autochess

[Fx7_fx5]

http://www.horizonchess.com/FAQ/Winboard/Winboard3.html


What if you still want to convert Chessmaster OBK books to CTG? You then need to use FGCRWNEW which can convert opening books in FBK,CTG,MVS,Wchess and genius to each other. What you do is to convert OBK to fbk books. The use Fritz itself to import the books in FBK format. As far as i can tell though this method works only for Chessmaster 4000 to 8000. Even though chessmaster 9000's books are still named OBK, there apparently is some change in format , and FGCRWNEW doesn't work on them.

It seems that there is a way around this problem though.Drexel,Michael from CCC writes

"You need a Hex Editor to change the first line in CM9000.OBKfrom:42 4F 4F 21 6E 59 04 00 00 00 00 00 0C DC ...-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- modify deleteto:55 47 57 53 6E 59 04 00 0C DC ..."Is there a easier way?
A GUI controlled opening book which all engines can use (as in Fritz for example) would makes thing a lot easier.(Another way is to use Nunn tests,but you need batch files for this in Winboard, see Section [F.2]) Currently though the Winboard protocol (unlike UCI and hence some UCI engines like Shredder require the GUI to provide a opening book) does not have specific provision for separating the opening book from the engine. One idea has being to provide "book engines" which play the openings for the main engines before passing control over to the main engine.

This has being discussed before on the Winboard protocol mailing list and a possible modification to allow Xboard/Winboard to handle the switch between a "book engine" and the "main engine" may be introduced in Winboard protocol 3. Here's the thread on book engines.

For now, though there is one book engine that handles the switch by itself - Bookthinker (which comes with the Winboard engine Thinker) . Bookthinker is a book engine that plays the opening before handing control over to the engine. The way to do it is as follows.

Download and install Thinkboard (engine and interface), then transfer the files bookthinker.exe (the book engine) and thinker.dat (the actual book file) into the directory with the engine you want to use it with. For this example, I will be using bookthinker with List - a Winboard engine with no opening book that is in c:\chesseng \list
While thinker.dat cannot be renamed, you are free to rename bookthinker.exe. In my example I have renamed it to listbook.exe Alter your winboard ini by inserting Bookthinker.exe in front of list.exe in your normal entry.
For example mine now reads "Listbook list" /fd=c:\chesseng\list because I have renamed bookthinker.exe to listbook.exe
You can also create custom opening books for use with bookthinker.
A problem is that while Bookthinker allows you to create your own book from a file of PGN games, there is no way to prioritize moves using NAGS like ! or ?, so you should clean the pgn file of such symbols because using it to create a book.
However Winboard engines that do not support force command (only a few of them) will not work with Bookthinker. There is no way currently to send command line or parimeters to engines using Winboard because Winboard.ini does not support quotes. Hence engines that send init strings or need command line parameters probably will not have problems too. Some engines may also have time allocation problems.

For some engines not sending the command parameters will have minor effects (eg sending book learn commands,hash table sizes) ,for others it can be a big problem. For example The King will be almost useless since the OPK string will not be sent. This is a pity since The King when used as a Winboard engine relies on a external GUI book. Nejemet will also have a problem since the /xb command is not sent.





So what are the solutions? Because 90% of all of such problems involve using bookthinker with Chessmaster/The King, here we shall assume that you want to run Chessmaster with a opening book outside the Chessmaster GUI.


First you can use another interface that provides support for Winboard (or even UCI if you want to play with Polyglot!) and provides a opening book. Arena is the obvious one. Either use Arena's built in opening book (which has some flaws because it doesn't support transposition in older versions of Arena) or use it with bookthinker as described here . But what if you don't like Arena?
The problem with quoting, only occurs if you run engines via the Winboard.ini file. If you prefer to run them using the command line options, then you create a shortcut as described here .
Much of the problem with The King can be avoided if you use the patch to disable the OPK check of course.
Jason Kent has created a package to make use of The King (all versions) with FICS (direct link 1006K). It includes support with Bookthinker but you need to read the instructions (direct link to text file) carefully. It avoids the problem with bookthinker by disabling the opk check.

The last method favoured by me would involve using inbetween. See my section on Chessmaster and bookthinker.
It's probably wise to turn off any other opening books that the main Chess engine may possess when using them with Bookthinker.

Though Shredder is a UCI engine, you can use it via a uci2wb adaptor in Winboard. It will have no opening book though, so you will need bookthinker. Volker Pittlik describes here now to use Shredder as a Winboard engine with bookthinker.
However, there are some timing problems, see here . The alternative adaptor PolyGlot might work better though,particularly version 1.3 which provides opening book support,so you no longer need bookthinker.