NAME¶

Chess - GNU Chess

SYNOPSIS¶

gnuchess [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION¶

GNU Chess

Play the game of chess.

OPTIONS¶

-h, --help

display this help and exit

-v, --version

display version information and exit

-q, --quiet

make the program silent on startup

--silent

same as -q

-x, --xboard

start in engine mode

-p, --post

start up showing thinking

-e, --easy

disable thinking in opponents time

-m, --manual

enable manual mode

-u, --uci

enable UCI protocol (that is: behave like an UCI engine); incompatible with other options

-M SIZE, --memory=SIZE

specify memory usage in MB for hashtable

-a FILENAME, --addbook=FILENAME

compile book.bin from pgn book FILENAME

-g, --graphic

enable graphic mode

Options xboard and post are accepted without leading dashes for backward compatibility.

Moves are accepted either in standard algebraic notation (SAN) or in coordinate algebraic notation.

The file 'gnuchess.ini' allows setting configuration options, but it is ignored if the --uci option is used. See 'info gnuchess' for details about the options. The program will look for 'gnuchess.ini' in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnuchess/ and $HOME/.config/gnuchess/ in that order, and it will use the first one it finds, if any.

REPORTING BUGS¶

Report bugs to: <bug-gnu-chess@gnu.org>.
GNU Chess home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/chess/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

COPYRIGHT¶

Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO¶

The full documentation for Chess is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and Chess programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info gnuchess

should give you access to the complete manual.