gnu1987/gnuchess/Xchess/xchess.1

.TH XCHESS 1 "14 Nov 1986" "X Version 10"
.SH NAME
xchess \- X chess display
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B xchess
[ option ... ] [ white-display ] [ black-display ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
.B xchess
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
.B 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,
.B xchess
will accept moves from each player in his turn.  Black's board will be drawn
with his pieces at the bottom.
.PP
.B xchess
will not allow a player to make an illegal move.  It accepts all legal moves,
including castling and pawn capture \fIen passant\fR.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP 8
.B -d
Turn on debugging.
.TP 8
.B -f record-file
Use \fBrecord-file\fR for saving the game when the \fBSave\fR button is
selected, or if the \fB-s\fR flag is given.  The default is "xchess.game".
.TP 8
.B -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 \fBSave\fR command, and may be in
either English or International format.  When reading moves, one move
it made per second.
.TP 8
.B -q
Don't pause for a second every time a move is made when a game is being
restored.
.TP 8
.B -v
Whenever a piece is moved, outline the path with a "lightning bolt".
This option and the \fB-n\fR option are useful if you don't want to miss
an opponent's move when he makes it.
.TP 8
.B -i
Use International format for recording moves (squares numbered 1-8, a-h)
as opposed to English (e.g, \fIp/k4xp/q5\fR).
.TP 8
.B -t moves/timeunit
Allows \fBtimeunit\fR seconds for every \fBmoves\fR moves.  If either player
exceeds this allowance both recieve a message saying informing them of
this fact.
.TP 8
.B -c
Play the computer.
.B xchess
will start up a chess-playing program (currently the only one it knows
how to talk to is \fBGNU Chess\fR).
.TP 8
.B -p program
The name of the program to use if the \fB-c\fR option is given.  The
default is "/usr/public/gnuchess".  Note that \fBgnuchess\fR must be
compiled with the \fIcompat\fR flag (in the file "main.c") set to 1.
.TP 8
.B -b
If the \fB-c\fR flag was given, have the computer play white.
.TP 8
.B -bnw
If the display has more than one display plane (i.e, is color), pretend
it's black and white.
.TP 8
.B -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 \fBxchess\fR core dumps.
.TP 8
.B -n
Be noisy \- beep after every move is made.
.TP 8
.B -h host
Run GNU Chess on the specified \fBhost\fR.
.TP 8
.B -R
Randomly chose who plays white and who plays black, if two displays are
given.
.SH CONTROLS
.PP
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.")
.PP
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.
.PP
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.
.PP
There are 9 buttons in the control window.  They are as follows:
.TP 8
.B Draw
Both players must push this button to agree on a draw (just one is ok
if only one display is being used).
.TP 8
.B Resign
The player whose turn it is to move resigns.
.TP 8
.B Reset
Start over from the beginning.
.TP 8
.B Back
Retract a move.  If two displays are being used the other player will be
asked to confirm this.
.TP 8
.B Fwd
This will re-play the most recently retracted move.  This button in conjunction
with \fBBack\fR is useful for "scrolling around" in a saved game.
.TP 8
.B Save
Save the game in the record file.
.TP 8
.B Flip
Rotate the board so that Black will have his pieces at the bottom.
.TP 8
.B Switch
Change the mapping of boards to players.
.TP 8
.B Pause
This button has two functions.  When a game is being restored, pieces will
be moved once a second.  Hitting \fBPause\fR 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,
\fBPause\fR will stop the clock and restart it.
.SH DEFAULTS
.PP
\fBxchess\fR uses the following \fI.Xdefaults\fR:
.TP 8
.B Noisy
The -n flag.
.TP 8
.B SaveMoves
The -s flag.
.TP 8
.B Algebraic
The -i flag.
.TP 8
.B BlackAndWhite
The -bnw flag.
.TP 8
.B QuickRestore
The -q flag.
.TP 8
.B Flash
The -v flag.
.TP 8
.B NumFlashes
How many times to flash the move.  The default is 5.
.TP 8
.B FlashWidth
How big to make the lightning bolt.  The default is 10 pixels.
.TP 8
.B ProgName
The -p option.  This may also be changed in the Makefile (-DDEF_PROG_NAME).
.TP 8
.B ProgHost
The -h option.
.TP 8
.B RecordFile
The -f option.
.TP 8
.B BlackPiece
The color of the black pieces.
.TP 8
.B WhitePiece
The color of the white pieces.
.TP 8
.B BorderColor
The color of the borders.
.TP 8
.B BlackSquare
The color of the black squares.
.TP 8
.B WhiteSquare
The color of the white squares.
.TP 8
.B TextColor
The color of routine messages and the move record text.
.TP 8
.B ErrorText
The color of error messages.
.TP 8
.B PlayerText
The color of player-entered text.
.TP 8
.B TextBack
The background color for the two text windows.
.TP 8
.B CursorColor
The color of the mouse and the text cursors.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
X(8), gnuchess(1), chess(5)
.SH AUTHOR
Wayne A. Christopher (faustus@ic.berkeley.edu)
.SH BUGS
.PP
Checkmate and stalemate are not detected, so the appropriate player must resign
or agree to a draw respectively.
.PP
\fBSwitch\fR doesn't work.
.PP
If you are playing \fBgnuchess\fR, and you select Undo a few times so that it
is \fBgnuchess\fR's turn to move, it won't do anything.