🚀 go-pugleaf

Tim Mann wrote:
> 
> Archive-name: games/chess/gnu-faq
> Version: $Id: FAQ.html,v 1.70 1996/06/07 02:16:40 mann Exp $
> Posting-frequency: monthly
> 
> GNU Chess and XBoard:
> Frequently Asked Questions
> 
> Here is the list of frequently asked questions and answers for the
> gnu.chess newsgroup, covering the chess-playing program GNU Chess, the
> chess interfaces XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard, and a few other chess
> topics. In addition to the plain text version that is posted to the
> newsgroups, a hyperlinked version of this FAQ is available on the Web
> through the page
> http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Tim_Mann/chess.html .
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> Outline
> 
>    * [A] Introduction and hot topics
>    * [B] GNU Chess
>    * [C] GNU Chess bugs and problems
>    * [D] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard
>    * [E] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard bugs and problems
>    * [F] Miscellaneous
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> Detailed contents
> 
>    * [A] Introduction and hot topics
>         * [A.1] What are the gnu.chess newsgroup and info-gnu-chess
>           mailing list for?
>         * [A.2] How do I subscribe or unsubscribe?
>         * [A.3] Where can I get chess information and chess software?
>         * [A.4] What are the current version numbers for GNU Chess,
>           XBoard, etc.?
>         * [A.5] Who is working on this project?
>         * [A.6] How do I report bugs, offer help, etc.?
>    * [B] GNU Chess
>         * [B.1] What is GNU Chess?
>         * [B.2] What is GNU Chess's rating?
>         * [B.3] Does GNU Chess run on a PC under DOS (or Windows, or
>           OS/2)?
>         * [B.4] Does GNU Chess run on an Amiga?
>         * [B.5] Does GNU Chess run on a Macintosh?
>         * [B.6] Does GNU Chess run on VMS?
>         * [B.7] Does GNU Chess run on the Acorn Archimedes?
>         * [B.8] How do I build GNU Chess? Do I have to have gcc?
>    * [C] GNU Chess bugs and problems
>         * [C.1] XBoard tells me "Error: first chess program (gnuchessx)
>           exited unexpectedly".
>         * [C.2] Sometimes GNU Chess plays an extra, bogus move after the
>           game is over.
>         * [C.3] XBoard sometimes hangs when I'm using it to play against
>           GNU Chess on a position that I've modified with Edit Position.
>         * [C.4] GNU Chess lets its flag fall a move or two before the
>           time control.
>         * [C.5] GNU Chess (used with XBoard) freezes after it gets out
>           of its opening book.
>         * [C.6] GNU Chess (used with XBoard) sometimes tells me that a
>           legal move is illegal.
>         * [C.7] GNU Chess crashes when I try to compile and run it on
>           the DEC Alpha.
>         * [C.8] Running (or building) GNU Chess fails with a message
>           about FIONREAD.
>         * [C.9] Building GNU Chess fails with a message that
>           "setlinebuf" is undefined.
>         * [C.10] Building GNU Chess fails with a message that _tgetent,
>           etc., are undefined.
>         * [C.11] GNU Chess runs way too slow and makes my disk seek
>           wildly.
>    * [D] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard
>         * [D.1] What is XBoard?
>         * [D.2] Is there an XBoard for Microsoft Windows? What is
>           WinBoard?
>         * [D.3] Is there an XBoard for the Amiga? What is AmyBoard?
>         * [D.4] Is there an XBoard for the Macintosh?
>         * [D.5] Does XBoard run on VMS?
>         * [D.6] What is cmail?
>         * [D.7] How do I build XBoard? Do I have to have gcc?
>         * [D.8] Can I use XBoard to play a game of chess with another
>           human?
>         * [D.9] Will WinBoard run on Windows 3.1?
>         * [D.10] How do I use XBoard or WinBoard as an external viewer
>           for PGN files with my Web browser?
>         * [D.11] How do I use WinBoard as an external viewer for PGN
>           files with the MS Windows File Manager or Explorer?
>         * [D.12] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal with
>           XBoard?
>         * [D.13] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal with
>           WinBoard?
>         * [D.14] How do I play bughouse with XBoard or WinBoard?
>         * [D.15] How can I scroll back in the WinBoard console?
>    * [E] XBoard, WinBoard, and AmyBoard bugs and problems
>         * [E.1] I can't build XBoard because xmkmf and imake are not
>           present on my system.
>         * [E.2] I can't build XBoard because the X11/Xaw/... include
>           files are not found.
>         * [E.3] Building XBoard fails due to undefined symbols or
>           missing include files.
>         * [E.4] I have problems using WinBoard on ICS with a modem. I'm
>           not running SLIP or PPP, but just dialing in to an ordinary
>           login account ("shell account").
>         * [E.5] I have problems using WinBoard on ICS with Windows 95
>           and SLIP or PPP. When trying to start up, it gets the error
>           "Address family not supported by protocol family" (or some
>           equally strange message).
>         * [E.6] When I try to run WinBoard, I get the message "Failed to
>           start chess program gnuchesx on localhost: NO LANGFILE (file
>           gnuchess.lang not found)".
>         * [E.7] I want to use XBoard or WinBoard as an Internet Chess
>           Server interface, but the ICS Client option is grayed out on
>           the menu.
>         * [E.8] How do I give command-line options to a Windows program
>           like WinBoard?
>         * [E.9] When I try to log in to ICC using timestamp (or to FICS
>           using timeseal) with XBoard, it accepts my handle, but just
>           beeps at me when I type my password.
>         * [E.10] When I exit from WinBoard after using it to play
>           against GNU Chess or Crafty, the chess program keeps running
>           in the background.
>    * [F] Miscellaneous
>         * [F.1] What is XChess?
>         * [F.2] What is Winsock Chess?
>         * [F.3] What is Crafty?
>         * [F.4] How do I use Crafty with XBoard or WinBoard?
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [A] Introduction and hot topics
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [A.1] What are the gnu.chess newsgroup and info-gnu-chess mailing list
> for?
> 
> The newsgroup gnu.chess and the mailing list
> info-gnu-chess@prep.ai.mit.edu are for the discussion of GNU Chess,
> XBoard, and related free chess software.
> 
> gnu.chess and info-gnu-chess are not for general chess or computer chess
> discussion. You won't be flamed if you post such messages here, but you
> will find more information in other places. See topic [A.3] below.
> 
> PLEASE DO NOT try to start or play chess games by posting messages to
> gnu.chess. Instead, read the rec.games.chess FAQ (see topic [A.3] ) to
> learn about the IECG, the IECC, and other groups that you can join to
> find opponents, and send one or more of them email to join.
> 
> The newsgroup and mailing list are gatewayed bidirectionally; that is,
> any article posted on the newsgroup is automatically forwarded to the
> mailing list, and any mail sent to the list is automatically forwarded
> to the newsgroup. There is some question about whether this gatewaying
> will continue, however. I think it is best to use the newsgroup and not
> the mailing list.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [A.2] How do I subscribe or unsubscribe?
> 
> The simplest way is to either choose to read gnu.chess in your
> newsreader, or choose not to.
> 
> If you want to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, mail to
> info-gnu-chess-request@prep.ai.mit.edu (not to the list or newsgroup
> itself).
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [A.3] Where can I get chess information and chess software?
> 
> As a shortcut to most things mentioned in this FAQ, try my Chess Web
> page, http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Tim_Mann/chess.html .
> 
> For general news and information about chess, try the newsgroup
> hierarchy rec.games.chess.*, especially the groups rec.games.chess.misc
> and rec.games.chess.computer. Both of the latter groups have very
> informative FAQs maintained by Steve Pribut; look for them on the
> newsgroups or at http://www.clark.net/pub/pribut/chess.html .
> 
> Like other GNU software, you can get GNU Chess and XBoard by anonymous
> FTP from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/ and its many mirror sites. Look
> for files matching the patterns gnuchess-*.gz and xboard-*.gz. The .gz
> suffix indicates the files were compressed with gzip. You can get gzip
> from prep.ai.mit.edu also. The GNU FTP sites generally carry
> Unix-compatible versions of GNU software only, so you won't find
> WinBoard or AmyBoard there.
> 
> For other chess software, try the Internet Chess Library. Use anonymous
> FTP to connect to caissa.onenet.net, or go to the Web page
> http://caissa.onenet.net/chess/ . You can get chess software, game
> collections, the FAQ file for rec.games.chess, and other chess-related
> material there, in the directory pub/chess. Sometimes new XBoard
> versions arrive on this site before they make it to prep. The FTP server
> can automatically decompress files for you as you download them, useful
> if you don't have gzip. Note that caissa.onenet.net is no longer the
> same machine as ics.onenet.net!
> 
> You can get WinBoard from the Internet Chess Library, in directory
> pub/chess/Win3.
> 
> Here is a sample anonymous ftp session. Some of the ftp server's
> responses are abbreviated, but all the commands you must type are
> included.
> 
> % ftp prep.ai.mit.edu
> Connected to prep.ai.mit.edu
> Name: anonymous
> Password: your-email-address@your-site
> ftp> binary
> 200 Type set to I.
> ftp> cd /pub/gnu
> 250 CWD command successful.
> ftp> dir gnuchess-*.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 14910 wheel 1512181 May 20 00:52 gnuchess-4.0.pl77.tar.gz
> ftp> get gnuchess-4.0.pl77.tar.gz
> 150 BINARY connection for gnuchess-4.0.pl77.tar.gz (1512181 bytes).
> 226 Transfer complete.
> ftp> dir xboard-*.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 14910 wheel  393119 May 20 00:25 xboard-3.4.pl1.tar.gz
> ftp> get xboard-3.4.pl1.tar.gz
> 150 BINARY connection for xboard-3.4.pl1.tar.gz (393119 bytes).
> 226 Transfer complete.
> ftp> quit
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [A.4] What are the current version numbers for GNU Chess, XBoard, etc.?
> 
> At this writing, the current version numbers are:
>    * GNU Chess 4.0 patchlevel 77
>    * XBoard 3.4 patchlevel 1
>    * WinBoard 3.4 patchlevel 1
>    * AmyBoard 330.5 (based on XBoard 3.3 patchlevel 0)
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [A.5] Who is working on this project?
> 
> Stuart Cracraft is the GNU Chess project coordinator. Currently Chua
> Kong Sian seems to be the only person working the GNU Chess engine
> itself. Conor McCarthy is responsible for GNU Chess 4.00 for Windows.
> Tim Mann maintains this FAQ and is the main developer on XBoard and
> WinBoard, but he has little time to spend on the project. Carsten Meyer
> has officially taken over maintenance of AmyBoard, but has not released
> a new version yet. Evan Welsh, the author of cmail, is not actively
> working on it but does fix bugs when they are reported.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [A.6] How do I report bugs, offer help, etc.?
> 
> Any time you want to report a possible bug in GNU Chess, XBoard, etc.,
> we need to know exactly what you did, and exactly what error (or other)
> messages you got. If you're using XBoard, WinBoard, or AmyBoard, run it
> with the -debug flag to see all the messages it exchanges with GNU Chess
> or the Internet Chess Server.
> 
> If you are using Unix, run the "script" program, do whatever is
> necessary to reproduce the problem, type "exit" to the shell, and mail
> us the resulting typescript file. We also need to know what
> hardware/operating system combination you are using. The command "uname
> -a" will usually tell you this; include its output in your typescript.
> 
> If you are using MS Windows or the Amiga, you may have to write down all
> the messages with pencil and paper and type them into your mail message.
> Or you may be able to use cut-and-paste in your console window. Either
> way, please transcribe the messsages carefully. They may seem
> meaningless to you, but they are meaningful to us and essential for
> diagnosing problems.
> 
> You should be able to contact all the members of the project by sending
> mail to bug-gnu-chess@prep.ai.mit.edu. If you don't trust this list, you
> can send mail about XBoard, WinBoard, or the FAQ to mann@pa.dec.com (Tim
> Mann); mail about AmyBoard to DarkSide@darkness.gun.de (Carsten Meyer);
> mail about cmail to R.E.Welsh@quadstone.co.uk (Evan Welsh). Comments
> that are of interest to all users of the software should be posted to
> the gnu.chess newsgroup.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [B] GNU Chess
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [B.1] What is GNU Chess?
> 
> GNU Chess is a free chess-playing program developed as part of the GNU
> project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
> 
> GNU Chess is a communal chess program. Contributors donate their time
> and effort in order to make it a stronger, better, sleeker program.
> Contributions take many forms: interfaces to high-resolution displays,
> opening book treatises, speedups of the underlying algorithms, additions
> of extra heuristics. These contributions are then distributed to the
> large user-base so that all may enjoy the fruits of our labor.
> 
> GNU Chess is intended to run under Unix or Unix-compatible systems. It
> is written in C and should be portable to other systems.
> 
> For a test drive, try WebChess, a World Wide Web interface to GNU Chess
> provided by DJ Delorie. The URL is
> http://www.delorie.com/game-room/chess/ .
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [B.2] What is GNU Chess's rating?
> 
> It would be irresponsible to answer this question with a number, without
> first explaining a few things about ratings.
> 
> The ratings that are commonly given for computer chess players are less
> meaningful than they may seem. Most computer chess players (including
> GNU Chess) do not play in tournaments against humans, or do so only
> rarely, so they do not have official ratings from FIDE, USCF, or other
> chess organizations.
> 
> Some people have methods for rating chess programs approximately by
> giving them a set of problems to work on and seeing how they do, or by
> having them play tournaments against each other. Any rating number
> produced by such means should be taken with a grain of salt; it may be
> only a rough approximation to the rating the program would achieve in
> over-the-board tournament competition against humans. The chess skills
> required for solving problems or playing against other computers are not
> necessarily the same as those required for play against humans. Also, of
> course, tournaments among computers can rate the computers only relative
> to one another, not relative to humans. Some of the computers need to be
> rated by other means to give the ratings a basis to start from.
> 
> Compared with human players, computer players are strong tactically but
> weak strategically, and are much better at blitz chess than at slow
> chess. These differences make it more difficult to assign a meaningful
> rating too.
> 
> Several computers do play regularly on the Internet chess servers and
> have achieved ratings there. These ratings have the advantage of being
> based on many games. On the other hand, ICS ratings are only roughly
> comparable to USCF or FIDE ratings. Many players have ICS ratings that
> are hundreds of points higher or lower than their USCF or FIDE ratings.
> 
> Finally, unlike dedicated chess machines, or PC chess programs that run
> on only a few different models of Intel processors, GNU Chess runs on
> many different kinds of CPU at many different speeds. Thus its strength
> depends on how fast a machine you run it on and how much optimization
> your C compiler does. Some people have formulas for estimating how a
> computer player's rating varies on faster or slower machines---see the
> rec.games.chess FAQ for more information---but these need to be taken
> with a grain of salt too.
> 
> All that said, here are some numbers.
> 
> - On the Internet Chess Club, a copy of GNU Chess running on an SGI Onyx
> R4400 under the handle MaxII has achieved a blitz rating of over 2500
> and a standard rating of over 2300.
> 
> - Wolfgang Gabriel ran the Bednorz-Toennissen Test BT2630 with GNU Chess
> 4.0 pl74 on a 60 MHz Pentium with 16 MB of RAM. The test gave an
> estimated rating of 2213. He also ran Fritz-2 on the same hardware and
> got an estimated rating of 2311.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [B.3] Does GNU Chess run on a PC under DOS (or Windows, or OS/2)?
> 
> Yes. There are several versions available.
> 
> WinBoard provides a graphical user interface to GNU Chess that runs on
> Windows 95 and Windows NT. See topic [D.2] . The WinBoard distribution
> includes a GNU Chess executable for the Intel architecture, plus
> instructions and patches (when necessary) for recompiling GNU Chess from
> the official sources, available separately.
> 
> GNU Chess 4.00 for Windows bundles GNU Chess and a custom graphical
> interface into a single program. Unlike WinBoard, it runs on Windows 3.1
> if you have the Win32s compatibility package installed (available free
> from Microsoft). You can get GNU Chess 4.00 for Windows from
> ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gnuchessPC-4.0.pl77.zip . The distribution
> includes complete sources and an Intel executable.
> 
> The standard GNU Chess 4.0 distribution can be compiled for MS-DOS, and
> will run under Windows in a DOS box, but with no graphical interface.
> Depending on what patchlevel of GNU Chess you get and what C compiler
> you have, you may need to make minor source changes to get it to
> compile. Some precompiled versions are available in the Internet Chess
> Library; the most recent I'm aware of is rather old:
> ftp://chess.onenet.net/pub/chess/DOS/OLD-STUFF/gnu40-62.exe .
> 
> Here is a listing of GNU Chess files for the PC in the Internet Chess
> Library (topic [A.3] ). They are scattered among the directories
> /pub/chess/Win3, /pub/chess/DOS, and (don't forget)
> /pub/chess/DOS/OLD-STUFF. This listing may be outdated; see the library
> itself to look for additions.
> 
> MS-DOS:
>   gnu40-62.exe     1323260  Probably GNU Chess 4.0.pl62 for MS-DOS
>   gnu40dos.exe T    317072  GNU Chess 4.0pl60 by Free Software Foundation
>                          -  compiled for DOS, executables only
>   gnu40src.exe      307786  GNU Chess 4.0pl60 by Free Software Foundation
>                          -  sources only
>   gnuchs31.exe T    270559  GNU Chess 3.1 by Free Software Foundation
>                          -  compiled for DOS, sources and executables
>   gnuchs40.exe T    355494  GNU Chess 4.0pl60 by Free Software Foundation
>                          -  compiled for 80386er, executables only
> 
> Windows:
>   chess321.exe W  M 238185  GNU Chess 3.21 ported by Daryl K. Baker
> 
> OS/2:
>   gpl65os2.zip      677824  gnuchess-4.0.pl65 compiled for os2.
>   gc-os2-m.zip      578032  gnuchess 4.0 for os2 with mouse support.
>   gnu40os2.zip     1303602  Executables for running gnuchess 4.0 pl62
>                          -  under OS/2.
>   pmchs.exe    W  M  92004  OS/2 PM Chess 1.01 (GNU Chess 3.1 Windows by
>                          -  Daryl K. Baker) port to OS/2 by Kent Cedola
>   pmchssrc.exe      110279  OS/2 PM Chess 1.01 (GNU Chess 3.1 Windows by
>                          -  Daryl K. Baker) sources only
> 
> Porting GNU software to PCs is not a major focus of the GNU project, and
> these ports are not supported by the FSF. Contact the people who did the
> ports if you have questions or problems.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [B.4] Does GNU Chess run on an Amiga?
> 
> There are at least three ports of GNU Chess to the Amiga. As with the PC
> ports, these ports are not supported by the FSF; contact the people who
> did the ports if you have problems or questions.
> 
> The AmyBoard port (probably the best) is discussed in topic [D.3] .
> 
> UChess and AmigaGnuChess are available in the Internet Chess Library
> (topic [A.3] ), in the directory /pub/chess/Amiga. UChess is the newer
> of the two.
> 
> -r--r--r--  1 chess    chess   204025 Mar 31  1993 AmigaGnuChess.lha
> -r--r--r--  1 chess    chess    10122 Mar 31  1993 AmigaGnuChess.readme
> 
> -r--r--r--  1 chess    chess   705327 May  7 10:28 UChess283.lha
> -r--r--r--  1 chess    chess    21478 May  7 10:26 UChess283.readme
> -r--r--r--  1 chess    chess   199387 May  7 10:27 UChess283Patch.lha
> -r--r--r--  1 chess    chess    21589 May  7 10:26 UChess283Patch.readme
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [B.5] Does GNU Chess run on a Macintosh?
> 
> There is a port of GNU Chess 4.0 to the Macintosh. It's available from
> the Internet Chess Library (topic [A.3] ) under /pub/chess/Macintosh or
> /pub/chess/uploads/Macintosh, in the following files:
> 
>     GnuChessMac40b5.hqx  - executable binary
>     GCMsource40b5.hqx    - source
> 
> As with the PC ports, the Macintosh port is not supported by the Free
> Software Foundation. If you have questions or problems, contact Dan
> Oetting, oetting@gldfs.cr.usgs.gov.
> 
> If you have the old Mac port of GNU Chess 3.0, be sure to get 4.0
> instead. GNU Chess has come a long way since version 3.0!
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [B.6] Does GNU Chess run on VMS?
> 
> An old VAX VMS version is available at ada.cenaath.cena.dgac.fr in the
> [.VMS] directory:
> 
> Directory CENA10:[ANONYMOUS.VMS]
> 
> GNUCHESS.ZIP;1                     307  21-MAR-1994 18:42:05.13
> 
> It's only a character cell version for VT100, VT200, etc. terminals.
> Thanks to Patrick Moreau for this information.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [B.6] Does GNU Chess run on the Acorn Archimedes?
> 
> Steve Dicks (steve@starswan.demon.co.uk) tells us:
> 
>      You might like to know that I have recently successfully
>      completed a port of GNU Chess 4.0.pl75 to the Acorn
>      Archimedes, and I have written my own graphical front-end to
>      it called ArcBoard (current version 0.05). It is currently
>      available from ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/archimedes/games/ .
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [B.8] How do I build GNU Chess? Do I need gcc?
> 
> The first step to building GNU Chess is to get the distribution file and
> unpack it. See topic [A.3] for places you can ftp the distribution from.
> 
> To unpack the gnuchess distribution, gnuchess-*.tar.gz, put it into a
> new, empty directory, cd there, and give this Unix command:
> 
>     gzip -cd gnuchess-*.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
> 
> If this command fails because you don't have gzip, see topic [A.3] , and
> ask a local Unix expert if you need more help.
> 
> The above command will unpack all the files into a new directory. Next,
> cd into this new directory.
> 
> Decide what directory tree you are going to install GNU Chess in. The
> default is /usr/local. If you have write access to this directory tree,
> make sure that it contains subdirectories bin, lib, and man. (If you
> must "su" to get write access to /usr/local, you don't need to do so
> until just before the "make install" below.) Type the following:
> 
>     configure
>     make
>     make install
> 
> If you are going to install GNU Chess under your home directory for
> personal use, do this instead:
> 
>     mkdir $HOME/bin $HOME/lib $HOME/man
>     configure --prefix=$HOME
>     make
>     make install
> 
> If you have problems or special requirements, see the files README,
> INSTALL, Makefile.in, and configure.in for more information.
> 
> You don't need to have gcc to build GNU Chess. However, GNU Chess is
> written in ANSI C. If you have only an old K&R C compiler, be sure you
> have the current patchlevel of GNU Chess, and get "unproto" by:
> 
> Wietse Venema
> wietse@wzv.win.tue.nl
> Mathematics and Computing Science
> Eindhoven University of Technology
> The Netherlands
> 
> It was released in comp.sources.misc Vol 27 with patches in vol 28 and
> vol 38. Among other places, it can be found on unix.hensa.ac.uk in
> pub/uunet/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume27/unproto.
> 
> Compile it and copy the cpp it produces into the gnuchess src directory
> before you type "make" there.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C] GNU Chess bugs and problems
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.1] XBoard tells me "Error: first chess program (gnuchessx) exited
> unexpectedly".
> 
> Try running XBoard again with the "-debug" flag on the command line.
> This will print out all the messages received from GNU Chess.
> 
> If you see this problem as soon as GNU Chess starts up, most likely GNU
> Chess is exiting with an error message. If you see the message "NO
> LANGFILE", it means that you did not install GNU Chess correctly, and it
> is unable to find the file gnuchess.lang. Make sure that you defined
> LIBDIR in the gnuchess Makefile, and that gnuchess.lang is in that
> directory. If gnuchess.lang is not there, you probably didn't type "make
> install" in the gnuchess src directory; you must do this to install
> gnuchess.lang (and the gnuchess book). If you defined LIBDIR to
> something that is not an absolute pathname (that is, to something that
> does not start with a "/"), GNU Chess will work only if you run it from
> the GNU Chess "src" directory where you built it.
> 
> If the problem happens while GNU Chess is running, you may have hit a
> GNU Chess bug. There is a bug that can corrupt the stack and cause the
> program to exit, sometimes with a nonsensical message first, sometimes
> with no message. It is especially evident on Linux. This bug is fixed in
> GNU Chess 4.0.pl77.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.2] Sometimes GNU Chess plays an extra, bogus move after the game is
> over.
> 
> There have been bugs in some versions of GNU Chess that caused this
> symptom. We believe they are all fixed in 4.0 pl74 and later.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.3] XBoard sometimes hangs when I'm using it to play against GNU Chess
> on a position that I've modified with Edit Position.
> 
> You need to get the latest version of GNU Chess. A few recent versions
> of GNU Chess contained a subtle change to the behavior of the "new"
> command that made them incompatible with previous versions and with
> XBoard. There is no way to restore compatibility by changing XBoard, so
> instead, GNU Chess has been changed back. See topic [A.4] .
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.4] GNU Chess lets its flag fall a move or two before the time
> control.
> 
> GNU Chess is known to be a bit too aggressive in using its clock time
> and sometimes lets its flag fall. Some bugs that caused this symptom
> have been fixed, but more work on the problem may be needed.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.5] GNU Chess (used with XBoard) freezes after it gets out of its
> opening book.
> 
> First, be sure you have the latest versions of GNU Chess and XBoard; see
> topic [A.4] above. If you do, and you still have this problem, check the
> following.
> 
> a) Perhaps the feature in GNU Chess that lets you stop it thinking on
> your time by just entering your move is not working. This feature relies
> on the FIONREAD ioctl, which seems to be broken on some versions of
> Unix. XBoard uses this feature if the flag -DATTENTION is not present on
> the DEFINES line of the XBoard Makefile. XBoard 3.1 and later are
> distributed with this flag already set, so you should not have a problem
> unless you have removed it.
> 
> b) You might have a persistent transposition table (hashfile) that has
> been corrupted. Look in the LIBDIR directory you defined in the GNU
> Chess Makefile, and if you find a file named gnuchess.hash there, remove
> it. Do not use the hashfile if you are running multiple copies of GNU
> Chess at the same time (for instance, with Two Machines mode in XBoard).
> In fact, it is probably best not to use the hashfile under any
> circumstances.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.6] GNU Chess (used with XBoard) sometimes tells me that a legal move
> is illegal.
> 
> a) First, be sure you have the latest versions of GNU Chess and XBoard;
> see topic [A.4] above. Several different bugs that could cause this
> symptom existed in old versions but have been fixed in the latest ones.
> 
> b) Another possibility is that you have a persistent transposition table
> (hashfile) that has been corrupted. Look in the LIBDIR directory you
> defined in the GNU Chess Makefile, and if you find a file named
> gnuchess.hash there, remove it. Do not use the hashfile if you are
> running multiple copies of GNU Chess at the same time (for instance,
> with Two Machines mode in XBoard). In fact, it is probably best not to
> use the hashfile under any circumstances.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.7] GNU Chess crashes when I try to compile and run it on the DEC
> Alpha.
> 
> Get the latest version of GNU Chess. Some bugs that showed up only on
> the Alpha are fixed in version 4.0 patchlevel 73 and later. If you still
> have problems, try compiling with the -migrate flag or the -O1 flag.
> Some versions of the Alpha C compiler have optimizer bugs that affect
> GNU Chess.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.8] Running (or building) GNU Chess fails with a message about
> FIONREAD.
> 
> The message looks something like this:
> 
>     FIONREAD: Operation not supported on socket
>     You probably have a non-ANSI ioctl.h; see README. -1 45 4004787f
> 
> If you are using gcc to compile, the solution to this error message is
> usually to go to the GNU Chess Makefile, find the line that starts
> "CFLAGS=" (with no # character in front of it), and append the flag
> "-traditional-cpp" to the end of the line. Then do
> 
>     rm dspcom*.o gnuan.o
>     make
>     make install
> 
> to rebuild gnuchess.
> 
> If you aren't using gcc, we don't really understand why this should
> happen, but we do have a brute-force workaround: You can simply disable
> the gnuchess feature that uses FIONREAD. Find all the places in dspcom.c
> (and gnuan.c) where the line "#ifdef FIONREAD" occurs. Change each of
> them to "#ifdef NOTDEF". Then recompile gnuchess.
> 
> With this code disabled, if you tell gnuchess to think on your time
> ("hard" mode), you will have to type ^C to make it stop thinking when
> you want to make your move. The current version of XBoard does this
> automatically, so disabling the code has no effect on XBoard.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.9] Building GNU Chess fails with a message that "setlinebuf" is
> undefined.
> 
> This bug is fixed in GNU Chess 4.0.pl77 and later.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.10] Building GNU Chess fails with a message that _tgetent, etc., are
> undefined.
> 
> This bug is fixed in GNU Chess 4.0.pl77 and later.
> _______________________________________________________________________
> 
> [C.11] GNU Chess runs way too slow and makes my disk seek wildly.
> 
> This happens if you don't have enough real memory (RAM) to run GNU
> Chess. You may need 16MB or more. You can reduce GNU Chess's memory
> requirements by reconfiguring it, or just buy more memory. Some (rather
> out of date) suggestions are in the file doc/PORTING from the GNU Chess
> source tree.
> 
> The following is from Nikhil Nair:
> 
>      It is perfectly possible to run gnuchess on an 8Mb system. I
>      would suggest that you don't edit the source (though the
>      defaults are the definitions of ttblsz or something like that
>      in src/ttable.h and DEFETABS in src/gnuchess.h), but rather
>      use the -C and -T command-line options (which even work for
>      gnuan, though not documented in the manpage). The defaults are
>      `-C 18001 -T 150001' (for MS-DOS, -T 8001). On my Linux
>      system, this uses just over 9Mb. From memory, `-C 6001 -T
>      40001' uses around 3Mb. Fiddle with these and see what results
>      you get.
> 
> Why does GNU Chess use so much memory? The extra memory lets it keep
> large hash tables that speed up its search and make it play better, and
> a large on-line book that improves opening play. If you have lots of
> memory you may want to reconfigure GNU Chess to use *more* than the
> de