setting the time controls, and changing piece graphics

[Mike_Tyson]

Hi, I am just getting started with xboard and have some questions.

1.) Time controls. I would like to make it so that the engine can search for a maximum amount of time specified by me (5 mins max, or even just 1 min max), but at the same time I do not want any time limit for me, the human player. Is this possible, and if yes how?

2.) How the pieces look. I would like to change the way the pieces look. How can I specify which graphics to use for the pieces? First I thought the pieces are bitmaps, but on some places I have read referrals to piece "fonts" (?!).

Also, is there a place where I can download many different piece set graphics? I would like to try out many until I find a set that I really like.

I will mostly use xboard version 4.5.2 under some version of Bodhi Linux, and sometimes Winboard 4.5.3 under Win7.

[H.G.Muller]

You can specify a time-odds factor in the time-control dialog, e.g. set time to 1 hour (which will then be the time for yourself), and then tie-odds 60 for the engine, so it gets one minute. That would still put some limit on your time, though. The alternative is to switch auto-flag off (in general options), and ignore your own clock.

WinBoard uses fonts, XBoard uses pixmaps for the pieces. Many piece fonts can be dowloaded from http://www.enpassant.dk/chess/fonteng.htm . I don't really use XBoard, so I never looked for piece pixmaps for it, but I am sure there must be many around. You just would have to put a set of pixmaps in a directory, and then specify that directory as pixmap directory in the view->board menu.