Gnome Chess Manual
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# Using Gnome Chess

Gnome Chess can be used to play against the GNU Chess or Crafty chess engines, view files in PGN format or play on chess servers like FICS. It provides an easy to easy-to-use graphical interface for this. This section describes basic usage of Gnome Chess.

## Basic usage

Starting Gnome Chess opens the Main window, shown in . The window at first contains a chess board at the starting usual starting position.

Figure 1. Gnome Chess Main Window

### Playing Against A Program

To play against a program, once you have added some via the Preferences dialog, select + + + + ->File+ + + + + + ->Open+ + + + , which will bring up a new game view in its own tab. By default you are white, simply begin moving the pieces and the program will respond.

### Playing On A Server

To play on a server, once you have added some via the Preferences dialog, select + + + + ->File+ + + + + + ->Programs+ + + + , which will bring up a new game view in its own tab. It will also bring up an information area which is a terminal view of the chess server with an area to enter commands.

### Playing On A Server

To open PGN formatted files, select + + + + ->File+ + + + + + ->Open+ + + + , which will bring up a new game view in its own tab. It will also bring up an information area which is a list of all the games in the file.

Clicking on any game will display it in the game view. You can then use the buttons under the list of moves to move forward and backward through the game.

## Menus

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

File

  This menu contains:

  - + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ->Open+ + + + + + + + ( F3 ) This opens a PGN file which is saved on your computer.

  - + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ->Save+ + + + + + + ( Ctrl-S ) This saves the moves of the current game in PGN format.

  - + + + + + + + ->Programs+ + + + + + + A list of programs to play against. Selecting one opens a new game view.

  - + + + + + + + ->Server+ + + + + + + A list of servers to play against. Selecting one opens a new game view and a info window displaying a terminal view of the chess server.

  - + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ->Close+ + + + + + + ( Ctrl-W ) This closes the current game view.

  - + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ->Exit+ + + + + + + ( Ctrl-Q ) This quits the application.

Game
Settings

  This menu contains:

  - Preferences This opens the Preferences Dialog, which allows you to configure many settings.

Help

  This menu contains:

  - Manual This opens the GNOME Help Browser and displays this manual.

  - About This opens the About dialog which shows basic information about Gnome Chess, such as the author's name, the application version number, and the URL for the application's Web page if one exists.

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