Configuring
To
Your Own Personal Taste
1) I'd like to
customize the default menu box. How do I do this?
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&Who,who,0,1 Playe&rs,players,0,1 &Games,games,0,1 &Sought,sought,0,1 |&Tell (name),tell,1,0 M&essage (name),message,1,0 - &Finger (name),finger,1,1 &Vars (name),vars,1,1 &Observe (name),observe,1,1 &Match (name),match,1,1 Pl&ay (name),play,1,1 " |
(Further information can be found in the WinBoard help file under "ICSMenu.") |
2)
I'd like to be able to login to my favorite server automatically,
without having to type my handle and password each time. Is this
possible?
Of course. WinBoard, by default, will always look for a ics.ini file and will execute the commands in that file as soon as you telnet into the chess servers.
(Further information can be found in the WinBoard help file under "Initialization files.") |
3) I enjoy playing on more than one server. I'd like to be
able to log in with my name and password for each of these servers
automatically. How can I do this?
To set up a different login script for another server...
Now, when connecting to ICC, WinBoard will use the commands in the icc.ini file and not the default ics.ini file. Additional "ini" files can be created for the other servers in the same way. (Further information can be found in the WinBoard help file under "Initialization files.") |
4) Is it possible to
use WinBoard with
Accuclock on Chess.net?
Yes.
Note: You may see an error message "Error reading from ICS: Connection reset by peer." when you exit from the server. This is fine. Simply click on OK and WinBoard will exit. |
5) I hear
a sound when my opponent makes a move, but not when I
do. What's up with this?
For the first couple of days that I was using WinBoard, the sound that I had configured would only be heard when my opponent had made a move and not when I had, so it's possible that someone else will experience this "problem" too. This is how to "fix" that, assuming you want to hear a MOVE sound when you move to:
That's it. Note: After implementing this, I realized I actually did not wish to hear a sound when I move. Shoot, I know when I moved! |
6) What's the easiest
way to save and use different color
combinations?
Well, I'm not sure what the easiest way is, but here's what I do:
There ya go! The options in this mood file will be loaded instead of the ones in the winboard.ini file! Note that you don't even have to give your mood files an "ini" extension. If you wish, you can simply name your mood files mood-1, mood-2, etc., and then, of course, just type /ini mood-1 in the "Additional options" field. (Further information can be found in the WinBoard help file under "Initialization files" and "Other Options.") Below are several screen shots and the corresponding color codes for a few of my favorite color configurations for both the pieces and the board. Normally, you're always going to edit or change your existing board colors right in the program. (Under Options - Board Colors.) However, if you'd like to use one of these color choices simply...
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For awhile, this one was my favorite: | ...although I liked this one too: | This
one was sent to me by Melvin Schwartz: |
/whitePieceColor=#ffffff /blackPieceColor=#1d1d1d /lightSquareColor=#ccbda4 /darkSquareColor=#a88964 |
/whitePieceColor=#ffffff /blackPieceColor=#202020 /lightSquareColor=#c7c7c7 /darkSquareColor=#17a834 |
/whitePieceColor=#ffffd7 /blackPieceColor=#1d1d1d /lightSquareColor=#d8ca89 /darkSquareColor=#aa8953 |
Many
players will be happy with this color configuration: |
I used this simple black & white one for quite some time too: |
This
was another favorite I used for a long time: |
/whitePieceColor=#eded8d /blackPieceColor=#1d1d1d /lightSquareColor=#bcbcbc /darkSquareColor=#009100 |
/whitePieceColor=#ffffff /blackPieceColor=#1d1d1d /lightSquareColor=#bebebe /darkSquareColor=#8e8e8e |
/whitePieceColor=#ffffff /blackPieceColor=#1d1d1d /lightSquareColor=#cdba9c /darkSquareColor=#579148 |
Come up with what you think is a nice looking color
combination yourself? Send it to me and I'll be glad to put it up here with these others. |
This one was sent to me by Melvin Schwartz: |
Here is a pseudo "wood" effect that Tim sent me, modified very slightly by myself: |
This color configuration was sent in by Jeff Wise: |
/whitePieceColor=#ffffd7 /blackPieceColor=#1d1d1d /lightSquareColor=#d8ca89 /darkSquareColor=#aa8953 |
/whitePieceColor=#ffffd7 /blackPieceColor=#1d1d1d /lightSquareColor=#cebd6f /darkSquareColor=#867828 |
/whitePieceColor=#fdf2ce /blackPieceColor=#000000 /lightSquareColor=#cebda5 /darkSquareColor=#808080 |
This one was sent in by Andy Harris: | This one was sent in by Michael Thomas: | This one is by LazyFIDERook of FICS: |
/whitePieceColor=#ffffff /blackPieceColor=#1d1d1d /lightSquareColor=#c0c0c0 /darkSquareColor=#0080c0 |
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/whitePieceColor=#dfb69b /blackPieceColor=#323232 /lightSquareColor=#95b1c5 /darkSquareColor=#9ea1a1 |
7) When I connect to
FICS with Timeseal, I see a new "FICS%", (my prompt) in the
text box after my opponent makes each move. After awhile it fills the
screen and this serves no purpose to me. Can I suppress this?
Apparently not. It seems to be a problem related to Timeseal. Note that on ICC, you can suppress the prompt with the command set prompt 0 (as WinBoard will now function without a prompt) but this feature is currently not available on FICS or US Chess Live. If someone has a workaround to this, please let me know. |
8) What's the easiest
way to play bughouse with WinBoard?
Hmmmmnnnnn... since I have yet to play bughouse at all on the Internet, I'm probably not the one to ask. But I would probably do this:
That's it. Use the ICS follow or pfollow command to observe your partner's games using this guest account, preferably using a slightly smaller chess board than the one that you yourself play on. As Tim recently pointed out to me, as easy as this is, it can be made even easier -- simply by using the supplied bughouse.bat file! This batch file starts up two copies of WinBoard with separate ini files. For example, Tim set up his first ics.ini file (bh1ics.ini) to log him in as "mann," and the second ics.ini file (bh2ics.ini) to log him in as a guest, set open 0, pfollow mann, etc. And if you play bughouse on both FICS and ICC, you may really wish to get fancy and set up two shortcuts, one that runs
for FICS and one that runs
for ICC !! Note that while playing a bughouse game using WinBoard, a list of the offboard pieces that each player holds is shown in the window title bar. To drop an offboard piece, press the right or middle mouse button over an empty square to bring up a context menu. |
9)
Is it possible to run WinBoard with timeseal through a SOCKS firewall?
"Socksifying" WinBoard itself doesn't let you use it "with" timeseal. For some reason that Tim doesn't understand (something strange that SocksCap32 does) this gets WinBoard running but doing nothing, and timeseal running by itself in its own window. It looks like SocksCap32 is somehow intercepting the program startup sequence (when WinBoard tries to start timestamp) and messing things up. The timestamp program is supposed to start up with its input and output connected to two pipes that tie back to WinBoard, but instead it is getting started in a new console window. Here is a workaround, straight from Tim. Follow these instructions EXACTLY; don't try to skip steps or simplify things.
After you get this working, you can try getting the timestamp window to auto-minimize by starting it from a shortcut instead of from the SocksCap32 control window. As it says in the SocksCap32 help file, put the following in the target field of the shortcut's properties page:
Then select "Run: Minimized" on the same page. Do the same for timeseal. Another method that can work is to use a .bat file to start both timestamp and WinBoard. It would look something like this:
This workaround has a problem if you want to run two copies of WinBoard at once, talking to the same chess server twice (for bughouse) or to two different chess servers. If you need to do that, you will need to run a separate copy of timestamp with "a different port number" for each connection. You'll need to make a second set of profile entries with a different value after the -p flag (say, 5001) and you'll need to change the WinBoard command line /icsport=5000 for the second WinBoard to match. |
10)
Do you have any more tips or tricks?
Just a few for now. Check back later -- I may have added a few more.
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