GNU Chess, XBoard, and related free chess software. gnu.chess and info-gnu-chess are not for general chess or computer chess discussion. You won't be flamed if you post such messages here, but you will find more information in other places. See topic [A.3] below. PLEASE DO NOT try to start or play chess games by posting messages to gnu.chess. Instead, read the rec.games.chess FAQ (see topic [A.3] ) to learn about the IECG, the IECC, and other groups that you can join to find opponents, and send one or more of them email to join. The newsgroup and mailing list are gatewayed bidirectionally; that is, any article posted on the newsgroup is automatically forwarded to the mailing list, and any mail sent to the list is automatically forwarded to the newsgroup. _______________________________________________________________________ [A.2] How do I subscribe or unsubscribe? The simplest way is to either choose to read gnu.chess in your newsreader, or choose not to. If you want to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, mail to info-gnu-chess-request@prep.ai.mit.edu (not to the list or newsgroup itself). _______________________________________________________________________ [A.3] Where can I get chess information and chess software? As a shortcut to most things mentioned in this FAQ, try my Chess Web page, http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Tim_Mann/chess.html . For general news and information about chess, try the newsgroup hierarchy rec.games.chess.*, especially the groups rec.games.chess.misc and rec.games.chess.computer. Both of the latter groups have very informative FAQs maintained by Steve Pribut; look for them on the newsgroups or at http://www.clark.net/pub/pribut/chess.html . Like other GNU software, you can get GNU Chess and XBoard by anonymous FTP from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/ and its many mirror sites. Look for files matching the patterns gnuchess-*.gz and xboard-*.gz. The .gz suffix indicates the files were compressed with gzip. You can get gzip from prep.ai.mit.edu also. The GNU FTP sites generally carry Unix-compatible versions of GNU software only, so you won't find WinBoard or AmyBoard there. For other chess software, try the Internet Chess Library. Use anonymous FTP to connect to caissa.onenet.net, or go to the Web page http://caissa.onenet.net/ . You can get chess software, game collections, the FAQ file for rec.games.chess, and other chess-related material there, in the directory pub/chess. Sometimes new XBoard versions arrive on this site before they make it to prep. The FTP server can automatically decompress files for you as you download them, useful if you don't have gzip. Note that caissa.onenet.net is not necessarily the same machine as fics.onenet.net! You can get WinBoard from the Internet Chess Library, in directory pub/chess/Win3. Here is a sample anonymous ftp session. Some of the ftp server's responses are abbreviated, but all the commands you must type are included. % ftp prep.ai.mit.edu Connected to prep.ai.mit.edu Name: anonymous Password: your-email-address@your-site ftp> binary 200 Type set to I. ftp> cd /pub/gnu 250 CWD command successful. ftp> dir gnuchess-*.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 14910 wheel 1512181 May 20 00:52 gnuchess-4.0.pl77.tar.gz ftp> get gnuchess-4.0.pl77.tar.gz 150 BINARY connection for gnuchess-4.0.pl77.tar.gz (1512181 bytes). 226 Transfer complete. ftp> dir xboard-*.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 14910 wheel 393119 May 20 00:25 xboard-3.5.0.tar.gz ftp> get xboard-3.5.0.tar.gz 150 BINARY connection for xboard-3.5.0.tar.gz (393119 bytes). 226 Transfer complete. ftp> quit _______________________________________________________________________ [A.4] What are the current version numbers for GNU Chess, XBoard, etc.? At this writing, the current version numbers are: * GNU Chess 4.0 patchlevel 77 * XBoard 3.5 patchlevel 0 * WinBoard 3.4 patchlevel 1 * AmyBoard 330.5 (based on XBoard 3.3 patchlevel 0) _______________________________________________________________________ [A.5] Who is working on this project? Stuart Cracraft is the GNU Chess project coordinator. Currently Chua Kong Sian seems to be the only person working the GNU Chess engine itself. Conor McCarthy is responsible for GNU Chess 4.00 for Windows. Tim Mann maintains this FAQ and is the lead developer on XBoard and WinBoard, but he has little time to spend on the project. Frank McIngvale is also working on XBoard, concentrating on Crafty support. Evan Welsh, the author of cmail, is not actively working on it but does fix bugs when they are reported. No one is currently maintaining AmyBoard. _______________________________________________________________________ [A.6] How do I report bugs, offer help, etc.? Any time you want to report a possible bug in GNU Chess, XBoard, etc., we need to know exactly what you did, and exactly what error (or other) messages you got. If you're using XBoard, WinBoard, or AmyBoard, run it with the -debug flag to see all the messages it exchanges with GNU Chess or the Internet Chess Server. If you are using Unix, run the "script" program, do whatever is necessary to reproduce the problem, type "exit" to the shell, and mail us the resulting typescript file. We also need to know what hardware/operating system combination you are using. The command "uname -a" will usually tell you this; include its output in your typescript. If you are using MS Windows or the Amiga, you may have to write down all the messages with pencil and paper and type them into your mail message. Or you may be able to use cut-and-paste in your console window. Either way, please transcribe the messsages carefully. They may seem meaningless to you, but they are meaningful to us and essential for diagnosing problems. You should be able to contact all the members of the project by sending mail to bug-gnu-chess@prep.ai.mit.edu. If you don't trust this list, you can send mail about XBoard, WinBoard, or the FAQ to mann@pa.dec.com (Tim Mann); mail about cmail to R.E.Welsh@quadstone.co.uk (Evan Welsh). Comments that are of interest to all users of the software should be posted to the gnu.chess newsgroup. _______________________________________________________________________ [B] GNU Chess _______________________________________________________________________ [B.1] What is GNU Chess? GNU Chess is a free chess-playing program developed as part of the GNU project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). GNU Chess is a communal chess program. Contributors donate their time and effort in order to make it a stronger, better, sleeker program. Contributions take many forms: interfaces to high-resolution displays, opening book treatises, speedups of the underlying algorithms, additions of extra heuristics. These contributions are then distributed to the large user-base so that all may enjoy the fruits of our labor. GNU Chess is intended to run under Unix or Unix-compatible systems. It is written in C and should be portable to other systems. For a test drive, try WebChess, a World Wide Web interface to GNU Chess provided by DJ Delorie. The URL is http://www.delorie.com/game-room/chess/ . _______________________________________________________________________ [B.2] What is GNU Chess's rating? It would be irresponsible to answer this question with a number, without first explaining a few things about ratings. The ratings that are commonly given for computer chess players are less meaningful than they may seem. Most computer chess players (including GNU Chess) do not play in tournaments against humans, or do so only rarely, so they do not have official ratings from FIDE, USCF, or other chess organizations. Some people have methods for rating chess programs approximately by giving them a set of problems to work on and seeing how they do, or by having them play tournaments against each other. Any rating number produced by such means should be taken with a grain of salt; it may be only a rough approximation to the rating the program would achieve in over-the-board tournament competition against humans. The chess skills required for solving problems or playing against other computers are not necessarily the same as those required for play against humans. Also, of course, tournaments among computers can rate the computers only relative to one another, not relative to humans. Some of the computers need to be rated by other means to give the ratings a basis to start from. Compared with human players, computer players are strong tactically but weak strategically, and are much better at blitz chess than at slow chess. These differences make it more difficult to assign a meaningful rating too. Several computers do play regularly on the Internet chess servers and have achieved ratings there. These ratings have the advantage of being based on many games. On the other hand, ICS ratings are only roughly comparable to USCF or FIDE ratings. Many players have ICS ratings that are hundreds of points higher or lower than their USCF or FIDE ratings. Finally, unlike dedicated chess machines, or PC chess programs that run on only a few different models of Intel processors, GNU Chess runs on many different kinds of CPU at many different speeds. Thus its strength depends on how fast a machine you run it on and how much optimization your C compiler does. Some people have formulas for estimating how a computer player's rating varies on faster or slower machines---see the rec.games.chess FAQ for more information---but these need to be taken with a grain of salt too. All that said, here are some numbers. - On the Internet Chess Club, a copy of GNU Chess running on an SGI Onyx R4400 under the handle MaxII has achieved a blitz rating of over 2500 and a standard rating of over 2300. - Wolfgang Gabriel ran the Bednorz-Toennissen Test BT2630 with GNU Chess 4.0 pl74 on a 60 MHz Pentium with 16 MB of RAM. The test gave an estimated rating of 2213. He also ran Fritz-2 on the same hardware and got an estimated rating of 2311. _______________________________________________________________________ [B.3] Does GNU Chess run on a PC under DOS (or Windows, or OS/2)? Yes. There are several versions available. WinBoard provides a graphical user interface to GNU Chess that runs on Windows 95 and Windows NT. See topic [D.2] . The WinBoard distribution includes a GNU Chess executable for the Intel architecture, plus instructions and patches (when necessary) for recompiling GNU Chess from the official sources, available separately. GNU Chess 4.00 for Windows bundles GNU Chess and a custom graphical interface into a single program. Unlike WinBoard, it runs on Windows 3.1 if you have the Win32s compatibility package installed (available free from Microsoft). You can get GNU Chess 4.00 for Windows from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gnuchessPC-4.0.pl77.zip . The distribution includes complete sources and an Intel executable. The standard GNU Chess 4.0 distribution can be compiled for MS-DOS, and will run under Windows in a DOS box, but with no graphical interface. Depending on what patchlevel of GNU Chess you get and what C compiler you have, you may need to make minor source changes to get it to compile. Some precompiled versions are available in the Internet Chess Library; the most recent at this writing is: ftp://caissa.onenet.net/pub/chess/DOS/gch4077.zip . Here is a listing of GNU Chess files for the PC in the Internet Chess Library (topic [A.3] ). They are scattered among the directories /pub/chess/Win3, /pub/chess/DOS, and (don't forget) /pub/chess/DOS/OLD-STUFF. This listing may be outdated; see the library itself to look for additions. MS-DOS: gch4077.zip 497874 GNU Chess 4.0.pl77 for MS-DOS; needs 386 or better. gnu40-62.exe 1323260 Probably GNU Chess 4.0.pl62 for MS-DOS gnu40dos.exe T 317072 GNU Chess 4.0pl60 by Free Software Foundation - compiled for DOS, executables only gnu40src.exe 307786 GNU Chess 4.0pl60 by Free Software Foundation - sources only gnuchs31.exe T 270559 GNU Chess 3.1 by Free Software Foundation - compiled for DOS, sources and executables gnuchs40.exe T 355494 GNU Chess 4.0pl60 by Free Software Foundation - compiled for 80386er, executables only Windows: chess321.exe W M 238185 GNU Chess 3.21 ported by Daryl K. Baker OS/2: gpl65os2.zip 677824 gnuchess-4.0.pl65 compiled for os2. gc-os2-m.zip 578032 gnuchess 4.0 for os2 with mouse support. gnu40os2.zip 1303602 Executables for running gnuchess 4.0 pl62 - under OS/2. pmchs.exe W M 92004 OS/2 PM Chess 1.01 (GNU Chess 3.1 Windows by - Daryl K. Baker) port to OS/2 by Kent Cedola pmchssrc.exe 110279 OS/2 PM Chess 1.01 (GNU Chess 3.1 Windows by - Daryl K. Baker) sources only Porting GNU software to PCs is not a major focus of the GNU project, and these ports are not supported by the FSF. Contact the people who did the ports if you have questions or problems. _______________________________________________________________________ [B.4] Does GNU Chess run on an Amiga? There are at least three ports of GNU Chess to the Amiga. As with the PC ports, these ports are not supported by the FSF; contact the people who did the ports if you have problems or questions. The AmyBoard port (probably the best) is discussed in topic [D.3] . UChess and AmigaGnuChess are available in the Internet Chess Library (topic [A.3] ), in the directory /pub/chess/Amiga. UChess is the newer of the two. -r--r--r-- 1 chess chess 204025 Mar 31 1993 AmigaGnuChess.lha -r--r--r-- 1 chess chess 10122 Mar 31 1993 AmigaGnuChess.readme -r--r--r-- 1 chess chess 705327 May 7 10:28 UChess283.lha -r--r--r-- 1 chess chess 21478 May 7 10:26 UChess283.readme -r--r--r-- 1 chess chess 199387 May 7 10:27 UChess283Patch.lha -r--r--r-- 1 chess chess 21589 May 7 10:26 UChess283Patch.readme _______________________________________________________________________ [B.5] Does GNU Chess run on a Macintosh? There is a port of GNU Chess 4.0 to the Macintosh. It's available from the Internet Chess Library (topic [A.3] ) under /pub/chess/Macintosh or /pub/chess/uploads/Macintosh, in the following files: GnuChessMac40b5.hqx - executable binary GCMsource40b5.hqx - source As with the PC ports, the Macintosh port is not supported by the Free Software Foundation. If you have questions or problems, contact Dan Oetting, oetting@gldfs.cr.usgs.gov. If you have the old Mac port of GNU Chess 3.0, be sure to get 4.0 instead. GNU Chess has come a long way since version 3.0! _______________________________________________________________________ [B.6] Does GNU Chess run on VMS? An old VAX VMS version is available at ada.cenaath.cena.dgac.fr in the [.VMS] directory: Directory CENA10:[ANONYMOUS.VMS] GNUCHESS.ZIP;1 307 21-MAR-1994 18:42:05.13 It's only a character cell version for VT100, VT200, etc. terminals. Thanks to Patrick Moreau for this information. _______________________________________________________________________ [B.7] Does GNU Chess run on the Acorn Archimedes? Steve Dicks (steve@starswan.demon.co.uk) tells us: You might like to know that I have recently successfully completed a port of GNU Chess 4.0.pl75 to the Acorn Archimedes, and I have written my own graphical front-end to it called ArcBoard (current version 0.05). It is currently available from ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/archimedes/games/ . _______________________________________________________________________ [B.8] Does GNU Chess run on Atari computers? Yves Debilloez (101361.2061@CompuServe.COM or yde@ficsgrp.com) tells us: There is a version of GNU chess for Atari available. It can be downloaded from my homepage: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/yves_debilloez/homepage.htm . _______________________________________________________________________ [B.9] How do I build GNU Chess? Do I need gcc? The first step to building GNU Chess is to get the distribution file and unpack it. See topic [A.3] for places you can ftp the distribution from. To unpack the gnuchess distribution, gnuchess-*.tar.gz, put it into a new, empty directory, cd there, and give this Unix command: gzip -cd gnuchess-*.tar.gz | tar -xvf - If this command fails because you don't have gzip, see topic [A.3] , and ask a local Unix expert if you need more help. The above command will unpack all the files into a new directory. Next, cd into this new directory. Decide what directory tree you are going to install GNU Chess in. The default is /usr/local. If you have write access to this directory tree, make sure that it contains subdirectories bin, lib, and man. (If you must "su" to get write access to /usr/local, you don't need to do so until just before the "make install" below.) Type the following: configure make make install If you are going to install GNU Chess under your home directory for personal use, do this instead: mkdir $HOME/bin $HOME/lib $HOME/man configure --prefix=$HOME make make install If you have problems or special requirements, see the files README, INSTALL, Makefile.in, and configure.in for more information. You don't need to have gcc to build GNU Chess. However, GNU Chess is written in ANSI C. If you have only an old K&R C compiler, be sure you have the current patchlevel of GNU Chess, and get "unproto" by: Wietse Venema wietse@wzv.win.tue.nl Mathematics and Computing Science Eindhoven University of Technology The Netherlands It was released in comp.sources.misc Vol 27 with patches in vol 28 and vol 38. Among other places, it can be found on unix.hensa.ac.uk in pub/uunet/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume27/unproto. Compile it and copy the cpp it produces into the gnuchess src directory before you type "make" there. _______________________________________________________________________ [C] GNU Chess bugs and problems _______________________________________________________________________ [C.1] XBoard tells me "Error: first chess program (gnuchessx) exited unexpectedly". Try running XBoard again with the "-debug" flag on the command line. This will print out all the messages received from GNU Chess. If you see this problem as soon as GNU Chess starts up, most likely GNU Chess is exiting with an error message. If you see the message "NO LANGFILE", it means that you did not install GNU Chess correctly, and it is unable to find the file gnuchess.lang. Make sure that you defined LIBDIR in the gnuchess Makefile, and that gnuchess.lang is in that directory. If gnuchess.lang is not there, you probably didn't type "make install" in the gnuchess src directory; you must do this to install gnuchess.lang (and the gnuchess book). If you defined LIBDIR to something that is not an absolute pathname (that is, to something that does not start with a "/"), GNU Chess will work only if you run it from the GNU Chess "src" directory where you built it. If the problem happens while GNU Chess is running, you may have hit a GNU Chess bug. There used to be a bug that could corrupt the stack and cause the program to exit, sometimes with a nonsensical message first, sometimes with no message. It was especially evident on Linux. We believe this bug is fixed in GNU Chess 4.0.pl77. _______________________________________________________________________ [C.2] GNU Chess lets its flag fall a move or two before the time control. GNU Chess is known to be a bit too aggressive in using its clock time and sometimes lets its flag fall. Some bugs that caused this symptom have been fixed, but more work on the problem may be needed. _______________________________________________________________________ [C.3] GNU Chess (used with XBoard) freezes after it gets out of its opening book. First, be sure you have the latest versions of GNU Chess and XBoard; see topic [A.4] above. If you do, and you still have this problem, check the following. a) Perhaps the feature in GNU Chess that lets you stop it thinking on your time by just entering your move is not working. This feature relies on the FIONREAD ioctl, which seems to be broken on some versions of Unix. XBoard uses this feature if the flag -DATTENTION is not present on the DEFINES line of the XBoard Makefile. XBoard 3.1 and later are distributed with this flag already set, so you should not have a problem unless you have removed it. b) You might have a persistent transposition table (hashfile) that has been corrupted. Look in the LIBDIR directory you defined in the GNU Chess Makefile, and if you find a file named gnuchess.hash there, remove it. Do not use the hashfile if you are running multiple copies of GNU Chess at the same time (for instance, with Two Machines mode in XBoard). In fact, it is probably best not to use the hashfile under any circumstances. _______________________________________________________________________ [C.4] GNU Chess (used with XBoard) sometimes tells me that a legal move is illegal. a) First, be sure you have the latest versions of GNU Chess and XBoard; see topic [A.4] above. Several different bugs that could cause this symptom existed in old versions but have been fixed in the latest ones. b) Another possibility is that you have a persistent transposition table (hashfile) that has been corrupted. Look in the LIBDIR directory you defined in the GNU Chess Makefile, and if you find a file named gnuchess.hash there, remove it. Do not use the hashfile if you are running multiple copies of GNU Chess at the same time (for instance, with Two Machines mode in XBoard). In fact, it is probably best not to use the hashfile under any circumstances. _______________________________________________________________________ [C.5] GNU Chess crashes when I try to compile and run it on the DEC Alpha. Get the latest version of GNU Chess. Some bugs that showed up only on the Alpha are fixed in version 4.0 patchlevel 73 and later. If you still have problems, try compiling with the -migrate flag or the -O1 flag. Some versions of the Alpha C compiler have optimizer bugs that affect GNU Chess. _______________________________________________________________________ [C.6] Running (or building) GNU Chess fails with a message about FIONREAD. The message looks something like this: FIONREAD: Operation not supported on socket You probably have a non-ANSI ioctl.h; see README. -1 45 4004787f If you are using gcc to compile, the solution to this error message is usually to go to the GNU Chess Makefile, find the line that starts "CFLAGS=" (with no # character in front of it), and append the flag "-traditional-cpp" to the end of the line. Then do rm dspcom*.o gnuan.o make make install to rebuild gnuchess. If you aren't using gcc, we don't really understand why this should happen, but we do have a brute-force workaround: You can simply disable the gnuchess feature that uses FIONREAD. Find all the places in dspcom.c (and gnuan.c) where the line "#ifdef FIONREAD" occurs. Change each of them to "#ifdef NOTDEF". Then recompile gnuchess. With this code disabled, if you tell gnuchess to think on your time ("hard" mode), you will have to type ^C to make it stop thinking when you want to make your move. The current version of XBoard does this automatically, so disabling the code has no effect on XBoard. _______________________________________________________________________ [C.7] GNU Chess runs way too slow and makes my disk seek wildly. This happens if you don't have enough real memory (RAM) to run GNU Chess. You may need 16MB or more. You can reduce GNU Chess's memory requirements by reconfiguring it, or just buy more memory. Some (rather out of date) suggestions are in the file doc/PORTING from the GNU Chess source tree. The following is from Nikhil Nair: It is perfectly possible to run gnuchess on an 8Mb system. I would suggest that you don't edit the source (though the defaults are the definitions of ttblsz or something like that in src/ttable.h and DEFETABS in src/gnuchess.h), but rather use the -C and -T command-line options (which even work for gnuan, though not documented in the manpage). The defaults are `-C 18001 -T 150001' (for MS-DOS, -T 8001). On my Linux system, this uses just over 9Mb. From memory, `-C 6001 -T 40001' uses around 3Mb. Fiddle with these and see what results you get. Why does GNU Chess use so much memory? The extra memory lets it keep large hash tables that speed up its search and make it play better, and a large on-line book that improves opening play. If you have lots of memory you may want to reconfigure GNU Chess to use *more* than the default amount. _______________________________________________________________________ [D] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard _______________________________________________________________________ [D.1] What is XBoard? XBoard is a graphical chessboard that can serve as a user interface to the GNU Chess and Crafty chess programs, the Internet Chess Servers, email correspondence chess, or your own collection of saved games. XBoard is free software. As an interface to GNU Chess or Crafty, XBoard lets you play a game against the machine, set up arbitrary positions, force variations, or watch a game between two machines. (See topic [F.3] below for information on Crafty.) As an interface to the Internet Chess Servers, XBoard lets you play against other ICS users, observe games they are playing, or review games that have recently finished. You don't need GNU Chess for this. To play email correspondence chess with XBoard, you use it with the cmail program. See topic [D.6] below. You can also use XBoard as a standalone 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 to review GNU Chess, ICS, and email correspondence games you have saved. It saves games in PGN (portable game notation), and can read almost any game in algebraic notation. These features are available at all times, even if you do not have access to GNU Chess or an ICS. XBoard runs under Unix or Unix-compatible systems. It requires the X Window System, version X11R4 or later. There are also ports of XBoard to Microsoft Win32 (that is, Windows NT or Windows 95) and to the Amiga. See topics [D.2] and [D.3] respectively. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.2] Is there an XBoard for Microsoft Windows? What is WinBoard? WinBoard is a port of XBoard to true Microsoft Win32 systems, such as Windows NT and Windows 95. It uses the same back end chess code as XBoard, but the front end graphics code is a complete rewrite. WinBoard is free software. The WinBoard distribution now includes a port of GNU Chess itself to Win32. The GNU Chess port is distributed in executable form, with instructions for rebuilding it from the standard GNU Chess sources (available separately). You should have at least 16 to 24 MB of memory to run GNU Chess with WinBoard. cmail (topic [D.6] ) has not been ported to Win32. All the other XBoard functions are included in WinBoard. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.3] Is there an XBoard for the Amiga? What is AmyBoard? AmyBoard is a port of XBoard to the Amiga, by Jochen Wiedmann. The distribution includes a port of GNU Chess. AmyBoard is free software. System requirements: * An Amiga (obviously :-), running OS 2.04 or later, 2Mb RAM or more. * MUI 2.0 or later. * Workbench or another screen with no less than 640x400 pixels (adjustable with the MUI-Prefs); this restriction is just because we don't have bitmaps with less than 40x40 pixels per square. If someone contributes bitmaps with 20x20 or 20x25, they will work with any Hires mode. If you would like to use an ICS, you need an Internet connection via either * a telnet-like program, or * a terminal program reading from stdin and writing to stdout. AmyBoard is available in the Internet Chess Library (topic [A.3] ). _______________________________________________________________________ [D.4] Is there an XBoard for the Macintosh? No. But porting XBoard to the Mac should not be much harder than porting it to Win32 or the Amiga was. I can't do it because I don't have a Mac, I don't know how to program Macs, and I don't have time. If you do, feel free to give it a try! Send mail to me, mann@pa.dec.com (Tim Mann), if you're working on this. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.5] Does XBoard run on VMS? No. This port would probably be a lot easier than the Win32 and Amiga ports were, because VMS has the X Window system (under the name DECwindows) and is now Posix compliant. However, in spite of the fact that I work for Digital, I don't know enough about VMS to do the port myself. And I don't have time. If you do, give it a try! Send mail to me, mann@pa.dec.com (Tim Mann), if you're working on this. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.6] What is cmail? cmail is a program that helps you play and keep track of electronic mail correspondence chess games using XBoard. It is distributed with XBoard and has its own manual page. cmail is free software. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.7] How do I build XBoard? Do I need gcc? The first step to building XBoard is to get the distribution file. See topic [A.3] for places you can ftp the software from. To unpack and build the xboard distribution, xboard-*.tar.gz, give these Unix commands: gzip -cd xboard-*.tar.gz | tar -xvf - cd xboard-*/ configure make If the first step above fails because you don't have gzip, see topic [A.3] , and ask a local Unix expert if you need more help. If you have any problems with the last two steps, read the READ_ME and INSTALL files in the xboard-*/ directory. You will also find this FAQ there. You don't need to have gcc to build XBoard, and your C compiler doesn't have to be ANSI-compliant. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.8] Can I use XBoard to play a game of chess with another human? The only way for two humans on different machines to play chess in real time using XBoard is to use an Internet Chess Server as an intermediary. That is, each player runs his own copy of XBoard, both of them log into an ICS, and they play a game there. Two copies of XBoard cannot communicate with each other directly. Instructions on how to get started with Internet chess are included with the XBoard distribution. The network addresses included in the XBoard distribution may not always be current. The oldest ICS is the Internet Chess Club at chessclub.com, which now has a fee for registered use, but still allows free unregistered use. There are also many newer sites with no fees, using the Free Internet Chess Server implementation (FICS). Some current FICS sites are fics.onenet.net (the most active), eics.daimi.aau.dk, and chess.unix-ag.uni-kl.de. On all these machines, the port number to use is 5000. Note: If you don't have network connectivity to any ICS site, you can run your own server using the FICS code. You can get a copy by anonymous ftp from the Internet Chess Library (topic [A.3] ). The code is changing rapidly, so send mail to chess@fics.onenet.net and/or log into the FICS server at fics.onenet.net and ask the administrators there for current information. The cmail program included with XBoard lets you play email postal games with another human; see topic [D.6] . Two humans can play chess on the same machine using one copy of XBoard in Edit Game mode, but the clocks don't run in this mode, so it's of limited usefulness. See also topic [F.2] , Winsock Chess. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.9] Will WinBoard run on Windows 3.1? WinBoard basically does not run on Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Although you can use the program as a PGN viewer/editor under the Win32s compatibility package, the major features (interfacing to GNU Chess and to ICS) do not work. The main problem is that Win32s does not have threads or real concurrent processes. A port of WinBoard to Windows 3.1 is possible in theory, but it would be difficult and messy, and no one is going to do it. WinBoard runs well on both Windows 95 and Windows NT. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.10] How do I use XBoard or WinBoard as an external viewer for PGN files with my Web browser? 1) On Unix systems: - Add the following line to the file .mime.types in your home directory. (Create the file if it doesn't exist already.) application/x-chess-pgn pgn - Add the following line to the file .mailcap in your home directory. (Create the file if it doesn't exist already.) application/x-chess-pgn; xboard -ncp -lgf %s - Exit from your Web browser and restart it. 2) On MS Windows systems: The exact procedure depends on which Web browser you are using. Generally, you need to select something like Helper Applications or File Types from an Options menu or dialog, click the button that makes a new type, and fill in the boxes: Extension: pgn Mime type: application/x-chess-pgn Application command line: WinBoard -ncp You will probably have to give a full pathname for WinBoard; you will probably be able to use a Browse button in the configuration dialog to look for it. If your Web browser doesn't let you include arguments on the application command line, you'll need to put a file named WinBoard.ini in the working directory where the browser starts up WinBoard, containing the string -ncp . Without the -ncp, WinBoard will try to start up GNU Chess whenever you use it as a viewer. This will work if you have GNU Chess installed, and you might even prefer it if you want to have GNU Chess available to analyze the games you view. 3) To confirm that your external viewer configuration is working, open one of the following URLs and click on any of the game names shown. * http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Tim_Mann/chess.html#PGN * http://www.ub.uit.no/chess/pgn/gamelist.html * http://www.traveller.com/scripts/chess_players?Kasparov Games at www.traveller.com don't cause XBoard to be started when you are using Netscape, but they do work with NCSA Mosaic. This seems to be due to a missing feature in Netscape, but unfortunately it will probably have to be fixed on the server end, given Netscape's status as the de facto standard. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.11] How do I use WinBoard as an external viewer for PGN files with the MS Windows File Manager or Explorer? For the File Manager on Windows 3.11, Windows NT 3.51, etc., select Associate from the File menu, enter "pgn" as the extension, and use the Browse button to find your copy of WinBoard and set up the association. For the Explorer on Windows 95, follow the same procedure as in topic [D.10] . You only have to follow the procedure once to configure both Microsoft's Internet Explorer and the file system Explorer. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.12] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal with XBoard? First, be sure that you can connect using XBoard without timestamp/timeseal. Second, be sure that you can connect using timestamp/timeseal without XBoard. See the help files on ICC and FICS or ask people online if you have problems. If you are in a completely ordinary situation, where your machine is directly on the Internet and you can connect to ICC or FICS without timestamp/timeseal using just the command "xboard -ics" or "xboard -ics -icshost fics.onenet.net", change that command to one of the following: xboard -ics -icshost 206.215.211.44 -telnet -telnetProgram timestamp xboard -ics -icshost 164.58.253.10 -telnet -telnetProgram timeseal If you have a firewall between your machine and the ICS, or if for any reason you already have to use the -icscomm, -telnet, or -gateway option to connect to ICS even when you are not running timestamp/timeseal, you are going to have a harder time. The timestamp and timeseal protocols do not work through firewalls, across serial lines, or across telnet connections. You have to run the timestamp or timeseal program on a machine that can make a direct TCP connection to the ICS. You may or may not be permitted to do this, depending on your firewall's security policy. See the section on FIREWALLS in the XBoard man page or info file, and where it says to run "telnet" on your firewall machine, run timestamp or timeseal instead. In this configuration you are not protected against lag between your machine and the firewall, or lag caused by heavy load on the firewall itself from other users. For further information, see the help files on ICC and FICS. Also see topic [E.8] . _______________________________________________________________________ [D.13] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal with WinBoard? First, be sure that you can connect using WinBoard without timestamp/timeseal. See the help files or ask people online if you have problems. If your machine is directly on the Internet and you can connect to ICC or FICS without timestamp/timeseal using just the command line "WinBoard -ics" or "WinBoard -ics -icshost fics.onenet.net", do the following instead. 1 Run the Windows timestamp (tmstamp) or Windows timeseal (tmseal) program. Both these programs were written by Don Fong and are available by anonymous FTP from chessclub.com or the Internet Chess Library (topic [A.3] ). See the help files on ICC and FICS if you need to know more about them. 2 Start WinBoard with the following command line. This causes WinBoard to talk to the timestamp/timeseal program running on your own machine ("localhost") instead of talking directly to the ICS. WinBoard -ics -icshost localhost 3 After you are logged in, be sure that timestamp is really active. If you got the previous steps wrong, it won't be. On ICC, type "ping". On FICS, type "finger". If you normally have to use the "-icscomm" command line option on WinBoard to log into a shell account, and then telnet to ICC or FICS from there, you are going to have to run the Unix version of timestamp or timeseal on the shell machine. (If the shell account is not on a Unix machine, you are out of luck.) Get the appropriate version of timestamp or timeseal onto the shell machine via FTP; see the help files on ICC and FICS for instructions. Then simply run it when you would normally run telnet. In this configuration you are not protected against lag between your PC and the shell machine, or for lag caused by heavy load on the shell machine itself from other users. If you have a firewall between your machine and the ICS, you may have a harder time. The timestamp and timeseal protocols do not work through firewalls, across serial lines, or across telnet connections. You have to run the timestamp or timeseal program on a machine that can make a direct TCP connection to the ICS. You may or may not be permitted to do this, depending on your firewall's security policy. See the section on FIREWALLS in the WinBoard help file, and where it says to run "telnet" on your firewall machine, run timestamp or timeseal instead. In this configuration you are not protected against lag between your PC and the firewall, or for lag caused by heavy load on the firewall itself from other users. For further information, see the help files on ICC and FICS. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.14] How do I play bughouse with XBoard or WinBoard? XBoard (and WinBoard) have simple but effective bughouse support. Offboard piece holdings are shown in the board window's banner, and you drop offboard pieces using the right mouse button. Press it over the destination square to pop up a menu of pieces. XBoard can display only one board at a time, but you can observe your partner's game by running a second copy of XBoard and logging in as a guest. (Unfortunately, this is not possible if you are using the -icscomm option.) To observe your partner's games automatically, turn on Auto Observe in the second XBoard's Options menu, and put your partner on your ICS gnotify list. Or on ICC, use the "follow" command to follow your partner's games. _______________________________________________________________________ [D.15] How can I scroll back in the WinBoard console? Under Windows NT, you can increase the number of lines in the console window's buffer to whatever you want, using the system menu in the upper left corner of the console window itself. If you resize the window to be smaller than the buffer, a scroll bar appears. Microsoft chose not to provide this feature in the consoles of Windows 95, so there is no way to scroll back in them. Sorry. If you have time to write code to work around this problem and would like to donate it, please do so! _______________________________________________________________________ [D.16] What is Zippy? How can I interface a chess program to the Internet Chess Servers? Zippy is an interface that lets GNU Chess or Crafty act as a computer player on an Internet Chess Server. Zippy is included in both the XBoard and WinBoard distributions. It is implemented as a small amount of additional code within XBoard or WinBoard. For documentation, see the file zippy.README, included in both distributions or available from my chess Web page, http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Tim_Mann/chess.html . The version of zippy.README on my Web page is often more up-to-date than those in the XBoard/WinBoard distributions. You'll also find a "biography" of Zippy and pointers to the original Zippy the Pinhead comic strips there. _______________________________________________________________________ [E] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard bugs and problems _______________________________________________________________________ [E.1] I can't build XBoard because the X11/Xaw/... include files are not found. These are the header files for the Athena Widgets library, which XBoard uses heavily. Some versions of Unix don't supply these files, but they are part of the standard X distribution, freely available from MIT. For general information on getting missing X sources, see the FAQ on comp.windows.x. Note that you may be missing only the header files, or you may be missing the libraries themselves too. HP-UX users are missing only the header files. You can get them by anonymous FTP as follows. (But first check with your system administrator to see if someone else at your site has already done this.) Get the archive files /hpux9/X11R5/Core/imake-5.04.tar.gz (imake and xmkmf, optional but useful) and /hpux9/X11R5/Core/Xaw-5.00.tar.gz (Xaw header files) via anonymous FTP from the site hpux.csc.liv.ac.uk (138.253.42.172), or one of the other official sites---Germany: hpux.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de (129.13.200.57), US: hpux.cae.wisc.edu (144.92.4.15), France: hpux.cict.fr (192.70.79.53) or Netherlands: hpux.ced.tudelft.nl (130.161.140.100). Unpack the archives using gzip and follow the instructions in their README and HPUX.Install files. Thanks to Richard Lloyd for this information. If you have the Xaw header files installed in a different place than the other X11 headers, you may need to configure XBoard with an extra flag to help it find them. For example, if yours are in /foo/bar/X11/Xaw, try this: rm config.cache (setenv CFLAGS -I/foo/bar ; configure) Also see topic [E.2] . _______________________________________________________________________ [E.2] Building XBoard fails due to undefined symbols or missing include files. The configure script for XBoard looks for X libraries and header files in some common places. Sometimes it fails: If yours are installed in an odd place, it may not find them at all. If you have more than one version of X installed on your system, it may find the "wrong" one, or occasionally it may find libraries from one version and incompatible header files from another. You can work around these problems by telling the configure script where the files are. For example: configure --x-includes=/odd/place/include \ --x-libraries=/odd/place/lib The directory named in the argument to --x-includes must have a subdirectory "X11" that contains the actual .h files. Some linkers have bugs that cause bogus error messages when you try to link X programs. The configure script includes a workaround for a bug of this kind that exists in some SunOS 4.x.x installations. See the FAQ on comp.windows.x for more information about problems of this kind. If all else fails, check whether anyone else at your site has been able to compile any X programs on your system. Your X installation might be buggy. If so, the system administrator at your site might know how to fix or work around the problem. Also see topic [E.1] . _______________________________________________________________________ [E.3] I have problems using WinBoard on ICS with a modem. I'm not running SLIP or PPP, but just dialing in to an ordinary login account ("shell account"). Here are solutions to some common problems in this area. Some people want to connect to ICS through HyperTerminal or some other terminal program first, then run WinBoard. This is not how it works. WinBoard wants to talk directly with your modem, acting as a terminal program itself. Start out with the modem "on hook" (not making a call). Run WinBoard with a command line like this (adding more options if desired): start WinBoard /ics /icscomm com1 Use com2, com3, or com4 in place of com1 if your modem is connected to one of those ports. Leave out the "start" if this is the command line in an icon you are making for WinBoard. After you start WinBoard, you may need to change some of the options in the Communications dialog (on the Options menu). The dialog has the usual options for talking to modems: bits per second, bits per byte, parity, number of stop bits. If you have to change anything in this dialog, you'll have to change it every time you run WinBoard; there is currently no way to save these options or specify them on the command line. Sorry. Next, type dialing commands to your modem in the text window that WinBoard creates. You may need to turn off Local Line Editing on the Options menu while you are typing commands to your modem. Turn it back on when you're done. See the WinBoard Help file for instructions if you see your typing echoed an extra time after you hit Enter. _______________________________________________________________________ [E.4] I have problems using WinBoard on ICS with Windows 95 and SLIP or PPP. When trying to start up, it gets the error "Address family not supported by protocol family" (or some equally strange message). WinBoard is a 32-bit application, but some Winsock (TCP/IP) implementations support only 16-bit applications. You get a strange looking error message if you try to use a 32-bit application because there is no standard Winsock error code number for "32-bit application not supported." Microsoft TCP/IP works with both 16-bit and 32-bit applications, supports SLIP, PPP, Ethernet, etc., and is included with Windows 95. If possible, I recommend that you uninstall whatever Winsock you are using and install Microsoft TCP/IP instead. For more information, see http://walden.mo.net/~rymabry/95winfaq.html (the Win95-L FAQ) . Trumpet Winsock 2.1 (and earlier) supports only 16-bit applications, and hence does not work with WinBoard. But there is a beta-test release available that does support 32-bit applications. I have not tried it with WinBoard, but it should work. See Trumpet's Web page http://www.trumpet.com.au/wsk/winsock.htm for more information. A few versions of Winsock may have bugs that prevent Windows timestamp/timeseal from working with them. I'm not sure if such bugs exist in any versions that actually have 32-bit support, so this point might be moot. Again, Microsoft TCP/IP is known to work. _______________________________________________________________________ [E.5] When I try to run WinBoard, I get the message "Failed to start chess program gnuchesx on localhost: NO LANGFILE (file gnuchess.lang not found)". This problem should not occur with WinBoard 3.4.pl1 and later. It used to happen because some unzip programs (notably pkunzip) do not understand long file names, so they would unzip gnuchess.lang as gnuchess.lan and gnuchess.data as gnuchess.dat. I have changed the GNU Chess port included with WinBoard to use the shorter names. However, if you want to recompile WinBoard, you still need to use an unzip that understands long file names, because some of the WinBoard source files still have long names. _______________________________________________________________________ [E.6] I want to use XBoard or WinBoard as an Internet Chess Server interface, but the ICS Client option is grayed out on the menu. XBoard and WinBoard have three major modes that can't be changed from the menus; they can only be selected with command-line options: GNU Chess mode, ICS mode, and standalone mode. GNU Chess mode is the default. You need to give the -ics option on the command line for ICS mode, or the -ncp ("no chess program") option for standalone mode. See topic [E.7] . _______________________________________________________________________ [E.7] How do I give command-line options to a Windows program like WinBoard? There are many ways; pick your favorite: * Type the command line into an MS-DOS Prompt box. Add the command "start" in front of it to avoid tying up the box the whole time WinBoard is running. Example: "start WinBoard -ics". Starting Windows programs from an MS-DOS Prompt box works only on Windows 95 or Windows NT, but then, WinBoard itself works only on those systems. * Choose File|Run from the Program Manager, choose File|Run from the File Manager, or choose Run from the Windows 95 Start menu. Type the command line into the dialog you get. You may have to give WinBoard's full drivespec and filename if it is not in a directory on your search path. * Make a Program Manager icon for WinBoard. You can do this by dragging WinBoard.exe from the File Manager into the Program Manager, or by using File|New in the Program Manager. Select the icon and choose File|Properties. Edit the Command Line text box to add the command-line options to the end. * Make a Windows 95 shortcut for WinBoard. You can do this by right-dragging WinBoard.exe to the desktop and selecting "Create Shortcut(s) Here" from the menu that appears. Then right-click on the shortcut, select Properties, and click the Shortcut tab. The command-line text box is labelled "Target" instead of "Command line" just to confuse you. Edit this box, adding the command line options to the end. * Bonus alternative, WinBoard only: Make a file called winboard.ini in WinBoard's working directory or a directory on your search path. Put all the command line options in it. Don't put the word "WinBoard" in the file, just the options. _______________________________________________________________________ [E.8] When I try to log in to ICC using timestamp (or to FICS using timeseal) with XBoard, it accepts my handle, but just beeps at me when I type my password. I don't really understand why this happens, but several people have reported it. They were all using SunOS 5.x (Solaris 2). The following workaround has been reported to fix it. Recompile XBoard with the commands: configure --disable-ptys make If you needed additional flags on the configure command line the first time you did it, add them here too. This workaround may solve strange and mysterious problems on other platforms too. I'm not sure that the pty code (which is disabled by the above command) is really needed at all, but it was included in XBoard 1.2 by the original authors, and I don't have access to any of the kinds of machines where it is supposed to be needed, so I can't test for myself. _______________________________________________________________________ [E.9] When I exit from WinBoard after using it to play against GNU Chess or Crafty, the chess program keeps running in the background. This is a bug in WinBoard, not yet fixed in the current version (3.4 patchlevel 1). To work around it, always exit from WinBoard by selecting the Exit item on WinBoard's File menu. Do not select Close from the system menu in the upper left corner of the window banner, do not double-click in the upper left corner of the banner, and do not press the Windows 95 [X] button in the upper right corner of the banner. In the latter cases, WinBoard does not take control and kill off the chess program before exiting. Also, if you are using Crafty, be certain to get the version compiled for Win32 (wcrafty.exe), not the version compiled for MS-DOS (crafty.exe). _______________________________________________________________________ [E.10] When running WinBoard, I get the message "Error getting user name: The operation was not performed because user has not logged on to the network." WinBoard does not care if you are logged in "to the network." WinBoard does ask Windows for your user name, for use in the PGN tags of games you play. Unfortunately, if you have your Windows 95 configured so as not to require you to log in, Windows pops up this message when WinBoard asks for your name. You can just dismiss the dialog and continue, with no ill effects. _______________________________________________________________________ [E.10] WinZippy (the Windows version of Zippy) crashes Windows 95! Unfortunately, this is quite true. WinZippy tends to crash Windows 95 periodically, generally right at the start of a new game. I don't understand why this happens, I don't have a reliable workaround, and I am not actively working on a fix. It could be a bug in WinZippy, or WinZippy could be doing something unusual that triggers a bug in Windows 95. If your machine is not absolutely wedded to Windows 95, try running Linux (with xboard) or Windows NT (with WinBoard) instead. The Crafty helpsite has a page devoted to this bug, with a further description of the problem and some suggested workarounds. I can't endorse any of them from personal experience. The page is at http://home.ican.net/~sjl/craftybugs.html . The page talks only about using Crafty with WinBoard, but the same bug occurs with GNU Chess. _______________________________________________________________________ [F] Miscellaneous _______________________________________________________________________ [F.1] What is XChess? XChess is an older chessboard program that is no longer supported. XChess was written for X version 10, and you may or may not be able to build and run it on an X11 system. XChess has only one significant feature that is not present in XBoard: Two humans can play chess using XChess on different machines, without using the Internet Chess Server as an intermediary. This feature is of interest only if you don't have network connectivity to the Internet Chess Server. Note: There actually have been several different programs called "XChess" in circulation at various times. The above describes one that was associated with GNU Chess. _______________________________________________________________________ [F.2] What is Winsock Chess? Winsock Chess is a program that lets two people play chess across a network. It runs only under Microsoft Windows. Some of the code in Winsock Chess is derived from GNU Chess, but it is not maintained by the GNU Chess team. You can get a copy from the Internet Chess Library; see topic [A.3] . For more information, contact its author, Donald Munro, ccahdm@beluga.upe.ac.za. _______________________________________________________________________ [F.3] What is Crafty? Crafty is a freely-available chess program written by Bob Hyatt. Bob is the main author of the well-known chess program Cray Blitz. Crafty is already a much better chess program than GNU Chess on many dimensions: it plays better, the code is commented and readable, and the author is actively working on improvements. For more information on Crafty, see the Official Crafty Helpsite, http://home.ican.net/~sjl/crafty.html . _______________________________________________________________________ [F.4] How do I use Crafty with XBoard? Crafty is a rapidly evolving chess program. This rapid pace of development is good, because it means Crafty is always getting better. However, this can also cause problems with backwards compatibility. To make life easier for the user, and also for the XBoard developers, an "XBoard-supported" version of Crafty is being provided. The "supported" version of Crafty includes some important changes that make it work better with XBoard. You can get more information on it from either the Web page http://fly.hiwaay.net/~frankm/crafty.html , or, if you don't have Web access, ftp://gw2.maf.mobile.al.us/frankm/crafty/README . You can of course always grab Bob Hyatt's latest official version of Crafty from his ftp site, ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/hyatt/crafty.tar.gz . But please be aware of the caveats mentioned on the Web page before reporting "bugs" to the XBoard developers. To use Crafty with XBoard, give the -fcp parameter like this: xboard -fcp "crafty xboard" You can add more Crafty command line flags inside the quotes; see Crafty's documentation to find out what they are. You can add more xboard options at the end of the command line. Also give the -scp parameter with the same value if you want to use matchMode to have two copies of Crafty play each other. _______________________________________________________________________ [F.5] How do I use Crafty with WinBoard? With WinBoard, you must use the version of Crafty compiled for Win32 (wcrafty.exe), not the version compiled for MS-DOS (crafty.exe). The MS-DOS version may appear to work, but it will generally fail to exit when WinBoard tries to kill it. This happens even if you select File|Exit to exit (topic [E.9] ). Use the following command line: winboard -fcp "wcrafty xboard" You can add more Crafty command line flags inside the quotes; see Crafty's documentation to find out what they are. You can add more WinBoard options at the end of the command line. As of this writing, WinBoard is behind XBoard in its support for Crafty. I'm not sure what versions of Crafty do and do not work with WinBoard. Hopefully we will be able to port the improvements in xboard 3.5 to WinBoard. _______________________________________________________________________ ** End of GNU Chess FAQ **