Playing glChess

2.1. Main game window

Starting glChess displays the main game window as shown below. The game is played by moving chess pieces using the mouse. Each player alternates to move a piece in the appropriate colour, from one board position to another valid board position. The main game window is organized in three main areas: In the top menu and toolbar area, most common game actions can be made. The chess board is in the middle of the window, where the game is played by moving chess pieces using the mouse. Finally, the game history panel is shown at the bottom, where information about the game history, the remaining move time and buttons for showing previous or next moves are available.

Figure 1 Main window in glChess

2.2. Starting a new game

To start a new game, press the New Game buttton on the toolbar. The new game dialog is then shown, which allows you to setup a new game with the settings of your choice. In the game properties section, the game name and time-limit for each player's move is set. In the players section, it is possible to setup the number of human and AI players. If you have installed any supported chess engines as AI players, these will be displayed in the list of available players. Finally, the difficulty setting of the AI players is set in the difficulty section.

Figure 2 Start new game dialog

2.3. Menus

The menu bar, located at the top of the Main Window, contains the following menus:

Game

This menu contains:

  • New ( Ctrl+N ) This starts a new game of Chess.
  • Open ( Ctrl+O ) Loads a previously saved game.
  • Save ( Ctrl+S ) Saves the current game of chess.
  • Save AS Saves the current game of chess with a new filename.
  • Network Game ( Ctrl+L ) This starts a network multiplayer game using GGZ Gaming Zone.
  • Resign To concede loss of the game, so that the opponent wins the game.
  • Claim Draw If a claimed draw is accepted, the game ends without victory for either player.
  • Quit ( Ctrl+Q ) Ends the game.

View

This menu contains:

  • Fullscreen ( F11 ) Shows the game window in fullscreen mode.
  • 3D Chess View Enables 3D chess view mode using OpenGL. This requires Python OpenGL and Python GTKGLExt installed, in addition to a 3D graphics card setup properly. Please contact your system administrator if you have problems, either way you will always be able to play chess in 2D mode.
  • Show Logs Show logs for debugging glChess and the active chess AI engines.

Settings

This menu contains:

Help

This menu contains:

  • Contents ( F1 ) Display this manual.

    About This opens the About dialog which shows basic information about glChess, such as the author's name, the version number of the game.

IntroductionChess Rules