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1 | .TH CHESS 6 "" GNU |
2 | .SH NAME | |
3 | chess \- GNU chess | |
4 | .SH SYNOPSIS | |
5 | .B chess | |
6 | [ | |
7 | .B arg1 arg2 | |
8 | ] | |
9 | .SH DESCRIPTION | |
10 | .I Chess | |
11 | plays a game of chess against the user or it plays against itself. | |
12 | .PP | |
13 | .I Chess | |
14 | has a simple alpha-numeric board display or it can be compiled for | |
15 | use with the CHESSTOOL program on a SUN workstation. | |
16 | The program gets its opening moves from the file gnuchess.book which | |
17 | should be located in the same directory as gnuchess. | |
18 | To invoke the prgram, type 'gnuchess' or type 'chesstool gnuchess' | |
19 | on a SUN workstation where 'CHESSTOOL' is installed. | |
20 | The 'gnuchess' command can be followed by up to 2 command line arguments. | |
21 | If one argument is given it determines the programs search time in | |
22 | seconds. If two arguments are given, they will be used to set tournament | |
23 | time controls with the first argument being the number of moves and the second | |
24 | being the total clock time in minutes. Thus, entering 'chess 60 5' will set | |
25 | the clocks for 5 minutes (300 seconds) for the first 60 moves. | |
26 | If no argument is given the program will prompt the user for level of | |
27 | play. | |
28 | For use with CHESSTOOL, see the documentation on that program. | |
29 | .PP | |
30 | Once | |
31 | .I Chess | |
32 | is invoked, the program will display the board and prompt the user | |
33 | for a move. To enter a move, use the notation 'e2e4' where the first | |
34 | letter-number pair indicates the origination square | |
35 | and the second letter-number pair indicates the destination square. | |
36 | An alternative is to use the notation 'nf3' where | |
37 | the first letter indicates the piece type (p,n,b,r,q,k). | |
38 | To castle, type the origin and destination squares | |
39 | of the king just as you would do for a regular move, or type | |
40 | "o-o" for kingside castling and "o-o-o" for queenside. | |
41 | .SH COMMANDS | |
42 | .PP | |
43 | In addition to legal moves, the following commands are available as responses. | |
44 | .PP | |
45 | .I beep | |
46 | -- causes the program to beep after each move. | |
47 | .PP | |
48 | .I bd | |
49 | -- updates the current board position on the display. | |
50 | .PP | |
51 | .I book | |
52 | -- turns off use of the opening library. | |
53 | .PP | |
54 | .I both | |
55 | -- causes the computer to play both sides of a chess game. | |
56 | .PP | |
57 | .I black | |
58 | -- causes the computer to take the black pieces with the move | |
59 | and begin searching. | |
60 | .PP | |
61 | .I level | |
62 | -- allows the user to set time controls such as | |
63 | 60 moves in 5 minutes etc. In tournament mode, the program will | |
64 | vary the time it takes for each | |
65 | move depending on the situation. If easy mode is disabled (using | |
66 | the 'easy' command), the program | |
67 | will often respond with its move immediately, saving time on | |
68 | its clock for use later on. | |
69 | .PP | |
70 | .I depth | |
71 | -- allows the user to change the | |
72 | search depth of the program. The maximum depth is 29 ply. | |
73 | Normally the depth is set to 29 and the computer terminates | |
74 | its search based on elapsed time rather than depth. | |
75 | Using the depth command allows setting depth to say | |
76 | 4 ply and setting response time to a large number such as | |
77 | 9999 seconds. The program will then search until all moves | |
78 | have been examined to a depth of 4 ply (with extensions up | |
79 | to 11 additional ply for sequences of checks and captures). | |
80 | .PP | |
81 | .I easy | |
82 | -- toggles easy mode (thinking on opponents time) | |
83 | on and off. The default is easy mode ON. If easy mode is disabled, | |
84 | the user must enter a 'break' or '^C' to get the programs | |
85 | attention before entering each move. | |
86 | .PP | |
87 | .I edit | |
88 | -- allows the user to set up a board position. | |
89 | In this mode, the '#' command will clear the board, the 'c' | |
90 | command will toggle piece color, and the '.' command will exit | |
91 | setup mode. Pieces are entered by typing a letter (p,n,b,r,q,k) for | |
92 | the piece followed by the coordinate. For example "pb3" would | |
93 | place a pawn on square b3. | |
94 | .PP | |
95 | .I force | |
96 | -- allows the user to enter moves for both | |
97 | sides. To get the program to play after a sequence of moves | |
98 | has been entered use the 'white' or 'black' commands. | |
99 | .PP | |
100 | .I get | |
101 | -- retrieves a game from disk. The program will | |
102 | prompt the user for a file name. | |
103 | .PP | |
104 | .I help | |
105 | -- displays a short description of the commands. | |
106 | .PP | |
107 | .I hint | |
108 | -- causes the program to supply the user with | |
109 | its predicted move. | |
110 | .PP | |
111 | .I list | |
112 | -- writes the game moves and some statistics | |
113 | on search depth, nodes, and time to the file 'chess.lst'. | |
114 | .PP | |
115 | .I new | |
116 | -- starts a new game. | |
117 | .PP | |
118 | .I post | |
119 | -- causes the program to display the principle | |
120 | variation and the score during the search. A score of | |
121 | 100 is equivalent to a 1 pawn advantage for the computer. | |
122 | .PP | |
123 | .I random | |
124 | -- causes the program to randomize its move | |
125 | selection slightly. | |
126 | .PP | |
127 | .I reverse | |
128 | -- causes the board display to be reversed. That | |
129 | is, the white pieces will now appear at the top of the board. | |
130 | .PP | |
131 | .I quit | |
132 | -- exits the game. | |
133 | .PP | |
134 | .I save | |
135 | -- saves a game to disk. The program will prompt | |
136 | the user for a file name. | |
137 | .PP | |
138 | .I switch | |
139 | -- causes the program to switch places with | |
140 | the opponent and begin searching. | |
141 | .PP | |
142 | .I undo | |
143 | -- undoes the last move whether it was the computer's | |
144 | or the human's. You may also type "remove". This is equivalent | |
145 | to two "undo's" (e.g. retract one move for each side). | |
146 | .PP | |
147 | .I white | |
148 | -- causes the computer to take the white pieces | |
149 | with the move and begin searching. | |
150 | .SH BUGS | |
151 | .PP | |
152 | Pawn promotion to pieces other than a queen is not allowed. | |
153 | En-Passant does not work properly with CHESSTOOOL. | |
154 | The transposition table may not work properly in some | |
155 | positions so the default is to turn this off. | |
156 | .fi | |
157 | .SH SEE ALSO | |
158 | .nf | |
159 | chesstool(6) | |
160 | .fi | |
161 |