3 Added the "engine_timeout" configuration parameter for use when starting a new
4 game on a machine with a high load average.
6 Added the "copy_game_fen" command to create a new game based on the current
7 one by using a FEN tag and without any game history.
9 Portability and other bug fixes. See ChangLog for details.
14 The project has moved to https://gitlab.com/bjk/cboard/wikis. Downloads can
15 still be found at https://sourceforge.net/projects/c-board/files but the
16 project issues and wiki/homepage are now at GitLab.
18 Added ability to resize/reposition message, input (buggy) and menu windows
21 Added configuration paramter "turn_cmd" which is run when it is a human turn.
23 Fixed showing the enpassant square in history mode.
25 Fixed castling details when viewing the big board rotated.
27 Fixed startup crash in a recent version of ncurses.
29 The "macro" configuration parameter now requires a description field which is
30 also now shown in the help.
32 You can now rebind global keys using the "any" mode to the "bind" parameter.
34 Added bindings "toggle_strict_castling" and "perl" which were previously
37 Removed the "play_help", "history_help", and "edit_help" commands. These are
38 replaced with the global "help" key binding and still defaults to F1 although
39 the undocumented CTRL-g binding has been removed.
44 Fixed a few bugs found by Coverity.
49 Remember the "rotate" setting as a per-game setting rather than a global.
51 "board_prev_move" now works in different game modes (engine, history, etc).
53 UTF-8 pieces are now enabled by default.
55 A few bugfixes and cleanups.
60 Fixed color pair mixing.
62 Added configuration color parameter "color_board_prev_move".
64 Fixed the "engine_init" and "cbind" configuration parameters.
66 Fixed "show_attacks" to work with a rotated board and the en-passant square.
68 Translatable string fixes and updated ES translation.
70 Fixed memory leak when deleting a game.
72 Redraw the entire screen during terminal resize.
74 Let message dialog boxes scroll.
76 Fixed a couple of potential buffer overruns while parsing a move.
78 Restore game flags before returning from pgn_validate_move().
80 Fixed buffer overrun while building a help message box.
85 Many thanks to Noel Tlatempa G <ntlatempa@gmail.com> most all feature
86 patches in this release.
88 UTF-8 support and gettext support.
90 Unicode chess pieces when -u or 'utf8_pieces' is enabled.
94 Ability to rotate the board at the beginning of a round and in history mode.
96 Added option 'coords_y_left' to change sides of the board characters.
98 Added option 'fm_polyglot' to fix quirks with some chess engine interfaces.
99 Sends the 'go' command after beginning a round.
101 Added the 'board_left' config option to put the chess board to the right or
102 left of other windows.
104 Added confirmation before quitting.
106 Added option 'engine_cmd_blacktag' to set the oppenent tag to the engine
109 Added option 'show_attacks' to hilight opponent pieces that can attack the
110 square under the cursor using the 'color_board_attack' color.
116 Added big and mega board sizes. These can be viewed when resizing the
117 terminal to 112x40 and 144x50.
119 Minimal terminal size is now 74x23.
124 This version fixes a bug when copying a game the FEN tag wasn't getting parsed
127 Also fixes a threading issue in pgn_parse_move() if you'd like to use libchess
128 in your own multi-threaded chess game.
133 No longer send SIGINT to the chess engine before each command. I'm not sure
134 how or when this broke things but no longer doing it fixes engine IO.
136 A macro value can now reference other macros and may also contain spaces.
138 Faster history parsing.
140 Fixed multiple game crashes. libchess no longer uses global variables.
142 Preliminary perl support. See README for details.
144 New signing key 0xB140DCE2.
146 New homepage. Please use http://c-board.sourceforge.net/.
148 Other minor fixes and changes. See ChangeLog for details.
153 Board details are now enabled by default.
155 Added configuration parameter color_board_castling to change the castling
156 availability colors when board details is enabled.
158 Added configuration parameter color_board_enpassant. Visible when board
161 The default color for a color definition can be used be specifying '-' as the
164 A more complete clock. Time controls and move increments are now supported.
165 This only works for human/human play at the moment.
167 CBoard now uses nearly zero CPU time.
169 When sent SIGTERM, save all games to save_directory if specified and ~/.cboard
170 if not before quitting.
172 Fixed opening and saving to compressed files. Appending to compressed files is
175 Added form input history for single line input dialogs.
177 A few bugfixes. See ChangeLog for details.
182 The status window is now on top of the roster tag window.
184 Added command line option -C to enable strict castling.
186 A better clock. Each player has its own clock. The input format is the same as
187 before and also supports 'G/5' format. I'll add more features later.
189 A few (some important) bugfixes. See ChangeLog for details.
194 New versioning scheme. It's less confusing and easier for me to use X.X
195 format. I really only work and release on one branch anyway.
197 Added global CTRL-i which copies the current game to a new one.
199 Added -D command line option to enable debugging if debugging was enabled at
202 Added configuration parameter "engine_protocol" which specifies the XBoard
203 protocol that the engine uses. Right now this only means whether to send SAN
204 formatted moves (version 2) or FRFR formatted moves (version 1, the default).
206 Added file browser binding CTRL-e to change the filename expression.
208 Added configuration parameter 'strict_castling'. When enabled a castling move
209 will be invalid if the opponent can attack a castling square, beit the King,
210 Rook or the squares between the two. The default is off. This also adds a
211 keyboard binding CTRL-p to toggle strict castling.
213 New status window line 'Flags' which shows game flags for the current game.
215 Bugfixes and invisible changes. See ChangeLog for details.
220 libchess: Castling bugfix.
222 You can now customize the key bindings for each game mode. The old "bind"
223 configuration parameter has been renamed to "cbind". The new "bind" works like
226 bind <game_mode> <key> <command> [alternate_description]
228 where game_mode is one of play, history or edit. The command is the command
229 associated with the game_mode. See doc/config.example for the default
232 Added macros. When pressing a single key multiple keys can be "pressed"
233 without interaction. This adds a configuration parameter "macro" which looks
236 macro <game_mode> <key> <key_sequence>
238 It's kinda like "bind" but with a key_sequence instead of a command so make
239 sure you specify all the "bind" stuff before "macro" stuff. It's also
240 different in that you can specify "any" as a game_mode so you can access the
246 Added non-blocking message windows, input dialogs and menus. This means that
247 other games can be running while editing tags etc.
249 Added a move history tree menu. From this you can view and edit a moves
250 annotation. RAV will be supported problably in the next release.
252 The board details key 'd' has changed to CTRL-d and annotating a move in
253 history mode now uses the key CTRL-a.
255 A couple bug fixes. See ChangeLog for details.
260 Black opening and history mode fix.
262 Tag window and long value fix.
264 Added frfr2san.pgn to test/.
266 Increased MAX_PGN_NAG from 5 to 8.
268 The "Result" tag is determined by the move validator. Don't trust the result
269 tag from PGN import format unless it's a draw and the result couldn't be
272 -E command line switch fix.
274 When there is no promotion piece in the move text, promote to queen.
276 A few PGN parsing and writing fixes. RAV, NAG, comments and EOG.
278 Fix for copying the cc.data file.
280 Fix installing config.example to PREFIX/share/man/man6.
282 Added Debianization stuff.
287 The move validator is a little more than 5 times faster. The major problem was
288 initializing each games g->b board when a file was parsed. Now g->b has
289 disappeared and a single board is used (caching). I discovered this on
290 accident, learn something new every day. Still not as fast as 0.1.6 though.
292 Switching between games will remember the cursor position and selected piece.
294 Switching playing sides will update the White and Black roster tags.
296 Castling and en passant validation fixes.
298 Resuming a game with a Black opening fixed.
300 FEN tag fix when loading a file.
302 Fixed the 'u'ndo command.
306 Added configuration parameter 'board_details' to enable/disable it by default.
308 Added board details indicator at the lower-right of the board window.
310 Added a move clock for both Black and White. Also added a countdown clock that
311 can be set by pressing 'C' in play mode.
313 When an ambiguous piece was pinned both the pinned piece and the other piece
314 failed validation. This has been fixed.
316 Fixed another SAN bug. If an ambiguous piece was pinned and the other was on
317 the same file the libchess would put the rank next to the piece in the move
318 text rather than the file.
320 Fixed resuming a game from a previous move in the history.
322 SIGTERM and SIGINT are caught and both will have cboard exit cleanly.
324 Black opening fix. Also when saving.
329 Quite a while since the last release, I've lost interest in the project off
330 and on but still keep at it enough to fix and add things. The most important
331 change in this version is better SAN handling. Ambiguities are fixed along
332 with frfr to SAN conversion. There are quite a few internal changes too but
333 unfortunately this version is quite a bit slower than the last do to more
334 functionality. I'm trying to find ways to speed it up though. The PGN portion
335 of the code has been split up into a library "libchess". This allows for easy
336 inclusion into other projects. In-game keys have changed quite a bit. Press F1
337 to see them. Also read the manual page as configuration parameters have been
338 changed/added/removed. Here's the rest of the changes:
340 Switch from CVS to GIT.
342 Lots of FEN tag fixes when parsing, saving and editing the board.
344 When in history mode, the cursor is updated to the last position on the board.
346 Support for Unix 98 ptys.
348 Show the repeat count in the status window.
350 Added command line options -V to only validate a .pgn file, -S to save a PGN
351 formatted game and -R to save a reduced PGN formatted game. The return value
352 of cboard will be 1 if there was a parse error or 0 on success.
354 Added option -t to save custom tags from the configuration file when -S is
357 Added option -E to stop processing the file when a game contains a parse
358 error. Also see configuration parameter stop_on_error in the manual page.
360 A few key bindings have been removed. Press 'F1' in game for help.
362 Added human/human play. Toggle it with the 'H' key.
364 Added engine/engine play. Toggle it with the 'E' key then hit 'g'o!.
366 I've got a new email address. Send any bugs reports patches etc to me at
369 When a piece is selected cboard will only highlight legal squares the piece
372 Updated manual page. Read this because a few configuration parameters have
375 Added game key 'd' to show board details. Details are the enpassant square and
376 castling availability.
378 The parser now supports RAV. Moves are read into the history but the interface
379 is minimal at the moment. Saving also works but is buggy.
381 Support window resizing when in an xterm. Need at least an 80x24 terminal.
383 Support for all engines that utilize the XBoard protocol. Not very well
384 tested. GNUChess and Crafty seem to work fine though.
386 Added configuration parameter 'engine_init' which sends a command to the
387 engine when initialized.
389 The file browser (save/load prompt) supports filters.
391 A "Loading..." window/line when a file is being loaded.
393 Added configuration parameter 'bind' which binds a key to a command to send to
394 the engine when in play mode. Read the manual page.
396 Added key 'W' to show an engine io window.
398 New menu code. Looks better with custom colors. Type ahead searching is buggy
401 Lots of internal, parser, validation and bug fixes.
406 A few important save game, validation and file parser fixes.
408 Added command 't' to edit tags. You won't be prompted to edit tags anymore
411 Renamed game deletion commands 'd' and 'D' to 'x' and 'X'. The delete commands
412 also accept a "range" to delete by specifying a count the one of the delete
413 commands then a direction ('<' or '>').
415 Tildes in the load/save dialog are expanded.
417 Added commands '!'-'*' and 'A'-'H' to move the cursor to the specified
420 Move numbers and tags are no longer needed in a PGN file.
422 The ncurses interface is initialized before trying to parse a file specified
425 The annotation viewing commands '[' and ']' have changed to 'V' and 'v'.
427 The next/prev move text expression keys '}' and '{' have changed to ']' and
430 Added game searching commands '?', '}' and '{'. These work like to move text
431 searching commands, but for roster tags instead.
433 Now parses the FEN tag. When editing tags, you can press CTRL-f to insert or
434 update the FEN tag with the current move in the move history.
436 Added command 'e' to toggle edit mode. This will allow positioning, deleting
437 ('x' command) and inserting ('I' command) of pieces. No move validation is
438 done in edit mode and may only be enabled with a fresh board ('N' or 'n'
439 commands). After leaving edit mode, a FEN tag is created. It's somewhat
440 useless right now though.
442 Redone main command keys help.
444 Added commands '_' and '+' to decrease and increase the engine depth. These
450 The repeat count commands are now 0-9. The first non-integer is the command to
451 repeat. So now you can have more than ten as a count. Pressing ESCAPE in the
452 middle of the count will reset it (similar to VIM's repeat).
454 The 'u'ndo command can take a repeat count.
456 Replaced the black and white status windows with a Seven Tag Roster window
457 (like before). The black and white info will be in the game status window.
459 Check and checkmate recognition are working (not draw though).
461 Added history move text searching commands. '/' will prompt for a new regular
462 expression and jump to the next match, '{' and '}' will jump to the previous
463 or next match prompting for an expression if one doesn't already exist. All of
464 these commands can take a repeat count.
466 Move numbers in the history window are full move numbers now. So by default,
467 the cursor keys in history mode will jump 2 moves. Pressing SPACE in history
468 mode will toggle half-move stepping.
470 The "board_moves" color parameter has been replaced by "board_white_moves" and
471 "board_black_moves" to specify the valid move color for those squares.
476 This release fixes a few bugs and plugs a couple memory leaks in the menu code.
477 The SAN move parser still needs quite a bit of work though when interfaced
478 with the engine, so check and end-of-game determination are on hold until that
479 gets stable. But viewing games seems alright. Beginnings of ICS support
480 (ignore the manual references as its useless right now). Hopefully the code is
481 little more readable and easier to follow now. Heres the rest of the news:
483 "make install" will install the data files and example configuration file to
484 DATADIR/cboard (/usr/local/share/cboard by default). They will be copied to
485 ~/.cboard if they cannot be found.
489 Can load and save .Z, .gz, .zip, .bz and .bz2 compressed files. Can't append
490 to a compressed file though (for now).
492 If theres a parse error when loading a file with multiple games, CBoard will
493 keep reading the file rather than aborting.
495 When editing the "Site" tag, you can lookup country codes which are stored in
498 If a filename doesn't contain a ".", then ".pgn" is appended to it when
501 A few but important PGN parser fixes.
503 Tags are sorted when loading and saving.
505 Added command "d" to toggle the delete flag of the current game. Pressing "D"
506 will delete all flagged games or the current one if none are flagged. This
507 adds the configuration parameter "delete_prompt". The default is on.
509 Added configuration parameter "valid_moves" to show valid moves when a piece
510 is selected. The color can be adjusted with the "board_moves" color parameter.
511 The cursor keys will move to the associated valid move. This is still buggy
514 Added cursor repeat commands 0..9 (zero being ten). These will work with the
515 board navigation, history browsing and game browsing keys.
517 Removed cursor movement command 'j', 'k', 'l', and ';'.
519 Added commands 'j' and 'J' to jump to a history move number or game number.
521 Added "board_window" color configuration parameter.
523 Added "engine_cmd" to specify the chess engine path, command and any
524 arguments. The default is "gnuchess xboard". Note that other commands/engines
530 Can now load and save SAN move format! Still not perfect I'm sure.
532 A file browser has been added to the load/save game prompt. Pressing TAB will
535 Added configuration parameter "save_directory". If set, saved games will be
536 stored here and will also be the default open location of the file browser.
538 The annotation viewing keys have changed from 'V' and 'v' to '[' and ']'.
540 Configuration parameters whose values were either "0" or "1" are now "off" or
543 New configuration parameter "line_graphics". If "off", then the board line
544 graphics will not be drawn.
546 The data window has been replaced by two separate white and black player
547 information windows. This adds color configuration parameters white_... and
550 The PGN file parser now supports "!?"/"!!"/etc. NAG format and end-of-game
553 When multiple games are loaded, you can choose to save all games or just the
556 When saving from history mode, you can save up to the current move or all
559 Added configuration parameter "save_prompt" and ingame command "S". When set
560 to "off", don't prompt to edit roster tags and for history save commands when
563 The ingame "N" command has changed to start a new game from scratch. The "n"
564 command starts a new game or round.
566 Added command "D" to delete game.
571 Loading a saved game and resuming a game from previous history works now. This
572 is done by having the chess engine read a FIFO and have CBoard write to it.
573 This allows for easy game switching when more than one game has been loaded.
575 Promotions, En Passant and castling moves are recognized now.
577 Agony strings are stored in ~/.cboard/agony.data and can be disabled with a
578 configuration file option (see below).
580 Rewritten move text section in the PGN parser. Now move annotations are read
581 and written and can be viewed with the 'v' and 'V' commands in history mode.
582 This supports both move comments and NAG data (see below).
584 There is no longer a -f command line option to specify a configuration file.
585 The new configuration file is stored in the ~/.cboard directory along with a
586 few data files. The files that need to be found in this directory are:
588 config - This is optional, CBoard will use defaults if not found.
589 nag.data - For viewing and editing move annotations.
590 agony.data - Agony strings displayed in the status window when a capture
592 fifo - Used for resuming games.
594 You can find the data files along with an example configuration file in the
595 'etc/' directory of the archive. You'll have to copy them over to ~/.cboard
596 yourself until I figure out a way to do it with 'make install'.
598 You can define custom colors and attributes in the configuration file. See the
599 manual page for more infomation on the syntax.
601 Added configuration parameters:
602 pgntag - Define custom tags for new games or override defaults.
603 agony - Show a random agony string on a capture.
604 historyagony - Enable or disable agony strings in history mode.
606 SAN move format is the next major thing that needs to be done. It seems like
607 I'm going in reverse order of how things should be developed, but oh well.