XCHESS(1)XCHESS(1)NAMExchess - X chess display
SYNOPSISxchess [ option ... ] [ white-display ] [ black-display ]
DESCRIPTIONxchess is a chess display program which allows players to play a game
on either one or two displays, or play a chess-playing program. It
uses the X window system. If one or no display names are given, it
will open up one window and both black and white at the same board. If
two displays are given, xchess will accept moves from each player in
his turn. Black's board will be drawn with his pieces at the bottom.
xchess will not allow a player to make an illegal move. It accepts all
legal moves, including castling and pawn capture en passant.
OPTIONS-d Turn on debugging.
-f record-file
Use record-file for saving the game when the Save button is
selected, or if the -s flag is given. The default is
"xchess.game".
-r saved-game
Start with the position at the end of the saved game in the
named file. This file may be the result of the Save command,
and may be in either English or International format. When
reading moves, one move it made per second.
-q Don't pause for a second every time a move is made when a game
is being restored.
-v Whenever a piece is moved, outline the path with a "lightning
bolt". This option and the -n option are useful if you don't
want to miss an opponent's move when he makes it.
-i Use International format for recording moves (squares numbered
1-8, a-h) as opposed to English (e.g, p/k4xp/q5).
-t moves/timeunit
Allows timeunit seconds for every moves moves. If either
player exceeds this allowance both recieve a message saying
informing them of this fact.
-c Play the computer. xchess will start up a chess-playing pro‐
gram (currently the only one it knows how to talk to is GNU
Chess).
-p program
The name of the program to use if the -c option is given. The
default is "/usr/public/gnuchess". Note that gnuchess must be
compiled with the compat flag (in the file "main.c") set to 1.
-b If the -c flag was given, have the computer play white.
-bnw If the display has more than one display plane (i.e, is color),
pretend it's black and white.
-s Save the moves in the record file as they are made. This is
useful if you don't want your game to be lost when xchess core
dumps.
-n Be noisy - beep after every move is made.
-h host Run GNU Chess on the specified host.
-R Randomly chose who plays white and who plays black, if two dis‐
plays are given.
CONTROLS
The window is divided up into several sub-windows. The pieces are
moved by pushing down any mouse button on top of the piece, moving to
the destination square, and releasing it. Castling is done by moving
the king to the right square. If you push down on a piece and then let
the button up without moving it, you must move that piece. ("Touch it,
move it.")
The progress of the game is listed in the "Game Record" window. Error
messages and such things are printed in the "Message" window. Both
these windows have scroll bars that you can use to move around. There
are also windows for clocks and for a record of the pieces captured.
If you type any keys in the window, the text will go into the message
window of both players. This provides a simple communication facility.
There are 9 buttons in the control window. They are as follows:
Draw Both players must push this button to agree on a draw (just one
is ok if only one display is being used).
Resign The player whose turn it is to move resigns.
Reset Start over from the beginning.
Back Retract a move. If two displays are being used the other
player will be asked to confirm this.
Fwd This will re-play the most recently retracted move. This but‐
ton in conjunction with Back is useful for "scrolling around"
in a saved game.
Save Save the game in the record file.
Flip Rotate the board so that Black will have his pieces at the bot‐
tom.
Switch Change the mapping of boards to players.
Pause This button has two functions. When a game is being restored,
pieces will be moved once a second. Hitting Pause will stop
this process, and hitting it again will restart it. During the
time that it is stopped no other action can be made except
restarting it. While a game is being played, Pause will stop
the clock and restart it.
DEFAULTSxchess uses the following .Xdefaults:
Noisy The -n flag.
SaveMoves
The -s flag.
Algebraic
The -i flag.
BlackAndWhite
The -bnw flag.
QuickRestore
The -q flag.
Flash The -v flag.
NumFlashes
How many times to flash the move. The default is 5.
FlashWidth
How big to make the lightning bolt. The default is 10 pixels.
ProgName
The -p option. This may also be changed in the Makefile
(-DDEF_PROG_NAME).
ProgHost
The -h option.
RecordFile
The -f option.
BlackPiece
The color of the black pieces.
WhitePiece
The color of the white pieces.
BorderColor
The color of the borders.
BlackSquare
The color of the black squares.
WhiteSquare
The color of the white squares.
TextColor
The color of routine messages and the move record text.
ErrorText
The color of error messages.
PlayerText
The color of player-entered text.
TextBack
The background color for the two text windows.
CursorColor
The color of the mouse and the text cursors.
SEE ALSOX(8), gnuchess(1), chess(5)AUTHOR
Wayne A. Christopher (faustus@ic.berkeley.edu)
BUGS
Checkmate and stalemate are not detected, so the appropriate player
must resign or agree to a draw respectively.
Switch doesn't work.
If you are playing gnuchess, and you select Undo a few times so that it
is gnuchess's turn to move, it won't do anything.
X Version 10 14 Nov 1986 XCHESS(1)