Help with the new engine Shatranj

[Tony Thomas]

I have been trying to install Shatranj for last few hours without any successs..Here is what I have done so far.

1) I downloaded Shatranj.py, opening book, hashtables, and Psyco, and put it all in the same folder
2) I downloaded Python

3) I tried to install the module shatranj.py as winboard engine(it now shows us Shatranj) using the commandline -xboard

What am I doing wrong?

Any help appreciated
Tony

Edit : I just read that I have to create a batch file, can someone help me with that?

[Richard Allbert]

Hi Tony,

I don't know what you need to put in the file, but to create a batch file, make a new text document and save as "whatever.bat" with the file type set to "all types" NOT "text document".

The resulting .bat file runs the commands written in it when you double click on it.

http://horizonchess.com/FAQ/Winboard/batch.html

The link above explains using batch files for winboard.

Richard

[tmokonen]

It was a pain in the ass, but I got it working in Arena without the need for a batch file. What I did was:

- ran the installer for Python 2.5.2 (python-2.5.2.msi) and installed it in the default location, C:\Python25
- installed psyco-1.6.win32-py25.exe in the default location
- Added a winboard engine in Arena with the command line of

C:\Python25\python.exe

and Command Line Options

-u C:\Games\Chess\Winboard\Shatranj116\shatranj.py -xboard

Of course, you would probably change the path in the command line options to wherever you copied the file shatranj.py. shatranj-book.bin and shatranj-data.bin have to be in the same folder as shatranj.py.

It runs, but does not seem to support time controls, only fixed search depths via the winboard sd command.

[Tony Thomas]

It was a pain in the ass, but I got it working in Arena without the need for a batch file. What I did was:

- ran the installer for Python 2.5.2 (python-2.5.2.msi) and installed it in the default location, C:\Python25
- installed psyco-1.6.win32-py25.exe in the default location
- Added a winboard engine in Arena with the command line of

C:\Python25\python.exe

and Command Line Options

-u C:\Games\Chess\Winboard\Shatranj116\shatranj.py -xboard

Of course, you would probably change the path in the command line options to wherever you copied the file shatranj.py. shatranj-book.bin and shatranj-data.bin have to be in the same folder as shatranj.py.

It runs, but does not seem to support time controls, only fixed search depths via the winboard sd command.

Well, thanks for sharing the knowledge..I finally got it working. The problems with pain in the ass installations is that, its only a pain in the ass for the first person who installs it. Once someone installs it properly, then all the second person has to do is to follow a well written direction like the one above. I am pretty sure any Tony can follow that. I should add that Arena doesnt recognize extremely long commandline options. To prevent anyone from deleting my engine folder, it's inside of about three layers of hidden folders..

Thanks so much Tony M.
Tony