Another doubt about level and setboard

[Fermin Serrano]

I wrote a similar doubt a few days ago.

It is white to move. Now If I receive:

Code: Select all

level 40 20 0
setboard r1bq1rk1/pp2bpp1/2n2n1p/3p4/3N4/2N1B1P1/PP2PPBP/R2Q1RK1 b - - 0 1

As setboard change to black to move, must I assume white has 39 moves to go or 40.
I have not programmed nothing about this, and I have seen games where my engine is white and is 1 move to reach 40, and winboard send time with +20 add.

Best regards,
FS

[H.G.Muller]

Well, this is a messy area, so what winBoard actually does is not necessarily the same as how it shuold be done.

I thought that WinBoard always starts black-to-move positions on board number 1 (while it normally starts with board number 0). And it should grant extra time (at 40 mps) after the ply that creates board 79 (for white) and 80 (for black), independent from where the game started. I guess this is what we want it to do, not?

If it does something else, it should be considered a WinBoard bug.

But this implies indeed that an engine, receiving a black-to-move FEN with full-move count = 1 would have to correct its white 'movestogo counter' to 39.