Winboard Forum

Hi,

I'm trying a winboard engine on the console. How do I play a game? I try this:

xboard
new
force
go

This only ask the computer to make a move. How do I actually play my own move? Thanks.

Get Arena and tell it to create a debug log. Then take two winboard engines and play a game. The result will be the full log of the Winboard protocol conversation.

Just type the move. Some engines want you to type "usermove" in front of the move. They let this know by saying "feature usermove=1" in reply to "protover 2".

To see the engine thinking, also type "post". (The might give only book moves initially, though.)

Often you also have to type a "level" and "time" command to make them reach meaningful depth, like

level 40 5 0
time 10000

Without it they might think they ran out of time, and respond instantly.