Winboard / Xboard with Shredder engine, on ICC

[kingscomp]

Hi guys. I just registered for a computer account on ICC, and I'm currently using Arena with Shredder 12 to play my computer account. However, since I have a Mac and Arena is Windows only, it's a real pain in the ass to have to reboot every time I wanna give my computer account a few games.

I am thinking I could use xboard with the Shredder engine to play on ICC, but first off: is this even possible?

I hear there are at least two different types of chess engines, each relying on different systems.

So, down to my final question and request. Can I use Shredder on Xboard to play on ICC? And, if so, how do I set it up? I'm a complete rookie when it comes to anything terminal or bash-based, so please be gentle if and when you respond.

Kind regards,

Kingspawn

[matematiko]

For using xboard in a Mac OS visit this topic.
http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=50428
I know this topic exist but I do not know anything about Mac OS and very little about xboard. So please read as much as you can, that thread has like 5 pages.

If your shredder works in Arena, you must be using the UCI protocol version and not the Chessbase protocol version, then it should work in xboard. Only one way to find out: Give it a try.

Be aware, that Arena native books might not work with WinBoard ( I am not sure), but if you are already familiar with polyglot and bin books then you shouldn’t have problems in this area either.

Good luck

[H.G.Muller]

Engines come indeed in two maor types: WB and UCI. XBoard supports both (UCI through the Polyglot adapter, but this is transparent to the user, except that hehas to make sure Polyglot is installed on his system. In the XBoard package for Mac offered in the mentioned thread, Polyglot is included.) There are some egines by Chessbase that use their own, proprietry protocol, and can only runin their own interface.

To run a UCI engine on ICC you would have to start XBoard through the command

xbard -zp -ics -icshost chessclub.com -icshelper timestamp -fcp "ENGINECOMMAND" -fUCI

where ENGINECOMMAND would be whatever you have to type in order to start the engine without GUI.

[kingscomp]

To H.G. Muller, seems reasonable. However, I'm having trouble including the Shredder12Mac engine in the PATH variable (or adding it straight to the xboard command line).

The engine itself, 'Shredder12Mac' executable, is located in /Applications/Shredder 12.app/Contents/Resources/Java/engines/. However, when I try adding that directory to PATH or typing it directly in the xboard command line (replacing "ENGINECOMMAND" from the previous post), I get an error saying that ".app/Contents/Resources/Java/engines" is not a file or a directory" or something to that effect. It seems like bash misinterprets the '.' in .app as a new line. I know there's a real simple way to work around that, but I don't know how.

[kingscomp]

I finally got xboard to start with Shredder12Mac but only by copying the Shredder12Mac executable to a folder which is included in the PATH variable. An utterly pointless exercise I then realized, since the file Shredder12Mac in itself is useless, it needs the surrounding datafiles to work properly. So my question remains, how do I include the folder /Applictations/Shredder 12.app/Contents/Resources/Java/engines in the PATH?

[kingscomp]

Also, when I start up xboard, I get the message "Connection closed by ICS" and xboard needs to be restarted. Any ideas on why?

[kingscomp]

All issues except the connection to ICC are now resolved. I can't connect, I only get "Connection closed by ICC" or something when I start xboard.

[H.G.Muller]

It could be that the system gets confused by the space in the pathname of the "Shredder 12.app" folder. Not sure if Shredder would still be able to find its files of you renamed that to something without a space, though. To get this name across to XBoard might require a double level of quoting.

Try

xboard -fcp "Shredder12Mac" -fd "'/Applictations/Shredder 12.app/Contents/Resources/Java/engines'" -fUCI

(so mentioning the Shredder directory in a separate -fd option, which has single quotes inside the double quotes), just to see if we canrun Shredder that way.

The 'connection closed' problem could be because youdon't have the timestamp executable, or have it in a place where XBoard cannot find it. If Shredder works, the next step would be to try it on ICC without timestamp, i.e. leave out the -icshelper timestamp option:

xboard -zp -ics chessclub.com -fcp "Shredder12Mac" -fd "'/Applictations/Shredder 12.app/Contents/Resources/Java/engines'" -fUCI

When that works youknow the connection is OK, and timestamp was the problem. How did you install XBoard? Was it from the Mac package distributed from this forum? I thought that included timestamp and timeseal. But I am no Mac user, and did not make the package, so I could be wrong.

[kingscomp]

Without the timeseal option I connect just fine. Odd.. I installed xboard with the winboard forum link for the macos installer.

[H.G.Muller]

Beware that you need timestamp, not timeseal. The latter only works on FICS. I am pretty sure that would be included in the package. Can you connect to freechess.org using timeseal?

[kingscomp]

Yes, connecting to freechess.org using -icshelper timeseal works fine.

[H.G.Muller]

Then I assume the problem is that timestamp is not in the package. It is distributed by ICC, youshould check on their website if they have a Mac version for download there. (The Arena package should contain one, but that will be a Windows version, and I am not sure if you could use that.)

[kingscomp]

I'll try that tonight. I've been playing some without timestamp, and so far I've yet to lose a single game, in all categories!

[kingscomp]

I can't find a proper version of timestamp. It seems I have one installed, but when i try to launch it it says "The power-PC architecture is no longer supported".

[H.G.Muller]

Indeed, then this definitely is not the right version, but one for the now obsolete Mac based on the Power-PC CPU. Perhaps the newer Macs can simply run the Linux version of timestamp?

[kingscomp]

Yes, obviously it's the wrong version. However I can't find any updated versions online, can you or anyone else point me in the right direction?

[H.G.Muller]

I suppose you looked here:

http://www.chessclub.com/help/unix-timestamp

I tried the ftp, but I cannot connect to the web address they mention there. I don't know if this is just a temporary thing, or whether this is obsolete info. I think the best approach would be to contact ICC directly, because things are obviously not working as they advertize...

[Josh Pettus]

Hmm. Yes I did include Timestamp in the package but as you guys found out it was compiled for PowerPC. This didn't use to be a problem but since the Lion update, Rossetta is not included.

The chess clubs's ftp site is where i got the Mac bin. I hope they updated it, but right now it is down. I guess I can check other mac chess programs for an up to date intel timestamp. But I'm afraid a linux bin won't work in Mac OSX Darwin.

[Josh Pettus]

There i finally found an mac intel timestamp in Chessic 2.0. I'll build an Xboard 2.5.3 package soon.