Provided by: xshogi_1.4.2-2ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       xshogi - Xt/Athena user interface for gnushogi

SYNOPSIS

       xshogi [ options ]

DESCRIPTION

       xshogi provides an X11/Xt/Athena Widgets user interface for gnushogi.  With xshogi you can
       play gnushogi, set up arbitrary positions, force variations, or watch xshogi manage a game
       between  two  shogi  programs.   Furthermore,  it  can be used as an interface between two
       players on different displays.

       xshogi can also be used as a shogi board to play out games.  It will read through  a  game
       file  or allow a player to play through a variation manually (force mode).  This is useful
       for keeping track of email postal games or browsing games off the net.

       After starting xshogi, you can make moves by pressing mouse button 1 while the  cursor  is
       over a square with your piece on it and dragging the mouse to another square.  If the move
       is illegal, gnushogi will not allow it.  xshogi will then retract the move.

RULES

       Shogi is a Japanese board game played by two players.   The  object  of  the  game  is  to
       capture  the  opponent's King.  Shogi is played on a nine-by-nine board. The vertical rows
       are called files, the horizontal ones ranks or just rows. Each player has  twenty  pieces:
       one  King,  two Gold Generals, two Silver Generals, two kNights, two Lances, one Rook, one
       Bishop and nine Pawns.  The player moving up the  board  and  making  the  first  move  is
       referred  to  as  black and his opponent white, although in Shogi sets all pieces have the
       same colour. They are differentiated only in direction: pieces pointing away from a player
       are his. The pieces lie flat on the board and have their Japanese name written on them.

   Moves
       King    one step in any direction per move

       Gold General
               one step per move any way except diagonally backward (as a king but not diagonally
               backward)

       Silver General
               one step per move forwards or diagonally (as a king but not sideways or vertically
               backward)

       Knight  one  step  to  left or right, and two steps forward (the only piece which may jump
               over other pieces)

       Rook    moves vertically or horizontally any distance

       Bishop  moves diagonally any distance

       Lance   moves forward any distance

       Pawn    one step forward

   Promotion
       The three rows furthest away from a player are called the promotion zone. Apart  from  the
       King and the Gold, any piece can be promoted to a more powerful piece when it makes a move
       completely or partly in the promotion zone. So, when a piece moves into, out of  or  fully
       inside  the  promotion  zone  it may be promoted upon completion of its move. Promotion is
       optional, provided that the piece still can make a legal move in case it is not  promoted:
       if  a  Pawn  or  a Lance move to the last row, or a Knight moves to either of the last two
       rows, it must be promoted. In Shogi sets promoting a piece is done by turning  this  piece
       upside down. Its promoted name is written on its other side.

       Apart  from  the  King and the Gold General all pieces can promote.  After promotion their
       moves are as follows:

       +       Promoted Silver, promoted kNight, promoted Lance and promoted Pawn all move  as  a
               Gold.

       +       The  promoted  Rook  in  addition to the moves of the unpromoted Rook can move one
               step in the diagonal directions. It either moves like a Rook or like a King.

       +       The promoted Bishop in addition to the moves of the unpromoted Bishop can move one
               step horizontally or vertically. It either moves like a Bishop or like a King.

   Capturing and dropping pieces
       When  one piece moves onto the same square as an opponent's piece, the opponent's piece is
       captured. All pieces capture in the same way that they move. Captured pieces  become  part
       of the capturer's force. In a later move, instead of moving a piece on the board, a player
       may put a piece that he has captured from his opponent back onto the board,  in  an  empty
       square.   This  is  called  dropping  a  piece. Pieces are always dropped unpromoted: if a
       promoted piece is captured, it reverts to its unpromoted rank.  Pieces may be  dropped  on
       any empty square on the board with only three restrictions:

       1)      After  dropping  a  piece  it  must  be able to make a legal move. This applies to
               Pawns, Knights or Lances. They may not be dropped onto a square  from  which  they
               will never be able to move.

       2)      Attacking the King by dropping a Pawn on the square in front of him is not allowed
               if the King cannot prevent being captured on the following move.  To use the Chess
               expression: checkmating the King with a Pawn drop is prohibited.

       3)      A  pawn  may  only  be  dropped  on  a  file  (vertical  row) if there is no other
               unpromoted pawn of the same player on that file.

   Draws
       The game of Shogi  has  very  few  draws  (roughly  1  percent),  mainly  because  of  the
       possibility to drop pieces. Draws cannot be offered and can arise from two situations:

       1)      A  position  (including the pieces in hand) occurs 4 times with the same player to
               move ("Sennichite"). However, if this is  caused  by  consecutive  checks  (direct
               attacks  on the King, threatening to capture it on the next move) by one side, the
               player giving these checks loses the game.

       2)      Both players have moved their King into the the promotion zone (or they cannot  be
               prevented  to  do so) and the Kings cannot be checkmated. In that case the players
               may decide to count their pieces where the King  does  not  count,  the  Rook  and
               Bishop  count  as  5  points,  and  all  other  pieces  as one point. Promotion is
               disregarded. If both  players  have  at  least  24  points  the  game  is  a  draw
               ("Jishogi"). If a player has less, he loses the game.

       Of course, a player can refuse to count pieces when he still has mating chances or chances
       to gain material which would affect the outcome of the counting. There is no  strict  rule
       about  what  to  do  if this is not the case, but nonetheless a player refuses to count up
       (e.g. because he does not have enough points for a draw). It has been  generally  accepted
       that  in such a case the game ends and the pieces are counted after one player has managed
       to get all his pieces protected in the promotion zone.

OPTIONS

       The following command line options also correspond to X resources that you can set in your
       .Xdefaults or .Xresources file.

       standard Xt options
               xshogi accepts standard Xt options like -display, -geometry, -iconic, -bg etc.

       -tc or -timeControl minutes[:seconds]
               Amount  of  time for a set of moves determined by movesPerSession.  If this number
               of moves is played within the time control period, xshogi resets the time  clocks.
               Default: 5 minutes.

       -mps or -movesPerSession moves
               Number of moves in a time control period.  Default: 40 moves.

       -st or -searchTime minutes[:seconds]
               Tell  gnushogi to spend at most the given amount of time searching for each of its
               moves.  Without this option, gnushogi chooses its search time based on the  number
               of  moves  and amount of time remaining until the next time control.  Setting this
               option also sets -clockMode to False.

       -sd or -searchDepth number
               Tell gnushogi to look ahead at most the given number of moves when searching for a
               move to make.  Without this option, gnushogi chooses its search depth based on the
               number of moves and amount of time remaining until the next time control.  Setting
               this option also sets -clockMode to False.

       -clock or -clockMode (True | False)
               Determines whether or not to use the clock.  If clockMode is False, the clock does
               not run, but the side that is to play next is still highlighted.

       -td or -timeDelay seconds
               Time delay between moves during "Load  Game".   This  doesn't  have  to  be  round
               numbers.  Try -td 0.4.  Default: 1 second.

       -nsp or -noShogiProgram (True | False)
               If  this  option  is True, xshogi acts as a passive shogiboard; it does not try to
               start a shogi program, not even to check whether moves  made  in  Force  mode  are
               legal.  It also sets -clockMode to False.  Default: False.

       -fsp or -firstShogiProgram program
               Name  of first shogi program.  In matches between two machines, this program plays
               white.  Default: "gnushogi".

       -ssp or -secondShogiProgram program
               Name of second shogi program, if needed.  In matches between  two  machines,  this
               program plays black; otherwise it is not started.  Default: "gnushogi".

       -fh or -firstHost host
               Name of host the first shogi program plays on.  Default: "localhost".

       -sh or -secondHost host
               Name of host the second shogi program plays on.  Default: "localhost".

       -rsh or -remoteShell shell_name
               Some  systems  do  not  use rsh as the remote shell.  This option allows a user to
               name the remote shell command.  This should be done in the resource file.

       -mm or -matchMode (False | Init | Position | Opening)
               Automatically run a game between  firstShogiProgram  and  secondShogiProgram.   If
               matchMode  is  set  to  Init,  xshogi  will  start the game with the initial shogi
               position.  If matchMode is set to Position, xshogi will start the  game  with  the
               position  specified  by  the  loadPositionFile  resource.   If matchMode is set to
               Opening, xshogi will play out the opening moves  specified  by  the  -loadGameFile
               resource.   If the -saveGameFile resource is set, a move record for the match will
               be saved in the specified file.  Default: "False".

       -lgf or -loadGameFile file
               Name of file to read a game record from.  Game files are found  in  the  directory
               named  by  the  SHOGIDIR  environment  variable.  If this variable is not set, the
               current directory is used unless the file name starts with a /.

       -lpf or -loadPositionFile file
               Name of file to read a game position  from.   Position  files  are  found  in  the
               directory  named  by  the  SHOGIDIR environment variable.  If this variable is not
               set, the current directory is used unless the file name starts with a /.

       -sgf or -saveGameFile file
               Name of file to save a game record to.  Game files  are  saved  in  the  directory
               named  by  the  SHOGIDIR  environment  variable.  If this variable is not set, the
               current directory is used unless the file name starts with a /.

       -spf or -savePositionFile file
               Name of file to save a  game  position  to.   Position  files  are  saved  in  the
               directory  named  by  the  SHOGIDIR environment variable.  If this variable is not
               set, the current directory is used unless the file name starts with a /.

       -coords or -showCoords (True | False)
               If this option is True, xshogi displays algebraic coordinates  along  the  board's
               left  and  bottom  edges.  The default is False.  The coordFont resource specifies
               what font to use.

       -mono or -monoMode (True | False)
               Monochrome mode.  You shouldn't have to specify monochrome.  xshogi will determine
               if this is necessary.

       -pc or -pieceColor color
               Color specification for pieces suitable for XParseColor().  Default: #FFFFD7.

       -sc or -squareColor color
               Same for squares.  Default: #EBDFB0.

       -wps or -westernPieceSet (True | False)
               Choose the Western style piece set.

       -npb or -normalPawnBitmap file
       -nnb or -normalKnightBitmap file
       -nbb or -normalBishopBitmap file
       -nrb or -normalRookBitmap file
       -nkb or -normalKingBitmap file
               Names of the bitmap files for the bitmap piece icons.

       -rpb or -reversePawnBitmap file
       -rnb or -reverseKnightBitmap file
       -rbb or -reverseBishopBitmap file
       -rrb or -reverseRookBitmap file
       -rkb or -reverseKingBitmap file
               Names of the bitmap files for the outline piece icons.

       -debug or -debugMode (True | False)
               Turns on debugging printout.

RESOURCES

       initString
               The  actual  string  that  is sent to initialize the shogi program can be set from
               .Xdefaults.  It can't be set from the command line  because  of  syntax  problems.
               The  default  value is "new\nbeep\nrandom\neasy\n".  The "new" and "beep" commands
               are required.  You can remove the "random"  command  if  you  like;  including  it
               causes  gnushogi  to randomize its move selection slightly so that it doesn't play
               the same moves in every game.  Even  without  "random",  gnushogi  randomizes  its
               choice  of  moves  from its opening book.  You can also remove "easy" if you like;
               including it toggles easy mode off, causing gnushogi to think on your time.   That
               is, if "easy" is included in the initString, gnushogi thinks on your time; if not,
               it does not.  (Yes, this does seem backwards,  doesn't  it.)   You  can  also  try
               adding  other  commands  to  the  initString;  see  the gnushogi documentation for
               details.

       blackString and whiteString
               These resources control what is sent when the  Machine  Black  and  Machine  White
               buttons  are selected.  This is mostly for compatibility with obsolete versions of
               gnushogi.

       Alternate bitmaps for piece icons can be specified either by choosing one of the  built-in
       sets  or  with  the file name resources described above.  There are three built-in sets of
       piece bitmaps available, large (the default), medium, or small.  It is easiest  to  select
       the set you prefer in the .Xdefaults file:

       XShogi*boardSize:   Medium

       The  font  used for button labels and comments can be changed in the .Xdefaults file.  You
       may want to choose a smaller font if you are using the small pieces:

       XShogi*font:    helvetica_oblique12

       The font used for coordinates (when the showCoords option is True) can be set similarly:

       XShogi*coordFont:    helvetica_10

       If you are using a grayscale monitor, try setting the colors to:

       XShogi*pieceColor:     gray100
       XShogi*squareColor:    gray60

COMMAND BUTTONS AND KEYS

       Quit    Quits xshogi.  Q or q is a keyboard equivalent.

       Reset   Resets xshogi to the beginning of a shogi game.  It also  deselects  any  game  or
               position files.

       Flip View
               inverts the view of the shogi board.

       Hint    displays a move hint from gnushogi.

       Load Game
               plays  a game from a record file.  If no file is specified a popup dialog asks for
               a filename.  Game  files  are  found  in  the  directory  named  by  the  SHOGIDIR
               environment variable.  If this variable is not declared then the current directory
               is used unless the file name starts with a /.  G or g is  a  keyboard  equivalent.
               The  game file parser will accept almost any file that contains moves in algebraic
               notation.  If the first line begins with `#', it is assumed to be a title  and  is
               displayed.   Text  enclosed  in  parentheses  or  square brackets is assumed to be
               commentary and is displayed in a pop-up window.  Any other text  in  the  file  is
               ignored.

       Load Position
               sets  up  a position from a position file.  If no file is specified a popup dialog
               asks for a filename.  Position files are found  in  the  directory  named  by  the
               SHOGIDIR  environment variable.  If this variable is not declared then the current
               directory is used unless the file name starts with a /.  Position files must be in
               the format that the Save Position command writes.

       Save Game
               saves  a game to a record file.  If no file is specified a popup dialog asks for a
               filename.  If the filename exists, the user is  asked  whether  the  current  game
               record  is be appended to this file or if the file should be replaced.  Game files
               are saved in the directory named by the SHOGIDIR environment  variable.   If  this
               variable  is  not declared then the current directory is used unless the file name
               starts with a /.  Game files are human-readable, and can also be read back by  the
               Load Game command. Furthermore, they are accepted as gnushogi text bookfiles.

       Save Position
               saves  a position to a position file.  If no file is specified a popup dialog asks
               for a filename.  Position files are saved in the directory named by  the  SHOGIDIR
               environment variable.  If this variable is not declared then the current directory
               is used unless the file name starts with a /.  Position files are  human-readable,
               and can also be read back by the Load Position command.

       Machine White
               forces gnushogi to play white.

       Machine Black
               forces gnushogi to play black.

       Force Moves
               forces  a  series of moves.  That is, gnushogi stops playing and xshogi allows you
               to make moves for both white and black.

       Two Machines
               plays a game between two computer programs.

       Forward moves forward through a series  of  remembered  moves.   F  or  f  is  a  keyboard
               equivalent.

       Backward
               moves  backward  through  a  series  of  remembered moves.  As a side effect, puts
               xshogi into Force Moves mode.  B or b is a keyboard equivalent.

       Pause   pauses the clocks or (in Load Game mode) pauses  the  game  being  loaded.   Press
               Pause again to continue.  P or p is a keyboard equivalent.

       Edit Position
               lets you set up an arbitrary board position.  Use mouse button 1 to drag pieces to
               new squares, or to delete a piece by dragging it off  the  board  or  dragging  an
               empty  square on top of it.  To drop a new piece on a square, press mouse button 2
               or 3 over the square.  This brings up a menu of black pieces (button 2)  or  white
               pieces  (button 3).  Additional menu choices let you empty the square or clear the
               board.  You can set the side to play next  by  clicking  on  the  Black  or  White
               indicator at the top of the screen.

       Challenge
               allows  you  to  make  a  two  display  game between two human players.  Enter the
               display you want to connect to. If you are allowed to  connect,  a  new  board  is
               displayed  at  the remote display.  Challenge mode can only be stopped by pressing
               "quit".

       Select Level
               allows you to reset the clocks for both players.  Enter the number  of  moves  and
               the number of minutes in which the moves should be done.

       Move NOW
               force computer to stop thinking and to make the current best move.

       Iconify I, i, C or c iconifies xshogi.

SEE ALSO

       gnushogi(6)

LIMITATIONS

       If  you  press  the  Pause button during gnushogi's turn, xshogi will stop the clocks, but
       gnushogi will still make a move.

       After a mate or draw when playing against gnushogi, if  you  back  up  with  the  Backward
       button, the clocks are reset (because gnushogi has exited and must be restarted).

       Some  xshogi functions may not work with versions of gnushogi earlier than 1.1, patchlevel
       02.

       The game parser recognizes only algebraic notation.

AUTHORS

       Original authors of XBoard:  Chris Sears and Dan Sears.

       Enhancements for XBoard (Version 2.0):  Tim Mann.

       Conversion to XShogi (Version 1.1):  Matthias Mutz.

       Current maintainer: Mike Vanier.

COPYRIGHT

       XShogi borrows some of its piece bitmaps from CRANES Shogi.

       Copyright 1991 by Digital Equipment  Corporation,  Maynard,  Massachusetts.   Enhancements
       Copyright 1992 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  Enhancements Copyright 1993 Matthias Mutz

       The following terms apply to Digital Equipment Corporation's copyright interest in XBoard:

              All Rights Reserved

              Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation
              for any purpose and  without  fee  is  hereby  granted,  provided  that  the  above
              copyright  notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this
              permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of  Digital
              not  be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software
              without specific, written prior permission.

              DIGITAL DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES  WITH  REGARD  TO  THIS  SOFTWARE,  INCLUDING  ALL
              IMPLIED  WARRANTIES  OF  MERCHANTABILITY  AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL DIGITAL BE
              LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
              RESULTING  FROM  LOSS  OF  USE,  DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
              NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH  THE  USE
              OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

       The  following  terms  apply  to  the  enhanced  version of XShogi distributed by the Free
       Software Foundation:

              This file is part of XSHOGI.

              XSHOGI is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
              No  author  or distributor accepts responsibility to anyone for the consequences of
              using it or for whether it serves any particular purpose or works at all, unless he
              says so in writing.  Refer to the XSHOGI General Public License for full details.

              Everyone  is  granted  permission to copy, modify and redistribute XSHOGI, but only
              under the conditions described in the XSHOGI General Public License. A copy of this
              license  is  supposed  to  have been given to you along with XSHOGI so you can know
              your rights and responsibilities.  It should be in a  file  named  COPYING.   Among
              other things, the copyright notice and this notice must be preserved on all copies.