Aaron's Winboard and Chess engine FAQ
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Winboard FAQ
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Welcome!

Hello. Welcome to Aaron's Winboard and Chess Engines FAQ. This FAQ initially began has a supplement to the official XBoard and Winboard FAQ by Tim Mann.

Winboard has many functions. It is a PGN reader, a client to allow users to connect with online servers, serves as a interface for winboard compatible programs and allows engine versus engine matches on the same Computer.

Initially, this FAQ focused mainly on guiding and assisting a new user to install winboard engines such as Crafty ,Comet etc successfully in Winboard (as well as common Winboard compatible interfaces ).

Since I began the FAQ, there has being an explosion in interfaces (both commercial and free) that support Winboard engines. Also there has being an increase in interest in another Chess engine protocol, namely - Universal Chess interface (UCI) engines. This has also led to a increase in number of "Adaptors" that can be used in various complicated ways to import engines to various interface. As a result, this FAQ has increased from 2 pages to 5 to take this into account. There are comprehensive sections on the use of The King or Chessmaster in Winboard, Fritz 7 and Arena for example.

This has also accumulated in a series of articles I have written to clear up the confusion some users might have regarding chess engines. You can find the first part here.

Main sections of the website

However the main "meat" of the website is still the FAQ and you can find the Table of contents here..The other sections are, the Endgame tablebase FAQ and the computer chess article page.

If you are new to Computer Chess in general as well, so this FAQ will also answer some simple questions on Computer Chess related matters.  However if you are truly new to the use of Winboard, I would strongly recommend that you look at my web page "Why Winboard?" . Also look at my links page under "Beginners".

I have enjoyed using Winboard and Winboard Engines for the last 2 years. This FAQ is my little contribution to the thriving Winboard community. I'm still learning, about the subject and as such I welcome any comments on how to improve the FAQ by emailing me. I have spent several long hours working on this web site since this site started and if the web site has being useful to you, please drop me a line in my guest book.If you wish to put up a translated version of my site , such as this chinese translation or french one please credit me and a link to my page

Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,
Aaron Tay
PGP Public Key
22 Jan 2001

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What's new

02-04-2004 New experimental uci to Winboard adaptor known as PolyGlot is available. New UCI technical specification.. Ychess a new shareware interface that support Winboard,UCI and auto232 is available see here.

09-04-2004 Babaschess an excellent new FICS interface supports Winboard engines for analysis, updated in interface page. FICS interface survey updated with Babaschess and inemesis.Sneakychess a winboard engine that plays a variant of chess called cheapo chess added. PGP key updated

23-05-2004 Update to endgame tablebase FAQ, minor changes to description of now that it is out of beta testing. A more detailed setup guide will probably follow in the future.

25-07-2004 Guestbook fixed and is now working, sorry to the 4 or 5 of you who tried posting but got blank entries. Update to the endgame tablebase FAQ, added the jlanuch application in Section [A.14]

11-09-2004 Link to Tom's simple engine manager added to Section [B.2].

13-11-2004 List of privateware updated. AlexWBTM added to list of tourney managers for Winboard in Section [F.3]

18-12-2004 Section [B.3] now has a link to the Windows port of robofics available by Dann Corbit.Added links to Andrew Fan's 2 new Live chess viewers in Section [F.5].Links to Jim Ablett's exe compiles of java based winboard engines in Section [A.14]. Link to tutorial on how to run Prodeo in Scid using Polyglot in section Section [E.7]

24-01-2005 Section [D.3] on Chessmaster modified to include mention of Chessmaster 10,000. Link to patch for disabling OPK check for all Chessmaster versions now working again.

17-02-2005 List of UCI/Winboard chess interface updated with Sigma Chess.

05-06-2005 Polyglot 1.3 released with opening book support, minor updates to list of the strongest freeware engines and listing of UCI engine updated to Dec 2004.

04-07-2005 Fixed broken links due to closure of original Winboard forum (now points to Wayback machine copy) and converting of Dann Corbit's site to HTTP.

12-10-2005 Added links to various Winboard mods including linked to compiled CVS Winboard versions, and other unoffical winboard/xboard mods to allow Chess960 in Section [A.3] and Section [A.13] . Updated various pointers to New UCI protocol -July 2005.

04-12-2005 Added new links for endgame tablebase FAQ for downloading. Revised section on clones and Allocating Hash table sizes.

Full Change log

Coming soon

"Chess Engines Cutting through the confusion III" - Part III of this series of articles will cover the use of adaptors and the problems associated with them. Status : Editing stage

New Articles

Configuring Winboard engines - detailed explanation with screen shotsnew[22 Jan 2004]
For some who are used only to chess playing programs like Chessmaster or Fritz, using Winboard engines is going to be a big culture shock.This is because Winboard compatible interfaces generally (except for a few exceptions like Pondering) do not allow you to alter engine options within the interface itself. For example, if you have imported Yace into Winboard, and you wish to change the hash tables used in Yace, you will look in vain for an option that allows you to do that in the Winboard menus.....
Read more here....
Chess Engines - Cutting through the confusion Part IInew[22 Jan 2004]
In Part one , we mentioned that by sharing common protocols you can import engines to different interfaces. In this issue we will examine in greater detail the history of the main protocols ,the differences between the two protocols and what it means to the user. We will then end with a small discussion of the types of adaptors available that allow you to adapt one type of engine into another. On top of all this theory and history, a graphical guide to the use of Winboard engines in Winboard,Arena,Scid and Chessmaster is also available.......
Read more here....
Using Winboard auto232player with Winboard new[1 April 2003]
The history and use of auto232 player together with Winboard has being detailed in Auto232 and Winboard. In this article, we will focus on the specific steps needed for various common and some not so common uses of auto232 players (in particular Eberhard Boerger's winboard auto232 adaptor) on One computer . Of course the methods described here are also applicable if you want to link up two computers........

The last section will state the steps needed for each method, before ending with a specific example.  In particular, users who are seeking a way to get Fritz/Junior or Chessbase versions of Shredder and Tiger to run in FICS/ICC might be interested in this section.


Read more here....

Auto232 and Winboard new[3 Jan 2003]
Auto232 is a protocol designed by Christian Donninger to allow 2 computers that are linked together from one COM port to another (via null modem cable) to play against each other.It can also be also used on one computer by linking 2 different auto232 interfaces on the same computer (more on that later). Auto232 driver was the first original method (circa 1994) to allow chess programs to play against each other.......
Read more here....

History of Chess engine protocols new[19 Dec 2002]

Today we take for granted the idea of engine communication protocols, and the ability to switch engines from GUI to GUI whether it is through the use of the open Xboard/Winboard protocol ,the newer Universal Chess Interface protocol, or the proprietary Chessbase protocol.

At the same time,we are faced with an explosion in Winboard and UCI chess engines. Not a day goes by without a dozen new versions of an existing engines being announced and we are blessed with the release of an average of 4-5 brand new chess engines per month. But how and why did this development come about? The Bible tells the tale of the Tower of Babel, where God cursed man with different tongues.This is roughly similar to the situation before the rise of Xboard/Winboard communication protocol......
Read more here....

Winboard or UCI - A comparison and review new[17 July 2002]
A interesting standards war is brewing in the Computer Chess World. For a long time, Tim Mann's Xboard/Winboard protocol has reigned as the only free and open Chess Communication Protocol for Chess engines. From relatively humble beginnings ...... support over 100 Winboard engines .... position as the sole and undisputed Chess engine protocol of choice appears to be unchallenged. All this changed in Jan 2002, when Chessbase began to throw their support behind Rudolf Huber and Stefan Meyer-Kahlen's relatively newer open protocol "Universal Chess Interface" ......
Read more here....
Can Endgame tablebases weaken play?new[3 June 2002]
It seems counter-intuitive to think that endgame tablebases can hurt the performance of a chess engine. There may be arguments about how much a full set of 3-4-5 men tablebases help ,50 elo according to some, as low as 20 elo or even nothing according to others ...
Read more here....

For more articles on computer chess please go to my articles page .


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