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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<link rev="made" href="mailto:[email protected]" />
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/graphics/gnu-head-mini.png" />
<meta name="ICBM" content="42.256233,-71.006581" />
<meta name="DC.title" content="gnu.org" />
<title>XBoard and WinBoard: Frequently Asked Questions</title>
<style type="text/css" media="all">
@import url('/style.css');
</style>
<style type="text/css" media="print">
@import url('/print.css');
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>XBoard and WinBoard: Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
<p>This document answers some frequently asked questions about the
graphical chess interfaces XBoard and WinBoard.
A hyperlinked version of this FAQ is available on
the Web through the page
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/FAQ.html">
http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/FAQ.html</a>.</p>
<p><i>This FAQ is in need of revision. Please contact us if you'd like
to help update it.</i></p>
<hr />
<h2>Outline</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#tag-A0">[A] Introduction and hot topics</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B0">[B] XBoard and WinBoard</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C0">[C] XBoard and WinBoard, bugs and problems</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D0">[D] Crafty and other topics</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2>Detailed contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a name="tag-A0" href="#tag[A">[A] Introduction and hot topics</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#tag-A.1">[A.1] What are XBoard and WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-A.2">[A.2] Where can I get chess information and chess software?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-A.3">[A.3] What are the current version numbers for XBoard and WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-A.4">[A.4] Who is working on this project?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-A.5">[A.5] How do I report bugs, offer help, etc.?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-A.6">[A.6] What are the future plans for XBoard and WinBoard?</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a name="tag-B0" href="#tag[B">[B] XBoard and WinBoard</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#tag-B.1">[B.1] What is XBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.2">[B.2] Is there an XBoard for Microsoft Windows? What is WinBoard? How do I install WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.3">[B.3] Is there an XBoard for the Amiga? What is AmyBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.4">[B.4] Is there an XBoard for the Macintosh?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.5">[B.5] Does XBoard run on VMS?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.6">[B.6] What is cmail?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.7">[B.7] How do I build XBoard? Do I have to have gcc?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.8">[B.8] Can I use XBoard or WinBoard to play a game of chess with another human?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.9">[B.9] Will WinBoard run on Windows 3.1? How about Windows CE (also known as Pocket PC)?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.10">[B.10] How do I use XBoard or WinBoard as an external viewer for PGN files with my Web browser?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.11">[B.11] How do I use WinBoard as an external viewer for PGN files with the MS Windows File Manager or Explorer?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.12">[B.12] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal with XBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.13">[B.13] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal with WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.14">[B.14] How do I play bughouse with XBoard or WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.16">[B.16] What is Zippy? How can I interface a chess program to the Internet Chess Servers?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.17">[B.17] How can I interface my own chess program to XBoard or WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.18">[B.18] How can I recompile WinBoard from source?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.19">[B.19] How can I use XBoard or WinBoard to talk to an Internet Chess Server through a firewall or proxy?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.20">[B.20] How can I use XBoard or WinBoard on chess.net with accuclock?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.21">[B.21] Can I get Zippy to do one or more ICS commands automatically at the start or end of each game?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.22">[B.22] How do I print from WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.23">[B.23] Can I get Zippy to automatically reconnect to ICS when its connection breaks?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.24">[B.24] The chess engines are too strong and always beat me. How can I adjust the difficulty level to make them weaker?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.25">[B.25] May I use the piece bitmaps from XBoard/WinBoard in my own program?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.26">[B.26] How can I get rid of these silly logos that this new WinBoard displays above the board?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.27">[B.27] How can I install logos for other engines, Internet Chess Servers or Human users?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-B.28">[B.28] Is there readline support for XBoard?</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a name="tag-C0" href="#tag-C">[C] XBoard and WinBoard, bugs and problems</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#tag-C.1">[C.1] I can't build XBoard because the X11/Xaw/... include files are not found.</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.2">[C.2] Configuring or building XBoard fails due to missing header files, missing libraries, or undefined symbols.</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.3">[C.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").</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.4">[C.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).</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.5">[C.5] When I try to run WinBoard, I get the message "Failed to start chess program gnuchess on localhost: NO LANGFILE (file gnuchess.lan not found)".</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.6">[C.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.</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.7">[C.7] How do I give command-line options to a Windows program like WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.9">[C.9] When I exit from WinBoard after using it to play against a chess program on my machine, the chess program keeps running in the background.</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.12">[C.12] Why do my ICS opponents often get extra time after they make their moves? Why do I sometimes lose time off my clock after I make my move?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.13">[C.13] I can't run WinBoard unless I delete the WinBoard.ini file each time!</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.15">[C.15] I get errors compiling XBoard's parser.c.</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.16">[C.16] I get an error building WinBoard from source because "flex" is not found.</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.17">[C.17] XBoard hangs shortly after connecting to an ICS when used with dxterm, cmdtool, dtterm, kterm, konsole, or other substitutes for xterm.</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.18">[C.18] The WinBoard pieces show up in the wrong colors, appear distorted, or are not visible at all.</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.19">[C.19] XBoard or WinBoard tells me "Error: first chess program (...) exited unexpectedly".</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.20">[C.20] XBoard tells me "Warning: Cannot allocate colormap entry", or "too few colors available; trying monochrome mode", or "XPM pieces cannot be used in monochrome mode".</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.21">[C.21] When I log in to freechess.org, the Enter key doesn't work, and I have to use Ctrl+J instead. But when I use WinBoard, Ctrl+J doesn't work either, so I'm stuck.</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-C.22">[C.22] XBoard says, "Failed to start first chess program fairymax on localhost: fairymax: No such file or directory."</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a name="tag-D0" href="#tag-D">[D] Crafty and other topics</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#tag-D.1">[D.1] What is XChess?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D.2">[D.2] What is Winsock Chess?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D.3">[D.3] What is Crafty?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D.4">[D.4] How do I use Crafty with XBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D.5">[D.5] How do I use Crafty with WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D.6">[D.6] How do I use GNU Chess with XBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D.7">[D.7] How do I use GNU Chess with WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D.8">[D.8] What is Fairy-Max?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D.9">[D.9] What is UCI? What is Polyglot?</a></li>
<li><a href="#tag-D.10">[D.10] How do I use an UCI engine with XBoard / WinBoard?</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a name="tag-A">[A] Introduction and hot topics</a></h2>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-A.1">[A.1] What are XBoard and WinBoard?</a></h3>
<p>XBoard and WinBoard are graphical user interfaces for chess.
XBoard runs with the X Window System on Unix systems (including
GNU/Linux); see topic <a href="#tag-B.1">[B.1]</a>. WinBoard runs
on true 32-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, such as Windows
95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, and should continue to work on future
32-bit Windows systems. It does not work on Windows CE (also known
as Pocket PC), nor does it work on 16-bit Windows systems such as
Windows 3.1. See topic <a href="#tag-B.2">[B.2]</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-A.2">[A.2] Where can I get chess information and chess
software?</a></h3>
<p>As a shortcut to most things mentioned in this FAQ, try Tim Mann's
Chess Web page, <a href= "http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html</a>.
This page page is currently a very bad place to get the latest released
versions of XBoard and WinBoard and the most up-to-date version of this
FAQ, though. A better place is the
<a href=
"http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum">WinBoard forum</a>.
Also see our Savannah
project pages at <a href="https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/"
>https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/</a>.</p>
<p>If you have other questions about XBoard/WinBoard that aren't
answered in this FAQ, you can try Aaron Tay's WinBoard and Chess
Engines FAQ,
at<a href="http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/">defunct
URL</a>.</p>
<p>For general news and information about chess, try the
<a href="http://www.talkchess.com/forum">CCC forum</a>
or the
<a href=
"http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum">WinBoard forum</a>.
Anothe possibility is 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
<a href="http://www.clark.net/pub/pribut/chess.html">defunct URL</a>.</p>
<p>Like other GNU software, you can get XBoard, and WinBoard by anonymous FTP from
<a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/</a>
and its many mirror sites. Look in the subdirectories xboard, and winboard.
The .tar.gz suffix on the files there indicates they were packed with tar
and compressed with gzip. The .exe or .zip suffixes indicate files that
were packed and compressed with zip.</p>
<p>For other chess software, try the Internet Chess Library. Use
anonymous FTP to connect to ftp.freechess.org, or go to the Web page
<a href="http://www.freechess.org/">http://www.freechess.org/</a>.
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. The FTP server can
automatically decompress files for you as you download them, useful if you
don't have gzip.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<pre>
% ftp ftp.gnu.org
Connected to ftp.gnu.org
Name: anonymous
Password: your-email-address@your-site
ftp> binary
200 Type set to I.
ftp> cd /pub/gnu/xboard
ftp> dir
-rw-r--r-- 1 14910 wheel 1057625 May 20 00:25 xboard-4.2.7.tar.gz
ftp> get xboard-4.2.7.tar.gz
150 BINARY connection for xboard-4.2.7.tar.gz (1057625 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> quit
</pre>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-A.3">[A.3] What are the current version numbers for
XBoard and WinBoard?</a></h3>
<p>At this writing, the current version numbers are:</p>
<ul>
<li>XBoard 4.4.0</li>
<li>WinBoard 4.4.0</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-A.4">[A.4] Who is working on this project?</a></h3>
Please see our Savannah project pages
at <a href="https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/">https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/</a>
for a list of active developers. Many others occasionally contribute
suggestions and snippets of code, for which we are grateful.
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-A.5">[A.5] How do I report bugs, offer help, etc.?</a></h3>
<p>Bug reports, suggestions, and offers to help on XBoard
or WinBoard should be sent to bug-xboard<a name="nospam01">@</a>gnu.org.</p>
<p>Beginner questions and discussion about the program may get faster
answers on the WinBoard Forum at <a
href="http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/"
>http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/</a>.
This forum also constains a section dedicated to propose and discuss
new features for WinBoard / XBoard or WinBoard protocol,
and reposrt bugs,
and offers downloads of pre-installed packages of WinBoard
bundled with other software,
useful for conducting computer-computer tournaments.</p>
<p>If you are developing a
chess engine that works with XBoard or WinBoard (or an alternative
GUI that works with such engines), see the Chess Engines mailing
list, hosted at
<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-engines"
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-engines</a>.
For better response, join the above-mentioned WinBoard forum,
or the <a href="http://www.talkchess.com/forum">CCC forum</a>.</p>
<p>Any time you want to report a possible bug in XBoard or WinBoard,
we need to know exactly what you did, and exactly what error (or
other) messages you got.</p>
<p>If you are using Unix, run the "script" program, run XBoard with
the -debug flag (if you get as far as running it), 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.</p>
<p>If you are using MS Windows, run WinBoard with the -debug flag, and
send us a copy of the WinBoard.debug file. If you aren't sure how to
add command-line flags to WinBoard, you can hit Ctrl+Alt+F12 to create
a WinBoard.debug file after WinBoard starts, but that is not as good,
because a few messages that would have been printed at the start are
lost.</p>
<p>Either way, please send us the exact text of the commands you typed
and the output you got, not just your recollection of approximately
what they were. The messages may seem meaningless to you, but they
are very meaningful to us and essential for diagnosing problems.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-A.6">[A.6] What are the future plans for XBoard and
WinBoard?</a></h3>
<p>Our plans are always in flux. As with most free software projects,
the next release will happen when it happens -- or it may never
happen. This has always been the policy for XBoard/WinBoard.
Releases have never been promised in specific time frames.</p>
<p>Starting in November 2003, several new developers have joined the
project, and work is now hosted at <a
href="https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/"
>https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/</a>. Lots of work is just
getting underway, but nothing is far along yet.</p>
<p>Here is a partial list of items that have a nonzero probability of
happening in finite time.</p>
<ul>
<li>Small bug fixes. Occasionally someone sends us a fix, or reports
a small bug very clearly so that we're able to fix it in a few minutes
work.</li>
<li>Protocol version 3. The members of the chess engine authors'
mailing list discussed a set of proposed features for the next version
of the XBoard/WinBoard chess engine communication protocol.
The WinBoard 4.3 fork has taken the protocol in a different direction,
though, extending version 2 with new features as they were needed,
rather than upgrading to a new protocol in a single sweep.
It does not seem likely that there will be a v3 protocol in the
foreseeable future.
</li>
<li>Contributed features. Several people have mailed me code to add
various features. Most of this code is available on the
XBoard/WinBoard extensions page
at <a href="http://www.tim-mann.org/extensions.html">
http://www.tim-mann.org/extensions.html</a>,
but it is not in any official releases yet. We are in the process of
getting folks to formally assign the copyrights on their contributions
to the Free Software Foundation so that we can include it in official
releases in the future.</li>
<li>Internationalization. Several people have expressed interest in
internationalizing XBoard/WinBoard. Version 4.4 implements
internationalization in its XBoard branch, and includes (partial)
Turkish and German translations. For WinBoard a suitable way for
internationalization still has to be found, as all menu strings there
are not in the C code, but in a Windows resource file. In any case, we
will need more translators, to update the existing translations (for
version 4.2.7) to the current version, and to provide translaions for
oter languages. Watch for news on the xboard-devel mailing list on
our Savannah pages.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<H2><a name="tag-B">[B] XBoard and WinBoard</a></H2>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.1">[B.1] What is XBoard?</a></h3>
<p>XBoard is a graphical user interface for chess. It displays a
chessboard on the screen, accepts moves made with the mouse, and loads
and saves games in Portable Game Notation (PGN). XBoard is free software.
It serves as a front-end for many different chess services, including:</p>
<p><strong>Chess engines</strong> that will run on your machine and
play a game against you or help you analyze, such as GNU Chess and
Crafty (topic <a href="#tag-D.3">[D.3]</a> below).</p>
<p><strong>Chess servers</strong> on the Internet, where you can
connect to play chess with people from all over the world, watch other
users play, or just hang out and chat.</p>
<p><strong>Correspondence chess</strong> played by electronic
mail. The cmail program (topic <a href="#tag-B.6">[B.6]</a> below)
automates the tasks of parsing email from your opponent, playing his
moves out on your board, and mailing your reply move after you've
chosen it.</p>
<p><strong>The Web</strong> and your own saved games. You can use
XBoard as a helper application to view PGN games in your
Web browser, or to load and save your own PGN files.</p>
<p>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 32-bit Microsoft Windows and to
the Amiga. See topics <a href="#tag-B.2">[B.2]</a> and <a
HREF="#tag-B.3">[B.3]</a> respectively.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.2">[B.2] Is there an XBoard for Microsoft Windows? What is WinBoard? How do I install WinBoard?</a></h3>
<p>WinBoard is a port of XBoard to 32-bit Microsoft Windows systems, such
as Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, and XP. It uses the same back end
chess code as XBoard, but the front end graphics code is a complete
rewrite. WinBoard is free software.</p>
<p>The WinBoard distribution includes a sample Chess engine.</p>
<p>The WinBoard distribution also includes the ICC timestamp and FICS
timeseal programs (topic <a href="#tag-B.12">[B.12]</a>).</p>
<p>cmail (topic <a href="#tag-B.6">[B.6]</a>) has not been ported to
Windows. All the other XBoard functions are included in WinBoard.
The International Email Chess Group web site at <a
href="http://www.iecg.org/" >http://www.iecg.org/</a> recommends
ECTool (<a href="http://www.ectool.nu/" >http://www.ectool.nu/</a>)
for playing correspondence chess under Windows.</p>
<p>You install WinBoard as follows. Download the WinBoard package to
your PC (see topic <a href="#tag-A.2">[A.2]</a>). It will be a file
with a name like winboard-4_0_0.exe. Double-click on this file
in the Explorer or File Manager to run it. Follow the on-screen
prompts.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.3">[B.3] Is there an XBoard for the Amiga? What is AmyBoard?</a></h3>
<p>AmyBoard is a port of XBoard to the Amiga, by Jochen Wiedmann.
The distribution includes a port of GNU Chess.
AmyBoard is free software.</p>
<p>The current version of AmyBoard is 330.5 (based on XBoard 3.3.0).
No one is currently maintaining it.</p>
<p>System requirements:</p>
<ul>
<li>An Amiga (obviously :-), running OS 2.04 or later, 2Mb RAM or more.</li>
<li>MUI 2.0 or later.</li>
<li>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.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you would like to use an ICS, you need an Internet connection via either</p>
<ul>
<li>a telnet-like program, or</li>
<li>a terminal program reading from stdin and writing to stdout.</li>
</ul>
<p>AmyBoard is available in the Internet Chess Library (topic <a href="#tag-A.2">[A.2]</a>).</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.4">[B.4] Is there an XBoard for the Macintosh?</a></h3>
<p>Note: I am not a Mac user and have not tried this myself, so I cannot
answer questions about it. </p>
<p>Because MacOS X has a Unix base, XBoard will compile and run on it.
You do need an X11 (X Window System) server and client libraries. I'm
told that these come standard with MacOS X 10.3 and later. Once you
install the X11 package, XBoard is reported to compile and run without
changes.</p>
<p>You can avoid having to compile XBoard (and GNU Chess) yourself by
using the Fink sofware packaging system. See
http://fink.sourceforge.net/ and
http://finkcommander.sourceforge.net/ for more info on Fink.</p>
<p>There is no version of XBoard or WinBoard that runs with the native
(non-X11) Mac graphical interface, and none that runs on MacOS 9 or
earlier.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.5">[B.5] Does XBoard run on VMS?</a></h3>
<p>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. If you are working on this,
send mail to bug-xboard<a name="nospam02">@</a>gnu.org to let us know.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.6">[B.6] What is cmail?</a></h3>
<p>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. It was written by
Even Welsh. cmail has not been ported to Windows; sorry.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.7">[B.7] How do I build XBoard? Do I need gcc?</a></h3>
<p>The first step to building XBoard is to get the distribution file. See topic
<a href="#tag-A.2">[A.2]</a> for places you can ftp the software from.</p>
<p>Next, decide what directory tree you are going to install XBoard
in. The default is /usr/local, but you probably don't have write
access to that directory unless you are a system administrator. If
you do, type the following to install it there:</p>
<pre>
gzip -cd xboard-*.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
cd xboard-*/
./configure
make
su
make install
</pre>
<p>If you want to install xboard in your personal home directory ($HOME/bin),
type this:</p>
<pre>
gzip -cd xboard-*.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
cd xboard-*/
./configure --prefix=$HOME
make
make install
</pre>
<p>If the first step above fails because you don't have gzip, see
topic <a href="#tag-A.2">[A.2]</a>, 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.</p>
<p>You don't need to have gcc to build XBoard. Almost any Unix C
compiler should do.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.8">[B.8] Can I use XBoard or WinBoard to play a game
of chess with another human?</a></h3>
<p>The only way for two humans on different machines to play chess in
real time using XBoard/WinBoard is to use an Internet Chess Server
as an intermediary. That is, each player runs his own copy of XBoard
or WinBoard, both of them log into an ICS, and they play a game there.
Two copies of XBoard/WinBoard cannot communicate with each other
directly.</p>
<p>Instructions on how to get started with Internet chess are included
with the XBoard and WinBoard distributions. The network addresses
included in the distribution may not always be current. The oldest
and largest 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). The most active FICS site is
freechess.org. On these and most other chess servers,
the port number to use is 5000.</p>
<p>If you don't have network connectivity to any ICS site, you
can run your own server using a version of the FICS code, but this
is not easy. See <a href="http://www.tim-mann.org/ics.html#ownics"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/ics.html#ownics</a> for advice and pointers.</p>
<p>The cmail program included with XBoard lets you play email postal games with
another human; see topic <a href="#tag-B.6">[B.6]</a>.</p>
<p>Two humans can play chess on the same machine using one copy of
XBoard/WinBoard in
Edit Game mode, but the clocks don't run in this mode, so it's of limited
usefulness.</p>
<p>See also topic <a href="#tag-D.2">[D.2]</a>, Winsock Chess.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.9">[B.9] Will WinBoard run on Windows 3.1?
How about Windows CE (also known as Pocket PC)?
</a></h3>
<p>WinBoard does not run on Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, etc.,
not even with the Win32s compatibility package. 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.</p>
<p>WinBoard does not run on Windows CE (also
known as Pocket PC). I don't know what would be required to port it.</p>
<p>WinBoard does run well on full 32-bit versions of Windows, such as
Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, XP, and Vista, and should continue to work
on future 32-bit Windows systems.
To use the help files in Vista, you will need to install the WinHlp32.exe
from MicroSoft on your Vista system.
</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.10">[B.10] How do I use XBoard or WinBoard as an external viewer for PGN files
with my Web browser?</a></h3>
<ol>
<li> On Unix systems:
<ul>
<li> Add the following line to the file .mime.types in your home directory.
(Create the file if it doesn't exist already.)
<pre>
application/x-chess-pgn pgn
</pre>
</li>
<li>
Add the following line to the file .mailcap in your home directory.
(Create the file if it doesn't exist already.)
<pre>
application/x-chess-pgn; xboard -ncp -lgf %s
</pre>
</li>
<li>
Exit from your Web browser and restart it.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> On MS Windows systems:
<p>The exact procedure depends on which Web browser you are using.
The current version of WinBoard automatically configures itself as
your PGN viewer for local files, Netscape 4.x and later, and Internet
Explorer. This automatic setup probably works for all other current Web
browsers, too.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.11">[B.11] How do I use WinBoard as an external viewer
for PGN files with the MS Windows File Manager or Explorer?</a></h3>
<p>WinBoard sets this up automatically when you install it, except on old
versions of Windows NT (prior to 4.0). On Windows NT 3.51 or earlier,
go to the File Manager, click on the File menu, select Associate,
enter "pgn" as the extension, and use the Browse button to find your
copy of WinBoard and set up the association.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.12">[B.12] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal
with XBoard?</a></h3>
<p>First, get the appropriate version of timestamp or timeseal for your
machine from ftp.chessclub.com or ftp.freechess.org.
Second, be sure that you can connect using XBoard <I>without</I>
timestamp/timeseal. Third, 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.</p>
<p>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 freechess.org",
change that command to one of the following:</p>
<pre>
xboard -ics -icshost chessclub.com -icshelper timestamp
xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal
</pre>
<p>If you have a firewall between your machine and the ICS, see topic
<a href="#tag-B.19">[B.19]</a>.</p>
<p>If you normally have to use the "/icscomm" command line option on
xboard to log into a second machine, 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 second machine. (If the second machine is not
running Unix, 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.</p>
<p>For further information on timestamp and timeseal, see the help
files on ICC and FICS.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.13">[B.13] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal
with WinBoard?</a></h3>
<p>If you select an ICS from either the WinBoard Startup dialog or the
Windows Start submenu that WinBoard installs, WinBoard automatically
runs timestamp or timeseal if the ICS you chose is known to support it.</p>
<p>If you are constructing a WinBoard command line by hand, add the
option "/icshelper timestamp" or "/icshelper timeseal" to the WinBoard
command line to use timestamp or timeseal. Both timestamp.exe and
timeseal.exe are included in the WinBoard distribution. They both
function identically to the Unix versions, as documented in "help
timestamp" on ICC and "help timeseal" on FICS.</p>
<p>If you have a firewall between your machine and the ICS, see topic
<a href="#tag-B.19">[B.19]</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>For further information on timestamp and timeseal, see the help
files on ICC and FICS.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.14">[B.14] How do I play bughouse with XBoard or WinBoard?
</a></h3>
<p>XBoard and WinBoard have full bughouse support.
Offboard piece holdings are shown next to the board, and
you drop offboard pieces by dragging them with the mouse
(holding the left button down) to their drop square,
or left-click the piece and the drop square, just like when you enter
any ordinary move.</p>
<p>XBoard and WinBoard can display only one board at a time, but you
can observe your partner's game by running a second copy of the
program 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, use the "follow" or "pfollow" ICS
command; see the ICS online help for details.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.16">[B.16] What is Zippy? How can I interface a
chess program to the Internet Chess Servers?</a></h3>
<p>Zippy is an interface that lets a compatible chess engine (such as 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,
<a href=
"http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html"
>http://www.tim-mann/chess.html</a>.
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 on my Web page.
Please read zippy.README carefully before you ask me any questions about Zippy.</p>
<p>Using a computer to choose your moves on a chess server is
considered cheating unless your account is on the computer (C) list.
Read "help computer" on your favorite server for details on their
policy. Most of the servers have plenty of computers running now, so they
will not be excited about having you run a new one unless you have
written your own chess engine. They don't really need yet another
Crafty or GNU Chess clone.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.17">[B.17] How can I interface my own chess program
to XBoard or WinBoard?</a></h3>
<p>This is a non-trivial task. XBoard and WinBoard were not designed
with a clean interface for talking to chess programs; they were
written to work with an existing version of GNU Chess that expects to
be talking to a person. Your program has to emulate GNU Chess's
rather idiosyncratic command structure to work with XBoard and
WinBoard. We are gradually cleaning up, improving, and documenting
the interface as newer versions of XBoard and WinBoard come out,
however.</p>
<p>For documentation, see the file engine-intf.html, included in both
distributions or available from Tim Mann's chess Web page, <a href=
"http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html</a>.
The version of engine-intf.html on Tim's Web page might totally obsolete,
though.
To know how the current WinBoard or XBoard version communicate with their
engines, use the documentation in the XBoard/WinBoard distributions,
or on the <a href=
"http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/WinBoard/engine-intf.html"
>WinBoard forum</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.18">[B.18] How can I recompile WinBoard from source?</a></h3>
<p>The source code for WinBoard is available from the author's Web page,
<a href=
"http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html</a>.</p>
<p>WinBoard is currently developed using gcc under Cygwin.
To build WinBoard with the free Cygwin tools, available from <a
href= "http://www.cygwin.com/" >http://www.cygwin.com/</a>), use the
command "make -f makefile.gcc" from the winboard directory of the
source distribution.</p>
<p>You can build the program from the MSVC++ GUI by opening the project
file (winboard.dsp) and telling MSVC++ to build the project. You can
also build it from the the command line by using the nmake program
supplied with MSVC++.
The makefile for MSVC is makefile.ms in the winboard directory.</p>
<p>WinBoard 4.2.5 was successfully
compiled with the net release of Cygwin as downloaded on 20-March-2001
(cygwin1.dll 1.1.8, gcc 2.95.2-6, binutils 20001221-1, flex 2.5.4-1),
but exhibits a command-line parsing bug; see item 511 in the ToDo file
that comes with WinBoard. WinBoard 4.1.0 does not compile with
Cygwin. WinBoard 4.0.7 is known to compile with Cygwin BL20.1.</p>
<p>To build WinBoard with Borland C++ 4.5, use "borland.mak", supplied
with the WinBoard sources, as the Makefile. Support for Borland C++
was contributed by Don Fong and has not been tested by the author of WinBoard.</p>
<p>WinBoard is a Win32 application, so you definitely need a compiler
and tool set that supports Win32. In particular, older versions of
DJGPP can build only 32-bit MSDOS programs; that is, programs that use
a DOS extender to get a 32-bit address space and do not make any
Windows calls. The latest versions of DJGPP are said to be able to
build Win32 programs when used with the proper extension package(s),
but this is not known to work with WinBoard. Use Cygwin instead.</p>
<p>See also topic <a href="#tag-C.16">[C.16]</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.19">[B.19]
How can I use XBoard or WinBoard to talk
to an Internet Chess Server through a firewall or proxy?
</a></h3>
<p>There is no single answer to this question, because there are many
different kinds of firewalls in use. They work in various different
ways and have various different security policies. This answer can
only provide hints.</p>
<p>Note that you can't access Internet Chess Servers through a Web proxy,
because they are not a Web service. You talk to them through a raw
TCP connection, not an HTTP connection. If you can only access the
Web through a proxy, there may be a firewall that stops you from
making direct TCP connections, but there may also be a way through it.
Read on for hints, and contact your local system administrator if you
need more information about your local configuration.</p>
<p>A helpful user mailed me the following explanation of how to use
WinBoard with WinGate:</p>
<blockquote>
"I have managed to setup WinBoard though my WinGate proxy. I have the
Office version. What I needed to do was to setup the TCP/IP
connection to add the User/Host name and my provider service name for
the DNS, but I had to leave the HOST IP address blank. I have not
played with all the variations, so it may be just that I have the DNS
lookup enabled."
</blockquote>
<p>I hope this helps, though I don't find it very clear. I don't have
a copy of WinGate myself and can't help if you have questions about it.</p>
<p>If you are using some other non-SOCKS firewall, read the FIREWALLS section
in your XBoard or WinBoard documentation (man page, info document, or
Help file). If you can telnet to a chess server in some way, then you
can almost certainly connect to it with xboard/WinBoard, though in
some cases you may not be able to run timestamp or timeseal. The
timestamp and timeseal protocols require a clean, 8-bit wide TCP
connection from your machine to the ICS, which some firewalls do not
provide.</p>
<p>If you have a SOCKS firewall and are using <strong>XBoard</strong>,
you should be able to SOCKSify xboard and use it. See <a
href="http://www.socks.nec.com/">http://www.socks.nec.com/</a> for
information about SOCKS and socksification. However, if you do this,
you can't use timestamp or timeseal; what you really need is a
socksified version of timestamp or timeseal. This is hard because the
source code for timestamp and timeseal is proprietary; the folks
running the chess servers don't give it out because that would make it
too easy to cheat. On some versions of Unix, you may be able to
socksify a program that you don't have the source code to by running
it with an appropriate dynamic library; see <a
href="http://www.socks.nec.com/">http://www.socks.nec.com/</a>. For
others, you might be able to get a pre-built socksified version from
the chess server administrators. For timeseal versions, see <a
href="ftp://ftp.freechess.org/pub/chess/timeseal/"
>ftp://ftp.freechess.org/pub/chess/timeseal/</a>. For timestamp
versions, the directory would be <a
href="ftp://ftp.chessclub.com/pub/icc/timestamp/"
>ftp://ftp.chessclub.com/pub/icc/timestamp/</a>, but at this writing
there don't seem to be any socksified timestamps there. Once you have
a socksified timestamp or timeseal, simply run it with a normal,
non-socksified xboard in place of the standard timestamp or timeseal.</p>
<p>If you have a SOCKS firewall and you are using
<strong>WinBoard</strong>, we now know how to make this configuration
work, complete with timestamp or timeseal!</p>
<p>Start by getting SocksCap32. This software is freely available
from <a href="http://www.socks.nec.com/">http://www.socks.nec.com/</a>.
Install it on your machine, read the documentation, and learn to use
it. You may find it useful with many other programs besides WinBoard.</p>
<p>Next, <strong>don't</strong> socksify WinBoard. Socksifying
WinBoard itself doesn't let you use it with timestamp or timeseal.
For some reason I don't understand -- something strange that
SocksCap32 does -- the socksified WinBoard runs but does nothing, and
timestamp/timeseal runs all by itself in its own window.</p>
<p>Instead, use the following workaround. Follow the instructions
exactly; don't try to skip steps or simplify things.</p>
<p>First, make SocksCap32 application profiles for timestamp and
timeseal. Use the following command lines in the SocksCap32
profiles. Name the first profile "timestamp" and the second
"timeseal".</p>
<pre>
"c:\program files\winboard\timestamp.exe" chessclub.com 5000 -p 5000
"c:\program files\winboard\timeseal.exe" freechess.org 5000 -p 5000
</pre>
<p>Second, run timestamp or timeseal by itself, socksified, using its
profile. This will open an unneeded, black window that will not
respond to typing. Minimize it to the task bar and ignore it. It will
go away when you exit from WinBoard.</p>
<p>Next, run WinBoard using the following command line. Make a shortcut
or type this command into an MS-DOS Prompt box. Don't run WinBoard
itself socksified, just run it directly.</p>
<pre>
"c:\program files\winboard.exe" /ics /icshost=localhost /icsport=5000
</pre>
<p>After you get this working, you can try getting the timestamp window to
auto-minimize by starting it from a shortcut instead of from the
SocksCap32 control window. As it says in the SocksCap32 help file, put
the following in the Target field of a shortcut's Properties page:</p>
<pre>
"c:\program files\sockscap32\sc32.exe" timestamp
</pre>
<p>Then select "Run: Minimized" on the same page. Do the same for timeseal.</p>
<p>Another method that can work is to use a .bat file to start both
timestamp and WinBoard. It would look something like this:</p>
<pre>
REM --
REM -- icc.bat
REM -- Start timestamp under SocksCap32 and use WinBoard to connect to it.
REM -- The string "timestamp" refers to a SocksCap32 profile for timestamp.
REM -- Do not change it to the filename of the timestamp program!
REM --
start /minimized "c:\program files\sockscap32\sc32.exe" timestamp
cd "c:\program files\winboard"
winboard /ics /icshost=localhost /icsport=5000
</pre>
<p>This workaround has a problem if you want to run two copies of
WinBoard at once, talking to the same chess server twice (for
bughouse) or to two different chess servers. If you need to do that,
you will need to run a separate copy of timestamp with <i>a different
port number</i> for each connection. You'll need to make a second set of
profile entries with a different value after the -p flag (say, 5001)
and you'll need to change the WinBoard command line /icsport=5000 for
the second WinBoard to match.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.20">[B.20]
How can I use XBoard or WinBoard on chess.net with accuclock?
</a></h3>
<p>I believe chess.net provides a Win32 command-line version of
accuclock that will work with WinBoard. Please see the documentation
on the chess.net server itself; don't ask the author of WinBoard.</p>
<p>I don't know whether chess.net provides versions of accuclock for
Unix at this time. Ask them.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.21">[B.21]
Can I get Zippy to do one or more ICS commands automatically at the
start or end of each game?</a></h3>
<p>By default, Zippy automatically sends the command "gameend" to ICS
at the end of each game. You can alias this command (using the ICS
"alias" feature) to anything you want. On ICC, you can use the
"multi" feature to alias gameend to several commands, but other
servers don't have that feature. Zippy doesn't send anything at the
start of the game by default.</p>
<p>You can get Zippy to send one or more commands of your choosing, at
the start and/or end of each game, by using the -zippyGameStart and
-zippyGameEnd command line options, newly added in version 4.0.3.
Both xboard and WinBoard have (somewhat obscure) ways of getting
newlines into this option to send several commands. Here is an
example of one way to do it for each.</p>
<pre>
xboard -ics -zp -xrm '*zippyGameStart: say hi\nsay prepare to die\n'
WinBoard /ics /zp /zippyGameEnd='say thanks\nseek 5 0\nseek 2 12\n'
</pre>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.22">[B.22]
How do I print from WinBoard?
</a></h3>
<p>WinBoard does not have built-in printing functionality.
If you want to print a picture of the board, press Alt+PrintScrn, run the
standard Windows application Paintbrush, select Paste, and print from there.
If you want to print a list of moves, save your game as a PGN file,
then open the PGN file with Notepad or any other plain text editor and
print it from there.</p>
<p>WinBoard 4.4 has a menu item "Save Diagram..." in the file menu,
which saves the board part of the display as a Windows .bmp file,
but only if the board size is not too big.</p>
<hr />
<h3><a name="tag-B.23">[B.23]
Can I get Zippy to automatically reconnect to ICS when its connection
breaks?</a></h3>
<p>There isn't a perfect solution to this problem yet, but a pretty
good one is to write a shell script (for xboard) or .bat script (for
WinBoard) that automatically restarts the program whenever it exits.
Use the -xexit flag so that you don't get a popup dialog that must be
dismissed with the OK button before the program will exit. The gap in
this solution is that your connection to ICS can sometimes get into a
state where the program does not notice that the connection is broken
until the next time it tries to send a command. Perhaps some future
version of xboard/WinBoard will have an option to send a harmless
command every five minutes or so.</p>
<p>Anyway, here is a sample Windows .bat file that restarts WinBoard each