The File menu is concerned with loading and saving files, as well as starting and stopping the game.
This tells the computer that you wish to resume a previously saved game. When you ask the computer to begin the game, you will be prompted to select a Chu Saved Game (.csg) file. The computer will then play through the moves of the game before displaying the board. You can repeatedly use the Take Back Last Move (CTRL-T) facility to move back through the game, but as yet, there is no facility to move forwards again (though you could make use of the Save/Load Position facility).
This will save the current game into a Chu Saved Game (.csg) file. The game can later be replayed by using the Load Game facility.
You will be prompted to fill in certain information before saving the game. The five Comment fields are for your use, and are not interpreted in any way.
This enables you to save the position in one of five different formats, or to print the position on your computer.
This will save the game as a file in Forsyth notation. You will be prompted for the name of a .fsy file, in which to save the position.
The resulting file will contain only a single line of text. If you wish to look at the resulting Forsyth notation (for instance, you might wish to publish the position in an email), then you may prefer to use the Save as formatted Forsyth facility. The two formats differ only by the presence or absence of newline characters.
The lack of embedded newline characters in this particular format, makes it more suitable for sharing between different operating systems (which may have differing conventions for marking the end of a line).
This is identical to the Save as Forsyth facility (both use .fsy files), except that a newline character is written after each rank. This makes it more suitable for viewing (using a text editor, or file viewer), or for sharing via email.
A .fsy file can be hand-built using a text editor. Remember not to include any embedded white space (other than optional newlines at the end of a rank, which the computer ignores).
This facility saves the current position with all the necessary information for the computer to determine whether or not a piece may promote. You will be prompted for the name of a Chu Augmented Forsyth (.caf) file.
The format of this file is the same as the .fsy format (the computer does not write a newline character at the end of a rank, but if you are building one by hand (using a text editor), you may do so if you wish), with one difference:
After the abbreviation for a piece (other than a King, Free King, Lion, or any promoted piece), the computer writes two further digits.
The first digit is a zero, if this piece has not yet had a chance to promote. If the piece has had a chance to promote (but has declined), then this digit is a 1.
The second digit will be a 0 if the first digit is also a zero. If the first digit is a 1, then the second digit will be a 1 if the piece can freely promote on it's next move. Otherwise it will be a zero.
The augmented Forsyth facility is intended primarily for solving or analysing mating problems (a future version of the program will having a mating mode for the version 2 computer opponent). To set up one of the historical mating problems as a .caf file, follow the following procedure:
Problem D28 suggests that perhaps a Pawn can always promote on a capture (D28 has not been solved, so my analysis of this problem, if it is correct, cannot be considered as decisive). There is no option to allow this rule variant, but by using the Edit Square facility, you can mark a Pawn as OK to promote, if it is sitting immediately behind an enemy piece. (Note that this is not quite the same as allowing the Pawn to freely promote on a capture, as the computer looks ahead, and if the defender moves the piece away, the computer will then assume the Pawn can promote on a non-capturing move!) This should suffice for exploring problem D28. If anyone can find a solution to D28 under the assumption of this rule change, then I will change the computer's rule. But I am fairly certain that D28 is flawed (George Hodges, David Murphy, Colin Adams, and Steve Evans plus Zillions-of-Games, have all been unable to find a solution).
There are alternatives to this procedure. At one extreme, you could construct the entire .caf file by hand. At the other extreme, you could clear the board, and use the Edit Square facility to enter every piece. Take your pick.
This option is for saving the initial set-up for various handicaps, especially the free set-up handicaps (Three Lions and Three or more pieces). You will be prompted for the name of a Chu set-up (.data) file. See handicaps for the naming convention that you must use.
This option will bring up a dialog that allowas you to graphically print the position, either directly to the printing subsystem, or to a file. On my system, printing to a file results in a postscript file, but it is not wholly correct.
This facility allows you to load a position previously saved with the Save Position facility.
This option will prompt you for the name of a .fsy file, and will then load the position from the contents of the file. You should then use the Edit Square facility to indicate which pieces may not yet promote.
This option will prompt you for the name of a .caf file, and will then load the position from the contents of the file.
This allows you to edit the game in some way (i.e. you may cheat).
This facility enables you to undo the effect of the last two moves (one from each side).
This facility removes all pieces from the board.
This facility changes whose turn it is to move. After loading a position, the computer assumes it is Black's turn to move (as this is the convention for mating problems). If you need White to move first, then this is useful.
This stops the clock for the human player. The clock restarts when any mouse button is pressed.
This menu is used to alter the way the program behaves.
This menu is used for playing games across the Internet. See for the details.
This menu affects the way the computer opponent behaves.
This menu allows you to choose from the Version 1 opponent or the Version 2 opponent. Always choose the Version 2 opponent if it is available on your system.
This option causes the computer opponent to play the Black side. It is also used when playing across the Internet.
This option causes the computer opponent to play the White side. It is also used when playing across the Internet.
This brings up a dialog that let's you reserve how much memory is available for the Version 2 computer opponent to use for remembering positions that it has already examined (the transposition table). Allocating more memory make improve the speed of the computer a little. Do not allocate so much memory that the computer will need to page, as this will have a disastrous effect on the speed of the computer opponent.
In this mode, the program ignores time limits (and the lack of a Black King), and makes an exhaustive search for the fastest mate. See Mating Problem Mode. It is turned on automatically when you load a position from a Chu Augmented Forsyth file.
This brings up a dialog that sets the parameters that the computer opponent uses to determine how much time to use for a move.
If you are using the Version 1 opponent, this causes the computer to look at least one more move ahead, if the last move it looked at was a capture. The Version 2 opponent always does this (i.e. it ignores this option).
This option causes the Version 2 computer opponent to ignore moves where it (or you) decline to promote a piece. This causes it to run a little faster, but may cause it to miss the best move. I always use this option.
This option causes the Version 2 computer opponent not to consider repetition when searching for legal moves. This causes it to play approximately 25% faster. If the computer eventually picks an illegal move as a result, then the program will cause it to try again, this time with this option forced off (in practise, this doesn't happen - I have never seen the computer attempt to rerpeat a position, as such a move is normally inferior (but I have seen Steve's program do it against me - the position was such that neither of us could afford to give way) - STOP PRESS - it just happened!). Thus the repetition rule will not be violated, but the computer may misread the best sequence. I always use this option.
In Mating mode, a "Black must vary" rule is used, regardless of this setting.
You can check on the effect of this option by turning on the Debugging option, Show Statisitcs. There are two relevant statistics:
This menu lets you chose between Japanese pieces (Kanji), and International pieces (symbols diagrammatic of the move, along with the piece's abbreviation).
If this option is turned on, then selecting a piece shows which moves are legal for that piece.
This menu enables you to choose the behaviour of the middle mouse button.
This highlights all the pieces, on both sides, that bear influence on the selected square irrespective of an intervening pieces.
This highlights all the Black pieces that can currently make a legal move to this square (ignoring any restrictions imposed by the Lion-rule or the repetition-rule, and ignoring the presence of a Black piece on the square).
This highlights all the White pieces that can currently make a legal move to this square (ignoring any restrictions imposed by the Lion-rule or the repetition-rule, and ignoring the presence of a White piece on the square).
This menu allows you to influence the appearance of graphical widgets.
This is the default on Linux. It is also known as the Cross-system Look and Feel. It is available on all systems.
This is the default on your system. It is identical to one of the other selections (Java on Linux).
This is available on all systems.
This is only available on Micros**t Windows systems.
This is only available on Mac OS systems.
This simulates the touch-and-move rule, and otherwise causes you to lose the game if you do anything that might be uncharitably construed as cheating. It causes many facilities to be switched off, including the help facility. (It should probably cause even more facilities to be disabled - let me know if you think I've missed some).
To use this computer program as a fair test of your (or the computer's) strength at Chu Shogi, then it seems best to use this mode, along with a time limit of 2 1/2 or 3 hours each. I never use this mode, so my assesments of the computer's strength are not ot be trusted.
This brings up a dialog to allow you to set the time limits independently for each side.
If this is set, then neither player will lose on time. It is intended for Mating Problem Mode, (and it is turned on automatically when you load a position from a Chu Augmented Forsyth file) but you can use it for ordinary games, in which case when the flag falls, the clock is reset to 60 seconds (but the computer doesn't know this, so it will still be trying to make all it's moves in 60 seconds each).
If you enable this facility, then a dialog box will appear after the computer makes a move.
This brings up a menu which enables you to choose the size of the board and pieces. You can also use the slider control at the bottom of the program's display to do this.
This causes some of the current settings to be saved to the file chu.Properties. You can view this file to verify your saved settings. If you think there are any other settings that need saving, then please let me know.
This forces all settings to correspond to the conditions of the 2000 European Championship, to be held in Alfter.
Allows you to choose the handicap for a new game. This is ignored if you load a saved-game, or a saved-position.
Various options that I find useful for debugging the action of the computer opponent.
After the computer makes a move, this option causes a window to pop up, displaying various statistics about the last move. If you really want to know what it all means (all statistics refer to the final iteration only, where this is significant):
If you have not, then the computer replaces the existing position with the new position.
If you have, then the computer tries again at the next possible slot (up to the limit of the replication factor). If it cannot find a free slot, then it replaces one of the positions at random.
This option wrties selected statistics to the file stats.log . In release 2.9, these statistics are respectively, the number of iterations, whether or not the search ran out of time, the greatest depth searched (selective search), the number of positions searched and the elapsed time (in milliseconds).
Turning this on shows the principal continuation that the computer found, after each move. It is turned on automatically when you load a position from a Chu Augmented Forsyth file, as it is necessary in Mating Problem Mode.
If this is set, then every time the search function returns, the move found, and it's score, are written out to the log file (named on the next menu item). This is intended chiefly for mating problem mode, as it may be possible to work out side variations (as well as to see what the computer thinks of a particular move), although this is problematic (that is, I don't know of an algorithm for analysing the data). Logging additional events may be necessary for this Purpose. For the meaning of these additional events, inspect the source code in search.cpp.
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