gnuchess(6) gnuchess(6) NNAAMMEE gnuchess - Chess SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS ggnnuucchheessss [ [[[[--]]aa]] [[--bb bbooookkffiillee]] [[--BB bbiinnbbooookkffiillee]] [[--hh llaanngg-- ffiillee]] [[--LL llaannggffiillee]] [[--rr lleennggtthh]] [[--ss ppaatthhnnaammee]] [[--ll ppaatthh-- nnaammee]] [[--SS bbiinnbbooookkssiizzee]] [[--tt]] [[--cc ssiizzee]] [[--TT ssiizzee]] [[--vv]] [[--xx]] aarrgg11 aarrgg22 ] DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN _G_n_u_c_h_e_s_s plays a game of chess against the user or it plays against itself. _G_n_u_c_h_e_s_s is an updated version of the GNU chess playing program. It has a simple alpha-numeric board display, an IBM PC compatible interface, or it can be compiled for use with the cchheessssttooooll program on a SUN workstation or with the xxbbooaarrdd program under X-windows. To invoke the program type: ggnnuucchheessss - simple curses based version ggnnuucchheessssnn - fancy version using curses and inverse video on UNIX, or IBM PC cursor controls and characters on MSDOS ggnnuucchheessssrr - ASCII based version ggnnuucchheesssscc - chesstool compatible version ggnnuucchheessssxx - xboard compatible version TTIIMMEE CCOONNTTRROOLLSS If one argument is given, it is the search time per move in [minutes:]seconds. So ggnnuucchheessss 3300 will generate one move every 30 seconds, while ggnnuucchheessss 55::0000 will generate one move every 5 minutes. If two or more arguments are given, they will be used to set tournament time controls with the first argument of each pair being the number of moves and the second being the total clock time in minutes[:seconds]. Thus, entering ggnnuucchheessss 6600 55 will set the clocks for 5 minutes (300 sec- onds) for the first 60 moves, and ggnnuucchheessss 3300 33::3300 will allow 3 minutes and 30 seconds for 30 moves. ggnnuucchheessss 3300 55 11 ::3300 will allow 5 minutes for the first 30 moves and 30 seconds for each move after that. Up to 4 pairs of controls may be specified. 1 gnuchess(6) gnuchess(6) If no argument is given the program will prompt the user for level of play. For use with cchheessssttooooll or xxbbooaarrdd,, see the documentation on those programs. BBOOOOKK At startup _G_n_u_c_h_e_s_s reads the _b_i_n_b_o_o_k file if it is pre- sent. It then looks for a _b_o_o_k file. If it is present it adds its contents to the _b_i_n_b_o_o_k data. If the _b_i_n_b_o_o_k file is writable a new combined _b_i_n_b_o_o_k file is written. The book _g_n_u_c_h_e_s_s_._b_o_o_k consists of a sequence of openings. An opening begins with a line starting with a !! , the rest of the line is comments. Following this is a series of moves in algebraic notation alternating white and black separated by white space. A move may have a ?? after it indicating this move should never be made in this posi- tion. Moves are stored as position:move so transpositions between openings can take place. HHAASSHHFFIILLEE The hashfile if created should be on the order of 4 megabytes or ggnnuucchheessss --cc 2222.. This file contains positions and moves learned from previous games. If a hashfile is used the computer makes use of the experience it gained in past games. Tests run so far show that it plays no worse with the hashfile than without, but it is not clear yet whether it provides a real advantage. LLEEGGAALL MMOOVVEESS NNoottee:: Piece letters and legal castling notation is deter- mined by the language file. What is specified here is the default English. Once _g_n_u_c_h_e_s_s is invoked, the program will display the board and prompt the user for a move. To enter a move, use the notation ee22ee44 where the first letter-number pair indi- cates the origination square and the second letter-number pair indicates the destination square. An alternative is to use the notation nnff33 where the first letter indicates the piece type (p,n,b,r,q,k). To castle, type the origin and destination squares of the king just as you would do for a regular move, or type oo--oo or 00--00 for kingside castling and oo--oo--oo or 00--00--00 for queenside. To promote a pawn append the type of the new piece to the move, as in ee77ee88qq or cc77cc88rr.. FFUUNNCCTTIIOONN LLEETTTTEERRSS --LL llaanngg Use language _l_a_n_g _f_r_o_m _t_h_e _f_i_l_e ggnnuucchheessss..llaanngg.. If -L is not specified it uses the first language in the file. 2 gnuchess(6) gnuchess(6) --aa Do not search on opponents time. aa Do search on opponents time. --bb bbooookkffiillee Use bookfile for opening book. --BB bbiinnbbooookkffiillee Use binbookfile for binary opening book. --SS ssiizzee Size of binbookfile for memory based and GDX books. For creating a binbookfile. --PP ppllyylleevveellss Number of plys to include in the binbookfile. For generating a binbookfile. --cc ssiizzee Create a new HASHFILE. File size is 2^size entries of approximately 65 bytes. --hh Do not use hashfile. hh Do use hashfile. --ll ppaatthhnnaammee Pathname of the loadfile use with the ggeett or xxggeett.. --rr lleennggtthh Rehash length times in searching entries for posi- tion in transposition table. --ss ppaatthhnnaammee Pathname of the save file to use with the ssaavvee com- mand. --tt Show statistics for HASHFILE --TT ssiizzee Set the transposition table size to 2^size entries. --vv Show version and patchlevel. --xx vvaalluuee Use vvaalluuee as the evaluation window xxwwnnddww.. CCOOMMMMAANNDDSS In addition to legal moves, the following commands are available as responses. NNoottee:: command names are deter- mined by the _l_a_n_g_u_a_g_e file and may vary with the implemen- tation. This is default English. aallgg -- allow algebraic input (not implemented) 3 gnuchess(6) gnuchess(6) AAwwiinnddooww -- change Alpha window (default score + 90) BBwwiinnddooww -- change Beta window (default score - 90) bbeeeepp -- causes the program to beep after each move. bbdd -- updates the current board position on the display. bbooookk -- turns off use of the opening library. bbootthh -- causes the computer to play both sides of a chess game. bbllaacckk -- causes the computer to take the black pieces. If the computer is to move first the ggoo command must be given. ccoooorrddss -- show coordinates on the display (visual only) ccoonntteemmpptt -- allows the value of _c_o_n_t_e_m_p_t to be modified. ddeebbuugg -- asks for a piece as color piece, as wb or bn, and shows its calculated value on each square. ddeebbuugglleevveell -- sets level of debugging output if compiled with debug options. ddeepptthh -- allows the user to change the search depth of the program. The maximum depth is 29 ply. Normally the depth is set to 29 and the computer terminates its search based on elapsed time rather than depth. If depth is set to (say) 4 ply, the program will search until all moves have been examined to a depth of 4 ply (with extensions up to 11 additional ply for sequences of checks and captures). If you set a maximum time per move and also use the depth command, the search will stop at the specified time or the specified depth, whichever comes first. eeaassyy -- toggles easy mode (thinking on opponents time) on and off. The default is easy mode ON. If easy mode is disabled, the keyboard is polled for input every so often and when input is seen the search is terminated. It may also be terminated with a _s_i_g_i_n_t_. eeddiitt -- allows the user to set up a board position. ## - command will clear the board. cc - toggle piece color. .. - command will exit setup mode. ppbb33 - place a pawn on b3 4 gnuchess(6) gnuchess(6) Pieces are entered by typing a letter (p,n,b,r,q,k) for the piece followed by the coordinate. The usual warning about the _l_a_n_g_u_a_g_e _f_i_l_e applies. eexxiitt -- exits gnuchess. ffiirrsstt -- tells the computer to move first. Computer begins searching for a move. (same as "go"). ffoorrccee -- allows the user to enter moves for both sides. To get the program to play after a sequence of moves has been entered use the 'white' or 'black' command followed by 'go'. ggaammeeiinn -- toggles game mode time control. Assumes the time specified for time control is the time for a complete game. Input with the level command should be the game time and the expected number of moves in a game. ggeett -- retrieves a game from disk. The program will prompt the user for a file name. hhaasshh -- use/don't use hashfile. hhaasshhddeepptthh -- 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. hheellpp -- displays a short description of the commands and the current status of options. ggoo -- tells the computer to move first. Computer begins searching for a move. (same as "first"). hhiinntt -- causes the program to supply the user with its predicted move. lleevveell -- allows the user to set time controls such as 60 moves in 5 minutes etc. In tournament mode, the program will vary the time it takes for each move depending on the situation. If easy mode is disabled (using the 'easy' command), the program will often respond with its move immediately, saving time on its clock for use later on. lliisstt -- writes the game moves and some statistics on search depth, nodes, and time to the file 'chess.lst'. mmaatteerriiaall -- toggle material flag - draws on no pawns and both sides < rook MMwwppaawwnn,, MMbbppaawwnn,, MMwwkknniigghhtt,, MMbbkknniigghhtt,, MMwwbbiisshhoopp,, MMbbbbiisshhoopp -- print out static position evaluation table 5 gnuchess(6) gnuchess(6) nneeww -- starts a new game. pp -- evaluates the board and shows the point score for each piece. The total score for a position is the sum of these individual piece scores. ppoosstt -- causes the program to display the principle varia- tion and the score during the search. A score of 100 is equivalent to a 1 pawn advantage for the computer. qquuiitt -- exits the game. rraannddoomm -- causes the program to randomize its move selec- tion slightly. rrccppttrr -- set recapture mode. rreemmoovvee -- backout the last level for both sides. Equal to 2 _u_n_d_o_'_s_. rreevveerrssee -- causes the board display to be reversed. That is, the white pieces will now appear at the top of the board. rrvv -- reverse board display. sseettuupp -- Compatibility with Unix chess and the nchesstool. Set up a board position. Eight lines of eight characters are used to setup the board. a8-h8 is the first line. Black pieces are represented by uppercase characters. ssttaarrss -- (gnuchessn only) add stars (*) to black pieces. ssaavvee -- saves a game to disk. The program will prompt the user for a file name. sswwiittcchh -- causes the program to switch places with the opponent and begin searching. tteesstt -- performs some speed tests for MoveList and Cap- tureList generation, and ScorePosition position scoring for the current board. ttiimmee -- set computers time remaining, intended for syn- chronizing clocks among multiple players. uunnddoo -- undoes the last move whether it was the computer's or the human's. You may also type "remove". This is equiv- alent to two "undo's" (e.g. retract one move for each side). wwhhiittee -- causes the computer to take the white pieces. If the computer is to move first the ggoo command must be given. 6 gnuchess(6) gnuchess(6) xxggeett -- read an _x_b_o_a_r_d position file. xxwwnnddww -- change X window. The window around alpha/beta used to determine whether the position should be scored or just estimated. BBUUGGSS SSEEEE AALLSSOO chesstool(6) xboard(6) 7 .