User Manual
(Part 3: system requirements, program installation and hints) 

3. System requirements

• Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista 
• Windows desktop resolution at least 800 x 600. 1024 x756 or more are recommended.
• Pentium or compatible AMD PC with MMX instruction set.
• When using the hash tables at least 128 MBytes main system memory recommended 

4. Program Installation and execution

The program can be downloaded freely from http://groups.msn.com/RudolfPosch/freewareprogramrdchess.msnw.
To install the program unzip the RDCHESSVx.zip file into a temporary directory and start the set up program setup.exe. Setup installs all RDChess program files into a default directory (c:\RDCHESS) or into a directory, which may be chosen at the installation process.
The program consists of the rdchess.exe program file, a readme.txt file with a licence agreement, an opening library file (RDCH_op.lib), an English and German help-file in .txt format and a few example chess games in .pgn format.

RDChess is executed with the command line ... path\rdchess.exe  [xxxxx.pgn] [xboard]
The optional parameter "xxxxx.pgn" loads the chess game xxxxx at startup. When RDChess is known to MS Windows as program for executing .pgn files, a double click on a .pgn file loads automatically RDChess.

The optional parameter "xboard" starts RDChess in WinBoard mode (see next paragraph). This parameter makes no sense when RDChess is called stand alone with its own GUI.

The RDChess Delphi source code can be downloaded separately and freely from http://groups.msn.com/RudolfPosch/freewareprogramrdchess.msnw  and installed with Installshield to a subdirectory ...\Source.

Installing RDChess for use by WinBoard

To install a chess engine to be called from Winboard see the WinBoard Homepage of Tim Mann .

RDCHESS.EXE must be called with the parameter "xboard" (or /xb or /wb) in the "DOS" command line in order to run in Winboard mode.

E.g. create a shortcut on the desktop calling the program winboard.exe with RDChess as the "first computer program (fcp)" with the following content:

"C:\Program Files\WinBoard\winboard.exe"  /cp  /fcp="d:\rdchess\rdchess.exe xboard" /fd="d:\rdchess" 

c:\Program Files\WinBoard ....  is the directory where winboard.exe resides,
d:\rdchess                           ....  is the directory where rdchess.exe resides

 Another example for playing Gromit Chess V3.82  as first engine against RDChess as second computer chess engine a match of 10 games :

 "C:\Program Files\WinBoard\winboard.exe"  /cp  /matchGames 5
  /fcp "c:\Program Files\gromit382\gromit382.exe xboard" /fd "c:\Program Files\Gromit382"
 /scp="d:\rdchess\rdchess.exe xboard" /sd="d:\rdchess"   (input as a single line !)

5. Known problems and hints

E1) The RDChess windows positions on the desktop are optimally arranged for a screen resolution of 1152 x 864 or higher. On screens with smaller resolutions you may have to move the windows to a better position manually. (Sorry, I have not yet implemented a “Save/ restore RDChess desktop to disk”).

E2) If your PC has less than 64 Mbytes main memory, there may be problems with using the hash tables (full standard hash tables use approximately 26 Mbytes).
If your computer accesses at a computer move (search) frequently the hard disk and the program runs slowly, switch off the “Use hash table” check box in the configuration control (Menu Option-> Configuration… -> Computer Search).

E3) Not all user interface items are properly displayed in English or German language.
The File Dialog Menu as well as buttons in dialog boxes use the language of the installed windows (.dll)  and are not switched with the RDChess language configuration check box.
The debug windows are mainly in English only.

The actual errors, bug fixes, improvements and new features of the different RDChess versions see at the RDChess Journal  

Return to begin of RDChess User Manual

Return to Part 2 of RDChess User Manual

Last modified 2008-01-10  Rudolf Posch