Ubuntu Manpage: xshogi - Xt/Athena user interface for gnushogi

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.

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.

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

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.