Connecting to World Chess Live

[Nathan826]

I am trying to connect to the server World Chess Live using WinBoard 4.2.7, but I'm having some problems. As it's not one of the included servers, I have the IP address as the -icshost in my .bat file. When I run the .bat file, it connects to the server, but then tries to run some commands that aren't recognized by the server. I did debug, and it says:

<WONT ECHO >ICS: alias $ @\012$set interface WinBoard 4.2.7 + C:\Program\012$iset startpos 1\012$iset ms 1\012$iset nohighlight 1\012$iset lock 1\012$style 12\012
<ICS: No such command (alias).\015\012aics%
<ICS: No such command (&).\015\012aics%
<ICS: No such command (&).\015\012aics%
<ICS: No such command (&).\015\012aics%
<ICS: No such command (&).\015\012aics%
<ICS: No such command (&).\015\012aics%
<ICS: No such command (&).\015\012aics%

And every time the client is matched to a game or tries to do something, it tries to use the & command. The first time I ran it, I think it also tried to add another alias (maybe one for &), but I can't remember now. I know it's possible to add aliases like this on FICS or a FICS-type server, but not on WCL, whose syntax is identical to that of ICC (the command needs to be "+alias ..." instead of just "alias ..."). Just out of curiousity, I changed the -icshost to chessclub.com, and had no problems whatsoever in connecting to ICC and playing a game. I'm not sure if there is a way to get it to recognize WCL as an ICC-type server rather than a FICS-type server, but if there were I think that would solve my problems. Here is my .bat file:

"C:\Program Files\Winboard-4.2.7\winboard.exe" -ics -zp -icshost 207.99.83.244 -icsport 5000 -icshelper timestamp.exe -fcp "C:\Program Files\Pulsar 2009\pulsar2009-9a.exe" -zippyVariants normal,fischerandom,nocastle,wildcastle,atomic,3check,losers,giveaway,suicide,crazyhouse,twokings,wild29 -sgf pulsaricc.pgn -debug

[H.G.Muller]

I have looked at the code, and it seems WinBoard has an internal variable ics_prefix, initially set to '$', that is prefixed to all ICS commands. It might then alter that based on recognition of an ics_type (initially set to ICS_GENERIC). The only ICS types that are recognized are ICS_ICC, ICS_FICS and ICS_CHESSNET, based on the occurrence of "chessclub.com", "freeches.org" or "chess.net" in the login page. The exact comamnds used in places are also dependent on the recognized types.

I guess the logical solution would be to provide a new command-line option -icstype N wich would alter the default (so that when no recognition takes place, it assumes the type given by the user). Making it automatically recognize every ICS in the world seems not feasible. One should hope that the server than indeed is sufficiently ICC like to not cause any problems when it is treated as ICC.

[H.G.Muller]

OK, try this version.

Use the extra option -icstype 1 to request ICC type.

Please let me know if it works. Then I will incorporate this patch in the main line.

[F.Huber]

OK, try this version.

Is "WinBoard WCRCC09" now the official name of your new versions?

[H.G.Muller]

Well, in general I am too lazy to update the version number in config.h every time I make a new compile. I am convinced that adding this option will not have introduced any bugs, so if people complain about a bug in WCRCC09 I don't realy have to know if it was this or the previous version (or any of the four I reaased during the WCRCC. ) I guess I will switch back to 4.4.1h at some point. The patch for the Engine #N Settings dialogs will probably be included in the 4.4.0 release, btw; although I released them as 4.4.1x. I consider it suffciently tested as not to cause any crashes, and it can actually be quite useful despite the many cosmetic refinements that are still possible in the layout. (Real spins, making the option names fit, conditional browse button, scroll bar, combobox width.) I am worried more about the XBoard equivalent; I think that still displays all options in a sincle column, which will make it exceed the screen size by an order of magnitude for most UCI engines running under Polyglot. Perhaps I will still make an attempt to fix that. (XBoard does use real spins, though!)

[Nathan826]

Thank you very much for the helpful reply. The new version that you posted pretty much solves all the problems (it is able to play a game now), although there are still a couple things that don't quite work as expected. First, it doesn't set the interface. It says:

<WONT ECHO >ICS: /set-quietly interface WinBoard WCRCC09 + Program\012/set-quietly style 12\012

But the command "set-quietly interface WinBoard WCRCC09 + Program" works fine if I type it in manually. Also, I added a .ini file with the login account, the password, and a seek ad. For some reason, the seek ad didn't work (although if I can't seek automatically when logging in that really isn't a big deal). Then when I match it to a game (using my human account), it won't accept automatically:

>ICS: $accept Nathan826\012
<ICS: No such command (&).\015\012aics%

So I guess it tries to use & there. But other than these 3 small things, everything else seems to be working fine.

[Nathan826]

Actually, I got the seeking when it logs in to work, by simply adding an extra empty line in my .ini file. That also fixed the thing about setting the interface and stuff. Now, the only real problem I see is that it still can't auto-accept match requests; it still says "No such command (&).". And I did notice one other thing that isn't at all a big deal. Once when it was playing someone, I manually typed "moretime 10" and then after adding the 10 seconds it again said "No such command (&)."

[H.G.Muller]

It seems the ICS somehow aliases the "$" to "&". Otherwise I cannot explain where the "&" comes from in the error message: WinBoard did not send any "&"!

Perhaps the "$" must be aliased to something else on this ICS?

[Nathan826]

I got everything working now, even the auto-accept. All I had to do was replace the alias that was "$ &" to "$ @". Thanks so much for your help, and I'm looking forward to the WinBoard 4.4.0 release!

[Nathan826]

I downloaded WinBoard 4.4.0, but when I ran my .bat file, it said "unrecognized argument -icstype". However, it seems to work fine other than right after it first connects.

The problem I get is (as it is in the debug file):

<WONT ECHO >ICS: alias $ @\012$set interface WinBoard 4.4.0 + Program\012$iset startpos 1\012$iset ms 1\012$iset nohighlight 1\012$iset lock 1\012$style 12\012

Other than that, it seems to work normally though.

[H.G.Muller]

Indeed, the -icstype option is not implemented in 4.4.0 yet. The alpha version of the 4.4.1 winboard.exe that has it can be downoaded as winboard.zip from my website.

[Philippe Etard]

Hello H.G. Muller,

You say in a previous post : "WinBoard has an internal variable ics_prefix, initially set to '$', that is prefixed to all ICS commands".
I have a similar problem with Chessanytime.com. Each time I want to accept, resign games, the command $accept, $resign is sent instead of accept, resign etc...

<ICS: \012\015$set: Command not found
$iset: Command not found
$style: Command not found
etc...

Will you release a winboard version which gets rid of this annoying "$" ?

Thank you.

[H.G.Muller]

The idea is that the $ should be aliased to something else on the ICS. Some ICS seem to need a prefix, and not putting a $ there would break WinBoard for those.