Warning: WinBoard 4.3 is now obsolete and has been superceeded by 4.4
WinBoard 4.3 is a WinBoard version developed independently from the original GNU-Savannah project administrated
by Tim Mann. It has many add-ons, mainly in the area of user interface, improved rule knowledge (castling, e.p. rights),
adjudication in engine-engine games, and improved variant support. WinBoard 4.3 is a direct descendant of Allessandro
Scotti's WinBoard_x, which again was derived from WinBoard 4.2.7, the last version released by Tim Mann's team.
WinBoard 4.3.14 with separate engine-output, move-history and eval-graph windows
Downloads
From here you will be able to download various WinBoard / xboard packages. The links below directly point
to the various downloads; The WinBoard Gold Pack should be unpacked inside the folder where you normally
store all your engine folders. The executable packages contain shortcuts to start up WinBoard, which you could
move to your desktop. No other install is needed.
WinBoard 4.3.15 Gold Pack (2.3 MB)
Windows executables of WinBoard 4.3.15, Polyglot 1.5w and PSWBTM 2.0 plus two pre-installed
demo engines (Fairy-Max as WB, CPW as UCI engine), plus a Polyglot Opening book, all ready
to use after unzipping.
bug-fixes: Polyglot 7-jan-09, WinBoard 14-jan-09.
For the new polyglot.exe only, see below in the Polyglot chapter
WinBoard 4.3.15m executable
Bug-fix of the winboard.exe originally included in the Gold Pack (per 14-jan-2009)
WinBoard 4.3.14 executable
Windows executable, plus Fairy-Max demo engine, ready to use after unzipping.
xboard 4.3.14 executable
Linux executable (Ubuntu/hardy), plus Fairy-Max demo engine, ready to use (tar archive).
(Preliminary release! Will be supplemented with some more support files later.)
WinBoard/xboard 4.3.14 source files
Complete (zipped) source tree, including all bitmaps, for WinBoard and xboard.
WinBoard/xboard 4.3.15 source files (2.9 MB)
Complete (zipped) source tree, including all bitmaps, for WinBoard and xboard.
Polyglot
WinBoard 4.3 does have provisions (inherited from WinBoard_x) for automatically invoking Polyglot
for running UCI engines. A version of Polyglot that does not need the cygwin1.dll can be found
on Fonzy's website. The direct download link is:
Polyglot 1.4 Windows zipped executable
Bug-fixed (7-jan-2009) Polyglot 1.5w executable
A newer Polyglot version, relaying the new WinBoard commands for setting hash size, Nalimov path and nr of CPUs
is included in the WinBoard Gold Pack for Windows. The sourcs for this version can be obtained from:
Polyglot 1.5 source code
from which a Linux version can be compiled.
Tournament Manager
WinBoard is a Graphical User Interface to conduct a single Chess game or match between two opponents.
WinBoard can be used for playing the games in tournaments with more than two engines, (gauntlets or
round-robins) through the use of a Tournament Manager. An easy-to-use WinBoard tournament manager
is Pradu Kannan's PSWBTM. The executable of PSWBTM is included in the WinBoard Gold Pack, but can also
be obtained from here:
PSWBTM Download link
PSWBTM home page
WinBoard as Crazyhouse GUI, with drag-and-drop holdings, and distinguishable promoted pieces
More Information
WinBoard 4.3 supports many variants with deviating board format or pieces, as can be seen in the
screen shots on H.G.Muller's website. Engine authors that want to be able to run their engines under
WinBoard 4.3, should take a careful look at the updated description of the WinBoard protocol description,
which specifies how the engine should communicate with WinBoard. The protocol for WinBoard 4.3
is not different from that of WinBoard 4.2.7, but the updated document details behavior of
WinBoard 4.3 in reaction to the various commands, and explains how you could use some new features.
Discussion Forum
You are invited to participate in the discussion on how to improve WinBoard, and develop
WinBoard protocol further. Bugs can also be reported in the WinBoard forum,
where the message you are now reading is one of the postings. There are usually also a lot of friendly
people around in this forum, that might be able to help you with problmes and questions on WinBoard,
and WinBoard-compatible Chess engines.
WinBoard used as game viewer, with a separate game-list window
Notes on xboard 4.3.14
Startng from WinBoard 4.3.14 there is again an xboard version supplied. This xboard uses the same back-end
source files as WinBoard 4.3.14, many, but not all of the modifications in the front-end (i.e. those pertaining
to the user interface, such as menus, looks and auxilary windows) have been added in xboard.4.3.15
Other new WinBoard 4.3 back-end features can already be used through command-line options,
though. We hope to narrow the development gap between xboard and WinBoard in future releases.
xboard 4.3.14 in Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) mode
Chess Fonts
As mentioned above, the WinBoard look can be adjusted with bitmaps defining the board texture,
and a Chess font defining the pieces. Many suitable Chess fonts can be found at the EN PASSANT website.
Some nice textures can be found at the Winboard_x website.
WinBoard (board size "small") with pieces derived from
the "Chess Mark" font, and a wooden board texture
