20-1-2001 - This FAQ was first started
23-1-2001 - Section B nearly complete.Spell checked Faq. Added questions pertaining to Hash Tables. Added Acknowledgements section. A much longer and experimental version of this faq started here.
24-1-2001 - Added Change Log, Disclaimer, and counter
27-1-2001 - Links now open to new Windows to avoid the annoying pop up when backing up.
Knightcap is now Winboard compatiable. See Section A.10 . Improved section on EGTBS
with Comments by Dieter Buerssner. Alternate URL exists at
http://www.crosswinds.net/~aarontay/winboard/winboard.html
. Easier URL to remember
http://www.winboard.surfhere.net
28-1-2001- New Links page added.
2-2-2001- Moved to new Advert free URL at http://kyd.net/Aarontay/Winboard/winboard.html . Hopefully this will be the last move. Amended Knightcap Section to help Win98 users. See Section A.10 . Added section on clgwin.dll and FAQs of Bringer,Crafty in experimental faq
3-2-2001- Changed all Links from the old http://www.research.compaq.com/SRC/personal/mann/xboard.html to http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html.The old URL will not be working after Feb 19, 2001
4-2-2001 . . Winboard/Xboard 4.2.1 is now available now at
Tim Mann's Chess page. New Winboard Triva Quiz!
Please participate in my quiz!. Secions on Bringer, Crafty,
Francesa and Knightcap is complete.
10-2-2001 Winboard/Xboard 4.2.2 is now available now at
Tim Mann's Chess page.
. Sections [D] Engine Specific Problems and [E] Winboard Engines in
Other graphical interfaces finished. Minor updates to sections on Privateware , Clones and
getting more opening books.
New article on running Computer Chess tournaments.
Back to FAQ
14-2-2001 Updated article on Running Computer Chess tournaments
18-2-2001 Added new section on
Suicide Chess . Major Change to Links page
22-2-2001 Section A.3 Changed to reflect that Winboard 4.2.3 has the current stable version.
06-03-2001 Added a FAQ searchable database for quick searches by keywords. You can add your questions there as well. Also added "Human Click" a ICQ like utility to contact me when I'm online. Thank you, Bravenet.Also, I have put up a excellent and detailed article on how to use batch files to run automated torunaments in Winboard contributed by Peter Berger. Thanks.
07-03-2001 As of 6 March 2001, I have revamped the FAQ and broken it down into 2 sections SECTION A-C and SECTION D-F , as the FAQ was becoming to big too load quickly on one page. Check out the latter section with contributions by Harold Roig [ Section E.3 ] and Peter Berger [ Section F.3 ]
07-03-2001 Additional clarification on modifying the Winboard.ini file in Section B.2 .
08-03-2001 The 3 webpages that makeup this FAQ have being converted to PDF format for easy reading.
12-03-2001. Added new sections for Goliath [D.8] and SOS [D.9] . Added post from Winboard forum on tablebase generation by Antonio Senatore in Section [C.9] . Testing out alternative stable, no banners/adverts mirror sites. Various other minor changes, including adding links to Phase X by Frank Quisinsky and Electronic T-notes by Steve Lopez on Chessbase products!
18-03-2001 Added new article - A beginner's guide to building opening books. As always comments are welcome. Other changes include adding more Crafty related questions. See Section [4.6] and Section [D.4.7]. Added 3 questions regarding Winboard features. See Section [F.6], Section [F.7] and Section [F.8].
24-03-2001 - My email has being down for the last week, please email me here instead. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. More general computer Chess/Winboard questions added. See Section [A.13], Section [F.9] and Section [F.10]
01-04-2001 My email is back up! Made some changes to Section [A.13] by adding direct URL links to Chess Academy, Chess Vision protocol. Added Table of Winboard engines that work in Chess Academy 6.0, Shredder and Chessbase , contributed by Harold Roig! Also added a completely new web page on Endgame tablebase.
08-04-2001 - Added to list of Winboard engines that can play Chess variants in Section [A.12]. Please help me add more. Updated Table of Winboard engines that work in Chess Academy 6.0, Shredder and Chessbase.
15-04-2001 - Minor updates to Endgame tablebase page . Changed URLs throughout my web site to reflect the setting up of new Engine overview and News at Thomas Mayer's site and the closing of the respective pages by Frank Quisinsky. Added The Corbit Overview page by Thomas Mayer, in Section [A.8] .
03-05-2001 - Add new sections on the "computer" command being sent by Winboard in Section [D.4.8]. Added news of UCI to Winboard adaptor at Section [E.6]. Added fully updated table on functioning Winboard engines in Chessbase,ChessVision,Chessmaster8000, Chess Academy and Shredder 5.0. . Given that I will have months of holiday coming up, expect to see some major changes as I revamp my Web page and add more material. Currently,I think it has grown until it's too bloated to be of use to most people and the current navigation system is poor.I'll probably split the FAQ [again], one for beginners who are really new to this, and another larger one for more experienced users.The former will also tackle some commonly asked questions regarding Winboard features. Do drop me a line if you have any ideas on how to organise my web site, or if you want to request new material.
26-05-2001 Lots of changes. Too lazy to document. Anyway, the new
experimental page
is up! I'm still learning "Dynamic" HTML , I wonder if it works in
Netscape? or older versions of IE? Hee Hee..Next, a frames version
03-06-2001 Killed off all other mirror pages. Inserted new section on Winboard edition I/II into Section [A.12]. Added links to Jori Ostrovskij's WB Tourney Manager in Section [F.3]. New long rambling article on What Winboard can do. Added my 2048 bit PGP Public DH key .
08-06-2001 Added new Sections on using The King [Chessmaster8000] and UCI engines in Winboard. Added SCID , Blue Dragon and MailChess to list of programs that use Winboard compatible programs in Section [A.9] .
20-06-2001 Added mention of release of Bruce Moreland's Gerbil and Test suite Harness in Section [A.10] and Section [F.9]
07-07-2001 Added link to Jonas Cohonas site on how to run Chessbase engines on ICS using auto232 player and Winboard in Section [A.1]
16-08-2001 Changed links to Frank Quisinsky's new URL at http://www.amateurschach.de/news.htm.Added link to Thomas Mayer's compatibility review on Winboard/XBoard engines in other GUI.There is also some interesting analysis of the implementation of the Winboard protocol in Chessmaster 8000 using Thomas's Winboard engine Quark as an example. Add links to more computer chess tournament sites in a Beginner's guide to running a computer Chess tournament
03-09-2001 Many minor tweaks.Expanded explaination on "What is a Winboard engine?" for beginners in Section [A.4] . Added links to Andreas Herrmann's page which lists Chess engines by programming language in Section [A.14] .Added "rule" about setting size of hash tables in Section [C.13] . Last but not least,I'm getting a new Athlon Thunderbird 1.4 GHZ system!!
20-09-2001 Added new section [E.10] What is Universal Chess interface [UCI]? How is it different from Winboard?
23-09-2001 Changed old link to the new version of PGN extract [formerly known as just Extract.]
27-09-2001 Added diagrams and more detailed explaination of the incomplete Endgame tablebases problem .
10-09-2001 More tweaks to the interface.Broken up FAQ into 6 pages with a Poll on each page. Check out the useful links at the top of each page.
09-11-2001 Added Checkmate and Chesscat to list of programs that use Winboard engines in Section [A.9]
24-11-01 Added Wildcat gui which is another Winboard engine compatiable gui in Section [A.9]
13-12-01 Winboard 4.2.4 is released. Updated Section [A.3] to reflect that.
16-12-01 Winboard 4.2.5 is released. "Glossary" released. Currently incomplete. Updated Winboard in other GUI compatibility table with more entries and added news of Chess Assistant light, Shredder 6 as both Chessbase native and GUI. Slightly changed layout for Table of contents page . Removed dead links.
23-12-01 Article on Why use Winboard? updated with screenshots of Winboard.
26-12-01 The highly popular link to download Goliath is updated.
04-01-02 Added Gandalf 5 as commercial Winboard engine available at Rebel at Section [A.12] Added a note about Sjeng 11.2 being able to generate and use 2 and 3 Suicide tablebases.
11-01-02 Added Galis' Winboard tourney utility to Section [F.3] Updated information on Goliath Blitz, Little Goliath 3.5, and UCI version. Other news, Rebel will be released as a Winboard engine. Also the highly awaited Arena , a free UCI/Wb interface.
19-01-02 Split up the UCI portion into 2 parts including Section [E.11] What are the graphical interfaces that support UCI? and [E.12] What are the Chess engines that support UCI? Updated links due to the shifting of gambitsoft.com to gambitsoft.net and the reorganisation of the chessbase site. Lastly all 6 main sections of the FAQ are now W3C validated 4.0 Transitional!
20-01-02 This website (the contents anyway) celebrates it's one year anniversary since it began at the Freeyellow Servers. It's a little difficult to estimate the number of visitors to the site, but we have tracked at least 25,000 unique visitors to just the homepage since March 2001. Just for fun see how the website looked on Feb 8 2001.Other snap shots of the page through time on the freeyellow servers.
03-02-02 Minor changes to article on Why use Winboard? based on Tim Mann comments.Updated to reflect Winboard 4.2.6 has current version.Added a little information on Fischer random Chess in [A.13] .
08-02-02 Added Chess Partner to list of interfaces that support UCI, added Monarch and Nejemet to list of UCI engines in Section [E.11]. Added Odd Malin's Winboard to UCI adaptor in Section [E.7] Added link to visual basic script to automate the autosending of OPK number in Chessmaster8000 in Section [E.9] .
13-02-02 - Added timeline of Xboard/Winboard events. See below.
27-02-02 -Dragon added to list of UCI engines in Section [E.12]. Section [E.8] and Gandalf 5.1 added to the list of interfaces that support UCI as well as Winboard protocol also added greater detail on the use of Chessmaster 8000 (powered by The King) in Winboard and on Chess servers.
04-03-02 SOS (Arena) added to list of UCI engines available in Section [E.12]. Linked to Arena (which has being released).
05-03-02 Finally, explaination on how to setup Winboard engines locally and on Chess servers is now available onsite at Section [B.2] and Section [B.3].My article on the use of Chess engines now appears in Tony's Computer Newsletter #9 and it's up at Kasparov.com. However , it appears some minor corrections i made were not picked up, you can find the the full piece as it is meant to be here.
14-03-02 - Little Goliath added to list of UCI engines in Section [E.12].Updated Nejmet's URL to http://membres.lycos.fr/nejmet/. Added http://home.hccnet.nl/leo.dijksman/Engines.html site as alternative to learn about latest updates.
21-03-02 The number of UCI engines continues to increase. Engimax added to list of UCI engines Section [E.12]. This is the 6th one to be released since Fritz 7 began to support UCI. Sjeng is expected to join this list soon.Still of the 6 , all but one still supports the Winboard protocol as well.
22-03-02 As expect Sjeng joins the list of UCI engine in Section [E.12]..My review entitled A first look at Arena is done.I also updated my link sites.(Hint anyone want to link to me? Please do ! )
30-03-02 Yet another new Winboard/UCI engine Hagrid is added in Section [E.12].
08-04-02 Given that Thomas Mayer's page is no longer being updated, I updated my FAQ with a section of alternatives that list all available Chess engines and report announcements of new ones in Section [A.5]
09-04-02 There's a new Ebooerger Winboardauto232d player (as opposed to version c) available for download on http://home.t-online.de/home/EBoerger/ . Altough the help file that comes with it is still the same, I understand that it now works for 2 computers linked on a network without the use of a null cable.
23-04-02 Yet another Winboard/UCI engine Aristarch and BigLion is added in Section [E.12].Added table of Winboard/UCI interfaces.Mention of tail utility added.
12-05-02 Information about the new "De Koneing" endgame tablebase format to be used in the up coming Chessmaster 9000 is added in My endgames tablebase FAQ.On a side note, I have several other pieces including a technical summary of the pros and cons of Winboard protocol over UCI in the works, but unfortunately, I just bought Heroes of Might and Magic IV, and this has being distracting me quite a lot. :) . Queen now has a UCI mode also, bringing the number of free UCI engines to 15.
16-05-02 I wrote, A survey of common FICS interfaces that was published in the FICS monthly newsletter. You can find a update copy here.
18-05-02 Found a new tourney utility for Winboard engines at http://www.markleighton.freeserve.co.uk/tournament.htm to Section [F.3]
03-06-02 New article "Can use of Endgame tablebases weaken play?"
13-07-02 Sorry for the lack of updates. It's heartening to see many formerly privateware and commercial engines being released. Including Lampchop 10.x and Ameteur.It's now possible that Post Modernist and the very strong Zarkov might be released too.Interestingly enough, a few months back I did a webpage listing some of the strongest privateware chess engine ,a few have being released since then and it looks like others may join them soon.
14-07-02 Well it looks like Frank Quisinsky has decided to furthur reduce the scope of his involvement with Winboard engines.Altough he will continue to maintain the Arena website , currently he has stopped any updates of Winboard engines on his original site. Leo Dijksman who has since April 2002 taken on almost all the job of the Winboard engine details page formerly done by Thomas Mayer (and before that Frank Quisinsky himself), now also maintains the website for downloads of Winboard engines with no homepages of their own. Altough the files remain on Frank's site, the links are from Leo's site. For me of course this means, I have to recheck my whole site to account for the changed urls, so please bear with me if there are broken links.
15-07-02 Finished my two part article on Winboard versus UCI.
24-08-02 I had the opportunity to play around with a test version of the endgame database generator that will come with Chessmaster 9000. As you probably know it uses it's own tablebase format (not Nalimov!) you can find more information (in addition to what was posted in CCC) on my endgame tablebase page.
21-09-02 Lots of broken links fixed. In particular links to Chessmachine and patch. Integreted information about Chessmaster EDGB into my Endgame tablebase FAQ and opened new section on Chessmaster 8000/9000 or The King 3.12/3.23
16-10-02 Yet more broken links fixed. Ruffian and Madeleine added to UCI list. Privateware list updated. Endgame tablebase FAQ updated to include info about Madeleine and GAFS tablebases.
09-11-02 Completed move to new site at http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/ . Moved all articles to article pages
15-12-02 Various updates to Endgame tablebase FAQ including the Chessmaster KNN bug and change in Nalimov 6 piece tablebase. Added section on chessmaster personalities in Section [D.3.9], Silk Chess added to UCI list in Section [E.12].Overhauled section on Chessbase GUI . Section [B.6] - I give up. Is there a easier way to do this? amended to reflect a way to obtain a legal copy of Fritz 5.32.Updates of various links in links pages.
19-12-02 New article on Engine protocol wars (history).
05-01-03 First update of the year. New article on Winboard and auto232 .Section on Chessmaster further improved . Changes include mention of Chessmaster 9000's support of secondary time controls , use of inbetween, use of The King with scid and credits to Odd Gunnar Malin and Manfred Meiler. Interfaces page that support Winboard,UCI,Chessbase,auto232 and ICS support updated.links page updated. Mention of the modified level command in Arena,Chessmaster.
11-02-03 New logo. Do you like it? If anyone would like to help me come up with a better logo feel free to email me. Updated Section [D.4.2] to reflect new Adaptive hash table in Crafty. Section [A.3] updated to link to new Winboard modification by Daniel.
01-03-03 Update to endgame tablebase FAQ . CM 9000 patch to disenable OPK check released .
21-03-03 Update to Section [A.3] with links to 2 Winboard mods relating to zippy and chess engines. Update to Endgame tablebases FAQ mentioning that Wilhelm now handles the new Nalimov 6 piece tablebase format.
27-03-03 update to Section [E.6] on use of Winboard engines in Chess Genius.
05-04-03 Betty now supports Fischer random in Section A.13.Section [C.12] reorganised. Section [E.7] on UCI2WB adapter and WB2UCI adapter expanded with examples.New article on How to use Winboard with auto232player .
29-05-03 Betty and The baron now support Fischer random. See Section A.13. UCI list showing details of UCI engine release date and graph is now up.New section How to connect Winboard directly on a network without going through a chess server.
30-05-03 I have put up a zipped file of EGDB files (chessmaster's endgame tablebase) [12 megs] that fixes the "KNN" bug.New link to a way to use auto232 without a null cable, only for Win2k/XP in Section [B.3].
15-06-03 Chispa now supports FRchess. Confusion 1 updated.
Section [D.3] now includes link to Thomas Mayer's
analysis of the Winboard protocol in CM 8000.Updated.UCI list showing details of UCI engine release date and graph
15-07-03 My email address is now encoded to fight
spambots.
My main email will be encoded with Javascript, users without javascript
and still send me email by looking at the gif file displayed. My
secondary email
is merely ASCII encoded, all users should be able to access it even
without javascript. Lastly they can
use a form email by clicking on
"please leave a message").Now using externally linked JS and CSS.
Rebel 12 pre-release Winboard support. Guestbook changed.
11-09-2003 Not many changes. Added a new entry , a java based Winboard compatiable interface with nice 2d/3d graphics Jose, to my interface listing page One new UCI engine Gothmog added to UCI list .
23-09-2003 More 6 piece tablebases loaded on Hyatt's FTP site. Including 6 piece tablebases with pawns.
27-09-2003 Changed format of index page. KKF chess added to list of engines that support Suicide chess(fics rules),crazyhouse and Atomic.
10-10-2003 Crafty 19.4 and Wilhelm now support the new 6 piece tablebases. iNemisis added to Interface listing page. iNemisis only supports Winboard engines for analysis only though it is still primarily a FICS interface for humans, similar to Checkmate but more powerful.
22-10-2003 Thomas McBurney has released this interesting utilty that allows you to broadcast winboard games as they are played. Check the Winboard forum for announcements of games being broadcast from tourneys like Günther Simon's RWBC. See Section [F.5] for more details. My glossary on computer chess terms has always being available but incomplete, though I updated it some.
30-11-2003 Because of major changes in Arena, I have updated many of these pages. This includes the discussion of opening books in Section [C.4] and Sections relating to The King in Arena. Sibo a linux interface that supports xboard engines is added to my interface.html page
15-12-2003 Jose is now UCI compatiable. The 2nd Linux gui to do so after Knights.
02-01-2004 Minor changes to Endgame tablebase FAQ, Chessbase DVD Endgame turbo 2, comes with KNPPKR , KBPPKR, KRPPKR, KRBKNN and KQQKQQ as well as an upgraded Fritz 8, so that they can be accessed in search.
22-01-2004 New articles. Chess engines Cutting through the Confusion Part 2 and graphical guide .
15-02-2004 Updated section on bookthinker and using bookthinker with Chessmaster. Endgame tablebase FAQ links reflect the fact that DTZ (distance to zero) tablebases are available for searching on some sites.
14-12-2002 Flaw found in De Koning Chessmaster endgame databases. New 6 men tablebases. Information on tablebases in delfi and Yace .
16-10-2002 Madeline now uses GAFS tablebases
10-04-2002 Information about Yace beta versions using bitbases. People have managed to generate 6 piece KRPPKR tablebases in the De Koning Tablebases with a normal desktop.
21-09-2002 Information of De Koning or Chessmaster 9000 EDGB now intergreted into FAQ.
06-03-2002 A new article discussing the question "Can use of endgame tablebases weaken play?" .
21-04-2001 A french translation of this web page now can be found at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/lefouduroi/tablebases.htm
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