How to use Winboard_F ?

[Reinhard Scharnagl]

Is there somewhere an understandable introduction, how to install and use Winboard_F? I am not yet experienced using Winboard type GUIs.

[H.G.Muller]

WinBoard does not really need an install: you could put the winboard.exe file anywere, and it can run by itself. But if you want all the niceties like an entries in the start menu, and an extensive Windows help file describing all the features, you best start by installing the version from Tim Mann's website (link on the home page of this forum). IIRC that comes as a self-installing and unpacking executable. Then you can simply replace the winboard.exe by the one you download for WinBoard_F, and that one will be invoked when you use the icons in the start menu.

If there is no winboard.ini file in the folder you run WinBoard from, it will make one the first time you run it. (Just click that you want to use it as game viewer in the start-up dialog box.) This files saves all settings for the next time you run WinBoard. It also contains a list of Chess engines, from which you can coose in the startup dialog. (For engines not in the list you would have to type the name of their executable.) This is simplest if the engine executables are in the folder you run WinBoard from. Otherwise you need to type cumbersome path names, and what is worse, you will also have to tell WinBoard (by typing the /fd="..." or /sd="..."after the engine names) from which folder the engine should run (so it can find its opening book, or in case of Smirfoglot the SmirfEngine.dll).

If you want to add engines to the list you an select (originally only GNUChess will be there), just edit the winboard.ini file (e.g. using NotePad), look for the lines mentioning GNUChess, and add lines for other WB engines you have, exactly as you otherwise would have to type them in the start-up dialog fields.

Actually, it is highly recommended to download a tournament manager like PSWBTM (from Pradu's website). PSWBTM maintains a database of engines, which you can update in a very intuitive way through an engine-manager menu, and set up tournaments of various types between these engines. PSWBTM then takes care of passing all the necessary arguments to WinBoard, and you would hardly ever have to bother editing the winboard.ini file.

Note that there is a very good WinBoard FAQ on the website of Horizon ( http://www.horizonchess.com ).

[Ron Murawski]

The old Winboard FAQ can be found here:
http://horizonchess.com/FAQ/Winboard/
The information is out of date but should be enough to get started with Winboard

The new FAQ can be found here:
http://computer-chess.org/
The information is not complete yet, but all sections are up to date.

Ron

[Reinhard Scharnagl]

Thank you all for those links. But I have not that much questions yet to answer via those FAQs. I merely wanted to install Winboard and have it run with maybe two engines. But Winboard seems not to be an application, which would be ready to use.

I have come that far without a Winboard GUI. I should proceed that way ...

[H.G.Muller]

If you only want to run two engines, just download the WinBoard_F executable, put it in your Smirf folder, and click its icon to start it (should look like a black Knight).

A dialog box will then pop up, which asks for two engine names. Just type the names of the engines you want to run (e.g. "Smirfoglot /H128" and "joker80", assuming you also downloaded the joker80.exe in that same directory), each in their own field, click OK, and you are ready to run.

To play them against each other, click the menu item "Mode->Two machines". To select the time control, click the menu item "Options->Time control...", and put in the requested parameters. (It will remember this next time you start WinBoard, so you only have to do that the first time, unless you want to change something.) You might also have to select the variant through the menu "File->New variant...". That is really all there is to it.

[Tony Hecker]

I just created a simple WinBoard_F quick-start guide, for use with TJchess10x8. The guide could be applied for use with other engines as well.

http://www.tonyjh.com/chess/winboard.html