Arena website down >= 48 hrs

[adams161]

I remember setting up matches in Winboard back when i was doing Pulsar development with the old -fcp ( first chess program ) and -scp ( second chess program ) arguments with a bat file. Does Winboard have more a GUI now for engine management like running tournaments and one that can handle UCI engines(even if you need a plugin perhaps)? I had to create files in notepad listing time controls engines and save game file etc. I"m a Mac user last 10 years but i still off and on run Pulsar online for periods but now on Xboard. I think I have something around version 4.9.

Mike

[hgm]

Sure, for many years already WinBoard supports loading and registering of engines (WB and UCI) from a menu dialog, starting an 'old style' 2-player match with the current engines from the menu, and specifying and starting more complex tournaments (gauntlet, round-robin, Swiss) between sets of registered engines. It can even run these concurrently (by starting several WinBoard 'worker' instances on the same tourney), or suspend the tourney (by stopping all workers). And of course substitute a player during the tourney. XBoard can do all that too.

[adams161]

Ahh i'll have to try it in Xboard. I think i got xBoard for Mac in maybe 2017 after i made the mac version of pulsar2009( also did a linux that same week). I could tell it was part of your work but done by the xBoard person/team and I remember the phase you were looking for people to work on xBoard to get it updated to be like modern Winboard. But it has things i remember you were working on like chat windows etc. One annoying thing about xBoard on mac is i turn sound off and every time i launch it sound is on but that big gong for the first game is fun to hear and i just turn off sound after that. I'll look into it. I had recalled arena was always a UI not a command line or bat files. But at least in ICC play Arena didn't seem reliable enough to run engines without hanging and i've recommend for the UCI engines in the past Chess Partner. Anyway i do like Xboard for what i do with it and when i get a chance i'll turn it on in a non ics mode and see what it does.

[adams161]

Well for variant engines like my pulsar, winboard and xboard are the best. But now apps are also doing their own UI on Android and iOS. Simple all in one programs. And on iOS you cant open other apps so if designing for both this can be preferred.

I was always a little suspicious of needing a plugin to run UCI engines on Winboard. I think it was polygot. I never did download polygot. Seemed the program should just open the engine or not. It added complexity. I've done UCI analysis support and its in my apps as simple as Open UCI engine or launch the default stockfish one click your done. Does Winboard still need a plugin for UCI engines?

[hgm]

Yes, it still uses an adapter (either Polyglot or (for variants) UCI2WB), but it does this in a fully transparent way: it launches the adapter itself when you have ticked the UCI checkbox when registering the engine. I always considered this a simplification; the GUI has only to deal with a single, universal protocol. Each alternative protocol can then be run through its own adapter.

[Norbert Raimund Leisner]

http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=c ... pport_list

[Roland Chastain]

@Norbert

Very proud to see Eschecs on your list. By the way, since the latest version (4.0.0), Eschecs runs also under Linux.

You can install a new engine, but for that you have to edit the config file.

Code: Select all

[engine0]
command=fruit_21_32.exe
name=Fruit
protocol=uci
workingdirectory=\engines\fruit\

[engine1]
command=moustique32.exe
name=Moustique
protocol=uci
workingdirectory=\engines\moustique\01\

Only the UCI protocol is supported.

There is no PGN support.