2 .TH XCHESS 1 "14 Nov 1986" "X Version 10"
4 xchess \- X chess display
7 [ option ... ] [ white-display ] [ black-display ]
11 is a chess display program which allows players to play a game on either
12 one or two displays, or play a chess-playing program. It uses the
14 window system. If one or no display names are given, it will open up one
15 window and both black and white at the same board. If two displays are
18 will accept moves from each player in his turn. Black's board will be drawn
19 with his pieces at the bottom.
22 will not allow a player to make an illegal move. It accepts all legal moves,
23 including castling and pawn capture \fIen passant\fR.
30 Use \fBrecord-file\fR for saving the game when the \fBSave\fR button is
31 selected, or if the \fB-s\fR flag is given. The default is "xchess.game".
34 Start with the position at the end of the saved game in the named file.
35 This file may be the result of the \fBSave\fR command, and may be in
36 either English or International format. When reading moves, one move
40 Don't pause for a second every time a move is made when a game is being
44 Whenever a piece is moved, outline the path with a "lightning bolt".
45 This option and the \fB-n\fR option are useful if you don't want to miss
46 an opponent's move when he makes it.
49 Use International format for recording moves (squares numbered 1-8, a-h)
50 as opposed to English (e.g, \fIp/k4xp/q5\fR).
53 Allows \fBtimeunit\fR seconds for every \fBmoves\fR moves. If either player
54 exceeds this allowance both recieve a message saying informing them of
60 will start up a chess-playing program (currently the only one it knows
61 how to talk to is \fBGNU Chess\fR).
64 The name of the program to use if the \fB-c\fR option is given. The
65 default is "/usr/public/gnuchess". Note that \fBgnuchess\fR must be
66 compiled with the \fIcompat\fR flag (in the file "main.c") set to 1.
69 If the \fB-c\fR flag was given, have the computer play white.
72 If the display has more than one display plane (i.e, is color), pretend
76 Save the moves in the record file as they are made. This is useful if
77 you don't want your game to be lost when \fBxchess\fR core dumps.
80 Be noisy \- beep after every move is made.
83 Run GNU Chess on the specified \fBhost\fR.
86 Randomly chose who plays white and who plays black, if two displays are
90 The window is divided up into several sub-windows. The pieces are moved by
91 pushing down any mouse button on top of the piece, moving to the destination
92 square, and releasing it. Castling is done by moving the king to the
93 right square. If you push down on a piece and then let the button
94 up without moving it, you must move that piece. ("Touch it, move it.")
96 The progress of the game is listed in the "Game Record" window. Error
97 messages and such things are printed in the "Message" window. Both these
98 windows have scroll bars that you can use to move around.
99 There are also windows for clocks and for a record of the pieces captured.
101 If you type any keys in the window, the text will go into the message
102 window of both players. This provides a simple communication facility.
104 There are 9 buttons in the control window. They are as follows:
107 Both players must push this button to agree on a draw (just one is ok
108 if only one display is being used).
111 The player whose turn it is to move resigns.
114 Start over from the beginning.
117 Retract a move. If two displays are being used the other player will be
118 asked to confirm this.
121 This will re-play the most recently retracted move. This button in conjunction
122 with \fBBack\fR is useful for "scrolling around" in a saved game.
125 Save the game in the record file.
128 Rotate the board so that Black will have his pieces at the bottom.
131 Change the mapping of boards to players.
134 This button has two functions. When a game is being restored, pieces will
135 be moved once a second. Hitting \fBPause\fR will stop this process, and
136 hitting it again will restart it. During the time that it is stopped no
137 other action can be made except restarting it. While a game is being played,
138 \fBPause\fR will stop the clock and restart it.
141 \fBxchess\fR uses the following \fI.Xdefaults\fR:
162 How many times to flash the move. The default is 5.
165 How big to make the lightning bolt. The default is 10 pixels.
168 The -p option. This may also be changed in the Makefile (-DDEF_PROG_NAME).
177 The color of the black pieces.
180 The color of the white pieces.
183 The color of the borders.
186 The color of the black squares.
189 The color of the white squares.
192 The color of routine messages and the move record text.
195 The color of error messages.
198 The color of player-entered text.
201 The background color for the two text windows.
204 The color of the mouse and the text cursors.
206 X(8), gnuchess(1), chess(5)
208 Wayne A. Christopher (faustus@ic.berkeley.edu)
211 Checkmate and stalemate are not detected, so the appropriate player must resign
212 or agree to a draw respectively.
214 \fBSwitch\fR doesn't work.
216 If you are playing \fBgnuchess\fR, and you select Undo a few times so that it
217 is \fBgnuchess\fR's turn to move, it won't do anything.