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WinBoard is agraphical user interface for theChess Engine Communication Protocol under theWindows operating system, also called the WinBoard protocol, initially designed and developed byTim Mann based onXBoard. In 2009,Harm Geert Muller became the main developer and proposed a protocol definition^[1], also coveringChess Variants with different board sizes.

Screenshot

WinBoard 4.4.0 runningGNU Chess]

Quotes

Tim Mann's quote from an Interview byFrank Quisinsky, April 2000^[2]:

Originally, xboard and WinBoard were simply graphical user interfaces forGNU Chess, then for GNU Chess andInternet chess servers. Because theGUI and the chess engine are separate programs, several people thought of the idea of connecting their own chess programs in place of GNU Chess, and they began to email me asking how to do it. I think the first person to ask wasShay Bushinsky, in November 1994. Over the years I received so many requests for this information that I was more or less forced into documenting and extending the ad-hoc engine protocol to support them. The document that exists now (chess-engines.html) evolved directly from the original email reply I sent to Shay. Unfortunately, because the protocol was never really designed, but just grew out of documenting the existing communication with GNU Chess, there are still several bugs and deficiencies in it today. It would be nice to make some major revisions, but then of course it would (at best) take a long time for the existing engines to convert over to the new protocol, so both would have to be supported, probably forever.

Chess protocols

Winboard supports onlyChess Engine Communication Protocol. However, UCI's chess engines can run with Winboard via some adapters such asPolyGlot,UCI2WB ones.

Pros and Cons

Winboard was the first-ever and unique for a while chessgraphical user interface with good and very fast graphics, various functions, almost enough for general users. However, some users criticize it since it does not support directly UCI's chess engines as well as it has old-style, complicated and hard to use interface. Not supporting directly UCI engines is a huge disadvantage since almost all new and/or strong chess engines nowadays are UCI ones. It is also the main reason why recently there are so few computer chess tournaments using Winboard as aTournament Manager even it has enough functions to do that task.

See also

• Chess Engine Communication Protocol
• CPW-Engine_com
• PolyGlot
• Tournament Manager
• UCI
• WinBoard Engines
• XBoard

Forum Posts

1990 ...

• Re: Accessing remote computers with WinBoard byTim Mann,gnu.chess, November 7, 1993

1995 ...

• XBoard and WinBoard 3.4, patchlevel 1 byTim Mann,rec.games.board, December 13 1995
• Problems with Winboard - fix?? byValavan Manohararajah,rgcc, June 6 1996
• XBoard and WinBoard, version 3.6.0 byTim Mann,rgc, May 09, 1997
• xboard/WinBoard 4.0.0 available byTim Mann,rgc, June 21, 1998
• WinBoard and pondering under W98 byFrank Phillips,CCC, July 28, 1999 »Pondering

2000 ...

• Winboard for Dummies byRussell Reagan,rgcc, June 30, 2001
• xboard and WinBoard 4.2.4 released byTim Mann,gnu.chess, December 10, 2001
• Winboard.debug byDavid Rasmussen,CCC, December 07, 2002 »Debugging
• New Winboard version 4.3.0 released byDaniel Mehrmann,CCC, February 05, 2003
• Daniel's Winboard: kibitzing? byDavid Rasmussen,CCC, February 05, 2003
• Kiwi for Win98 and input-reading stuff byAlessandro Scotti,CCC, September 29, 2004 »Kiwi,Windows,C++,Thread

2005 ...

• Safe I/O (repeated) byFabien Letouzey,Winboard Forum, February 11, 2005
• A question about kibitz byNiyaz Khasanov,Winboard Forum, February 18, 2005
• CPU usage at 505 in Winboard Engine bymjlef,Winboard Forum, July 19, 2006
• WinBoard 4.3 Downloads byHarm Geert Muller,Winboard Forum, August 23, 2008
• A Basic Guide for setting up Winboard a UCI Chess Engine by Charles Browne,Winboard Forum, 01 Nov 2008
• It's a plague of Winboard engines byKirill Kryukov,Winboard Forum, August 20, 2009 »Time Management
• UCI protocol in winboard byEngin Üstün,Winboard Forum, September 24, 2009 »Chess Engine Communication Protocol,UCI
• Adapter for non-standard chess engine to Winboard byCarey,CCC, October 10, 2009
• winboard engine config popup byWill Singleton,Winboard Forum, November 19, 2009

2010 ...

• WinBoard & Chessclub.com byThomas Mayer,Winboard Forum, January 25, 2010
• Aquarium (other GUIs too?) and WB support => I am shocked byMiguel A. Ballicora,CCC, February 27, 2010
• Multiple WinBoard installations byRobert Pope,Winboard Forum, August 17, 2010

2011

• WinBoard, exotic version byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, January 15, 2011
• WinBoard 4.5 downloads byHarm Geert Muller,Winboard Forum, February 06, 2011
• WinBoard protocol driver byHarm Geert Muller,Winboard Forum - Chess Programming Lessons, April 30, 2011
• ics command byMatt McKnight,Winboard Forum, May 18, 2011
• WinBoard 4.5.3 released byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, October 02, 2011

2012

• Winboard questions byGünther Simon,Winboard Forum, January 26, 2012
• Winboard bloated? by tomgdrums,Rybka Forum, February 20, 2012
• XBoard / WinBoard 4.6.0 released byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, March 11, 2012
• Winboard and braille display byOlivier Deville,Winboard Forum, July 12, 2012^[3]
• Winboard/Java help byDan Honeycutt,CCC, April 22, 2012 »Java
• For HGM: Engine priority under Winboard/Polyglot byJoost Buijs,CCC, July 16, 2012
• Winboard protocol and fractional increments byJon Dart,CCC, September 25, 2012 »Time Management

2013

• Tool to recreate PGN from winboard.debug? bySven Schüle,CCC, January 01, 2013 »Portable Game Notation^[4]
• WinBoard 4.7.0 released (with CCT support!) byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, February 21, 2013 »CCT15
• WinBoard 4.7.2 released byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, August 29, 2013

2014

• Any WinBoard bugs I missed? byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, September 11, 2014
• for Chess-variant authors byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, September 17, 2014
• WinBoard 4.8.0 pre-release byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, September 22, 2014
• WinBoard/XBoard 4.8.0 released byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, October 18, 2014
• UCCI2WB byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, October 27, 2014

2015 ...

• Setting up engines by Dan-the-K,Winboard Forum, October 08,2015
• Winboard 4.8.0b and Amazon chess variant byFerdinand Mosca,CCC, December 05, 2015

2016

• Engines with interfaces for slightly nerdish people byPeter Berger,CCC, February 26, 2016
• Einstein wuerfelt nicht byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, July 03, 2016 »EinStein würfelt nicht!
• Weird Windows / WinBoard behavior byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, September 15, 2016 »Process,Windows
• Winboard book settings byErin Dame,CCC, October 20, 2016 »Opening Book
• MinGW AlphaBlend byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, November 29, 2016 »2D Graphics Board,Windows^[5][6]
• Polyglot pickBest byDennis Sceviour,CCC, December 29, 2016 »PolyGlot

2017

• Novag UCB drivers (Winboard and UCI) byGraham O'Neill,CCC, February 24, 2017 »Novag Universal Electronic Chess Board
• Winboard variants online byErin Dame,CCC, March 22, 2017 »Chess Variants
• Winboard questions byEd Schroder,CCC, June 26, 2017
• Winboard: Resigning? byRasmus Althoff,CCC, June 27, 2017

2018

• about using winboard byUri Blass,CCC, February 25, 2018
• UCI vs Winboard question byMichael Sherwin,CCC, March 05, 2018 »UCI

2020...

• Re: What GUI you use and why? byHarm Geert Muller,CCC, July 1, 2020
• How to pass UCI parameters to Xboard? byGautam Buddha,CCC, July 21, 2020

External Links

Free Software Foundation

• XBoard - GNU Project also includesWinBoard
  • What is new in WinBoard / XBoard 4.6.0?
    • XBoard tourney-manager function »Tournament Manager
  • What is new in WinBoard / XBoard 4.7.0?
  • What is new in WinBoard / XBoard 4.8.0?
  • What is new in WinBoard / XBoard 4.9.0?

Tim Mann &H.G. Muller

• Chess Engine Communication Protocol byTim Mann &H.G. Muller
• hgm.nubati.net Git - xboard.git/summary
• What is new in XBoard/WinBoard 4.9.0? byH.G. Muller
• Tim Mann's Chess Pages, XBoard and WinBoard

WiBoard Misc

• XBoard from Wikipedia
• Tinkering with Winboard... byAlessandro Scotti
  • Winboard/XBoard UML state diagram byAlessandro Scotti
• Lyapko George's WinBoard related page (outdated) byGeorge Lyapko^[7]
• FAQ on Winboard and Chess Engines byAaron Tay, hosted byRon Murawski
• What can Winboard do? byAaron Tay, March 01, 2002, hosted byRon Murawski
• Winboard and Chess Engines FAQ fromRon Murawski'sComputer-Chess Wiki
• Winboard fromRon Murawski'sComputer-Chess Wiki
• Winboard Forum
• WinBoard development and bugfixing Forum

References

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