I did it!!

I've successfully got an engine to run in Winboard -- many thanks! As you can see it was a WB engine -- haven't had time to try an UCI one yet but prob. will tomorrow.

It was also my third attempt! Crafty doesn't work -- I get a message saying "The system could not find the file specified" -- but I'm using the exact name of the .exe file I have. Also when I tried with BugChess the board appears on-screen but never gets beyond the "Program Starting" (or whatever the words are) stage (which I've noticed before in other contexts). But Scorpio 1.9.1 worked fine and immediately! Will keep trying with others. Meanwhile I append my .ini file entries in case they're of interest! (As you can see, my hard drive is actually D:.)

*****

}
/firstChessProgramNames={"Crafty 23.0" /fd="D:\Program Files\Winboard and engines\Crafty 23.0"/fcp='crafty-23.0-win32'
"Bugchess 2163" /fd="D:\Program Files\Winboard and engines\BugChess 2163"/fcp='BugChess2_V1_6_3'
"Scorpio 191" /fd="D:\Program Files\Winboard and engines\Scorpio 191"/fcp='Scorpio'
}
/secondChessProgramNames={"Crafty 23.0" /sd="D:\Program Files\Winboard and engines\Crafty 23.0"/scp='crafty-23.0-win32'
"BugChess 2163" /sd="D:\Program Files\Winboard and engines\BugChess 2163"/scp='BugChess2_V1_6_3'
"Scorpio 191" /sd="D:\Program Files\Winboard and engines\Scorpio 191"/scp='Scorpio'
}

The below may look complicated, but it really isn't.





When we left off we had set up two Winboard protocol engines to use with the Winboard GUI (as shown by the above graphic). Now we will look at installing a UCI protocol engine.

I am using as the example the free chess engine - Ufim 8.02. Ufim can be used as either a Winboard or UCI protocol enginge, we will be installing it as a UCI engine. The process will be the same 'basically' for all other UCI engines.

I have made a folder for the engine in the Winboard and Engines folder and I have downloaded the engine and extracted the zip file's contents to the Ufim folder.







In the Ufim folder is a file named ufim802.ini. That file is used when running Ufim as a Winboard protocol engine. We will not be using that file in this example.

Now make a folder named - polyglot - in the Winboard and Engines folder and go to this URL - http://www.geenvis.net/ - and download Fonzy Bluemer's version of polyglot (On the page click "Polyglot section" toward the top of the page and it will take you to the download page). The current version listed for download at this time is - Polyglot 1.4w23 (26 may 2009). After downloading the zip file extract it to the polyglot folder that you made. You can delete the folder named "Src" unless you want to keep the source codes. [IMPORTANT: If you decide to delete the Src folder there are some read me files that you will want to save from it before deleting the folder. The read me files will have useful information in them that you will want to look at.] You can also rename the polyglot exe file from polyglot1.4w to the more simple polyglot. You do not have to rename it but it will keep things simple if you do rename it.







While in the polyglot folder make two new folders, one named books and another named polyglot GUI.





While we are at this stage lets go ahead and download some ready made opening books for polyglot to use. We will put them in that books folder that was made in the polyglot folder. Polyglot books have a .bin extension, but only books that were made by polyglot can be used by polyglot.

There are only two places that I know of to download ready made polyglot books, there may be other places but these are all that I know about. As stated in a post above, you could also use polyglot to make your own books.

1). Go to - http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/html/download.htm - and download the varied.bin and performance.bin books that Marc Lacrosse made.

2). Go to Guenther Simon's site - http://www.rwbc-chess.de/ - and in the left side menu click Downloads and on the new page you will see something like default.bin and Rybka.bin, etc.


Extract all of the books that you download into the books folder. All of these opening books should have different names so there shouldn't be any conflict with their names, but should there be any conflict you could aways give a book a different name and then save it to the books folder.





We have the Ufim engine and polyglot installed, now we need to make a polyglot ini file for the Ufim UCI protocol engine. You can use that how to make polyglot ini file post on the Winboard forum that I referenced above and make the file manually but we will be downloading Alex Guerrero's polyglot GUI and make the polyglot ini file with it. Go to Alex's website here - (for some reason the URL does not work correctly in the forum. Doing a search engine search for: alex guerrero winman polyglot_gui - should locate the download page) - and toward the bottom of the page you will see where to download the polyglot GUI. Alex also has a nice Winboard manager on the page that you might want to look at sometime. Download the polyglot GUI rar file and extract it to the polyglot GUI folder that you made.


With the polyglot GUI utility extracted to the polyglot GUI folder, double click the Polyglot_GUI.exe file to open it and navigate to the Ufim chess engine folder and double click the Ufim exe file.





This window should open.

(graphic is big so just providing a direct link to it)


http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss100/tri-star/hints2/09.jpg


I really need to make reference again to the how to make a polyglot ini file post in the Winboard forum as a lot of explanation of the polyglot ini file and its entries can be found in the post. It is beyond the scope of the post to explain everything but it can, I think, get a person pointed in the correct direction.


http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=49621



After making the selections in the polyglot GUI click the save button at the bottom and the polyglot GUI utility will close. Now go to the polyglot GUI folder and you should find a polyglot.ini file that the utility has created there. After the polyglot ini file has been made by the polyglot GUI utility, you can always open the ini file with a text editor and make manual changes to it that way. No harm in making manual changes to it.





rename the polyglot ini file to ufim802





and move it to the polyglot folder. The important thing to know is that the polyglot.exe file and the polyglot.ini file (regardless of the name of it) need to be in the same folder.





I used to keep my polyglot folder structured differently than I do today, and I like my old way of doing it but this is a screenshot of my present day folder. I am mostly showing this screenshot to show how I have several UCI engines installed to be used with Winboard and to show the different polyglot ini files in the same folder.

(Direct link to the graphic)

http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss100/tri-star/hints2/13.jpg



This is the polyglot ini file for Ufim that was made by the polyglot GUI in the above example.


(Direct link to the graphic)


http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss100/tri-star/hints2/14.jpg



Now you have the polyglot ini file for Ufim made and set up. Now it is time to make an entry in the winboard.ini file, to tell the Winboard GUI where to find the engine.


(Direct link to the graphic)

And once again I have wordwrap on in notepad!

http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss100/tri-star/hints2/15.jpg


Then opening Winboard and choosing Ufim, ok is clicked.





And going to 'Mode' and selecting 'Machine White'.





Ufim makes the first move. I in turn would move one of the black pieces. (The time controls, etc. would be changed before starting the game - if changing them is desired.)

(Direct link to the graphic)

http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss100/tri-star/hints2/18.jpg



Michael, I did not attempt to explain everything here, but did what I could to get you, or anyone else interested, started - if so inclined.


There are exceptions to some things stated above.

Remember in one of the earlier post made above, in one of the graphics I stated that /scp='crafty_230' or /fcp='crafty_230' did not need the .exe extension on the end of them?


This is a quote from the Winboard GUI help file:

"If the engine name has more than one period in it (for example, QChess1.5.exe), you must include the ".exe" extension; otherwise you can leave it out."


So there are times when the .exe extension would be needed. Maybe in some other cases there might be exceptions to what is stated above, depends on which engine is being dealt with.


Wishing you a good one.

Edited:


I have not checked with Tony Kosten yet (just to make sure), but I love what you've done!

Thanks again. I guess the real reason I want to use Winboard [i]as well as[/i] Arena (which really I prefer) is just that I like to learn new skills! (Also using a range of GUIs and not just one just makes for a nice change now and again!)

Yes, In Arena I have (just recently) learnt to use Arena books (suffixed .abk) with different UCI and WB engines (but of course you can also use the engine's own book, as you say). None of them seems half as big as the book that came with my ancient Fritz 6, though! I don't think I'll ever get to writing my own books -- that's a bridge too far for me!

What are Polyglot books and where do you get them? -- and what is Polyglot anyway? I had thought it was a program to allow UCI engines to work in Winboard, but in WB 4315m it appears to be an [i]engine[/i]!? At least if I choose it (polyglot.exe cpw.ini, both colours) at start-up I can play chess against it, and it appears to have a decent opening book! (Or perhaps it's cpw, whatever that is, that's the engine??)

This is masterful stuff, Instruct1 -- thank you very much! All the graphics are clear.

'Cos of work pressures it'll probably be late tomorrow before I can get with this properly, but I shall take your advice and then report back! I like understanding how things work a bit if I can, so I'll enjoy learning how to do these things manually as you suggest before using the manager.

Hi Smyslov_Fan,

Winboard is indeed freeware, yes -- but I was wanting to know how to set up within the Winboard GUI engines other than those that come preloaded with it. Thomas McBurney's manager (also a free download) is said to represent the easiest way of doing this, but annoyingly it comes without instructions/a help file ... 

Does anyone know how properly to install Winboard and UCI engines in Winboard 4.3.1.5m using this utility?

http://home.pacific.net.au/~tommyinoz/tomsengman.html

(I already use Arena, but wanted to use Winboard too, partly for variety but partly also because I want to explore opening books other than the .abk ones permitted in Arena.)

I have Winboard installed in a directory called D:/Program files/Winboard and engines. In this directory I have (to give one example) made a sub-directory called Crafty 23.0 and extracted Crafty into it from the zip file. I tentatively assume that the reason Crafty, unlike the preloaded Fairy-Max, won't now start from the manager is that I need to write something in the manager in the 'Command line options' box. But what? I can't seem to find this out by looking in Crafty's 'Read me' file, and the same is true for all other engines! (I notice that Gnuchess 4 and 5, preloaded in Winboard 4.3.1.5m like Fairy-Max, also have nothing written in this box and also won't work, so how do I discover what I should write for them, if this is the problem?)

Second question -- once I can get engines to work, how do I associate opening books with them? Do I simply copy the book to the same sub-directory as the engine, or do I need to do something more? (And will opening books of all types work, or just those with a .BIN suffix?)