GNU Chess Help Contents

Playing GNU Chess

GNU Chess menu commands

Game
Edit
Options
Skill
Side
Board
Hint

Most menu settings will be saved in GNUCHESS.INI in your Windows directory.


Playing GNU Chess

To move a piece, point the mouse cursor at the square the piece is on, press the left mouse button, then point the cursor at the destination square and click the left button again. If you select the wrong piece, click on it again. To castle, move the king to the square where it should be after the castling move. The rook will be moved automatically. Moves can also be made by pressing F2 and typing the move in algebraic notation, for example e2e3. Type o-o for a King-side castle and o-o-o for a Queen-side castle.


Game Menu

New

Reset the board and clocks to start a new game.

Open

Retrieve and resume playing a previously saved game.

Save

Save a game to continue it later.

List

List the moves of the game to the file chess.lst

Exit
Exit GNU Chess.


Edit Menu

Setup Board

Allows the contents of the board to be edited. Pieces can be moved anywhere on the board. To remove a piece, click the right button or double click the left button on its square. Note that the kings cannot be removed. To add a piece to the board, press a button on the bar and click on the appropriate square. Press the button again to pop it up. Pieces cannot be moved while a button is down. The buttons can also be operated using keys 1 to 9 and 0 (0 is the black queen). Moves can be keyed in using F2. If a button is down, type the coordinates of the destination square. When finished, select Done from the menu. Select Clear Board to remove all pieces except the kings, and Restore Board to restore a normal starting board. The board editor is useful for setting up chess problems on the board.

Review Game

Replay a game one move at a time. For the next move, click the mouse anywhere in the window, or press enter. Replay only works properly for games starting from a normal starting board, not one set up differently using the board editor.

Undo

Undo the last move.

Remove

Undo the last two moves.


Options Menu

Beep

Beep when the computer has made its move.

Coordinates

Display board coordinates.

Search Stats

Show search statistics.

Animated Searching

See animation of the searching process. Note that searching is much slower with this option on.

Book

If checked, GNU Chess will use its book of chess game openings to improve its opening game. The file GNUCHESS.DAT must be in the same directory as GNUCHESS.EXE. If this file was not found or could not be opened, the Book menu option is grayed.

Hash

Enable use of the hash file, if one exists. A hash file allows the program to learn from previous games.

Hash Depth

Allows the user to change the minimum depth for using the hashfile and the number of moves from the begining of the game to use it.

Create Hashfile

Create a hash file. The actual size is the number entered multiplied by 38 bytes. If the size is less than 24, 2 to the power of the number is used. 16 to 17 is a good size to use. A hash file may improve the playing ability of the computer. It will probably place considerable demand on the hard drive while the computer is calculating its move.

Compile Book

The binary book file GNUCHESS.DAT was compiled from the file GNUCHESS.BK3 distributed with GNU Chess for other platforms. If you wish to compile a different book file, name it GNUCHESS.BK and place it in the same directory as GNUCHESS.EXE. The Compile Book menu option will add the file's contents to GNUCHESS.DAT, which will be created if it does not exist. The size of this file is limited to 20000 records.

Change Windows

Change some paramaters used by the search algorithm. Generally, just use the defaults.

Contempt

Another search paramater.

Material

Draw on lack of material.

Recapture

Use recapture heuristic.

Threat

Use threat heuristic.

PVS

Use PVS heuristic.

New Eval

Enable new evaluations

Gamein

Use gamein timing. Assumes the time specified for time control is the time for a complete game.


Skill Menu

Time

Set the time control. Specify the number of moves to make in a certain time. When the time is up, the entries on the second and third lines will be used if they are non-zero, otherwise the clock will be reset to the last set of numbers used. For example, if you enter 20 and 10 on the first line and 1 and 1 on the second line, the computer will generate 20 moves in 10 minutes, then 1 move every minute after that. If either paramater on the first line is zero, the computer will make each move within the time entered in the maximum response time control.

Random

Randomize the move selection slightly.

Easy

If easy mode is off, the computer thinks about its next move during the opponents turn.

Depth

Set the maximum search depth. To reduce the difficulty of play, this can be decreased, to a minimum of 2.


Side Menu

Reverse Board

Reverse the board.

Switch

Switch sides with the computer. The board will be reversed if necessary so that your pieces are at the front.

Switch but don't move

Same as Switch, but it ensures that it will not be the computer's move after the switch. This is useful if you have set up a position with the board editor and want the computer to play white with black moving first.

Black

Computer plays black. The board may be reversed as for Switch.

White

Computer plays white. The board may be reversed as for Switch.

Both

Computer plays against itself.

White to move / Black to move

Change whose move it is.

Force

Allows the user to enter moves for both sides. The board can be used to play a game between two people while force is on.


Board Menu

Colors

Set the display colors.

Size

Set the board size. Small fits on a 640 X 480 screen, medium fits on a 800 X 600 screen, and large fits on a 1024 X 768 screen.

Type

Set the board type to square or simulated 3D.


Hint

Display the best move the computer thinks you can make. You can also use Ctrl-H.